Is It My Responsibility to Lead My Family to Christ?

Is it my responsibility to lead my family to Christ? 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.

Now, there are several ways you can ask a question. You can leave us a voicemail as well. You can also post your question on our Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter accounts, and you can email us with your question at questionsatcorechristianity.com. First up today, let's go to Samson calling in from the Dallas, Texas area. Samson, what's your question for Pastor Adriel? Samson, are you there? Yes.

Hey, thanks for giving us a call. What's your question? Hey, this is my question. In the Muslim war loot, one man, he can marry four or five or more. If that person became a Christian with four or five women, he got married, was the teaching, how can you resolve that kind of problem? Because Christianity isn't allowed to marry more than one, so what was the solution for this man? Samson, just a very good question and a difficult question, one that has been raised in particular by Christian missionaries in other parts of the world where men will have multiple wives and they get converted, an individual gets converted, and the big question is, well, what do I do now?

I'm married to three or four different women, I have three or four different wives, and they're dependent upon me. Samson, you're going to get different answers from believers on this and from missionaries who have been on the field. It's very clear, it seems to me, from the very beginning of scripture that God intended marriage to be between one man and one woman.

Even later in the history of Israel, God made accommodations for his people. You think of the kings at times, but even there, God oftentimes brought judgment for the way in which they married multiple women. There are some challenges here, but I would say fundamentally marriage is supposed to be between one man and one woman. It's a picture of the relationship that exists between Christ and the church.

One way of answering this question, it's been said that the individual should continue to support all of them, but only be married technically to his first wife, that those other marriages that took place after that were illegitimate marriages. That's one way that people have looked at it. In the book of Ezra and Nehemiah, you have God at one time telling his people to depart from certain marriages that were illegitimate marriages because they were not according to his word.

Sometimes people will point to that. I just want to recognize that it's difficult. It's difficult culturally. I sort of lean towards that interpretation, the idea that look, if there's a way of still caring here, maybe the church can really support and come in. If there's a way of still caring for these families, in particular these other women, maybe that should happen. I don't know that the right answer would be, he married multiple women, so he should just be married to all these different women and have relations with all of them. It seems to me like that also wouldn't be the reflective of what scripture says marriage is. It's a difficult question. You're going to get different answers from different missionaries and people. Let me just say, this is a real thing. This happens throughout the world. It requires wisdom.

And my view is that the individual should just be married to his first wife. Thanks for that, Adriel. And as you said, a tough question. We do receive a lot of tough questions here on this program, and our goal is to answer as many of those as we can. Whether we're talking about the Bible, the Christian life, or doctrine or theology, we actually have a brand new free resource that answers many of these tough questions and a helpful booklet. Yeah, Bill, here at Core Christianity, we seek to answer tough questions about the Bible and the Christian faith because we want you to feel confident, hopeful, and comforted in your faith. That's why we made this booklet.

It's called Tough Questions Answered. It's a booklet that's only about 50 pages long, but it really helps to defend the Christian faith. It answers questions like, doesn't science make religion unnecessary? Why is Christianity so exclusive? What about other religions like Buddhism and Islam? Isn't the Bible just a bunch of myths?

Isn't the Bible's view of sexuality and gender overly restrictive? We answer all of these questions and more, so if you or your friends have these kinds of questions or looking for answers to those questions, pick up this booklet for free over at CoreChristianity.com. And again, it's available by a download, a PDF download, and it might be great if you have a friend who's an agnostic or an atheist who is often peppering you with those difficult questions. This will help you, and you can go to our website at CoreChristianity.com forward slash offers and look for Tough Questions Answered.

Again, CoreChristianity.com forward slash offers. Well, here's an email, Adriel, that came in from one of our listeners who asked to remain anonymous, and he says, I live with my mom, my stepdad, and little sisters, and I was the first one saved in the home. I feel a calling to join the Marines. However, I'm the only Christ-like figure in my household. My stepdad is not a Christian, and my mom and sisters are always asking questions and wanting my help on their Bible reading. I take my mom and sister to church, and I'm afraid if I leave, much of the sanctification and guidance in God's word will cease. I just turned 18, and I understand that one of the greatest ministries in our lives is first and foremost our families. Is my own sanctification and my own life more important than my household's? Any spiritual insight and guidance would be much appreciated.

