Pastor Doug Batchelor: Hello friends, would you like to hear an amazing fact? On November 30, 1954, Anne Hodges was taking a nap on her couch in the little town of Oak Grove Alabama. Suddenly, without warning, a grapefruit sized rock crashed through her ceiling, bounced off a large wooden radio, and struck her on the hip. Remarkably, the only injury she sustained was a nasty looking bruise. Anne said it was a meteorite. When experts examined the stone, they agreed. Her report also matched with local sightings that same day of a bright red light trailing through the sky. This experience made Anne the only verified person in history to ever have been struck by a meteorite.
In 1956, the meteorite was donated to the Alabama Museum of Natural History where it's still on display today. In 2013, a Florida State College astronomer told National Geographic that a person has a better chance of getting hit by a tornado, a bolt of lightning, and a hurricane, all at the same time than being hit by a meteorite and surviving. No doubt it must be a little disconcerting to be hit by a space rock. The Bible says, that in the last days, there will be a rock that will fall from the heavens and bring an end to all earthly kingdoms. Stay with us friends, we're going to learn more as Amazing Facts brings you this edition of Bible Answers Live.
[PROGRAM INTRODUCTION]
Pastor Doug: Welcome, listening friends to Bible Answers Live. And if you have a Bible question, or some question about living the Christian life, we will do our best to search the word together and find the answers. Lines are open right now if you want to call in. Good chance your question will be on tonight's program. Just go to 800-GOD-SAYS. That’s 800-463-7297. One more time, 800-463-7297, we’ll bring your question into the program. And again, there's plenty of phone lines open. My name is Doug Batchelor.
Pastor Ross: My name is Jean Ross, and good evening friends. Pastor Doug, let's start the program with prayer. Dear Father in heaven, what a privilege once again to be able to open up your word and study together. We ask the Holy Spirit to come and guide our hearts. Lord, lead us into a clear understanding of the Bible for the truth will set us free. Bless our time together in Jesus' name, amen.
Pastor Doug: Amen.
Pastor Ross Pastor Doug, you opened the program by talking about a meteorite that-- I mean this from time to time hear about meteors that hit the earth, but this one went through the roof and actually hit a person, and the person survived. The chance of that happening I think is rather remarkable, but quite a story to be hit. Of course, it wasn't a direct hit, but it bounced off something and hit the person, and they seem fine. That doesn't happen every day.
Pastor Doug: I guess then there was a legal battle. What happened just a little subtitle to this story, or a little additional trivia, is that then there was a fight over who got to keep the rock. She was in a rented house, and the landlord said, “That's my rock, because it hit my house.” She said, “No, but we were renting the house.” They were in court actually fighting over the meteorite, but they ended up donating it to the museum. That'd make you wonder if you've done something wrong, if you get struck by a stone from the heavens.
You know where I'm going with this. There's a story in the Bible, it's actually a dream that King Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon had while the children of Israel were captive in his empire. It was a dream about this large image, a large idol made out of different materials. The head was gold, and the arms were silver, and the belly was brass, and the legs were iron, and the feet were iron and clay. It represented all the different kingdoms.
If you study this vision, it's an amazing outline of the major world empires that would control or influence God's people through time. And so far, all of that dream has come true just proving the prophecies of the Bible, except the very last part. It says, a stone that was cut without hands-- let me read it to you a matter fact. It's Daniel 2:34, and I’ll read verse 35 as well, “Thou saw till a stone was cut out without hands, which smote the image on the feet that were iron and clay and broke them in pieces. Then was the iron, and the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold, broken in pieces together and became like the chaff of the summer threshingfloor, and the wind carried them, so then no place was found for them. And the stone that smote the image, became a great mountain and filled the whole earth.”
That stone is of course, Christ, the Rock of Ages. It's talking of the coming of Christ, God's kingdom. Jesus said, “You hear these words of mine and do them, you're like a wise man building on the rock.” The Kingdom of Christ is going to come and pulverize all these other world empires. Sometimes when we've taught and preached on that lesson, it almost looks like a meteorite coming out of the sky and striking that giant image.
We have a lesson that talks about, this is probably one of the most amazing prophecies in the Bible that you find in Daniel 2, the prophecy of the image in the stone. And we have a lesson, we’ll send you a free copy of that.
Pastor Ross: In order to get it, just give us a call in our resource phone number. That number is 800-835-6747, and you can ask for the story called, lesson called, The Millennial Man. Again, that number is 800-835-6747, and ask for the study guide, or actually it's a historical lesson called, The Millennial Man. We’ll be happy to send that to anybody who calls and asks, great information in that study.
Pastor Doug: All right. We’re ready to see who is on the telephones. We have, by the way, a few lines that are still open, 800, if you want to call in with your question, we know we've got a lot of folks listening on satellite as they're driving across the country. Some people are stranded in weather, may as well call with a Bible question. 800-GOD-SAYS, 800-463-7297.
Pastor Ross All right, the first caller that we have is Brian, listening from Idaho. Brian, welcome to the program.
Brian: Hello.
Pastor Doug: Hi, thanks for calling.
