Call-In Classic Christianity Radio – Bob George P617 (03-18-21)
Synopsis
Common questions people ask from time to time are what is redemption, atonement, propitiation and trinity. If you have grown up with any sort of religious background, or have opened up your bible to read it, you have probably heard or read these words before. Words have meaning, but they must be used in their context in which they are written. Keep in mind also that translations are not always accurate, so if something is unclear, check it out in a Hebrew or Greek concordance. There is an interlinear bible online that can be helpful on that.
But, first of all, rely on the Holy Spirit to teach you truth. The biblical meaning is what is important, even if a dictionary seems to indicate a contrary meaning. There is enough cross-referencing of scripture, with the Holy Spirit living in you, to reveal to you God’s intended meaning. Without relying on the Holy Spirit to teach you truth, how would you know what any man is saying is true or not? Just because many theologians tell you what something means does not mean it is correct. If a pastor tells you to quote 1 John 1:9 to get your sins forgiven, or that Jesus atoned for your sins, then he is teaching error. You have the Catholic priest who tells you to go to the confessional to get your sins forgiven. You also have the rabbi that tells you to go back to the day of atonement. Sadly all of that has confused so many people, and is teaching serious error, making a mockery of Jesus death on a cross, saying His death is not sufficient for you. The word of God is where you go to test and see what any man says is so.
So listen as Bob George explains the difference between atonement and propitiation, and references the truth that can be found in scriptures. A great passage of scripture to explain all this is in Hebrews 10. This passage explains that the blood of bulls and goats, sacrificed under an old covenant system, before Jesus came, covered sins, but after Jesus came, to replace that covenant with a new covenant, His shed blood took away sins. Recall also that John the Baptist proclaimed, “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.”
This is also not a matter of semantics, such as whether to use atonement or propitiation. Propitiation is a word meaning that God was completely satisfied with the shed blood of Jesus to take away the sins of the entire world, for God never to see sins again. It is not proper to use the word atonement, for that word carries the meaning of covering sins, but not taking them away, and only leads to confusion to the body of Christ, and even hinders the proper understanding of the gospel message of the totality of the cross. The King James translation is one of the few English translations that uses the proper word of propitiation when used in context of the New Covenant. The original Greek uses a word that carries the meaning of “taking away” So as to prevent confusion among the body of Christ, use the phrase “taking away” or propitiation.
The major issue among Christendom today is that so many people are taught that you need to ask God to forgive you when you sin, that you need to keep your slate clean, or you need to get your sins erased. Such teaching is serious error. It is not faith to ask God for what in Him you already have. Indeed, even before you and I were born, God solved the sin issue for us when He shed His blood on a cross, without which there is no forgiveness of sins. The only sin attributable to man is the sin of unbelief in what Jesus alone accomplished for you.
Anyone who continues in the sin of unbelief, which is sinning against the knowledge of truth, is deliberately making a mockery of the cross, saying it was not sufficient to take your sins away, and, as scripture says, has the only expectation of raging fire that consumes the enemies of God. So this is a serious misunderstanding of the gospel, and the sin of unbelief must be repented of, and a person must receive the eternal life God offers through His resurrected life, knowing that his sins had already been taken away, and in Him is where the forgiveness of sins is received. If Christ was not raised and you do not exchange your life for His, then you remain dead in your sins.
Another common question that is asked is about baptism. There are false teachings out there that say you must be baptized in water to be saved. Some churches even insist that has to be by their pastor in their church. That is contrary to what Jesus taught in scripture. In sharing the gospel message, a person born again is identifying with the Triune God, God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit, as found in the great commission in Matthew 28.
Jesus and John the Baptist also testified concerning baptism. There is a baptism of water that John did for the repentance to a clear conscience contrasted to the baptism of Jesus, one of being baptized with Spirit and of fire, or judgment. The baptism of Jesus, a spiritual baptism, Jesus explained to Nicodemus in John 3, of the necessity of being born again by the Spirit, as necessary in order to enter the kingdom of God. The apostle Peter in 2 Peter also states that no one is saved by removal of dirt from the body with water.