Wow. First, I just want to pray for you, brother, in this situation. Lord, I pray for this individual who emailed us, and I ask Jesus that you would give him wisdom. Thank you, Lord, that you have brought him to yourself, that he knows you, that he's wanting to have a godly influence in his home, Lord, with his mother, with his stepfather, with his sisters, and that he's able to go to church with them, to read the scriptures with them. I pray, Lord Jesus, that you would open their hearts, that they would see the glorious gospel and embrace it, receive it, Lord, so that even if this brother does go off and join the military, that they will continue to grow in their relationship with you. And so would you be with my brother? Would you give him wisdom?

Would you encourage him? And would you open the hearts of all those who are in that house that they might know and love you and walk with you? I pray in Jesus' name. Amen. This is really, brother, a decision that you are going to have to prayerfully make.

We can't save anyone. Salvation is a work of the Holy Spirit. But by your influence, the Lord is working, it seems like, in the lives of your family members. I think of what the Apostle Paul said, not entirely similar, but I think there's an application that can be drawn in 1 Corinthians 7 where he says, look, if two people are married, one is a believer, the other one isn't a believer, I don't think that they should separate.

If the non-believer is willing to be around the believer, you don't know. You're having a positive influence, a sanctifying influence on that other person. And it sounds to me like you're having that kind of influence for your family. Now, does that mean that you have to stay there, that you couldn't go off to college or that you couldn't go off and join the military?

No, I don't think so. But I think that what you want to do is pray. Seek the wisdom of, hopefully, it sounds like you're in a church, seek the wisdom of the people there in your church as well. Maybe there's a way to ensure that they're going to remain connected to your family members even while you leave.

And so maybe if you want to spend more time trying to set that up and trying to create relationships that are going to continue to have that positive influence in the lives of your sisters and your mother and in your stepdad, I think that's one way of going about it. But you need to pray and just ask the Lord to give you clarity. And in whatever decision you make, I pray that God gives you that insight, a clear conscience so that you can continue to serve Him. And may the Lord open the hearts of your family members. God bless you as you seek to be a positive influence in their lives. Some great counsel. Thank you for that, Adriel. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. By the way, you can leave us a voicemail anytime 24 hours a day at our number, which is 833-843-2673.

833, the Core. We do our best to review our voicemails once a day, so feel free to call anytime and leave us your question. We have Danny on the line from Las Vegas, Nevada. Danny, what's your question for Pastor Adriel? Well, pleasure to be on. First-time caller, first-time listener.

And I have a two-part comment followed by a three-part question, and that is the comment. I am a third-generation ministry brat, and my late father, he was a, for 50 years, old-fashioned Pentecostal preacher under the anointed power of God. He was chosen. Bible says that for many are called but few are chosen.

My father was a chosen vessel, and here's the question with a prelude. My father's wife left after 29 years of marriage, left him for another woman in the church they were attending. He stole a gun, went down there to kill both her and the other woman. It misfired. They ran to the house, and they said that when they called the police, when the police showed up, they said that he pointed the gun at them and they did what they're trained to do.

And yeah, here are the three questions. Did he go to heaven when he passed away? Because they said that he was mumbling something before he died on the way to the hospital. And my father was always quick to make things right if he ever did anything wrong. And we believe, we believe that he was, he was making things right. He knew he'd done wrong, and before he passed away, because he, like I said, he passed away before he went to the, got to the hospital. But even though she did not pull the trigger, because of what she said, when he said he was going to check out, she said, now, hoping, and with the tone of voice, hoping he would do it, because she knew that he, when he said his mind to do something, it was beyond the point of no return, other than a miracle from God, to keep him from doing it. And what should, how should I proceed in my life now, as a result of the tragedy that happened three years ago?

Wow. Danny, I'm, I'm so sorry, just about that whole situation. If your question is, is my dad with the Lord now? You know, I, I don't speculate about those kinds of things. You said that your dad was chosen, that he believed in Jesus, that he served Jesus.

