Latest / WOAY Podcasts / Bible Answer Man Podcast with Hank Hanegraaff - The New World Translation, and Q&A
Transcript
- 0:07Speaker 1: Heard all across the United States, Canada, and around the world.
- 0:11Speaker 1: This is the Bible Answer Man broadcast with Hank Hanegraaff.
- 0:15Speaker 1: Hank is president of the Christian Research Institute. At CRI,
- 0:19Speaker 1: our desire is to equip you not only to defend
- 0:22Speaker 1: the historic Christian faith, but to become a winsome witness
- 0:26Speaker 1: to a spiritually hungry but skeptical world, because life and
- 0:31Speaker 1: truth matter. To learn more, or to find resources to
- 0:34Speaker 1: help you grow in grace, call 888-7000-CRI, or go online
- 0:40Speaker 1: to equip.org. That's equip.org. The following program was pre-recorded. And now,
- 0:50Speaker 1: here's Hank Hanegraaff.
- 0:51Speaker 2: Thank you very much, Randy. Jehovah's Witnesses contend that Bible translations,
- 0:57Speaker 2: other than their own, are corrupted by religious traditions. They're
- 1:02Speaker 2: rooted in paganism. But in reality, the New World Translation
- 1:08Speaker 2: of the Watchtower Organization is a frightful mistranslation. It is
- 1:15Speaker 2: both erroneous and reprehensible. It translates the Greek scriptures so
- 1:23Speaker 2: as to expunge the deity of Jesus Christ against all
- 1:31Speaker 2: credible scholarship. Jesus is downgraded from God to a God
- 1:40Speaker 2: and demoted from the creator of all things to a
- 1:43Speaker 2: mere creature who created all other things. According to the
- 1:50Speaker 2: translation committee of the Watchtower Society, Jesus was created by
- 1:55Speaker 2: God as the Archangel Michael. During his earthly sojourn, he
- 2:02Speaker 2: was merely human And after his crucifixion, he was recreated
- 2:09Speaker 2: an immaterial spirit creature. Not only that, but the Translation
- 2:15Speaker 2: Committee has sought to conform the New World Translation to
- 2:21Speaker 2: their religious tradition by replacing the cross of Christ with
- 2:28Speaker 2: a torture stake. And so in Matthew 10.38, They've altered
- 2:34Speaker 2: the text to read, and whoever does not accept his
- 2:39Speaker 2: torture stake and follow after me is not worthy of me.
- 2:43Speaker 2: Because in Watchtower lore, the cross is a pagan symbol
- 2:50Speaker 2: adopted by an apostate Christianity when Satan took control of
- 2:56Speaker 2: the early church. The Watchtower Society claims that the Christian
- 3:02Speaker 2: scriptures have been tampered with. Why? In order to eliminate
- 3:08Speaker 2: the name Jehovah from the text. In truth, however, it's
- 3:13Speaker 2: the translation committee of the New World Translation that can
- 3:18Speaker 2: rightly be accused of tampering. In well over 200 cases,
- 3:24Speaker 2: the name Jehovah has been gratuitously inserted into the New
- 3:29Speaker 2: Testament text. In passages like Romans 10.13, it's done to
- 3:35Speaker 2: obscure the unique deity of Jesus Christ. In other passages,
- 3:39Speaker 2: it is done under the pretext that referring to God
- 3:43Speaker 2: as Lord rather than Jehovah is patently pagan. And I
- 3:48Speaker 2: bring all of that up at the beginning of the
- 3:50Speaker 2: broadcast for an important reason. We can differ when it
- 3:56Speaker 2: comes to secondary issues. But essentials such as the deity
- 4:01Speaker 2: of Jesus Christ are deal breakers. If someone denies that
- 4:06Speaker 2: Jesus Christ is God, that he spoke and the universe
- 4:11Speaker 2: leapt into existence, you now have moved your way into
- 4:18Speaker 2: another gospel. If you do not believe that Jesus Christ
- 4:24Speaker 2: is God in human flesh, if you think he was
- 4:28Speaker 2: merely human, in the Incarnation. You have moved to a
- 4:32Speaker 2: different gospel. And as Christians, we need to be so
- 4:37Speaker 2: familiar with those essentials that we can use them to
- 4:40Speaker 2: reach the Watchtower organization. Without those that support this ministry
- 4:47Speaker 2: and pray for this ministry, the transformation of lives worldwide
- 4:51Speaker 2: would not happen. And so I want to thank those
- 4:54Speaker 2: that support this ministry. Send in a gift on thewebedequip.org.
