Transcription
All right, so let's get right into this video. We're not going to waste time with me asking you to click the like button, or subscribe, or ring the bell, or click "all," or any of that. None of that's happening. And I'm not going to be like, "Hey, you could support us at HBchristian.com." We don't have time for that. Okay, though, if I were to do that, I'd be like, "Hey, thank you to everyone who's supporting us at HBchristian.com. Your support there makes it possible for us to get these videos out more frequently." But again, I'm jumping right into this thing, so maybe we'll save that for the next video, but not today.
All right, so we looked at how Jeff Durban tried to add the word "alone" to Romans 3. You can watch that video. It is linked in the description and up in the card. Today, we're going to look at how Jeff Durban tries to add the word "alone" to Romans 4. Because I don't know, maybe he added it to three and he's like, "You know what? No one's going to buy that." So let's try putting it in four instead. Apparently, within Protestantism, you could just drop whatever words you want into the Bible. I don't do that, though, because I'm a Bible-believing Christian. And our Protestant for the day is Mr. Jeff Durban of Apologia Studios. This is Christian versus Protestant on Romans 4.
Now, we already learned in the previous video that faith alone is garbage. It doesn't make sense. Faith is not the only thing that justifies a person. God justifies people. Jeff wouldn't disagree with that. So already, we know it's not faith alone that's justifying. We got God and faith, and there's more things too, but we'll get to that in the next video. It's works. Works also justify. Shh, quiet down, disembodied voice that I don't know where you're coming from, 'cause you're definitely not me. Anyway, yeah, we know that faith alone is crap, but let's play Jeff's game anyway.
So first off, in his video, the only part of Romans 4 that Jeff puts on the screen are the first four verses. But our crack research team did a little digging, and apparently there's 25 verses in that chapter. So this graphic here is missing 21 verses. Which wouldn't be a problem. You don't always have to quote the entire chapter. But it does become a problem when those 21 other verses have things in them that conflict with what you're saying. So we're going to go ahead and read all of Romans 4. And we're actually going to start at the end of chapter 3, because the chapter markings in the Bible, they're not actually part of the original letter to the Romans. These chapter markings and the verse numbers, that stuff was added later. That's not something the author actually had in the letter.
So we're going to pick up where we were in the last video with Romans 3:28. It says, "Behold, that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law? Or is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also, since God is one who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith. Do we then overthrow the law by this faith? By no means! On the contrary, we uphold the law. What then shall we say was gained by Abraham our forefather according to the flesh? For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. For what does the scripture say? Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness. Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due. And to the one who does not work, but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness. Just as David also speaks of the blessing of the one to whom God counts righteousness apart from works: 'Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count as sin.' Is this blessing then only for the circumcised, or also for the uncircumcised?"
Now, just to give a little background information here, in case anyone's confused. In the end of Romans chapter 3, Paul's talking about works of the law and how one is justified by faith apart from works of the law. Works of the law are a category of works which can include circumcision and other works which, way back when, separated the Gentiles and the Jews. Hence the reason why Paul's having this conversation. If you go to Acts, you can see that Paul was dealing with people who were saying, "You must be circumcised in order to be saved." That wasn't actually a teaching that people should be adhering to at that time. Paul knew this. He had no small dissension and debate with the people who were saying this. So, yeah, Paul here is teaching against this works of the law. God is not just the God of the Jews; he's the God of the Gentiles also. We have a video on works and works of the law. You could check that out. It's linked in the description. Also, this video might help you out. But yeah, when you see "works" here, remember Paul's talking about works of the law. And his letter is continuing. There is no division of chapter 4 in Paul's letter. That was added later. So anyone reading this letter would have gone from Paul talking about works of the law to Paul continuing to talk about works, specifically works such as circumcision, which are works of the law.
So Paul says, "Is this blessing then only for the circumcised, or also for the uncircumcised? For we say that faith was counted to Abraham as righteousness. How then was it accounted to him? Was it before or after he had been circumcised? It was not after, but before he was circumcised. He received the sign of circumcision as a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised. The purpose was to make him the father of all who believe without being circumcised, so that righteousness would be counted to them as well. And to make him the father of the circumcised who are not merely circumcised, but also walk in the footsteps of the faith that our Father Abraham had before he was circumcised. For the promise to Abraham and his offspring that he would be heir to the world did not come through the law, but through the righteousness of faith. For if it is adherence to the law who are to be heirs, faith is null and the promise is void. For the law brings wrath, but where there is no law there is no transgression. That is why it depends on faith in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his offspring—not only to the adherent of the law, but also to the one who shares the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all. As it is written, 'I have made you the father of many nations'—in the presence of the God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist. In hope he believed against hope, that he should become the father of many nations as he had been told, 'So shall your offspring be.' He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was as good as dead since he was about a hundred years old, or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah's womb. No, unbelief made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised. That is why his faith was counted to him as righteousness. But the words 'it was counted to him' were not written for his sake alone, but for ours also. It will be counted to us who believe in him who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord, who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification."
All right, so that's all of Romans 4. We just read the whole thing. If you want to pause the video, open your Bible, and read it for yourself, feel free to do so. 'Cause we're going to listen to Jeff talk about it now. So if you weren't paying attention, go back and read it because I want you to have the actual text in your mind while you're listening to Jeff.
