Is the Kingdom for Addicts and Alcoholics?

My son died from a drug overdose, and I worry that he won't have a chance to see the Lord in heaven.

Is there any comfort for me? It's 833-THE-CORE. That's 1-833-843-2673. By the way, if you don't get through, you can always leave a voicemail for us at those numbers. And you can post your question on our Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter accounts, or email us your question at questionsatcorechristianity.com.

First up today, let's go to Greg in St. Louis, Missouri. Greg, what's your question for Pastor Adriel? Oh, yes. Thanks for taking my call.

Yes, I had a question. As I've been on my quest to search God, and to have him, you know, in my life, over the years, I have noticed that the enemy has been trying to take me out ever since I was a kid, you know, from pneumonia as a kid, from gun violence as a teenager, up until two accidents where I know now that it hasn't been from God. And it's grace and mercy that I wouldn't be here talking. And it seemed like every time when I joined the church and try to seek God even more, I'm fine. But then when I kind of fall off and kind of start doing things on my own, the enemy always come in and something always happens. I mean, even in my marriage, and this last time, I was just the last couple of months I was saying that, you know, I need to get back in touch with my God, you know, need to get back in touch with church and even though I was praying, but then all of a sudden something happened. Now everything that I've been praying for, for the last 20 years, is threatening to be taken away. So my question is, is that, is it because I've been under so many attacks by the devil is because he knows God has a better plan, a perfect plan for me that will shake his ground?

Hey, Greg. Well, I can definitely say to you that when we draw near to the Lord, that's something that the evil one does not like. Peter said in 1 Peter 5 verse 8, be sober minded, be watchful. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour.

Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world. Peter says, look, the devil's going about like a lion and he's searching for people to pray on, in particular Christians. And especially, I would say, when we remove ourselves from the fellowship of the church, when we're off on our own trying to do the Christian life without accountability, without what we refer to sometimes as the means of grace, the faithful preaching of God's word, being a part of the church, we put ourselves in a really dangerous situation.

Who's the devil looking for? He's looking for stragglers, for people who are out there not surrounded by the people of God on their own, susceptible to deception. And so I would say you need to be, we all need to be in good, solid, healthy churches where the word of God is being faithfully preached. And if we're not, we make ourselves targets, easy targets for the evil one.

And so I would encourage you to do that. And the reality is, is anytime, as I mentioned earlier, when we're drawing near to the Lord, when we're trying to do the right thing, there are going to be these temptations that come. It doesn't always mean that it's the devil who's tempting us.

Sometimes it's our own sort of sinful inclinations. But again, that's why we so desperately need fellowship. The people of God, the author of the Hebrews made it absolutely clear in Hebrews chapter 3, he said, encourage one another day by day while it is called today, lest you be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. How much encouragement do we need?

We need daily encouragement. Later in the book of Hebrews, in Hebrews chapter 10, he warned the Hebrew Christians not to forsake the assembling of themselves together. He said, stop forsaking the fellowship. We need this, and Greg, you need it. Now, how is the Lord going to use you?

I'm not sure. But I do know that if you believe in Christ and you're walking with the Lord, that God has gifted you in particular ways. Paul talks about this in 1 Corinthians chapter 12 and also in Romans chapter 12. For the good of his body, God will and does use his people for the building up of the church. And so again, that's why you need to be a part of the body of Christ, because it's there that the gifts of the Holy Spirit that God has given to us get worked out for the good of the rest of the body. So I just want to again encourage you to get plugged in and to continue to draw near to the Lord, even when it gets difficult to continue to press in and draw near. Thanks for your question. Greg, thanks so much for your call, and thank you for being one of our regular listeners there in St. Louis. We really do appreciate it.

We pray that you do find a wonderful church to plug into, as Adriel said, a church that is preaching God's Word on a daily basis. Let's go to Tina from Benton, Kansas. Tina, what's your question for Pastor Adriel?

Yes. Hi. First of all, I'm just so thankful for you guys. I've been listening to radio for over 10 years, and your program is so welcome. I can hear both your hearts.

Pastor Sanchez, you know, your pastor's heart. People are calling in and are hurting, and you're helping so many people. So first off, thank you. Thank you, Tina.

