Pastor Doug: Welcome listening friends to Bible Answers Live. Would you like to hear an amazing fact? Matriphagy, matriphagy, have you heard that word before? Matriphagy is a rare behaviour, more commonly found in spiders, where a creature feeds on its own mother. Now, most mothers would do anything for their children, but in the case of some arachnid mothers like the velvet desert crab spiders, they make the ultimate sacrifice. They offer themselves as prey to their offsprings as an essential step to waken their hunting instincts and provide a final meal. At first, the baby spiders feed on a milk-like liquid that the mother exudes. When she eventually runs out of milk, the mother circles the youngsters, taping and vibrating the web, calling in the 50 to 80 starving spiderlings. They swarm in a frenzy, somehow aware that when the web vibrates, it's time to eat. The mother then presses herself into her babies offering herself as a final feast. She makes no attempt to escape as her young eventually pierce her soft abdomen and with their mouths they gradually devour her. You know, the Bible talks about a parent that offers their body as food so the children can survive. Stay with us friends, we're going to learn more as Amazing Facts brings you this edition of Bible Answers Live.
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Speaker 1: You're listening to Bible Answers Live, honest answers to your Bible questions. This broadcast is a previously recorded episode. To receive any of the Bible resources mentioned in this evening’s program, call 800-835-6747. Once again, that's 800-835-6747. Now, let's join our host Pastor Doug Batchelor.
Pastor Doug: Welcome listening friends to Bible Answers Live and if you have a Bible question, that's why we do this program. We love to talk about the word of God and lines are wide-open. I'm all dressed-up and ready to go, but if you don't ask a Bible question, there's nothing to do. It's a free phone-call, here's the number 800-GOD-SAYS. 800-463-7297 brings your Bible question into our studio, but I'll say it again. 800-463-7297. If you've got any question about the word of God or the Bible, we are live, and I invite you to give us a call. Pastor Ross is off tonight, but with our crew in the studio we're going to press on and begin with a word of prayer.
Loving Lord, we are so thankful for the gift you give us in your holly word. We just pray that you'll bring it life, and if there's any questions our listeners have had, about the word of God, I pray that they'll call these in now. Quicken our minds with your spirit and help us to find the answers in your Word that we might be transformed by its power. We thank you and pray in Jesus' name. Friends, you know, some people probably cringe a little bit when you talk about spiders. Then, when you compound that by talking about babies spiders eating their mother, then you're really cringe. But when you think about it, it's really the mother sacrificing herself. She’s a hundred times bigger than any of her babies. She offers herself because she knows they're starving, as several of these are desert's spiders and there’s just no liquid out in the desert, and it makes me think of an interesting statement that Jesus makes.
Now, we all know 666 is a spooky number, but did you know that there is a verse in the Bible, John chapter 6, verse 66, where it says, "After Jesus said something, his disciples turned back from following him." What was it that Jesus said that so troubled his disciples that many would abandon him? Here it is. John chapter 6, verse 53, "Jesus said to them, 'Most assuredly I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the son of man, and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood, has eternal life and I will raise him up in the last day.'" You might be thinking, "Well that is kind of though." Because you know, first of all, according to clean and unclean animals, humans would not be in the clean category. We don't have fins or scales and neither do we have hoofs or chew the cud, and the Bible also says you're not supposed to eat blood so for a Jew, to eat a human, cannibalism would be the worst thing and yet Jesus said, "You must eat my flesh and drink my blood."
We know, whenever we celebrate the Lord's supper, he said this symbolically, saying that we need to be believing through face in the gospel story that we need reading the word of God, that is that bread that came down from heaven, Christ has called the "bread of life," Jesus has called the "word", and here we are at the dawn of a new year friends, do you have a devotional life? Jesus didn't say, "Well, you know, you'll be a little better off if you eat my flesh and drink my blood." He said, "Unless you do this, you have no, zero, life in you." If you're Christian, or you say you're a Christian, and you're not spending time reading his word, or time in prayer, time practicing your faith, then are you really eating his flesh and drinking his blood? Are you really partaking of Christ, and feeling your life with Jesus through prayer, you're soaking him up? Unless you do this, he says you have no life. We must be absorbing Christ and abiding in Christ and drinking from that living water, otherwise, we're going to just stay thirsty. We're going to stay hungry, but if we hunger and thirst after righteousness, and Christ is our righteousness, we will be filled.
We have a special offer we'd like to make available, and we figure at the beginning of a new year, is a great time to do this. It's a book I wrote about the Bible. It's called, The Ultimate Resource. All you've got to do is call this number and we'll send it to you, I'd like to encourage everybody here at the dawn of this new year, you've got a threshold to make a new beginning and just really be feasting on the word, so you can be strong in the Lord. The number for the free offer 800-835-6747. That's for the offers that we mention from night to night, 800-836-674 is for the free offer, and just tell them, you're listening to Bible Answers Live and you're requesting the book, The Ultimate Resource. If you're in a hurry, you'd like to read it online, we'll let you download it for free. It's in a few different formats, go to amazingfacts.org and you'll see a little tab, it's says, "Free book offers" and we'll want you to read that. Download it, call we'll mail it to you, either way, read it, share it with your friend, and with that word we're going to go to the phones and talk to Michael, who is calling from Florida. Michael, welcome to Bible Answers Live.
