Call-In Classic Christianity Radio – Bob George P637 (05-27-21)
Synopsis
Many believers think the rapture will happen very soon. In 1 Thessalonians 4, Paul instructs the believers to encourage one another with these things, that one day we will meet the Lord in the air. The Holy Spirit is deposited in us as a guarantee for the redemption of our bodies. Those who are older, or those born with a crippled body, definitely know what their failing body is like and certainly long for a new one. One day we will be absent from the body and present with the Lord. We will be given a new glorified body that is not like our current, for we are told that flesh and blood will not inherit the kingdom of God. And as we think about Jesus’ resurrected body, that could walk through walls, we are told we will have a body like His.
We do not know how God will make us a glorified body but we know He will. Much about the end times is difficult to understand but we can read the scriptures and allow God to encourage our hearts. Jesus even tells us to read Revelation and take to heart what is written in there and that there will be a special blessing for us for doing so. Remember, He says He will never leave us or forsake us, and that nothing can separate you from His love, from God Himself, and we know what has been written in 1 Thessalonians 4:16-18, about that one special day where those who are still alive we will be caught up to meet the Lord in the air with those saints who have gone before us, who will be already there with the Lord to meet us in the clouds. What a glorious day that will be.
We are also told in Ephesians to speak to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit. Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. We have so much to be grateful for. So whatever struggles you are going through down here, remember they are light and momentary.
2 Corinthians 4:16-18
16 Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. 17 For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. 18 So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.
Transcript
Barbara from Madeira, CA
Barbara: I know you do not remember me, but I came to a conference. I brought pomegranates to you and Amy.
Bob: That I remember. Amy never forgets anyone who brings her pomegranates.
Barbara: Bob, I have a comment. Tell me if I am not right. You had spoken about being absent from the body and present with the Lord. You also said something about getting your glorified body at the time you go to be with the Lord. I believe that too. But I was teaching this lesson, reading out of Mark about the mount of transfiguration. Jesus was transformed and Elijah and Moses were there. They recognized them and they had their bodies. That to me is proof you keep your bodies.
Mark 9:2-4
2 After six days Jesus took Peter, James and John with him and led them up a high mountain, where they were all alone. There he was transfigured before them. 3 His clothes became dazzling white, whiter than anyone in the world could bleach them. 4 And there appeared before them Elijah and Moses, who were talking with Jesus.
Bob: That is true to me as well. People talk about going to soul sleep, but how could that be at the transfiguration? How can it be that Jesus was crucified and people walked out of their graves and walked around.
Barbara: Yes.
Philippians 3:20-21
20 But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, 21 who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.
Bob: This passage we read that enabled him to bring everything under his control will transform our lowly bodies so it will become like his glorious body.
Barbara: Exactly.
Bob: To me, Barbara, when Jesus said to us that He will never leave us or forsake us and Paul said that he is convinced that nothing can separate you from the love of God, you cannot separate the love of God from the person of God.
Hebrews 13:5
because God has said, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.”
Romans 8:34-39
Christ Jesus who died – more than that, who was raised to life – is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 36 As it is written:“For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”[Psalm 44:22]
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: If nothing can separate you from the love of God or from God, and I will be with you forever, and the moment that you become a child of God, Jesus comes to take up residence in your life to live with you eternally, how can you be separated from Him? Jesus does not go to sleep when you die. How can you be separated from Him? You cannot.
Bob: In as much as I have been made complete, how much sense would it be that I would be complete here in my physical state but when I die, I am incomplete in my spiritual state? That makes no sense. Then He says He will transform my lowly body to be like His glorious body. Where is my Spirit going to be without a body? So, I truly believe at the very moment of death, we do not lose our completeness. We gain our completeness. We finally obtain what God has already predestined for us, and that is the glorified body that He is going to transform into a body that is like His glorious body. That happens because I do not believe I remain, if I live 2000 years ago, that I have life 2000 years incomplete. Yet 2000 years before I died I was complete. That makes no sense to me at all.
Barbara: That does not make sense to me either.
Bob: I think God escorts us into the presence of God when we die. When you die, there are numerous stories, not that you rely upon those, but there are numerous stories of people who die that they get a glow on their face, a smile on their face as they see the Lord who is coming to escort them into the presence of God.
(Recall what Stephen saw when he was being stoned for his testimony of Christ.)
Acts 7:54-58
54 When the members of the Sanhedrin heard this, they were furious and gnashed their teeth at him. 55 But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked up to heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. 56 “Look,” he said, “I see heaven open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.”57 At this they covered their ears and, yelling at the top of their voices, they all rushed at him, 58 dragged him out of the city and began to stone him. Meanwhile, the witnesses laid their coats at the feet of a young man named Saul.
