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Search the Scriptures Daily Program #4806a Transcript follows: Welcome to Search the Scriptures Daily, a radio ministry of The Berean Call with Dave Hunt and T. A. McMahon. I’m Gary Carmichael, we’re glad you could tune in. Coming up in today’s program in our Understanding the Scripture segment, Dave and Tom will continue their in-depth study of the Book of Acts, and, “Who were the lewd fellows of a baser sort?” In Religion in the News, “Are Conservatives Mentally Ill?” We’ll take a look at that story and examine the question: “Can Christians be reincarnated?” We hope you can stay with us. Our ministry, The Berean Call, offers a wide variety of teaching materials, including books, tracts, audio and video tapes and copies of our weekly broadcast on tape or compact disk. You may also subscribe to our monthly newsletter, which we offer free of charge. We’ll let you know how to order later in the program. Now, this week’s Cover Article. We continue our series of programs based on Dave Hunt’s book, When Will Jesus Come? This week we address the question: “Are you waiting, watching and looking? Along with Dave Hunt, here is T. A. McMahon. Tom: Thanks, Gary. You’re listening to Search the Scriptures Daily, a program in which we encourage everyone who desires to know God’s truth to look to God’s Word for all that is essential for salvation and living one’s life in a way that is pleasing to Him. In this first segment of our program, we have been discussing Dave Hunt’s book, When Will Jesus Come? subtitled: Compelling Evidence For The Soon Return Of Christ. But Dave, before we get into that, we have to follow up an issue we talked about last week, and that is our apparel. You remember, there was some concern by Gary, our producer, that you were looking a bit like a test pattern, or an NBA referee, and I know some of our listeners might be concerned about that, but I’m saying you’re looking very dapper today, and certainly I look okay. Dave: Oh yeah. Tom: But I’ve been known to wear black, and that puts Gary off because with our black surroundings here it looks like…. Dave: Can’t find you. Tom: Yeah, it looks like a severed head, you know, it can scare some people, but we’re beyond that now, we’re back on track. Gary, who is the head of our wardrobe critiquing department, he’s happy, so we’re happy. Dave: Very good. Tom: Now, Dave, Chapter 18 of your book is titled: “Timing Factors” and you open with the following Scriptures which I am going to read. Matthew 24:21,22: “For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. And except those days be shortened, there should no flesh (on earth) be saved (i.e., this is a worldwide phenomenon).” Then Luke 21:35: “For as a snare shall it come on all of them that dwell on the face of the whole earth.” And then, finally, Revelation 3:10: “Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth.” Now, Dave, you adamantly maintain that there are no signs and no conditions that are needed to fulfilled in the past, nor are there any today for the Rapture of the Church to take place. And in view of the verses that I read these seem to present some problems for imminency, but you maintain it, why is that? Dave: Well, I maintain it because I guess, as we have covered in past programs or probably earlier in this book, the early church was taught to watch, look for, expect, wait for Christ at any moment. You don’t watch and wait and expect something that can’t happen unless something else happens first. So, if the Antichrist had to come first, well then we are not looking for Christ, we are looking for the Antichrist. Or, if the Great Tribulation had to happen, we certainly wouldn’t be watching expectantly for Christ to appear at any moment, but the Church was told that. I mean, we’ve gone through the verses, I’m sure it must be in the book earlier, but Philippians 3:20, Paul says, “Our conversation, or our manner of life or citizenship is in heaven, from whence also we look for our Savior the Lord Jesus Christ, who will change our vile bodies to be like unto His.” So, obviously, he’s talking about the resurrection; we’re waiting for Christ to come to resurrect the saints, we’re looking for this. Or, if you went to Titus 2:13, if you want another looking, “looking for that blessed hope, the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior.” Or, 1Thessalonians chapter 1, Verses 10 and 11, somewhere around there, “You turn to God from idols to serve the living and the true God, and to wait for His Son from heaven.” Or, Hebrews 9:28, “Unto them that look for Him shall He appear.” You know, there are other verses. So, apparently, they were supposed to be watching and waiting and looking. And, as we, I think, mentioned last week, it doesn’t mean that if you are not out there scanning the sky for Christ when He comes, He won’t take you in the Rapture, it means that this should be the attitude of the Church. Okay. So, Tom, in spite of what other problems you are going to try to throw at me this morning--I thought you were on my side--anyway, in spite of that, we’ve got to go by what the Bible says. They were supposed to watch and wait and expect. Tom: Now wait a minute here! You amaze me! I’ll tell you why. Here in your own book you present the toughest problems that you could possibly throw at, you know, so don’t get on my case. These are things that you have laid out in terms of the problems that affect imminency and you lay them out. So, Dave, all I have to do is look at your book and throw you the toughest questions I