Michael: Hi, hello?
Pastor Doug: Yes, you're on, thank you for your patience.
Michael: Hi. I understand my question might be difficult to answer, just over the duration of a short phone call, only because of how broad the subject might be, but then again, I don't know. I wanted to ask, does the Bible say anything on how to address, I guess, waning faith after like, if one begins to find himself becoming more skeptical, if not unbelieving of the Bible tenets, especially, in view of the fact that, just speaking personally, a lot of my upbringing as a Christian, I didn't think about it until recently that, a lot of these things that I took as true such as the authority of the Bible and other beliefs, I feel I'm taking them more out of authority from the people that raised me, than actual personal conviction, and it's a very general way to address it, because there are multiple ways. My mind is probably a little skeptical. I don't know if there's anything in the Bible that can help to address those sorts of questions and doubts.
Pastor Doug: It's a good question, how do you know that you've got real faith, and you’re not just believing the Bible because you were raised in a Christian environment. I was raised in an agnostic or atheist environment. For me, I needed to really discover it for myself. But I think every believer needs to really discover that the Bible is true for themselves. Now, a few verses, one is in Roman chapter 10 where it tells us, "Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God." You know, when people heard Jesus speak, the word came alive, Jesus said in John chapter 6, "The word sI speak to you, they are spirit, and they are life." If you're reading the Bible for yourself, you can't just go to church, you can't just say I'm a Christian and say a little prayer before you eat, and say, "Well that means I've had my devotions." If you really take time and read the Bible, the Bible will keep you from sin, or sin will keep you from the Bible. That's what Dwight Moody said. I found that's true. The Bible is a powerful book
in that the words are supernatural, there's real life in them. Now, if you're neglecting your devotions, prayer and reading the word, practicing your faith, your faith is going to start being challenged. In fact, the devil is going to challenge the faith of every believer. If you were the devil, wouldn't you want to diminish people's faith? He's doing his job. But you don't want to lose faith because without faith, the Bible says it's impossible to please God. That's in Hebrews chapter 6, sorry Hebrews chapter 11. The book that I've mentioned tonight is a free offer, Michael, you'd enjoy it, it's called the Ultimate Resource, it will give you a lot of evidence on how you can strengthen your faith and discover for yourself that the things in the Bible are true, even accurate and scientific, would you like that free offer?
Michael: Yes, definitely.
Pastor Doug: All right, you can call the number, which is 800-835-6747, ask for the book on The Ultimate Resource, or go to the website, amazingfacts.org and click where it says, "tabs" you can probably even just Google The Ultimate Resource, Doug Batchelor, you'll find the book there, and read that, it'll encourage you. Also, we have a website called Bible Universe, where you can sign up on a Bible Study course that is guaranteed to strengthen your faith. That's called Bibleuniverse.com. Thank you for your call Michael, I appreciate it. Next, we're going to be taking to Joe in Mississippi. Joe, thank you for waiting, you are on the air with Bible Answers Live.
Joe: Thanks for taking my call. It's kind of funny that my question builds on the last caller's question in a way, but more in a broad body-type question. There's a statement or passage that is in Philemon, of course the only chapter, verse 6, Paul is writing to him saying, "I pray that the fellowship of your faith may become effective to the knowledge of every good thing that is in you for Christ's sake." And going over that verse there, I've been wanting someone to explain that, literally give me an idea of what Paul is trying to get across, and what that effective fellowship looks like in the church.
Pastor Doug: Very good. Good question. Book of Philemon is a short book, it's an amazing story. Paul is writing to a believer Philemon, regarding a slave named Onesimus who'd run away from Philemon. While Onesimus was in Rome he meets Paul, he's converted, he becomes a Christian. Paul said, "You know, you stole from your master, and you ran away. You really ought to bring back the things you stole and confess." Now, Paul is writing a letter to Philemon saying, "Show mercy on him. Don't forget how much God has forgiven you. You should forgive him and embrace him not as a slave but as a brother."
Then Paul is telling Philemon, he says, " If you do this, the communication--" I'm reading verse 6 in the New King James version, it says, "If you do this, the communication of your faith maybe be effectual by the acknowledging of every good thing." In other words, the witness that you will have in your community by showing that you will embrace a person who has wronged you, will acknowledge every good thing that is in you and Christ Jesus. Paul is encouraging Philemon to show mercy on Onesimus to embrace him as a brother, to forgive his stealing and-- the whole slavery issue is a difficult subject. He is saying, "This is going to help your witness for others." That's what he means by, "the communication of your faith." Or I think in some versions it says it a little bit differently. It says that, "the sharing of your faith", in the King James version, "may become effective." When people see us live out a religion, our faith, the sharing of our faith is much more effective. They see it's real. Does that make sense?
Joe: Yes, you talk talks, and you walk talks but talk talks louder than your walk talks. Or it's the other way around.
