20260311

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Good afternoon and welcome to the Narrow Path Radio broadcast.

My name is Steve Gregg and we are live for another, for an hour as we are each week

day afternoon.

And because we're live we welcome you to participate in the program in real time.

If you have questions about the Bible or the Christian faith you'd like to bring up

for conversation on our program we'd be glad to hear from you that's why we're here.

And if you disagree with the host will we'd also be equally glad to hear from you about

that.

We can talk about that.

The number to call is 844-484-5737, that's 844-484-5737, it looks like there's one

line open on a switch port if you want to call you may be able to get on there.

I have an announcement I've been making this week and that is that all of next week starting

Sunday.

I'm going to be speaking in a variety of places up in the central coast area I'll be in

Monterey, I'll be in Santa Cruz, I'll be in Petaluma and I'll also be in San Jose at

least one time and so if you're in any of those areas feel free to go to our website

www.denarrowpath.com, look under announcements and you'll see where those meetings are going

to be, what I'll be talking about, what the time and places and so forth and then we

can see you then.

So Sunday night is going to be Petaluma and in the middle of the week I'm going to be

speaking in Santa Cruz, at the end of the week I'll be speaking in Monterey and Santa

Jose and I'm going to be busy in actually Boulder Creek through three days of the week

I'm speaking for youth with a mission, they have a school up there.

So that's what I'm going up and if you actually have a place or venue you want me to speak

at, even though it's late notice we could possibly book it if you get in touch with us.

Otherwise if you're up there just see if you're free to come, we'd love to see you.

Alright, we're going to go to the phones now and talk to Yosef in Knoxville, Tennessee.

Welcome to the Narrowpath, Yosef, thanks for calling.

Thank you, thank you.

So I had a question, I guess more to see if you agree with some of the early church

fathers on this particular thing that I'm reading on the law and so they would say

that the first moral law, ten commandments came because God wanted a royal priesthood,

a holy nation and all that and then came the sin of the golden calf and they defiled

themselves and then because of that God brought in kind of like a mercy or an accommodation

to their weakness because of the sin and uncleanness because of the idolatry.

So they emphasized that it wasn't God's original intent with the whole Levitical and Deuteronomy

but more of a accommodation for them not to fall back into taking idolatry.

Do you see it that way, if that makes sense?

Well, I'm not sure if I do but I wouldn't, I don't know that it could be disproven.

I mean, that certainly does reflect their chronology of things when God gave the ten commandments.

So that's when he entered into the covenant with Israel about Sinai and he did not initially

give them all the tabernacle and priesthood and sacrifice stuff.

You know, he just basically gave the ten commandments.

They violated that as you pointed out while Moses was on the mountain, they've made

the golden calf, they violated the first two commandments and God would have destroyed

them but Moses prevailed in interceding for them and so God continued to go with them.

But now what are God planned on this earlier or not?

We don't know but after that while they still camped at Mount Sinai, which they did for

a whole year, he gave them instructions for a tabernacle and for priesthood and for sacrificial

offerings and so forth.

Now I don't know which of the church fathers you're hearing from but this could be the case.

I mean, whether they said so or not, we wouldn't know for sure because they wouldn't have

any more information about it than we do.

We have the Bible and they have the Bible.

But if they interpreted it that God wouldn't have had the sacrificial system had Israel just

kept the ten commandments and never defected from the covenant, that's sort of one of those

what if the Jews had accepted Christ, these are kind of things that well it didn't happen

that way but what if it had, who knows, who knows what would have happened, we don't

know.

But I would say it's possible that the sacrificial system was added because of the sin but

I don't think it's necessarily likely because the sin they committed with the golden calf

was a capital crime.

It was idolatry.

That's the one thing that throughout even history after that, God made that the issue that

he would accept or reject Israel on the basis of whether they worshiped him exclusively

or whether they worship idols and when they finally sent away into Babylon because they're

idolatry.

And it was a capital crime.

I mean the law would later say anyone who worshiped idols should be cut off from the people

which means killed for the most part.

So the law didn't resolve the idolatry problem with the golden calf.

However God might have had a thought after that but you know to add the tabernacle.

But the thing is though I have my doubts for a couple of reasons.

One is that God told Moses in Exodus I think 25 or maybe it's also actually a number of

places in the law.

He said make sure that you make these things exactly according to the you know, pattern

that you saw on the Mount.

And as God showed Moses a pattern, apparently a heavenly prototype of the tabernacle and

the things that he was to build on earth to be a model of that.

And I have to assume that if God had all this system kind of in its prototype in heaven,

then how long did he have that there, you know, I'm assuming it's somebody eternal.

And that being so probably would have, I mean they probably had a reason to have them

make a pattern, a model of it on earth.

I don't know.

The other thing makes me wonder is that we know that the whole system of the tabernacle

and the sacrifices is intended to foreshadow Christ.

