Episode 15

Pastor Paul LeBoutillier Pastor Paul: Hi everybody, we're back and we have some more of your Bible questions that we're going to share with you and hopefully some good answers from the scriptures. I'm Pastor Paul, I'm here with my wife, Sue. We're in our new location.

Yes, we are.

We're here in Meridian, Idaho and in our new home and we're ready to answer some of your Bible questions. So let's get going.

Some things change and some things stay the same.

That's right.

Answering questions stays the same. We have a couple of questions about the gift of tongues and the first one is from Josie; “Hello Pastor Paul and Sue. How can we tell if the gift of tongues is a counterfeit or truly given by the Holy Spirit?”

I think that this question comes up a lot because there are so many Pentecostal/charismatic churches that put such an undue emphasis on the gift of tongues that people are feeling great pressure to say, I got the gift even when they didn't. So what comes out is this gibberish that people can kind of tell. I don't think this is genuine and so this is what is behind these kinds of questions. I think the best way is to rely on the Holy Spirit but I want to make another point that is just as important. You shouldn't even be hearing someone speaking in tongues unless they are doing so within a group of believers who know what's going on, who understand this gift and what it's about and they are speaking with the intention that someone is going to interpret that tongues so that everyone can be edified. I'll just say this, if you're in a church where people are just randomly speaking in tongues or are even being encouraged as a whole body to speak in tongues, that is patently unbiblical. It happens a lot in a lot of churches but it's unbiblical. The apostle Paul makes it very clear in the word that tongues should not be spoken in the church service unless there is someone there who has the gift of interpretation. And, of course, the tongues speaker needs to know that. They need to know there's someone in the room who has the gift of interpretation. Otherwise, you shouldn't be hearing. The person should be speaking between themselves and God. But as for figuring out whether it's true or counterfeit, I would personally seek the direction of the Holy Spirit. He knows.

That's good. The next question is from Erica and it goes back to the origination here. She said;

The confusion that is going on here with Erica and I'm sure others as well, is the fact that she's trying to reconcile the very unique move of the Spirit on the day of Pentecost with the later instructions that Paul gave, the apostle Paul gave when he was telling the church how to operate in this particular gift. And those instructions came much later. On the day of Pentecost, God enabled the assembled believers to be able to speak in the known languages of the Jewish pilgrims who had come from neighboring countries to Jerusalem in order to celebrate the feast. Those people lived in countries that spoke in different languages and dialects. So they get to Jerusalem and they see all these Jews speaking in their native languages, proclaiming the goodness of God and so forth. And they were kind of blown away by it. And God used that to show that this was a significant work of the Holy Spirit. But what Paul gave in terms of instructions for the church, is a completely different use of the gift of tongues. So you need to remember that. So when she's trying to amalgamate these two ideas from Pentecost and Paul's statement that, there must be an interpretation. Well, that was to the church later on. Now, there is another thing that I need to address here. You'll notice that at the very end of Erica's statement, she made a mention about heavenly languages. She said, were they speaking in different languages that were known or were these heavenly languages? And I need to address that because that whole idea of heavenly languages comes from a statement that the Apostle Paul made in 1 Corinthians 13 at the beginning, where he simply said, if I speak in the tongues, which means languages of men and angels. That statement has led some people to conclude that we may be given the gift of an angelic language versus just a human-based earthly language. But honestly, that's a conclusion that is based on very little evidence. Nowhere else in the Bible is there any mention of heavenly languages from the standpoint of being given to believers. So I would caution anyone who has heard a teaching on this, who's heard someone from the pulpit say, it might be an earthly language, and it might be a heavenly language. We don't know that. That is a conclusion that people have jumped to, I believe, without proper biblical foundation. So it just needs to be something we need to not assume that when you receive the gift of tongues, you might be giving a heavenly language. I've even heard some people use that as an excuse for the gibberish that they're hearing.

That make sense. 1 Corinthians 13:1 (ESV) If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.

It's like, the reason it doesn't sound like any known language is it's a heavenly language. Well, that I'm dubious.

One thing about this, all we know or anyone listening knows is a New Testament church experience. But what would it have been like to actually be there on the day of Pentecost? Wouldn't that have been really quite the experience?

