Why are the teachings about the rapture so confusing? That's just one of the questions we'll be answering on today's edition of CORE Christianity. Well, 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. Our phone lines will be open for the next 25 minutes, and you can call us with your question at 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 Adriel right now live in the studio on YouTube and message him that way. And of course, you can always email us a question at questionsatcorechristianity.com. First up today, let's go to Scott in Memphis, Tennessee.
Scott, what's your question for Pastor Adriel? Hello? Hey, Scott. How you doing? I'm doing well.
How are you doing, sir? We had a question come up in Bible study Sunday morning about the temptations of Christ. The question was, when he was led up to the high place where Satan showed him all the nations of the world and the glory of them, was he physically taken up there, and who led him up there?
Yes, we're thinking of Matthew chapter 4, the temptation of Jesus. It does seem like Jesus is in the wilderness. He's in this real place, up on a high mountain, you know, seeing the glorious kingdoms of the world.
Now, how did that happen? We're not entirely sure. It's not that he could see every kingdom of the world from the top of this mountain where he was at, but there's this sense in which he was given a picture of, if you will, the kingdoms of this world and being tempted by the evil one. Matthew chapter 4, beginning in verse 1, then Jesus was led up by the Spirit. There's a Spirit leading Christ into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And after fasting 40 days and 40 nights, he was hungry, and the tempter came and said to him, if you are the Son of God, command that these stones become loaves of bread, and you have the beginning of the temptation there. And so, yes, we can say that Jesus was really, truly in the wilderness. I think that the big takeaway from this, and, God, this is something that a lot of people miss, is here in the early chapters of Matthew, Jesus is being portrayed to us as the new and faithful Israel, if you will. You think about the Israelites in the Old Testament coming out of Egypt, going through the wilderness, through the waters, and first through the waters and into the wilderness where they were tempted for a period of 40 years. And you remember what happened during their wilderness wanderings. They failed. They gave into temptation.
They embraced idolatry, sexual immorality, all sorts of things. And Jesus here is walking, if you will, in the footsteps of Israel. He leaves Egypt. You see this in chapter 2, verses 13 and following.
He goes through the waters, if you will. He's baptized by John the Baptist in the Jordan River. And then he's led into the wilderness for a period of temptation, 40 days. But whereas Israel under the Old Covenant succumbed, failed in the temptation, Jesus stands up to the evil one. He conquers the evil one by resisting him according to the word of God. And so Jesus is being depicted as the true and faithful Israel here. And that's, I think, part of the point that Matthew is making for us in these early chapters of Genesis.
This is the true Son of God who is always obedient. And aren't we thankful for that? Because like Israel under the Old Covenant, we fail. We fall.
We struggle with temptation. And so we set our eyes on Jesus, the one who conquered the evil one in the wilderness who did not succumb to temptation. And that's one of the glorious things about these early chapters of Matthew. Thanks for your call, Scott.
Thank you, Scott. You know, the other encouraging thing about that passage, Adriel, is that Jesus is actually calling upon God's words himself in responding to Satan's temptation. And that's something that we can do if we have written scripture on our hearts when we're tempted. Thy word have I hidden in my heart that I may not sin against you, the psalmist said.
How important it is for us to have the word of God hidden in our hearts for the day of temptation, as you said. Satan there is twisting the scriptures. He's quoting the Bible. Satan quotes the Bible. All heretics quote the Bible. But Jesus responds with the right interpretation, if you will, a right understanding of scripture. And so we have to be vigilant.
Amen. You're listening to Core Christianity. If you have a question about the Bible or the Christian life, give us a call right now. Here is our phone number. It's 833-THE-CORE.
That's 1-833-843-2673. Let's go to John in Tulsa, Oklahoma. John, what's your question for Pastor Adriel? Yeah, that is in 2 Peter 2, 4, he talks about all of the fallen angels or demons being locked up until the day of judgment. And so it seems like, you know, everybody thinks that the demons are out running around causing havoc. Can you answer that for me? Yeah.