can, because you have already thrown them at yourself. Dave: Right. For example, Tom, the verses you read from Matthew 24:22,23, it says, “Except those days be shortened, no flesh would survive.” Now, of course that’s not talking about the Rapture, that’s talking about conditions immediately after the Rapture, the Great Tribulation. So, although the world at that time certainly did not have the weapons that would wipe out all flesh. You couldn’t do that with bows and arrows and swords and spears. That is not to say that they could not have been developed immediately after the Rapture, because this is talking about something immediately after the Rapture. Now I’m not going to speculate as to how that might have been accomplished, but nevertheless, that’s not too difficult a roadblock to have put in our way. Tom: Well, when I read that, I thought, oh Dave, you’ve really dug yourself a hole here. But what you’re saying is, the possibility is available because we know that the Antichrist, he’s going to be Satan’s man, he’s going to be supported by lying signs and wonders. So we don’t know what will take place, we’re not going to be here, we believe, but we don’t know exactly he’s capable of. Dave: Right, but we do know that now we already have weapons that would wipe out all flesh. And then of course, Revelation 13, says that a man is going to control all banking and congress with a number. You couldn’t have conceived of that in the day that this revelation was given to John by Christ, but we know that we are there also. We’ve got GPS, you can’t escape, you don’t even have to tell them. That’s one of the things that’s really amazing, Tom. When you get a GPS car, and you punch in where you want to go, you don’t have to tell them where you are. That voice, Bambi, or whoever it is, says, Go 200 yards straight ahead and turn left, you know, and so forth, that, whoever it is up there---it’s nobody up there, it’s a computer---knows where you are at every moment. Okay. So--- Tom: Dave, excuse me, I just returned from Europe, as you know, and I got lost in Vienna for 2 1/2 hours. I didn’t have GPS, I just had a map. Dave: Well, you needed a GPS. Tom: O, man, did I need it--but go ahead. Dave: I want to tell you, Tom, we had our passports stolen in Auchsburg, and we had to go to the US Consulate in Munich, and we went unerringly there, never made a wrong turn. Ruth was driving and I was guiding her, but Tom, that was something that we rejoiced over. It was so amazing that it could happen! We didn’t have GPS then either, but we’ve had GPS on other occasions there--takes you right to where you are going. You just give them the address. So anyway, these things were not currently in operation in Christ’s day, but that doesn’t mean that they couldn’t have been developed. I don’t know, as you said, I don’t know what other means Antichrist might have had or might be able to, he may even advanced beyond this. So, on the one hand there seems to be, you can refresh my memory with some more of these, but there seems to be some problems. Tom: Sure, well what about “as it was in the days of Noah”? You know, there’s a condition that’s set there, and I think about World War I, or World War II. That seems to be a time in which certain things couldn’t take place because of the conditions in the world. Dave: You know, that’s a tough one, Tom. It seems to be a time of peace, although it doesn’t say that. It says, They were buying and selling and building and planting and partying. I lived during World War II, I was part of it, and there was a lot of that going on, the United States wasn’t suffering, I think it’s a general condition. In other words, I thing that there it’s pointing out you couldn’t have a post-trib rapture because the world is practically destroyed. The judgment of God has been poured out upon this world, so I don’t think we’re going to say that in every place in the world they’re seemingly prospering. But even during World War II was a world that is described there. Now, by the way, many people think, Well, as it was in the days of Noah and Lot---wow! Talk about evil! But that’s not what Christ emphasizes, and that’s rather interesting. As it was in the days of Noah, they were buying and selling, building, planning, partying, marrying, giving in marriage. Well, they certainly were doing that during World War II. We have a lot of songs about that, but those conditions that Christ describes absolutely cannot be present at the end of the Great Tribulation. So, we’ve knocked out a post-trib rapture right there. Tom: Dave, as you think about it, disturbances in the earth, we’re not just talking about earthquakes and so on, but as we look to Revelation and those things that take place, there’s not going to be a spot on the earth that’s not going to be affected by the changes in climate, the sun turning to blood. I mean, everybody is going to--no matter where you are everybody is going to be affected by that. Dave: Absolutely. So, it couldn’t be a rapture at the end of the Great Tribulation. Now, that it is talking about conditions at the Rapture is quite clear because Christ says in Luke 17, “So shall it be in the days of the3 appearance of the Son of man. Now again, Tom, I think we talked about it, I can’t remember what we said, but He’s not going to appear to everybody. We talked about a secret rapture, didn’t we? He didn’t appear to everybody but He will appear to His own, and unto those that look for Him He will appear. And when He appears we shall be like Him. That’s the appearance that it’s talking about there, it’s not