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Dr. Robert Jeffress

Robert Jeffress - The Most Misunderstood Word In America (Part 1)

June 3, 2026 | 27:29

Robert Jeffress - The Most Misunderstood Word In America (Part 1)
Pathway to Victory provides practical application of God’s Word to everyday life through clear, Biblical teaching.
#WordofGod #Tolerance #Nations #Challenges #Conviction #Culture #Character #Rejection #RobertJeffress

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Dr. Robert Jeffress | Robert Jeffress - The Most Misunderstood Word In America (Part 1) | June 3, 2026
  • ...
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  • ♪♪♪
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  • Male announcer: from the pulpit of the first baptist church
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  • Of dallas, texas, this is "pathway to victory"
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  • With dr. robert jeffress.
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  • Dr. robert jeffress: hi, i'm robert jeffres,
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  • And welcome again to "pathway to victory."
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  • For many years tolerance has been america's
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  • Favorite buzzword.
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  • We're encouraged to be tolerant of other religions, other
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  • Cultures, and other lifestyles.
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  • But the contemporary version of tolerance has taken on a whole
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  • New meaning in today's world.
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  • Today, i'll expose the popular idea of tolerance as
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  • A farce, and explain how christians should respond.
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  • My message is titled, "the most misunderstood word in america,"
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  • On today's edition of "pathway to victory."
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  • Announcer: as our nation marks 250 years, america
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  • Stands at a crossroads.
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  • Will we return to the god who blessed us or continue down a
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  • Path that leads to ruin?
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  • Through the in god we trust matching challenge, your gift
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  • Today will be doubled in ministry impact.
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  • For 30 years, "pathway to victory" has pierced the
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  • Darkness of our nation with the light of god's word by sharing
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  • Biblical truth that transforms hearts.
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  • Join us in this critical hour by giving toward the in god we
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  • Trust matching challenge today.
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  • ♪♪♪
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  • Jeffress: it was the british writer g.k. chesterton who said
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  • Tolerance is a virtue for a man with no convictions.
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  • That statement certainly explains why there seems to be
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  • An inverse relationship between our cultures, embracing
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  • Tolerance, and also our culture's rejection of the moral
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  • And spiritual absolutes.
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  • If you listen carefully to the voices around you, you will
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  • Conclude that tolerance is the most important character quality
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  • That any of us can develop.
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  • The conviction that all beliefs are equally valid is celebrated
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  • As the highest ideal in our culture.
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  • And by the way, that's not by accident.
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  • There are many educators today who believe that encouraging
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  • Tolerance of all beliefs and behaviors is the highest
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  • Educational goal of educators.
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  • And that's why we elevate in our culture, tolerance over truth.
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  • I want you to listen carefully to the words of stephen bates,
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  • A conservative writer in an article wrote for the
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  • American enterprise.
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  • Bates said, "tolerance may indeed be the dominant theme in
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  • The modern curriculum.
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  • The authors of a recent study of american high schools concluded
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  • That tolerating diversity is the moral glue that holds
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  • Schools together.
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  • One study of american history books found that toleration is
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  • Presented as the only religious idea worth remembering."
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  • The effort to indoctrinate students to embrace tolerance is
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  • Having a profound effect on our culture's attitudes and beliefs.
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  • It has led to an increasing acceptance to those beliefs,
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  • Those behaviors once thought morally wrong.
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  • As you know, george gallup regularly surveys the attitudes
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  • Of americans and over the last 20 years, gallup has noticed a
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  • General increase in those who believe homosexual relationships
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  • Should be legal, 60%.
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  • Those who believe that sex between an unmarried man and
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  • Unmarried woman are permissible, that's 59%.
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  • Those who believe that divorce is acceptable, 65%.
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  • And those who believe that having a baby out of wedlock is
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  • An equally valid moral choice, 54%.
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  • Do you see the relationship between cultures embracing of
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  • Tolerance, and the rejection of moral absolutes?
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  • However, i have to say to you tonight, and those of you
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  • Watching on television, listening by radio, i'm not that
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  • Concerned with the general public's embracing of religious
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  • Beliefs and behaviors that we find objectionable.
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  • What i am concerned about is the effect that relativism is having
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  • On christians themselves.
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  • A 2008 poll of 35,000 americans revealed that 57% of evangelical
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  • Christians said that they believe that many religions lead
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  • To eternal life.
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  • A poll by george barna a few years ago discovered that 68% of
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  • Those who identify themselves as born again christian adults, and
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  • 91% of christian teenagers rejected the concept of
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  • Absolute truth.
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  • They said there is no such thing as truth that applies to
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  • Everyone and every situation.
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  • Sixty-eight percent of born again adults, 91% of born again
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  • Teenagers, and instead of embracing absolute truth, what
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  • People have embraced now is relativism.
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  • Now, if you want to know what relativism is, understand this
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  • Simple phrase that expresses it better than anything else.
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  • Relativism says everything is right sometime, and nothing is
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  • Right every time.
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  • What is the net result of christians embracing relativism?
