Call-In Classic Christianity Radio – Bob George P532 (05-01-20)
Synopsis
Listen to Bob answer some common questions people ask still today. Why do I get angry? Is anger a sin? How do I deal with anger? Then you have questions about the Mormons who come knocking on your door. What do they believe? Should I listen to them? Should I let them in? What about Islam and Judaism? Do they worship the same God as Christians?
First of all, anger is a secondary response to fear. It is normal to the human experience, and yes it is sin. So is impatience and not being kind, and anything that is not love, as defined in 1 Corinthians 13. So what Jesus is really getting us to realize and to look at is the attitudes of our heart. He wants us to come to him by faith and to continue walking by faith. Know that there is no condemnation for you, who are in Christ Jesus. Learn to abide in Him, to walk in the Spirit, as Jesus explained to us in the parable of the vine and the branches (John 15). We will still fail at times, for that is so natural to us in our weakened flesh, in our weakened state. That is why we walk by faith. As Paul said, we boast in our weaknesses so Christ’s power might rest on us. As a child of God, we should not be focused on sin, but rather on the Spirit of life, that which God has given you. When we sin in any way, go straighten it out with the person you insulted or hurt. But God has already taken your sins away from the eyes of God over 2000 years ago.
Now, in regards to a Mormon, who wants to come to your house to bring a false teaching, do not even welcome him, for whoever welcomes him participates in his evil work. As a Christian, why listen to poison, when you know where truth is found, and the truth who lives in you. That makes no sense at all. Take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. You bring truth to him, to the degree he is willing to listen about the deity of Christ, who Christ is, but do not allow him to bring lies to you, or to cause harm to others among you, and allow you or others to be deceived.
2 John 9-11
9 Anyone who runs ahead and does not continue in the teaching of Christ does not have God; whoever continues in the teaching has both the Father and the Son. 10 If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not take them into your house or welcome them. 11 Anyone who welcomes them shares in their wicked work.
2 Corinthians 2:5
5 We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.
The Muslim God does not come close to being the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. To the Jewish people who worship the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, but they worship him only up to a point. The Jews know the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, but they do not know who he is. God came to reveal himself to the Jewish people first. He revealed himself in the person of Christ Jesus, to let people know what God was like. They refused.
When talking about the Islamist, like Mohammad, he was not only not a prophet, he was a detestable character. If they are the same God, and both wrote books, why do the books contradict each other, unless God is schizophrenic of some kind. No, they are not the same God at all. The god of the Muslim is god of their own imagination. They are deceived people. Christianity was very prevalent in that world, in those early days, until Mohammad came with a sword, and said to either believe or die. That is how the Muslim got started. So, no, it is not the same God.
Transcript
Carrie from Bakersfield, California
Carrie: I got a question about anger. I heard that anger is like murder. Having the emotion of hate is like murdering someone. The Lord felt anger in the New Testament and he was a perfect being. Can you explain a little more what you mean about that? Isn’t anger a normal healthy emotion. I think it is a matter of how we express our anger and what we feel angry about.
Matthew 5:21-22
21 “You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘You shall not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.’ 22 But I tell you that anyone who is angry with a brother or sister will be subject to judgment.
Bob: The Lord did not say that. When teaching that he said, if you are angry with your brother it is the same as committing murder. What he was saying is this. He was saying that God is looking at the heart of man. If you are capable of being angry at a person, you are capable of murdering the person. So it is talking about fruit and the root. The fruit might be the outward anger but the root of that problem is a heart problem. That is what he was dealing with.
Bob: When you are talking about the Lord being angry, we always think he was angry at this and angry at that.
Carrie: When he turned over the tables …
Bob: Where in the turning of the table does it say he was angry? We always get that picture that he comes in like a raving maniac turning over tables. When you are in authority, you do not have to be angry or a raging maniac to go turn over tables. You just go turn them over.
Carrie: That is actually how I picture him.
Bob: Truth is not predicated on how you picture him. Truth is predicated onto what the Word of God says. So do not read into what the Word of God says. You are trying to justify why you are getting mad. You do not have to justify that. It has been forgiven at the cross. So do not go to bed at night with anger. Settle your issue with somebody. If you do, God has already taken that sin away. You do not have to justify it or feel bad about it. We are all human, and those are human reactions. But thank God he went to a cross for that. If we are under a legalistic system, we would be saying God is mad at me because I have angered somebody. That sin has been put on the back of God just like all sins have been put on the back of God.
