Why is God silent for long periods of time? Why is God silent for long periods of time? Why is God silent for long periods of time? Why is God silent for long periods of time? Why is God silent for long periods of time? Why is God silent for long periods of time? Why is God silent for long periods of time? Why is God silent for long periods of time?
Why is God silent for long periods of time? the word in scripture, it's clear that it's referring to the Bible or to what the prophet said, and it's important that we look at the context of each passage in order to determine how the word is being used. In fact, that's really key in terms of interpreting scripture and, in particular, individual words.
Because they can be used in different ways, we really have to look at the context in order to determine how they're being used. And here, it's clear that the context reveals to us that this is talking about Jesus. Thanks, Luke. Great explanation, and Luke, thanks so much for checking us out on YouTube, we appreciate that.
Well, let's go to Selah in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Selah, what's your question for Pastor Adriel? Hi, Pastor, thank you for taking my call.
I guess I'm a bit distraught now. I've been coming to learn more and more about the truth within the last couple of years, so I'm very baby Christian. Well, I've always learned to say I'm Christian, but new things have been revealed to me in a different way since I'm a Catholic since birth. And so my question is, for my immediate family, like my parents mainly, I mean, I have four kids, but we're kind of wanting to turn away from our religion now just to go and find another church that kind of speaks more. Now, it's really hard for us because it's all we know. So we really appreciate the ritual and what comes to my mind is the truth whenever I'm in church. But I'm wanting, like for example, when we pray the rosary and things like that, we're really not wanting to do that anymore, but to support my mom, I'm wanting to. And then she was questioning also, she's like, what are you guys doing? I mean, what are you guys doing?
What do we do then to pray? I see her that she's lost and I don't want to put her in that situation because she's like, well, what do we do now? And I'm like, mom, I don't know. I'm just learning these things right now. So should I continue talking to her about what I'm learning or how do I help her understand? Should I, is it okay that we pray the rosary to the Virgin Mary? I don't know.
I'm a bit at a loss right now. I'm not sure how to address family. Selah, thank you for giving us a call. The first thing I want to do is just pray for you. So let's pray for our sister Selah. Father, thank you for Selah. Thank you, Lord, that she has been learning more and more about your word over the last couple of years and that as she's continued to learn about your word, Lord, that she wants to worship you in spirit and in truth, Lord, in accordance with your word. And so I pray, Lord, that you would continue to teach her and that you would fill her with your spirit and that you would give her wisdom, especially in this situation, Lord, as she seeks to encourage her family, to love her family, and to do all things according to your word.
Be with our sister. Comfort her, Lord, by the grace of your Holy Spirit. In Jesus' name, amen.
Selah, just a few things here. I know it can be so hard, especially when we've been brought up in a particular church tradition and we're attached to so many of the practices to study the scripture and then to begin to ask questions. Is this according to God's word? And for many people, when they're confronted with scripture and they think about how they've been worshiping God and they say, boy, I don't know that this is right. I don't see this in scripture. I don't see, for example, the apostles praying to the Virgin Mary or to the saints who had died. And so they begin to examine their own piety, their own practices on the basis of scripture, and that can be really difficult, especially if an individual has been raised with some of these things as you have been and as your family, it sounds like it's just steeped in your own piety and your own practices as a family. I do think it is important for you to continue to talk with your family about the things that God is teaching you through his word.
And I think that there's a way to do that. I mean, the beautiful thing is, and this is something that has encouraged me in my conversations with friends and family members who are Roman Catholic, is we believe in the Holy Trinity. We believe in Jesus Christ, the incarnate Son of God, the Word made flesh.
So we have that common ground. And I would say focusing on that and then from that place, talking about who Jesus is, going deeper into the work that he's accomplished, going to the heart of the gospel, that should shape our piety, what Christ has done for us first and foremost. That's where we get comfort, that's where we get hope, that's where we get confidence in the forgiveness of our sins. And so I wanna just say, as you continue to study the scriptures and as you grow in your understanding of what they say, you follow God first and foremost. You obey him and his word. And when his word challenges things that we're doing, we always obey the word.
