Latest / Pastors Perspective / Pastors' Perspective-10/06/26

Transcript

Pastors' Perspective-10/06/26 · Pastors Perspective

• 0:13
  Speaker 1: Hello and welcome to Pastor's Perspective. I'm your host, Brian Perez,
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: and we are here live in the studio to talk
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: to you, answer questions you might have about the Bible.
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: 888-564-6173 is our number, not just the Bible, but anything
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: having to do with, you know, religion or Christianity or
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: church or just about anything. Call in to 888-564-6173.
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: Uh, I said we are live in the studio. Well,
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: I'm live in the studio and we have a couple
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: of guys that are live somewhere else, but they are
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: live and they are alive and they are alive in
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: Christ as well. So, call in to 888-564-6173. 1 of
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: those guys is Brian Broderson, the pastor emeritus of Calvary Chapel,
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: Costa Mesa, and the other.
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: There is Phil Metzger, the pastor of Calvary San Diego,
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: and we're ready. 888-564-6173. What do you want to ask your,
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: what question do you want to ask a pastor? I
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: shouldn't say your pastor because these two guys may not
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: be your pastor, but they are pastors. So call in
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: to 888-564-6173. Brian Broderson, hello, what's new, man?
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: Hello Brian Perez and Phil Metzger. I am, uh, once
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: again on the East Coast and um.
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I had a great weekend in Florida with Cheryl
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: and um she spoke for a women's event and I
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: uh did a church service on Sunday at
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: Calvary Chapel, Palm City and hung out with some good
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: friends and.
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: Lots of key lime pie, which was really
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: Enjoyable, really, I almost sounded like Trump for a second there, but,
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: you know, I was near the Donald Trump airport, so that's, uh,
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: explains that. And yes, back in, uh, South Carolina and
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: Bill and I were on a call together earlier today. So,
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: so we've seen each other, but yeah, it's good to
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: be here, you know, last week, remember I was sitting
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: in that chair right across from you and um.
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: Here I am, not there again, but
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: It's funny that I'm here in the Zoom, the Zoom studio.
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: It's funny that you mentioned the Donald Trump Airport because
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: I drove by the Donald Trump Golf Club here in
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: Southern California yesterday. I was just driving and it's like, whoa,
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: there it is. So that was interesting, but, uh, yeah,
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: so I was in that neck of the woods. But
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: you were, you had key lime pie in Florida. Is
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: that what they eat in Key West, Florida? I mean, what,
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: what's the connection? Is there a connection or you were
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: just talking in general?
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: The limes are key, uh, key limes, they're from the Keys,
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: and so they have a unique sort of, um, flavor
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: to them, but you know, uh, Charleston's big on key
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: lime pie too, so it's not exclusively a Florida deal, but.
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: Boy, I'll tell you, it's good.
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: You learn something new every day. I had no idea
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: they're called key limes because they're from the Keys. Art
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: is Kiwi. Is that from the Keys also? I'm joking.
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: I'm totally joking about that.
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: Kiwie is from New Zland. Yes, yes. All right, Phil Metzger,
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: what's new with you, man? I think Brian got away
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: from Los Angeles and San Diego because of Donald Trump
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: saying we're all going to, uh, we're doomed over here.
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: So he went to the East Coast, uh, and he got,
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: that's it.
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: So I had to just round off all the Trump talk.
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: We had a Trump airport, Trump golf course, and then,
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: of course, we're in LA and San Diego, and we're,
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: we're doomed, apparently. I, I just read that literally on
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: on Instagram that Newsom's Newsom's upset because Trump said that
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: like Iran could take out LA or San Diego or something.
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: Oh, San Diego, come on, not San Diego. Leave us alone.
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: Come on.
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: 888-564-6173 is the number to call and we're gonna go
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: right to the phones. Why not? Because we can. Danny
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: in Covina listening on K-wave 1110, a couple of options
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: here in Southern California to listen on your radio, either
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: FM 107.9 or AM 11:10. Danny, welcome to Pastor's Perspective.
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: Thank you. What's going on?
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: Um, I had a question, uh, Revelation 22:14.
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: Uh, blessed are those who do his commandments, that they
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: may have the right to the tree of life, and
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: they enter the gates into the city. But outside are
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: dogs and sorcerers, and sexually immoral murderers and idolaters, and
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: whoever loves and practices the life. This is after everybody's
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: been put into the lake of fire.
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: Do these people exist or is this?
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: Uh, just a warning in general because it, it sort
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: of puts it there where it's like part of the
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: chronological narrative. Hm, Brian, what do you say?
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I, I would say that they, the outside that
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: is referred to is also
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: The lake of fire, so you know, there's different.
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: Um, metaphors that the scripture uses, um, outer darkness where
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: there's weeping and gnashing of teeth, uh, the lake of fire,
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: and so I think that we're talking about the same place.
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: So those outside are those who are, have been cast
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: into the lake of fire. Now some people believe that there,
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: there is an annihilation of
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: Each person ultimately and that they will not go on
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: suffering endlessly, but there is a point in time when
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: their punishment, if you will, will be sufficient for the
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: crime and then they will just vanish, go out of existence.
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: And there's a, there's a theological debate over that, um,
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: but I, I tend to believe even though some people
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: think it's
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: Too harsh. I do think the scriptures teach that there
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: is a separation from God, that people are consciously aware
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: of that separation from God forever.
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: Phil Metzger.
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and I, I, I, I think that that passage
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: is speaking to all generations, not just, this isn't, don't
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: think of that passage as the timeline of like, wait,
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: I thought everything is done and who's, who's left? Who
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: is he talking to? I think that this is a recap,
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: this is like a, uh, these are part of the
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: final thoughts of the book of Revelation. So, when, when
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: John writes those things, he's saying that to all of us, right?
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: That we would, that we would heed the warnings of God,
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: that we would put our faith in Jesus. So it's not.
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: You know, who's on the outside, he's still talking about all,
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: all of us, all people, um, unless we come to
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: faith in Christ. So, does that make sense? It's not a,
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: he's not talking about after the millennial reign, after this
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: and after that, then those people that are still on
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: the outside, this is a, a sum, uh, a sum,
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: a summation of the whole of, of the book of
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: Revelation for us. What do you think, Danny?
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: That made more sense to me than some of the
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: explanations I was getting. That was my, my thought. I,
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: I was curious, um, did you have time for another
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: just quick question? Sure.
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: Uh, in Genesis 3:6.
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: Um, hang on, I gotta flip my Bible the other
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: way now because I was just in Revelation. Now I
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: gotta go all the way to the front. So, Genesis 3:6,
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: go ahead. OK, 3:6 where, um,
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: Eve is being spoken to by the serpent.
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: And uh then she
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: Takes the fruit.
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: And she gives it to her husband who's with her.
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: So was Adam always there just listening silently while the
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: serpent was speaking to her, and he just
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: Silently just takes it, takes the fruit from her, both
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: listening to the serpent.
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: Hm, what do you think, Phil?
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: I think that um it's a great question, and I, I,
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: I think that we put too much into that phrase,
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: like for, for one, like, and again, it's a translation issue,
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: I would take away the word is with her, like
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: when you said that, um, uh she also gave to
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: her husband, who, who, uh who is with her, it's
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: just says husband with her. My guess is it's just
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: a reference to the fact that she was the wife
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: of that guy, not, uh, you know, like they're together.