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  • We become tasteless salt and diminished light.
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  • Remember the whole thesis of this series, "twilight's last
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  • Gleaming" is, our collapse as a country is inevitable, but we
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  • Can delay that collapse by being the salt and the light jesus
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  • Commanded us to be.
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  • But if we don't believe that there are absolute rights and
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  • Absolute wrongs, we become first of all, tasteless salt.
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  • For example, if we really don't believe that abortion is
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  • Tantamount to murder, why insist that we elect
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  • Pro-life candidates?
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  • If we're really not convinced that homosexuality is a
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  • Perversion, why would we oppose efforts to teach school children
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  • That homosexuality is a valid lifestyle choice?
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  • Once we bind to relativism, we quickly lose any motivation to
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  • Stand up and push back against the tide of immorality that is
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  • Sweeping our country.
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  • To continue the analogy i used a few sunday nights ago.
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  • I mean, if the hoover dam is crumbling, why bother to stand
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  • Behind it and try to prevent the flood that's going to occur
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  • Below, if you don't believe a flood is a bad thing to
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  • Begin with?
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  • It's the same thing in our culture.
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  • When christians lose their motivation to be restrainers of
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  • Evil, because they no longer believe these behaviors are
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  • Evil, it's only a short time until society crumbles under the
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  • Weight of its own sin.
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  • Jesus said it this way in matthew 5:13, "you are the salt
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  • Of the earth, but if the salt becomes tasteless, how will it
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  • Be made salty again?
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  • It is good for nothing anymore, except to be thrown out and
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  • Trampled under foot by men."
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  • When christians embrace real activism, they lose their
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  • Distinctive taste, they lose their saltiness.
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  • But relativism also diminishes our light as a christian.
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  • Remember we're to be that preservative, pushing back,
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  • Delaying evil.
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  • But we're also to be light pointing people to the gospel of
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  • Jesus christ.
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  • However, when you don't believe in the exclusivity of truth, you
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  • Become a diminished light.
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  • Let me illustrate that for you.
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  • Media entrepreneur, oprah winfrey claims to be
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  • A christian.
  • 00:07:46.889 --> 00:07:48.224
  • However, she does not believe that christianity's truth
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  • Is exclusive.
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  • She said in an interview one time, quote, "one of the biggest
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  • Mistakes humans make is to believe that there is only
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  • One way.
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  • Actually, there are many diverse paths that lead to what you
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  • Call god."
  • 00:08:05.675 --> 00:08:07.543
  • Now, that's oprah winfrey.
  • 00:08:07.543 --> 00:08:09.278
  • Of course her own belief that there's not an exclusive way to
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  • God violates the beliefs of the founder of her religion,
  • 00:08:12.748 --> 00:08:17.887
  • Christianity, because jesus christ, the founder of her faith
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  • And our faith said in john 14:6, "i am the way, the truth, and
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  • The life; no man comes to the father except by me."
  • 00:08:26.862 --> 00:08:30.766
  • However, when it comes to the subject of exclusivity,
  • 00:08:30.766 --> 00:08:34.370
  • Unfortunately, polls reveal that more christians believe oprah
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  • Winfrey than believe jesus christ.
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  • Of course, the most obvious result of believing that all
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  • Religions are an equally valid path to god, it results in the
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  • Loss of motivation to try to point people to faith in
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  • Jesus christ.
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  • I mean, why risk offending somebody about their religious
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  • Beliefs if you believe their religion is just as valid as
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  • Your religion?
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  • Dr. roy fish, a professor at southwestern seminary, who was
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  • One time interim pastor here for a period of time, believes that
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  • Spiritual relativism, "is the primary culprit in the loss of
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  • Our evangelistic zeal."
  • 00:09:14.377 --> 00:09:15.711
  • Dr. fish says, "very little will stultify evangelism and missions
  • 00:09:15.711 --> 00:09:21.784
  • Any quicker than the belief that nobody is really lost, and
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  • Everybody is going to make it to heaven sooner or later.
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  • Why go across the sea or even across the street with the
  • 00:09:28.758 --> 00:09:33.229
  • Message of jesus, if everybody is already saved or everyone
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  • Will make it to heaven ultimately, anyhow.
  • 00:09:37.533 --> 00:09:40.403
  • Jesus said the same thing in matthew 5, verse 15.
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  • He said, "it is unthinkable to light a lamp, and put it under a
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  • Peck measure."
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  • Have you ever read that before, and wondered what in the world
  • 00:09:48.878 --> 00:09:50.579
  • Is a peck measure?
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  • It's a clay bowl.
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  • Jesus said, you don't light a light, and then put a bowl over
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  • It where nobody can see the light.
  • 00:09:56.786 --> 00:09:58.754
  • And yet when we buy into relativism, the idea that all
  • 00:09:58.754 --> 00:10:02.825
  • Religions are equally valid, we are effectively placing a bowl
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  • Over our light.
  • 00:10:06.896 --> 00:10:08.230
  • We are hiding the light of the gospel.