Bob also elaborated more on the Trinity, that although we cannot completely understand it. We can apprehend it because Jesus explains Trinity in the scriptures. We cannot see Spirit, and that is where the difficulty of understanding comes from. God is Spirit and we must worship in Spirit and in truth. But do not try to put flesh and blood on Spirit.
Transcript
Doug from Greenville, SC
Doug: I want to clarify something you talked about before. What is the difference between redemption and atonement? What is your position on that?>
Hebrews 10:1-4
1 The law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming—not the realities themselves. For this reason it can never, by the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year, make perfect those who draw near to worship. 2 Otherwise, would they not have stopped being offered? For the worshipers would have been cleansed once for all, and would no longer have felt guilty for their sins. 3 But those sacrifices are an annual reminder of sins. 4 It is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.
Bob: Atonement has nothing to do with the New Testament at all. Atonement is what the blood of bulls and goats did. It covered sin. Jesus did not come to cover sin. He came to take away sin. That is why atonement is not used in the New Covenant. It is sometimes translated but it is a poor translation. What took place when Jesus finished His work was the word called propitiation that took place. Propitiation means God looked down on Jesus’ sacrifice and said “I am satisfied”.
1 John 2:2 (KJV)
2 And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.
Hebrews 10:8-18
8 First he said, “Sacrifices and offerings, burnt offerings and sin offerings you did not desire, nor were you pleased with them” – though they were offered in accordance with the law. 9 Then he said, “Here I am, I have come to do your will.” He sets aside the first to establish the second. 10 And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.11 Day after day every priest stands and performs his religious duties; again and again he offers the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. 12 But when this priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, 13 and since that time he waits for his enemies to be made his footstool. 14 For by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.
15 The Holy Spirit also testifies to us about this. First he says:
16 “This is the covenant I will make with them after that time, says the Lord. I will put my laws in their hearts, and I will write them on their minds.”[Jeremiah 31:33]
17 Then he adds:
“Their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more.”[Jeremiah 31:34]
18 And where these have been forgiven, sacrifice for sin is no longer necessary.
Bob: There is no more sacrifice for sins. That is not atonement at all. Jesus did not atone for sin. He came to take away the sins of the world. That is why identified by John the Baptist as “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world”.
John 1:29
29 The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!
Doug: I checked on that in the Webster’s dictionary. The word redemption and atonement seem to be synonymous.
Bob: Webster is not the authority in regard to biblical language. Atonement, again, is what took place before, with the blood of bulls and goats. The Greek word for atonement and “take away” are two different words altogether. And the word atonement is not used in the Greek New Testament in regard to the New Covenant we stand in.
Bob: Redemption is buying back. If you remember the old redemption centers where you turned in old green stamps and got a toaster, that is what redemption is. We gave Him all we are, nothing, and He gave us all He is, everything. That is what is called the exchanged life.
Doug: All the major evangelical theologians, they use the word atonement.
Bob: Not all of them. Certainly not all of them do and we certainly don’t and there is a reason for that. I am just getting back to the fact, Doug, that it is not used in the original Greek language. So grab a hold of that and forget this other stuff. I would not care if every theologian in the world used it. They are using it wrong. Atonement was the covering of the blood of a bull and a goat. When you put the blood of Jesus in the same category as the blood of a bull and a goat, you are disgracing the Lord Jesus Christ. People ought to quit doing that. I do not put the blood of Jesus Christ on the same par as a bull and a goat. That is what it says in scripture.
Hebrews 10:4
4 It is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.
Bob: That is clear as ever. But when Jesus died, He took away the sins of the world. The blood of bulls and goats cannot take it away. That is called atonement. People ought to quit jerking around with that stuff and just accept it for what it is, and use the words properly, so you do not discredit what Christ came to do. He did not come to cover sins. He came to take them away from the eyes of God, never to see them again.
Doug: I am sure they mean when they use that word atonement to mean take it away.
