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[0:00] I know because I didn't announce this. There will be a time when I do announce this. But anybody have a question that's just pressing on their mind? I already answered one question tonight, and I kind of started answering. I'll finish it later. Anybody have a question that's really pressing on their mind you need to ask?

[0:13] We do this occasionally. Any questions? I like doing it on Sunday nights because we're not videoing. It's audio, so if it's anything crazy, they can edit it out before it goes up. But we usually leave it unedited. Any questions?

[0:27] I know. That's when the good questions come in. I'll do that. I'll do it soon, or I'll do a question and answer time soon. But just anything? Oh, great. I'm sorry?

[0:40] It doesn't have to be on anything. I am wide open. You've got one. This is probably going to get me. Yes, ma'am. Go ahead. Why in Acts 8 did they leave out verse 37 when Philip was talking to the men?

[1:00] Why in Acts 8? I'm talking about in modern-day translations. Leave out verse 37. It's in the King James, but not. It's in the King James, but it's not in modern-day translations. Okay. So, I know we're in Chronicles.

[1:12] Let's go to Acts 8 so you can see this real quick. Because, again, this can be a lengthy question or a lengthy answer to an easy question. But let's go to Acts 8 and see verse 37.

[1:28] New American Standards has it in brackets. Some translations don't have it at all. Okay. So, I'm going to pick it up and we'll read 36, 37, and 38.

[1:41] Okay. So, Philip encounters the eunuch. He's the Ethiopian eunuch. He's on his way. He declares him the gospel as Ethiopian is reading from the Old Testament about the lamb being led to the slaughter.

[1:54] And who is he speaking of? Himself or is he speaking of another? He shares the gospel with him. And then in verse 36, it says, As they went along the road, they came to some water. And the eunuch said, Look, water, what prevents me from being baptized?

[2:06] Verse 37 reads this way. And Philip said, If you believe with all your heart, you may. And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. And then in verse 38, it says, And he ordered the chariot to stop.

[2:18] And they both went down into the water, Philip as well as the eunuch, and he baptized him. So, that's the verse. Now, we have to declare some things because I know this gets on kind of sketchy ground, but it's really not that sketchy.

[2:32] In the scriptural authority, verse 37 does not change the text at all.

[2:45] I know we say, well, yes, it does, because it's a clear presentation of the gospel. Because it says, if you believe. Understand it, but it is implied that the belief is already there. That's why we're doing the baptism.

[2:55] Okay, so if we would just go from 36 to 38, we see the implication. Now, we say implied because it has already been declared in Acts 16 what salvation is.

[3:06] That you confess in your mouth, you know, if you believe, then you should be baptized. So, it doesn't change the truth whether or not it's there or not. Okay, it elaborates and adds to it.

[3:17] Maybe it clarifies what is implied by its presence, by it being there. The King James translation, and we have to go into scriptural translation to really get an understanding of why it is not in modern day translations.

[3:33] Just for complete side purpose, I use New American Standard. New American Standard keeps it in there, keeps it bracketed. And the brackets imply that it is left out of some.

[3:45] The Legacy Standard Bible, which is another good one, does the same thing, keeps it bracketed. Now, I'm in translation world. There are extremes. There is the New American Standard and the Legacy Standard, which Legacy Standard is a newer translation that is actually a furtherance of the New American.

[4:05] So, they're same translation. They're on this broad end of the spectrum of a literal word-for-word translation. The other end is what is called the Message Scripture, which is a paraphrase of Scripture.

[4:17] Somewhere in the middle is where every translation falls, either a paraphrase of or a word-for-word translation. NIV, if you hold an NIV, it is a thought-for-thought translation.

[4:32] So, the translators are trying to figure out what the thought process behind the original words are and are trying to translate that into modern-day thought.

[4:45] New American Standard looks at the original words and translates it into original words. King James leans more towards word-for-word translation.

[4:58] Okay? So, it is close to the New American Standard. It's not as word-for-word, but it's close to. The difference is King James translation came out in 1611.

[5:11] In 1611, what was available for the translators to use was primarily the Latin Vulgate. The Latin Vulgate was a Latin translation of copies, of copies, of copies, of copies, of copies.

[5:28] Okay? The Latin Vulgate was also the official church copy. And so, the translators, now we know there are other English translations by this time. I mean, if you think of like the Hussites and John Huss, he was burned for translating the Latin Vulgate.

[5:43] There are other things going on, but King James finally issues a decree in 1611. And the King James uses the Latin Vulgate and one or two other texts that are there. Now, something amazing happens in the 1940s when there's a shepherd boy walking through the southern portion of Israel, and he throws a rock into a cave, and he hears a clink.

[6:03] And the clink in the cave are all these clay vases. And the clay vases hold what is known as the Dead Sea Scrolls. And the Dead Sea Scrolls now are introduced in the 1940s, mid-1940s, into the world of Bible translators.

[6:20] What happens is when you put the Dead Sea Scrolls, which are older than the Latin Vulgate, I know I'm giving you a long answer, but I want you to know why. The oldest manuscripts we can find do not contain verse 37.

[6:42] It's not in the oldest manuscripts. It doesn't change the truth of the text by leaving it there. But for those translators that are trying to stay, and even today, there are some translations that will bring it in.

[6:57] It all depends on which text. There's others besides the Dead Sea Scrolls. There's all these codes, these codas, Maximus, these codas, all these different codes that are found from Egypt, found in the Asian region.

[7:09] And it all depends on what they're basing their translation off of. The King James still uses the Latin Vulgate, and there's a couple other manuscripts that they use to put it down.