"You need to be justified the same way Abraham was. And Paul's argument in Romans 4 is very clear. It was he believed God, it was credited to him for righteousness. And he goes on to argue, it was before circumcision. It was before, clearly, Isaac on the altar. And it was hundreds of years before the law of God was given. How was Father Abraham justified? With empty hands? What did he bring? Nothing. What was it before everything? Circumcision, Isaac on the altar, and the law of God. It was through faith, and faith apart from works. It was faith alone. That's Paul's entire argument on the justification by faith that we have that's connected to Father Abraham."
So we've seen Jeff do this before. He's trying to drop the word "alone" into the scriptures. Now, is the word "alone" actually there? No. But Jeff's a Protestant, and that's how they do.
"How was Father Abraham justified? It was through faith, and faith apart from works. It was faith alone."
The passage says, "We say," and this "we" here refers to Paul and other early Christians. But it says, "We say that faith was counted to Abraham as righteousness." So this is what they would say. They would say that faith was counted to Abraham as righteousness. As you likely notice from the text here, what they didn't say was that faith alone was counted to Abraham as righteousness. The reason why "alone" isn't in the text here is because this isn't something that they said. This is something that Jeff Durban and the Protestants say. It is not something that Paul and the early Christians said. What they said was that faith was counted to Abraham as righteousness.
Why is adding the word "alone" here ridiculously stupid? Good, good question. And thank you for wording it that way. Here's why it's ridiculously stupid to add the word "alone" to a sentence that doesn't actually have the word "alone" in it. Imagine that for some reason, there's a group of people out there who are saying, "Robert Downey Jr. was not in the Avengers." And they're referring to the Avengers movie that Robert Downey Jr. was actually in. Now, obviously, this group of people would be wrong. Robert Downey Jr. was in the movie. So let's say the folks over at Marvel Studios decided to write a letter, and in that letter they say, "We say that Robert Downey Jr. was in The Avengers movie." But would it make any sense for Jeff Durban to come along and say, "Hey, look at what they wrote. They wrote, 'We say that Robert Downey Jr. alone was in The Avengers movie'?" No, because now the statement is false. Chris Evans was in it. Chris Hemsworth was in it. Cobie Smulders, Jeremy Renner, Tom Hiddleston, Samuel L. Jackson, Paul Bettany, Gwyneth Paltrow. A lot of people were in the movie. It was not just Robert Downey Jr. alone.
So, as you can see here, if you take a true statement and just add the word "alone" to it, you could turn that into a false statement. So Jeff Durban and Protestants like him are taking this true statement and they're adding the word "alone" to it. So they easily could have just turned this true statement into a false statement. Because this is no longer what Paul said. This is way more restrictive than what Paul said. This would be like saying, "Robert Downey Jr. alone was in The Avengers." Without the word "alone," the statement's true. With the word "alone," the statement's false. Because without the word "alone," we're not restricted to just Robert Downey Jr. being in the Avengers. Other people could have been in the movie as well. But as soon as you put that word "alone" in there, you make it way more restrictive than it originally was. So what Paul wrote was, "We say that faith was counted to Abraham as righteousness." That is way less restrictive than saying, "Faith alone was counted to Abraham as righteousness." If you lose the word "alone" and just accept the sentence as it is, then we can know that faith was counted to Abraham as righteousness. But also, there's a possibility that other things could have been counted to Abraham as righteousness as well.
Now, this man-made Protestant belief here that faith alone was counted to Abraham's righteousness is not found anywhere in the Bible. There was absolutely nothing in the Bible that supports this claim. And that's where the fun part comes in, because now Protestants have to come up with some crazy explanation as to why they're dropping this word "alone" into the Bible. And I've got to say, Mr. Durban doesn't disappoint. Let's hear his explanation.
"You need to be justified the same way Abraham was. And Paul's argument in Romans 4 is very clear. It was he believed God, it was credited to him for righteousness."
Okay, so pausing right there. That is correct. Verse three says, "Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness." So Jeff has that correct. No argument there. I will point out, though, that believing is a work. For some reason, Protestants like Jeff Durban seem to have a huge blind spot for this. But believing is a work. It is something that people do. And I don't know how, but some Protestants can actually delude themselves into thinking otherwise. They'll say, "No, believing is not a work. The Bible says Abraham believed God. That's not a work. He just believed." It's like, "Dude, you just told us a work he did. He believed. That's a verb. That's an action word. That's something that Abraham did. He believed. He believed God, and it was credited to him for righteousness."
"How was Father Abraham justified? It was through faith, and faith apart from works. It was faith alone."
So, yeah, some Protestants might actually try to tell you that he's not working here, even though we're specifically being told of a work that he did. Abraham believed God. That was a work. Now, faith, that's not a work. Having faith, that can be a work. But faith, the noun, if we're just talking about faith as a thing, then that's not a work. That's a thing. But believing is a work. It's something that you do. It's something that Abraham did. Now, this work that Abraham was doing, this work of believing, that's not a work of the law. It is a work, but it's not a work of the law. As we've discussed already, there are several different types of works. There are works of God, there are good works, otherwise known as works of love, there are works of the flesh, works of the law. There are different types of works. Again, we have a video on this. If you don't understand the difference between these groups, check it out. The link's in the description.