An incredible experience because they not only heard, but they saw. They saw these tongues of fire settling over their heads, signifying the presence of the Holy Spirit. And then they heard these people who had never learned these languages speaking and praising God in languages that they understood.

It set the bar for revival to a place we've never known.

It really did.

Charlene says,

What Charlene is talking about is really the inner voice, our inner voice. And it's a powerful thing. It can be even overwhelming at times. We struggle quieting our hearts because frankly, we've created a habit of listening and yielding and hearkening to the inner voice rather than the voice of the Holy Spirit. It becomes kind of a habitual thing. So my advice to Charlene is to do what I would counsel anyone to do who's dealing with a habitual behavior. And that is, first of all, bring it before the Lord and confess it. I don't know, it lifts the pressure for me to be able to recognize something and then bring it to the Lord and say, Father, I confess to you that I have yielded to my inner voice and I now struggle to hear you over the sound of my own voice and the voice in my heart. Bring it to the Lord, confess it, tell the Lord you've created a habit of doing that, and ask for forgiveness. And then once you've received that forgiveness, then begin to pray about it and give it to the Lord and say, teach me how to hear your voice above all things, including the very strong and loud inner voice that I have cultivated over the years.

There's that aspect of cultivating that listening to the inner voice, but there's also a personality dynamic because some people are just very given to responsibility. So they think we think that we really need to roll over. We go through “what ifs”. “What if this” because I want to make the right decision. So responsible oriented people have a struggle just letting go of that. But the same thing is true. There's really nothing to confess, but you can come to the Lord and say, I know responsibility is a good thing, but do you see how I'm struggling here with this?

I've taken it to the place where it has begun to generate worry, and fretting and even overpowering a quiet heart. And it all just needs to be brought to the Lord.

Brooke's question is next; “I was raised Jehovah's Witness but I am now a non-denominational Christian. Some of my JW family still speak to me while others shun me. I'm planning to move closer to them–I haven't seen them in years since leaving the religion. How should I approach them as a Christian? Would it be wise to attend their church again? Thank you for this channel.”

I would not advise Brooke to go back and fellowship with the Jehovah's witnesses. That could be seen in a very confusing light. Once you've made the decision that the Jehovah's witnesses are in error, which they are, to go back would be to send just a confusing signal. So if she's really truly being led by the Lord to move back to that area where these old relationships are, she should really just seek to be who she is in Jesus around her family. And her family members, like she says, are either going to accept her or reject her. As she said, some of them will still talk to her. Some won't. And that's going to be the way it is. You can't take responsibility for other people's reactions or responses to you when you come to Christ. You just can't do that. And you shouldn't try to change it. It's their decision. It's something going on in their heart. It's between them and God. So I think she should just allow her relationship with Jesus, her new relationship, to speak for itself and just be who she is. Be a Christian, be a believer, be someone who's trusting God with all of her heart and let that be a witness to her family.

Very good. All right. Tina says;

I might even let you answer part of this too, but it's always challenging when we get a question saying I heard someone say.

Sure.

Because you weren't there, we weren't there. We didn't hear what they really said. Did the person writing misunderstand them and so forth? So taking this at face value, that this pastor's wife made a statement saying that every woman in leadership, and she's obviously talking about the leadership of the women probably under her, they should all be able to teach a women's Bible study. We see in the Word that teaching is a gift. And it's one that not every person possesses. We should also mention this. There's a big difference between leading a Bible study and teaching a Bible study.

Exactly.

And this pastor's wife may have been talking about women leading a Bible study. She may have been saying every woman in leadership should be able to lead a Bible study, and Tina heard teach. Again, there's a huge difference. To lead a Bible study just means to lead the group in discussion questions, keep things on track and that sort of thing. To teach a Bible study means to sit down, read the verse and say, now here's what it means. You're instructing. And that is something that not everybody can do because not everybody has the gift. But if this woman says, if this pastor's wife says, I want all the women who are in leadership under me, I want them to be able to lead a Bible study. That's legitimate.

I think it is because what it really leans into is I want every woman to be comfortable dialoguing about spiritual things and biblical things with other women.

Absolutely.

And that's legitimate. You shouldn't be in leadership if you're not comfortable doing that.

I agree.

