Is It a Sin to Disobey Your Parents If It Means Following God?

If my parents don't want me to follow God, is it a sin to disobey them? That's just one of the questions we'll be answering on today's edition of CORE Christianity. Our phone lines are open for the next 25 minutes or so if you'd like to talk to Pastor Adriel. Of course, you can also post your question on our Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter accounts. You can watch us on YouTube, and you can email us at questionsatcorechristianity.com. First up today, let's go to Michael in Tahlequah, Oklahoma. Hi Michael, what's your question for Pastor Adriel?

God bless you guys. My question is concerning Judges 11 31 in contrast to Jeremiah 7 31. In Judges 11, Jephthah is going to battle with the Ammonite, and he vows if God gives him victory, he would offer as a burnt sacrifice the first thing that comes through his door.

Whereas in Jeremiah 7 31, God rebukes Israel for sacrificing their children in the fire in the valley of Ben Hinnom. So I was just curious as your take was Jephthah, I don't know, right by fulfilling his vow to the Lord? I know pretty much the lesson here is be very careful what you vow to the Lord. Hey Michael, it's a great question, and what a tragic passage of Scripture for those who are unfamiliar with Judges 11. Jephthah is someone who's fighting on behalf of the people of God against the Ammonites, and he makes this vow to the Lord. He says, look, if you deliver the Ammonites into my hands and when I go home, whatever comes out of my house first, I'm willing to sacrifice to you.

You're absolutely right. I think one of the big key takeaways here is be careful with the vows that you make, with how you use your words, and certainly in Scripture that's something that we see warned over and over again. So Jephthah goes home after the Lord had delivered the Ammonites into his hand and his daughter.

His only daughter comes out of his house and he's devastated. Now there are some people who have said, well, maybe he didn't kill her, maybe the way in which he offered her up to the Lord was he offered her up as this perpetual servant of the Lord, a perpetual virgin, to just be dedicated to the Lord. But it really does seem like in the text of Judges 11 that that's not the case, that actually after a period of two months of mourning, she basically requests, hey, give me some time to be by myself, that he did fulfill this vow. Now should he have done that?

Goodness. My view, and there are differences of opinion on this, is no. Clearly in Scripture, God forbids his people from sacrificing their children. This was something that that passage in Jeremiah 31 that you highlighted brings us out, but it was something that the pagan nations would do. They would sacrifice their children to Baal over and over again throughout the book of Jeremiah and elsewhere in the Scriptures. God says, you know, that never even came into my mind.

I've never required that of my people. And so what you have here is an individual taking a rash vow to the Lord and then fulfilling that vow, and then the whole thing ends up just being absolutely tragic. And, you know, throughout the book of Judges, you do see a lot of tragedies like this.

The book of Judges ends basically with this sort of summary statement of the entire book, and it says, in those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes. And so what we're getting a picture of here here in the book of Judges is just that reality. Everyone doing what was right in their own eyes, it doesn't make it right. There was a lot of wrong in the book of Judges, and I think that this is one of the things that was wrong. I mean, a real tragedy here.

And so I think that's the best way for us to approach it. Michael, thank you for that question and for digging into the word. Michael There's some tough stuff in the Old Testament, and a lot of times, as you said, we have to really know the context and know what God's laws were, and that some were tempted to make vows they certainly shouldn't have.

But let's go to Reva in Independence, Missouri. Reva, what is your question for Pastor Adriel? Well, I would like for Pastor to explain. During the seven-year period after the rapture, those souls are beheaded. Well, they live with Christ for a thousand years, and I would like for him to explain what happens to them after a thousand years.

Hey, Reva, thank you so much for that question. You're referring to Revelation chapter 20, verse one, Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, holding in his hand the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain. And he sees the dragon, the ancient serpent, who is the devil, and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years, and threw him into the pit and shut it and sealed it over him, so that he might not deceive the nations any longer until the thousand years were ended.

After that he must be released for a little while. Then I saw thrones, and seated on them were those to whom the authority to judge was committed. Also I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus and for the word of God and those who had not worshiped the beast or its image. Now there are different ways, Reva, that Christians have understood these thousand years. Some people believe that the thousand years is something in the future. Jesus is going to return at the rapture, and then he's going to establish his millennial kingdom on earth. There's going to be a literal one thousand year reign of Jesus Christ from Jerusalem on the earth, and then after that thousand years, according to this view, that's when you're going to have essentially the final judgment, the final judgment of evil, the final resurrection of the dead, all of those things. So that's one way that people understand the thousand year reign. And so for those who take that view, what happens after the thousand years is basically the final judgment. Now there are other, I think, ways in which believers, faithful Christians, have understood these thousand years.