Bob: If they mean it, they ought to say it. That is how you confuse and deceive people. If you mean it, you ought to say it. If they thought atonement meant taking away, they would quit using atonement and say taking it away. I have no problem saying taking away the sins of the world. I do not use atonement because that is not what Jesus came to do. I have no problem with words at all. Just use the words as they are there so people do not get confused by them.
Doug: Another thing people are always using the term to ask Jesus to forgive your sins. They do it in context of knowing that He has already redeemed our sins. They use those words as a form of humility I think more than anything.
Bob: In order for me to be humble, I am going to lie? Doug, get real, my friend. Quit grabbing what people are saying about justification. I assure you people are not saying Jesus is taking away my sins. They believe there is unforgiveness, saying that there is a mark on my slate that I have to get clean. That is why people call it a bar of soap. There is a mark that has to get erased. That is a lie out of the pit of hell. There is no mark that has to be erased. Our sins have been taken away from the eyes of God, never to see them again. We should be resting by faith in that truth instead of jacking around with all of this feel good stuff.
Bob: If a person believes that my sins have been taken away, when I came to understand and believed the truth of that, that I was no longer asking God to do what He has already done. That is not faith to ask for something you already have. That is presumption. So we cannot sit around saying, “I understand that, but”. A guy perpetuated that as a dear friend of mine. I said, Bill, that is nonsense. If you believe that Jesus has taken away the sins of the world from the eyes of God, never to see them again, you will never ask Him to do again what He has already done. So you do not do that in order to feel good. What makes you feel good is to walk by faith. That is what Christians are not doing today. We are not walking by faith but by presumption and tradition.
Doug: Every time a new sin comes along, everybody seems to ask forgiveness for it.
Bob: Absolutely. Instead of thanking Him for what He has already done, they should be thanking Him. If they really believe it has been taken away, they should be thanking Him. That is what you do when it has already occured. If I have to activate that, then I am not thanking but asking and hoping he is going to do what I am asking Him to do. It does not make any sense, does it?
Doug: Yep.
Bob: It sure does not make any sense to me. Does that help, my brother?
Doug: A little bit. I play with semantics a lot.
Bob: Doug, again, I have heard all of that stuff. I am tired of hearing it. People are not playing with semantics. They are not believing the scriptures. That is why they do what they do. They do not believe the scriptures. When I came to understand the truth that Jesus took away my sins from the eyes of God, never to see them again, the dumbest thing in the world for me to do is to ask Him to forgive me, if I believe that. If I do not believe that, then it is the most natural thing to do. If Jesus came to a cross to die for some sins but not all sins, then the most natural thing for me to do, because I do not know which ones He has forgiven and which ones He hasn’t, is to ask Him for forgiveness. Very natural.
2 Corinthians 5:19
19 God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.
Bob: But if I believe what scripture says, then when I sin I am going to thank Him for what He did and I am not going to ask Him, thinking there is a slate of forgiveness, a mark that has to be erased. That is not belief. That is not faith. It is what scripture says, making a mockery of the grace of God and treating as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctifies us.
Hebrews 10:29
29 How much more severely do you think someone deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified them, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace?
Bob: Any man who continues to sin against the knowledge of truth, and the knowledge of truth is their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more, and where these have been forgiven there is no more sacrifice for sins.
Hebrews 10:16-18
16 “This is the covenant I will make with them after that time, says the Lord. I will put my laws in their hearts, and I will write them on their minds.”[Jeremiah 31:33]17 Then he adds:
“Their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more.”[Jeremiah 31:34]
18 And where these have been forgiven, sacrifice for sin is no longer necessary.
Bob: That is the knowledge of truth that he is talking about. You continue sinning against that knowledge of truth, saying, “No, I am going to get my sins forgiven by 1 John 1:9”, or “I am by going to the day of atonement to get my sins forgiven“, or “I am going to a priest to get my sins forgiven”, or whatever hair-brained idea we come up with. Here is what the scriptures say. “You have nothing to look forward to except raging fire that consumes the enemies of God.”