talking about when He comes in judgment. That would be Revelation 1:7, Every eye will see Him, and they also who pierced Him, and all the kindreds of the earth shall mourn, wail because of Him, and so forth. So, Tom, I think the Bible lays it out pretty well the way we are expressing it there. Tom: Well, Dave, what impresses me about this is, number one: You went after the tough ones, really difficult ones, but you went with this thought: You don’t want to speculate. No one can say what the possibilities are that the Antichrist might bring these things about. On the other hand, the simple possibility of these things happening--when I say, simple possibility, what the Antichrist could do maintains, preserves really, imminency. But there is no condition, no condition that preclude an imminent rapture of the church. Dave: Yeah, if there are no conditions prior to the Rapture, and that would have to be the case for imminency to hold, well, that means whatever these other things are that have to be current at the time of the Second Coming, which is seven years later, they could be developed, no question about it. In fact, Tom, as you know, things like the Xerox machine, for example. The inventor tells us he received this from the spirit world. I remember, in fact I will never forget, a lawyer in West Palm Beach wanted to have breakfast with me. I don’t remember whether--I’m not sure he was a Christian even, I don’t think he was, because of some of the research that I had done, and why did he want to have breakfast with me? He wanted to ask me a question. I’m sure we have never mentioned this on this program. He said, While I was at this cocktail party the other night, and I was talking to doctor so and so, and he named one of the top nuclear physicists in the world, who at that time had made some major contributions to the development of various kinds of weapons, and so forth, and he said, We’re standing there with our drinks in our hands, and I just kind of casually said to him, Where do you get these ideas? It was a stupid question, but he shocked me with his answer. He said, I get most of them from the night school I attend. And the worst was, I looked at him and said, You go to night school? He said, Well, not the kind that you’re thinking of, but very often when I fall asleep I awaken, it seems to me that I am out of my body, out in space somewhere in the company of other scientists where we are being taught advance concepts by spirit beings. And the lawyer looked at him and said, Is this guy drunk? Is he pulling my leg? Have you ever heard anything like that? I said, You had better believe it. It is happening to a lot of people. So, Tom, that could have been accelerated right after when the Antichrist is here. Tom: But let me support that from Scripture. A lot of people say some of the things that we presented in the new spirituality, for example, which originally was, America, the Sorcerer’s New Apprentice. There is contact with spirit entities from tribes in Venezuela, the Yamomo tribe to Siberia. As a matter of fact that’s where the term, “shamanism” developed, the Tungus tribe in Siberia. But let’s go to Scripture. Dave: Well, Tom, let me say that psychologists, psychiatrists, and medical doctors are even teaching their patients to develop spirit guides, and we document that. Tom: Well, we just did an article in October. The October issue deals with psychology and the doctrine of devils, and it features---if we can use that term---Carl Gustaf Jung, who is the, you know, among not just New Agers but now in Christianity, is the most popular psychiatrist--although he has been dead since ’61,--he was the most popular psychologist around. But anyway, 1 Timothy, for Christians who are a little skeptical about this, just turn to 1 Timothy Chapter 4, verse 1: “Now the spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times--I believe that’s where we are today--in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits and the doctrine of devils.” I mean, we’re seeing it happen. Dave: Tom, I remember Jonathan Livingstone Seagull, and wow! that was such a big seller, popular in Christian bookstores, Christians loved it, and the author Richard Block said,--I mean, he just lays it out--He says he received it all by dictation from a spirit entity. So, I mean, it was new age of course, it was the very antithesis of the truth the Bible teaches. So, there it was, and I could give you many other examples from my own personal experience. So anyway, I think that it could have accelerated after the Rapture. Antichrist is in control, and these things could have moved very fast. Tom: Okay, now, in bold type, paragraph heading, you asked this question, and I’m going to ask it to you: What about the Temple? Dave: The Temple, and again, Tom, we’re talking about after the Rapture. The Temple doesn’t have to be there before Christ takes His own out of here, but very quickly thereafter, and that could happen at any time. Now, people say, Well yeah, but you’ve got the Dome of the Rock, I mean, that really stands in the way. Well, as I point out there, I think, and in Judgment Day in particular, Jerusalem is not ever mentioned in the Qur’an. The only place that they say that they find it is Surah 17:1 which talks about Al-Aqsa, and Al-Aqsa means, the farthest place of worship. In other words, for a farthermost place of worship for a Muslim you would have had to have a mosque there, and there was no mosque there. Let me read what the Egyptian Ministry of Culture, recently published as the interpretation of Surah 17:1. It