Call-In Classic Christianity Radio – Bob George P459 (7-26-19)
Synopsis
Bob received calls from several people wanting help in communicating with people who have been caught in false teaching. People are not free to walk in the newness of life because they have not studied God’s word and allowed the Holy Spirit to teach them. Instead, they listen to the world and do not test and see if what people say are true. Jesus said, “You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free.”
Brian asked in regards to his wife who has been diagnosed as bipolar. He was in need of correction in regards to going to the ungodly for advice and in regards to what faith is. There is so much false teaching out there that teaches that our faith causes God to do this or that. That means we are greater than God and He ceases to be the initiator and He responds to us. There are so many false teachers of the Word of Faith crowd, or the “name it and claim” or “blab it and grab it” crowd that needs to be corrected of error, if they are willing to listen to truth. That is akin to the false New Age teaching that says, “God is in everyone and everything” or “you can become God”.
The bible does not speak of bipolar, schizophrenic, or manic depressive. Every guru of psychological thought came from an agnostic or at best an atheist. We are told as a Christian not to seek the advice from the ungodly (Psalm 1:1) yet we lap up that information like a cat after milk, instead of dealing with what the bible calls it; a double minded man who is unstable in all his ways or a misplaced dependency and unrealistic expectation toward the world. That faulty thinking, along with sin and disease and death, came from the fall of man, when Adam sinned in the garden of Eden.
We also do not muster up faith to move God into action to move mountains or to heal all our diseases. We totally trust God in any and every situation, giving thanks in all things. Faith is not changing anything. Faith merely enters into what God has already provided for us. It is a means of latching onto what God has proclaimed. I do not put faith in anything, unless false faith, except what God has revealed to me. What has happened is we have become spiritually dyslexic and we have gotten everything in reverse. God has always been the initiator of all things and we are the responder. Even in this natural world we live in, we have this law of causality. The law of causality states that the effect of something is never greater than the cause of something. If we ever think I initiate and God responds then I am greater than God, for then I am the cause and He is the responder. That is the very opposite of what God said. That is the opposite to how Jesus lived, in total dependency on his Father, in order to show us how to live as a man like he did.
Another Brian called to get understanding of how people of the Old Testament are saved. What does it mean that they are in a holding place? Bob first said that everyone is saved by faith. It has always been by faith from first to last. It is just that those saints of the Old Testament before Jesus came to finish the work of the cross were saved by faith, as it were, by a credit card. Until Jesus shed his blood on the cross the debt had not been paid in full. So after Jesus ascended he first went to the lower regions to set the captives free and bring them into the presence of God.
Mike called to get help in communicating the correct understanding of 1 John 1:9. So many think that his verse means that you need to confess your sins to God in order to stay in fellowship with God and is used as a means to keep short accounts with God, as if God is keeping a record of our wrongs. Of all the passages in scripture, this one has so paralyzed the Christian world that you have to wonder if anyone is ever able to walk in the newness of life instead of focusing on sin all the time.
A common error is people will gravitate to one passage of scripture that is unclear, such as 1 John 1:9, and make a whole teaching out of it in total contrast to the finality of the cross, Christ’s finished work and being complete in Christ. Unfortunately this passage in 1 John 1:9 when translated into English did not keep the original Greek aorist past tense of the verbs or the meaning of the word “if” as it should be used to express what the apostle John was saying to correct the gnostics, the non-believers and false teachers in their midst, infiltrating the church. John is essentially saying to the gnostics, ““if you ever come to your senses, and I doubt that you ever will, but if you do, then you will know that Jesus has already (past tense) taken your sins away and you will recognize that you have been cleansed (past tense) of all unrighteousness.” John went to great lengths explaining how he had seen and touched Christ Jesus, that Jesus is the Word of Life, which appeared to us and was with the Father. By reading the passages before and after 1 John 1:9 and reading where John writes in 2 John to the special lady, and writes to the believers that if the truth is in you it is in you forever. It becomes clear that if the truth is not in you, then you are lost. Clearly the apostle John, in 1 John is initially talking to the gnostics, who do not have the truth in them, for they do not even believe they ever had sin.
Transcript
Brian from Colorado
Brian was in a bible study with a friend. Brian said, “He was talking about faith, how faith can heal and destroy Satan. Satan is also afraid of it. My wife was diagnosed with bipolar. We need to fight it by building faith. Bipolar was probably around in the beginning. I am not sure bipolar was around when God made Adam and Eve until sin of man. Everything was perfect until sin of man caused their destruction. Can you lead me in some way on this?”
Genesis 3.17–19
17 To Adam he said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat from it,’“Cursed is the ground because of you;
through painful toil you will eat food from it
all the days of your life.
18
It will produce thorns and thistles for you,
and you will eat the plants of the field.
