Call-In Classic Christianity Radio – Bob George P633 (05-13-21)
Synopsis
It can be difficult to sort out truth from error. It is sort of like brainwashing. The more often you have heard something repeated, so often that you believed it to be true, it seems so much harder to be convinced that you were deceived. That is so true today in the world we live in with lockdowns, mask mandates and vaccine passports. But it is also true in the religious world where people hold onto false concepts such as election and tithing for today. Indeed there is a correlation or overlap between the religious and secular worlds. Those who are deceived in the things of this world tend also to be the same ones deceived in regard to the spiritual realm as well. For the spiritual realm has practical implications. But Jesus also warned us in his word to let no man deceive you, and that in the last days, even the elect would be deceived if that were possible.
When someone is born again, and would simply turn to God’s word, allowing the Spirit of God living in Him, to reveal truth to him, so much faulty understanding can be cleared up. Listen as Bob George encourages a listener to read the book of Ephesians, and see how clearly the bible explains election as referring to the Jew and the Gentile, and not the you’s and the me’s. How can anyone believe in a God who chooses somebody for hell because he does not like him? They do not know what salvation and are so egotistical to spin or twist the scriptures to mean something contrary to who God is and what he has accomplished for all mankind.
A most fundamental concept that has to be explained is what salvation is. So many people have heard it taught that salvation is getting your sins forgiven. How many of you have heard a pastor say to come forward to get your sins forgiven? That is not what the bible teaches. It is not only incomplete but inaccurate. Jesus already died for the sins of the entire world, and he will not shed his blood on a cross again, without which there is no forgiveness of sins.
Salvation is receiving new life, and God already forgave the sins of the entire world before you and I were ever born. But until we repent of the one sin of unbelief in Jesus, we are not saved. The only sin ever attributable to man, since Jesus shed his blood on a cross over 2000 years ago, is not believing in what Jesus accomplished for you by His death, burial and resurrection. The cross was preparation for life to be given, for until sins are taken away from the eyes of God, never to be seen again, life cannot be offered to mankind. The resurrection is where life is received. So many people stop at the cross and fail to go on to the resurrection. As the apostle Paul said, if Christ was not raised then we cannot be raised either, and are still dead in our sins. We must be raised to new life in Him. You must receive what Jesus came to offer, His life, eternal life, the Holy Spirit of God to be placed in you, at a new spiritual birth, so that you may become a child of God.
Listen as Bob also explains to a very recent believer of how tithing is not in the New Covenant we are under today and how we are under New Covenant giving today, giving generously, not under compulsion, not out of what you do not have, but what you do have, and cheerfully as God leads you to give. Do not give to a legalist pastor or church.
Bob also encouraged him with truth to renew his mind. He had been living with a girlfriend when he was lost, and is now coming to understand how that is not proper thinking in accordance with who he is as a child of god now. So Bob gently guides him to make right choices, now that he has proper understanding on these matters of being unequally yoked with an unbeliever, and attitudes of genuine love that he has come to know now. In essence, he is unequally yoked with her, and it is not love to continue in that relationship.
Oftentimes people will quote from reformers or what various denominations have to say on a matter, but that is not where truth is found. Reformers may or may not be telling you correct information or doctrine. How would you know? Same thing with denominations. Denominations, in essence, are so focused on what you do rather than what God has done, so the emphasis is misplaced. We, Pentecostals, we praise with our hands lifted high, and we, Baptists do not, and all kinds of eternal things. Therefore, people can so easily get caught up in all manner of erroneous teaching, such as speaking in tongues or receiving a second baptism of the Spirit, as examples.
To know truth, you are better off just going to a home bible study, and studying what the word of God has to say on a matter, while allowing the Holy Spirit to teach you. So listen as Bob George speaks with a caller on this subject. Do not be focused on getting someone to church, but encouraging someone to be studying the word of God, such as can occur in a home bible study.
Transcript
Raymond from Belmont, CA
Raymond: It has been bothering me a lot about the topic on election lately. People are saying that certain people are elected.
Bob: Raymond, just tell somebody to read the book of Ephesians for a change, to gain understanding, asking God to reveal truth to them on that. Predestination and election has only to do with Jew and Gentile. The book of Ephesians is very clear on that subject.
