Hello friends! This is Doug Batchelor. How about an amazing fact? In July 1962, the United States performed a secret test. 250 miles above the earth, in this unique experiment called the Starfish Prime, a 1.44 mega ton thermal nuclear warhead was detonated in space above the Mid Pacific Ocean. The results demonstrated to scientists that the magnitude and effects of a high altered nuclear blast was much larger than they previously thought.
The results of the Starfish Prime experiment became known publically because it caused electrical damage in Hawaii 900 miles away. Hundreds of street lights blew out, numerous burglar alarms were triggered and a telephone company’s microwave link was damaged. When a nuclear device is exploded just above the earth, it sends out massive gamma rays. As they pass through our atmosphere these gamma rays are converted to microwaves causing an electromagnetic pulse or an EMP. In less than a billionth of a second, this EMP will make circuits fry, power lines overload and the electric grids collapse. Everything with a microchip stops, your car, cell phone, computer. People are basically unharmed except those that depend on pace makers and I wouldn’t want to be flying in a jet airline at that moment.
Major militaries of the world now have this technology to make an EMP device. Picture an instantaneous death blow to the vital engines that power our society delivered by a nuclear weapon designed not to kill humans, but to attack electronics. What’s more sobering, is a powerful electromagnetic pulse can be caused not only by manmade devices, but by a major solar flare. EMP caused by solar flares has probably struck the earth many times in history but that was probably before the earth was run by microchips.
If an electromagnetic pulse surged the earth now, it will paralyze every aspect of modern society’s infrastructure and cause an electronic Armageddon. In a few moments technology and mankind could be transported back to the days of horse and buggy. It makes you wonder if the second coming of Jesus would cause an EMP. Stay with us friends, we are going to learn more as Amazing Facts brings you this edition of Bible answers live.
[PROGRAM INTRODUCTION]
Welcome to Bible Answers Live brought to you by Amazing Facts Ministries. Are you looking for a clear, concise answer to your most challenging Bible questions? Maybe you’re struggling to understand difficult passages of scripture. If so, you’ve come to the right place. Join us now as we open God’s Word to discover His will and find honest, practical answers to your Bible-related questions. This broadcast is pre-recorded. If you have a Bible question call us Sundays from 7 to 8 pm Pacific Standard Time at 800-GOD-SAYS. That’s 800-463-7297. Now, let’s join our host, author, speaker and evangelist, Pastor Doug Batchelor.
Pastor Doug Batchelor: Hello listening friends! We are very thankful you have tuned in for a fresh edition of Bible Answer Live. If you are joining us for the first time this is live, international, interactive Bible study and you can participate. You can of course listen as we do our best to answer the Bible questions that come. You may want to call in with a Bible question and yes we do have lines opened right now. It’s a toll free number, that’s 800-GOD-SAYS, 800-463-7297 with your Bible questions. And of course we appreciate that you pray with us as we search the word together to find out what the Lord says is truth, in his word because the truth will set you free. My name is Doug Batchelor.
Pastor Jëan Ross: My name is Jëan Ross. Good evening listening friends, Pastor Doug, let’s begin the program as we usual do with prayer. Dear Father, again we want to ask that you will be with us during this next hour of studying your word. We recognize that the Bible is your book and in order to correctly understand it we need the Holy Spirit to guide our hearts and our minds. Be with those who are listening where ever they are. We pray for wisdom as we search the scripture’s here in the studio. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Pastor Doug Batchelor: Amen.
Pastor Jëan Ross: Pastor Doug there was a fascinating fact, you can just imagine a modern day Y2K. Where all computers and anything that has a computer chip shuts down and people are frantically running to and fro to fix the problem and how much of our society is dependent on computers. It would be quite an experience.
Pastor Doug Batchelor: Yes that would be something and I saw a program one time. I think most of our friends know that the sun spots do affect radio communications of earth. And that they go on cycles every 11 years and evidently the sun from time to time has a major solar flare and these solar flares can put out a pulse that would be something like a nuclear blast above the atmosphere that would cause a major EMP. One of those electromagnetic impulses that would basically melt down the circuits and paralyze any electronics that are not shielded somehow, that could bring our modern world as we know it to a standstill. And then I think about that verse in the, I know there is one major heavenly nuclear event that is probably going to have that impact and that’s the coming of Jesus.
You can read in Matthew 24 that it is going to be a very brilliant cosmic event. Every eye will see him. It says in Matthew 24:27 “As lightening comes out of the east and shines even to the west, so shall the coming of the son of man be” and I just have to imaging that lightening going from one end of the sky together is going to cause an electromagnetic impulse that is going to paralyze the electronic world that we depend on so much. But that would be the least of our problems at one point. The Bible tells us that we can be ready for that event. Not only do we read in the Bible how to be ready. It tells us how Jesus is coming and we have a special offer that tells you the answer to both and why don’t you tell us about the Pastor Ross.
Pastor Jëan Ross: Well, it’s a book written by you Pastor Doug entitled “Anything but secret,” deals with the subject of the second coming of Christ. It’s an intriguing title and I like the picture on the front. It’s got trumpet, lightening and a lion roaring. If you would like to learn more about this important subject, you can call our resource line and ask for the book “Anything but secret.”
