Pastor Ross: Hello friends, how about an amazing fact? On thanksgiving day in 1936, two Minnesota boys named Harold and Charlie Peterson decided to go hunting with a man who worked on the family farm. The two brothers and their companion were good hunters, but accidents can happen to the best of marksmen and that day a bullet from the hired man's gun accidentally struck young Harold in the face. When the wounded youngster reached the hospital, it was found that the bullet had lodged at the base of his skull so near the spinal cord that the doctors did not dare operate to remove it. The 15 year old boy was told that he would have to take his chances and live with the bullet lodged at the base of his skull for the rest of his life.
Fortunately it gave him no real trouble and in time he almost forgot about it. Then in 1960, Harold now 39 years old and running the same family farm felt that he might be coming down with a sore throat, a few days later he had a violent coughing spasm, he coughed and coughed and finally he coughed up a bullet, the same soft nose rifle bullet that had lodged in his neck 24 years before. Friends did you know that the Bible speaks of things often forgotten coming back? Well stay tuned for more as amazing facts brings you this edition of bible answers live.
[PROGRAM INTRODUCTION]
Pastor Ross: Hello friends welcome to bible answers live, this is a live international interactive Bible study and if you have a Bible related question you've come to the right place. Our phone lines are now open, and just give us a call and you can ask your Bible question on the air. We don't claim to have all the answers, but we do have some very powerful software in front of us on our computers that we can look up different bible verses and we would just love to chat with you about the Bible.
One of the best uses of time is to study the scriptures and that's what this is all about. If you have a Bible related question, the phone line to call here to the studio is 800- 463-7297, that number again is 800-463-7297. I'm going to give you that number here in just a moment, I'll let you get something ready to write on, if it's easier to remember, the acronym is 800-GOD-SAYS. And that number, here it is 800-463-7297.
Pastor Doug is away today, but working the phones for us here in the studio is Pastor Marshall McKinsey, publishing director at amazing facts. Marshall, welcome, thanks for helping out with the program.
Pastor Marshall: Thanks for the invitation.
Pastor Ross: Why don't you start the program with a word of prayer.
Pastor Marshall: Sounds good. Father in heaven we thank you so much for this opportunity we have to just open your word and to discuss and to study together. We pray for the Holy Spirit, we pray for the wisdom that he brings that we may have right understanding. We thank you so much to gain courage and strength for the times in which we live, in Jesus' name we pray, amen.
Pastor Ross: Amen. Well, Marshall we opened the program by talking about story of a young man, well he was young at the time, Harold Peterson, who coughed up a bullet. He was living back in 1936, is when this accident occurred and some over the 24 years later, he coughed and up came this bullet. That's a long time to be lodged in the back of your neck.
Pastor Marshall: It is a long time and when I heard you read the story and share that fact, it almost sounds too hard to believe to have a bullet in your neck for 24 years and then all of a sudden you cough it up.
Pastor Ross: That’s right. Somehow the body was able to move the bullet to the point where actually it came out in the throat and he was able to eventually cough it up.
Pastor Marshall: The point you made relating to judgment, sometimes we think, does the bible really talk about judgment, it just sounds too farfetched and yet it really does.
Pastor Ross: It sure does. In Matthew chapter 12 verse 36, Jesus had this to say he said, “But I say unto you that every idle word that man shall speak, they shall give an account of that in the day of judgment. By thy words you shall be justified, and by your words you shall be condemned." I'm also reminded of the Old Testament verse in Ecclesiastes chapter 12 verse 14, that says, "God shall bring every work into judgment with every secret thing, whether it be good or whether it be evil."
In other words every detail of our life will one day be included in that judgment. This happens that the great judgment experience of the Bible speaks of it’s taking place at the very end. Now it's true that we are saved by grace, but the Bible teaches us that we are judged by our works. Somebody might wonder, well how can that be, if you’re saved by grace and yet judged by works?
Well, the truth is your works is a demonstration of your faith and without faith no one can please God. Yes there is a judgment and all of our works, our words, our thoughts, are going to be brought into judgment. Now for the Christians, we don't have to fear the judgment. When you talk about judgment and there's often thoughts of fear, and what we all know we have sinned. The Bible says all have sinned fallen short of the glory of God, but for the Christian there is hope in the judgment because we have an Advocate with the father and that's Jesus. We have somebody who died so that we can be forgiven and that we can face the judgment without fear.
Pastor Marshall: We have the priest of all priests working on our behalf.
Pastor Ross: Absolutely, we've got an attorney who has never lost the case. And if we put our confidence in Jesus and trust in him and come into a saving relationship with him, we need not fear that judgment. Well the Bible does quite have a lot to say about this judgment and more importantly how we can be found in Christ when that judgment comes. We have a study guide and it's entitled Case closed and it talks about this judgment, tell us a little bit about it.
Pastor Marshall: It just goes through the specifics in relationship to the judgment. It encourages, it challenges us, it helps us to understand God's big plan and how he's working it to a completion to benefit all those who love him.
Pastor Ross: Absolutely and there is good news in the judgment.
Pastor Marshall: That's right, exactly, and Pastor John they can get it by just calling 1-800-835-6747, you just call that resource line and you can ask for this free offer.
Pastor Ross: Yes just ask for the study guide called Case closed and the number one more time is 800-835-6747. We're going to give you several numbers, that is the resource phone number. If you would like to receive any of the free material that we talk about on the program, just call us on that phone line. If you have a Bible question to speak to us here in the studio the number is 800-463-7297. And we've got-- well it's looking pretty good, I think we have two lines open. Good time to give us a call, that's 800-463-7297. If you don't get through immediately, just stay on the phone we'll get your call as soon as we can.Well, we're ready to go to the phone lines, who do we have first.