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: I think that's just a statement of their togetherness. I
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: don't think that's an indication.
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: that Adam was just there and listening to this conversation
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: between the serpent and Eve. And then, you know, the
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: serpent deceived Eve, and then Adam was like, yeah, I'll
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: eat it. Ultimately, he did do that, but I, I, I,
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: I tend to believe that he probably may not have
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: been present.
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: Uh, when it actually occurred, but then she gave it
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: to her husband who was with her, the one that
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: was with her. She gave it to him and he
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: ate it that. So I'm not sure that Adam was
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: like standing around there just not paying attention, and then
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: Eve's like, Hey, eat this. Uh, OK, um, I have
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: a feeling that he was not there, and then she
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: later offered it to him. What do you think, Brian?
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I, I think
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: Bill's right, as, uh, you know, as much as we
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: could give an educated guess on it, um, it, it
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: would be odd, I think, if,
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: You know, to think, just to think about, you know,
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: Adam and Eve are together, they're going to the garden,
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: and then, you know, the serpent just comes up to
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: Eve and starts this conversation, and Adam, I don't know,
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: what's he doing, like looking at the trees, expecting, inspecting
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: some of the other fruit, the devil's, you know, deceiving Eve,
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: and then, uh, oh yeah, this, you know, the serpent
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: gave me this, told me to eat this one, let's
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: try it. I, yeah, I, I think.
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: I, I think he wasn't there. Um.
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: Where was he? We don't know. And some people have
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: even preached sermons on, you know, the fact that he
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: wasn't there, that the husband wasn't where he was supposed
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: to be, uh, uh, sort of protecting his wife, and
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: that's how she ended up in that predicament. So, um,
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: but we don't know, but I do, I do think
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: the best way to understand, um, who, who was with
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: her is with her more in a general sense rather
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: than with her at the moment.
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: And if you look at, yeah, if you look at
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: that verse, Genesis 3:6, the very end, that phrase could
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: have been removed and just said she also gave some
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: to her husband and he ate it. So, uh, the
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: fact that that extra few words is in there, you wonder, well,
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: why is that in there? Who I would, I, I
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: would even just since we're talking about it, the more
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: that I'm thinking on it too.
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: I would say, yeah, I'm not a, I, I, I
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: get the point, like you're right, Brian, I've heard that
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: same thing too, like, you know, had Adam been there, you,
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: you know, been there, you know, protecting his wife, maybe,
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: maybe not, but what I, what I tend to think
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: is that like, there's, there's so much power, you know,
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: like a, a two-fold cor cord is not easily broken, right?
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: There's like an accountability that would have been harder to
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: Like I, I'm almost, I mean, I'm certain that Adam
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: was not there because had he been there, the two
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: of them together probably would have been able to say, hey,
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: hold on a second, what's going on right now? Not
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: because he's stronger, but because, you know, just when you
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: have another, yeah, how, I mean, how many of us
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: have had the, the ideas that we're like, these are
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: the best ideas I've ever had, then you tell it
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: to somebody and you're like, that's the worst idea I've
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: ever had, cause you just said it out loud to
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: somebody else, right?
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: And the fact that like Adam wasn't there, there was
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: that lack of accountability, that was probably a very significant element.
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: Danny, thanks for your phone call today here on Pastor's Perspective, 888-564-6173.
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: Let's go to Fall. Brooke, speak with Lucretia, listening to
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: K Wave there. Hello, Lucretia, what's your question for us today?
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: Oh, my question is that, um, I used to be Catholic,
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: and I am a Christian, but I do still have
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: some friends, Catholics, and they don't know that I'm a Christian.
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: But I, um, I have a Bible study with them.
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: And so for them, I'm still Catholic. So, um, but
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: I have a question for you that regarding the, uh,
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: difference between the Catholic Bible and the Christian Bible, regarding, uh,
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: the Book of Judas, and the Book of Wisdom and
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: Zirak and Barak, and all these books that they are
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: not in the Christian Bible.
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: But, uh, I decided today, I said, OK, I have
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: to read this book, so that if they ask me,
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: at least I know exactly what's going on. But, um,
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: I'm a little confused. I am reading the book of Judith,
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: and I find that when is it true, this book?
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: Why these books are not included in the Christian Bible?
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: Uh, and if it's true, apparently this happened after they
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: came back from being slaves.
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: Uh, in, um, uh, with the Nabucadeser, right, they, they
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: make them slaves. So when they came back, they make
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: the temple again. Apparently this happened after the temple, uh,
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: the new temple, and, and it's very confusing to me
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: because they're talking about the same king, Nebucadezzar. And are
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: they two Nobucadezzars, or, or it's different Nobukatesar? Brian, what
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: do you say?
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: Ah, yeah, so, so first of all, um, those books
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: are commonly referred to as the Apocrypha.
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: And um these are books that were, uh, you know,
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: they're ancient Jewish literature, but among the Jews there was not.
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: Um, agreement as to their significance, um, generally they were
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: not seen as, uh, inspired like we would think of, um, in,
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: in the Jewish Bible. So the Jewish Bible of the time,
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: the Hebrew Bible, that Jesus would have.
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: Known did not contain those books. Those books were around,
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: but they were not seen as part of the canon.
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: When the Hebrew Bible was translated into Greek 200 years
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: before the time of Jesus, in the Greek translation, some
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: thought that they were inspired, so they had some sort
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: of place in the Greek translation, but they did not
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: hold a place in the Hebrew translation.
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: And nor, nor did Jesus or the apostles actually quote
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: from them, so.
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: The um
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: Early Christians followed.
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: A set of, a set of books that were established
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: that did not contain
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: Those books, so they're again they're Hebrew literature. A lot
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: of it has to do with um
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: You know, sort of in times, prophetic type of stuff, uh,
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: but they were not seen as inspired.
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: So the book of wisdom, that's different from the book
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: of Proverbs, that's in the Protestant Bible.
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah.
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: Yeah, so the Catholic Church, um,
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: The Catholic Church reinserted those books as a response to Protestantism.
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: So it was at the Council of Trent that it
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: was decided that they would reinsert the apocryphal book. So
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: the Catholic Bible is based on the translation of Jerome.
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: So Jerome is a 4th century church father who was
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: a scholar, and he translates the scriptures from Hebrew and
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: Greek into Latin.
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: So this is, we, we call it the Latin vulgate,
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: meaning the ah the common Latin.
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: And so Roman Catholicism used the Vulgate as their basis
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: for their translation. So the English translation of the Catholic
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: Bible comes from the Vulgate rather than from the Greek text,
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: which the Protestant Bible comes from the Greek text, and
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: Jerome did not um.
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: Believe that those apocryphal books were part of the canon,
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: and the canon means those those books that were identified
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: and recognized as inspired. Jerome did not believe that they were,
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: but he did believe that they were, they could be helpful,
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: so he put them in the Vulgate, not, he didn't
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: intersperse them into the Old Testament, but he put them
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: in a section by themselves, and so those books were
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: in the Vulgate, but they were separated.
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: Uh, to mark the fact that they were not, um,
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: inspired like the rest of the text was. Phil, did
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: you have any wisdom to add to that yourself? Nope, no,
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: that was great. Yeah, what, um, what that, that last
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: thing Brian was mentioning there is for the Catholic faith,
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: they have two groupings of what they would call canonical
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: or canon scripture.
