Hello friends this is Doug Batchelor, how about an amazing fact? First recorded about a hundred years ago, the mysterious sliding stones of Death Valley have been a documented fact for decades. Within the famous California desert is a dry lake bed called the Racetrack Playa that measures about 2 and a half miles long and a mile wide. Scattered across the mosaic of cracked clay on this flat lake bed are hundreds of stones in various sizes. No big deal right? The amazing thing is that many of these stones have long tracks behind them where they’ve obviously been moved. Now you need to picture, that some of these sliding stones weight hundreds of pounds. Additionally, some of the trails left by the roaming rocks are hundreds of yards long. Some stones make straight tracks, others make ovular 90 degree turns, while still others create wavy shaped trails. How can a stone that weights more than 500 pounds drag itself across flat ground?
For nearly a century, many geologists have studied and mapped the drifting stones in Death Valley and it’s become quite a puzzle. As the years progressed, each stone takes on its own different path. Some of the mysterious migrating stones even slide uphill. It seems now there’s a plausible theory that has solved the amazing mystery. Occasionally, winter rains will fill the lake with a foot or so of water that freezes. As the edges of the shallow lake (inaudible)… I guess the waters up against these minerals that works like (inaudible) freeze… the giant floating ice pancake in the middle, can get pushed around by the hurricane force winds that are common in this valley. Rocks captured in this layer of ice are pushed along with this frozen mass, gouging trails in the sleek clay below. Of course, when the ice melts, all you see are the rocks and the trails. Still, nobody has ever seen the rocks move nor do people know how fast they go. You know, Jesus said that He was going to build His church on an immovable rock. Stay with us friends, we’re going to learn more as “Amazing Facts” bring you this edition of “Bible Answers Live”.
[PROGRAM INTRODUCTION]
Pastor Doug: We do have lines open. That number one more time is 1-800-463-7297. If you call, you’re probably going to get… I hope you get an answer machine, but it’ll be a bible answer machine so give us a call. If you’ve got bible questions, that’s the number 1-800-463-7297. And my name is Doug Batchelor and I am flying solo tonight, of course we got our engineering team and our callers in the other side of the glass, but Pastor Ross right now is in Africa speaking this weekend and, but we’d love to talk with you, we are live, and if you’ve got your bible question and you call now, there’s a good chance that you’ll get on this evenings broadcast. As always, we’re going to begin with a word of prayer. Loving Lord, we’re very thankful for the truth that you’re word does set us free. We’re thankful Lord, for the power and in word to transform lives, and we pray that, that power will be heard and sensed tonight during this broadcast. So please meet with us Lord and we pray that all things done here will expand your kingdom and bring glory to your name, in Jesus name we ask, amen.
Well listening friends, I don’t know about you but I was very interested to… and you know, really, this amazing fact is something that needs pictures but if you can picture this dry cracked lake bed freckled here and there with these large stones that have tumbled of the jagged mountains surrounding this valley. And stones laying out in this lake bed have got trails behind them, where it looks like they’ve been dragged by some magnetic force, sometimes hundreds of feet, or even a thousand feet, and there’s no footprints in the sand. It’s not like these crop circles, it was proven that this was a natural phenomenon, but nobody was exactly sure how it was happening. Well, as I mentioned in the fact, it evidently was happening in the cold stormy part of the winter, when nobody was in that valley and these ice sheets were dragging the stones across the lake bed. It made me think of that passage in the bible in Matthew 16, verse 18, where Jesus said, “I say unto you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church and the gates of hades will not prevail against it”. Now the word Peter, this is one of the place Jesus is doing a play of words. The name Peter means, “A stone that you could put in a sling and throw”. So He says, “You are Petrous, but on this Petras”, which is a rock of immense proportions, like Josemity, or the Prudential rock, or the rock of Gerblouter. On the rock of Peter’s declaration, that Jesus is the Christ, Christ said, “I will build my church on that rock”.
You know, there are so many different churches in the world today. Not to mention, how many different religions there are in the world today. How can you know? If you’re a bible believing Christian, how do you know, how do you pick a church? So many people pick their church based on, well “it’s where my family went, it’s close to our house, I like the music, the pastor is charismatic, they’ve got a good children program, the people are friendly”, and all of those things are great but none of those are actually the right reason to pick the church. The primary reason to pick a church is because the foundational teachings of that church are based on the word of God. Now we’ve got a special offer we’d like to send you tonight, to know what are the biblical criteria for finding the church of Christ, and I’m not talking about a denominational name right now but how would Jesus identify His people? Does it make a difference, what church you belong to? A lot of questions on this subject, if you’d like that free offer, it’s called “The Bride of Christ”. We’ll send it to you for free. Illustrated study guide using scripture from cover to cover that helps us understand the subject, “how do you pick a church and does it matter?” Once again, it’s called, “The Bride of Christ”. Now here’s the number, its 1-800-835-6747 and I hope you heard that we said we’re going to send that to you free, just pick up your phone and call right now while you’re thinking about it. Its 1-800-835-6747, if you are a believer, a few things could be more important than knowing why you go to church, where you go to church, and just having security about that decision.
