Transcript

Today's Issues continues on AFR with Steve Paisley

>> Steve Jordahl: Today's Issues continues on AFR with your host, Tim Wildmon, president of the American Family Association.

>> Tim Wildmon: Hey, welcome back, everybody, to Today's Issues here on American Family radio. We got 24 and a half more minutes coming your way. I'm Tim with Wesley and Ray, and, Steve Paisley. Jordan joins us. Good morning, Steve.

>> Steve Jordahl: Hey, good morning, everybody.

>> Tim Wildmon: all right, Steve. So, by the way, you doing okay today, or.

>> Steve Jordahl: I am. Can I just real quickly. I heard you guys talking about the spelling thing to keep for my kids. My parents had the ultimate, triumph there in that, you know, we spent the years on the mission field. Madagascar has two languages, official languages, French and Malagasy. We all learned French. I never bothered with Malagasy. Neither did my sister. So my parents, through our teenage years, I mean, through. They could still, if mom was around, but they, would, speak Malagasy with each other, and they had no idea what they were talking about. Not a clue. It still would work.

>> Wesley Wildmon: now there are times that I need to be able to spell things, and I can't anymore. But not to the degree of wanting to learn a second language, you know,

>> Tim Wildmon: or third, in Steve's case, French and Malagasy.

>> Steve Jordahl: This is what I admire most about my father. I mean, so many things. So many things.

>> Tim Wildmon: But he's still with us.

>> Steve Jordahl: He is. He's 93, and, his job was to translate, seminary books from English to Malagasy, but there was no English to Malagasy dictionary, at least not in the 70s. And so he, had to learn French. And so he would translate it from English to French and then from French to Malagasy. So he had to translate from a second language to a third that he had just learned. Just amazing. Amazing.

>> Tim Wildmon: you talk about an unsung hero.

>> Tim Wildmon: Yeah.

>> Tim Wildmon: Then they're out there all over the place where the spotlight's not shining on them, but God's spotlight is.

>> Steve Jordahl: This year's Southern Baptist Convent, convention in Orlando, I believe, is going to be one of the, One of the things that they're voting on is a resolution to commend pastors who finish well, who commend Christian workers who finish well. I think it's a great.

>> Tim Wildmon: What were you going to say?

>> Tim Wildmon: Well, what your dad was doing. I mean, you're not translating Cat in the Hat kind of stuff.

>> Steve Jordahl: No.

>> Tim Wildmon: You're talking serious theology. Serious, Greek and Hebrew and. It's a heavy concept.

>> Steve Jordahl: Fourth and fifth language in there.

>> Tim Wildmon: That's right. Kudos to your dad.

Malagasy is a blend of French and something else

>> Tim Wildmon: So let me ask you this. Living in Madagascar you call the language, what, Malagasy was that just native to Madagascar.

>> Steve Jordahl: That's the only place.

>> Tim Wildmon: Is it a blend of French and something else?

>> Steve Jordahl: No, it's its own. It. I don't know. You know, you can use. If you speak a Latin language like French, you can usually kind of figure out the other Latin languages. So you can kind of know what they're talking about. This is probably have some, Indian roots, right? and African tribal roots? no, no, common with English or any other language that I would have known.

Scientists have been trying to figure out how Euphrates river was formed

>> Tim Wildmon: Okay. You're listening to today's issues on American Family Radio. What's this story about the, garden, of Eden?

>> Steve Jordahl: So scientists have been trying to figure out. The Bible mentions four rivers that flowed from the Garden of Eden and into and out of the Garden of Eden. And so Tigris and Euphrates being two of them, but they're still with us today. but for the longest time they couldn't figure out how the Euphrates river was formed. And, they didn't discover, like, any archaeological evidence of, Eden, but they have discovered the roots of the river. and I have to say, just a disclaimer here at the beginning. The story talks a lot about, millions of years of geological discovery. We can have the debate later about Young Earth. Old Earth.

>> Tim Wildmon: That's not what the.

>> Steve Jordahl: That's not what this is about. so scientists concluded that the modern Euphrates was formed with two older rivers. They're called the Paleo Crasso and the Paleo Murat. Basically, many years ago, m, the Mediterranean Sea dried up. It was called the, Messenian Salinity Crisis.

>> Tim Wildmon: This is the theory.

>> Steve Jordahl: This is the theory. They have good evidence that this happened because of the salt deposits on the bottom. But, so the Mediterranean Sea almost completely dried up, and because of the tectonic ships, they combine to create the Euphrates River. So, they've noticed they've been able to map the origins of this river, which speak into the two rivers that the Bible talks about and the Euphrates and the Tigris. so it's important to say that this does not provide evidence that the Garden of Eden existed, but what it does, it explains the geological origins of one of the rivers associated with the biblical story. what's the.

