Bible Q&A • Episode 68

These questions come from a variety of sources. Some of them come directly into our email. Some of them have come from the Facebook post that we put out for the Calvary Meridian Facebook post. Some of them have come from questions that you sent into the office. And so we're gonna begin with one that came through Facebook. This is our starter question, and it is, should the church be involved with government and elections, and to what capacity? Is it our duty to promote godly people in order to create a godly government?

Well, there's a lot of questions there, obviously, and since we're just right around the corner from voting, I suppose we should probably at least make mention of the fact that here in the United States of America— this isn't really a Bible question technically, but, you know, we have one of the most incredible privileges As citizens of the United States of America to be involved in the political process from the standpoint of voting. And I think everybody should vote. I mean, you hear about a lot of Christians that decide they're not going to vote. And that just really kind of troubles me. And one of the main objections they'll raise is, well, there aren't any godly candidates. Oh, I'm sorry. Did you think this was heaven? This, this is, this is life on earth. This is the sinful, you know, world. And, and, you know, you're not— we're not voting necessarily for godly candidates. We're, we're voting for as best we can get. It's not going to get any better than pretty much what we've got until Jesus comes, and then we're not going to need to vote, you know, because somebody's going to be in charge that, uh, you know, is undeniably the best Candidate. But for right now, I think that we have a responsibility to just to be involved at whatever level the Lord directs you to be involved. I think that there's, there's a lot of personal elements involved in this question. How, how involved should you be in government? That's up to between you and the Lord. But, but as far as just being involved and as far as doing something as it relates to the outcome of elections, we should be involved. We should be voting for the things that is most in line with the biblical principles that we hold most dear.

To repeat a clever adage that I've seen recently, our vote is not a love letter, it's a chess move. You know, it is for— it's good, isn't it? We're voting for our hope of the best possible future for our families and our children.

Yeah. And the other thing, too, is that we often forget that one of the most powerful, politically active things we can do is pray. And that's what we are told in the Bible to do. We're told to pray for our governing authorities. We're told to pray for those who are in charge, and we should be praying. In fact, I've often said, if you don't pray, you don't have any right to complain. So anyway, the rest of our questions, or at least most of them here, we're going to put up on the screen for you guys to see them as well. So

And now we're moving into a question that has great, uh, theological answer. It says from T-Bone, I have a question regarding what the Bible says. Why did Jesus have to be punished? Thank you.

An interesting wording in this question. I don't think I would use the word punished to describe what Jesus went through because it almost sounds like somebody, you know, got a paddling and sent to bed without supper. What Jesus went through and the, and the suffering that he endured is far beyond punishing. But there's an interesting dynamic to this question, and that is, why did it have to happen? On— and there's two sides to that coin. On the one hand, it didn't have to happen. On the other hand, it did have to happen. Uh, Jesus wasn't carried along by some force beyond him. He chose to suffer on our behalf. But the reason that he had to suffer the way he did is because of something very simple, and that is the scriptural understanding that we get about sin, that the wages of sin is death. And because of that, because that death is the ultimate wage of sin, Jesus had to die. I remember as a new Christian finally coming to terms with that and finally realizing, oh, he had to die. He had to. It wasn't just something he did. It was absolutely required At least for us to be forgiven. Why? Because somebody had to die. Somebody had to pay the price. And if it wasn't Jesus, it was going to be you. Bottom line. And, and so why did Jesus have to suffer? You know, because God cannot sweep sin and the consequences of sin under the rug. We can do that. I can do that. You can do that. God can't do that. He is just, meaning it— he, he must, he must punish sin. He cannot do otherwise. Uh, and so because God cannot simply say, oh— and I've heard people say this— why couldn't God just say, I forgive you, and be done with it? Because the wages of sin is death. Somebody had to die. And God chose his, you know, Son. And, and Jesus, of course, you know, chose to die on our behalf. Jesus even said, no one takes my life from me. I lay it down of my own accord. I have the authority to lay it down and the authority to take it up again. And so it was entirely his decision, his volition. So yeah.