So you said everything, you stole what I was going to say about this.

Should every senior pastor's wife be able to lead and teach a Bible study?

It's the same thing. Has the Lord given you the gift to teach? And I would probably add that I personally think it's kind of a delicate thing for a woman to teach a Bible study. I've always felt like that woman needs to be under a very close authority of her teaching husband or the pastor. And if that's not her husband, then that's another dynamic to be talked about.

Now let me clear up something here, just in case someone's misunderstanding. When we're talking about a woman or women teaching a Bible study, we're talking about a woman teaching women.

Exactly.

So we're not talking about a woman teaching a Bible study that has men in it. That would be inappropriate.

So, for decades, I have taught Bible studies, written study guides, my teaching is recorded. And I felt really comfortable about that because number one, you could go through everything and the elders in our church could go through everything I wrote or said. And that made me feel really comfortable about that position. I guess I would recommend teaching a Bible study to have that kind of authority and that kind of oversight over a woman.

It's just safety.

Yeah, it is safety. And the other thing I've written so many Bible studies for this exact purpose, that if there is a pastor's wife who does not have the gift to teach, look, this is all ready for you to do.

It's all ready to go.

The homework is ready. The video teachings are ready. And you get the pleasure now of leading the group, leading the discussion, which is the important part. That's the heavy lifting.

Absolutely. Very good.

All right. So Tommy says,

He's missing a lot. And a lot of people do miss a lot and really no fault of their own. Jesus did not tell Mary, do not touch me. That's a poor translation from the King James Bible. Touch me not. Actually, the Greek is don't cling to me. Don't hold on. Jesus was certainly able to be touched. We see that later on. He invited Thomas to touch him and so forth. Here's the deal, though. The statement that Jesus made to Mary there in John 20:17 is frankly one of the most difficult statements to translate. It's very difficult. And if you read commentaries about that verse, you will find that either commentators skip over it because it's just too hard or they will give some very different views on it. But I have found most students of the Bible believe that when Jesus said to Mary, I have not yet ascended to the Father, he was referring to his upcoming ascension that is recorded in Acts 1 when all the disciples were watching him go up in a cloud. So that would bring the interpretation of what he said to Mary, something like this. He was saying, don't worry, I'm not going anywhere for a while anyway. This is not my final sort of an appearance. The ascension is yet to come. I have not yet ascended. It's happening much later. So there's no need to cling to me. I'm not going anywhere. That's, I believe what Jesus was saying to Mary. It was not, I have not yet been to the Father. John 20:17 (ESV) Jesus said to her,

There are lots of verses in the Bible that help us to understand how we should approach and understand the whole idea of persecution. First of all, when Paul wrote to Timothy, he said in 2 Timothy 3:12 that all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will ultimately be persecuted. And that means in some way, they're going to come up against some kind of opposition. And Jesus even said, listen, if the world hates you, just know this, they hated me first. And then I think there's a really particularly interesting statement in 1 Peter 2, where Peter talks about suffering. And then he goes on to say, to this you have been called. 2 Timothy 3:12 (ESV) Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. John 15:18 (ESV) If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. 1 Peter 2:20-21 (ESV) For what credit is it if, when you sin and are beaten for it, you endure? But if when you do good and suffer for it you endure, this is a gracious thing in the sight of God. For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps. He's basically saying, and Peter was writing to people who are going through intense persecution. So he wasn't saying that every believer is going to be persecuted the same. We're not all persecuted to the same degree. However, if you want to live a godly life, some level of persecution is going to come your way. Even if it's family members or friends saying, I don't really want to be around you anymore. They may not even ever verbalize that to you. They're just ghost you for the rest of their lives. That's a form of persecution, frankly. And that's a pretty light persecution, I'd have to say. And then you've got other believers who literally lay down their lives, who literally give their lives for the gospel and because they're connected to Jesus. But I think that in answer to this question, our attitude toward persecution, first of all, should never be one of surprise. Jesus bent over backwards to tell us that this was going to happen. I've heard believers talk about persecution, like what in the world is going on? This is terrible. And I want to say, have you ever read the Bible? Have you ever read what Jesus said? He really went out of his way to tell us that we would suffer. So as for how we should pray, that was kind of the last part of her question. How should we even pray about this? I really think that all believers should be praying if we're called upon to suffer for the Lord in some way or another, we should pray that when that day comes, that we will be faithful and uncompromising in our convictions. Because persecution can often create a situation where there's a temptation to back away to try to cool the heat of the persecution. This was happening to the people that the writer in the book of Hebrews was addressing. And we have to be very careful never to back down from what we believe so as to minimize persecution. We should recognize it. We should believe and understand that it could happen to us at any time. We should never be surprised about it. And we should pray that God would make us faithful to suffer for the Lord.

