EP 1 | How Do We Know if God's Real?

We discuss the thing we would need most at a trail race but forgot, how we know if God is real, and so much more on this episode of the Christian Trail Bros.

Topics, Questions
Email us TexasOutlawRunning@gmail.com

Briston's Social Media
Instagram/Facebook/YouTube - @BristonRains

Billy's Social Media
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/william.kent.5249
His Podcast - https://texasoutlawrunning.buzzsprout.com/

Asher's Social Media
Instagram/Facebook - @AsherFreakinHamlin / Asher Hamlin

Texas Outlaw Running Company
Instagram/Facebook/Twitter - @TexasOutlawRunning
Website - www.TexasOutlawRunning.com

Ever pondered on the existence of God and the role of Jesus in faith? In this enlightening conversation, we explore everything from the structure of the universe to the concept of fine-tuning. We share our experiences and reasoning that led us to our beliefs, discussing the accuracy of the Bible and the transformative power of faith. We openly talk about our struggle with skeptics, our personal challenges in accepting Jesus as the only way to God, and how we try to tackle the misconceptions, criticisms, and past animosity towards Christianity.

Our faith has dramatically transfigured our lives and we eagerly want you to be part of this journey. Listen to a powerful testimony of miraculous healing after a group prayer and how this has embedded in us a deep conviction of the God we serve. We wrap up the episode by encouraging you to support our mission of spreading the good news. So, brace yourselves, lend us your ears, and embark on this life-altering journey with us. Remember, trail running and faith have a lot more in common than you think!

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Welcome y'all to the Christian trail bros podcast. This is episode number one, the first step in up. We're keeping that in the first ever episode of we're trail running meets a bunch of brothers in Christ and we talk about trail running and then we talk about God, christian things, things that are in depth like how do we know this stuff's real and how does this stuff apply to our lives? So welcome, welcome. I want to introduce first off Billy the podcast. Let me brag on Billy real quick. He recently ran the pumpkin holler 100 mile race and got the course record and he got first place and that race has been around for a little bit. Um, he's a fast guy. I think he has the ability to be one of the best. That's just my opinion. But, billy, go ahead and introduce yourself.

Speaker 2: 1:05

Man, it's hard, it's gonna be hard to follow that. Yeah names William Kent. I uh, some people call me Billy. Oh, it's just Billy, it's Billy. Um, I've just I said about a year ago, like a year and a few months ago, I started pursuing a relationship with Christ and A lot of things has changed since then and that's kind of. That's kind of what I want my identity to be a little bit more of, instead of that guy who Can run pretty good, but I'll take, I'll take the running thing.

Speaker 1: 1:47

It's good, that's all I get, all right. I'm gonna introduce Asher Hamlin, the man that is on two trail running podcast but hasn't touched a trail in a couple years. Introducing to you race director of Feel the burn trail runs, part-time runner, part-time gym lifter giant calf, giant muscles Asher Hamlin.

Speaker 3: 2:16

Whoo. All right, thanks, person, for the introduction. I feel welcome on the podcast. Yeah, I haven't. I Explained, this is a re-record and last time I explained the yeah, I hadn't touched a trail and freaking, I Don't know. It's been a while, but I Hope to one day be an avid trail runner, living a place that's got all the trails I could ever need. That's obviously in a beautiful area. Right now we're based out of Tampa, florida, so the truth is lacking.

Speaker 1: 2:52

Hey, what do you mean? We're hold on. I'm based out of.

Speaker 3: 2:57

Myself.

Speaker 1: 3:00

Billy's in Oklahoma, Asher is in Tampa Florida.

Speaker 3: 3:04

Yeah, yeah, true, asher is living in Tampa Florida and I mean, yeah, we're paradise in a sense, but there's also a sad lack of Trees well kind of, but trails specifically, and mountains.

Speaker 2: 3:22

I missed those especially, billy, you would know, being from Oklahoma man Kind of find just a thousand feet of elevation On one run is impossible.

Speaker 3: 3:35

Yeah, good luck, it's gonna. It's gonna be one of those runs. You probably run into it, but like you upload it to Strava or whatever and Like, if you're running along a boardwalk in a city, it'll pick up the buildings you know I'm talking about, yeah, and it'll count those as hills or whatever. And so you did 10 miles running on really flat surface, but it says, oh, you picked up 5000 feet of elevation and it's just a total. But yeah, man, I'm really excited to be here. I'm excited to talk not only about trail running and running in general, but Christ, god, our walk, the Bible, it's gonna be good stuff.

Speaker 1: 4:15

Yeah, before y'all think I'm picking on Asher, let me tell you Asher and I were roommates in college. He was my best man at my wedding and this guy is a solid capital in a in man. Appreciate it. But I have permission to pick on him. So you did. You do too, billy. Kind of you don't know each other that well. It's funny. I know asher really well, I know Billy pretty well and Asher and Billy they kind of know each other.

Speaker 2: 4:46

So it's an interesting I know, is that that one day I think I mentioned. I've never seen like stretches that high in my entire life. Yeah, all I remember was your foot going super high in the air doing leg swings.