Pastor Doug: That right. [laughter] I'll tell you; they know how to say that there in Mississippi. You got it right. Thank you Joe, I think you'll enjoy the free offer tonight, if you'd like that. That's simply called The Ultimate Resource, you can download it at amazingfacts.org or we'll send it to you, just call 800-835-6747. Let us free up another line. If you want to call with your Bible question, the studio line once again is 800-GOD-SAYS, call with your question. 800-463-7297, if it rings a minute, be patient. We've got two or three volunteers picking up the phones and they'll take your call and line it up. And we talk next to Phil, who's calling from New York. Phil, you're on the air with Bible Answers Live.
Phil: Okay, great. First of all, thank you very much for taking my call. Secondly, I'm impressed with your knowledge, I taught high-school math, but if I knew math as well as you know the Bible, I could have taught at MIT.
Pastor Doug: I'll just be glad I'm not teaching math right now, because I didn't do very well with that.
Phil: Okay, my question is this. It's a question that different Christian denominations answer very differently. I'm interested in your opinion, however. Did Mary mother of Joseph, have natural children subsequent to the birth of Jesus? Or did she remain a virgin all of her life, and not have any other children?
Pastor Doug: I believe that she had one child and that was Jesus. I don't believe she remained a virgin, because the Bible says, "Joseph knew her not until", and the word "knowing" means intimately. You know, Adam knew his wife and they had a baby, so we know what that means. But it says, "Joseph knew her not until the child was born." Even though they were legally married, she remained a virgin until after the birth of Christ. There's no reason in the world to believe that through the subsequent years they were married, they didn't have a normal marriage relationship. Now, the other children that are mentioned as Jesus' brothers and sisters, it mentions four boys by name that are brothers, and then it just says, "He also had sisters." We don't know what their names were but there were at least two of them because it says plural. They were probably the children of Joseph by a prior marriage because when Jesus is dying on the cross, he commits the care of his mother to the apostle John, and not one of his siblings, which would seem like the natural thing to do. But, probably Joseph had had some children, it wasn't uncommon for women to die in childbirth, or to die young in those days, and a man might go through a couple of wives as Abraham did before they died. I think that based on the scriptures, the other thing is, Jesus was probably the youngest of Joseph's children because the first born would never leave the family business and become an itinerant preacher. The first born always sort of had the family responsibility. For that reason and a few others, we're pretty sure that Jesus was the only child of Mary, but Joseph and Mary probably did have normal marriage relationship afterward.
Phil: Okay, thank you so very much for that answer.
Pastor Doug: Thank you Phil, good question. Appreciate that. We do have another line open. 800-463-7297 with your Bible questions. With that we're going to keep on going, and we're going to talk next to Mayon, am I saying that right? Or Marjorie, there we go, sorry. The font was small. Marjorie in, where are we? Michigan. Marjorie in Michigan, hi.
Marjorie: I have been having some horrific nightmares, to the point where I have been calling for help from a psychiatric phone call. Anyway, here is my question, does Satan have a wife?
Pastor Doug: My quick answer would be no. The reason I give is because Jesus said, "Satan is a fallen angel whose name used to be Lucifer." And he kind of got the name Satan, which simply means advisory after he rebelled. Jesus said, "Angels neither marry nor are they given in marriage." Angels do not procreate like humans, there would be no reason for Satan to have a wife. Now, I am aware growing up the whole Rosemary's Baby scenario where the devil is going to have a relationship.
Marjorie: I wouldn't even watch that.
Pastor Doug: This baby becomes the anti-Christ, there's several variations of this, but there's nothing about that in the Bible. That's just a myth.
Marjorie: That was just a terrible nightmare. I had to ask, just to find out.
Pastor Doug: Good, the Bible is pretty clear, there's not a thing in the Bible that says Satan's wife, but the devil is trying to destroy the bride of Christ which is the church.
Marjorie: Yes.
Pastor Doug: And you read about that, and that's why the devil is probably haunting you a little bit with nightmares. It's not usually the devil in person, he works through his fallen angels. You know Satan didn't fall by--
Marjorie: They did a good job on me the other night.
Pastor Doug: Well, yes, the devil didn't fall by himself. The Bible says in Revelation, chapter 12, "Satan and his angels were cast out." And Jesus calls them, "demons". They're called evil spirits, sometimes we think of them as ghosts or goblins and these are just fallen angels. They used to be good, holy angels and they rebelled along with Lucifer and God often works and saves us and answers prayers through angels, and the devil, he tries to torment and tempt and bother us, but don't be discouraged. Jesus promised, Marjorie, is, "greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world." I've got a free offer for you. If you will simply go to the Amazing Facts website, we got a lesson that says, "Did God create a devil?" It'll tell you about where the devil came from and how to overcome him. It's a lesson called "Did God create a devil?" You can download that at Amazing Facts. We will send you a free copy if you call the resource number-- It's a different number from the other. That number is (800) 835-6747. You know what? The chaplains at that number, if you call, they'll be happy to talk to you and pray with you too if you just would like them to pray with you about these dreams, Marjorie, they'll be happy to help you. Thank you for your call. We're going to go next and talk to Thomas. Making sure I'm pressing the right buttons here. All right. Here we go. Thomas, you're on the air with Bible Answers Live.