There are some who say, look, throughout the book of Revelation, and let me just be honest with you, Reva, this is my take, numbers are oftentimes used symbolically. That's not to say that, you know, it's all just this great allegory and we can't really understand it, but throughout the book of Revelation, we're looking at apocalyptic literature here. You have so many symbols, so many images, and so this idea of this thousand year reign of Christ, there are some who understand that to be what Jesus is doing right now. 1 Corinthians 15 says that he's reigning right now until he basically defeats his last enemy, the final enemy to be defeated is death. And so according to this view, there's this understanding that Jesus is currently reigning, he's going to return at the second coming, and that's when you're going to have the final judgment.

And so in both views, essentially after the quote unquote thousand years, you have the final judgment. Thank you for your question, and may the Lord bless you. Let me just say this, practically speaking, as we think about the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, we know that it's a reality that he's going to come back bodily and that we as Christians are called to be ready. We're called to be walking with the Lord, our lamps filled with oil, Jesus gave a parable in the gospels, and that's what really we should be focused on is living our lives in honor of the Lord Jesus Christ, looking forward to that blessed hope that we have, the appearing of Jesus Christ. And may the Lord give you grace, Reva, to walk with him and to look to him as we look forward to his coming.

Amen. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. You know, here at the Core, we are not supported by a particular church or denomination. We actually rely on people just like you to make donations to keep us on the air. And if you find this program helpful, we would ask you to prayerfully consider making a gift of any amount. You can do that on our website at corechristianity.com.

Just click donate at the top of the page. Let's go to Ralph calling in from Long Island, New York. Ralph, what's your question for Pastor Adriel? Hello, hello, Pastor Adriel.

Hey, Ralph. Yeah, I got a question concerning Romans chapter 8, verse 1. Okay, so I use my NAS Bible, and it says, for now there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, period. And King James translates that, it goes on, right? It says, for those who walk not according to the flesh, right, but according to the Spirit.

So what is the correct translation? I mean, you know, I'm a believer in Christ, man, praise God, he saved me. In Gospel of John, right, Jesus says, if you believe in his name, you're not condemned, right? That's right. Yeah, great.

No, no, no, this is a great question. It gets us into what's sometimes called textual criticism. And so the New Testament that we have, right, we have thousands of New Testament manuscripts, Greek manuscripts, that really date back from pretty early on, the first several centuries of the Church. And so what we do in the world of textual criticism, we have all these manuscripts, and we're looking at them and determining, understanding, you know, what the originals said, what's closest to the original.

So there's this whole study of how to go about doing that. And there are different sort of bodies of manuscripts, you know, different translations of the Bible oftentimes rely on different bodies of manuscripts. So the King James version is going to rely on a different group of manuscripts, oftentimes manuscripts that are a little bit later than what the New American Standard Bible or the ESV is relying on. And so I use the ESV, there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. And some manuscripts do add, who walk not according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. Now, we do know that that idea of walking according to the Spirit is something that we're seeing also here in Romans 6 through 8. But here in particular, the question is, well, am I going to be condemned if I don't perfectly faithfully walk according to the Spirit?

I think that might be your concern. It seems to me like Paul is making it absolutely clear here that now in Christ, right, you talked about that battle that we had in chapter 7, this, you know, wanting to do good, but then not doing the good that I want to do, a wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death. In other words, it's very clear that we don't perfectly fulfill the law of God. We sin, we still struggle.

And so our hope, our confidence is not in ourselves, but thanks be to God, chapter 7, verse 25, through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin. There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Now that word condemnation, it's a legal term.

It's the opposite of being justified. In Christ now, Paul says earlier in Romans chapter 5, verse 1, we have been justified. We have peace with God now.

And so I prefer the way in which the NASB has it, the ESV has it. Like I said, these are going to be using earlier New Testament manuscripts, and so I think that's a more faithful rendering of the original there. But that doesn't mean we're not called to walk according to the Spirit. We are. Paul goes on to say in Romans 8, you know, by the Spirit we put to death the sinful deeds of the body. And so that's something that all of us as believers are called to, but our confidence isn't in how perfectly we do that, because nobody does that perfectly. We're relying on the Holy Spirit day by day, walking with the Lord. Our confidence is in the fact that we are in Christ by faith, and that having been justified in Him now, we aren't condemned.

