How to Honor Your Parents When you Disagree About Theology

God calls us to honor our father question at 833-THE-CORE.

That's 1-833-843-2673. As always, you can post your question on one of our social media accounts, Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter, and you can email us with your question at questionsatcorechristianity.com. While the Bible says children are a blessing from the Lord, but in one city, having kids can also get you some big bucks. We're offering a grant of nearly $100,000 for couples who have at least three children.

Wow. The town is combating the problem of a declining population with financial incentives. This new policy grants loans of 100 million South Korean won, which is about 92,000 bucks, to all married couples residing in the city.

Now, here's the way it works, Adriel. If the couple gives birth to one child, the interest on the loan is waived. For two kids, 30% of the loan principal is forgiven. If the family has three children, the entire loan is forgiven and becomes a grant. And I was thinking, Adriel, if San Diego offered that kind of money for having kids, you and your wife would be like making bank. You know, I want to know what they give for four kids because we have four kids. Yeah.

When is California going to go there? Oh, man. Well, let's get to our first question of the day. This one was posted on our Facebook page from Roy, and he says, Hey, Pastor Adriel, I'm wondering if you have any advice on when and when not to bring up current events or pop culture in Bible teaching. I'm a Bible teacher, and I note that some preachers bring up current issues and make pop culture references nonstop, while others never mention these things. Any advice on how to do this well without watering down the biblical message? Yeah, you know, that's a really good question and a question that I've heard more frequently in these days, especially with all the stuff that's happening around us.

I think that we have to strike a balance. First and foremost, what we're called to do as Bible teachers, me as a pastor, is to preach the word. I mean, that's the solemn charge that's given to every minister of the gospel. I think about what Paul told Timothy in 2 Timothy 4, verse 1.

I mean, listen to how serious Paul was there. I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom, preach the word. Be ready in season and out of season, reprove, rebuke, and exhort with complete patience and teaching.

Why? Because the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions. Every Bible teacher, every minister of the gospel, preacher, pastor, is charged by God to preach the word. And so we don't preach the five o'clock news. That's not our focus. We're not exegeting, interpreting the current events, that kind of a thing. That's not what God has charged me to do. And yet at the same time, what I ought to do, what I must do as I'm preaching the word, is apply that word to the lives of the people to whom I'm preaching. And that means sometimes you are going to address some of the things that are happening around us. I mean, the fact of the matter is God's word has a lot to say about the sin in society, and so we should be bold in preaching the word.

And that might mean that people outside of the church are upset with us, and it might mean that sometimes people even within the church can get upset with us, but we're charged to be faithful to God's word. And so I would say you have to see that as a Bible teacher, you have to see that as the primary thing. When we're getting together for Bible study, the goal is not, the purpose is not, let's grow in our understanding of the political climate or that kind of a thing. Help people to grow in the scriptures.

That ultimately is what's going to serve them for their entire lives. I mean, everything around us is constantly changing, constantly in flux, but the word of God endures forever. And so we're trying to help people to grow in that. We're also trying to help them to understand God's word, so as they think about the things that are happening around them, they're able to apply biblical wisdom to the situations of today. And so we don't avoid necessarily talking about those things, and we bring God's word to bear on the issues of today.

Let me just give you one example of how recently I did this. Frankly, I was preaching just this last week in 1 John 4, verses 1 through 6, where John talks about discerning the spirits, and just the reality of the fact that there are false Christs, false spirits out there that are proclaiming false gospels. And we have to be careful.

We have to be on guard. We have to be discerning to test the spirits. And one of the things I said is, look, we can, as we grow in our understanding of scripture, gain this wisdom to be able to test the spirits, to discern false teaching out there. But the reality is, we have to check even our own hearts, because it's not just about the counterfeit religions that are out there, it's about the ways in which counterfeit religion have crept into our own heart, ways in which we confuse the identity of Jesus and his mission. And isn't that something that the disciples of Jesus did over and over again? I mean, you think about Peter when Jesus said he was going to go to the cross, and Peter said, no way, Lord, that's never going to happen to you.

And remember what Jesus said to him, get behind me, Satan. Even Jesus' own disciples were confused at times about his person, his identity, and his work. They thought that Jesus was going to make them powerful and conquer their enemies, and sometimes we try to create Jesus in that way, too. Sometimes that's what we expect Jesus to do. He came to make me great and to conquer my enemies, and isn't that something—this is where I sort of brought it into current events—isn't that something that we saw just on the sixth of January, where you had all these people storming the Capitol building, some of them carrying Christian flags?

