Episode 29

Pastor Paul LeBoutillier Pastor Paul: Hi everybody, we are back and we're going to answer some more of your Bible questions. So let's see what we have for today.

Our first question comes from a lady named Lily. She says,

As far as what the passage means, it's really kind of just what Lily said. It's about a mark that we're told that the people will place upon their body, supposedly, and only with that mark, will they be able to buy and sell. And then it gives us this numerical value. And we're not even sure how that's going to play out in terms of what the mark is, how it looks, and so forth. I think a lot of those things are going to come to light, frankly, during the Great Tribulation. But, no, there really aren't any helpful companion passages to this. And that's what makes it kind of so vague and mysterious. We don't really know. All we know is that Satan will try to counterfeit the seal of the Lord that is upon those who are believers. And yet with this mark during the Great Tribulation, apparently, this will enable people to buy and sell. Now, as to her question, will anyone take that mark accidentally? No, I don't think anyone's going to accidentally. I don't think there's going to be some kind of technology or something that's going to come out, and we're going to get all excited about it and then come later to find out, I guess I took the mark of the beast. I don't think God's going to allow that to happen. And there's been a lot of worry about that over the years. It started off with credit cards. I remember early in my life when credit cards came out, people thought, here we go, and you're going to go get a credit card, and then you're going to come to find out that was the mark. No, I don't think that's going to happen. First of all, these things are going to happen during the Great Tribulation. The Church, at least those who are alive at the time, will have been raptured, along with those who died previously. So, any believers that are on the earth during the time of the Great Tribulation will have come to Christ during the Great Tribulation, and they will be very aware of what's happening, and no one's going to be taking the mark accidentally.

It's interesting that we do tend to make a pretty big deal out of something that we have very little information on.

Oh, my.

I agree with you. And when I was a teenager, I actually was quite worried about accidentally taking the mark of the beast.

Oh, really?

And also I thought hot lava was going to be a much bigger deal in life than it has turned out to be.

Hot lava has really been a disappointment.

As you're bouncing from couch to couch, that's not a problem in life at all. Angela says,

There's no doubt about the fact that God sovereignly knows before all things happen what is going to happen, and that includes the gender of a child. But God's foreknowledge does not make things happen. He knows what's going to happen, but I don't believe He is making determinations about all things. He has given a great deal of things into our hands to play out, whether biologically, emotionally, spiritually, and there's a great deal of that that is given to us. That's why we call the making of children procreation. It is a creation that takes place under the sovereignty of God, but God's sovereignty does not dictate, it simply oversees, and there is no power greater than Him. So I think the argument that Angela had with her sister is really kind of a moot point, because, of course, God's sovereignty is what it is, but under or from that sovereignty, He's given great freedom for people to create other people, and while He knows and knew that you would be a woman and I would be a man, He gave it into the hands of our parents to come together in the way that procreation provides and to see those things play out according to the biological scientific laws that God established ahead of time. So, I think a lot of this argument that Angela is talking about really comes down to this whole idea of does God's foreknowledge of an event mean that that's the way that event has to go? In other words, did God fix it? It really comes down to the same thing as our salvation. The Bible says that God foreknew, and according to those whom God foreknew, He also pre-elected or elected to be saved. We call it predestination. Romans 8:29 (ESV) For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And I want to be careful not to mix predetermination with predestination, because predetermination means it was all determined ahead of time by God. I don't believe that. I believe God gave things into our hands. So why does it say that there's such a thing as predestination? It's because God foreknew. He knew ahead of time, because He exists outside of time. So, He didn't have to wait to find out what's going to happen. He knew that you would be a believer. He knew that I would be a believer. And so knowing that, He predestined us. But that doesn't mean God forced us, or God said, I'm going to create this man and this woman, and they're going to be what I decide they're going to be. That's not a correct interpretation of predestination. It's not a correct interpretation of God knowing a baby's gender before that baby's been conceived. There are still things God gave into our hands. And one of those things is salvation. The freedom to choose or reject what Jesus did on the cross for us. You had the freedom. I had the freedom. Everyone has the freedom to decide, I'm going to accept that, or I'm going to reject that. Now, of course, God knows ahead of time who's going to do that. And according to that foreknowledge, we have been predestined. So that's an important distinction in all of the arguments related to God's foreknowledge.

I appreciate people like Angela who think very deeply about these things, because it makes me realize I don't. We had four babies, and they just came out. It is like, oh, girl, boy, girl, boy. Let's move along.

And you know what's funny is everybody knows today ahead of time what the gender of their baby is going to be ahead before the baby's born. We didn't.

We're the golden oldies.

