Recording: Its time now for Bible Talk, join our host Gary Gibbs and John Bradshaw speakers for the Amazing Facts ministry, as they now open the Bible, discuss themes that affect your life today, stay tuned because the next fifteen minutes will dip in your understanding of Gods word.
John Bradshaw: Hi friends, and welcome again to the Bible talk where we talk about what the Bible has the say the words today. I am John Bradshaw and with me again is Gary Gibbs. hi Gary.
Gary: Hi John we are going to talk about something today that i think affects everyone of our listeners in one way or another.
John: A persons health a fixed, well everyone at every moment of everyday in the bible has what to say about this subject.
Gary: It really does, and we have learned so far that "God wants us to glorify him in our bodies" 1 Corinthians 10:31 says "whatever you eat or drink glorify god with those things".
John: No doubt about it. The Bible calls us in the final Gospel message in the bible in the Revelation chapter 14 that we are fear god and give glory to him you see, and we are to give glory to God in every way we possibly can.
Gary: But John as we looked it there, you've talked about things that we should, should not eat like the unclean foods like the swine, the rabbits, the squirrels and all that stuff, and you talked about the clean things Gods says we can eat.
Gary: You know like the beef, the deer and the lion and all that.
John: And fish with fins and scales are OK.
Gary: And we looked at the bible text that seem to indicate you can eat whatever you want. I think you explain those really well. it doesn't say that.
John: No you are right.
Gary: So, but is that point really moderation. isn't it a matter of how much i do?
John: Did you hear that, you hear that again and again watch moderation, so we are trying apply that principle as levelly as we can... so we tried.
Gary: You know i don't want to be fanatical about this, and i am sure lot of listeners don't want to be fanatical.
John: No that's why...
Gary: You cant be go out there.. and be fanatical and not eat any meat is that fanaticism.
John: Well, there is a lot of people living today, who will tell you that is not fanaticism at all. Many people will believe that's a particularly good idea, you probably got some people who had about to leave call the eye or Yacob quite felt Yacob, some such things, they would say they wish they follow the track years ago.
Gary: Well, what about Romans 14:1 says that "He that is weak in the faith receive not", receive excuse me, but not the doubtful disputations, for one believeth that he may eat all things another, who is weak, eateth herbs. is it vegetarian weak in faith?
John: Oh now there is good question, look at the context in the background of whats going on here. There is another place Paul writes about the weak persons 1 Corinthians 8: "And this is with the background of someone who doesn't want. To eat something that has been offered to idols". These were converts to Christianity they were come out of idology. Now let me say this up a little bit. you got two people, they both lets say go to a restaurant, and one of them used to be, a idol worshipper.
Gary: And this is excuse me this is back in Bible time.
John: Yeah, sure and other fellow didn't used be a idol worshipper, me have never worshipped idol. you know bowing i like bowing down to a rock or a tree or something. So we go to this place and discovered that the food they are serving has all being sacrificed to idols. Now for me who has never had a problem with bowing down to images and graved images so forth. I am not going to be bothered by that at all and Paul say as much but they have been some come out of idology, there will be fond of eating anything that's being offered to idol. now this the one he is saying week. and so man i am not going to any of the stuff, i don't want eat any meat because it may have offered to some kind of false god. so he backs of and....
Gary: And he just eats the vegetables.
John: Say you got it you see.
Gary: Now, why is he weak in faith? i mean should he not eat that stuff surely because it was sacrificed to idols.
John: Well. Now Paul is saying listen we know that idol is nothing. You sacrificed something to an idol, its less than a false God its nothing at all because there is only one true God, so why eat something you got offered to an rock or a tree, that really not going to fake me at all. But this other fellow because his background doesn't have a that saying knowledge of strength of conviction he is weak in that area. And so that why he takes course that he takes and abstains form certain thing, its not wrong thing to abstain from those thing, let him abstain from whatever he wants, but the reason he does that he is little weak in the faith, see it doesn't have the strength of the convictions that we have, because of real para understanding of what constitutes a true and a false god.
Gary: Oh John, I am glad to hear that because my wife is a vegetarian, she was raised as vegetarian and born on vegetarian diet and I am vegetarian as well. As before I don't think I am weak in faith either.
John: It doesn't look like you and your wife done any harm at all.
Gary: No, that is tremendous blessing on me, sometimes you know people look at Romans 14 and tell you are weak in faith.
John: Well its not saying that at all.
Gary: I am not trying to be fanatical either. but you know, moderation is, moderation is a principle in which i can eat a little bit of pig, a little bit of rabbit just here and there is that OK.
John: Oh let me say. A staining form something which is harmful is not fanatical, to not go near because its going to hurt you, now to one person that is seems to be fanatical, like you I am vegetarian too. but to me I would say that's just honoring God and its good health principle. now moderation here people say so very often, we are just doing little thing, all things are moderation little won't harm you and that may be true about something, but lets take them in some areas, a little bit of arsenic is that going to hurt you. is that OK?
Gary: Its all takes. that's all, a little bit of arsenic?
John: Ye, here you go see? I like your pronunciation. you stick around a little bit all have you fixed up.
Gary: I can talk proper English.
John: That's right, a little bit of poison, no you don't need poison in moderation. And that your body is a temple of a holy gums, so you have to preserve this thing in a best possible fashion that Jesus says. Because the spirit of god dwells there as many talk about the principle. You can damage your mind by what you putting it in your body. The mind is that organ through which God communicates with us. Ao we want that pure and get completely well with Jesus.
