Hello friends if you were sentenced to life in prison would you refuse a pardon? Stay with us to find out more on this edition of “Bible Answers Live”.
[PROGRAM INTRODUCTION]
Pastor Doug: Way back in 1898 a young Rhode Island man named, Martin Dalton, was convicted of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment. After serving 32 years in 1930, he was offered a pardon. Incredibly Dalton refused it. He explained he no longer had a family and nothing to do and nowhere to go. The prison officials were not quite sure what to do with a rejected prison pardon. After much legal evaluation it was determined that a pardon refused was invalidated. Martin Dalton remained in prison until his death in 1960. During the final 61 years of his confinement, he did not have a single visitor. And the last letter that came to him came in 1939. How sad. What’s even sadder is when millions of people are under a death sentence and they refuse to accept a death pardon to eternal life that Jesus has purchased for them.
Friends, this is “Bible Answers Live”, and if you have a Bible question, give us a call right now. We’ve got lines open. That number is 800-GOD-SAYS 800-463-7297 and my name is Doug Batchelor.
Pastor Ross: And my name is Jean Ross. Good evening listening friends and Pastor Doug, indeed it is a tragedy when a pardon is offered and somebody does not accept it. You know as you read that fact, I thought of a verse in Proverbs Chapter 1:24 where God is speaking and He says, “Because I have called and you have refused, I have stretched out my hand and no one regarded it.” It’s talking about God’s offer of salvation. That pardon purchased as a result of Christ’s death on Calvary. It was offered, but few receive it.
Pastor Doug: Yeah, it reminds me of the parable Jesus told there in Matthew 22: where He had a great marriage feast for His son and people were invited he paid all the expenses, but when it came time for the wedding they all said they were too busy. Some were busy with their oxen or their family or their possessions and they were actually shut out from the wedding when the time came. And Jesus has provide eternal life and forgiven us for sin and power over sin to whosoever will.
And yet most of the world is so preoccupied with the enslavement of the things in this dark world that is—it’s just staggering, I suppose to the angels that people neglect the pardon that He has purchased. The new life, the new heart that He‘s purchased. And for anybody who is listening tonight if you’d like to accept that pardon or want to know how to make the steps to heaven. We have a book that’s going to do that and it’s free.
Pastor Ross: The book is entitled, “Three Steps to Heaven” and it is the most important decision that anyone can ever make. The decision to accept the pardon that God has offering out to each of us individually. “Three Steps to Heaven” to receive this book absolutely free call us on our resource line, the number is 800-835-6747 again that number is 800-835-6747 and if you have a Bible related question the number to call is 800-GOD-SAYS that’s 800-463-7297. Pastor Doug before we go to the phone lines we always ask God’s blessing upon the program. Let’s do that now. Father, once again as we consider Your word we ask for Your Spirit to guide us and be with those who are listening wherever they might be. And Lord we recognize that the Bible is Your book and we want to correctly understand it so we ask for the Holy Spirit to guide our minds. We ask this in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Pastor Doug: Amen.
Pastor Ross: We’ve got a brand new station joining us. It’s channel 131, one hundred and thirty one on Sirius XM radio. So if you’re listening on Sirius XM give us a call. That’s channel 131 on Sirius XM Radio.
Pastor Doug: You know that’s so exciting when you think about it because of course we’re on hundreds of stations across North America land based Stations. Now through the Sirius XM channel that is satellite radio. Anybody with an open view of the sky and satellite radio inside of their car can hear this program and call in their Bible questions. We want them to keep a hand on the wheel, but we’d love to hear from any of our friends who are listening on this new channel right now. If you’re hearing us on Sirius XM just give us a call to let us know, hey, loud and clear and you may have a Bible question. Alright who’s lined up for the Bible questions?
Pastor Ross: Alright we have Jim who is listening from Austin Town, Ohio. Jim, welcome to the program.
Jim: Hey Pastor Doug, you know what is amazing the word of God is going around the world and it’s just amazing.
Pastor Doug: It is.
Jim: I really respect your ministry I have called you a couple of times. My question is this. I have studied well we weren’t studying we were discussing and she was telling me that her church teaches that the 1000 years when Jesus returns you know the wicked die and she was trying to tell me that we’re going to be here on earth for the 1000 years. And I was just as curious as where that belief comes from?
Pastor Doug: Well there are two principle views. Well about 1000 years we sometimes refer to this as the millennium. It’s the same word you don’t find the word millennium in the Bible that’s just a composite of two of the Latin words mill meaning thousand and you find this in Revelation chapter 20. This is where you find the thousand year period.
And some churches believe that we live and reign with Christ right here on earth with the righteous reigning over the wicked. And other churches believe we reign with Christ in glory before the New Jerusalem comes down to earth which is Revelation 21. That’s what we believe the reasons for that are in the gospel of John Chapter 14 those very famous words Jesus said, “I go and prepare a place for you”, so Christ is leaving to go and prepare a place, He says, “I will come again and receive you unto myself”, we are called up to meet the Lord in the air when He come, “that where I am there you may be also.” Now the thousand years begin with the resurrection of the just and you find that here in Chapter 20. So it concludes with the resurrection of the wicked. There’s really nothing in the Bible that teaches that. Pastor Ross might have some other verses on this.