>> Tim Wildmon: Ah, you're citing a story I found on the Daily Mail, right?

>> Steve Jordahl: Yeah, yeah.

>> Tim Wildmon: When you keep quoting, you're quoting from that.

>> Steve Jordahl: I'm quoting from that. National Geographic.

>> Tim Wildmon: Yeah, National Geographic. National Geographic. We posted this Story on our today's issue Facebook page, as we do most of the stories that we cover here. But the issue. The reason I wanted to talk about this. Right. Number one, is the fact that the, rivers mentioned in the. Was it.

>> Tim Wildmon: Which is at the book of Genesis.

>> Tim Wildmon: Genesis that, So the river is mentioned in the book of Genesis, which is where the Garden of Eden story is. Duh. Tim, I know that's what you are thinking, but I was about five seconds behind myself there. But anyway, so the Euphrates, the, Tigris. Tigris are still around today.

>> Steve Jordahl: Yeah.

>> Tim Wildmon: Right.

>> Tim Wildmon: The rivers are still in Iraq.

>> Steve Jordahl: They meet in Iraq.

>> Tim Wildmon: In modern day Iraq, which is, yesteryear. Babylon.

>> Steve Jordahl: Yeah, Mesopotamia.

>> Tim Wildmon: Mesopotamia. The Babylonian, where Babylon was near there.

Do you believe there was a literal Garden of Eden as mentioned in the Bible

So, Ray, my question to you is. I know the answer before I ask it, but I'll ask it anyway. do you believe that there was a literal Garden of Eden as mentioned in the Bible? Or do you think that was a, fable or a metaphor, if you will. Or do you. Well, go ahead.

>> Tim Wildmon: I suppose the question beyond that is, do you believe there was an actual Adam or was he a metaphor? Was she a metaphor? Because once you go down that road, what you end up with is a myth or a legend that has no connection to historical reality. If you just take the Bible as it is written and we can look at science, we can think about that at some point, and we should. But if you just take the Bible the way it's written, it's quite clear that when Moses wrote the book of Genesis, he wasn't writing it mythologically, he wasn't writing it symbolically. He believed that there was a first man and a first woman, Adam and Eve. And all humanity comes from those two people. And therefore the story of the Garden of Eden is not just, Is it symbolic? Yeah, there's symbolism involved. But the question is, Tim, was there a real place.

>> Tim Wildmon: Right. That's what I'm asking.

>> Tim Wildmon: Called the Garden of Eden? And the answer is absolutely yes. And this, this detailed stuff in the articles. Interesting. Just showing us these two rivers have been around. Tigris and Euphrates have been around from the very beginning.

>> Wesley Wildmon: I'm gonna find a way to tie this back to some hunting.

>> Tim Wildmon: I can see where this could happen. Go ahead. Adam hunted in.

>> Wesley Wildmon: I have several apps that I use for hunting, and one of those apps and helps you figure out terrain and things. There's an app out there called Cal Topo. And this app has got a new. A newer technology, and I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna try to explain it, anymore. I'm trying to keep it simple. But there's a techno, a radar technology now that they can. Don't ask me how they can do it, but they can. They being scientists, they being scientists, can use radar in a certain, device to be able to show where a creek, river or low spot was in years past. That doesn't exist anymore. And I, So I'm able to use that now. I tested it and played around with it and I was able, in my experience using it to be able to confirm where a pond was that's no longer there anymore. And anyways, it's pretty, there's some pretty cool stuff out there like that. But I didn't, when I was playing around with it and learning it, I didn't think about it being used in, in this type of.

>> Tim Wildmon: Right.

>> Wesley Wildmon: And you know that's right. Exactly. And this, a very similar technology that was used, is being used to, on the, on the Ark. If you remember the, ground penetrating

>> Steve Jordahl: radar for the arc. Yep. Jupiter.

>> Wesley Wildmon: That's cool.

>> Tim Wildmon: The Mediterranean Sea being dry. That would be unbelievable.

It took mere months to refill the Mediterranean to where we see it today

>> Steve Jordahl: So basically what happened is they say that the tectonic plates closed Straits Gibraltar and there was no water, There was no water flowing in from the ocean. So evaporation dried up. And they say, by the way, when it opened up, it's because of an earthquake or whatever happened. It filled. It took mere months to refill the Mediterranean to the place where we see it today. It had dried up. Can you imagine the flood, the amount of water that would have to come in to fill the Mediterranean in months?

