Classic Christianity – Call-In Bob George p410 (01-31-19)
Welcome to Classic Christianity Radio with Bob George. Let’s now join Bob George as he offers practical biblical insights as he helps people experience faith, hope and love in Jesus.
Bob answers questions from several callers, mostly calling for clarification on the scriptures that they had struggle with understanding. Kenny, relocating due to his job, was trying to discern where to spend time with a new local body of believers. He was exposed to hearing teaching on the prosperity gospel and women pastors and what the word of God had to say about those things. Teachers of the prosperity gospel are charlatans in accordance with what one reads from 1 Timothy 6. Bob explains that they are using godliness as a means for financial gain, among other things. As far a woman pastors, God designed woman as a helper suitable for man, and, according to scripture are not to be put in a position in authority over a man. That has to do with God’s choice in creation and not a matter of equality but one in purpose or role. Andrea had a question about deathbed conversions and also what about those who have never heard. In essence, God is perfectly just and holy and so He will make the right decisions so we do not have to be concerned about that. But the majority have heard and are not living in a remote area so that does not apply. Lenny had a struggle interpreting Colossians 1:21-23, and in particular the phrase, “if you continue in the faith” and seemed to imply that someone could lose their salvation, if one reads the passage a certain way. By proper use of interpretation from the structure of the Greek, one can discern what the scripture is really saying. What the scripture is really saying is that in light of the fact you are free from accusation, you have been presented holy in his sight without blemish and free of accusation. So Paul is complimenting the saints in Colossi. Gary had difficulty understanding the parable of the shrewd manager in Luke 16:8-12 and simply wanted Bob to explain the meaning of that parable. Jesus is speaking to Jews, who have been given much, the law and the prophets, and the bloodline of Christ, and so should be grabbing a hold of truth and multiplying that truth into the lives of others. Glenn called concerning how to talk to a Seventh Day Adventist in regards to their belief in Saturday being the day of worship. From Colossians 2:16, Bob explains that the Sabbath is a shadow of the reality that is in Christ. So the Seventh Day Adventist are worshiping a shadow. Yet, according to Romans 12:1, we are a living sacrifice and worship the Lord every moment of our lives as we let Christ live His life in and through us. Bob challenges those who are Seventh Day Adventists to get into scriptures and find out what God the author has to say instead of the founder of their religion.
Kenny from Frisco ,TX
Kenny wants to change churches to be closer to where he is living. He has heard a growing number of churches preaching a prosperity gospel that if you give then you will get tenfold back. The prosperity gospel preachers twist the word of God out of its context, often quoting from Luke 6:38 and Luke 21:4.
Bob answers by referencing 1 Timothy 6 and explaining how prosperity gospel preachers are being directly addressed by this passage of scripture.
1 Timothy 6:1-5
These are the things you are to teach and insist on. 3 If anyone teaches otherwise and does not agree to the sound instruction of our Lord Jesus Christ and to godly teaching, 4 they are conceited and understand nothing. They have an unhealthy interest in controversies and quarrels about words that result in envy, strife, malicious talk, evil suspicions 5 and constant friction between people of corrupt mind, who have been robbed of the truth and who think that godliness is a means to financial gain.
Anyone who teaches a prosperity gospel is teaching godliness as a means for financial gain. They are robbed of truth, of corrupt mind, envious, involved in strife, controversies and quarrels, are conceited and know nothing. They typically wear white suits, are seen strutting on a stage, blowing on people, knocking people over, and none of that is in the scriptures.
Concerning female pastors, Bob’s wife is not and never was. Bob was led in to ministry and not his wife. Bob’s wife was called to be a help mate and she was. Bob does not like being called a pastor. Being called by what you do is misleading into a confusion over identity. For if you ever stop pastoring, then you lose your identity. Your true identity is a child of God, and that is who you really are. There is an unhealthy tendency to call ourselves by what we do, whether doctor or lawyer or something else. But that is what we do and not who we are.
Pastoring is not Bob’s identity. His title is a child of God, who He is. Pastor is what Bob does. Man’s role is pastoring and he did not put his wife in that position. Corporations have a board of directors and fill it with wives and kids so no one can ever dismiss them. In Bob George Ministries, prohibit family members on board of directors. Why? To protect them so cannot do anything you want to do without accountability. It is wise to have safe guards in place in ministry. Financial examination at end of the year for protection so no one can say we have misused our money. Those in ministry practice due diligence to be above reproach in everything they do. Ministries cannot have any tiny bit called into question.
So, stay away from such churches. Music good and music exciting and that tends to get people roped in. Then you get involved and later find what is being taught and almost too late at that point.
There is no church membership where Bob was at. No church membership for you are already a member of the body of Christ. Bob is not here to capture, hold onto people, and manipulate them. We help people to learn truth and let God direct them.
Andrea from Brighton MI
Andrea asked about death bed conversions. Is there anything in scripture in reference to that? Bob replied by saying that it does not matter whether on deathbed or prime of life. There are many who come to their senses when told they are going to die.
Andrea then asks, “Let’s say a person has never been born again, and heart stopped and clinically dead? Will such a person go to Christ in that moment and have opportunity to hear the message and believe?”. We do not know in those kinds of things. Prior to death people have opportunity to accept him. They are not going to hell because they are bad or good but because they refused to accept the provision for their need for salvation. Those kinds of things are in the hands of God.
A person is going to go where they have chosen to go. If chose not to be with Him on earth, why would they choose to go to be with Jesus in heaven?