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: The original proto and then the Deutero they call it
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: the second canon, which is what happened at the Council
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: of Trent in the 1500s. So yeah, yeah, it's, uh,
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: those books were around for a long, long time but
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: not quoted by the, the, the, the apostles or the
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: New Testament. Um, that was a great answer that Brian gave. Fantastic. Lucretia,
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: thank you for your phone call today here on Pastor's Perspective. Oh,
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: go ahead, ask her though, sure, if that helps that help.
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: Does it help you, Lucretia?
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: Oh, yes, yes, they, they do, um, but I still
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: have to be careful with my, um, Bible study group
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: because they are all Catholics, and, and this is in Spanish, uh, consequently, um,
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: it's not that common that people have Bible study in Spanish. Consequently,
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: I have this group of people, uh, from a Catholic church.
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: So when you say you have to be careful, what
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: do you mean by be careful?
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: Uh, because they are so afraid. Catholic Church has so
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: much fear that the Christians are not the real, um,
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: you know, religion, that the real God is, is really,
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: they have been taught a lot of lies. I know,
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: they're lies, but I cannot tell them, look, this is
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: a lie, because they might not trust me anymore. So
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: it's kind of a very delicate issue.
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: And I already have problem for a little bit there,
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: so I just don't want to touch that. I'm just
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: going to focus just in the Bible and period. And
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: we have a Christian Bible and, and that's that. Yeah, yeah,
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: that's good. And remember, remember that the, um, the New
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: Testament is identical, so there's no difference between the Catholic
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: New Testament and the.
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: Protestant New Testament, um, they're the same, the same number
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: of books. There's some translation differences of words and things,
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: but they're minor, uh, in many, many ways. In most
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: ways they're very minor. They're, you know, theological, but they
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: wouldn't necessarily be picked up by, you know, the average person. So,
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: if you, if you're focusing on the New Testament, then
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: you don't have anything.
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: To worry about and then there's so many other books
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: of the Old Testament, you know, I don't know why
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: you would even need to go into the apocryphal books
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: because um there are so many others. When I first
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: became a Christian, I had been um reading my Catholic
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: Bible because I was raised in Roman Catholicism and in
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: kind of my journey of coming to uh faith in
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: Jesus I.
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: Sort of went back to my roots in Catholicism and
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: so I had a Catholic Bible and I read it
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: and I remember uh then, you know, coming to really
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: know the Lord and I remember, um, you know, finding
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: out that, uh, Daniel uh only had 12 chapters, not
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: 14 chapters in my Catholic Bible, Daniel had 14 chapters.
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: And there was um an additional story there that I
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: thought was amazing, and yet I found out later it
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: was more of a myth that was sort of tacked
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: on to the end of Daniel, so.
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: Anyway,
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: Stick with the New Testament and you won't.
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: You won't have any, any trouble.
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: This is true. Lucretia, thank you for your phone call
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: today on Pastor's Perspective, and I will talk to Paul
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: in Riverside who watches us on YouTube. So let's wave
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: hi to Paul. Thank you, Paul, for calling 888-564-6173.
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: Oh, thank you for taking my call. Um, I'm studying
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: the book of Judges in the chapter 14 verse 1
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: to 3. Samson wants a wife from the Philistines, and
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: uh verse 3, his mom and dad trying to convince
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: her that it's not a good idea. What I'm concerned
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: is verse 4. It says, um, mom and dad, they
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: don't know this is of the Lord. What does that mean?
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: His parents did not know that this is from the Lord,
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: that Samson, Samson said to his father, get her for me,
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: she's the right one for me. His parents didn't know
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: that this was from the Lord. Phil, what does that mean?
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's, yeah, I, I could see where that would
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: be confusing, very, very good question because it, it reads
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: kind of confusing. The idea is that God was working
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: something out. He was gonna, even through Samson's disobedience, the
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: Lord was still working, and so his parents are kind
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: of unaware of it, and so, but they didn't know
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: that it was of the Lord, not meaning that God,
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: it was like that the, the, the direct will of God,
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: but that God was going to use this for his purposes. So,
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: It's a bit of a tricky way of saying that, uh, it,
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: but it, it just simply means his parents were trying
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: to do what they knew was right, but they didn't
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: know that this was also going to be used of God.
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: Does that make sense, Paul?
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it is. It's what I thought. It is uh
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: similar to when God order the prophet, uh, what it
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: was Josea to marry a prostitute.
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: Um, well, I don't know. Yeah, go ahead, Brian. Yeah, please,
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: please go ahead.
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I, I don't, I don't think it's, it's that
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: similar because remember the prostitute that God was calling Hosea
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: to marry was his wife who had gone into prostitution
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: and he was calling him to take her back. So, um,
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: and you know God was using that as an analogy
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: of although Israel has been perpetually unfaithful to him, he
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: still loved them and he would restore them, so.
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: It's, it's, it's not quite the same thing, but, but
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: for us, when we read about, uh, you know, God
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: commanding Hosea to take, uh, a prostitute, that is kind
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: of shocking. You're like, wait, why, why would God do that? So. Yes. OK, OK,
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: so God is using the foolishness of Samson to go
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: to the Philistines.
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: Yes, exactly. OK, that's what I thought. Thank you very much. Uh,
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: now everything is clear. I can sleep.
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: Good. We're glad to help you with that. Yes, and
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: then when you get to Judges 15, call us back.
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: 888-564-6173 is the number to call us today here on
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: Pastor's Perspective with Brian Broderson and Phil Metzger answering your questions.
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: Here's David and Mission Viejo. What did you want to know, David?
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: David, are you with us?
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: David, did you pressed mute on your phone?
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: Dave, OK, so let's find out. Oh there he is. Hello, David. Welcome. Oh,
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: hey guys, sorry about that. I'm on a, I'm in
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: a Toyota Prius, electrical. I'm trying to figure this out.
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: Um, it's a Prius, that's all, yeah, we, we know.
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah. Joking, joking.
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: I don't know, I know it's 6 bucks a gallon.
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: I'm grateful. But anyway, uh, my question is something I've
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: been pondering. It's kind of, I could never understand the
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: parable about, um, the rich man in Lazarus when the
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: rich man called over to Abraham and asked Abraham to
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: send Lazarus up to tell his brothers how bad it
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: is down there, so they wouldn't have come that way
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: they wouldn't end up down where, where the rich man
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: is when they die.
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: And uh uh Abraham said no, he denied his request
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: because he said all they need is the scriptures, OK?
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: Then at the cross.
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: 10 apostles, excluding, of course, Judas and Thomas, were there,
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: and then 3 days later, Jesus walked into the room,
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: and all the apostles believed. They, they died torturous death.
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: They believed it so, so strongly. A week later, Jesus
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: walks in the room and there's Thomas, and Jesus, the
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: famous verse, which I think is the most important verse,
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: says to Tom Thomas, you've seen me and you believe.
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: Paraphrase. Big deal. Blessed are those who haven't seen and believed. So,
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: my question is, I guess, and, don't listen too closely,
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: you're gonna get hit by a lightning bolt. But John 3:16,
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: that's the most poignant verse in the Bible, the whole
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: world that knows anything about the Bible knows that verse.