The next question is from Shannon, and she asks, why is the Book of Mark a repeat of Matthew? Going through this book, watching all of your videos, is like a book repeat. What is the point of this? I understand that the word of God is important, but it seems redundant to read the same things within the chapters.

Well, actually, there are quite a few differences, you know, between Matthew and Mark. And yes, they are similar. Matthew, Mark, and Luke are all referred to as the synoptic gospels, and, and, and there are some great similarities there. But the reason that we appreciate all of the gospel accounts is because they are, uh, eyewitness accounts. Um, Matthew was one of the apostles. Uh, Mark, we believe, was written by John Mark, and we believe it actually to be the eyewitness account of Peter. And then you, of course, have John, who was an eyewitness of the events, and he told a, a really kind of a, a different perspective. And then you got Luke, who was the master historian, and Luke was, was a man who gathered eyewitness accounts together and put them together in his account. And, you know, when you're, when you're looking at an event, whether it's a crime or something of just great historical significance, you want to gather all the eyewitness accounts you can because it brings a greater dimension to our understanding of the overall event itself. And that, and, you know, there are things that Matthew says that Mark doesn't. There are things that Mark says that Matthew doesn't. And there are specific details that we get. And when you put those gospel accounts together, you get really a very beautiful harmonizing of what took place. And so, you know, it's, again, if you were a detective, you'd say, I wanna gather all the eyewitness accounts I can get.

Yeah, I can see as a first-time reader, someone would begin reading Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, it's like, I've heard this before. Yeah, for sure. What's the point? And so that's a great answer.

And frankly, when I taught, when I was teaching through the Bible, I never taught them back to back, right? You know, I would do Matthew, then I would go in and do Acts, Romans, usually 1st and 2nd Corinthians, and then come back and do Mark. Because, you know, there, there is a lot of redundancy there, but, you know, they were eyewitnesses and they saw the same things. There should be redundancy. I would be troubled if there wasn't redundancy. I mean, if they were telling a different story, that would be problematic.

Sure.

Yeah.

Daisy says, I read a chapter in my Bible, then follow it by watching your YouTube video. Is that enough, or should should I be doing more to study? Is there a right or wrong way to study the Bible?

Yeah, we get this question a lot, don't we? Is there a right way? And people struggle with how they study the Bible in terms of how to get the best out of it, I suppose. Um, I don't believe there's— well, I, I don't believe there's a right necessarily and a wrong way to study the Bible. I, I think doing what, what this— what Daisy is doing is a fine way to read the Bible and then listen to a Bible teacher. That's fine as long as it's a good Bible teacher. Um, what people do is they often don't realize how they best learn, because some people are auditory learners, meaning they learn by hearing, and some people are better learning by reading Um, and, and we just, we don't realize that sometimes. And so we hear somebody else saying how they read or study the Bible, and we think, well, I'm going to adopt that. And then it doesn't work for them, and they just put up their hands kind of in frustration. And it's the same thing with praying, how people pray.

Right.

And so, uh, it— I have always encouraged people to find the method that works the best for you. How do you learn the best? Um, you know, if it's, if it's listening to a Bible teacher, then great. If it's listening to scripture, just, you know, there's so many Bible apps that just will read the word to you. If it's sitting down and reading your, your Bible, taking notes, great. Whatever, however you best assimilate the word of God is what is best for you. So I encourage people to try them all and see what works the best.

We have a couple grandchildren that are really auditory learners, and they want to teach everything that they hear.

Yeah, they talk things back, and that's how they learn things.

Yeah, that's honestly another great strategy, is especially for some children, you can say, here's this story, read the story, now tell me all about it.

Yeah, you

know,

and that's how they learn.

Yeah,

by regurgitating. Verbally. Yeah.

All right, Danielson says, my question is about Revelation 3:18. Is Jesus literally telling us to buy gold, or is he using symbolic speech and talking about something else?