[7:24] It is in those texts. But there are some that predate. So the question behind translators is which one's right. And that's a question that's been wrestled with ever since translation of Scripture.

[7:41] So, you know, we have to be careful when we cast our stone and say, well, this one has to be right, this one doesn't. That's why we have translators there. And so if we really want to find out what's there, we have to learn Greek and learn Hebrew and Aramaic, and we have to learn two different forms of Greek, and we have to go find these originals and read them.

[8:03] But even then, we're dealing with a portion of this one, a portion of this one, a portion of this one, a portion of this one. And then we can get into, can we trust this translation?

[8:14] Absolutely. Because there's nothing in here that contradicts any other portion or part or whole, no matter how old the manuscript is of anything else.

[8:28] There are variances in such as that one verse. But that variance doesn't change the text. Okay? It clarifies.

[8:39] But it doesn't change. Now, I'll give you another classic one. And this is why it's so good to know your translations and how you got your translations. And this is going to throw some of you for a loop.

[8:51] But don't let it throw you for a loop. If you open up the Gospel of Mark and you turn to the 16th chapter in Mark, you have Mark 16, 8. And the women left the tomb in fear and trembling and were astonished because they just saw the angel.

[9:06] The rest of the chapter, if you go to the oldest manuscripts, Mark ends at Mark 16, 8. There's a lot that follows that. There's a lot that follows that.

[9:20] But if you read the rest of Mark. But if you read the rest of Mark and you lay it down parallel to the other Gospels, more than likely what happens is a scribe came along many years later and tried to, quote unquote, finish Mark and make it align with the other Gospels.

[9:39] The difference is it's only in Mark that we find they can drink poison and not die. They can handle snakes and be bitten and not die. It's only in Mark that also says that whoever is baptized shall be saved, which we do have some denominations that base their whole salvation theology upon that one portion of Mark.

[9:59] And that's dangerous ground because it's not reconcilable with the rest of Scripture. Yeah. You're welcome. It doesn't mean, so now when you read it, you say, oh, so I shouldn't read past Mark 16, 8.

[10:14] I've preached Mark, and if I preach Mark again, I'll preach it all the way to the end. But with the understanding, we're not basing our theology upon this whole passage because we have to see as it fits in the whole.

[10:29] And I challenge you, go read the end of Mark again, Mark 16. And if you read it, not with a judgmental eye, but just with, if you just read it at first glance, it is bits and pieces a little bit together after verse 8.

[10:43] It's very cohesive until verse 8. And the reason being is Mark is the first gospel that came out, okay, very early in Scripture.

[10:55] Mark was writing, John Mark was writing based upon the preaching of Peter. He would have had no problem ending his gospel with the astonishment and the fear and the wonder of the women leaving the tomb.

[11:10] Because he wasn't present. He was writing after hearing Peter, and that was a grand testimony to the reality of the resurrection. He was ending with the account of the women. The other gospel writers came, and they gave, as Paul Harvey would say, the rest of the story, and then talked about the appearances after the resurrection, the Great Commission.

[11:29] Even the Great Commission varies a little bit in Mark than it does any other time it's mentioned in Scripture. Yeah. I spent a lot of time really wrestling over translation that I use, so good question.

[11:44] Really good question. Any other questions? Love questions. I don't always have answers yet. Who's the heavenly host? The angels or people who are dying around heaven?

[11:55] In context of, so like in Hebrews chapter 12, the heavenly host, or the heavenly host like we find in the book of Revelations that are gathered around his throne. So, okay, I would say the heavenly host, in that wording, my understanding is I think they are the angels gathered around the throne and praise.

[12:14] In Hebrews chapter 12, they refer to the great cloud of witnesses. The great cloud of witnesses, I believe, are the saints who have went before who are looking on expectantly to what's going on in the church today.

[12:26] But the heavenly host would be those angels that are gathered around, those myriads and myriads of angels gathered around the throne offering praise to the king for all of eternity. That's how I see it.

[12:38] Because we get to be numbered with the heavenly host later on in the book of Revelations. Anything else? Good questions.

[13:04] That's a good one. Anybody want to answer that one? You want to go for it? For obedience is a good one?

[13:15] Yeah, I mean, because without the creation, without the option, man does not have the ability to make a choice to obey. At that point, there is no choice. And since he gave us this thing called free will, the only way that free will ever is really displayed and exhibited is because we have the option to choose or to disobey.

[13:37] And without it, we're not, we're robots. So if you never give anyone a choice, then you're really not, they don't have free will. Yeah. It's a good one. Yeah.

[13:48] It's tough, though. I mean, I got asked yesterday by Braden, so does God send tornadoes? No, but he's in control. Then why does God permit tornadoes? Good question.

[13:59] And then he answered his own question. He said, Dad, is it because of sin? I said, you're right, son. It's because of sin. Creation is not what it ought to be. All of creation groans. So, yeah. Good questions, though.

[14:11] Anything else? Yes, sir. Oh, Brother Tom, you're going to hit me. Okay. Okay. Okay.

[14:39] See, I know where you're at in Sunday school, so I knew where this question was coming out of, the book of Revelations.

[15:03] No, I don't think so, because I think it implies, because it tells us that when the pit is opened, then myriads and myriads of the demonic forces come out of that pit.

[15:15] So Satan and his angels are bound at the same time, is how I read that passage, is because they are confined to him, and literally at that point, that millennial reign of Christ, we call it, is just a year of perpetual peace.