Thomas: Hi, Pastor Doug.
Pastor Doug: Hi. Thanks for calling.
Thomas: Thanks for your [unintelligible 00:21:12] I have a good question for about Mark 12:27.
Pastor Doug: Okay. Mark 12:27.
Thomas: Is Abraham in heaven right now? Because say He's a God of the living, not the God of the dead.
Pastor Doug: A good question. When a person's sleeping, are they alive or dead?
Thomas: They're dead.
Pastor Doug: When a person sleeps, they're dead? When you go to sleep tonight, will you be dead or will you still be alive?
Thomas: Not really.
Pastor Doug: I talk about literal sleep. When I fall asleep, am I still alive?
Thomas: Yes.
Pastor Doug: Okay. Abraham is sleeping in the Lord. The Bible says that David died and slept with his father. Jesus said, "My friend Lazarus is asleep." When believers die, their next conscious thought is the Resurrection and being in the presence of the Lord but we know the Resurrection is in the future, it hasn't happened yet. We might rejoice when we know a loved one has died in faith because their next thought is the presence of the Lord but it hasn't happened yet because the judgement hasn't happened, the Resurrection hasn't happened so Abraham is not there yet with his new glorified body. Abraham is sleeping in the Lord. The Bible tells us that Abraham slept with his father and is still asleep.
When do they wake up? You read in 1 Thessalonians, "The Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout. The voice of the Archangel, the trump of Christ, then the dead in Christ will rise. When the Lord descends and the trumpet blows, then--" Paul says, "In a moment, we'll be changed. These corruptible bodies are replaced by immortal bodies." and that's when the Resurrection happens. Is Abraham alive? Yes, but he's sleeping the sleep of death so to speak.
Thomas: Yes, I understand all of that. I totally believe that too but only about [unintelligible 00:23:17] when somebody asks me a question I haven't got an anwer to either.
Pastor Doug: Because Jesus says, "I am the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob." He's not the God of the dead but of the living. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the Saducees believed that when you died, that that was the end of your existence. Jesus said, "No. That's not the end of their existence. They're still going to be resurrected." Are they walking around heaven now? No. Will they be in the Resurrection? Yes. Abraham died over 3,000 years ago but it doesn't seem like 3,000 years for him? No. The next thought Abraham has is, as soon as he dies, Resurrection. There's no consciousness of time for him.
We live in a world where we have the dimension of time and we know that Christ has not come. The Resurrection hasn't happened yet. That's why on a lot of Christian graves it says, "Rest in Peace." They are resting. Hey, thank you very much. By the way, Thomas, if you or anyone else wants to have our study on that, just call the resource line (800) 835-6747. Ask for the study "Are the Dead really Dead?""Are the Dead really Dead?" and you'll be blessed. We do have another line open if you have a Bible question. We're going to take one more question before the break and that's (800) 463-7297 with your Bible questions. With that, we're going to talk to David who's listening on line six but he didn't know that. Calling from Michigan. David, you're on the air with Bible Answers Live.
David: God bless, Pastor Doug. Pleasure to be speaking with you.
Pastor Doug: Likewise.
David: There's a scripture in 1 Chronicles 21. It says, "And Satan stood up against Israel, and provoked David to number Israel." While I was thinking about this question I remembered there's also a similar scripture in 2 Samuel 24 but in this it says, "The Lord moved David to number Israel." My question is what is the significance of having Israel to be numbered for Satan to do this? Is it correct for me to think that this has happened more than a few times in history that there's been this rising up to number Israel for some specific purpose?
Pastor Doug: Yes. The way I understand this, and it makes sense to me, is that here you've got David. He's at the zenith of the kingdom. He had started out as a lonely shepherd boy who went out by himself against the giant. Then, David starts out with 400 might men and the later 600 mighty men, he takes on the whole Philistine army. David knew about Jonathan, who just with Jonathan and his armor bearer, they killed 20 Philistines. David had been reminded over and over through his life that it is not the multitude of soldiers that defeats the enemy. It's faith.
Now David, instead of trusting in God, he wants to see how big his military force is. This was a lack of faith. God basically removed his protection so that the devil could have a chance to tempt David in the area, pride, and David would realize that he was losing faith in God so it kind of revealed his own heart to him. Israel was punished for this because Israel was trusting in how big they had become, how powerful, how successful, how victorious. God withdrew his protection and they were judged, they were humbled for that.
As a matter of fact, if you read on in the story, you'll read where David's general, Joab-- When David said, "Go number Israel." Joab said, "Why do you want to do that? We've always trusted God. Why do you want to know the number?" The command, the Bible says, was abhorrent to Joab the general. He didn't want to do it because he knew that was not God's will. I think that's what at the heart of it. Thank you very much for your question, David. We're going to take a break in just a moment here. Don't go away, friends. We got more Bible questions. You can call in with your Bible question. We still got 30 minutes to go. Be right back.
Speaker 1: Stay tuned. Bible Answers Live will return in a moment.