Pastor Ross: Pastor Doug, just something interesting. The imagery that Jesus uses in John Chapter 14: where He says in my Father’s house are many mansions. I go to prepare a place for you and I will come to receive you unto myself. It’s in the imagery of a marriage proposal. Like in Bible times a young man would propose to the woman and she would accept his proposal for marriage he would then go back and add a room onto his father’s house. When that remodeling was finished he would then come and receive his bride, he would then take her back to the father’s house where the wedding ceremony would actually take place, and they would live in that addition that he added for period of time while he went out and built his own house.
And in that same idea Jesus says to his disciples, I am going to prepare a place for you in my father’s house and then I’ll come and I will receive you unto myself, just like the bridegroom receiving his bride and then we go to heaven, we spend that 1000 year period with God in heaven.
Pastor Doug: Like a honeymoon.
Pastor Ross: Like a honeymoon. Then after that we come down and God creates a new earth.
Pastor Doug: Yeah and if you live forever you need a 1000 year honeymoon.
[Laughter]
Pastor Ross: That’s right.
Pastor Doug: Otherwise it wouldn’t even register. Hey we do have a study guide that deals with the subject of the millennium. You may have already seen that Jim, but we’ll send you a free copy if you don’t have it or anyone that wants to better understand this because all of the verses are there. It’s called, “The Thousand Years of Peace”.
Pastor Ross: The number to call is 800-835-6747 you can ask for the study guide, “A Thousand Years of Peace” that’s 800-835-6747.
We have Sandy who is listening from Southern Illinois, Sandy, welcome to the program.
Sandy: Good evening Pastors. My question is regarding Revelation 18:4. Where God has called His people to come out of Babylon is there any correlation or reference to Exodus 3:10? And if there is are we to expect any type of last day Moses?
Pastor Doug: That’s a good question, you know first of all Moses did say there would be prophet that would come like him and I think it’s in Deuteronomy 18: where he makes that prophecy that the Lord your God will raise up a prophet like unto me. Jesus is the prophet like Moses who calls people out of the slavery and bondage of sin and Satan to the Promised Land of the heavenly Canaan, but just before Jesus comes back when His people are called out of Babylon there was a high priest when the children of Israel were captive in Babylon, by the name of Joshua. It’s very interesting Joshua is the same name as Jesus. Joshua is more the Hebrew way of saying Jesus. Jesus is more the Greek way of saying Jesus, Je-Zeus, and Yeshu’a is the real name of Jesus translated from the Greek to a short form of Arabic. Same name Yashua-YHWH or Yehoshua or Yeshu’a Ha-Mashiach- God the Son. And in Moses’ day you have another Joshua who led them from Babylon into the Promised Land in the days of Ezra, Nehemiah, Joshua the high priest and there will be like I believe leaders in the last days that will be like the final Elijah’s that will also call people out of Babylon. And so that’s a good point and—
Pastor Ross: The verse you referred to there, Pastor Doug, is Deuteronomy Chapter 18:15, where Moses says, “The Lord your God will raise up unto you a Prophet like unto me from your midst, brethren you shall hear.”
Pastor Doug: Yes. So being called out of Egypt it is similar to being called out of Babylon—they were both—they were captivities and going back to the Promised Land. I was trying to think of a study, I don’t know if we have a study imparticular, that well.
Pastor Ross: Well I’m thinking about the one on the three angels messages in Revelation Chapter 14 what is the name of that pastor Doug? Do you remember?
Pastor Doug: Perfect. Angel messages.
Pastor Ross: “Angel Messages”, yes.
Pastor Doug: From space.
Pastor Ross: Sandy, if you’d call our resource line that’s 800-835-6747 and ask for the study guide, “Angel Messages from Space” it deals with this passage of Scripture.
Pastor Doug: One of those messages that talk about the coming out of Babylon, so, perfect!
Pastor Ross: Alright next caller is Rick. And he is listening from Auburn, California, Rick, welcome to the program.
Pastor Doug: Hi, Rick, you’re on the air, are you with us? Rick in Auburn on KFIA, going once, Rick?
Pastor Ross: Okay well maybe we can try and get back to him here. We’ll go to Dan who is in New York, Dan, welcome to the program.
Dan: You mean, Ann?
Pastor Ross: Well,
Pastor Doug: Well if you’re in Yonkers, New York, yes.
Ann: Yes that’s me.
Pastor Ross: Alright.
Ann: Thanks.
Pastor Doug: Sorry.
Ann: Hi Pastor Doug, my question is what in the book of Job, there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord and satan also came among them. Who are the sons of God?
Pastor Doug: Well let me give you a couple of verses I think help explain that. When God first made the world and it said all the sons of God shouted for joy, it was also later in the book of Job. When God made Adam there in Genesis, Adam was the son of God. You can read in Luke Chapter 3 the genealogy of Jesus. When it counts backward to the genealogy to Jesus and it says Enos was the son of Seth, who was the son of Adam, who was the son of God. Now in the way Adam was not born, but Adam was created by God to have dominion over this world. Christ has made other worlds the Bible says that God through Christ made the worlds. These sons of God that were at this heavenly meeting with God may have very well have been these leaders that are representative of other worlds that God has made out in the infinite cosmos. And I know that is kind of mysterious for some people to grasp, but our planet is not the only thing that God has made in the universe with life on it. Now the Bible seems to indicate—well we know there are angels and cherubim.
