Hello friends, this is Doug Batchelor, how about an amazing fact? A young mother in Argentina was devastated when she woke up following child birth, to learn the baby was still born. Before the mother could see the tiny girl, the infant was declared dead, quickly whisked away and placed in a little coffin within a refrigerated morgue. About 12 hours later, the mother Annalia and her husband Fabian pled with morgue officials, to see the baby and say their last goodbyes. Fabian removed the coffin lid to let Annalia look inside.
She says, “I moved the coverings aside and uncovered her face, that’s when I heard a tiny little cry. I told myself I was imagining it, it was my imagination. And then I stepped back and saw her waking up, it’s as if she was saying, “Mama, you came for me”. Annalia fell to her knees in shock, laughing and crying, as the quivering baby as cold as a bottle of ice, was rushed to the hospital’s intensive care unit. A week later, their little girl was still alive, despite her being born pre-mature and spending 12 hours in a cold coffin, in a refrigerated morgue. Annalia named her amazing baby, “Luz Meraglos or Miracle light”, adding “I’m a believer”. All of this was a miracle from God. Stay with us friends, we’ll learn more as “Amazing Facts” brings you, this edition of “Bible Answers Live”
[PROGRAM INTRODUCTION]
Pastor Doug: Welcome listening friends to Bible Answers Live. I’m very thankful that you’ve chosen to tune in tonight by design or providence, if you’re joining us for the 1st time. This is a live international, interactive bible study and if you have a bible question, we have some lines open right now so call in with your bible question; it’s a toll free call. That number, “1-800-GOD SAYS”, 1-800-463-7297 will bring you into our studio with your bible question, one more time, 1-800-463-7297. And for those that are listening on the internet, you can also watch, we are streaming tonight. And the address, if you’d like to not only listen, but to see, is “Live.amazingfacts.org”. And my name is Doug Batchelor.
Pastor Jëan Ross: My name is Jëan Ross. Good evening listening friends, Pastor Doug, let’s begin the program with prayer. Father, we do thank you, that we have this opportunity to study your word, we pray for wisdom and guidance, we know that truth is in the scriptures so guide us to a clearer understanding of truth. For we ask this in Jesus name, amen.
Pastor Doug: Amen.
Pastor Jëan Ross: Pastor Doug, you opened the program by telling a really miraculous story, almost a resurrection from the dead, not quite, but at least it seemed that way, especially to the parents.
Pastor Doug: Little babies, it seems like God made infants, just so tenacious of life, they are able to survive so much. And evidently, the hospital made a terrible mistake and misdiagnosed this pre-mature baby as still born and what if that mother, had not insisted on just going to see the baby? She wanted to take a little picture with her cell phone, for the funeral they were planning. And just to say, you know, “I never even got to see her”. And then to see the baby, you know, you’re planning a funeral, you’re dealing with the heart ache and the devastation. And then, to see the baby, open its eyes and look at you. It reminds me of the verse in the bible, of the father of the prodigal son that you find in “Luke 15, 24”. Who, when his son was gone, he left the fathers house, he was really dead. The father said, “For my son was dead and he is alive again”. You know, if we don’t have Jesus, the bible said, “We don’t have life”. “He that has a son has life; he that has not the son has not life”. And Christ one time, when someone said, “Lord, I want to follow you, but first, I’ve got to go do something and to bury my father”. And He said, “Let the dead bury the dead but you follow me”. And so, really, if a person has eternal life, then they’ve got everything. If a person doesn’t know Jesus but then they find Jesus, it’s like a resurrection and the bible tells us, “There’s joy in heaven”. Can you imagine the joy of this young mother, when, a matter of fact, she said she fell down, she was laughing and crying, didn’t know what to do, people probably though she was crazy because she wasn’t sure how to cope with the joy of finding out, her baby was really alive, and it reminds us of that verse in the same chapter, “Luke 15 verse 10” Jesus said, “Likewise, I say to you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God, over one sinner who repents”. Friends, you can bring joy to heaven, if you haven’t found Jesus, you can make a decision to take those steps and find eternal life and go from death to life, and it’ll bring singing and joy in heaven. We have a free offer tonight, if you’d like to know more about that.
Pastor Jëan Ross: We do, it’s a book entitled, “Three Steps to Heaven”. Pastor Doug, you mentioned. We can take those steps to have eternal life, to be in heaven and this book outlines 3 simple steps that need to be taken, in order to have our names written in the Lamb’s book of life. If you’d like to receive this free book, call our resource line. The number is 1-800-835-6747 and you can ask for the book, “Three Steps to Heaven”. The number again is 1-800-835-6747. Pastor Doug, we’re going to go straight to the phone lines. Our 1st caller this evening is Thomas and he’s calling from Toronto, Canada. Thomas, welcome to the program.
Thomas: Thank you very much. How’re you doing, can you hear me okay?
Pastor Doug: Hear you load and clear, thanks for hanging on, your question tonight?
Thomas: Yes. My question is. I’ll try to make this as quick as possible and keep it to 1. I heard this speaker, on this recent broad cast in Canada, on how Solomon did not heed the warnings of Moses, regarding, trusting an armaments of the world and trusting riches and having multiple wives. And you also spoke of, God brought adversaries to Solomon, to try to change his heart and bring him to call upon God.
Pastor Doug: Yes.
Thomas: And my question specifically is in “James 1: 13 or 14”. It says, “Each one of us is tempted when, by our own desires, we are enticed” right? And when those desires conceive (inaudible 07:30) conceive, they can give birth to sin. In relation to God speaking to Cain, He describes the sin as not being the kings heart, but as being sin at (inaudible 7:43) and it desires, it’s desires is for you. My (inaudible 7:52) in putting those 2 verses together. Who is Jesus specifically speaking to, when He says to Peter, “(Inaudible 8:01) get behind ME”, after then, He says “Peter, get your mind on the things of the kingdom of God and not on the things of men”.