- 4:59Speaker 2: You can write me at Box 8500, Charlotte, North Carolina,
- 5:03Speaker 2: zip code 28271. Or as always, you can talk to
- 5:07Speaker 2: our resource consultants at 888-7000 and the letters CRI. First
- 5:13Speaker 2: up today is Joe. He's listening in Los Angeles, California. Hi, Joe.
- 5:19Speaker 3: Hey, good morning. Hi, Brother Hank. How are you doing, sir?
- 5:23Speaker 2: I'm doing good. Nice to talk to you.
- 5:24Speaker 3: All right. Well, first of all, I want to say
- 5:27Speaker 3: thanks for taking my call. My prayer is that I
- 5:32Speaker 3: learn the Bible and learn a bunch of stuff like
- 5:36Speaker 3: you know. So God bless you for that.
- 5:39Speaker 2: Well, God bless you for that prayer. That's my prayer
- 5:41Speaker 2: as well.
- 5:42Speaker 3: Amen. I've got a problem. I married a girl to
- 5:51Speaker 3: keep her in the country because she had just had...
- 5:54Speaker 3: a set of twin boys, and her brother was trying
- 5:57Speaker 3: to throw her out of the country, and it was
- 6:00Speaker 3: pretty disastrous. So I married her to keep her in
- 6:04Speaker 3: the country, and I think, I hope I don't get
- 6:06Speaker 3: in trouble, but I thought it, you know, I was
- 6:10Speaker 3: trying to help someone out in a dire situation. But anyway,
- 6:15Speaker 3: since then, you know, I didn't have any love for
- 6:19Speaker 3: this woman, so... Now we've been separated for 12 years, and,
- 6:24Speaker 3: you know, I've since given my life to Christ and
- 6:27Speaker 3: trying to come back and try to do the right thing,
- 6:30Speaker 3: Brother Hank. But I know that God hates divorce. Where
- 6:35Speaker 3: do I stand on that? She won't get back with me,
- 6:38Speaker 3: but I don't know. I mean, I know God hates divorce,
- 6:42Speaker 3: but I just want to do the right thing, you know?
- 6:46Speaker 2: Well, you know, I think, you know, just putting it plainly,
- 6:48Speaker 2: you broke the law. But from this standpoint... remember that
- 6:52Speaker 2: you can't unscramble the egg, which is to say what's
- 6:56Speaker 2: in the past is in the past. You know, if
- 6:59Speaker 2: there is a possibility of reconciling with this woman, and
- 7:03Speaker 2: if there is a possibility of making a marriage that's
- 7:06Speaker 2: glorifying to the Lord, I wouldn't prohibit that possibility. In
- 7:10Speaker 2: other words, you can't undo what you did, but you
- 7:13Speaker 2: can move forward and obey God and be pleasing to
- 7:18Speaker 2: Him in your life. So you did make a commitment.
- 7:21Speaker 2: You weren't a believer. You did this while you were
- 7:24Speaker 2: a pagan. Now you're a believer. Now you want to
- 7:26Speaker 2: follow the will of the Lord Jesus Christ and you
- 7:28Speaker 2: want to live according to his will. And what he
- 7:30Speaker 2: would want is for you to be true to the
- 7:34Speaker 2: obligation if there's any possibility. But if the unbeliever doesn't
- 7:39Speaker 2: want to be in that relationship, you can't force her
- 7:41Speaker 2: to be in the relationship.
- 7:44Speaker 3: How do I stand with the divorce thing?
- 7:47Speaker 2: Well, in 1 Corinthians 7, it says if the unbeliever leaves,
- 7:52Speaker 2: you are not bound in that circumstance. So I think
- 7:56Speaker 2: your responsibility is to do everything possible to reconcile as
- 7:59Speaker 2: a believer. And that becomes an avenue of being a
- 8:03Speaker 2: wonderful testimony to her. And who knows what God can
- 8:07Speaker 2: bring out of that. God can bring beauty or gold
- 8:10Speaker 2: out of ashes. So if your heart is open for
- 8:13Speaker 2: reconciliation and that possibility, I think it would be wonderful.