Ann: Well some people believe that the angels—the bad angels were the ones that were the sons of God that came down on earth with the devil.
Pastor Doug: To the daughters of men?
Ann: Well, had sex with the—
Pastor Doug: Well, yeah, that’s completely inaccurate, Genesis 6 yeah.
Ann: It can’t be accurate because angels didn’t procreate.
Pastor Doug: Yeah in Genesis 6 where it talks about the sons of God, the word sons of God, is used several ways in the Bible. For instance I f you look in—here’s one more example of that. You look in John 1:12 “But, as many as received Him, Jesus to him he gives power to become the sons of God.”
Then you read in 1 John 3:1-2, “Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us that we should be called, sons of God.” Isaiah 56 it tells us that,” we will be called sons and daughters of God.” So sometimes people when we’re adopted into the family were called sons of God. In Genesis when it talks about the children of Seth, they were the sons of God because they followed the Lord. They intermarried with the daughters of Cain. Cain rejected God they were called the daughters of men. When they began to intermarry then it says that wickedness filled the earth. So it’s not talking about aliens or fallen angels having sex with humans. I’ve heard interesting interpretations on that it was just that there were two lines of people in the world the children of Cain and I think we need to write a book on that we get that question so much Pastor, who were the sons of God.
Pastor Ross: We do. You know anyway I would like to welcome Ann and it looks like she’s listening to us on Sirius XM radio.
Pastor Doug: Is that right, Ann?
Ann: Yes. Yes.
Pastor Doug: Well God bless your heart, congratulations, you’re our first caller.
Ann: Oh. That’s great!
Pastor Doug: Send her something. Tell you what we’re going to give you a special gift of our Book of Amazing Facts. We’ve got the book number 1 of Amazing Facts and you call the resource line, you can tell them you’re the first caller on Sirius Radio and we’re going to give you a copy of that book.
Ann: Well thank you so much I really appreciate that!
Pastor Doug: Well thanks for calling.
Pastor Ross: Alright Ann let me give you that number, it is 800-835-6747 that’s 800-835-6747 and you can request your copy of the “Book of Amazing Facts: Volume 1”.
Next caller is Efrank and he is calling from New York. Efrank, welcome to the program.
Efrank: Yes good evening Pastor and good evening Pastor Doug Batchelor as well.
Pastor Doug: Good evening.
Efrank: Yes, my question is in regards to a spiritual organization that I belong to as they’ve indicated that they believe salvation comes through Scripture through the Bible alone. Now there’s a Scripture that I would like to present to both of you gentlemen this evening. It’s from Hebrews Chapter 2:10 and Hebrews chapter 12:2 where it states that “Salvation has not exempted us from suffering, Christ is our pioneer precisely because he has suffered.” Now I belong to an organization by the name of the Knights of Columbus. They have indicated that I’m an initiated 4th degree member, I’m also an inside installed guard officer and a 1st, 2nd, and 3rd degree member in standing. They told me many times that many organizations have considered them not a fraternity, but a form of spiritual occultic cult that the hand signals, the secret handshakes, the secret occultic rituals well they’re not being exposed publically, but they’ve told me that those are not occultic rituals.
Pastor Doug: Well you need to get to your question, Efrank I’m afraid we’re going to run out of time. Can you summarize a question?
Efrank: Well my question is this they taught me that Christ through the Bible is the only way towards salvation, and that other faiths teach Jesus Christ another way which is coequal to theirs, but the Knight s of Columbus have a different way of teaching Scripture and the Bible my question is this, is it a good idea that I continue believing in the way that the Knights of Columbus believe in Scripture and the Bible because they do teach me the good principles of Christ through the Bible itself?
Pastor Doug: Well you know I appreciate the sincerity and honesty of your question. I believe that the Knights of Columbus by way of it being—having secret ceremonies there’s nothing that should be secret about Christianity. It should be open and plain and transparent and from what I understand it is a secret society. The teachings that may incorporate elements of Christianity and some Christian symbols and terminology Masons do and many religions do. The Haidu, I could talk about all kinds of religions that have elements of Biblical quotes and terms, but they’re not following the clear teaching of Scripture in all of the words of Christ. And I do think that would be a secret society.
Pastor Ross: Follow the lead of the early Christian Church back in the times of the Apostles, the burden on their heart was to share the gospel with as many people as they could. It was not secretive, but they declared the message anywhere they could. They were not secretive as to who they included as part of the church. Those who received Christ and believed they were welcome to be part of the church. But, we don’t see some kind of secret society structure in the early Christian church.
Pastor Doug: And the hierarchy within the Knights of Columbus or the Masons, you don’t see that structure in Christianity. It’s that Christianity was very simple you had your laity, everyone was called to form a priesthood you have the deacons the elders and pastors really were the-–all you had then. And so it’s just co-mingling the inventions of men with some Biblical terminology. I appreciate your question Efrank I hope that helps a little bit.
