Call-In Classic Christianity Radio – Bob George P505 (01-23-20)
Synopsis
It is so heartbreaking to hear people being taught under law, or mixing law and grace, an impossibility. So many grow up in churches and are taught wrong, and are truly ignorant of the truth. When someone tells someone it is a sin to not go to church on Sunday, or that you must train your children only in this way, then you are teaching them about living under law. The letter of the law kills. It does not bring life. It brings suffering or hardship on people.
The spirit gives life. Scripture is very clear in Hebrews about the New Covenant of grace we are under, that we can rest from our works just as God did from His. Every day is a Sabbath rest for the people of God. You live by a trusting relationship with the living God. When you are born again, the Spirit is living in you, teaching you to say no to ungodliness and worldly passions, and He guides you into all truth. You no longer need to be tutored by the law, that was designed so you may recognize your sinful state and condition of spiritual death and come to Christ for life. You now have a new master, the Spirit of God, who lives in you to will and to act according to His good purposes. He is your Counselor. He renews your mind with truth, revealing truth to you through the scriptures, through entire books of the bible in their proper context.
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The Spirit tells you through the Old Testament prophets and through the apostles events that will happen as God said they would, about the nation of Israel, the apple of his eye, through whom Jesus came to proclaim the good news of the gospel first, and then through them, to all men, including the Gentiles. As prophesied through Abraham, the man of faith, all nations will be blessed or cursed based on how they deal with Israel. Jesus will come again and place his foot on the mount of olives, just as he left this world, and ascended to heaven from that same spot, he will come back. One day all remaining Israel will be saved, as God promised. Sadly, not even all Jews will be saved, only a remnant. Only one-third of the Jews will remain after the anti-Christ, the man of lawlessness, is revealed, sitting in the temple, proclaiming himself to be God. Sadly, not all Gentiles will be saved either. And the age of the Gentiles is quickly coming to a close. When the last Gentiles comes in, then all the emphasis will turn to Israel. There will be a reversal again. Hardly a Gentile will be saved in the end times, but 144,000 Jews will be appointed by God to proclaim the gospel in the midst of tribulation. The tribulation will be so terrible, that the world has never seen, that even Nazi Germany, with the holocaust, will pale in comparison.
Transcript
John from Albany, New York
John: How are you doing, Bob?
Bob: Doing good, John, thank you.
John: I want to get your opinion about this current trend among young people, regarding Narnia. I was in the bookstore not too long ago, looking at a book. A little girl walked in with her Father saying, “Narnia”. I know it is being promoted in the Christian world.
Bob: You are talking about the C. S. Lewis book, right?
John: Yes. I know that. It seems like it is a similar trend like Harry Potter, though not promoted in the same way as a Christian world necessarily. But it seems like it is similar trend. I do not know a whole lot about it. What do you know about it? Is it really edifying or uplifting to the Christian youth of this generation?
Bob: The Chronicles of Narnia have been around a long time in book form by C. S. Lewis, and has been applauded by the Christian community. It is a picture in animal form of Christ Jesus, who comes out victor in the end. In the end of the book, as to what it is talking about, and that is Jesus Christ. It is a good way of getting the gospel into the minds and hearts of young people in a different way. To compare that to the Potter, you could not even compare the two. The other is mystical mysticism. This one does not have that at all. It has a story to tell. I do not have a problem with it at all.
John: I agree that it cannot be compared to Harry Potter in that sense. I was mentioning it in regard to the trend.
Bob: I wish there was a trend of this kind for movies. You had the life of Christ from Mel Gibson put out. This is the first one, since then, that literally had a Christian message to it, but in a different way, but it sneaks up on you. It is never going to replace the bold proclamation of the gospel but it is a story that can stick in the hearts of young people for a long time and be useful in getting them to come to Christ. There have been people who have come to Christ as a result of thinking through the content of that matter. In any way, I do not think it is something to be critical of. As far as personally, you have to determine what you would do with your own children. As for me, I am encouraging my grandchildren to go to it.
John: I have two children. We teach scripture to our children and we live it. I do not think there is any need to go anywhere outside of scripture, in training a child in the way they should go. I do not think there is anything to go outside, out of that. Once you do go outside of that, and start using …
Bob: How old are your children?
John: They are 2 and 4.