Bob: I think that is going to happen to us.
Barbara: I think so too. Thank you so much. I teach that in my class. Sometimes people look at me like I am crazy. One verse that comes down is the one in Thessalonaians, about the first to rise.
1 Thessalonians 4:13-18
13 Brothers and sisters, we do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death, so that you do not grieve like the rest of mankind, who have no hope. 14 For we believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him. 15 According to the Lord’s word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. 16 For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. 18 Therefore encourage one another with these words.
Bob: Instead of looking at that in the context in which it was written, that the Thessalonians were asking a question, about the rapture that is going to occur some day, that we who are left here on this earth are going to meet the Lord in the air but what about people who have died? They are the first to go. They are already there. Then those who remain and are left, if rapture happened in a split second, how can you be left?
Barbara: That is what I explain to them and sometimes they look at me like I am nuts.
Bob: Again, we will all find out whether that is true or not some day, and I will not split the body over that type of thing, but I believe there is a lot of funny teaching around in regard to that. People teaching soul sleep sounds like ridiculous theology. Those are people that if this night the resurrection is going to take place and are looking more forward to a resurrection in the future than about being absent from the body and present with the Lord. That does not mean present in 19,000 years from now. How can you say present if it did not mean when in a minute absent from the body you are present with the Lord. To me, I am excited about that prospect.
Barbara: Me too, Bob
Bob: I would be glad to leave mine in the grave.
Barbara: Me too, Bob. Thank you.
Bob: It is good to hear from you.
Barbara: You too. You all take care.
Bob: Okay. Bye. Bye now.
Brendan from Rockville, MD
Brendan: I looked over Victory over Depression and Faith that Pleases God, and I saw in your prolog about the days before you knew the Lord and your involvement in the recording industry. I bring that up because I see a lot of things in Christian music that are not really teaching the true gospel, in a lot of the music. What is your opinion of that? When did that really change? Look at some of the old hymns, and they really taught the truth of the gospel. Yet what is on the radio, and called Christian music, is foolishness.
Bob: I agree. I could not agree more. I think what people have done is we have got five chords on a guitar and that is called a musician. All songs to me are very light. There is not much depth to it. Compare songs today to a Mighty Fortress is Our God and Great is Thy Faithfulness. Compared to those there is no comparison.
Bob: I have not analyzed it that much, and the songs I hear, and I try not to hear too many of them, but they are all pointed to me. Songs like, I am here to worship. I am here. “I am doing this.” “I am doing that.” The old time songs all pointed to the magnitude of Jesus. I think that is the difference in music today, one points to Jesus and the other points to me. “How sad I am but how faithful you are.” “Even though I am in the bottom of the dumps, I am going to look up.” It is all of that kind of stuff instead of just looking at the marvel of Christ Jesus and praising Him for it. I agree with you.
Ephesians 5:18-20
18 Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit, 19 speaking to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit. Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord, 20 always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Brendan: I am involved in music ministry at my church. I write songs, and I try to write poetry too. I try to focus on a lot of things you talk about, Christ is all, the finality of the cross. My mind is boggled when I listen to a lot of stuff. I agree with what you said. We just have to be wary I guess. The times are dangerous.
Bob: A lot of that started back even before my day. I did not come to Christ until 1969, but it was starting prior to that but not so heavy as it is today. The music business was changing. It has just continually regressed. I think what has happened is, and I do not mean to be disrespectful to people, but people have learned how to play six chords on a guitar and they think they are musicians. In the old days, you had true musicians. You had people who sang instead of screamed. You had musicians that knew how to truly play instruments of all kinds. It just got watered down, in my opinion. Again, that is my opinion.
Brendan: Thanks for sharing. I agree with what you said. We got to look at what is being said and just be careful and guard our hearts.
Proverbs 4:23
23 Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.
Bob: Yes. I agree. On the other hand, there are some good songs that have been produced. There are some wonderful songs that have been produced later on. Shout to the Lord is one that comes to my mind. Those are phenomenal songs. Again, what is the emphasis on? Shout to the Lord. There are some songs but the majority on radio today you have to plow through a whole lot to find a good one, in my opinion.
Brendan: Thank you for your perspective. God bless you and enjoy your ministry.
Bob: You too, Brendon. God bless you, my friend.
Darlene from Phoenix, AZ
Darlene: I am a registered nurse and I am on lunch break right now. I read my bible every chance I get. I try to encourage grandchildren to read. I decided I wanted to go and read. Someone asked if I ever read cover to cover. I have never done that. So I started at the beginning. I am reading where they made the tabernacle for God. I keep going over it and I keep finding places in the bible about animal sacrifices. Why? It is pleasing to God to do this? It breaks my heart because I am such an animal lover. I have six dogs at home. I love them dearly. Going over this, why is it pleasing to God to sacrifice animals?