Pastor Doug Batchelor: And some of you may have a question on the second coming tonight. WE still have lines open, if you have a Bible question then now is a good time to pick up the phone and call the program. Good chance of getting your question on tonight’s broadcast, that number one more time is 800-GOD-SAYS, 800-463-7297 and have a pencil available. We will also be given out some websites. I like to always start with the Amazing Facts website which is simply amazingfacts.org.
Pastor Jëan Ross: Now if you would like to order this book that we have mentioned, let me give you one additional number 1-800-835-6747. That is our resource line and if you call that number 1-800-835-6474, just ask for the book “Anything but secret” and we will be happy to give that to you as soon as possible. Well Pastor Doug I think we are ready to go to the phone lines. Our first caller this evening is the Jim and let me see if I can get our phone to work.
Pastor Doug Batchelor: Are you on Jim?
Jim: Hello!
Pastor Doug Batchelor: Welcome!
Jim: Can you hear me?
Pastor Jean Ross: Yes we can hear you.
Jim: Okay I really enjoy your show, you know I have business cards that I do Bible study with and I have the Amazingfacts.org website on there. I also have the solitude.com website on there too salvitude.com website on there too which I get a lot of good responses.
Pastor Doug Batchelor: Hey Jim can I mention something to you?
Jim: Yes sir.
Pastor Doug Batchelor: You know the sabadobiblical website that you have got on your card there, I just want to tell all our friends as about a month ago that was translated, the entire website in Spanish. We are just real excited about that, I didn’t want to miss a chance to jump in and tell people that if you write down sabadobiblical, the entire Sabbath truth website and if you ever been there you know that’s a big feat. A lot of information there and now it is in Spanish. Now sorry go ahead I interrupted you.
Jim: No that’s okay I really do visit the website so I got a lot of truth about death, anyways my question is, when Jesus rose and Mary went to high camp he said “do not detain me for I am not yet ascended to my father” and a little bit later when Tomas, he let him touch him. How comes he said no to Mary and he let Thomas touch him?
Pastor Doug Batchelor: That’s a good question, now of course Mary was the first to see Jesus after he rose from the dead but he had not yet ascended to heaven where his sacrifice for mankind was declared victorious, successful. After he appeared to Mary he ascended to heaven and he was somehow enthroned and there was rejoicing there. Then he came back down that Sunday evening, he met with the disciples. Thomas was not there then.
It wasn’t until 8 days later that he appears to all the apostles, well not all at this point because Judas had killed himself. So the intervals between when Mary went to grab him and worship him by the feet, he said “you can’t cling to me” King James translates that as don’t touch me but that’s not the best translations. It makes it look like Jesus thought she was going to defile him somehow. The word is do not cling to me for I have not yet ascended to my father but go to my brethren and say to them “I ascend to My Father and your Father to my God and your God.” When he comes back and says all hail, well he is at that point done it. By the way that was John 20:17.
Jim: Thank you so much Pastor, I really appreciate your ministry and everything it is helping a lot.
Pastor Doug Batchelor: Thank you Jim you know we also have a website called marriedtruth.com and it has got a whole book there about Mary Magdalene and this event is in that book.
Pastor Jean Ross: Our next caller is listening on the internet and this is Chris calling from Virginia. Chris welcome to the program.
Chris: Good evening!
Pastor Doug Batchelor: Evening, how are you?
Chris: Good how you all doing, I have a question concerning Daniel chapter 2:43 and 44. Talks about intermarriage and ten toes, down in the [Inaudible 11:26]well I was reading the Amazing Facts study guide. It was the Anti-Christ and it mentioned about how the Roman Catholic Church had conquered the 10 horns representing the Kings of the western European nations and I was just reading that then I see in verse 44 how the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which the way I understand is what Christ went to when he returns. How does that play into the theory about the Anti-Christ coming again and about the establishing the Sunday worship? Wont that already be in the past or am I missing something?
Pastor Doug Batchelor: well first of all you are reading a lesson that deals with Daniel 2. Have you read the lesson on the Anti-Christ?
Chris: Yes I have.
Pastor Doug Batchelor: Alright so you are asking a big question, so I will try and give you a condensed answer because I can probably take half an hour and talk about this. In Daniel chapter 2 it talks about the last kingdom obviously. The kingdom starts with the head and ends with the toes, the toes would be the end, you can’t go below the toes really and it has got ten toes. Then you go to Daniel 7 and you can read in verse 24. It talks about the same time period and it talks about them being ten horns. Then you go to Revelations 13 and it also talks again about these ten horns, this beast and you will find it again in Revelation 17.
So you have got these ten divisions, the Roman Empire that was ruled by the Caesars as Imperial Rome began to crumble. In its place people Rome ruled by the church came into power and the Old Roman Empire was sort of carved up into ten kingdoms. Now that number of kingdoms they fought over the years and they consolidated and they broke and split again and they are still doing it today. You know you have got the breakup in Europe right now but it’s really a composition of the Old Roman Empire in its varying parts. That’s the final world empire, is what you find here in Daniel chapter 2 and 7, Revelation chapter 17.