Pastor Doug: Yeah, He says, “Satan has desired to have you, that he might sift you as wheat”. Well, both in the instance of Cain and Solomon as you mentioned, and really with every person, temptation is always, you just right there at the door, and people have to pray that God will help us to resist that temptation, the devil is going around as a roaring lion, seeking whom he might devour. And so, yeah, absolutely, we need to just be aware. By the way, we have a free book we’d be happy to give you Thomas, if you’d like to call and ask for it, we’ll send you a copy of “Temptation, 12 Tips to Resisting Temptation”, and everyone can, we’re all tempted.
Pastor Jëan Ross: That’s right, for anyone wanting to learn more and, it’s an important subject, how can we resist temptation. We have a book “Tips for Resisting Temptation”, if you’d call our resource line, the number is 1-800-835-6747. Just ask for the book, “Tips for Resisting Temptation”. We’ll be happy to send that out. We have Craig listening from Des Moines Iowa. Craig, welcome to the program.
Craig: Yes. Hello. I’ve called a couple times and first of all, I want to say “you got the best pastors and everything on TV I’ve ever seen”
Pastor Doug: Bless your heart.
Craig: I listened to hundreds of hours of your sermons.
Pastor Doug: Well thank you, I think there’s a recovery group for that
Pastor Jëan Ross: (Laughing)
Pastor Doug: if we could put you in touch later.
Craig: (Laughing)
Pastor Doug: (Laughing)
Craig: Yeah, I need help. I need more of the truth.
Pastor Doug: Amen.
Craig: Pastor Doug, this is a question concerning “Revelations 22:18 and 19” where he talks about, you know, “Taking away or having to the word of God basically” and I’ve got a real problem with. It’s not just, it’s not your ministry, it’s not other ministries, it’s just in general, in the religious world. That these other translations are deluding and changing the original, I know that comes from the “Textus Receptus”, the King James does and the new King James. But the Syniaticus translations are just, to me there’s satanic, I believe there’s satanic, and the where I got this from directly, was a woman on, she’s a doctor, she’s got many degrees and she devoted her whole study to bible translations and comparisons.
Pastor Doug: Is that the Riplinger?
Craig: Yeah, yeah. And when I watch her, I just can’t, I mean she shows it in plane black and white, how they delete God in heaven and blood and they take away the power of the original, is what I think they’re doing. So I wanted to get you’re, I know, on one of your sermons, you said, “You prefer the King James” and that you said, “Sometime, you do read from the New King James”. I think it’s the best of all of them, the second best, the new. But these other ones, like oh, I can’t believe how horrible they are.
Pastor Doug: Yeah. Matter a fact, a new translation came out, I can’t even remember the name of it right now, but another or an additional translation came out, just this last month that is another version, there are more English translations of the bible, then any other language. and so that would naturally beg the question, other than modernizing certain words because over time, you know, we do speak a little differently now, then they maybe did in the, you know, 16 hundreds. And so you want the words to be accurately translated but is there really that big a difference? I mean, one of the concerns is, and this is what I think Craig was talking about, in “Syniaticus and the Vaticanus” and some of the other questionable manuscripts, and where just talking about “New Testament manuscripts”, the Old Testament is pretty uniform. There are whole sections that are, you know, deleted or removed or verses that are left out, and that obviously causes a concern. And so, I always think that you’re safer with the entire word of God, and it takes a little study. We do have a book that we can share with you Craig, and I don’t know if you see this but we’ll send you a free copy and it talk a little about the bible and the history of the bible, and it’s called, “The Ultimate Resource”, and you ask that, we’ll be happy to send you one. And thank you for your kind words and your call.
Pastor Jëan Ross: The number to call is 1-800-835-6747, that is the resource line, and you can ask for the book “The Ultimate Resource”. That’s 1-800-8356-747; ask for the book on the bible, called “The Ultimate Resource”. We have Jackie who is listening in San Diego California on KFIA. Jackie, welcome to the program.
Jackie: Thank you very much and good evening pastors.
Pastor Doug: Evening.
Jackie: My question tonight is “Mount Maria, Mount Olives, and Mount Zion”, are they the same place in the bible? Are they.
Pastor Doug: 2 out of 3, you know, what I mean about that is the Mount of Olives is actually across a small valley, called “The Kidron Valley from Mount Zion” but Mount Zion and Mount Maria are the same mountain.
Jackie: Oh, thank God.
Pastor Doug: So, Mount Zion, Mount Maria, that’s where Abraham offered Isaac, it is the same mountain, matter a fact, it’s believed, that the very place where the dome of the rocks sits, where the temple of Solomon used to sit and the 2nd temple, the time of Christ, was located, is where Abraham offered Isaac, furthermore, the reason David chose that location for Solomon to build the temple, is an angel appeared, it used to be, what they called “The Threshing Floor”, it was a big flat area, which is what they use for threshing wheat, you want it up high, where it get breeze and blow the chaff away. That was a great location for a threshing floor of Ornian, and that’s when the angel appeared with his sword drawn, because a plague was going through Jerusalem and David offered sacrifice there, praying that God would stop the plague that was devastating the people. And so, that later was chosen as the place for the temple, and it’s believed, it’s also where Abraham offered Isaac. But Mount of Olives is right across the valley, you can literally throw a rock from one place to the other, and there’s an olive groove across the valley, that’s where “The Garden of Gethsemane” is. Don’t really have a book on that, we can offer you but that’s a good question, a lot of people wondered about that. And by the way, since we’re on the subject with mountains, the multiple names. People read about “Mount Horeb” and they read about “Mount Sainai”, they’re also the same mountain; it’s just a couple of words used for the same place where the 10 commandments where given. Appreciate your question Jackie, thank you.
Pastor Jëan Ross: We have Loretta, who is listening from Savannah, Tennessee. Loretta, welcome to the program.
Loretta: Yes. Thank you so much pastors, I appreciate your ministry so much.
Pastor Doug: Thank you.