Now the need for Christ to come did not begin when they made the golden calf.

The need for Christ came when Adam and Eve sent.

And so you know going right back to the beginning there was the need for Christ and God promised

that there would be Christ.

And in the tabernacle he foreshadowed Christ in the priesthood and the sacrifices and

the rituals and things like that, which to my mind seems like it would have been what

God wanted to do whether or not they had had the golden calf thing.

I mean even if they had not broken the covenant as they did while Moses was on Sinai, I think

that the whole tabernacle system was a didactic tool, I think it was a teaching tool to familiarize

Israel with the ideas that would be fulfilled in Christ.

So yeah, I'm not necessarily going to sign on to that paradigm you suggested, but I mean

I can't prove it wrong, it just seems probably the second.

Yeah, I guess they would also say that because of the golden calf, you know at the very,

very, very end of Exodus, it says that Moses could not enter the tabernacle and because

and I guess it was God, they say that it's God's intention for not just Moses but for all

the people to commune with God through the tabernacle, but because of the uncleanliness

that came, they say this is why the Levitical laws and ceremonial laws, which is mainly

I guess to cleanse objects and people from impurity in order to commune with God, that's

what they would argue.

I guess that makes sense.

I suppose it does.

I don't think the sacrifice offerings were a literal cleansing.

I think they were typological, I mean Hebrew says it was impossible for the blood of bulls

and goats to take away sin.

I believe that they were a type of Christ and they were ritualistic and they were in

order to teach lessons that would be fulfilled in Christ and so I don't believe that the

animal blood that was shed literally cleansed from sin.

I think it was a symbolic atonement, it means covering, you know, kind of covers the sin

until Jesus comes and takes it away.

That's what I think.

I guess the rest of the sacrifices which was for purifying the holy place, not so much

in atoning sin, but the rest of the Levitical laws, which were necessary for people to

even come close or in contact with the tabernacle.

Yeah, but I think not only was the priest in the tabernacle symbolic and typological, I

think even the whole ideas of cleanness and unclean were typological.

I think leprosy, for example, as an unclean condition is a picture or a type of sin,

you know, and I think that unclean animals and unclean animals are a type of clean and

unclean people.

I think there's several ways in the New Testament and even later in the Old Testament

where that seems to come out.

So I don't know, some of that could be true, I'm seeing some of that differently.

Yeah, okay, yeah, I appreciate it.

Thank you so much.

Thanks.

Good talk to you.

Okay, Barbara and Roseville Michigan, welcome to the narrow path.

Oh, hi.

Thank you, Steve.

I wanted to calm that on that, when you were talking about like people getting saved

on their deathbed and not having to get baptized, not having time or something, but if

people on their deathbed and their 20, 30, 50 years old, they had time to get baptized.

They're just looking for some fire insurance.

Well, that's like saying that the thief on the cross, you know, he had his whole life

to be a righteous man.

He couldn't even have be a thief.

He could have repented earlier.

He could even have earlier become a follower of Jesus, but he didn't.

So, you know, he was just getting fire insurance now.

Jesus said, I mean, Jesus recognized his repentance was genuine and said today you'll be with

me in paradise.

So, I, you know, I realized that there are people who do, as you say, for the purpose of

getting fire insurance on their deathbed, feign a repentance or even attempt to repent.

You see, when I say a temporary repent, I have to realize that you can't change your

heart.

You can't just turn on a dime your whole inward orientation.

You can choose to change when you're under conviction of the Holy Spirit.

And then God will regenerate you, but if you've spent all your life resisting repentance,

saying, well, when I'm on my deathbed, I'll repent then.

Well, maybe you will, maybe you won't.

Maybe you think you will, but you won't be able to, because to repent requires that you

have a genuine, proper heart toward God and hatred for your sin.

But if you've been spending your life not repenting and saying, I'll repent someday,

you've been becoming established and said, you can't necessarily change your heart with

a wave of a magic wand.

So, I realize that lots of people, you know, put it off until their deathbed and then they

say, okay, I'm a Christian, I want to be a Christian.

And they may in fact not be.

They may not be truly converted.

They might not be really repented.

But you can't rule out that some of them are.

I mean, see, if on the cross we have to say was truly converted or else Jesus would

not have given them the assurance He did.

And so, I understand.

I mean, when someone repents on their death, you wonder, well, why didn't you do it sooner?

And then you could have been baptized.

Well, the thief on the cross should have done it sooner or later, or everyone should

do it sooner.

If a person hasn't followed Christ from childhood, they should have done it sooner.

They should have done it all their whole life.

And if they do it early enough, and are instructive, they will know and have opportunity to be

baptized.

On the other hand, real repentance sometimes does happen on the deathbed.

If God sees it is real, I believe He accepts them.

And obviously, some people like the thief on the cross, his repentance was so late that

he didn't have a chance to be baptized.

Now I realize that many people who say you must be baptized as we say, they say, well,

he was in the old covenant.