Pastor Ross: Our next caller is Jeanne and she is listening from Orangevale, California. Not too far from here, Jeanne welcome to the program.
Jeanne: Thank you very much Pastors, please I have a question for you. The apartment complex where I live we will be starting a Bible study group and just by a miracle and a blessing we were talking about God one night out front and so we were there for hours and so we decided well we’ll start a little Bible study group. But, please we all come from different backgrounds and I was wondering how do we have our Bible study group when some of the people don’t believe in Jesus as God’s son?
Pastor Doug: Well I would make that one of the studies I’d say you know that’s a very good question. Why do some of us believe that and some of us don’t? How do we find the conclusion? Is the answer in the Bible? If they don’t believe the answers I the Bible you‘re going to have a hard time finding common ground if they want to go from the Bible it is easy to prove. Amazing Facts has Bible studies on that.
Pastor Ross: You know also Jeanne you can bear in mind that the Bible when you look at the prophetic truth of the Scripture there are so many prophecies that talk about Jesus. When He would come, what He would do, even how He would die when you look at the prophecy of the Old Testament on how accurately Jesus fulfilled those prophecies well that builds faith to believe that Jesus is who indeed that He said He was.
Pastor Doug: Yeah so we have some Bible studies that deal with, who is Jesus. And for one thing we have that book on the Trinity. It talks a lot about the nature of Christ and we’ll be happy to send you a free copy of that Jeanne if you’d like.
Pastor Ross: The number t call is 800-835-6747. And Jeanne ask for the book, “The Trinity is it Biblical?” And we’ll be happy to send that out to you. Our next caller is Darren and he is listening from South Carolina, Darren welcome to the program.
Darren: Hi how you doing Pastor?
Pastor Doug: Doing well. We’ve got just a few minutes before the break Darrel so if you have a quick question.
Darren: It is Darren,
Pastor Doug: Oh sorry.
Darren: No problem. Is giving an offering and giving the same principle as like the health principles like not eating different meats, as a health law. Eating meat is a health law so even if you’re a sinner and you don’t believe if you follow those health laws you’re going to be healthy. Is giving an offering and giving to the poor and tithing the same? And the same way if you give it’s still going to come back to you? Even if you don’t necessarily follow--
Pastor Doug: Very good question. I appreciate the way you stated that question. Here are benefits—let’s suppose that a person says I’m an atheist. But they believe in the health laws in the Bible. Will they experience those benefits? I’d say yes because there are certain cause and effect laws. You might be an atheist, but if you don’t drink and drive fast, you’re probably going to live longer, statistically I’m talking about because anything could happen to anybody.
But what about tithing if a person practices generosity and giving, the promises in the Bible about God’s blessing the generous, will He still fulfill those? I believe the answer is yes. I know of a couple of businesses who made it a policy to take a percentage of their income and to share it with charities and it seems like those businesses have prospered. And it doesn’t necessarily mean everyone in that business was a Christian.
Darren: Alright I agree with that.
Pastor Doug: Yeah so there are principles where if you’ve got laws in the Bible where you follow those laws—you know there’s a promise—Paul says there’s a commandment that says honor your father and your mother and your days will be long. Well it’s interesting that the countries of the world that have the highest regard for their elders are the Japanese and the Chinese there in Asia and they also have some of the longest life expectancies. So I do think that whatever the laws are there are benefits and promises that can be specific. And I think there are specific promises and benefits to faithfulness in giving and charity. You know Jesus said give and it will be given to you. A good measure pressed down is good.
Pastor Ross: You know it’s a proven fact pastor Doug, that generous people are happy people. People who are hoarding everything to them self they lack the joy of being able to help someone else. So there are practical benefits in being generous and I believe God adds His blessing to that if we do it with a sincere heart.
Pastor Doug: Yeah. You’ve got that verse that says he that holds more than his mete and attends to poverty and there’s he that scattereth and attends to increase. So lots of principles like that, the Lord loves a cheerful giver.
Pastor Ross: You know we have a book on that or at least a study guide I think folks would be interested in titled, “In God We Trust”. And it deals with the subject of giving and tithing. If you’d like to receive a free copy of that study guide call our resource line, it is 1-800-835-6747 and you can ask for the study guide, “In God We Trust” and we’ll be happy to send that out.
We’ll see if we can get a quick call in before our break. Genevieve welcome to the program.
Genevieve: Hi and good night. My question is –comes from sometimes when they have discussions they are about concerning that Jesus was black. You know I said that in the right way and Biblically I don’t know what the Bible it says about –it’s alright I’m talking on the radio. It’s the reception.
Pastor Doug: Yeah. So are you saying you are wondering if the Bible says what color was Jesus’ skin was or?
Genevieve: Yeah. Yeah.