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Speaker 1: Every Bible question you have answered moves you one step closer to the fullness of God's will for your life so what are you waiting for? Get the answers you need for a fuller, richer, more confident life. You're listening to Bible Answers Live. This broadcast is a previously recorded episode. If you'd like answers to your Bible-related questions on the air, please call us next Sunday between seven pm and eight pm Pacific Time, to receive any of the Bible resources mentioned in this evening's program, call 88356747. Once again, that's 800-835-6747. Now, let's join Pastor Doug Batchelor for more Bible answers live.
Pastor Doug: Welcome back, listening friends. If you've tuned in along the way, this is Bible Answers Live, where we do our best to answer any Bible questions you might have or questions about living the Christian life. Not that we claim to have all the answers, but we look to the book, and search promises we will find. You have a Bible question, lines are open 800. God says, 800-463-7297. Pastor Ross is off tonight, but we're going to get right back to the phones. I'm going to be talking to Wilford, is that right? Calling from New York.
Wilford: Yes, Pastor Doug. Hi, how are you?
Pastor Doug: Hi, thank you for your call and your question tonight.
Wilford: My question is, Pastor Doug, the Bible says, "Absent from the body is present with the Lord." When Lazarus died, why did Jesus have to go to the grave to raise him if absence from the body is present with the Lord?
Pastor Doug: When Paul says that absent from the body is present with the Lord, he just means that, when you die, your next conscious thought is the Resurrection. It hasn't happened yet, but you have no consciousness in death. Have you ever had a good night's sleep where you went to bed and you may have slept six or eight hours, but it felt like it was a few minutes? For those who die in the Lord, their next thought is the Resurrection. It's instant for them. Even if you have a troubled night's sleep, it seems a little longer, but when you die, that sleep is no dreams, it's a dreamless sleep.
Lazarus was not in heaven yet. Think about it for a second, if Lazarus was in Heaven, and Jesus brought him back from heaven, would Lazarus be happy to go from a glorified body back to a physical body? I wouldn't be thanking Jesus for that. Lazarus was in the grave. There are about 12 Resurrections in the Bible, Wilfred. In all 12 of those Resurrections, none of the people resurrected ever said, "I was in Heaven and you brought me back, or I was in hell, and you saved me from hell." None of them ever comments on knowing anything. Because you read in Ecclesiastes chapter nine, "The living know they'll die, but the dead know not anything."
As Hezekiah said, "The dead do not praise the Lord." Nobody that's dead is thinking anything, it's the Resurrection. When that happens, then we are with the Lord, that's when the Lord descends from Heaven. Then, the Resurrection happens. You can read about that also in First Corinthians chapter 15. It says that the Resurrection happens with the coming of the Lord. I've got that free book I mentioned a moment ago, I'll be happy to send you a copy on, "Are the dead really dead?" It talks about things like your question about Lazarus. Would you like that?
Wilford: Thank you--
Pastor Doug: Yes, just you can either go to the Amazing Facts website, or if you call this number, we'll send you one for free. 800-835-6747 asked for the study guide, "Are the dead really dead?" It has all the scriptures on that subject.
Wilford: Thank you, Pastor Doug.
Pastor Doug: Thank you very much, Wilford, for your call. All right, we're going to be talking on line number eight. Talking to-- Is in Mo?
Mo: Yes.
Pastor Doug: Hi, there you go. Your question?
Mo: Pastor, I understand that Muslims believe that only the Quran in Arabic is God's word. I believe the Bible is God's word, but our translations, the Hebrew Bible and the King James' English, or the New Testament in King James' English, which I believe is divinely inspired, but are translations God's word?
Pastor Doug: That's a good question. The Word of God is inspired. You would want to stay as close to the original message in the translation. There are some translations that have butchered the Bible. Theoretically, I could translate a Bible, you could translate a Bible, and we could print it. You could call yours the Mo Bible, I could call mine the Batchelor Bible. I could do a very poor job, so that, it's a corruption of the Word of God. Just like you can go to a church where the preacher is filled with the Spirit, and you can go to a church where the preachers is not converted, and he is just totally destroying the Word of God and teaching false doctrines. There may be some truth mixed in, but he's twisting things. There are some very bad Bible translations that twist things, but most of them have so much of the truth still intact that a person can be converted and saved through it. You know what I'm saying?
Mo: Yes, I understand. I also know that a poor translation has caused suffering. In the Hebrew Bible, it says, "You should not suffer a witch to live", but the Hebrew word is not witch, it's somebody like an astrologer or someone like that.
Pastor Doug: A medium.
Mo: In Salem Witch Trials, these poor girls. It was terrible.
Pastor Doug: I know, that was awful.
Mo: It's really a poor translation.
Pastor Doug: There are many times when the Bible's been poorly interpreted or translated, and people have suffered. There's some false doctrines out there because of a bad translation. I can think of several cases of that, where just there's one little word that somebody got wrong, and it twists the meaning. An example would be, when Jesus is talking to the thief on the cross. Jesus said to the thief, "Verily I say to you today, you will be with me in paradise." The translators put the comma before the word today, and it reads, "Verily I say to you, comma, today, you'll be with me in paradise." That causes problems for people. The thief was not in paradise with Jesus that day, because Jesus was not in paradise that day. When Mary went to worship him Sunday morning, he said, "Do not cling to me, I've not yet ascended to my Father." One little comma can mess people up. See what I'm saying?