Hebrews 10:26-27
26 If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, 27 but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God.
Bob: You are spitting in the face of Jesus, who had to suffer and die, who had to take away my sins from the eyes of God. And we are saying, “that is not good enough, Jesus. Just look at how dedicated I am to keep my sins forgiven.”
Doug: That would eliminate a lot of guilt.
Bob: Yes, it does. To thank rather than ask.
Bob: He died to take away our sins and guilt, both of them. In order to be guilty, someone has to accuse me and there is now no more accusation against us.
Romans 8:1-2
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 free from the law of sin and death.
Romans 6:23
23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Bob: The wages of sin is death and that has been cured to a born again person by the gift of God, which is life. The Spirit of life had set me free from the law of sin and death. That is good news, brother.
Doug: Yes, I know that. I do believe He redeemed me and perfectly took away it all. I am thankful for that.
Bob: Amen. Just continue thanking Him. That is what you do when you have faith. You thank Him, Doug. You are on the right track, pal.
Doug: Thank you.
Bob: You are sure welcome, Doug. Bye bye.
Kyle from Monroe, MI
Kyle: I am reading from Galatians 3:20 in the Amplified bible. It is talking about a mediator and yet God is but one person. I hear people saying that God is three in one. How can that be when it says God is only one person?
Galatians 3:20 (AMP)
20 Now the mediator or go-between [in a transaction] is not [needed] for just one party; whereas God is only one [and was the only One giving the promise to Abraham, but the Law was a contract between two, God and Israel; its validity depended on both].
Bob: It does not say God is only one person. God is not a person. God is God and God is Spirit and you must worship Him in Spirit and in truth. Our problem is with our puny mind. We try to put flesh and blood on Him and try to understand Him. He is Trinity.
John 4:24
24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.
Kyle: I thought He was flesh and blood.
Bob: No. God is not flesh and blood. God is Spirit. You must worship Him in Spirit and in truth.
Kyle: Does He have two natures now?
Bob: No. We do not know whether He has a nature or not. It is not our business to try to figure out the character of God. He was revealed to us in the person of Christ Jesus.
John 1:18
No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known.
Kyle: God manifested in the flesh, right?
Bob: What is your question, Kyle? Go ahead.
Kyle: How can there be a Trinity?
Bob: Because the bible says there is a trinity. It says to baptize people in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
Matthew 28:19
19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit
Kyle: That does not say there is a Trinity, because all those three names all apply to Jesus.
Bob: No, it does not.
Kyle: Isaiah 9:6, that is His name.
Isaiah 9:6
For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace
Bob: No. No. Listen. Remember where it talks in scripture about the end times, that all things will be turned over to Jesus, except God who is over all things.
1 Corinthians 15:24-28
24 Then the end will come, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father after he has destroyed all dominion, authority and power. 25 For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. 26 The last enemy to be destroyed is death. 27 For he “has put everything under his feet.”[Psalm 8:6] Now when it says that “everything” has been put under him, it is clear that this does not include God himself, who put everything under Christ. 28 When he has done this, then the Son himself will be made subject to him who put everything under him, so that God may be all in all.
Kyle: Are you saying He is not God, right?
Bob: Kyle, quit being a wise guy and putting things in people’s mouths. Just because you believe a doctrine that does not make sense and is totally contrary to scripture, you have become belligerent. In scripture it says Jesus is God. In scripture it says the Father is God. And it also says there is one God. You are trying to put 1 + 1 + 1= 3. That is Spirit. You cannot put flesh and blood on Spirit. You are denying God as Spirit.
1 Corinthians 8:6
6 yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom all things came and for whom we live; and there is but one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things came and through whom we live.
Romans 4:24
24 but also for us, to whom God will credit righteousness – for us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead.
Bob: So who is He? He is Spirit. Quit trying to put flesh and blood on Him. It says very clearly in scripture that Jesus is God, that the Holy Spirit is God and God is the Father.