>> Tim Wildmon: Yeah, I would have hate to build a house down there.

>> Steve Jordahl: I know. Well, it was dry for a long period, depending on how you read the geological information.

>> Tim Wildmon: You know, this article from the Daily Mail, which it's is very interesting and I know Steve, it gives these long ages of millions of years and you said we can have discussion about that. But I'm looking at the article right now and they have this, well, it's, it's a, it's a map basically of the Tigris and the Euphrates. And they've got Uruk and Ubald and Urdu and Ur of the cow cats, Abraham's city. And there were four. There were four rivers mentioned in the book of Genesis. Tigris, Euphrates, and then two that have never been conclusively identified. One called the Gihon and the other the Pishon. Well, in this map there's a river called The Karun River. They speculate that could be the Gaihon. Got a question mark by it. And the Pishon. That's just. That's a dotted line there. But this is interesting, Steve.

>> Steve Jordahl: Yeah.

>> Tim Wildmon: You've got the, They point out the Garden of Eden. They've got a green area where they think it could have been. Okay. It's right down by. Right down by the sea. Okay. Where it should be fine. But I notice they say the shoreline was different then. The shoreline of what sea would that. Was that the Persian Gulf?

>> Steve Jordahl: Would that be the Red Sea? Let me look on a map here.

>> Tim Wildmon: what is the one that. Yeah, maybe that is the Persian Gulf. I guess it is. Has to be, right?

>> Steve Jordahl: Yeah.

>> Tim Wildmon: And that's the Persian Gulf, where it would flow into the Strait of Hormuz. But look at this, Steve. It shows. And I'm just. This is from M. The Daily Mail. It shows the Garden of Eden in green down there. Shoreline was different. And shoreline, was receded from where it is today. And it lists the date of that shoreline as 6,000 B.C.

>> Tim Wildmon: yeah.

>> Steve Jordahl: What happened? That's about what the Bible says.

>> Tim Wildmon: Ken Ham. And our friends up in Angels.

>> Wesley Wildmon: In Genesis, they're saying, I told you so.

>> Steve Jordahl: There you go into the Persian Gulf. This is what the Tigris and Euphrates, empty into the Persian Gulf.

>> Tim Wildmon: this is all very interesting. So you're saying that, the Garden of Eden, did exist and that Adam and Eve were real people.

>> Tim Wildmon: Absolutely. Look, if you believe Jesus is the last Adam, and that's the argument Paul makes, or call them the second Adam, if you want to say it that way. In Romans, chapter five, that's the argument Paul makes that what we lost in Adam, we gained in Christ. That, only makes sense if you believe Jesus was a real person. It really only makes sense if there was a literal, actual Adam who took the fruit from Eve and ate it, and sin came crashing into the human experience. I think if you want to take the story of Jesus literally, then we ought to take the story of Genesis 1, 2, and 3 literally also.

>> Steve Jordahl: And by the way, there is some DNA evidence. not conclusive by my understanding. I don't understand it completely. But you can trace DNA, all DNA. We all, originated from one single source, so.

>> Tim Wildmon: Right.

>> Steve Jordahl: Yeah.

>> Tim Wildmon: Yeah. So anyway, well, you know, you either believe it or you don't.

>> Tim Wildmon: Right.

>> Tim Wildmon: And it's either true or it isn't. so you have.

You can't disbelieve Genesis and somehow believe something about Jesus

For the folks who want to say, well, the Garden of Eden and Adam and Eve are Mythological or they're metaphorical things of that nature. go. You really can't have it like that. Okay. Either, either. Because the whole story of the Bible and the redemption of mankind, but based on original sin and what followed through thousands of years, and what Jesus did is based on the reality of Adam and Eve, and the Garden of Eden and the creation story. So, you know, that's fine. If you don't believe it, you can't have both. Okay. You can't disbelieve Genesis and somehow believe something about Jesus, because what is Jesus? Jesus himself referred to Adam. Adam. So go ahead. anyway, that's that. I was going to say. That's all I got to say on that. But you guys look like you got something else you want to say.

>> Wesley Wildmon: I was going to. I didn't want to interrupt. I'm learning from the best.

>> Tim Wildmon: That's okay. I rarely interrupt. I like to lead by example.

>> Wesley Wildmon: I was going to add that.

>> Tim Wildmon: You know what I'm saying? Yeah.

>> Wesley Wildmon: I was going to help you say it in another way, but you remember the, book, the Carpenter? Is that what it was? Either Jesus is a liar or he's Jesus himself.