[15:28] And so it is after that, when the pit is opened, that we see the demons coming out. I think scripture says, as a frog, or as, like they were frogs, and really inhabiting and moving man to wage war against the Savior and his people and the redeemed.

[15:45] So it seems to imply in scripture there that with Satan's binding, is also the binding of the third of the angels that fell with him. Now I don't believe, my understanding is, is I don't believe, because we can really get deep in this, that all third of those angels are still moving about in this realm, because when we read New Testament, there seems to be different locations for evil spirits.

[16:08] If you, like the demoniac, when Christ encounters the demoniac, you remember when he cast the demons out and went into the herd of swine, the herd of swine ran off into the, and drowned themselves. Well, there's something telling there, because the demoniacs say to Jesus before they cast him out, he said, for we are legion, he said, what do we have to do with you?

[16:26] Don't cast us out before our time. So they're speaking to Christ and say, don't cast us out before our time. But he also asked not to be confined to the abyss.

[16:39] So it seems to imply there that some have already been confined to the abyss, but rather they asked permission to go into the herd of swine, and Jesus gave them that.

[16:50] So those angels, and even there, the demoniacs speaking, know that they have a time of opportunity, so to say, but they also know that at any moment during that time, Christ can move their realm.

[17:04] They'll be moved out of this world and be confined to the abyss, which I think is where Satan will be bound during that time, all of them until it's opened up and they get the opportunity to, you know, wreak havoc upon the world again for a short period of time.

[17:21] Yes, sir. What's really, really telling in that account in the book of Revelations, I think I've shared this with you before, is that the angel who holds the key that binds Satan is also declared to be the angel who is the servant of the believers.

[17:37] It is the angel that John falls down to worship, and he says, don't do that, for I'm your servant and your fellow believers. And in the very next passage, we read of the angel binding Satan.

[17:48] So think about this. The one that heaven has to walk beside you and serve you has the authority and the ability to bind Satan. And that's why we say we have been given the power of God.

[18:03] Yeah. Any other questions? What do you think about Israel and Jewish people in modern times?

[18:16] Are there certain parts of the people that are still positive that they can be born in the Jewish people or have believers? Okay. Yeah, that's a great question. So I don't believe in replacement theology.

[18:29] Replacement theology is that the church has taken the place of Israel. And that's a very prominent theology among believers today. It's a very prominent theology. It has been for ages.

[18:40] It really came out really early that the church took the blessings and promises of Israel, and therefore they have replaced Israel, and Israel no longer has a place. The reason, other than, along with every other believer, you know, they can come the same way we can, but it's the church.

[18:54] Now, I guess you could say I get where they come from in that one, and I can get very, very close to that, but I can't go hand in hand with it, and this is why.

[19:06] I believe the church, as Paul says in the book of Romans, has been grafted into Israel. We are the wild olive branch, right? And they are the natural olive. So we have the blessings of the olive, the natural olive branch.

[19:19] So we have the blessings of Israel, so we have the same covenant relationship, though we're not a covenant of Mount Sinai or the covenant of Christ. We have the blessings. There are some things that are just not applicable to us in the Old Testament, not applicable by legal standards, laws and sun-dry laws and all these other things, but they foreshadow the promises that are given us in Christ.

[19:42] So that's why we study the Old Testament so much. But we can't go back to that. We have to be careful, and I think I've shared this with you with the Jeremiah 29 11 passage, right? Where I know the plans I have for you, plans to prosper you, plans to promote you.

[19:56] In context, in Jeremiah, that promise is given directly to the nation of Israel. So replacement theology says, well, since I've taken the place of Israel, I can claim that promise.

[20:08] You can't claim that promise because in context it's given to the nation of Israel and it is fulfilled in history. But what you can claim is you can claim the God who made that promise in Christ.

[20:22] So the character that is reflected in that promise is the character of the God that is our Heavenly Father. So we can claim in that. So to answer the question, Romans 9, 10, and 11 seem to have direct application presently to the time of Israel's redemption.

[20:43] Okay, so Paul says that he has not cast them off yet. And there's a wording there that's used in Romans. It's used elsewhere too, but it's also found in the book of Revelations. There are in the early pages of the book of Revelations where it speaks until the fullness of time.

[20:57] Until the fullness of the time of the Gentiles. And then God, so my understanding is that Israel, God's covenant with Israel has been cut off until the fullness of time of the Gentiles.

[21:11] My interpretation of scripture, and we'd have to take a long time to build upon it, but we can, is that that's the church age. Right? So now the offer is extended to all mankind that they may come to Christ.

[21:25] That fullness of time, whenever that last Gentile comes to Christ, I believe is when the rapture is going to take place. Because that same wording there, the fullness of the Gentiles, is used as it references the departure of the church in the book of Revelations chapters 3 and 4.

[21:42] Then the church is called home. I believe the tribulation is really God's intentional dealing with the nation of Israel to call them back to repentance.

[21:56] Because that's at Romans 9, 10, 11, that God will again restore the nation of Israel. This is why we get so much imagery of the woman who gave birth, because the woman is Israel, gave birth to the child who is the Messiah.

[22:11] This is why we have the 144,000 witnesses that are all, during that tribulation period, of Jewish descent. This is why even the two witnesses that are slain and left dead, they are of Jewish heritage.

[22:24] So God is restoring the Jewish people. Now that doesn't mean that Gentiles won't come to Christ during that time. Because even in the Old Testament, non-Jewish people are coming to, you know, faith in the true God.

[22:38] But God's work there is the renewing and restoring of Israel. And so then I think you have the fullness of the church and Israel, again, being grafted together, church grafted into that native plant of olive tree.