It sounds to me like this was a, a fit of rage. And so, I mean, the, the, the broader question is, if we are in the act of committing a, a terrible sin, even if we're Christians, if we belong to Jesus, and you need to imagine, I mean, there are all sorts of certain, you know, situations you can think of, but if we're in the act and, and we die, does that mean we're separated from God forever, that we're no longer forgiven? And it sounds like, you know, based on your story, it seems like maybe even, even after everything had taken place, your dad was still seeking the Lord and, and praying. If we belong to the Lord, if we're justified, if we're children of, of the living God, you know, when we commit sins, even heinous sins, that doesn't remove us from the the hands of the Lord. That doesn't mean that we're no longer the children of God. And so, so Danny, if, if your father trusted in Christ and, and believed in Jesus for his forgiveness, and then in this, in this moment of, of passion and anger, you know, this, this event takes place, I don't think that that would mean that he was lost forever.

But again, I don't, I don't like to speculate about those kinds of things. I think for your part, you have to entrust yourself to the Lord. Obviously there's, there's pain, there's mourning, there's grief still.

I can, I can only imagine. But we, we grieve, as Paul told the Thessalonians, not as those who are without hope, because we do have hope. We have hope that Jesus conquered sin, even, even the, the, the sin of attempted murder, that Jesus conquered sin once for all, and that he rose again for our justification. And so that if we are in him, we belong to him, and, and our loved ones who are in him, that they belong to him, and that they're in the presence of the Lord right now, if indeed they belong to him. And so I think, I think, you know, casting yourself, brother, on the mercy of God, and you for your part continually drawing near to the Lord and loving, loving Jesus as it sounds like your dad would have wanted for, for you, and continuing to grow in your relationship with Jesus Christ and honoring him.

And so that's, that's, that's all that you, that you can do. It's not helpful to, to speculate, to ask those questions, just trust the Lord, his word, and continue to seek him, brother. Thank you for giving us a call. I'm grateful for, for you listening for the first time, and I hope you reach out to us again sometime. God bless. You're listening to Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. One of the ways that you can participate in this program is through our YouTube channel. You can watch Adriel live in the studio on YouTube every day at 1130 a.m. Pacific, which translates into 1230 Central, 130, 1230 Mountain, 130 Central, or 230 Eastern Time. You can check it out. You can also send us a message through our YouTube channel.

And the cool thing is we often get listeners from around the world, and we have a listener in, I'm going to try to say this right, Meghalah, India. And she says, when is the right time to leave the church, or what are the biblical reasons to leave a church? Well, I would say if we're talking about the church altogether, that is, I'm not going to even be a part of the body of Christ anymore and go to church. I'm just going to do things on my own.

There's never, I think, a right time for that. But there are particular churches, I think, that are turning away from the Lord, where the gospel is no longer being taught, and they're embracing things that they shouldn't be embracing. And I think there comes a point where we say, yeah, I have to remove myself from this place. Because even though it might have the name of a church, it might be called church, you know, first church of this or that, what is the church? The church is where the word of God is faithfully preached, where the sacraments, the ordinances are administered faithfully according to the word of God, where there's discipline. There are a lot of places that are social clubs, that are community-type groups where people come together and sing songs and hear a spiritual message, but the gospel, the word of God, is not being faithfully taught. And I would say, yeah, you can call yourself a church, but that doesn't mean that you're a church. And so I would say, sister, any time the cardinal truths of the Christian faith, the doctrine of the Trinity, the incarnation, the gospel, salvation by grace and faith, when those things are no longer being taught or when they're being departed from by a particular church, then you want to leave with the gospel, right?

You don't want to be a part of that for your own spiritual well-being. I'm also concerned that there are many people who just sort of leave churches any time something happens that they disagree with, and oftentimes it's not even doctrinal. It's, boy, I don't really like this decision that was made about this program or the worship time. We just switched from meeting at 10 a.m. to now we're meeting at 930 a.m., and I just, I can't take that. I feel like we have to be careful that we don't have such a consumeristic view of the church and the gathered worship assembly, that we leave any time it doesn't meet our particular feelings or wants anymore.

The most important thing has to be faithfully teaching God's word. And so if that's not happening, then I would say it's the right time to leave. If there are other issues that concern you, I think you have to have a conversation with the leadership of the church and raise those questions and have those discussions. And I think even when it's very clear, I think it's time to leave. I think this is not the right place for me to be anymore. I think it's good to express the reasons why it is that you're leaving.