Mo: Yes, I know exactly what you say. The only one I love and trust is the King James'. I think the translators were divinely inspired, I really do.
Pastor Doug: There's no question the King James' Bible is a masterpiece of literature, that it's had more influence on the English language and the history of the world than probably any other document. It's my favorite translation. There are some other good translations that came from what they call the textus receptus, or the received texts, like the New King James, or the New American Standard, that are very close to the original. Hey, thank you very much. I appreciate your call, Mo. By the way, you would enjoy the free offer tonight with the book I've written on the Bible, called The Ultimate Resource. All right, and with that, let me see who has been waiting patiently. We can talk next to Jim, who's calling from-- I don't know where you're calling from. Jim, you're on the line with Bible Answers Live.
Jim: Hi, Pastor Doug, how are you?
Pastor Doug: Good. How are you? Looks like--
Jim: I'm from Smith River, California.
Wilford: That's in Mendocino.
Jim: Up on the Redwood Coast.
Pastor Doug: Yes, I know the 707 area code.
Jim: Exactly, correct. I'm reading from Exodus 28, 31 to 35, right in there. It says, "You shall make the robe of the ephod all of blue." Then, it goes down, at 34, says, "A golden bell and a pomegranate, all around the hem of the robe." This is for Aaron. I understand the Golden Bells, so that people would know that he was still alive and walking around in the Most Holy Place. What's the purpose or symbolism of the pomegranates?
Pastor Doug: Yes, good question. The pomegranate was a very special fruit in the desert. It grows in desert regions. It's interesting that right there in the very white pulp of this fruit is a blood-red fruit. It was a symbol for the blood of-- The priests were always dealing with that, but that blood-- You eat a pomegranate, and it's a very healthy fruit. They say it's got all kinds of medicinal value too, pomegranate juice. They new that back then, and it was a symbol, similar to the grape, a symbol of the blood of Christ.
Jim: Okay.
Pastor Doug: That's the best answer I've heard from others, when I talked to some scholars. Because I had the same question, why a pomegranate? It could've been a banana. Why a pomegranate? It could've been at date. They didn't have bananas back then, because banana's actually a hybrid, but why the pomegranate? It was a desert fruit that managed in very dry climates to still retain moisture and life, and so, it was sort of sacred.
Jim: Right. The idea of the seeds though,
these seeds can be planted as possibly the word, but I've not found any scriptural proof of that. In the bells of the sound, that sound could be the word being spread out, pomegranate is the seeds which were planted by the Holy Spirit. I just didn't know.
Pastor Doug: You're making me want to go look that up tonight and see if I can learn more about it because it is a good question. Probably something in Hebrew history would give us more insight into that. Thank you very much, James for your question, and it's a stimulating question. One of those I'm going to have to dig a little deeper into. Why the pomegranate? Let me see, Thomas has been waiting a long time. We're going to talk to Tom who's calling from Detroit, Michigan. Tom, you're on the air with Bible Answers Live.
Tom: Good evening, Pastor. First time caller. I'd like to know in Genesis, when men was building the Tower of Babel, why was that a threat to God that they were building a Tower of Babel?
Pastor Doug: Of course you can't hurt God so it wasn't a threat in that sense.
Tom: No, I didn't mean it that way.
Pastor Doug: Right. God said it was a rebellion against God. For one thing, God told Adam and Eve and he told Noah, "Go be fruitful, multiply, disperse, and fill the earth." Instead of dispersing, they were congregating in one spot and they were building basically the Tower was something of an idol, they were making a man-made religion, they weren't sure God was not going to flood the world again, they thought, "We can run to the Tower and save ourselves." The Lord was saying, "Look, I made the world as a garden. I want you to go and to fill the earth. I didn't want you to congregate and create this new religion."
Then you notice they don't build the tower to make a name for God, it says they built the Tower-- by the way, this is Genesis 11, to make a name for themselves. We think Nimrod who was a mighty hunter against the Lord is the way the original reads, Nimrod was the at the heart of that. They were building up a whole religion kind of in opposition to God. Babylon later became known as the opposite of Jerusalem. Babylon is the name that is used in Revelation for this false religion which is called the Mother of Harlots. This first kingdom of Babel, and that's where we get the word babbling when they couldn't understand each other, we say that they were babbling. It represented the confusion of tongues. God withdrew His Spirit. When you get to Acts chapter 2, and God pours out His Spirit, now instead of their tongues being confused, God gives them the gift of tongue so others can understand. It's like he's reversing the curse of Babylon.
Anyway, I hope that helps a little bit. Tom, I do have a book. I've got an article actually that talks about Babylon. You can even download my video. Just type in Doug Batchelor Babylon on YouTube and you'll find it there as well. I hope that helps a little. Thank you for your patience, and your good question. We're talking next to is it Moses? There's a question about Moses, is this Henry?
Henry: Yes, hello.
Pastor Doug: Hi, and your question?