Hebrews 9:22
22 In fact, the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.
Bob: Without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sin. In other words, sins had to be paid for. There is only one human sacrifice and that was Christ Jesus, not an animal sacrifice, but a human sacrifice that ended all other sacrifices. Prior to that time, the blood of bulls and goats, but not dogs, so you are on safe ground there. The blood of bulls and goats covered sin because sin had to be paid for. There had to be a sacrifice for sin. The wages of sin is death. Someone had to take that until Jesus came to take it for us. There were animal sacrifices. But the blood of an animal cannot take away the sins of a man. Only a man can do that.
Hebrews 10:10-12
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
Darlene: Our Jesus did.
Bob: Yes, our Jesus did.
Darlene: That is another thing that really tears my heart apart. Every time I think about it, I cry about how cruel we were to Jesus.
Bob: I know.
Bob: It just shows what man is capable of, Darlene.
Darlene: It is just awful. I am not too proud of that at all. Well, that helped a little bit. I thank you for that. It concerned me. If God is so kind and caring, why is it pleasing to Him?
Bob: It is better than us having to sacrifice. We have to go off the air, and I appreciate your call and you call again.
Darlene: Okay. Thank you.
Justin from Vancouver, British Columbia
Justin: I am not calling to point fingers at different denominations but I just wanted your opinion on this Seventh Day Adventist, and how they have church on Saturday to keep the Sabbath. I understand that the Sabbath will always be holy as it says in the scripture. But they keep the Sabbath so I hear. What is your understanding?
Colossians 2:16-17
16 Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day. 17 These [including the Sabbath day ] are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ.
Bob: So the Sabbath day in the Old Testament was a day of the week. The Sabbath rest for us is every day of the week. Would you not hate to think, Justin, that the only time you worshipped God was on Saturday or Sunday? When you leave on Saturday or Sunday, you say bye Bill, bye Bob, bye God and go then. That is ridiculous. The Sabbath is no longer a day of the week. It is every day of the week. It is a rest we enter into where we rest from our works just as He did from His.
Hebrews 4:9-11
9 There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; 10 for anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from their works, just as God did from his. 11 Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will perish by following their example of disobedience.
Bob: It is resting, no longer trying to keep the law because scripture says you cannot. They were under the law. They had regulations on eating and drinking and on religious festivals, on the Sabbath day. Everyone of those are covered in 2 Corinthians.
Bob: So, Justin, it is not a religion that is based upon the truth of the New Testament. Okay, brother?
Justin: Okay.
Bob: Justin, I hope that helps, brother? If you have further questions, write to us. We have a person on our staff who came out of the Seventh Day Adventist and he would be happy to interact with you.
Louis from New Orleans, LA
Louis: Concerning the resurrection, I have this question to ask you. The dead in Christ shall rise first. When I read that, the saved people are going to rise first. But the sinners, they are not going to rise until the Great White judgment throne. The dead in Christ will rise first. That is in reference to sinners? Sinners are not going to rise at that time.
Bob: The dead in Christ are those of us who die in Christ prior to the rapture of the living saints. We will already be with Jesus. If you and I die today and rapture occurs a hundred years from now, the day we die we will be with Jesus as saints, the dead in Christ. Which is what you are saying?
Louis: When I read it, I understand it to say that the dead in Christ will rise first, the Christians. Then those living on earth at that time, will be caught up to meet the dead in Christ in the air.
Bob: That is exactly what we were talking about, the dead in Christ. In other words, how many people died in Christ over these last 2000 years? Thousands of them. Where are they today? In the presence of Jesus. I believe they are in the presence of Jesus with their glorified body. Then at the time the rapture occurs, those that are remaining and still here on earth, according to Thessalonians will go to meet Him and us in the air. We are already there.
Louis: I understand what you are saying, but it seems to me that when they say the dead in Christ, it seems to me He is talking about the dead in Christ.
Bob: That is exactly right.
Louis: The sinners at this time will not rise until the Great White Throne judgment?
Bob: Where are they? They are still in the grave. How can a spirit live in a grave?
Louis: If Christ was first fruit, why are his bones still in the grave?
Bob: You are coming up with passages that occur out of context so you are asking questions no one can answer because of the context. Christ is firstborn among the dead. We are the dead. He was the firstborn among us. Do not take those passages and try to substantiate your thinking of end times. The issue is what you want to think about end times, you can think anything you want to. We will not know until we get there. But from what I see in the scripture, and I know the context of scripture, there are far more scriptures about the resurrection than in Thessalonians. In that particular passage, people have taken that passage and you have a group of people saying you are soul sleeping. That is nonsense. Well, because absent from the body and present with the Lord. People who believe in soul sleep think that is 2000 or more years later. Jesus does not say that. He says where I am you will be with me and I do not think he is sleeping some place.