We are the justified. And so we have, you have, Ralph, peace with God through Jesus. Thanks for your question, brother. Just love that verse, Romans 8.1. Man, it's something for all of us when we're feeling discouraged, when we're feeling maybe guilty about something, to just turn back to it, remember that great promise from that verse. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez, and we are excited to announce a brand new Bible study we have to offer you. It's on the book of Revelation. Yes, a beautiful Bible study on the book of Revelation. We've already been in the book of Revelation some on today's broadcast when we were looking at Revelation chapter 20. Just goes to show we get so many questions about the book of Revelation, which is why we put together this Bible study. Questions about the rapture, questions about the thousand-year reign, the millennial reign, what happens after that, persecution that Christians experience. We know there's a lot of questions about that right now. Get your hands on this resource, Bible study on the book of Revelation.

You can go through it on your own or with a group of friends, and it's yours for a gift of $20 or more. All you have to do is go to our website, corechristianity.com forward slash revelation. That's corechristianity.com forward slash revelation, or you can call us at 833-843-2673.

That's 833-the-core. Well, let's go to a voicemail we received from one of our younger listeners. My name is Hayden. I'm 10 years old, and I have a question. If you disobey your parents for obeying God, are you committing a sin?

Hey, Hayden, thank you for that question. I guess I would want to know, you know, like, what is it that your parents are asking you to do? If you're busy reading your Bible and your parents are saying, hey, you need to clean your room now, and you say, I'm serving God, I can't do that, well, I would say that's not a good example of a time where you ought to disobey your parents. But I do know that there are instances where people in authority, even our parents, can call us or ask us to do something that is wrong or sinful, and I hope that that's not the case for you, little brother. But we're always called, you know, God gives us these authorities, and we are called, it's the fifth commandment that the Lord God gave to his people, to honor our father and our mother, to respect them. You have really sort of embedded in that command just to call to respect and honor authority, to submit to authority, insofar as they're calling us not to sin against the Lord.

The ultimate authority, Hayden, is God himself. And so when other people, even people who are in positions of authority, ask us to do something that is contrary to God's word, ask us to sin, well then we obey God rather than man. But if they're just asking us to do something that we don't want to do, or maybe aren't that interested in, well, we submit to them in honor to the Lord and ultimately in respect to authorities that God has placed over us.

We also have to be careful. So on the one hand, right, if someone in authority is asking us to do something sinful, we obey God rather than man. But we also have to be careful, and you see this in the New Testament, that we aren't making excuses for why we don't have to obey those in authority over us, including our parents.

And sometimes those excuses can kind of sound holy. I'm thinking of what Jesus said in Mark chapter 7 about the religious leaders. He said to them, you leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men.

Mark 7 verse 8. And then verse 9, he said to them, you have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition. For Moses said, honor your father and your mother, and whoever reviles father or mother must surely die. But you say, if a man tells his father or his mother, whatever you would have gained from me is carbon, that is given to God, then you no longer permit him to do anything for his father or mother, thus making void the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down and many such things you do.

And so there's two dangers here, my friend. One is, right, we always are called to obey God rather than man when man is asking us to sin. But two, we have to be careful that we don't use our quote unquote obedience to God as a way for not really obeying God when He calls us to honor our parents, that kind of a thing. And so you have to hold those two things together and may God give you wisdom, my young friend, as you seek to honor your parents and to love and serve God.

And I'm so glad you even have this question. So wonderful to see young men, young boys wanting to grow in the Lord and may God fill you with this spirit and bless you as you continue to study the Scriptures, my friend. Hey, thank you, Hayden, for listening. We'll be praying for you, that you will follow the Lord.

It sounds like you're already doing that, and boy, we're just so excited about that. Let's go to Derek from St. Louis, Missouri. Derek, what's your question for Pastor Adriel? Well, as a fairly new believer in Christ, I got saved in prison about two years ago. I rely on the Scripture, number one, for knowledge of God. But I'm also a member in a church, and I hear all the time these debates about the worship wars, that there's some music that you shouldn't be listening to, and there's heresy.

And my concern is that I truly enjoy modern Christian music, and I think that it boosts my spirit during the day, but I want to make sure that I'm not putting myself in danger of listening to false teachings. First, Derek, praise God. I'm just so overjoyed to hear that the Lord has brought you to Himself. I have several friends who came to Christ while they were incarcerated. I know that the Lord is at work, you know, in the prisons and in the lives of people who need the Gospel. I'm so glad to hear that the Lord has brought you to Himself.