Pastor Doug: Let me give you some quick ideas on that. First of all when Jesus was in a crowd, He would disappear so in other words He looked like the apostles, He looked like the crowd, from the land, and He looked like someone from Nazareth. So he mingled in pretty well, we do know in Jesus’ family tree there were a number of races represented because he had Ruth [inaudible] as a grandmother, Bathsheba was a descendent of Christ. Tamar a Canaanite was a descendent of Christ and so he had an assortment of people in His family tree. But, by the time Jesus was born the reason Judas had to identify Him, to the mob that came to arrest Him, is because he looked like the rest of the Galilean Hebrew fisherman. And so I think it’s safe to say that Jesus looked like atypical Semitic, fisherman, or carpenter of Hs day and there’s really no comment in the Bible about His appearance or very little comment on His appearance. It tells us he had a beard in one of the prophecies.
Pastor Ross: the Bible does tell us in Isaiah Chapter 53 that he has no outward form or comeliness that people were attracted to Him, it was His character.
Pastor Doug: So the biggest emphasis about Jesus is that He was the word and it is said even more so than what he looked like. So yeah, Jesus seemed to be able to pass undetected through the crowd when He was going to the feasts just mingling in with everybody else. Now there is the man who carried the cross for Jesus his name was Simeon. He’s called Simeon Niger and so he was identified as having dark skin, but, not Jesus.
Listening friends you are tuned into “Bible Answers Live”. Pastor Ross we just have a few moments before we have some announcements we have to make and we just want to tell our friends who are listening in that we are coming back in a moment with more Bible questions. But, get a pencil handy, one of the things we’d like you to be aware of is the main website for this ministry. Amazing facts and we’re very thankful that you can just type in Amazing Facts, just those words in a Yahoo or Google or Bing or any of those search engines and first thing on the list is going to be our website. Amazing Facts dot org, there you will find a lot of the lessons and free material that we talk about during this program, we can not only send them to you, but you can read them for free online. You can watch the videos online just a plethora of material at Amazing Facts dot com. We’ll be right back with more questions in just a moment.
[COMMERCIAL BREAK]
Pastor Doug: We’re back listening friends and for those who may have joined us along the way this is “Bible Answers Live”. And we’re here to do our best to answer your live Bible questions. If you have questions give us a call. We have some lines open, one more time it is 800-463-7297 and we have new station we wan to welcome tonight Pastor Ross.
Pastor Ross: We would we’d like to welcome those listening on Sirius XM Radio, it is channel 131 and we already had one caller who was listening on XM and we have another one, as a matter of fact let’s go to Luke, who is driving on Interstate 80 somewhere in Illinois. Luke, welcome to the program.
Luke: Hi and thank you for taking my call I appreciate that. My question is pertaining to in the Gospel Luke Chapter 21 where Jesus talks about the end times and more specifically about deception. And one of the first things he said was take heed that no man deceives you, and shortly after that He also mentions that if it were possible the very elect would be deceived. Now a couple of things, number one, who are the elect that would be deceived that He talks about? And what are the circumstances r issues that we would be facing that would bring in that level of deception. Also kind of a spin-off on that I just wanted to mention that I heard on a very god program last night that with the growth of Islam, in Europe and the United States that there is a big push by the Christian Church not just in Europe , but also starting to happen in the U.S. where there are many Christian leaders that are in the Christian Church that are trying to find some type of middle ground with the Islamic States to appease the Islam’s and what they’re forming is this religion if you will called Chrislam which is a combination of Christianity and Islam .
Pastor Doug: I heard about that.
Luke: My question is who the elect that might possibly be deceived are and what would lead to that deception? And what can we as Christians do to not have these elect fall into that deception?
Pastor Doug: Yeah and I appreciate that Luke and that’s a good question, but a broad question. Okay, first thing, what would that deception looks like was part of your question so I went to that verse first? And if you look in Matthew 24, similar to Luke 21 Jesus said, “Lo if any man says to you here is Christ, or there, believe it not for there will arise false Christ’s.” And so part of the—and it says, ‘false prophets and they will do great signs and wonders, in as much as it were possible they would deceive the very elect.”So there will be false Christ’s and I think that’s going beyond the, you know, crazy people and like Jim Jones’s I’m not talking about that. I mean, Satan, there’s going to be supernatural evidence that is going to deceive people.
The elect are those who have accepted the Lord, who are walking in the light, those are the wise virgins that it refers to in Matthew 25. They’re the believers. Some people will argue that the elect are the converted Jews, but I think the elect are whoever has heard Christ’s voice and are in His fold, they are the elect. You know God voted for them and they got elected and they accept that pardon that He has offered.
Didn’t you ask a question on Chrislam or the co-mingling of these two religions? I don’t know that that is going to go very far, you know it may with some. And the reason I say that is my experience in life has been that whenever leaders try to make everybody happy in two opposite groups they end up making nobody happy. So there may be a few people in the middle who think it would be great if you can somehow reconcile Christianity and Islam, but the fact is Christians can’t even reconcile among themselves. There are so many divisions in Christianity in North America that a handful that might somehow want to celebrate the things in common that they might have with Islam you can’t serve two masters and it’s really a different religion. Now I think, you know, I’ll be in the Middle East, on 9/11/2011, the ten year anniversary and I’ll be in the most populous Islamic country in the world talking about Jesus. I will talk, you know, it’s wonderful there are certain things in common as a means of bringing people to Christ, but I’m not going to be sacrificing any principles and saying you just keep your beliefs and I’ll keep mine. I think Christians are called everywhere to invite people to Christianity.