- 8:17Speaker 2: But if she is completely close to that, you are
- 8:21Speaker 2: not bound in that circumstance. So I think, again, the
- 8:24Speaker 2: greater good is the opportunity to reconcile. But again, I'm
- 8:28Speaker 2: a little hesitant to give a lot of advice on
- 8:30Speaker 2: something that I don't know all the details with. So
- 8:32Speaker 2: if you hang on, let's see if we can talk
- 8:34Speaker 2: you off the air as well. I want to go
- 8:35Speaker 2: back to the phone lines, talk to John in Oklahoma. Hi, John.
- 8:40Speaker 4: Hey, sir.
- 8:40Speaker 5: How are you?
- 8:41Speaker 2: I'm good. How are you?
- 8:43Speaker 5: I'm doing well. A young woman called, and she was
- 8:45Speaker 5: asking about election. And I've been listening to you for years,
- 8:50Speaker 5: and I've heard you talk about election, and it seems
- 8:52Speaker 5: like every time you talk about it, you get really passionate,
- 8:55Speaker 5: and I can understand that. But you mentioned something about
- 8:59Speaker 5: being in Christ, that Christ was the only elect, and
- 9:02Speaker 5: that we are elect when we're in Christ. But in
- 9:06Speaker 5: 1 Corinthians chapter 1, And starting at verse 26, but
- 9:11Speaker 5: I won't read all of it, down to verse 30,
- 9:12Speaker 5: he says, but of him are you in Christ, who
- 9:18Speaker 5: of God is made unto us wisdom and righteousness and
- 9:21Speaker 5: sanctification and redemption. And so he's saying, you know, God
- 9:25Speaker 5: has chosen the foolish things, God has chosen this, God
- 9:27Speaker 5: has chosen this, and then he closes by saying that
- 9:31Speaker 5: it is because of God that we are in Christ,
- 9:35Speaker 5: not because of... a choice or something that we made
- 9:39Speaker 5: prior to being regenerated?
- 9:42Speaker 2: Well, it's a debate within Christian circles. The debate is
- 9:45Speaker 2: whether God chooses based on his own purpose and predilection,
- 9:49Speaker 2: or whether God chooses based on his foreknowledge of whether
- 9:54Speaker 2: we would believe. This is a debate. I hold the
- 9:57Speaker 2: position that Jesus Christ is the elect one. In other words,
- 10:02Speaker 2: the position that Jesus is the royal seed of Abraham,
- 10:06Speaker 2: and therefore if you are Jesus Christ, the elect one,
- 10:10Speaker 2: by virtue of that you yourself are elect. I mean,
- 10:12Speaker 2: you see the Dublin tundra, as it were, in Galatians
- 10:15Speaker 2: chapter 3, where Paul says, Abraham only had one seed,
- 10:21Speaker 2: not seeds plural, but seeds singular. But when you get
- 10:26Speaker 2: to the end of the passage, Paul makes clear that
- 10:29Speaker 2: if you are in Christ, whether you're Jew or Greek,
- 10:32Speaker 2: whether you're a slave or free, whether you're male or female,
- 10:37Speaker 2: you are an heir according to the promise. So the
- 10:41Speaker 2: emphasis from my perspective is on Jesus Christ. He is
- 10:44Speaker 2: the elect one. If you are in Jesus Christ, By
- 10:48Speaker 2: virtue of that, you're elect. But I readily acknowledge that
- 10:51Speaker 2: this is a debate that Christians have. They debate this vigorously. Ultimately,
- 10:56Speaker 2: I don't think it's a deal breaker. We'll be right
- 10:58Speaker 2: back with more answers to your questions.
- 11:01Speaker 1: Pastor Martin Niemöller spent the last seven years of Nazi
- 11:04Speaker 1: rule in concentration camps. Reflecting on the camps where millions
- 11:08Speaker 1: would die, Niemöller said, First they came for the socialists,
- 11:12Speaker 1: and I did not speak out, because I was not
- 11:15Speaker 1: a socialist. Then they came for the trade unionists, and
- 11:18Speaker 1: I did not speak out, because I was not a
- 11:20Speaker 1: trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I
- 11:24Speaker 1: did not speak out, because I was not a Jew.
- 11:27Speaker 1: Then they came for me, and there was no one
- 11:30Speaker 1: left to speak for me. To ensure that your voice
- 11:33Speaker 1: is heard and that someone is speaking for you, become
- 11:37Speaker 1: a member today of CRI's support team. Simply call 888-7000-CRI.