Brian: Hey, my wife and I, we were having our Bible study, and we're reading about several of God’s promises. We came across most of them have to do with faith, and we were looking faith, what is faith, and we came across Hebrews 11:1. And we just can't figure it out.
Pastor Doug: Well, let me read that to everybody listening. Hebrews 11:1 says, “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, and the evidence of things not seen.” Basically, what he's saying there, is our faith is usually based on some past evidence, but it's the substance of what you're hoping for that you haven't received yet. I have faith that there'll be breakfast in the morning. I haven't seen it yet, but based on past evidence, I have believe it's going to be there. All through life, everyday, we live by faith in different areas.
An example would be, matter of fact, next week, I'm going to be teaching on David and Goliath. And part of the reason David had faith that he could kill Goliath, it hadn't been experienced yet, it wasn't seen yet, is based on the evidence that he had seen God help him kill a bear and kill a lion. This is what Paul, the writer of Hebrews, is saying here in this chapter. And he goes through the chapter, and he talks about the faith of many of the great Bible heroes here. They stepped out in faith, trusting God based on past promises that were fulfilled. That makes sense?
Brian: Okay.
Pastor Doug: See, that's why the Lord said, the children of Israel should have had faith, because he gave them so much evidence that he would take care of them when he fed them with manna from heaven, water from the rock, and a pillar of fire, and all the miracles. He says, “I've given you evidence so that you should have faith in things that aren't seen, that because I took care of you in the past, I've given you evidence, trust me in the future.”
Brian: Okay, that makes lots of sense.
Pastor Doug: Well, thank you very much, and I'm glad you called. We don't really have a book, I was thinking about something on faith, but I have something on faith. It's a pretty basic Christian teaching we could offer, but you might really enjoy our Amazing Facts study guide that we offer tonight on the prophecy of Daniel 2, and
we'll send you a free copy Brian.
Pastor Ross: The number to call is 800-835-6747, you can ask for the study guide, or actually the historical lesson called, Millennial Man. We'll be able to send that to you. Again, that number is 800-835-6747. That is our resource phone line. If you have a Bible question, the line to call here to the studio is 800-463-7297. And let's see, we've got Laudia listening in Michigan. Laudia, welcome-- wait, I don't think that phone line is-
Pastor Doug: I think we got to go to the next line.
Pastor Ross: Let's try Peter. See if Peter ready. Peter, welcome to the program.
Peter: Yes, thank you.
Pastor Ross: Get real close to your phone.
Peter: Okay. I don't have a very good phone, so I got to yell into it.
Pastor Ross: We can hear you though.
Peter: Okay.
Pastor Ross: And your Bible question?
Peter: I can’t remember if it's Proverbs 5, or Proverbs 7. Both are similar talking about an adulterous woman. And it says that, “Her feet lay hold on hell.” I was wondering if you could expand on that a little bit.
Pastor Doug: I'm looking it up right now. Let me see in Proverbs, he's got a whole section there where Solomon is talking about the adulterous woman. And matter of fact, looks like I typed in the wrong thing. Say something Pastor Ross while I type.
Pastor Ross: Well, I think the Bible does speak about all warnings. It does warn against those who would lead others into sin. And one of the points that was mentioned, is adulterous woman. It says, “Her feet are close to hell, or lead to hell." That's the ultimate destiny of those who follow that line and that way of living and thinking.
Pastor Doug: Yes.
Peter: Okay. I've had an experience unfortunately with that. At Proverbs 5, or Proverbs 7, talks about the husband goes on a long trip, and then the wife brings another man in. And then you don't hear anything else about the husband.
Pastor Doug: Well, this is telling us something about Potiphar’s wife. Potiphar was away on business, and she was trying to seduce Joseph. It's the same thing.
Peter: Yes, exactly.
Pastor Doug: I'm still looking this up. I know it's there, and sometimes when you go from one translation to another-- it says Proverbs 22, “The mouth of an immoral woman is a deep pit.” Proverbs 23:27, “For a harlot is a deep pit.” Let me see here, there's Proverbs 5:3, it may be the one you're looking for, “For the lips of a forbidden woman drip honey, and her speech is smoother than oil, but the end, she is bitter as wormwood, and sharp as a two edged sword, her feet go down to death.” Is that the one you're thinking about?
Peter: Yes.
Pastor Ross: Yes, “Her feet go down to death, her steps lay hold of hell.” That's the one that's proverbs 5:5.
Peter: I guess I have a question as to a woman like that, is she being controlled by a demon, or is she just?
Pastor Doug: Well, it's not the Spirit of God. It's Proverbs 7, is the one you're looking for. in Proverbs 7, it talks about, let me see, I just want to make sure I get this. It's Proverbs 7, “Behold the woman meets him, she's dressed as a prostitute, she has wily heart. She's loud and wayward her feet to stray from home." Goes on it says, "She seizes him and kisses him. She says my husband is away.” That's probably the one you're talking about, “My husband is not at home, he's gone on a long journey. With much seductive speech, she persuades him in her or a smooth talk, she compels him. At once he follows her.” I'm pretty sure that's a passage you're talking about, and that's Proverbs 7. It goes from verse 10 on. What's the question though connected with that?