>> Tim Wildmon: More than a carpenter by Josh McDowell.

>> Wesley Wildmon: He's either Jesus who he says he is, or he's a liar, but he's not.

>> Tim Wildmon: I'm sorry, here's what you're referring to. You're on the right track. Josh McDowell. In that book you're talking about more than carpenter, which is excellent.

>> Tim Wildmon: It's about Josh McDowell being an atheist and a skeptic. And him doing research to prove that the Bible didn't. Wasn't true only led to him, being converted because he realized the Bible was true. That was Josh McDowell. But what you're referring to is mere Christianity. I think it is. Yeah.

>> Steve Jordahl: It's CS Lewis.

>> Tim Wildmon: Yeah. Where he says.

>> Steve Jordahl: Lemma.

>> Tim Wildmon: He says, either Jesus is a liar, lunatic, or what? Lord or Lord. It can't be. It can't be.

>> Steve Jordahl: Choose one.

>> Tim Wildmon: Yeah. You have to choose one.

>> Wesley Wildmon: Yep. And? Well, in this case, with the, with, with what? The evidence we got here, back to the myth, being either a myth, it's either true or it's not. But it can't be a myth.

>> Tim Wildmon: Right. Any comment on that? What was, CS Lewis saying there?

>> Tim Wildmon: He was trying to combat the notion that a lot of people have, I mean, a lot of people have that Jesus is a good man and he is a good teacher and we're learning great stuff from him, but he's not really, the Son of God. Lewis calls that away with all this patronizing nonsense.

>> Tim Wildmon: Right.

>> Tim Wildmon: He is the Lord. Or if you want to call him a liar, if you want to dismiss him as a lunatic because he said

>> Tim Wildmon: he was the Son of God.

>> Tim Wildmon: He said he was the Son of God. A man who said that and was not really the Son of God, he's either a liar or he's a lunatic. Or he says, maybe he's the devil from hell, but do not. Do not water down Jesus to make him just another good teacher. Yeah. He didn't leave us with that alternative.

>> Tim Wildmon: That's a good point. It's either one or the other. Because anybody who say that the Son of God is a lunatic, if they're not.

>> Wesley Wildmon: That's right.

>> Tim Wildmon: If they're not, what he's saying.

>> Steve Jordahl: Or they're just lying.

>> Tim Wildmon: Or they're just lying.

>> Tim Wildmon: Right. Or they're just lying. But who. And also, you have to ask yourself, who would go to. Frank Turkey talks about this? Who would go to the. Who would, He talked about this in relationship to the disciples, I think, apostles. But who would die for a lie? You know what I'm saying? Yeah. Okay. At some point when you're being crucified, you're going to say, okay, I'm just.

>> Steve Jordahl: I made it up.

>> Tim Wildmon: I'm just kidding.

Tim Ferriss: Say Jesus backed up his claim of godhood with miracles

Or I'm. Whatever you want to say. I'm just, you know, but. And the same way with the, The ones who. The.

>> Wesley Wildmon: The martyrs.

>> Tim Wildmon: Martyrs who died, you know, they died. They could have. They could have said no. You know, I'm just. I don't mean it.

>> Wesley Wildmon: Yes.

>> Tim Wildmon: I'm just. Just faking it.

>> Steve Jordahl: Also say that Jesus, backed up his claim of godhood with his miracles. No one else has been able to do that.

>> Wesley Wildmon: That's right.

>> Tim Wildmon: yeah. He, God, Jesus Christ had the control over the supernatural. I mean, he was supernatural, so he could control the elements. Right. He could do.

>> Tim Wildmon: He came back from the dead.

>> Steve Jordahl: He created him.

>> Tim Wildmon: That's why I always. I get, I get. It's interesting to me when. When skeptics or people tried to. Especially your mockers and your scoffers of the Bible and Christianity, they want to say things like the. So the red. You really believe that the red part, the Red Sea parted and there's dry land and the Israelites crossed the Red Sea. You really believe that, Tim, don't you? You know, you hear that kind of condescending. And I want, And I say, yes, I do. And guess what? We are talking about God here, okay? So if you don't believe in God, that's fine. Okay? That's your choice. If you don't believe in God. Now, ultimately, it won't be fine for you if you don't believe in God. But for our argument's sake, if you want to say I don't believe in God, just take the supernatural realm out of it. But if you do believe in God, then he created everything. And yes, the Red Sea parted because he told it to.

>> Wesley Wildmon: That's right.

