558907

The enemy loves to condemn people when they sin and do it in the name of God so that they think God's mad at them. And they need to remember that they need to resist the enemy and yield to the Holy Spirit and believe his word. Hi everybody, we're back with some more of your Bible questions. You sent them to us, and so we're going to tackle them in this episode, and we'll see Okay, the first question is from a YouTube listener. Okay.

I've been struggling with my relationship with God, and now I feel completely untethered to him. How do I stop feeling guilty and in trouble with God for things I've repented of and confessed to God? I know there's no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. My fears aren't eternal judgment. I believe I'm going to heaven. My issues are present-time condemnation.

There's a double-mindedness here. She says in the beginning of this question, I know that there's no condemnation for those who are in Christ, but she only applies it really to her eternal salvation rather than her daily life. And then she says, but I'm still feeling condemned. And so the issue here is, is first of all, knowing what the Word of God says, and second of all, putting your faith in what the word of God says.

Okay.

When the Bible tells us there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, that means there's no condemnation. She says in her note, I feel untethered. Well, you're not. That's the simple reality. You're not untethered. Yes, you may be feeling a distance between you and the Lord, but if, you know, as a born-again Christian, you're just as much a born-again Christian, daughter of the that you ever were, right? That hasn't gone away. But yes, we can get distant. So one of the things I've noticed is that when people start to feel condemned, they stop coming to the Lord, because who wants to be around someone that they think is condemning them?

Yeah.

But what we need to remember is that when we, when we back away, when we withdraw, we do— we create that distance between us and the Lord because we're leaving things unconfessed. We haven't repented. We haven't come to him and said, Lord, forgive me, I messed up again. Instead, we just kind of retreat into our own little, you know, place, and we feel condemned. Well, you got to get over that. You have to remember, first of all, it's the enemy who condemns.

Yeah.

Okay? The enemy loves to condemn people when they sin and do it in the name of God so that they think God's mad at them.

Yeah.

And they need to remember that they need to resist the enemy, right, and yield to the Holy Spirit and believe his word. The Bible says if we confess our sins, he's faithful and just and will forgive us and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. What this person needs to do is believe it. She needs to— when she messes up, and she will, we all do, right? She needs to come quickly to the Lord. Lord, forgive me. and, and make sure that relationship with him doesn't become strained and distant, but come to him quickly. She needs to know that he will forgive, and she needs to reject any sort of temptation to embrace the idea that she is condemned, and she needs to say no. And I would even encourage her to quote that passage, there is therefore now no condemnation, and quote it every time she feels the beginning pangs of that condemnation. That's how we use the sword of the Spirit.

And don't you think that some people, some Christians, are just more sensitive to the condemnation than others?

Oh yeah, absolutely.

Not everyone struggles with this.

Well, what, what we're saying is they're more susceptible to the temptations of the enemy in that area.

Sure.

Because they just have a real soft heart.

Yeah.

Yeah.

The next question is from Dr. Jim. Dr. Jim, because the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered in 1947, what was used as a New Testament prior to finding the Dead Sea Scrolls, and was that changed in the rest of the Bible as a result of the 1947 findings?

Well, you got to understand that the Dead Sea Scrolls really didn't do anything for New Testament manuscripts. We already had a plethora. I mean, Here's, here's what people need to understand. The Dead Sea Scrolls was a monumental find for Old Testament manuscripts, not New. By 1947, we already had more New Testament manuscripts than any other document of antiquity.

Right.

There was nothing that we didn't know about the New Testament. There was no question. Even scholars that don't believe in the Bible will readily admit what we have in the New Testament is what the New Testament authors wrote, because the preponderance of New Testament manuscript evidence is so overwhelming.

Yeah.

That there's no question. What the 1947 find of the Dead Sea Scrolls did really was broaden our understanding of the Old Testament, the Hebrew Scriptures, Prior to the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls in 1947, the earliest manuscript that we had of the Hebrew Scriptures was about 1,000 years— 900 to 1,000 years after the birth of Christ.

Yeah.

