Call-In Classic Christianity Radio – Bob George P495 (12-05-19)
Synopsis
So often in today’s religious world, people are burdened under legalism. They may or may not have understood the gospel of God’s grace. They might possibly heard only a half gospel, incorrectly thinking that they must ask for forgiveness or even keep asking for God’s forgiveness but have not heard about coming to Christ for life. Sadly, many churches will teach people to keep short accounts with God. Even if a person is born again, they got under legalistic teaching, and you got under teaching, that if you keep on sinning, God is going to turn His back on you. Many people think they have backslidden when that is truly not the case. The word backslidden is not even in the scriptures.
A man has walked away from the knowledge of the love of God. Yes, his behavior is sinful, but he did not lose fellowship with God. God never left him, who is in Christ and Christ is in him. The Holy Spirit is sealed in you for the day of redemption. How can you go boldly to the throne of grace if you think God is mad at you? So, in your mind, not recognizing God’s unconditional love for you, you saw it more burdensome to be a Christian and so you went back to the behavior of your former life. Consider the story of the prodigal son. He never ceased to be a son. God is saying to you to come home, not to be uptight or to dig up your past, but to be in fellowship with God. Just like the prodigal son, neither will you cease to be a child of God.
Renew your mind with truth. Be convinced of God’s unconditional love for you. Do not put yourself under a yoke of slavery, the law. You cannot mix law and grace. You who try to make yourself righteous by the law, you have nullified grace operating in your life. You live by faith in the one who will produce the qualities in you that you never could, the fruit of the Spirit, love and joy and peace, and all those things of the Spirit. This comes by resting in His love and learning to trust Him.
You are his child. He will never leave you or forsake you. There is nothing that will separate you from the love of God. Trials and tribulations will not and, indeed, nothing in all creation will be able to separate you from the love of God. Your eternity is secure. Realize that there is no more forgiveness to be executed on God’s behalf. I am no longer a person who gets forgiveness. I am a forgiven person. I am not only a person totally forgiven. I am totally loved.
Now consider the end time events. There are things God tells us, not for us to be scared, but to be prepared. He wants us to trust Him, so that no matter how bad things get, we do not lose heart. Jesus tells us these things because of the increasing turbulence in the last days. He tells us that the love of many will grow cold. He tells us these things so we hold onto truth, and hang onto his promises, and realize how temporary this will last. And we, who are in Christ, will be gathered up into the clouds and will be delivered from the worst that is yet to come for those who remain.
And do not forget about prayer. Pray for one another, whether privately or publicly, expressing your heart to God and one another. Do not be like the Pharisees, who love to pray publicly for a show, to be seen by men. You, rather, do so to edify and encourage one another. God’s word even instructs us to encourage one another daily so we do not get discouraged and lose hope, so as not to give into the flesh or be hardened by the deceitfulness of the world. Let us be mutually encouraged by one another’s faith. We are to be dependent on Christ, who is the head of the church. He directs each member of the body so that it is built up into the unity of the one faith. One man plants, another waters, but causes the growth.
Transcript
Cornell from Utica, NY
Cornell: I heard a gentleman speaking about the presence of God and being able to feel his presence and know when he is in and around. I want to get a better understanding of your break down on that. I caught in on the last sentence of that when you were speaking. This question definitely pertains to my situation.
Bob: Cornell, that is a good question. In my particular life, as an example, I lived 36 years of my life knowing about God but I never knew God. I know about George Bush but I do not know George Bush. I know about Abraham Lincoln but I never met him. I am not that old. You can know about a lot of things but never know them because you have never experienced them. You can know about the Grand Canyon but when you actually get to see the Grand Canyon and explore it then you know it.
John 17:3
3 Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.