Loretta: I told a caller, “I had a suicide question with 2 parts”. I’m just going to ask the 2nd part.
Pastor Doug: Okay
Loretta: I’ve been wondering about something and a friend addressed me as well. Now a days, with the modern technology, they can prolong life. Back in 19 hundred, if your heart stopped, then that was it. But now a days, they can, do “CPR” and put you a machine and literally resuscitate you. If you know that there is some life saving measure that you can use and you refuse it. For example, I know someone who decided, they didn’t want to be on dialysis, so actually, they have shortened there life. Will that be considered suicide from that stand point?
Pastor Doug: You know, this is one of those very sensitive, ethical questions, you know, a lot of people will put in their wills, that if they, you know, suffer some kind of serious stroke or heart attack or they’re in the process of dying, they say, “Please do not exercise a heroic efforts to keep my body going” because, you know, you can keep pumping adrenaline in to prolong the life for a little longer but its…
Loretta: Yes.
Pastor Doug: Basically, what you’re doing, is trying to use chemicals and heroic methods to just prolong somebody who would normally be dying a natural death. And this is one of those very powerful ethical questions, “how far do you go to do that?” And, you know, I think most people recognize when a person is in the process of dying, just through age and natural causes, to spend all this energy and chemicals and stuff, to try and keep their body, their heart beating and
Loretta: Yeah, but if.
Pastor Doug: It’s beyond what’s ethically expected.
Loretta: Okay. But if you refuse, knowing that, you know, you’re in good mind and you refuse these, not so much
Pastor Doug: Is that suicide then?
Loretta: Yes.
Pastor Doug: No, I don’t think so; I think that if you’re refusing heroic intervention to prolong the process of dying, which would have been a normal process. I don’t think that’s the same as suicide. I’ve been to a lot of beds of dear old people and they said, “Why won’t they let me die?”
Loretta: Yes.
Pastor Doug: They’re not saying “I want to commit suicide”, they’re just saying, you know, “I just, I’m tired, I’ve lived my life and I’m just in a hospital bed here and, you know, they got them on breathing machines and they’re pumping chemicals, they keep their heart beating a little longer and they’re saying, you know, “Just stop it”.
Pastor Jëan Ross: You know, for a Christian, death is not the end.
Pastor Doug: Exactly.
Pastor Jëan Ross: If you have faith in God, you’re looking forward to eternal life. So just to get an extra, you know, few weeks here, on this earth, compared with eternity, when you look at it from that perspective, we don’t have to hold on to this life as dearly as we can. God has promised something more.
Pastor Doug: Yeah. And obviously, if someone, you know, is in, they’re facing death but something could be done to save their life and, you know, hopefully give them some more years. By all means, that should be done.
Loretta: Yeah but it’s.
Pastor Doug: So we’re just talking about when person is really in, what’s understood to be the process of their dying, to do this heroic things or interventions.
Loretta: Well no, it’s so much more; it’s more the refusal of the individual to have these things done.
Pastor Doug: Yeah. No, that’s not suicide, I don’t believe.
Loretta: Okay
Pastor Doug: Yeah.
Loretta: Well, thank you, and I appreciate Pastor Ross’s information as well.
Pastor Doug: Thank you
Loretta: Okay, thank you very much.
Pastor Doug: Appreciate that very much.
Pastor Jëan Ross: Thank you Loretta. Our next caller is Wendy, and she is listening on Sirius XM radio. Wendy, welcome to the program.
Wendy: Yes. Good afternoon. This program is a delight, you know, being a trucker, I am, I’m on the road and this is really, need to be able to keep my faith going while I’m driving in an unholy world, I should say. Anyway.
Pastor Doug: It’s our pleasure.
Wendy: (laughs) I have a question, which you’ve probably been asked before but it’s a question, I have never been able to find an answer to and I’ve been through the bible several times. What happened to the ark, “the ark of the covenant?” after David brought into Jerusalem and he danced before it as they were, brought it up into, so yeah, all the temple was destroyed afterwards, so what happened to the ark?
Pastor Doug: Well, it’s believed, that the last time the ark is mentioned, of course, it was in the sanctuary, all through the time of Solomon and most of the kings.
Wendy: Right.
Pastor Doug: By the time you get to Hezekiah, just before Nebuchadnezzar came, of course, Nebuchadnezzar came during the descendants of Hezekiah. It’s mentioned one last time. Now the reason I say that, is there’s a legend out there that Solomon gave the ark to an illegitimate son, with the Queen of Shiva, and that’s absurd because the bible tells us, “The ark is still in the temple, in the time of Hezekiah”. But during the time of Jeremiah, when Nebuchadnezzar had surrounded Jerusalem, and he was preparing to destroy the city, burn the temple, all of a sudden, the ark disappears from history. So most bible scholars, and I’m not talking about the one in Holly Wood…
Wendy: (Laughing)
Pastor Doug: I’m talking about real bible scholars. They believe that the ark, that since Jeremiah new the temple was going to be destroyed, he plainly told the king that the priest new it and that, and it was burnt with fire, that they secured the ark, which was the holiest, you know, thing that the Jewish nation owned.
Wendy: Right, “The holiest of holies”.
Pastor Doug: it was the word of God, written with His own finger. And, that they hid it in a cave not far from Jerusalem, probably under Jerusalem somewhere because the Babylonians had the city surrounded, and it has never been found since then, it’s not in Egypt, it’s not in Ethiopia, it is probably still buried somewhere within the walls of Jerusalem, under the “Honey comb of caves”, it’s a under the city.
Wendy: Alright
Pastor Doug: So.
Wendy: And when God wants us to find it, it’ll show back up again?
Pastor Doug: Yeah, that would be quite a find, wouldn’t it?
Wendy: Right, right, right, also, one more thing. Is there a container of “mana” in the ark? Because I’ve read 2 different things, that one of which was, I’m not sure what book it was in, it was right, anyway, I don’t remember what book it was in, but it said that, “the description of the things that were in the ark were the tablets and” my brain fazed.