>> Tim Wildmon: Okay, So, I mean, that's, I tell you what, the Bible does warn against the mockers and the scoffers, right, Ray?

>> Tim Wildmon: Well, it does. And they're going to be with us to the end of days. This is why it's so important that we need to get our feet down in the. In the truth of God's word, planted firmly. There's a lot of confusion about Jesus out there. There's a lot of that. That's what C.S. lewis said. Patronizing nonsense. Watering down Jesus. Make him just a good man. Make him just a good teacher. That's not possible. It is not possible. He is who he said he is. He's the Lord from heaven. Or if you just, if you choose to reject him, write him off as a liar. Call him a lunatic, something else. But don't just say Jesus is a good teacher. He's not just a good teacher. To go back to Josh McDowell's, book, Wesley, he is a carpenter, but he's a teacher. He's more than a teacher. He's the son of God from heaven.

>> Wesley Wildmon: Amen. I really want to get to this one.

>> Tim Wildmon: Go.

Google plans to release millions of mosquitoes into California and Florida to stop diseases

>> Steve Jordahl: All right. Did you know that Google is planning on releasing millions of mosquitoes in. Into the wild in Florida? And in, California, they're working with the, Environmental Protection Agency to figure out just where and when. But these are mosquitoes that are infected with a particular virus that when they, When they mate with the female, these are male mosquitoes. When they mate with the female, the babies don't. The little mosquitoes, they don't survive. So it's basically a way to reduce the mosquito population. and mosquitoes, of course, they're the. The, They carry diseases like, West Nile virus, encephalitis, dengue fever, Zika yellow fever. And, they're hoping to, really reduce the transmission of those diseases by reducing the number of mosquitoes.

>> Wesley Wildmon: At this point, let's recognize, Paul, California is doing something of value.

>> Tim Wildmon: Okay. Bless their hearts.

>> Steve Jordahl: Something to know that I didn't know either. Is that only female mosquitoes bite. So by releasing millions, they're not increasing the all.

>> Tim Wildmon: right. Hold on just a minute.

>> Tim Wildmon: Yeah, here we go.

>> Tim Wildmon: Google.

>> Steve Jordahl: Yes, Google.

>> Tim Wildmon: So are we going to see a bunch of 18 wheelers with Google. Google. Mosquitoes on the side of the truck, traveling down, flying out from the back.

>> Steve Jordahl: I don't know how they. I don't, I don't know.

>> Tim Wildmon: Paint the headline here, Steve, because we're not, we're not, we're not making this up.

>> Steve Jordahl: Google is planning to release millions of mosquitoes into California and Florida to help stop diseases.

>> Tim Wildmon: Oh, California and Florida. Okay, good. I know they have mosquitoes in California.

>> Wesley Wildmon: Yeah.

>> Tim Wildmon: Do they definitely got them in Florida.

>> Steve Jordahl: Yeah.

>> Tim Wildmon: Oh, yeah, yeah.

>> Tim Wildmon: Florida. The biggest trees fly around like elm trees.

>> Steve Jordahl: Google has a public health policy. They have health. Public health projects, and this is one of them.

>> Tim Wildmon: Now, any word on the logistics here, Wesley? Can you explain how this is going to take place? thank you.

>> Wesley Wildmon: It's going to be just like what you. The headline reads, they're going to back in.

>> Tim Wildmon: They're going to open it up, open it up, open up the Google truck and here come the mosquitoes.

>> Wesley Wildmon: No, I don't know that. But see, I'm not going. I'm not. I will not go to bat for mosquitoes beyond this point. Yeah, but if you look into it, they seriously have a place in the ecosystem.

>> Tim Wildmon: Yeah. Yeah.

>> Wesley Wildmon: So you got to be easy with this.

>> Tim Wildmon: You just wanted to use the word ecosystem. That's to make you sound smart. And you did it.

>> Wesley Wildmon: My Tuesday is served. Okay, Tuesday's done.

>> Tim Wildmon: Well, ladies and gentlemen, we hope you have a good ecosystem today.

>> Wesley Wildmon: I wanted to say it one more time. Now you've said it. Now I can't say it.

>> Tim Wildmon: I know. Beware of Google mosquitoes. Although they're harmless, right?

>> Steve Jordahl: They are harmless. They can't bite to people.

>> Wesley Wildmon: Yeah, they can't bite the male ones.

>> Tim Wildmon: Okay.

>> Steve Jordahl: They're only do. They're only release.

>> Tim Wildmon: They're only doing mails.

>> Tim Wildmon: It's a good thing that we're out of time here, folks. See you tomorrow.