When we discovered the Dead Sea Scrolls, those Scripture fragments went back to like 100 In other words, what that means is when we discovered the Dead Sea Scrolls, we suddenly had manuscript evidence for the Old Testament that jumped back 1,000 years. And we were able to compare what we had in the Dead Sea Scrolls, right?

Right.

With what we had had previously from about the 9th century or so. And it was an astounding find and it was powerful. But again, In— by 1947, the Dead Sea Scrolls really added nothing to New Testament manuscript evidence. So—

But it corroborated their historicity.

Oh, sure.

Is that the right word to use?

I mean, there were, there were writings and there were things they found related because they're, you know, the Qumran sects, S-E-C-T-S, that lived in those caves. They were kind of like ancient monasteries, kind of like an abandoned-the-culture kind of a people. And they wrote down things, they wrote scripture, they copied scripture, and they kept them in these clay pots, which is what we found in, in the Dead Sea area in the Qumran caves. But, uh, yeah, it, it was, it was a sensational find. And you can go to Israel today and you can view the Dead Sea Scrolls.

Yeah.

And it really is truly amazing. But it was amazing for Old Testament manuscript evidence, not new.

But what I'm thinking about in this moment is what an exciting time those few years must have been, finding the Dead Sea Scrolls, Israel becoming a nation. Like, for the, for the Bible scholars living in that time, or just Christians who were paying attention, it must have seemed like, wow, things are really coming.

Things are moving fast. Yeah, exactly.

Okay, here's a question from Grace, and she said, I've heard you talk about counseling, and I agree that we should always to God first. But sometimes when people go through major things like sexual abuse, is it wrong to go to counseling? I'm a little bit confused about what you said.

Yeah, I've never said that it was wrong to go to a counselor. I've never said that. I have said many times that I believe in our culture, we are— we kind of are trigger happy with going to counseling. We put a huge emphasis on counselors. There have never been more counselors than there are today. Never. My, my issue with counselors and counseling is that we go there first.

And, you know, first and almost to the exclusion of spending time with the Great Counselor.

That's the point.

Yeah.

The Bible refers to God as a counselor.

Yeah.

And his counsel is second to none. And yet we settle for the counsel of human beings.

I'm not—

I've never said, and I'm not saying now that the counsel of human beings is unnecessary or ineffective, because I believe it can at times be necessary, and it can also be very effective. But I think as Christians, believers in Jesus, we often disregard the counsel of the Lord himself.

True. Rod says, thank you so much for your teachings through the Bible. What effect will the rewards given to believers have in heaven?

We don't know. And that's the short answer. We don't know. We, we know that we're going to get rewards, but we don't know exactly how those rewards are going to play out or how they're going to affect anything when, you know, in, in the new heaven and earth that is to come. We, we just don't know. God doesn't tell us.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Um, Hannah says, I'm fairly new to my faith. It's only been about 3 years. Something that has been affecting my life is my anger. I pray to God often to help me learn to be less angry, but every time a situation comes up, I am so quick to go back to old tendencies. I know at the moment I'm doing it, but I don't know how to stop it. It's like once I've started, I can't stop. Any insight would be appreciated. Thank you.

Well, we don't know anything about going back to old tendencies, do we? You know, this is a really— this is a universal issue.

Sure.

And what— and often what people write about and talk and ask me about, they ask it in such a way as to say, I'm sure I'm totally unique in this.

Yeah.

Why am I struggling with sin and nobody else is? Well, everybody does. And here's the deal. At certain times in our lives, we give in to areas of sin, and those areas become habitual over a period of time. And when something becomes habitual, It creates a rut in our lives that is very, very difficult to dig out of. And, you know, it's kind of like the ruts that are still visible today from the Oregon Trail. You know, we've lived for 35, 36 years very close to where those pioneers— and we've seen the ruts.

Right. And that was 150 years ago.

I know. It is so weird to go to the Oregon Trail site and see the wagon ruts. where people 150 years ago traveled. Well, sin can create similar ruts in our lives. And that's why we go back to those same behavior patterns, because we've given in to them over time. And, you know, ruts— the world doesn't call them ruts. They call them addictions.

Yeah.

Okay.