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: For God's all over the world, to give His only
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: begotten Son, that who believe in Him shall not perish
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: but have ever everlasting life.
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: To me, Jesus was implying, yes, she couldn't believe, but
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: he's looking for faith.
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: Just like Abraham
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: You see
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: How we're losing you there in the, in the Prius there, David.
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: Hello, you still with us?
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: Uh,
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: Man, I think what David's trying to get to is the, the,
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: in the parable, Abraham says, uh, if someone from the
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: dead goes to them, they will repent. I'm sorry, Lazarus, no, yes,
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: and then, uh, Abraham said, if they do not, no,
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: hang on, I'm, I'm missing, missing my place here, um.
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: If they do not
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: They will not be convinced even if someone rises from
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: the dead, that's the portion I wanted to get to.
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: So that portion, but obviously all these years later, then
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: Jesus did rise from the dead and people do believe.
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I, I mean, I'll start, uh.
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: David, let no one despise you for your Prius, first
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: of all, let's just start there. Don't be, don't be
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: despised or dejected, bro. It's OK. I have a white Prius,
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: it's very lame. I love it. OK. Uh, all right,
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: I moved on from there. Um, I, I think one
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: thing that I'd wanna start with is, it's, and I
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: think it's kind of fundamental to understanding the passage, maybe
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: both passages, is that, um, I, I'm not certain, and
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: I don't believe that the rich man and Lazarus is
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: a parable.
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: I, uh, and I think the reason it's not a
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: parable is, or one of the reasons is that in,
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: you know, usually when Jesus told parables, the names were
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: not included, but this one, this is a, this is Lazarus.
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: There's a person named here, uh, and so, I would
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: want us to say I'm not sure that this is
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: a parable at all, which has implications. Here's what it means.
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: When Abraham says to the rich man, if you would
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: only send this person to my brothers and all that,
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: He's not saying that resurrection isn't significant and isn't a
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: huge factor. Of course, Jesus rising from the dead is everything.
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: What Abraham is saying there is that, that the the
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: greater witness is not if some aunt or uncle came
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: back from the dead or, or Moses alone, but that
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: we have the word of God, we have the living
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: word of God.
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: That is backed up by the living word of God
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: who rose from the dead. So we have the scriptures
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: that are alive, that are empowered by the living Son
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: who rose from the dead. And so he's not saying
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: resurrection has no value, he's just saying that the scriptures
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: are of greater value than somebody rising from the, you know,
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: we all hear stories about people that are, um, you know, oh,
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: I
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: I, I died and I went to heaven and we're
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: all like, yeah, OK, let's move on to the next
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: TikTok or the next Instagram reel. Um, why? It's hard
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: to know what's real, what's not. So, uh, Jesus rising
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: from the dead is not the same as what Abraham
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: was saying in that moment. All right, we'll hear if
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: Pastor Brian has anything to add when we return here
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: on Pastor's perspective.
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: Alright, we are back here on Pastor's Perspective. 888-564-6173 is
• 30:25
  Speaker 1: the number to call until 4 o'clock Pacific time today, Tuesday.
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: We'd love to hear from you if you've got a
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: question about the Bible, the Christian faith, just about anything
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: that's on your mind. David called in from his Prius
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: with a question from Luke chapter 16. We heard what
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: uh Phil said. Brian, what say you?
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: Um, yeah, I like a Prius, you know, they're not bad.
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: Yes.
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: How's that for an endorsement? Maybe Prius will use that
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: on their next TV commercial. Brian Broderson said, I like
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: a Prius. They're not that bad.
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I, I think going back to, you know, the
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: question and what Philip said, I don't, I don't know
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: that we ever really exactly knew where David was going
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: to land on that, because he did get cut off.
• 31:13
  Speaker 1: But I think, you know, Jesus is saying, um, basically,
• 31:18
  Speaker 1: you know, he's talking to the religious leaders who claim
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: to believe the word of God.
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: Um, you know, Lazarus says, uh, you know, send, send
• 31:30
  Speaker 1: my brother, or, or not Lazarus, but the, you know, the,
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: the rich man, so, you know, um, send Lazarus back
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: to my brothers so he can, you know, tell them
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: they don't, they don't wanna come here.
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: And Jesus says if they have Moses and the prophets,
• 31:47
  Speaker 1: and if they don't believe Moses and the prophets, they
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: won't believe even if one were to rise from the dead.
• 31:51
  Speaker 1: Jesus is actually predicting what's going to happen in the future,
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: and he's also showing they actually don't believe Moses and
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: the prophets. That was their claim.
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: And remember, oftentimes they were like, hey, we believe in Moses.
• 32:07
  Speaker 1: Who are you? You know, we're, we're not going to
• 32:09
  Speaker 1: listen to you. We're the disciples of Moses. So Jesus
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: is just showing that they're really not the disciples of Moses,
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: and even though he's going to rise from the dead,
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: they're still not going to believe because they, they don't believe.
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: Uh, in the scriptures themselves, even though they are the
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: custodians of scripture, which is the crazy thing, but this
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: kind of thing has obviously been repeated in the history
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: of the church as well, so.
• 32:37
  Speaker 1: David did call us back. I don't know if he
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: heard any of our answers. What do you think of him, David?
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: Uh, can you hear me? Yeah.
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: Yes. No, now I can't.
• 32:52
  Speaker 1: You disappeared again. Can, can you hear me now? Yes,
• 32:55
  Speaker 1: trying to take it off. OK. What about the 10 apostles?
• 33:00
  Speaker 1: That were
• 33:02
  Speaker 1: Uh, in the upper room during the three days that
• 33:05
  Speaker 1: Jesus was on the cross, they had the scriptures.
• 33:08
  Speaker 1: But they didn't believe.
• 33:11
  Speaker 1: It took Jesus walking through the wall to convince them
• 33:15
  Speaker 1: that this is real.
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: And then when he told, yeah, I don't, I don't
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: think they did it. I don't think it was a
• 33:21
  Speaker 1: matter of not believing. I think it was a matter
• 33:23
  Speaker 1: of not knowing. Nobody knew the Messiah was even going
• 33:26
  Speaker 1: to die, let alone rise from the dead. This was
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: like the most shocking revelation of all, because there was
• 33:35
  Speaker 1: a fixed idea, there was a fixed messianic idea that
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: everybody grew up with. Jesus was correcting that throughout his
• 33:44
  Speaker 1: public ministry.
• 33:45
  Speaker 1: But even right up to the point of the cross,
• 33:49
  Speaker 1: they still were not getting it, so it wasn't that
• 33:52
  Speaker 1: they didn't believe as much as they didn't know, and
• 33:56
  Speaker 1: once they knew, then of course they did believe.
• 34:00
  Speaker 1: So Jesus, so Jesus wasn't making a distinction between the
• 34:04
  Speaker 1: apostles when he said,
• 34:08
  Speaker 1: Who that believe.
• 34:11
  Speaker 1: No, I'm sorry. When, when Jesus said to Thomas, Thomas,
• 34:15
  Speaker 1: you've seen me and you believe, he wasn't making reference
• 34:18
  Speaker 1: to the apostles that saw him a week earlier.
• 34:22
  Speaker 1: They saw and believe, but blessed are those who don't.
• 34:24
  Speaker 1: Look at.
