Are the Stories in the Old Testament Fact or Fiction?

The following is a pre-recorded version of CORE Christianity.

Is it okay for Christian leaders to boast? That's just one of the questions we'll be answering on today's edition of CORE Christianity. Hi, this is Bill Meyer, along with Pastor Adriel Sanchez, and this is the radio program where we answer your questions about the Bible and the Christian life every day. Here's the number to call if you have a question. It's 833-THE-CORE. That's 1-833-843-2673. You can also post your question on our Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter accounts.

You can watch us on YouTube, and you can email us with your question at questionsatcorechristianity.com. First up today, let's go to Barbara in St. Louis, Missouri. Barbara, welcome to the program. Hi, thank you for taking my call. Thanks for calling us, Barbara.

What's your question? Well, my question is, one of the Ten Commandments states not to make any graven images or display any graven images or anything that resembles from heaven above. How does that apply to displaying a nativity scene or any pictures of what could be represented as the Holy Family?

Yeah, God spoke to His people when He brought them out of the land of Egypt, and He said, I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. You shall have no other gods before Me. You shall not make for yourself a graven image. You shall not make any likeness of anything that is in the heavens above or that is in the earth beneath or that is in the waters under the earth.

You shall not bow down yourself to them nor serve them. The Second Commandment. And the question is, well, what about the nativity scenes that we see, especially around Christmas time?

Is it okay for me to put one up in my front yard? Well, we have to go to the Word of God first and foremost. And I know that this is probably not the most popular opinion, but I would say, look, Scripture trumps everything else. We ought not to make images of God, sculptures of God. And the reason is because God wants to represent Himself, and He does that through His Word, through His revelation.

And so I know a lot of people think, well, this is sort of harmless. It's not that big of a deal. But I would say, for us, the focus in terms of communicating what God is like, who Jesus was, has to be the Holy Scriptures. Paul, when he talked about giving people a quote-unquote image of Jesus, as he wrote to the Galatians in Galatians chapter three, he says, I placarded Christ before you.

How? Not by painting a big picture of Him or sculpting an image of Jesus, the Messiah. No, through the preaching of the gospel, through the preaching of the cross. What we need is more of that gospel preaching. If we want to communicate the truth of the gospel, the real message of the incarnation, the Christmas story, or anything related to the life of Jesus, what we need to do is share the Word of God. That's where we get the clearest picture of who the Lord is. And so I think we're called to be faithful here to the Scriptures.

And I know that there's debate about this, and as I said, I know that a lot of people, they hear that and they just think, oh, boy, goodness, I've never thought about that, or that just seems a little bit extreme. But again, we want to be faithful to the Word of God, and let God's Word drive us in the decisions that we make and in the things that we do, especially as it relates to worship. And so, Barbara, I appreciate your question. Thank you for giving us a call with that. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez.

Let's go to Troy in Nashville, Tennessee. Troy, what's your question for Pastor Adriel? I'm calling about the Joe Biden Equality Act agenda. He has said, even on TV, I'm sure many have seen and heard it with Kamala, that he is going to make a law that, first thing of all, I don't hate homosexuals.

I think they can be saved just like anyone else. He's going to make it a law where they can come into the church and set up their own rules in there and teach Sunday school about their lifestyles and the preachers teaching what they teach in there. And he's going to, from what I know, from what I've heard, he's going to make it a law. If anyone who is against it, it will be considered a hate crime. I just want to know, is this the beginning of the persecution of the church? Hmm.

Hey, Troy. Well, I appreciate your question. And I wouldn't say that this is the beginning of the persecution of the church. The Church of Jesus Christ has been persecuted for 2,000 years.

And throughout the rest of the world right now, there are places where we have brothers and sisters who are executed for their faith in Jesus Christ. We really should give thanks to the Lord for the way in which, through his providence, the church has grown in many parts of the United States. But even with that, we desperately need here revival. We desperately need a recovering of the core Christian truths, the doctrines of the gospel that we find in the Bible.

We need that. Now, in terms of the Biden administration, the Equality Act, what we're called to do as Christians, here's the words of the apostle Paul in 1 Timothy 2. First of all, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings, and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. And so I think we pursue peace. We pray for leaders, even the leaders we disagree with. And we pray that God would allow his church to thrive, to flourish, that we would experience peace, that they would experience also the peace of the gospel, so that we could lead peaceful lives, quiet lives, godly and dignified in every way.