Pastor Doug: Yeah.
Wendy: Anyway, that, is there mana in the ark?
Pastor Doug: not anymore, if you look in “2nd Chronicle 5, 10”, it says, “There was nothing in the ark saved the 2 tables of stone that Moses put there in”. So it’s believed, that maybe when the Philistines captured the ark for a little while during the time of Samuel, it’s believed that after the Philistines captured the ark, it tells us that “They removed the lid and they looked inside” and it could be, they pulled out the mana and Aarons rob because when you get to “2nd Chronicles”, it says, “That’s all that was in it at that point”. Hey I, by the way, we do have a lesson that’s got the ark on the cover. And is that the one that’s talking about the sanctuary? God designed the plans?
Pastor Jëan Ross: That’s right, that’s the one dealing with the sanctuary; I’m trying to look for it right here Pastor Doug, we have one that’s written in stone, that talks about.
Pastor Doug: Well, they get the ark on the cover?
Pastor Jëan Ross: that one has the 10 commandments on the cover.
Pastor Doug: (Laughing)
Pastor Jëan Ross: It doesn’t have the ark.
Pastor Doug: I think in pictures, I learned to read with comic books.
Pastor Jëan Ross: There it is! “God Drew the Plans”
Pastor Doug: Okay.
Pastor Jëan Ross: That’s the one that’s got the ark.
Pastor Doug: Thank you.
Pastor Jëan Ross: The number to call is 1-800-835-6747. You can ask for the study guide “God Drew the Plans”, talking about the sanctuary and the spiritual significance of that today. Again, the number is 800-8356747, the study guide is entitled “God Drew the Plans”. Our next caller is Mark and he’s listening from Brooklyn New York. Mark, welcome to the program.
Mark: Thank you very much. My question concerns free will and the nature of belief. It seems to me that our beliefs lie outside our ability to wilfully choose them, and that includes the belief in Christ which we believe is a, necessary for salvation. I became a Christian based on the evidence of Christianity, I was, you know, blown away by the evidence, but 2 of my friends who remain atheist looked at the same evidence that I did, and they’re just not persuaded, and one of them who tragically lost a daughter, confided to me and said, “How comforting it must be to believe in a God who loves you so much? He actually died for you”. Now here is a man that would love to believe but as much as he’s tried, he just can’t.
Pastor Doug: Well. I believe that when a person, especially if they’re going through tragedy like that. You have a great opportunity to try to share information with them. See, the Spirit works on a person’s heart, faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. It isn’t because God is up there, you know, just picking people off an assembly line. I think that the Spirit of God is going to and forth through the earth, wanting to reach people and, and He uses us to, that’s why Jesus sent people to tell people. You may have an opportunity with your friend, to give him some Christian resource.
Mark: Well, he, he’s, it’s too late now, because seasons passed.
Pastor Doug: Oh I see. Sorry to hear that.
Mark: Yeah, so.
Pastor Doug: But your, well still the, the principle remains the same, you’re wondering why is it, that some people can believe and some, don’t seem to be able to?
Mark: Yeah, it seems like, it’s beyond free will, it’s not part of freedom of the will, it’s beyond that to me.
Pastor Jëan Ross: You know, “Romans chapter 12 verse 3” tell us “That God has dealt every man, a measure of faith”. So every person can nurture that faith. And as Pastor Doug mentioned, “Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word”, what we do with the faith that we have, will determine, whether it grows or whether it dies, the way that we feed faith is by studying God’s word, spending time in communion with Him, that’s how faith grows. If we neglect that, the reverse happens and I think there is a point that a person can reach where, they have no faith and they cannot believe, for that faith that they had, God had given them has been choked out.
Pastor Doug: I even think, there’s a prayer an atheist can pray, and say, “Lord, if your there”
Pastor Jëan Ross: Increase my faith.
Pastor Doug: Yeah, “I’ve got a little faith but help my unbelief, for someone who could say, “Look, I have no faith God but if your there, will you please show me or reveal yourself to me” and the Lord can do for anybody, what He did for Paul, if He wants to, I mean, He can just appear on the road to Damascus. So God can reveal Himself and I can go through a long list of atheists, like Sias, Luis, and many others that, like myself, that, you know, didn’t believe and then God just, showed the evidence and worked, sometimes it’s instant, sometimes it’s over process of time, then reveals that He’s there. Hey, appreciate your question. And we got time for one more before the break maybe.
Pastor Jëan Ross: We have Ron who is listening from Philadelphia. Ron, welcome to the program.
Ron: Thank you gentlemen, thank you for taking my call, I’ll try to be brief, I know your squeezing in before the break.
Pastor Doug: Okay.
Ron: My question revolves around, being unequally or unevenly yoked. My wife and I were married as Christians and have (inaudible 26:15-26:17) her religion, which I won’t mention, and now she, we don’t work up together, she doesn’t believe in going into other churches, you know, it’s had a little bit of an impact on our social life, I’m doing what the bible says, which is “To love her through this” but I was wondering, whether or not, we were in fact, unequally or unevenly yorked, as a result of her change and her religious beliefs? Thank you very much for taking my call.
Pastor Doug: Thank you, appreciate your call and that question, a very important question. But, you know, if you read in “1st Corinthians 7” Ron, it talks about the situation, where you find 2 people that are married, whether they got married to an unbeliever or whether one became an unbeliever, or maybe have un, 2 unbelievers and one becomes a believer while they’re married but whatever the circumstances is, Paul tells us that “If the unmarried is willing to remain”, “If the unbelieving rather, is willing to remain with the believer, don’t separate” because, Paul says, “How do you know, perhaps your influence will convert your unbelieving spouse?”
Pastor Jëan Ross: You know Pastor Doug; we do have a book dealing with the subject of marriage, actually called “Marriage, Divorce, and Remarriage”.
Pastor Doug: Yes.