says: “This text tells us that Allah took his prophet from the Al-Haram sacred mosque in Mecca to the Al-Aqsa Mosque. But in Palestine during that time there existed--I don’t like that word, Palestine, but we can’t get rid of that, we’re running out of time--there existed no mosque that could have been the mosque the most distant from the Al-Haram Mosque. The night journey, Isra, was not to Palestine, rather it was to Medina. It began at the Al-Haram Mosque and the journey ended at the mosque of (Abd Allah Ibn az-Zubayr) in Medina. The details of the journey of the Hijra, Muhammad’s escape by night from Mecca to Medina are the very same details of the night journey, the Isra, because the night journey of Surah 17:1 is indeed, the secret Hijra. Okay, now I believe the Antichrist, could very quickly tell them, Well, you’ve got to move that thing back to Medina. It was never intended, in fact, that verse Surah 17:1 was not in there, they put it in there a few years ago among those verses inscribed, very beautifully in Arabic, inside the Dome of the Rock. Tom: Sure. Dave: And they would move it. Tom: Well, he could say, The reasons you Muslims are having problems is because you’re not following the Qur’an. Dave: Right, yeah. So, it could be moved and it could be moved very quickly. And you know that now, of course, the Israelis, they’ve got all the instruments, they are ready to do it. They probably have the stones cut out as well for the Temple, and they could help the Muslims move that. It would be a great togetherness project in a new peace that Antichrist has guaranteed. Tom: Dave, we’re just about out of time, but I’d like to come back and start with this next week, because we have to get to the issue of, Well, what about in times past? The Jews aren’t even back in their land, how could that--then I’ll hook you up. Dave: Okay, very good.
Search the Scriptures Daily Program #4806b Transcript follows: Gary: This is Search the Scriptures Daily, a radio ministry of The Berean Call. Still to come, answers to your questions in Contending for the Faith, and in Understanding the Scriptures, Dave and Tom will resume their conversation on God’s salvation. In addition to this radio program, we publish a monthly newsletter, which we make available free of charge. We also produce and distribute a wide variety of teaching materials including books in print, e-book and audio book formats, CD’s, DVD’s and other items to encourage the serious study of God’s Word. For a complete list of materials, or to get a copy of today’s broadcast write to us at POB 7019, Bend, Oregon 97708. Call our toll free order number 877-882-4253, that’s 877-88Bible, or visit our website at www.thebereancall.org. If you would like a copy of this broadcast on tape or compact disc, ask for Program #4806, and be sure to mention the call letters of this station. And now, if you would like to watch Dave and Tom, our weekly broadcast is available on DVD, ask about a subscription when you contact us. You can also download both audio and video podcast at our website. If you receive television programming from Sky Angel you’ll be able to view our video: In Defense of Israel, with former Israeli General Shimon Erem, on December 16, starting at 10:30 PM eastern. We invite you to tune in. We’ll repeat this information at the end of the program. RELIGION IN THE NEWS Now, Religion in the News, a report and comment on religious trends and events being covered by the media. This week’s item is from Elaine’s Newsletter.com, with a headline: “The American Subversives.” The following are excerpts: “In 2003, a study was published in the Psychological Bulletin. That’s the same fine American Psychological Association Publication that brought you the Rind et al Study that said that childhood sexual abuse was not always harmful, and was even sometimes beneficial. This 2003 study concluded that political conservatives are mentally ill. That’s right. Conservatives are deranged due to mental rigidity and closed mindedness, including increased dogmatism and intolerance of ambiguity, decreased cognitive complexity, decreased openness to experience, uncertainty avoidance, personal needs for order and structure, and need for cognitive closure, lowered self-esteem, fear, anger and aggression, pessimism, disgust and contempt. Yep, that about sizes up my state of mind, especially that part about pessimism, disgust and contempt. As far as lowered self-esteem is concerned, when all the things that provide stability and a foundation for living are deemed pathological and common sense is derided as an illness, and all your best efforts to persuade those who call evil virtue and virtue evil fall on deaf ears. I suppose it is bound to make you a little crazy.” Tom: Dave, this is obviously an editorial, but the reason I wanted to talk about this is that it really lays out so many of the problems that we’ve been talking about in these programs--like last week we talked about a child at school reading the Bible on her own. Now through psychology and through other means, all you need to do is go to things such as the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, so-called. You’ll find items in there that are irrational, but they have titles that are enumerated here. What does it mean, “decreased cognitive complexity”, “decreased openness to experience”, “uncertainty avoidance.” This is psychobabble, yet those who are conservative, those who certainly take a world view, and so on, these are all categories that they throw us into, and then, like this child who is a middle schooler, who