I, I like to read those things when, uh, they come up. So Revelation 3, I've actually— we're looking at 15 through 18. Uh, this is where Jesus says, I know your works. He's obviously speaking to the church at Laodicea. He says, you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot. So because you are lukewarm and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth. And then this is important, for you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing. And Jesus goes on to say, not realizing in fact that you are wretched Pitiable, poor, blind, and naked. So he says, I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire. That's his question that came through. What's he talking— is he talking about to actually invest in gold? So am I supposed to go out and buy some gold? No. Notice that Jesus says here, buy from me. In other words, get from me, he says, uh, gold that is refined by fire so that you may be rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself to the shame of your nakedness. He's not telling you to go out and buy a white garment or white clothing. These are things that Jesus gives us when we come to him, when we rely on him and trust in him, because that's true wealth. And, and the church at Laodicea was obviously self-deceived, thinking that they had everything that they needed. And Jesus wrote them through, you know, uh, the Apostle John and said, actually, uh, that's— it's the opposite of what you think. And so you need to come to me for real, true spiritual riches. So this has nothing to do with buying ounces of gold. It is getting the things that make you truly wealthy, uh, as a believer who's put their faith in Jesus Christ. So yeah.

I was recently trying to wrap my mind around Romans 6 and 7 and the first verse in Romans 8. Wow. With the 2 covenants being discussed, it got me to wondering if all the world is under the Old Covenant and law by default until they come to and accept Christ as their Lord and Savior. Is that why most religions base their positioning on works, because the Old Covenant is the driver?

This is a good question, and I like it because Ken is obviously a thinker.

Yes.

And he's, he's sitting and he's reading, and, you know, we just went through these chapters— well, just— in our study of Romans, uh, in the last several months. We covered this, and he's, he's reading these things, and he's, he's taught— he's seeing how God delineates, or Paul the Apostle delineates, between the Old Covenant and the New Covenant and so forth in Romans. And he's, he's looking at the other various world religions, which he rightly understands are really all about works. So Ken is looking at this and he's saying, wow, does this mean basically that the whole rest of the world is essentially under the law? Well, no, technically they're not under the law because the law— when you think of the law, that's the whole Mosaic law, and that was given uniquely to the nation of Israel. However, the whole world is under the condemnation of what the law describes, which is the righteousness of God. And we are born into a world where we have fallen short. That's what the Bible tells us. All have fallen short of the glory of God. Well, the glory of God is revealed in the law, and so in that sense, the whole world is under the law, but not under the Mosaic law. And, and so they're not under the Old Covenant, but they are under the, um, the rigors and the demands of the law, because God has established a moral standard in, in, you know, that is part of his very being, and we have all fallen short of that. And so in that sense, you know, Ken is right in saying that we are under the law in that way.

That is very interesting.

Yeah, it is a good question.

Wendy says, please help us understand how we should interact with Israel now, and who are the synagogue of Satan?