Now, that's a hard thing, right? Because as I said, we get caught up in some of these traditions that maybe are not scriptural, but at the end of the day, you have to follow what the word of God says. And you want that for your family as well, because ultimately it's in following scripture what the word of God says, that we're blessed. That's where true piety is. That's what it looks like to truly obey God and to follow him the way he wants to be followed. And so continue to study the word and I would encourage you to get plugged into a church where you feel like, hey, God's word is being faithfully taught here. I'm able to go and my conscience is not bound to these traditions that I don't see in scripture. And this is one of the things that the Protestant reformers made a big deal about as the church was being reformed in the medieval ages.
They highlighted the fact that, look, it's not up to the church, us as Christians, to invent rules and regulations for people to follow, traditions for them to be bound to that aren't outlined in scripture. We don't have the authority to do that. We are ministers of the word of God.
Our authority is ministerial, we might say. We call people to obey the scriptures. And so, Sila, that's what I wanna call you to, to obey the scriptures and to be blessed as you do. And may the Lord fill you with his spirit. May he guide you to a place where you are gonna hear the word faithfully taught, faithfully exposited. And may he give you wisdom in your conversations with your mother, with your family members as you share the wonderful things that you're learning that it wouldn't be a fight, an argument, but that they would be encouraged as well to see how God has been at work in your life in bringing you deeper and deeper into an understanding of his word. And so, God bless you. May the Lord be with you, and may the Lord be with your family. Sila, thanks so much for your call. And we'll be praying for you in that situation with your mom.
Adriel, I appreciate so much your encouragement to her to help to find the common ground between her and her Catholic family members, because really, that's the best way to approach it, and then maybe start to dig deeper into what God's word says about how we are to truly practice. And so, thanks for that. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez, and every year around this time, we start receiving questions about a particular claim that is made about Christmas.
We actually have a new resource that answers that question. Yeah, that claim, it's one that you've probably heard this month, is that Christmas is a pagan holiday. Every year, people begin saying to you, you turn on the TV, you're watching the History Channel, and you hear that kind of a thing. And so, the question is, is Christmas a pagan holiday? Our new resource, Five Reasons Why Christmas Isn't a Pagan Holiday, helps to unravel some of the common misconceptions about the origins of Christmas, and it'll give you, I think, an appreciation of the Christmas message, the incarnation of Jesus Christ, why we can just celebrate with joy the fact that God sent his son into the world to take our humanity, to assume our humanity, so that we might be redeemed. Again, the resource is called Five Reasons Why Christmas Isn't a Pagan Holiday, and it's yours for free at corechristianity.com. You know, there's a lot of misinformation floating around out there on this topic, so we'd encourage you to get this resource, and then maybe start discussing it with any friends or relatives who make that claim, and they say, well, this is all based on pagan rituals, and it doesn't have anything to do with Christ, and you can really help them to see the truth about Christmas and the celebration of Christmas.
Again, it's Five Reasons Christmas Isn't a Pagan Holiday. It's a free download on our website. Go to corechristianity.com forward slash offers to find that. Well, one of the ways you can ask a question here on core Christianity is by leaving us a voicemail. We do receive a lot of voicemails.
We try to review them each day, and here's a voicemail we receive from one of our listeners named Austin. I'm just asking about, I think they call it the 400 years of silence between the Old Testament and the New Testament. Don't really understand exactly what that is, so if you could kind of explain the concept behind that, as well as if things like that are necessary and important for us to have faith in as Christians. Some people may not necessarily think that 400 years of silence from God is something that we all need to hold to, so if you could just explain that to me, I'd really appreciate it, thank you. Yeah, thank you for that. I don't think that we've received that question before on the broadcast.
