archives
This is a link to our weekly radio program Search the Scriptures Daily. You may listen to the program by clicking on the "mp3" link above. For more listening options, please see our Radio Page.
Gary:
This is Search the Scriptures Daily, a radio ministry of The Berean Call.
Still ahead, answers to your questions in Contending for the Faith, and in Understanding the Scriptures, Dave and Tom will continue their discussion of 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 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 compact disk, ask for Program #1108, and be sure to mention the call letters of this station. And 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. We’ll repeat this information at the end of the program. 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 Christian Newswire, December 16, 2007, with a headline: “Let the News Be Told Again, Heaven is Real and Beautiful.” The following are excerpts: Our son David was involved in an accident where he was killed instantly while on his way to work. A couple nights before his death he told his dad, if I don’t see you in the morning, then I will see you in heaven. The loss was tremendous due to the love David had for everyone. His sister was especially lost because they were so close. However, she prayed to God for her peace and understanding of why. One night while she was asleep, David came to her in her dream, and they were in communication for a long time. This was not the first time for her to know he was there and with her, but that night, after the Lord had prepared her for him, she and David talked about many things. She asked David if there really was a heaven. David told her yes. She then asked him was it pretty? David told her, no, he told her it was beautiful. She asked David if he would come to mom to give here comfort. David told her it was easier for him to come to her. There are a lot of questions in this life, the answers will not be revealed to us until it is our time to pass. However, through their absolute love for each other, and for many, many other reasons that only God has the answer to, our faith is being strengthened. This is as beautiful as anything I have ever witnessed. God is great, and his Son, who gave His life for us all to have eternal life and in the hope that we would love each other as He loved us, is again showing us that He is the truth and the light.
Tom:
Dave, I find this interesting, because it’s amazing, through the internet, through e-mails, and so on, how that’s become a vehicle to present information. I remember when the production of “The Passion of the Christ” was taking place, that there were a lot of e-mails sent by Christians, evangelical Christians to support this, and so on. So, somehow, you got on these lists and people sent you their e-mails, either for prayer support, or to explain something, or to present something. My point here is that there are lots of new avenues now for people to disseminate information, and some of them like this are…. There’s no doubt that there really is a sincerity here about what’s taking place, certainly, in these days of so much feelings-oriented, psychologies and so on, that people want to be comforted, but there also demonstrates in much of this, a lack of Biblical discernment. Not unlike what we were talking about in the first segment, but here you have something that just, I’m sure it will warm people’s hearts, but this is not true to the God of the Bible, the very God that they are trying to exalt.
Dave:
Right, yeah Tom, it’s the same old thing. What we were talking about before, it applies here in this situation. Are we going to go by the Bible? Now, Paul was caught up to the third heaven, he says he was. He said he heard words that it was not lawful to utter. In other words, he had no permission to tell anybody about anything up there. No one else has that permission, and yet we’ve got all kinds of people on Christian TV, we’ve got books being written—When I was in heaven. One of them even said, “When I got there I found Peter’s footprints in the gold streets because Peter got there so soon, the gold had just been poured.”
Tom:
Oh yeah!
Dave:
And then another one, “Because God does say in Psalm 91, He will cover you with His feathers, and under His wings you will trust.” Now, I’m not even naming these people, but— he got so close to God he touched Him and he felt His feathers. Now, what is going on here? Well, this lady is getting involved, or she is being led into necromancy, absolutely forbidden! Now, why should she trust what her deceased brother David says in a dream? Now, is this a dream, or this a—she doesn’t say it’s a vision, but they had a long conversation! Now you don’t usually talk to people in your dream, well, maybe you do, but this is very, very dangerous, because now what are we going to do? Who is our authority? Well, I would sure like to know something about heaven—well, let me tell you about this girl, and her brother David came to her and here’s what he says heaven is like. Really? They’ve been doing this; this is called “spiritism” or “spiritualism.”