There is no one World Empire beyond that, so in the days of these kings it says “the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will not pass away.” It’s during the time of those ten toes that the ten divisions of the Roman Empire that still exist today that Christ comes. I am thinking our lesson on the Anti-Christ has that and I am trying to remember what other lesson.
Pastor Jean Ross: Well we have got some books.
Pastor Doug Batchelor: Oh “American Prophecy.”
Pastor Jean Ross: “American Prophecy” is a good one. We have some books entitled “The Beast, The Dragon and The Woman.”
Pastor Doug Batchelor: Hey Chris can you get on the internet?
Chris: Yeah.
Pastor Doug Batchelor: There is a website I would like to recommend that has a whole section on this and it is called Bible Prophecy Truth. This is probably our second most popular website, the most popular website we have is Amazing Facts. The second most popular website is Bible Prophecy Truth. Friends if you haven’t been there and then you need to link that to your friends because it just has layers and layers of information on Bible prophecy including the ten toes Chris. So please take a look there and hopefully you will get more information. Thanks for your call.
Pastor Jean Ross: Our next caller is Lenny and Lenny is calling from Michigan. Lenny, welcome to the program.
Lenny: Hi, thank you guys for taking my call. My question is regarding Matthew 24, specifically verse 34. Jesus is talking about all the signs for the end of times.
Doug: This generation will not pass away.
Lenny: Yes. I was wondering in what context that was. I was listening to you on the podcast and everything, a talk of a dual implication prophecy or something like that?
Doug: Yeah.
Lenny: Is that kind of what this is?
Doug: It is. For our friends who are listening – you heard some background on this Lenny, so you know what I’m talking about. In Matthew 24:34 Jesus is giving signs in Matthew 24 about a second coming. And then he says, “Verily I say unto you a generation will not pass away till these things be fulfilled.” Now, a generation in Bible times is 40 years and there are a number of scriptures that bear that out, probably the most prominent of them is the generation that lost faith coming into the Promise Land.
Moses said you’re going to have to wander 40 years until you die off, and you also find the history of Israel is divided into forty. They had 20 years, 30 years, 40 years. Moses spent 40 years, a generation in Egypt. He spent 40 years living in the desert. Then he spent 40 years bringing people from Egypt to the Promise Land. So, David reigned 40 years, Solomon reigned 40 years, Saul reigned 40 years so it is a very prominent number for a generation. Jesus makes this prophecy in Matthew 24 in about 30AD. It may have been 31 AD. Either way it was 40 years later that Jerusalem was destroyed and part of this prophecy says there won’t be left stone one upon another. Now not only was Jesus talking about conditions before the destruction of Jerusalem. Those conditions will replicate prior to the second coming. So that’s what you call a dual prophecy. It not only applied to the apostles, their persecution, the destruction of Jerusalem. It also was saying it’s going to happen to the church, the persecution of the church and the end of the world. Now where to apply that 40 years - the end of time? I don’t know.
Lenny: So this doesn’t refer specifically to the contemporaries?
Doug: I think the main emphasis – the first question they ask at the beginning of the chapter is when will these things be? Because he said there won’t be one stone left upon another in Jerusalem.
Lenny: The destruction of Jerusalem confused with the -?
Doug: The second coming, yeah. He answered them in one kind of coalesced answer because the disciples, they’re minds could not comprehend 2000 years of church history in one sitting.
Lenny: Yeah and I get that because there are several times throughout when he would say the end is not yet.
Doug: Exactly! Through Matthew 24 it says, ‘There will be wars and rumors of wars but the end is not yet.’
Lenny: You know if I have a few seconds, the desire of ages led me to Colossians 1:23 where Paul says, “The word has been preached to every creature under heaven.”
Doug: Yeah.
Lenny: I’m confused because I thought that was another thing of the end times.
Doug: When Paul is talking about the gospel has been preached to every creature under heaven, I don’t think that Paul was saying that in that first generation when he made that utterance, that missionaries had somehow been to the Inca Indians, the Hawaiian Islands, I think he is speaking generally terms. I think we need to give Bible writers the right in generalities. Paul is saying the entire world, an empire. When these disciples went even from Pentecost, it says devout Jews from every nation under heaven. In Jerusalem – well I doubt it meant every nation. I doubt there were any from the Navaho Nation. So it’s talking about the known world back then, just about every nation, and so it’s a general term. Anyway I appreciate your question and yeah we have a couple more calls coming in before the break.
Jean: Our next caller is calling from Brooklyn, New York and Oneil. Welcome to the program.
Doug: Yes sir, you’re on the air. Your question?
Oneil: My question is the children Israel Jeremiah’s time when the ark was taken and the temple was destroyed.
Doug: Yes?
Oneil: How did they atone for their sins at that point until the first coming of Christ?
Doug: Well keep in mind nobody is really forgiven for their sins because of the sacrificial lambs and goats. All of those things pointed forward to when the Messiah came. So I just want to make sure, and you probably know this, the people in the Old Testament, they weren’t really saved because of the blood of the lamb, a physical lamb. Even King David said sacrifice of the lamb did not desire and I think it’s in Micah, it also says what does the Lord require of thee? Is it rivers and sacrifice? What the Lord wants from us is our hearts. We are all forgiven by faith in Jesus. In the Old Testament they were saved by faith looking forward to the lamb. In the New Testament times we are now saved by faith looking back to Christ.