Back to it, though. As we can see in the Bible, Paul spent a good amount of time pointing out that works of the law were not necessary. Paul even says this to the Galatians. He says, "Look, I Paul say to you that if you accept circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you." Now, circumcision, in the way that Paul's referring to it here, falls under the category of works of the law. But back when Paul was teaching, he had to deal with people who were saying, "Unless you were circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved." Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension and debate with these people. These people were saying, "It is necessary to circumcise. Unless you were circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved." But that was in the Christian teaching, and Paul wasn't teaching that. Paul was teaching against that. Again, he told the Galatians that if you accept circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you. "I testify again to every man who accepts circumcision, that he is obligated to keep the whole law. You are severed from Christ; you who will be justified by the law, you have fallen away from grace. For through the Spirit, by faith, we ourselves eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love."
So, according to Paul, if you're trying to be justified by the law, then you are severed from Christ. You have fallen away from grace. Paul even tells them that in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love. So, not faith alone, but faith working through love. This matches what Paul told the Corinthians. We saw this in the previous video, but Paul explains that even if he had faith along with a bunch of other stuff, if he didn't have love, he was nothing. So the only thing that counts for anything in Christ Jesus is faith working through love.
So, as we can see here in the Bible, Paul discourages people from doing works of the law. But if you keep on reading, you'll notice that Paul doesn't discourage all works. He specifically discourages works of the law because people were saying you need to do certain works of the law in order to be saved. So, yeah, Paul was against that. But there were other works that Paul wanted people to do.
Let's go to that next paragraph in Galatians 5. After telling them that "in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love," Paul says to them, "You were running well. Who hindered you from obeying the truth? This persuasion is not from him who calls you. A little leaven leavens the whole lump. I have confidence in the Lord that you will take no other view, and the one who is troubling you will bear the penalty, whoever he is. But if I, brothers, still preach circumcision, why am I still being persecuted? In that case, the offense of the cross has been removed. I wish those who unsettle you would emasculate themselves! For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another."
So Paul does not want people adhering to the works of the law, but he still wants them to do other works, such as obeying the truth. Paul tells them to serve one another. Paul quotes the command to love your neighbor as yourself. Obeying that's a work. Serving one another, that's a work. Loving your neighbor as yourself is a work. So again, Paul taught against works of the law, but Paul was all for works of love. Another way Christians refer to works of love is by calling them good works. It doesn't really matter what you call them, as long as you realize that these works are not the same as the works of the law that Paul is discouraging. Works of the law are discouraged, while other works are encouraged.
Paul even told the Corinthians to "only let each person lead the life that the Lord has assigned to him, and to which God has called him. This is my rule in all the churches. Was anyone at the time of his call already circumcised? Let him not seek to remove the marks of circumcision. Was anyone at the time of his call uncircumcised? Let him not seek circumcision. For neither circumcision counts for anything, nor uncircumcision, but keeping the Commandments of God. Each one should remain in the condition he was called. Were you a bondservant when called? Do not be concerned about it. But if you can gain your freedom, avail yourself of the opportunity. For he who was called in the Lord as a bondservant is a freedman of the Lord. Likewise he who was free when called is a bondservant of Christ. You were bought with a price; do not become bondservants of men. So, brothers, in whatever condition each was called, let him remain with God."
So we already read about how Paul told the Galatians circumcision and uncircumcision count for nothing. And now we're reading that he's teaching the Corinthians the same thing. Circumcision and uncircumcision do not count for anything. Paul taught against works of the law, specifically the work of the law known as circumcision. They don't count for anything. But according to Paul, what does count for something? Keeping the Commandments of God. So Paul is teaching against this belief. But even though Paul is against works of the law, he is not against other types of works. In fact, he promotes other types of works, specifically works of love. Paul wants faith working through love. Paul wants people to be keeping the Commandments of God. So works of the law, like circumcision, they don't count for anything. But keeping the Commandments of God, those are works that do count for something.
Paul even tells the Romans, "Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. For the commandments, 'You shall not commit adultery,' 'You shall not murder,' 'You shall not steal,' 'You shall not covet,' and any other commandment, are summed up in this word: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law. Besides this you know the time, that the hour has come for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed. The night is far gone; the day is at hand. So then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light. Let us walk properly as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and sensuality, not in quarreling and jealousy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh to gratify its desires."
So clearly, while Paul is against works of the law, such as circumcision, and also Paul's against things like works of darkness, works of the flesh, there's a bunch of works Paul doesn't want people doing. But Paul's not against all works. Paul is not against good works, aka works of love. Paul wants people to do good works. Look at all the works he's telling people to do here: love each other, cast off the works of darkness, put on the armor of light, walk properly, and do not do these things, put on the Lord Jesus Christ, make no provisions for the flesh to gratify its desires. So, yeah, Paul is against certain works, but as you can easily see in the Bible, he's not against all works. Paul wants people doing good works, works of love.