Bob: The proof of the pudding is going to be in the eating. Whether you do right or not is determined how they come out as adults. As far as sitting down teaching scripture that is phenomenal. There are other things children like, that their little minds take hold of. So do not be too stringent in one way of giving out that message, that you miss some of the things children would possibly grab a hold of. That is just a warning to you. But if that is your belief system, no problem with what you believe. That is between you and God. Just do not go out trying to change the world and the world should not be trying to change you.
John: Definitely. I have been blessed with what the bible would call the great cloud of witnesses of people who have trained a child up in the same manner we have trained our children. I have seen the results.
Bob: Just do not put legalism on it. If you are going to bring your children up, you have to teach them grace. If they are under the law, they can look good in high school, but when they go to college, they can become homosexuals. What I am saying to you, John, is do not be too smug in what is going on or you see other people doing because you do not know for sure what is going on in the hearts of people. Just raise your children as you are doing, as you feel God wants you to do, but do not force that on someone else. They may have another way of doing things that is equally as effective.
Bob: I will put my two children against any child in the United States, and I guarantee you, I did not restrict them to sitting down. They certainly got a lot of bible but they also had a lot of other things they were able to see that was beneficial. “The greatest story ever told” affected my life and probably opened my heart to coming to Christ. There are a lot of things that are good that you do not want to restrict.
John: What do you mean by putting them up against any other children?
Bob: I am just saying my children are now in their thirties and forties. I would put them up against anybody, as far as people that walk with the Lord.
John: How do you know their hearts?
Bob: I know their hearts because I live with them. John, I do not want to argue with you over this stuff. Let us go to Randy from Lubbock, Texas.
Randy from Lubbock, Texas
Randy: I am glad he disappeared. It is ridiculous just to waste time on this.
Bob: It is. I wasted too much time on it.
Randy: My question has to do with the nation of Israel. I think we should support Israel. I think many times Christians would rather be Jewish than be Christian. Do you know what I am saying? What is a Christian’s role today, as far as supporting Israel? What should we be praying about? What would be a proper attitude as far as the nation of Israel is concerned?
Bob: First of all, Randy, it is your thought of the Jewish people. I love the Jewish people. We almost have as many Jewish friends as Christian friends in Dallas. I love them. I pray for them. I share with them. That is an obligation we have. These are the people God chose through whom the Messiah would be born. It was the ones He gave the law to and all the prophets and all those things. The Jewish people played a terrific role in our salvation. In fact, we would not be saved apart from them.
Bob: We not only support that, but in as much as the restoration of Israel is prophesied, which means it is God’s will we should be supporting them in every shape and form, as a country. I think, quite frankly, the reason the United States is blessed in the way it has been blessed, is because it is a sanctuary for Jewish people. If we ever turn our back on the Jews, this country would feel the effect of that.
Bob: You see that in different parts of the country. For example, in Phillipi, in Greece, that used to be a heavily populated Jewish community and they ran them out, and that city is just sitting there as dead as a door nail. And I could tell you other countries that are doing that. When Jesus is coming back, He is coming back to Israel. His feet will be on the mount of olives.
Acts 1:10-12
10 They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. 11 “Men of Galilee,” they said, “why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.”12 Then the apostles returned to Jerusalem from the hill called the Mount of Olives, a Sabbath day’s walk from the city.
I think, as far as we are concerned as Christians, we should be as supportive of Israel as you could ever imagine. That certainly is my heart. That is why we take tours over there, to let people see Israel. If you ever go to that country, you will never be the same, Randy. When you walk in the steps where our Lord walked, visit the tomb where redemption was bought, the place where the cross was. It is such an amazing country, where you see spelled out in prophesy. All of it prophesied and fulfilled right in front of your eyes. It is God’s country and we need to support it.
Genesis 12:1-3
1 The Lord had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you.2 “I will make you into a great nation,
and I will bless you;
I will make your name great,
and you will be a blessing.
3 I will bless those who bless you,
and whoever curses you I will curse;
and all peoples on earth
will be blessed through you.”
Randy: I agree with you. My questions stems more from a different thought. There is a Christian station in West Texas that specifies that they cater their ministry, or specialize in, observing the Torah.
Bob: That is ridiculous.
Randy: Yeah, and these are people that claim to be born again Christians. But what they are embracing is a curse according to Paul.
Galatians 3:10
10 For all who rely on the works of the law are under a curse, as it is written: “Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law.”
Bob: Yes. People like that are not supporting Israel. That is supporting the old Pharisaical Jew that Jesus put the woes to.
Matthew 23:13
13 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites!
In the gospel of Matthew, in chapter 23, Jesus spoke seven woes to the Pharisees.