Peter: Well, I guess the big question connected with it, because I live in a small town. I had a brief marriage with a woman like that. And this activity just goes on and on, and it was going on for a long time before I met her. I'm just trying to find out how can I pray for her? How can I pray for-- what am I up against?
Pastor Doug: Whenever a person is trapped in some immoral behavior, you could ask the Lord to do for her what he did for Mary Magdalene. Bible says that, “Jesus cast seven devils out of Mary.” It seems to imply Mary was a great sinner. You can read in John 12, and I think it’s in Luke 11 and 8, talks about the dinner. If God can-- all of us, David made the same mistake. He was unfaithful in that area, and just say, “Lord, work in their hearts and help them long for salvation and purity.” The Lord can do that.
Peter: Okay. In my prayers, do I need to pray against any demonic activity? Is it there, or just-
Pastor Doug: Well, God will have to be the judge of that, but obviously when this happens, there is a battle between good and evil going on. And you just want to pray that the Holy Spirit will bring conviction and comfort in their life, and he can do that. Hope that helps a little bit we appreciate your question Peter.
Pastor Ross: Our next caller is Laudia, listening in Michigan. Laudia, welcome to the program.
Loraly: It’s Loraly.
Pastor Ross: Loraly. I see we've got an “I” instead of an “L” in our computer system here. And your question tonight?
Loraly: My question is, is speaking in tongues still around today and relevant? And if so, what exactly would it be? Would it be like gibberish, or would it be talking to someone in a different language, because I was at my young adults for tonight, [unintelligible 00:16:42] the church, and they had an altar call, and the pastor was really into it, and was trying to speak in tongues into the microphone which distracted me from focusing on talking to God, because I felt if you're going to speak in tongues, if it's real, you shouldn't be doing it on the microphone in front of the church, unless you have someone that can interpret it, especially if you're trying to make a God moment between an individual and God. I feel like it’s being a destruction.
Pastor Doug: You're on the right track Loraly. First of all, there's a book we'll send you. I just want to tell you that right away. It's called, Understanding tongues. It goes through what the Bible says and doesn't say about tongues, because there's a lot of confusion. We believe in all the gifts of the Spirit that are mentioned, but the gift of tongues when you see it in the Bible, is not a person babbling incoherently where no one around understands, or they don't even understand. You don't see any example of that in the Bible.
When they spoke in tongues in the Bible, God gave the apostles the ability to speak in other languages, but they did not formally know or study for the purpose of preaching the gospel in those languages. That’s what happened in Acts 2, in Acts 19, in Acts 10. Jesus said in Mark 16, “You will speak with other tongues.” He gave them the ability to speak other languages. It would be like you going to visit people in Japan. Assuming you don't speak Japanese, and all of a sudden, the Lord miraculously gives you the ability to speak a new tongue, meaning a new language, and you can speak Japanese, and you share the gospel with people there. This is what the gift of tongues was.
It had nothing to do with just becoming overwhelmed with some ecstatic feeling, and then babbling as you say. That's gibberish. Paul, in 1 Corinthians 14 said, “I rather speak five words with my understanding that I might instruct others, than 10,000 in an unknown tongue.” Then I think he says in verse nine, 1 Corinthians 14, he said, “If the trumpet gives an uncertain sound, who will know how to prepare for the battle.” If people just make incoherent noise on the trumpet, then the military can't order their troops around it. It just didn't work. God wants our speech to communicate thought. The idea that our speech is just babbling, well that's what happened at the Tower of Babel, that's not God's plan.
Loraly: What do you think it is then? Obviously, I don’t think my pastor had something demonic thing going with him, but I'm wondering what would it be then do you think?
Pastor Doug: Well, if you trace the history of it, some of the popular speaking in tongues that you see on TV, where pastors are praying and they just break off into these languages. That did not happen 150 years ago. For the first 1900 years of the church, you didn't see that. That's something that is a fairly comparatively new phenomenon. It largely came out of the South. What happened in many cultures in many religions when people when they pray that they could go into this trance, and speak the language of the Gods, and it found its way into some other churches-
in the South, and then it went to LA, the Azusa Street Church, and it started going mainline.
They said this is what happened with the Holy spirit. I don't want to judge what's going on, or what spirit is. I've got a friend who is a pastor. He happens to be a pastor of my denomination. When I studied this with him, he said, "When I first started speaking in tongues", he used to be a charismatic pastor where he spoke in tongues, or at least a member. He said it was a wonderful feeling. It's a prayer language, and I studied with him. He said, "Well, if this isn't from God, then I want him to take it away." He said it never happened again. You don't see Jesus ever doing that, do you?
Loraly: No.
Pastor Doug: Yes, you don't ever see Jesus just break off and start babbling, and saying, this is the filling of the Holy Spirit. Jesus said, "I'll give you the Holy Spirit, and you can be my witnesses". He gives the spirit so we can teach, preach, and witness in other languages. It's one of the gifts of the spirit. Please send for the book, you or anyone listening. Please send for the book called Understanding Tongues. There's a lot of confusion on this. We believe in the gifts of the spirit, but this is one that's been distorted a little by some dear people.
