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Gary :
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. Now our final segment:
UNDERSTANDING THE SCRIPTURES
We begin our journey through the gospel of Matthew. Here again are Dave and Tom: This is our Understanding the Scriptures segment— we are beginning with the gospels. We have gone through, for many, many, many weeks the Book of Acts, and now we’re turning to Matthew, the gospel of Matthew, and we’re going to pick right up with Matthew chapter l, verse 1.
Now Dave, normally I would ask you to just make a comment whenever you feel led to do that as I’m reading through these, but this is the genealogy, these are the begets. So, here’s what you can do for my sake, if I make a wrong pronunciation, jump in and correct my pronunciation. Sometimes that can be the biggest struggle in going through the genealogies.
Dave:
I’m sure my pronunciation would be no better than yours, Tom.
Tom:
So we want you folks to know, who are following along with us, and we hope you do, we hope you, as we have the Scriptures, that you have your Bible open, not if you’re driving your car, obviously, but if you’re at home listening to the program, it would be great for you to follow along with us. So this is Matthew chapter 1, beginning with verse 1: “The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. Abraham begat Isaac; and Isaac begat Jacob; and Jacob begat Judas and his brethren; And Judas begat Pharez and Zerah of Tamar; and Pharaz begat Hezron; and Hezron begat Ram; And Ram begat Amminadab; and Amminadab begat Nahshon and Nahshon begat Salmon; And Salmon begat Boaz of Rachab; and Boaz begat Obed of Ruth; and Obed begat Jesse; And Jesse begat David the king; and David the king begat Solomon of her that had been the wife of Uriah; And Solomon begat Rehoboam; and Rehoboam begat Abijah; and Abijah begat Asa; And Asa begat Jehoshaphat; and Jehoshaphat begat Jehoram; and Jehoram begat Uzziah; And Uzziah begat Jotham; and Jotham begat Ahaz; and Ahaz begat Hezekiah; And Hezekiah begat Manasseh; and Manasseh begat Amon; and Amon begat Josiah; And Josiah begat Jechoniah and his brethren, about the time they were carried away to Babylon; And after they were brought to Babylon, Jechoniah begat Salathiel; and Salathiel begat Zerubbabel; And Zerubbabel begat Abiud; and Abiud begat Eliakim; and Eliakim begat Azor; And Azor begat Sadoc; and Sadoc begat Achim; and Achim begat Eliud; And Eliud begat Eleazar; and Eleazar begat Matthan; and Matthan begat Jacob; And Jacob begat Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ. Now Dave, it’s easier for me when I read those not out loud, okay.
Dave:
Yeah, I’m sure.
Tom:
Here’s my question, why the genealogies? What’s the value of this in Scripture do you believe?
Dave:
Well, Tom, you’ve probably heard me say it a few times. Jesus doesn’t step off of UFO and say voila! Here I am, I’m the Messiah! He comes with a pedigree. He comes with a history. He comes with a genealogy, very, very important. Now, this is amazing, Matthew the writer has all of this at hand! Do each one of these—it’s all in the right order— now scholars today can search the ancient records, and they are not going to improve on this. So, number one: it is an indication of the accuracy of the Bible. The Bible pays attention to details. You get something similar in Luke chapter 3. Luke says it was in the 15 th 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 , and so forth. Now that sounds like the begats and the begottens—you’ve got all the details—but here you have technical names of Caesar, governor, tetrarch, and so forth. You’ve got the date and you’ve got the place where they had this office. The date is in the fifteenth year of Tiberius Caesar. Now they used to say that Tiberius Caesar began ruling in 14 AD. So, if you add 15 years to 14, that brings you to 29 AD, and that’s when it says, verse 23: And Jesus himself began to be about thirty years of age, in other words, 29 going on 30. So that’s where they got the calendar from. But that’s not right, because we know that the Scripture tells us, Matthew, in the days of Herod the king that the wise men came from the East, and that’s when Jesus was born, in the days of Herod the king. But wait a minute! Herod died in 4 BC, so now we’ve got a problem. You can’t say Jesus was born in 0 and that’s where the calendar begins. No, that’s a mistake. Anyway, Tom, it takes a little more time than we have at the moment, but the Bible is accurate and when you check it out, our calendar is off by about 5 years. Somehow the Pope didn’t know that, the Catholic Church didn’t know it because they had a big celebration in the year 2000, for what they called the 2000 th birthday of Jesus.
Tom:
Well, again Dave, this is where tradition fits in.
Dave:
Right, but anyway, Tom, I did a whole study on this and anyone who wants it can call The Berean Call and I’m sure we will send them a free copy. But why is this here, why is what I just read from Luke here? To show that this was not written centuries—you know, you’ve got the critics, the Jesus seminar so-called scholars—oh well, the New Testament was written centuries later. You couldn’t have all these details, there was no library you could go to and find out that Tiberius succeeded Augustus, or you could find out that Philip was the tetrarch of Ituraea, and so forth and so on. You couldn’t find that out, but the historians can check it out now as we dig up archeological evidence. So I think part of it is to show that the Bible is true, it’s accurate, it gives you some details now and then, also to show that Jesus was not some mysterious spirit being who came to this earth, he is a real man. He is literally a man but he is God, he the God-man, God and man in one person. It is very important that we understand that. He comes with genealogy and it was in fulfillment of promises to David that he would not cease to have someone to rule on is throne and that the Messiah would be descended from David. It establishes his legal right to the throne. But that’s a little bit mysterious too, because this is through Joseph the father, and he’s not the son of Joseph, but the legal line passed through the father. But when you get to Luke it’s now through Joseph’s father-in-law, it’s through Mary. So, on both sides Jesus was descended from King David. His mother and His father, who was not really His father, but you could say the one through which His legal title came.
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.
It’s on the horizon; it’s almost in view. Get ready for Judgment Day! Islam, Israel and the Nations , the new book from Dave Hunt and The Berean Call. Is God about to judge the world over issues related to Israel ? This highly informative and revealing work cuts through the political to the prophetic alerting us to the judgment about to befall this planet. Hans Kristian, President of the International Sakharov Committee, calls it the most important book on the issues of the Middle East and the Holy Land . Joseph Farrah, founder of World Net Daily.com says, “Dave Hunt has nailed it. This book is a wake-up call to a sleep-walking world trying to make sense of events that were foretold in the greatest book ever written, the Bible!” Lecturer and co-author of The Seduction of Christianity , Dave Hunt: “ Judgment Day is the most important book I’ve written. God’s judgment is coming upon this world. The leaders of this world are defying what God has said about Israel and about that land that belongs to them and they are taking the sides of people who pretend that that land belongs to them, and it does not. And God is going to punish this world and we document that in the book. This treatment of the topic offers no room for political correctness or ecumenical accommodations. The truth is more devastating than fiction.” Judgment Day! Islam, Israel and the Nations , the latest by Dave Hunt is now available from The Berean Call in e-book and hard cover. 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 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 search 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. 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 #1008, 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, “Should Christians dig up the church fathers?” In Religion in the News, “Heaven From the Other Side.” We’ll take a look at that story, and address the question: “How does God guide our lives?” 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 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 .