Bob: That is supporting the law where Paul said you ought to die to the law and come alive to Christ Jesus.
Galatians 2:19
19 “For through the law I died to the law so that I might live for God.”
Bob: These are people, by their lips, say they are Christian, but in their actions are a follower of Moses.
Mark 7:6
6 He replied, “Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites; as it is written: “‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.’” [Isaiah 29:13]
Isaiah 29:13
13 The Lord says: “These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is based on merely human rules they have been taught.”
John 5:46
46 If you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote about me.
Bob: I do not agree with what that church is doing either. I do not think there should be anything like a Messianic congregation. I want the Jew and the Gentile to come together under one new man. The two of them come as one. You cannot do that when the Christian Jew is sitting in one place and the Christian Gentile is sitting over there. You have a black church over there and a white church over there. God wants unity. You will not see unity when you are all alike.
Ephesians 2:14-16
14 For he himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, 15 by setting aside in his flesh the law with its commands and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new humanity out of the two, thus making peace, 16 and in one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility.
Randy: Well, I totally agree. In just seems like people try to observe the law or Torah, or whatever they choose to embrace from the Old Covenant, there seems there is always a self righteousness that appears. With that mindset, you cannot even walk in love, like Paul says to do.
Galatians 5:6
6 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.
Bob: There is no question in that. You see a pride and an arrogance. They love to say “Yeshua”. I tell these people, “Do you speak in the Hebrew language? Then why are you talking three words you know and laying it on me?” There is a lot of pride in those kinds of things. Again, I think that is why the Gentile world and the Jewish world were in odds with one another because of that kind of pride.
Bob: When ever you get down to the point of being a Jew rather than being a Christian, you ought to take a look what their belief system is in.
Randy: You confirmed what I was thinking. I appreciate your help. I am glad you had a good year. God bless you.
Bob: Same to you, my brother. Good to hear from you.
Steve from Denver, Colorado
Steve: I just wanted to say that your program has probably helped me to grow in grace more than any other ministry I have known. My question I have is concerning the comments about Israel. I am trying to understand his. You said something about how America was blessed because of our support for Israel because God has plans for Israel in the future. Are you talking about the nation of Israel that is full of Jews, Christians, Muslims, secularists and everybody or just the Jewish people, or the geographic country of Israel? My understanding from the New Covenant is for those who accept Christ are the Israel of God, the covenant promised to them in this day and age. How is the nation of Israel of old could be in the New Covenant?
Galatians 6:12-16
12 Those who want to impress people by means of the flesh are trying to compel you to be circumcised. The only reason they do this is to avoid being persecuted for the cross of Christ. 13 Not even those who are circumcised keep the law, yet they want you to be circumcised that they may boast about your circumcision in the flesh. 14 May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. 15 Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything; what counts is the new creation. 16 Peace and mercy to all who follow this rule – to the Israel of God.
Bob: Well, Steve, as far as the people go, I was talking about America and Israel, who do not have anything to do with each other. There were people who came to this country for sanctuary. Our country brought them in and accepted them and helped them to prosper. My comment was an opinion. It is an option. One of the reasons this country, and the way it has been blessed, for it has been a bird sanctuary for Jews. It was a place they could come without fear of retribution as in Nazi Germany or Russia, or any other place they lived where people tried to kill them and run them out of the country. When the nation of Israel became a nation, as a fulfillment of prophecy, that is when people interested in prophecy really started getting interested because none of the other stuff made sense because they were not a nation. It did not look like they were ever going to be a nation. When that took place, then people said it looks like prophecy would be fulfilled.
Deuteronomy 30:1-10
1 When all these blessings and curses I have set before you come on you and you take them to heart wherever the Lord your God disperses you among the nations, 2 and when you and your children return to the Lord your God and obey him with all your heart and with all your soul according to everything I command you today, 3 then the Lord your God will restore your fortunes and have compassion on you and gather you again from all the nations where he scattered you. 4 Even if you have been banished to the most distant land under the heavens, from there the Lord your God will gather you and bring you back. 5 He will bring you to the land that belonged to your ancestors, and you will take possession of it. He will make you more prosperous and numerous than your ancestors. 6 The Lord your God will circumcise your hearts and the hearts of your descendants, so that you may love him with all your heart and with all your soul, and live. 7 The Lord your God will put all these curses on your enemies who hate and persecute you. 8 You will again obey the Lord and follow all his commands I am giving you today. 9 Then the Lord your God will make you most prosperous in all the work of your hands and in the fruit of your womb, the young of your livestock and the crops of your land. The Lord will again delight in you and make you prosperous, just as he delighted in your ancestors, 10 if you obey the Lord your God and keep his commands and decrees that are written in this Book of the Law and turn to the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul.