This is good. It is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. And I think we can have this sort of alarmist mentality. We have to be careful that we recognize, look, Jesus Christ said, I am going to build my church, and the gates of hell will never prevail against her.

We have that promise. It doesn't matter what anybody does or says or whatever laws are passed. We know that the church is going to continue to advance through the preaching of the gospel.

We don't get our marching orders from any political administration. We get them from the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, Jesus Christ. So we're called to be faithful to him and to his word, regardless of what comes down the pipeline. And part of being faithful to him and to his word is living peaceably with our neighbors, loving them and sharing the gospel with them and praying for the leaders of this nation, even when we disagree with them, to being examples of peace, of charity, of righteousness. And if for one reason or another we experience persecution, how do we respond? Well, we do what Jesus said.

We love our enemies. Read the Sermon on the Mount. And so I think we can't look into the future. And we also don't want to have the kind of attitude that just assumes the worst all the time. What we ought to do is be hopeful in the promise of the gospel, what we've received from Jesus himself, that he's going to build his church. And we're a part of that church. And so we press forward prayerfully, with hope, and ultimately knowing that the victory belongs to the Lord.

Troy, thanks for your question. Adriel, I'm guessing you would also say that Christians need to be educated and aware of what's going on in the political system and to be active in stating their opinion. Yeah, I think there's nothing wrong with that. Now, I think a lot of times when people today state their opinions on things like social media, we really have this hard time dialoguing with one another, communicating with each other in charitable ways. So I think we can be examples, as Christians, of those who are, one, willing to listen, to show empathy to people who disagree with us and to have good conversations, helpful conversations, where we share, exhibit the love of Christ, and really try to understand other people's points of views without compromising what we believe, what we know God has revealed in his word.

And so we should be models of that kind of dialog in the world today, because it's something you just don't see very much on both sides of the political aisle. It just seems like there's a lot of fighting, a lot of sort of mudslinging, and that's something we should not participate in as Christians. Amen. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. Let's go to Kristi in Kansas City, Missouri. Kristi, what's your question for Pastor Adriel? Hi, Pastor Adriel. I'm so excited to talk to you. Hey, Kristi. Thanks for calling us.

What's your question? I'm a new believer, and I struggle with believing the Old Testament scripture. I have faith in the New Testament scripture because there are multiple historic eyewitness accounts. However, in the Old Testament, there are some pretty wild claims of bread falling from the sky, or Jonah and the whale, and even the Garden of Eden with Adam and Eve and the snake. That sounds more fairytale to me, so I'm just wondering, is it fair to say perhaps those are parables used to teach us lessons?

And how can I increase my faith in the Old Testament specifically? Kristi, one man, praise the Lord that you are walking in the same place as me, and I'm going to praise the Lord that you are walking with Jesus. I don't know how long you've been a Christian for or what the circumstances were, what brought you to the faith, but I'm so glad to hear that you're walking with the Lord, that you believe in Jesus, and that you're studying God's Word, and that you're asking really good questions, hard questions.

And keep doing that. When we have questions about the Bible, the worst thing we can do is sweep them under the rug and not deal with them. I think this is really good that you're asking these kinds of questions. And there have been some people who have said, yeah, we just have to write that stuff off. It was a sort of a parable, a myth meant to communicate some other greater truth, that kind of a thing.

And we have to be careful. We do have in the Bible poetic language, sort of the kind of language, or apocalyptic language as well. We have to be careful that in those situations, we're not just saying, oh, that's literal. We have to read every genre of scripture according to how it was intended to be read. But in a lot of the things that you mentioned, those stories are coming from historical narratives. And they're also confirmed by Jesus and by the disciples in the New Testament. So for example, Jesus, he talks about the situation, the story of Jonah, as if it really happened.

Jesus in Matthew 12, verse 40, gives a prophecy of his death and resurrection essentially. And he says, just like Jonah was in the belly of the whale for three days and three nights, so I'm going to be in the heart of the earth. You mentioned Adam and Eve. Adam is mentioned in the New Testament as well by the apostle Paul.

Now you think of a place like Romans chapter five, 1 Corinthians chapter 15. Adam is the first man, the first representative of humanity. Jesus came as the second Adam. That's what's emphasized in 1 Corinthians 15 and Romans chapter five by the apostle Paul. But the idea there is that Adam really existed and he really sinned. And his sin really did have a terrible effect on human history and on what was going to come after him. You mentioned the bread from heaven, the story that you have God feeding his people in the wilderness. Jesus talked about that as well in John chapter six.