Gary: I appreciate that! Let me talk about the area of moderation that some people even feels that bible even alludes to that if you do it in moderation it's OK. You will find this in 1 Timothy 5:23. It says this. 'Drink no longer water, but use a little wine for thy stomach's sake and thine often infirmities'. Now it sounds like Paul is writing Timothy and he says 'you know you are this purest, you are just drinking water'. But it is getting you sick, you need to drink a little wine and I understand from listening to the news that a little wine, just a little bit of wine everyday will help lower your cholesterol and keep you healthy. I have heard of grandmas 92 years old, they drink a little shot of brandy everyday and they smoke their cigars and they live long lives.
John: That is a lot in there. And I am going to see if I can deal with that. Grandma lived to be 92, sure. But she was the exception. What you are not telling me is about grandma's 20 neighbors, all these men who lived to be 42 and kicked the bucket from strokes and heart attacks and so on that were brought on by their shots of brandy and the cigarettes they smoked everyday. So don't use grandma to excuse something that the Bible really is against. You are going to get some people who just got strong constitutions and somehow cheat the law of averages. There is no doubt about that.
Gary: So what about a little wine for thy stomach sake?
John: You go to your doctor and say doctor my tummy is upset. The doctor might say to you man a little grape juice is going to help you. But I don't know a single doctor that has ever said what you need to help you is a shot of whiskey or a Miller Lite or some Cabernet Sauvignon. And I have seen people use that verse to excuse all sorts of things. I was at a wedding and hey this might lead us somewhere else. It was my brother's wedding and he had this thing 'a little wine is not bad for you'. But they weren't offering me a little wine. They were offering me a shot of Jack Daniels. And there is a whole lot of difference between wine and Jack Daniels. And Gary, you mentioned this thing about wine being good for you. You say that right.
Gary: Oh yeah, there is a lot of medical research out there that says a little wine is going to help you be healthy. Well, so what's Paul talking about?
John: Well, he is talking about grape juice.
Gary: How do you know that?
John: We know from science, that grape juice contains those same principles those same elements in wine that do you some good, but it does not have the harmful things in it that wine has, that are going to do you in. So if you want the benefit, just drink the grape juice, you see.
Gary: But what about Jesus at the wedding feast at Cana, Galilee. He turns the water into wine and says after the people were well drunk, it sounds like they were having a really good time with that wedding feast. I can just see them.
John: It doesn't mean that they were out of their minds. It means that they drunk well. They'd had had plenty to drink. See Jesus takes this water, turns it into grape juice. Someone drinks it and says this is the best stuff we've ever had. And then someone who reads that and says well because it is good, had to be alcohol. Now Jesus could make the best wine alcohol free. You know, alcohol is a sign of leaven and corruption. And Jesus wasn't going to take anything into him and give anything to anyone else.
Gary: But how do you prove that John? It is Bible talk. How do you prove that what Paul said wasn't alcoholic wine and what Jesus made was not alcoholic wine?
John: There is a collection of verses. You take the Bible in its entirety, you will find the overwhelming weight of evidence speaks about alcohol in a negative light. So when you take the totality alcohol does not come out good. 'Wine is a mocker strong drink is raging: and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise.'
Gary: Book of Proverbs says that.
John: Sure. Let me read to you Isaiah 65:8 and this will tell us which is the good wine. Because if you look in the original languages, it doesn't differentiate fermented and unfermented. Are you with me?
Gary: Yeah. So the same word is used for the fermented wine as well as the unfermented wine, so it is grape juice.
John: Yeah. That doesn't help you differentiate. But Isaiah 65:8 says thus sayeth the Lord, as the new wine is found in the cluster and one saith, Destroy it not; for a blessing is in it: so will I do for my servants' sake, and so on. The blessing is in the new wine, the new wine is found in the cluster that's a cluster of what, grapes. You find that grapes on the what?
Gary: On the vine.
John: And they are not fermented there. Are they?
Gary: No they are not. Now what about the communion service? In the little bit time we have left, what about it? Is that fermented wine or is that unfermented wine.
John: Just like the bread is meant to be unleavened that wine is meant to be unfermented.
Gary: Why is that?
John: No corruption is to be used to symbolize the perfect sinless, stainless body of Jesus Christ. Fermented wine is really corrupted, you understand.
Gary: It's rotten grapes.
John: It's really what it is. No doubt about it. And let's not leave it there with alcohol. And don't feel picked on because if you wanted to kick that habit, there is power in Jesus to do it. You talked before about grandma and her nicotine daily. That's something else a Christian wants to get rid off to. And mind altering drugs, why? Because they affect the mind and therefore impact the relationship we have with Jesus Christ.
Gary: You know, I hate to say this, but I used to do a little bit of all of that before I became a Christian. But when I accepted Christ, I no longer wanted those things in my life. I did not need the temporary high and then the deeper low that it gave you. I found joy in Jesus that kept me up all the time.
John: We haven't had time to exhaust this. But the Bible certainly says that we want to present our bodies as pure temples. Science tells us that people are to leave this well alone. And if you want more on this, you've got a Bible study that we are going to offer you in just a moment. Make sure you get this. You are going to enjoy it. It will educate you, it will bless you. And do something else too. Join Gary and me again next time for more. Here on Bible Talk.
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