- 11:44Speaker 1: That's 888-7000-CRI. Or visit our website at equip.org. Don't tune out.
- 11:52Speaker 1: Hank will be back after the break. The Complete Bible
- 12:01Speaker 1: Answer Book Collector's Edition is the comprehensive collection of the
- 12:05Speaker 1: most often asked questions Hank Hanegraaff has received throughout his
- 12:09Speaker 1: four decades as host of the Bible Answer Man broadcast.
- 12:13Speaker 1: With more than half a million copies already in print,
- 12:16Speaker 1: this newly revised and expanded Collector's Edition Help seekers and
- 12:21Speaker 1: skeptics alike sort through the truth on topics such as
- 12:24Speaker 1: reliability of the Bible, religions and cults, the resurrection and afterlife,
- 12:29Speaker 1: and many more issues vital to a better understanding of
- 12:33Speaker 1: God in Christ and our relationship to Him. To receive
- 12:37Speaker 1: your copy of the complete Bible answer book, Collector's Edition,
- 12:41Speaker 1: revised and expanded, call 888-7000-CRI. and make a gift to
- 12:47Speaker 1: support the Christian Research Institute's life-changing outreaches, 888-7000-CRI, or visit
- 12:51Speaker 1: us at equip.org. Anyone who's been paying attention knows there's
- 13:03Speaker 1: a war going on, not just on traditional morality, civility,
- 13:07Speaker 1: and decency, but even more fundamentally on historic notions of truth.
- 13:12Speaker 1: And the enemy isn't just the onslaught of fake news
- 13:15Speaker 1: facilitated by a post-truth culture and turbocharged by growing legions
- 13:19Speaker 1: of ideological spin doctors. No, the real enemies of truth
- 13:23Speaker 1: range from post-modernist convictions that there is no objective truth
- 13:27Speaker 1: to militant scientism that claims that only science can determine
- 13:32Speaker 1: truth and religion is little more than primitive superstitions. But
- 13:36Speaker 1: CRI support team members are not waving a white flag
- 13:39Speaker 1: of surrender. They're holding the fort by undergirding every one
- 13:43Speaker 1: of Christian Research Institute's mind-shaping and life-changing outreaches 24-7. To
- 13:48Speaker 1: learn how you can make a difference and enjoy all
- 13:51Speaker 1: the benefits of support team membership, simply visit equip.org. Has
- 14:05Speaker 1: God spoken? Are the words of Scripture merely human in origin,
- 14:10Speaker 1: or are they in fact the very words of God Himself?
- 14:15Speaker 1: Three years in the making, and based on two decades
- 14:18Speaker 1: of research and reflection, Hank Hanegraaff's monumental book, Has God Spoken?,
- 14:23Speaker 1: answers what is surely the most important question facing our world.
- 14:27Speaker 1: In Has God Spoken? Memorable Proofs of the Bible's Divine Inspiration,
- 14:32Speaker 1: Hank counters the contentions of the Bible attackers and clearly
- 14:36Speaker 1: shows that belief in the Holy Scriptures is not a
- 14:38Speaker 1: guess or wishful thinking. It is the only logical conclusion
- 14:42Speaker 1: after an honest examination of overwhelming evidence. Order Has God
- 14:47Speaker 1: Spoken from the Christian Research Institute by calling 888-7000-CRI or
- 14:53Speaker 1: go online to equip.org, equip.org. Let's return to your host,
- 15:09Speaker 1: Hank Hanegraaff.
- 15:10Speaker 2: Thank you very much, Randy. You're right back to our
- 15:12Speaker 2: phone callers. Next up is Eric listening in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Hi, Eric.
- 15:17Speaker 5: Hi, Hank.
- 15:18Speaker 6: Thanks for taking my call.
- 15:18Speaker 2: Pleasure.
- 15:20Speaker 5: Quick question.
- 15:22Speaker 6: I noticed this book about the neurobiology of porn addiction,
- 15:26Speaker 6: and that got me thinking about this article, this brief
- 15:28Speaker 6: article that I read in one of the news mags
- 15:30Speaker 6: that discussed this new genre called, being labeled at least
- 15:35Speaker 6: as Christian porn. Are you familiar with this at all?
- 15:38Speaker 2: I'm not.