God knew.

God knew.

But we didn't.

We got really caught on one of them. We thought we knew and we were wrong.

That's right.

But anyway, all's well. Jayne says,

No, I don't think Satan ever had the power to manipulate creation or nature. And what we see in the book of Job is that he had to receive permission to be able to do that, so that could have been a one off for all we know. I don't think just because God gave Satan permission in the book of Job to do it means that Satan has an ongoing ability.

That's a really good point. Very good. Rhoda says,

I've had questions come up from people, for example, when they're reading the New Testament and reading about that interchange between Jesus and the rich young man who came to him and said, what must I do to be saved? And Jesus began to speak to him. And of course, knowing that man's heart, Jesus said to him, finally go sell all that you have. Give the money to the poor and come follow me. And I've had people write to me and say, is that God's will for my life or am I taking this too personally right now? That's probably an example of what she's talking about in this question. How do I know when I'm reading something in the Word, whether I should take it as a personal directive from the Lord? And I suppose that's really a legitimate question. It's something that we have to pray about, because there are times when you read something in the Bible that He does want you to take it personally.

And the Lord gives me an answer to something or gives me clarity as I am reading the Word. Something will just become very personal and I see, oh, Lord, this is what you want me to get out of this.

And yet, you know that that doesn't apply to every single passage you read. So what I'll ask you then, what makes the difference? How do you know when God has spoken to you personally? And how do you know when you're reading a passage that is talking or giving a directive in the Bible to someone else, but it's not to you?

I think part of it is a practice of walking with the Lord, the practice of regularly reading your Bible. I think just from personal experience, I'll say that probably most of the time that I have felt like God was speaking a very specific and personal message to me from the words of Scripture, I had asked.

You were asking for a specific answer?

I was asking the Lord, I was saying, Lord, I'm troubled about this. I need to hear from you. And God's been very gracious to give me something from the Word. So most often for me, it's just because I have asked, would you speak to me through your Word?

I remember a time when I was in Bible College, and I was just reading through Isaiah. And there was a statement that the Lord made, and it was made originally to the nation of Israel. But as I was reading through the passage, I just sensed the Lord tapping me on the shoulder and saying, son, I want you to pay attention here because I have a message in here for you personally, and it was a message that had to do with some mistakes I'd made in the past that the Lord was speaking to me about and using what he had said to Israel to bring clarity and understanding. But the Lord made it very clear that by kind of hearkening to my heart, if you will, I don't know, I can't really think of a better way to put it, but it was a sense that I just knew that I knew, God, you're talking to me personally. And it was something that the Lord made me aware of at the time. Now that's not to say everything I read or every message I read, I take personally. I do that when the Holy Spirit makes me aware of something the Lord wants me to pay attention to.

Sherena says,

And she makes reference to replacement theology, which is the belief that the church replaces Israel in biblical prophecy and with the promises of God and so forth. In other words, it kind of takes away Israel's unique place in scripture now that the church has come along. So why do some people land on those conclusions? Well, it largely happens because of the way they are interpreting the Word of God and what freedom they've given for themselves to believe an interpretation of the Word that goes beyond what is literally written. One of the things that I believe keeps people safe when they're reading the Bible is if the literal meaning of the passage makes sense, don't seek for any other sense of the passage, just take it as it is and that's an interpretive rule that I've tried to apply over the years in my own study of God's Word. But I find that when people don't take the literal meaning of the passage and they begin to allegorize a passage and say, this could mean, you start going down a real rabbit hole then because it could mean anything if you're just going to give yourself the freedom to think that way. It could mean that. People do this with their dreams all the time. People write me probably once a week to tell me about their dreams and they'll tell me what they think it means. Who knows. I mean, you're throwing it up in the air and you're seeing what lands. And it's just a really dangerous way to try to determine the will of God. Just read what it says in the Bible and take it literally unless the literal interpretation is clearly not supposed to be taken. And usually you can tell those things. But if you give yourself the freedom to begin to bring allegory and symbolism into things without the Bible warranting those things, sky's the limit. You can come up with just about any interpretation you want.

I think human beings, we are drawn to that. I think there's something, we're kind of hardwired for that and it's a pride element. We want to have the secret knowledge and the hidden information. We want to figure out what's the hidden message here. I think partly that was one of the big problems with the Nicolaitans was that sort of thing. But we're just wired for that. So, it's very good for us to remember if you can take, if the literal message here makes sense that is the message.

Don't look for any other sense than that then and just go with it. That's really the answer to the question. It's how we go about interpreting and looking for interpretations.