Bob: You are talking about two different people. You are talking about Jews who lived all over the world and then about the nation of Israel. In the nation of Israel is where the Lord is coming back. That is where the temple is going to be rebuilt. That is where the anti-Christ is going to come in and declare himself to be God. All of those types of things are going to take place in that nation of Israel.
2 Thessalonians 2:1-4
1 Concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered to him, we ask you, brothers and sisters, 2 not to become easily unsettled or alarmed by the teaching allegedly from us – whether by a prophecy or by word of mouth or by letter – asserting that the day of the Lord has already come. 3 Don’t let anyone deceive you in any way, for that day will not come until the rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the man doomed to destruction. 4 He will oppose and will exalt himself over everything that is called God or is worshiped, so that he sets himself up in God’s temple, proclaiming himself to be God.
Steve: I am not real knowledgeable about prophecy.
Bob: I guess, Steve, that is why what I said what I did in regard to Israel is because all prophecies in the bible centers right in Israel. Israel as a nation, it is a small little country, Steve. It is unbelievably so small yet it is the absolute center of world attention. Then you have people over there with all kinds of land that they do not want, the land they have. They could develop the land like Israel did, yet they want to run them off the face of the earth. The leader of Iran has literally said his goal is to run Israel off the face of the earth. The Muslim religion wants to run Israel off the face of the earth.
Satan has deceived the world, called the god of this world, and has controlled people to hate anything God has done. He hates whom God loves, so that is why all the nations attack Israel. It is warfare in the heavenly realm. So too, will it be at the end of the age, the one final release of Satan before Satan is cast into the lake of fire, and all those who fail to come to Christ Jesus for life and followed Satan.
Revelation 20:7-9
7 When the thousand years are over, Satan will be released from his prison 8 and will go out to deceive the nations in the four corners of the earth – Gog and Magog – and to gather them for battle. In number they are like the sand on the seashore. 9 They marched across the breadth of the earth and surrounded the camp of God’s people, the city he loves. But fire came down from heaven and devoured them
Steve: My grandparents are from Israel. How do the Jews, who do not accept Christ as the living Savior, how do they fit in any more than anybody else who does not believe in Christ? Well, it says they are God’s children. It says in the end times, they will look on the one they have pierced.
John 19:36-37
36 These things happened so that the scripture would be fulfilled: “Not one of his bones will be broken,”[Exodus 12:46; Numbers 9:12; Psalm 34:20] 37 and, as another scripture says, “They will look on the one they have pierced.”[Zechariah 12:10]
Romans 14:11
11 It is written: “‘As surely as I live,’ says the Lord, ‘every knee will bow before me; every tongue will acknowledge God.’”
Bob: Every knee will bow and every tongue will confess Jesus as Lord. And all Israel will be saved. They will be in that prophecy, where all Israel will be saved.
Romans 11:25-26
25 I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers and sisters, so that you may not be conceited: Israel has experienced a hardening in part until the full number of the Gentiles has come in, 26 and in this way all Israel will be saved.
Bob: In the meantime, they are waiting for the last Gentile to come in before. He pulls all of this of in terms of prophetic ending of end times. They are blinded for the sake of the Gentile. The Gentile, who came to Christ, are there to make the Jews jealous. In Israel, you will still see numerous people, Jewish people, who have come to Christ. In the early days, all Christians were Jews. That is what gets me when people talk about the film of Mel Gibson, of Jesus being anti-Semitic. How could that be anti-Semitic? Jesus was one of you.
Bob:There will be people who are Jews who will become Christians. Many Jewish people in Israel are Christians today.
Yes, the majority are still in unbelief, as prophesied that they will return to their own land in unbelief.
Ezekiel 36:22-23
22 “Therefore say to the Israelites, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: It is not for your sake, people of Israel, that I am going to do these things, but for the sake of my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations where you have gone. 23 I will show the holiness of my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, the name you have profaned among them. Then the nations will know that I am the Lord, declares the Sovereign Lord, when I am proved holy through you before their eyes.
Steve: Every knew will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. They will look upon the one they had pierced. Is that talking about everyone on earth?