Raymond: That is what I see when I read it. Then the Southern Baptists, that election is someone who is under eternal life by the mere mercy in Christ. In consequence thereof they are justified and glorified. What is that saying?
Bob: I do not know. I do not want to read those kinds of things. What I want to read is the scripture. Ephesians talks about Jew and Gentile. God had elected and predestined that the Gentiles would come to Christ identically the same way as the Jew would, and that is by faith in Jesus Christ. In order to do that, that was called a mystery.
Ephesians 1:11-13
11 In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will, 12 in order that we, who were the first to put our hope in Christ, [the Jew] might be for the praise of his glory. 13 And you also, [the Gentile] were included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation. When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit
Bob: All you have to do is read that. It is talking about the Jew and the Gentile. What took place there, Raymond? To me, almost heretical that heresy comes from the pseudo-intellectual and people with wealth that grab a hold of that. It is like an ego trip, that I am one of the frozen chosen.
Raymond: They also say the reformers declared, all of them, …
Bob: The reformers believed you were saved by getting your sins forgiven. That is where the error came in. If you were saved by getting your sins forgiven and God was in Christ, reconciling the entire world unto himself, not counting their sins against them, that would be universal salvation, wouldn’t it?
2 Corinthians 5:19
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.
Raymond: Yes.
Bob: If you are saved by getting your sins forgiven, and that is your theology, and God was in Christ reconciling the whole world unto himself, not counting their sins against them, that is universal salvation. So they sat back and said that cannot be, that all people are saved, and I agree with them. What are we going to do about that? Where is their mistake? Believing you are saved by getting sins forgiven.
Raymond: By the life of Christ, right?
Bob: Yes. Instead of the life of Christ, if you are saved by the death of Christ, then you have to spin things. They have to spin what the world means. They say that when God so loved the world that does not mean the world. You have to spin the whole theology and come up with every hair-brained idea under the sun, in order to try to spin your false premise that you are saved by getting your sins forgiven. If they had just gone on and read the scripture.
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!
Bob: You are not saved by the death of Christ. You are saved by the life of Christ. You are saved from the consequence of sin, which is death, by the gift of God, which is eternal life, that can only be produced through the resurrection of Christ. The early apostles died for teaching resurrection, not the cross. Anyone could have seen Jesus die on a cross. They were crucified for teaching the resurrection. That is where they went off. Today you still have people saying to come forward to get sins forgiven instead of coming forward to get life in Christ Jesus.
Bob: That is where they are off and still off today. That is an idiotic theology, to think you have a God who will doom somebody because he does not like someone. That is a God I do not even want to think about, let alone worship. I heard from a guy I knew who grew up in a Baptist church I went to. He is now a Baptist pastor teaching that God is a sovereign God and is in control of everything. He made the holocaust and the psunami. He made all those things. The evil of the world, he says, God was responsible for. You have got a strange God.
Bob: When you get into a predestination conversation, take a person into Ephesians, and tell them to read it with that in mind, of Jews and Gentiles, not you’s and me’s. We had great success in helping people come to truth on that.
Raymond: One of my evangelist friends. It is weird when he teaches it. When I ask him if he is a Calvinist, he says, “No, but I do not see free will in the bible.” I think, “If no free will in the bible, then how could Adam and Eve have fallen? When Abraham went to sleep with that other woman too, God did not cause that. If that is not free will, what is?”
Bob: If someone thinks there is no free will, that is about as stupid thinking as a human being can get into. Okay, brother?
Raymond: I appreciate your help. Yes, that is what I told his wife, Jew and Gentile, no barrier between them, not you’s and me’s.
Bob: Yes, into one body, called the body of Christ. You keep at it Raymond. Keep growing in grace, my brother.
Mark from Pittsburg, PA
Mark: I just started going to church, and just recently saved. I have been living with this woman. The pastor is saying I am not equally yoked with this woman. So I started tithing my money to the church, and now we are having a problem with the tithing. The relationship is starting to be strained. It is to the point now that she is kicking me out of the house, and telling me that I have to leave. I wanted to know, as a Christian, now that I am saved, how would it be my financial ties to this woman? I am not married to her. Obligation is to being a Christian, what would my financial ties to her be?