I know that there were all sorts of different kinds of people there, that not everyone was participating in this unlawful assault, if you will, on the Capitol building. Some people were just there to peaceably protest, but the fact of the matter is, one of the things I think that it illustrated for me is that often, even as evangelicals, we can try to create a Jesus who looks and thinks just like we do, a Jesus in our own image, a Jesus who is our personal or political mascot, not a Jesus who is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. And so we can apply the truth of God's Word to ourselves and to the things that are happening around us, and I think we ought to do that. And as we do that, hopefully we're challenging people and encouraging them. And so preach the Word and apply it to the issues of the day in a way that is faithful and honoring to God and helpful for the people that you're serving. You're listening to Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. One of the ways you can ask questions is by going to our website at corechristianity.com and leaving a voicemail right there.

And we received this message from Naomi. This is a question that I have struggled to find, and I know many others have too. I just remember in sixth grade, we were talking about human evolution and how we became hominids. So I was just wondering, have humans evolved? And if so, how does that work in relation with the Bible and Adam and Eve?

And yeah, thank you. Hi, Naomi, thank you for your question. And it really sort of opens the door for all sorts of other questions like what is the relationship between faith and science and how should we think about some of these things seem to at times maybe contradict the narrative that we have in the Bible. I want to say I know that we have some articles over at corechristianity.com that get into the relationship between faith and science, something that we've thought about quite a bit.

And so, Naomi, I want to encourage you to check out those articles over at our website. But one thing that I will say about this, one thing that I think it's absolutely important for all Christians to affirm is that when you look at Genesis, what you have there in Genesis is a real historical account. Adam and Eve were real people, and everywhere in the Bible, they're treated as real people. And if you deny that, if people deny that, they say, no, Adam and Eve is just sort of this myth.

I mean, it's not a real story. It's just sort of depicting some spiritual truth for us to glean, maybe a spiritual application from it, that kind of thing. Well, there are spiritual applications that we draw from this, but the fact of the matter is they were real people, and God created them, and God created mankind distinct. That's one of the things that we see in the early chapters of Genesis. He made man in his own image. See this in Genesis chapter 2. And in this way, man is distinct from the animal kingdom.

We're not the same, if you will. There's something unique about man. And I think that's one thing that's denied so frequently in evolutionary biology. I've read people, obviously, the ones that I'm thinking of are not Christians. They don't claim to be God, naturalists, materialists, but they'll talk about humanity as though it weren't anything special at all. There was one writer I read not too long ago who said, there's nothing more special about a human baby than there is about a piglet.

And I just thought, wow, that's so wow. The reality is people, when they embrace these naturalistic assumptions, begin to deny the very uniqueness and wonder of humanity. And so one thing I think that we have to be really careful with is we can't deny the uniqueness of mankind, of man. We can't deny the reality of God's creation of Adam and Eve, that they were real people. And I think, Naomi, when you look at it in that way, it becomes really hard to see how it's possible for Adam and Eve to have had this sort of animal ancestry. Because it seems like throughout the early chapters of Genesis, what's being highlighted for us is the uniqueness, the fact that man and woman are different from the animals, distinct from them. We have to affirm that, we have to affirm the historicity of the Genesis account, and we have to affirm the reality of Adam because we recognize that Adam plays an integral role in the history of redemption. Jesus Christ came to fulfill what Adam failed at. That's why the New Testament describes Jesus as the second Adam in places like Romans chapter 5. And so it's really important that we don't do away with these early chapters of Genesis or just view them as sort of myth, because if we do, we strike at the vitals of the very gospel.

Jesus came as the second Adam for us. Now, the last thing I'll say is, I don't think that that means we need to reject all modern science. I just think that that means we need to be discerning.

The reality is, God has said that the world around us, natural revelation, reveals to us truth about God, that He is the creator of all things. You think of Psalm 19, you think of Romans chapter 1, and so we don't want to have an attitude towards science that sort of puts us over in a corner and we just say, yeah, we reject all of it, it's all bad. No, we reject the presuppositions that so many people around us have related to things like evolutionary biology, but we look at the evidence that the world gives to us, recognizing on the basis of scripture that God created all things from nothing, that Adam is our first father, if you will. And so there are things about evolutionary biology that I think we ought to reject, but that doesn't mean we need to reject everything that the scientific community says. And so we have to be discerning, we have to be wise, and we have to also recognize that throughout the history of the world, there have been these scientific discoveries that get sort of turned upside down.