Kyle: So did not God become manifest?
Bob: Only in the Son. It is like an egg, Kyle. Egg is made up of white, yoke and shell. All examples fall somewhat short, but if you had an egg in the attic and you wanted to save people in the kitchen, and they decided to put yoke to save mankind, would there be any less egg in the house? That is an egg that came down and put on flesh.
Kyle: Can I read a verse?
Bob: Anyone who denies the Trinity will lose his soul. So I am not interested in that. I am not reading and I do not take the Trinity out of the Quran.
Kyle: Listen to this verse. 1 Timothy 6:15-16. He is the only sovereign ruler, king of kings and Lord of lords. He alone has mortality.
1 Timothy 6:15-16
15 which God will bring about in his own time – God, the blessed and only Ruler, the King of kings and Lord of lords, 16 who alone is immortal and who lives in unapproachable light, whom no one has seen or can see. To him be honor and might forever. Amen.
Bob: No, you are messed up. When he is talking about Jesus, you cannot say Jesus is separate from God. Jesus is God. So is God. Kyle, arguing against the Trinity is nonsense and what you are doing is unbiblical and quite dangerous. This should not be something that people should be arguing over. In other words, dividing the body when Jesus declared Himself God. Who was Jesus talking to in the garden of Gethsemane. He says, “I do not do anything unless the Father tells me to do it.” Would that put him in a position of submission to the Father? “I do not say anything unless the Father tells me to say it and how to say it. So as the Father sent me, so I send you.” He was not sitting there talking to himself, Kyle. He is talking from the fact that he was talking to His Father. Let me read something else to you.
Kyle: You already told me He is not the Father.
Bob: Of course not. That is why He is the Son. That is why He is identified as the Holy Spirit of God. You have got the shell of an egg, white of an egg, and you have the yoke of an egg. And you have not got a new egg. I do not know why that is so difficult to understand. Let me read something to you.
Bob: This is talking about Christ raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those falling asleep.
1 Corinthians 15:20-23
20 But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. 21 For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. 22 For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. 23 But each in turn: Christ, the firstfruits; then, when he comes, those who belong to him.
Bob: Resurrection comes through man.
1 Corinthians 15:24-28
24 Then the end will come, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father after he has destroyed all dominion, authority and power. 25 For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. 26 The last enemy to be destroyed is death. 27 For he “has put everything under his feet.”[Psalm 8:6] Now when it says that “everything” has been put under him, it is clear that this does not include God himself, who put everything under Christ. 28 When he has done this, then the Son himself will be made subject to him who put everything under him, so that God may be all in all.
Bob: Now, how can you sit there and say that when Jesus is going to put back under the feet of God so God will be all in all. Right now, God the Son is down here on earth with the final authority of God to be the creator of all things, to be responsible for all things, and when all his work is done, he will go back and God will become who God is.
Kyle: Do you believe Jesus is almighty God?
Bob: Of course He is. But that does not mean He is anything except God.
Kyle: Well, he is the first and the last, the almighty God.
Bob: There is no sense talking to anybody who cannot think logically. So we have to move on brother.
Sergio from El Paso, TX
Sergio: I just have one simple question. Being part of a church organization. What seems to be very common is the blowing of the Ram’s horn, the Shofar. I know it is a Jewish instrument. I know it is mentioned in Exodus, when God comes down from the mountain. Also, in the book of Revelation. Why does it seem to be used more often now? How biblical is it? I notice there are certain tools they use to explain certain things. Is this something that should be used? Or just set aside and used for some special occasion?
Bob: It is not something holy. It is a lamb’s horn. It was a call to worship for Jewish believers. We do not need someone to blow a horn to call us to worship God. As a matter fact, if we did we would have to be calling it every moment of the day. For in the New Testament we live in today, not in the Old Testament for the Jews, Jesus tells about this time that we are in that was going to come in their day.
John 4:19-24
19 “Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet. 20 Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.”21 “Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22 You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. 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. 24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”
Bob: We are not Jews unless you are a Jew. We are Gentiles. We were never given the law. The law was never given to us. The law was given to the Jews only.