Bob: Your obligation as a Christian, you are not to take the initiative to keep in a relationship that is contrary to the will of God any more. I know how people that are lost think. I know what their thinking is on that. But once you come to know Christ Jesus, and Christ Jesus takes residence in your life, you get your mind changed on things. The issue is, if I love this woman enough, to be living with her, and having sex with her outside marriage, then why would I not just want to marry her? If you do not want to marry her, you should not be living with her. If you love her, and the case is, you do not want to get rid of her, and she does not want to get rid of you, then make this a relationship that is honorable to God. You have no financial obligation to her at all.
2 Corinthians 9:7
7 Each one must do just as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.
Bob: As far as tithing is concerned, that is not in the New Testament, Mark. Tithing is not the way of giving in the New Testament. Pastors teach that in order to get their building projects taken care of. I am a pastor. I have a church. I have financial obligations as well. But I would just assume I would sit in my living room and set a flame to teaching of tithing to somebody, because it is not biblical and not New Testament. New Testament giving is to give joyfully, to give freely and to grow in grace of giving and not in law of tithing. That will not do anything for you.
Bob: You are taught that if you tithe God will bless you. That is a lie. You are already blessed. So get into teaching that teaches the grace of God. I would not give a dime to a legalistic church. I would not give a dime to somebody who is teaching contrary to what the New Covenant is, as explained in the bible we hold. It is not how much. It is to whom. What people need to be spending more time is taking a look at where their teaching is, that is teaching truth as it is recorded in the word of God instead of teaching denominational biases and things that are not there. That is where I would give my money and that is where I would give my life. I would give my life to teaching grace, which I have. I would not give a dime to legalism.
2 Corinthians 6:14
14 Do not be mismatched with unbelievers; for what do righteousness and lawlessness share together, or what does light have in common with darkness?
Bob: As far as your girlfriend is concerned, Mark, if she is not a Christian, and you are, then you are unequally yoked. So you have to realize you are a new Christian, aren’t you? The issue is, now can you talk with her on that level? And I, quite frankly, Mark, think that she would respect you as you are now declaring yourself as a child of God. You look at that as a gamble. That is not a gamble at all. I think she would respect you above all things if you said to her, “I am a child of God now. I love you, but we are not going to continue this relationship anymore. You do not have to kick me out. I am moving out because I respect you too much to keep you in this situation. I know there is no way for you to be happy in this situation. And now, as a believer, I am not happy in this situation either. So we will break this off, unless we decide to get married. Either get married or break up.” I think she would respect you if you were to do that.
Mark: Her family is Catholic. I went to a Pentecostal church. They do a lot of praise and worshipping. I really like that. I am trying to get her to go to this church. You feel so good when you go to church. You can feel God moving in this church. Her family really does not practice Catholic religion, but she is so stuck on this Catholic religion. I said to her that she doesn’t even go to the Catholic church.
Bob: Mark, I would stay away from the church idea altogether. I would find some people in a home bible study where you are not bogged up with a denomination of any kind. You are in a home bible study, and we could help you. There are people in the Pittsburgh area that we can get you in contact with, and get you in a neutral setting, which is not Catholic, and not Protestant. Honey, you do not have any objection to studying the bible, do you? You do not have any objection to studying about Jesus, do you? So let us go to this bible study and see what the bible says, not what denominations say, but what the bible says. You ground yourself in a good bible study, and I guarantee you she will come to know the Lord.
1 Peter 2:2-3
2 Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, 3 now that you have tasted that the Lord is good.
Romans 12:2
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.
Hebrews 4:12
12 For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.
Bob: The average Catholic I know, even though not practicing, they have a heart for God. They know Jesus is God. You do not have to argue virgin birth with them, but they have been incorrectly taught. You get in a study, where not here to study Protestantism or Catholicism. We are here to study the word of God, and if her heart is open, she will be responsive to that.
1 Corinthians 2:9-10
9 However, as it is written:“What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived”[Isaiah 64:4] – the things God has prepared for those who love him –
10 these are the things God has revealed to us by his Spirit.
