Hello friends, this is Doug Batchelor, how about an amazing fact? On July 23, 1983, Air Canada flight 143, ran out of fuel at 41,000 feet. The New Bowing 767 jet was only half way through its trip from Montreal to Edmonton when the aircraft's warning system sounded in the cockpit indicating a fuel problem on the left side. The pilots naturally assumed the fuel pump had failed and turned off the alarm, but then a few moments later, a 2
nd fuel alarm sounded followed by a loud gong and then both engines, starving for fuel, went silent. Obviously this stunned the pilots and terrified the 63 passengers. Without any engine power, most of the cockpit instruments went black, leaving only a few battery powered basics. Still, disbelieving the jet could be out of fuel, the pilots scrambled to restart the engines. When they saw this was futile, they began franticly searching charts for any landing strip within gliding distance that would be long enough to accommodate the rapidly descending jet. They turned towards the nearest landing site, a closed airbase at Gimli Manitoba, 20 miles away.
What the pilots didn’t know was that the decommissioned runway was being used that day as a drag racing strip and it was full of cars, campers, and people. Without regular engine power, the hydraulic steering became very stiff. Captain Bob Pierson performed a difficult side slip maneuver to line up the silently descending aircraft with the runway. As the 767 main gears touched down, the captain just about stood on the brakes, then the nose wheel collapsed sending sparks flying 300 feet into the air as the aircraft plowed down the runway. Shocked spectators, racers, and kids on bicycles scattered on every direction clearing the runway. Miraculously, the crew was able to safely land the jumbo jet and no one was hurt. The subsequent investigation revealed that someone had miscalculated the fuel, because the airline had recently adopted the “Metric system” in place of the “Imperial system”. Friends, did you know the Bible also teaches that if a Christian loses their forward momentum, they’ll descend? Stay with us, we’re going to learn more as “Amazing Facts” brings you, this edition of “Bible Answers Live”.
[PROGRAM INTRODUCTION]
Pastor Doug: Welcome listening friends, we’re so glad that you’re with us and that you’ve joined us for Bible Answers Live. We know that some of you might be scurrying around the country, doing some last minute shopping for the holidays, and we’re thankful that you are tuning in. If you have a Bible question, we do have some lines opened, we’d invite you to pick up your phone and dial that toll free number with your Bible question, Its 1-800-GOD-SAYS, 1-800-463-7297. Calling now is a pretty good way of making sure your question is on the program in the next 54 minutes or so. My name is Doug Batchelor.
Pastor Jëan Ross: My name is Jëan Ross, good evening listening friends. And Pastor Doug, let’s begin the program with prayer. Dear Father, we thank you again for this opportunity, and we ask your blessing upon this program. We recognize that in order to rightfully understand the Bible, we need your leading and guiding, and so we ask for your presence to be with us, be with those who are listening wherever they might be, and those who are calling. For this we ask in Jesus name, amen.
Pastor Doug: Amen.
Pastor Jëan Ross: Pastor Doug, I can just imagine the experience of being way up there 41,000 feet, and then suddenly, those big engines on the wings, going silent, and you realize that you’re just gliding. You want to keep moving forward, but of course, when the engine stops, the inclination is to go down.
Pastor Doug: That’s right. With an airplane, if you don’t have forward power, then you’re just going to descend. And I’m a pilot and I fly small planes, and if you lose power, you’ve got a pretty good glide ratio. But those jets, they drop just about like a rock, when they lose power, they go down about 12, for every foot, 12 feet forward, they lose a foot, and that’s a very rapid rate of descend, they were going down about 8,000 feet a minute. And so, they, it’s a miracle that, that plane was able to find a place to land, to land without hurting anybody of flipping the plane, and that the pilot did it with what they call, “A dead stick maneuver”. He had no flaps, the hydraulics where gone, the stirring was very stiff, just driven by this… it’s called an IRT, it’s driven by a turbine air power. And he wrestled that thing down, did a very interesting slip maneuver, where you make the plane go sideways so you could drop down without gaining air speed, and just came in and landed. They repaired, little more this trivia about the airplane. They repaired the nose wheel on that plane, and they flew it out of there, I forget, in a couple of weeks, they it flew for another 20 years, it’s kind of an amazing story. But it does make me think, that in a Christian life, sometimes people think, “Well, I’m doing okay”, but if you’re not gaining altitude, if you’re not growing, if you lose the power, you will descend, and you may not even know it because it happens silently, and it’s called “backsliding”, the Bible talks about that. Christian life is a dynamic, you need to be growing. Bible talks about, “Moving towards that day light that gets brighter and brighter” and Paul says in Philippians 3:14, “Brethren, I count myself not to have apprehended but this one thing I do, forgetting those things that are behind and reaching forth to those things that are before, I press towards the mark”.
It’s a forward motion in the Christian life. Paul said, “I press towards the mark of the price of the calling, the high calling of God and Jesus Christ”. And as we are preparing to enter a New Year and a new decade, 2010, we like to encourage all of our listening friends, here at Bible Answer Live, we want to encourage you do you have a good devotional life, are you moving forward, do you take regular time with God every day, do you have a Bible reading program? Then go to the Amazing Facts website and you can download information on how you can get involved in a daily Bible study program. And do you have a regular prayer life? Now I think, “You should pray without seizing”, the Bible says, but that’s different from your reserved time, quite time with God, where you pray. King David said in Psalm 55, “Morning, evening, and noon, I will pray”. And then it says in Daniel chapter 6:10, “3 times a day”, Daniel, he stopped no matter how busy he was, and he prayed. You know, New Year is a great to have a revival in your devotional life, maybe you’ve been losing altitude in your Christian experience and you need that additional power that will help you start heading in the right direction upward. We have a special gift that we like to make available to encourage you to have a revival in your prayer life. Pastor Ross?
Pastor Jëan Ross: It’s a book written by Pastor Doug, and it deals with the subject of prayer, and it’s entitled, “Teach us to Pray”, and of course, that was the question that was asked by the disciples to Jesus, “Teach us to pray, how do we pray?” It is free if you’d call our resource line, 1-800-835-6747. Again, the number is 1-800-835-6747 ask for the book, “Teach us to Pray”, and we’ll be happy to send that out. Well Pastor Doug, we’re going to go to the phone lines. Our 1st caller
Pastor Doug: Sounds good.