is reading the Bible at lunch time. Oh, no, this can’t be, because certainly the things in the Bible are going to repress, certainly an openness to doing things in life that help growth. Just like it says here, sometimes childhood sexual abuse is not always harmful. Dave: Well Tom, there’s an obvious problem here. Someone is defining what they say is sanity and insanity, and that’s the psychological--what would we call them? Tom: So called experts, and how we are to live our lives. Dave: Psychological community. Now, who gave them the right to define this? But Tom, they can’t even define it, as you pointed out, the DSM. I can remember when I was a boy we visited a place that was called Patton, I remember that, in San Bernardino, as I recall. We lived at Riverside, California, and it was an insane asylum. In those days you were either crazy or you were not crazy, and you could pretty well tell who was crazy and who wasn’t. But then they keep adding things and adding things, and you know, this progressed to where we’re got several hundreds now of these things. Tom: It started out the DSM in the 50’s, it was like 154 mental disorders, today there are 370 or more. Dave: Yeah, but I’m talking about even before the 154. There was really only one way back there in the beginning. I remember sitting next to a woman psychologist, unless she was a psychiatrist, she had just come from a convention of the Psychological Association, I think it was. And she was a little bit hot because, she says: They’ve added some more categories now and I’ve got to get a new book, and they charge you an arm and a leg for that thing. Tom: But it’s also the open to getting the insurance companies to pay for this. Dave: Right. So Tom, they make it up as they go along. It’s total nonsense, and that’s what this is about. So they come up with these categories, and these definitions of things, and actually what they are doing is they are excusing sin. Tom: Yes. Dave: Because it’s not sin anymore, no, we put a label on it. Oh, I used to think that I just had a temper, but now they tell me--they’ve got a name for it, and you get insurance money if you’re treated for it. It’s a scam, and yet the government and the public, and tragically as you pointed out, the church goes right along with this. Tom: Well Dave, my concern is, and I sort of go back to what you just mentioned earlier. You visited an insane asylum, my father was a psychiatrist, and I grew up in that community, lived on the grounds of an insane asylum. So, I have great compassion for people who have problems of living, but now, every issue of life is a psychiatric or psychological problem, and it’s this new priesthood that is telling us what we need to do. Now, just go down the list: Freud, Jung, Maslow, Rogers, look at their lives. I encourage anybody who thinks these men are the pillars of how we can change society for the better, look at their lives. I mean, they are disastrous, absolutely disastrous. Freud’s concepts that has influenced the world were all based on his own perversions. Dave: Right. Tom, you remember the case in California where a number of psychologists, actually from Stanford, got themselves admitted to psychiatric hospitals across California. They were not loony at all, and the patients knew that these guys were not crazy, but then they couldn’t get themselves out, because the psychiatrists insisted, Oh, no, they were! So, that made a little publicity, and there was a psychiatric hospital in California that said, You couldn’t have fooled us. And the guy said, Okay, over the next six months we’ll send in an unspecified number of these phonies, and it threw that hospital into turmoil. Well, is this one? No, I don’t think that. And finally, at the end of the six months they said: Well, we have identified 20 of them, tell me, how many did you send? We didn’t send any! Tom, this is a joke, they can’t even follow their own definitions. Tom: Well, it’s a tragedy, Dave, it really is, and sadly, the church is into it.
Search the Scriptures Daily Program #4806c Transcript follows: Gary: You are listening to Search the Scriptures Daily, a radio ministry of The Berean Call. Still ahead, Dave and Tom continue their weekly in-depth study of the Doctrine of Salvation. Please stay tuned. CONTENDING FOR THE FAITH In this regular feature, Dave and Tom respond to questions from listeners and readers of The Berean Call. Here’s this week’s question: “Dear Dave and Tom: I have a friend who was a relatively young Christian, yet she says that she believes in reincarnation. She says that the most compelling reasons for her belief are the studies done regarding past lives therapy. The historical accuracy of events remembered by those in such therapy can only be accounted for by their actually having lived in that distant time period. I know that the Bible doesn’t teach reincarnation, but I have no good answer for what supposedly has been documented by the studies she said she read. What can I tell her?” Tom: Dave, you know we were just talking about psychology, and this is one of the reasons that Carl Jung got excited about his concept of the collective unconscious because he could see things happening in different cultures, but people that had no contact with one another seemed to reinforce the same concepts. Dave: Yeah Tom, they should contact TBC and we’ll send them some stuff. We’ve done some studies on this which we can’t cover in this short a time. But first of all, there are three things about reincarnation: It’s amoral, it’s senseless and it’s hopeless. Why is it amoral? Before