Pastor Ross: Again, the number to call is 800-835-6747. You can ask for the book called, Understanding Tongues. We'll be able to send it to anybody who calls and asks, or you can go to the Amazing Facts website. You can do both if you wish. You can read a PDF version of the book at amazingfacts.org. Just type in the search bar "understanding tongues", and it will be directing you to that book. All right. Next caller is Lance, and he is listening in Colorado. Lance, welcome to the program.
Lance: Hi, thanks for taking my call.
Pastor Doug: Yes, thank you for calling.
Lance: My question is, I'm familiar with the clean and unclean meats in Leviticus. It also talks about not having any blood. I guess my question is, if you, even within the clean meats, do those need to be kosher if you're following that law?
Pastor Doug: Yes, I'm glad you understand this. A lot of Christians don't realize that both new and old testament still reinforces the health laws. You can look in Acts for instance. A very new testament book. Acts of the Apostles Chapter 15, and they said to write all the gentile believers that they should abstain from things polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, from things strangled. Now, the reason they said here to abstain from things strangled, is there's a couple of ways to kill an animal before you butcher it. One was to strangle it. That way, it dies with the blood still in it.
What they were supposed to do, is cut the throat, drain the blood, whether was it bird or beast, and then they could prepare the meat. It says here to abstain from things strangled and from blood. That goes all the way back to Noah. It says you should abstain from blood. The life is in the blood. Disease can be transferred from animal to animal through the blood. God never intended people to eat blood, clean or unclean animal. It's in the new and the old testament. If a person's going to eat meat, the clean meats, then they should make sure that it's got the blood drained out of it. I'm a vegetarian, so I don't ever think about it. I've been a vegetarian for 38 years now I think, except I think people slipped it to me once or twice.
Lance: You could say I'm about 98% vegetarian.
Pastor Doug: I feel so much better.
Lance: This is making me go more close to 100%, because you can't really verify. You don't always know exactly what happened to it before it's on your plate.
Pastor Doug: Yes, it's interesting that a lot of the food that you buy has been at some point boiled, or sterilized in some way before you get it to your table. When you buy meat, they don't do anything to clean it. It goes from the time it's cut with a knife, they wrap it up and they send it off. It is not you always hear about people having to-- they get E. coli, or salmonella, or different things like that. It's often connected with meat, not mad cow, and we don't ever have mad cucumber.
[laughter]
Pastor Doug: You don't have to worry about that.
Lance: No, I agree. Thanks-
Pastor Doug: Anyway, but yes, if a person is going to eat meat, you buy it sometimes at the market, it's just swimming in blood cells, so they haven't really drained all the blood out.
Lance: It doesn't necessarily have to be stamped.
Pastor Doug: It doesn't have to be stamped kosher, you-
Lance: It doesn't have to be kosher, you just need to make sure it's not bathed in blood for the most part. You just need to make sure it is dry as possible, for lack of a better way of saying it.
Pastor Ross: We have a study guide dealing with the subject of health, and food, and counsel that the Bible gives on that. It's called God's Free Health Plan. We'll be happy to send this to you Lance, or anybody who calls and asks. The number is 800-835-6747. You can ask for the study guide called God's Free Health Plan. If you have a Bible question, our phone line here to the studio is 800-463-7297. We have a few lines open. Good time to give us a call, 800-463-7297. Next caller is Sandy, listening from Illinois. Sandy, welcome to the program.
Sandy: Hi pastors. I have a question. How do you deepen your trust in God? He's done amazing things in my life through the low points and the high points, but there's a sticking point from my childhood, and I wrestle with him in it often. I believe in God's promises, but I'm at an impasse.
Pastor Doug: You want a deeper relationship?
Sandy: Yes, That's what I want.
Pastor Doug: Well, I wish more people would call and ask that question, because that's something I wish that we would all hunger after. The Bible tells us in Jeremiah 29:13, "You'll search for me, and you'll find me when you search for me with all of your heart". If you want more faith, you can read in Romans 10, I think it's verse 17, "Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God." Spending time in the word, doing it religiously, even if we don't feel like it sometimes, but reading the word and it will bless us.
More time in prayer, and sometimes prayer is not just talking, prayer is listening. You spend time on your knees, and make it the first part of your day. Then ask the Lord, part of the Christian faith is not only praying, reading your Bible, it's letting your light shine. Ask the Lord when you pray every day, say, "Lord, give me an opportunity to share my faith with someone else during this day." You'd be surprised how many times he'll do that. You just ask him and say, "Help me to recognize those opportunities to tell someone else about my faith".
As you share your faith, as you pray, as you study his word, that's where the strength comes from. In the sanctuary, there was a holy place, and in the holy place, there were three articles of furniture. The candle stick, the altar of incense, and the table of bread. The bread is your bread of life, the altar is prayer, the candle stick is witnessing, lets your light shine. Do those things, and you'll be blessed Sandy.
Hey, friends, we're going to take a brief break. By the way Sandy, we do have a book you can get online called, The Ultimate Resource On The Bible. We'll send you a free copy when you call the resource number. Don't go away, we're coming back.