[22:55] And then to the glory of God. That doesn't mean there's going to be a restoration of temple worship. It doesn't mean there's going to be a restoration of sacrifices. Because the only way God can really restore them is if they come to the true knowledge that that old covenant is fulfilled in Christ.

[23:09] And now, you know, we have the heavenly Jerusalem. We have the heavenly temple and all those realities there. So I think it's really in waiting. God's calling Israel to himself just as much as he's calling anybody else.

[23:24] But I think there will also be a time of intentionality. That's why I see so many parallels in what we refer to as the tribulation period with the Babylonian captivity. Is that God is dealing with his people.

[23:36] And if you think about it, everything that we refer to, quote unquote, as the tribulation. And you have to go back to the book of Daniel to read a lot of it.

[23:48] It is the nation of Israel in and into covenant with the Antichrist. So it's all based around one people group. And it's all based around Israel. So God has not cast them off is what Paul says in Romans 9.

[24:05] But he's their departure from the faith has opened away. And this is why Paul says that we can't look at the nation of Israel with disdain. Because their rejection of the Messiah has opened the door for our acceptance of him.

[24:23] So we pray for them because it's still, that's the covenant people of God. You know, it really is. Yes, ma'am. Okay.

[24:40] And completeness. Yes. In scripture, completeness and fullness. Yes. And I believe we get to number seven. It's the number of completeness and perfection, of fullness.

[24:51] And that's why I believe the number of man is 666. Because again, three and seven deal with holes and completeness. So like 777 is completely perfect.

[25:01] You know, it's 777. Six is the number of man. Because we're just a little shy. We're not, we're not, we're made in the image. But we're not there yet. And so fully man is 666. You know, it's a triple six there.

[25:13] And that's the number of man. It's the number of the beast that is given to man. Because it shows us that we're not complete. We're not perfect. Because we're not without Christ. And so we're just a little bit shy of that. We're reading into it a little bit too much there.

[25:35] I think. I think we can. We don't need to over spiritualize too many things. I mean, it's careful. I get it. But it's the seventh translation.

[25:45] I think depending on how you count. Because we could. It may be the seventh English translation. That's fine. And I mean, I know we can go. Back and forth pretty, pretty heavy on King James.

[25:59] And others versus King James. I have no problem with the King James translation. I like King James. I actually started out preaching in New King James. I did.

[26:11] But. I will just be honest with you, Miss Rebecca. I can't back those who say that's the only translation. Because even then.

[26:23] They exercise liberties when they're translating it into other languages. Because they are re-translating the translation. Right.

[26:36] And so there are things that are changed. Even if we talk about changing texts. Like Bibles that are sent to countries that don't see snow. The verses that tell us that our sins will be washed as white as snow.

[26:49] They don't know what snow is. So they take the word snow out. And they replace it with as white as wool. So if we're going to be really picky. We have to ask ourselves. Well, how picky are we going to be? You know.

[26:59] Where do we stop with our kind of. Is it okay to change this word? Is it not okay to do this? And yeah. Yeah. So. You just have to be real. Correct.

[27:10] Correct. Correct. So the goal is. You know. I came to Christ. Reading the New King James translation. I read the New King James exclusively. I preached out of the New King James translation.

[27:22] For the first. Five or six years. In ministry. And then really began. So that was my translation change. Is I began to notice that people in front of me.

[27:32] Didn't all have the same. So I wanted one that. I knew was accurate. I wanted one that I knew was complete. And. And. I went for. My recommendation is always New American Standard.

[27:44] Because I know it's the most literal word for word. It frees me from a lot of word studies. It frees me from a lot of that. You know. I can build my own thoughts.

[27:56] If I know what the actual words are. And so that's why I do that. No. I don't. I'm not afraid of the these and thous. There are just times where. I have to. In King James and New King James.

[28:10] There are word studies that have to go back. And so if I read this. And I'm looking at this. I want to know. Okay. What does that original word say. In the Greek or in the Hebrew. I can look at it. And I can consult my.

[28:22] All my. Strong's works. And things like that. And I still do at times. And I can read it. And then I can open up. The New American Standard. And it has. It written out. And it may be a little bit wordier.

[28:35] But. It's not there. Now. I will say. The one strength. That I know. That King James has. Is in the. The and thou. Because. The. Implies singular.

[28:45] Thou. Implies plural. And so. If you're really reading a text. You need to know. Whereas. Some translations. May just say you. Is it not saying. You. Is it saying you singular. Or is it saying.

[28:57] You all. Plural. And the King James. Clarifies. By using. The and thou. So they. They do that. And. The wording there. Is really clear.

[29:08] The classic example. Of that word study. Is in King James. When you open up the text. And Jesus says. Thomas says. You know. How do we know where you're going. We don't know the way.

[29:18] We don't even know where you're going. And Jesus tells him there. In John 14. I go to my father's place. And I go to prepare many mansions for you. So. King James has mansions there. But if you look up the original Greek.

[29:30] The word is not mansions. The word is dwelling places. So if you read it. In New American Standard. It says. I go to prepare a dwelling place for you. Now. That matters to me. And it matters to me.

[29:41] Just because I'm a student of the word. And I want to make sure. That I'm preaching it right. And this is why we have to understand. Who commissioned the translation. Okay. Because it matters.

[29:52] And I read. Every Bible I have. I read the preface. I know who the translators are. I know who commissioned it. I know who funded it. I know all those things. So King James. Was commissioned and funded.

[30:03] By the king. And so some of their translations. Of the words. Like dwelling places. You didn't want to tell the king. He was going to live in a dwelling place. You wanted to tell the king. He was going to have a mansion.