Well, I don't think Jesus, I don't think God is less forgiving now in the new covenant

than he was in the old covenant.

You know, if in the old covenant, a person could truly repent like David did, or like the

thief did, or like many people did in the Old Testament, and be saved just by the mercy

of God because their heart was right.

But then let's say in the new covenant, that's not possible anymore.

You have to have all of that, but you also have to get wet.

Well, then I guess salvation is harder to get in the new testament than in the Old, which

is a strange thing to suggest since Jesus came to bring salvation.

If people could already be saved just by repentance before, but now they can't.

And that's harder to get saved since Jesus has died first.

That would be a strange reversal of what I think the Bible teaches about things.

I believe everyone should be baptized.

It's commanded.

I believe everyone should love their neighbor.

It's commanded.

I believe everyone should keep their thoughts appear.

It's commanded.

These are all things that are commanded to Christians and everyone who's a true Christian

should be determined to do these things.

Being baptized, being the easiest of those things to do.

But let's face it, there are circumstances where people simply are not in a position where

anyone is there to baptize them when they finally get right with God.

I wouldn't say that's the norm, certainly it's not the norm.

The thief on the cross was not the norm, but it can happen.

And I'd be resistant to some saying, yeah, but now God won't forget people if they repent

on their death.

Well, I think he will.

We'll find out, I guess.

John from Saint Louisville or now make it clear, John, is it Sal year's bill, S-A-L?

Yes, Sal year's bill.

Sal year's bill.

Can't talk to you.

Can't talk to you.

Okay, go ahead.

Let me pull over here.

I'm going down the road.

We talked day four yesterday about baptism, but just before it was on the same subject.

The point I was trying to make, I know a lot of the people that believe that, for instance,

they're believers, they say, but they say they don't have to get baptized.

Oh, shame on that.

They're saying God.

Well, that was my point in that.

Yeah.

You know, I mean, God, all things are possible with God.

I'm not saying that he couldn't, somebody for pence on their deathbed.

He could grant them salvation, but it would be a dangerous thing to not obey the gospel

for you whole life.

Yeah.

Well, you and I are on the same page about that.

If someone says, well, I'm a believer, but I don't have these baptists, then I'm saying,

what do you believe them?

If you believe in Jesus, you believe you know better than He does.

You must do.

I mean, I don't think you believe in Jesus if you don't, if you think you know more than

Him about it.

And if you say, well, I don't need to be baptized, but He said you do.

Okay.

So how is it that you can say you're a believer in Jesus, but He says you need to be baptized

and you say you don't.

I've got a feeling that when you stand before Jesus, He'll say, you know, not everyone

who says to me, Lord, Lord will enter into the kingdom of heaven, but those who do the

will of my father in heaven.

And he'll say, I never knew you.

Why did you do all those other things that you didn't do what I said?

So and like I said, being baptized is the easiest thing.

Of all the things Jesus commanded His disciples to do, it's the easiest thing.

And if someone won't do the easiest thing, I got a feeling that I could do the harder

things either.

And Jesus said when we make disciples, we teach them to observe all things that Jesus

commanded.

And baptism's right at the top of that list, right, the very first, you know, at the threshold.

So I agree with you.

If someone says, well, I'm not going to be baptized, or maybe I will on my deathbed, yeah,

you're right.

That's a dangerous thing.

How do you know you're going to have a deathbed?

How do you know you won't die in an accident without any warning?

How do you know that you won't be murdered by some criminal?

How do you know that there won't be an atomic bomb that lands in your yard, you know?

You just don't know what's going to kill you.

But if you're saying, well, I'll wait until I know I'm going to die.

I'm going to say, well, maybe you'll have the chance to do that, but I don't know if

you'll really repent then.

But even if that is the possibility, you're not obedient to Christ.

You're saying, I'll obey Christ when I want to, not when he wants to.

Yeah, that's not a Christian.

Being a Christian, no Christian who believes that Jesus is the king and the Lord believes

that they have the option of disobeying him.

That's simply, I mean, I realized that your pastors and evangelists sometimes say, oh,

you've got to just believe, just say sinners prayer.

Just ask Jesus to come into your heart and you'll be saved.

Well, the Bible doesn't say any of that anywhere.

There's not a reference to saying a sinner's prayer.

There's not a reference asking Jesus to send your heart.

That's all American evangelicalism.

It's not Bible.

Jesus said, why do you come to Lord Lord and you don't do the things I say?

And he said, everyone's going to be judged by whether they obeyed or not, whether they

did this to the least of his brethren.

I mean, when you look at the sheep and the goats story that Jesus told to Matthew 25, 31 through

46, he said, you know, those who didn't do to his brethren, what he commanded to be done,

they're going off into it says until eternal punishment.

And those who did do what it was done, they're going into eternal life and every time you

read about the judgment, that's what you read, whether it's Paul, whether it's Peter, whether

it's John, whether it's Jesus' own words, it's all the same.