Appreciate your encouragement. So I have been diving into the Book of Revelation, and of course, growing up in a Christian faith, my whole life of, you know, we are to live out our life as best we can with the fruit of the Spirit and the Great Commission that Jesus gave us, and of course, looking forward to heaven, where there's no more sadness, no more sorrow, and no more pain, etc. And I'm trying to wrap my mind around the Millennial Kingdom of a thousand years, and then Satan's released, and from what I understand, there will be some believers in the Millennial Kingdom that join Satan. So obviously, you know, I was thinking the whole my lifetime of, you know, once you get to heaven, you've got the home run, so to speak. And so I'm just kind of trying to wrap my mind around the Millennial Kingdom of a thousand years reign, and how, unless I'm misunderstanding the Bible, where there will be some who turn away from Christ.

Yeah. Tina, thank you for that question. And there are several different ways in which Bible teachers and scholars will parse out the Millennial reign of Christ. There are some who believe that this Millennial reign is going to happen after the second coming of Jesus, and it's going to be a literal one thousand year reign of the Lord on earth, and you're going to have believers, glorified believers there. You're going to have non-believers.

It's going to be this sort of mixed bag. And that's one view. In the church, there are many faithful Bible-believing Christians who hold to that view. People who want to honor the word of God, and that's just how they understand that text. There are others who take a different interpretation of the Millennial reign of Christ. Of course, in the book of Revelation, one of the things we see is symbolism all over the place, even with numbers. You know, earlier, you have the seven spirits of God that are referred to, or even the mark of the beast 666, you know, the number of man. Numbers throughout the book of Revelation are often used symbolically. And that's typical in prophetic literature, apocalyptic literature in the Bible.

That's why it's so important for us to understand the genre that we're looking at. And so, another view is that the Millennial reign of Christ, the reign of Christ, is actually happening right now, that those thousand years encompass what we might refer to as this period that we're in, where Jesus is currently reigning from heaven until his second coming, when he finally conquers that last enemy, that is, death. And Paul talks about that in particular in the book of 1 Corinthians, in 1 Corinthians chapter 15. He talks about Christ reigning until he has subdued all his enemies, and the last enemy to be subdued is death, fully conquered at the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come. Now, I like that interpretation because I think it does justice to the fact that we're reading apocalyptic literature. And that the numbers oftentimes are used symbolically. That's not treating the Bible allegorically or that kind of a thing.

We just want to read it as it was intended to be read. And of course, Jesus, through his first coming, bound the strong man, he tells us, in the Gospels. That is, bound Satan through preaching, through the miracles that he accomplished, so that the Gospel might advance powerfully throughout the world. And one of the things that we see, Tina, is that ever since Jesus came, the nations which were once in darkness have begun to turn to the Lord through the preaching of the Gospel. The kingdom of Jesus Christ is advancing. That's what Jesus himself said when he was speaking to Peter.

He said, I'm going to build my church and the gates of hell are not going to prevail against the church. And so there are different ways, sister, of reading Revelation chapter 20. And it is kind of a controversial text, but those are, well, it is a controversial text because there are all these different interpretations on it.

But those are, I would say, the two primary ones. And I tend toward the second view that I articulated there. But there are some who, as you mentioned, who believe this is going to be a literal thousand-year reign on the earth with believers and non-believers, glorified saints and non-glorified non-believers.

And I think that gets kind of confusing. That's why I don't hold to that view in particular. But thank you, and I want to encourage you to continue to dig into the Word of God. And remember, we have a resource, a free resource, that you can get a hold of on the book of Revelation. It's called Five Things You Should Know About the Bible's Final Book. And we want to make sure you get a hold of that resource.

Thanks so much, Tina. We'll send you that resource. And we'd love to invite you to go to our website and get that resource as well if you have any questions about the end times or the book of Revelation.

Again, it's called Five Things You Should Know About the Bible's Final Book. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. Let's go to LaDonna in Wichita, Kansas. Hi, LaDonna. Welcome to the program. Hello, Pastor Sanchez. Hello. Thank you for calling us. What's your question?

Yes, sir. My question is, if angels are made perfect and never have sinned, why was Satan thrown out of heaven? Well, because he did sin eventually. Now, of course, we do believe that everything that God made, he made good, including Adam and Eve. You know, all things that God made.