Speaker 3: 5:02

We were at the. We were at the back land and Billy looks over into the distance before the, I think before the start. Right, yeah, who is that guy's legs? Yeah, I was over there on the treeline doing leg swings or something, because I was about to take the runners out on the first lap and, like he puts it, highest leg swings he's ever seen.

Speaker 1: 5:21

So Pretty accurate part of the biggest calf she's ever seen too. So, yeah, but what that being said? That being said, I got a question for y'all Last time. Oh, let me preface this. We recorded the entire podcast Last week and one of the dang files got corrupted, so we weren't able to recover the podcast. So we're having to re-record the whole first episode of the Christian Troubos podcast, and that's never happened to me ever. I've been doing this stuff for you like three years. Never had that ever happened, but it happened last time. So this is a little bit of a re-record. What in the world are you drinking, billy? What was that?

Speaker 2: 6:04

It's been a crazy day. We're working a lot. That's my dinner. This is a giant, gigantic blender full of spinach and blueberries and protein powder.

Speaker 1: 6:19

Jeez, how many calories is in that thing, dude.

Speaker 2: 6:23

Not many.

Speaker 1: 6:25

It looks like a lot. That's like well. That looks like a solid gallon of spinach and blueberries.

Speaker 2: 6:32

Low calories, though I mean good, good red for bed.

Speaker 1: 6:35

Hmm, here's me. Okay, anyways I. So I wanted to ask you guys. Last time we kind of touched about Aid station food back and I want to change it up a little bit. I want to change it up this time. I want to ask you guys what is something that what? What is something that you show up to a race and it's something that you really really need and you really rely on, but you forget what is that one thing that you just need? But you show up to a trail race and, let's say, you forgot it. Throw out an item of one of the most or whatever your important things are.

Speaker 3: 7:25

I say for me. I say for me definitely spare batteries for my headlamp. So like I would. I've never done a race in the night, so this is. I'll probably just like pulling this out of my butt, but I'm going to keep on it. I feel like I would be the type of person to you know, use all the light, use all the battery power that are in my batteries in my headlamp, show up to the race and I'll have like 15 minutes of power and then it's dead and I'm like, oh, I got to get some batteries and it's the whole thing. So I thought that'd be me. That is pretty important. No, what about you, billy?

Speaker 2: 8:08

Man, this is, this is a daily, especially now that it's winter. Um, that nut butter, that petroleum jelly for the cheap poor guys, um, I got to just cake it on every day. And if I, if I miss a race, if I don't have it for race today and so it was, and that's usually the thing I always forget or I bring it and I don't put any on my nipples and then I have like no nipples at the end of the race. They're just like pepperoni.

Speaker 1: 8:48

I've never heard of that. I've never heard of people putting uh. I've heard of bandating, like putting band-aids on the nipples, but I haven't heard of putting that stuff on there.

Speaker 2: 8:58

But oh yeah, petroleum jelly on your whole body, just go around.

Speaker 1: 9:03

You'll just glide. Well, I have to say my thing. Y'all might think this is stupid, but my thing is a hat, bro. I'm serious bro. If you know me, 99, literally 99% of the time I'm wearing a hat and the honest answer is I'm just too lazy to fix my hair. But if I show up to a race and I forget my hat first off my hair, it's not that long, but it's going to be all over my forehead, maybe a little bit in my eyes. If it's super long and it's going to be it's going to drive me nuts. And if it's one of those races to where it's like six, 12, 24 hours long, I'm good. It's going to drive me insane. I'm literally going to be miserable. Like I have to have a hat if I'm going to be running. I'm not. I'm not joking man, I can't. I don't even remember a time of me running without, like, a headband or a hat or something. So that's my need.

Speaker 3: 10:03

So, having run cross country with you in college, I can recall at least one or two races where you told me afterwards you were like dude, my hair just kept getting in my eyes, like my sweat just kept getting in my eyes and it was cause you like, like you're saying, you would always wear a hat, rerun or a headband or whatever, and because you couldn't wear that in a race. You're always just annoyed at the fact that there was always something in your face.

Speaker 1: 10:31

Yes, bro, freakin. Yeah, it was just ridiculous, bro. It drive me nuts, my hair is just around on my head.

Speaker 2: 10:39

I just want a hair. Let's see your head.

Speaker 1: 10:42

Can I see your head? I think I've let me see your head. Oh my, that looks like a dang peeled onion right there.

Speaker 2: 10:52

Oh, stop it.

Speaker 3: 10:54

It's a bone.

Speaker 1: 10:56

That looks like a peeled potato right there, man, it's shiny, hey, it's shiny, though it's shiny so thanks man.

Speaker 2: 11:04

I put petroleum jelly on it, Do you? No, no, I don't. That's funny.