And whoever said, just ask Jesus into your heart and you'll be born again, well, I don't

know.

I think some people have probably been born again when they did that, but their hearts

were in a certain special situation.

Jesus never said, ask me into your heart, but some people who have been told to do that

and did that have also almost independently that been converted.

They've actually changed their hearts and they have come to Christ.

But lots of people would say the words, Jesus is coming to my heart and have never, never

done business with God, never in their hearts had the slightest change of orientation.

And if they think they're saved, they're not.

That's what Jesus said.

I'm not making this up.

If I, you know, I'm a Bible teacher, I'm not a Bible writer.

I didn't write the script.

I'm just here to teach it and teachers have a strict judgment.

So if some teacher taught you something else than that, I wouldn't want to be in his

shoes on the day of judgment.

Who knows how many people he's sending down by misrepresenting what Jesus said.

Thanks for your call, John.

Carol, from Point Blank, Texas, welcome to the narrow path.

Hi.

Thank you very much for your program.

I really love it.

Thank you.

My question is, Revelation 20, I'm trying to be a millenilist, millenilist, but I'm

in trouble with this because it's said that he laid hold of the dragon and bound it

for a thousand years.

It's both the point of that.

Are we in that era now when Satan is supposed to be bound?

Yes.

Yes, you know, it's funny to say you're trying to be a millenilist.

I never tried to be a millenilist.

I tried not to be.

You know, as I say to the scriptures, as I was a pre millenilist, I was studying the

scriptures.

My mind was moving in the direction inexorably toward what I now call a millenilism.

What I now know to be called that, I didn't know what it was called.

I just knew that my mind was going a different direction than I'd been taught.

When I became an millenilist, I didn't know that's what it was called.

I didn't know there's a name for that.

I didn't know if any other human being had reached those conclusions before me.

I'd never read it or talked to anyone about it.

I thought probably I was a heretic because, I mean, obviously, if you're the only person

that thinks something, then you're probably wrong.

But I couldn't not believe it.

I tried not to because it would make me alienated from the group I was in, but I just couldn't

not see it once I'd seen it.

So that's funny because I tried not to be an millenilist as I was moving that direction.

I was trying to put my heels in and drag, but I had to go there, just had to go there.

Now as far as Satan being bound for a thousand years, this is probably the biggest problem

for people with millenilism.

For those who don't know what millenilism teaches, in Revelation 20, there's three verses

that talk about Satan being bound and put into a pit for a thousand years.

Then there's three verses that talk about John's scene, the martyred saints, their souls

in heaven, reigning with Christ on thrones up there.

And then there's two and a half verses that talk about Satan being loosed for a little

while at the end of that thousand years and going out and gathering the nations like the

sand of the seashore against the beloved city and surrounding it.

And then in verse 9 it talks about fire from heaven came down and destroyed Satan and those

who are with him.

And the rest of the chapter talks about the resurrection of the dead and the judgment

and the disposition of the loss to the lake of fire and then the burning up or the disappearance

of the heavens and the earth.

Then the next chapter talks about New Heaven's New Earth.

So I'll just say this, the millenilist view is that the binding of Satan represents what

Jesus accomplished against Satan at the cross.

You can find Paul and the writer of Hebrews speaking about this, Colossians 2.15, Hebrews

2.14, and other in places that talk about Christ's conquered Satan.

It says in 1 John 3.8, for this purpose the Son of God was manifested and he might destroy

the works of the devil.

And so Satan was defeated at the cross.

And this is symbolically depicted in Revelation 20 as a dragon, who saints are not a literal

dragon, so we know you do with symbolism, with a chain around his neck thrown into a bottom

with a pit with a lid and a seal on it, well that's just all very impressionistic.

It's there to say that Satan was defeated and rendered incapable of continuing his former

activities.

That is at the level he did them before.

But then at the end of that time, when fire from Heaven comes down and consumes Satan,

that's the actual doom of Satan, and I believe that's Jesus coming back.

Paul fed in 2 Thessalonians 1.8 that Jesus when he comes with his holy angels who come

into flaming fire, taking vengeance on those who don't know God.

That's what you see in Revelation 20 verse 9.

And so the thousand years is taken to be a symbol of the length of time between the first

and second coming of Christ.

Now the big problem is, you know, saying that Satan is bound is people say, well he's

still active.

Well, of course he's active.

He was active even when Jesus said he had bound him in Matthew 12, 28.

He said he had bound the strong man and was plundering his house.

So I mean, Satan was bound in the imagery that Jesus used in his speaking, not literally.

He's not really bound somewhere.

He's saying that Jesus has rendered him incapable of resistance while the gospel goes out

to the whole world and he cannot keep the Gentiles under deception anymore as he did before

Jesus came because the gospel was going out to the Gentiles.