Well, you know? Having said that, I think we can go… oh yeah, one more thing I wanted to mention. We have a new Amazing Fact internet item, anybody out there that has an iPhone, and I guess there’s millions of them out there. Amazing Facts has just developed a new application for the iPhone, I wanted to tell you about that, and if you simply go, if you type in to the app store, “Amazing Facts”, it’ll take you to this free application where you can get all 27 of the Amazing Facts study guides and listen to the radio programs, television programs, search the internet, the Amazing Facts website. You just go to the app store, you type in “Afmobile”. You go to the application store, you type in “Afmobile” and it’s free. Once again, so much of what we do here, we’re getting the message out, we’re giving it away. Alright, time to go to the phones and I always need a little extra prayer for coordination as I do this without Pastor Ross here, so I’m going to talk to Nashae, who’s calling from Orlando Florida, and your question Nashae?
Nashae: Hi, I was calling to find out, when Christ entered the most holy place?
Pastor Doug: Well, if you read in your bible, when Jesus 1st ascended to heaven, He was enthroned at the right hand of the father, and if you read in Hebrews chapter, let me see, 7, 8, 9, there’s quite a few references to that, that means “He was enthroned”. Now Christ is a king and Christ is a priest, you still with me? 2 different things, Christ received His kingdom He went to the presence of the Father right when He ascended to heaven, but He didn’t stay there. Remember, Mary grabbed Him by the feet when He 1st rose from the dead, and He said “Do not cling to me”. I think the King James Version says, “Do not touch me”, but it really means, “Do not hang on to me for I have not yet ascended to my Father in heaven”. So Jesus ascended that same Sunday that He rose. He was declared victorious, His sacrifice was sufficient and He was throned next to the Father, and Father obviously is in the very core of the universe, the holy of holies. Then Jesus came back to earth, He met with the disciples over a period of 40 days, just before, about 10 days before Pentecost… The word Pentecost means “50”, so He met for 40 days, then He ascends to heaven, and He now begins His work as our High Priest. He continued to work in the 1st apartment… you know, the temple, there was like the daily work that was done by the priest… And then Christ entered in the last phase of His work as our High Priest. And we believe that was 1844, that’s when you enter the church, the age of Laodicea, which is the last age of the church you read about in Revelation chapter 3, and you’ll also find a time prophecy that leads up to that, in Daniel chapter 8.
Now I just gave you a lot of information, I hope some of it made sense.
Nashae: (laughing) some of it did.
Pastor Doug: You know, we have a study guide on that. Would you like the free study guide that has the prophecies that talk about the cleansing of the sanctuary?
Nashae: Yes, because I understood about the cleansing of the sanctuary but I just didn’t understand what Christ was doing from the time that He ascended until 1844.
Pastor Doug: Well it tells us that Jesus is… He ever lives to make intersession for us, He is our high priest, and if you call, what we’ll do is, we’ll send you, there’s a study guide that’s called “Right on Time”, “Right on Time”, and it talks about that prophecy… you know, for a matter a fact, we’ve also got the study guide called, “God Drew the Plans”, talks about the sanctuary. You can ask for either of those, call the resource number 1-800-835 Nashae, and that’s 6747. And we’ll send you those for free. Hey appreciate your call but now we are going to jump over and talk to Sandy, who’s calling from Illinois. Sandy you’re on the air and you’re calling from WVQN.
Sandy: Yeah, WDQN.
Pastor Doug: Oh I’m sorry.
Sandy: No that’s okay it was just an (inaudible 12:15). Could you please explain and expand on how Joseph, through all of that waiting, he was able to keep his faith and stay faithful and positively?
Pastor Doug: Well, I think for the big picture, Joseph did stay faithful and positive. I would be surprised if he didn’t have episodes of discouragement and depression when, you know, you’re been sold by your family and then you’ve been falsely accused by your boss and end up in prison. But I think he was sustained by faith. God had given Joseph some dreams, that He had a big plan for his life. When he was young, remember he shared those dreams with his brothers, they didn’t appreciate it. But I think he was sustained by the presence of God and by faith, I think Joseph probably spent a lot of time in prayer. Keep in mind, even after working for Potiphar for years when he was tempted to sin, he said “How can I do this thing and sin against God?” His concern was not even sinning against Potiphar or his wife, it was God. He lived in a very close relationship with God, so I think Joseph was a man of prayer. And that’s what sustained him, prayer and faith.
Sandy: Thank you.
Pastor Doug: So, and all of us, we tend to go through dark trials sometimes, and that’s what gets us through.
Well thank you for your question, appreciate that Sandy. Going to go now and talk to Bethany who is calling from Brizman Australia. Bless your heart Bethany, where that would be an expensive phone call, can you hear us Bethany?
Bethany: (Chuckles) I can hear you.
Pastor Doug: And your question?
Bethany: Okay, my question is based on the human nature of Christ, and what I’m specifically asking, is I understand He came in human flesh, He was incarnated, and I understand that Hebrews, in the book of Hebrews it says that “(inaudible 14:13) to be made like unto His brethren”. My question is, did Christ come like… I know He was in human flesh but was He totally striped of His divinity? And what I mean by that, for example, like the feeding of the 5000 and the 4000 and the different miracles He brought, where there times when He used His divine powers or was that all totally dependent on the Holy Spirit? I don’t know if you get what I’m saying but I want to know, was He totally striped of His divinity. I mean, I understand it was veiled, was veiled
Pastor Doug: Right.
Bethany: but was it, did He chose to use it when he needed to use it or not?