Speaker 1: 11:12

That's funny, anyways, anyways. So what I want to talk about today, guys, we talked about it last time, but the good thing is, now that we're talking about it again, we'll be able to say things that we didn't think of last time and we'll be able to kind of get to more, more of the point this time. So, with that being said, I want to talk about how do we know if God is even real, and should we have a knowing of if God's real, or is it more of a just a believing without being able to see, kind of thing? You know, those are two very good questions, but I want to first off start off by sharing my story again, first time for everybody listening my story. But whenever I was a kid, 13 years old, I basically told myself I don't think God's really real, and from that point forward, I was kind of open to anything Like I was. I didn't really believe in God, but I called myself a Christian and so, going on, I was open to alien theories, you know all this stuff, and when I was 18 years old, I looked more into it and I found a couple of things that ended up leading me to believe that God was real, and I want to share those with, with everybody listening and you guys too. One of the first things I looked into is if God was real, and I found very quickly that, basically in the, in a nutshell, that life itself, creation think of like a tree, a baby, a dog, those things the fact that they even exist points to God. And here's why and I'm going to give this metaphor, but let's say you were digging in the dirt and you dug up a phone with a touchscreen right and it turned on and everything, and you would know this phone, somebody created the phone right.

Speaker 1: 13:30

All in the same way, when it comes to natural creation, the Big Bang Theory, life itself did not just create itself, especially intelligent life. It didn't just create itself out of non-life, because, well, it's impossible. If you look at the Big Bang itself, they can only go to a certain point within the chain of what they think happened, and then they hit a stopping point and there's a big gap between a bunch of molecules come together and the actual life being formed. And so, with that being said, whenever you look at creation, look at a human, a tree, something that's much more sophisticated and more technical than an iPhone. It's almost prideful to say that it created itself and nothing intelligent could have created it. It's evidence that an intelligent something created it, because it's something like think about this way. Humans ourselves can't recreate anything even close to the natural things that have been made. Think about a human, just the different things that happen in our body with the cells and the different organisms, and how our body functions. The fact that all that even goes on shows that there had to be some type of desire to put it together, because if it were to come together by itself, it wouldn't be as an order as it is.

Speaker 1: 15:07

Anyways, with this being said, this philosophy ended up leading me to the belief of God. I'm going to share this, because I shared it last time, but with the book I read, is atheism dead? I encourage you, if you don't believe in God, to read it, because it's good to challenge your other viewpoint. Like I wouldn't mind reading a book about is God dead, because I'm open to whatever's out there, but nothing can deny me from the very truth, that of the evidence that's already been provided. So, anyways, with that being said, in the book is atheism dead?

Speaker 1: 15:45

The author basically says if the universe, if the mass of the universe had a dime added to it or a dime taken away from it, it would not exist. He talks about this fine tune theory and how? Basically, what am I trying to say? Basically, how unbreak. Think of a teacup. This is going to help me get to the point. Think of a teacup. It's very fragile, right, and if you drop it, if you hit a wall with it, if you chip it, it's going to break.

Speaker 1: 16:18

The universe is like that, the way where the earth is. If the earth was just, I think it's like a few inches more to the right or a few inches more to the left of where the sun is. We want to exist. If the universe was positioned in a slightly different angle and they're different place, it wouldn't exist. And it goes so much to a deeper level of the actual human physiology and like cells and stuff, like if this certain cell didn't function this way, nothing would exist as far as life goes.

Speaker 1: 16:51

And so the fine tuning, how intricately perfect everything is placed, also shows that there is some sort of designer, some type of God that created all this. Well, I believe that God is real and we can go into Jesus and stuff later like the evidence of Jesus, but I really want to focus on God himself, the actual intelligent being, the creator of the universe. But with that being said, billy, well let me say Asher, because I know Asher has a dinner. To get to Asher, I want to ask you I kind of shared my story of how I believe God is real how do you believe that God is real, asher?

Speaker 3: 17:34

Yeah. So on our last podcast well, the one that we're having to rerecord I said that it was pretty much along the same lines as you, and I gave an example that I think would have probably gone over some people's heads. So I'm going to bring it down to something I literally heard in church on Sunday, and this is actually something I grew up with. It was very it produced a lot of people's faith for, like the church that I went to, and that is the prophecies that came true just throughout, since Jesus and, if you all don't know, jesus was a product of about 300 prophecies, and those prophecies had been set since Genesis all the way up to what's the book Malachi.

Speaker 3: 18:27

Malachi is the last book in the Old Testament, so from Genesis to Malachi, there were 300 prophecies that Jesus fulfilled throughout his ministry and his life, and so not only is that an insane anomaly that anyone would have ever done all the things in the right way, so I think that to have even done 10, it was like a one in a trillion chance that one person would have fulfilled all 10 prophecies. To do like one in 100. It was a number way bigger than that. And then to do all 300, it's literally. You might as well just call it an impossibility.

Speaker 1: 19:08

So, as sure Can. I want to add this to you real quick. I don't mean to interrupt, but I heard the same thing and I want to give this perspective real quick and I'll give it back to you. But the perspective with that I don't know if you're at, the pastor said this or not, but he said it's basically people say is equivalent to filling up the entire state of Texas with three feet deep of pennies and then blindfolding somebody and then have them pick one penny up and it be the one penny that they needed to pick up. Basically he said, yeah, they, they. The probabilities show that's the likelihood of Jesus fulfilling all 300, something prophecies.