19
By the sweat of your brow
you will eat your food
until you return to the ground,
since from it you were taken;
for dust you are
and to dust you will return.”
Rmans 5:12
12Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned
Disease entered the world at the fall of man. I do not think bipolar exists today let alone in Adam and Eve’s day. I think it is a psychological term that has no meaning to it at all. The bible does not speak of bipolar, schizophrenic, or manic depressive. Every guru of psychological thought came from an agnostic or at best an atheist. We are told as a Christian not to seek the advice from the ungodly yet we lap up that information like a cat after milk.
Psalm 1:1
1 Seek not counsel from the ungodly. Seek Godly council from those season saints who you know walk with the Lord
The psychological profession today is no better off today. Bob went to school with Dr. Kinsey, a professor at that time, who was nutty as a fruit cake. A lot of men trying to figure themselves out and their problems, not to help other people, but to figure out themselves. So they come up with all these names, bipolar and all the rest, instead of dealing with what the bible calls it; a double minded man who is unstable in all his ways or a misplaced dependency and unrealistic expectation toward the world. All of that started with the fall of man.
Bob said, “I do not agree with you at all in regards to your emphasis on faith.” Jesus said that if we have faith as small as a mustard seed we can move mountains. I do not see people moving mountains.
Matthew 17:20
20 And He said to them, ”Because of the littleness of your faith; for truly I say to you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible to you.”
That shows us that our faith is smaller than the smallest seed known to man, which is a mustard seed. I do not have big faith. I have a big God. My faith does not do anything except enable me to move into what God has promised me. I do not need a big faith for that. I need a big God.
1 Peter 1:3
3 seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence.
Faith responds to that and says, “Thank you”, and I am going to walk in the truth of that. Faith is not changing anything. Faith merely enters into what God has already provided for us. It is a means of latching onto what God has proclaimed. I do not put faith in anything, unless false faith, except what God has revealed to me.
1 Corinthians 15:1-4
1 Now I make known to you, brethren, the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received, in which also you stand, 2 by which also you are saved, if you hold fast the word which I preached to you, unless you believed in vain. 3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4 and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures
1 John 2:2
2 and He Himself is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world.
Hebrews 9:22
22 And according to the Law, one may almost say, all things are cleansed with blood, and without shedding of blood there is no forgiveness
Romans 6:4
4 Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.
Ephesians 2:1
1 And you were dead in your trespasses and sins
Jesus died on a cross to take away my sins. I say, “Thank you”. Jesus was raised from the dead in order to give me life because I was born dead. I say, “Thank you”for that.
In all of those things He is always the initiator and we are the responder.
1 John 4:19
19 We love, because He first loved us.
What has happened, Brian, is we have become spiritually dyslexic and we have gotten everything in reverse. God has always been the initiator of all things and we are the responder. Even in this natural world we live in, we have this law of causality. The law of causality states that the effect of something is never greater than the cause of something.
- My salvation is not greater than my savior.
- The warmth of the sun is not greater than the sun.
- The builder is not greater than the builder.
That is the law of causality we live by under natural law. So too in the spiritual aspect. We are not greater than the creator. If we ever think I initiate and God responds then I am greater than God, for then I am the cause and He is the responder. That is the very opposite of what God said. That is the opposite to how Jesus lived.
John 5:19
19 Therefore Jesus answered and was saying to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, unless it is something He sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, these things the Son also does in like manner.”
John 8:28
28 So Jesus said, “When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am He, and I do nothing on My own initiative, but I speak these things as the Father taught Me.”
That is God in the flesh, and how he has chosen to live in an earth suit. Jesus is saying, “I have relinquished the right to be the initiator of all things; the cause of my own effect and the dynamic of my own actions. I am here to teach you how to live and since you cannot live as God, I am going to live as man so you can learn how to live, which is in total dependence on God the Father. You are never the initiator but you are the responder.” So he initiates to us and we respond to Him. So that is faith. Faith is a responding issue, not as an initiator. The object of our faith is Christ Jesus and his finished work.
There is so much false teaching out there that teaches that our faith causes God to do this or that. That means we are greater than God and He ceases to be the initiator and He responds to us.
Brian then asks another question. He says, “I can visibly see her suffering and I do not know what to do about it.”
You talk to God, and say to Him “Lord, you know what my will is and my wife’s will is, which is to get well. But it is not my will but your will be one. Whatever you have for us to learn in this experience, we are available to learn from that, and whatever the consequences is, I am available to that. For to me to live is Christ and to die is gain.” We have to look at life like that. I am not looking for prayers to be answered but for God’s will to be done. That is how you look at those things. You say to God, “So whatever happens I am going to trust you. For to me to live is Christ and to die is gain.”
John 6:38
38 For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.
Matthew 26:39
39 And He went a little beyond them, and fell on His face and prayed, saying, “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; yet not as I will, but as You will.”