[30:15] So the translation. Is always. Dictated. By who commissions it. Yes. You're welcome.

[30:31] Probably one of my. Leanings towards the legacy standard. Now it's a new translation. That's been introduced to me here lately. Actually didn't come out until like 2020. It's because it's pastors. Pastors and Bible scholars.

[30:43] And things of that nature. Now they took the new American standard. And you know. Translated a little deeper. Or. Any other questions. You guys got great questions.

[30:56] For people who didn't have any questions. It does. Yeah it does.

[31:08] The word. The Greek. In word. Where Paul says. He is the bond servant. Or the bond slave. Of Christ. Uses the word servant. It kind of eases up the word a little bit.

[31:20] But the word in Greek is doulos. And doulos. Always means. Slave. Yeah. So again. Who commissioned the translation.

[31:30] It's hard to tell the king. You're going to be a slave. It's hard to tell the king that. But. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. There's no. All the wadis are there.

[31:55] A runoff. So. So when you run across like wadis. And there's a lot of them. We found them in the Old Testament. Where those wadis fill up with water. Because of snow. So the original word is snow. Yeah.

[32:05] Yeah. Yeah. The book of Job talks about the one who has the power to change the leopard spots. And it's.

[32:16] That one gets changed a little bit when it goes to the other country. Because they don't know what leopards are. Yeah. So. I mean. It is. And I'm not. Again. I have no problem with that.

[32:27] Because the understanding is we want them to comprehend what they're reading. You know. And it's changed. Something put in place there. Is.

[32:39] The whole point behind God changing the leopard spots. Is magnifying the power of God. It's not really highlighting the leopard. So if they change that translation. And they put something in place.

[32:50] That they can understand how powerful God is. Okay. I'm okay with that. Right. But you know. The student of me. Always wants.

[33:01] The most accurate. Because I mean. I'm. I'm. Accountable for what I. I bring. Before you guys. So. Yeah. Yes. That the manuscripts we found as scripture predate the writing of the Quran.

[33:21] By about 1500 years. And. We have more. Extant. Manuscripts of scripture.

[33:34] That get closer to the original. So. The closer you can get to the original. The better you are. Right. That's the least people that have touched it. There's no other book in history.

[33:46] That can get as close to the original. Than the scripture. The Quran itself. Is. Several. Hundreds.

[33:57] If not a thousand years. Removed from its original. And. The Quran is written by one man who went into a cave. Whereas scripture. And it's written at one time.

[34:08] Whereas scripture. Sixty six books. With various authors. Over various times. Over various. Genres. And various. Themes. And it.

[34:19] Extends across. Innumerable years. And yet. It tells one great story. So. I would challenge the purity. Of one book. Written by one man.

[34:29] In one setting. Yeah. Yes. Yes. Oh great.

[34:42] Thanks. Colleen. How would you define. The biblical. Men. And women. Roles.

[34:54] Gender. Roles. Lesbos. No, Kyle, it really is.

[35:26] Because there's a lot that says that the church really is a proponent of and a supporter of inequality. Inequality of roles does not mean inequality of personhood.

[35:40] And that's the thing that too often we label that just because our roles aren't equal, that means we aren't equal. Scripture is a scripture that really has clearly defined roles and responsibilities.

[35:52] But it also reinforces the equality of personhood. So roles do not define personhood. That's an American concept where roles define personhood.

[36:04] And so what we understand, roles provide structure. They provide really ordained things that keep things working the correct way.

[36:16] Everything in society that works properly has clearly defined roles. And without clearly defined roles, you have disorder. And since the roles need to be defined, there has to be someone who defines the roles.

[36:29] And the only one that can define the roles has to be the one who starts the thing to begin with. So the creator. So when we go into scripture, what we find is the creator defines the roles.

[36:41] Husband is the head of the home. You know, we understand this. These are roles. That doesn't mean that the man is better than the woman. Because the same one who defined the roles is also the same one who chose to reveal himself to women first at his resurrection.

[36:55] He's also the one who raised up women, touched the ones nobody else would touch, forgave the ones who were caught in the act of adultery. And he brought more equality to the people than anyone else.

[37:07] But he, so Christ who brought equality across male and female spectrum is also the one who supported and ordained, you know, originally the roles that fall within that realm.

[37:23] Roles do not mean inferiority. Okay, submission, and we kind of alluded to that a little bit this morning because that word submission kind of scares people because submission, you say, well, if I submit, you're telling me that that person's better than me.

[37:37] No, submission is saying that their position is different than mine. It doesn't mean the person is better or greater than me.

[37:49] It's that their position is different than mine. And without that, I mean, we alluded to that last night in the Valentine's banquet during the dancing, right? Submission says, I'm going to let the man lead.

[38:01] Without a lead in dancing, then we have disorder, right? So that doesn't mean that both partners in the dance aren't equal people. That just means someone's got a lead.

[38:12] And so I would challenge those who, and I've got great resources, I'm resourcing you in this, who claim that, that if they go back and they find the root of that American idea that roles define personhood, what they will find was people that were hurt because others abstained from fulfilling their roles or didn't fulfill their roles properly.

[38:34] And in their pain, they overcompensate it and said that it must all be bad. And so we can't let the bad examples really properly define what it should look like.

[38:46] It is the church's responsibility to uphold the good examples of that. Good question. Every one of them, by the way, are hurt, abused, and neglected.

[39:01] Yes? Yes? Okay. Job is the oldest person in my life in your church. Good question. So chronologically speaking, Job is the oldest book of the Bible.

