Call-In Classic Christianity Radio – Bob George P649 (07-08-21)
Synopsis
In this world there will always be false teaching. There will be pastors of churches who do not know the Lord. There will be people who do know the Lord, but would rather rely on their intellect, their Greek, their Hebrew, their seminary, to teach the word of God. Many times people will teach whatever theology that they grew up with or came to know the Lord under. And since they are told they must go to seminary in order to preach, and so they go to seminary and there they are taught all sorts of tradition or teaching that may or may not be true. Sadly, so few people will test to see if what they heard is so, by checking the scriptures out for themselves. The whole issue of false teaching is false dependency, leaning on your own understanding rather than relying on the Holy Spirit living in you, to reveal the meaning of the word of God to you. Indeed, the whole reason the Spirit is there is to be your Counselor, to guide you into all truth, to renew your mind with truth, so you can walk in the new way of the Spirit.
So, it is vitally important that you have this attitude when you read the word of God, “Lord, unless you reveal to me what this scripture means, I will not know what it means. So I am not relying on man to teach me, not any denominational persuasion or tradition, but on You, Lord, and You alone. Otherwise, I will not know what it means.” People have often asked why there are so many denominations out there. Some ask this in order to justify their church as being the one true church, as if their church never changed and is solid on truth through what they call oral tradition, yet they themselves contradict the scriptures through their tradition, denying the totality of the cross for the forgiveness of sins, as clearly revealed in the scriptures. All of them cannot be right because they all disagree with each other. Both can be wrong but both cannot be right. So you are in a hodge-podge of teaching there.
I could list all sorts of false teaching in churches, such as tithing being for today, which it is not, or the more notable gift of healing hypocrisy you see on television. The attitude of many believers is as if they view God as a distant Father, totally uninterested in us. In order to get Him interested in us, in whatever trials and tribulations we are going through down here, we must get enough people together in prayer and then God is obligated to answer us. And if we pray harder, then God will more likely act. We have put ourselves in the position of God and God is like our puppet on a string. Our focus is on what we do than on what God has done or that God is alive, living in me, and I am to allow Him to lead me.
People seem not to be able to grasp the concept that God initiated His love to me, and that while I was still a sinner, He died for me. Now, He lives in me. He tells us to go boldly to the throne of grace for help in time of need. But He wants the attitudes of our heart to be conformed to His, who said, “Not my will, but yours be done.” I can certainly make my requests known to God, with thanksgiving, and I would certainly like to be healed, but what I want is not my will, but God’s will be done. If I am to continue on this earth, Christ is my life, and that shall mean fruitful labor, and so I shall remain for your benefit, but if my departure is soon, then take me home, Lord, for you completed the work you wanted to accomplish through me.
Transcript
Ariel from Torrence, CA
Ariel: I listen to a lot of Christian talk shows, and people all in and they want to know how God could create the earth in seven days. I read scripture that says something about one day is the same as a thousand years. When I tell people God created the earth in seven days, can we take that passage as literal?
1 Peter 3:8
8 But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day.
Genesis 1:5 5 God called the light “day,” and the darkness he called “night.” And there was evening, and there was morning – the first day.
Genesis 2:2
2 By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work.
Bob: Ariel, the issue is why would someone be amazed that God created the world and the earth in seven days? He could have created it in one day or one week if he wanted to. That is somebody sitting around limiting the power and ability of God. I see no reason for sticking with anything except for seven days. The bible was not written for the heavens, for the angels, or for God to read. God is the one who initiated the writers of scripture to write these things down, and if they wrote down seven days, then I believe God created the earth in seven days. I do not think it was 7000 years. I believe it was seven days.
Ariel: Now, that is in the bible where it says one of God’s days is as a thousand years. Should we also not include that?
Bob: What does that have to do with creation? It does not say He created the world in 7,000 years. That is not what Genesis said. Now, what those seven days are to God is none of our business. Why would a person want to debate that issue? 7,000 years does not do any good for people who want to debate the seven day creation. Billions of years is the only thing that will do that. What they are trying to do is justify evolution. Evolution would take billions and billions of years. No one evolves upwards. Everyone evolves downwards. Yet they still promote that nitwit philosophy and still want to teach that philosophy in schools. That is a tragedy. I would not even be arguing that we ought to teach creation, but why teaching evolution? You are not getting better looking with age. The whole nature is groaning for its redemption. There is nothing in nature that evolves upward. It evolves downward.