Carrie: My next question is then, if somebody does something that angers me, then I need to work on not feeling anger, even if I feel justified?
Bob: What I find in my life, is that anger is a secondary response to fear. Do you have children?
Carrie: Yes, I do.
Bob: If they were lost in the supermarket temporarily, and while they were lost, you were terrified. When they came whistling around the corner with a box of Wheaties in their hands, then you would to kill them. Anger is a secondary response to fear. If you were walking in a dark alley some place, and I jump out and say “boo” to you, your first response is fear and your second response is to punch me in the nose.
Bob: Men have much more problems with that then women do, because men do not want to say they are fearful. They would rather say they are angry. Women have no problem in saying they are fearful. So they generally do not have the severe problem with anger that men do. So what I would ask yourself is what are you fearing? If someone has insulted you, are you fearing that you may lose a relationship or fearing not getting your own way. All those things are fears that cause us to be angry. I do not deal with anger with people. I mainly deal with fear with people.
Carrie: Have you ever read a book called “Angry people”?
Bob: No, but I could introduce you to a few.
Carrie: It is full of scripture that talks about different people who have expressed anger in the bible. It has been a healthy response, based on our response whether it was sinful or not.
Bob: Carrie, what you need to look at is this.
Galatians 5:6
6 The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.
Bob: When we look at the definition of love in 1 Corinthians 13, we hear love is patient, love is kind, love does not envy, love does not boast, it is not proud, it is not rude, it is not self seeking, and it is not easily angered.
1 Corinthians 13:4-8
4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.8 Love never fails.
Bob: There it tells you that to be easily angered is not love. What God is looking for in us is to develop an attitude of love toward one another. It does not mean we cannot get angered any more that you cannot be self seeking or sometimes impatient and sometimes not kind. As a matter of fact, when you look at that definition of love and put “always” to it, we always fall flat on our face. That is why we have to live in dependency on Christ. If I did not have faults, I would not need Christ. That is why I rejoice in my weakness. That is why Paul could say that. It is his weaknesses that keeps him dependent on Jesus. If we do not have any weaknesses, we would forget Jesus in a New York minute.
2 Corinthians 12:8-9
8 Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. 9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.
Bob: So the only thing I am looking for from you is faith expressing itself through love. So He tells you to look at 1 Corinthians 13. Well, it says I am always patient. No need to go further. I failed right there. I am never envious, never boastful. I always rejoice when someone gets a promotion and I do not. I never get angry especially on the freeway. I never keep a record of wrongs. We read that and say, “You got to be kidding, Lord, I cannot do that”. He says, “I know that. That is why you have to depend on me.”
Bob: So that is the story of the vine and the branch (John 15). You cannot produce the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23). You can bear it but you cannot produce it. The only way for that to come out of you is to abide in the only one who can produce. So that is how we get eyes on Him and off of our failures.
Carrie: When I get impatient or angry, those types of things, the problem is not impatience and anger. The problem is that I am not functioning in love. I am not abiding in Him and letting his love to flow in and through me. There is the problem. That is the root of it. The fruit of it comes out by being angry of people, envious of people. All of that is fruit, but the root of all that is I am not allowing the love of God to control my life.
Carrie: I see.
Ephesians 3:16-19
16 I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, 18 may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 19 and to know this love that surpasses knowledge – that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
Bob: In the book of Ephesians, Paul prays a prayer that is really a phenomenal prayer. What he is saying to us is not the prayer, but the thought. See, to be filled to the measure with all the fullness of God is the same thing as being filled with the Spirit. What does it mean to be filled with the Spirit or to be filled to the measure with the fullness of God is to be filled and controlled by the love of God. What controlled Jesus? The love of God. What controlled Paul? The love of God. What does God want to control Carrie? The love of God.
Bob: That is the issue. Our failures to walk in love is what keeps you dependent, Carrie. It what shows us we can’t but he can. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love. There is not one of us who will be able to go into the presence of God with that kind of love. We have to draw from Him to produce love in us.
Carrie: So when I approach people who make me angry, or I start feeling emotions of anger, then I think of God’s love in my life or my pride, or what fear is behind my anger, then maybe I can change that. My first reaction of anger is to another person.
Bob: Your first reaction may be anger, then God gets a hold of your life, and starts ministering to you. Normally, first comes the natural then the spiritual. That is what bible says.