I mean, you read about this in Genesis chapter 1. Over and over, you have this sort of refrain, and God saw what he made, and it was good. You think of an artist, for example, finishing a masterpiece painting and then being able to step back and look at it and just saying, yes, I'm satisfied with this. This is good.

It came out good. Well, everything that God made, he made good, but he gave to mankind and also to the angels free will. And being left to the freedom of their will, they fell from that good estate, we might say, wherein they were created, the angels as well. And what's very clear is, though the angels, in particular Satan, had this sinful pride that caused them to be cast out of heaven, Satan because of his pride. You read about this in Isaiah chapter 14, also in the prophet Ezekiel. Ezekiel talks about this as well. When Paul was writing to Timothy in 1 Timothy chapter 3, he said that pastors have to be careful not to be prideful, arrogant, lest they fall into the condemnation of the devil. And so the sin of Satan was pride. God made him good, but left to the freedom of his will, he wanted to ascend and become greater than God, and so the Lord cast him down.

And that's how and why he fell. Thanks for that question. Thank you, LaDonna. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adrian Sanchez. Christmas just around the corner, and we have a brand new free resource to help you prepare for the Christmas season. Yeah, it's a 25-day Christmas devotional called The Promised Seed. Make sure you get a hold of this before we get to December so that you can start going through this devotional with your family. On December 1st, the devotional starts with the fall in Genesis 3, and then it just sort of traces these promises of God throughout the Bible, bringing us to the promised seed, Jesus, who came to crush the serpent's head. This is what Christmas is all about, and our new devotional highlights God's faithfulness in the Bible, his faithfulness to us now, even in the midst of the difficulties and uncertainties we face in life. And so this is a free resource for you over at corechristianity.com. You can find that at our website, as Adriel mentioned, corechristianity.com forward slash Christmas.

You can also call us for that resource or any one of our resources at 833-THE-CORE. Let's go to a voicemail that we received yesterday. Thank you for taking my call and my question. So I lost a son, and he was never baptized, and I was not a believer as a mother raising this child. He was raised in a family with both parents around. Both parents loved him dearly. And he was an alcoholic and an addict and died at 28. My fear has always been that salvation is not for him.

And what reassurances are there? He was a good boy, but he was an addict and an alcoholic, and those things killed him at the young age of 28. I still worry about him. Thank you. Bye. Oh, sister, I'm so sorry. And I understand the pain that you must be feeling, the concern, the fear. And we can't, I can't peer into heaven to see who is there.

I mean, we don't know. It's not, I think, appropriate for pastors and theologians to say, Oh, yes, for sure your son is here or your son is there. We know that people are saved by faith in Jesus Christ. We know that there are fruits of faith, but we also know that there are people who struggle with serious addictions, mental illness, and other kinds of addictions too, like alcoholism.

You mentioned that. You know, one thing I would say is just because someone meets a tragic end through addiction doesn't mean that they can't have been saved. I think, for example, of Samson in the book of Judges. I mean, talk about someone who in one sense we might say was just completely foolish throughout his life, continually turning his back on the Lord and going back to the things that he knew would cause him harm. He had the very clear command of God, which he rejected. And what's so shocking about the story of Samson throughout the book of Judges is just how thick-skulled he was.

I mean, just over and over again. And yet, when you get to the New Testament, you know, it's so amazing that Samson is placed in the Hall of Faith. I mean, he was someone who it didn't seem like he was faithfully walking with the Lord throughout his whole life. And at the end of his life, at the very end of his life, he called on the Lord and God rescued him. Now, he did meet a tragic end, but he's described in the Hall of Faith in Hebrews chapter 11.

So I can't say with or give you the assurance 100% one way or another regarding your son, but what I can say is that just because someone struggles throughout their life, like Samson did, and even has a tragic ending to their life, like Samson did, doesn't mean that they were necessarily not a believer, that they weren't saved. They could call upon the Lord right then in that moment at the very end of their life, and God is merciful and forgiving. And so I think what you have to do is cast yourself on the mercy of God. I know, you know, just with the way you asked your question, saying, you know, I wasn't a believer back then, I think a lot of times we can experience guilt also, like I wish things would have been different, I wish I would have done things differently. And, sister, I would just say you need to cast yourself on the mercy of God, on the God who knows all things, who is in absolute control, on the God who loves us and our children more than we ever could.

