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 .
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 continue 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 PO Box 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 #0108, 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.
RELIGION IN THE NEWSNow Religion in the News, a report and comment on religious trends and events being covered by the media. This week’s item is from Newsvoa.com November 28, 2007, with a headline: Rice pledges urgent Annapolis agreement follow-up. The following are excerpts: U. S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is pledging urgent follow-up work to Tuesday’s Israeli Palestinian agreement in Annapolis, Maryland, to resume final status peace negotiations after a 7-year interruption. The parties agreed to the immediate launch of negotiations for a 2-state solution of the Middle East conflict, and to make every effort to conclude an agreement before the end of 2008. In a statement closing the meeting late Tuesday, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said: This work will be hard, it involves risks and sacrifices for all concerned. But today’s events have demonstrated unambiguously that the International community will fully support the path the parties have chosen, she said. President Bush and I have pledged the unwavering support of the United States to realize this goal. Peace between Israeli’s and Palestinians is a National interest for the United States, and we now have a real opportunity to make progress. Arab league secretary general, Amr Mussa, reaffirmed the organization’s 2002 peace initiative offering Israel Arab-wide political recognition if it reaches peace with the Palestinians, and withdraws from all occupied Arab land. In his conference address, Israeli Prime Minister Olmert said he hopes the Annapolis agreement will lead to a regional peace, but said to get there Arab countries have to reach out and end decades of hostility towards the Jewish state. President Abbas said, despite the Palestinians grievances they are ready to live as neighbors with Israel. The time has come for the cycle of blood, violence and occupation to come to an end.
Dave:
Tom, do I dare comment on this?
Tom:
Dave, I think you’re the one, go for it! This is absolutely stunning in terms of how ludicrous it is.
Dave:
It is ludicrous! So, the final statement by Abbas, who, by the way, was Arafat’s partner from the very beginning, a terrorist. “The time has come for the cycle of blood, violence and occupation to come to an end.” Who started that? The Palestinians, so-called? Who pursued it? The Palestinians. They could stop it any time they wanted. Oh, now the time has come and we’re going to blame Israel despite the grievances that the Palestinians have, we’re now ready, you know. What grievances? Well, they had better think about that very carefully because part of what they are talking about here is an end to Israeli occupation of Arab land. Now, in fact the Israelis’ are not occupying Arab land, it’s the Arabs, so-called Palestinians---and we lay this out very clearly in Judgment Day, which every Christian ought to read and you ought to get it in your local library, but anyway, we laid it out very clearly. The idea of Palestine is a myth, there never was such a place, of Palestinians, they claim to be. These are Arabs now, descendants of Ishmael, they say, and they claim to be descended from the original Palestinians, who lived in this land. Well, what was Ishmael's’father? Ishmael's’father was a Chaldean, Abraham; Ishmael’s mother was an Egyptian, Hagar the Egyptian. When they arrived in this land it was called Canaan, this is before Ishmael was born, it was already occupied by Canaanites. It’s very clear, read Genesis 12:13,14,15 and so forth. This is a fraud! They are not descended from the original Palestinians, there was no such place as Palestine! Okay. So now, Tom, I don’t see any progress at all, they are dreaming! What are the issues that remain? Well, occupied territory. Well, what about Jerusalem? Well now, how are we going to divide this? Are we going to have a 2-state solution? Where are we going to draw the line? Now they call this, actually if you went back to 2001, 2003, they were talking about a Hudna they called it the Hudna Line. Now, we talk about a Hudna again in Judgment Day. Hudna was the treaty that was negotiated between Muhammad and the Kurash tribe in 628 A. D. It was called a “Hudna”. It was negotiated---we have a copy of it today, by the way, as Hodeida. This is where this was signed. What does that mean? It was a 10-year agreement, but no Muslim can make a peace agreement. This was not a peace agreement, it was a 10-year cease fire. The purpose of the Hudna was so that Muhammad, he was not strong enough at that time to take over Mecca, the Meccans were too strong, so that gave him the right---by the way, very interesting, the right to come with his new Muslims to join the Hajj, to go to this idol temple, 300 and some idols in it, walk around it 7 times, go through all the ceremonies that the pagan Arabs had done for centuries, which are not a part of the Hajj for Islam, for the Muslims, and then in 630 he had enough troops and he took over. So this is a Hudna now, it’s not peace, it’s some kind of a deal that we can make. We’re going to get some more territory from the Israeli’s, we’re going to get some more territory, as much as we can get them, they will agree to it, but it will be a Hudna, it will not be a true settlement because the Muslims are on record, dozens, if not hundreds of times, the problem is not land. Israel’s existence, Israel must cease to exist! They don’t deal with this, that’s not going to change. Tom, it angers me, but it’s a big disappointment that the Israeli’s would go along with this. I don’t know what territory they are going to give away, I hope not the Golon Heights, but this is just a joke!