Philippians 1:21
21 For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.
Brian then asked, “When Paul was healing some of his followers is because God was telling him to?”
Absolutely! How many times did Jesus walk by a gate, probably a hundred times, and later after Jesus ascended to heaven, Peter walked by and He healed him. Why did he not heal him? He did not tell him to. He told Peter to. Jesus walked by hundreds of times and did not heal him. But later Peter walked by and he was healed.
Acts 3:10-12
10 they recognized him as the same man who used to sit begging at the temple gate called Beautiful, and they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him.
Peter Speaks to the Onlookers11 While the man held on to Peter and John, all the people were astonished and came running to them in the place called Solomon’s Colonnade. 12 When Peter saw this, he said to them: “Fellow Israelites, why does this surprise you? Why do you stare at us as if by our own power or godliness we had made this man walk?”
God will give you the desires of your heart. Bob said “I have a desire in my heart for a person to be saved. God put that desire in my heart because He has the answer on the way. If he wants to use me in the process, fine. If he uses someone else, fine. God does not put a desire in my heart today and say, ‘I got you this time, and not fulfill it’. Faith is no more than putting your faith in God and His will. Just like Jesus did. He walked in total dependency upon his Father.”
John 20:21
21 Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.”
Brian from Louisiana
Brian calls in and says, “For the Old Testament saints and the New Testament saints, I am reading there are two different actions. In the Old Testament, nobody goes to heaven. Catholics call it Purgatory. Is that in regard to the saints of God from the Old Testament, when one read, ‘when he ascended back to heaven, he took the saints of the Old Testament back with him?’”
Ephesians 4:7-9
7 But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it. 8 This is why it says:“When he ascended on high,
he took many captives
and gave gifts to his people.”9 (What does “he ascended” mean except that he also descended to the lower, earthly regions?
Saints were in a holding pattern. Everybody is saved by faith. Nobody saved in any other way than by faith.
Romans 1:17
For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed – a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.”
Romans 2:2-4
2 If, in fact, Abraham was justified by works, he had something to boast about – but not before God. 3 What does Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.”4 Now to the one who works, wages are not credited as a gift but as an obligation.
Their salvation was on a credit card. They go to enjoy the furniture but it had not been paid for yet. They were in a holding pattern called paradise. When Jesus descended into the lower regions, where the holding place was, and explained to them and told them that the price of sin has been paid and then led captives free into the presence of God.
Hebrews 11:39-40
39 These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised, 40 since God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect.
Romans 3:25 (TLB)
25 For God sent Christ Jesus to take the punishment for our sins and to end all God’s anger against us. He used Christ’s blood and our faith as the means of saving us from his wrath. In this way he was being entirely fair, even though he did not punish those who sinned in former times. For he was looking forward to the time when Christ would come and take away those sins
There is no such thing as Purgatory in scripture. Purgatory is just a man-made term that has no bearing in scripture at all.
Mike from Dallas, TX
Mike is a truck driver and called to make a comment and also ask a question. He appreciates Bob for setting the example as a child of the Light. Some people have been on the program who have been argumentative of what Bob was saying. He appreciates Bob in standing firm with truth.
Then Mike asks, “How does 1 John 1:9 apply back then? How do you approach people in clearing up the false teaching they have believed?”
With all of this heretical teaching taking place right now, with the gospel of Judas and the DaVinci code. (They were popular books at the time.) Such an onslaught of writing and since Mel Gibson’s film that was so popular, the enemy is trying to discredit truth in God’s word. Nevertheless, an advantage of that is they are talking about gnosticism. Who is talking about gnosticism? How do you know that? History tells us.
The early church was infiltrated with gnostic teaching. According to gnostic teaching, all flesh is evil and only the spirit is good. Those are the major roots of this. The gnostics came to conclude that if all matter is evil and only the spirit is good, then Jesus could not come in the flesh. So in their thinking, he must have been an illusion of some kind and did not come in the flesh. How do they get that? They reasoned that since all flesh is evil and Jesus is not evil, then he could not be here. That sounds dumb to us but that is what they were teaching. So to correct that there was a pastor in Ephesus asking for help and so he would have written to the apostle John. He said to John, “These people are infiltrating, teaching this heretical teaching, and we need help to correct that”. So that is why John begins in 1 John in the manner he did.
1 John 1-4
1 That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched – this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. 2 The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us. 3 We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. 4 We write this to make our joy complete.
Why did he say that? He did not need to say that to you and me. He did it to correct gnostic thinking. Along with that they do not believe you had a sin nature. It did not make a difference what you did in the flesh. That also was part of their philosophy.
1 John 5-10
5 This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. 6 If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth. 7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.8 If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word is not in us.