Pastor Jëan Ross: And for anyone wanting to learn more about that, if you’d call our resource line, 1-800-835-6747, ask for the book and we’ll be happy to send it to you. That’s “Marriage, Divorce, and Remarriage”, dealing with some of these important questions.
Pastor Doug: Yeah, this is actually a very important question that people have and we’d like for them to use that resource. And, don’t go away friends; you are listening to Bible Answers Live.
Pastor Jëan Ross: Now Pastor Doug, just before we come up on our half program break here, we were talking before the air and you mentioned that an amazing fact, the “Amazing Facts YouTube channel” has reached about a million views.
Pastor Doug: Over a million views, at the Amazing Facts videos, if they go to YouTube, it’s very easy, anyone logs into YouTube, you can just type in “Amazing Facts”, think the 1st few videos will be from our bouquet of programs, I think one of the most popular is “America in Prophecy” but there are many others. And just take a look at that friends, and send a link to your friends, and we think that they’ll find a real blessing from that as well. And of course, at “AmazingFacts.org”, we’ve got just tons of resources, a lot of the free resources that were mentioned during the program, you can download and read yourself, simple “Amazingfacts.org”. We’ll have more questions. Stay with us.
[COMMERCIAL BREAK]
Pastor Doug: We are back friends, for more bible answers and bible questions. If you’ve joined us somewhere in route, this is Bible Answers Live and you’re invited to call in with your bible questions. It is a free phone call, and that number is1- 800-463-7297, 1-800-463-7297, brings you into the studio with your bible question and then Pastor Ross frequently gives out our resource number as well, so keep a pencil handy, we’ll give you some websites and other stuff. What else we got to talk about, before questions?
Pastor Jëan Ross: Did you mention the, the live stream?
Pastor Doug: Oh yeah, that’s what I forgot. For those who are nearby the internet now, and a lot of people are listening on satellite radio and your cars, be careful, don’t be watching the streaming on your smart phones while you’re driving.
Pastor Jëan Ross: Smart phones (Laughing).
Pastor Doug: But for the others, if you’d like to watch, it is simply, “Live.amazingfacts.org, live.” to show you its live, we’re going to wave at you right now, “Live.amazingfacts.org”. Do we have some more questions?
Pastor Jëan Ross: We do! We have Cindy, listening from Lemoore California. Cindy, welcome to the program.
Cindy: Hi, thanks for taking my call.
Pastor Doug: Yes.
Cindy: I have a question. I have not been able to find anything about this and I wanted to know if duck meat is considered clean or not, unclean?
Pastor Doug: Well, that’s hotly debated, you know, there are even some Jews that will argue, that duck is cosier, but I think, biblically, duck falls into the same category as goose and swan, and it is un-clean. Now you do find the “swan” mentioned in “Leviticus 18, 11” but some of the commentators say “That is not the same kind of swan, some versions actually use a different bird there”. But swan is considered unclean. You know what I think, a good, a good rule of thumb. Now it’s real easy when you’re talking about clean and unclean animals, fish is simple; it’s got to have fins and scales to be clean. Among the mammals, it’s easy, it needs to have a cloven huff and shew the cud like a cow or goat or sheep. Among the birds, it needs to be a foraging bird, that would be something like the birds that kind of go around in the brush and they peck the grain like a pheasant, a pigeon, not anyone wants to eat a pigeon but technically, they were clean, a chicken, a torque, those were the clean birds. The other birds that are scavengers or ducks that mock around in the water
Cindy: Yeah.
Pastor Doug: They are not considered clean.
Cindy: Okay.
Pastor Doug: They’re typically carnivorous and or, you know, they’re, you know, eating snails or something
Cindy: Yes
Pastor Doug: And I love watching ducks but I wouldn’t want to eat one.
Cindy: Yeah, like me neither. We had a lot of people that have asked us that and I wasn’t a hundred percent sure, we’ve even asked some of the pastors and they weren’t sure so we just thought we would call and ask.
Pastor Doug: You know, we looked into that years ago because we were getting a lot of questions on it and it is definitely in the same category as the swan, goose, duck, they are unclean birds, they’re not foraging birds like chickens, and torque, and graws, and pheasant.
Cindy: Yeah. Okay, thank you for taking my call.
Pastor Doug: Alright. Thank you, appreciate your question. And by the way, we do have that lesson that talks about “God’s Health Plan”. I don’t know, it may even mention, whether or not ducks are clean in that lesson. “God’s Health Plan”, we’ll send you a free copy if you’d like Cindy, or anyone that wants to know about what the bible says about the clean and the unclean foods.
Pastor Jëan Ross: The number to call is 1-800-835-6747, that is our resource line, you can ask for the study guide talking about health called, “God’s Free Health Plan”, it’s “God’s Free Health Plan”, 1-800-835-6747. Our next caller is Rick and he is calling from Phoenix Arizona. Rick, welcome to the program.
Rick: Hi, how are you pastors? Thank you for taking my call.
Pastor Doug: Doing well.
Rick: my question is, you know, when I say my prayers at night, you know I, you know I pray to God and, you know, I just don’t know, and it’s a kind of a confusing question. When I pray to God, do I pray to God, do I pray to Jesus, you know, I know Jesus is God but what do I need to do when I say my prayers and what do I need to teach my kids and, you know, I just, I’m just confused about that.
Pastor Doug: That’s a good question. Now don’t be embarrassed and don’t be confused. That’s a very good question. I wonder why people don’t ask that more often. I was wondering, because whenever I read the bible, if you go by the bible, you know, Jesus said “When you pray, pray in this manner” and He tells us to address our prayers to the Father. 98% of the time, New Testament, they pray to the Father and Jesus said “Pray in His name”, there is one exception though, so it’s certainly not a sin to pray through Jesus and the one place I can think of, Pastor Ross might be able to think of some others. When Steven was being stoned, he prayed, and it says “Calling upon God and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit” and that’s “Acts 7:59”. So you’ve got at least one instance where it seems that Steven is directly appealing to Jesus. So it’s not wrong if your children say “Dear Jesus and they pray to Jesus”. Technically most of the New Testament prayer, they pray to the Father in the name of your Holy Child Jesus or your Son Jesus, and we pray to the father, that He answers our prayers for Christ’s sake, or in Jesus name. But that’s a good question
Ricky: Right, and.