So it says that he was bound so that he might not deceive the Gentiles or the nations anymore.

Sure he deceives individuals, but the nations as a whole were in darkness until Jesus

sent his disciples on the Great Commission.

And now that Satan can't keep them in his power anymore, the gospel is too powerful.

Anyway, I'm out of time, but I hope that's helpful.

I need to take a break.

We have another half hour coming.

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I'll be back in 30 seconds.

Don't go away with another half hour.

In the series, When Shall These Things Be, you'll learn that the biblical teaching concerning

the rapture, the tribulation, Armageddon, the antichrist, and the millennium are not

necessarily in agreement with the wild sensationalist versions of these doctrines found in popular

prophecy teaching and Christian fiction.

The lecture series entitled When Shall These Things Be, can be downloaded without charge

from our website, TheNarrowPath.com.

Welcome back to The Narrow Path, Radio Broadcast.

My name is Steve Gregg and we're live for another half hour taking your calls.

If you have questions about the Bible or the Christian faith, want to talk about them

here on the air or you disagree with the host, I want to talk about that on the air.

I'd be very glad to have you do so.

The number is 844-484-5737.

That's 844-484-5737.

Our next caller is Priscilla Coney from Vancouver, BC.

Priscilla, welcome to The Narrow Path.

Thanks for calling.

Hi, greetings.

I have two parts to my inquiries with you today.

Steve, thank you so much.

The word sealed, sealed by the precious Butter Christ, sealed in the spoken word, can you

emphasize that word, sealed, and why they use that in the Bible or the book?

When you're going to slander, activation, mislabeling, people trying to misinterpret,

deliberately your name or your application, how does one deal with all that noise?

Thank you so much.

All right.

I will address that.

The word sealed, interestingly, the Bible doesn't actually say we're sealed by the

blood of Christ, but we've received the seal of the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit in Ephesians chapter 1 is said to be that which seals us onto the day of

redemption.

Now the 144,000 in Revelation chapter 7 also the seal of God on their forehead, which

I think is also the Holy Spirit, which is the seal that guarantees who we are.

So what's that really mean?

This is, I mentioned Ephesians 1, 13, Paul says, in him you also trusted after you heard

the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation in whom also having believed you were sealed

with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the

redemption of the purchase possession to the praise of his glory.

The seal refers to the mark of authenticity, in biblical times, if a king or somebody who

had power or had official standing, sent a communication, let's say they sent a decree

or a letter to somebody, they would put their seal on it, and that would make sure that

no one could have counterfeited it, because only the king had his signate ring.

And the seal was a blob of wax put on the document, sometimes sealing it shut, sometimes

just put on the face of it, wax, and he pressed his ring into it so it had his unique signate,

his signate was a unique ring, no one else had it, and therefore if you had the seal on

the document, you knew it was genuine and not a forgery.

Paul has that in mind when he says, we know that we are genuine children of God, because

we have the seal of God, what is that?

Well, the possession of the Holy Spirit is the seal.

He's saying that real children of God possess the Holy Spirit, that's what makes them regenerated,

that's what makes them born again, it's the Spirit we're born of the Spirit, Jesus said

in John 3.5, and so that's what it's time to say that when we have the Holy Spirit,

that is a seal, a seal of authenticity, it's the proof that we are the real Christians,

as opposed to people who might say or think they are Christians, but don't have that seal,

they don't have that, the Holy Spirit.

So that's what the seal refers to in Scripture.

Now you said if someone slanders you or accuses you, how do you deal with that?

Jesus actually gave direct instructions about that, so we're in luck, sometimes we have to

figure it out, but Jesus actually gave very direct statement about this in Matthew 5, where he said,

I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you and

pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, so what do you do when someone curses you

or slanders you or accuses you wrongfully? Well, you bless them and you do good to them and you

pray for them, that's what Jesus said, so that's what you do. Now you might say what if they hurt my

feelings? Well, I guess you've got to grow up, you know, everyone's going to get their feelings

hurt sometimes. We live in a time where people almost make it a sin to hurt somebody else's feelings.

In fact, not only a sin, a crime. There are people who've gone to jail because they hurt somebody's

feelings. They just said something that was, you know, somehow someone labeled it hate speech

and off they go, they go to jail. We live in a time, by the way, I don't know how old you are,

but I'm pretty old, I'm in my 70s and I can certainly remember a time where no one would have

dreamed that in America, with the first amendment, that anyone would be prosecuted for something

they said, unless they were, you know, advocating murder or something that, you know, involved in a

crime, to simply say something, offend somebody else. It just would never be, it never crossed anyone's

minds in America, but that was somehow a criminal act. Freedom of speech means you can say things

that offend people. You can accuse them, you can slander them, you can curse them, and there's

no legal prosecution. Now, of course, if you slander somebody, if you accuse them falsely,

you'll have to answer to God for that. But, you know, we live in a time where people have been so

hypersensitized that if someone hurts my feelings and slanders me and accuses me of something I didn't

do, you know, it throws me into a panic, you know, it's traumatic. Well, I'm not speaking for

myself, that's not true of me. People say things against me that aren't true. That's about

part of the course, as far as I'm concerned, it's not alarming. But, you know, if we've been so

hypersensitized that, you know, we just can't handle it when people accuse us, and then we need to

get over ourselves. We're not that important. Everybody gets lied about, everybody gets slandered,

everyone gets accused. You know, why should I be different? Why shouldn't I receive some of that?