[COMMERCIAL BREAK]
Pastor Doug: Welcome, listening friends. If you joined along the way, this is Bible Answers Live, and you can call in with your Bible questions. We have some lines open, here's the number again, 800-GOD-SAYS, 800-463-7297. My name is Doug Batchelor.
Pastor Ross: My Name is Jean Ross, and if you have a Bible question as mentioned earlier, the number is 800-463-7297. And we'll be able to get your Bible question on the air today. Our next caller here is Harry, listening in Queens, New York. Harry, welcome to the program.
Harry: Hi, how are you doing pastors? Good day blessed in name of Jesus.
Pastor Doug: Likewise.
Harry: I have studied the book of Job, and I had a question why Job was considered to be-- why Job is considered a Christ like person? and I was-
Pastor Doug: Go ahead.
Harry: Go ahead.
Pastor Doug: There's several reasons that many Bible scholars believe that Job is a type of Christ. For one thing, the sufferings that Job went through. No one suffered like Job except Jesus of course suffered more, that the devil specifically focused on Job, that God focused on Job and said, "Have you considered my servant?" Jesus is called, "The servant", in the prophesies in the Old Testament. You can look at Job talks about his thirst. Jesus said, "I thirst from the cross." It talks about casting lots in the book of Job. It talked about that with Jesus.
It says they spit on him, they spit on Christ. There's just several similarities. In fact, if you go to our website, you'll see that I've got a lesson that I did where I talk about Job, and I talk about the types of Christ in the story of Job. I think you'll find that a real blessing Harry. There's a number of characters in the Bible that are like types of Christ. I've got a book called, Shadows of Light that goes through all the-- not all, but many of the Bible types, the characters like David, and Joseph, and Moses, how they are like Jesus. And Job was one of them. I hope that helps a little bit and we appreciate your call Harry.
Pastor Ross: Our next caller is, you know what, I was just thinking Pastor Doug, we have a book called the sign-- no, that's dealing with John and not Job. I was thinking, "Boy, that would be a great book." But no, we don't have one on--
Pastor Doug: Well, I've got that whole chapter.
Pastor Ross: We got the sermon series as well that's available online.
Pastor Doug: There's a sermon series online called Jesus and the Bible, and one whole section is just on Job. They'll enjoy that I think.
Pastor Ross: All right. Our next caller is Marla listening in Auburn, California. Marla, welcome to the program.
Marla: Yes, thank you so much. It's a privilege, yes. My question for you Pastor Doug and Pastor Ross, is I'm glad you've brought up Daniel 2. It's one of my favorite topics. I had the privilege of being in Israel for a while and studying the language. I looked up in the Bible what mountain, what the words from mountain is when the stone comes out of this mountain. Daniel 2, I think it's verse 35 and 45, it mentions mountain.
My question is, when I look it up, it Strong's number 2905, and 2906, and it says tour. Now, tour is the word for rows, like the rows of stone. In Exodus 28:17, is talking about the rows of stone that the breastplate-- on the breastplate of the priest, they have the 12 tribes and the 12 stones, and here it is in rows. I'm just so fascinated by this. I know that every word must mean something, and we're talking about the end times, and it's so important. My question is, why would the word mountain which actually means the word rows have a stone coming out and joining the feet of Babylon?
Pastor Doug: All right [crosstalk] go ahead I'm sorry.
Marla: Yes, I was just fascinated by that.
Pastor Doug: I think what's being communicated hear in Daniel 2, and one of those is verse 35, "The stone that struck the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth." It talks about a stone that was cut without hands. The real message, or one of the real messages I should say in Daniel 2, it's contrasting the worship of God with the worship of the Heathen. The God of gods against the gods of the world. The worlds kingdoms worshiped idols, that's why this whole image is an idol of all the different metals, and stones, and silver, and gold, and so forth, but then it says that when the Hebrews made their altar, they were to make it with stone that was not cut by a man's hands.
They knew as soon as they started chiseling on the stone, they'd be tempted to make an idol. God said, "You were to get rough stone, regular stone, don't hue it, don't cut it." It's basically saying that the stone that strikes the image, is a stone that is set aside for worshiping God. And it grows to a great mountain. And of course, the 10 Commandments that Moses receives, were on Mt. Sinai, and those were 2 tables of stone.
The word of God, those 2 tables, sword 2 edges, along the prophets, the 2 witnesses, it's all talking about the word of God which is Christ bringing down that giant image, the kingdoms of the world and the false teachings. It's very interesting what you said. I have to delve into the Hebrew of that more. I've never looked at that carefully, and what that word mountain, the root of that is there, and I appreciate you sharing that with us Marla. Thank you very much for your call.
Pastor Ross: Our next caller is-- let's see, we got Nita, who is listening from Kettle Falls, Washington. Nita, welcome to the program.
Nita: Hi, thank you. I know that based in trust, I believe we are very well interconnected, and I know that it's impossible to please God without faith, but piggy backing on what Sandy was asking. When you've been hurt very very badly from a small child on up, and you know you can't trust humans, because they just hurt, how do you trust God? How can one, because I know it affects my relationship with Christ. I'm sure it does Sandy's, and a lot of us out here. How do we learn to trust God?