• 34:27
  Speaker 1: Well, I don't, I don't know that Jesus was doing
• 34:31
  Speaker 1: anything with Thomas other than
• 34:33
  Speaker 1: You know, helping, helping him because Thomas was having a
• 34:38
  Speaker 1: hard time, you know, he was skeptical, and so he
• 34:42
  Speaker 1: was having a hard time. And, you know, and then
• 34:45
  Speaker 1: of course, Jesus, you know, here's my hands, you know,
• 34:49
  Speaker 1: touch them, put your hand on my side, see that
• 34:51
  Speaker 1: it's me.
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: Um, and then Thomas, my Lord and my God, and
• 34:57
  Speaker 1: then Jesus says, you know, because you've seen, you believe,
• 34:59
  Speaker 1: blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed,
• 35:02
  Speaker 1: which would basically be everybody else right down to the
• 35:05
  Speaker 1: very day that we are living, you know, the vast
• 35:08
  Speaker 1: majority of people, uh, have not seen Jesus because he
• 35:12
  Speaker 1: hasn't been here, but we, but we believe. So I,
• 35:15
  Speaker 1: I don't know that there was a big, um.
• 35:18
  Speaker 1: Thing that he was doing between Thomas and the and
• 35:21
  Speaker 1: the rest of the apostles.
• 35:24
  Speaker 1: All right, 888-564-6173. David, thanks for your phone call today.
• 35:29
  Speaker 1: And now here's John in Los Angeles listening on Kwave 11:10. Hey, John,
• 35:34
  Speaker 1: what did you wanna know?
• 35:36
  Speaker 1: Well, I've got a couple of things going. The first
• 35:37
  Speaker 1: one that confuses me a bit is how Adam and
• 35:40
  Speaker 1: Eve screwed up in the beginning and then the entire
• 35:42
  Speaker 1: humanity has to pay the price of born in sin.
• 35:45
  Speaker 1: That's difficult for me to grasp. I know we're thinking
• 35:47
  Speaker 1: in God's mind, so, so it's hard, but that would
• 35:50
  Speaker 1: be the first one is why does humanity pay for
• 35:53
  Speaker 1: two people's sins born in sin. And then the second
• 35:56
  Speaker 1: one is, uh, uh, you know, if you pray and
• 36:00
  Speaker 1: how come sometimes you, you pray and you don't, you don't.
• 36:04
  Speaker 1: It's something important in your life, it just, it doesn't happen.
• 36:06
  Speaker 1: Is it, is it because one's heart is hardened, or,
• 36:10
  Speaker 1: you know, what exactly is going on where God just
• 36:12
  Speaker 1: doesn't answer the prayer? Uh, uh, you know, those, I'll
• 36:15
  Speaker 1: just leave it at those two. OK, Phil, we'll start
• 36:18
  Speaker 1: with you. Do you want to answer both or one
• 36:20
  Speaker 1: or the other?
• 36:23
  Speaker 1: I will unmute myself and I'll, I'll start with the
• 36:25
  Speaker 1: first one just cause I remembered it, um, cause I was,
• 36:28
  Speaker 1: I was focused there, um.
• 36:30
  Speaker 1: It's a great question, and I would, I would want
• 36:33
  Speaker 1: to make the point that we are not.
• 36:37
  Speaker 1: to be really clear, we're not, we are not, um,
• 36:39
  Speaker 1: punished because of Adam and Eve's sin only. I, uh,
• 36:44
  Speaker 1: how do I say this? Uh, let me read this,
• 36:46
  Speaker 1: Romans chapter 5, verse 12. Therefore, just as through one
• 36:50
  Speaker 1: man sin entered the world and death through sin, and
• 36:53
  Speaker 1: thus death spread to all men because all sinned.
• 36:57
  Speaker 1: The Bible is telling us that sin entered through Adam
• 37:01
  Speaker 1: and Eve, and then spread to all of us. It's
• 37:04
  Speaker 1: not that, it's not simply like Adam sinned and the
• 37:07
  Speaker 1: rest of us, like Adam sinned and then 400 years later,
• 37:11
  Speaker 1: there was a guy that was perfect, but he can't
• 37:13
  Speaker 1: be perfect because of Adam's sin. He's, he's going to
• 37:16
  Speaker 1: hell as well. No, no, no. All have sinned, and
• 37:20
  Speaker 1: it began with Adam. That's, there's, that's a, that's very
• 37:23
  Speaker 1: different than like,
• 37:25
  Speaker 1: I'm not, I, I'm not, um, as according to the scripture,
• 37:29
  Speaker 1: if I didn't have Christ in my life, I am
• 37:31
  Speaker 1: not going to hell because Adam did something thousands and
• 37:34
  Speaker 1: thousands of years ago, but because that happened thousands and
• 37:36
  Speaker 1: thousands of years ago, all have sinned, sin entered into
• 37:40
  Speaker 1: the world, the Bible says here in Romans 5.
• 37:42
  Speaker 1: And through, uh, birth, we're all just perpetuating, and we've
• 37:47
  Speaker 1: all sinned. So, I am my own sinner all by myself,
• 37:51
  Speaker 1: and so are you, and so is all of humanity,
• 37:54
  Speaker 1: and it began with Adam. Brian.
• 38:00
  Speaker 1: Yeah, there's a, um, there's a a theological kind of
• 38:04
  Speaker 1: an idea or term um where Jesus has understood to
• 38:09
  Speaker 1: be the federal head of humanity.
• 38:12
  Speaker 1: So as the federal head, as or Adam, I'm sorry,
• 38:18
  Speaker 1: is the federal head of humanity, he is the first human,
• 38:22
  Speaker 1: and so he acts on behalf of all of humanity
• 38:29
  Speaker 1: and so in his act, he acted in ways that
• 38:35
  Speaker 1: we would think, well, I wouldn't have done that if
• 38:37
  Speaker 1: I was Adam. I would, I would have said to Eve,
• 38:39
  Speaker 1: you know, put that.
• 38:41
  Speaker 1: Put that fruit down, you know, don't touch that. Um,
• 38:44
  Speaker 1: we probably all would have just done exactly what Adam did,
• 38:48
  Speaker 1: because we all descended from Adam, so the idea that
• 38:52
  Speaker 1: he's the federal head means that he acted.
• 38:56
  Speaker 1: And his act then was passed on to us and
• 39:01
  Speaker 1: think of like the federal government that we in America,
• 39:05
  Speaker 1: we live under the federal government. The federal government makes
• 39:07
  Speaker 1: lots of decisions that none of us like and none
• 39:10
  Speaker 1: of us agree with, and if it was up to us,
• 39:14
  Speaker 1: that's not the decision we would have made. But nevertheless,
• 39:18
  Speaker 1: the federal government acted, made a decision.
• 39:22
  Speaker 1: There's legislation. It becomes a law, and now we're all
• 39:26
  Speaker 1: living under it regardless because that's what the federal government does.
• 39:31
  Speaker 1: And so likewise, Adam is the federal head, so he
• 39:36
  Speaker 1: acts and we participate in his act.
• 39:41
  Speaker 1: So that, that is a a theological position that I
• 39:45
  Speaker 1: think helps us understand a little bit about what happened there.
• 39:50
  Speaker 1: All right, and John's other question was about unanswered prayer.
• 39:53
  Speaker 1: We'll start with you, Brian.