Now I get that these events are hard to believe, but here's what I would say. These are instances where God broke into human history. This wasn't the sort of everyday ordinary life of the people of God even then, and it's not the ordinary everyday Christian life that we experience today. But there were moments, Christie, throughout redemptive history where we believe that the God who created the entire universe, all things, broke into our world and revealed himself in these magnificent ways through things like the Exodus, being with the children of Israel through the wilderness, ultimately revealing himself through Jesus, his son, the death and the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

And so I would say you have to understand that if we just live in this sort of naturalistic world where we deny the possibility of miracles, of the fact that there's this all-powerful creator God, well then yeah, these things would be difficult to believe. But if we recognize that there is a God in heaven who created all things, we experience his grace now through Jesus, his son, who lived and died and rose again from the dead. We can know him, know his presence.

We know that he's able to accomplish great things, and that's what you have recorded in the Bible is the great acts of God throughout history, throughout redemptive history, to reveal himself to his people. And we believe it. We take it by faith because we know that God is real, that he exists, and that he's able to do anything, even raise Jesus from the dead.

And so that's what I would say, and I think that that's really, really important. We live in a day today where many people since the 20th century have been trying to deny the miracles of the Bible, but it's so important that we embrace them, that we believe them, because our faith really is miraculous. I mean, it rests on the resurrection of Jesus Christ, the fact that he rose again from the dead.

And so if we believe that, I think we can embrace these other ones as well. Christy, again, grateful to hear from you, grateful that God is at work in your life, and may he continue to bless you. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. Well, one of the things we often talk about in this program is the centrality of the gospel, and that means the centrality of Jesus Christ and what he has done for us.

And Adriel has produced a little booklet, which you will find really helpful. It's called Seeing Jesus. Yeah, I do think you'll find it helpful. It's a four-week devotional resource, a booklet really focusing on God's goodness to us and his son Jesus and who Jesus is and what Jesus came to accomplish. It's going to get you into the scriptures, in particular those passages of scripture that focus on the ministry of Jesus.

And again, I think it'll be a great encouragement to you. If you'd like to get a copy of Seeing Jesus, just go to our website at corechristianity.com forward slash Jesus. That's corechristianity.com forward slash Jesus and request a copy. You can also call us for that resource or any one of our resources at 833-THE-CORE.

Let's go to Val in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Val, what's your question for Pastor Adriel? Hello, Pastor Adriel. I have a question about sexual immorality. I have such a problem with resisting. I hope there's scriptures that I can refer to. I find myself looking at women with lust and tempted with regard to adultery. What can I do to suppress those feelings?

Hey, Val. Well, definitely want to pray for you. And there are a lot of passages in the Bible that talk about this. I mean, in 1 Corinthians 6 verse 18, Paul said, you know, flee from sexual immorality. And in the Sermon on the Mount, when Jesus was talking about sin and if our hand or our eye causes us to sin, he says, look, if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off. If your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out. And I think he was speaking hyperbolically there, meaning he was using this very strong language to communicate a point.

He wasn't saying, you know, you actually need to amputate your hand or cut out your eye. He was saying we have to take this really firm stance against our sin, against the sin that exists in our own hearts. A lot of times, sadly, as believers, we can take a real firm stance against the sin in other people's lives. We can point to them and see them as the problem and not deal with the sin in our own lives. And Jesus says, no, you need to focus on the sin in your own life and you need to take it really seriously.

And when it comes to something like this, Val, lust, I think that that's key. And you have to think about the things that tend to be temptations for you, maybe places that you go or things that, you know, people sort of scroll on the internet, that kind of a thing, and determine whether or not, hey, maybe I shouldn't go there if it really is a temptation for me, if it's causing me to sin. If I'm not strong enough, I have to be careful.

I have to be wise. Now, the hope that we have is that God, by the grace of His Spirit, can put to death the sins that we experience, the struggles that we have. Now, this side of heaven, we're always going to struggle. We're going to struggle many times with the same sins for our entire lives. And yet the Spirit of God is still at work in us and in your life as well, Val.