There's a word that you use often that is identification with Christ, and suffering in similar ways, being persecuted in similar ways as we saw in the scriptures.

And that's why the disciples in the book of Acts rejoiced when they suffered because they'd been identified with the suffering of Jesus.

All right. Jodi says;

This is an interesting question from Jodi because it's similar. The last question was talking about persecution. This is talking about apostasy, which is falling away, which is the church falling away. And one of the reasons the church falls away is because of persecution. They don't like persecution. So they compromise and they end up falling away from the standpoint of compromising their convictions, even reneging on their beliefs and so forth. So Jodi asks, how can you stay ready? I think being ready is first of all, knowing and expecting apostasy because we were told in the Bible that it was going to happen, Paul tells us this is going to happen. Jesus told us the hearts of many will grow cold. And he said, when the son of man comes, will he find faith on the earth? In some cases he will. And in some cases he won't because there will be a falling away. So we remain ready by knowing and understanding that this is the tendency of lukewarm believers to begin to adopt the ways of the world, to love the things of the world, and then to compromise their convictions and determining in our own hearts, I'm not going to do that. I'm going to stay close to the Lord. I'm going to stay in fellowship. And I will not compromise what is true.

John ends, is it his first epistle, little children, keep yourselves from idols. And in terms of apostasy or falling away or not being ready, I do think there's a real key there and that is to keep yourselves from idolatry. And we naturally think, of course, we've kept ourselves from idolatry.

I would never have a little figurine in my house that I bow down to.

However, when we really ask ourselves the question, what gives us the greatest pleasure in our lives? What do we worship to the extent that we gain our pleasure from that? Then we all of a sudden realize that there are many things in our hearts.

Those are the idols.

Those are the idols. We talk about serving things, but also it's like gaining pleasure. Do we gain more pleasure from a nice home or from weekends in the mountains?

Making money.

Or from what do we yearn for? What do we think about?

What do we strive for?

So in answer to that question of staying ready, keeping away from apostasy is always honestly asking ourselves about what created things in this world do we worship opposed to the creator?

I think that's really good advice. The key word there is worship, and you use it freely. There are a lot of people that would object and they would say, I am working hard at my job, but I don't worship it. They might be misunderstanding what the word worship even really means. It's what we give ourselves to.

And what we receive pleasure from?

And what we receive pleasure from. What you turn to.

That's a good phrase.

So if you're bothered by the word worship, then we'll just ask this; what do you turn to?

All right. Martin says;

This is a real common belief in some countries more than others, this whole idea of generational curses. And when you talk to somebody who makes a statement like, I came to Christ and he set me free from a lot of things, but there are some things my great, great grandfather did that have now burdened me. And I need to, as Martin says in this note, do something or perform some action on my part in order to remedy the situation. What you're hearing is someone who has given themselves permission to believe things that aren't in the Bible. And that's what it comes down to. It comes down to that simple idea. And if Martin simply asked his family members, where do you find that in the Bible? He would find out that they would scratch their head and they'd say, I just believe it. And that tells you what's going on. You're dealing with people for whom the Bible is not their final rule.

Their experience or their ideas is higher.

And what they believe has a higher place than God’s Word. I believe that Christians should put nothing higher than the Word of God, save God himself. So who is obviously not going to contradict his own word? So, Martin, that's what you're dealing with. You're dealing with people who have not yet made a determination that the Bible is the final authority in my life for what I believe and how I act. So they come up against a scripture that says and Martin alluded to it, that when we come to Christ, we're a new creation. The old is gone. The new has come. And they don't apply that to generational curses because what they believe trumps what God said. That's dangerous. And that's what he's dealing with. So I'll just tell you, there's nothing in the Bible that would lead us to conclude that some action after we come to Christ is required to free us from a bondage that was imposed upon us by a previous family member. Nothing in the Bible that says that.