Pastor Marshall: Our first caller is Peyton from Shelby Tennessee, Peyton you're on the air Bible answers live with Pastor John.
Peyton: Hello.
Pastor Ross: Hi welcome to the program.
Peyton: I have a question about the key to Heaven, mentioned in Matthew 16:19.
Pastor Ross: Yes Matthew chapter 16 verse 19, let me read it for everyone, Jesus says, "And I say to you that you are Peter," this is Christ talking to the Apostles and in particular to Peter, "And on this rock, I will build My Church, the gates of hades or hell shall not prevail against it." Then verse 19 and here's the verse you’re talking about, "I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven." Now sometimes people have wondered, well what is this key to the kingdom that Jesus gave his disciples and Peter in particular, did he somehow give them the ability to determine who's going to go to heaven or who is not going to go to heaven and is that what you're wondering Peyton?
Peyton: I just want to know what is the binding, what is the loosing, what does he mean by that?.
Pastor Ross: Okay, to bind or to loosen. The context of the whole passage here is Jesus is telling his disciples that he is going to give them something that will open up heaven to those who receive it and believe it and will close heaven to those who reject it. Now what was it that Jesus was giving to the disciples that they would it take to the world that would open heaven to those who receive it. Well he gave them the gospel. The disciples were given the great commission, you read about that in Matthew 28, where Jesus said, “Go preach the Gospel in every nation, kindred, tongue, take it to all the world. Those who believe and are baptized they'll be saved, those who don't believe in essence are closing heaven upon themselves.”
It's not an arbitrary choice that the disciples' making saying, well this person, I like him I'm going to let him be saved, and this person I don't like, I'm not going to let them be saved. Because our salvation is not based upon an individual, a human being, it's based upon our faith in Jesus. He is the savior. When it talks about binding and loosening, it's just talking about the gospel that Jesus gave the disciples which brings life or heaven to those who receive it and brings death, eternal death, to those who reject it.
Pastor Marshall: They're always doing the work of Christ. They're not doing it independent of Christ because He says, "I have the keys in a relation of death and of hell."
[cross talk]
Pastor Ross: That's right. They are working with Christ in taking the gospel to the world. Each person, based on whether they respond to the gospel, how they respond to the gospel, determines whether heaven is open to them or heaven is closed to them.
Does that help Peyton?
Peyton: Sure it does.
Pastor Marshall: All right, very good. Thanks for your call. We appreciate it. Now, I'm thinking we have a book called Can a Saved Man Choose to be Lost?, which I think Peyton would find interesting. To receive that Peyton, you can just call us on our resource phone number and ask for the book Can a Saved Man Choose to be Lost?
Pastor Marshall: That number, Peyton, is 1-800-835-6747. 1-800-835-6747. You'll really enjoy that read.
Pastor Ross: It's not just for Peyton, it's for anybody who calls.
[cross talk]
Pastor Marshall: Anybody listening.
Pastor Ross: By the way, if you're like me and when you think of something you want to do it immediately, I think of a good book, I want to read it right away. I don't want to wait for it to come in the mail. You can go to the website, amazingfacts.org and you can read it this evening. Just type in the search bar "Can a Saved Man Choose to be Lost?" It's not a long book, but it's got a great, many resources and scripture. It's a good study. Who do we have next?
Pastor Marshall: Next we have Denise from Huntsville Alabama. Denise, you're on the air, it's Bible Answers Live.
Denise: Yes, thanks. God bless you guys-
Pastor Ross: Hi Denise, thanks for calling.
Denise: -in the work that you do. I wanted to find out-- I had wanted to know about the Jews and they-- when or if they stopped doing animal sacrifices, and if they don't-- I've never heard they still do the animal sacrifices. How did they repent for their sins if they do not do animal sacrifices anymore?
Pastor Ross: All right, that's a good question.
Denise: They don't believe in Jesus.
Pastor Ross: They don't accept Jesus as the Messiah. There are some who recognize him as a good man, a moral man, but they refuse to acknowledge him as the Messiah, as the Christ. After the death of Jesus, those who received Jesus, disciples and the Christians, they no longer are involved in animal sacrifices. They recognize Jesus to be the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world, but animal sacrifice continued in Jerusalem up until 70 AD. In 70 AD, Jerusalem and the temple was destroyed by the Romans. The Jews were scattered throughout the Roman Empire and they weren't able to perform the various sacrificial services that were performed in Jerusalem at the temple.
As time went on, a number of the Jewish rabbis sort of spiritualized the sacrifices, because it became inconvenient, it became something that was frowned on in the societies where they were scattered. It was spiritualized, and even today, Jews don't-- Even Orthodox Jews, don't sacrifice animals but they have spiritualized that whole concept of the sacrifice.
Denise: Okay. that's-- Yes I can understand that. How do they spiritualize or atone for their sins as of in this modern day. How were they able to do that? How are they able to atone for the sins if they don't sacrifice and they don't believe in Jesus?
Pastor Ross: I think they do acknowledge that you need to recognize your sins and you do need to recognize that sins brings death. That is an Old Testament principle, that a number of those more Orthodox Jews recognize, but there is a certain degree of works associated with their religion. If you're good and you do good works, that, to some degree, will help atone for your misdeeds or your sins. Without Jesus and without grace and without the forgiveness that comes by faith in Christ, all you're really left with is a works-based type of religion, and that's kind of what it has developed into without the sacrificing. That's how a person atones for their sins by being a good person and doing good deeds.