Bob: That is the same thing with God. I had a knowledge about God but I had no knowledge of the presence of God. When I was 36, I had a gentleman who introduced to me a saving knowledge of Christ Jesus. He explained to me how God in His wisdom had to come to this earth in the person of Jesus, walking on this earth for some 33 years, showing us His righteousness, and in so doing, showing us our fallen state. Until a man sees his condition of the depravity that we inherited from Adam, we are not ready for salvation (Romans 5:12, Romans 8:3). He came to show us His righteousness and, in so doing, came to show us our unrighteousness (Romans 3:5-6).
Romans 5:12
12 Therefore, 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
Romans 3:5-6
5 But if our unrighteousness brings out God’s righteousness more clearly, what shall we say? That God is unjust in bringing his wrath on us? (I am using a human argument.) 6 Certainly not! If that were so, how could God judge the world?
Romans 1:17
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: “he righteous will live by faith.”
Bob: That prepares us to where he was headed. From the day Christ was born, he was headed to the cross. The reason for the cross was to be the substitutionairy death, to be a sin offering for you and me, to take upon the sins of the entire world (Romans 8:3). That is what he did at the cross, and then through the resurrection (Romans 5:10). There is consequence to sin, called death, and the only solution to death is life. The only life available to you and me is the resurrected life of Christ Jesus. And that is real. That is Christ coming to live in you and me, which is our only hope of glory. It is a reality of Christ’s presence living in us, of God himself coming to indwell His creation(Colossians 1:27).
Romans 8:3
3 For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in the flesh,
Romans 5:10
10 For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!
Colossians 1:27
27 To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.
Bob: That is when you begin to understand, for the first time, the presence of God living in you, when you know Christ Jesus lives in you. Jesus is God. He is God the Son who came to indwell his creation. The way all of that starts, Cornell, is on the day that we come to grips with an understanding of the gospel. I never heard the gospel for 36 years of my life. I had no idea what it was. I went to church but I never heard the gospel being proclaimed. I did not know I was lost. I did not know I was a sinner. I knew I sinned but I did not know the implication of what that was. I did not know any of those things until the day I came to Christ Jesus. When Christ Jesus came to indwell me, then I had the ability to understand the word of God for the first time. To a person who never opened the bible before, I opened it and had the ability to understand the word.
1 Corinthians 2:14
14 The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit.
Cornell: My next question is short and sweet. I am a backslider. I had the fire. God was in me. I felt the presence. Then all of a sudden, I kind of went back into the worldly actions. I need some guidance and some prayer. I need a little focus on where I went wrong. How did I let myself go this way. I kind of let my hands go from his hands. I need some focus and inspiration to lead me back to that presence I felt. I need some prayer actually.
Bob: Cornell, that is not what you need. First of all, the word backslider is not used in the New Testament. What you did is this. You got under legalistic teaching, and you got under teaching, that if you keep on sinning, God is going to turn His back on you. Then you develop ways to turn him around and then that does not work. After awhile you give up on it and you give up on yourself. You felt in your own mind that you were alienated from God, in your own mind, because of your sinful behavior.
2 Corinthians 5:19
19 that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them
Bob: When God went to a cross, he went not to cover your sins, for that is what atonement did. Cornell, he went to take away your sins. Not only that, he nailed the law to the cross, that law that was against you (Colossians 2:13-15). All the law can do is condemn you to hell (Romans 3:20, 2 Corinthians 3:6-8). The law cannot make you righteous. No one will be declared righteous by obedience to the law (Romans 3:20-21).
Colossians 2:13-15 (TLB)
13 You were dead in sins, and your sinful desires were not yet cut away. Then he gave you a share in the very life of Christ, for he forgave all your sins, 14 and blotted out the charges proved against you, the list of his commandments which you had not obeyed. He took this list of sins and destroyed it by nailing it to Christ’s cross. 15 In this way God took away Satan’s power to accuse you of sin, and God openly displayed to the whole world Christ’s triumph at the cross where your sins were all taken away.
2 Corinthians 3:6-8
6 He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant – not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.7 Now if the ministry that brought death, which was engraved in letters on stone, came with glory, so that the Israelites could not look steadily at the face of Moses because of its glory, transitory though it was, 8 will not the ministry of the Spirit be even more glorious?