Tom:
If it’s not just a dream that she had because of her heart wanting this, but that still opens the door for something that could be very wrong.
Dave:
She’s making it more than a dream now, relating it in detail. So, down through the ages, King Saul, well, he wanted to know what was going to happen, and so forth.
Tom:
Now, expand on that, Dave, was it really Samuel who came to Saul?
Dave:
I believe it was, in that case. In other words, because the medium was shocked. What it said was true, was a rebuke.
Tom:
It also brought about the death of Saul, so obviously, God allowed it, but then Saul had to pay the consequences.
Dave:
That would be an exception, but this is dangerous stuff. So, here we are, we’re going to take David’s word for this because he’s on the other side. Tom, I used to investigate this kind of stuff, as you did, and it’s amazing how Aunt Jane, who wasn’t that bright when she was alive, but now that she’s gone on to the other side, woooo, they consult her as the all-knowing oracle. And suddenly, Aunt Jane, she knows everything, because she’s over there now and we can consult her. I’m afraid that’s what these people are being led into.
Tom:
Dave, again, we have sincerity, we have emotionalism, we have people tied to what they desire, what they want, and that’s the check that I think they need to do. As you said, is this true to God’s Word? Yes, I want to be comforted, yes, I want to hear, I want to know that my deceased loved one is in heaven with the Lord—but again, nowhere in Scripture do we find that there’s an example of that.
Dave:
Right, even something against it. We’ve got these books written: I Was in Heaven and I Was in Hell and I Came Back to Tell You. We have the story, true, not a parable, of the rich man in hell and he lift up his eyes, being in torment—you remember, he didn’t want his brothers to come to this place and he said, “Please send Lazarus back, they will believe if someone comes back from the dead.” Abraham said they have Moses and the prophets, if they will not hear Moses and the prophets, neither would they believe the one came back from the dead and told them. So this is to no purpose, but it can lead you into some real problems.
This is a link to our weekly radio program Search the Scriptures Daily. You may listen to the program by clicking on the "mp3" link above. For more listening options, please see our Radio Page.
You are listening to Search the Scriptures Daily, a radio ministry of The Berean Call. Still to come, Dave and Tom continue their weekly in-depth study of the Doctrine of Salvation, please stay tuned. Now:
CONTENDING FOR THE FAITH
In this regular feature, Dave and Tom respond to questions from listeners and readers of The Berean Call. Here is this week’s question: Dear Dave and Tom: I’m a fairly new and rather enthusiastic Christian who really wants to grow spiritually. There are so many things I have heard other Christians say and do that I would like to see take place in my own life, but I’m not sure how to go about it. For example, they claim that God guides their lives, helping them make decisions. Do you believe that’s true? If so, how can that happen in my life?
Tom:
Dave, I believe God guides my life. I know hanging around you for almost three decades, some of the examples that you’ve given on how God has guided your lives, you and Ruth and your family made decisions based on God’s giving you an indication of what you were to do in certain situations. That’s happened in my life, but how does a young Christian, who really doesn’t know the Word of God, not really apprised of what the Word of God is about, the Bible. How does a young Christian go about that?
Dave:
Well, Abraham’s servant, back in Genesis 24, I think it is, said, I, being in the way, the Lord led me. Whoever this person is who wants God’s guidance, are you serving the Lord? He’s not going to just guide you for everything. Well, I’m not going to get out of bed this morning until the Lord shows me it’s really His will. No, but if you are serving the Lord, and you are in the way that He wants you to go—
Tom:
That is, growing in the faith, or is it more than that?