The scientific community is always evolving, for lack of a better way of putting it, changing, and so who knows in terms of what we discover as time goes by, what we're going to find, and so we ought to be patient, but ultimately trust in God's word and rest in the fact that it's true. Naomi, thanks so much for your question. By the way, we have a great resource on our website at corechristianity.com. It's called Five Reasons Why Science and Faith Are Compatible.

So look for that at our website and check it out, maybe share it with some of your friends, Naomi. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez, and if you have just started reading the Bible for the very first time, we know that can be tough because there are a lot of Bible reading plans out there that are very complex and daunting. So here at Core Christianity, we have developed a Bible reading plan just for you.

That's right, Bill, and for the reasons you just mentioned at Core Christianity, we wanted to create a plan that would do two things specifically. One could help someone new to the Bible cultivate a joy for reading the Bible. We know that for a lot of people, getting into reading the Bible can be very difficult, especially if you're a newer Christian or if you've never tackled the scriptures before.

And so we wanted to create a plan that would allow you to ease your way in, if you will. Not too much, but it's also going to get you into the whole sort of narrative of scripture. And at least if you go through the plan for the entire year, it's going to give you a great understanding of essentially the story of redemption. Number two, we also wanted to help those Christians who have lost joy in reading the scriptures to recover that joy. So often Bible reading can sort of feel like a burden, can't it? Even for followers of Jesus. You know, you do a good job with your plan for a few days or a few months, maybe, and then you start to fall behind and then you just feel guilty.

And then after a while, we just sort of drop it all together. And so we wanted, again, to create something that was going to be simple, that was going to be easy to follow, and that would encourage you, if you're a believer and you haven't been in the Word, to get back in the Word and to find that joy again. It's the Core Christianity Bible Reading Plan, and it's a free resource when you sign up for our weekly newsletter.

It's probably going to take you about 10 minutes a day. And so I encourage you to get a hold of this resource. It's going to help you to continue to grow in your understanding. And our prayer is that as you open up the scriptures each day, you'll be more and more encouraged in your walk with the Lord.

To download the Core Christianity Bible Reading Plan, just head over to corechristianity.com forward slash reading plan. By the way, one of the ways you can submit a question to us is by going to our website, looking for the little radio microphone at the top of the page and clicking on that. And you can record your question for Adriel right there. Hello Pastor Adriel Sanchez.

My name is Brennan. My mother and grandmother believe that the signed gifts, speaking in tongues, miraculous healings, that those signs still do happen, mainly because they believe they have both spoken in tongues at one point in their life. Because that we have the fulfillment of the special revelation via scripture, I believe that those have ceased.

Is that true? Is that biblical? And maybe more importantly, how should I go about handling this with my mother and grandmother? I do not want to offend them, but I also do want to be faithful to what I believe the Word of God says.

Thank you. Hey, Brennan, thank you for that two-part question, really. How do we understand these signed gifts that are mentioned in places like 1 Corinthians 12 through 14, the miraculous gifts of the Holy Spirit? And then, how do we disagree with people, people who we love, on matters of theology? Now, I know that this is one of those questions where there are a lot of differences within the church. There are some who say, yeah, these signed gifts are still around, the gifts of the Holy Spirit, like prophecy and speaking in tongues.

We think of the miraculous gifts. I mean, obviously there aren't, I don't know of any Christians who teach that all the gifts of the Holy Spirit have ceased, but that these gifts in particular that were really associated with the advancement of the gospel in the early stage of redemptive history, as the apostles were going out, fulfilling the Great Commission, think of places like the Book of Acts, that these gifts were really being used at that time, and then throughout the history of the church as time went on, as we got the canon of scripture, that they really died out, if you will, so that you don't have prophets in the church today, the office of prophet like you did under the old covenant in the Old Testament. Instead, what we have, and I think this is what the New Testament teaches in 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1, you have the ordinary offices that continue perpetually throughout the church. You think of pastors, teachers, elders, deacons, that kind of a thing, and that's what we anticipate, that's what we expect.

I'll tell you, Brennan, just kind of a funny story. When I was a newer Christian, I went to a church that did believe in the signed gifts of the Holy Spirit, and for a while, I did as well. Not that God can't work miraculously today, I think, again, all Christians affirm that, but I had the expectation that he was going to work miraculously through prophecy and that kind of a thing, and I was moving to a different city, and I remember calling the churches in the town where I was moving, and this was something that was important to me, really important to me at the time, and I remember calling and talking to the church secretary, and I asked one secretary in particular, do you have prophets in your church? And she said, oh, you mean do we believe in Jeremiah and Ezekiel and Isaiah?