So back to Romans 3 and 4. Paul is talking about works of the law and how they do not justify. But this work of believing here, this is not a work of the law. That's a work of love. That's a good work. Paul is not saying you shouldn't believe God. That's a work that Christians are encouraged to do. So Jeff Durban just highlighted a work here that Abraham did. He believed God. It was credited to him for righteousness. "Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness." Now, did Jeff explain to anyone that believing is a work? No, because Jeff is still trying to push his faith alone crap. But we'll address that in a minute. Right now, though, we're just pointing out that what Jeff said here about Abraham believing God and it being counted to him as righteousness, that's 100% true. Abraham did this work, and it was counted to him as righteousness.
So, continue, Mr. Durban. "And he goes on to argue, it was before circumcision."
All right, pausing again. That too is correct. The passage says, "Is this blessing then only for the circumcised, or also for the uncircumcised? For we say that faith was counted to Abraham as righteousness. How then was it accounted to him? Was it before or after he had been circumcised? It was not after, but before he was circumcised." So that's another thing that Jeff has correct. Abraham had faith counted to him as righteousness before he was circumcised. So Jeff and I have some common ground here. We both believe that Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness, and we both believe that Abraham had faith counted to him as righteousness before he was circumcised.
So, continue, Mr. Durban. "You need to be justified the same way Abraham was. And Paul's argument in Romans 4 is very clear. It was he believed God, it was credited to him for righteousness. And he goes on to argue, it was before circumcision. It was before, clearly, Isaac on the altar. And it was hundreds of years before the law of God was given."
Okay, so I see what Jeff's doing here. He's observing a timeline. And on that timeline, he's saying, "All right, Abraham was circumcised here. We're told that faith was counted to Abraham as righteousness before he was circumcised. So we're going to put that on the timeline before circumcision. And then there's a story of when Abraham went to sacrifice Isaac. This took place after Abraham's circumcision. So we're going to put that there on the timeline. The iPhone was created. We're going to put that there on the timeline. Back to the Future came out. We're going to put that there on the timeline." Basically, what we got here is a timeline, and we can see things that happened after the circumcision, as well as before the circumcision. I got no problem with any of that. Jeff didn't put the iPhone and Back to the Future thing in there, but that's fine to put there too. This is all good. But I've got this sneaking suspicion that Jeff's about to try to pull a fast one.
"How was Father Abraham justified? With empty hands?"
Hang on there, Jeff. Where are you getting this "with empty hands" stuff from? "How was Father Abraham justified with empty hands?" That is not written in scripture. It does not say that faith was counted to Abraham as righteousness and this happened with Abraham having empty hands. Mr. Durban is now wandering outside of scriptures. He's bringing in the word of Jeff. And no offense, Jeff, but nobody cares about the word of Jeff. We care about the word of God. So we can get rid of this "empty hands" crap, and we'll let Jeff continue.
"What did he bring? Nothing."
Nope, again, that's the word of Durban. It doesn't say that faith was counted to Abraham as righteousness and this all occurred with Abraham bringing nothing. It says, "Faith was counted to Abraham as righteousness," period. So I think I'm starting to understand why Jeff only had these verses from Romans 4 on the screen. Because if he showed this verse on the screen, people would be able to look at that and be like, "Okay, that doesn't say that he had empty hands. That doesn't say that he brought nothing. That just says that faith was counted to Abraham as righteousness."
So, what is the reason that Jeff gives for adding all of these words to the Bible? Let's find out.
"You need to be justified the same way Abraham was. And Paul's argument in Romans 4 is very clear. It was he believed God, it was credited to him for righteousness. And he goes on to argue, it was before circumcision. It was before, clearly, Isaac on the altar. And it was hundreds of years before the law of God was given. How was Father Abraham justified? With empty hands? What did he bring? Nothing. What was it before everything? Circumcision, Isaac on the altar, and the law of God. It was through faith, and faith apart from works. It was faith alone. That's Paul's entire argument on the justification by faith that we have that's connected to Father Abraham."
All right, so that's Jeff Durban's argument for why he's putting these words into the Bible. And to get the maximum entertainment value out of this argument that Jeff is making, it's best to see it as a mathematical equation. So Jeff is talking about Abraham's circumcision. Jeff is talking about Isaac on the altar. And Jeff is talking about when the law of God was delivered to man. So the circumcision thing, that's one thing. The altar, that's also one thing. And likewise, the law of God thing is one thing. So let me just grab my calculator here. Um, must be the other pocket. N. Okay, there it is. All right, so 1 + 1 + 1, I get us three. Feel free to check me on that, but 1 + 1 + 1, I think equals three. So Jeff is talking about three things here. And these three things have something in common. They all took place after faith was counted to Abraham as righteousness. So let's count them up again. That's one, plus one, that's two, plus one more on top of that, that's three. That's three things that we know took place after faith was counted to Abraham as righteousness. So we could say that faith was counted to Abraham's righteousness before these three things.
But is that what Mr. Durban just said? Can we play that clip again?
"It was before circumcision. It was before, clearly, Isaac on the altar. And it was hundreds of years before the law of God was given. What was it before everything?"