- 15:39Speaker 6: Okay, well, the article didn't describe it too much other
- 15:42Speaker 6: than it's more of a contextual difference in which it's
- 15:47Speaker 6: geared toward Christian married couples and depicts Christian married couples.
- 15:54Speaker 6: And I did a couple of Google searches about this,
- 15:57Speaker 6: and not too much comes up, but it seems to
- 16:00Speaker 6: be like everything that regular pornography depicts, you know, the
- 16:05Speaker 6: explicitness and everything, just in different contexts and So I
- 16:09Speaker 6: was just kind of confused of how this fits with
- 16:11Speaker 6: biblical teaching.
- 16:13Speaker 2: Well, it doesn't sound like it does. Again, I haven't
- 16:15Speaker 2: looked into this myself, but it sounds to me like
- 16:18Speaker 2: an oxymoron, kind of like talking about flaming snowflakes. I mean,
- 16:21Speaker 2: the bottom line is with pornography, you have a commodity
- 16:27Speaker 2: that you use rather than a relationship that you cherish.
- 16:32Speaker 2: And pornography hijacks a part of our nature that is
- 16:36Speaker 2: intended for something better. So I think it's completely in
- 16:41Speaker 2: antithesis to how relationships are meant to function. In fact,
- 16:46Speaker 2: when we get to heaven, the pleasure that a male
- 16:50Speaker 2: and a female will experience in one another will be
- 16:52Speaker 2: infinitely magnified because in eternity our earthly conception of sex
- 16:57Speaker 2: will have been eclipsed. And the real issue here is
- 17:01Speaker 2: a matter of selfishness as opposed to selflessness. In other words, ultimately,
- 17:08Speaker 2: experience in intimacy is a function of selflessness. And when
- 17:13Speaker 2: we see people as objects to satisfy our own desires,
- 17:20Speaker 2: as opposed to relationships to be nurtured, then we miss
- 17:24Speaker 2: the point.
- 17:27Speaker 6: Yeah, I mean, that definitely makes sense. And so that's
- 17:29Speaker 6: why I was just confused by this notion. And I
- 17:31Speaker 6: didn't see any organizations that were producing these DVDs or anything.
- 17:35Speaker 6: I don't know how Christian or Bible-based they are. I
- 17:38Speaker 6: can imagine that they are that much. But it also
- 17:42Speaker 6: looked like this idea stemmed from a Christian married couple
- 17:47Speaker 6: videotaping themselves. Now, I wonder how that kind of fits into,
- 17:52Speaker 6: if it's not distributed like pornography is, but kept within
- 17:57Speaker 6: the couple, kept within the relationship.
- 17:59Speaker 2: Well, that's a different thing. And first of all, I'm
- 18:02Speaker 2: not ratifying it in any sense, but there's a far
- 18:04Speaker 2: different thing from the label Christian pornography. But the thing
- 18:09Speaker 2: that you want to make sure that you do within
- 18:11Speaker 2: relationship is cherish and nurture the other person, not exploit
- 18:15Speaker 2: the other person. Now, if the other person doesn't feel
- 18:17Speaker 2: exploited in the process, and somehow or other, you can,
- 18:20Speaker 2: within the sanctity of your own marriage, use this in
- 18:23Speaker 2: some edifying way, which escapes me at the moment. If
- 18:27Speaker 2: that's possible, maybe we can talk later. But it seems,
- 18:31Speaker 2: as I said at the very beginning, to be an oxymoron.
- 18:33Speaker 2: It just doesn't smack right in terms of how relationships
- 18:39Speaker 2: work and how intimacy develops.
- 18:42Speaker 6: Right, right. Well, a difficult topic. I appreciate it.
- 18:45Speaker 2: Well, I appreciate your call.
- 18:47Speaker 6: All right, thanks, Hank.
- 18:48Speaker 2: You got it. I want to go back to the
- 18:49Speaker 2: phone lines, talk to John in Greenville, South Carolina, listening
- 18:52Speaker 2: on the web. Hi, John.
- 18:53Speaker 4: Hello, Hank. Thanks for taking my call. My question is
- 18:57Speaker 4: regarding the sinner's prayer. There are those out there, like
- 19:00Speaker 4: Paul Washer, for example, that teach against using a sinner's prayer.