Pastor Doug: Alright, that’s a good question, and you know, even before I answer, because you’re calling all the way from Australia, I don’t want to lose you. We have a free book that you can read in our website, and it’s called, “Christ’s Human Nature”, “Christ Human Nature”. We’d be happy to send it to you but I think you can download it and read it a lot quicker then we can mail it across the Pacific. But a quick answer, I don’t believe Jesus ever used any divine power for a miracle that is not also available to every believer. Now an example would be, we talked about the multiplying of the bread. You know, Jesus is not the 1st one to do that. if you read in 2nd Kings, the miracles of Elijah, Elijah also multiplied bread on I think 2 different occasion. One’s he healed some soup or stew they had made, and the other time, he did multiply bread. But, so Jesus said, “These miracle that I have done, greater things than these will you do because I go to the Father”. So when Jesus came to earth… and we’re always threading on holy ground Bethany because, you know, obviously there was something different about Jesus in that, He never sinned, and every other man will be born does. But He did not overcome with anything that is not available to each one of us. So I do believe that Christ came into our world with the fallen physical characteristics that every child of Adam has, that’s why it goes through the litany of all His ancestors before He was born. You know, obviously He looked human, He didn’t look 18 feet tall like Adam but He only used His power that was available to us as well, and He never used miraculous power to feed Himself, it was always to bless or to feed others. So does that help a little bit?
Bethany: it does, thank you so much, I appreciate that. I was really leaning a lot more to the fact that, I believe, I truly believe that He didn’t need any divine power, but yeah, I needed to get some answers (inaudible 17:16) and of course continue in searching and studying, but that makes a lot of sense now that you’re pointing me back to the old Testament for live sharing
Pastor Doug: Yeah.
Bethany: And I suppose also, with the book of Acts, the Apostle also, when they were in powered the Holy Spirit. But yeah, I really needed to understand that also stuck on it and thank you so much
Pastor Doug: You’re welcome. And do me a favour, make sure and download that book, because Joe Cruz and that book gives a lot more scriptural information then I can fit into 3 minutes.
Bethany: Okay.
Pastor Doug: You take care Bethany and thanks for calling. It’s always fun to get a call from Australia. But we’re going to go now to Idaho and talk to Robert, who’s calling from Crawford vile Idaho. Welcome Robert.
Robert: Robert from Indiana.
Pastor Doug: Oh, Indiana, okay well
Robert: Yes.
Pastor Doug: Hey I spell, I pronounce it correctly, I think our screeners typed in Idaho by accident, and your question?
Robert: God bless and good evening.
Pastor Doug: Yeah.
Robert: My question has to do with Revelation the centre of it is Revelation 17:11.
Pastor Doug: Okay.
Robert: And in connection with 2nd Thessalonians 2:8, about “each of the wicked one shall be revealed and the Lord shall consume him with the spirit at His coming”
Pastor Doug: Right, “The spirit of His mouth, the brightness of His coming”
Robert: Is that the same as the man or is the person that is the 8th, or talks about the 8th and He is?
Pastor Doug: Alright, now let me… our friends listening. You and I know what we’re talking about but our friends listening are going “what in the world are they talking about?”
In Revelation chapter 17, it identifies… I’m just sharing that there are, there’s this beast that’s got 7 heads and 10 horns, and it says, “The 7 heads in verse 9, are the 7 mountains in which the woman sits”. And then it goes on to describe these kings. It says in verse 10, “There are 7 kings, 5 are fallen, 1 is, the other is not yet come and when he comes he must continue a short space”.
Robert: Yes.
Pastor Doug: So people wonder… And then verse 11, it says, “In the beast that was not and is not even he is the 8th and is of the 7, and goes into perdition”. Alright, now very quickly, there are 5… when John had this vision, there were 5 world empires that had occupied God’s people, “The Jews”. You had Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Medo Persia, Greece. They were all in past history when John had his vision. 5 empires that were fallen, 5 are fallen. He said, “One is”, that’s an easy one to figure out, the end of the chapter says, “That woman is a great kingdom that sits over the kings of the earth”, that’s “Rome”. And then it says, “That he is also the 7th”, because Rome goes through a change, where it goes from civil Rome ruled by Caesars, to Religious Rome ruled by Popes. Now they received a deadly wound and lost their power over the European continent in about 1798, but it said, “That deadly wound would be healed”, that’s why it says, “He is also the 8th and comes back”. There’s going to be a confederacy of among some of the old reformed theology that believes there’ll be a confederacy between Protestants and the orthodox or catholic church in Europe and they’re going to form 1 world religion that claims to be Christian and compel people to worship a certain way. So I hope I, did I answer your question? You were asking about 2nd Thessalonians. Yeah, I think it’s the same power.
Robert: Yeah it’s the same power that Daniel 8:25 talks about too
Pastor Doug: Yeah, Daniel 7:25 talks about it and… in 2nd Thessalonians. Hey I hope that helps a little bit Robert, I sure appreciate your question. And we were getting into some deep theology there, and you would appreciate if you haven’t already taken a look, the advanced Amazing Facts study guides that deal with this and you could go to “Bibleuniverse.com”. Anyone out there, take a look at “Bibleuniverse.com”, and there’s free bible studies online there, where you can learn a lot about these subjects.
Going to talk next to Candice, who’s calling from Michigan, listening on WMUZ. Welcome Candice.
Candice: Hi Pastor Doug.
Pastor Doug: How can we help you tonight?