we even consider their evidence, and their evidence is very, very slim, and we can explain that as well. But anyway, it’s amoral because, if I’m a husband who beats his wife in this life, reincarnation, karma says I must come back in the next life as a wife who is beaten by her husband. But that means that my husband in the next life, he must come back in his next life as a wife beaten by her husband. So, the exact crime that you have committed you must be the victim of it. So, it does not solve the problem of evil, reincarnation and karma perpetuate evil, number one. Tom: Can I just interject this? This is real reincarnation, this is transmigration as the Hindu’s taught it, this is san sorrow, the wheel of sorrows, not some homogenized, Americanized, or Westernized version which we are getting today. Dave: Right. Secondly, it’s senseless. Anybody see that this world is improving? I mean, what’s the point of coming back if you keep making the same mistakes, because I guarantee you, although there are a few cases where they say, oh yeah, de-ja-vu, oh, my, I remember being here. Well, come on! Let’s have some details. If this reincarnation thing is going to help you and you’ve got karma that you’ve built up in the last life you’ve got to work off in the next one, you had better know some details. What’s the point of continually coming back only to repeat the same mistakes? Nobody can remember what happened in that last life, okay! Not in any detail for certain. So, it’s senseless, it doesn’t make sense. Number Three: It’s hopeless. Look, the fact, Tom, that you and I are sitting here facing one another on radio, it’s the result of our prior lives, the karma that we’ve built up in our lives and the fact that people out there are listening to us, we hope, that’s also because of their prior lives. But then the prior life was the result of a prior life, and the karma that we’ve built up in this life--well, that means we’ve got to live another life to work that off, but in the process of working that bad karma off we built up more bad karma which requires yet another life, and another and another and another. Tom, It’s hopeless, okay! Now, she says, or whoever this was said, Well, I know the Bible doesn’t teach it. No, the Bible teaches against it. It’s appointed unto man, Hebrews 9:27, once to die, and after this the judgment. Jesus Christ was resurrected, not reincarnated, and we’re never promised that anyone would be resurrected. (reincarnated?) Paul says, Absent from the body, present with the Lord, which is far better. Now, as far as these cases, Tom, you just quoted 1 Timothy 4:1, in our last segment: “Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils.” We can very easily explain. This person was not there in India in that little village in the 1500’s, but a demon was there, and when you put yourself into an altered state of consciousness…. Tom: This is past life therapy, it’s what it’s all about. Dave: It all happens under hypnosis, and the Bobgan’s wrote an excellent book on that. Tom: Which we offer. Dave: Yeah. You put yourself in that state of consciousness, it the hypnotist’s mind can influence you, and even control you and give you all kinds of delusions, certainly other minds could also be influencing your mind, and this is where these so-called past life experiences come from. Tom, we lived in California once upon a time, and Long Beach State College, for the State College System of California, they had a couple of scientists there who did experiments, and they found out that under hypnosis you tell someone: You’re being approached by UFO, describe the creatures taking you aboard, and they will describe the whole thing exactly what these other so-called victims of abduction will tell you. Or, you are dying, Oh, you’re dead, describe it. They will give you the whole thing, going through the tunnel, you know, darkness, this Being of light, and it can all be simulated under hypnosis! And this hypnotist doesn’t have to make suggestions, it comes out. This is demonic, and we can document that around the world, as we have. Tom: Dave, this is a person who writes to us about a young Christian, but it’s amazing how many Christians, who have been Christians for a long time, believe in reincarnation. I remember when you were being interviewed on a TV program in Southern California, do you remember? Dave: Well actually, it was a little debate with some reincarnationists. Tom: Right, but there were two women that you had met previous to that because they came from some of your meetings. Dave: Well Tom, this was a Monday morning and that was Sunday, and the assistant pastor, before he introduced me said: I want you to meet my elderly aunt, she’s had such a wonderful spiritual impact on my life. And when they asked for hands, who in our audience--quite a large audience--believes in reincarnation? Her hand went up! It shocked me! A lady who had met me out on the sidewalk as I was going in: Oh, I was at your meeting yesterday, my father was a Baptist minister, and so forth, oh, it was really terrific. She put her hand up! So, it’s in the church, Tom. Tom: Yeah, and it’s a sad thing because again, it’s one more thing that’s not biblical, that many in the church have embraced. Dave: It contradicts the Bible and it gives you hope of escaping judgment, you’ve got another chance, another route. Gary: If you have a question for Dave and Tom to respond to in a future Contending for the Faith, stay tuned, we’ll have our contact information at the end of the program. You are listening to Search the Scriptures Daily, a radio ministry of The Berean Call.