So when the ark was carried away, from the time of Babylonian captivity, when the ark was hidden in Jerusalem somewhere and the temple was destroyed, they came back and re-built the temple. They were going through the motions of the sacrificial system but yeah they didn’t have the ark in the sanctuary that time. It was probably hidden in a cave around Jerusalem somewhere.
Oneil: How were their sins atoned? I guess through belief?
Doug: I’ll answer your question with a question. Back in the days of Abraham before the ark was built, how was Abraham’s sin atoned for?
Oneil: Okay.
Doug: So the ark did not depend on – atonement did not depend on the ark. Atonement depended on the blood of the lamb which is really Christ.
Jean: You know there is an interesting note. On the Day of Atonement, a high priest went into the most holy place. This is after the Babylonian captivity and there would be nothing there ark and he would take the blood and probably just sprinkle it on the floor.
Doug: That’s right or they might have made some kind of model or mark we don’t know. But yeah you’re right. The authentic commandments weren’t there in that box. I appreciate your question. By the way we do have a Bible study guide. The Date of the Judgment, talks about service.
Jean: The number is 1-800-835-6747 and that is our resource line and the name of the study guide is God Set the Date and we’d be happy to get that. If you’d like to call in with your Bible question, the number for that is 1-800-GOD-SAYS. That’s 1-800-463-7297 and we do have some phone lines still open so this would be a good time to get your call in before the break. Alex is calling from Michigan. Alex, welcome to the program.
Alex: Yes, thank you for taking my call and I just have a quick question celebration of present day Christmas and Easter celebration. I know early Christians did not celebrate Easter in its present form. It’s obviously I guess not how our world celebrates it today, same thing with Christmas, and Santa Claus and so forth. My understand is that it was mostly a pagan ritual I guess adapted to Christian followings and dates. I just want to know what the Bible has to say about that and is it a good or bad thing to celebrate it as the world does today?
Doug: Alright well that’s a good question, a big question that you’re asking about two different holidays. It is true that the pagans, long before the Christian holiday, did have a holiday that begins on the 25th of December because that was the end of the winter solstice. The days began getting longer in the Northern Hemisphere and so many cultures had a holiday then. When they didn’t know the birthday of Christ the church sort of adopted the pagan holiday, hoping that could influence the pagans for Christianity. I don’t know what year that happened, must have been 5-600 years after Christ, when they were doing that.
And then Easter, a number of cultures around the spring time have a festival. A lot of cultures did - pagan cultures that sort of celebrated the birth of life. But it is true for the Christians. Passover did come in the spring, so the idea of the resurrection being in the spring is accurate. The idea of Jesus being born December 25th is very inaccurate and probably off three months. You can do a little math in the Bible and probably figure that Jesus was probably born around August – September. Or September-October because it tells us that he began his ministry when he was 30 years of age.
He was baptized in Luke 23 and you know he ministered 3 and a half years and you know he died in Passover in the spring. Just count back 3 and a half years and you would end up in the fall. Anyway there were some aspects of the way that cultures celebrate Christmas. Obviously there is no Santa Claus. I hope I’m not shattering any young child’s illusions right now. The idea about log and the Christmas tree, you’re not going to find those in the Bible. But if people are going to celebrate the birth of Jesus, since we probably don’t know it, that’s probably as good a day as any day, but they need to make it for the right reasons. And this would be a place where I would apply Romans 14, ‘If a man is going to regard the day, regard it under the Lord.’ No to Santa Claus and it may provide a witnessing opportunity. Now we do have a book Alex, it talks about the pagan origins of these dates and it’s called Baptized paganism. Would you like a free copy of that?
Alex: Absolutely!
Doug: Just call the number and we’ll send you a copy of Baptized Paganism.
Jean: The number is 1-800-835-6747 and Alex the book is Baptized Paganism. Just call 800-835-6747 and ask for that book, Baptized paganism and we’ll be happy to send that out. Well, let’s see if we can get in one more caller before the break. Shannon is calling from Detroit, Michigan, Shannon, welcome to the program.
James: Hello?
Doug: Hi! You’re on the air.
James: Hi my name is James and I’m from Detroit.
Doug: Oh sorry we got it typed in wrong but James we won’t call you Shannon anymore. Your question?
James: Yeah I have a question. I was listening to your program and I wanted to know the true Israelites, what color were they? White or black?
Doug: Well you only give me two options. The Israelites were somatic. They were probably, if you by the three major races in the world, they would be classified as Caucasian, well the America sends its people about, fanning out everywhere. Across North America right now I think they give you 3 options, I think for your race and then they say other. The Jews had in their heritage, you can read about some of the Egyptians that came out of Egypt inter married with the Jews. Judah married a Canaanite. Abraham after he married Sara, he married an Egyptian. The mother of Obad was a Moabite. Rahab was an ancestor of Jesus. Jesus has at least 3 o 4 people in his ancestry that we know, were not directly Jewish, or purely Jewish. So within the Jewish bloodline you know we’ve got a lot of different heritage but they principally would be classified as Caucasian. But there are Somatic, Middle Eastern. So, hope that helps a little bit.