[39:14] Why is it not recorded first? It's because... You've got to have something to do. Right. Yeah. So it is the oldest written record in Scripture, but it doesn't tell the oldest account of Scripture.

[39:32] So Moses wasn't there in Genesis, right? So Moses gets the revelation of this, and it's in those wilderness years of wandering that he writes the Pentateuch. And he writes the first five books of the page of Scripture.

[39:43] And he's writing that in retrospect, looking back as God is revealing to him the Genesis account. He's writing all these. Now, some of it he'd lived out, but he writes the Genesis account. He sees all that.

[39:53] Now, the timing of Job's life, when the book of Job was written, that's still up for debate, but it was written before Moses wrote the Pentateuch.

[40:04] But the events of Job didn't necessarily take place before all the things like in Genesis took place. So it all depends on where we set Job. And some people say, well, he lived during the period of the judges.

[40:17] I don't think so. Some people, he lived during the period of the patriarchs, patriarchs, which is where I would kind of put him during that period of the patriarchs before. While Abram was still in the land of the early Chaldeans, Job was over there too, and he's a prominent man in Ur.

[40:29] So yeah, it kind of fits in there chronologically. But the Pentateuch's kept together just because of the order of the Hebrew Scripture. How they know?

[40:42] What, the dating of it? Well, the Jewish people were really good at the preservation of their texts in Scripture. So that's something that's passed down. The Hebrew Bible is something that's passed down to us from, you know, the Jewish people keeping that.

[40:58] Yeah. Yeah. Anyone else? Talking about the Jewish people, they've gone through several captivities.

[41:09] Do you feel like the Holocaust was part of those captivities? I do. Now, I do shy away from, you know, the theme of the day during the Holocaust period, during World War II, is, oh, well, God is judging them for their rejection of Christ.

[41:25] I don't see that. But I do think it's one of those period of captivities. But it also displays, really, God's preservation of his people. Because if there's a people that should have been annihilated and completely wiped off the face of the earth during that time, it would have been the Jewish people.

[41:40] But as God's word says that they will, a nation will be called out of one that was not a nation, that it will be born in a day. Immediately following World War II is where we have that ordaining of the nation or the recognition, again, of the nation of Israel.

[41:57] So God used those events that were meant for evil to wipe the nation of Israel off the face of the earth to fulfill his scripture that says that a nation will be born in a day. Because as soon as the American president signed a piece of paper, all of a sudden now, here's Israel again, which was not in existence prior to that.

[42:14] So I would really caution away from saying, oh, well, that's part of their discipline. There were some people, unfortunately, in the church during those days who looked at the nation of Israel as if they deserved that because of their rejection of Christ.

[42:29] And they would go back to scripture where the political leaders say, let his blood be on our hands and on our children's hands. And they would say, well, you did that. Well, in reality, each one of us in our own actions have rejected Christ.

[42:41] You know, each one of us have. So I can't see that. But what I can see is, again, you see in the nation of Israel's struggle, even all the way through the book of Revelation, where the beast is waging war against the woman who gave birth to the child.

[42:59] And that's something that's been going on throughout history. It's just, from the very beginning, when Cain slew Abel, Satan moved Cain so if I can kill Abel then I'll kill the seed.

[43:10] I'll kill the seed of the woman and then I'll pollute the other seed of the woman because, but the problem was that was the seed of man. So then there was Seth. And so, well, then after the period of Seth, the enemy moved and the sons of men came down and saw the daughters of women and took them and so we have the flood.

[43:26] So the enemy's moving again trying to kill the seed and we have the flood. But then there's Noah, the preserver of righteousness. So we have Noah and we have the sins and then they build the towers.

[43:36] Well, let me distort their language. So what we find in scripture is the enemy is always trying to kill the seed. But God redeems that and out of those really attacks he raises it up.

[43:48] And I think that Holocaust and atrocities that were done to the Jewish people at those times are again another what we would call more modern day picture of the enemy trying to kill the seed.

[44:00] But from that, God called a nation into existence in a day that was not a nation prior to that. Yeah. Yes, ma'am.

[44:10] Was that why they were all scattered all over the place and then they all came back together in 1948? They all came back together in 1948 because of that. Many of them did.

[44:21] But only a small portion but that's not why they were scattered. The reason they were scattered actually goes all the way back to the time of the Crusades. And you have to go all the way back but really it comes back to the question that Miss PJ asked.

[44:33] The reason they were scattered is because the Islamic people came into Jerusalem. And the way that the followers of Muhammad came into land, the Islamic people, is they came to kill and pillage and destroy.

[44:46] And so when they came into Jerusalem they took over the land. That's why today that is, so what happened is they took over the land and the nation of Israel kind of took it back for a little bit. That was kind of the Crusades of the 1200s I believe it was.

[45:00] And they kind of waved war back and forth but eventually fell again to the Islamists. And so they fled because they are people of commerce. When Islam spread they came in and they killed.

[45:11] They had a lot of children. They multiplied and they got into the business world. Even today by the way if you see when they move into areas that's exactly what they do. They come, they bear a lot of children, they get into the business world.

[45:24] They're not killing anymore like they used to but they used to come in with a sword, wipe you out, take over because they were traders by trade. So if you look at the nation of Israel it's on all the major trade routes.

[45:35] The Silk Road, the King's Highway, everything's right there. So they took over all the commerce and pushed out the nation of Israel and they were dispersed. And then they just, they were inter-dispersed among the nations until 1948 where they were called a nation once again and they were called back.