  • 00:10:08.230 --> 00:10:10.833
  • Now, up to this point, i have equated tolerance
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  • With relativism.
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  • In today's world and most of you who are students, you'll
  • 00:10:16.238 --> 00:10:19.208
  • Understand this.
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  • When people say i am tolerant of something, they're saying, i
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  • Believe that, that belief, behavior, or choice is just as
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  • Valid as mine.
  • 00:10:29.118 --> 00:10:30.486
  • For example, if somebody says i am tolerant of homosexuality,
  • 00:10:30.486 --> 00:10:35.357
  • They're saying in today's culture, we think, i'm saying
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  • That i believe that homosexuality is just as valid
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  • The lifestyle choice as heterosexuality.
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  • When somebody says that i'm tolerant of other religious
  • 00:10:44.667 --> 00:10:48.537
  • Beliefs, usually, what they're trying to communicate is that
  • 00:10:48.537 --> 00:10:51.474
  • They believe other religions are just as valid as their
  • 00:10:51.474 --> 00:10:54.877
  • Own religion.
  • 00:10:54.877 --> 00:10:56.746
  • However, what i'm gonna call tonight, "true tolerance," not
  • 00:10:56.746 --> 00:11:02.084
  • Only allows for, but it requires a belief in absolute truth.
  • 00:11:02.084 --> 00:11:08.090
  • And that's what i want you to understand more than
  • 00:11:08.090 --> 00:11:09.992
  • Anything tonight.
  • 00:11:09.992 --> 00:11:11.427
  • True tolerance requires a belief in absolute truth.
  • 00:11:11.427 --> 00:11:16.832
  • Author gregory kulacki says, "probably no concept has more
  • 00:11:16.832 --> 00:11:21.604
  • Currency in our politically correct culture than the notion
  • 00:11:21.604 --> 00:11:24.774
  • Of tolerance.
  • 00:11:24.774 --> 00:11:26.142
  • Unfortunately, one of america's noblest virtues has been so
  • 00:11:26.142 --> 00:11:31.080
  • Distorted, it's become a vice."
  • 00:11:31.080 --> 00:11:33.849
  • Now, i have to confess, i've been guilty of doing that.
  • 00:11:33.849 --> 00:11:36.719
  • I have allowed our current culture to distort the meaning
  • 00:11:36.719 --> 00:11:40.523
  • Of tolerance.
  • 00:11:40.523 --> 00:11:41.857
  • And i've treated the idea of tolerance as a vice rather than
  • 00:11:41.857 --> 00:11:44.860
  • A virtue.
  • 00:11:44.860 --> 00:11:46.228
  • But tolerance when correctly understood really is a virtue
  • 00:11:46.228 --> 00:11:51.500
  • That ought to be embraced.
  • 00:11:51.500 --> 00:11:53.235
  • But what society understands tolerance to be and what true
  • 00:11:53.235 --> 00:11:57.039
  • Tolerance is, are vastly different things.
  • 00:11:57.039 --> 00:12:00.342
  • Many years ago, my grandmother wrote a widely published poem
  • 00:12:00.342 --> 00:12:05.014
  • Entitled "a plea for tolerance."
  • 00:12:05.014 --> 00:12:07.917
  • However, my grandmother's understanding of tolerance and
  • 00:12:07.917 --> 00:12:11.320
  • Today's understanding of tolerance are vastly different.
  • 00:12:11.320 --> 00:12:15.457
  • Let's go back to the historic understanding of
  • 00:12:15.457 --> 00:12:17.927
  • The word tolerance.
  • 00:12:17.927 --> 00:12:19.261
  • It's best understood from webster's new world dictionary.
  • 00:12:19.261 --> 00:12:22.131
  • Tolerance is defined as, "to allow or to permit, to recognize
  • 00:12:22.131 --> 00:12:27.736
  • And respect other's beliefs and practices without sharing them.
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  • To bear or put up with someone or something."
  • 00:12:34.910 --> 00:12:38.314
  • Not necessarily liked.
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  • Do you get that?
  • 00:12:41.350 --> 00:12:42.685
  • It's to allow something that you don't agree with.
  • 00:12:42.685 --> 00:12:47.256
  • Gregory kulacki again identifies the three critical components of
  • 00:12:47.256 --> 00:12:51.961
  • True tolerance.
  • 00:12:51.961 --> 00:12:53.329
  • Number one, there's a permitting or allowing, something you
  • 00:12:53.329 --> 00:12:56.498
  • Dislike or don't agree with.
  • 00:12:56.498 --> 00:12:58.934
  • Secondly, a conduct or point of view with which one disagrees
  • 00:12:58.934 --> 00:13:02.371
  • With in the process.
  • 00:13:02.371 --> 00:13:03.739
  • While number three, respecting the person in the process.
  • 00:13:03.739 --> 00:13:08.043
  • Here is the most obvious but overlooked truth
  • 00:13:08.043 --> 00:13:11.480
  • About tolerance.
  • 00:13:11.480 --> 00:13:12.982
  • It is a conduct or point of view one disagrees with.