I would point you to, I think, a good place where you could camp out in the scriptures, where you could meditate for a while, is the book of Romans chapters 6 through 8. Because there, Paul talks about essentially our new identity in Jesus Christ. And Val, if you believe in Jesus, you have this new identity. You're no longer to be characterized by or defined by your sin. Now you're to be defined by your union with Jesus Christ. And because you're united to Jesus by faith, there's been this sort of definitive break with sin. You're no longer to be enslaved to it. And again, that's exactly what the apostle Paul says, beginning in Romans chapter 6, verse 1.

What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound by no means? How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? We were buried therefore with Him by baptism into death, in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. And so, because you're united to Jesus by faith, because you have this new identity, you've been identified with Christ in His death and resurrection. Paul, they're talking about baptism and what is being signified in our baptisms. Now walk, Val, as one who is alive from the dead, as one who has the life of God in Him.

It's so important. And have the confidence, the hope, that the Spirit of God also lives in you, and that you belong to the Father. Paul gets into this a little bit later in Romans chapter 8. There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, for the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.

What a wonderful promise. And then he goes on to say in verse 5, for those who live according to the flesh, that their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.

That's what you want, brother. It's a life set on the Spirit, a mind set on the Spirit, and that's what God gives you in Christ and by the gift of the Holy Spirit. And so I would say camp out in Romans chapters 6 through 8. And one other thing I would say, Val, is if you are in a good church, and I hope that you are in a good church, even getting together with some brothers, maybe the elders of that church or the pastor, just to be open with them and to say, look, this is something I struggle with. I need prayer. You know, James talks about confessing our sins to one another. I think there's real healing that takes place there. It's one of the ways that God oftentimes helps us to grow in these areas is just to go have real accountability in the body of Christ, to confess our sins, to receive encouragement, to receive prayer. And so I would encourage you to get that if you don't have that.

And I think that's a part of the process here as well. And so may the Lord richly bless you. And I want to take a moment right now also to pray for you, Val. Father, I lift Val up to you and all those who are listening right now, for whom this is a struggle, Lord, lust, the battle with lust, the battle with the flesh. I pray that you would help my brother to grow in purity, in confidence, Lord, in your love for him, despite the fact that we sin, that we fail, that we fall, that you will never leave us or forsake us. And with a hope, Lord God, that your spirit is at work in his life and that by the spirit, not in our own strength, but by the spirit, we put to death the sinful deeds of the body.

Would you sanctify my brother? We know that that's your will. You tell us that, God, that our sanctification is your will. And so we know that when we pray for sanctification, we're praying something that's in line with your will. It's a prayer that you're going to answer. And so I pray for Val right now. Would you sanctify him?

Would you cause him to walk in purity and holiness to honor you, to respect the people around him, Lord, to honor them by how he thinks of them? And, Father, give him strength in this area, we ask in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. You're listening to Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. Let's go to a voicemail that we received yesterday.

Hi, my name is Dani, and I have kind of a two-part question, but it's about the same topic. And we're supposed to be humble, not boastful. And I've read the Bible through for several years now. And John in his scripture sounds very boastful, I am the one that Jesus loved, I'm the one Jesus loved most. And then it sounds as if Saul gets kind of braggardly sounding as well, once he, you know, has the incident in Damascus.

But when he talks to the other churches that have been established, anyway, it just doesn't sound very humble from either of them. Okay, thank you so much. I'm so glad to have found your show on the radio. God bless.

Hey, Dani, thanks for that question. Yeah, I mean, there's nothing more unattractive and off-putting than an arrogant sort of Christian leader, that kind of a thing. But I don't think that's what we see here. When John refers to himself as the disciple whom Jesus loved, he does this throughout his gospel. One of his disciples whom Jesus loved, John 13, 23, and he does this on a number of occasions.

I think it's actually quite beautiful. He's not saying I'm the one that he loved the most. He's saying, look, the most important thing about me is that Jesus loves me.

And I think that that's so key for each of us to know and to understand and to rest in. It's not about bragging that I'm better than others. It's that, look, actually, I'm not that special. What's so wonderful is the fact that despite that, Jesus loves me. Paul says the same thing in Galatians chapter two, verse 20. He talks about the son of God who loved him and gave himself for him.

And Paul, I would say to go to 2 Corinthians chapter 12, he talks about boasting in his weaknesses, not in his strength, because it's in our weaknesses that the power of God is made present. Thank you for your question. God bless you. 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 program and be sure to join us next time as we explore the truth of God's word together.