Romans 3:20-21
20 Therefore no one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by the works of the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of our sin. 21 Is the law, therefore, opposed to the promises of God? Absolutely not! For if a law had been given that could impart life, then righteousness would certainly have come by the law.
Bob: The law cannot justify you. No one will be justified in the sight of God by works of the law (Romans 3:20). The law cannot give you life(Romans 3:21). If righteousness came through law, then Christ died for nothing (Galatians 2:21). The only thing the law can do is show you you are a sinner (Romans 7:7). That is all the law can do (Romans 3:20-21) and that is its purpose, to a lost person, to show you are a sinner, which prepared you for the cross (1 Timothy 1:9, Galatians 3:19). When you come to Christ you leave the law behind (Hebrews 7:18-19).
Galatians 2:21
21 I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!”
Romans 7:7
7 What shall we say, then? Is the law sinful? Certainly not! Nevertheless, I would not have known what sin was had it not been for the law. For I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.”
1 Timothy 1:9
9 We also know that the law is made not for the righteous but for lawbreakers and rebels, the ungodly and sinful, the unholy and irreligious, for those who kill their fathers or mothers, for murderers
Galatians 3:19
19 Why, then, was the law given at all? It was added because of transgressions until the Seed (Christ) to whom the promise referred had come. The law was given through angels and entrusted to a mediator.
Hebrews 7:18-19
18 The former regulation is set aside because it was weak and useless 19 (for the law made nothing perfect), and a better hope is introduced, by which we draw near to God.
Bob: Look at law like a mirror. It shows you your face is dirty. You turn to Christ for cleansing. When he has cleansed you, you leave the mirror where it belongs and you start a new way of life by walking in the Spirit of Christ Jesus (Galatians 5:16). When people keep you under the law, that keeps you under guilt. The power of sin is the law (1 Corinthians 15:56). By keeping you under the law, the religions of the world keep you under the power of sin. You cannot be led by the Spirit under the law (Read Galatians 5).
Galatians 3:1-6
1 You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? Before your very eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified. 2 I would like to learn just one thing from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by believing what you heard? 3 Are you so foolish? After beginning by means of the Spirit, are you now trying to finish by means of the flesh? 4 Have you experienced so much in vain – if it really was in vain? 5 So again I ask, does God give you his Spirit and work miracles among you by the works of the law, or by your believing what you heard? 6 So also Abraham “believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.”
Galatians 5:16
16So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh
1 Corinthians 15:56
56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.
Bob: So you are trying to live the newness of life and then you have got the religious world tearing you back under the old way of the law. So you become a double minded man that becomes unstable in all its ways.
James 1:5-8
5 If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you. 6 But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. 7 That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. 8 Such a person is double-minded and unstable in all they do.
Bob: After awhile you have to say I was more comfortable as a lost person than as a saved person. I was under less conflict lost as I am saved. You are trying to live with one foot over there and another foot over here and you cannot do it. You have to let go, Cornell, and you have to let go of the past. Press on to the high calling of Christ Jesus.
Philippians 3:15-14
13 Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.
Bob: God never left you in all those times. Just like the prodigal son, he never ceased to be a son. He just had to come to his senses. Even my father’s servants are living better than I do and I am going home.
You can read the full account of the prodigal son in Luke 15.
Bob: So God is saying to you, Cornell, come home. If you are home, be at home here. It is like God is saying to you, “I did not ask you to come home to be uptight. And I did not tell you to come home to dig up your past. I am telling you to come home and fellowship together. Let us have this relationship that you walked away from, thinking I did not love you.” You in essence were thinking, “How can God love me doing what I am doing.” God says, “because I am God and you are not. I never stopped loving you.”