So Wendy's asking 2 questions here, and if she'd have been in on our Romans study, we actually spent, uh, one particular study on how we should interact with Israel. And just for the sake of summary— summarizing kind of those statements, you know, when we think about Israel There's, there's the secular nation of Israel that exists today, and then there's biblical Israel. And we, we look at them really kind of differently, to be completely honest with you. I look at secular national Israel in the scope of human events that are going on currently, really the same way I would look at any other country like Germany or Russia or, or Great Britain. Um, it's, it's a country. within the scope of, you know, today's current events. Biblically speaking, we have a very different perspective about the nation of Israel because we think differently about them from that perspective, because it is uniquely Israel to whom God revealed himself, uh, through Moses, the law, the giving of the law, the oracles, the prophets, um, the law, so forth. And then It is from Israel that Jesus descended. It is from the line of David specifically. And then we have all of the prophecies that are yet to come to pass. We have— you guys did know Jesus is coming back, right? Yeah. He's coming back to Israel. Yeah. We made, we made mention of that. He's not coming to Chicago, you know, or, or Moscow. He's coming to Israel and We know from the prophetic works of the Bible that Israel is going to be the center of the world during the Millennial Kingdom, that the nations of the world are going to stream to Israel looking for answers. And the other thing that we need to remember about Israel, particularly as it relates to how— well, what's going on today, And, and by the way, there is a heightened antisemitism that is going on in the world. I'm sure you've seen it. Um, and I believe that it is spiritual in nature, what's happening right now. And the, the anger and the frustration, uh, and the hatred that is being leveled toward Israel is a spiritual dynamic that is being stirred up in the world. And you have to know this. Prophetically speaking, what is going to— what we're seeing now is going to build and build and build and build. And by the end of the Great Tribulation, it is— people are going to be so lathered up against Israel that all of the nations of the world are going to come against Israel. They're going to come to destroy Israel. So what you're seeing today is a spiritual buildup that is going to culminate in an attack on Israel that the Bible calls the Battle of Armageddon. And so I would strongly advise Christians not to get caught up in the antisemitism that is being stirred up right now by the enemy, because it is— like I said, it's a spiritual thing. And yes, there are reasons to look at Israel and say to them, what are you doing? And, and, and I've said this before, just because we understand the prophetic significance of the nation of Israel doesn't mean we look at it and we say, everything you do is great, we love you, we support you, we think you're the cat's meow. Doesn't mean that. We look at Israel and we can, we can say, you know, that's dumb, that's wrong, and, and, and you shouldn't do that. But we also understand biblically what's going on as well and how we should view Israel and how we as Christians should view Israel. Biblical Israel is through the lens of Scripture, specifically prophetic Scripture, but even historical Scripture as well. So we look at Israel today in, in current events like we would look at any other country. Any other country. And I can be, I can be just as critical as I want about the nation of Israel and what they do as I am about any other country. And I don't feel a twinge of guilt. But when it comes to biblically how I view Israel, that's a completely different matter altogether. It doesn't, it doesn't absolve them of wrongs. That God's going to take care of everything that was wrong, believe you me. But by the same token, I understand that God has a plan for Israel, and that's one of the things we saw. You know, frankly, in our our study of Romans, Paul asked the question: You know, is God done with Israel? No.

So could you tell us what chapters those were? No. That I don't. Okay. Well, just watch all Romans.

Somewhere in Romans, you guys just go through there and just you'll find it.

Okay. But the second part of her question is: Who are the synagogue of Satan? Yeah. The term the synagogue.

synagogue of Satan appears twice in the Bible, uh, both in the Book of Revelation, once in chapter 2 and once in chapter 3. And Jesus is the one who uses the term, okay? He coined it. It's his. Yeah. It's not mine. It's not yours. It's not anybody else's. He refers to those who were— oh, and, and we put those, uh, passages up on the screen there so you can, you can see them, uh, where those actually were were used. It described a group of people that were standing so opposed to the Christians that they were persecuting them and they were hostile, you know, slandering them and, and so forth. Here's the deal. Jesus— and by the way, synagogue of Satan. The word synagogue just means gathering. So it was a gathering of Satan. And who were, who were they made up of? Well, they were probably made up of Judaizers and Gentile converts to Judaism. Okay, they weren't just Jews, probably. Here's my, here's my thing. I hear this term being thrown out from time to time. Um, I don't, I don't personally feel that we have the liberty to apply that term or title to anybody. Jesus can. He's the judge, okay? He knows what is a true gathering of, of the work of the enemy. Uh, we can usually have a pretty good idea, but I wouldn't, I wouldn't go around using that term, to be honest with you. Jesus can use it, but I'm not about to.

It's a good warning. Paulson says, I have a question about Revelation 8:1. which says, when the Lamb opened the 7th seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour.

Yeah.

How should we understand the reference to about half an hour of silence in heaven in light of heaven not being subject to time in the way that we are?

Yeah, this is one of those interesting questions where a spiritual vision, you know, that John was having in the Book of Revelation contains elements that seem really confusing to us. Like, we know that in heaven there's no time, there's just eternity. So here comes this reference to silence for 30 minutes, for a half hour, and they're kind of like— and people, you know, naturally kind of go, huh, what's that all about? Well, yeah, okay. So even if heaven operates completely outside of time, which, you know, I believe that it does— John didn't.

Right.