Dave:
Well, look, are you doing something worthwhile for the Lord? And is there something worthwhile that He would like to lead you into or what would you need Him to guide you to do? I mean, you’re just going about your business and you really don’t even think about the Lord. How often do you thank Him for His redemption? How often do you tell God you love Him? Are you really praying without ceasing? Are you walking in communion with Him? Well then, you might expect some guidance. But if you just maybe now and then want to—Wow, really I wish the Lord would tell me what to do in this situation. He might not even tell you that, because you haven’t been walking with Him in a way that would cause Him to continue to guide you. That’s a problem, and we need to—and I speak to my own heart. How often have I told the Lord I love him today, thank Jesus for His salvation? Well, I must confess, today I forgot, I didn’t even do it once. That’s horrible, because I do not like that to ever happen. So, well, I guess I did it a couple of times, yeah, but not like I would like to. So Tom, I could just quickly say, here was our family, my wife and I, four children, ages 8 to 15, and a VW bus. We were in Lebanon, and we were in a serious situation. I didn’t know that war was breaking out, but we prayed. I remember very clearly, we prayed one night, Lord; you’ve got to guide us. Are we going to go on, are we going to get out of here? We had a double transit visa to go through Syria and to Jordan, and then we thought we would sneak across the metal-bound gate. Well, you can’t, don’t do that! But anyway, that night—well, not during the night, but in the morning when we woke up, we had asked for four—now, here’s a specific case of guidance—we had asked for four specific signs. It’s like putting out a fleece, but we didn’t know which way to go. We said Lord, would you please show us what to do, and if this happens, and this happens, and this happens, and this happens. Our children were there my wife Ruth and I, and I laid out these four things. Now, George Muller used to say, you don’t just say, Okay, God, hit me with a bolt of lightening, or do something. But you could put down on one side of the paper what—this is one set of alternatives, here’s another set over here, Lord, show us which one. And we just asked for four specifics. I can tell you the next morning all four were telling us, Get out of here! And we headed North through Syria, I don’t know how long, maybe an hour or so, we had been over the border into Turkey, and we pulled into a gas station. Well, of course we don’t speak Turkish, he’s making like an airplane, and dropping bombs and so forth, and we knew a war had broken out that we could have been in the middle of on our way to Jordan, and God graciously delivered us. He will guide us in all kinds of ways.
Tom:
Dave, the other part of this, and we’re alluding to it in our other segments, as you get to know the Lord, as you grow in your personal, intimate relationship with Him, you know His Word, you know what He said, Jesus said, If you love me, keep my commandments. Well, He’s talking about everything that He said, all right, not just the Ten Commandments. But that helps, because you know, it’s like me in my relationship with my wife, I know what she likes and what she doesn’t like. I know what may upset her, what may really bless her and please her, and that guides me about how I go about my life. I think it’s the same with the Lord, we have to grow in our relationship with Him, we have to know Him better through His Word, primarily.
Dave:
But we want Him to guide us into His will so that we can be more fruitful. That must be our motive and our desire; otherwise, what’s the point in seeking guidance from God.
Tom:
But isn’t I wonderful, some people I know say, you’re kidding, you’re telling me that God can actually guide and direct your lives? Absolutely! It’s not a matter of being a theologian, somebody who understands the secrets; it’s just a matter of your relationship with Him. Is it growing, is it developing or not.
Dave:
Well, Tom, you know, I could tell hundreds, literally hundreds of incidents of this kind of guidance. Okay, I being in the way, the Lord led me.
This is a link to our weekly radio program Search the Scriptures Daily. You may listen to the program by clicking on the "mp3" link above. For more listening options, please see our Radio Page.
If you have a question for Dave and Tom to address in a future “Contending for the Faith,” stay with us; we’ll provide our contact information at the end of the program. You are listening to Search the Scriptures Daily, a radio ministry of The Berean Call. Now our final segment:
UNDERSTANDING THE SCRIPTURES
We continue our excursion through the gospel of Matthew. Here again are Dave and Tom: This is our Understanding the Scriptures segment, we are in Matthew chapter 1, and last week I went through the genealogy of Jesus, and we got to verse 17. So we will pick up with verse 17: “So all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations; and from David until the carrying away into Babylon are fourteen generations; and from the carrying away into Babylon unto Christ are fourteen generations.”