Denise: Oh, okay. Thank you. Thank you. That kind of puzzled me for a few days. I started thinking about it and I appreciate the answer. It satisfies. Thank you.
Pastor Ross: All right. Very good. Thank you for calling Denise. If you have a Bible question friends, our phone line is open. The number is 800-463-7297. That's 800-463-7297. And who do we have next Marshall?
Pastor Marshall: Pastor John, we've got Timothy from Spring Creek Nevada. Timothy, you're on the air. Pastor John at Bible Answers Live.
Timothy: Hi there Pastor John. I think that's [unintelligible 00:15:26] friend you have tonight.
Pastor Ross: Yes, it's Pastor the Marshall McKinzie. You can call him Marshal, Pastor Marshall.
Timothy: Hi there Pastor Marshall.
Pastor Marshall: Hi Timothy.
Timothy: All right. So my question tonight was about-- forgot where it was. But the bible was talking about males, men in the church, not being able to be pastors or preachers because of having multiple wives. I'm not sure if they're talking about at once through out their lives, if their wives passed away or a divorce through immoral acts, adultery and, etc. And that came out where it was, but I'm not sure if it was talking about at one time, as in multiple wives with adultery or if it's throughout their lives. [cross talk]
Pastor Ross: OK. Good question. Yes, we'd be happy to. The verse I think you're referring to is 1Timothy chapter 3 verse 2. And then you find the same principle in 1Timothy Chapter 3 Verse 12. This is the apostle Paul giving instruction to the church in the ordaining of different positions, like Elder and Deacon. And there it says, I'm just looking in 1Timothy Chapter 3 verse 2, "A bishop or an elder must be blameless, the husband of one wife, temperate, sober minded, good behavior," and so on and so forth. One of the characteristics is given is that he needs to be a husband of one wife.
Now it's not talking about a widow or a widower I should say, who is remarried, his wife dies and then he remarries after that. It's not talking about that. It's talking about having multiple wives at the same time. Now of course we find polygamy was prevalent in the old testament, not only among some of the pagan religions. but even amongst the Hebrews. There were times where someone who would have multiple wives. You think of Hannah's husband, there were two wives involved. Solomon had a whole slew and David had more than one wife and there were many others. It was never God's perfect ideal.
One day the Pharisees came to Jesus and they spoke about a woman that had a husband and then he died. And so she married the brother and he died, and so on, until she ended up marrying seven. And then in the resurrection they said well who is she going to be married to. And Jesus then explained that biblical marriage is between a man and a woman and ideally it's for life. But if somebody dies, or in the case of adultery that person is then free to go get married again. It's not saying that if you've been married more than once that you cannot be an elder in the church, but you can't have more than one wife at the same time.
And polygamy was also practiced in the Roman Empire, not to the extent of some of the other pagan areas, but there were clusters where that was permitted and even there were converts from paganism into Christianity who might have more than one wife. You know it's interesting, I spent some time overseas in Africa and we were missionaries in different parts. In one area in particular, I remember one of the challenges in the church was people who wanted to become Christians who had multiple wives. We spent some time in as in a country called Swaziland, and it so happened that the king of the country had multiple wives and a number of his wives were actually Christians and they attended the church that we were at and he was very friendly towards Christians. He didn't quite know what to do though with all of his wives.
How we deal with that. There are still places in the world where this is a concern in order to hold a position of an Elder, yes, you have to be married to one wife.
Timothy: And does that include divorce through adultery.
Pastor Ross: Yes. If somebody breaks the marriage covenant through adultery, and there is a divorce, that person then is free to remarry. That's that's the principle given by Christ.
Timothy: It's not wanted, but that's the only allowance in the Bible for divorce.
Pastor Ross: Yes. Yes. That's the one, that's the only allowance given. Now of course, if somebody is in a relationship with a life is threatened, they need to remove themselves from that relationship. But there's different ways one can do that through separation, legal separation, but officially divorce, adultery is the reason given in Scripture. That's right. You know, we do have a book that you might find interesting on the subject, it's called Marriage, Divorce and Remarriage, and it kind of gets into this a little bit. It's a book written by Pastor Doug, it's a good read and I think it will answer a lot of these questions. Just call our resource phone number and you can ask for the book called Marriage, Divorce and Remarriage.
Pastor Marshall: Timothy that number is 1-800, again, and for those listening 1-800-835-6747, 1-800-835-6747. And that's where you can just ask and they’ll send you the book.
Pastor Ross: The book again is Marriage, Divorce and Remarriage.Alright who do we have next?
Pastor Marshall: We have Mel in New Jersey City, New Jersey. Mel you're on the air with Bible Answers live with Pastor John.
Pastor Ross: Hi, Mel, welcome to the program.
Mel: Good evening. God bless you.
Pastor Ross: Thanks for calling.
Mel: In Revelation, it talks about changing anything in the Bible, right?
Pastor Ross: Yes.
Mel: Now all the different translations of the Bible, a friend of mine was Jehovah witness, and he got a problem with his apartment, so I let him stay with me for a little while. And he brought his Bible from Jehovah Witness, I’m a Baptist. And I read my Bible is all raggedy and torn, he passed away, but he left his Bible there, I'm considering buying another Bible. I grabbedhis Bible and opened it up and I’ve been reading it in my studies. Now, my question is, these translations, are they a change in words, they claim they want to make it more understood by the reader, different translations. Well, is that change in the Bible changing the words?