Candice: I had some questions. The 1st question me and my family was having a heated discussion actually about Jesus, His bloodline. I believe in the beginning of Matthew, it list everyone that was in His family, from the beginning, all the way until Jesus, and my brother was saying “That Mary couldn’t have a virgin birth if Joseph is Jesus’s bloodline, and Mary’s not even mentioned in His bloodline at all”. So he was saying that “if Joseph is in Jesus’s bloodline, then that’s His blood father.”
Pastor Doug: Well let me give you a couple of things to think about that might adjust that point of view a little bit. One is, if you look in Luke chapter 3, the genealogy of Luke traces Jesus through Mary’s father, it talks about Joseph’s father but it Joseph’s father in law. And it was very common to refer to a father in law as father also in the Hebrew culture. And you’ll just notice right away there’s different names and different ancestors in Luke then you’ve got in Matthew, Matthew traces it through Mary because they were both descendants of David. Luke, true to the patriarchal or rather, Luke being a physician, he doesn’t follow the patriarchal line that Matthew did he traces it through the mother. Now Jesus, certainly, if He did a DNA test, He would have had similar DNA to Mary, He came from Mary and He, you know, obviously there was a placenta attached and He was a child, He was a baby, she changed Him and feed Him and He was related. But your brother was saying, “How could Mary be a virgin if she’s conceived by the Holy Spirit?” Well, if a woman is a virgin and she’s old enough to bare children and an egg is taken, and she is artificially inseminated and she becomes pregnant. Technically, she’s still a virgin.
Candice: No, you know what? What my brother was saying, he was saying that Joseph is, if the Holy Spirit gave Mary this child to, the virgin birth and everything, and what he was saying is, “how can Joseph not be He’s real father if His mentioned in His bloodline?
Pastor Doug: Well you know, there is that… That is actually a good question because there are a number of scholars who take the verse where it says, “that Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit”, and they say, “That doesn’t necessarily mean that the Holy Spirit just miraculously spoke a sperm into existence, but what the Holy Spirit did, was miraculously conceive to Mary with Josephs seed”.
Candice: Okay.
Pastor Doug: See what I’m saying? So now the jury is out for me, I’m just telling you what some of the scholars say, because they say, “The only way that Matthew is commentary or Matthew’s chronology makes any difference, is if Joseph is in some way related to Jesus”.
Candice: Right.
Pastor Doug: So either way he was, you know, God is His Father, you know what I’m saying?
Candice: Yeah that what the council. Yes! That’s what I believe in we were just having a conflict over that. And the 2nd question… I’m always on your side, I do my bible study on your side and I love it. And I was talking to my son today, after service (inaudible 25:29), you know, he was talking about death and everything, and my son was saying, “That when you die your spirit goes somewhere, you know, either heaven or hell”, and I was telling him, “That when you die, you sleep until Christ returns, you know, the dead know nothing”. Now what do you think? I mean have that study online and everything, like I said but my son insists that your soul goes somewhere.
Pastor Doug: Well let me just tell you what Jesus said, and it’s not Pastor Doug. When Lazarus died, Jesus said to the disciples, “Lazarus sleeps and I’m going that I might wake him up”, and they didn’t understand, they said, “Well if he’s sleeping, he’s sick, he’ll feel, let him rest”, and Jesus said, “No, no Lazarus is dead”. And Jesus, when He finally goes to resurrect Lazarus, he’s been dead four days, and when Jesus wakes him up, Lazarus never comments on being brought back from heaven or up from hell or, matter a fact, all the resurrections in the bible, the most important thing that they would comment on is, “what did you see, what did you experience while you were dead?” Not a single one of those resurrected in the bible, ever makes any comment about any conscious experience while they were dead. And so, it’s safe to assume they didn’t have an experience, they were asleep. And all through the bible, even Peter says, “Let me speak to you of the patriarch David that he is dead and buried”, and then he says, “David is asleep”. So… and that’s on Acts chapter 2. So for those who died that are saved, they’re not aware of sleeping, their next conscious thought is the presence of the Lord in the resurrection, you see what I’m saying?
Candice: Yes.
Pastor Doug: God doesn’t, God’s not restricting to time like we are. In this world, we live according to this dimension of time we exist in, but the bible is very clear that the resurrection hasn’t happened yet, it’s in the future. And if people are already raised and with the Lord, why would He be resurrected? And the Judgement hasn’t happened so why would people be enjoying heaven or hell if they haven’t even gone through the judgement yet? The bibles clear, “it’s in the future”. So there’s a lot of evidence in the bible. People have misunderstood a few verses and they’ve kind of built, you know, a popular belief around it that people are, you know, are up in heaven before the resurrection and before the reward. We’re going to heaven together, the bible tells us in 1st Thessalonians chapter 4, “Together we’ll be caught up to meet Him in the air. Together we’re going to enjoy the splendours of heaven, we’re not all dragging in one by one”, it’s not like that comic where Peter’s at the gate with a key letting people in one by one after they’ve passed some kind of computer evaluation. Hey I appreciate your question Candice, we’ve just got to take a break right now and then we’re going to be going back to the phone. So don’t go away friends, we’ve got more Amazing Facts bible answers coming your way. Don’t forget to get your pencil out and write down a couple of websites that I think you’re going to enjoy. One is simply the main website were we’ve got, just a encyclopaedia of bible knowledge, and it’s called, “Amazingfacts.org”, really easy to remember, “Amazingfacts.org”. Look it up, lot of free resources there. We’ll be back in just a couple of moments, stay tuned.