- 19:03Speaker 4: They cite all the bad examples of people who have
- 19:07Speaker 4: said the prayer at a Billy Graham crusade or something
- 19:09Speaker 4: like that, and they've fallen away. They never really saved
- 19:12Speaker 4: in the first place. They're false converts. And he used
- 19:16Speaker 4: a lot of that. I've listened to a couple of
- 19:17Speaker 4: his sermons. He used a lot of bad, negative examples,
- 19:20Speaker 4: and then he preaches against a sinner's prayer. He says
- 19:22Speaker 4: it's not in the Bible and this and that. But
- 19:25Speaker 4: most evangelists, most preachers, pastors and teachers out there use
- 19:28Speaker 4: it as prayer. I mean, obviously, it's not the prayer
- 19:31Speaker 4: that saves you. God saves you. But personally, I don't
- 19:35Speaker 4: see anything wrong with the prayer, but I know he
- 19:37Speaker 4: has a following, and he's got an argument. I don't
- 19:40Speaker 4: know if you're familiar with Paul Washer. I kind of
- 19:43Speaker 4: want to get your take on this issue here.
- 19:46Speaker 2: Well, I think what's important is to recognize the principle
- 19:49Speaker 2: of is if you confess with your mouth Jesus is
- 19:52Speaker 2: Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him
- 19:54Speaker 2: from the dead, according to Scripture, you will be saved.
- 19:57Speaker 2: Paul says that explicitly in Romans chapter 10. So what
- 20:02Speaker 2: happens in salvation is you realize you're a sinner, you
- 20:06Speaker 2: repent of your sin, you receive Jesus Christ as Lord
- 20:10Speaker 2: and Savior, and then you identify visibly with the body
- 20:14Speaker 2: of Christ through baptism, which is the first act of
- 20:17Speaker 2: obedience as a believer where you say, to an unbelieving world,
- 20:21Speaker 2: I've been buried to my old life and raised to
- 20:24Speaker 2: newness of life through his resurrection power. And I'm identifying
- 20:28Speaker 2: visibly with the body of Christ in his burial, death, resurrection,
- 20:33Speaker 2: and ascension. So to do that publicly, confessing with your
- 20:37Speaker 2: mouth in prayer that Jesus is Lord, and being baptized publicly,
- 20:42Speaker 2: I think is a biblical admonition.
- 20:44Speaker 4: Same with me, I agree. So what would be his
- 20:47Speaker 4: argument against it?
- 20:48Speaker 2: Well, I've never heard his argument, and the arguments I
- 20:50Speaker 2: have heard in this vein have been arguments that hold very,
- 20:55Speaker 2: very little water. They make for great rhetoric, but they
- 20:58Speaker 2: have little biblical reasoning on which to found themselves.
- 21:03Speaker 4: I see. Well, thank you so much, Hank. I love
- 21:04Speaker 4: your ministry. God bless you, my friend.
- 21:06Speaker 2: You got it. Appreciate your call. We'll go back to
- 21:08Speaker 2: the phone lines to talk to Michael. He's listening on Longview, Texas. Hi, Michael.
- 21:13Speaker 7: Howdy. Can you explain to me Luke 14, 26, and
- 21:21Speaker 7: tell me how exactly we're supposed to hate our parents
- 21:27Speaker 7: and also children, how we're supposed to hate our children?
- 21:31Speaker 2: Yeah, well, we have to read the Bible in the
- 21:34Speaker 2: sense in which it is intended. If we do not
- 21:37Speaker 2: read it in the sense in which it is intended,
- 21:40Speaker 2: we'll come up with all kinds of unintended meanings here.
- 21:44Speaker 2: And hate here means love less, which obviously could not
- 21:48Speaker 2: mean anything else in that we are told to honor
- 21:53Speaker 2: father and mother. And here's how I would explain this.
- 21:57Speaker 2: There's hyperbole that is being used. in the passage. We
- 22:01Speaker 2: must love Christ more. And the operative word here is more.
- 22:06Speaker 2: We must love Christ more than even father and mother
- 22:10Speaker 2: and family. And this would, of course, have been a
- 22:14Speaker 2: very offensive kind of a thing for Jesus Christ to
- 22:18Speaker 2: say within the context of Luke chapter 14 under the
- 22:22Speaker 2: rubric of the cost of being a disciple. To be
- 22:26Speaker 2: a disciple of Christ is We must love him more
- 22:31Speaker 2: than even mother or father or family. And the Jews
- 22:36Speaker 2: held that only God is to receive greater honor and
- 22:42Speaker 2: devotion than family. So you see what's going on here
- 22:45Speaker 2: is Jesus is requiring of his disciples the admission that
- 22:51Speaker 2: he is God because only God could attain that status.