Speaker 3: 19:53

Yeah, so, like Brison just proved, it's the most insignificant chance that anyone would have ever done it. And the fact that we have the recorded history throughout the New Testament of Jesus Christ's walk, his ministry and then what the apostles and the disciples did afterwards is just insane. And that that be our holy book. It's like how can you deny God? But and then, even on top of that, there have been prophecies about Israel and the regathering of the Jews, and specifically the regathering of the Jews in Israel, and that they would face trials all the way up until this point, like whether it was genocide by the Nazis or several other cultures throughout the several thousand years that they've been separated from their homeland. Just that fact that now they're regathered in the holy city that God said that they would be regathered in before the return of Christ is like a whole another thing that we could probably get into at some point. But just those things are tenants or like pillars to my faith, prophecies, really important.

Speaker 3: 21:20

I try not to get too wrapped up into it because that can also become a thing that it's like oh well, is this the? Is this what's going on? Like is the fulfillment happening? It's happening, right, yeah, it's like is this the fulfillment of the prophecy now, or is it coming in the next 10 years? It's like you can get really wrapped up in that and we should. We should keep a watchful eye, like that's what Jesus calls us to do. Is like we, he's going to come like a Thief in the night. So we should always be on watch, we should always be on guard, we should always, you know, have a right, a correct heart, heart posture and that sort of thing. So, yeah, that's one of my pillars for belief.

Speaker 3: 22:02

And then the other I would say, besides that stuff that I explained last time, is creation. Like you can't, I mean you've got to. You've got to you've got to Acknowledge that there is a creator based on creation alone. And I think the Christian God Yahweh is the answer to that. And then I'd say my third is probably what Billy's about to go into, and that's just experiences and like right now specifically, I would not be here at all if I relied on my own like intuition or my own abilities or myself in any capacity, like there's just no chance and I don't know. I know both of you can see the blessings that you know God's given you in your lives and that luckily serves to build our faith most of the time. So yeah, that's me.

Speaker 1: 23:09

Word. It's good bro. That's good, billy. I want to know you. I want to share this real quick. So we recorded the podcast with Billy a couple of weeks ago where he shared his testimony of how he went from a crook to living for God. Being born again completely changed and we talk about that on the Texas Outlaw Running Talk Show. One of the more recent episodes is called. It's titled the Pumpkin Holler 100 winner or champion. William Kent is the name of the podcast title. So if you all want to hear his testimony, go listen to that.

Speaker 3: 23:51

But and I want to I want to say something real quick. I'm after our last recording. I went and listened to that podcast because I hadn't yet and for all of you that just just heard Bristan, you know, say the name and all that go ahead, put it on the literally the podcast you're going to listen to after this one, because it's so good and I learned a lot about Billy in that. Oh no, it was, it was worth, it was worth the listen. I'll put it that.

Speaker 1: 24:20

Hey, and I'll even make it easy on y'all, I'll put it in the description of the show notes. So literally you just click out of the podcast, click the description and there'll be a link that I'll take you right to it.

Speaker 2: 24:32

But Billy, oh no, go ahead, I'm even more nervous. Oh man, I was just thinking about something. I was in the shower and I was like I got it and I was thinking and I was like almost every single one I know celebrates Christmas, but only half the people I know believe in God. It's just interesting to me you're celebrating Jesus' birth and you don't know why. That's not a jab, maybe it is a little bit. I'm sorry. Yeah, everyone is so very different. Our stories are so different.

Speaker 2: 25:32

Mine is like mine was kind of a trial and error type deal. It was like I hate to say this, but finding God or God finding me, however you want to look at it was like a last resort type deal, just damn near dead, homeless and drug addicted and all the things. I was like I've tried everything, I tried every single thing and I was like man I grew up around, I grew up in the church a little bit. My family, my sister and my mother they believe in God. Man, finally, I caved.

Speaker 2: 26:22

I think I mentioned this last time if you don't talk to someone, they're not going to answer you. So your prayer life, how are your prayers supposed to get answered if you're not praying? It just doesn't you have to have. And this is another thing that I went into and I can't even really remember where it was. I think it was in one of these. I think it was Hebrews, the book of Hebrews, chapter 11. It says faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen. It gives us assurance about things we cannot see, and I'm just thinking about my mind's drawing a blank a little bit.

Speaker 1: 27:03

So good.

Speaker 2: 27:09

Things that I would ask for, things that I would pray for. It was really just me crying out for help. I was just on my knees, crying, begging the Creator, whoever created me and whoever created this earth, please take this pain away from me, take these addictions away from me, take this crazy character defects and all these horrible things in my mind, and just take it away. And it worked. It's not like a magic trick or like it worked. It took some time. It's not about my time, it's God's timing, and I think that I needed to go through the things that I went through so I could share my story in the future. But I had what did I?

Speaker 2: 28:02

write Hold on, yeah, I got a question for you. Yeah.

Speaker 1: 28:14

What I want moment for you, did it? What, yeah, I want moment for you. Did it click like, oh, like God is real and I need to. I need to get my stuff together.