Pastor Doug: I certainly think that God will answer prayers directed to Jesus.
Ricky: Right. and, you know, that’s kind of what, what I kind of thought to, but then I heard somebody say that, someone had told me that when Jesus, you know, when Jesus was resurrected, He ascended into heaven and basically He became God, so then , I didn’t know if God and Jesus was the same or what? That’s what I was trying, that’s where I was getting very confused, you know, and that was probably really tough on me, trying to figure that out, so that’s why I’m really glad that, you know.
Pastor Doug: Yeah, there is God, of course God the Father and Jesus is God, God the Son, and then of course there’s God the Spirit but, and you know, you would have probably appreciate, we’ll send you a free copy of the book that deals with this nature of God and it’s “The Trinity”, and it answers more questions in this, if you’d like Rick, just call the resource number, we’ll get your address and send it to you for free.
Pastor Jëan Ross: The number is 1-800-835-6747, the book “The Trinity, is it Biblical?” 1-800-835-6747. We have John, who is listening from Michigan. John, welcome to the program. You know what, we might have just missed John there, let’s try Greg, Greg who is in Ohio. Greg, welcome to the program.
Greg: Good evening Pastor Doug.
Pastor Doug: Evening.
Greg: Before my question, I was looking at Leviticus about the doctrine and I think the term you’re looking for is Galenatious? 1st they have a crop or generally would be, to some ducks eat meadows and stuff like that and from my younger years when I duck (inaudible 38:02) you wouldn’t want to eat them ducks anyway, they taste horrible.
Pastor Doug: (Laughing)
Pastor Jëan Ross: (Laughing)
Greg: (inaudible 38:08) and geese on the other hand are vegetarian, well as a chicken, will eat anything that can get in its mouth.
Pastor Doug: Yeah, well, so. Yeah, you’re talking about what, the ones that have a crop, a gizzard, like a chicken and so forth, they were considered clean.
Greg: Probably so.
Pastor Doug: Now your question was about that or?
Greg: no, no, no. I was wondering about natural honey. Although the honey itself is a, is pollen, is a plant material, natural honey is full of bee parts.
Pastor Doug: Yeah, honey is, honey of course is a product, it’s made by bees, bees technically are not clean according to the insects that were clean, like grass hoppers. But I think obviously, honey is clean because there’s a number of scriptures that said, “Eat honey, for it is good”, I mean, that’s pretty slam dunk for me.
Greg: Alright, okay and.
Pastor Doug: And John the Baptist say, “Eat honey and locos”
Greg: Locos.
Pastor Doug: Yeah.
Greg: Right.
Pastor Doug: So honey would be in the category of a clean food and I’m so glad, but don’t, then again there’s another Proverb, one Proverb is interesting, talking about “Moderation”. One Proverb says, “Eat honey, for its good”, another Proverb says “don’t eat too much honey, less thou vomit”. So you can even have too much of a good thing but, and that’s, that’s why it’s called desert but not on the bible. (Laughing)
Pastor Jëan Ross: (Laughing)
Pastor Doug: Anyway, appreciate your question Greg.
Pastor Jëan Ross: Next caller is Barbara and she is calling from Brooklyn New York. Barbara, welcome to the program.
Barbara: Hi pastors.
Pastor Doug: Evening.
Barbara: I have a friend who’s studying to be a nurse and she wanted to know, if it’s okay, if it would be okay for her to (inaudible 39:44) on the Sabbath and also, I wanted to know if it was possible to work on Sabbath and still keep in mind focused on Christ?
Pastor Doug: Alright, good question. Well, at the heart of that question, 1st of all, is, you know, is it appropriate for anyone to be working in a hospital, I mean, can believers, let’s suppose that Sabbath keeping Christians go and start a hospital and some mission fields somewhere, and are they then supposed to say, “Well, you know, once the sun goes down Friday, all these folk that are sick are going to just, sort of be abandoned to languish in their bed, why all the staff goes off to church”. Well, obviously not, the Lord healed people on Sabbath and so, ministering to the sick is part of Christian life, there are certain necessary things that Christians do, you’re a farmer and you’ve got cows or goats, doesn’t matter Sabbath morning, they need milking, they eat twice a day, 7 days a week, and it’s just not kind to the animals and it, they won’t keep their milk unless you keep doing it. So some things have to be done, the idea about keeping the Sabbath is unnecessary work. Now suppose that you are a nurse and you keep the bible Sabbath, how do you keep it from, just see me like a work thing, keep your mind in the right place. And I think that takes a little training and effort to, you know, serve people, do your job, take care of, you know, being professional about that. But then, as far as possible, stay in an attitude of prayer, remembering that it is holy time, and that you are serving Jesus ultimately, in all that you do. And so, that just takes an exercise, it’s just realizing the holiness of it.
Pastor Jëan Ross: You know, I think it’s also important, even though there is work to be done on the Sabbath, when working with the sick. If it all possible, if someone finds himself in that position, as a nurse or a doctor, you would want to try and work schedules so that you can gather and worship with God’s people as often as possible, we need that time in worship at church, where we can study and share and worship together. So even though, yes, things need to be done on the Sabbath but you also want to try and arrange things so that you can spend time with God’s people.
Pastor Doug: Yeah, just try and swap schedules as much as you can with colleagues, so that you’d. When a person starts scheduling every Sabbath that they’re working, you need the fellowship, you need the physical rest and that’s important, even if you’re a pastor, you know, pastors are, one of the busiest days of the week is the Sabbath, but it’s not God’s plan that they never get to rest on that day, you got to alternate every now and then. Anyway, thank you for that question Barbara, we appreciate it. And who’s next in the bible train?