Bob: So the issue is to the evangelical community. I am absent from the body and present with the Lord and that is my spirit but at the rapture my body will come out and we will all be raptured to Jesus at the same time. The issue to that is this Louis. If the rapture occurs in a split second, why would the bible read that the dead in Christ are first to go and we who are on earth and left behind. I guess the time lapse there, where we will go meet Him in the air. That does not make sense. In answer to the question, to Paul, they asked what about those who already died? They are already there. They are first to die. They are already there. When the rapture occurs, we will meet them in the air.
Louis: Okay. What I was thinking about, when Christ rose, did He have a glorified body?
Bob: We do not know. What we do know is that He did things in His resurrection that He did not do while He was on earth, although He did some unique things, like walking on water. Then after the resurrection, He walked through walls. But we do know that when He was hanging on a cross, He was not recognizable and beaten as no man. He would have been looking like a prize fighter that has been annihilated in the ring and cannot see an inch of His face, swollen out of joint. He would have been in that shape. Plus the agony of the crucifixion. When He came back and when He was spotted, He would have been in a pure form.
Isaiah 52:13-15
13 See, my servant will act wisely; he will be raised and lifted up and highly exalted. 14 Just as there were many who were appalled at him – his appearance was so disfigured beyond that of any human being and his form marred beyond human likeness – 15 so he will sprinkle many nations, and kings will shut their mouths because of him. For what they were not told, they will see, and what they have not heard, they will understand.
I think what we talked about earlier is that God transforms the body. How He does that I do not know. That is none of our business. In my opinion, and maybe I am wrong, but as Iam reading scriptures, and hopefully God is continuing to reveal to me, and it may not be right. As I see it, we get our glorified bodies immediately. I am complete in Christ and I am not going to become incomplete when I die. I think those passages substantiate that, that we will be complete in Jesus. Then when the rapture of the saints comes, then there will be another miracle and I do not know how He is going to do that. I do know that flesh and blood will not inherit the kingdom of God.
1 John 4:17
17 This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are like Jesus.
1 Corinthians 15:50
50 I declare to you, brothers and sisters, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.
Louis: That is right.
Bob: So how are these bodies of flesh and blood going to rise into the kingdom of God? Flesh and blood are not going to go there.
Louins: Yes.
Bob: So those are some questions we ask. Does God do a transformation of the body? Or does He give a brand new glorified body to these people? I do not know. Do the saints fall to the ground and die, and the glorified body and the spirit go meet the Lord in the air? I do not know.
Louis: Okay. Thanks a lot.
Bob: Alright, brother. Good to talk to you.
Jason from Beadway, IN
Jason: Thanks for taking my call.
Bob: You are welcome, Jason.
Jason: My wife and I have been to several churches in our lifetime. On one night you said something about different denominations believing different translations of the bible. Could you expand on what they believe, because whenever I look on the internet and try to find that out myself, I get the same basic answer that Jesus is Savior. I see a lot of the same thing. I do not see things to differentiate them.
Bob: Again, the bible, Jason, is written in Greek. The New Testament is written in Greek. There are many Greek manuscripts that are available today, more than any of the other works of antiquity, by far the greatest collection of antiquity of books in volume. Those are the original languages that the bible was written in. From there you have translations. They have come down through the ages, different translations. A translation is not a translation unless you are talking about Greek scholars translating from the Greek language into whatever language you are going to. In some translations, the King James for example, did a lot of their translations from the Septuagint, which is a translation from Hebrew into Greek and then translated into English. Nothing wrong with that, but I am stating that is a fact.
Bob: So now the only difference is like you said. You have people that call it the Catholic bible. It is not a Catholic bible. The bible is no different than ours except it has the hypochrypha in the middle of it. No verses ever mentioned or repeated in scripture in that or by the early church fathers. They were never construed as scripture. But the Old Testament and the New Testament books are no different than the translation you and I would use. But there are numerous translations.
Bob: In never said a denomination, except the Catholic, that a denomination worships at the foot of a translation. Most denominations use all kinds of translations. I did not say that outside of the Catholic.
Jaspon: I must have misunderstood then.
Bob: Does that help, brother?
Jason: I am still torn about finding the differences between denominations so I can see what I like.
Bob: So you call tomorrow and call earlier in the program so we have time to talk.
Jason: Okay. Thank you very much.
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