Speaker 2: 28:37

Um, it didn't happen till way later. So good things started happening to me. You know, I was released from prison and my life started to get better and just things were good. But I don't, I really don't think the change happened till November 20th last year and I find I had been pushing it off and pushing it off and like I never wanted to do it and I was nervous. But I got baptized and I remember just I came, I, and it sounds, it sounds silly to someone who doesn't believe in somebody who goes to church and like looks at church people like they're idiots.

Speaker 2: 29:23

But like I came out of the water and I started crying and like I hugged my brother that took me about the water and I was like it truly is, like sometimes I have hard time believing that that that stuff is, is gone, it's old, that's old. You I'm taking it away. God's God's taking giving you new life. And I I believe it, I felt it, I know it. So like I used to do things that were wrong, right, and then I you say, and it felt good, like I would do bad things, and I was like, yeah, I'm cool guy, you know what I mean. And now I feel terrible. Now I feel sick to my stomach. I feel like I need to get on my knees and repent, and that's not like. That's the Holy Spirit, that's God working in your life. That's God trying to show you that there's a better way.

Speaker 2: 30:27

There's something different out there and I don't need the proof. I don't need it and I'm a little bit different than y'all. I don't really I haven't read the Old Testament, so I don't know hold on about the All the new prophecies and all the things like that. I've only read the New Testament all the way through, so it's I'm just kind of after After Christ type deal, but I Don't, I'm gonna keep reading this word. Every morning I wake up, I hobble over the bathroom and pull this Bible out and read as much as I can before I gotta go to work, because I want to know everything in this book and I don't. I'm not having trouble believing in it, like because I just know what God's done in my life. I'm, I'm living proof, I'm not dead and I'm not on drugs and I'm not doing terrible, horrible things and I'm not robbing people like Is that not proof?

Speaker 1: 31:21

So basically what you're saying, billy, is that that change that happened to you, that inward change, is something that only a God can do, that you can't do on your own will. Only something like a God could do, is that? But is that basically what you're saying?

Speaker 2: 31:38

That's it. I've been a counselor's, I've been a Therapist, I've been a every place you got took the medication, I took the pills. I don't have everything you possibly do. That's the only things that works. You have to acknowledge that there's. There's something greater than you. You were not the ruler of your own life.

Speaker 3: 32:02

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 32:04

Yeah, that kind of. I Know we keep saying this, we talked about it last time but we're gonna talk about it again because I think we can go deeper on this. But the testimonies of people Point to God. Only only a God could Change someone's life around like that. I think. Only, dude, only a God could, could change, like a a murders mindset into a heart of of Loving people and wanting them to know Christ, like the writer think about this, the writer of the New Testament of our Bible that we read.

Speaker 1: 32:47

He was a murderer, the guy Paul Paul, the guy that wrote most of the New Testament. He murdered Christians. He murdered Christians in cold blood and he writes in his letters that are accurate letters. Okay, archaeologically, these the documents are the most accurate historical document documents in the world. You could fact check that.

Speaker 1: 33:15

He wrote in his letters several times to several different churches, over a course of several different letters, I, the apostle Paul. And he goes on to say shares story of how he was going down a road and and how this bright light Shined all of a sudden and the light said why are you persecuting me? As he was going to kill Christians. The light said why are you persecuting me and he fell off his horse and he was blinded and the guy that said why are you persecuting me? Said Basically, like go to this town and sit there and pray until I send somebody. So he went to this town and he went to this room and he sat there and he prayed to God and as he was doing that, god had told somebody else through the Holy Spirit that Paul was there in the room and the guy that God told that to was like God, that's the guy that's killing Christians. I don't want to go to him. He felt like God was telling him to go to this place where Paul was the guy that was killing Christians. So this guy goes on faith to this room with Paul, the guy that's been murdering Christians and the guy Lays hands on on him and it says that it was like scales that fell off of Paul's eyeballs and Then Paul went on to live his life for the sake of Christ and to die for Christ and he is the Main person that grew the church in the very first beginning days and he actually spoke with the people that were with Jesus without being said. Without being said.

Speaker 1: 34:57

Those testimonies also show that God's real and man. We're really going into it as far as Jesus and stuff, but let's go into this. So, okay, we know God's real. Okay, how do we know the Bible was God's word? How do we know Jesus is God? How do we know that Jesus is the only way you know? Those questions are begged, and I want to just note real quick on the Bible Okay, we have more evidence that Jesus existed. Then what's one of the philosophers back in the Greek times? I don't even know any old Aristotle.

Speaker 1: 35:41

Aristotle. Okay, we have more evidence. Jesus exists as a real person more than Aristotle. They found secular documents talking about a man named Jesus who was leading this Christian movement. Anyways, the documents themselves are the most accurate ancient documents in the world. They're the oldest ancient documents the world with the most historical accuracy, because they have multiple copies of them and there's no differences between them and they go back to the first one of the one of the first writings ever discovered From the earliest times of mankind. It's actually a crazy story of how they were found. They were like in this like salt cave. That was a perfect conditions, the preserved paper and and some guy, some kid, lost his sheep and he went in there and he found these old scrolls and this was like I think I don't know when this was, but archeology, archeologists found the scrolls and these things dated back to like thousands of years ago and they line up Exactly with the word of God we have today. So the doc, so the documents that are thousands of years old, that are in a different language, they say the same things that our Bibles now say, a Lot of things that happen in the Old Testament, even the New Testament.