[COMMERCIAL BREAK]
Pastor Doug: We’re back and we’re live friends, if you’ve got your bible question in your mind and you want to get it on the air, call now 1-800-463-7297. Now we give out another number, and that’s our resource line, because we give away a lot of free resources to help you in your personal devotions and your bible study. By the way, I want to emphasize that… let me give you the number 1st, its 1-800-835-6747 is the resource line. By the way, I was going to say, those of you who are teaching, I can’t tell you how many times people say, “You know, they love the resources because they teach a home bible study, they teach a Sabbath school or a Sunday school class and it just really organizes the material on these different doctrines, and we’d encourage you to take a look at “Amazingfacts.org”, lots of material there. But for now, we’re going to go back to the phones, and we’re going to talk next with Gloria, who’s calling from Bidwell Ohio, listening on WEMM. Welcome Gloria.
Gloria: Hello Pastor Doug.
Pastor Doug: Hi.
Gloria: I have a question regarding the term that Christians use when a loved one has died, a Christian loved one. They say, “That, that person has passed away”. And I’ve read through the bible, the only time that I see the term “passed away or pass away or passes away”, is when it’s either been a wicked person or something evil. For instance, in Psalms 37, verses 35 and 36, it says, “I have seen the wicked in great power and spreading himself like a green bay tree. Yet he passed away, and, lo, he was not: yet, I sought him but he could not be found”. And I’m wondering, why don’t bible Christians use bible terms like, “A loved one has fallen asleep in Jesus, or he’s sleeping in Jesus, or he’s resting in the grave”?
Pastor Doug: You know, that’s a good question.
Gloria: Why do they say…?
Pastor Doug: Why do they say “Passed away”?
Gloria: Yeah.
Pastor Doug: You know, no one’s ever asked that before, and I’m looking at the verses now, I looked it up and did some cross referencing, and your right! You know, 90% of the time, it’s referring to, you know, “the evil passed away”. It does also seem to indicate, it’s talking about “like vegetation fades away” and you know, it talks about, “The flower fading and the grass withers”, it passes away so to speak, but the word of God abides forever. Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, meaning “these bodies do fade and pass away”. So I wouldn’t, you know, I wouldn’t think a pastor is being theologically incorrect when he says, “Our loved one has passed away”, but your right! I’ve never looked at it that way before. And certainly, I’ve been to funerals where they do say, you know, “our loved one is now resting in the arms of Jesus, or they’re resting in peace, or they’re you know, sleeping that dreamless sleep”. So you do hear both references but that’s an interesting though, I appreciate that, I never thought of that before.
Gloria: Well thank you.
Pastor Doug: Thank you so much. See? I enjoy doing this program because sometimes I’m learning as I go I hope I’m always learning. Going to talk next with, is it Eddie calling from Brooklyn, New York, listening on WSIV? Welcome Eddie!
Eddie: Good evening Pastor Doug.
Pastor Doug: Evening.
Eddie: How are you doing?
Pastor Doug: Very well.
Eddie: Yeah. My question is today, is about the dinosaur. Where, when did the dinosaur age commence? Was it before the foundation of human kind we, we were living with these creatures?
Pastor Doug: Were you able to hear the opening Amazing Fact in the program Eddie?
Eddie: No, I don’t think so.
Pastor Doug: Okay. It’s okay! I know it’s a long program, sometimes people miss the beginning. I share an Amazing Fact about these sailing, sliding stones in Death Valley that have, kind of mystified even scientists for a hundred years, they couldn’t figure out how they were moving. Turned out to be a very simple explanation, it was just Ice was dragging them around. Well, when folks wonder about where the dinosaurs come from, and how come the dinosaurs seem to date to be older and they’re found in a different strata then humans? Actually, the dinosaurs co-existed with people. they’ve got foot prints, for instance, in the… and I’ve been there, I’ve seen them, I put my foot down next to the foot prints and took a picture of my foot next to these human footprints that are actually very large, that are in the same strata as dinosaur, they made their foot prints in the mud before it hardened or petrified thousands of years ago, but not millions of years ago. During the great flood, and the evidence for the flood is all over the world. Even Palaeontologists agree the dinosaurs were wiped out by a great flood, they just say “it was caused by an asteroid”. And because of the content of how reptiles’ bodies are made compared to mammals, they sink at a different time then mammals, mammals tend to bloat and float when they die, whereas reptiles sink. And so, as a sediment in the mud, comes in from this catastrophic flood, virtually all of the large reptiles are going to be found at a deeper level. And so the big answer for so much of the theories of evolution is “they’re dating methods are terribly flawed and, you know? Our culture has been bamboozled by a very flawed error in the dating methods of science. They’re using this radiometric isotope dating and carbon 14, and it’s been proven to be very flawed. But they’re trying to get rid of God, and the way they do it is by saying “we’ve evolved”. Dinosaurs lived contemporaneously with people.
Eddie: Okay, alright, wow.
Pastor Doug: They did. And you can find that… Matter a fact, virtually, every civilization around the world… even had a program on discovery channel about this… has stories about “dragons” they call them. And the word dinosaur means, “Thunder dragon or thunder lizard”.
Eddie: Right.
