Search the Scriptures Daily Program #0606d Transcript follows:
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, and we’re in the book of Acts, we’re in chapter 11. Dave, we’ve said this before and it bears repeating, this is a privilege for us to encourage people, to take them through the scriptures verse by verse, to give them our perspective, our opinions, but to encourage them to search the scriptures daily on their own, you know, if they know the Lord and they have the Holy Spirit, let the Holy Spirit give them understanding of these things, and check us out. We have perspective because we’ve walked with the Lord, certainly you a lot longer than I have, but we hope the Lord has given us some insights, some experiences with these. But we want people to do it themselves, not just follow what we say or put stock in what we say without going to the scriptures themselves. Chapter 11, beginning with Verse 1, “And the apostles and brethren that were in Judea heard that the Gentiles had also received the Word of God. And when Peter was come up to Jerusalem, they that were of the circumcision contended with him.” And of course, the circumcision refers to the Jews, they needed to be circumcised. Verse 3, “Saying, Thou wentest in to men uncircumcised, didst eat with them. But Peter rehearsed the matter from the beginning, and expounded it by order unto them saying, I was in the city of Joppa praying: and in a trance saw a vision. A certain vessel descend, as it had been a great sheet, let down from heaven by four corners; and it came even to me: Upon the which when I had fastened mine eyes, I considered, and saw four-footed beasts of the earth, and wild beasts, and creeping things, and fowls of the air. And I heard a voice saying unto me, Arise, Peter; slay and eat. But I said, Not so, Lord: for nothing common or unclean hath at any time entered into my mouth. But the voice answered me again from heaven, What God hath cleansed, that call not thou common. And this was done three times: and all were drawn up again into heaven.”
Dave:
Tom, on the one hand it seems almost redundant. We just had this whole thing in Chapter 10. It must be a very, very important juncture in the history of the church.
Tom:
Sure, for the Holy Spirit to impress upon Luke to repeat this to us. You’re right, Dave.
Dave:
Well, of course, he’s only recounting what happened when Peter got back from Jerusalem, and Peter had to tell the whole story. In other words, I get the impression, Tom, that Peter was not the Pope. He couldn’t just say something, speak excathedra and all of the other apostles, or whatever, would just follow what he said. Nor does he call for a council to discuss this matter. Well, what do you think now? Should the Gentiles be allowed in the church? Christ has made it very clear to them. Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. And you could look all through the Old Testament and it very clearly said that the Gentiles would be saved, that the Messiah would be for the Gentiles as well as for the Jews. They missed that entirely. And there are many Jews today who still miss that. And so this is being emphasized, we can’t escape it. It really happened. This is something that God did, he sent an angel to this Gentile, this Roman centurion who was devout, at least in his desire, to worship the true God. And so Peter goes through the whole thing with them. But when they heard that the Gentiles had received the Word of God, they were not ready to accept it. And of course Peter wasn’t. That’s why God had to let the sheet down three times and say, Rise, Peter, kill and eat, and don’t call anything unclean that I have called clean.
Tom:
Dave, I have a question about that, because it does seem a little bit confusing in this sense. Basically, this refers to the Gentiles, but it’s dealing with the law that the Jews were subjected to, what they were not allowed to eat. Is God changing this for the Jews, or is it just making a statement with regard to the Gentiles.
Dave:
Well, the scripture says, and here we have some conflicts between, for example, Seventh Day Adventists, who still want to keep the Sabbath. And I often explain it this way. In Romans Chapter 2, God says he has written his law in every conscience. I know of no one who had, keep the Sabbath, written in their conscience. There are certain things that were for the Jews only, and they were for the Jews for a time because they were looking forward to the Messiah. For example, it’s not proper for a Gentile Christian to keep the Passover. My ancestors were not part of that, but it certainly would be for a Jewish person. But they don’t keep that now as this is God’s salvation through this Passover lamb, but that was a picture of the Lamb who was to come. When John the Baptist saw Christ he said, Behold, the Lamb of God who bears away the sins of the world. So, Paul tells us that there’s nothing unclean except to the person who thinks it is unclean. Now, I think we have some hygienic rules in the Old Testament that we would still benefit from if we followed them, avoid certain animals, and so forth. But we are no longer under that law because that was a picture of a salvation that was to come. So, Paul in Romans 14, for example, let me just read it very quickly. It’s a very important passage, Romans 14: “Him that is weak in the faith receive ye, but not to doubtful disputations. For one believeth that he may eat all things: another, who is weak, eateth herbs. Let not him that eateth despise him that eateth not; and let not him which eateth not judge him that eateth: for God hath received him.” And so forth, he goes on and he says, One man esteemeth one day above another: another esteemeth every day alike. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind, and so forth. So, there’s a clear indication in the New Testament that there are certain---what could we call them? Rules and regulations pertaining to what you eat and rituals, observances of days, and so forth. They were for a time, because they were a picture of the new life that we would have in Christ and the salvation that would come through him. But, we are not bound by that now because we have a higher law, actually the higher law is the law of Christ, Paul talks about. And, it’s not that I’m trying to keep, how many are there, hundreds of commandments in the law of Moses,
Tom:
Over 600, I think, 600 and some.
Dave:
Right. We have 1 command and that is to live as Christ would live in us. So, Paul said, I’m crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ lives in me. The life that I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me. Galatians 2:20. So, now what is my law that I follow? I follow the law of Christ, it says, and that is just to allow Him to live His life through me, and there is no law against anything that Jesus Christ would do living through me. But, this is such an important part in the history of the church that suddenly the gospel is open to the Gentiles. Well, that is what the Old Testament always said. That’s what Christ said. But, they had a very difficult time finding it and when we get into the book of Galatians, for example, we find that there people we called Judaizers who were coming and talking to even Gentile Christians saying, you’ve got to keep the law, you’ve got to do this, etc., and that is a very difficult conflict that comes into the Christian life and into the Christian church and so God is taking a lot of time to deal with it.
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, its 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 The Seduction of 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 updated 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 updated 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.
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, its 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 The Seduction of 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 updated 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 updated 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’s 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 mission is to 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. 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
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Next week, we’ll continue our series of programs based on Dave Hunt’s latest book, Judgment Day, and, “Is man a cancer on the earth?” In Religion in the News, “Is the ---chip the mark of the beast?” We’ll take a look at that story and address the question: “Is every trend in the church wrong just because it’s popular?” 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. 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 #877-882-4253, that’s 877-88Bible, or visit our website at www.thebereancall.org.