You know, it's really sad to see how the school system is failing kids these days. 1 + 1 + 1 does not equal "everything." Jeff, the guy took three things. He's taking those three things and saying, "Okay, well, that's everything." "Everything: circumcision, Isaac on the altar, and the law of God. It was through faith, and faith apart from works. It was faith alone. That's Paul's entire argument on the justification by faith that we have that's connected to Father Abraham."
Allow me to explain the insanity behind Jeff Durban's teaching here. Jeff is pointing out that the Bible says faith was counted to Abraham as righteousness before he was circumcised. So he's plotting that point on a timeline. He's saying, "Abraham's faith was counted to him as righteousness, and then after that, Abraham was circumcised." That's fine. I got no problem with that. Next, Jeff randomly selects two other events, and these two other events took place after Abraham was circumcised. So Jeff plots them on the timeline as well. Again, that's fine. No problem with that. But then Jeff decides that since he has now identified three events that took place after Abraham had faith counted to him as righteousness, he can therefore claim that nothing took place before Abraham had faith counted to him as righteousness.
"It was he believed God, it was credited to him for righteousness. And he goes on to argue, it was before circumcision. It was before, clearly, Isaac on the altar. And it was hundreds of years before the law of God was given. What was it before everything?"
There's nothing logical about this. There's nothing factual about this. There's nothing biblical about this. This is complete and utter nonsense. The incredibly flawed logic that Jeff is using here is: If you find three events that happen after X, then that means that nothing happened before X. I don't think I need to explain to most of you watching why that doesn't make sense. But since Jeff Durban is making this mistake, and I personally think Jeff Durban is a pretty smart guy, I'm going to explain why this is wrong, just in case there are other people out there making this ridiculous mistake.
Let's say that one night when I was 25 years old, I brushed my teeth. We're going to plot that on the timeline. I did this when I was 25 years old. I brushed my teeth at night. Then after that, I went to sleep. So we'll put that on the timeline as well. It will go after the point where I brushed my teeth, because I brushed my teeth and then I went to sleep. Now, let's say that a year later, I had a tire dropped off at my house. Why, you might ask, did I decide to use a tire as part of this example? Well, that's because this tire just literally showed up at my house today. It is not mine. I didn't order it. I know who did order it because the name's right here. But I called Walmart, 'cause it says it came from Walmart.com, and they won't take it back. They had me give them what I assume was the order number. So I'm guessing they can find who this tire actually belongs to. And there's another tire that goes along with this. It's just, I only needed one for the thumbnail. But yeah, they're not coming to pick this up. They told me that I could either keep it or give it to a friend, because nothing says friendship like, "Here, a tire. Enjoy." But yeah, let's say a year later, a tire shows up at my door. And then five months after that, I binge the entire series of Gilmore Girls for the third time.
All right, so now we've identified three events that happened after I brushed my teeth one night when I was 25 years old. Now, here in the real world, this doesn't tell us anything about what happened before I brushed my teeth that night. But if we're not adhering to the rules of the real world, and instead we're living in Jeff Durban's world, then we can say that since we found these three events that happened after I brushed my teeth that one night when I was 25 years old, then that means that nothing happened before this event. That's right. If we're using Jeff Durban's logic, then before that night when I brushed my teeth at age 25, I did nothing for at least 25 years. I did nothing, according to Mr. Durban's logic.
Now, is that actually true? Did I do nothing for 25 years? No. The two prior binge sessions of Gilmore Girls happened before I brushed my teeth that night. I also have, you know, I brushed my teeth 24 other times before I was 25. I'm on a yearly schedule. It's not a good idea. Other things that happened before this event was I went to school. I drove a car. I worked at a movie theater. I fell up the stairs. It's a very complicated thing to do because you're fighting gravity, but I did it. The truth is, I did a bunch of stuff before this event. But if we play by Jeff Durban's rule, then as long as we find one event that has three events that happened after it, then that's proof that nothing happened before that event. Is the logic that Jeff is using here correct? Of course not. It's not even close to correct. It should come with a planner logo because it's nuts.
But this is what Jeff Durban is doing to Abraham's timeline. Jeff finds three events that happened after faith was counted to Abraham as righteousness, and somehow he uses this little bit of information to come to the conclusion that this event happened before everything. "What was it before everything?"
Now, just like this event is not the first thing that ever happened in my life, this event is not the first thing that ever happened in Abraham's life. Abraham was born, and then there was a lot of time between that event and the event in which faith was counted to Abraham as righteousness. So we're going to do what Mr. Durban didn't do, and we're going to show you some things that happened in this space here, the time before Abraham had faith counted to him as righteousness. And would you like to take a guess as to where we're going to go for this information on what happened in this period of time here? Why, it's just right here. This is the section of Romans 4 that Jeff didn't even mention in his video, which seems kind of weird, since this section literally has a verse in it that says, "That is why his faith was counted to him as righteousness." So you would think that if Jeff Durban was actually interested in teaching Christianity, he might want to show this to his audience. This part where the Bible is literally telling people why Abraham's faith was counted to him as righteousness. Finding out the reason why Abraham's faith was counted to him as righteousness seems kind of important in this conversation. But Mr. Durban makes no mention of this in his video.