Okay. So 2 Peter chapter 2, verse 4, for if God did not spare the angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment. That's 2 Peter 2, 4. And then there's a parallel in Jude, verse 6, and the angels who did not stay within their own position of authority, but left their proper dwelling, he has kept in eternal chains under gloomy darkness until the judgment of the great day. It seems to me, John, that both in Jude and in 2 Peter, you have a specific group of fallen angels that are being described.
Some people will say these are the angels that were involved in the early chapters of Genesis, where you had the sons of God going into the daughters of man. And so it doesn't necessarily, you don't have to take this as all the fallen angels, if you will, it could be a subset, a specific group within the fallen angels that are being spoken of here as experiencing this judgment. But the broader point that Peter is making in 2 Peter here is he's saying, look, the judgment of God is going to come on false teachers. And he uses these examples, the example of the angels there in verse 4, the example of Sodom and Gomorrah, as the text continues to demonstrate that God will indeed judge those who sin against him.
That's the point that Peter is trying to make here. And he says in verse 9, the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment. And of course, we know that Peter says elsewhere that the evil one does go about as a roaring lion seeking to devour. And so Satan is very much active in the world today in a different sense than he was under the old covenant, I think. But he's still active trying to tempt, trying to deceive, trying to lead people astray. John talks about the spirit of the Antichrist that's at work in the world even now. And so we have to be vigilant.
But the point that Peter is making in 2 Peter is judgment is going to come on these false teachers that are plaguing the church. God bless you, brother. Thanks for your question, John.
Appreciate that. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. What can we learn from the life of Jonah in the Old Testament? Well, Adriel has written an excellent Bible study on the book of Jonah, and we'd like to offer that to you today. Yeah, Jonah sometimes called the reluctant prophet.
He doesn't want to listen to the Lord. And years ago, I preached through the book of Jonah. It's one of my favorite books of the Old Testament. And so we've created this resource. I've helped to create this resource on the book of Jonah. It's a Bible study to go through. And I really think it will encourage you. It's 10 weeks long, and it's yours for a donation of $20 or more, perfect for group use or for personal use if you just want to study the book of Jonah on your own and benefit from that book. So get a hold of this resource. We'd love to offer that to you.
Just go to our website corechristianity.com forward slash offers and look for the new Bible study on the book of Jonah. Well, let's go back to one of our voicemails. We actually received a couple of voicemails this week. These are interesting. They both have to do with the rapture and the book of Revelation.
Let's hear those right now. Hello, my name is John. I'm calling from Illinois and I'm just curious as to why a lot of churches don't believe in the rapture. Thank you.
Yeah, my name is Mike from Internet Oklahoma. Hey, brother, I want to ask you on the in the book of Revelation about the rapture. Where does it say anywhere?
I haven't seen or been taught it. I've just heard it about that all Christians will be all of us Christians and we will be raptured. I can't find it in my in my Bible anywhere in the book of Revelation.
And God bless you. Yeah, I love that we played both of those voicemails back to back because it just goes to show that, you know, the diversity of thought out there and we really have a broad audience here at core Christianity, which we love. At the end of the day, we want to dig into the scripture. So the question is, is an idea a theology biblical?
Is it rooted in the text of scripture? Now, Christians have differed on this question of the rapture. And the idea of the rapture is just that God is going to snatch up, if you will, believers prior to the Great Tribulation, the seven year tribulation described in places like the book of Revelation.
And then there's going to be a period of havoc on the earth, the period also of revival on the earth. And then at the end of that period, there's going to be the second coming of Jesus. And so you kind of have two comings of Jesus there in that idea, one where Jesus comes for believers, for his people, for the elect, however you want to you want to phrase it, and another where he comes back in judgment, the second coming after a period of tribulation. It's a really popular idea today, but that idea that there are these two separate comings actually was not so popular in the history of the church.
It's really been popularized more recently by a number of books on the end times, stories about the end times. And again, the question is, is this idea, the idea of the rapture in scripture? Well, the word rapture is not a word that you're going to find in the Bible. What proponents of the rapture will point to is a verse in 1 Thessalonians 4 in verse 17 where Paul said, We who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. That word caught up is the Greek word harpazo.