The thing is, Christianity, or being a Christian, I should say, makes me care very little what people

say about me. What God says about me is all that really matters. You know, it's not men who are going

to judge me on the last day. Now, I might be judged, you know, I might be judged in the courts of

law. I might go to jail for something, I say, or something someone else says about me. And that's

that's not nice. That's not good, but that's, you know, Paul went to prison, spent a lot of time

in prison for things that people said that were lies about him, so did the apostles. So, honestly,

that's just what this world is about. Jesus said, if you were of the world, the world will love

its own, but I've chosen you out of the world. Therefore, the world hates you as it hated me.

So, you know, Peter said in 1 Peter chapter 4, beloved, do not think at a strange thing

when you encounter fiery trials. Mostly, he's thinking of persecution as fiery trials.

Don't think it's strange, as if some strange thing happened to you. He said, that's, that's not strange.

If we live in a coddled, you know, hypers, you know, comfortable world where people aren't allowed

to say bad things about you. Well, that might be a nice, comfortable world, but it certainly makes

us weak and fragile. And being fragile, it doesn't work. Living life, you don't want to be fragile,

and you certainly don't want to be fragile as a Christian. If you, if you have trouble loving

somebody who slanders you, well, ask God to help you fill you with the Holy Spirit because the

fruit of the Spirit is love. Ask Him to fill you with the Spirit so you can love them as Christ loved

those who crucified Him and just slander Him. He said, Father, forgive them. They don't know what

they do. That's what we do. So, I would just say slander is not, you know, if people lie about me,

I'd say, well, when has that ever not been the case? There's always been people lying about me

all my life and about Christians in general. But frankly, not everyone does. And whether they do

or not, God doesn't believe lies. That's the most important thing. Just know that, okay, maybe people

hate you, maybe they'll believe lies about you, maybe it'll make you sad, maybe it'll make you

uncomfortable, maybe you lose a job, maybe you'll go to jail. I mean, all those things have happened

to Christians because of lies people told them. But the main thing is we're not living our lives

for ourselves. Paul said that very clearly in sort of Jesus. If we come to Christ, we deny

ourselves and take up our cross. Bearing a cross means, among other things, people are going to

throw insults at you and lie and curse you and things like that. They say, well, okay, I could

escape that. Some of that, if I don't follow Christ, but I'm following Christ with the understanding

that that's that's part of a package. That's what I'm signing up for in many respects. But I'd

also say, if I choose not to follow Christ, I'll not only be lost, but I'll also not be exempt from

people's slandering and and and accusing me falsely. Even non-Christians get slandered and accused

falsely. So, you know, it's not like a special Christian experience. So we might we might get

slandered in ways that a non-Christian wouldn't. But if we say, well, I'm not going to be a Christian

because I don't want that kind of persecution. Well, being non-Christian, you're going to get people

treat you wrong too. You just won't have got on your side in that case. So that's how I would

address that experience. I'm sorry if you're going through that truly I am, but yeah, I wouldn't

I wouldn't allow myself to be overly upset about it. Okay, let's see here. We're going to talk

to Brian Atlanta, Georgia. Hi, Brian. Welcome.

Hello, Brian. Steve, I'm sorry. Can you hear me? I can now. Go ahead.

Okay. Thank you. I wanted to just address something you spoke earlier to a caller in Matthew.

Well, actually, Luke, when he talked about the the thief that was was was not baptized.

I don't know when on the cross when I choose to say it. Would you be able to of the thought too

because I know you you're not against baptism, but and I'm not necessarily thinking about

baptismal regeneration that kind of thing, but from the perspective that the thief

lived the course during the time before Christ died. But in Matthew 3, roughly one through six,

John the Baptist was preaching the kingdom and he addressed baptism in and what we would call,

I guess, the preparatory stage of baptism. So would you say that that's a possibility that he

fell under that that teaching that he was he may have been baptized just in John's baptism because

that preceded Christ's command and Matthew 28, 18 from 20. I just wanted to get your thoughts on that.