So let's go ahead and read this and see if we can find out why Jeff decided not to show this to his audience. "As we know, faith was counted to Abraham not after, but before he was circumcised. He received the sign of circumcision as a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised." Because remember, the righteousness came first, then he was circumcised. And we're told here that the purpose was to make him the father of all who believe without being circumcised, so that righteousness will be counted to them as well. The purpose was also to make him the father of the circumcised who are not merely circumcised, but who also walk in the footsteps of the faith that their father Abraham had before he was circumcised.
Huh. That's interesting. Paul discusses how Abraham was to be made the father of the circumcised who are not merely circumcised, but who also walk in the footsteps of the faith that Abraham had before he was circumcised. But according to Mr. Durban, Abraham didn't have any works before he was circumcised. Mr. Durban said that Abraham had empty hands. "How was Father Abraham justified with empty hands?" Mr. Durban said, "Abraham brought nothing." What did he bring? Nothing.
So why is Paul talking about people walking in the footsteps of the faith that Abraham had before he was circumcised? It sure sounds like Paul is implying that Abraham had works before he was circumcised. If people can walk in the footsteps of the faith that Abraham had before he was circumcised, then that means that Abraham walked first, in order for there to be those footsteps. So already, Jeff's additions to the Bible here aren't making much sense, and they're about to make a whole lot less.
Let's keep reading. "For the promise to Abraham and his offspring that he would be heir to the world did not come through the law, but through the righteousness of faith. For if it is adherence to the law who are to be heirs, faith is null and the promise is void. For the law brings wrath, but where there is no law there is no transgression. That is why it depends on faith in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his offspring—not only to the adherent of the law, but also to the one who shares the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all. As it is written, 'I have made you the father of many nations'—in the presence of the God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist. In hope he believed against hope, that he should become the father of many nations as he had been told, 'So shall your offspring be.' He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was as good as dead since he was about a hundred years old, or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah's womb. No, unbelief made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised. That is why his faith was counted to him as righteousness."
So how about that, Mr. Durban? There's stuff here that you left off the timeline. "In hope, Abraham believed against hope. Abraham considered his own body, and he did not weaken in faith. He also considered the barrenness of Sarah's womb and didn't weaken in faith. No unbelief made him waver concerning the promise of God. Abraham grew strong in his faith. Abraham gave glory to God. Abraham was fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised."
So that's weird. There's a bunch of things here that Jeff left off the timeline. So we got Abraham doing all these things. He's believing, he's growing strong, he's being convinced, he's giving glory to God. And what does it say next? After we're told of all these things that Abraham did, oh, that's right, it says, "That is why his faith was counted to him as righteousness."
So, wait a second. Paul's telling us that Abraham had all these works, and he didn't just have works, he also had faith. And those works were there along with Abraham's faith. And after telling us about all these works, Paul says, "That is why his faith was counted to him as righteousness." That seems way different than what Jeff's telling us. Jeff's trying to shove the word "alone" up here. But if you look at the full passage, that faith wasn't alone. That faith had a lot of works with it.
You know, it's almost as if Abraham's faith was active along with his works. Why does that sound familiar? Oh, right. James 2. "Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless? Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar? You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by his works. And the scripture was fulfilled that says, 'Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness,' and he was called a friend of God. You see that a person is justified by works, and not by faith alone."
So this is talking about when Abraham was justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar. And you'll notice in that situation, Abraham's faith was active along with his works. His faith was completed by his works. Going back to Romans, we have a different situation. We're talking about something that happened before he offered up his son Isaac on the altar. But there are similarities. We see Abraham's faith is active along with his works. And after being told of all those works that were there with Abraham's faith, we are told, "That is why his faith was counted to him as righteousness."
So, Mr. Durban, I have a question for you. And if anyone out there is a follower of Mr. Durban, this is a question you should be asking him too. Jeff, why are you claiming that Abraham's faith was faith alone when the Bible never says that? And why aren't you showing people that the Bible talks about a bunch of works that Abraham did? And why aren't you showing people that after the Bible listed all those works, it went on to say that that is why his faith was counted to him as righteousness? Are you trying to hide the truth, Jeff? Because your faith alone nonsense, that's not found anywhere in the Bible.
But the Bible has a lot to say about the importance of love. As we looked at in the previous video, Paul told the Corinthians that the greatest thing among faith, hope, and love was love. And Paul told the Corinthians that even if he had all faith and a bunch of other stuff, if he didn't have love, he was nothing. He said, "If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing."
So Paul talks about having faith and about having works, and Paul explains that even if he has faith and has works, if he doesn't have love, then he is nothing and he gains nothing. So faith alone, that's garbage. Works alone, that's also garbage. Faith and works together, but with no love, also garbage. But is faith working through love garbage? No. Are works of love garbage? No. Paul says that the only thing that counts for anything in Christ Jesus is faith working through love. Paul says that circumcision and uncircumcision do not count for anything, but what does count for something is keeping the Commandments of God. And Paul also says, "Through love serve one another. Love your neighbor as yourself." Faith can be great, great, if it has love. Works can be great if it has love. But faith alone, or works alone, or faith and works together with no love, that'll get you nothing, and you'll be nothing.