Pastor Jëan Ross: this evening is Kurt, and he is calling from Virginia. Kurt, welcome to the program.
Kurt: Thank you sir, appreciate it.
Pastor Doug: And your question tonight?
Kurt: My question is about the tribulation, thousand year tribulation
Pastor Doug: Yes?
Kurt: I hear everybody talk about it all the time, I’ve heard Pastor Batchelor talk about it, and it’s not a time where you can make up for what you’ve done, you know, and repent. Is the tribulation before judgment day or after judgment day, and just exactly what year is the tribulation, the thousand year tribulation?
Pastor Doug: I’ll do my best to help you with that Kurt. 1st thing is
Kurt: Okay.
Pastor Doug: it never really calls it a thousand year tribulation, the Bible does speak of what they call, it’s “A thousand year millennium”, but that’s not the same as the tribulation. People often refer to the 7 year tribulation. But to be perfectly honest, the time of the tribulation is vague in the Bible about how long it will be, and it appears there are 2 different levels. Some scholars call it, “the small time of trouble”, that’s a period of time in Revelation 13, where it says, “People can’t buy or sell unless they have the mark of the beast”. When that doesn’t work, then it phases into the great time of trouble, and that’s when there’s a death decree, and the 7 last plagues fall. Now many people refer to it as either “3 and a half years or 7 years of tribulation”, we don’t know the exact length of time. It probably will not be that long, because when you read about the plagues in Revelation chapters 15 and 16 I believe it is, its talking about, “Men being scorched with great heat, the oceans and the fresh water supplies of the world are contaminated, they turn like blood, and it’s just such a global catastrophe that…”, you know, that’s why Jesus said, “Except those days be short and no one could be saved”. Now you asked another very important question. During the time of the small time of trouble, evidently people can still be saved into the church, this is the time of intensity, where people are preaching the truth, and there’s persecution, but people can be saved. Once the plagues begin to fall, it seems the Holy Spirit is withdrawn, and you can read about… By the way, the 1000 years is found in Revelation 20, but we want to make sure that we offer you a book called, “Anything but Secret”. In that book about the rapture, there’s a whole section on the tribulation that I think, will really help, and
Kurt: Okay. So
Pastor Doug: it’s called, “Anything but Secret”
Kurt: So you’re saying the tribulation is before the judgment day?
Pastor Doug: Yes.
Kurt: Okay…
Pastor Doug: The great…
Kurt: it’s real complicated to when you hear people preach about it, talk about it.
Pastor Doug: Well, I know there’s some really strange theories out there today, and quite honestly, what where sharing, I’d love to tell you that Pastor Ross and I thought this up in our own study, but we’re sharing with you what the church has believed for about 1800 years. This is nothing new, the idea that you have, a time of trouble near the end. We’re living during a time of investigation that takes place right now before the 2nd coming, but the great white throne judgment happens at the end of the 1000 years, but that’s, you know, during that time, the righteous are living an reigning with the Lord.
Pastor Jëan Ross: You know Kurt, we also have a study guide, Amazing Facts study guide called, “A Thousand Years of Peace”, and it deals with the subject of the 1000 years, of the millennium, and we’d
Kurt: Okay.
Pastor Jëan Ross: encourage you to call our resource line and ask for that.
Pastor Doug: We’ll send it to you for free.
Pastor Jëan Ross: Again, the number is 1-800-835-6747 ask for the study guide, “A Thousand Years of Peace”. You can also ask for the book, “Anything but Silent”, that talks a little bit about the rapture and the secret.
Pastor Doug: “Anything but Secret”.
Pastor Jëan Ross: “Anything but Secret”, it talks about the 2nd coming of Christ as well.
Pastor Doug: And that has a section on the tribulation. Appreciate your question Kurt, thank you.
Pastor Jëan Ross: Our next caller is Joel, calling from Texas. Joel, welcome to the program.
Joel: Good evening Pastors.
Pastor Doug: Evening.
Joel: My question is about the teaching of (inaudible 12:44) and how it applies to Christians today? I understand in Acts chapter 19, there was a (Inaudible12:55) and some people spoke with tongues, and one other incident was in chapter 6, Acts chapter 6 where they were just picking the 7…
Pastor Doug: Yes and the deacons.
Joel: some of the widows. And then, so, and this gave me some thoughts on, today, if somebody comes to the Lord, you know, goes to some classes, is it, should it be something that an elder should come and lay on a hand? I don’t know how that would apply, or you know, maybe if they’re getting on a mission trip, should (inaudible 13:25) happen? Could you kind of talk about that a little bit?
Pastor Doug: Yeah, there’s several examples in the Bible, where a blessing is conferred. And this goes all the way back to, you know, when Abraham… I think you see more of it, actually with Isaac and Jacob. Isaac laid his hands on Jacob, and then Jacob, later he saw to confer a blessing. And then you see Jacob laying his hands on his sons. You see Moses he talks about laying hands on Joshua, who was his successor. Jesus laid hand son the apostles, when they were set aside and ordained. And then you have the apostles laying hands on the deacons, and so forth. When someone was set aside for a special work of ministry, whether it’s a deacon or elder, they would often authorize them, it gave them an authority to have those in authority say, “Look, we are transferring this authority that God has given us, throughout calling, to you”, and it’s usually, you know, several people doing this. You do sort of have Elijah laying hands on Elisha to be his replacement.
Pastor Jëan Ross: It is also connected with the setting apart from ministry. Often where, for example in the New Testament, where they laid their hands upon the missionaries before they would go out to ministry, it was the setting apart for the work of preaching the gospel. And so, today in the church, there is the laying of hands for pastors, elders, deacons, those being set apart for ministry.
Joel: Would you say there is a, you know, the whole idea of the baptism of the Holy Spirit, is there, you know, again, a modern…
Pastor Doug: Example of that?