It means to snatch away or to steal away. And so people say, well, that's the idea of the rapture right there. Now, my personal opinion, I think this is the view of the majority of the church throughout history, is that you don't have these two separate comings, but that there is one coming of the Lord Jesus Christ like a thief in the night on the day of the Lord. So you have the second coming, the final judgment, the resurrection of the dead, all taking place at the same time.
These are contemporaneous events. And if you just look a little bit further in 1 Thessalonians 5, I think this is very clear. Paul said, Now concerning the times and the seasons, brothers, you have no need to have anything written to you, for you yourselves are fully aware that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. That day of the Lord, that coming of the Lord Jesus referred to back in chapter 4, verse 15 as well, the coming, the parousion, Jesus talked about this in Matthew 24, the appearing of the Lord, that happens on the day of the Lord, the final day of judgment. And so there's confusion about this, I think, because people are coming to conclusions about these various words and trying to see in this, I think, two distinct events when I would say clearly the apostle Paul is referring to one event, the coming of the Lord like a thief in the night on the day of the Lord, that is his second coming.
And so that's my view. And so I don't talk on the rapture as it's often popularized, has been popularized today in the same sense. But again, we want to dig into the scriptures and understand what they say. And so I would say if you want to know more about these two things, read 1 and 2 Thessalonians because that's where Paul focuses on the coming of the Lord, or also get a hold of our Bible study on the book of Revelation. There was that question there on the book of Revelation. And so we got a resource here at Core Christianity, a 10-week study through the book of Revelation, which you'll also find helpful. Thank you for those questions. It's a great study.
We'd recommend that to anyone. The book of Revelation can be confusing to us. There's some symbolism there, but there's also real events described in that book, and you can learn more by going to corechristianity.com forward slash revelation to get that particular study. Well, let's go back to another one of our phone calls.
This is Nick in Memphis, Tennessee. Nick, what's your question for Pastor Adriel? A recent Bible study that we're in, Calvinism and predestination was brought up. I'm not familiar with that, but there were a couple of people in our group who believed that they were predestined to enter heaven. Free will, also. I don't understand that. I've never been taught that. I've been taught differently. And I wanted to get your opinion so I could be more educated about that.
Hey, Nick, thank you so much for your question. This is something that Christians have wrestled with for 2,000 years. The name, Calvinism, we don't want to associate ourselves with a person. We want to be focused on the teaching of Scripture. I think even theologians like John Calvin would have wanted that.
The focus has to be on the Word of God. And the first thing I want to say to you is there is talk of predestination in the Bible, of God's election, God's choice. You certainly saw it in the Old Testament with regard to Israel. God told his people in Deuteronomy, you know, you weren't chosen because you were greater than any other nation.
You were more numerous. It was because God set his love on you, because he wanted to be faithful to his promises, Moses told the people of God there. So you have God's choice there, God's sovereign choice. But also in the New Testament, you see this language as well. And of course, as I often say, right, there's all sorts of controversy about this, but let's just open the scriptures. Ephesians chapter 1 verse 3. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love, he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace with which he has blessed us in the beloved. Another passage of scripture where the Apostle Paul really unpacks this idea is in the book of Romans, Romans chapter 9. And in the context there, Nick, Paul is lamenting the fact that many Jews when Jesus came, his kinsmen, Paul's kinsmen, according to the nation of Israel, that they rejected the Messiah. And he's heartbroken about this.
I wish that I was cursed so that they might be saved. But then he goes on to say it's not that God's word has failed. And he begins to talk about God's sovereign choice. And you have this great mystery, sometimes we call it, in scripture where it's very clear to us, according to the Bible, that God is sovereign, that he is the great king on his throne, that apart from his grace, no one would even believe.
It's a work of the Holy Spirit. And yet at the same time, scripture is absolutely clear that you and I are responsible, that we are called to repent and to believe. Now, we know that that repentance and faith is itself a work of God, and yet it's something that we're called to. I think about what Paul says in the book of Philippians, in Philippians chapter 1, verse 12. Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now not only in my presence, but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.