Search the Scriptures Daily Program #4806d Transcript follows: . Now our final segment: UNDERSTANDING THE SCRIPTURES We resume our excursion through the Book of Acts. Here again are Dave and Tom. Tom: This is our Understanding the Scripture segment, we’re in the Book of Acts chapter 17. We started with verse 1 last week, and I want to just give some background. Paul had come to Thessalonica and there in the synagogue of the Jews, Paul would--this is the Sabbath day--for three Sabbath days he reasoned with them, the Scripture says. He reasoned with them out of the Scriptures, and opening and alleging that Christ must needs have suffered, and risen again from the dead; and that this Jesus, whom I preach unto you, Paul says, is Christ. So, we will pick up with Verse 4: “And some of them believed, and consorted with Paul and Silas; and of the devout Greeks a great multitude, and of the chief women not a few.” So, he’s in a synagogue, so there must have been Gentiles that had converted to Judaism, is that the case, Dave? Dave: Yeah, or you could certainly visit a synagogue, not like the Temple, Gentiles could not go there, although there was a court for the Gentiles in the days when the Temple was on Temple Mount. So, whether they have actually converted to Judaism or whether they were just curious. Here’s this guy that’s come, these people have come and--I don’t know. But his talk was heard by some Greeks. Tom: Well, Dave, what do you think it means,--“and of the chief women, not a few” this is really interesting. Dave: Well, apparently, even in those days some women had some leadership roles that they fulfilled. Tom: This is Greek society. Dave: Yeah, and interestingly, the last chapter in Proverbs, Solomon talks about the woman in whom her husband doth safely trust. She hired the servants, she goes out and buys and sells and runs the household, and so forth. Tom: Sounds like Ruth Hunt! Dave: Yeah. So, some of these women were rather important and influential, and some of them came to Christ, they believed, and that upsets the Jews because they thought this Messiah--he’s talking about the Messiah--and he’s pointing out their Scriptures, and look, this is what it says about the Messiah. Now, how can these Gentiles get in on this? And you know that even the disciples had a tough time with that one. Tom: Right, for many years after Christ ascended into heaven. So, we’re spies. “But the Jews which believed not, moved with envy, took unto them certain lewd fellows of the baser sort,… Dave: I like that phrase, “lewd fellows of the baser sort”--wow! You guys are pretty low. Tom: And gathered a company, and set all the city on an uproar, and assaulted the house of Jason, and sought to bring them out to the people.” Dave: You know, Tom, that reminds me of 2 Thessalonians chapter 3, I think it’s verse 2, I don’t know, I don’t remember the verse, somewhere around there, and Paul asks prayer that we would be delivered from wicked and unreasonable men, he says, for all men have not faith. If you don’t have faith in God you’re not really trusting Him. You’re going to be wicked and you will be unreasonable--these lewd fellows of the baser sort. Tom: The Scripture calls us to a reasonable faith, not just a leap of faith. Dave: Exactly. There are people that it’s impossible to reason with, Tom, and they have turned their backs on God, they’ve turned their back on the truth, and I could begin to name quite a few in our society. Tom, let me just name one. I’m thinking of George Wald, Harvard professor, Nobel Prize winner, and I’m writing a book right now called: Cosmos, Creator and Human Destiny, and I quote him, among some others, and he’s an evolutionist. Now, he says, in the quote, and I can’t give you a verbatim quote, but anyway, he says: “Well, we all know that you can’t have spontaneous generation, Pasteur proved that. This is the law of biogenesis, life only comes from life.” Well then, how are we going to explain life? You got a big bang, that must have pasteurized everything pretty thoroughly. So, where could life come from? Well, we know it’s impossible, but here we are as a result of spontaneous generation because we will not believe in divine creation. Dave: That’s folly! Tom: Sounds unreasonable to me. Dave: Very unreasonable, because they will not accept God, and that’s kind of “these lewd fellows of the baser sort.” Tom: Well, it demands accountability, Dave, and that to me is why evolution, Darwinian’s ideas took off, because it seemed to remove accountability to a God who created everything. Dave: Yeah, now I’m not putting George Wald and other scientists in this category, because obviously, these guys were rabble rousers, get out there and rouse the crowd and they don’t even know what the reason is but they are rioting, they just like to riot. But Tom, in a sense, there’s a relationship, because, you remember the Scopes trial? The Scopes trial was because Christianity, creation was in the schools and their whole argument was, Well, you ought to at least teach both sides. Remember that? Well, they supposedly won the case. I mean, it was ridiculous because they had no evidence, and so forth. But anyway, now what happened? Now, they have turned the tables--you can’t have creation in here. Not even as a theory, you know. No, no, no, that’s not science. So, they have taken control, and I would say that they are like rabble rousers. You want to reason with people--look, there’s evidence out there for design, you cannot escape it. We ought to at least be able to face