He was, he was a man who lived within the confines of time. And, and so the Lord is, is communicating. Remember, he's communicating to John and ultimately to us in ways that we can understand. And so, I mean, can you, can you describe a pause in timelessness? Because I can't. I, I wouldn't even begin to know what words to use. So there was obviously a pause in what John was seeing, and so God communicated it to him in a way that John, who is captive to time, you know, can understand. This question comes up in other forms. We hear people asking questions about why are they talking about this when this is going on and so forth. And And often in the— in prophetic visions, you will hear elements in that vision that just don't seem to fit with, you know, reality or, or whatever. And God is just— he's speaking to people in a way that they can understand. And that's the bottom line, you know. We're limited in our understanding.

Sure. Sometimes the answers are pretty Easy, really. Diane has a question that says, with all the animals the Israelites brought into the wilderness for sacrifice, why did they complain about having no meat and have to eat manna?

Well, yeah, you know, the Bible does say that the people of Israel brought their flocks and herds with them when they left Egypt after they were released. And so the natural kind of question is, well, they had all these flocks and herds with them. Why didn't they just slaughter them and they'd have all the meat that they needed and so forth? Sure. Here, you have to remember something. The Bible tells us that when the people came out of Egypt, there were 600,000 men. They didn't count the women. And so what we have to do is we have to kind of say, okay, well, what do you think? Let's try to fill this in for women and children. And we're not even sure that number includes the non-Jews that came along,

right,

uh, when they left, because a lot of Egyptians and probably people who had been captured by the Egyptians even came with the Israelites when they left Egypt. So Bible scholars believe that the number of people that came out of Egypt into the wilderness was somewhere between 2 and 2.5 million people. That's a lot of folks. Now, if they started slaughtering their animals for food, they would have consumed everything they had in a matter of, you know, a few weeks. And so it just— it simply wasn't— it wasn't realistic. The other thing you got to remember about flocks and herds is that they didn't just consider them food. This was their livelihood. And they they assumed, of course, at the beginning that they were just going to make their way to Israel, or to the Promised Land. It wasn't called Israel yet. Right. And of course, you know, they ended up spending, you know, first 2 years in the wilderness learning about God, and then another 38 years just because they walked in disobedience. So manna was an absolute necessity. But, um, their flocks and herds was was what they were going to do business with once they got there.

Right.

You wanted to keep your flocks and herds because when you got to the land where you're going to set up housekeeping, you know, that's going to be how you're going to keep living. And so there was no way you're going to sack, you know, slaughter all of your animals. No way. It's kind of like us giving away everything we own on the way to moving somewhere And then we get there and we've got nothing. So we would say, well, we're not going to get rid of everything, you know. And so that's the way you got to think about it, you know. It's not— they weren't just bringing along food, they were bringing along their possessions.

Sure.

Yeah,

that makes sense.

Yeah.

Uh, Jane from Indiana asks, is our personal forgiveness of others dependent on the repentance of the person we are forgiving?

This is a good question. We do get this, um, fairly regularly. Do I need to hear a repentant attitude from someone in order to forgive them? That's basically what Jane is asking. And you know, the question of whether our forgiveness of others is dependent upon repentance is, is kind of depends on your biblical perspective. And there are passages in the Bible that do speak about repentance. If your brother repents and, you know, comes to you and repents, then forgive him, Jesus said. And of course, he went on to say, as many times as he comes and asks for forgiveness, you are to forgive him. But there are other passages in the Bible that speak of forgiveness with no reference to repentance. It simply says we are to forgive others as we have been forgiven. So, you know, I, I've often kind of wondered if people ask this question Predicated on an attitude that I really don't want to forgive this person, but, you know, I suppose if they ask, then I will, maybe. But I better see some big tears. I mean, you know, it better be sincere, and I better see a godly repentance. And my question is, how— one of the things we forget about forgiveness Is that it sets you free. It's not just— it's not just for the other person. The person comes and they ask for forgiveness, presumably. But what if— here's the different dynamics. What is it doing to you to withhold forgiveness from that person? And then here's the other issue. What if they can't come and repent? What if they, they pass away? Somebody who hurt you badly, they, they, they sin against you and then they die shortly after, or they, they— you completely lose contact. You know, somebody could move away and you, you have no way— there's no way they could come and repent. Now what are you going to do? You're just going to hang on to that bitterness and anger? See, that's the thing we forget about. We forget about what unforgiveness does to us. In our hearts, are you withholding forgiveness because you're waiting for that person to come to you? Now, once they come, I'll forgive them. But until then, I am completely justified. Well, I would, I would, I would challenge that premise, and I would ask the question again: What is it doing to you to hang on to that? I think we are to forgive as we've been forgiven. You know. Jesus asked the people who were crucifying him, he asked his Father to forgive them, saying, you know, they don't know what they're doing. And I don't remember any of them, you know, saying, Lord, you know, forgive me. And yet he prayed that they would be forgiven.