Romans 8:19-25
19 For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. 20 For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God.22 We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. 23 Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies. 24 For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have? 25 But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.
Ariel: You do not believe I should give those unbelievers anything else to chew on, that 1000 year time factor. Like you said, God could do it in a twinkling of an eye. He does not need time. Time was made for us.
Bob: I think you just came up with something good. I would say someone like that, “Do not worry about how many days it took God to create the earth. What you need to be worrying about is what is going to take place in a twinkling of an eye, and that is the day the Lord comes back to bring those who are saved with Him.” That would be a great transition. “Quit worrying about the creation of the world. You need to worry about the twinkling of an eye.”
Bob: Thank you. I appreciate your call.
Ariel: Alright then. Bye. Bye.
Jennifer from Decatur, GA
Jennifer: I am reading the word about physical healing. What are your thoughts on whether faith alone should heal us? High cholesterol, for example, or high blood pressure or cancer. So many times in the bible it talks about how their faith made them well. As an example, the lady who touched Jesus’ cloak and her faith healed her. Do you think God has given man wisdom in order to make medicines and treatment, along with prayer?
Matthew 9:20-22
20 Just then a woman who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years came up behind him and touched the edge of his cloak. 21 She said to herself, “If I only touch his cloak, I will be healed.”22 Jesus turned and saw her. “Take heart, daughter,” he said, “your faith has healed you.” And the woman was healed at that moment.
Matthew 13:57-58
But Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor except in his own town and in his own home.”58 And he did not do many miracles there because of their lack of faith.
Bob: Jennifer, I just believe that if God wants to heal somebody that is His prerogative. Faith never healed anybody. Faith in Jesus and in what Jesus wanted to accomplish has certainly healed people. But my having faith is not going to heal anybody. I think about these things, of how self-centered people are. You get calls on the board, about tithing or fasting, and it is all about what I am doing, at the exclusion of what He has done. Jesus said, “I do not do anything unless the Father tells me to do it.” Jesus never healed anybody unless the Father told Him to do it. Jesus never healed all people even though scripture says He healed all of our diseases. That was for Israel. Obviously not all our diseases have been healed.
Bob: To think there is a God sitting up in heaven, who is disinterested in us, but if we pray hard enough, we will move the hands of God! Nothing is further from the truth. God is much more interested in you and me than I am or you are. I think the attitude of our hearts should be, “Not my will but your will be done.” I have been in numerous situations where God could heal me. I did not pray for Him to heal me at all. I just prayed that His will be done, whatever I did. Whether going to the doctor or whatever it might be, all healing must come from God. A surgeon can cut you open but God has to heal the scar. I think people spend too much time on that. I see healing ministries on television. You wonder if there are any well Christians. If I had the gift of healing I would be in a hospital. I would not be sitting in a meeting taking up collections. I would be in a hospital and clear it out if I had the true gift of healing. There is so much hypocrisy in Christianity, and it is totally deceiving.
Bob: I believe this with all my heart, Jennifer. I am in the hands of God. If I have a sickness, then I pray like this. “Lord, you know what my will is. I would like to get well. But it is not my will that I am interested in. I am not interested in getting my prayers answered. I am interested in ‘Your will be done. ’ So I am going to take either way. If you think you have more for me to do, for me to live is Christ and to die is gain, I will be here. If I don’t, take me home.” That is the way I function. I do not get hung up in this healing stuff.
Bob: Do I believe God has called all these doctors to develop chemotherapy. It does not do any good except make you miserable for the rest of your remaining life. I do not think so. Do I think the body has the ability to heal itself? Yes. It is obvious that God has made the body with the ability to heal itself. On those kinds of things we are all going to have sicknesses, trials and tribulations, I am just going to put all those things into the hands of God, knowing full well He is a lot more interested in things than I am. I will leave it there.
Bob: Does that help, Jennifer?
Jennifer: Yes, it does.
Bob: We get into this thinking, “I am not praying hard enough.” What kind of God do people have, that God is so disinterested that He will not do anything unless you pray hard enough. That does not make any sense. That means you are more interested in the person than He is or you are more interested in you than He is.
Jennifer: I guess I do not want Him to think I do not trust Him to heal me, and then I have to go to the doctor.