Bob: No, it is talking about nation of Israel. They are at the center of where He came, at the center where He left and at the center where He is coming back to.
Steve: Do you have any books you have written on that?
Bob: No, we have not written anything on prophecy. There are good books on prophecy we could recommend you. I will put you on hold and let our counselor which you some information on that. There are excellent writings that tell you what is on to happen at the end times, right there in Israel. When he comes back, he is placing His feet on the mount of olives. He is coming back to Israel. They will respond to Him.
Bob: This is what makes the Christian heart supportive of Israel. Sometimes they are not easy to support, but it makes you want to. They are the people through whom my Savior came.
Steve: Thank you.
Bob: Okay, my brother. We will put you on hold and get that information to you. Thank you for your call and interest brother.
Jonathon from Amsterdam, New York
Jonathon: I have a quick question, and then I will hang up and listen to your insight on radio, if you do not mind. A lot of Christians call the Lord’s day or Christians Sabbath. I came across a situation recently where a friend of mine, about 18. He is just starting out. He does not have knowledge of the bible. He attends church that is quite legalistic. He needs money. He got a job, but on condition that he does not work on Sunday. The people at the church are trying to convince him not to take the job. They are telling him that it sin if he works on Sunday. The scriptures that come to my mind are Colossians 2:16 or Acts 15. It seems to me that if you take the Jewish Sabbath and drag it over to a Sunday under the New Covenant and make it legalistic, does that not just make you just as bad as Pharisees. They tried to kill Jesus because he healed people on Saturday. I just wanted to hear information to combat that.
Bob: You already quoted scripture in Colossians 2:16.
Colossians 2:16
16 Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day.
Bob: So these church people are already violating what God has said to do, and that is they are judging him by the Sabbath day. First of all, the Sabbath day, from a biblical standpoint, up until the time of Christ, the Sabbath is from Friday sundown to Saturday sundown. We are told Jesus is Lord of the Sabbath.
Colossians 2:17
17 These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ. 18 Do not let anyone who delights in false humility and the worship of angels disqualify you. Such a person also goes into great detail about what they have seen; they are puffed up with idle notions by their unspiritual mind.
Bob: In other words, the day of the week was a shadow. The reality is Jesus. Jesus is our Sabbath. I would hate to think the only time we rested from our works just as he did from His was on a Saturday or Sunday. We are supposed to do that ever day.
Hebrews 4:9-10
9 There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; 10 for anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from their works, just as God did from his. 11 Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will perish by following their example of disobedience.
Bob: There is nowhere in the bible it tells people to go to church. It tells the church to go to the people but not to people to go to church. It says do not forsake the assembling of yourselves together. It could be a bible study in time. It could be assembling yourself together with other born again believers. You could meet on Saturday or on Sunday. It is a day of the week for rest. That is what it was there for, to give a man a breather. It was not to sit there like the Jews did to walk so many miles. That is why you see people in big cities coming to the synagogues because they cannot drive because that would be sin. That would be work. That kind of stuff is sheer legalism that people like to take delight in. They are saying, “I am doing this and you are not. I am holy and you are not.” Like we talked with that earlier gentleman on phone, who has young children. He should not be bragging about how he is doing. The proof of the pudding is in the eating. You do not know how they will turn out. You do not know that. You can suppose what you are doing to enable them to turn out well, but they may not. A person is setting themselves up for disappointment sooner or later in life. I cannot tell him the number of people I have known where children brought up with bible study in the home every day, quiet time and prayers, sitting in a choir with rosy cheeks, like they are going to make their ascension into heaven, yet go to college and die of aids. I could name probably on both hands, boys and girls I knew in that situation. The issue is, if they do grow up, following the Lord, praise Jesus. It is His grace. It isn’t you.
Bob: People get the idea that I am doing this and that and my children will turn out wonderful. I got news for you. They probably won’t if that is your feeling because God will not let that kind of pride fester in people. Saved by grace of God. It is like man looking over her saying, “thank God, I am not a sinner like they are and the other person saying have mercy on me, a sinner”. Jesus said, “Which one do you think God blessed?’ So get your eyes on what you are doing, and keep your eyes on the Lord.
Luke 18:12-14
12 I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’13 “But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’
14 “I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”
Bob: In his particular situation of this young man, who needs a job to make a living, if he has to sacrifice Sunday for work, there are places that have Saturday services. Or he could be in some other avenue there. He is just in a legalistic church and needs to get out of it, quite frankly.