I appreciate it. So basically it's the idea that after the last prophet of the Old Testament wrote, thinking about Malachi, from that period to Christ, the coming of Christ, the more redemptive revelation, if you will, action from God, you have about 400 years where you don't have any canonical scripture being written, you don't have God accomplishing redemption in history in any spectacular ways, like we saw throughout the Old Testament with the Exodus, and so on and so forth, and so you do have this period of silence, if you will, and then all of a sudden, out of that silence, you have John the Baptist on the scene, beginning to prepare the way, as was prophesied in Isaiah chapter 40 for the Messiah, the one who's coming to reveal the salvation of God, to speak to us. Actually, this is something that you see in Luke's Gospel in Luke chapter three, John the Baptist preparing the way in the 15th year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor over Judea, and Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip tetrarch of the region of Idurea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John the son of Zechariah in the wilderness. There's a lot of just historical background there, I mean, you have corruption in Jerusalem, you have just this political tension, I mean, it was this very dark time, and then all of a sudden, the word of God comes to John the Baptist, and we read, you know, the voice of one crying in the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord, make his path straight, every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall become straight, and the rough places shall become level ways, and all flesh shall see the salvation of God. And so when we say that there was silence during that time, it doesn't mean that God wasn't at work, it just means that you didn't have redemptive revelation taking place.
We would say in the same way today, that that's not taking, I mean, redemptive history is done, I mean, redemption has been accomplished. Now we receive the benefit of all the speech that God has given to us in his word. And so I think it's important to recognize that, but what's highlighted by those 400 years of silence is just how bad things were for the people during that time, and then just the beauty of God speaking into the silence, the darkness, if you will, with the revelation of his son, Jesus Christ. Now for many people, just transitioning to think about our own lives in the Christian walk, we have seasons where we feel like God is silent, where he's not speaking to us. I remember years ago, my daughter, when she was about three years old, we had just finished praying, and she stopped us and said, "'Papa, how come God don't talk?'"
She wanted to know why, you know, here we are, we're praying to the Lord, we're always talking to God, but how come he's silent? Why don't we ever hear his voice? And while God is not accomplishing redemption today in the same sense as, you know, happened in the Old Testament or in the New Testament where he sent his son into the world, he's accomplishing it in a different way. He's applying it to us through the revelation that we already have, the word of God. God actually is speaking today to us every single day through the circumstances of life, but also through the word. We need to go to the word to hear God speak. And again, even with that, there are times in the Christian life where, you know, things feel a little bit dry, but we cling to what the Lord has already said in his word, to the promises that he's given to us, and that's where we find hope and life.
So thank you for that question. Just a good thing for us to meditate on around this time of the year as we contemplate Advent, the coming of Jesus, and ultimately the incarnation of Christ that we celebrate around Christmastime. You know, one of the things I love to do at Christmastime, and we've done this for years with our kids, is read the accounts from Luke and from Matthew, just because they're so rich and so beautiful and in different ways really do help us understand what the incarnation is all about. Yeah, it's fun to think about those kinds of Christmas traditions that we all have as families. I just encourage people to, I mean, that's the best kind of tradition to have, right?
I mean, you can do Christmas cookies and Christmas trees and all that stuff. How about reading through the account and the gospels of the birth of Jesus? That's something we ought to be doing with our families, so I think that's great, Bill. You're listening to Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. Our phone lines are open for the next six minutes or so. If you have a question about the Bible or the Christian life, here's the number to call. It's 833-THE-CORE.
That's 1-833-843-2673. Let's go to Thomas in Toledo, Ohio. Thomas, what's your question for Adriel?
Hey, Pastor Sanchez. I have a question. As we read scripture, scripture is backed up with scripture. There's accounts, firsthand accounts, this and that, but when Jesus was in the wilderness, how do we know what transpired? How do we know that Jesus replied to Satan, that he was tempted by Satan, and that he replied out of Deuteronomy? I guess that's my question.
Yeah, that's a great question, right? I mean, it doesn't seem like the disciples were there hanging out with Jesus. He was all by himself in the wilderness, led there by the Holy Spirit to be tempted. You can read about it in places like Matthew chapter four, and so how do we know that the account that we have there was true?
I mean, I would just say two things. One, Jesus spent quite a bit of time with his disciples. We don't know, actually, everything that Jesus said and did. I think of what John says in his gospel in John chapter 21, the very end of the gospel, in verse 25, it says, "'Now there are also many other things that Jesus did. "'Were every one of them to be written, "'I suppose that the world itself "'could not contain the books that would be written.'"
Isn't that a beautiful statement? In other words, there was a lot more that Jesus said to the disciples that he was doing. We just don't have it recorded, and so I imagine that the account there in Matthew chapter four of the temptation, that that was something that Jesus spoke to the disciples about, that he was able to share that with them, and they were able to communicate that and pass that down, and ultimately it ended up being in scripture. So we also believe that this is the revelation of God by the Spirit, that the Spirit of God is at work in the biblical authors, the biblical writers, inspiring them to write these things, and so you have those two things there.