Speaker 1: 36:58

There's archaeological evidence. I'll give you an example. There's a story of Moses splitting the Red Sea and Him leading the Israelites from the Red Sea, or from Egypt, to the Promised Land. And the Bible says that the ocean fell in on the Egyptians, chasing them, and that the Egyptians were killed. Well, you can look this up. They found chariot wills in the middle and at the bottom of the Red Sea. That's just one of the examples.

Speaker 1: 37:29

The people the Bible talks about like authority figures, kings, those are people who actually existed outside of the Bible. They found evidence of these people through secular findings. So the Bible itself is a historical document. It's still. It's the history of what we know. It's the history of life and it's crazy to think about and there's actual evidence for it. So let's go to this and I'm gonna ask you guys about this how do we know that Jesus Christ is the only way? How do we know that he is the Messiah? How do we know, more importantly, how do we know that he actually rose from the dead and it's not some lie? How do we know this? These? It's not a made-up story. This whole Jesus thing? You all know.

Speaker 3: 38:20

I Know that there's more proof for the fact that he rose from the dead and there's more eyewitness accounts and more writings and Historical documents on that account than anything else from that period like that. That one movie I'm sure you know what it's called. I don't know it's called, but it basically goes through some guy's life where Testimony, where he's like this hardcore atheist and he's like out to pretty much disprove the fact that Jesus rose from the dead, and so he goes through this whole. Um, it's called the fact, it's called the case.

Speaker 3: 39:05

It's called the case for Christ Right the case for Christ, and what's the guy's name? Do you know?

Speaker 1: 39:11

No, he was an investigator for a high-end security in the United States, and yet he decided to do an investigation on the resurrection of Jesus, and he could not prove it wrong, so he became a Christian right and I think at the end of everything it was labeled Like Pretty much, there's not enough evidence to prove that it didn't happen.

Speaker 3: 39:38

Yeah, so it's the the assumption that, okay, there's not enough doubt for it to be like Jesus didn't rise from the dead so yeah.

Speaker 1: 39:50

I mean, I Think ever. Everything we're saying, the evidence, the testimonies, they all point to God existing, in God being real, and I think what we've talked about so far is enough for anyone who's listening, that's open-minded to realize oh okay, I'm actually hearing what these guys are saying. God is real, the Bible is actually accurate. Okay, let's just say the person, like people that are listening there in that mindset, if they haven't already been right, how do we know that Jesus is the only way? Man? There's all these gods in other countries and throughout history, right? How do we know that Jesus is the only way?

Speaker 3: 40:35

You got anything oh.

Speaker 2: 40:37

Man, let me, let me, let me see what I got. Not much, cuz I'm gonna tell you I Mean this is. I'm gonna go right back to this scripture that I was reading. I'm gonna go straight back to it. Where is that so? Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen. It gives us assurance about things we cannot see. Having faith that God exists is that's. That's part of the part of the deal I don't need, I don't need to. I haven't dug into like all the like theology and like all the all the Scrolls and things like that, because and maybe I need to, because if I want to share and if I want to share you know my love of Christ and share what God did for me, I might need to know some of those things. But Sorry, everybody, I don't, I'm not gonna say something, speak on something that I, that I'm not, you know sure of all the the history behind it. But yeah, I got nothing.

Speaker 1: 41:55

Here. I'll share this with you, man, because I've gone down the Shraba home in this guy that rose from the dead, that performed all these miracles, that says he's God. If someone rose from the dead and they healed people and stuff and they said they were God, would you believe them?

Speaker 2: 42:12

No.

Speaker 1: 42:15

Billy, let me, let me, let me say that again if someone somebody, if someone said they did, or if I watch them do it if someone okay. If someone Okay no.

Speaker 2: 42:28

I'd say you're wrong.

Speaker 1: 42:30

Okay, let's say somebody rose from the dead and they healed people and they rose people, other people, from the dead and they performed miracles and they said they were God. Think, think Jesus this time. Okay, just think like that, like I want you to think, like go back. Would you believe they were God if? If this guy came and he rose from the dead and he healed people, would you believe he was God? If he said he was I.

Speaker 2: 42:59

Would like to say I would, but I mean you could sit here and read the scriptures about the disciples that walked with Jesus and he performed milk miracles and they still didn't believe he was God. So it's like I would. I would like to say I would, but I'll go back to the Experiences that I had with my own self. Is what made me believe it wasn't? I didn't see me Like. I saw my own miracles being performed on in my own body, so I Would like to say yes.

Speaker 3: 43:29

Well, yeah, and I think, Bruce and you're getting at this but what cemented it for the disciples that Jesus was to? He said he was and that he was like, the only way, the truth, the light life, the only way to have eternal life is that he rose from the dead. And Once he had done that, the disciples were like oh, he wasn't lying.