The Bible calls them footholds.

They call them footholds and things that we are captive to.

Sure.

Yeah. So it— in a situation like this, I would encourage this dear sister to just really make this a matter of prayer. She's got to find scriptures that she can memorize, meditate on, and use when she gets angry. But what she has to realize is that anger has been her go-to response when frustration mounts or I mean, any number of other emotions could possibly crop up that would, you know, eventuate into anger. She has to know what those are. She has to be prepared prayerfully each day, you know, and she has to pray and ask God to do a work in her heart to help her overcome those tendencies.

Yeah.

Because what she's dealing with is the natural tendency of the soul. The soul is the seat or the center of our emotions, our intellect, and our will. And the soul can become very conditioned to respond in a certain way. We can respond with fear, anger, jealousy, withdrawal. Sure.

Manipulation.

All those things. And once we realize it and recognize it, as she obviously has, Now we're at a good place because we can bring it to the Lord in prayer. We can say, Lord, show me verses in the Bible that I can take to heart. You know, the Bible says, I've hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you. And we need to take that seriously and hide the Scripture of God in our hearts. And that will be a strength that the Holy Spirit can use in those times when she would otherwise give in to anger, to allow her to respond through the Holy Spirit. And not through the soul.

And it truly is a spiritual battle, these things that we give into. However, I don't think there's anything wrong with us going to the Lord and saying, would you give me a go-to when I face these situations? Would you give me ideas of like a practical thing to do preemptively to prepare for it? Because it'll come.

Yeah.

A situation that makes a person like, let's just use anger.

Yeah.

something that makes me angry, it'll pop up again.

Yeah.

So, Lord, what— give me something to switch to. Yeah. And, you know, I'm very practical about that.

You know, I've seen videos of, um, dogs that can be trained to recognize when their owner is having a health issue. Oh, and they can even sense it prior to it happening.

Yeah.

Uh, there— it's amazing, you know, what these trained dogs can do. Well, listen, you are so much smarter than a trained dog, and you can learn, as you were just saying, to anticipate these triggers and respond differently as you learn to get out of that rut and begin to respond from the Lord.

It's kind of the same as if you want to eat healthy but you never put good food in the refrigerator, you're going to be in trouble.

Yeah.

And, you know, if you want to stop having an angry outburst, but you've never pre-planned something else to do, right? Yeah, you know.

Yeah.

Okay, Dominic says, hello, Pastor, I have seen some interesting arguments about Christians and vegetarianism and veganism. Some say that supporting meat products is supporting the suffering of animals. They also argue that at the time of Jesus, people didn't have replacement food options like we do today, so they had to eat meat to survive. But now it's not necessary. What are your thoughts?

My thoughts are, if you want to eat a meat-free diet, then God bless you. And if you want to eat meat, God bless you. You know, we're to give thanks regardless of what's put in front of us. And, you know, there's a lot of assumptions people make. And again, we, you know, we talk about modern sensibilities, this whole thing about, you know, animals and suffering animals. Listen, if you're fixated on the suffering of animals, you're not going to like God's Word, you know, because you're going to run into in the Old Testament a whole sacrificial system. And that's going to just seem just like horrible to you.

Yeah.

So there are things that, that are modern sensibilities that people kind of get fixated on, and it can actually become a hindrance to them. I had a mother write to me many years ago that said she had like a 10-year-old or something like that who was really disturbed by all the killing of animals in the Bible. And how should she go about you know, resolving this. And, and, and I wrote her back and I just said, well, this is a good teaching opportunity for you, um, to begin to differentiate between animals and human beings and, and, and to reiterate God's love and, and so on and so on, but not to get fixated or high-centered on a particular issue that is part of a modern ideology. And, and, um, and that's— and that can be— because that can be really counterproductive, you know, to being able to kind of hear the Word of God. But when it comes down to veganism or vegetarianism, I say, God bless you if that's the way you feel the Lord is leading.

Yeah.

Great. I have no problem with that. But I would never make a doctrine out of it and tell people that veganism or vegetarianism is the only way to go.

Sure.

Uh, it's, it's just there— that's not biblically supportable.