  • 00:13:12.982 --> 00:13:18.487
  • Not one accepts.
  • 00:13:18.487 --> 00:13:20.789
  • You can only truly be tolerant of something you either dislike
  • 00:13:20.789 --> 00:13:25.995
  • Or disagree with.
  • 00:13:25.995 --> 00:13:27.596
  • Let me illustrate that for you if i could.
  • 00:13:27.596 --> 00:13:29.999
  • Let's say i go to a dinner and for dessert, they serve
  • 00:13:29.999 --> 00:13:35.070
  • Haagen-dazs vanilla ice cream with chocolate sauce over it,
  • 00:13:35.070 --> 00:13:39.241
  • Which happens to be my very favorite dessert.
  • 00:13:39.241 --> 00:13:42.678
  • And so amy asked me, how did you enjoy dessert?
  • 00:13:42.678 --> 00:13:46.315
  • And i say, well, i tolerated it.
  • 00:13:46.315 --> 00:13:49.285
  • Tolerated it?
  • 00:13:49.285 --> 00:13:50.653
  • Would that be an apt description for my reaction, when i
  • 00:13:50.653 --> 00:13:53.656
  • Practically licked the bowl clean?
  • 00:13:53.656 --> 00:13:55.291
  • No, that's not what you would say.
  • 00:13:55.291 --> 00:13:58.427
  • Tolerated it.
  • 00:13:58.427 --> 00:13:59.795
  • No, no.
  • 00:13:59.795 --> 00:14:01.130
  • Now let's suppose that instead of haagen-dazs vanilla ice cream
  • 00:14:01.130 --> 00:14:03.165
  • With chocolate sauce, they serve key lime pie, my least
  • 00:14:03.165 --> 00:14:08.337
  • Favorite dessert.
  • 00:14:08.337 --> 00:14:10.639
  • And so i nibble at it a little bit to be polite.
  • 00:14:10.639 --> 00:14:15.044
  • And amy asked me, well, how did you enjoy your dessert?
  • 00:14:15.044 --> 00:14:18.514
  • And i say i tolerated it.
  • 00:14:18.514 --> 00:14:21.150
  • Now, that would be an accurate word to describe how i dealt
  • 00:14:21.150 --> 00:14:25.754
  • With the dessert.
  • 00:14:25.754 --> 00:14:27.122
  • I permitted it to be served to me.
  • 00:14:27.122 --> 00:14:30.159
  • That is, i didn't throw it across the room.
  • 00:14:30.159 --> 00:14:32.461
  • Okay?
  • 00:14:32.461 --> 00:14:33.796
  • I permitted it to be served.
  • 00:14:33.796 --> 00:14:35.164
  • Nevertheless, it was something that i very much disliked, and
  • 00:14:35.164 --> 00:14:40.069
  • Yet i respected the person who served it to me in the process.
  • 00:14:40.069 --> 00:14:44.473
  • I didn't call her a bunch of filthy names for serving me key
  • 00:14:44.473 --> 00:14:48.043
  • Lime pie.
  • 00:14:48.043 --> 00:14:49.378
  • Do you see?
  • 00:14:49.378 --> 00:14:50.746
  • That is what tolerance is.
  • 00:14:50.746 --> 00:14:52.081
  • It's permitting or allowing something you disagree with, or
  • 00:14:52.081 --> 00:14:54.883
  • Dislike, while respecting the other person in the process.
  • 00:14:54.883 --> 00:14:59.788
  • However, the concept of tolerance has undergone a
  • 00:14:59.788 --> 00:15:02.324
  • Radical transformation today.
  • 00:15:02.324 --> 00:15:04.293
  • Today, when people say you must be tolerant, what they really
  • 00:15:04.293 --> 00:15:08.364
  • Mean is you must accept all ideas, beliefs, or behaviors as
  • 00:15:08.364 --> 00:15:12.267
  • Equally valid.
  • 00:15:12.267 --> 00:15:14.203
  • For example, hinduism and christianity are equally valid
  • 00:15:14.203 --> 00:15:18.440
  • Belief systems.
  • 00:15:18.440 --> 00:15:19.942
  • The pseudo tolerant person says heterosexuality and
  • 00:15:19.942 --> 00:15:23.445
  • Homosexuality are equally valid expressions of human sexuality.
  • 00:15:23.445 --> 00:15:28.150
  • Choosing to abort a child or to keep a child are valid moral
  • 00:15:28.150 --> 00:15:32.187
  • Choices depending on the particular circumstances.
  • 00:15:32.187 --> 00:15:35.524
  • Cohabitation or marriage are equally valid options in
  • 00:15:35.524 --> 00:15:40.396
  • A relationship.
  • 00:15:40.396 --> 00:15:41.897
  • Key lime pie and haagen-dazs vanilla ice cream are equally
  • 00:15:41.897 --> 00:15:45.100
  • Delicious desserts.
  • 00:15:45.100 --> 00:15:46.602
  • See that is what false or pseudo tolerance is.
  • 00:15:46.602 --> 00:15:50.372
  • It's the belief that all things are equally valid and desirable.