That is an editorial by John, who is the apostle of love, so he said things in loving ways. It is an editorial saying, “we, meaning you and me or anyone else, claims to be without sin then the truth is not in us.”
Who is the truth? Jesus is the truth. That is verified in 2 John when he writes to the special lady.
2 John 1-3
1 To the lady chosen by God and to her children, whom I love in the truth – and not I only, but also all who know the truth –
2 because of the truth, which lives in us and will be with us forever:
3 Grace, mercy and peace from God the Father and from Jesus Christ, the Father’s Son, will be with us in truth and love.
So what is he saying about the truth? If it is in you, it will be in you forever. So how can you say you claim to be without sin and the truth not in us? If the truth is not in you, then it has never been in you. If the truth was in you, it would be in you forever. So he is clearly talking to a lost person. He is talking to other unbelievers, the heretical teaching of the gnostics.
A source of misunderstanding is the ”if” in 1 John 1:9. 1 John 1:9 has an unusual “if”, an “if” with a doubt to it.
1 John 1:9
9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.
There are several uses of “if” in the Greek language. Consider the use of “if” in the following scripture.
Matthew 4:3
The tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.”
That is not saying, “I do not know you are the Son of God or not.” It is saying, “in as much as you are the Son of God, in light of a fact that you are the Son of God, turn these stones to bread.”
Another use of “if” is in regard to the natural consequences to it. If you go out in the rain, you will get wet. This “if” has a question to it.
In John 1:9, the use of “if” would be more properly rendered like this:
“I do not know if you people will ever come to your senses, but what I am about to tell you is true, but I don’t know if you will ever come to your senses, but since you claim you have no sin, you make God out to be a liar and the truth is not in you.
The verbs are in a aorist tense, meaning “once and for all with past action.” So 1 John 1:9 would be better translated like this
9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to have already forgiven us our sins and to have purified us from all unrighteousness.
That is a literal translation in how it should be translated. But it is not translated that way. Yet, because of a poor translation into English, people say, “Oh that is for me today. If I confess, he forgives. If I don’t, he won’t.” Try to correlate that with Jesus who took away the sins of the world!
That verse has paralyzed the Christian world from ever walking by faith in the fact you are a forgiven person. So in our need of forgiveness, people have placed all the emphasis on sin and the confession of sin rather than on the life we have in Christ Jesus, and in walking in the newness of life in Christ Jesus. By doing so, people are paralyzed from finalizing, walking and rejoicing in the fact that in Christ Jesus, I am a forgiven person.
Ephesians 1:7
7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace
If you are in him, what do you have? Redemption! Do I ask God to redeem me every day? No. I have it. Do I ask God to give me eternal life? No. I have it! Do I ask God to some day take me to heaven? No. I have already been promised. In fact, he told me I am already there!
John 5:24
24 “Very truly I tell you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be judged but has crossed over from death to life.”
Ephesians 2:6
6 And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus,
If I am not asking him to do that, then why am I asking him to forgive me? There is no place in the New Testament, in all of Paul’s writings, or the rest of the writings, to ever ask God to forgive them. Why? They knew something that we evidently have never known or had forgotten, and that is “we are forgiven”. If you are in Christ then you have redemption. You have the forgiveness of sins. You do not get it. You got it.
It is a shame we allowed Satan to paralyze the Christian world in regards to forgiveness. So we never get off sin, sin, sin. Catholics are dealing with sin, sin, sin. The protestants are dealing with sin, sin, sin. If the Jews still had a temple today, they would be back having sacrifices to deal with sin, sin, sin. God said, “I have already taken it away. It is finished, paid in full. Walk now in the new resurrected life I have given you. Walk in that newness of life.” We do not get a chance to do that, walking in the newness of life, because we are too focused and busy with our sin.
Mike said he noticed a movie coming out called the DaVinci code. Bob says he will not take the time reading it. He has no intention to read nonsense because he knows it is nonsense. So why should I or anyone be reading it?
Mike then asked, “Is it okay to watch the movie in order to support the word of God against that movie?
No, I would not do that. I think it is tools of Satan to put a shadow of doubt in people’s minds. The same thing with the O.J. Simpson trial. Just a shadow of doubt in a legal system is all it takes. If there just a shadow of doubt, even though he is guilty as sin, so he was freed. Why would I go where I know where I will be seeing and reading a shadow of doubt. I have enough trouble in my mind to pull me into that kind of stuff. My imagination will keep me busy thanking God for His mercy. I will read the bible and stand in truth and do not need to be seeing where error is. I think Christians are nuts to go see that kind of stuff for that kind of reason. Furthermore, why would I even go and waste my time and money and support that. Why support those financially who are producing that kind of garbage. Let the heathen go to it for they do not believe anyway.
We have no choice to be in the world but we do not have to be of the world so it is best to just stay close to the word of God.
2 Corinthians 10:3
3 For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does.