In other words, faith alone is crap. Jeff Durban is adding words to the Bible, and the words that he's adding go directly against what the Bible teaches. Abraham didn't have empty hands. He had all these works. So seriously, Jeff, I'm curious, why aren't you showing people this? Why are you adding your own words into the Bible when the Bible clearly teaches against what you're adding? Are you trying to hide parts of the Bible from your followers?
Anyway, as a Bible-believing Christian in the one and only Christian Church that Christ created, his Catholic Christian Church, I don't need to hide any of this from you. Us Christians in Christ Church can read you the entire Bible without adding anything to it. If you want to hear it done, check out Father Mike Schmitz's Bible in a Year podcast. He'll read you the whole thing. He doesn't have to.
Hide any part of it now. Before we end this video, we do want to take a moment to explain what the Christian view on works is. We do have a much more detailed video on this topic, so please check that out if you don't understand it. But just some bullet points here.
First off, your works do not earn you salvation. Christians are saved by grace through faith. In the letter that Paul wrote to the Ephesians, he talks to them about the first time they were saved. He tells them about how they were dead in their trespasses and sins, in which they once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience, among whom they all once lived in the passions of their flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.
But Paul says that God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved them, even when they were dead in their trespasses, made them alive together with Christ. By grace, they had been saved. So this is Paul telling the Ephesians about the first time they were saved. And just a note to put on here, Jeff Durban would agree that this is the first time that the Ephesians were saved. Jeff would likely go on to say that this is the only time they were saved, but he has nothing to prove that, and we'll get into that in the next video.
The important thing to know here is that both Christians and Protestants agree that this is the first time that the Ephesians were saved. And how did they get saved? Was it by faith alone? Heck no. The Bible says, "God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, made us alive together with Christ. By grace you have been saved." So this is the first time the Ephesians were saved, and it wasn't by faith alone. It was by God's grace. It was because of God's love. And oh, look, it's a verb. It's an action word. It's a work. God made them alive together with Christ. So we got grace here, we got love here, and we got works here. God's works. But still works.
So while the Protestants chant, "Faith alone saves," the Bible's saying, "Nope, there's a bunch of other stuff. There's God's love, there's God's grace, there's God's works." So maybe it's not the smartest idea to drop the word "alone" just anywhere you please.
Now, faith does play a role here. If we continue reading, it says, "For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast." So, yeah, faith was a part of this initial saving, but it wasn't faith alone. It was God's grace, it was God's love, it was God's works, and faith.
As mentioned already, our works do not earn us salvation. Being saved is the gift of God. It is not your own doing. It is not a result of works. But it's important to remember that this is all in reference to the first time these people were saved. Paul is saying that this is not your own doing. So them being saved by grace through faith, that's not their own doing. They didn't cause that to happen. It's not a result of their works. But that doesn't prevent other things from being their own doing after this initial saving, which was not their own doing. There might be something that is their own doing, which might be the reason why the very next verse says, "For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them."
Why might it be that they should be walking in the good works that God prepared for them? Well, I don't know. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that a person is justified by works and not, not by faith alone. But we'll look more at that in the next video.
The truth is, the Bible never says that we are saved by faith alone. Dropping the word "alone" into the Bible where it doesn't belong can turn true statements into false ones. The Ephesians were not saved by faith alone. No one is. We are saved by God, by his grace, by his love, by his works, by his Son, by his sacrament of baptism, and by whatever else God wants to save us with.
Again, if you want a more detailed explanation on the role of works in a Christian's life, please check out this video. It's linked in the description. But we did want to make sure it was clear that we are not saying that works earn you salvation. That's a gift from God. It's not our own doing. Nothing we do creates our salvation. But just because our works don't create our salvation, that doesn't mean that our works don't play a role in being saved.
So this is Christian versus Protestant. You let us know, who do you think has this right? Is it the Christians who are saying 1 + 1 + 1 = 3? Or is it the Protestant who says 1 + 1 + 1 = everything? Is it the Christian who's just reading the word of God and accepting it as it is? Or is it the Protestant who's trying to shove the word "alone" into here, or trying to shove these words into here, or these words? Do you go with the Christian side that's going to believe everything in the Bible? Or do you trust the Protestant who's just going to show you this portion and just ignores this part completely? Let us know in the comments.
Now, if you want to know how to be Christian, drop the Protestantism, keep the Christianity. That advice is for you too, Mr. Durban. We joke around in these videos because otherwise, it's just, it's boring to us. But seriously, we do know that you want to follow the word of God. So when we see you adding stuff to it or ignoring stuff in it, we're going to call it out. We'll throw in some jokes too, why not? But the point isn't just to have a good laugh. We want you to actually follow the word of God.
Because as we mentioned in our previous video on Jeff, we think he's doing great work protecting the lives of the unborn. Thank you, Jeff, for being out there for them. What you are doing there is great. You got to work on this, though. You can't keep adding words to the Bible. You can't keep ignoring what the Bible says. Not if you actually want to be Christian and you actually want to follow the word of God.
So, in case it isn't clear, we are trying to help you. We want you on this team. We know you're buying into the whole faith, faith alone stuff right now. Okay, do some reading. See if what we said here is in your Bible too. I guarantee you it is.