[45:52] Yeah. But that's still the conflict today is because you have Islamists living on this side of the fence and the other people living, and that's kind of why America's partnership has been so essential over the years because we were the first to recognize the reality that this is the nation of Israel's land.

[46:08] And they said, yeah, but we've been here longer. Yeah. Yeah. How does it depend of the world of the seven-day creation to a leader to my point to us not taking every word of the Bible literally as a way of saying creation might not be able to do it?

[46:32] Okay. Yeah. And so, it's a good question because even among quote-unquote Christian circles, there is what's called progressive creation where, and you have to be careful about that or theistic evolution, which is that God put all things in motion and over time it eventually came to be what it is and we're diminishing really the power of God there.

[46:56] I think that we take the seven days literal because everywhere else in Scripture, Scripture is the greatest commentary on Scripture. Everywhere else in Scripture, the word that is used for a day and the order, and there was night and a day, first day, night and a day, second day, that order always, everywhere else in Scripture, implies without a doubt a literal 24-hour day.

[47:23] There's no other way to interpret it. And so, if we do that, if we twist that portion, then we'd have to twist all of it because Genesis being the first is what we call the law of first mention.

[47:36] So the way it's mentioned first is the way it has to be consistent throughout Scripture. And so, if we twist that a little bit, then all of a sudden now we're twisting everything, right?

[47:48] So, yeah, we have to be careful there. I think the wording does matter. And since it implies a night and a day, a night and a day, that's a very Jewish reckoning, and God's moving through these people to write that word of a literal 24-hour day.

[48:03] Yeah, it's about the greatest defense. And, you know, the argument is, well, then how do we say, what about the age and all this other stuff? And my question's always been, you know, and it's hard for the younger kids to understand this, but if God has the power to create by the word of his mouth, if he says, let it be, and it was so, then why do we have to think that God created something in the juvenile state of existence?

[48:28] Why can we not say that when he created it, it was already mature? You know, if he has the power to create it, why can't he create it aged, so to say?

[48:40] Like, I think when Adam was created, he was a full-grown man. You know, when earth was created, it was created with some age, because if we're aging something by the spectra of the layers of ground and we're determining it's age by what we can find, but you don't know at what age it was when it came into existence.

[48:58] You don't know what its starting point was. You are implying it started at zero and it got to here, but we don't know that. That's a heavy implication to say.

[49:10] What's that called? That carbon dating? Yeah. Which is circular reasoning, by the way, because we use the fossils in the layer of rock to date, the age of the layer of rock, but we also use where we found the fossils to date, where we think that should be.

[49:25] So we're using it to date it, but we also use it to date where we think it should be. And I'm a science guy, so I understand it, but I mean, I like science. I'm not downplaying it, but we're just circular reasoning is really all we're doing.

[49:38] There. You guys have brought me all the way up to the time where I'm not going to preach, but any other questions? Maybe one more? The templates?

[50:02] The templates? And yet, because he eventually put him in the thing with, and all the soldiers have, where it was전, There's multiple things going on there.

[50:25] Rodney's right. God's hardened in his heart, but then it also implies that Pharaoh hardened his own heart. So you have to ask the question, did God do it or did Pharaoh do it? God was allowing Pharaoh to do what he wanted to do. His heart was hardened.

[50:37] But also there's some wording there. What he's showing is he's displaying his power to the nation of Israel. So that's important, what Rodney is saying there, that God is showing his power. So this, you're looking at a group of people, the Israelites who were all born into captivity.

[50:50] They were born into slavery. They've lived their entire lives among the Egyptians. And in living their entire lives among the Egyptians, they've also been exposed to the Egyptian gods, right?

[51:00] And they're crying out, God answers. They know nothing of holy God. All they know is the Egyptian gods. But if you look at the 10 plagues, each one of those is God's attack against a deity of the Egyptians.

[51:14] They worship the river now, he turned it into blood. They worship the frog, he brought frogs. They worshiped the sun, so he made everything dark. I mean, Pharaoh was seen to be God and his offspring was declared to be the son of God.

[51:27] That's why the last straw was, I'll show you who's God. So each one of those plagues actually has intentionality about it because God is showing all these other gods that you've been around your whole life, they're not really gods.

[51:39] I'm greater than each one, every one of them. Yeah. Yeah. There are missionaries there.

[52:03] I mean, but again, church tradition tells us that Matthew went to Egypt and proclaimed the gospel there.

[52:14] And I think later Thomas went to Egypt and declared the gospel. And Thomas, according to church tradition, was tarred and feathered and actually ended up being martyred sharing the gospel in those regions.

[52:27] But the Christian church found root. Again, let's go back to one of the earlier questions. Where was that eunuch from? Ethiopian eunuch, right?

[52:39] Who was bringing word back to the courts of Candace, right? In Ethiopia, which is in that region, same region. So the gospel made inroads there. But today there's Coptic Christianity and it is still a very hard place to be there.

[52:53] But the church has always kind of been present very early on. in that region. Yeah. One more.

[53:04] All he did was talk to the church.

[53:29] Yeah, the repetition. He made a lot of scripture in between there. Yeah, the repetition of Leviticus, right? You have God's orders and then you have them doing it. Yeah, that's a good one. That's a hard book to read.

[53:42] It's a very hard book to read and it gets a little redundant. It just reinforces us when we look at it how the people did exactly.

[53:53] God's blessings fell upon the nation because they did everything he told them to do down to the letter. We have them building it. We have them doing every single aspect. And again, it's just this reiteration that this is the way you ought to do it so this is the way we did it.