  • 00:15:50.372 --> 00:15:55.044
  • To suggest that one idea, belief, or choice is superior
  • 00:15:55.044 --> 00:15:58.514
  • To another is to be called intolerant.
  • 00:15:58.514 --> 00:16:01.984
  • Now, this pseudo tolerance, this new tolerance resembles
  • 00:16:01.984 --> 00:16:06.588
  • Historical tolerance in some ways, but it's also radically
  • 00:16:06.588 --> 00:16:10.426
  • Different from the historic understanding of tolerance in
  • 00:16:10.426 --> 00:16:13.595
  • Four distinct ways.
  • 00:16:13.595 --> 00:16:14.963
  • I want you to write this down.
  • 00:16:14.963 --> 00:16:16.298
  • First of all, pseudo tolerance, this is the new perverted idea
  • 00:16:16.298 --> 00:16:20.769
  • Of tolerance.
  • 00:16:20.769 --> 00:16:22.137
  • Pseudo tolerance rejects the idea of absolute truth.
  • 00:16:22.137 --> 00:16:27.109
  • Now today we throw around the term absolute truth all the
  • 00:16:27.109 --> 00:16:29.812
  • Time, and maybe you're not sure exactly what that means.
  • 00:16:29.812 --> 00:16:32.748
  • An absolute truth is a truth that is true in
  • 00:16:32.748 --> 00:16:36.185
  • Every circumstance.
  • 00:16:36.185 --> 00:16:37.986
  • That is an absolute truth.
  • 00:16:37.986 --> 00:16:39.388
  • "seven times eight equals 56" is an absolute truth.
  • 00:16:39.388 --> 00:16:43.959
  • There is no situation, no culture in which seven times
  • 00:16:43.959 --> 00:16:47.629
  • Eight does not equal 56.
  • 00:16:47.629 --> 00:16:50.199
  • However, there are also relative truths in our universe.
  • 00:16:50.199 --> 00:16:53.268
  • Not every truth is an absolute truth.
  • 00:16:53.268 --> 00:16:55.404
  • For example, the statement 72 degrees is
  • 00:16:55.404 --> 00:16:59.441
  • The perfect temperature.
  • 00:16:59.441 --> 00:17:01.810
  • Now, that's not an absolute truth.
  • 00:17:01.810 --> 00:17:04.012
  • That is a relative truth.
  • 00:17:04.012 --> 00:17:05.981
  • That statement depends upon somebody's gender, somebody's
  • 00:17:05.981 --> 00:17:10.018
  • Ethnicity, think eskimo for a moment.
  • 00:17:10.018 --> 00:17:12.921
  • Somebody's metabolism, all kind of things lead a person to
  • 00:17:12.921 --> 00:17:17.259
  • Believe what the perfect temperature is.
  • 00:17:17.259 --> 00:17:20.562
  • Now, there are many areas even in morality that are relative
  • 00:17:20.562 --> 00:17:25.300
  • Instead of absolute.
  • 00:17:25.300 --> 00:17:26.635
  • For example, the statement, "we should obey the law."
  • 00:17:26.635 --> 00:17:31.406
  • Is that an absolute truth or a relative truth?
  • 00:17:31.406 --> 00:17:34.977
  • Is there any circumstance in which we shouldn't obey the law?
  • 00:17:34.977 --> 00:17:38.413
  • Of course, there are.
  • 00:17:38.413 --> 00:17:40.082
  • I mean, if you're raising your child to the hospital at two
  • 00:17:40.082 --> 00:17:43.318
  • O'clock in the morning, it's an emergency, and you come upon a
  • 00:17:43.318 --> 00:17:46.889
  • Stoplight and there's no traffic coming.
  • 00:17:46.889 --> 00:17:50.692
  • The morally right thing to do is to run that red light, isn't it?
  • 00:17:50.692 --> 00:17:54.463
  • To preserve the life of your child.
  • 00:17:54.463 --> 00:17:56.298
  • Acts 5:29 tells us, there is going to be a time when we, as
  • 00:17:56.298 --> 00:17:59.501
  • Christians, need to be willing to disobey the government to
  • 00:17:59.501 --> 00:18:03.238
  • Disobey the law.
  • 00:18:03.238 --> 00:18:04.606
  • Peter said we must obey god rather than obey men.
  • 00:18:04.606 --> 00:18:07.910
  • So we should obey the law is a relative statement.
  • 00:18:07.910 --> 00:18:11.713
  • It's true most the time, but it's not true all of the time.
  • 00:18:11.713 --> 00:18:15.350
  • However, the proponents of pseudo tolerance, this new
  • 00:18:15.350 --> 00:18:18.287
  • Tolerance, want to say that every moral and spiritual
  • 00:18:18.287 --> 00:18:22.057
  • Principle is relative rather than absolute.
  • 00:18:22.057 --> 00:18:25.928
  • In fact, the embraces of pseudo tolerance, find it almost
  • 00:18:25.928 --> 00:18:28.897
  • Impossible to label any behavior as absolutely right, are
  • 00:18:28.897 --> 00:18:34.937
  • Absolutely wrong.