Pastor Ross: Well yes, let me give you a couple of principles that you want to bear in mind. First of all, there are two types of Bibles, English Bibles that you can find, there is a translation and there is a paraphrase. Now I want to explain the difference. A translation is where a translator went to the original languages, of course the Bible is written in Hebrew and in Greek, and a little bit of Aramaic in the book of Daniel. But a translation takes those original languages and translates it into English, that's called a translation. But in addition to that, there are a number of paraphrased Bible versions out there, and paraphrase is a Pastor, or a scholar, might take an English Bible and then they rewrite that using different words to try and clarify the meaning of the Bible and that's called a paraphrase.
Some very popular paraphrase today, is the Living Bible, became very popular, but it's not a pure translation. One needs to be careful when reading a paraphrase version. It's probably okay to get some thoughts on the text, but when it comes to deep doctrinal study, I always encourage people to find a solid Bible translation. Now when it comes to translation, there are two families of manuscripts that are typically used. There is the Byzantine family of manuscripts and then there’s the Alexandrian set of manuscripts.
They very similar but there are some slight differences maybe in certain words used or maybe portions are missing in the one set of translation than the other. Personally I like the Byzantine family of scripts, you have translations like the King James Version, the New King James, the Revised Standard Version, these are really solid translations,trust worthy. New American standard is a very good version. Some of the newer translations like the NIV, they lean more to the Nestle [unintelligible 00:23:33] or the Alexandrian family of texts.
As I said they are very similar, but personally I prefer more the Byzantine family which is the King James, New King James and the like. That's something to bear in mind. Now as far as I understand, the Jehovah witness is more of a paraphrase, than a clean translation from the original text, because you'll find a number of very significant differences in the Jehovah Witness Bible, as you would in the King James or the New King James.
Mel: My question is again, is that change in the Bible when in the Revelation they said, do not change any of these stuff in the Bible or it will be a curse in all the bible to whoever changes?
Pastor Ross: Yes, absolutely. If you're trying to tamper with the word of Life, be careful, and I think that's the warning that revelation gives. It's not for us to try and change the Scripture to make it culturally acceptable. I know there's some strong truths that's found in the scripture, and some of these modern translations or paraphrases, they try and water it down, these strong messages, to be more culturally acceptable. Revelation says, don't do that, it's a dangerous thing.
Pastor Marshall: Yes like Pastor John is saying, Mel, a translation doesn't mean they're messing with scripture, if it's a literal translation. I'm taking it from the literal language and I'm just translating it into our language. When I start messing with the thoughts-
Pastor Ross: Yes.
Pastor Marshall: -that are conveyed from those languages, that's when I start to add to or take away from. And you can run into a danger in some paraphrases when they do that. Paraphrases are more like a devotional reading, you got to be careful, but if you're really wanting to study, a literal translation from the original, like Pastor John is saying, is a great way to go. And it's not tampering with the original language.
Pastor Ross: Something that I would encourage, I do this all the time in my study I have-- and it's available now, they are free software programs that you can download on your computer. The one that I'd like to use from time to time is called E sword, and it actually gives you the English translation of the verse, and then you could look at the Hebrew. Now you might not even be able to read Hebrew or Greek but you can click on the words and they’ll tell you what the actual meaning of that original word is and you can see how they translated it.
You can compare different translations of the Bible, you can look at the paraphrases and it helps us to study the original understanding of the text. Yes, when it comes to Bible study, find a good translation, and we need to be careful of those translations that add to or take away from the Scriptures, that's a very dangerous thing.
Mel: Well you've been most helpful, God bless you and keep you.
Pastor Ross: Thank you for calling Mel, we appreciate it. I just thought, Marshall, we do have a book--
Pastor Marshall: The Ultimate Resource [laughs].
Pastor Ross: That's the one that came to my mind, a book written by Pastor Doug, talking about the Bible. Talks about where the Bible came from, the different translations, how to study the Bible. I think it's a great read for anyone.
Pastor Marshall: Mel it's titled, The ultimate resource, and you can all get it if you dial 1-800-835-6747, anybody listening 1-800-835-6747 and you can just ask for The ultimate Resource.
Pastor Ross: That's the name of the book called The Ultimate Resource, we'll be happy to send that to anybody who calls and asks. And while you're on the phone talking, or asking for that free offer, you can also ask to sign up for the free Amazing Facts Bible correspondence school. We have 27 lessons that cover all of the important Biblical true’s, both in the Old and New Testament and we'll send it to you for free in the mail. You'll actually read the lesson and fill in a little questionnaire at the end, you mail that back to Amazing Facts, we will grade your response and we'll send you out the next batch of lessons and all of this is free. Just go and ask for it when you call 800-835-6747. Say I'm interested in the Amazing Facts Bible correspondence course, and we'll be more than happy to send that to you in the mail.
Well friends, you hear the music playing in the background, we are not going to go away, we're just going to take a short break and catch our breath and we're going to have station identification for those listening around the country and we'll be back with more Bible questions don’t go away.
[COMMERCIAL BREAK]
Pastor Ross: Hello friends this is Pastor John Ross. Pastor Doug is out this evening, but this is a live interactive international Bible study and we love studying the scriptures together. If you have a Bible question we would love to hear from you this evening. Our phone line here to the studio is 800-463-7297. If you just joined us, this is a perfect time to call and ask your Bible questions. We'll try and answer as many of them as we can. Looks like we've got two lines still open, so good time to get in there and give us a call. I think we have somebody lined up to ask a question. Who do we have next?