Okay. Yeah. Well, I don't I don't have any reason to believe that the thief on the cross

had been earlier in his life baptized by John. John had been baptizing probably at the time that

Jesus died and the thief died for probably close to four years, maybe longer, but still only

for a relatively short time, which means if that thief had repented of his sins and been baptized,

which was what John's calling people to do, somehow in a very short time he turned to a life of

crime and you know it's not like Christians don't backslide, but but he certainly I guess there

would be no reason to believe that he had been among those who had only a few years earlier

repented under John's preaching and been baptized. But it is interesting though when people say,

well, he was he died before the new covenant before Jesus died and rose again. Therefore,

he wasn't under orders to be baptized like we are. Well, yeah, he was. John the Baptist three

years before Jesus died and four years before Jesus died called everyone to repent and be baptized.

And so of course John's baptism was not the same as Christian baptism because there was more

meaning to Christian baptism, but the truth is the guy probably had not been baptized with John's

baptism either. We don't know for sure. And to say, well, he could be forgiven without baptism

because it wasn't required before the new covenant. Well, baptism was required before the new covenant.

But again, that doesn't mean that people who fail to be baptized, you know, because of some

unusual situation. Let's say beyond their control that they couldn't be saved.

Salvation comes from having your heart right with God, being loyal to God. Baptism is the

thing you do to demonstrate that you're loyal to God. But if you're loyal to God and you know,

you would be baptized, but you simply don't have, you know, it just never gets a chance. It can't

happen. Well, then I don't, I think your loyalty to God is what God's looking at, not how,

whether you got baptized or not. That's how I understand the priorities. But I appreciate your

appreciate your thoughts about that brother. Let's see. I'm going to talk to, it's going to be G in

Indianapolis, Indiana. Hi G, welcome to the Neuropath. Yes, you got the question in regards to what

are you saying are the steps to be saved. Well, to be saved, one simply has to turn around from

living one's life to oneself and primarily for one's own interests to living one's life for Christ

and for his interests. In other words, there's two directions you can go. A lot of people want to go

the direction they want and then they wanted to add Jesus to their life like a postage stamp and

you know, hopefully that, you know, or a stamp on your hand, you know, I, I could live myself in

life. I could do all the things I wanted to do, but I want to get the Jesus stamp on my hand. So I

want to get to the gates of heaven. I can show that under the black light and they'll see, okay,

you got it going in. And that stamp on the hand sometimes is represented as if you set a certain kind

of a prayer at one point, if you went forward at a certain kind of meeting, if you got baptized,

you know, those kinds of things. But it's really, it's really what, are you devoted to Christ or not?

It's really what it comes down to. The only eternal life there is in Christ. Now to be in Christ

is the same as the idea of being part of the body of Christ. Now what, why does Paul use the imagery

of a body? Because all the parts of the body obey the head and do the will of the head. And they

have different functions to do, but they all work together jointly because they obey the head,

the head's will is getting done. And so if I'm in Christ that is in his body, he is my head.

And I'm a member of his body doing what he's instructing me to do. Just like my hands, my feet,

my eyes, you know, my legs, they do what my head tells them to do. That's why they're mine and not yours.

Yours do the same thing for you. But if you're obeying the head, you're part of his body. If you're

part of his body, you are in him, just like the organs of a body are in the body. Or just like the

branches of a vine or in the vine, as Jesus hears the expression, he's the vine where the branches.

The idea here is you're either in Christ because you have surrendered to him and he now is your king,

your Lord, and your whole life is defined by his will being done in your life and your own

surrender means that you really want nothing else but to police him and to do what he wants.

Now someone might say, well, that sounds like works. No, it doesn't. It's your heart. We're talking about

your heart. Yeah, it's true that if your heart is right toward God, you're going to do works.

Of course, James said faith without works are dead. And Paul said in Galatians 5, 6, God doesn't care

about circumcision, what he does care about is faith that works through love. You're not saved

by your works, but you're saved by the relationship you have. You know, if you're courting a woman

to marry her, she doesn't have to obey you, but if she marries you, she's agreeing to be your wife,

and as her wife, there are things she has taken on as responsibilities. And she knows it, and that's

why she accepts your proposal. Christ proposes to us. We can reject the proposal, but if we accept it,

we're taking on the responsibilities of being his disciples. Now, if we don't want those

responses, we don't have to have them, but you can't be a disciple without having those responsibilities

upon you. And so we're not talking about doing a certain number of good deeds, and then you

get saved. We're talking about one transaction. You're talking about what steps are we taking?

The one transaction is turning to Christ and being surrendered and loyal and devoted to him.

Is this hard? No. Not if you love him. If you don't love him, it's going to be incredibly hard.