You guys are responsible here. Work out your salvation with fear and trembling. But then he adds this, verse 13 of Philippians chapter 2. For it is God who works in you, both to will and to work, for his good pleasure. So I think we have to confess, look, God is sovereign.
It's the Spirit of God who works in people, who grants the new birth by the grace of the Holy Spirit. And yet we are responsible. That's, I think, a great mystery that we experience in scripture, but it's true.
Now let me just say this one thing. I think, especially in our culture, Nick, we really value autonomy, you know, I'm in control of my own destiny, that kind of a thing. There is this individualism, this Western individualism that so permeates everything around us. And it's sort of our natural bent. So the idea that we are not sovereign, that I am not on the throne, can be very offensive to us.
And certainly it was to me for a number of years I struggled with this. But you realize quickly that you and I aren't God, that we're not in control, that we aren't the Lord, that we look to the sovereign King of heaven and earth, and we submit to him, we yield to him, and there really is great comfort there. There's great joy and also great hope. We look to the God who is able to open the eyes of the blind and soften the hearts of sinners, and that's what God has done with us. And so we praise God for that, for his sovereign grace, while recognizing that we're also called to preach the gospel to all people, to command all people everywhere to repent.
Not just some people, but the gospel is proclaimed promiscuously, if you will, to all people, because we believe that it's through that gospel that they come into a saving knowledge of Jesus. And so I think that's where I'll leave you. Really a big question, but keep digging into the scriptures. Ephesians 1, Romans 9, those are some great texts to look at, and pray that the Lord would continue to grant you understanding as you look at those passages. Nick, thanks so much for your call.
Great question. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. Here's one of our voicemails we received earlier this week from a caller named Eric. Hi, Pastor Adriel.
I am a longtime listener and I really enjoy your program. I am really struggling with something lately. It's come up within about the last six weeks, and I'm beginning to doubt my belief in the suffering of Christ. I went through about 18 months of intense mental and physical pain, and whenever I read in the Bible about Jesus' suffering, I know it's the devil that is prodding me with the thought of, but you suffered more through those 18 months, and it's really affected my relationship with God. I'm really hoping that you can explain the suffering of Christ and how insignificant my suffering is compared to His. I appreciate your wise words, and God bless you.
Well, Eric, I definitely want to pray for you, and so I will do that. But, brother, the first thing I would say is the sufferings of our Lord Jesus are very different in one sense from the sufferings we experience, and then also very similar. God the Son, the eternal Word of the Father, assumed humanity, clothed Himself in human flesh, so that in that flesh He might suffer for us, die for us. And so He took to Himself a true body, a reasonable soul. He suffered in the flesh, in the soul, if you will, the mental anguish, the pain that He experienced.
I'm sure you've been looking at some of these passages. Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, crying out, sweating droplets of blood. There is this great mental anguish associated with the sufferings of our Lord, and it sounds like that's some of what you've experienced as well. And there is also the great physical anguish, the pain of crucifixion, of the lashing, of being pierced, crowned with thorns. You think of the shame, the mocking, just a sort of all-encompassing suffering, but above all of that was what He was carrying, and it wasn't just the cross that He was carrying. Eric, it was your sins that He was carrying. It was my sins that He was carrying.
He was bearing our curse in His body on the tree. And that's what the apostle Paul says in Galatians chapter 3. He says in verse 10, That's the suffering that Jesus bore that you don't bear, the curse of God's judgment, His wrath for sin. And in that sense, the sufferings of Christ are greater than anything anyone on this world, any believer will ever experience, because He's carrying the immense weight of our sins. And in every other way, brother, Jesus is able to sympathize with you with the mental anguish, with the physical pain.
He can sympathize with you because He assumed our humanity so that He might be a comfort to us and to you and redeem us. Let me pray for you. Father, pray for Eric. I ask, Lord God, that you would comfort him, fill him with your Holy Spirit, strengthen him in the faith, and help him to look to you, Jesus, as the one who has borne his sufferings and redeemed him, forgiven all of his sins in love.
Amen. 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.
Whisper: medium.en / 2023-09-02 05:00:55 / 2023-09-02 05:10:27 / 10