Pastor Marshall: We do. Charles from Huntsville, Alabama. Charles you're on Bible Answers Live, Pastor John.
Charles: Yes sir. How 're you doing tonight fellas?
Pastor Ross: Doing very well. Thanks for your call Charles.
Charles: Okay. Here's my question. It's a two-part question.
Pastor Ross: Sure.
Charles: It's about the saints that were resurrected at the time of Jesus either crucifixion or resurrection. The first part of the question is, were they resurrected when He was crucified or were they resurrected when He resurrected? Because the wording is a little weird there. The second part of my question is, I've heard pastor Doug Batchelor mention that they went to heaven after they were resurrected, but I can't find any scriptural support for that.
Pastor Ross: Sure.
Pastor Marshall: Yes absolutely we could-- [cross talk].
Charles: Good.
Pastor Ross: Let's take it in two parts. The first is what is the verse with reference to those being resurrected at the time of Christ resurrection. Here's the verse, Mathew 27 verse 53. I'm going to read this to you. You know what, let me just get the context actually starting verse 51. Mathew 27:51, it says , "Then behold the veil in the temple was torn in two from top to bottom, and the earth quaked and the rocks were split and the graves were opened. And many of the bodies of the saints which had fallen asleep were raised. And coming out of the graves after His resurrection, they appeared into the holy city and appeared to many." The first question is when were these people resurrected? We know that the great earthquake that broke open their graves occurred when the veil was torn in the temple. That happened at the point of Christ's crucifixion. It's quite possible that they rose at that point but they didn't appear in the city, that being the new Jerusalem or Jerusalem I should say, the old city, until after Christ was resurrected. That's the context that we're looking at in this verse. It wasn't until Sunday that they appeared in Jerusalem. Then the question--
Charles: They just hang out at the graveyard?-
Pastor Ross: I don't know.
Charles: -A day or two.
Pastor Ross: It doesn't say.
[laughter]
Charles: Okay
Pastor Ross: It's pretty clear here though in verse 53. It says, "And coming out of the graves, then--" The original language doesn't have commas. That's added by the translators. So it says, "Coming out of the graves, after His resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many." It appears as though they didn't appear in Jerusalem, in the city until after Christ rose from the dead. Pastor Marshall.
Pastor Marshall: This goes back to Old testament feast with the Wave Sheaf. This was the first, I guess you could say, harvest of Christ's ministry and His death. He was actually fulfilling the Wave Sheaf. This was His first-- and they were there to testify that He rose from the dead.
Pastor Ross: He rose from the dead.
Pastor Marshall: He fulfilled--
Pastor Ross: [unintelligible 00:34:11] that He died, because everybody saw that, but rather that He rose, that was a powerful testimony that they gave. That yes, Jesus rose from the dead.
Pastor Marshal: Because the priest wanted to keep it quiet. If it really did happen, that's why we set guards, we're not going to say anything.
Pastor Ross: Tell them that while you were sleeping they stole the body of Jesus. Here are these people that no one had seen before suddenly appeared in the city and said, "He rose from the dead." That's why I'm here.
That was a powerful testimony but what happened to them? That's the second part of your question. The Bible tells us, you find in Ephesians chapter 4 verse 7. There is a reference to Christ's ascension and I'll read it. It's Ephesians chapter 4, actually verse 8 is the one, "Therefore, when He ascended on high", talking about Jesus ascending to heaven, "He led captivity captive, and gave gifts to men." We know that those who are in the grave, the Bible sometimes referred to them as being held captive in the grave. But here is a group that rose from the grave, they were once held captive, but they were freed. They rose from the dead and when Jesus ascended on high, when He ascended to heaven, He led those who were held captive by the grave, He led them to heaven and He gave gifts to men.
Many Bible scholars believe that those who appeared in Jerusalem after the resurrection, we don't know how long they were there, but they ascended up to heaven with Jesus. Of course Christ had gone to heaven several times, was 40 days after the resurrection, when He finally went up, but it's quite possible that they were there for a period of time and then ascended up with Jesus.
Charles: Okay. Ephesians-- what was that again? I'm going to have to do some research on that.
Pastor Ross: That's Ephesians chapter 4 verse 8.
Charles: Okay. Thank you very much for your time.
Pastor Ross: Thanks for your call Charles. Good question. I know a lot of folks wonder about this group. There's no other reference of them in the early church. You don't read about this group of people who are resurrecting in Acts, you think that if there was a big group raised and they stayed on the earth, that they would have played some part in the church, at least been mentioned. And then of course they were raised from the dead. They were probably raised to testify and not to die again, so they were taken to heaven.
Pastor Marshall: Like we were saying earlier, it's interesting you are back to the-- There was an offering before the harvest, the true full harvest was given. If you go back to the Old Testament--
Pastor Ross: Like the first fruits.
Pastor Marshall: There was like the first fruits, that were actually given and these were like the first fruits of Christ's earthly ministry as He's presenting himself before the father. Here's the fruit of my sacrifice.
Pastor Ross: And the first fruits were given the rest, will come later on.
Pastor Marshall: That's right.
Pastor Ross: They're given enough time and of course the great resurrection takes place at the second coming of Christ. Good question there. If you have a Bible question, our phone line is 800-463-7297. Who do we have next?
Pastor Marshall: Pastor John, we have Jack from Clarksville, Indiana. Jack you're on the air with Bible Answers Live.
Jack: Thank you for taking my call. God bless you all.