Speaker 2: 43:56

They still didn't believe, they still, that's true. That's like they were, like let me see where you, where you die. Let me put my, your, our fingers and the hands are then the holes where those nails went into your hands and it's like You're gonna fall from. You know you're gonna fall, you're gonna, you're gonna, you're gonna. There's gonna be some unbelief in your life and and Christians don't do everything right. I do stupid crap all the time and and sometimes I struggle, you know, with my faith, but I Always come back to the same thing. I always fall down on my knees and thank God for my life, but Some people are not gonna believe, even if they see it. As for faith comes in, you have faith.

Speaker 1: 44:47

That's good, man, that's good. Yeah, man, they, they literally were like we saw Jesus rose from the dead and they didn't. There was a guy or maybe a few of them that didn't believe. And then Jesus it says Jesus appeared to them and that they touched him because they were like feeling them where his scars were, and they could actually feel his skin and they ate with him and they talked to him. And this was after he died and when he came back to life.

Speaker 1: 45:18

And it's crazy, man, like imagine Billy, just imagine if, like, asher died okay, he was dead, oh, and Like three days later, his, his girlfriend, came in, was like guys, he's, he came back to life, he's not in his coffin. And me, and you mean you were like nah, like you're crazy, right, and then we're sitting there eating some food and all of a sudden Asher appears and he's there, you could, you're touching his arm and like you can see his scars and stuff, and he's talking to you about the things of the kingdom of God. And you're like man, like that's crazy to think about, man, and that really happened.

Speaker 2: 46:02

Just just imagine having to go out and tell other people about it. Hey, because that's exactly what we're trying to do right now. Yes we know what happened, we felt what happened, we saw what happened, we looked up the stuff that happened and we're trying to share it with other people that don't believe and they just start and they're just not getting it. Yeah, that's a good point. Imagine the disciples saying well, we actually ate with them. We touched Jesus after he died. And everyone's like you guys are idiots, we don't believe you.

Speaker 1: 46:35

Hmm, it is radical to say that somebody came back to life, that.

Speaker 3: 46:44

Is pretty good. It's especially radical that, hey, somebody came back to life 2000 years ago and he changed my life today, or this year or whatever, and I have eternal life through him people at what. But the thing is that's the best, that's the best opportunity you're gonna get in this life.

Speaker 1: 47:09

So yeah, well, I want to go back to the original question of like. How do we know Jesus is basically like the one true being, the one true God, him and Yahweh, and how they're intertwined. It comes down to this it is recorded in history that Jesus said I Am the way, the truth and the life and the only way to the father. I'm gonna become to come out of the of the written word here for a second and just say the father is in heaven. Okay, so the only way to the father in heaven All right, going back into the scripture the only way to the father is Through me. The only way to the father in heaven is through Jesus Christ.

Speaker 1: 48:04

Jesus said that and people will look at Christians and they will get upset Because they think that their God's only way and the only truth and that their book is the only thing, that that has ultimate authority. Well, it's because it is and it's because Jesus is the only way, and people don't like to hear that it hurts Because you're, they're like, you're saying, you're basically saying so-and-so. Who died isn't in heaven, and we're pro and and we can't judge if they're in heaven or not. But did they know Christ? And if they didn't, well, you know it's.

Speaker 1: 48:54

The ultimate authority, and that's hard for people to baffle with, especially open-minded people like myself. Like I was such an open-minded person and Whenever I hear, or whatever I used to hear, like yeah, jesus, he's the only way, like God, there's only one and there's only one way, I was kind of just like In that perspective of that's not fair, that's not possible, but Evidence shows otherwise. The faith that we have in the unseen, like the faith that we have, the belief that we have an unseen, surpasses our human understanding.

Speaker 2: 49:41

I think it's interesting. If you don't believe in Jesus Christ, if you don't believe in God. I know this is for me. This is how I used to be. When I would hear people talk about God or Jesus or anything like that, or talk about church, I would just immediately hate them. I had this just disgust for them, and I didn't know what that was. Now I know that it was like the devil controlling me. It was like a demon inside me. I'm talking about my sister and my mother. They would speak about God and I would cuss them out and just think they're just terrible people.

Speaker 2: 50:29

Now that I'm on the other side of it, it's heartbreaking, because now I try to share the word a little bit. I don't know a whole lot. Asher and Briston have been studying the word a little bit longer than me. I feel like low man on the totem pole. When I try to share a little bit, I feel that hate and that disgust. I can see people looking at me like they're not going to get it. What's the thing is? And you can only pray for those people. I can't convince you to believe in God. I can't convince you to believe in Jesus, but Jesus can. Jesus would come in your heart and change you, like he did me.

Speaker 1: 51:16

You know what's wild, bro. I could be wrong, but Christianity is the only religion that people like throw shade at. I've seen it like people post typing in stuff on chat, gpt or Twitter. If it's anything like hashtag destroy Islam or destroy Buddhism, it's censored. No, yeah, yeah, it's censored. But if it's hashtag destroy Christianity, it's not censored. The platforms don't censor it. It's like Christianity. People definitely, definitely, are super against it. I think it's just because it claims ultimate authority and people don't want to believe that. They don't want to believe that that is ultimate authority. They see it as a weapon against all other people that don't believe in that. You know what I mean.