So— I don't know if Jane had gotten tangled up in this, but, you know, recently you and I talked about this. We ran across some very confusing teachings with regard to forgiveness that was Setting, casting your eye toward, it is only about reconciliation.

Yeah, yeah. And that's, and that's kind of another matter. And maybe you guys have heard this too, but people often ask, how do repentance and reconciliation work? Because reconciliation is obviously restoring a relationship. Forgiveness is releasing someone from the debt. That they owe. Okay, and there are many people, and many of them are Christians, who believe that if you don't reconcile, you haven't truly forgiven. Right? Yeah. And that's the idea. And there was a podcast recently where they were championing that idea. Right? Right. And Sue and I heard that, and we were kind of like, um, I don't think so. I believe that you can forgive someone without reconciling. I really do, because there are situations, you know. Where a person is involved in a very toxic lifestyle, and that's why maybe they hurt you in the first place, and they haven't let go of that. They haven't stopped living in that toxic lifestyle. Uh, and, and, and so it would be kind of dumb for you to reconcile in the sense that you allow that person back into your life. You know, there's a biblical story of Saul, King Saul hunting David out in the wilderness. And, you know, on, on a few occasions, God allowed David the opportunity to kill Saul, and he didn't take it. And there was one particular time where David cut off a piece of his robe, Saul's robe, while he was in a cave. And, and then later on Uh, he kind of was guilt-stricken over cutting off his robe. I, I thought— I remember reading that going, I would not feel guilty, you know. But, but he was, and his heart was that soft. And he, he, he, he literally showed it to Saul, and, and Saul broke. And he's like, David, is that you, David? You know. And he says— and Saul even says, I know that one day you're going to be king, and when you're king, do good to my family. And, and there's all the— and he— and they, they kind of There's this just release between them where Saul says,

Well, and in that story, Saul had been displaying all the classic signs of psychosis. Which is like, you know, very two-faced. Like, yeah, today and in that moment, he was just all lovey-dovey with David. But David had the discernment to know, no, you can't be trusted.

Yeah. And I think that we have to realize that same sort of a situation when, when again, yeah, kind of like you say, I'll forgive you, but I'm going to keep my distance because you haven't changed. And, and particularly if you have a family, you know, if you've got somebody who has hurt you and your family and nothing has changed in their behavior and lifestyle and that sort of thing, then you put your family in harm's way. We should— we should be teaching our kids forgiveness, but also discernment, you know? So, yeah.

Good. Okay, Jocelyn says, how do we know which promises from the Old Testament apply to New Testament believers versus those which were only promised to the Israelites or to a specific person?

Yeah, this is a really good question, and the reason it's good is because there are a— I believe I see that there are a great many biblical promises that were made uniquely to Israel that people regularly quote. And, and I don't think we necessarily have the freedom to do that. Let me, let me say this. God can apply any of his promises he wants to you as he speaks to you personally. Okay. He has that freedom. I don't think we necessarily have the freedom to reach into all of the promises given to Israel and say, I'm going to claim that. For example, you know, you probably remember this back in the, in the '80s, early '80s, when we really kind of started walking with the Lord seriously. There was a book that came out and it was called None of These Diseases.

I remember.

Yeah. And it was a, it was a book that was based on a passage where God had spoken to the people of Israel and he said, if you obey me and keep my law, you're not going to experience any of the diseases that you did in Egypt, or that the Egyptians, you know, none of these diseases will come upon you. Right. And so this book was written in such a way as to get Christians to take—

Follow dietary food laws.