Joel: Yeah, or like us today again, if I go to church and somebody says, “Hey, I can, maybe not speak in tongues, but I’ll baptize you in the Holy Spirit by the laying on of hands and I don’t know, maybe you get some type of double portion of Spirit, or some type of spiritual gifts, or healing, or anything like that”. Is that, would that work today?
Pastor Doug: Well you’re on the right track the Holy Spirit comes, 1st of all, in different degrees in people’s lives, and the Holy Spirit often comes in waves, it’s not just one time. Pentecost happens in Acts chapter 2, but they prayed in Acts chapter 4 and it said, “That they were also filled with the Holy Spirit a 2nd time”. And so, you know, it’s like rain, when you’re a farmer, you need ongoing rain to keep things growing and, for the harvest. So the Holy Spirit comes like that, but it does say…
Joel: So would it be a common practice, when you think, just like you said, for the 2nd time that the Holy Spirit came upon them, that we should be a continuing laying on of hands for that 2nd portion of Holy Spirit, or maybe a 3rd, and etc, etc?
Pastor Doug: Well it’s in connection with Pastor, what Pastor Ross said. When someone is set aside and commissioned for some mission work or ministry, and the ones in authority typically pastors, kneel and put hands on them. You are praying that God will grant them the gifts of the spirit that He’s given you to them for their ministry. When Jesus was baptized, of course John the Baptist touched Him, when He was baptizing, He was filled with the Holy Spirit, He began a life of ministry at His baptism. And so, the same thing with the apostles, when they laid hands on the deacons, they began lives of ministry. You find out Philip becomes and evangelist, and Steven, he preaches so that they ultimately kill him because he’s so effective. But there’s one more verse I’ll give you, its 2nd Timothy chapter 1:6, and this is connecting with laying on of hands in the Spirit. Paul said, “Wherefore I put thee in remembrance that you stir up the gift of God that is in thee by the putting on of my hands”. So even Paul said, you know, “The same way God filled me with the Holy Spirit, I laid hands on you, that you might be filled with the Spirit Timothy, for ministry”. And so, yeah, maybe that’ll help a little bit with that subject.
Pastor Jëan Ross: You know, we have a book Joel, that you might be interested in, if you’d call our resource line, it’s called, “Life in the Spirit”, talks about the Holy Spirit. Call our resource line, 1-800-835-6747, ask for the book, “Life in the Spirit”, we’ll be happy to send that to you. Mark is listening from Knoxville, Tennessee on WITA. Mark welcome to Bible Answers Live.
Mark: Hi.
Pastor Doug: Hi, thanks for waiting.
Mark: If mankind is limited to 6000 years and then the 7000 years being the millennium, you know, like the great week of humanity, how is it that we’re like 14 years past the end of the 6000 years?
Pastor Doug: Okay, now for our friends who are listening? Mark is probably going by the, if you add up the ages in the Bible, the earth would be approximately 6000 years in about two thou… or was it 1996 actually, I think it was. That’s Bishop Usher’s chronology, this one man Bishop Usher did a chronology adding up the ages and he came to Adams creation at about 4004 B.C. Well that may be close to the accurate number, that doesn’t trouble me at all, because according to Jesus, “in the last days, the church is going to be saying, how come He’s late?” You remember the parable of the 10 virgins? It says, “When the bridegroom tarried”, and then Jesus said, when he closes Matthew 24, where He talk about, “The 2nd coming”, Jesus said, “If that evil servant says in his heart my Lord delays His coming”. And when Moses delayed coming down the mountains after getting the 10 commandments, God’s people started to lose faith. So if there is an apparent delay right around the time of the 2nd coming, that would mean, “We’re right on schedule”. You see what I’m saying?
Mark: Right. So mankind could go on longer that 6 thousand? Well I guess we already have.
Pastor Doug: Well if we have… if Bishop Usher’s chronology is right, we don’t know… even in Bishop Usher’s Chronology, I’ll tell you where there’s a real weak link. All that ages of the different patriarchs are given until you get to Noah, and it doesn’t really make it clear. It says, “Noah tells how long he lived”, and then says, “He had Shem, Ham, and Japheth”, and they weren’t triplets, we’re assuming. So there’s some dates that are left out there and people do their best to estimate. So we could be off 14 years, we don’t know.
Pastor Jëan Ross: You know, in 2nd Peter, chapter 3:4, it kind of gives you the idea there, but just before Jesus comes, there are people saying, “Well, where is the promise of His coming?” for some say, “I follow this fallen asleep, all things continue as they were, from the beginning of creation”. So again, there is this apparent delay, and people say, “Where is the promise of Christ coming? He hasn’t come yet”.
Mark: Yeah, do you remember back in the 70’s, a lot of people thought 1988 was going to be the end of a 40 year generation?
Pastor Doug: Yeah, that actually came from how Lindsay’s book called, “The Late Great Planet Earth”. He said the formation of Israel as a nation in 1948. If you count 1 generation from that, you’ll land on 1988, and it was all based on that. But obviously, that was a misinterpretation because that data’s come and gone. I do think, what happened to Israel is significant, but I think they’ve misapplied the meaning of that.
Mark: When it talks about the generation, couldn’t that referred to 70 A.D? Where Jesus said…
Pastor Doug: It does. Jesus in 30 A.D said “This generation will not pass away till these things be fulfilled”. What things? The disciples asked Him “how long until the destruction of the temple?” Exactly 40 years after Jesus made that statement, the Romans leveled the temple. And so, it was a perfect fulfillment. But many believe that what Jesus said in Matthew 24 had a dual application it was going to happen, sort of in stereo, once for the Jews and once for God’s people in the end of time. You know, we’ve got a book, if you don’t mind Mark, we’ll send you a free copy if you don’t object, it’s called, “Spiritual Israel”, and it’s got these dates, we’re right know talking about in the book. If you call the toll free number, we’ll send you a free copy.
Pastor Jëan Ross: The number is 1-800-835-6747, the book is, “Spiritual Israel”, again, 1-800-835-6747. Our next caller is Robert, and he is calling from Indiana. Robert, you’re on the program.
Robert: Hello, good evening Doug.