Pastor Ross: Thanks for calling Jack. How can we help?
Jack: [unintelligible 00:37:20] I've got to make a real short comment. I get my phone bill every month and on there I've got a Verizon phone and on that bill, I've got the numbers I call and how many minutes I talk. My wife says, "Who were you talking to for 45 minutes to an hour. I couldn't remember what it was. I just couldn't, it just dawned on me, I'm sitting here, "Ohthat's what it is," so I'll be able to explain that to her now.
Pastor Ross: Tell your wife you're using the time very wisely. You were talking about the scriptures. That's a good thing.
Jack: I'm an open road truck driver and of course[unintelligible 00:38:02] you've got a reputation [unintelligible 00:38:05].
Pastor Ross: You know Jack--
Jack: [unintelligible 00:38:07]
Pastor Ross: Go ahead Jack. What's your question?
Jack: Okay. I was listening to another scripture, or a Bible commentator and he was saying that we don't have sin. Jesus has already died on the cross and we don't have to ask for forgiveness anymore. That we should repent and change our ways, but Jesus has already forgiven us so we don't have to ask Him to go back and forgive us again. I was just a little bit confused on that. What did he mean by that?
Pastor Ross: I've heard that before and I'm always wondering why would a preacher say that especially in the light of what the Bible says. I'm just going to give you one verse. They're many. But here's one verse. 1John--
Jack: Mathew 6 and what I'm thinking of.
Pastor Ross: There you go too, but this one is 1 John chapter 1 verse 9 says, "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." I don't know how somebody can get around that. It's pretty clear. If we confess our sins, there is a condition. If we say, Yes, Jesus died for our sins but we're unwilling to confess our sins to Him, and acknowledge our sins and ask for forgiveness, how can He forgive us? He's not going to force forgiveness upon a person. Only those who recognize they need that forgiveness and ask and confess, then God is able to forgive. Yes, it's a strange teaching, I've heard it out there and it seems like it's become popular by some rather prominent preachers, but it's just not Biblical. Sort of a dangerous teaching.
Jack: I though that and I just was really confused about it. Thank you very much.
Pastor Ross: Thanks for your call. Good point and important subject.
Pastor Marshall: I thought Pastor John of the verse where Jesus ever liveth to make intercession for us. He knows he needs to intercede, there's times-
Pastor Ross: That's right--
[cross talk]
Pastor Marshall: -that that may happen in our lives but he's there to intercede for us.
Pastor Ross: When we make mistakes and we stumble and fall and we've got to go to Christ in sincerity and ask him to forgive us.That’s a condition that's required in order to be forgiven. If you have a Bible question the phone line is 800-463-7297, that will bring you here to the studio with your Bible question this evening and you still got about 20 minutes or so with your Bible questions. Give us a call. Who's our next caller?
Pastor Marshall: Our next caller is Carl from Maryland, Carl you're on the air with Bible Answers Live and Pastor John.
Pastor Ross: Hey Carl, welcome to the program.
Carl: Hey, how are you?
Pastor Ross: Good.
Carl: Thank you, I appreciate that.
Pastor Ross: And your question this evening.
Carl: I guess it will be in two parts, that I thought of it. Personally I'm confused by the Trinity, I understand that the Holy Spirit is God, Christ is God and so is the father, God the father. I don't quite understand how they are interrelated, it confuses me. What expanded or increased my confusion was I've read in [unintelligible 00:41:09], that the apostles worshiped Christ.
Then that caused me great confusion, because when I pray to God the father, as Christ said we should do in the gospel, do we also pray to Christ? Does that make sense? I’m a little confused and I don’t want to pray to Christ, because in the gospel Christ was specific saying, pray to God the father, and gave us the lord’s prayer as the guide line. Not that I want to reject Christ obviously, that's not the case, I'm just confused.
Pastor Ross: Okay, good question. Let’s take the first part about the Godhead or the Trinity. It is a deep study, we're talking about God and there is only so much that we can understand about God and God has revealed certain things to us about who he is in the Scriptures. There are also some strange ideas related to the Trinity or the Godhead. First of all, the Bible is very clear that the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are three separate beings. They are three separate personalities and in Scripture you read about Jesus here on the earth. At his baptism, the Holy Spirit coming upon him in the form of a dove, and a voice from heaven, the voice of the father saying this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. They interact with each other. Jesus prayed to the Father, the Holy Spirit responded to Christ, when Jesus would perform a miracle, the Holy Spirit would do certain things.
So the three members of the Godhead interact amongst themselves. Now when we talk about God being one, what we need to recognize is that they all share the characteristics of deity. They are three separate beings, but the father creates, he is life in and of himself, no beginning, he’s eternal, he is all powerful, he knows everything. Those same characteristics are shared by Christ and by the Holy Spirit. So they share the same characteristics, but they are three separate beings.
That’s the first part, incidentally just one other quick thought in the Old Testament speaking of God. It says here, "Here this Israel, the Lord thy God is One." And it's interesting the word one there in the Hebrew is in the plural form. In the Hebrew there is a singular form for one and a plural form for one. You've probably heard the verse in Genesis, where God says "For this reason shall a man leave his father and his mother and be joined to his wife and the two shall become one." That is the plural form of the word one, meaning one in purpose, one in design, one in focus.
God is one in purpose in his plan to save mankind, but doesn’t mean that there is only one being that's revealed in different ways. It gets all confusing, anyway that's what we have with reference to the Godhead or the Trinity. The second question that you had was-- remind me what the second part was.