Henry: Blessed new year to you.
Pastor Doug: Likewise, thank you very much.
Henry: Was Moses before Cleopatra or after?
Pastor Doug: Before. Moses lived about 1480 B.C. Cleopatra lived during the time of Julius Caesar, which is more like 60 B.C. They were separated by over 1,000 years.
Henry: Moses came first?
Pastor Doug: Absolutely, yes. Moses lived during the time of Ramses, which was many, many years, hundreds of years before Cleopatra came around.
Henry: I assumed it was before.
Pastor Doug: No, Cleopatra lived during the time of Julius Caesar, she married Octavian and Julius Caesar both. That was around 60 B.C. if my memory served me right, but I'm quite sure it's in that ballpark. Moses was over 1,400 B.C. I've got a Bible timeline, you can go online if you can get online and just type in Bible history.
Henry: I don't have a computer. You said that she married Octavian?
Pastor Doug: She married Julius Caesar and Augustus Caesar. Augustus changed his named to Augustus I believe from Octavian or Mark Anthony rather, sorry. I got mixed up, now I'm getting mixed up. She married Julius Caesar and Mark Anthony or she had affairs with them both. I don't know if she married them.
Henry: She went with Mark Anthony, but Octavian he wanted her to bring her into Rome and walk on the back of her chariot or something if she killed herself.
Pastor Doug: Yes, Octavian ended becoming Augustus Caesar, it's just a change of name. There was Mark Anthony and Julius Caesar. Anyway, long time before Moses.
Henry: She didn't want anything to do with Octavian.
Pastor Doug: No, and paid the price too. [chuckles] He reigned for 40 years, she would've been better off with him than with Julius Caesar. Thank you, Henry for you good question. I appreciate that and with that we're going to talk to Glenn who's waiting patiently. Calling Bible Answers Live, Glenn you're on the air.
Glenn: Good evening, Pastor Doug. Happy New Year to you.
Pastor Doug: Happy New Year.
Glenn: A couple of times you mentioned that the dead remained asleep. The saints remain asleep until the Resurrection. That being said, how do you explain Matthew 17-- I believe it is 17:3, where both Moses and Elijah meet with Jesus, Peter, John on the Mount of Transfiguration?
Pastor Doug: Yes, there are some who have been resurrected. For instance, the Bible tells us that Enoch walked with God and God took him. Enoch's in heaven. The Bible tells us that Elijah went into heaven in a fiery chariot and you'll read in the book of Jude verse 9, there's only one chapter in Jude. Jude verse 9 it tells us about the Resurrection of Moses that God sent Michael, who raised Moses, and the devil tried to stop him saying, "He's mine." Michael said, "The Lord rebuke thee." There's no question that there are some in heaven. Moses is there, Elijah's there, not only Moses, Elijah, and Enoch, but at the Resurrection of Jesus, it says there was a great earthquake and this is Matthew 28, I'm pretty sure, there was a great earthquake and the graves of many of those who slept around Jerusalem, notice it says the death are sleeping there-- doesn't say all, it says many came out of their graves and they ascended to heaven when Christ ascended. He took some of them. He didn't take them all, because you read in Acts chapter 2, Peter says, "David is dead and buried and his tomb is with us to this day." Then in Acts chapter 2 you read on, it tells us, "David has not ascended to heaven." Peter cannot be anymore clear in his sermon when he says David is dead, buried, not in heaven. Not everybody obviously is in heaven. There's a Resurrection coming. Moses is there, Elijah's there.
Glenn: It's believed at this point in time in history through all the thousands of years there's only a handful of people in heaven right now?
Pastor Doug: Until the Resurrection. What's the purpose of the Resurrection if people are already there? The other question would be--
Glenn: Jesus did say that he would return into heaven to make a place for us.
Pastor Doug: He says, "If I go, I will come again."
Glenn: His carpentry background has come in handy for him. [laughs]
Pastor Doug: Yes, when Jesus said, "I will go and prepare a place for you." John chapter 14, and if I go, I will come again and receive you to myself. When is he coming? You read in 1 Thessalonians 4. The Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout, the voice of the Archangel, the trump of God, then the dead in Christ will rise. When the Lord comes, also in 1 Corinthians 15, the dead in Christ rise, the universal Resurrection and the judgment is still in the future. If everybody goes right to heaven or hell when they die, what good is the judgment? What good is a Resurrection? The reason people get confused is because it is true that for the person who dies, their next conscious thought is the Resurrection of life or death and the reward, because they have no consciousness in death, but it hasn't happened yet because we're living in the time right now.
Glenn: I was talking about brother [unintelligible 00:48:54] who recently passed away and the folks that live in here repeatedly mentioned now [unintelligible 00:48:58] that-
Pastor Doug: Now, he's with the Lord.
Glenn: -enjoying, he's with the Lord, and enjoying the fruits of his labor while he was with us here on earth.
Pastor Doug: Metaphorically that's true. For R. C. Sproul who I've met, he died in a saved condition. His next conscious thought is-- and it'll seem like a moment for him, is Resurrection in the presence of the Lord. We're living in a world of time where that hasn't happened. You have to put yourself in their shoes and say, "Their next conscious thought is the presence of the Lord." He's not up in heaven looking down. You find nowhere in the Bible where people in heaven are communicating with people on earth other than the vision here with Moses and Elijah.