Pastor Ross: Luke, we have a book I think you’d find particularly interesting on the subject titled, “Satan’s Confusing Counterfeits” the book again is, “Satan’s Confusing Counterfeits” it talks about some of those signs and wonders that the devil will use to deceive if you cal our resource line, It’s 800-835-6747 you can request the book, “Satan’s Confusing Counterfeits” and we’d be happy to send that out to you.
Pastor Doug: Yeah I appreciate the other call we got from Sirius XM.
Pastor Ross: Our next caller is Sandy and she’s listening in Tennessee, Sandy, welcome to the program.
Sandy: Hi. Hi, Pastor Ross how are you doing?
Pastor Ross: We’re doing well thanks.
Sandy: Okay I have a really quick question for you all. The denomination I worship in they said you shouldn’t practice any kind of business practices on the Sabbath. And I try to observe that because in the Bible, but is it okay to participate in fund raising efforts for charities on the Sabbath? Because there are a lot of Charities have their fundraising on the Sabbath.
Pastor Doug: Well that can be taken too far, too. You know the Sabbath is a Holy Day it’s not really to be a bizarre you know the pulpit should not be used as an auction block and you know Jesus, when he went into the sanctuary and chased everybody out because they were doing all of this buying and selling and He said my Father’s house is a house of prayer. They were actually, they weren’t selling t-shirts, they weren’t selling hats, and they were selling sacrificial animals. But, they had become so preoccupied with the sales of these things that it really sounded like a market and it sounded like an auction.
And Jesus said you know, these things need to be done properly, it was one thing when the people brought their money and dropped them in the money box. Jesus commended a widow for doing that. But, you really don’t want a barker standing there by the offering box, or having a big strong fund raising appeal, I think that even the offering appeals in church can go too far. You know that needs to be appropriate.
So being involved in a fund raiser on the Sabbath, you know even for a worthy charity, I think that there are other days that would be better for that. The Sabbath is really a time for God and for Holiness and you wouldn’t want to get too preoccupied with fundraising. Pastor Ross do you have any thought son that? We do have a lesson we can send you Sandy that talks about the Christian and money. And it’s called, “In God We Trust”.
Pastor Ross: And Sandy if you call our resource line, that’s 800-835-6747 you can ask for the study guide, “In God We Trust” and we’d be happy to get it in the mail and send that to you.
Our next caller is Orillia and she is listening in Brooklyn, New York on WMCA Orillia, welcome to the program.
Orillia: Hi how are you this evening?
Pastor Doug: Doing well.
Orillia: A pleasure speaking to you guys. My question is about in Exodus 33:18 where Moses asks Jesus – Moses asks God to show Him His glory. And I don’t quite understand about show me thy glory? Could you explain that to me?
Pastor Doug: Well, the Bible says no man has seen God’s face and God even said in verse 20 He said, “You can’t see my face for there shall no man see me and live.” Now this is Moses a Holy man. So God said, “Behold there is a place by me, and you will stand on a rock and when it comes to pass that my glory passes by I will put you in a cleft in the rock. There is a whole song about that, “He Hideth My Soul On the Cleft in the Rock”. God’s glory and the magnificence of His face for sinful man is so brilliant and so dazzling and so powerful it tells us in the bible that the presence of God is a consuming fire. It says that when Jesus comes that heaven and earth flee away from His face. And so God said look and typically God shields some of His glory in some kind of cloud so that we can bear His presence. He said I will reveal my character to you. Because that’s the most important thing, it’s not the bright light it’s who is God? And when God passed by you can read in Exodus 36:4 it says, “The Lord God proclaimed, God the merciful, gracious, longsuffering, abundant in goodness and truth. So it was the character of God that he revealed.
Pastor Ross: In other words the word glory not only refers to His Brightness and His power, but it is referring to the essence of His character.
Pastor Doug: it tells us that characteristics, the attributes of God makes God so wonderful, it’s not that He’s got the brightest light, what makes God so wonderful is not that He’s got the most dynamite in His hand what makes Him so wonderful is who He is. He is the essence of love, mercy, graciousness, and goodness and that’s what He revealed to Moses and Moses, when he saw that he just fell down before the Lord.
Orillia: Okay.
Pastor Doug: It says Moses made haste with his head towards the earth and worshipped as, that’s verse 8 Exodus 34:8. Someday we’ll see Him face to face that’s the promise in Genesis and he said He will never leave us He is with us where ever we go. But, someday we will actually see Him with undimmed glory.
Pastor Ross: our next caller is Montoya and she’s listening on internet from Pennsylvania. Montoya welcome to the program.
Montoya: Hi, good evening Pastors.
Pastor Doug: Good evening.
Montoya: My question has to do with divorce and then remarriage. If two believers are married and one believer divorced the other without adultery being the grounds for the divorce. Then that believer turns around and remarry’s another Christian who really doesn’t understand Biblical and non Biblical divorce. And then the light is brought to that person. Yes. Does God still hold that believer accountable and hold that believer accountable when she finds or when they find out that it really wasn’t Biblical for them to be married?