Pastor Doug: It’s, they’re just, they were big enormous reptiles. So, yeah they did, they lived. Now I heard... and you can find this, if you just search this on the internet. They found, just a few years ago, a large Tyrannosaurus Rex, and in the bone, they found a soft muscle tissue. Now according to the other theories that these are, you know, hundreds of millions of years old. There’s no way in the world there would still be soft tissue in the bone
Eddie: Right.
Pastor Doug: and they can’t explain, why this Tyrannosaurus Rex… and this is not Christian Scientist or Palaeontologists that are saying this, these are Palaeontologist that are evolutionist, that discovered it, say “We have found soft tissue in the bone”, that tells you, it is much younger then they have ever suspected.
Eddie: Really interesting.
Pastor Doug: So you know, at Amazing Facts, at the website, we do have a magazine we can’t give this away because it’s actually created by a friend of ours, it’s, talks about “dinosaurs in the bible”. But you can go to the Amazing Facts website and find out what the bible says about dinosaurs, and it’s very interesting, and it’s fully illustrated, the magazine. So if you go to the Amazing Facts website, I think you’ll find that there Eddie, but there is a small price for the magazine. Thank you very much for your question, hope that helps a little bit.
Talking next to Daven
Daven: Thank you.
Pastor Doug: calling on line 10, you’re welcome, and that’s calling from Georgia, listening on the internet. Daven, you’re on the air.
Daven: Hello?
Pastor Doug: Hi!
Daven: Hey, hi Pastor Doug, hi Pastors, Goodnight.
Pastor Doug: Good evening, how you doing?
Daven: I’m good. I’ve just wanted to ask a question about… let me see what was it, I have a specific bible verse, it’s Matthew chapter 27, verse… let me see what was it… verse 45, it talks about, it says, “Now from the 6th hour, there was darkness over all the land onto the 9th hour”. Now I’m not sure how time was told, what did the 6th hour and the 9th hour means?
Pastor Doug: Well, I think the 6th hour was… let me see if I make sure I get this right. Jesus was on the cross for 6 hours, did He die in the 9th hour? Yes. And so if you count back, I think that Christ was crucified around 9 A.M, 3 hours into His crucifixion, He says something I think He dies at 3 P.M, because it was before the Sabbath, and… or I might be getting this wrong. You know, I did a study on this one time, He was on the cross a total of 7 hours, 6 hours alive, 1 hour dead, and I’m trying to remember what the, in the Jewish reckoning, the 6th hour, I think that was what we would call, I think that’s, maybe that’s 12 noon and then 6 hours beyond that, 6 P.M, it was the 9th hour when He died, that sounds like it makes more sense to me. I’m looking through a couple of references here for you, to make sure I’m getting this right. is that what your questions about? Yeah
Daven: Yes.
Pastor Doug: The 6th hour is from noon until 3 P.M, is when he was on the cross according to “Ryrie study notes”
Daven: Okay. How do we… is that a Jewish way of telling time?
Pastor Doug: Yeah, they did it according to the watch. They had watchmen on the walls and it was divided up based on… See, Jesus said, “are there not 12 hours in the day?” And here it says, “Yeah, it was at 3 o’clock”, I’m looking at 1 translation, says “it was actually 3 o’clock when Jesus said, (Inaudible 40:56-59)”, and then He died shortly after that.
Daven: Okay.
Pastor Doug: So then they got Him off the cross about an hour after that, and they were hustling to get Him wrapped up before Sabbath and they had to stop, because by the time they got Him late away in the tomb, the sun was about down, and that’s why they came back Sunday morning. Alright, so he was crucified at 9 and He died at 3, He was on the cross 6 hours.
Daven: Okay. Where would I be able to get more information about, like…
Pastor Doug: Commentaries on that? Well are you able to access the internet?
Daven: Yeah.
Pastor Doug: Yeah, there’s a lot on there. If you, you can actually type this verse in. There’s a software that I recommend, it’s free software, and you can make a donation to help them. And it’s called, “E-Sword”, that’s “E-Sword.net”. And they’ve got a lot of commentaries that you can download for free, that have a lot of information on every verse in the bible. It’s just tremendous study resources.
Daven: Alright. Well that was my question.
Pastor Doug: Alright! Hey, well I appreciate that, I’d offer you a book on the subject but we don’t have one
Daven: (Laughing)
Pastor Doug: And thank you very much! God Bless Daven.
Alright, we’re going to go and talk to… I hope I say this right… is it Uzo in New York? Uzo? Uzo? WMCA.
Uzo: Thank you for taking my call.
Pastor Doug: Yes!
Uzo: Could you explain for the John Chapter 6, verse 63 to 69. I know it’s a long verse but possibly. Christ told his disciples that (inaudible 42:42), “Eat His flesh and drink His blood”, they have not
Pastor Doug: No life.
Uzo: No Life, yeah. And then when hey (inaudible 42:53). Christ said, “If (inaudible 42:55-43:00) nothing”.
Pastor Doug: Yes.
Uzo: Could you explain this, what is all about there?
Pastor Doug: You want to hear something interesting?
Uzo: Yes.