Pastor Doug: Evening, how are you?
Robert: its fine, it’s glad to have you back from Australia.
Pastor Doug: Well thank you. Matter a fact, since then, I’m back from England to. (Laughing)
Robert: You’ve been to England as well?
Pastor Doug: Yeah, Pastor Ross and I were both in England, but you’d probably didn’t miss us, because I think they stuck in a rerun for that, one weekend we were gone.
Robert: I miss you on (Inaudible 22:11) study hour.
Pastor Doug: Well bless your heart, you knew I was gone then.
Robert: Yes. My questions about Revelation 14:8.
Pastor Doug: Okay.
Robert: And particular on the last part of the verse. Well I’ll just read in all to you, “And there followed another angel, saying, Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she made all the nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication”. My question is about that phrase, what do you think wine of the wrath of her fornication means?
Pastor Doug: If you go to Revelation 17, it talks about, “A woman who’s got a name on her forehead that says Babylon, and in her had is a golden cup, and it says, she’s made the kings of the earth drunk”, so this wine is obviously fermented wine. If the wine that Jesus gave the disciples at the last supper, He said, “This is my blood, and it represents the New Testament”, and He indicated it was new wine, because when Christ gave it to him, He gave them unlamented bread and He gave them, He said, “I will not drink this wine with you again, until I drink it new in my Father’s kingdom”. And so, then the wine of Babylon is the opposite of that, it’s intoxicating. The New wine, Jesus said, “You don’t put new wine in old wine skins”, the gospel of Christ is compared to the new wine. The pagan and false religions, what they have is the intoxicating old wine, people are drunk on the theology of things that just aren’t biblical but it’s very appealing to the carnal nature. And so, the wine of Babylon represents the false teachings of this false system. Is that the way you understand it?
Pastor Jëan Ross: Yeah, and also…
Robert: it has wrath in there, it has the word “wrath”, and in Revelation 14:10, we have the wine of the wrath of God, which we know is punishment.
Pastor Doug: Yeah.
Robert: So it looks like 14:18 is talking about, or 14:8 is talking about, “Punishment” there because of the word wrath is in there.
Pastor Jëan Ross: Well also, just to add to that last phrase, its talking about, “The wine of the wrath of her fornication”. Now in Revelation 17, as Pastor Doug mentioned, Babylon is described as a woman, in scripture, a woman represents a “church”, a pure woman represent “the true church”, an impure woman represents, “The church that has fallen from the choose of God’s word”. This entity that’s described as Babylon, instead of relying upon Christ, she is forming an alliance with the political entities in the earth ti enforce her wine, her false doctrine and teaching. And in that sense it says, “She’s fallen”.
Robert: Yes, I know some of her…
Pastor Doug: Right. You know, we actually have a book that we can send you, dealing with that, it’s called, “The Beast, the Dragon, and the Woman”, and it talks about this “wine of the wrath of God, as well as the false wine, or the intoxicating wine of Babylon”. And we have that lesson called, “The Other Women”.
Pastor Jëan Ross: “The Other Woman” who can also… And by the way, those of you who are listening, we would encourage you to call and ask for these resources. Pastor Doug, these resources don’t hold anything back, they’re very clear, they’re very pointed, and so if you’d like to know who Babylon is and what does it mean and Revelation speaks about it. Call for this free resource, 1-800-835-6747, we have 2 that we can give you. The one is a study guide called, “The Other Woman”, and then 2nd resource is a book called, “The Beast, the Dragon, and the Woman”, and we’ll be happy to send that out to you.
Pastor Doug: I think we can sneak in a 3 minute call before our break?
Pastor Jëan Ross: Alright, Frank is calling from Pennsylvania. Frank, welcome to the program.
Frank: Yeah.
Pastor Doug: And your question brother?
Frank: Yeah, I’ve got a question about Revelation chapter 9, the Lupus that it talks about.
Pastor Doug: Are you wondering what are they?
Frank: Yeah, if that’s literal, if that’s actually Lupus that is one of the plagues.
Pastor Doug: Most of the Bible scholars that are what we call “Historists”, there’s 3 ways that Revelation has kind of approached, some are what they call, “Preterist” , they think everything in Revelation is in the past. Then you got “Historists” that believe that Revelation, and that’s where, I think Pastor Ross and I are, we believe, “Revelation sort of covers the panorama of the history of the church”. Then you’ve got “futurist”, they sort of put… that’s where, you know, Tim Lahaye and Benny Hinn are, they put all of Revelation in the future, or most of it. The Historist view of Revelation 9, is this is the, this is the spread of Islam, they kind of came and they swept across many of the Christian countries, up into Spain and across much of Europe, they said “they were like a plague of Lupus”. And so, they use this terminology, and when they talked about stings, when fire coming out of their mouths. The Muslims had rifles with gunpowder they introduced it to Europe, even before it came from Marco Polo and the Chinese. And so a lot of scholars believe, this plague was the spread of Islam that was a scourge for the dark ages of Christianity. Basically, they were being afflicted God was afflicting them through this power.
Pastor Jëan Ross: And the time frame that’s often connected with this is around the 8th century. We have then Muslim Arabs that expanded across North Africa, the near East, and Spain.
Pastor Doug: I hope that helps a little. You know, you’ve asked a question that a big study, that whole chapter there in Revelation Frank. And we do have a website that I’d like to tell our friends, someone just asked about Babylon. You go to “Bibleprophecytruth.com, Bibleprophecytruth, one word. Com”. You’ll see Babylon you’ll see Bible studies on these advance subjects in prophecy. And what we do during the broadcast here is we just take a little 3 minute kind of overviews of what some of these big questions are. We don’t mean to insult the depth of the question but it’s hard to do it just as sometimes in 3 minutes so we direct people to these websites where there is just a lot more depth of information. And if you’ve not been there before friends, you owe it to yourself. It’s a brand new website that is becoming very popular, I think it’s one of our most popular, “Bibleprophecytruth.com”. Our program is not over, we’ve got more Bible question on the way, if you’re on the line stay tuned, we’ll be getting to you in just a few moments, be right back.