James: Yeah that did and I have one more question.
Doug: Let’s see how time we have. You’ve got one minute.
James: Now this question has been baffling me for years. In Genesis 1 verse 26, God said let us make man and he then created man and male and female.
Doug: Yeah.
James: And then in chapter 2, he created –
Doug: Well let me see, we’re going to run out of time. I think I understand your question. If he makes man in the beginning then how does he make man and a woman in the second chapter? The beginning is giving you the overview, the headlines. The next chapter is going into the details of how he made man and how he made woman. It gives us more insights into the 6 days of the creation history. I didn’t mean to cut you off James. We do need to go to a break and listening friends it is just a break. We’ll be back in just a moment with more questions.
[COMMERCIAL BREAK]
Doug: That’s me and we’re back friends. If you’ve tuned in along the way, this is Bible Answers Live. It’s a live Bible study program and you can call in with your Bible questions. It’s a free phone call and we do have enough lines open. Good time to pick up your phone if you have a Bible question you have been wondering about. We don’t really have any authority to answer questions on romance, or finance or politics but if you want to ask about the Bible we have got a lot of Bible resources here at our fingertips and we will search the answers together. That number 800-GOD-SAYS you ready to write it down 800-463-7297. We would love to hear from you.
Pastor Ross before we go back to the phones we were telling people a little earlier about some of the other amazing things happening at Amazing Facts but one of the big headlines lately is that now we are on television. Across North America where we have been doing that for 20 years but now it’s 24 hours a day. I mean we are on the Discovery Channel, ABC Family, WGN and a number of other national networks. But now we are on our own channel as well that is on 24 hours a day, it’s called AFTV. Amazing Facts TV and it’s on Galaxy 19. So if a person gets what they call the Glory Star Christian package along with Amazing Facts they are going to get a Kaleidoscope, a whole bouquet, a blizzard and I am looking for other words to describe it, of Christian programming.
They will get CBN and they will get Safe TV, they will get Hope Channel and a number of other good Christian channels. So just go to Amazingfacts.org and you will find out that information. You can get the Amazing Facts TV program 24 hours a day and when you do, it’s free. All year long just get the little dish installed. Some of you already have a dish and just need to tune in and you will be seeing or TV programs 24 hours a day. There will also be a lot of new programming coming up. What else is going on I forget?
Pastor Jean Ross: Well you know we, from time to time will offer an Amazing Facts study guide on the program on a particular subject. But we would also like to remind our listening friends that we have a website aBibleuniverse.com that has the entire set of Bible Studies and you can actually enter a free online Bible study course, at the website Bibleuniverse.com.
Pastor Doug Batchelor: If you have not done this friend, you better fasten your seat beats because it will change your life if you go through that series. Alright we are back to the phones.
Pastor Jean Ross: Okay our next caller is Ramona and she is calling from Brooklyn New York. Ramona welcome to the program.
Ramona: Hello! How are you?
Pastor Doug Batchelor: Very good thanks for your patience.
Ramona: Okay, I just have two small questions to ask. Could you explain Song of Palms to me, I am up to reading it but I don’t want to read it until I understand it.
Pastor Doug Batchelor: Well in the Jewish wedding, you are asking about Song of Solomon or Song of Songs. In the Jewish wedding they often had a chant where the bridesmaids would chant back and forth to the groomsman a story of love. You know the Jewish wedding sometimes lasted for days, you can read about that when Jacob married Rachel. Solomon wrote this beautiful song that was supposed to be at a wedding and in this song you really find the gospel. Now I will give you a little, something that many scholars believe. King David, just before he died, and I don’t want to go too deep but it’s fascinating to me.
King David before he died was suffering evidently from congested heart failure he had a hard life because he was cold. They had no electric blanks back then and so they found a very beautiful Shunammite woman. Her name was Abishag, to basically cuddle the King. They never had intimate relations, he was just an old man who couldn’t get warm and she would snuggle him and that is exactly what it says. But then he died and it’s believed that Solomon fell in love with her, which was the Kings son and he then tells out this Shunnamite woman. This beautiful Shunnamite woman and Solomon would change his clothes, leave the palace so he could have his discussions and spent his time with Abishag this Shunnamite woman, whoever she was. But really you read about the Spiritual meaning of the Song of Solomon and it speaks about Christ’s love for the church. Many of the terms for Jesus are found in the Song of Solomon, he is called the fairest of 10,000, the lily of the valley. And you look at some of the beautiful languages in the Song of Solomon. The Bible says “husbands love your wives as Christ loves the church.” So symbolically in the Son of Solomon you see a picture of Jesus and the bride is the church and you read that background and you are going to say wow.
As a matter of fact it talks about frankincense gold and myrrh. In Song of Solomon, well what did the wise men bring to Jesus when he was a baby? Gold, frankincense and myrrh, you see a lot of parallels. Anyways I don’t have time to go through all of them you see its several chapters but it’s a beautiful, beautiful book.
Ramona: Okay just one quickie. In Ecclesiastes is that the way Solomon say the world or is that the way of the world?
