Are Some Stories in the Bible Just Fairy Tales?

Search the Scriptures Daily Program #5005d Transcript follows: Gary: Please stay with us and at the end of the program, we’ll let you know where to send your questions for Dave and Tom to respond to in a future Contending for the Faith.  You are listening to Search the Scriptures Daily a radio ministry of The Berean Call.  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 Scriptures” segment.  We’re in the book of Acts.  Last week we began Acts, chapter 9.  And, Dave, we left off with verse 36, so it’s Acts, chapter 9, verse 36 and we encourage our listeners if they are at home to follow along.  If they’re in their cars, just wait until they get home, that will probably be all right.  So, verse 36, “Now there was at Joppa a certain disciple named Tabitha, which by interpretation is called Dorcas:  this woman was full of good works and alms, deeds which she did, And it came to pass in those days that she was sick, and died:  whom when they had washed, they laid her in an upper chamber.”  Now, Dave, Dorcas is pointed out here for goods works and alms, deeds which is—that’s a wonderful thing.  You know, some people say that we’re against works, good works.  We certainly are for salvation, but once a person’s been saved, because there’s no works that will save a person, once they’ve been saved then we’ve been saved unto good works and that’s Ephesians 2:10.             Dave: Exactly.  In fact Paul writes in his epistles, be careful to do good works.  The book of Hebrews, chapter 13, talks about good works.  Forget not to entertain strangers, etc.  Of course we believe in good works.  We do our good works as a result of our salvation in gratitude to the One who saved us, not in order to get saved.  I find this verse 36 rather interesting.  Well, the whole Bible is fascinating.  It’s an amazing book.  We have some names there.  Joppa.  These are not fairy tales.  This is not fiction like the Bhagavad Gita, or the Ramayana, or the Mahabharata, you name them.  These are real people…             Tom: The Book of Mormon.             Dave: Right, wow, talk about fiction.  These are real people, real places, real events.  So, this is something that happened at a town called Joppa.  Look up in history.  Archaeologists do your thing.  There was a place called Joppa at this time in history.  There was a certain disciple named Tabitha, which by interpretation is called Dorcas.  I find that interesting as well.  Why did he give us these two names?  One wasn’t a nickname.  Supposing he’d said there was a disciple named Dorcas.  Well, you might look that up in history.  Archaeologists say, “I don’t find a woman named Dorcas, but I find evidence of someone named Tabitha.  They couldn’t have been the same.”  Or someone would say, “well, I know I’ve verified from history there was someone named Tabitha, but it couldn’t have been Dorcas.”  So, he’s covering them both.  I find that interesting.  And that she was full of good works.              Tom: This was written by Luke, right?             Dave: Right.             Tom: He was a historian par excellence.  Not only did he have the Holy Spirit, I’m not denying that, but he is touted by modern historians as just a crack historian.             Dave: Let me quickly turn and give you an example.  In the gospel of Luke, chapter 3, it starts out:  “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, Annas and Caiaphas being the high priests,” etc.   Why all these names and places and titles.  It’s very precise.  He’s talking about Caesar.  He’s talking about tetrarch and governor and priest.  He gives you the names, he gives you the places where they held these offices and he gives you the date, the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar.  And this is not Augustus, but Tiberius who succeeded Augustus. So, he is as you said, very precise.  If we go back to chapter two.  This is Luke writing:  “It came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus, that all the world should be taxed.  (And this taxing was first made when Cyrenius was governor of Syria.)  He’s giving you plenty of information.  You can verify this.  Tom, one of the amazing things about that, or the interesting things about that, is this tells us how Jesus got to be born in Bethlehem.  And, Micah 5:2 tells us that Bethlehem would be the place where the Messiah would be born.  But, Joseph and Mary did not live in Bethlehem.  How did they happen to get over there?  Because Augustus Caesar sent out a decree to tax the whole world.  And, to be taxed you had to go back to your town of origin where your ancestry was where the records were, etc.  Anyway, Tom, I’m getting a little far a field here, but… .             Tom: It’s important, Dave.  That’s what the Bible is.  It is God’s Word and it has to be absolutely perfect in every detail or it couldn’t be God’s Word.             Dave: Exactly.             Tom: Or God is less than God, which would make him a false god.             Dave: If it’s not historically accurate, 100%, or geographically, or whatever it talks about, then how can I believe what it says about my redemption and about the Messiah?  So, she is full of good works, while this is her whole life, alms deeds, which she did.  Now, you would think that someone like that God would surely protect them.  He wouldn’t let them get sick and die, but it came to pass in those days she was sick and died.  They wash her, they lay her in an upper chamber, and verse 38:  “And forasmuch as Lydda was nigh to Joppa, and the disciples had heard that Peter was there, they sent unto him two men, desiring him that he would not delay to come to them.”  Well, they don’t have confidence in their ability, or the answer to their prayers, although God said, you know, that all disciples should all pray and trust God.  But Peter was an apostle and he was someone very special, because there was a time, as we read of it earlier in the Book of Acts, when they laid the sick out in the streets in Jerusalem so that Peter’s shadow would cross over them as he walked by, and they were healed.  This was a special time for special miracles that the church has not seen ever since.  So, Peter is not far away—“Peter, get over here, this dear woman that has been so kind to us and we love her so much and she died, Quick, come on over here and see what you can do.”             Tom: Verse 39, “Then Peter arose and went with them.  