[COMMERCIAL BREAK]
Pastor Doug: Hello listening friends, if you’ve tuned in, we are doing Bible Answers live. And you’ve joined us along the way we invite you to call in with your Bible questions. That’s 1-800-GOD-SAYS, 1-800-463-7297. And before we go back to the phones Pastor Ross, we’ve had a busy fall,
Pastor Jëan Ross: We have.
Pastor Doug: with this special emphasis dealing with reaching… people always think you’re going to say, “We’re going to some tropical jungle or we’re going to some primitive people”, but we went to… we did a little mission work in English speaking countries. English is the number 1 language around the world, and so this last 3 or 4 month, Amazing Facts had an “English evangelism emphasis”. And it’s really appropriate, because, for instance, you and I were in England a few weeks ago, that used to be the fountain of mission work around the world, and now, many respects England is become an atheist country. And so, boy if the natives were ever restless, they’re restless in England now, they really need the gospel. We went to Canada, we went to Australia, and of course North America. You’re from South Africa, and they’re still getting our broadcast there as well, and English is the primary language there. So we’ve been really doing a blitz Craig, trying to reach into Tasmania, New Zealand, India, a lot of these English speaking countries around the world, with the gospel, and we’ve just had phenomenal results. And one reason I tell you that, is just you know, I think we’ve been pretty faithful through the year friends, you know, a lot of radio and television programs that spend 10 minutes talking about the word of God, and then they’ll spend the remainder of the program 25 minutes or 20 minutes, begging for money. And we don’t do that, we really do like to direct the lion share of our broadcast time to feeding people on the word, but here we are end of the year, and we’re having the same struggles that a lot of people are having, businesses and ministries financially. Except Amazing Facts has no, we don’t get any subsidy from any denomination or any corporation, we are entirely 100% supported month by month from people just like you people who are listening, that say, “You know, this program really feeds my soul, I’d like to help them keep doing it”. And if people don’t think that way and if they’re not moved by the Spirit to say, “I’m going to do something, I’m going to take action, I’m going to make a note right now”, then these programs go off the air. And we’d like to encourage you to think about Amazing Facts, and pray if you could do something, we’ll accept anything. If you send a dollar, on up, if you’re Bill gates, we’ll take anything on up, to help us stay on the air friends. We’d also we just like to hear from you, it’s wonderful to meet the people who are listening. And so would you take a moment right now? All you’ve got to do is just jolt down our e-mail address, and you can contact us online, or you can call us during the week, and that address is “Amazingfacts.org”, just type in the word “Amazing facts”. If you go to Google, you type in “Amazing Facts”, we’re at the top of the list there, “Amazingfacts.org”, and then you’ll see where it says contact us or donate.
Pastor Jëan Ross: You know Pastor Doug, you mentioned that we just got back from England, which we did just a few weeks ago, and you did a revival series there and we’ve had a tremendous responds about that revival series. Those who are listening, if you would like to find out more about that series that was done, we do have a DVD set that I believe should be available for purchase in the next 4 or 5 weeks, you can go to the Amazing Facts website, and it’s entitled, “Streams of Light”, that was the series name, and click on the link that you’ll see on the website, and you can find out more about that specific program.
Pastor Doug: Yeah, and if you simply go to… we don’t want to overwhelm you with websites but just go the “Amazingfacts.tv”, you can order, “Streams of Light” there, and you can even watch them, we’re very generous, we love people who download and watch things, we want to get the word out, but you can also have the high quality DVD set, and it was recorded with high definition cameras, and get a sample of what that program was right there online. So anything you can do to remember us in your yearend giving, or course we’re a non-profit organization, everything’s tax deductible, and we just would appreciate a special year prayers that we can continue doing this ministry, love to hear from you, and we’re ready to go back to the phones I think.
Pastor Jëan Ross: Alright! Next caller is Angel, and he is calling from New York. Angel, welcome to the program.
Angel: Hello?
Pastor Doug: yes angel, you’re on the air.
Angel: Hi.
Pastor Doug: Hi.
Angel: I was wondering, what does Matthew 12:31-32 means?
Pastor Doug: Matthew 12:31-32?
Angel: Yeah.
Pastor Doug: Let’s go that, that’s the passage dealing with blasphemy against the Holy Spirit
Angel: Yeah.
Pastor Doug: or the unpardonable sin. Do you have that there Pastor Ross?
Pastor Jëan Ross: Yes.
Pastor Doug: Want to read it?
Pastor Jëan Ross: Matthew 12:31, “Wherefore I say unto you, all manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto man: but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto man. And whosoever shall speaketh the word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him: but whosoever shall speaketh against the Holy Spirit, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the world to come”.
Pastor Doug: Now, are you wanting us to explain what is that sin?
Angel: Yes.
Pastor Doug: People often read that and they think of the most horrific sin they can think of, and they say, “Well that must be, maybe it’s if you kill your parents, or all heaven forbid if you should kill you child, that would be the unforgivable sin”, And as appalling as all of that would be, there are people in the Bible who actually even kill their children and God forgave them. The unpardonable sin is really the sin of grieving away the Holy Spirit by continually resisting the Holy Spirit. And so, when the Holy Spirit brings us light and we’re convicted, and we understand God’s will. If we continue to plug our ears… it’s like a person who lives by the railroad track, pretty soon they don’t hear the train anymore, or it’s like someone who keeps hitting the snooze button on their alarm clock. Some teenagers get to the place where the alarm can be ringing full blast right by their head and they’re snoring through the whole thing. If a person grieves away the Holy Spirit, by ignoring the voice of the Holy Spirit, they can get to the place where they do not hear the Holy Spirit leading them to repent and they cannot be forgiven if they cannot repent. So they have committed the unpardonable sin by resisting the Holy Spirit. Does that make sense?
Angel: Yeah.
Pastor Doug: And we have a free book we’ll send you on that if you’d like, I believe that book is called, “The Unpardonable Sin”. And
Angel: Yeah, okay.
Pastor Doug: The sin that God cannot forgive and we’ll send you a free copy of that if you’d like, would you like that Angel?