And I said, no, do you actually have prophets in your pews? And as I continued to understand the Scriptures and how God ordinarily works, I came to the conclusion that that really was for the early apostolic church. And one verse that I would go to is in the book of Hebrews, in Hebrews chapter 2, because I think it highlights this point in particular that I'm trying to make. Hebrews chapter 2, in verse 4, the author of the Hebrews, he's encouraging the Hebrew church to hold fast to the gospel that they'd heard. He says to them, God also bore witness by signs and wonders and various miracles and by the gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will. And he talks about that there in verse 4 in the context of something that was happening in the past when they first heard the gospel.

So it even seems like there in this New Testament church, these signs weren't happening as they had been happening at an earlier stage. Now, how do you love and relate to people who disagree with you on this? Well, one, I think first and foremost, you know, with your parents, with your grandmother, man, you want to be respectful, you ought to be so thankful that they're believers, that they know and love Jesus, that their sins are forgiven. And so I think, one, you rejoice in that, and two, you open up the Scriptures together with humility.

I mean, again, this is your mom, your grandmother, and I think it's okay to say, hey, well, here's how I understand it and here's why I understand it in this way. And talking about things like the gift of tongues and the purpose of tongues and that they were real languages, what we see in places like Acts chapter 2, and I would say even in 1 Corinthians chapter 14, that they weren't just angelic sort of prayer languages that really aren't coherent. No, but these are real languages that were meant to be interpreted for the edification of the church, 1 Corinthians 14. And so I think when we understand them biblically, we start to see, well, a lot of what you see happening in the church today isn't being done according to what the Scriptures say. And is this really how God promised to ordinarily, perpetually work through the church? Or is the church more served, built up, as we grow deeper in God's Word, understanding the Bible?

So that's where I focus my attention, and I think that's where it sounds like you want to focus your attention. And I think if you open up the Scriptures with them, with humility, and study together these things in the Bible, the gift of tongues, the miraculous gifts of the Spirit, maybe their minds might be changed as well, like my mind was changed so many years ago. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. Just a reminder that we are listener supported.

We count on people just like you to keep this program on the air. If you'd like to make a gift, you can find out more by going to corechristianity.com. We have time for one more question. This is a Facebook post from Cordy, and she says, The last few years, I've chosen an attribute of God to meditate on during the year. This year, I'm meditating on God's providence. Can you please tell me what the distinction is between God's sovereignty and God's providence? I would see providence as under the umbrella, if you will, of God's sovereignty. When we think of the fact that God is sovereign, we're affirming that he is the great king of heaven and earth, that he rules over all things, that no one can stop him or say, you know, why have you done this? The Lord is king.

I love the way Charles Spurgeon put it one time, though. He said, you know, we love God anywhere except on his throne. We like him in his workshop, creating the stars and the planets, you know, the heavens and the earth, that kind of a thing. But when God sits on his throne, mankind gets really upset because, frankly, that's where we want to be seated. God is absolutely sovereign. He is the king. And providence is how God, through his sovereign grace, sustains and upholds all things in the world.

Even the sort of natural processes that we see all around us. God is very much at work. You know, I just mentioned a verse from Hebrews chapter 2, but if you go back one chapter in the book of Hebrews, Hebrews chapter 1 beginning in verse 1, Long ago at many times and in many ways God spoke to our fathers by the prophets. But in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom he also created the world. He is the radiance of the glory of God, the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. That's providence. It's God upholding all things, the very universe, by the word of his power.

Wow. And if God upholds all things by the word of his power, he's in control, he's sovereign. And that same God, look at what the next verse says, after making purification for sins, sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high. The God who upholds the universe, Jesus, offered himself for your sins. And so what you see there is, I mean really you have two things right there in that passage in Hebrews. You have God's providence and you have redemption. I also think of another passage when we're talking about God's providence.

Ephesians chapter 1 verse 11, In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him, who works all things according to the counsel of his will. And there's something so comforting about that, knowing that God is in control, we can rest. Thanks for listening to Core Christianity. To request your copy of today's special offer, visit us at CoreChristianity.com and click on offers in the menu bar or call us at 1-833-843-2673. That's 833-THE-CORE. When you contact us, please let us know how you've been encouraged by this podcast. And be sure to join us next time as we explore the truth of God's Word together.