Bob: I am not going to trust God necessarily for healing. I am going to say “It is your will, Lord, that I want”. If you want to go to a doctor and nothing wrong with that if you feel he could help you. I think we go to doctors far too often. If I go to a doctor and take a pill, then I get better in a few days rather than a week. I think we go way too much to doctors. Some people just live in the doctor’s offices. They are not God. Our attitude has to be, “Lord, I want your will for my life, and I want you to guide me.” The Spirit of God lives in you and the Spirit of God will guide you what to do in those particular situations.
Bob: I know the Spirit of God guided me to absolutely refuse open-heart surgery. I know that as well as I know my own name. I know full well that I had melanoma on my back while I was getting another treatment. The doctor was saying, “You have to get it out right now.” “Sorry, you are not going to treat me. I am waiting until I get back to Dallas.” I am not in bondage to the fear of a doctor telling me something. When that is our attitude, God will lead us to the right decision.
Jennifer: Thanks, Bob. I appreciate it.
Bob: Alright. Bye. Bye now.
Robert from Los Angeles, CA
Robert: I tune into you as often as I can. You have a great program. You are doing an excellent job, in my opinion.
Bob: Thank you.
Robert: I was calling in regard to the person who called in yesterday. He just did not get it, the issue of sin. He wanted to raise an issue with you on what the scripture is saying. That should have been enough for him. He wanted to stick something else in there. That perturbs me when people do that. They have received false teaching. Bob, if you could dialog a little bit for me about this attitude pervading all these churches with this false teaching.
Bob: Robert, again, this is what we are dealing with. All we have in our hands is a translation of the original manuscripts. If it is a good translation, then it is translated from manuscripts that have been preserved down through the ages, the Greek language for the New Testament and the Hebrew language for the Old Testament. But most of the Old Testament, some 400 years before Christ, was already translated into Greek, because the Greek is kind of like English is today, the language of the world in that day. That is the Septuagint. All of the Old Testament teachings were translated by people who were experts in both the Hebrew language as well as the Greek language and translated those into Greek. So basically, translations today out of the Old Testament, you do have some people who have enough of a knowledge of the Hebrew language, to literally translate off of the Hebrew language. But I would venture to say the majority of people make their translation off of the Septuagint. So those are translations. How are you going to know the meaning of the word of God? You can lean on your own understanding or you are going to believe what scripture says.
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: The Spirit of God living in you, Robert, has to be the revealer of the meaning of the word of God. How many people do you have in the pulpits today that do not know the Lord, who do not have a relationship with the Lord Jesus at all? I grew up in a denomination where there was not one born again pastor. Ultimately, after I came to Christ, and we began to share Jesus in that church, they brought in a young man who was truly born again. Outside of that there were no born again pastors. So how are they going to interpret the word of God? Leaning on their own understanding. Or, attend seminary, teaching them what they are to teach and so they teach it. That is causing false teaching. The root of false teaching is false dependency, depending on yourself, your Greek, your Hebrew or your seminary instead of depending on the word of God and the Spirit of God who lives in you to reveal the meaning of it to you.
Bob: You also have tradition. Religion is full of tradition. So people worship at the feet of tradition. They do not have a clue as to what the bible says. I was 36 years of age before I came to Christ. I did not have a clue of what the bible said except what I gleaned off some pastor told me. And he was not telling me truth because he did not know either. I knew nothing of what the bible had to say. But I would have called myself a Christian because I am not a Buddhist or a Muslim.
Bob: That is why you have false teaching because people do not know the Spirit of God. The Spirit of God has to be the revealer of the meaning of the word of God. People also do not rely on the Holy Spirit of God for that. They rely upon their intellect and education or the traditions of their denomination. But they do not allow the Spirit of God to be the revealer of truth. So you will always have false teaching with you.
Robert: I realize also that false teaching in itself does not negate one being a Christian, right?
Bob: A person could be in Christ Jesus, truly a born again believer, but immediately goes into the teaching of his denomination. If you are saved in a Baptist church, where are you going to be discipled? In a Baptist church. If the Baptist church is teaching truth, you are blessed. If not, you will not be so blessed. If you got saved in a Methodist church, how are you going to be discipled? With Methodist theology. If you are saved in a charismatic church, how are you going to be discipled? With charismatic influence. If you are saved in an Episcopal church, how are you going to be discipled? With Episcopal teaching. All of them cannot be right because they all disagree with each other. Both can be wrong but both cannot be right. So you are in a hodge-podge there.