Pastor Doug: That's a great question. I meet people they say, "I grew up with a father that was difficult, or cruel. Now, the Bible says I should love my heavenly father, and how do I do that when I had such problems with my earthly father." In your mind, you need to divorce any bad memories that you've had with an earthly parent, or father, people from God. Don't hang that on him, and don't connect it with him, and just realize that people may let you down, God will never let you down. People are sinful, God is holy. People are sometimes selfish and wicked, God is good and just.
It's just realizing there is a being that is not like people, that he is pure, and holy, and good. A matter of fact, the plan of salvation is designed to restore the image of God back in people, because folks through sin, we have become very selfish. That's really the key, because a lot of people end hurt. You read in the Bible of folks that were very apprehensive. Mary Magdalene, I mentioned earlier, seemed like she had been taken advantage of and had some bad experiences, but she learned to love Jesus. We need to just realize that he loves us with a pure love, and that he would never let us down, and he'll never let us go. Hope that helps a little. Thank you Nita, appreciate your call.
Pastor Doug: Our next caller is Teresa, listening from New York. Teresa, welcome to the program.
Teresa: Hi, pastors. I have a question. In Romans 8:26, it says, "Likewise, the spirit also helps with the infirmities, for we know not what we should pray for as we ought. And the spirit himself make an intercession for us for groanings which cannot be uttered. And he just searcheth the heart, knoweth what is the mind of the spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God. And we know that in all things, he works for the good, for our good, to those who love him."
I need you to help me understand something please. I pray in the spirit, and my praying to God, because I'm praying for things that are happening. I'm afraid of losing my home, and I don't have money. I have a lot of work that needs to be done on it, and there are others things I'm praying for in the Spirit. I just go to bed with headaches and nervousness, because I know that everything that's coming up. My Ministers said, he's going to help try to get lawyers from the Church to help me.
Pastor Doug: How can I help you with a question here?
Teresa: What I'm asking you, is when I ask for prayers to the Holy Spirit for these things, am I praying to God?
Pastor Doug: Well, typically, in the Bible when we pray, the Bible says we pray to the Father, through the Spirit, in the name of Jesus. There's really no example of people praying to the Spirit in the Bible. God the Spirit, is one of the members of the Trinity, God the Father, Son, and Spirit, but we're always told to pray to the Father. And it doesn't mean God has not or will not hear your prayers if you had said, "I'm going to pray to Jesus" or "I'm going to pray to the Spirit." That's typically not how it's done in the Bible, but praying to God is the main thing.
Just laying your cares out before him. Now, trust the Lord, because sometimes when we struggle and we have those stresses, we forget that God is somehow taking care of us over the course of our life, and he's going to take care of you. Don't be losing sleep. Just say, "Lord I've got these issues. I'm going to do my best to solve the problems, but I need your help", and he will. A matter of fact, why don't we have a quick prayer for you right now Teresa.
Father in Heaven, I just pray that you'll be with Teresa and some of her struggles she's having. It seems like the pressure, bills, and debts, and some of the trials of life are weighing her down. Help her to know that you love her. You're going to watch over her, and if you take care of the birds and the flowers, you're going to take care of her. And so this blessing, give her comfort now. We pray in Jesus' name, Amen.
Appreciate your call Teresa, and we do have a free book we'll send you on prayer, because you're asking a question about that. It's called, Teach Us to Pray.
Pastor Ross: The number to call is 800-835-6747, that is our resource phone line, and you can ask for the book called, Teach Us to Pray. We'll be happy to send that to you Teresa or anybody who calls and asks. Our next caller Rebecca, listening from Oregon. Rebecca welcome to the program.
Rebecca: Hi.
Pastor Doug: Hi, I know where Brookings is.
Rebecca: Yes, we are the Banana Belt of the Coast, and it has been so beautiful the last three days, it's just been amazing.
Pastor Doug: You mean you've had three days without rain, that's amazing. I'm sorry. Go ahead.
Rebecca: I was baptized a long time ago, and was in the Church, but I fell away and have fallen away for like I don't know 20-30 years. I recently reaffirmed my faith. I can't remember if it was a water baptism or not, probably not, but I think I should get a water one. My question is, if you are baptized once before even though you fell away, when you come back, are you automatically reaccepted by Jesus, or do you need to get rebaptized?
Pastor Doug: Well, you're accepted when you return to Christ, but it might be appropriate to be rebaptized. Let's talk about it for just a moment. Baptism for the Christian is something like a wedding ceremony for a marriage. Now, if a couple gets married and then they have an argument they don't need to have another ceremony. If a couple gets married and they divorce, if they want to be married again, they have to have another ceremony.
