ARME 13: Camp Mokkuleia, HI - Dec 2012

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ARME Bible Camp

Don Mackintosh

Everything Depends On

Father in heaven, we're thankful today that we can cry out, Abba, Father, and you've promised to hear.

We're thankful for the time that you've carved out, no matter where we are in the world, to rejuvenate.

We're thankful for the power of your word that we've carved out, no matter where we are in the world, to rejuvenate.

We're thankful for the power of your word that we've heard in these testimonies and in these lives.

And we come today just simply asking that you would work yet again in our hearts.

Some of us have come with decisions that need to be made.

Some of us have come with just an expectancy.

We don't even know what we need, but we're asking you to speak and work in this time.

And so we humbly ask, Lord, that you would come, not because of who we are, but who you see us to be, and because of your great love for us.

You've promised that you will come as 2 or 3 are gathered in your name, and we're coming in your name.

In the all-powerful name of our master, our savior, and our friend, Jesus Christ, we ask this.

Well, it's great to be here with you at Army.

I wanna go way down in my slides because we've had a number of testimonies and I think they have summarized so much of what I was gonna talk there about in my preliminary little remarks.

So today I want to develop a theme with you and I think what we're gonna call this message is Everything Depends On.

Everything Depends On is the title of the message.

And so if everything depends on this particular talk, maybe it would be 1 that's important to us.

You know, science is in the midst of a great debate.

Theology is in the midst of a great debate.

And they're all debating whether or not people can actually choose or can make a choice.

And what I just said this morning is that we come to this time and we say, Lord, maybe I have a choice or a decision to make, and they're even asking this question, can you even make a choice?

So researchers at Harvard and others at Stanford and whatnot, they're debating back and forth, and they have all kinds of thoughts concerning whether or not you can actually even make a choice.

Let me give you 1 example of what they're talking about.

Notice this 1 quote unquote expert, what they're saying.

A belief in free will, the ability to make a choice, is akin to religious beliefs.

Indeed, I would argue that free will makes logical sense as long as 1 has the luxury of the causal magic of religion.

Neither religious belief nor a belief in free will comply with the laws of the physical world.

So you have 1 particular camp that's saying that.

And then on the other side of the country, there's another camp that's saying, no, no, no, no.

I think there is a scientific basis for free will.

What does it mean to us whether or not we can decide?

If we can't decide, then really nothing else matters.

It doesn't really matter that we came today.

So I would say this question of whether or not we can really decide is really the foundational question.

Everything depends on the answer today, right?

In a study done in 2008, University of Minnesota, 2 researchers looked at this idea of free will, and what they did was they took groups of people and they read them statements, some that went along the lines that there was free will, other statements that went along the lines that there was no free will, no ability to make a choice.

Notice this uplifting quote unquote statement that they read to those in the deterministic group.

In other words, those that they said would represent or they were trying to just put in their minds the idea that there was no free will.

You, your joys, your sorrows, your memories, your ambitions, your sense of personal identity and free will are in fact no more than the behavior of a vast assembly of nerve cells and their associated molecules.

Who you are is nothing but a pack of neurons and although we appear to have free will, in fact our choices have already been predetermined for us and we can't change that.

How many think that would be kind of discouraging to hear that?

And this is what they were reading to the people.

And you know, the implications of such a stance in life are, you know, quite profound.

They read those kind of statements to someone.

They read free will statements to someone else.

They gave them a math and money allocation test.

Math test where they could give all the answers and a money allocation test where they would give away money and they wanted to see what would happen, what the behavior of the people who believed in free will, what their behavior would be, and the people that believed there was no free will, what their behavior would be.

The group that had these deterministic statements read to them like a belief in free will contradicts science.

Or other positive statements, avoiding temptations requires that I exert my free will.

When they made those statements, Those that heard the deterministic statements, that there was nothing they could do to choose, stole money, and they cheated all the time on their math tests.

In other words, if you believe you have no choice, guess what you act like?

You act as though, look, anything you think must be predetermined and so it must be right.

So what the researchers found was this idea of whether or not even thinking that you have free will or don't have free will has huge implications.

If exposure to deterministic messages increases the likelihood of unethical actions, then identifying approaches for insulating the public against this danger becomes imperative.

Look, even though science says there is no free will, don't tell anybody because society will fall apart.

Everyone will cheat, Everyone will steal, everyone will lie.

So even though we know there's no such a thing as choice, just don't tell people that.

How many think that's an interesting choice to make?

So this was the debate that's going on, And like I said, it has implications in every field.

If there is no free choice, the legal system basically falls apart.

If there is no choice, No patient could change when a doctor or a nurse or a health evangelist Presents information to them because there's no way really to change or make a choice in theology if there's no choice Who cares how good the message is because there's no choice It doesn't matter And we might as well just take our tent down and ask for our 7, 000 bucks back.

Now you all know that I believe there is choice, right?

But I'm just saying, this particular discussion, everything depends upon it.

So we're gonna look at a scriptural case study today.

And I invite you to turn in your Bibles to Psalm 7-7.

I think that's a great psalm for Seventh-day Adventist, amen?

And if we're going to finish the story as we heard last night, then we have to make some choices, amen?

And in this particular psalm, there was a discussion in this particular case study that includes these elements which we'll look at briefly here.

Number 1, there were the cries in the psalm.

Number 2, there were the questions in this psalm.

Number 3, there's the resolve and reasoning in this psalm.

Everything Depends On

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