Speaker 2: 52:19

If you're a Christian, you're going to continue to sin. No one's exempt from sin. When these nonbelievers Christians walking around and they do something not Christian like, they immediately like oh look, their faith is. You know, their faith is punk. I mean, obviously he's not even believing in the word. But you're all going to sin, you're all going to fall short. You know what I mean? And I think people get a bad rap because bad experiences with the church and just seeing some people. They don't even believe it. They don't even believe but they claim it and so they're just kind of giving us a bad rap.

Speaker 1: 53:04

But yeah, yeah, I want to share this again. I shared it last time. I want to share it before we hop off and then we'll wrap it up. But I want to share this testimony because I think it's very powerful.

Speaker 1: 53:21

It's about this time when there was a sky and the sky had a cyst in his head. Basically it was pretty much like a tumor in his head. He had headaches and stuff. Went to the doctor. They did an MRI scan whatever it's called checked his head. They found this thing called a cyst. They did some brain surgery, got it out. He's good to go.

Speaker 1: 53:47

Well, it happened again. He had these headaches he's really bad headaches to where he literally couldn't get up in the morning. They went to the doctor, cracked his head open. Well, they did an MRI scan, found it was a cyst. Again, did surgery, sewed him up.

Speaker 1: 54:01

A couple months later, same thing happens. He has his headaches so bad he can't get out of bed in the morning. And they're about to go to the doctor the next day for this MRI scan. And they get together and they say hey guys, I want to get together and pray that God not again, not people, but God would heal him.

Speaker 1: 54:20

So we gather in this room around this, around this guy that has this thing in his head, and we start praying that Jesus, in the name of Jesus. We just start praying that Jesus would heal him and after about like 30 minutes straight of praying, he starts crying and he says like I'm healed, I'm healed. And the next day we get a text at 10am in the morning. I remember I was driving back when we got the text and the text said we got the MRI scan and there's nothing. There's nothing in the set, no cyst, nothing. And I just remember praising God in that moment, man, because God healed that guy and that for me, man, that boosted my faith, my belief in God even more than it was before, because of that miracle that happened.

Speaker 3: 55:10

Yeah, but if for anyone that's listening right now and just heard Bristons testimony and is skeptical, I was around at that point and was actually Bristons roommate and I remember this all going down and I was like a total third party to the situation. It wasn't even at the house. I knew that our mutual friend had been having these issues and it was obviously awful. And then Bristons comes and tells me he's been healed after. I know he's gone and prayed for the guy the night prior and this was something that was ongoing and same thing. My mind was blown but I was like praise God that he chose to heal this friend of ours.

Speaker 1: 56:06

Yeah, that's pretty well, but, guys, we are over a time. We're over a time on this. But, with that being said, I wanted to throw this in real quick. All of us are, we have a race, a race, we're race structures through Texas all running, and if you guys want to support our mission of sharing the good news and support this podcast and what we're doing here, just come sign up for a race that helps us out. Come sign up for a race and that's what you can do if you do want to support us and what we're doing in our ministry here of trial running and sharing what we know to be true and the good news. But, with that being said, do y'all have anything else that y'all wanted to say before we hop off? I?

Speaker 3: 56:58

want to say one more thing. We mentioned this last time. This is such a small niche community. Oh man, Not only are we trail runners, but we're also Christians Christian trail runners.

Speaker 1: 57:11

Like it's small.

Speaker 3: 57:12

Yeah, talk about a small community. So if you are listening and you did enjoy, please share it with a trail runner friend, or even some of even one of your church buddies. It might not run trails, but like runs or is active in any way, I think they probably get some benefit out of it.

Speaker 1: 57:28

So I think the best thing like go ahead Billy.

Speaker 2: 57:34

Oh man, I was just thinking about the last one that we did, because we're re recording this, but we were talking about going on trails, or like going out running and like being stripped of everything and like seeing all the beauty around you and seeing just like the trails and the dirt, and the air and the trees, and you're just like, oh, we've been out there for like hours. You're just like, oh, your heart's beating and you're like, come on now, come on now. There's only one creator. Yeah, all I got.

Speaker 1: 58:06

Yeah, that's good, man, that's good. Yeah, well, we have a lot more stuff we want to talk about with this podcast and I think the best thing any of you can do listening, if you really want to support, just leave a rating that helps get this into the algorithm, that helps get this to more people that may need to hear it. So, seriously, guys, just rate it like five star rating. If you want to rate less, please don't, please don't. But topics.

Speaker 1: 58:37

Oh, yeah, yeah, good thing. And last thing, last reminder here. So you know, sign up for a race if you want to support, leave a rating. Last thing email us Texas outlaw running at gmailcom It'll also be in the description, the show notes. Email us any topics you want us to talk about. If you have any questions about God, about Christianity, about Jesus, they're all the same thing, but if you have any questions about that stuff, any trial running questions, email us Texas outlaw running at gmailcom and we will talk about it on the next episode. So, with that being said, thank you for listening to the first ever Christian trailbrows podcast. We'll see y'all next Wednesday for our next episode. See you then.