Pastor Doug Batchelor: Well Ecclesiastes is of course a scripture and it is 100 percent inspired. Ecclesiastes is Solomon’s view of living a worldly life and the vanity of it. He starts the book by saying “vanity of vanity” because he had tried to find happiness. You know he wondered from the Lord because of the influence of his wives. He tried to find happiness through pleasure and money, those things. And he said it was all vanity and at the end of Ecclesiastes Solomon says “let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter. Fear God and keep his commandments for this is the whole duty of man.” And so he really concludes with what is the summary, but to fear God and to keep his commandments for God will bring every work into judgment with every secret thing, whether it be good or evil.
And so that’s really taking from start to finish, but there is incredible wisdom in the book of Ecclesiastes. But it shows the futility of putting your treasures in this world. That is really what it is dealing with. The vanity of having your treasures here in this life because that is where thieves’ breakthrough and steal, we get old, desire fails. Looking for our treasure in this life is a wasted life our treasure must be stored in heaven. I appreciate your questions very much Ramona and with that we are going to move on.
Pastor Jean Ross: With that we will go to George who is listening in Australia, listening on the internet. George welcome to our program.
George: God bless Pastor Ross and God bless Pastor Doug.
Pastor Doug Batchelor: Evening George.
George: How are you?
Pastor Doug Batchelor: Very well, and your question today?
George: My question is relating to baby baptism. Can you please tell us where the inception of baby baptism derived from and what was its purpose intended for?
Pastor Doug Batchelor: Alright good question. Well some of infant baptism was really affirmed by the Catholic Theologian Augustine when he talked about being born with mortal sin. And so for a baby to be saved he had to go through the right of baptism because you know we are all born with this guilty record of sin. Most prodiscense reject that, we believe that we are all born with a carnal nature but babies are not born inherently guilty of breaking a law. They are born with a simple nature but that’s difference, you are innocent until you reach the age of accountability. So when ordered to ostensibly save these children they thought well we better baptism them early.
After all Jesus was dedicated as a baby but having a child named and dedicated is very different from baptism. Jesus was dedicated when he was 8 days old but he wasn’t baptized until he was 30. They are to complete distinct ceremonies. Baptism is for the Christian what marriage is to the wedding or what a wedding is to a marriage. It is the ceremony by which we publically confirm its sacred ordinance that we have chosen Jesus. Before persons baptize they got to do certain things a baby can’t really do. It says they got to repent of their sins, Acts chapter 2, they need to be thought, they need Jesus said Matthew chapter 28, they need to believe with all their hearts. Phillip told the Ethiopian treasure, I think that is in Acts chapter 8 and so for them to repent of their sins, a baby can’t be thought the doctrines of the Bible, a baby can’t do and to believe with all their hearts, a baby can’t really do it.
The appropriate thing is to dedicate our babies and be baptism when we are old enough to make that decision. That is usually somewhere from 10 on up. Jesus went into the temple when he was 12 and Jewish boys are bar mitzvah when they are 13 so somewhere in there they figure is the age of accountability.
Pastor Jean Ross: You know we have a book dealing with the subject of baptism. It is a great book entitled “Baptism is it really necessary.” George you can probably read this online if you go to the Amazing Facts website. You can click on the library and you can read it for free. For those of you listening in North America, I believe in the United States, you will be able to receive this book in the mail if you call our resource line 1-800-835-6747, that’s 1-800-835-6747. It deals with the subject of baptism, deals with a number of important questions. Well let’s go to the next caller Adrian, is calling from Virginia listening on the internet. Adrian welcome to the program.
Adrian: Good evening there Pastor Doug and Pastor Ross.
Pastor Doug Batchelor: Evening!
Adrian: I have a question regarding the forth commandment. I own a business and I know why the Sabbath requires you not to work and is called madman witches remember to kill the Sabbath. How can I tell that o my employees, I do not know what to do exactly because I am under pressure from an employee who does not observe that.
Pastor Doug Batchelor: Well do you own the business yourself?
Adrian: Yes.
Pastor Doug Batchelor: Well if you own the business, I mean it’s one thing if you’re a partner and you know there are a lot of people involved that don’t observe the Sabbath. But in the Sabbath commandment it says “a stranger within your gates.” Now within your gates of the Bible means within your area of influence where you have operating control. So if you are the primary owner of the business and you able to make those decisions I would strongly recommend that you just establish a policy that you are going to honor God by keeping his commandments including closing your business on the Lords day.
I know that’s difficult if you got an employer, somebody who is applied for a job and they say will I want to work on the Sabbath. I think you should say well bless your heart America is free country but in my business we are going to honor God and we are not going to have people doing that.
Adrian: Thank you so much.
Pastor Doug Batchelor: I appreciate that and you know there is a website that we have where there is more information on this Adrian and its simple sabbathtruth.com. This is the second most popular website on Google. I think the first thing you are going to get is Wikipedia if you type in Sabbath day and then you are going to get Sabbath truth. It has got just tons of information, the history of the Sabbath, how to keep it holy, efforts to change it just all kinds of things about it.
Pastor Jean Ross: You know Adrian we want to encourage you to stand up for what you know to be true. We have seen time and time again when somebody makes a stand for honoring Gods day, God blesses them.
Pastor Doug Batchelor: He will work miracles for you and he will reward your business too.