- 22:56Speaker 2: Only God could. deserves that kind of reverential awe in
- 23:01Speaker 2: worship and adoration. So Christ here is implicitly, at least,
- 23:07Speaker 2: making a claim that he is in fact God in
- 23:10Speaker 2: the context of people that do not want to accept
- 23:13Speaker 2: him as God. But again, hate does not mean that
- 23:17Speaker 2: you are to hate your mother and father in the
- 23:21Speaker 2: sense that that some people might take this if they
- 23:24Speaker 2: don't know the panoply of Scripture because obviously one of
- 23:27Speaker 2: the commandments given to the Jews, the Decalogue itself, and
- 23:32Speaker 2: vicariously of course us, teaches us to honor father and mother.
- 23:37Speaker 2: And the family structure itself is a family structure that
- 23:43Speaker 2: defines the fabric of society. So obviously Christ is not
- 23:47Speaker 2: saying forget about the fabric of society, hate your mother
- 23:50Speaker 2: and father. No, You can't love them as much as me.
- 23:54Speaker 2: And the only reason I can say that is because
- 23:57Speaker 2: I am indeed God.
- 23:58Speaker 5: Okay.
- 24:00Speaker 7: All right. Thanks a lot. I just was thinking maybe
- 24:04Speaker 7: it might mean like hate what they do or hate
- 24:08Speaker 7: their sins and stuff like that because back then they were,
- 24:13Speaker 7: those people's fathers and mothers weren't, probably weren't all about Jesus.
- 24:18Speaker 7: They were about the The Old Testament, I mean, like,
- 24:22Speaker 7: you know, the laws and stuff.
- 24:24Speaker 2: No, no, and that is not what it means in context.
- 24:26Speaker 7: Okay.
- 24:27Speaker 2: I mean, certainly we have to recognize that our fathers
- 24:29Speaker 2: and mothers and our family members are imperfect, but that's
- 24:31Speaker 2: not the point. The point here is that we have
- 24:34Speaker 2: to love God above all things, and Jesus Christ here
- 24:37Speaker 2: is implicitly claiming to be God.
- 24:40Speaker 7: Okay, well, thank you very much, Hank.
- 24:42Speaker 2: You got it, and this is a beautiful passage because
- 24:45Speaker 2: it is the cost of being a disciple, Dietrich Bonhoeffer.
- 24:49Speaker 2: said that. What does it mean to be a disciple?
- 24:52Speaker 2: You have to take up your cross and daily follow Christ.
- 24:55Speaker 2: And Christ himself says in this passage, suppose one of
- 24:57Speaker 2: you wants to build a tower. Will you not first
- 25:01Speaker 2: sit down and estimate the cost to see if he
- 25:04Speaker 2: has enough money to complete it? For if he lays
- 25:07Speaker 2: the foundation, he's not able to finish it. Everyone who
- 25:09Speaker 2: sees it will ridicule him, saying, this fellow began to
- 25:12Speaker 2: build and was not able to finish. The point here
- 25:16Speaker 2: is that that if you lose your saltiness, if you
- 25:21Speaker 2: simply have a said faith rather than a real faith,
- 25:25Speaker 2: then you cannot truly take up your cross and follow
- 25:29Speaker 2: him because he is the one who empowers you to
- 25:33Speaker 2: be a disciple. He not only justifies you, but he
- 25:37Speaker 2: sanctifies you and one day will glorify you. To God
- 25:41Speaker 2: be the glory. If we are truly in Christ, he is.
- 25:46Speaker 2: Himself will cause us to be an overcomer. He Himself
- 25:51Speaker 2: will give us the grace to follow through on a
- 25:54Speaker 2: commitment that is not made by might nor by power,
- 25:58Speaker 2: but by His Spirit. So we receive Jesus Christ by
- 26:01Speaker 2: God's grace through faith on account of the Savior Jesus
- 26:06Speaker 2: Christ who gives us the strength to carry on to
- 26:10Speaker 2: completion what we have started in Him. Thanks for tuning
- 26:13Speaker 2: in today.
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