Angel: Yes, (inaudible 37:39-37:41).
Pastor Doug: Say that one more time?
Angel: (Inaudible 37:43-37:45)
Pastor Doug: No, you don’t need to give us your address, you call this number we’re going to give you and they’ll send… you give them your address and they’ll send it to you. Okay? It’s a toll free number.
Pastor Jëan Ross: Let me give you the number make sure you write this down 1-800-835-6747. Let me repeat it, 1-800-835-6747, ask for the book dealing with the unpardonable sin or the sin of blasphemy, and we’ll be happy to send that out. Our next caller is Rider calling from New Jersey. Rider, welcome to the program.
Rider: Hi, can you hear me?
Pastor Doug: Yes. Hi Rider, welcome.
Rider: Good evening. 1st of all, I’d like to just say that we just watched the Cosmic Conflict video.
Pastor Doug: Wonderful!
Rider: Yeah, God bless for that beautiful work.
Pastor Doug: Well thank you and be praying for us, we’re working on a part 2 of that now.
Rider: Yeah, we’ll thirst for more, definitely. My questions about 1st Samuel 16:23.
Pastor Doug: 1st Samuel 16:23. You want to read that Pastor Ross or…
Pastor Jëan Ross: “And it came to pass, when the evil spirit from God was upon Saul, that David took a harp, and play with his hand: so Saul was refreshed, and was well, and the evil spirit departed from him.”
Pastor Doug: And you’re wondering, “Why would God send an evil spirit”?
Rider: Absolutely. I heard this in a sermon and I was like very puzzled, very puzzled.
Pastor Doug: Well some of this confusion comes in from the way the Hebrews talked about the power of God. Have you ever read the book Job?
Rider: I…
Pastor Doug: in the book Job… we’ll give you a quick overview. It talks about, “The devil approaching Job, and the devil want’s to tempt job, or the devil approaches God, and he wants to tempt Job, and the devil can’t get to Job unless God removes some of the angelic protection, his hedge of angels that God has blessing and protecting Job”. And so, when God allows the devil to get through the force field of angels or protection that He has around all of us, some might say, “Well the Lord allowed this angel to come, or the Lord sent this evil spirit”. Well God doesn’t send evil, the Bible says, “Every good and perfect gift comes from God, in the book of James”. So, but what God does sometimes, is He will back away, and He will loosen the leash on the devil or one of His spirits. So when Saul rejected God’s Spirit, King Saul rejected the Spirit of the Lord. The angels backed away from Saul, the evil spirit came. You see how... So, but in the terminology of the Jews, they said, “The Lord sent an evil spirit”, what they’re really saying is that, “God’s protection was withdrawn from Saul, and the Lord allowed then an evil spirit to come because Saul had rejected God’s protection”.
Rider: I have another question does the translation seem to be true to the Hebrew?
Pastor Doug: You mean, of what I just described? No, I think, if you’re going to transliterate this verse, it’s going to sound very much, we can even look at it online here. It’s going to sound very much like what you find in the King James. I don’t know if Pastor Ross has his e-sword open, it’s got an interlinear on it. But I think you’re going to find you’re going to read…
Pastor Jëan Ross: It is very close to…
Pastor Doug: you’re going to read very much like the King James or the New King James version.
Pastor Jëan Ross: You also can recall the story with Moses and Pharaoh, where it talks about “God hardening Pharaoh’s heart”
Rider: Yes.
Pastor Jëan Ross: Again, that was not God purposely wanting Pharaoh to rebel, after all, God was coming, and asking, or telling Pharaoh, “to let my people go”, and then He hardens his heart. The promptings of the Holy Spirit was rejected by Pharaoh, thus hardening his heart, and I think the same is true here of Saul. Saul rejected God, and as a result, these evil spirits came in and took the place of the Holy Spirit.
Pastor Doug: Yes.
Rider: So you’re referring to Saul rejected God in what passage should I be looking back to read this?
Pastor Doug: When Saul rejected the Lord? Well Samuel the prophet came to Saul and told him what to do, and Saul completely disobeyed. And Samuel said, “The Lord is departing from you, He’s taking the kingdom from you”. And that’s where his depression, the spirit of depression came on Saul, is when he knew that he had just kept doing things his own way, until finally Samuel the prophet came, and said, “You’ll no longer be king”. That’s just a couple of chapters earlier in Samuel, if you’ve been reading through Samuel, you come to that.
Rider: I see.
Pastor Doug: And I’m looking right now in the Hebrew, on the verse that we’re looking at. And let’s see here, “it came to pass, that when the evil spirit from God”, yeah, it’s very much even in the Hebrew it comes out like you find it translated.
Rider: okay, very good. I was very puzzled by that, thank you for the explanation.
Pastor Doug: Yeah, God is good. Just remember, it says, “Every good and perfect gift comes from God”. And then again, the Bible says, “God cannot be tempted with evil neither does He tempt any man”. That’s also in the book of James.
Rider: Amen.
Pastor Doug: So, you know, God would not send temptation. Hey thanks, I appreciate your question Rider.
Pastor Jëan Ross: Next caller is Sharon, and she is calling from Pennsylvania. Sharon, welcome to Bible Answers.
Sharon: Hello, how are you?
Pastor Doug: Very well! How can we help you tonight?
Sharon: I have a question. I was always thought that, growing up, “that your, when you die, your spirit goes straight to heaven”. And what I’ve been listening to on your show and from what I’m reading, I’m, kind of understanding… correct me if I’m wrong, I’m kind of understanding that the souls are engraved until the 2nd coming, am I getting that right?
Pastor Doug: Yes, but let me say something that will help everybody listening. There’s a great misunderstanding about what happens to a believer when they die. A lot of this misunderstanding is based upon understanding the dimension of time. For a believer when they die. They’re next conscious thought is the resurrection, and being in God’s presence. It doesn’t happen with the time here on earth right away because 1st of all, we know the judgments still in the future,
Sharon: Right.
Pastor Doug: the resurrections in the future,
Sharon: Right.