Now, if you've totally walked away from the Lord, and you dishonored your first commitment, and you say 20 years went by and now you're returning to the Lord. There are examples in the Bible of rebaptism. If I was your Pastor based on what you said, I would encourage you to be rebaptized for your own edification. In Acts 19, it talks about some believers that were baptized by John the Baptist by immersion. They did it the right way, but they haven't heard about Jesus, and they just learned a lot of new things, and they were rebaptized by Paul. I think you should be baptized Biblically. We have a lesson we can send you on baptism. That will explain that, and it talks about rebaptism. Would you like a free copy of that?
Rebecca: Yes. In fact, I would like a copy of everything you're going to send to the last like five callers, because I also, I'm new back in the faith. It's like wonderful things have been happening about six weekends ago, I go and reaffirmed my faith. Ever since then, it's really good things happen, and then it's something will happen that's not so good. Medically, and physically, it's a not so good but-
Pastor Doug: You need some encouragement?
Rebecca: You know what got me reaffirmed?
Pastor Doug: What's that?
Rebecca: There's this guy named Richard Morrow. He was a Sheriff, a cop, and a car was on fire. He came on to the Altar Ministry, the Jen Marquez, out of Minnesota. He was telling everybody the day after it happened, she had him live on the radio. He was telling his story about how the man was trapped in the car, and how he got out right before the car was exploding, he just said, "Jesus, I can't get this man out. It's up to you. I need you to save him." And he said, he reached in to front door. The entire front of the car was on fire.
An another guy, Eugene, came in from the backseat and the guy just literally lifted, floated up in the air, turned sideways, pulled out, and kind of floated out.
He said, as soon as he went back in there after he said that, he said the whole world stood still. It was peaceful, it's quiet. He couldn't hear the fire. He said he just felt the sense of calmness, and he knows it was Jesus pulling the man, helped pull the man out. And then they stood there and watched the car burned to the ground, and inside the car-
Pastor Doug: I've heard that.
Rebecca: -was a Bible. A Bible unburned laying in the burned blackened floor. No seats left, nothing but the Bible was unburned. A true miracle. I heard that-
Pastor Doug: I believe that's an amazing story.
Rebecca: How can anyone hear something like that and not reaffirm their faith?
Pastor Doug: That's I know. I'm thrilled that it gave you that encouragement Rebecca. We'll be happy to send you that book on Baptism. And if you want to read some of the other books that we've mentioned, you can see them all and read them for free. I think just about everything we've mentioned at the Amazing Facts website.
Pastor Ross: Again, just go to amazingfacts.org, or amazingfacts.com. You can go to our free library. You're welcome to read all of the resources, or call us. The number is 800-835-6747. That is our resource phone line, and you can mention specifically the book called Baptism, Is it Really Necessary? We'll be happy to send that to you Rebecca or anybody wanting to learn more about that subject. Our next caller is Raylene listening from Virginia. Raylene, welcome to the program.
Raylene: Hi, thank you. First, I want to thank you for the sincerity of your program.
Pastor Doug: Well, thank you.
Raylene: My question comes-- and this is from work. We were talking about speaking in tongues, and that's a very personal topic for me. Can someone, the two people who were speaking and speaking of the gospel, and furthering the purposes of Jesus Christ. When they speak to one another, do they hear each other in their own language? Does, the Lord opened that up to hear each other in their own language?
Pastor Doug: You mean if two people have got the gift of tongues like back in the days of the Apostles. And when they're speaking in tongues, would they understand each other if they both have the gift of tongues? Is that what you're asking?
Raylene: Correct or even in today's society. I had an experience several years back when I was flying to another country and spoke to many people. All of us from this very very long trip, in the very Christian-centered topic. And different people would come around and we talked to each other. We were all different countries in different languages, and we all didn't speak English, and I spoke English. I really didn't have that great of a grab on Spanish, but there are people speaking languages that I had no [unintelligible 00:48:44] I have no clue. And we were understanding one another. To me, it looked all in English. I'm wondering, if they heard themselves in their own language, but we were communicating and very centered on Christ and his purposes in our interaction with each other.
Pastor Doug: That's a good question. I don't know, because it could be a few different ways. Here's what I'll say. When the people in Genesis 11 were disobeying God, he confused their tongues so they couldn't understand each other. In Acts 2, when the Apostles were praying, and sharing, and obeying God, God removed the curse of Babylon, so they could understand. When people are on mission trips and they're doing the work of God, it seems like the Spirit is there to give understanding and interpretation. It's more likely that if it's the spirit working, that people do have discernment and understanding. I can't say, because every situation might be a little different.
Raylene: Right. It was just amazing to me that was later on after that experience I thought, "Wait a second. How did we understand one another? They did not speak English."
Pastor Doug: I've heard that.
Raylene: I've heard myself in English. It was fantastic.
Pastor Doug: Yes. I've heard that several times before. You would probably Raylene, enjoy the book that we've been talking about. If you don't read it online, you can read it online right now for free called, Understanding Tongues. I go through a personal experience. I believe in that book something that happened to me where I picked up a Spanish hitchhiker, and well, I'll let you read it and I won't tell you. Anyway, just if you like a free copy of that.
Pastor Ross: The number to call is 800-835-6747, you can ask for the book called Understanding Tongues. We'll be happy to send that to anybody who calls and asks. Our next caller is Gina, listening from Rio Linda, California. Gina, welcome to the program.