[54:06] And it does get a little cumbersome in our reading. Hebrew reading. One of the things that I've learned, I'm not really good in my languages, scripture, Bible languages.

[54:19] But one thing I studied recently about the Hebrew is the Hebrew language doesn't really express emotion really well, but it expresses literalism.

[54:30] So they give force behind. They literally did it. This is what they're doing. So it's not like they're showing joy, but they're showing obedience through literally telling you this is why we did these things. And their words carry a lot of force in that.

[54:45] One more. Anything else? Yes, ma'am. Well, it's like the person, the person said, the person said, the Bible, and I didn't know they were late. Yeah. I thought he did this day.

[54:57] I said, okay. Okay, I can get it. Yeah. Yeah. It is written at different times for different purposes, and that's why we have to have that, you know, we go into that interpretation of why it was written, who it was written by, and things there.

[55:13] I thought it was all a separate book. There was something else was going on the air and something was going there. But then when you didn't start it, I said, oh, they were late. Yeah. Like tonight, if we'd have got to our text, we'd have seen David move the ark back.

[55:27] Like, we didn't get to it, but it's the same thing that we have recorded for us in 2 Samuel when he brings the ark back into Jerusalem. And, you know, his wife looking at him with disdain because he's dancing before the ark and all those.

[55:41] Same thing. Anything else? There's no dumb ones. I've never seen this before, but you know how you go to talk about it.

[55:52] I didn't know if there are some others. It's almost like the same like Mary and Joseph, wouldn't it? That she was barren?

[56:02] Yeah. Yeah. You know, God, the word of God is consistent in his using of barren women. Again, it goes back to what we was answering with Kali, how God really elevates the position of women in scripture because to be a barren woman at that time was really to be diminished and to be, you know, belittled and looked down upon and to really seen as, well, God must really have it out for you because you can't even have children.

[56:28] And so we find this theme in scripture that God takes the barren and the outcast and the weakest, so to say, and from them brings about one of the grandest and greatest that can be used.

[56:41] Samson, I mean, he's not grand and great, but he isn't a hero of the faith, right? So we see what he has as false. But when you think about it, you know, Sarah and Rachel and then you, I mean, Samuel, you know, his mother was barren, could not have child, you know, she cried out, had not cried out for years for a child.

[56:58] All of a sudden she's given a child, Elizabeth, and here comes John the Baptist, right? Mary is not considered a barren woman because she wasn't even married at that time, right?

[57:14] It is, you know, it more parallels Zechariah and Zechariah's and Elizabeth's account and we see this a lot but again, you see God through an angel of the Lord which is most often a theophany or a Christophany, that would be an appearance of Christ in the Old Testament, showing up to the most unlikely of people, a barren woman who's considered an outcast and blessing them not only with his presence but then with his blessing of favor that he's going to do something amazing that has to be the work of God that has a testimony that not only will they have a child but they'll have a child that'll be mildly used and that is a theme that we find in scripture because again, it is a character attribute of the God we serve that God meets us in our barrenness he comes to us he reveals himself to us and he uses us in a mighty way if not us he uses the product you know, of our lives in a mighty way okay one more press on before we close are we done?

[58:21] okay, yeah, okay really quick we can do this one about as quick as we can the Nazarite vow was never intended to be a lifelong vow the Nazarite vow was to be a vow for a season we kind of see Paul taking a Nazarite vow if you remember where it says Paul had his hair cut because to fulfill the vow when he got his hair cut that's the end of the Nazarite vow so the Nazarite vow was to be a vow of dedication and commitment for a season much like we'd say I'm going to take this time and fast I'm going to spend the next few whatever and it was to abstain from things that were normally accepted alcoholic beverages and wine so the fruit of the vine touching any dead carcass and I would have my hair you know let my hair grow long because it was just a reminder to me that I was setting apart this season for seeking the Lord pleasing the Lord now it was never a lifelong

[59:24] Samson is one that is declared when this angel meets that he will be a Nazarite from his birth so his is kind of a unique setting that he will be one for his life others think John the Baptist kind of fits in that same picture because he grew you know his hair was long and others that he's set apart but it really just symbolizes being set apart the hair has no strength in it it is the commitment to the Lord and really living under that commitment to follow the Lord that brings that power right and it's when he gives that up because of the pleasure of sin the pleasure of self that the power of the presence of the Lord leaves him and then he falls weakness but then he I love where it says in scripture but his hair began to grow again really that's really an implication that he began to seek the Lord earnestly again because God took away the lust of the eyes he didn't have eyes anymore and so he began to seek the Lord again and cried out to him in desperation and ended his life triumphantly if you will okay great questions we'll close

[60:34] I'm sure that Mike has led them around in circles with compasses as long as he can and and we'll so let's close sorry I didn't get to the word tonight but I appreciate the questions and hopefully we learned just grew together tonight in that and again great question let's pray Father thank you so much for the day thank you for the opportunity we have of just coming together we thank you for your word Lord even as we ask questions and we just discuss it I thank you that we can sharpen one another as iron sharpens iron realizing Lord just humbly!

[61:10]  admitting that each of us have so far to come in our understanding of scripture but we want to be students of the word we want to be those who are led by scripture seek to know it and understand it not so that we can be puffed up and say oh we have all this information but because we understand that by knowing it we come to a greater understanding of our savior and of our heavenly father Lord Jesus we thank you that all of scripture testifies to who you are you call us to walk in covenant relationship with you you call us to learn and to lean into that relationship and to grow each and every day may we be equipped and may we be edified for the glory of the king and for your glory alone we ask it all in Jesus name amen thank you thank you