Tom:
Dave, it’s part of the package, the Golon Heights, the Judea and Samaria, half of Jerusalem as a capitol for the Palestinians. Now Dave, one last thing, it really disappoints me greatly that it looks like there is a push on the part of President Bush to get this completed before he leaves office.
Dave:
Of course.
Tom:
So now it looks like promoting his legacy is a part of betraying Israel.
Dave:
What a legacy it would be, but I can guarantee you, Tom, the Israeli’s are not going to go for it, there will be an uprising!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 .
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: For all of your helpful insights and discernment into the beliefs and practices of the world that are having a destructive influence upon Christians, I haven’t read or heard you mention anything about “Death Education.” presently being taught in our public schools. Wouldn’t you agree that this is a blatant affront to the gospel?
Tom:
Dave, this person is right, I don’t remember us dealing with it, although I do think we have something going out, it will probably be out before we broadcast this. But the idea is, we want to teach, you know, like sex education, okay. We want to get them over the issues or help them to deal with the issues, and so on. They do amazing things, they talk about suicide and how that’s not so bad, they talk about how this world with all its problems, you know, there must be something better out there, or nothing, which might be better than having your problems. They even get into some religious issues, such as reincarnation, you know, well, if we didn’t get it right this time, and maybe it will be better the next time around, so on and so forth. But the other aspect of this is it’s not just taught in social studies, but maybe in home economics, wherever they can plug it in, history and so on. But I couldn’t agree more, this is an affront to the gospel. It is appointed unto men once to die, and then comes the judgment, and if there’s no problem after death, then we don’t need a Saviour, we don’t need a gospel.
Dave:
Yeah, it’s anti-Christian, anti-Biblical, anti-God. In other words, it denies everything that the Bible tells you about death, and as you said, judgment, Hebrews 9:28, It is appointed unto man once to die, after this the judgment. No, no, they’ll tell you, Death is not so bad, we want you to feel comfortable about it.
Tom:
You’re just drawn to this white light and---
Dave:
Well, we’re not sure what really happens. Tom, this reminds me of a book I read some years ago. The title of it was, Am I Going To Heaven? The author was a Catholic nun, Sister Mary McGeady, and she was the director of Covenant House. They have places all across the country for helping the young people, and they report that they help about 31,000 people to mend their lives every year. And, really, the feature story in there was about a young lady names Michelle, 17-year-old girl. She’s about to die and let me just quote what Sister McGeady said: “She tried to lift her head up from the hospital bed pillow but she couldn’t. ‘Sister, I need to know something, she whispered, please tell me something.’ ‘Anything, Michelle’, I said, ‘What do you want to know?’ ‘Sister, am I going to heaven, even a street kid like me?’ I bent down and hugged her, and told her that I knew God had a special place for her. I told her how much I loved her, and how much I believed in her. She cried in my arms, and whispered, ‘Thank you.’ The next day Mishelle died in her sleep.” Now Tom, that’s not the gospel, that’s not helping this young girl. It’s tragic that here is someone dying and they want to know---well, it’s like the Philippian jailer. He cries out to Paul and Silas, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? How can I get to heaven? Paul says, Well, you know, we love you and we know God has a special place for you, it’s all going to be okay, jailer. But what are they going to tell them in this death counseling session? They’re not going to give them the gospel. They’re not going to tell them what you’ve said, “appointed unto men once to die, after this the judgment.” But they are going to give them some song and dance, you know, or just some ideas.
Tom:
Feel good.
Dave:
Yeah, right, makes them feel good, comfort them.
Tom:
Yeah, ease them away into a Christ-less eternity. But Dave, it’s worse than that. I have 5 young children, well, not young, they are young adults, and it’s hard for kids and when I see them being given a rationale to move them toward suicide, toward death, it just breaks my heart. Some of the reactions of some of the students who have gone through these classes, they think they are helping the world, or it’s possibly a way of helping the world because of over population. I mean, they are given all kinds of rationales, they don’t need that, Dave, you know that, they need the gospel, they need hope, not death.
Dave:
Well, after all, death is not that bad---then why not commit suicide? You know, I’ve got finals facing me, and problems and they give them suicide counseling, that it’s not so bad, and so forth. Tom, it’s satanic, it’s evil and it’s incredible, but it is happening in the United States of America, and in our school system, that supposedly began with God.
Tom:
Well, the scripture says that Satan goes about like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. This is just one more technique of his to devour the human race.
If you have a question for Dave and Tom to address 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.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 .
We resume our excursion through the Book of Acts. Here again are Dave and Tom: This is our Understanding the Scriptures segment, we are in the Book of Acts and we are going to pick up---actually we are going to begin Acts Chapter 27, and start with Verse 1: “And when it was determined that we should sail into Italy, they delivered Paul and certain other prisoners unto one named Julius a centurion of Augustus’ band. And entering into a ship of Adramyttium, we launched, meaning to sail by the coasts of Asia; one Aristarchus, a Macedonian of Thessalonica, being with us. And the next day we touched at Sidon. And Julius courteously entreated Paul, and gave him liberty to go unto his friends to refresh himself."