Bob: We will put you on hold and let our operator look up some names in the Pittsburgh area there. Is that where you live, in Pittsburgh?
Mark: Yes.
Bob: So we will get you in touch with someone who has a bible study going. Maybe you can make contacts and grow in grace together.
Mark: Thank you. I really appreciate that.
Darryl from Sacramento, CA
Darryl: I read through your books, Classic Christianity and Growing in Grace. I just finished Faith that Pleases God.
Bob: That is a good slug of information in those three books. I hope it has been beneficial to you.
Darryl: The topic on forgiveness, I really like that. My question is this. Why did God send Satan to the earth instead of straight to hell?
Bob: We do not know the answer to that. He cast Satan out of heaven and a third of the angels with him. This is where he was sent. Whether he was sent because the ultimate plan of redemption is where this had to be taken care of. We do not know what was in the mind of God in those types of decisions, Darryl. We just know that is what he did. When he was here, obviously he came to mess up God’s kingdom, which he certainly did in many respects. You take a look at this world, Darryl, I think so many times when I go down to Florida and I see the beauty of the sky and the ocean, the palm trees and all the things I like very much. The same things when going to the mountains, the Yosemite where you are, in those areas, and you see the magnificence of God’s creation, then you start looking at people. Then God’s ultimate creation was mankind, and because of Satanic activity, what has happened to it? Even nature has been messed up because of Adam’s sin. Animals die and fight each other for food. All of the things you see going on in the world today ultimately came from the fall of man.
Genesis 3:17
To Adam he said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat from it,’ “Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat food from it all the days of your life.
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
Bob: So, we do not know why God sent him here, but in the midst of sending him here he also sent His son. Why did God send Satan? I have a better question. Why did He send Jesus here? That is more of a mystery to me. Why would one who knew no sin, God Himself, would choose to come to this earth and to allow His own creation to beat him half to death and to hang him on a cross so that we could go free? That is the big question to me, as to why. And that is only the love of God. He reached down to you and me. He saw our condition of you and me as a result of Satan, and said, “I am going to send a solution for them.” That is an act of love, Darryl, that we cannot fully put our arms around. I do not think we can fully comprehend the extent of God’s love to us to cause Him to do that.
2 Corinthians 5:21
21 God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
Darryl: One more question?
Bob: Sure, Darryl.
Bob: In regard to Acts, some people say you should not use the book of Acts for doctrine, but some people use Acts for the teaching of tongues. Should it be used for doctrine because all scripture is useful for teaching, training and correction?
1 Timothy 3:16 (KJV)
16 All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness
Bob: No. All scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for teaching and reproof. Not all scripture is doctrinal. Even the gospels themselves are not doctrinal. So nobody who has ever been a student of the word of God has ever declared the book of Acts to be anything but what it is, an historical account of the early formation of the church basically around two lives, Paul and Peter. There are things said in the book of Acts, and took it as doctrine, you would think somebody is crazy. There are some things said and done in there that we certainly do not take as doctrine. We do not take everything we have and dump them at the feet of the apostles. They did it back then. It certainly was not doctrine. People pull out what they want to pull out. But there are people who are hung up on tongues.
Bob: Paul said, “Why don’t you grow up and quit acting like children?”. Why would you get hung up on what you are doing? I do not care what it is we are doing. I do not care whether it is teaching. I do not care whether it is encouraging. I do not care whether it is helping. Why do you want to get hung up on that. Why is your mind not elevated to what Christ has done? That is what is important. If He did not do what He had done, what good would it be what we do? Instead of keeping our heads focused on what Jesus has done, we get down and grab some little thing we do and place all kinds of importance on it because I am doing it. That is all ego.
Bob: If somebody gets all enamored on teaching, teaching, teaching. If I have a gift of teaching, God gave it to me, so go shut up and teach. Quit bragging about it. Quit talking about it. It just seems like people get hung up on the silliest of things that have no importance to them at all, and get hung up on those things and get other people hung up on those same things. There is no other way of salvation except by faith through Christ Jesus, His death, burial and resurrection. It is not plus tongues. It is not plus baptism. It is not plus church membership. What do we talk about? Church, church church. If you do not know the Lord, that is all you can talk about, is what I am doing.