1 Corinthians 15:46
The spiritual did not come first, but the natural, and after that the spiritual.
Bob: That means, first of all, the first reaction will be natural. Then God gets a hold of you and starts talking to you. Is that consistent to who you are as a child of God. Then, you say, “No, Lord, it wasn’t”. Then go apologize to the person. If God is for you who can be against you. Many times anger is because we think He is against you. If God is for you, who cares if he is against you or for you.
Carrie: I appreciate talking to me this way. It has helped me. Thank you.
Bob: People do not make you angry. They just draw anger out of you.
Carrie: Right. I know.
Bob: Circumstances do not cause your nature. They reveal your nature. If anger was not in you, then you could not get it out of you. At the cross, what came out of Jesus? Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control (Galatians 5:22-23).
Galatians 5:22-23
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.
Bob: That was all that was in Him. That is what came out of Him is all that was in Him. But that was not what is in us.
Carrie: I should not feel guilty for feeling angry, but I need to work on being loving.Bob: Yes, do not feel guilty about it. God is taken away that sin and guilt. He not only took away sin but our guilt. There is nothing He is accusing you for.
Romans 12:1-2
1 Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, 2 because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you[a] free from the law of sin and death.
Bob: So there is no condemnation. Use that as God’s word pointing out to you, that Carrie, there is no need of you being angry. “If I am for you, who can be against you. So start loosening, people.
Carrie: Thank you. I will. Bless you.
Bob: Same to you, Carrie. Thanks for your call.
Joseph from Washington, D.C.
Joseph: We have some former missionaries coming by, living with us. They got a Mormon book or something. We are trying to find more about it. They are supposed to come over tonight and give us one. A lot of things they are saying makes sense and goes along with the King James Version of the bible. But how does that other book fit in?
Bob: To say it goes along with the King James Version is nonsense. Any translation of the bible, which Mormons do not use, does not go along with book of Mormon. They use their book of Mormon, which is a man’s translation.
Joseph: Wait a minute, they do have a bible, like KJV.
Joseph, hold on a minute, I am going to give you an answer of truth. I will not lie to you.
Bob: Whether you have the NIV, NAS, or KJV is irrelevant. There is nothing in those translations that will say anything except the truth about Jesus. The Mormon bible was written by Joseph Smith, who was a scoundrel who claimed he looked into a pair of binoculars and said he saw Egyptian hieroglyphics, and he translated those Egyptian Hieroglyphics, that were supposed to be thousands of years old, but he translated them into the King James. That ought to tell you something. Then the plates all disappeared. So there is no way to check out the plates because there were no plates. This is about the imagination of a man with a deceived mind, who then wrote this book, and that is what Mormons go out. That is their criteria, the book of Mormon and not the bible, that you and I hold in our hands today.
Bob: They claim that Jesus was the brother of Lucifer. They claim God is a glorified man, that God was a man and through his good works, or whatever it might be, elevated himself to the position of god and you can do the same. Is that in the King James Version? No. Is that in the New International Version (NIV)? No.
Joseph: The King James says we should be perfect even as God is perfect.
Bob: Try that on, Joseph. Jesus said be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect. That is all that will do. Trying putting that on. How can you be perfect?
Joseph: Only in Christ we can. Only through the atonement of Christ.
Bob: Joseph, Joseph, if you came by faith in Jesus Christ, you were given his righteousness. You do not have an ounce of your own. If you think you do, I will interview your wife. There is none of us who have any righteousness of our own. We had to see ourselves as Paul saw himself, as wretched man that I am. If you have never seen yourself as wretched you will never come to the cross and never become a Christian. For what do I need the cross for if I do not see myself as a sinner.
Romans 7:21-25
21 So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. 22 For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; 23 but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. 24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? 25 Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!
Bob: Then there is the consequence of sin, which is death. The wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23). There is only one solution to sin and that is life. There is only one life available to us and that is the resurrected life of Jesus. That is the meaning of the resurrection. Jesus entered our death with us so we can enter into His eternal life with Him.
Joseph: What does that book of Mormon talk about, though?
Bob: Nonsense
Joseph: I read the King James, the Old Testament and the New Testament, cover to cover many, many times. I understand what the bible teaches, but what is the background on the book of Mormon?
Bob: I just told you. It is written by a scoundrel who claimed to look through a pair of binoculars at Egyptian Hieroglyphics. Anyone who believes that, then I believe you need brain surgery.