Dave:
Now Tom, I don’t know why, I don’t know the significance of fourteen generations, but maybe you do, Tom, but it shows a pattern, it shows that God was in charge, He knows what’s happening. Now you couldn’t say more than that.
Tom:
“Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise: When as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost.” I think that’s pretty straight forward, it was a virgin birth, that Joseph, her espoused, had nothing to do with it.
Dave:
Yeah, we have this again in Luke. The Bible is very clear. Now, Catholicism-well, Jesus was born of a virgin, but Jesus was the only child that Mary had, and we’ll get there in a minute, but let me just look ahead. Verse 25, that’s how the chapter ends: He knew her not—okay, we know what that means. Joseph had no sex with her—until she had brought forth her only son? No, the Bible talks about “your only son.” God tells Abraham, “Take now thy son, thine only son—this is in Genesis 22—Isaac. So it tells us Ishmael was not looked upon as a son, your only son is Isaac. So, it could have very easily said, she brought forth her only son, because we want you to understand she remains a virgin the rest of her life. No, it says, He knew her not until she brought forth here firstborn son: and he called his name Jesus. And of course we know that Jesus had a number of half-brothers, and there were some half-sisters, the brothers are named, and Catholics try to say well, they were cousins, and so forth. But anyway, I pushed us ahead, Tom, but it’s apropos to what we are talking about here.
Tom:
Right. Dave, what about the virgin birth? I remember you talking about Norman Vincent Peale, way back. There are some doctrines, some issues that people write off and say well, it’s just not important. Is the virgin birth all that important, is it essential, or should we just kind of let anybody think what they want?
Dave:
Well, Peale didn’t seem to think so.
Tom:
No.
Dave:
Is it essential? Well, the Bible tells us, if we went back to Isaiah 9:6 and 7: “…unto us a child is born (that’s the babe born in Bethlehem)…unto us a Son is given.” Now, Jesus was the eternal Son of God, and he came into this body that was given him. The Catholics talk about the, mother of God. Well, isn’t Jesus God? Yes, but you’re not the mother of God. He is eternal. God was around a long time before Mary came on the scene. She is the mother of the body that was prepared—we go to Hebrews where it quotes the Psalms: “A body hast thou prepared me.” Okay? Now, if Jesus was born, if He were just a man, well, He could be filled with the Holy Spirit like John the Baptist, and so forth, but He has to be infinite, because the penalty for sin that He is going to pay is an infinite penalty. He has to be God in order to die for the sins of the world, and He couldn’t be a sinless man because it says all have sinned. Mary confesses that she’s a sinner; Joseph certainly was, so how could we have the spotless Lamb of God, who bears away the sin of the world if He is just a mortal man? It wouldn’t work. Furthermore, the Bible is very clear, beginning in Genesis 3:15: “The seed of the woman…”that’s a rather striking statement—“…the seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent’s head.” That’s the first indication of the virgin birth.
Tom:
And Dave, as you’re indicating here, if you don’t believe that, then you have to throw some things out of the Bible. I’m looking at Luke chapter 1, verse 34. This is Mary speaking to the angel: “How shall this be, seeing I know not a man? And the angel answered and said unto her. The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.” So, I just have to throw that out if I don’t believe in it.
Dave:
Well, we have to throw what we just read in Matthew out, and of course we would have to throw salvation out, because no mere man could save us. And there is no way that any mere man could be kept from sin, although the Catholic Church tries to tell us that about Mary. No, we’ve got a little problem there, Tom, and I think we can take a minute to deal with it. They call this the Immaculate Conception. That’s not, as an ex-Catholic, you know, that’s not talking about the conception of Jesus.
Tom:
Well, the Catholic Church doesn’t call it that, but many people misunderstand when they hear about the Immaculate Conception, they think that’s what’s being addressed here in Luke.