And the question that you have is a really good one. Let me just say first, right, it's not, you know, older songs, you know, hymns or that kind of a thing aren't more holy just because they're older. And newer songs, contemporary Christian music, isn't less holy because it's newer, that kind of a thing.

We have to just look at the content. What are we singing? Are we singing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, things that edify us, things that cause the Word of Christ to dwell in our hearts richly? Or are we singing things that are leading us into heresy? And the fact of the matter is there are songs out there that sometimes have issues, doctrinal issues, or maybe they're just not setting our eyes on worshiping God. Maybe they're setting our eyes more on ourselves. And so it's good to be discerning, and I'm grateful to hear, Derek, that you are wanting to be discerning.

I think that that's wise. I think with whatever we're singing or hearing or praying, especially in the context of the church and corporate worship, we just compare it to what the scriptures teach. We ask ourselves questions like, is the Word of Christ being made to dwell in my heart more and more through the prayers that I'm hearing and the songs that I'm singing? Is this the Word of God that we're singing back to the Lord? I think that's a really good, I mean, if a song that you're singing is based on scripture, that's as good as it gets.

And so I think that those are good questions to ask, and I think that you don't have to just rule out all of the contemporary stuff just because it's newer. Again, just because it's an older song doesn't mean it's perfect doctrinally. There are older songs that have doctrinal issues as well. That's why it's so important for us to know the Word of God, to study it, so that when we hear these things, we can say, hey, that doesn't seem entirely right. And so that's what I would encourage you to do, is keep digging into the scriptures, and as you think about the songs that you're singing, ask yourself the question, is this biblical? Is this in line with what God's Word says?

And if it is, then sing your heart away, brother, and may God bless you. Thank you for giving us a call. Thank you, Derek. We really appreciate you. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez.

Let's go to an email that came in from Janet. She says, When praying with a group of believers, I often feel forced to pray out loud. I'm not against this, but it often seems like it's either praying on command or it's for show. I cannot and will not do this, but then I feel like I'm doing something wrong. I think we should pray as we're moved by the Holy Spirit and not just from our own minds.

Am I off base here? Yeah, well, I mean, I get it. You know, some people are more or less comfortable praying in a group. And of course, Jesus, when He encouraged us to pray, He said, When you pray, don't be like the hypocrites. They love to pray on street corners, and for them, it's all for show.

They're making a big show of everything. And so I appreciate that you want to be sensitive to that. We are called as Christians to pray together, though. You think about what happens when we gather together for church. We are corporately coming together to pray, or maybe in a smaller group, it sounds like that's what you're referring to, you know, with other believers. I would say, you know, if it's not something that you're comfortable with doing, don't pray just because you're pressured into doing it, but really search your heart and say, Lord, even in those situations, help me when I'm praying with other Christians to fix my eyes on you, not to be so concerned about what other people are thinking or what their opinions might be, but to focus on you and to pray together with my brothers and sisters in a way that would be edifying and encouraging and ultimately honoring to you. And so there's nothing wrong with individual prayer, going to your prayer closet, and there's nothing wrong with praying in a group, so long as we're doing it just like Jesus called us to. And I would say, go to Matthew chapter 6, in particular, where Jesus gives some of that instruction on prayer.

Thanks for your question. And of course, for all of us, the importance is that we are communicating with God on a regular basis, right? I mean, throughout the day, I think, rather than say, well, this is my one prayer time, this is my 10 minutes or 20 minutes in the morning, I think throughout the day, we just make our requests known to the Lord. Amen.

Absolutely. That is something that we're called to. I mean, you think about what Paul said, pray without ceasing. And so from the moment that we wake up in the morning to the time that we lay our head down on the pillow, our whole life, our whole day, should be an offering to the Lord. And I love the fact that through Jesus Christ, Bill, we can have that constant communion with God. We can come boldly to the throne of grace to find grace and mercy to help in our time of need.

It really is such a wonderful thing. And one of the benefits that we receive as Christians under the new covenant, in the Old Testament, Bill, if people wanted to approach God in worship, typically they did it through the priesthood, through the sacrifices. They couldn't just waltz into the temple, certainly not into the Holy of Holies. That's where only the high priest went and once a year. But when Jesus Christ died on the cross, the veil that separated the Holy of Holies from the Holy place and from the rest of the world was torn in two, signifying that you, if you have faith in Jesus, you have direct access to God because you are one of his children. You are a holy priesthood through Christ, and we can go to the Lord any time of the day. And so what an encouragement for us to do just that. Be sure to join us next time as we explore the truth of God's Word together.