• 39:57
  Speaker 1: Well, yeah, unanswered prayer. I mean, you know, all of
• 40:02
  Speaker 1: us have probably had things that we prayed for that
• 40:06
  Speaker 1: We say unanswered, but what we probably should say is
• 40:11
  Speaker 1: it wasn't the answer that we prayed for.
• 40:14
  Speaker 1: You know, because, uh, no is an answer. It's just
• 40:18
  Speaker 1: not the answer that we wanted.
• 40:21
  Speaker 1: So, you know, when we ask God for things and
• 40:26
  Speaker 1: he doesn't do the things that we're asking him for,
• 40:30
  Speaker 1: we
• 40:31
  Speaker 1: We think, well, God doesn't answer prayer, well, you know,
• 40:34
  Speaker 1: he just didn't do the thing that we thought he
• 40:38
  Speaker 1: should do, and the simple reason for that is because
• 40:41
  Speaker 1: God knows things that we don't know. He knows.
• 40:45
  Speaker 1: Everything we know very little, and so he acts according
• 40:51
  Speaker 1: to his
• 40:53
  Speaker 1: Uh, perfect understanding and wisdom and so forth, and he answers, um.
• 40:59
  Speaker 1: You know, prayers based on that. There's a statement by
• 41:03
  Speaker 1: um
• 41:04
  Speaker 1: Pastor Tim Keller.
• 41:06
  Speaker 1: Who said,
• 41:08
  Speaker 1: If, um, if we knew what God knew.
• 41:13
  Speaker 1: Then we would
• 41:16
  Speaker 1: Um
• 41:18
  Speaker 1: Our prayers would be much different.
• 41:21
  Speaker 1: You know, no.
• 41:25
  Speaker 1: prayer.
• 41:26
  Speaker 1: OK
• 41:28
  Speaker 1: Oh, is that Cheryl? OK. This is Cheryl. She's here
• 41:32
  Speaker 1: to help me today. She's in the background. Why is
• 41:36
  Speaker 1: Brian even on this, honestly? Why is he here? And,
• 41:39
  Speaker 1: and I knew I was butchering that, and I knew
• 41:42
  Speaker 1: she was gonna chime in, and thankfully she did because
• 41:45
  Speaker 1: what she said is actually that's sweet. OK, say it
• 41:50
  Speaker 1: one more time, nice and loud so we can all
• 41:52
  Speaker 1: hear it, and I'll repeat it.
• 41:56
  Speaker 1: God answers our prayer.
• 41:59
  Speaker 1: The way.
• 42:03
  Speaker 1: We would want it answered if we knew what God knew.
• 42:06
  Speaker 1: Ah
• 42:08
  Speaker 1: That's it. That's it, yes.
• 42:12
  Speaker 1: So let me check in with you. Yes, John, what
• 42:15
  Speaker 1: do you think of these answers?
• 42:17
  Speaker 1: Uh, well, yeah, the, the first one I guess is
• 42:19
  Speaker 1: a little hard to grasp just because I, I know
• 42:22
  Speaker 1: that we're OK, we're born in sin, and then I
• 42:24
  Speaker 1: ask myself this question is what, what would have happened
• 42:27
  Speaker 1: if we, if those first two would have never sinned?
• 42:30
  Speaker 1: Would we have known sin? Because I think it says
• 42:32
  Speaker 1: in the Bible that
• 42:33
  Speaker 1: The, the, the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
• 42:35
  Speaker 1: So we wouldn't have known evil, I think, if, if
• 42:38
  Speaker 1: Adam and Eve would have never sinned. We wouldn't have
• 42:40
  Speaker 1: known evil. So therefore, would we have known what sin was?
• 42:44
  Speaker 1: That's the, the first one that I, you know, I just,
• 42:46
  Speaker 1: I asked that question. And then the second one is, yes, uh,
• 42:49
  Speaker 1: the prayers.
• 42:50
  Speaker 1: Uh, I think sometimes I wonder if it's like the,
• 42:53
  Speaker 1: like the story of Pharaoh where, you know, God hardened
• 42:55
  Speaker 1: his heart, uh, you know, could that happen to people? I,
• 42:58
  Speaker 1: I think it's in the Bible as well. Could that
• 42:59
  Speaker 1: be one of the reasons? I'm not really sure, but that,
• 43:02
  Speaker 1: you know, the, the, the answering of prayer sometimes is, uh, uh,
• 43:06
  Speaker 1: is important when it's important prayers that aren't, aren't answered
• 43:10
  Speaker 1: or taken care of. And then you wonder if it's
• 43:13
  Speaker 1: just one's heart that's hardened or, you know, like the
• 43:15
  Speaker 1: story of Pharaoh kind of thing. That, that's what I
• 43:17
  Speaker 1: wonder about those two questions.
• 43:20
  Speaker 1: Mm
• 43:22
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I think the prayer thing is just simply, um,
• 43:25
  Speaker 1: you know, because many of us have prayed, I think,
• 43:29
  Speaker 1: legitimate prayers, sincere prayers, prayers that we really, really wanted
• 43:35
  Speaker 1: God to answer, and we thought that if he answered
• 43:38
  Speaker 1: them the way we ask, that would be the absolute
• 43:40
  Speaker 1: right way for it to be answered. And then, you know, he,
• 43:44
  Speaker 1: he didn't answer it that way. And, um, and so
• 43:48
  Speaker 1: we're left sort of wondering like, well, gosh, you know, why.
• 43:52
  Speaker 1: Why didn't God, when my son-in-law died 6 months ago, um,
• 43:57
  Speaker 1: we prayed, fervently for him for a whole week. We
• 44:01
  Speaker 1: hardly slept. We were in the hospital for 7 days.
• 44:04
  Speaker 1: We were crying out to God and asking God to
• 44:07
  Speaker 1: touch him and heal him, and the Lord took him home,
• 44:10
  Speaker 1: and it's like, wow, you know, that's not what we wanted,
• 44:14
  Speaker 1: and it's not even what we thought would be the best.
• 44:17
  Speaker 1: Um, scenario, but, but that is what happened and so
• 44:21
  Speaker 1: that's where we have to now kind of regroup and say, OK, Lord,
• 44:27
  Speaker 1: we thought this, but you chose that and so.
• 44:33
  Speaker 1: We don't understand it, but knowing that God knows all things,
• 44:40
  Speaker 1: we rest in his, um, greater wisdom and trust in
• 44:47
  Speaker 1: His love.
• 44:49
  Speaker 1: John, thanks for your questions today here on Pastor's Perspective.
• 44:53
  Speaker 1: Now we're gonna go to April in Monterey Park, who
• 44:55
  Speaker 1: has somewhat of a similar question as, as John's question
• 44:58
  Speaker 1: about uh unanswered prayer, at least it seems like it.
• 45:01
  Speaker 1: April watches us on YouTube. Thank you, April, for watching
• 45:05
  Speaker 1: and uh thanks for calling 888-564-6173. What's up?
• 45:11
  Speaker 2: Uh, yes, I'm calling because my question is kind of
• 45:15
  Speaker 2: similar in a way. The question, just super quick background
• 45:20
  Speaker 2: is my nieces and nephews come from a very, very
• 45:23
  Speaker 2: extremely
• 45:24
  Speaker 2: A violent home. They've had a hard time and they have, um,
• 45:30
  Speaker 2: the girls have gone to mental behavior health hospitals and
• 45:34
  Speaker 2: tried to take their life multiple times. The little one
• 45:37
  Speaker 2: got attacked in the mental health home, and on top
• 45:42
  Speaker 2: of that, about a million other bad things have happened
• 45:45
  Speaker 2: that I cannot even, don't have time to explain over
• 45:48
  Speaker 2: the phone.