Dave:
Absolutely not, the Immaculate Conception was Mary’s Immaculate Conception. Because the Catholics say, well, she would have to be conceived without sin in order to give birth to Jesus without a sinless being. But wait a minute! Now we’ve got a problem. Well then for her to be without sin, be conceived without sin, here parents would have to be without sin. Now, all the way back to Adam and Eve—oh, I guess Adam and Eve didn’t really sin? No, so Tom, why do we talk like this? Because this is the Bible! You don’t play fast and loose with the Bible! It’s such in integrated Book, you move one thing out, move one block out of its spot and the whole thing is going to collapse. So, we have to be very careful, we handle God’s Word reverently and carefully, and we believe it and it all ties together, and you can’t pull something out and it will not remain intact.
Tom:
Dave, going back to the question that somebody wrote in: What about guidance in our life? If this is going to be my map, well, wait a minute, if some things here are in error or some things here we could just dispense with right away, what kind of guidance is this going to give me? It’s kind of a cafeteria type of thing—yeah, I’ll pick some of this and some of that. I know you’ve said over and over again, if I’m willing to accept, or disagree with the church in some issues, why am I willing to accept the church—I’m talking about the Roman Catholic Church—why am I willing to accept its offers of salvation and so on when I’m disagreeing with other aspects of it? But with the Bible, it’s a complete package; you take it as a whole.
Dave:
Absolutely.
Tom:
Matthew 1:19, “Then Joseph, being a just man, and not willing to make her a public example, was minded to put her away privily.”
Dave:
Well, he has heard from relatives or from someone, hey, this lady’s pregnant, what did you do, and he knows it’s not from him, it must be somebody else. But, you know, he’s not going to make a public example out of her. So, he’s going to kind of let this thing go, he’s got a dilemma. And that’s when the angel appears in verse 20: “But while he thought on these things, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife: for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost.”
Tom:
So Dave, if I don’t believe in the virgin birth, hey, I’m just going to cut that line right out.
Dave:
Tom, you’ve got to cut everything out, because the Bible is one Book and it all hangs together.
Dave and Tom will take up their discussion on the topic of salvation next week; we hope you can tune in. This is Search the Scriptures Daily, a radio ministry of The Berean Call. And now, to tell you more about our ministry here is TBC Executive Director Tom McMahon: The name, The Berean Call, is taken from the Book of Acts chapter 17, verses 10 and 11, where we find the apostle Paul entering the synagogue in the Greek city of Berea after he had just come from Thessalonica. To these Bereans he preached that Jesus was the long-awaited Messiah sent from God. They were commended for being noble, or fair-minded, not only for their willingness to hear what Paul had to say about the matter, but more specifically, because they searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether or not what the apostle was saying was found in God’s Word. That’s what we hope to encourage through this ministry. Our mission is alert believers in Christ to unbiblical teachings and practices impacting the church. We want to exhort believers to give greater heed to biblical discernment and truth regarding what they are accepting as spiritual. We hope to supply those who profess to be biblical Christians with information and materials that will encourage the love of God’s truth. Hopefully, we can help mobilize believers in Christ to action in obedience to the scriptural command to earnestly contend for the faith, found in Jude 3. And finally, our prayer is that we can be used of God to stimulate Christians to look to the Bible alone, as their rule of faith, authority and practice in living lives pleasing to our Lord and Savior.
Gary:
We offer a wide variety of teaching materials that will help you expand your knowledge of God’s Word 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 compact disk, ask for Program #1108, and be sure to mention the call letters of this station. And 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. Get a pen or pencil ready; we’ll repeat our contact information in just a moment.
Next week, we continue our series of programs addressing the latest spiritual phenomenon called, “The Emerging Church” and, “Following Hermits and Mystics.” In Religion in the News: “Muslims and the Millennium,” we’ll take a look at that story and address the question: What is A Course in Miracles? 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 tuning in, and invite you to join us again next week. Until then, if you desire to know God’s truth, search the Scriptures daily. 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.