I would also say that vegan potlucks aren't very fun.

Is that right?

I may get in trouble for that.

I don't think I've ever been to a vegan potluck, um, ever, you know.

But okay. Austin says, when Jesus announced that the apostles were clean at the Last Supper, I always took to mean they were saved. But it wasn't until after the resurrection that he breathed on them to receive the Holy Spirit.

Yeah.

Then he told them to wait because they would receive power when the Holy Spirit came upon them. Then weeks later, they were baptized with the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. So were they saved at the Last Supper, or was it after the resurrection?

Well, you know, they were in a unique situation because the, the Holy Spirit had not been given for salvation or empowering when they first were walking with Jesus and stuff like that. I believe that the disciples were saved when they put their faith in Jesus and their trust in him. They weren't born again until the Holy Spirit came when Jesus breathed on them the evening of the resurrection. Um, and they weren't empowered until the Feast of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit fell upon the assembled believers.

Yes.

So Theirs was a very unique situation.

Exactly.

I think they were saved when they put their trust in him.

Yeah.

You know, but, but, but we have to— for their case, we have to kind of differentiate between saved and born again.

Sure.

Today we can talk about it as a, a unifying experience. You're saved, you're born again, right? That's it. But it was different for them, right? They were kind of in a— they were on the edge of that new work of God, you know.

Sophie says, in Acts 9:16, when Ananias is asking God about Saul, does this statement from God mean that Paul's forthcoming trials are a kind of punishment for his previous life of sin? I find this a little scary as a new Christian.

Yes, this, this question is referring to when Paul was on his way to Damascus. The Lord met him there, blinded him there, and then after he'd been there for a while blind, the Lord moved upon Ananias to go and lay hands on him. that Paul might receive his sight and be baptized in the Holy Spirit. Um, the question is, were all the references— you know, because one of the things the Lord said to Ananias is, I will show him how much he must suffer.

Yeah.

For me. And the question is, was that suffering a punishment for Paul's previous life? And the answer is no, it was not. The thing that people have to understand is that when we come to Jesus, our sins are wiped out, and there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Jesus bore our suffering.

Yeah.

He bore our punishment. And so that was simply Paul suffering because he was taking to the world, to the Gentiles, a very unpopular gospel message, although it was mostly the Jews that persecuted him, but not exclusively, but predominantly. But Paul said that anybody who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will experience persecution.

Yeah.

So you could ask the question, is all persecution punishment? No, of course not. Jesus said, if they hated me, they'll hate you. It's the simple fact, you know. And so if they, if they listen to me, then they'll listen to you. So one is not a punishment and one is not a reward. It's just the way things go.

Yeah.

Yeah.

That's good. And here's our last question from Austin. Hey, Pastor Paul, I have a question on replacement theology.

Oh boy.

I know from your teachings you don't agree with it, and neither do I, but verses like Galatians 3:7 do make me at least understand why some believe the church replaces Israel. When Paul said it is those of faith who are sons of Abraham, what did he mean? And why do you think this theory is so popular?

Well, there's a couple of things going on here. First of all, let's explain that replacement theology is the belief that the church, the New Testament church, replaces Israel, and that Israel no longer has any part in God's redemptive program. It's now It's— there's no longer Jew or Gentile, as Paul also says.

Yeah, right.

And it is just the church. And all the prophecies and all of the promises that were given to Israel are now given to the church. They belong to the church because we have taken over. We have replaced Israel. All right. That's the belief. As this person says, they realize, I don't believe in replacement theology. And I don't. But it's interesting that, that he brings out a question of a scripture and saying, I can understand that Paul made some statements that might lead someone to believe that. And, you know, he's right.

Yeah.

There are several statements in the New Testament, if that's all I took, that would, that would possibly lead me to believe that, you know, maybe God's done with Israel. But here's the deal. And he brought up one from Galatians. There are some in Romans. There are other places as well. If you read the whole Bible and I'm talking the whole thing.

Sure.