Andrea asks, “What about someone who has never heard a tiny amount of the gospel? What happens to someone truly ignorant? Or mentally not able to understand?” In order to believe, have to believe He exists and is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him. Anyone who sincerely wants to know God, God will reveal himself to him.
Hebrews 11:6
And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.
Jeremiah 29:13
13 You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.
Jeremiah 33:3
3 ‘Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.
I do not believe such a person like that exists who has never heard, but if there was, that has to go into the hands of a perfect, loving and just God. So we do not have to answer those questions. You are not in a remote area, you are hearing truth, and so those things do not apply to you, and leave those other decisions in the hand of God.
Lenny from Lawrence, MI
Lenny heard Bob in seminars in Michigan years ago. Even though he knows the truth, being a child of God, this scripture in Colossians 1:21-23, he always had a struggle in understanding.
Colossians 1:21-23
1 Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. 22 But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation— 23 if you continue in your faith, established and firm, and do not move from the hope held out in the gospel. This is the gospel that you heard and that has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven, and of which I, Paul, have become a servant. If indeed you continue in faith, not moved from hope, preached.
To Lenny, this passage seems to many to indicate you can lose your salvation, and I know you cannot lose salvation, but how do you explain this. Lenny, in particular, was struggling with the phrase, “if you continue in the faith”, implying that if you do not continue in faith, you lose salvation.
Bob explains why there is misunderstanding on this passage due to the English language, the often multiple meanings of a conjunction. In this case, the word, “if”.
That “if” there is a matter of proper interpretation. In one common usage, “if” use to express this meaning: “If it raining outside, you get wet. If I stay inside, I stay dry.”
But there is also an “if” used in this manner. “If you are truly the Son of God, turn these stones into bread” (Matthew 4:3). That is not a question, but rather because of that fact, that you are the Son of God, then turn these stones into bread. Because you are the Son of God, he word “if” means in this context: “in as much as” or “in light of the fact that”.
So in the context of Colossians 1:21-23, the second rendering is the correct usage. Because you are free of accusation, you have been presented holy in his sight without blemish and free of accusation. Sp Paul is giving a compliment to the people that you are continuing in your faith, and that it is established and firm.
It is unfortunate because at times you have to go back to see the structure of the Greek it was written in to see what “if” it is. You can usually tell in light of the context, as in Matthew 4:3.
Also, how can you be free from accusation and then be accused of not continuing in your faith?
John from Manhattan Beach, CA
John asked, “When do we receive our resurrected bodies? When absent from body and present with Lord?” Bob’s first response is that is debated. Bob joked, “I could sure use one as quickly as possible.” When you die, body goes to dust.
1 Corinthians 15:50
50 I declare to you, brothers and sisters, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.
Genesis 3:19
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.”
Flesh and blood will never inherit the kingdom of God. So we came from dust and to dust will we return. But we will get a glorified body, a body given to us by God.
1 Corinthians 15:13-18
13 Brothers and sisters, we do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death, so that you do not grieve like the rest of mankind, who have no hope. 14 For we believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him. 15 According to the Lord’s word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. 16 For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. 18 Therefore encourage one another with these words.
1 Corinthians 15:42-44
42 So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; 43 it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; 44 it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body.
The dead shall rise first. Because saints are already there, they have glorified body. When absent from the body, then present with the Lord.
1 Thessalonians 4:16-18
16 For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. 18 Therefore encourage one another with these words.
Thessalonians is dealing with questions on the rapture, the rapture is coming and meeting the Lord in air. So what about those who died? Those who have fallen asleep. We believe Jesus died and rose again, so God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep in him. We who are still alive and left not precede those.
If rapture happens in split second, why is delineation between those left and those who died prior to rapture and coming back with Jesus. Bob reasoned from the scriptures this way. We receive body when dead. House lived in here, and when die am homeless? But Jesus said that he has gone ahead to prepare a place for us. Why would he leave us homeless?
John 14:2
My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you?
Gary from Hemet, CA
Gary asked Bob to explain the parable of the shrew manager in Luke 16:8-12.
Luke 16:8-12
8 “The master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly. For the people of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own kind than are the people of the light. 9 I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings.
10 “Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much. 11 So if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches? 12 And if you have not been trustworthy with someone else’s property, who will give you property of your own?
Jesus is talking to his disciples. In the story, the manager is asking the workers to give an account. Master commended the dishonest manager for acting shrewdly. Christians tend to be naive whereas the world is known for conniving and deceiving to get their way. In the parables, the audience is basically Jewish people, who were given much, law and prophets, bloodline of Jesus, and yet trampled it under foot. I have come to do all these things for you and you have a choice. Grab a hold of truth, run with truth and multiply truth into the lives of many. You cannot serve two masters, both God and money.
Glenn from Oceanside, CA
Glenn’s co-worker is a Seventh Day Adventist. So he asks Bob, “What words can we share with her?”
Bob quotes from Colossians 2:
Colossians 2:16-17
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. 17 These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ.
Seventh Day Adventists are worshiping a shadow. They called themselves Seventh Day because all they are about is what day you go to worship. That is not a reality, but a shadow of what is coming. The reality is in Christ. Bob shares what the reality of worship is. Christ comes to live in a person. Such a person has been born again by the Spirit of God. And how does a born again person worship?
John 4:23
Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks.
Romans 12:1-2
Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. 2 Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.
Do not be conformed but be transformed. The reasonable act of worship is to make your body available every day of your life, to let God live His life in and through you. Make your body available every day of your life, and not just on Saturday. So Bob challenges those who are Seventh Day Adventists their need to get into the scriptures and find out what God the author has to say instead of their founder.
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