Pastor Doug: This is what I preached about this weekend, this very chapter, and I talked about these very verses, and so out of the thousands of verses in the bible that you could have asked me about, this is the one I studied this week. So I think that’s very interesting. Well obviously when Jesus said, “Unless you eat the flesh or drink the blood of the Son of Man”. Again for our friends, this is John 6:53. He’s not talking about cannibalism because, you know, the Lord forbids eating unclean food and humans would be unclean so He’s not endorsing cannibalism. Jesus at the Last Supper gave them bread, then He said, “This is my body” and He gave them grape juice, He said “this is my blood”. And so, He’s explaining that, “unless you take me personally into your life, my teachings, my examples, and it becomes part of you, then you cannot have eternal life”. We need to invite Christ spirit into us. Now it doesn’t matter how hungry I am, I can’t ask someone to eat something for me, I can ask him to go get lunch for me and I have to eat it. Eating is something every person must do for themselves. And so we must personally receive Christ. We must personally get to know Him through prayer and the study of His word, and that He comes to life through His word, His word quickens us, His word quickens our minds and our spirits, and it give us life through our spirit. It’s not all physical food is giving us, you know, some energy. It gives us a spiritual energy. Now you can hear the story in the bible, when Jesus spoke to the woman at the well and she accepted Him. His disciples brought Him some food and He said, “I’ve got food that you don’t know about”, and they said, “Where’d He get food?”, and He said, “My food is to do the will of God”. So when we are doing to will of Christ, we are feeding our souls. And does that make sense?
Uzo: Yes. Thank you very much. So can I ask the… by taking the communion
Pastor Doug: Yes?
Uzo: does He mean that Christ put less emphasis on it by saying that?
Pastor Doug: No. if anything, what that means is that, when Jesus talked about the communion, it increased the emphasis of His statement that we must eat His flesh and drink His blood. Every time we celebrate the Lord’s Supper, we’re reminding ourselves that we are embracing the gospel, the life, the teachings that represents the body and the blood of Jesus. The blood is the covenant that Christ made with us, the gospel. And so… hey I hope that helps a little bit Uzo. I’m going to keep moving here, and let me see here, I got, okay I’m going to talk to Robert’s calling real quick. Robert you’re on the air from Kentucky.
Robert: Good evening gentlemen, how are you doing?
Pastor Doug: Very well!
Robert: Excellent! I appreciate your program very much. My question is reference to the origin of man. I know our current species are scientifically referred to as Homo sapiens. They have this clear evidence of (inaudible 46:29) of man and who made man and yet the Spirit of God is (inaudible 46:33) Homo sapiens. So my question is, these 3 Homo sapiens species, where they sub human? How do they fit into a bible answer?
Pastor Doug: Alright. Well I would 1st, you know, let me just go on record, that I spent the 1st half of my life believing in evolution and for that matter I was probably agnostic. So since then and I’ve done a lot more study on this subject, I found there’s an incredible bias among a lot of anthropologists when it comes to studying these different early man. It seems like every few years, they need to apologize for their hypothesis on the early man, and for instance, National Geographic just released a big program… I’m sorry, it was the discovery Channel, released a big program on this, the skeleton that they claim was very old and it turns out that it was just an ancient lemur. And you know, they were thudding it as early man and it was really just a very, an ancient example of a giant lemur. But Neanderthal man, you know, there is great diversity in the world today among the different races of man. I go to some places in the world and I’m short. I go to other place in the world and I’m tall. And you might be wondering, I’m about 5’9 so I guess I’m, in America I’m below average but other parts of the world I’m above average. And the shapes and sizes of people are very unique based on, you know, how they intermarried with their clan. The Cro-Magnon and the Neanderthal that they’re claiming to find, if they are indeed even human. There’s nothing to suggest that these are sub humans. You know, when the English, under the influence of Darwin, 1st began to colonize Australia. They basically categorized the Aborigines there as sub human, and said, “They weren’t sure they had a soul”. I know it’s horrific to even think that but it’s just a fact of history. And so I believe that, you know, these early ancestors at their finding, they’re either human or they’re not, and if they are human, then they had a soul. So, now that’s my belief, and I’m sure there are probably some that think that’s simplistic but I believe God made man in His own image and there’s really no reason to explain with evolution, why man would evolve 80% more brain then he’ll ever use in his life? There’s just something else going on upstairs that we’re not aware of and I think God meant for us to live a lot longer. Hey I hope that helps answer your question Robert. By the way, we do have a book we’ll send you for free, it’s called, “The Wonders of Creation”, and it talks a little bit about that.
Going to go next and talk with Sandra who’s calling on the internet from Queens, New York. Sandra, you’re on the air.
Sandra: Yes, Hello Pastor Doug. I just have a questions basically, you know. How does God judge folks who are not within their right mind, people who are mentally ill, like if someone’s schizophrenic? How does He judge those people?
Pastor Doug: Well, you know, God is good, and you can read there in 1st Samuel, “Man looks on the outward appearance but God looks on the heart”. The heart in the bible is what you think with. It tells us in Proverbs, “As a man that thinketh in his heart”. So it’s not talking about the pump, we don’t think with the pump. So the Lord looks on how we comprehend, and Jesus made it very clear, He said, “If you did not see, you would have no sin, but now that you say you see, your sin remains”. God judges’ people based on the light that they comprehend and they understand. You know, Jesus talks about, “How much children understand compared to what adults understand”, He tells us, “to be understanding as adults and not children”. So some people who never mature or they’re handicapped in their mental understanding because of some, either chemical or physical abnormality. God looks on those things and He factors all of that on how He rewards people.
Sandra: Okay.