Genesis to Revelation. I don't believe if you take it all literally that you can come away with the idea that replacement theology is true. I don't think you can, because it tells us prophetically that God has a plan for Israel and that, that, that plan is going to work its way into through the tribulation period, the millennial kingdom, and so forth. We see Israel in prophecy in those time periods. Well, those time periods haven't happened yet.

Yeah.

So if God is done with Israel, and yet they appear in prophetic scripture in the Great Tribulation and in the Millennial Kingdom, how is that possible if he's done with them? When you see that Israel is very clearly portrayed in prophetic scripture, you realize God's not done with them. He's not finished with them at all. And you have to really do some backflips to embrace, you know, this sort of an idea that the church replaces Israel.

Well, either backflips, or like we've often said, when someone approaches the Bible with already a preconceived idea of something, it can become very easy, if you allow yourself to just pick and choose through the Scriptures, to support your idea.

Yeah, of course.

And that is why, like you mentioned, going through the entire Scripture over and over again and not skipping anything is such a safeguard.

A lot of people do go to the Scriptures to simply buttress what they already believe.

Right.

And if you're going to do that, you can find some Scriptures that make it sound as if God's done with Israel and that the church is all there is. But if you take the whole counsel of God's Word, you just can't do that anymore.

Right.

You just— you can't. You, you, you see that, oh God. And, you know, and, and if you read all of Romans and not just the parts you want to read, you're going to find out that Paul says that God's not done with Israel. He makes it very clear just in the book of Romans alone. So it's kind of a matter of picking and choosing what scriptures, you know, are gonna be a proof text for your particular belief system. The way we should always approach Scripture is with a clean slate and say, Lord, you tell me what to believe based on what your word says. I'm not going to go into it with preconceived beliefs and then find Scriptures to support my belief. Anybody can do that, but that's backwards and it's wrong. And it's— I mean, need I say it's dangerous?

Sure.

I think that should be self-explanatory. So why is replacement theology popular? Good question. I don't know the answer to that question, just because people are easily led astray.

Yeah.

You know, and we're living in the last days when the enemy is really wanting to do that. And I don't know for sure if this is a salvation issue, okay? It may very well not be a salvation issue, but it's a serious issue because it speaks to the whole methodology of how we interpret God's Word. And if we start getting off base in the way we interpret God's Word in this area that isn't a salvation issue, it is very possible for us to maintain that lack of course correction when we deal with salvation issues. And pretty soon, we're messed up and even shipwrecked.

So, if anyone else has a similar thought pattern to this— Austin, I think, was the name that sent in this Before I ask you the question, I just wanna do a little commercial here and recommend your Romans study. You just have taught chapters 10 and 11. I think you'll upload 11 this next week.

11's coming soon.

Coming soon. Out of the ballpark. So good. This study is so good. And I think if someone really wants to sort of unravel something that they've been hearing, that's the place to go.

Well, and one of the things I brought out in that study, which will be coming, you know, very soon, is that the way we see Israel, both in Scripture and in the world, should be, should be influenced by the Bible. Right?

Exactly.

And not popular thought.

Yeah.

Popular ideologies or, or antisemitism, for sure. We, we as Christians should be influenced primarily by the Bible. We need to know what the Bible says. about Israel, and we need to adjust our thinking according to the Bible.

Yeah, so, and it's, uh, I can also see why some people might want to go that direction, because look, current political boundaries of countries complicate things.

Yeah, yeah.

And so if you just say they're out, we're in, the church is a replacement, you don't have to deal with the complications.

Exactly. I don't have to think I don't have to even think about Israel anymore. I don't have to— you know, people say you have to support Israel or like Israel. I don't have to even worry about that. They're out. Yeah, exactly. It makes it convenient.

Sure.

Yeah. Yeah. So, well, so those are our questions for this episode. Hey, we thank you for sending them in. I think we had some good discussion here today. And if you would like to send in your question, maybe even you need some clarification on what we've already been talking about, that's fine. Send your email to questions@lifebibleministry.com. And don't forget that on our website, on the main homepage at the very top, you can now enter a question and get an immediate answer based on everything I've taught through the Bible, all the articles I've written, and so forth. So consider that also as an option, and we will see you next time. God bless.