Bob: So if a person does not separate themselves from their denominational teaching, and say, “I want You, Lord Jesus, who is alive, living in me, to teach me the word of God”. If God is teaching you, then you are taught. You do not have to depend on us, Bob George, your pastor or your denomination. God says, “I will teach you if you let me.” That is when you know you are taught, Robert, when the Spirit of God teaches you. You are not taught when man teaches you. You are taught when the Spirit of God reveals the meaning of it to you.
Robert: Okay. Now, Bob. I do not want to target any denomination, but I do have one in mind. I am not going to mention it. You can show people, take people to certain scriptures and show them the references with the scriptures on certain issues and they still will not believe it or understand it or whatever. I find that what you share works for me very well. I pray over scriptures and I pray for knowledge or understanding. It seems to me that I get the information I want to get through the Spirit. Some of the New Covenant stuff, I pray about it, and it remains unclear until I get some illumination on it. But I am not going to go out and tell somebody, “Look, you got to do this in order to be saved.”
Robert, we have to move on with others. I appreciate what you are sharing. Brother, again, you certainly have the ability to communicate the truth of the gospel with people. If they do not teach it, then shake the dust off your shoes and move on. It is not our job but the Spirit’s job.
Robert: Exactly.
Bob: Thank you for your call, Robert. We appreciate it. I wish we had more time.
Robert: Thanks. Take care.
Bob: You are welcome.
Kacey from CA
Kacey: My son’s boss, I met him when I was down at Thousand Oaks for vacation. My son said, “Ask my mom what you asked me.” A friend of theirs husband committed suicide. He was supposedly saved. He knew the Lord and was saved. The elders of the church are telling this woman that he went to hell. I said, “I do not believe that because he was saved and believed in the Lord, and then he would not go to hell. All of the sins of the world have been forgiven.” “If he believed in God how could he commit suicide?” “If you believed in God, how could you cuss, lie or cheat?” So I explained to him about Jesus dying on a cross. This man is Christian too, but they are taught this. It almost sounds like Catholic that I grew up with as a child. Which I got saved later on. I was wondering if there were scriptures where I could show him that it is just another sin, and you cannot lose salvation. No matter what I do think God alone has the right to say who goes to hell and who doesn’t. I feel bad the leaders have seemed to have gone out of their way to tell this poor woman that her husband is in hell. I also told him that Satan even deceives even the Christian. Even Eve was deceived and she knew God. What do you suggest on scriptures to help guide them to be able to see that truth, because that woman is looking for scriptures. Her heart needs to know her husband is okay.
Bob: Kacey, the answer to that is very simple. If her husband is in Christ Jesus, then he is in heaven. Whether you were burnt up in a plane or someone killed you or you committed suicide, that is not the unpardonable sin. The only unpardonable sin is the rejection of the work of Christ Jesus. The work of Christ Jesus, when He took away the sins of the world. Did he forget that one?
Kacey: No.
Bob: I did not think so either.
Bob: What has to be explained is what salvation is and how God provided totally for us. The issue is that a person can, and many people do, get into despair. They get into hopelessness. They get into all kinds of trials and tribulations. Instead of turning to Christ they try to figure it out on their own. Women, many times, are fixers. They cannot fix it, so they get into despair. If you let that spiral go down deep enough, a person could literally take their own life. The answer to that is that it is ridiculous. Those people sound like Job’s counseling session to me.
Kacey: Murder can be forgiven.
Bob: Absolutely.
Romans 5:8
8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Kacey: What else could I give him. Is there something else I can give him?
Bob: Again, Kacey, we do not play spiritual hopscotch through the bible. Just tell her what salvation is, that you are saved by His life. When you are saying you can lose salvation, what you are doing is denying the sufficiency of the cross. You talk about a sin. That is a sin, saying, “Jesus, you did not know what you were talking about when you cried out from the cross, ‘it is finished’?”. It is finished means there is no more forgiveness to be executed on our behalf by God. It is over. It is done.
Kacey: That is what I told him. It is a done deal.
Bob: It is a done deal. Good for you, Kacey. It sounds like you are doing great proclaiming truth.
Kacey: Thanks to you, I am learning a lot about it.
Bob: That is great. Sorry we are out of time. God bless you.
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