Now again, there is a third installment on the way. So for everyone watching, if you're not subscribed yet, please do that. Click the notification bell, and all like the video, share it with family and friends. If you could, drop the link on Facebook or X. Get the truth out there. And if you want to support us at HBChristian.com, you can do that as well. We greatly appreciate it.
Today, we want to give a special thanks to our supporter, Hallelujah. Now, Hal is not just a supporter at HBChristian.com, but she also supports our channel by liking, subscribing, commenting, joining the chat in the live premieres. In fact, if you're watching the live premiere right now, she's probably right there in the chat. Anyway, the point is, H does a lot to support the channel. But the most important way that she helps us out, I didn't even mention yet, and that's praying.
As you can see in Hallelujah's comment, she writes, "Pray for James White, great big Catholic prayers, full of Catholic saints, and then crown it with Our Lady, Queen of Heaven." James White, for anyone who doesn't know, is a Protestant. We've done videos on him, you can check them out, they are linked in the description. Basically, Mr. White is to Jeff Durban what a puppeteer is to his puppet. Pastor James is talking about how he will look at me and from the from the uh congregation and give me L. It is hard, I will say, having your teacher and your hero and your mentor are always sort of sitting there watching you in the front row as you're teaching. It's really not fair. But there's another, there's a flip side to that coin because he's my teacher, my mentor, my hero of the faith, and all the rest. If anything is wrong in what I'm teaching, you can blame him. So, so there you go. Yeah, it seems like Mr. White is controlling the strings on Jeff. Either that, or he's got his hand up his, you know what. Let's just go with the string thing. It's probably, he's probably controlling the strings. That's a type of puppet. We'll go with that puppet.
Anyway, as with Jeff Durban and any Protestant that we discuss in Christian versus Protestant or in our Bring Them Back series, the goal is to get the Protestant to drop the Protestantism but keep the Christianity. We want all of us Christians to be on the same team. So that means Jeff, Mr. White, myself, all of you watching who are Christian, we want us all believing in the same thing. As Paul told the Philippians, "Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel, and not frightened into anything by your opponents."
Paul wanted them to be of one mind, striving side by side for the faith of the gospel. That's what we want for Christians as well. We don't want Christians teaching this Protestant nonsense that faith alone justifies. We want them teaching the Christian belief that faith justifies, not faith alone, because that's not from the word of God. This is from the word of God: faith justifies, but not faith alone.
So, yeah, that's the goal. If we can get all the Protestants to drop the Protestantism and keep the Christianity, we could be done with this channel. I could just stop making these videos because we wouldn't need to make any more of them. If everyone was of one mind, striving side by side for the faith of the gospel, then that would be amazing, and it could happen. That's the thing. And I don't think a lot of people realize that this guy, Martin Luther, here, he's the guy who started the Protestant religion. It's a man-made religion. It's only about 500 years old. And it doesn't have to keep going on.
Back then, he gained a following because people didn't have information at their fingertips. You can watch these kind of videos right there on your phone. You can share videos like this with all your family and friends, and then they can watch it and share it with their family and friends, and that can happen over and over again. Information can spread a lot faster nowadays than it could back then. So back in Martin Luther's time, people had an excuse for believing him. When Luther added "alone" to the Bible, people didn't know better, but they trusted him because he seemed like a smart guy. Jeff seems like a smart guy. I'm sure there's a bunch of people who listen to him and think, "I trust that." But they're not doing the simple research that you can get right there in front of you on your phone or on your computer or whatever device you're watching this on.
With the way information travels these days, I would not be surprised if I lived to see the day when everyone just did away with Protestantism. That day could actually happen, and it could be much sooner than we think. Education is the cure for Protestantism.
So back to Hallelujah's comment. The number one way that you can help support what we're doing here is to pray. Pray for James White, pray for Jeff Durban, pray for all Protestants, pray for all Christians, pray for us all that we one day will all be standing firm in one spirit with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel. Everybody who's a Protestant could drop the Protestantism and keep the Christianity. That's a possibility in our lifetime because the information is out there. When you see how dumb this stuff is that Protestants are teaching, and you compare this stupid stuff to what's actually in the Bible, it's not something you can easily unsee.
Now, granted, when Protestants do compare this to what's actually in the Bible, it's not that easy to be like, "Okay, well, I'm going to get rid of that." Because this is what they've spent their whole life believing in, and they've got family and friends tied up in this. Where if they left this, they might lose their family and friends too. So, yeah, if you're a Protestant and a Christian right now, I understand that getting rid of this is not going to be the easiest thing for you. But just remember, if you go with this side, you're going with the word of God. You're believing in Christ.
So, yeah, on this side, people might get upset with you. People might stop talking to you. It could be a sad experience if you drop the Protestantism and keep the Christianity. But on the plus side, if you do that, you are following the truth. Oh, and you could think of it this way: if you drop the Protestantism today and just keep that Christianity, and more and more people continue to do that until this guy's religion just fizzles out, then Christians in the future can all be as one, and no one will have to worry about what happens if they leave this side anymore because this side won't be a thing.
So, yeah, if you do your research and you realize, "This stuff, I should not be believing this. I want to get rid of that. I just want to keep this," then if you make that move, you can help make it so that no one has to make that decision again. Anyway, the choice is yours. Hope this video helped. This is how to be Christian. You all have a great day.