Pastor Doug: Well there are a lot of issues that you’ve raised here. Fr one you’ve talked about a Christian who married someone of another faith, that’s a mistake, Biblically I mean even if they’re Christians their denominations are kind of exclusive and there will be conflict right there. But, what happens when you scramble the truth and maybe the even got married with unbiblical grounds. David and Bathsheba would probably be exhibit “A” of a couple that got together under forbidden terms. And they were both church members. And they were punished for their sin they ended up having children together and one of them became an ancestor to the Messiah, Solomon. Eventually they were recognized as married and they repented of their sins. When Jesus met the Samaritan woman of course she didn’t have the same knowledge that maybe David and Bathsheba had. She had had five husband’s and Christ revealed to her that He was the Messiah, but she was living with a man well he was number six I guess she wasn’t married to him. But she wasn’t married to and I suppose she went home after meeting Jesus and booted him out and married him or something. So once we know the truth we need to follow the truth.
Now God is not asking two people that got married if they found out they got married without Biblical grounds, to then get divorced and then track down their former spouses or something. The Bible actually says that once a person gets divorced they are not supposed to go back to that person that they divorced. It just gets to be wife-swapping after awhile. What’s that?
Montoya: So you can repent—you can repent and still stay married? And God accepts your repentance even though you stay married.
Pastor Doug: Yeah I think that’s really a better witness than getting divorced and getting married to someone else again. So like I said you can’t unscramble scrambled eggs, and if you’re married you’re either married or not. If you’re married then you’re married, you’ve said vows and made promises and it’s recognized by the Lord and by the country and you need to love your spouse and walk in the light that you have. So I hope that helps a little bit Montoya.
Pastor Ross: You know Pastor Doug you wrote a book on the subject of marriage and remarriage.
Pastor Doug: Oh yeah I was just thinking about that.
Pastor Ross: Were you thinking about that, too? Now I don’t know that’s probably not a free book, but it is available at the Amazing Facts website.
Pastor Doug: It’s an affordable book. “Divorce, Marriage and Remarriage”
Pastor Ross: It is a brand new book and for anyone listening if you go to the Amazing Facts website, just Amazing Facts dot org, You’ll be able to order the book , Divorce, Marriage and Remarriage” and we’ll be able to send that out to you.
Pastor Doug: By Batchelor, Doug Batchelor of all things I wrote a book on marriage, I know that sounds strange.
Pastor Ross: Alright our next caller is Armando and he is listening on Sirius XM from Texas. Armando, welcome to the program.
Armando: Well thank you for taking my call. Well, I just have a quick question, I’m traveling a lot now and so I go to a lot of different churches. The church I went to this morning they quoted I think Romans, believing like they are, they will come to be past. I’ve heard it before, but like on a TV station like TBN from the pastors there. Are they misusing that quote or Scripture? How do we interpret that quote for that passage from the Bible?
Pastor Doug: Are you talking about where God talked about Abraham where God called things as they are not as though they are?
Armando: Yes.
Pastor Doug: Well, that has been abused, but at the same time there’s still a kernel of truth in there that we don’t want to miss. God renamed Abraham, Abram means father—well Abraham means father of a multitude. God gave him the name of Father of a multitude while he still had no children. So he was calling something that was not as though it was in advance.
Jesus said to Peter, follow me and I will make you a fisher of men. And when Peter accepted that and he followed Christ he became a fisher of men. So when we believe the promise of God and start following Him, things can become a reality. But, you’ve got to have the word based on that. I’ve heard pastors abuse that verse and try and tell everybody oh you’re all going to be healthy and you’re all going to going to be wealthy you just claim it in advance. And that really is an abuse of what that teaching is. Really that teaching is about that we can believe that we are the children of God and because we have faith that we’re forgiven we start to live like the children of God holy lives.
Armando: Umm-hmm. Okay.
Pastor Doug: And that I think is the most important principle there. Abraham believed and God counted it to him for righteousness, He didn’t count it to him for wealth, He didn’t count it to him for health, he counted it to him for righteousness and so it is through faith in the word and promise of God we are declared righteous and then we start to behave righteously. At justification, you’re declared righteous, sanctification, you start living a Holy life it starts with faith and what God has said.
Armando: Okay. Okay.
Pastor Ross: You know I think you’d enjoy that book that we are offering, Armando, “Three Steps to Heaven”. And if you can call us on our resource line 800-835-6747 ask for the book, “Three Steps to Heaven” it’ll go through what Pastor Doug is referring to as justification, sanctification, how our faith is translated and used in the proper Biblical method of believing.
Pastor Doug: Well thank you for your call Armando and we are happy to hear form out Sirius callers and we still have a few minutes left if there are others. 800-463-7297 and who’s next pastor Ross?
Pastor Ross: We’ve got Oreian who is listening from the U.S. Virgin Islands, Oreian welcome to the program.
Oreian: Hey good evening Pastors.
Pastor Doug: Calling from Saint Croix we are glad to have you.