When he was come, they brought him into the upper chamber:  and all the widows stood by him weeping, and showing the coats and garments which Dorcas made while she was with them.”             Dave: Tom, when I grew up as a boy—and I don’t know whether they do it anymore, but they had a women’s sewing group, and they called themselves by the name of Dorcas, because she sewed these things.  And they still carry on in the name of Dorcas in remembrance of her, and so, wow, she must have been very busy.   She was helping widows, I find that interesting, because when Paul writes to Timothy, and so forth, he’s talking about the order of the church, he says, “The church ought to take care of the widows who are widows indeed, but if they have a family, it’s the family’s obligation to do that.  Today, of course, we rely upon the government, and it’s not quite as the Bible presents it.  On the other hand, if the government is going to help you out I wouldn’t refuse that help either.              Tom: “But Peter put them all forth, and kneeled down, and prayed; and turning him to the body said, Tabitha, arise:  And she opened her eyes:  and when she saw Peter she sat up.”  Now, Dave, some, and we’ve seen this in contemporary Christianity, they would make a methodology.  They would go about it exactly the way Peter did because we need to be exacting here, and if we’re going to have this happen it’s got to be done Biblically and we’ve got to do it exactly the way Peter did it.  You know, how did Peter do it?  Do we know, did the Lord speak to him and say, Peter, this is what I want you to do?  Did he do this of his own initiative?  I don’t think so, I think this is all spirit led, spirit enabled, trusting the spirit in this particular situation, in this circumstance.             Dave: He certainly wouldn’t say, “Tabitha, arise” unless he knew that God would honor that command.  No unfortunately today, Tom, we have all kinds of churches that specialize in healing and so forth, and I have sat in the congregation and I have seen people come forth for healing, I have heard the pastor command them in the name of Jesus to be healed and nothing happened, and I have thought, what would it mean to a teenager to grow up in that church, hear command after command, week after week, month after month, in the name of Jesus that is not honored by God.  Wouldn’t that destroy your faith?  So, I have prayed for the sick and seen them healed instantly on occasion, laid my hands upon them, but I have prayed many times and it hasn’t happened.  Peter knew what was going to happen, and I have found at times that God gave me the faith and I knew it would happen.  But that is not something that God has promised.  Christians don’t live any longer than anyone else.  There are people who teach that they should, but everyone who has taught that is either dead or dying.  But we must be very careful that we don’t demand of God what He is not going to give us, but we are to pray in faith.  The prayer of faith will heal the sick.  Well, what does the prayer of faith mean?  That means that I absolutely know, God has showed me that that person will be raised, that’s faith.  Faith is not just trying to claim that it’s going to happen when I do not know, and the Bible does not promise that every sick person is going to be healed, otherwise, Christians would never die.             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.             Does God love only some of us?  Has He already determined those elect who will live forever with Him in heaven?  Are you one of the elect, and if not, is there anything you can do about it?  The doctrine of Calvinism, it’s five points and their implications for the body of Christ, are discussed and debated in two powerful books from Dave Hunt and The Berean Call:  Debating Calvinism, Five Points Two Views, features a written debate between Dave Hunt and James White, published by Multnomah.  In an easy to read format, Hunt and White exchange energetic letters addressing this long argued topic.  Co-author of Seduction of the Christianity, and co-host of Search the Scriptures Daily Radio, Dave Hunt:  “The influence of Calvinism is growing greatly in the church today.  It’s very important that we understand, and we did debate in Calvinism so that you could have a debate in writing.  You can go back and forth and read exactly what each side said, think it over carefully, rather than an emotional debate.”             And, in what some are calling the definitive work on this topic, don’t miss Dave Hunt’s What Love is This? Calvinism’s Misrepresentation of God, in this recently expanded and up dated edition, Dave exhaustively documents the unscriptural nature of this doctrine that comes perilously close to blasphemy.  Once again, Dave Hunt:  “We did a new revised up dated edition of What Love is This? because so many Calvinists were criticizing what I had said.  I went through all of their criticisms and answered them in this new and expanded version.”  Debating Calvinism, Five Points Two Views, and What Love is This? Calvinism’s Misrepresentation of God in e-book or hard cover are both available from The Berean Call.  Information on how to order in just a moment.  And now, to tell you more about our ministry, here is TBC Executive Director Tom McMahon.              Tom: 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 Berean 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 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.             Gary If you are a serious student of God’s Word, we offer a wide variety of items that you will find helpful, from books and tracts to audio and video tapes, CD-ROM, our internet website and much more.  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 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, ask for Program #5005, and be sure to mention the call letters of this station.  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 latest book, Judgment Day, and, Does Israel mistreat the Palestinians?  In Religion in the News, “Calming Kids With Contemplation”.  We’ll take a look at that story and address the question:  Are there horses in heaven?  We hope you can tune in.  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.    For more information about The Berean Call, write to us at PO Box 7019, Bend, Oregon 97708. Call us toll free at our order #877-882-4253, that’s 877-88Bible, or visit our website at www.thebereancall.org.