Yeah. And to hold on to that promise based on the conditions that were laid out for Israel. It was ridiculous. And it was a promise that was made uniquely to Israel. To Israel. Now, there are some promises that convey the character of God that, that you can, you can look at and you can say, that's really cool. Jeremiah 29:11. I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord. You know, right? Plans to bless you and give you a future and a hope. Um, I hear that quoted all the time by Christians, that the unique and specific context of, of that promise was given to the nation of Israel when they'd been taken captive into Babylon and they were taken away from their homeland. And God told Jeremiah that, that captivity is going to last 70 years. But I want you to know something, because in this— in the time or the span of 70 years, it's pretty easy to lose hope and to think God has abandoned us. God has just given up on us, and, and he's never more going to, you know, love us and care for us. And so God spoke through Jeremiah. He says, no, no, no, I actually know the plans that I have for you. And he's speaking to Israel. He's speaking to Israel. Specifically Judah, which is, you know, made up of the tribes of Israel at that point. He says, I, I still have— I have plans for you. I have— there's a hope and there's a future, so don't despair. Now, again, I hear Christians quoting that all the time. It says some wonderful things about God. It says things about his character. His love for his, his, his people and so forth. But that's not a specific promise for you, you know, unless the Lord gives it to you. And again, he can do that. And, and, and if he does that, that's his business, not mine. Um, but we do have to be careful. And there are a lot of other passages. No weapon formed against you shall prosper. How many times you heard that one? Um, that was spoken to Israel. That was spoken to Israel. Hey, listen, if, if the promise, no weapon formed against you shall prosper, is a blanket promise for all time, then what are you going to say about the sword that cut off the Apostle Paul's head? I think that weapon prospered, you know, against Paul. And so, you know, you, you have to be careful about these things. So the question is, how do you know?

The question is, how do you know? And for starters, Can I get you started on one? Yeah. I really like how you said, when a promise displays the character of God.

Yeah. Yeah. When a promise displays the character of God, and that character is unchanging.

Sure. Then, so can I give a for example of that? Sure. So just at our women's conference, I was mentioning how when God sent Moses on a big mission and said, I want you to go to Pharaoh and tell him to let the people go.

Right.

God made him a promise. He said 3 times, I will be with you.

Yeah.

That tells us about the character of God.

Yep.

When God gave the same thing to Gideon and he wanted Gideon to have, you know, to do what he wanted him to do.

Right.

2 times God says, but I will be with you.

Right.

And then again with Joshua, I will never leave you or forsake you. Right. You know? And so—

And then Jesus said the same thing to us.

Exactly. So it tells us the character of God. What are some other ways

that we— What?

That we can see a promise and say, no, this is totally acceptable for me to take that. and apply it to myself.

When it speaks of God himself, when it is a promise related to God, related to his person, related to his character, right? Those are, those, those are unchanging because God is unchanging. If, if the Bible says, you know, that— well, okay, there's a promise in the New Testament that speaks of God's character, uh, to, to be faithful to forgive us. And of course, there's many passages in the Bible that speak of God's faithfulness. So when we see those, when we see a promise about God's faithfulness, we can say, well, that's just— that's who God is. He's faithful. And so I can— I, I'm taking that, I'm accepting that, I'm embracing that. Um, you know, then you come to the New Testament, 1 John 1:9, when we confess our sins, he's faithful and just, will forgive us, cleanse us from all unrighteousness. That's a promise. It's a wonderful promise. When you get to the Old Testament, you do have to be careful. The things you got to look for are conditions. Because, you know, a lot of promises have conditions. Even in the New Testament, there are several promises that come with conditions. In the Old Testament, many of the promises that were given were conditioned on the law.

Sure.

Were conditioned on obedience to the law.

Right.

Right. And you got to look for those things. You got to look at the context. You got to, you got to read the context of you know, in which the promise was, was given and say, is this something that applies to the New Testament church? Because as I mentioned in our study of Romans, we're not under the Old Covenant. We're under a different covenant, a completely different covenant. Yeah. So the covenant promises that were— that God made to Israel are for Israel, right? They are covenant promises connected between God and Israel. And they don't, they don't apply to the New Testament church because we're under a different covenant.