Pastor Doug: He’s a loving God and He’s very just. Matter a fact, He’s better than just, because if He was just, we’d all be lost. If He was just, just, we’d all be lost because we’ve all sinned right?
Sandra: Right.
Pastor Doug: And the penalty for sin is death, the very fact that He’s willing to show us mercy, shows us that He is a lot better than just, just.
Sandra: What about, if a person who before they were mentally ill, they had accepted the Lord and you know, but they became mentally ill and it’s like they’re rejecting.
Pastor Doug: While they’re mentally ill, then they reject. Well a similar scenario, if you don’t mind my changing your illustration a little bit. I’ve got dear friends that have had Christian spouses for years, good Christian spouses, and then they got dementia, where you know, part of their brains are just atrophying Alzheimer’s and they started to behave in very unkind, unchristian ways. Well, you know, the part of the mind that governs our emotions and stuff was dying and they didn’t have their emergency break working anymore, that self-control was just gone. God is not going to judge them on their bad behaviour during the, you know, final days of dementia, is He?
Sandra: Okay.
Pastor Doug: So I think it would be true also with somebody, who serve the Lord when they had all their wits about them, and if they, you know, go through some kind of mental illness. I would think God is going to judge them about, based on who they really were before they had the physical handicap. Because the brain, while it’s a spiritual organ, it’s also a physical organ.
Sandra, hope that helps a little. I’m going to try and squeeze in one more phone call here. And we’re going to talk next to Steven, who’s… good bible name, calling, listening on 3ABN from Mariposa California. Steven, you’re on the air.
Stephen: I’m sorry, it’s Stephen and
Pastor Doug: Oh I’m sorry Stephen.
Stephen: I haven’t missed your programs.
Pastor Doug: That’s right, you know, it’s the same in Greek though, it’s Stephanos.
Stephen: I understand.
Pastor Doug: And your question?
Stephen: My question is 1st Peter, bottom part of 18, or I should say chapter 3:18 and 19 is the most confusing on, then into 20.
Pastor Doug: Alright. 1st Peter chapter 3,
Stephen: 18
Pastor Doug: Yup.
Stephen: and 19, that part is the most confusing one to me.
Pastor Doug: Can I read this for our friends?
Stephen: Certainly.
Pastor Doug: Alright. For Christ… this is 1st Peter 3:18… “For Christ also hath one suffered for sins the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God being put to death in the flesh”. Of course He died physically He was killed, but quickened or resurrected by the Spirit, Spirit of God. “By which He went and preached unto the Spirits in prison, which sometime were disobedient, where once the long suffering waited in the days of Noah while the ark was being prepared, wherein few that is 8 souls were saved”. Now the key to understanding this verse, is you got to go back to Genesis chapter 6, and in Genesis 6, verse 3, God says, “And the Lord said, my Spirit will not always strive with man, for the He is also flesh”. So Peter is talking about, “how the same Spirit that rose Jesus, is the same Spirit that preached in the days of Noah, to the people that lived before the flood, to give them a chance to repent and be saved”, but only few, 8 souls were saved. It is not saying, some have said, “That means, when Jesus died on the cross, He went in the Spirit and preach to the people that lived back in the days of Noah to give them a 2nd chance”. That’s a fable that I’ve heard floating around.
Stephen: So that what I was kind of confusing about because it went said, “The Spirit imprisoned”.
Pastor Doug: Well spirits imprisoned, it’s just talking about, and that’s small s, if you’re back in 1st Peter chapter 3, you’ll notice here, it says, “By which spirit He went and preached to the spirits in prison”, that’s a small s. that means people who are imprisoned by sin. And so, the people who lived before the flood, you know, the message of Christ is “He’s come to set the captives free”, that’s what it said the Messiah would do, those who are in captive to prison, He sets them free. I don’t think it’s an accident that He set a whole nation free from slavery, that were imprisoned, and He opened the prison doors for Peter, and He opened the prison doors for Silas, and for Paul, and for the apostles, and of course, He brought Joseph from the prison to the palace in one day. So yeah, this verse here in 1st Peter chapter 3, verse 18 through 20 is talking about “the same Spirit that rose Jesus, is the same Spirit that preached through Noah and through Enoch back before the flood. It’s God’s same Spirit that is preaching in the world today. And that’s that message there in those passages.
Listening friends, we’ve only got a few minutes left, if we did not get to your call, and I see I got a few people standing by, I hope you’ll give us another chance next week, call back. I also want to remind you, that the program doesn’t really need to end, if you go to the Amazing Facts website, which is simply, “Amazingfacts.org”, you’re going to see a lot of resources that we’re offering for free. Click on the menu bar where it says, “Free stuff” and you’ll just see a whole library of books you can read online, you can download, you can link them to your friends and let them be blessed. Not to mention, if you click on the television button there, you can listen to our broadcast, a whole library with messages and sermons with the video there. if I’ve got a moment longer, I want to tell you, there’s another very popular website, “Bibleprophecytruth”, “Bibleprophecytruth.com”, go there, you’re going to find, just a plethora of information on the bible and bible prophecy in particular, and so we encourage you to do that. God bless you friends, and remember that this program is a listener supported, you’ve heard people say this before, we’d love to hear from you. When you go to the website, click on the button that says, “Contact us”, tell us if the program has been a blessing and help us to stay on this station. We’ll see you, God bless, remember Jesus is the truth.
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