Romans 8:37-39
37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Bob: You have to come to that point, like the apostle Paul, that I am convinced of something. Never let go of this, Cornell. Do not let yourself be under the yoke of slavery of the law (Galatians 5:1). Do not let yourself get under that law. The law kills but the Spirit gives life (2 Corinthians 3:6).
Galatians 5:1
1 It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.
2 Corinthians 3:6
He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant—not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.
Bob: If you are truly in Christ, you came to Christ not for feelings. A lot of times, especially in the charismatic movement, I find people in that realm, who come for feelings. People say, “I feel God’s presence. I just moan and groan to get the feeling of God’s presence.” God is not a feeling. God is God. God wants to appeal to your mind and not to your feelings. He wants you to be convinced of something. Paul did not say I feel that nothing separates me from God. So many people want a feleing. God says, “I want you to know it. I do not want you to feel it.” I am convinced of something; nothing can separate you from the love of God (Romans 8:37-39).
Bob: Cornell, if you can say that in your heart that you are convinced of something, that nothing can separate you from God. Tribulation can’t. Trials can’t. The only thing that can separate you from the love of God is you separating you from the knowledge of his love, not the existence of, but the knowledge of.
2 Peter 1:3-9
3 His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. 4 Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.5 For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; 6 and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; 7 and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love. 8 For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 But whoever does not have them is nearsighted and blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their past sins.
Bob: That is what you did. You separated yourself from the knowledge of the love of God that you entered into when you were first saved. When you were first saved, you knew full well that God loved you. God so loved you that he saved you. But we get under performance and feeling orientation. What you have to do is to get rid of that. You put those things behind and say from this day forth I am going to study scripture and I am going to learn about God’s love for me. So I can say, like Paul, that without question, I am convinced that nothing can separate me from the love of God.
Galatians 2:20
20 I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
Bob: That love will carry you through your entire life, Cornell. No man will ever go to hell because of his sins. The only sin is the sin of the rejection of the Son of God. The world’s sin is unbelief in me (John 16:9). The sins of the world were taken away, not covered, at the cross. Sins were taken away, never to be seen again by the eyes of God.
Hebrews 9:28
so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him.
Bob: So Christ is saying, “When I come back, I am not coming to deal with sin, but I am coming back for those waiting for me.” Why is he not coming back to deal with sin? He has already done it. Do we want him to do it again? I do not want to nail him on cross again. He did it once. He did it for all. What did he cry out on the cross? It is finished (John 19:30).
John 19:30
30 When he had received the drink, Jesus said, “It is finished.” With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.
Bob: Relax by faith in that truth. It is done. There is no more forgiveness to be executed on my behalf. I am no longer a person who gets forgiveness. I am a forgiven person. I am not only a person totally forgiven. I am totally loved. I have destiny as secure as life itself. I am a child of the living God. I am no longer a Baptist, a Presbyterian, or anything else. I am a child of God. So do not put any more labels on me that the one God put on me. I am a child of the living God. Sometimes I do not act like it but I never cease to be one. I am a child of the living God.
Galatians 3:25-27
25 Now that this faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian.26 So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, 27 for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.
Cornell: Thank you for that message.
Bob: Did that help, my brother?
Cornell: Yes it did, my brother.
Bob: I want to send you a copy of my book, “Classic Christianity” as our compliments. You read through that book. I believe it will be very life changing for you and it will soldify the things we talked about today. If you have any more questions, do not hesitate to call.
Cornell: Yes, I will.
Brent from Denver, CO
Brent: What I was wondering about is what is happening over in Israel and how that plays into the end times prophecy. We know that there has to come an economic system where no man can buy or sell without the mark of the beast. The whole world runs under the dollar. Does this mean that the United States economy has to be destroyed so that all these trillions and billions of dollars are rendered valueless, like that of the Confederate dollar after the Civil war? They were used as paper in an outhouse, not worth anything. Are we going to see the destruction of the United States economy to give rise to this system of buying and selling? Is the chronological, the next thing that has to happen, is the breaking of seals by Jesus and releasing of the four horseman, to bring anti-Christ to rise to power? Iran is waiting for their next Ayatollah. The acidic Jews are waiting for the Messiah. Everyone in Christian churches is looking for the anti-Christ. It seems like everyone is waiting for the son of perdition, the wicked one Daniel speaks of. Where does the rapture fit into this? I would like to get a little bit of chronology. Is the first thing breaking of the seals, then the rising of the anti-Christ. Where does the United States economy fit in? Does it mean bad news for America?