In fact, you won't be able to do it. But Jesus said whoever would come to me has to deny himself,

and that's the big objection here. You know, why would I want to do what Christ wants when it might

mean I can't do what I want to do? Well, you've got a good point there. Great point. You're

going to have to decide. You want to do what you want with your life, which means you're guiding

your life. You're going to have whatever consequences you choose. You don't even know what tomorrow holds,

much less the rest of your life. So I mean, for you to steer a ship in total fog, it doesn't sound

very safe to me. Or you can say, you know, I think I'm going to let God have what he deserves. He

made me. He owns me. Maybe I should let him have what he owns me. And he does know the future. He

can steer the ship. He doesn't. He's not in a fog like we are. And instead of having whatever

consequences we would choose, we'll have the consequences of God choose which is to my mind a

whole lot better. So, you know, the whole idea of getting saved means that you've you've transitioned

from a self-loving self-interest pursuing person to say, not I but Christ, not my will but

God be done. I'm loyal to him now. He's my Lord. He's my king. And that's what it means for me to be

his. I'm glad you asked. And I hope that's I hope that's clear because that's a very important thing.

You can get a lot more understanding of some of these things from some of the lectures at our

website, which are free, everything's free there. Or even my books, Empire the Risen Sun,

while the books the hard copies are not free, they the audio books are. You can go to our website

and look under the tab that says books and you can listen to the audio books for free at

veneropath.com. I appreciate you calling brother. We need to take some more calls. We only have

less than 10 minutes. Much less than 10 minutes. Brian and Pomona, California, welcome to the

veneropath. Thanks for calling. Hey, Steve. Big fan, first time caller, long time listener.

My question, because I know you were running at a time, I'll take the answer off the air.

Question is, what do you feel what your response be to people that say the devil is not a

personal being. There are no such thing as demons who are entities that the oblo, the oblo

is the Greek or whatever for a deceiver. And so every time you see that in the Bible,

Satan or devil, or it's really talking about people. And also the idea that the temptation of

Jesus, that that was basically all in his head or it was all in Goracle that he would never

spoke to an ad. We're running out of time. I better get an answer to you before we're

running out of time. Okay, yes. I'll take the answer off the air. Thank you, Steve.

Okay, thanks. Yeah, there are people. There have always been people who've said that the devil

just refers to the principle of evil in the world or maybe in every man. What we might call

the fallen nature of the flesh or whatever, but that the devil simply refers to evil in every man

who's trying to tempt us to do wrong. Demons, I guess they would simply take as metaphorical.

The word Satan or Satanus in the Hebrew means accuser or adversary. And deoblos in the Greek

devil is kind of the Greek equivalent of that. So they're saying that there could be human

opposition like, you know, the Satan came and accused Joe before God. I'm not sure who that

would be if it wasn't what we normally think it was the devil, but some just say it was just an

adversary did that. My thought is that you simply can't take all the scriptural data on the subject

and think that way. Let's just say, let's say you take the theory that demons don't exist as

separate beings with personalities and so forth. Well, who was it that was talking to Jesus out

of the man of the tombs when they said, there are many of us. You know, you've come to torment us

before the time and don't cast us out of the, you know, don't cast us to the abyss, but cast us

into those pigs. And so he did. And then the pigs were possessed. Now, I'm not sure the principle

of evil in a man. I don't know how, you know, maybe if he skits a frenic or something like that,

but how do you get that skits a frenzy to go from the man into pigs just by statement? I really think

that that's a, you just have to ignore or pretend like some of the stuff in the Bible isn't there

to take that position. And I'm not really sure what the, what the gain is. I mean, okay, what,

what have we gained? If we decide I don't believe the devil's an actual personality or the demons

or actual personalities, I just want to believe this principle of evil is saying, well, okay,

how are we better off seeing it that way? I mean, the Bible describes Earth's history as a conflict

between Satan and God and the angels of Satan and the angels of God. I mean, these are terms that

the Bible uses. And I realized that maybe one could use those terms metaphorically for something

else, but where do you find it changing from the metaphor, you know, if every time the thing is

talked about, the metaphor is used. What, on what basis do we say that's a metaphor? I mean,

when I say that when Jesus said he had bound the strong man and was spoiling his house, but if

that's a metaphor, for Jesus having reduced Satan to an inability to resist him and was now

delivering people from demons, which is what Jesus was describing there, as he's spoiling

Satan's house because Satan was bound. I say that's metaphorical because we're talking the

actual words about a man in a house and his goods and stuff like that and bound. That's all metaphorical.

And the reason we know it is because it's not literally true. Satan is still roaming about as a

roaring lion seeking whom we need to vow. So he's in one sense, he's bound in the sense that Jesus

meant it, but not in every sense. So it's a metaphorical thing. But see, we can know that that's a

metaphor because other passages would contradict it if we claimed that it was literal. And there's no

reason to do that. Now again, I don't know of any place in the Bible that talks about Satan as if

he's not a personal being or the demons as if they're not persons. They talk, they have preferences

like individuals do. Satan's like a lion seeking to devour people. I just thought, yeah, I know people

have often said Satan and the devil are metaphors for evil in general or bad people or something.

It just doesn't really fit the biblical pattern. And if it were true, how would we know it since the

Bible never breaks out of that metaphor and it always uses it all the time. That's where I'd

where I'd have my doubts. Okay, I'm sorry, we're out of time for the program today. I wish we weren't

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