Glenn: I never thought that people in heaven would be looking. They certainly have a lot of better things to do than to be concerned with what's going here on earth.
Pastor Doug: You would enjoy--
and I hope you'll ask for the free book that we're offering called Are the Dead Really Dead? Matter of fact there is a website out there called deathtruth.com. It's got a lot of good scripture on this subject. People are so confused. You walk through a cemetery and one grave says, "Our mother is resting in Jesus." The next grave says, "Our mother is singing with the angels." and people go, "Which is it?" People need to understand this because some folks-- The Bible says, "Don't talk to a person who is a medium to communicate with the dead." We've got to know the living know they'll die, but the dead know nothing. Jesus said, "Our friend, Lazarus, is asleep, and I'll go wake him." The dead are sleeping until the Resurrection. Please request the free book, Are the Dead Really Dead? [unintelligible 00:50:46] anyone if you got questions about that. Hey, thank you very much. We are going to take a couple more calls while time lingers. Now, I hope I can say this name right, Elvits. I'm I saying that right?
Everlitz: Everlitz. It's Everlitz.
Pastor Doug: Everlitz, okay. Your question tonight?
Everlitz: Everlitz. Hi and good evening. I am calling to ask about recurring dreams in the Bible.
Pastor Doug: Okay. You want to know if a dream keeps coming back what does it mean?
Everlitz: Right.
Pastor Doug: That's interesting you will say that. I almost never have dreams I remember, and I had one today and I wondered if it had a meaning, but I'm not going to tell everyone about that. It's between me and the Lord, but most of our dreams are just the brain defragmenting, and there is a scripture on that in Ecclesiastes. It says, "A dream comes through the multitude of business." In other words, Solomon is saying if you spend all day counting chickens, you might dream about chickens. Whatever you're doing a lot of during the day, you may dream about because you're filling your mind with it. It's not unusual, or if you're worrying about something all day, you may dream about it at night, but there are divine dreams and there are-- the devil can give us a nightmare and scare us. So, you can have good dreams and bad dreams, but most dreams are not supernatural in nature.
Everlitz: Okay. What if the recurring dream has to do with real events that are happening in your life?
Pastor Doug: God speaks to us through dreams. He spoke to Joseph, son of Jacob. God spoke to Joseph, the father of Jesus, through dreams. God spoke to Daniel through dreams. So, God can communicate. Doesn't mean they're all divine utterance, it might be a little message from God to us. I don't know. I don't have that gift of interpretation of dreams like Daniel and Joseph did. God could be trying to tell you something, and it could just be your mind worrying you because you're thinking about something. I don't know. Like I said, the Scriptures tell us God does speak through dreams. In the book of Job, the devil frightened Job with a dream, a vision, and Solomon said, "Dreams typically come through the multitude of business." Just the stuff that we think about during the day, no supernatural meaning to it necessarily. Hey, thank you for your question. We are going to try and squeeze in one more while time remains, and we are going to talk with Diana who is calling from South Carolina listening on line 6. Diana, are you there? Or Diane.
Diana: Yes, I am.
Pastor Doug: Hi. We got just about three minutes, your question.
Diana: Okay. I was a dual parent. I raised my two children because we were exiled from where we used to live. So, we didn't have parents, my parents or anybody, but it was me and those two children. My son is now a officer in the Marine Corps. He is married several years, and he is got four children now. The oldest is eight. Has three daughters-
Pastor: We are going to run of time.
Diana: - and then--
Pastor Doug: You probably get to jump to the question, or we may not have time for an answer.
Diana: The question, he dresses the girls the way he wants them to be dressed, but he wants me to dress that same way even though that's not in my character. I dress conservatively, but I don't dress that way. In his way of judging me, he says, as a grandmother, I should not be a part of the children's lives because he does not see that if I don't dress the way he says I should, I'm not supporting him and his wife in their parenting style.
Pastor Doug: All right. The question is does your-- this is your son-in-law, have a right to ask you to dress a certain way?
Diana: This is my son.
Pastor Doug: It's your son, okay. Of course, biblically, the Bible says, "Kids should honor their parents." Then there is a Bible principle that says, "Don't do anything that will make someone else stumble." and Paul said, "I become all things to all people that I might win some to Christ." If it means living peacefully with someone when you are with them or you're visiting the children, I would say try to accommodate them as much as you can if it's not going to hurt and it protects the relationship, even if they're may be asking you something that's extreme. If you want, you can put your foot down. It might become a point of contest, and you'd hate to be cut off from the children or grandchildren. I'll pray God gives you wisdom. That is a difficult challenge. Hey friends, thank you so much for your Bible questions. It seems like this hour just zooms on by. We do have some important announcements coming. I want to remind you that a lot of what Amazing Facts has to offer is available through the week at the website. Go check out amazingfacts.org. There's videos, there are books there. There's all kinds of streaming audio. God bless you, and have a blessed new year.
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