Carl: The second part was I read it where personally in the gospels Christ gave us the Lord's Prayer [cross talk]
Pastor Ross: That’s right, who do we pray to?
Carl: In Acts the apostles from what I read worshiped Christ. I’m a little confused because I get that they’re a separate entity, I got that impression from when I read that the tower of Babel, we were split apart to different languages. It seemed that-- in essence what should we do about it? And He wasn't talking to himself. I kind of get that they’re separate beings, but very [unintelligible 00:44:44]
Pastor Ross: What about worship and prayer? Well, clearly Jesus can be worshiped, there's no question about that, the disciples worshiped him. If you go to the Book of Revelation it talks about Angels worshiping Christ, Angels worshiping the father. You don't have a direct reference of angels worshiping the Holy Spirit, which is kind of interesting. It's not that the Holy Spirit is not divine, but the Holy Spirit is not manifest in the same form as the father and the Son. In Revelation, the Holy Spirit is symbolized by seven burning lamps of fire and he's represented by a dove or sometimes as referred to as the wind. Definitely the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit they share the characteristics of deity and they are worthy of worship but when it comes to prayer specifically, we only have one example in the Bible of somebody praying directly to Jesus and that was at the stoning of Stephen.
Stephen cried out and said, “Lord Jesus receive my spirit.” That's the only reference that we have of someone in the Bible praying specifically to Christ. Throughout Scripture the abundant evidence is that when we pray, we are to pray to God the Father in the name of Jesus. We don't have any reference specifically of somebody praying to the Holy Spirit, although there's nothing wrong with praying to the father and asking for the Holy Spirit. Jesus says you need to ask the Father and he will give you the Holy Spirit.
There's nothing intrinsically wrong in praying to Jesus, but following the example given in scripture, the correct manner of prayer is to pray to the Father in the name of Jesus for the Holy Spirit. Did that make sense?
Carl: It actually does, one more question.
Pastor Ross: Okay.
Carl: With regards to terms of worship, obviously the apostles from what I’ve read worshiped Christ. What would worship mean in that sense?
Pastor Ross: Worship is not only adoration and praise, that's part of worship, but true worship is willing obedience. To worship Christ is to obey him, it is to receive his teachings. It is to put it in to practice, it is to become dependent upon him. We worship through prayer, we worship through song, but the greatest act of worship is through obedience. Jesus says whoever hears these sayings of mine and does them, I will liken him unto a wise man. Jesus said in the last day there will be many saying, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and cast out devils and so on, and Jesus says I never knew you. Because they didn't do what he told them to do.
True worship is an act of obedience which includes adoration and praise. But primarily what God is looking for is a willing heart to do his will.
Pastor Marshall: Carl for further study, I’m just going to add we have some free offers, the first one is called The Trinity that relates to your first question and those that are listening just call 1-800-835-6747, you can ask for The Trinity. The second one is Teach us to pray. Pastor Doug did that one as well as The Trinity and they're just excellent resources for you continue in your walk with the Lord.
Pastor Ross: The number of call for the free resource again.
Pastor Marshall: Is 1-800-835-6747.
Pastor Ross: All right, if you'd like to get a call in on the program tonight 800-463-7297. Who do we have next?
Pastor Marshall: We have Phil from Long Island New York. Phil, you’re on the air with Bible answers live.
Pastor Ross: Hey Phil welcome to the program, we have just a few minutes.
Phil: Okay, could you hear me okay?
Pastor Ross: We can.
Phil: You guys are doing a great job, I thank you for taking my call. I have a question about which I think there is disagreement, even amongst theologians and the question is this. In order that the second advent of Jesus can take place, is it necessary that there first be a third Jewish temple or is Jesus himself the third temple?
Pastor Ross: Good question, all right I'm going to give you a quick answer, but it's kind of deep, you'll need to put your thinking cap on. There are five different types of temples or sanctuaries that are referenced in the scriptures. You have the one that's in heaven, we know that from the book of Hebrews. We also know that when Moses built the temple of the sanctuary in the wilderness, he followed the path that was shown to him in the mount. You have the heavenly sanctuary, you've got the earthly and when I talk about the earthly, I’m talking about one that Moses built and then Solomon finally built, and then it was replaced after the seventy years of Babylon captivity. That's the earthly.
You have the heavenly sanctuary, You have the earthly sanctuary and there's three others. Jesus speaking of himself said, destroy this temple, and in the three days I'll raise it up again. He wasn't talking about the Temple in Jerusalem, but he was talking about himself. Jesus is described as a temple and then the Bible tells us in the New Testament, “Know you not that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit.” You have the individual, if the Spirit is within us we are symbolized by the temple. Then the church as a whole is also referred to as the temple of God and we are all living stones in that temple and Jesus is the cornerstone.
When you talk about a temple, we need to realize that the Earthly, that was on the Earth finally destroyed in 70AD was just a shadow or a type of the true temple, the one in heaven where Jesus ministers for us today. Much focus has been put upon on an Earthly Temple being rebuilt. If you go to the book of Hebrews, the real focus is on the Heavenly Sanctuary, which Jesus ministers as our high priest in heaven. Will the temple be rebuilt in Jerusalem? I don't know, maybe, maybe not, but does have to be rebuilt in order for Jesus to come? No, that is a misunderstanding of a prophecy that you read about in the book of Daniel.
Daniel chapter 9, in particular, where people have misunderstood or misapplied those various prophetic time periods. But the true focus today is on the Heavenly Sanctuary and the work with Jesus is doing for us. I know that was a lot of information but we shared it quickly.