Pastor Jëan Ross: We have Patrick, calling from Buffalo New York. Patrick, welcome to the program.
Patrick: Well praise the Lord, good to be connected here.
Pastor Doug: Glad to talk with you.
Patrick: I’ve heard your program many times; this is 1st time I’ve had an opportunity to call in and get through. But I got a question concerning when a person dies, someone was asking me, and they go to heaven, if you’re a believer. Is there any place in the bible that specifically says you’ll recognize loved ones or friends in heaven? I know Jesus, when he came back to life after His resurrection, was recognized by many witnesses, and I know that Lazarus was raised from the dead, but I was wondering if there is anything specifically in the bible, Old Testament or New Testament, that.
Pastor Doug: Will we recognize our loved ones? Yeah, well 2 things, 1st of all, when we get to heaven and we have our glorified bodies and we are totally full of the Holy Spirit, obviously, we’re going to be just baptized in the Holy Spirit when we’re in the presence of God. Do you think our abilities of discernment will be stronger or weaker?
Patrick: I would say that’d be stronger.
Pastor Doug: Yeah. So, and then, there’s a verse I can give you, in “1st Corinthians 13, verse 12” says, “Know we look through a glass darkly, but then face to face, know I know in part, but then shall I know, even as I also am known”. I think that, when we get to heaven, you know, suppose grandma lived to 98 when she gets to heaven, she’s probably not going to look quite like, the 98 year old person that you remembered last, and grandma is going to have a glorified body and will certainly look different but the essence of who grandma is, her spirit, your spirit is going to instantly recognize her, and she’ll recognize you, and how that exactly works, I don’t know, Paul said, you know, “We can’t even imagine what God’s prepared for us” but I’m quite confident, that when we get to the kingdom, we are all going to recognize, our friends, our family that we’ve known, and even though they are going to be different physically, something about the spirit will connect and will just, our signals will lock in and we’ll know each other.
Patrick: That sounds very reasonable to me and (inaudible 44:46) and meditated on those scriptures in “1st Corinthians 13” many times and I have a background as an artist and I’ve had the joy of interpreting a lot of scriptures as visible.
Pastor Doug: As you paint?
Patrick: Paintings and sculpture, yes.
Pastor Doug: Yeah. Well that’s wonderful. Hey we appreciate that question Patrick and I’m sure that we’re going to know each other, we have a lesson and book, we’ve got the book called, “Heaven, is it for Real?” and then we’ve got a lesson on the city of God, and we’d invite you to call in and we’ll send you one of those.
Pastor Jëan Ross: The number again is 1-800-835-6747. The book, “Heaven, is it for Real”, and also, a study guide called, “Colossal City in Space”. So you can ask for the study guide and the book, talking about heaven. We have Derrick who is listening from Minneapolis. Derrick, welcome to the program.
Derrick: Hi.
Pastor Doug: Hi.
Derrick: Hi Pastor Doug. I have a question. I went to the graveyard of my grandparents, and I notice a religious sculpture, and it had, you know, a symbol of the ox, a symbol of a lion, and like a man, and you know the eagle. And those symbols are in, you know, “Ezekiel”, I’m assuming, and you’ve mentioned before that they represent the gospels.
Pastor Doug: Well yeah, you’ll, you’ll find it in Ezekiel and I think it’s in
Pastor Jëan Ross: “Revelation 4: 12”
Pastor Doug: Revelation 4. These are creatures around the throne of God
Patrick: (inaudible) they represent Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John?
Pastor Doug: Well, some scholars say that, I know I’ve got notes in my bible that say that, but even beyond that. Really, keep in mind, in Revelation; don’t take the pictures of animals too seriously because in Revelation, you got a dragon with 7 heads and 10 horns being ridden by a prostitute. Obviously these are very powerful symbols. So when it talks about these creatures around the throne of God, it’s not like you’ve got this Greek mythological, half animal, half human creatures with many eyes. These are telling us about the characteristics of God. God is portrait, sometimes, and some have said, like in Matthew, he’s portrait as the lion of the tribe of Judah, the Majesty. Mark is the eagle, Luke portraits him as the man, the humanity of Christ and John is the sacrifice.
Pastor Jëan Ross: You know, something else also interesting about those 4 living creatures around the throne, they can also represent, different phases of Christ ministry. The lion can represent His pre-incarnation and then He took upon Himself the form of a man, He came to bear our burdens and die for our sins. The ox is a symbol of burden baring and also a sacrificial animal. And then you have a face of a man, Jesus ascended up into heaven, and know, He’s our representative, our high priest representing us before the Father. The eagle is connected with judgement, you know, when Jesus comes the second time, He comes as King of kings and Lord of lords. So these 4 living creatures can also highlight the 4 aspects of Christ ministry for us.
Patrick: You know what, when I (inaudible 47:55), I was looking at some stuff online, and they talk about, you know, the zodiac sign and it’s kind of alarmed me because the 4, they were called like, the 4 fixed symbols or the signs, there are those exact same things, like Aquarius is the man, and then the Leo is a lion, and then the bull is a Taurus, and then the Scorpio is also the eagle, and all 4 of them, like align with each other, and it really freaked me out, I’m like, “What in the world is?”
Pastor Doug: Yeah. There is.
Patrick: You’ve heard of this before?
Pastor Doug: I have, and there are Christians who’ve written books about trying to teach the gospel through the, the zodiac symbol. And they say, really the Babylonians got it from the, they tried to teach the gospel through the stars, way back in the time of Adam, and that’s where they developed these names for the constellations and I’ve heard some very colourful explanations but I’m suspicious about that because God forbids, not astronomy, but He forbids astrology in the bible. And so, it would seem strange to me that God would use that. And Scorpio actually is not an eagle, Scorpio is a scorpion. So, I guess you could look at the dots in the sky and see whatever you want if you want to. But yeah, it is a difficult passage, those creature around the throne of God, and, but those are some of the best explanations I’ve heard, that, we shared tonight. Hey, thank you Derrick, we’re going to take in a couple of more questions.