  • 00:18:34.937 --> 00:18:36.672
  • For example, if you ask somebody who embraces pseudo tolerance,
  • 00:18:36.672 --> 00:18:40.809
  • Were the perpetrators of september the 11th, 2001 evil?
  • 00:18:40.809 --> 00:18:46.014
  • Was that an evil act?
  • 00:18:46.014 --> 00:18:48.283
  • They would hem and haw and say, well, you know, it depends on
  • 00:18:48.283 --> 00:18:52.554
  • Your perspective.
  • 00:18:52.554 --> 00:18:54.122
  • I mean, if you're a family of one of the victims of 911, yes
  • 00:18:54.122 --> 00:18:57.259
  • To you, that was evil.
  • 00:18:57.259 --> 00:18:59.595
  • But on the other hand, if you happen to be a poor oppressed
  • 00:18:59.595 --> 00:19:02.631
  • Muslim living in a third world country, that has been oppressed
  • 00:19:02.631 --> 00:19:05.467
  • By the great satan america.
  • 00:19:05.467 --> 00:19:07.135
  • No, that wasn't evil.
  • 00:19:07.135 --> 00:19:08.570
  • That was justified.
  • 00:19:08.570 --> 00:19:09.905
  • In fact, we had a muslim imam here in new york who made
  • 00:19:09.905 --> 00:19:13.375
  • A similar statement.
  • 00:19:13.375 --> 00:19:14.743
  • You see to the relativist, there is no absolute right and wrong.
  • 00:19:14.743 --> 00:19:19.615
  • Pseudo tolerance requires rejecting the belief that all
  • 00:19:19.615 --> 00:19:23.185
  • Truths apply to all people.
  • 00:19:23.185 --> 00:19:25.053
  • So therefore, instead of saying abortion is wrong, what we're
  • 00:19:25.053 --> 00:19:29.157
  • Supposed to say is abortion is wrong for me.
  • 00:19:29.157 --> 00:19:32.261
  • Instead of saying homosexuality is a perversion, we're supposed
  • 00:19:32.261 --> 00:19:35.564
  • To say homosexuality is not my particular choice.
  • 00:19:35.564 --> 00:19:38.867
  • Instead of saying that jesus christ is the only way to
  • 00:19:38.867 --> 00:19:41.703
  • Heaven, we say, and you even hear some christians say this,
  • 00:19:41.703 --> 00:19:45.040
  • Jesus christ is the way to heaven for christians.
  • 00:19:45.040 --> 00:19:49.344
  • That is pseudo tolerance, a rejection of absolute truth.
  • 00:19:49.344 --> 00:19:54.916
  • And of course, by rejecting absolute and spiritual truth, a
  • 00:19:54.916 --> 00:19:59.154
  • Pseudo tolerance has to become what they say they despise.
  • 00:19:59.154 --> 00:20:04.092
  • And that leads to a second characteristic of
  • 00:20:04.092 --> 00:20:05.961
  • Pseudo tolerance.
  • 00:20:05.961 --> 00:20:07.329
  • Pseudo tolerance is intolerant of other points of views.
  • 00:20:07.329 --> 00:20:12.034
  • That's the most ironic thing about the whole thing.
  • 00:20:12.034 --> 00:20:14.169
  • Those who say they're tolerant usually end up being the most
  • 00:20:14.169 --> 00:20:17.506
  • Intolerant people of all.
  • 00:20:17.506 --> 00:20:19.007
  • Let me give you some illustrations of that.
  • 00:20:19.007 --> 00:20:20.976
  • While he was the editor of a publication entitled
  • 00:20:20.976 --> 00:20:24.913
  • "proceedings of the biological society of washington,"
  • 00:20:24.913 --> 00:20:28.383
  • Dr. richard stenberg received a submission from an author,
  • 00:20:28.383 --> 00:20:32.287
  • Dr steven meyer of the discovery institute, an institute not
  • 00:20:32.287 --> 00:20:37.292
  • Unlike our own creation research institute that the morrises
  • 00:20:37.292 --> 00:20:40.662
  • Head up.
  • 00:20:40.662 --> 00:20:41.997
  • It's an institute that is dedicated to promote
  • 00:20:41.997 --> 00:20:43.932
  • The intelligent design theory of the origins of the universe.
  • 00:20:43.932 --> 00:20:47.002
  • So dr myers submits article for publication.
  • 00:20:47.002 --> 00:20:51.006
  • When the publication was received by the editor,
  • 00:20:51.006 --> 00:20:54.376
  • Dr. sternberg, he was so impressed with it, that instead
  • 00:20:54.376 --> 00:20:58.080
  • Of asking for peer group review, he as editor, made the decision
  • 00:20:58.080 --> 00:21:01.450
  • To publish the article.
  • 00:21:01.450 --> 00:21:03.018
  • Something that was clearly within his rights as editor.