• 45:49
  Speaker 2: And so everybody says every time I call into this
• 45:53
  Speaker 2: show you all always say pray, pray, pray, and I've
• 45:56
  Speaker 2: been praying like crazy. The, the kids have been praying,
• 46:00
  Speaker 2: we're praying for the deliverance of their parents not to
• 46:04
  Speaker 2: be this way anymore.
• 46:06
  Speaker 2: And every single week, something else bad happens. And so
• 46:10
  Speaker 2: I remember Pastor Phil said last week something to the
• 46:13
  Speaker 2: effect of, we really don't have peace, and I remember
• 46:17
  Speaker 2: another pastor said, we really don't have protection. So if
• 46:21
  Speaker 2: we don't have peace and we don't have protection, how
• 46:24
  Speaker 2: are we supposed to have faith if we're watching little
• 46:27
  Speaker 2: kids constantly being basically treated poorly.
• 46:32
  Speaker 2: Are we being punished to the 3rd and 4th generation?
• 46:36
  Speaker 2: Did we do something wrong, or do we just have
• 46:38
  Speaker 2: to watch these kids continue to suffer? Because it's not
• 46:42
  Speaker 2: like I don't pray. I've been praying like crazy for
• 46:45
  Speaker 2: the family to be delivered, to be saved, because I
• 46:49
  Speaker 2: thought that being saved was God's will, along with sharing
• 46:52
  Speaker 2: the gospel. And if these parents are saved, then God's
• 46:56
  Speaker 2: will would be done, but none of this is happening.
• 47:01
  Speaker 1: Phil, what do you say to April?
• 47:04
  Speaker 1: Uh, April, it's a lot, and, uh, thanks, thank you, um.
• 47:08
  Speaker 1: I can't, I don't know about the protection thing. I
• 47:10
  Speaker 1: don't remember that part, but I know I did talk
• 47:11
  Speaker 1: about peace and only just to bring that up to say,
• 47:14
  Speaker 1: I absolutely believe in the peace of God. The issue
• 47:17
  Speaker 1: that we were raising in that particular question last week
• 47:20
  Speaker 1: had to do with, you know, how, you know, did,
• 47:23
  Speaker 1: is peace the indicator or like, you know, if I
• 47:27
  Speaker 1: don't have peace, could it still be God's will? And
• 47:29
  Speaker 1: the answer is yes. You don't have to always have
• 47:32
  Speaker 1: peace in order for God to be working.
• 47:34
  Speaker 1: The truth, OK, so, you don't wanna, and I agree
• 47:36
  Speaker 1: with you, like you're, you've, you, this, this is terrible
• 47:39
  Speaker 1: what's happening to these kids and you're saying, we're always
• 47:41
  Speaker 1: telling you just to pray. Let me, let me make a,
• 47:43
  Speaker 1: let me pivot this a little bit. Get the kids
• 47:45
  Speaker 1: out of that home.
• 47:47
  Speaker 1: How's that for praying? You get him out of there.
• 47:51
  Speaker 1: Get the police involved if you have to bring them
• 47:53
  Speaker 1: into your home for a season. Um, I mean, honestly,
• 47:57
  Speaker 1: like when, when we say to pray, and then I'll,
• 47:59
  Speaker 1: I want, I want you to get to share again, April,
• 48:00
  Speaker 1: but when we say pray, we're not saying only pray
• 48:04
  Speaker 1: and don't do anything else as God's, we believe in
• 48:06
  Speaker 1: the protection of children. That's like, that's like, that, that,
• 48:09
  Speaker 1: that's ground zero. If a child is being abused and
• 48:12
  Speaker 1: there's the capacity to, to do something.
• 48:15
  Speaker 1: You know, whatever is not, uh, you know, if we,
• 48:18
  Speaker 1: if we don't do good, then what are we doing
• 48:19
  Speaker 1: in the world? So definitely, man, get them out of
• 48:21
  Speaker 1: that situation. And, um, having faith and believing God doesn't
• 48:27
  Speaker 1: mean it always works out the way we're wanting, and
• 48:28
  Speaker 1: that's a terrible thing that you're living through and you're,
• 48:30
  Speaker 1: and those kids are living through even more. But I
• 48:33
  Speaker 1: would say like, you know, people get frustrated, and I
• 48:35
  Speaker 1: get it, man, when we say just
• 48:37
  Speaker 1: Or we say to pray, but it's not just pray,
• 48:40
  Speaker 1: it means pray and believe that maybe God wants to
• 48:42
  Speaker 1: use you, April, to get those kids they gotta get
• 48:45
  Speaker 1: out of the situation that they're in. Is that a possibility?
• 48:47
  Speaker 1: Is it possible?
• 48:50
  Speaker 2: One of the girls is with me now.
• 48:53
  Speaker 1: Great.
• 48:54
  Speaker 1: Good for you. That's awesome. And you know, I mean,
• 48:58
  Speaker 1: psychological damage, yeah, I mean, that, that, gosh, this, this
• 49:01
  Speaker 1: so fits to the last question that we were talking
• 49:03
  Speaker 1: about that like, seriously, this world is corrupted on so many,
• 49:07
  Speaker 1: and who's paying for it? It's our children and who have,
• 49:11
  Speaker 1: they have no reason, they, they don't deserve it at all, um,
• 49:14
  Speaker 1: but good for you. I'm glad that you were able
• 49:16
  Speaker 1: to at least get one of them out of that home.
• 49:21
  Speaker 1: Brian, would you add anything?
• 49:26
  Speaker 1: Well, I, you know, I would just say that, um, I, I,
• 49:29
  Speaker 1: you know, Phil.
• 49:32
  Speaker 1: Mentioned the um.
• 49:34
  Speaker 1: You know, the issue of the peace, and then she
• 49:36
  Speaker 1: also brought up the idea of protection.
• 49:39
  Speaker 1: And you know, I think we have to understand that protection.
• 49:44
  Speaker 1: Um, we, we find in Scripture that of course God,
• 49:48
  Speaker 1: you know, does protect His people, but we also find
• 49:52
  Speaker 1: in Scripture that there are times when that protection seems
• 49:58
  Speaker 1: to be absent. I mean, you know, think of all
• 50:02
  Speaker 1: of the people in Scripture who suffered, all of the
• 50:05
  Speaker 1: people who died, all of the people who lived through.
• 50:09
  Speaker 1: Horrific events like the destruction of Jerusalem and things like that,
• 50:17
  Speaker 1: and then think of all the Christians throughout history who
• 50:20
  Speaker 1: think of the early Christians who were thrown to the
• 50:23
  Speaker 1: wild beast in the arenas and, you know, think of
• 50:26
  Speaker 1: the apostles and so I, I think we have to
• 50:30
  Speaker 1: understand that we just because we're Christians doesn't mean.