Pastor Jean Ross: Our next caller is Allen and he is calling from Oregon. Allen welcome to the program.
Allen: Hello and thanks for taking my call. My question concerns the identification of the Israel. Modern day Israel is made up of primary only one tribe, the Tribe of Judah. In times when the Bible reference to Israel you would believe it is talking about a whole larger population of the world. It leaves out the other 11 tribes and focuses on just the one tribe of Judah which was, like I said if I am not mistaken modern day Israel is made up of that one tribe.
Pastor Doug Batchelor: Yes let me give you just a quick history for our friends listening. You probably already know this but back long before Jesus 10 of the tribes where carried away by the Assyrians, it’s called the Northern Kingdom. You know Ephren and Nasa and Napherlite, they were all carried away by the Assyrians. To a great extent many of them entered marriage with these Assyrians and it is really hard to trace the identity of the Jews that were scattered though the Middle East during that time and that was during the time of the rain of King Hezekiah. There are actually three tribes that pretty much stayed in the Southern Kingdom and that was Judah and that is where we get the word Jews. It is sort of a shortened version and those from the tribe were Judah.
Judah, Benjamin and Levi yes and so Benjamin was a very small tribe but they were in the Southern Kingdom as well. Now by the time of Christ you know you did have some of the pilgrims from the other tribes that came back but when you are reading the New Testament about the 12,000 from the 12 tribes and the 144,000 and you are talking about Israel. It is not just talking about literal Jews. Paul said that Gentiles who accept Christ become Spiritual Jews. He said that “if you are Christ then you are Abrahams’ seed.” Even John The Baptist said to the Jews when he was preaching “don’t think to say within yourselves that we are the children of Abraham. God is able to raise up from these stones children of the Abraham, and Christ said many will come from the east and the west and sit down in the Kingdom with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. And the natural children will be on the outside where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth.” Paul said that “Gentiles who believe in Jesus are grafted into the stock of Israel.” And I could go on it is just that.
Paul also said in Romans “they are not all Israel who are of Israel. He is not an Israelite necessary in the flesh because of circumcision, but the real Israelites are the ones who in their heart believe.” So Gentiles who accepted Jesus really became Spiritual Jews and we have got a book that we will send you. It is absolutely free and it really goes into depth of this question and is called “Spiritual Israel.” Would you like a free copy of that?
Adrian: So from what you are saying it sounds to me that you consider the other people the descendants of the other 11 tribe around the world today, that you consider them to be Gentiles?
Pastor Doug Bachelor: No, I believe that there are Jews all over the world that may not have accepted Jesus. I think that the promises that God made Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and David. I think the Lord is still very conscious of where those people are and who they are. But we have got to be careful not to paint God as a racist and say he is going to shoe special privileges to this group of people because of their race and DNA. I do think he has promises that he has made to the Jewish people and there is going to be a great revival among the literal Jews in the last days. I am a Jew by the way, not just spiritual, my mother was Jewish. So I wanted you to know that, most of our listeners do. So you know I do think he has a special work but I think that a lot of the prophecies about Israel are also talking about the broader group which is speaking of Spiritual Israel. So please read the book and let me know what you think. It’s called “Spiritual Israel” and we will send that to you.
Pastor Jean Ross: The number to call 1-800-835-6747 and the book is entitled “Spiritual Israel.” Christian is calling from Detroit Michigan. Christian, welcome to the program.
Christran: Yes, my question is in regarding baptism. Can you be baptized by any other Christian, or how did they do it?
Doug: That’s a very important question and a person needs to think about this answer deeply you know it’s really easy to make a flip on the answer. Any believer can baptize but really, Jesus, he seemed to commission the 12 apostles. Later he set aside 70 that sent out. I don’t know that it says that they baptized. It does say Jesus’ apostles baptized. Jesus didn’t even baptize, he commissioned the apostles to do it and later you have deacons baptizing. But Philip, at that point we don’t know if he’d become Philip the evangelist yet.
The reason being, before person baptize, they are to be taught the basic theology of the Bible, and to be screened and to be taught to discover if they’re prepared for baptism. You usually want someone who is a little more seasoned in faith. As Paul went around in the New Testament, he ordained bishops and elders that were given the authority to lead then they would baptize. If you get someone who is a baby Christian, they just got baptized, they maybe don’t understand all the criteria and they’re going off and baptizing before they are really grounded and they are prepared to teach. What you do is you ending up kind of numbing down the church. I know that may sound kind of cruel but it eludes the depth of what’s required in the commitment of baptism. You want to make sure there is authority.
They also used to lay hands on the people when baptizing them. That’s something that was done by the elders typically, or people who some time and experience and authority in the church. So, I believe there’s going to be a lot of people in heaven who are baptized by regular Christians because no one else was available. I’m not here to condemn those, but I think the pattern God has in the Bible is for those of age and experience who are ordained to do the baptizing.
Jean: You know Christian I think you would also enjoy that book dealing with the subject of baptism. I think that’s a great book as well. To receive the book Baptism Isn’t Necessary, the number is 1-800-835-6747 and we’ll be happy to send that out. Our next caller is Seth and Seth is calling from Sacramento. Seth, welcome to the program.