Oreian: Yes and I am calling with my question is when we look at the different things that Christ has shown us, I’m wondering if our practice of forgiveness from one to another should be the same as we see God’s method of forgiveness being given? And what I mean by that is that God lets us know what our fault is and he expects us to come and ask Him for forgiveness and once we ask Him, the Bible says He is faithful and just to forgive. But, however a lot of times I guess we talk about this being a part of forgiving someone for what they have done, but they had not participated in the forgiveness process meaning they have never come and asked forgiveness whatsoever. So I’m wondering should our method be what God does or this forgiveness without the other person taking part in the process.
Pastor Doug: Good question now there are two parts to that and we’re going to bring your volume down a little Oreian because I think we’re getting a little radio feedback or cell phone feedback.
God forgives those that repent and ask for forgiveness, but what if somebody hurts you and they don’t ask for forgiveness, should you still forgive them? Now Jesus does say that if you have a brother that sin against you seven times in a day and seven times comes to you, and says I repent you should forgive them. So when a person asks for forgiveness for a certain trespass, the Bible is very clear on that we should forgive them. But, there is another dimension to forgiveness, if somebody has hurt you you need to forgive them for yourself so there is no bitterness. So this is a different aspect between us and God.
Pastor Ross: You know when Jesus was being crucified He said, “Father forgive them for they know not what they do.” There were many there on that scene that day that never accepted that forgiveness, never the less Christ offered. They didn’t ask for it either.
Pastor Doug: They didn’t ask for it either.
Pastor Ross: So there’s an example we could follow.
Pastor Doug: Yeah He just freely forgave and He said as Christ forgave you, so we should forgive others. Now that may be that someone may not repent or may not ask, but somebody says that they borrow and they just don’t pay you back and you can forgive them, you can forgive the debt and then they come to you and want to borrow money again, I forgive you, but I may not lend you money again. It’s not talking about that or letting someone abuse you, but we should love people and forgive them because it’s part of the Lord’s Prayer.” Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.” Who’s next Pastor?
Pastor Ross: We’ve got Martin who’s listening in Brooklyn, New York on WMCA Martin, welcome to the program. Martin can you hear us?
Pastor Doug: Martin in Brooklyn, WMCA.
Pastor Ross: Okay, Martin we will try to get back to you. We’ve got A.J. in Portland, Oregon. A.J. welcome to the program.
A.J.: Thank you very much. I was calling because whenever I have Christian friends and non-Christian friends discuss the Bible, the conversation always breaks down when one of the friends says this is so because the Bible says so.
Pastor Doug: Right.
A.J.: So for non-Christians who don’t believe that the Bible is inherently true, how would you—I’ve often heard the Christians say it is true because it proves itself to be true. How would you say that the Bible is true? Is it because it proves itself to be true or is there something outside of that that can make it true?
Pastor Doug: I’m glad you asked that question because I believe it is very important. I am even embarrassed when I hear Pastors or Christians tell unbelievers, you need to believe because the Bible says it. And I was an atheist and I thought well I don’t care that the Bible says it. I mean what does that mean to me I thought the Bible was a book of fairy tales, so, when Christians would shake their Bibles at me and say well you have to believe it because the Bible says it, I’d say why? Well, the Bible says so so I thought well, I don’t care that is very convenient that the Bible says we should believe the Bible and in the Bible. And what we need to tell people is there is evidence in the Bible, that it is dependable through science and history in prophecy.
In other words, there are statements in there that are supernaturally accurate. And you can show historically that things were predicted in the Bible hundreds and thousands of years in advance and then they came true. So it is a book that has proven itself by evidence, not just because it says so. History proves the Bible true. So there is scientific, historical, philosophical, humanitarian evidences outside of the Bible that supports its’ accuracy.
But, the first step is you do have to convince people can you trust the bible? Matter of fact we’ve got a study guide on that it deals with that and it’s our first study guide because people need to trust the Bible to move forward.
Pastor Ross: The study guide is called “Is There Anything Left that You Can Trust?” And we’ll be happy to send that out to anyone listening and we also have a book written by Pastor Doug, entitled, “The Ultimate Resource” dealing with the Bible and its’ trustworthiness. If you’d call our resource line 800-835-6747 you can ask for “The Ultimate Resource” a book written by Pastor Doug you can also ask for the study guide “Is There Anything Left that You can Trust”.
Let’s see our next caller Pastor Doug we go to Mike who is listening in Buffalo, New York. Mike welcome to the program.
Mike: I guess this is along the same lines as the last caller. In science in the mainstream textbooks every college everything talks about an old earth. 4.5 billion years old and evolution evolution is not my question here. On the age of the earth is if you go by the literal interpretation of Genesis would it not be around 6 thousand years old? And I was wondering what your opinions on that were.
Pastor Doug: Alright, I appreciate that, Mike. You know—this is the key to understanding this—if God made Adam full grown—when Adam came out of the box—so to speak, and Adam-- made him created him, did Adam already have a certain age built in? Or was he created as an infant, only Adam looked like a full grown man. So a lot of things God made, trees were full grown when God spoke them into existence and had built in age to it. The world may have had age built into it when God made the stars, the light coming from the stars was created at the same time in route to the earth, and we didn’t have to wait a billion years for the starlight to appear. So remembering that that makes a big difference.
Hey listening friends, God bless, we look forward to seeing you again. We have some important announcements before we go away.
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