And that's where you have to rest. And so you rest in the fact that the Lord knows all, that He's good, and that you can trust in Him. And so thank you for giving us a call, and may the Lord bless you.

I'm so glad you pointed that out, Adriel. I think as a parent it's often difficult for us to grasp the fact that God loves our kids even more than we do. As much as we love them, as passionately as we care for them and love them, our Heavenly Father loves them even more and cares for them.

Yeah, and Jesus makes that so clear throughout the Gospels. You know, you think about what He said, you know, are not two sparrows sold for a copper coin, yet not one of them falls to the ground apart from your Father's will. You know, God knows.

Are you not of far more value than many sparrows? God knows the very hairs on your head. This is the God we're talking about. And so that's, I think, where we can go to find comfort, is knowing that the Lord knows these things. And again, we can't make the judgment.

I'm not the divine judge. I do know that we're saved by faith alone in Jesus Christ. But I also know that people, at the end of their lives, even after, you know, a lifetime of sin, you think about the thief on the cross, that if they call upon the name of the Lord, that God is gracious to them, and that He receives them, and that He forgives them. And so that's another comfort that we can have.

Amen. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. Just a reminder that we are a listener-supported ministry.

We don't receive government funds or donations from a particular church or denomination. We count on people just like you to keep this program on the air. If you believe in what we do and you'd like to support the ministry, just go to our website and find out more at corechristianity.com. Let's go to Susanna from San Diego, California. Hi, Susanna, welcome to the program.

Hi, thank you for having me. I have a question for Pastor Sanchez. I was talking to a woman last night who was questioning the use of, or the reason for, something like the Westminster Confession. In short, her question is, why should a Christian adhere to any sort of confessional standard when we have the Bible to read? And we could just go for answers there.

Hi, Susanna, thank you so much for calling. And this really is an important question, because everyone says, we believe the Bible. I mean, you talk to Mormons, and they'll say, well, we just believe the Scriptures. We're Jehovah's Witnesses, and they'll say, we believe what the Bible teaches. We're just simply Bible teachers, that kind of a thing. And the fact of the matter is, they all are interpreting the Scriptures differently. It's not enough just to say, we believe the Bible. You know, I just have the Bible.

What do you mean when you say that? And throughout the history of the Church, the Church has used things like confessions or creeds. You think of the Apostles' Creed. You think of the Nicene Creed, for example, to help clearly articulate the teaching of the Bible for the sake of the purity and peace of the Church. And what's also interesting is, you have examples even in the New Testament of these sort of creedal formulas. Jesus' Lord is itself a sort of creed or confession. Many people think that, you know, the section in Philippians chapter two, where it talks about Jesus is humbling himself, is humiliation, as it were, and then exaltation is an early Christian creed or hymn. You have these kinds of things in the New Testament.

So it's as if even in the days of the Apostles, they were using these kinds of articulations for the sake of guarding the peace and the purity of the Church. It's not, these creeds are not to replace the Bible because we know that ultimately the Bible alone is God's word. Our creeds, our confessions, the Nicene Creed, those kinds of things, they're not infallible in the same way that the Bible is. But what we're saying is, this is what the Bible means when it says, I believe in one God. This is what the Bible means when we talk about the redemption of Jesus because the fact of the matter is, Mormons say they believe in one God.

They say they believe that Jesus is God, that kind of a thing, but they mean something totally different than the Church means, than we mean when we say that. And I would say then the Bible means when it talks about some of these things. And so it really is, these confessions, these creeds are meant to help people. I'm pastor of a church where we use these creeds and confessions. And one of the other things that I love about it is it gives some accountability to me as a pastor. I can't just tell people, well, I just preach the Bible and then I get to interpret it however I want. I'm saying, no, this is what I mean when I say I preach the Bible so that if I ever went off the deep end and started preaching things that were false, that were not true about Jesus or about his gospel, other people in the church could say, hey, you're no longer teaching the Bible as you once did. You're no longer faithful to what it is that you said you confessed. See, it's a safeguard for the Church.

It really is. And it helps us to clearly articulate the gospel to those who desperately need to hear it. And so I would view creeds and confessions as a positive thing. And I think it's important for us to know what churches believe and why they believe it because we want to know Jesus first and foremost. 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.