Linda says,

The Bible does not advocate us seeking any sort of communication with departed souls, but of course we know that in the Bible it was strictly forbidden. There were people back in biblical times, particularly in the Old Testament, but also in the New, who claimed to be able to help people communicate with their departed loved ones or a departed soul. Those people were called mediums or necromancers. And a medium is a person who says, I will help you communicate. I have the ability to communicate with the dead, and I'll help you speak to your departed loved one so that you can communicate across the chasm of life and death. God in the scriptures strictly forbade His people Israel from being involved in any way with a medium or seeking out a medium or communicating with the dead. In fact, I always loved it, kind of thought it was funny, in Isaiah, God said, so why are you consulting the dead about the living? What's that all about?

But again, her question is, do the people who are dead reach out to us to show that's what she's asking?

No, they do not. I believe the Lord has put a block there in that. So if somebody does claim to be communicating or getting a message from someone who has departed, I think they're probably opening their communication to demonic spirits.

Don't you think movies, our modern movies, popularize this idea?

Oh, yes.

There're a lot of themes.

Many, many, many themes of people who are caught between earth and heaven.

Or even someone who has died and is sending a signal to the rest of the family, you should move here, you should that sort of thing.

It makes for a compelling fictional story, but there's nothing in the Bible. Now, concerning the second part of your question about people who are using things like crystals and energy healing and things like that, and yet who claims to be a Christian, I would stay as far away from that person as possible. And I would encourage all Christians to really stay away from all of those things. Those are new age, they can be very demonically inspired. And a lot of it is just nonsense. It's just nonsense. The idea that you can cleanse someone of their negative energy that is just new age nonsense. We call it new age, it's been around a long time. But it's spiritualism that is unbiblical and dangerous.

Very good. Good warning. Our last question is from Carman, “First let me say thank you for the Bible study that you have done. I learn so much. The church I attended used to say that when you want to speak in tongues, you should just let whatever you feel come out (like gibberish) and the Holy Spirit will guide you. I never felt that was right. Please explain how it works. Thank you.”

There are a lot of churches that do that. I've heard from a lot of people, and they will say that we're just told to start speaking. And even if it's gibberish, that's fine. Let it be gibberish. The Lord will guide you, and you'll begin to speak in an unknown language. And some people just assume that their gibberish is an unknown language. But you know babies speak in gibberish. And that's because they don't yet know how to form words or sentences. So they just let sounds come out of their mouth. And we know gibberish from an identifiable language, even if we don't know that language. I've been in many airports and sat next to or walked past people who are having a conversation in another language, and never once did any of those unknown languages to me sound like gibberish. I couldn't understand them, but it was a very clearly patterned verbal speech that I was hearing that had recurring sounds and so forth. That's what a person speaking in tongues ought to sound like, because the gift of tongues is the ability to speak in an unknown language to the speaker. In other words, the speaker never learned that language, and yet they're given the ability to speak it in prayer and to the Lord. So it's going to sound like a language, it's not going to sound like gibberish. I just want to encourage people, if you've been trying to speak in tongues, and it has come out and sounded like nothing but gibberish, then you might want to back up and rethink the thing. First of all, the Bible clearly says in 1 Corinthians that not everybody is going to speak in tongues. Paul asks the rhetorical question, do all speak in tongues? The answer to that question is no. Not everybody does. It's a gift, like all other gifts of the Holy Spirit that God gives. It's very difficult to understand the gift of tongues for someone who has never experienced it, because it's a supernatural gifting by the Holy Spirit, but it is not gibberish.

And that right there is the key to me. When you say it is a supernatural thing that the Lord does, it makes no sense to me to say, so just start with the natural. Start with what you can do naturally, which is just babbling, and God will turn it into a supernatural. That's just not how the Lord works. That doesn't sound like his character.

Well, it's certainly not biblical. We can all agree upon that. Paul, the apostle, never laid hands on people and said, just start speaking gibberish, and God will turn it into a supernatural language. That just never happened. You and I both 1 Corinthians 12:29-30 (ESV) Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? Do all possess gifts of healing? Do all speak with tongues? Do all interpret? have the gift of tongues, and we've had it since the 1980s. And we probably even discovered the gift of tongues in less than perfect circumstances. We were attending a church at the time that did have some Pentecostal charismatic roots, and some of the things we were told about the gift of tongues may not have even been legit.

But that didn't stop the Lord.

No, the Lord was gracious, nonetheless. But for those who desire to have the gift of tongues, I would encourage them just to ask the Lord and trust that he's going to work out the details.

Very good. Well, that is the end for today.

All right. We'll get together again next time with some more of your Bible questions. We hope to see you then. God bless.