  • 00:21:03.018 --> 00:21:05.687
  • Dr. sternberg was immediately attacked by his peers for
  • 00:21:05.687 --> 00:21:09.324
  • Allowing the publication of an article that allowed for
  • 00:21:09.324 --> 00:21:12.627
  • Intelligent design.
  • 00:21:12.627 --> 00:21:14.396
  • The incident by the way, is not isolated.
  • 00:21:14.396 --> 00:21:16.998
  • In june of 2006, the national science academies of 67
  • 00:21:16.998 --> 00:21:22.337
  • Countries warned parents and teachers about any attempts to
  • 00:21:22.337 --> 00:21:26.775
  • Undermine the teaching of evolution or allowing students
  • 00:21:26.775 --> 00:21:29.745
  • To be taught that the world was created in six days.
  • 00:21:29.745 --> 00:21:33.348
  • In november of 2007, the parliamentary assembly of the
  • 00:21:33.348 --> 00:21:37.619
  • Council of europe adopted a resolution that recommended a
  • 00:21:37.619 --> 00:21:41.423
  • Prohibition against the teaching of creationism in any
  • 00:21:41.423 --> 00:21:45.927
  • Educational setting outside of religious classes.
  • 00:21:45.927 --> 00:21:49.164
  • The statement declared and i quote, "if we are not careful,
  • 00:21:49.164 --> 00:21:52.934
  • Creationism could become a threat to human rights," end
  • 00:21:52.934 --> 00:21:56.905
  • Of quote.
  • 00:21:56.905 --> 00:21:58.273
  • Now, how's that for tolerance?
  • 00:21:58.273 --> 00:22:00.542
  • A few years ago, and some of you came to see this.
  • 00:22:00.542 --> 00:22:03.612
  • A few years ago, i was invited to be on a panel discussion at
  • 00:22:03.612 --> 00:22:06.982
  • One of the largest jewish temples here in dallas.
  • 00:22:06.982 --> 00:22:10.085
  • And the panel discussion had to do with the separation of church
  • 00:22:10.085 --> 00:22:13.955
  • And state.
  • 00:22:13.955 --> 00:22:15.323
  • Now, on the panel with me was a jewish rabbi, a minister from a
  • 00:22:15.323 --> 00:22:17.793
  • Liberal mainline denomination, a member of the texas state board
  • 00:22:17.793 --> 00:22:20.962
  • Of education, and yours truly was the token conservative.
  • 00:22:20.962 --> 00:22:25.066
  • During the discussion, one of the panelists asked me
  • 00:22:25.066 --> 00:22:28.003
  • This question.
  • 00:22:28.003 --> 00:22:29.371
  • They said, dr jeffress, why are you so opposed to teaching
  • 00:22:29.371 --> 00:22:33.375
  • Evolution in the public classroom?
  • 00:22:33.375 --> 00:22:36.778
  • I said, i'm not opposed to teaching evolution at all.
  • 00:22:36.778 --> 00:22:39.881
  • I think evolution ought to be taught.
  • 00:22:39.881 --> 00:22:43.885
  • My question to you, i said, was why are you so opposed to
  • 00:22:43.885 --> 00:22:47.589
  • Allowing creationism also to be taught as an alternate theory?
  • 00:22:47.589 --> 00:22:52.861
  • See that is the hypocrisy of tolerance.
  • 00:22:52.861 --> 00:22:57.365
  • You know that up until 2009 here in texas, our school board
  • 00:22:57.365 --> 00:23:03.972
  • Guidelines had a long-time requirement that in the teaching
  • 00:23:03.972 --> 00:23:08.910
  • Of evolution, that the teacher was allowed to present some of
  • 00:23:08.910 --> 00:23:12.314
  • The evidence against evolution, of which there is a mountain of
  • 00:23:12.314 --> 00:23:16.618
  • Evidence that discredits the theory of evolution.
  • 00:23:16.618 --> 00:23:20.355
  • But in january 2009, a sharply divided texas state board of
  • 00:23:20.355 --> 00:23:23.925
  • Education voted to abandon the long-time requirement that high
  • 00:23:23.925 --> 00:23:28.196
  • School biology teachers discuss some of the weaknesses of the
  • 00:23:28.196 --> 00:23:32.501
  • Theory of evolution in biology classes.
  • 00:23:32.501 --> 00:23:35.437
  • Proponents of this new policy, eliminating any questioning of
  • 00:23:35.437 --> 00:23:38.940
  • Evolution, argued that graduates of texas high schools would be
  • 00:23:38.940 --> 00:23:44.246
  • Denied entrance into respected universities if they came from
  • 00:23:44.246 --> 00:23:48.517
  • Schools that allowed any questioning of darwin's theory.
  • 00:23:48.517 --> 00:23:53.588
  • Jeffress: i have much more to say about
  • 00:23:57.459 --> 00:23:59.094
  • The most misunderstood word in america,
  • 00:23:59.094 --> 00:24:01.830
  • And i'll do so next time on "pathway to victory."
  • 00:24:01.830 --> 00:24:04.733
  • In the time remaining today, i want to tell you about
  • 00:24:04.733 --> 00:24:07.602
  • An exciting opportunity.