Ephesians 2:8-9
8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – 9 not by works, so that no one can boast.
Bob: Every denomination, Darryl, every dispute in Christianity today is over what am I doing. What is the difference between a Catholic and a Protestant? The Catholic does this and a Protestant does this. What is the difference between an Episcopal church and the Methodist church? The Episcopals do this. We do this. What is the difference between the Church of Christ and the Baptist? The Church of Christ says you have to be baptized to be saved and they do not have music in church. And they do not dance but the other people do. Everything that is under dispute is what we are doing. What is wrong with you people? Get your eyes off yourself in what you are doing and get it on Him and what He has accomplished. I do not sit around praising God over what I am doing. I am going to be praising God over what He is doing. All of those kinds of things that are pointing just to us, to what we are doing, gloss over. They have no meaning to them at all.
Galatians 5:6
6 The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.
Bob: The only thing that counts is faith in Him, in what He is doing, and let what He is doing touch your heart so it expresses itself through love. That is all that matters. Keep your eyes on that, pal, and you will grow in grace.
Darryl: Love you, Bob.
Bob: Love you too, Darryl. God bless you, my friend. Bye. Bye.
Gary from Santa Moneca, CA
Gary: Bob, thank you so much for the wonderful work you and your ministry do. My wife and I are long time supporters. Over the weekend my wife and I were discussing something basic and something you answered thousands of times, but I could not get my head around it. It is about the cross and the empty tomb, the resurrection. I was thinking of the passage, the soul that sins will die. The penalty of sin is death. If Christ pays the price for sin, which is death, then the only thing left is life. Is that the idea?
Bob: Gary, we are born into this world in a condition of spiritual death. We are not born alive spiritually. We are born dead spiritually.
Gary: Right.
Bob: The only man who was ever born alive spiritually was Jesus. Adam was created alive and chose death. And Jesus was born alive and also chose death, but his death was for us. We are born from mom and dad, dead spiritually and in need of spiritual life.
Gary: Okay. So then at the cross, since Christ came to earth. At all times before the cross, during his lifetime and after the cross, then when he died on a cross then he converted that death into life?
Bob: No.
Gary: That is where I was off.
Bob: Yes. His death has paid the price for sin. He became a living sacrifice, not an animal sacrifice, but a human sacrifice that was God Himself, who paid the penalty for your sins and my sins at the cross. Then he was raised from the dead to solve the problem of the wages of sin being death by his resurrected life. That is what salvation is, the resurrected life.
Gary: In other words, if we die without Christ, then we die simply because, even though Christ paid the penalty of sin, we are still dead. So do we go to hell then?
Bob: Absolutely. You go to hell because you have chosen to. God does not condemn anyone to hell. We condemn ourselves.
Gary: The question is if Christ dies and pays the penalty for sin, then what sends us to hell?
Bob: The rejection of Jesus. There is only one sin attributable to man, Jesus said, and that is the rejection of Himself.
John 16:9 (TLB)
9 The world’s sin is unbelief in me.
Bob: The sins of the world were all placed on Christ and He died in our place. The one sin remaining, and the only sin, is the rejection of the one who did that.
Gary: That is not the unpardonable sin is it? That is a different sin, isn’t it?
Bob: It is the unpardonable sin.
Gary: Oh, okay. I see. So people who do not come to Christ in this lifetime and in times past, are lost because they committed the unpardonable sin. They rejected Christ. I never understood that before. Interesting.
Bob: The only sin that could not be pardoned. You have to repent of that.
Gary: Got it.
Bob: That is the only sin. The only question God will ever ask on this earth is what have you done with my Son?
Gary: Do you see how I was confused about that?
Bob: If you are confused then there are many people who have gone through the same thing. The emphasis in our churches has always been on the cross, salvation through getting your sins forgiven.
Gary: Yes. Thank you so much for this. You shine on that. Thank you again.
Bob: You are sure welcome, Gary. God bless you, my friend.
Order from our online store: Bible Studies, Books, Witnessing Tracts, Audio Cds, DVDs and More.
Purchase and download Bible Studies, the Closer Look Series & more.
</h4