Romans 2:12
12 All [Gentiles] who sin apart from the law will also perish apart from the law, and all [Jews] who sin under the law will be judged by the law.
Bob: Gentiles who did not have the law, if they used it properly, they were not in better shape than the Jews who did have them. So these were just traditions of a Jewish nation. The Shofar, a lamb’s horn, is not a Jewish instrument. It is a lamb’s instrument. They used it. They did not have trumpets and bugles back in those days. So they used what they could. It was merely a tradition of Jewish people back in those days. People use it today. They can use anything they want to. Many times people who use it think they are very spiritual by doing so. But that is ludicrous.
Bob: What worship is today is given to us in scripture.
Romans 12:1
1 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.
Bob: Make your body available as a living sacrifice. That is your reasonable act of worship.
Bob: Back then worship was far different. It was something you came to a place to do. Today, it is something you do every day. True biblical New Testament worship is making your body available to the living God to live His life in and through you. That is my reasonable act of worship.
Bob: We have something called worship service. We are coming in to worship God. What a shame to think the only time you can worship God is only one day a week. Anybody can do that. You do not have to be saved to sing spiritual songs, get spiritual goose bumps and go through all the different things some people do. You do not have to be saved to do that. But you have to be saved to make your body available to Christ Jesus to live His life in you. If He does not live in you, you cannot make your body available to Him. That is what God calls a spiritual act of worship.
Bob: Everything, Sergio, in the Old Testament was exterior. The law was all exterior. The New Testament came for the interior.
1 Samuel 16:7
7 But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”
Bob: Man looks on the outside but God looks on the inside.
Sergio: Okay. Just another instrument like anything else?
Bob: Just like anything else. Nothing sacred about it at all.
Sergio: Okay. Thank you, sir. Thank you for your time.
Bob: You are sure welcome, my friend.
Ray from Phoenix, AZ
Ray: Your ministry has really been a blessing to me in my life as a Christian. I am very disappointed. I have been finding you on the radio. But I thank God for finding you on the internet.
Bob: I am too. I am very grateful for that technology.
Ray: My question is about the baptism that Jesus was speaking about in what they call the great commission. Was He telling the apostles to baptize with water? Was He talking about water or was He talking about some form of identification? What is He talking about there exactly?
Bob: Ray, again in context, Jesus had stated and so did John the Baptist.
Luke 3:16
16 John answered them all, “I baptize you with water. But one who is more powerful than I will come, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.
Or in other words, with fire means with judgment. That is the baptism that saves us. No physical waters saved anybody. When you and I are identified with the Triune God, and that was His commission, to go into the world and make disciples, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. In other words, identifying them with the Triune God.
Matthew 28:19-20
19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
Bob: Now today, you have people denying that. The last words Jesus said was to go and identify people with the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Yet people say, “No, it is Jesus only”. So, the issue is that of the Trinity. Until Christ came, we did not know who the Trinity was. We had no definition of the Trinity until Christ came to explain that God is made up of Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
John 4:24
24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”
Bob: There is no way for us to know what Spirit looks like and yet we try to put flesh and blood on Spirit, and then say “I cannot understand it”. We cannot understand Spirit. That is why we cannot understand Trinity because you have no ability to understand Spirit. God did not give us that ability. I can apprehend it even though I cannot necessarily comprehend it.
Bob: That was to identify people with the Triune God. If you were to ask a Jew back in those days, “Who is God? Who do you worship?” They would say “I worship the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob”. Today, through that identification, their answer should be “I worship God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit”.
Ray: Thank you. Sounds like I got it right, then. I really appreciate it. I cannot say enough how much you have blessed me with your ministry. Keep up the good work. God is really working through you. I really appreciate all that you do.
Bob: Well, thank you, my brother. We appreciate you as well.
Ray: God bless you. Thank you very much.
Bob: Thank you, my friend. Bye bye.
Ray: Bye bye.
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