Pastor Doug: so the idea that “We die and go right to heaven or hell before judgment and the resurrection” there’s real problems with that. I mean, that would be god punishing people before they’re judged, that seems pretty backwards for God.
Sharon: Alright.
Pastor Doug: So Jesus is very clear, when Lazarus died he was dead for 4 days. He said, “My friend Lazarus is asleep”, Jesus woke him up, He made no comment about, “Well I was up in heaven or I was down in hell” and you brought me back. There’s about a dozen resurrections in the Bible, I forget, it’s like 12 to 14 resurrections. None of the people ever resurrected in the Bible, even comment on having any conscious experience while they were died. So it’s safe to assume “for them it was a sleep”.
Sharon: Right.
Pastor Doug: And that’s why Paul says, “To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord”. If you die and you’re saved, your next conscious thought is the resurrection. Well another example of this would be in Acts chapter 2, King David is dead, he’s been dead a thousand years by the time Peter preaches, “This is good King David”. And Peter says, “Let me freely speak to you brethren, regarding the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried”, a few verses later, it says, “David has not ascended to heaven”. So I mean, it’s like a dictionary definition, he says, “he’s both dead, he’s buried, he’s not ascended to heaven”, and when David died, it says, “He slept with his father’s”. So David’s still asleep, it’s been 3000 years now. But not for David, for David there’s no consciousness of time because, you know, God is not confined to time like we are, the next conscious though for David, “He comes out of his grave, he got a glorified body, and he meets Jesus in the air”. And then you go to 1st Thessalonians chapter 4, when it says, “The dead in Christ, when Christ comes, they’ll rise 1st, when He comes they rise”. So how can they rise when He comes if they’re risen already?
Sharon: Right. That’s why I was confused.
Pastor Doug: So there’s a lot of confusion. And you know, all you’ve got to do is walk through the typical Christian graveyard. Pastor Ross and I were in an English graveyard a couple weeks ago, and it was very interesting, we saw some old tombstones. The inscriptions on the tombstones depicted the confusion in even the same church graveyard. Some will say, “Sleeping in Jesus”, some will say, “Walking on golden streets, singing with the angels”, there’s going like, “where are they?” And so it’s just understanding, they sleep until the 2nd coming, but they have no consciousness of that.
Sharon: right.
Pastor Doug: Their next thought is the presence of the Lord. So for people who say, “Well, my loved one that’s died, you mean to tell me, that all this time I’ve been thinking that they’re in the Lord’s presence and they’re not?” Well they are, as far as they’re concerned, because that’s their next thought,
Sharon: Right.
Pastor Doug: But the resurrection hasn’t happened because the Lord says, “We will be caught up together with them”. So we’ll get to enjoy that 1st glimpse of Jesus together, it’s wonderful.
Sharon: I can’t wait. (Laughing)
Pastor Doug: Yeah, no, we’ve got a special book on this, Pastor…
Pastor Jëan Ross: We do, we got a study guide dealing with this subject called, “Are the Dead Really Dead?” But we also have a website
Pastor Doug: Oh yes.
Pastor Jëan Ross: if you want to go take a look at it, called, “Truthaboutdeath.com, Truthaboutdeath.com”, and it deals with a number of verses that talk about the subject, it also gives you a little bit of the history of where the popular thought has come from, “that when a person dies, he goes straight to heaven or hell”, very interesting website, “Truthaboutdeath.com”. If you’d like to get that study guide, its 1-800-835-6747, and just ask for the study guide called, “Are the Dead Really Dead?” And we’ll send that right out to you. Our next caller is Lavern, and she is calling from Florida. Lavern, welcome to the program.
Pastor Doug: Hi Lavern, you’re on the air.
Lavern: Hello?
Pastor Doug: Yes? From Port Saint Lucy Florida.
Lavern: Okay, my name is Lavern.
Pastor Doug: And your question?
Lavern: My question is in Matthew the 15th chapter and the 22nd verse, actually it’s the 22nd through the 28th, and I’m just concerned about the comment that Jesus made to the Canaan woman.
Pastor Doug: Yes.
Lavern: Actually, at 1st, it seemed like He kind of ignored her, and then He said, “I am not but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel”.
Pastor Doug: Yes.
Lavern: And I was just, I was hoping that you could, kind of explain that a little bit, what did He mean by that?
Pastor Doug: Yeah. I’ll do my best. This is a story where this Canaanite woman, she’s a non-Jew who live up by tire. And as Jesus and the disciples, they were up in that country trying to get some rest from the crowds. This woman knows she recognizes who Jesus is, she’s got a daughter who’s vexed with the devil, she begins to follow and pled with Jesus, and say, “Oh Lord please have mercy on me, help my daughter, she’s vexed with the devil”. And the disciples say, they thought that the Gentiles were all unclean, and they says, “Master, send her away, she won’t listen to us, tell her to go away”. He then does something to test the disciples and to test her faith. He answers her the way the Jews would have done it. He says, “It’s not fair for me to take the children’s food and give it to the dogs”. Now 1st He says, “I’m not sent unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel”, and that’s true, because Christ and the apostles 1st they were committed to finishing the presentation of the Messiah to the Jewish people, that the Jews then might take it to the world. Even Christ, when He rose from the dead, he told the disciples, “Don’t go in the way the Gentiles go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel”. And then the Jews were to take the gospel to the Gentiles. But Jesus helped everybody that came to Him, I mean, God healed Naaman the Leper, and he was Assyrian. And Elijah, I get Elisha and Elijah mixed up… Elijah raised a boy to life of a Canaanite woman about a thousand years before this, 500 years earlier. And so He answers her like this and then she continues to pled with him and says, “Yes, but even the dogs eat the crumbs”, He says, “Great is your faith oh woman, be it unto you as you said”, and her daughter was healed. So Jesus, really was showing the disciples how they sounded, but how they should act towards Gentiles.
Sharon: (inaudible 50:33)
Pastor Doug: By answering her prayer, He
Sharon: Okay.
Pastor Doug: showed that He should, that they should love them, and they should listen to them, and HE was just testing her faith.
Sharon: Okay (Inaudible 50:45).