Joseph: What were the hieroglyphics?
Bob: Well, there were not any. It was made up. Egyptian Hieroglyphics, letters that he interpreted through the book of Mormon. To be real honest with you, Joseph, you have to have something wrong with your mind to believe that. For someone to look through a pair of binoculars, then translating them into a language that was not even in existence when he claimed those plates were in existence. He translated them into the King James English. All he did, he was a scoundrel, a man that thought God came to him and said all churches of the world are wrong and you are going to be the church of the world. Anyone who ever believes that is in trouble, anyone who claims they are the only church. That is total deception. That is how Mormonism started, looking at hieroglyphics and translating them, and then the plates disappeared.
Bob: Jesus said today, all these translations and manuscripts we have, we have thousands and hundreds of them copied from the originals. His disappeared. That ought to tell you something.
Joseph: Like the dead sea scrolls.
Bob: We have got all the evidence in the world. The bible says if anyone adds or subtracts from this, to let him be accursed.
Joseph: That is Revelation.
Bob: Yes
Revelation 22:18
18 I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this scroll: If anyone adds anything to them, God will add to that person the plagues described in this scroll.
Joseph: You do not know exactly what is in that book?
Bob: I know enough by what is being taught. I know enough passages that will curl you hair. I have no intention of reading a book of nonsense. I have the bible.
Joseph: I have to look at it myself and see what is in it.
Bob: Again, if you sleep with dogs you will get fleas. I see no sense in a man who claims to know Christ Jesus and if you know Him, you have been given everything you need for life and godliness, so what do you need more of, if you have already been given everything you need? Then why do you want to go into the camp of people who are cults, and who are in no shape and form are saved? People who believe that if married then the wife cannot be saved unless the husband calls her out of grace if they have wedding underwear on. It is the most ridiculous teachings that you would ever want to hear in your life. I do not, in the life of me, understand how anybody in their mind would ever grab a hold of that, outside of that they have done a wonderful job of appearing to be nice people. And they may be. But no one is getting to heaven by being nice but you are saved by the one who is nice, and that is Christ Jesus. I would be extremely careful as you are approaching it. But you know enough of the bible to know what is true and what is false.
George from Houston, Texas
George: I got two questions. A discussion came up about three religions, Islam, Judaism, and Christianity. One gentleman made the suggestion that all are the same God. Can you address that? The second question is, when Christ said “it is finished”, does that mean there is no other prophets to come? Was Christ the last prophet?
Bob: When it is finished then there is no more sacrifice there is going to be made. So there is nobody who is going to come to take away the sin of the world besides Christ Jesus. There is nobody else who is going to be raised from the dead in order to give life except Christ Jesus. So I see no need of anyone else to come along except Christ Jesus.
Bob: That annihilates what the first question was, that it is the same God. That is not the same God at all. The Muslim God does not come close to being the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. To the Jewish people who worship the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, but they worship him only up to a point.
John 5:39-40
39 You study the Scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life. These are the very Scriptures that testify about me, 40 yet you refuse to come to me to have life.
Bob: So they were certainly the introduction. In the Old Testament, what they believed were the prophecies concerning the Messiah. The only problem is that when the Messiah came they did not recognize him and did not believe he was the Messiah. They were not looking for the suffering Messiah. They were looking for a reigning Messiah, to free Israel. They still are today, and certainly the orthodox. They believed in the Messiah but they do not believe he has come yet, and when he does, he is going to save Israel from the political standpoint.
So, the issue is, they know the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, but they do not know who he is. Again, the average Jew today is either an agnostic or at best maybe an atheist. There are very few believing Jewish people today. And so, to say that is the same God, then no it is not. God came to reveal himself to the Jewish people first. He revealed himself in the person of Christ Jesus, to let people know what God was like. They refused.
John 1:10-12
10 He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. 11 He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. 12 Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God
Bob: When talking about Johnny come lately, like Mohammad, he was not only not a prophet, he was a detestable character. If they are the same God, and both wrote books, why do the books contradict each other, unless God is schizophrenic of some kind. No, they are not the same God at all. The god of the Muslim is god of their own imagination. They are deceived people. Christianity was very prevalent in that world, in those early days, until Mohammad came with a sword, and said to either believe or die. That is how the Muslim got started. So, no, it is not the same God.