Gina: Hello, Pastor Doug, hello Pastor Jean.
Pastor Ross: Hi.
Gina: My question has to do with plants. Let me explain a little bit what I mean. The Bible says there are clean and unclean animals, some of them are fit for us to eat, some are unfit to eat. In regarding the area of plants. [unintelligible 00:51:00] Poison ivy, but the reason for my call is about Marijuana. I’m very disappointed in the voters of my state voting that, and I see just so much harm being done. I see an environment when toxins are poured in our creeks and rivers. The air is not clean, oxygen you breathe, I see children with asthma, because their folks are smoking pot around them. And I see the crime involved with it, and when people that don't have money to be buying that in the first place, they turn to other crime to get money to buy pot.
Pastor Doug: Is your question about is, does the Bible say something about marijuana or unclean plants?
Gina: Yes, because I've heard people try to say, "Oh well, they're herbs. They're there for us to use." Then, what I've heard before in the past when sin entered earth just like how beautiful roses have thorns now. And normally, they wouldn't have the thorns to hurt us. You know what I mean? With a beautiful rose, well there’s harmful plants too. And I guess it's a two-part question, because just the majority of men say something is okay, or say it a certain way, even if we stand alone, we'll just follow God’s word. Again, even though they okayed it-
Pastor Doug: Well, let me answer we're going to run out of time. I want to be able to try and give you some answer here. Obviously, there are different purposes. There's a reason for everything God made. I'm of the opinion that I don't see a lot of good coming from marijuana, and I'm coming from someone who before I was a Christian, I grew it, I smoked it, and I did inhale. I know all about it. I have some property in Mendocino County our family's had for 40 years, that just a lot of our neighbors are growing pot. We've seen what it does to the environment. We've seen the crime of it. Neighbors killed over it.
Jesus said, "You'll know them by their fruits." I don't see a lot of good fruit coming from the whole marijuana culture and industry. I think that there are different purposes for drugs that may be abused. For example, people shouldn't smoke tobacco, but if you put tobacco on ant bite, it actually helps. You know what I'm saying? There's misapplication of some plants. Marijuana, you can make rope out of it. Doesn't mean you got to smoke the rope. There's a lot of things that are misapplied, so I don't want to stop short, I want to stop short before I say that some plants are just all evil there's nothing good about them.
Pastor Ross: Yes, not all plants are good for humans. I think that's just the bottom line. There's poisonous mushrooms that if you eat, you die. And there's reasons why they're poisonous, because it protects the mushroom. Just because it's a plant, it doesn’t necessarily mean that it's good for us to eat it, or smoke it, or whatever else people do with it. Some plants is good, but some plants is poisonous, not good.
Pastor Doug: I picked up a hitchhiker once that was, he was wearing a white robe and sandals-- no, no sandals. He was barefoot. And he was part of a Jesus movement that they just traveled around wearing white robes, and they said that they smoked pot. He asked me if I had any. I said, "No, I don't smoke." He said, “Well.” I said, “Is not good for you.” He said, “Oh, God made it, it's an herb.” I said, "Well, God doesn't want us to smoke all the plants that he made." He really believed it was an herb, and he said, "The herb of the field is made for us." And he was making this big argument, but I didn't really buy that, I don't think it's biblical either.
We appreciate your question Gina, and I hope that helps a little bit. There are some plants that are obviously unclean for food. There may be a purpose for them, but it doesn’t mean we're supposed to eat and smoke, I don't think we're supposed to smoke anything.
Pastor Ross: That's right. It's not good for the lungs. Our next caller is Larry, listening in Sacramento, California. Hi Larry.
Larry: Hi.
Pastor Doug: Hi, we got just about a minute Larry, can we do a quick question?
Larry: Yes, sir. Let my get some scriptures from you about suicide. My wife took her life some years ago, and she killed herself in the house while I was there with a handgun. I wanted to find out what the Bible has to say about it. Let me give you a little bit quick background as quickly as I can. We had been believers before that. She had grown up in a Christian home. She and I had gone to church after we had gotten married, and she fell away and became depressed, went to alcohol, and I couldn't help her. She ended up taking her life, because of depression and drugs that she was on.
Pastor Doug: Are you wondering Larry, I don't want to cut you off because it's such an important question, but I don't want to leave you without an answer, are you wondering, does this mean can a person who commits suicide can they be saved or-
Larry: Yes.
Pastor Doug: -Is there hope? Okay that's often the question about that. There are examples in the Bible of people that took their lives maybe through great discouragement. Sampson, actually took his own life, but the last thing that happened was he was filled with the spirit, and I think Sampson will be in the kingdom. Most suicides unfortunately, are an example of people who have lost faith, which is typically not a good sign. God knows what's going on in a person's mind, what stresses they're going through, so we got to be very careful to know that God loves them more than we do. We'll have to leave that in his hands until the great resurrection.
Thank you Larry for your call, all of you, some, if we didn't get your question tonight, we hope you give us another chance next week. And make sure, there's a lot more answers available if you simply go to the Amazing Facts website, amazingfacts.org. We'll talk more next week.