Seth: Thank you very much. I appreciate it. I want to thank you guys for this program. It seems like whenever I have a question, the very next caller has the same question and I’m really getting a lot out of it.
Doug: Well, praise the Lord.
Seth: I was trying to share my faith the other day with my co-workers and they brought up a term called Naphthalene and I’m still new in the faith so I’m trying to share without having all the knowledge, and I didn’t know what to say. I didn’t know what they were referring to.
Doug: Is it speaking of or are you talking about the land of Zebulon, the land of Naphthalene? By the way are you talking about the children of the giants?
Seth: Yeah. They were talking about something like a hybrid between angels and men and I just didn’t know.
Doug: Well, that’s a word that’s used and I find that in Genesis chapter 6 and we do frequently get this question because people who are reading through the Bible will run into it. You can see where it says the wickedness of man was great in the earth, the sons of God – wait let me see Genesis 6 verse –
Jean: Starts at verse 2.
Doug: Yeah, ‘When the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair, they took them wives of all they chose and the Lord said my spirit will not also strive with me now that ye is also flesh. His days will be 120 years.’ There were giants in those days and those giants were the Naphthalene we’re talking about, after the sons of God came unto the daughters of men. And I think that saying was the mighty ones or the great ones and this is something that is based on genetic vitality, when you get two groups of people that had been separated for generations, they start to inter marry and the genes are weakened. Then when they marry outside of that gene pool, the offspring are normally strong. Sometimes they’re taller and bigger and that’s called genetic vitality. It’s a principle of breeding that all these breeders use. That’s how get these horses.
So some people are wondering, does this mean that when the sons of God came unto the daughters of men that they were aliens, or fallen angels having intimate relations with humans. The sons of God there are the descendants of Seth that had remained separate from Cain, but over time they probably went to the same shopping mall. The sons of Seth saw the daughters of Cain that they were beautiful and they began to inter marry and that’s when it says wickedness was created here. That’s when the Lord set that restriction.
Seth: So that’s why they believe that the Naphthalene are there?
Jean: Yes if you actually look at the original Greek there, that’s where the word comes from. Naphthalene is found three times translated as giants, and the original Hebrew, however you pronounce that – ‘Nephelum.’
Doug: ‘Nephelum’ this would be the way.
Seth: Yeah.
Doug: Anyway, I hope that helps a little.
Seth: It does, I’m going to make sure I take that to them tomorrow.
Doug: Alright, praise the Lord. You take care!
Jean: Our next caller is Inez calling from Honolulu. Inez, welcome to the program.
Inez: Yes, thank you for taking my call and I appreciate this program. It’s really
enriching. My question is, in Genesis 22 and 23. It talks about when God told Abraham to take Isaac up to sacrifice him.
Doug: Yeah.
Inez: And then God tests his faith and then he provided the sacrifice but my question is when Abraham came down from the mountain, he got together with the young men that went with him and they never returned back to Sara. How come? They went to another country or another, to Bathsheba.
Doug: Well, Abraham had flocks all throughout the promise land and you’ll find sometimes that he went from one camp to another. Sara was up in her years, keep in mind she was 90 when Isaac was born. She may not have been that mobile at that point and she had not died yet evidently but Abraham had summer pasture, winter pasture, sometimes in sheering season, and they went to different parts of the country based on seasons because he was largely a shepherd and so all the places where it’s mentioned that Abraham is going are in the territory of the promise land there except that one time he went to the Philistines and the Egyptians. Are you still there Inez?
Inez: Yes and he didn’t return to Sara when she 127 years old and when she had passed away, to attend her funeral, to take care of that you know.
Doug: Yeah. Yeah she evidently was getting a little feeble in her old age and Abraham still lives several years beyond Sara, matter of fact he married again, and had a litter of kids with Keturah.
Inez: Yes children. Yes, okay you answered my question.
Doug: Okay, Inez I appreciate it. Say hi to our friends in Honolulu.
Inez: Sure.
Doug: Okay God bless.
Inez: Bye, bye.
Jean: Next caller is Huzo, calling from New York. Huzo welcome to the program.
Huzo: Thank you gentlemen for taking my call. My question is why is it that some Christian denominations have a priest and all that and other denominations have pastors. How does this look for somebody who hasn’t heard of Christianity, and wanting to become a Christian and seeing that this deception between the leaders of the different denominations, between pastor and priest? Could you help explain the differences?
Doug: I’ll do my best anyway. If you read in the New Testament, well you can read the Old Testament too. The priesthood of the Jews, the priests where the Levites, the sons of Aaron and by the time the New Testament came, the apostles of Jesus, were never part of the priesthood. They never referred to themselves as priests. From then on they believed that a priesthood of all believers and every believer was part of hat priesthood.
Jean: And the reference here is 1 Peter 2:9.
Doug: Yes.
Jean: Where all believers are considered to be part of this royal priesthood.
Doug: I’m sorry Huzo, you know what happened? I think we got on up at the end of the program. Hey listening friends, we enjoyed your answers live so much that we didn’t realize the end was coming. Make sure you tune into amazonfacts.org. You’ll see a lot more resources there. We’d love to hear from you. God bless until next week.
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