Revelation 13:15-17
15 The second beast was given power to give breath to the image of the first beast, so that the image could speak and cause all who refused to worship the image to be killed. 16 It also forced all people, great and small, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hands or on their foreheads, 17 so that they could not buy or sell unless they had the mark, which is the name of the beast or the number of its name.
Daniel 7:23-28
23 “He gave me this explanation: ‘The fourth beast is a fourth kingdom that will appear on earth. It will be different from all the other kingdoms and will devour the whole earth, trampling it down and crushing it. 24 The ten horns are ten kings who will come from this kingdom. After them another king will arise, different from the earlier ones; he will subdue three kings. 25 He will speak against the Most High and oppress his holy people and try to change the set times and the laws. The holy people will be delivered into his hands for a time, times and half a time.26 “‘But the court will sit, and his power will be taken away and completely destroyed forever. 27 Then the sovereignty, power and greatness of all the kingdoms under heaven will be handed over to the holy people of the Most High. His kingdom will be an everlasting kingdom, and all rulers will worship and obey him.’
28 “This is the end of the matter. I, Daniel, was deeply troubled by my thoughts, and my face turned pale, but I kept the matter to myself.”
As far as the seven seals and the four horseman, you can read about that in Revelation 6. And as far as this concept of rapture, where the dead in Christ and born again believers still on earth, that is about meeting the Lord in the air, taken up from this earth.
1 Thessalonians 4:15-17
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.
Bob: Brent, I appreciate your question. I do not think all those questions you ask can be literally answered. As far as the United States is concerned, there is nothing in the Bible mentioning the United States of America because the focal point on the end times is going to be right there in Israel. Does that mean that the United States has been rendered totally worthless? I have no idea.
Bob: As far as the anti-Christ and the mark of the beast, I believe we are already headed toward that, being a cashless society in the use of credit cards all the time. Then you get to the point where credit cards can be stolen and a person’s whole life savings can be taken from you and your identity stolen from you. It is already in effect where people are putting things underneath their skin in order to be scanned. Those will be serving as cash.
Bob: There has been a recent article on that particular thing, putting something under the skin. With the research, they found that the most logical place to put that is in the right hand and the forehead, which is talked about in the scriptures, where those numbers will be (Revelation 13:5-17). That does not mean a bankrupt society. That means a credit card society. What will that do to dollars and money? If the American dollar went down, all currency will go down. You still have to have currency in order for economies to survive. I do not think it means that at all.
Bob: I just think the United States will be playing a major role in this. Although it very well could be, and some people believe this, and again all of this is speculation. Some people believe that at Armageddon, there will be the armies of the United States of America, and probably England, as well as Israel, up against the entire Arab community, the Muslim community. Which is what that battle will be in the end times. It will be between Muslims, Jews and Christians. That is where God intervenes in the whole scene, creating the most bloody scene this world has ever known. Those time lines are there.
Is the anti-Christ in existence today? Possibly. We see the reality of this, with rumors of war, wars and rumors of wars, earthquakes down through the ages, but have they been in the consistency they have been recently? No. Has there ever been so much attention on Israel? Israel was not even in existence until they became a nation in 1948, which they had to fight for. Then, in the war, they fought to solidify that. Until Israel became a nation, people were not paying much attention to prophecy. Israel is right at the center of it.