  • 00:24:07.602 --> 00:24:09.638
  • Several generous friends of "pathway to victory" have banded
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  • Together to create the $1.5 million
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  • In god we trust matching challenge.
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  • Your gift right now will be matched and therefore
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  • Doubled in impact.
  • 00:24:22.651 --> 00:24:24.452
  • This year marks the 30th anniversary of "pathway to
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  • Victory," and we're reaching more people than ever before
  • 00:24:27.255 --> 00:24:30.525
  • With trusted biblical teaching, so please join me in seizing
  • 00:24:30.525 --> 00:24:34.729
  • This moment to expand our impact for the gospel.
  • 00:24:34.729 --> 00:24:38.500
  • Now, stay right there.
  • 00:24:38.500 --> 00:24:40.168
  • I'll be back with more "pathway to victory" in just a moment.
  • 00:24:40.168 --> 00:24:43.371
  • Announcer: as our nation celebrates 250 years, do we
  • 00:24:45.307 --> 00:24:49.210
  • Still remember the faith that built america?
  • 00:24:49.210 --> 00:24:52.347
  • Dr. robert jeffress has created a beautiful book to make sure
  • 00:24:52.347 --> 00:24:55.884
  • That we and our families never forget.
  • 00:24:55.884 --> 00:24:58.253
  • The brand new 250th commemorative edition
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  • Of "america is a christian nation" is an 88 page, full
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  • Color, large print coffee table book packed with inspiring
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  • Stories from our nation's history, breathtaking imagery of
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  • America, select portraits of our founding fathers, and powerful
  • 00:25:11.800 --> 00:25:15.870
  • Truth from god's word.
  • 00:25:15.870 --> 00:25:17.772
  • Jeffress: america was founded on the principles of the
  • 00:25:17.772 --> 00:25:20.308
  • Judeo-christian faith as revealed in the bible, and our
  • 00:25:20.308 --> 00:25:23.812
  • Future depends on returning to that biblical foundation.
  • 00:25:23.812 --> 00:25:28.216
  • Announcer: request the 250th commemorative edition of
  • 00:25:28.216 --> 00:25:31.453
  • "america is a christian nation" when you give a generous
  • 00:25:31.453 --> 00:25:34.656
  • Ministry gift to "pathway to victory."
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  • You'll also receive the "in god we trust" dvd video and mp3
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  • Format audio disc set featuring two powerful messages from
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  • Dr. jeffress and 12 patriotic performances by the
  • 00:25:46.001 --> 00:25:49.604
  • First baptist dallas choir and orchestra.
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  • And with your ministry gift of $100 or more, we'll also send
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  • You the complete "america and the bible" teaching series on
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  • Your gift today will be doubled in impact through the in god we
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  • Trust matching challenge as together we pierce the darkness
  • 00:26:07.922 --> 00:26:11.960
  • With the light of god's word.
  • 00:26:11.960 --> 00:26:14.229
  • Jeffress: christians have been pigeonholed as narrow,
  • 00:26:15.964 --> 00:26:18.667
  • Shallow-minded people who are unwilling to entertain
  • 00:26:18.667 --> 00:26:22.137
  • Other points of view.
  • 00:26:22.137 --> 00:26:23.938
  • But tolerance doesn't mean accepting all beliefs
  • 00:26:23.938 --> 00:26:26.975
  • As equally valid.
  • 00:26:26.975 --> 00:26:28.877
  • As christians, we need to stand by our convictions in order to
  • 00:26:28.877 --> 00:26:32.447
  • Be the salt and light god commanded us to be.
  • 00:26:32.447 --> 00:26:36.284
  • Next time i'll identify three distinct ways in which
  • 00:26:36.284 --> 00:26:39.688
  • True tolerance differs from pseudo tolerance.
  • 00:26:39.688 --> 00:26:43.858
  • Stay tuned for a preview of what's coming up next in our
  • 00:26:43.858 --> 00:26:46.061
  • Series, "america and the bible."
  • 00:26:46.061 --> 00:26:50.198
  • Jeffress: true tolerance not only allows for a strong point
  • 00:26:50.265 --> 00:26:53.501
  • Of view, it actually demands it.
  • 00:26:53.501 --> 00:26:55.704
  • True tolerance is based on a genuine concern for other
  • 00:26:55.704 --> 00:26:59.207
  • People, a genuine concern that says, i respect your right to
  • 00:26:59.207 --> 00:27:04.779
  • Believe what you wanna believe, to behave as you wanna behave.
  • 00:27:04.779 --> 00:27:09.350
  • But i also love you too much to remain silent about it.
  • 00:27:09.350 --> 00:27:13.955
  • Male announcer: set your dvr and join us next time for part two
  • 00:27:14.022 --> 00:27:16.691
  • Of the message, "the most misunderstood word in america"
  • 00:27:16.691 --> 00:27:20.562
  • Here on "pathway to victory."
  • 00:27:20.562 --> 00:27:29.010