the evidence. Let’s present the evidence and let people come to their own conclusions. Absolutely not, that’s not science, that’s religion, we’re not going to allow that! I would say they are like rabble rousers. Tom: Well Dave, what about the verse: “The fool has said in his heart, there is no God!” I mean, there’s foolishness at least for these guys, right? Dave: I’m afraid so, Tom, because they are determined that there is no God. I quote another one of these scientists, mathematician, in the book and he says: “I admit that some of the theories of science, or let’s say some of the dogmas of science are foolish on the very face of it. But we are going to cling to these because--now I’m giving you an exact quote: “We will not allow a divine foot in the door.” So, these men are rebels against the God that created them. And these guys were rabble rousers and they stirred up the people, they made an assault, you know, they are violent, unreasonable and wicked. Verse 6: “When they found them not, they drew Jason and certain brethren unto the rulers of the city, crying, These that have turned the world upside down are come hither also.” Tom, let’s go back to the DSM--they set their own rules! Tom: Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, that’s the DSM. Dave: They make their own definitions. What do you mean “turn the world upside down”? They were turning the world right side up! But that was their definition. It reminds me, Tom, of, you know, I used to get out on college campuses a lot and just cold turkey walk up to people and talk to them. Well, they are against absolutes, there are no moral absolutes, absolutely! Well, say the guy is running for political office, follow him around for a little while and he will begin to tell the voters what is right and what is wrong, and he has his standards and his definitions, okay. It’s the same situation here. Tom: Verse 7: “Whom Jason hath received: and these all do contrary to the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king, one Jesus. And they troubled the people and the rulers of the city, when they heard these things.” Dave: You’re going to upset a lot of people. The decrees of Caesar, that was their law, the Roman Empire was very efficient. They really ran a tight ship, and you didn’t mess with the decrees of Caesar, which is really amazing for that day. And of course, how better are you going to arouse the rabble then, Oh, they’re trying to start a revolution against Caesar. Well, in fact I guess it was a revolution against Caesar. Tom: Certainly the god-king in effect. Dave: Yeah. And, you know, Tom, it’s often been said that the early Christians would not have been thrown to the lions, they would not have been persecuted had they been a little more ecumenical, had they said, well Jesus is one of the gods, Yahweh is one of the gods. No, they insisted that there is only one true God and only one way of salvation. That got them into trouble. So that’s what the Church, a lot of it today, is trying to avoid. We just kind of massage over that. We try to get along with everybody and they’re really allowing people to go to hell. Gary: Dave and Tom will continue their discussion on the topic of salvation next week, we hope you can join us. This is Search the Scriptures Daily, a radio ministry of The Berean Call. Would you like to expand your knowledge of God’s Word? We offer a wide variety of items that will greatly assist you, from books and tracts to audio and video recordings, CD-ROM, our website and much more. For a complete list of materials, or to get a copy of today’s broadcast, write to us at POB 7019, Bend, Oregon 97708. Call us at our toll free order number 877-882-4253, that’s 877-88Bible, or visit our website at www.thebereancall.org. If you would like a copy of this broadcast on tape or compact disc, ask for Program #4806, and be sure to mention the call letters of this station. And now, if you would like to watch Dave and Tom, our weekly broadcast is available on DVD. Ask about a subscription when you contact us. You can also download both audio and video podcast at our website. If you receive television programming from Sky Angel, you will be able to view our video, In Defense of Israel, with former Israeli General Shimon Erem on December 16, starting at 10:30 p.m. Eastern, we invite you to tune in. Get a pen or pencil ready, we’ll repeat our contact information in just a moment. Next week, we will continue our series of programs based on Dave Hunt’s book, When Will Jesus Come? and, “Can the Rapture only occur after WW III?” In Religion in the News, “Do our brains have a God-spot?” we’ll take a look at that story and address the question: “What sin does not lead to death?” We hope you can join us. If you have questions or comments about this program we urge you to contact our offices. Search the Scriptures Daily Radio Ministry is made possible by God’s grace, your prayers, and your financial support. I’m Gary Carmichael, and for Dave, Tom and everyone here at The Berean Call, I would like to thank you for joining us and invite you to tune in again next week. In the meantime, if you desire to know God’s truth, search the scriptures daily. Join us again next week for Search The Scriptures Daily, featuring Dave Hunt and T. A. McMahon. For more information about The Berean Call, write to us at POB 7019, Bend, Oregon 97708. Call us toll free at our order number 877-882-4253, that’s 877-88Bible, or visit our website at www.thebereancall.org. You’ve been listening to Search The Scriptures Daily, a radio ministry of The Berean Call.