Phil: A lot of information but you clarified things and you did a good job.
Pastor Ross: Thank you so Phil.
Phil: Thank you so much for your consideration. Thank You.
Pastor Ross: We appreciate your call. Who do we have next?
Pastor Marshall: We have Edward, Lomalinda California. Edward, you're on air with Bible Answers Live.
Edward: Thank you very much, Pastor. I [unintelligible 00:51:05] very excellent, very learned, and I appreciate your commentaries. Thank you very much and God bless you.
Pastor Ross: Thanks for calling Edward, what's your question this evening?
Edward: The question is, can we follow as the Lord Jesus Christ said in John and Matthew, can we follow the 10 Commandments to the letter, or do we follow the Sabbath of the Catholic Church. What it says is [unintelligible 00:51:38] do we follow the Sabbath that the Lord Jesus Christ said that follow God's Commandments?
Pastor Ross: All right. Well, good question Edward. I'm going to be honest with you if you look at the new covenant in the New Testament, the new covenant is the 10 Commandments written upon the heart. There's no question about that. That's the new covenant. If the 10 Commandments are written upon the heart, a true believer in Christ will want to keep all 10 Commandments, not 9, not 8, but ten. The fourth commandment we know is, remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy. For the Christian today, yes, if we are committed to following what Jesus ask us to do. We would want to keep the Sabbath.
Not a man-made institution or a man-made tradition, but the Sabbath has given in the Bible. I know there's a number of Christians who are rediscovering this precious wonderful truth about the Sabbath and the rest and the blessing behind it and I will encourage anyone to study that further. We do have a study guide called Lost Day in History. It talks a little bit about this, and I think for any of our listeners, if you are curious about that, please give us a call and we will be happy to send it to you. What's that number?
Pastor Marshall: That numbers 1-800-835-6747, 1-800-835-6747 and the title of that Pastor John again?
Pastor Ross: It's Lost Day in History and I think you'd find it-- and there's another one called Written in Stone on the 10 commandments. It's also both very good studies. We've got time for at least one more caller. Who do we have next?
Pastor Marshall: We have Rob, [unintelligible 00:53:14] Michigan.
Pastor Ross: Hi Rob, we've got just a few minutes, What's your question?
Rob: Yes Sir. This question was asked by one of my daughter, her name is Rachel.
Pastor Ross: Okay.
Rob: In Genesis chapter 31, it speaks of Jacob leaving the house of Laban and he takes Rachel and Leah with him, and Rachel takes some idols with her, and she was asking, why did she take those idols? Jacob knew what the real God was, who he was.
Pastor Ross: Yes.
Rob: Why the way did she do that.
Pastor Ross: Why did she do it? Well, I think-- backing up a little bit. Laban knew about the true God, because it goes all the way back to Abraham and Abraham's family, they worship the true God. But, one of the reason why God brought Abraham away from his family and brought him to the Land of Promise, was because included in their worship of the true God, they had been influenced by the culture around them and some idols came into their form of worship. God wanted to separate Abraham from that, so he could worship God in truth.
When you have Jacob going back, and he marries Rachel and Leah and they journey now to the Promised Land, they were still certain significance that they attached to these idols, and it was a learning process. They needed to learn to let go of it, and God was working with them and leading them and that's why she took them. She should not have taken them. We know that worshiping idols is a violation of the second commandment, it's not something that anyone should do.
I don't know whether she wa worshiping the idols, or whether she was just taking it as a good luck charm, that could very well be been the case, to try and connect it to her family but the-- it caused problems. It caused problems with Laban and Jacob and family and that was never God's will.
Pastor Marshall: I think this is why God was calling them back to Bethel, which means The house of God, the true worships. He realized they were struggling with some thing, like we all tend to struggle, but he's always trying to call us home. He's leading ua and he wants us to get rid of certain things, and cast them aside, and that is this case.
Pastor Ross: That's kind of a growing experience that Rachel needed to go through.
Rob: All right, well thank you, Pastor. I appreciate your Ministry.
Pastor Ross: All right. Well, thank you for your call we appreciate it. Well, friends, I'm looking on how much time we've got, and it doesn't look like we've got time to take one more caller. We probably wouldn't do it justice if we did. If we didn't get to your call tonight, we hope you won't get discouraged, but call us back next week. We'll try to answer many calls as we possibly can. You know we gave a lot of free offers out this evening and if you missed any of them and would like to receive one, be sure to give us a call on our resource phone number. That number is 800-835-6747, and you can just ask for that free offer and we'll be happy to send it to you. But Pastor Marshall, if somebody wants to read one of this articles right away or take a look on one of these books. What do they do?
Pastor Marshall: They just need to go to amazingfacts.org and all of these, most of the materials right there are free online. You can just click on it, download it, listen to whatever you want to and there's a lot of information at amazingfacts.org.
Pastor Ross: Of course, not only do we have printed material right there on the website, there's a lot of sermons available. There are videos that are available. Please be sure to take a look at our website. It's just amazingfacts.org and you'll just find a store house--
Pastor Marshall: Wealth of information.
Pastor Ross: Wealth of great Bible truth and great Bible information, that I think that you will find very helpful. While you're there, if you've been blessed by this program and would like to keep us on the air, we would encourage you to donate, there is a little link that you can click on to keep this program on the air, reaching the lives of hundreds and thousands of people around the world. Thank you for your support friends. We hope that this has been a blessing and we just want to encourage you to spend time in God's Word. Take time to study the Scriptures, you indeed will be blessed. Until we meet next week. God Bless.