Pastor Jëan Ross: We’ve got Bruce who is calling from Buffalo New York. Bruce, welcome to the program.
Bruce: Thank you, how are you guys doing?
Pastor Doug: Doing good Bruce, and your question tonight? Get real close to your phone, we can barely hear you.
Bruce: Okay, my question is. What happens to the Holy Spirit after the Lord returns? Because in (inaudible 49:42) 14, 14. 14, 24, it references the Lord, saying “Let me go so that I can ask the Lord to send the Holy Spirit”. But then in Revelations it says, “That the Lord”, I think in chapter 3 or 4 that God says, “7 of His spirits out into the world”. I’m just wondering, what happens to the Holy Spirit the Holy Comforter, when the Lord returns, will He see the Lord coming, will He die, so that the Lord can come to Him?
Pastor Doug: Alright. Well, that’s a good question. The reason, I think Jesus said, “it’s important that or (inaudible 50:19) that I should ascend, that I might send the Spirit”. Christ, when He came to the world, took on the form of 1 man, He physically and geographically could only be at one place at a time, but He said, “Through the Spirit, I can be with you, wherever you go”. So what happens when Jesus comes back and we ascend with our glorified bodies, what about the work of the Holy Spirit? Well, I think we’ll all be full of the Holy Spirit then. Holy Spirit is still very real in heaven, and the bible ends by saying, “the Spirit and the bride say, come”. Matter a fact, you find the Holy Spirit in the 1st chapter of the bible, you find the Holy Spirit in the last chapter of the bible. And when it talks about the 7 Spirits around the throne of God or the 7 eyes, some have looked at “Isaiah 11 verse 2”, where it talks about the Spirit of the Lord and then it defines the Spirit of the Lord with 7 characteristics. And so, some are saying, “it’s not like the Holy Spirit is divided up into 7 persons but the Holy Spirit manifests Himself in 7 characteristics. And again that’s “Isaiah chapter 11, verse 2”. Matter a fact, maybe I’ve got time to read that real quick. It says, “The Spirit of the Lord will rest upon him. The spirit of wisdom, no, the Spirit of the Lord is 1, the spirit of wisdom is 2, understanding 3, council is 4, might is 5, spirit of knowledge is 6, and fear of the Lord is 7”. And so, some have thought, these are 7 facets of God’s spirit. And we have a book that talks about life in the spirit, we’ll be happy to send you Bruce, if you call the resource number.
Pastor Jëan Ross: The book is entitled “Life in the Spirit” and the number is 1-800-835-6747. Just ask for that book, we’ll be happy to send it to you, “Life in the Spirit”. And we have John who is calling from Michigan. John, welcome to the program.
John: Hi, how are you doing today?
Pastor Doug: Doing well John, you’re on with Bible Answers.
John: Great. I have a question and that is, I’ve gone to church on Sundays, I’ve gone to church on Saturdays. And my question is, does it matter which day you worship (inaudible 52:26) in lined up and I don’t remember the exact verse, but in the New Testament it says something about (inaudible 52:32-52:37)?
Pastor Doug: Yeah.
John: Help me understand a little bit better.
Pastor Doug: Alright, we’re just going to bring your volume down a little bit because we’re very thankful you called in but there is a little road noise there. You’re probably referring to “Romans chapter 14” where
Pastor Jëan Ross: Or “Colossians chapter 2:16”
Pastor Doug: Yeah. In Romans 14 it says, “Don’t judge someone, some men, regard one day above another
Pastor Jëan Ross: Right.
Pastor Doug: but let every man be persuaded in his own mind” and then in “Colossians 2, 16”, it’s principally talking there about, “Let no man judge you in regard to meter rank, meter and trank, holy it is your Sabbath day” and it’s speaking about the annual Jewish Sabbath days. And in “Romans 14” the word Sabbath really doesn’t appear so it’s really talking, again about the Jewish converts to Christianity. We’re telling the Gentiles, that who accepted Christianity; they had to keep the Jewish annual feast and that would be like Passover and Day of Atonement and feast of Trumpets and so forth. That had nothing to do with the Sabbath of the 10 commandments. So does it make a difference? Well, the commandment itself, God says “The 7th day is the Sabbath of the Lord; remember the 7th day to keep it holy”. So does God care what day it is? Well if the Lord says, “I’ve blessed and sanctified this day, well then, there is a certain day God’s picked. Does it matter? Well, I think He’s telling us what day He’s picked and that He’ll bless us if we keep the day that He has set aside with His blessing and presence. Keep in mind, we should worship God 7 days a week, we should Christians should always be worshipping God, but the Sabbath isn’t just for collective worship, it’s a time not only for a holy convocation, as it says on “Leviticus 23”, but it’s a time for us to physically rest our regular secular labour and keep it as a holy day, sanctified day. Lot more on that, but we don’t have time, but we have a website.
Pastor Jëan Ross: We do, our website’s entitled, “Sabbathtruth.org or .com”, and that, that website Pastor Doug, is just filled with all types of great resources that there’s actually a video series you can watch right online, called “The 7th Day”, Gives you the history of the 7th day. “Sabbathtruth.org or .com” and then also, we have a study guide entitled “The Last Day in History”, the last day in history, if you’d call our resource line, it’s 1-800-835-6747, just ask for the book on the Sabbath, “The Last Day in History”.
Pastor Doug: You know, I just learned today, not only is that website “Sabbathtruth” in English, you go to it, and you’ll find it in Spanish, it’s “SabadoBiblico”, you’ll also find in now in Korean, and I just learned today, it’s in Mandarin Chinese. So that website has been very popular, you search Google, just put in the word “Sabbath”, that website raises to the top, great information on the Sabbath. Unfortunately, we are out of time for this program. Love to hear from you friends, also check out “Amazingfacts.org” and contact us. God bless, till next week.
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