Bob: When you see a nation like Israel surrounded by people openly claiming that their goal in life is to run Israel off the face of the earth. What kind of idiots are we? So many people hung up on Mel Gibson, with his anti-semitic statement, beating up on one insignificant man, when the nation of Israel is surrounded by leaders saying their goal in life is to run the Jews off the face of the earth. Why don’t they get their priorities straight? All they can think is what some actor, who made a lot of money, has to say, who is in a drunken stupor. There are a lot more big deals out there, called leaders of nations, who want to run you off the face of the earth, instead of being anti-war and anti-George Bush for trying to create an atmosphere in that part of the world where Israel will be saved. You can go into all kinds of reasons. But in the final analysis, it is to keep Israel safe if we can. The very people he is trying to keep safe are the ones griping and complaining about the president. It is strange to me how we so easily get our attention off the real problem and onto some nit-picking remark some actor made.
Bob: At any rate, that is beside the point. Israel is surrounded right now by countries with one goal, to run them off the face of the earth. If Israel did not have technology they have, they would be goners. As someone wisely said, if AlQuaeda laid down their arms, the enemies over there in Lebanon would lay down their arms and then there would be peace. But if Israel laid down their arms there would be taken over immediately.
Bob: What is the root problem? Simple. People in their perverted religion want to run the Jews off the face of the earth. There is the problem. It is not politics. It is that a rogue group of people want to run Israel off the face of the earth. Why? What is wrong with Israel? It is a fine country. It exceeds in technology. It has built that country into a beautiful land. Why do they hate the Jews? Is it, “I just do not like them, the way they act?” Is that justification for wanting to kill them? No. What you have is hatred. You have hatred in the hearts of those people which has been started by a perverted religion. The root of the problem is not government and politics. The root of the problem is religion, religion, perverted as it is, with hatred toward the Jews and hatred toward Christians and everything they stand for, namely Democracy. There is your problem.
Bob: Is that ever going to get solved? Unless you can get in there and get people’s minds changed and young people’s minds changed. People are brainwashed every day of their lives to hate Israel. That has been going on for centuries. Until that is changed, you will never have peace in any part of that country. Quite frankly. Are you ever going to have peace there? Not until the prince of peace appears. When every knee and every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord. You can have the United Nations, bombs, negotiations, and all that type of thing, and it is not going to work.
Bob: So you have people in this country who are anti-war. Who isn’t anti-war. Who are you? Anti-preservation. Are you against preserving your life and are you anti-defending our land if someone wants to take it over? What are you? A wimp? We have people who are just wimps. I do not know of any other word to put on it. If someone is coming into your house to take it over, rape your wife and kill your children, are you supposed to say, “Come on in, and let us negotiate and be nice to each other?”
Bob: It is biblical because it does have to do with Israel. But it is my deep conviction that this problem is never going to be solved until the Muslim world comes up to the point and stops their hatred of all people and comes to the point where they no longer have a religion to turn the whole world into Muslims. Until that is stopped and reversed, you are going to have war with the Muslims.
Angela from San Diego, CA
Angela: I wanted to know about praying out loud. Is that something we should not do, or does it not matter?
Bob: It does not make any difference. Otherwise, why would you ever have silent prayer? Why do we have church gatherings and praying in groups? Nothing wrong with that at all. It is for other people’s benefit. This is not for your or my benefit. It is for their benefit that I am praying. It is good to pray with other people so people can hear what our hearts are. God is listening to our hearts.
We have the example of Jesus praying out loud when Lazarus was raised from the dead.
John 11:41-43
41 So they took away the stone. Then Jesus looked up and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. 42 I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me.”43 When he had said this, Jesus called in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!”
We have several examples in scripture of people praying out loud.
Acts 16:25
25 About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them.
The apostle Paul encouraged people to pray for him personally.
Romans 15:30-31
30 I urge you, brothers and sisters, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, to join me in my struggle by praying to God for me. 31 Pray that I may be kept safe from the unbelievers in Judea and that the contribution I take to Jerusalem may be favorably received by the Lord’s people there