Pastor Doug: Yeah. So, you know, I’ve actually got a sermon I did on that subject, that I think is online, and it talks about, “The Silence of God”, because when this woman was 1st pleading after Him, He didn’t answer her, and some people wonder, “Why am I praying, I’m getting silence?” And there’s a message, I think you can find it at the Amazing Facts website under our media section called, “The Silence of God”, and I preached specifically on this message Lavern, and maybe that will help. Thank you for your question tonight.
Pastor Jëan Ross: Next caller is Peter and he is calling from Little Rock Arkansas. Peter, welcome to the program.
Peter: Hi, how are you?
Pastor Doug: Doing well.
Peter: You know what? I had a question about… I’ve been a Christian for about, well since 2000 you know, but I’m not like a great Christian or nothing, you know, and but I was in like a Christian discipleship type of program for like 5 years, so I learned the Bible verses that were picked, but one thing I didn’t learn was “how to live when I got out”. And you know, I’ve had a, I don’t feel like, I don’t feel like I’m filled with the Holy Ghost, you know, I don’t feel like that, I don’t feel like my fruits are too good, you know, and I’m not, you know, I’m more along lines of, you know, like what Paul says, you know, “The things I do, that I don’t want to do, and all that kind of thing”, you know, and I want to get back.
Pastor Doug: Right.
Peter: I’ve repented, I’ve repented, and it seems like I just repent over the same stuff.
Pastor Doug: Yeah.
Peter: You know, and it’s like, it’s just kind of a brutal, you know…
Pastor Doug: You know Peter? There’s a lot of people who will resonate with what you’re staying right now, it’s a very important question, 1st of all, “How are you filled with the Holy Spirit?” I may be ought to back up and say, “What do you do if you keep making the same mistake and you keep falling and slipping”, don’t get discouraged, Jesus cast 7 devils out of Mary Magdalen,
Peter: Yeah.
Pastor Doug: And we’re lead to believe, “that means, she kept falling back and He kept forgiving her”.
Peter: Yeah.
Pastor Doug: It wasn’t 7 all at one time necessarily. And Peter, you know, not only did he continually put his foot in his mouth, he denied Jesus 3 times and then God forgave him, and then later Paul had to rebuke Peter because he was again compromising,
Peter: Yes.
Pastor Doug: that’s in the book of Galatians. So don’t get discouraged if you make the same mistake. You will probably get tired of asking God for forgiveness quicker than God will get tired of forgiving you. But the danger is, if you continue to commit the same sin, your own heart can get hardened in different, because you know, after a while it’s like someone who works in a hospital emergency room, you can get numb to suffering, you can start getting numb to conviction, so it doesn’t bother you anymore.
Peter: Yes.
Pastor Doug: Now you’re…
Peter: You know what? The Lord has done some things in my life that, you know what? I mean He has taken stuff out of my life, I have been through a lot of stuff in my life, you know, like a motorcycle accident, I don’t remember anything about it, all I know is I almost died, and when I came out, I loved God, and I loved everybody. After about 3 months, my heart started hardening and stuff, I mean I have… God has done a lot of stuff in my life…
Pastor Doug: Well we’re going to run out of time Peter and I want to give you some answer real quick.
Peter: Okay.
Pastor Doug: 3 things you can do. 1 is you got to eat if you want a baby to grow, read the word every day and make sure you’re getting more of that then some of the media that comes in from the world, because some people, they’re getting a lot of empty calories from the television, and movies, and the DVD’s of the world, so feast on the word of God, spend time on prayer even if you feel like nothing’s happening, stay on your knees, talk to God, meditate on Him ,have quit time with God, listen to His voice, and then share your faith, look for an opportunity to get some Christian literature, you can check out Amazing Facts, it’s got a lot of sharing material. And when you meet people, strike up conversations and ask God to help you be a witness. If you’re the only person that knows you’re Christian, you may not be, so you want to be telling people about you faith that strengthens your relationship. The more you let God use you, the more you let god tell others about you through Him, the more inclined He is to give you His Spirit, and to give you that power. And so, say “Lord, I’m willing to be used even though I’m a weak instrument, even though I continue to fail, will you use me?” And what Jesus says, “If you follow me, I’ll teach you how to catch men”. So, and you would enjoy our free offer for tonight. Pastor Ross?
Pastor Jëan Ross: it’s called, “Teach us How to pray”, and the number is 1-800-835-6747, ask for the book, “Teach us to Pray”. Well Pastor Doug, do we have time for one more caller?
Pastor Doug: We got 2 minutes let’s see if we got a one minute question.
Pastor Jëan Ross: Let’s try and squeeze one in here. Ethan is calling from Georgia. Ethan, welcome to the program, we’ll meet your question real quick.
Ethan: Alright, I have a question on Joseph, Joseph and Mary you hear a lot about around Christmas time, but what ever happened to Joseph? You don’t hear anything after the temple and them losing Jesus at the temple, and then when Jesus dies, he says to his disciples, “to make sure you take care of Mary”.
Pastor Doug: Exactly. Good question. Most scholars agree that Joseph evidently was older than Mary and he died before Christ began his ministry because you never hear reference to Joseph again, it talks about “Mary and the brothers of Jesus coming”, but never, and he would if he was alive, he would have been mentioned 1st out of respect because it was a patriarchal society. So the only thing we can come to is hopefully he lived a full life, but somewhere between when Jesus was 12 and when Jesus was 30, when he was baptized, Joseph passed away, we trust from natural causes. And that the Bible is silent, it’s just an assumption that made but there’s good evidence for it. Now listening friends, our time is once again up, and I just want to thank you for all that you’ve done. If we didn’t get you call again tonight, give us another chance, and we’re looking now before us, at a New Year of Bible Answers Live coming up soon. If you’ve enjoyed the broadcast, we would love to hear from you, especially before the end of this year, so we can plan to stay on your station in the year ahead or years ahead. If you’d like to contact us, it means so much for us, just go to the Amazing Facts website, it’s “Amazingfacts.org”, you can click there on the “Contact us link”, and we’d make a donation right there online. Till next time friends, God bless you, Jesus is the truth that sets you free.
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