Dave:
So, for those who are just listening for the first time or those who have forgotten what went before, Paul has appealed to Caesar. He’s not getting justice where he is, and he is going to be turned back to the Jews likely, and that would mean his death. So he appealed to Caesar, so to Caesar he will be sent. Well, when the government was very obliging in that, they had some good laws. For example, one of them was, you don’t find anyone guilty based upon testimony from someone that he has not been able to face. They said, we don’t do that, the accused must be able to face his accusers before witnesses in court, and so forth. So, he has appealed to Caesar, and they are going to take Paul to Rome. But apparently, not only has Paul appealed to Caesar, this is catching, I guess, there must have been a number of others. It says, “and certain other prisoners,” they’re going to Rome as well. Now, I don’t know exactly, maybe they are going to Rome to be executed, I would think they could do that right there. I don’t know and the Bible doesn’t tell us the details. So they are going by ship, and very interesting, Tom, as you know there are great proofs in the Bible that it is the Word of God, that it is history, and one of them is the routing that we will get in detail when they had to reroute because of a storm and so forth, where they spent the winter. Well, they didn’t spend the winter because they went on, they should have spent the winter there. So it begins to give you some of the details. “And the next day we touched at Sidon.” And Julius allowed Paul to visit some friends and refresh himself.
Tom:
“And when we had launched from thence, we sailed under Cyprus, because the winds were contrary. And when we had sailed over the sea of Cilicia and Pamphylia, we came to Myra, a city of Lycia. And there the centurian found a ship of Alexandria sailing into Italy; and he put us therein.” Verse 7: “And when we had sailed slowly many days, and scarce were come over against Cnidus, the wind not suffering us, we sailed under Crete, over against Salmone. And, hardly passing it, came unto a place which is called the fair havens; nigh whereunto was the city of Lasea. Now when much time was spent, and when sailing was now dangerous, because the fast was now already past, Paul admonished them, And said unto them, Sirs, I perceive that this voyage will be with hurt and much damage, not only of the lading and ship, but also of our lives.”
Dave:
Well, Tom, here again we have details about where they were going, you know, you couldn’t go that way so they went another way.
Tom:
Sounds like travel today, Dave.
Dave:
Yeah, but it’s even talking about the name of the towns. I doubt that Myra, a city of Lycia, even exists today. The point I’m trying to make is, the skeptics, the critics often say, Well, the New Testament, that wasn’t written until centuries later, this is not a true account of crucifixion or anything else that happened, you couldn’t put this together. Where is---let’s say we’ve got someone that’s pretending to be Paul, and he’s writing this, pretending to be Luke, and he’s putting himself here. There is so much you could not possibly document. How would you know where all of these things were?
Tom:
Sure. Blatant mistakes would defiantly come forth.
My goodness, let me just mention some very quickly. I want to just turn to Luke Chapter 3: “Now in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea, and Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip tetrarch of Ituraea and of the region of Trachonitis, and Lysanias the tetrarch of Abilene,” some people would say, what’s all this about, sounds like the begats and begottens in the Old Testament. Why are you giving us all these details? Because it proves it was written by eye witnesses who were there at the time. How would you know that in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, not just any old Caesar, Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea at that time, Herod was tetrarch of Galilee. That’s a pretty technical term, tetrarch, his brother Philip was tetrarch of Ituraea and of the region of Trachonitis, and Lysanias was the tetrarch of Abilene, Annas and Caiaphas were the high priests. Come on, you skeptics out there, you couldn’t say that was written hundreds of years later, somebody filled all those details in. They would have no way of knowing them. So I think some of the details of this journey are the same nature.
Tom:
Well, Dave, let’s compare it with other so-called sacred books. The Book of Mormon, you know, as I’ve gone through the Book of Mormon, you find the land of Moron, the king of Moron.
Dave:
Right.
Tom:
By comparison, you know, they are bad jokes.
Dave:
Tom, you know very well, the Mormons, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, as they call it, they have spent tens of millions of dollars in archeological searches. North, Central, South, America, they haven’t found a pin, they haven’t found anything. The Bible has---I’ve been to quite a few museums around the world, you’ve got mountains of evidence. I’ve mentioned it before, the Hittites. When I grew up in the thirties, Oh, Hittites, they never existed, we’ve never been able to find any evidence. Well, go to Ankar, Turkey today, they have an entire Hittite museum filled with relics.
Tom:
And you can get a degree in Hittite history from universities.
Dave:
The Bible is verifiable, and this is part of the verification, it is historic. It is true, not only theologically, but historically.
Tom:
Which you would expect, this is God’s Word, thus saith the Lord.
Dave:
Amen, and these details are there, I believe, for that purpose for verification.