Good summary. All right. Our next two questions come from D.B. Number one, “Is it okay for a couple to live together and not have sexual relations? If so, or if not, why? A biblical answer would be nice.” And you always give a biblical answer.

I try to. I assume that D.B. is talking about a Christian couple here. I wouldn't even begin to tell an unbelieving couple. I mean, on what basis would I tell them? They don't believe. So let's assume here he's asking, is it okay for a Christian couple to live together as long as they refrain from sexual relations? First of all, choosing to live together is a very foolish thing for a Christian couple to do because they're literally playing into the hands of temptation. They're literally putting themselves in a situation. You might as well paint a big target on your back and say, shoot me here, because it's just the temptation that goes along with living together with someone you love where you're going to say, but we're not married yet.

Beyond the temptation towards sexual intimacy, one thing that you always teach about marriage is all the different kinds of intimacy that marriage affords a couple. So by living together, you're saying, but we're going to have the emotional intimacy, and we're going to have all these other types of intimacy as if we're married. And those are reserved for a married couple.

They are. And when a couple says we're going to be emotionally intimate, we're going to be spiritually intimate, we're going to be intellectually intimate and so forth, but we're not going to be physically intimate. You're basically putting yourself in a situation where you're leaving one intimacy out that God meant to be part of an intimate package for a man and a woman. And you're putting yourself in very, very difficult situation. The second thing I want to say about this is that Paul wrote in the book of Ephesians, that sexual immorality is something that should not even be named among believers. I kind of like the way that NIV renders this verse. They say that sexual immorality must not even be hinted, or there must not be a hint of sexual immorality among you. Listen, if a Christian couple is living together, even if they're not having sex, there's a hint of sexual immorality.

It's more than a hint. That's kind of a billboard out in front of there.

Everybody who sees you walk in at night and then leave in the morning together, they know you're living together and they don't know what's going on behind closed doors. And that's kind of the next thing. Christians who choose to live together, but say they're not going to be intimate sexually, they can't be fully aware of how their testimony is being perceived by others. What if there's a brand new Christian who's watching these two living together and they're not really instructed Ephesians 5:3 (NIV84) But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God’s holy people. yet in the Word and they think, obviously it's okay. And you stumble them into sin. That's something that people don't think about. How about your unbelieving neighbors who you end up witnessing to over a period of time. And then your unbelieving neighbor starts reading the Bible and realizes that's considered sexual immorality. And this person who's been witnessing to me is living in sexual immorality. Suddenly you've blown your witness. It's just not a good idea. And I would just strongly encourage Christian couples wait until you are married to begin to explore and experience intimacy of any kind.

Absolutely. This person's second question is; “If someone has asked if they are a Christian or not publicly many times but always dodges the question, says that it's a personal question and says that they shall be judged according to their fruits. Is that okay? Am I obligated to say if I'm a Christian or not? Or is a person obligated to say?”

What we're told in the Bible is that we are to be prepared to give an answer to anyone who asks us to give the reason for the hope. And those questions might start with, are you a believer? And if someone were to say, yes, I am. Then that person could go on to say why? And we're told to be prepared to do that. Now, if a Christian dodges the question about being a believer or having faith in Jesus, I would want to know why. And, frankly, that old statement, it's personal. My faith is personal. I have found that those who say their faith is personal, really don't have any faith at all. They're dodging the question by just saying that's a personal thing, or they might just be uncomfortable talking about their faith. I think we need to be ready. We need to be ready to proclaim Christ and not in a haughty or negative way, but to simply say, I'm a believer. My faith is in Jesus and I'm prepared to explain why.

I agree. And that's it.

That's it for this time.

Yes.

That's it for episode 15. Those are your questions. You sent them in through our website. Some of them we gleaned from your comments on our YouTube channel. If you'd like to send in a question, the best way is to email us questions@lifebibleministry.com and be sure and check out our website, Life Bible Ministry for all of our through the Bible studies and women's Bible studies with study guides. There's a lot more on our website. You can check it out as well. And we look forward to getting together with you when we come back next week and we'll see you then. God bless.