• 50:35
  Speaker 1: That we might not suffer severely. You think of the martyrs,
• 50:39
  Speaker 1: the people that were, you know, burned at the stake
• 50:42
  Speaker 1: and things like this. I mean that would, you would
• 50:45
  Speaker 1: look at that and say, well, where was God's protection? Well,
• 50:49
  Speaker 1: God at times allows these things to happen, but of
• 50:53
  Speaker 1: course they were immediately received into glory once they expired
• 50:59
  Speaker 1: through whatever kind of suffering they were experiencing.
• 51:04
  Speaker 1: And we still have those kinds of things going on
• 51:06
  Speaker 1: in the world today. We have horrible things going on,
• 51:09
  Speaker 1: and Christians are not exempt from horrible things. And why
• 51:13
  Speaker 1: God seems to protect one person on one occasion and
• 51:18
  Speaker 1: then it's a different situation on another, we don't know.
• 51:21
  Speaker 1: There's a great picture of it in the
• 51:24
  Speaker 1: The book of Acts you have James, who Herod rises
• 51:30
  Speaker 1: up against the church, and he puts James to death
• 51:33
  Speaker 1: by the sword, and then he proceeds to seek to
• 51:38
  Speaker 1: do the same thing with Peter.
• 51:40
  Speaker 1: So James dies, he's put to death by Herod. Herod
• 51:43
  Speaker 1: then goes after Peter, and Peter escapes because of the
• 51:49
  Speaker 1: assistance of an angel. Well, why didn't God send the
• 51:52
  Speaker 1: angel to get James out of the predicament as well?
• 51:55
  Speaker 1: We don't know. And these are the realities that I
• 51:59
  Speaker 1: think if we just assume always, well, of course we're
• 52:02
  Speaker 1: going to always be protected, um, we might be in
• 52:07
  Speaker 1: for a big shock when things go ways.
• 52:10
  Speaker 1: Uh, differently than we than we think we did. So we,
• 52:12
  Speaker 1: so we have to have a, my point is we
• 52:14
  Speaker 1: have to have a, a broader and a rounder vision
• 52:19
  Speaker 1: and picture of, of what's going on in the Christian life. Um, yes,
• 52:24
  Speaker 1: sometimes we're going to be divinely protected, like Peter Wells.
• 52:28
  Speaker 1: Sometimes that protection, for whatever reason, is not going to
• 52:33
  Speaker 1: be there, and we're going to die like James did.
• 52:38
  Speaker 1: April, thank you for your phone call today here on
• 52:40
  Speaker 1: Pastor's Perspective and uh let's read one that was sent
• 52:44
  Speaker 1: in on Facebook cause we're running out of time here.
• 52:47
  Speaker 1: Aurora in Omaha, Nebraska asks, why did God wrestle Jacob?
• 52:53
  Speaker 1: It seems random. Was there a point? What is the
• 52:57
  Speaker 1: point of this passage there, Phil Metzger?
• 53:01
  Speaker 1: Uh, uh, to the random part, totally. It, it definitely
• 53:04
  Speaker 1: feels random. I, I totally agree. It's like, uh, uh,
• 53:08
  Speaker 1: a wrestle match, really. Uh, but I think we're looking at,
• 53:11
  Speaker 1: there's a whole bunch of points that happened there in
• 53:13
  Speaker 1: that story. Um, but is it random? Absolutely. Let's not,
• 53:17
  Speaker 1: let's not deny that. That's, it's half the fun of
• 53:19
  Speaker 1: the Bible is like sometimes random stuff gets in there
• 53:22
  Speaker 1: and you're like, why? And you just, we just don't know.
• 53:25
  Speaker 1: I mean, one day we're gonna stand, we're gonna be
• 53:27
  Speaker 1: in heaven and we're gonna bump into Jacob and say,
• 53:30
  Speaker 1: You really wrestled God, like you really did that, like.
• 53:34
  Speaker 1: That was your life, wow. But several points, one of
• 53:37
  Speaker 1: them being, you know, Jacob was a, we see the
• 53:39
  Speaker 1: like kind of human persistence of Jacob, Jacob was a fighter,
• 53:43
  Speaker 1: he was always conniving and manipulating and fighting for control
• 53:46
  Speaker 1: and for power and for blessing, and he would do
• 53:49
  Speaker 1: whatever it takes to get that, and in that situation,
• 53:51
  Speaker 1: he would not let go of God, uh, uh, you know,
• 53:54
  Speaker 1: if we understand it that way.
• 53:56
  Speaker 1: And then God breaks his hip. God breaks him, and, and,
• 54:00
  Speaker 1: and he realizes that it's through brokenness that you're going
• 54:03
  Speaker 1: to experience the blessings of God, not through your manipulation
• 54:06
  Speaker 1: and your control and your power. So there's just so
• 54:09
  Speaker 1: much to that story, that moment in the, in Genesis,
• 54:12
  Speaker 1: but that would be one of them. Yeah, Brian, one minute.
• 54:18
  Speaker 1: Um, yeah, I think that
• 54:21
  Speaker 1: You know, that's, that's a good picture. I mean, that,
• 54:24
  Speaker 1: you know, the wrestling is kind of an encapsulation of,
• 54:28
  Speaker 1: of Jacob's life and relationship with God.
• 54:32
  Speaker 1: And you know, he's, he's kind of wrestling with God
• 54:34
  Speaker 1: all the way through, right? Like Phil said, you know, he's,
• 54:38
  Speaker 1: he's trying to get the blessing. He steals it from
• 54:41
  Speaker 1: his brother, you know, he goes and he works with
• 54:45
  Speaker 1: his father-in-law, and he's got issues there that he's struggling through. And,
• 54:51
  Speaker 1: you know, I, I taught a message years ago on Jacob,
• 54:56
  Speaker 1: and I entitled it God's will, God's Way.
• 55:01
  Speaker 1: Ah, because Jacob was a person who really wanted to
• 55:04
  Speaker 1: do the will of God, but it didn't seem that
• 55:07
  Speaker 1: it ever dawned on him that there was an actual
• 55:09
  Speaker 1: way to do the will of God. He was always
• 55:12
  Speaker 1: trying to do it his own way. He's trying to
• 55:13
  Speaker 1: figure it out, you know, how can I get this
• 55:15
  Speaker 1: blessing for myself, ah, rather than letting God bring him
• 55:20
  Speaker 1: the blessing. So, and, and thus the wrestling, and then
• 55:24
  Speaker 1: the wrestling comes to a head, uh, there that night
• 55:27
  Speaker 1: when he is going to encounter his brother.
• 55:30
  Speaker 1: Aurora, thank you so much for sending us your question
• 55:32
  Speaker 1: through the Pastor's Perspective Facebook page using messenger, and that's
• 55:37
  Speaker 1: all the time we have on today's episode of Pastor's Perspective.
• 55:40
  Speaker 1: Thanks for joining us. Thanks for watching on Facebook, YouTube,
• 55:43
  Speaker 1: and Instagram. We're gonna make today's episode available
• 55:46
  Speaker 1: Soon on Facebook and YouTube, and Spotify and Apple Podcasts
• 55:51
  Speaker 1: if you missed any part of it or just want
• 55:52
  Speaker 1: to hear it again, or you want to share it
• 55:54
  Speaker 1: with someone, and then join us tomorrow between 3 and
• 55:57
  Speaker 1: 4 in the afternoon for another episode of Pastor's Perspective.
• 56:01
  Speaker 1: God bless.