You have the word of Jesus to his disciples, and you have the work of the Holy Spirit, and those two things I think should give us confidence that as we're approaching the text of scripture, especially the gospels, we know that this is true, and we know that these events happened as they were recorded. Thanks, Thomas. You're listening to Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. Just a reminder, we have that free resource for you, perfect for this time of year, Five Reasons Christmas Isn't a Pagan Holiday. You can find that on our website, corechristianity.com forward slash offers.
It's a free download. Five Reasons Christmas Isn't a Pagan Holiday. Well, let's go to a voicemail we received from one of our callers. This is from Joshua. My question is when the Pharisees questioned Jesus about a woman who was married to seven different men and asked her whose husband she would be in the resurrection and Jesus told them would no one is going to be married or given in marriage in the resurrection. My question to that is if that's so, why then does God make such a huge issue about marriage since the time of Adam and Eve only to then say marriage will no longer be a thing? Am I understanding that correctly or am I missing something?
Thanks again. Yeah, hey, I appreciate that question. So let me just, just to summarize, it sounds like you're saying, okay, the Bible makes a big deal about marriage from the very beginning, from the book of Genesis all the way through the New Testament, marriage is a big deal. But then when Jesus is talking to the Sadducees, he makes it clear to them that in the new creation, people aren't gonna be given in marriage.
It's not gonna be a thing anymore. So is that a contradiction? I mean, is God going back on what was once a big thing, now it's no longer gonna be a big thing?
Well, here's what we need to understand. Marriage is a picture of the relationship that Christ has with his bride. Paul makes this very clear in the book of Ephesians.
It is a very important institution, central for the growth of society, of civilization. The destruction of marriage leads to all sorts of problems in a community, in a society. So that's why the Bible has this high view, very high view of marriage. And Jesus said, God has joined together, let not man separate.
God bringing two people together ultimately for his glory, for the propagation of the human race, as a picture of the gospel itself in one sense, the picture that exists between Christ and the church. But in heaven, we're gonna have the reality. And that's why there's gonna be no more people given in marriage, because that's where you have the marriage supper of the lamb, the true marriage that all our earthly marriages are meant to reflect, the marriage between Christ and his bride, the church.
And so it's just where we at in the stage of redemptive history, if you will. Right now, during this time, yeah, we have to value marriage. And the reality is, is too many people in our society don't.
There's this sort of minimizing of marriage that you don't see anywhere in scripture, anywhere in the Bible. No, it's this gift that God gives to us for the flourishing of humanity. And as a picture of, as I already said, the gospel. But in heaven, in the new creation, we're not gonna need it anymore. We're gonna have the reality itself.
And so that's why you have that distinction there. And really, in that passage where Jesus is talking to the Sadducees, it's Matthew chapter 22, verses 23 through 33. He's highlighting the fact that there is a resurrection. If you remember, the Sadducees were a religious group at that time that denied the resurrection. The Pharisees didn't, but the Sadducees did not believe in the resurrection of the dead. They also only believed that the first five books of the Old Testament were truly inspired by God canonical. And so Jesus appeals to a passage of scripture in the Torah in order to prove the resurrection of the dead to them, this central doctrine of the Christian faith.
And so he's not trying to minimize marriage there either. He's emphasizing the reality of the resurrection from the dead. And so thanks for that question. You're listening to Core Christianity.
We have time for one quick email question before we go today. And Adriel, Mike wants to know this. He says, if Peter was forgiven three times for denying Christ, why wasn't Judas forgiven? Yeah, boy, really big question. Both deny Christ, but how come Peter was forgiven and not Judas?
Well, I think the answer is simple. Judas did not repent. He might've had remorse because of what he did. And it seems to be clear based on the gospels that he had a great deal of remorse, but he didn't humble himself. He didn't turn to Jesus in faith and confesses. And now Peter, he did.
He was heartbroken. You remember Jesus pursued him and restored him three times on the beach. We read at the end of John's gospel. And so the difference is repentance.
That's the key. 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.
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