It's important for the leadership to know that you see what's taking place. The gospel is not being preached here anymore. This is a serious issue because it's a warning also for the leadership there in the church. And so I hope that you're not in a situation where you have to leave. I hope that you're in a good church that does faithfully teach God's word. But if you're not, then you really do need to consider, where's the right place for me to be? And where am I going to continue to grow in my faith in Christ? I love your advice about being careful that we don't fall into a consumeristic mindset because there are a lot of people, well, the worship music isn't quite my style.

I didn't like the color of the carpet. The pastor preaches too long. I mean, that's not a reason for leaving a church, is it? Yeah. I mean, definitely.

I mean, if the carpet color is really bad, I mean, if we're talking about neon orange, and every time you look at the ground, you're blinded almost, then maybe, Bill. I don't know. No, you're right. And I think different parts of the world, not everybody has this luxury, but I think in the United States, in particular, there's so many churches. And I think we can sort of fall into this consumeristic view of church and choosing a church, and we're looking for something that's in a scratch every sort of itch that we have, but we're not asking the more important questions. What is the doctrine of this church?

What is being taught here? Am I going to grow in my relationship with the Lord? Are my sins going to be confronted?

And am I going to be comforted by the truth of the gospel and the truth of God's word? Or is this just a place that, boy, the music sounds nice, and the pastor's kind of entertaining, that sort of a thing. We really, I think, need to rearrange our priorities when we think about finding a good church. And I know we have some resources on that topic, don't we, Bill?

We do. We have a great core guide on how do I find a good church. You can find that at corechristianity.com.

Well, let's go to a voicemail that came in from one of our listeners. This is from Christy. Hi, I'm reading through the book of Leviticus, and I was just wondering if all of the many laws and rules in Leviticus about being unclean, sacrificing bulls, and not eating certain meats, if all of that was dissolved after the coming of Christ, then how do we know that Leviticus 18 verse 22, where it says not to have homosexual relations, how do we know that is not also just an outdated rule that can also be dismissed?

Thank you. Hey, Christy, thank you for that question. One, I think, just one real clear way that we can know is these same sins, the sin of same-sex relations, are brought up throughout the New Testament in places like 1 Corinthians and the book of Romans chapter 1. Paul talks about this, identifies it as sin as one of the causes for God's judgment, God's wrath, and so it's not just like it's sort of isolated here in these different ritual ceremonial laws. It's something that we see throughout God's Word, but also when we're thinking about, in particular, sexual relations, we have here laws that were associated with the old covenant in one sense and the temple, the civil government of Israel, but we also have this overlap between these laws and the moral law, the law that essentially binds all of us at all times. That's one of the reasons why I think that Paul is able to pick up on it in the New Testament.

I would say you just see this repeated over and over again in other places of the Bible. Now, there are some laws that were strictly just relegated to the ceremonial law of Israel. You mentioned some of the sacrifices, right?

Jesus is the perfect fulfillment of those things, and so we don't have animal sacrifices anymore. We don't have the temple in the same way that they did under the old covenant where they're making these sacrifices of atonement, so it's really important for us to be discerning, Christie, as we're thinking about God's law and we're saying, okay, here in the Old Testament, what are we looking at? Well, we're looking at, for example, civil laws that were related to Israel as a political body. Well, the church isn't the same as Israel under the old covenant, and so we have to distinguish.

That doesn't mean we can't draw lines of analogy and application from these things. It just means that we're not bound by the civil law in the same way that Israel was. Same thing with the ceremonial law, the worship and the rules related to Israel's temple service and whatnot, the priesthood. Well, we are a priesthood of believers.

Christ has fulfilled the sacrificial system of the old covenant, and so we're not bound to that in the same way, but we are always bound to the moral law, summarized ultimately by what Jesus said in loving God perfectly and loving our neighbor as ourselves, but that looks like something in regard to our relationships and sexuality even, and so that's reiterated in other parts of the Bible, as I said, 1 Corinthians Chapter 6 and Romans Chapter 1 and elsewhere as well. We actually have a resource that you're going to want to get ahold of. It's called 10 Things You Need to Know About the Bible and Homosexuality. It's a core guide over at corechristianity.com, and so hope you get ahold of that resource.

It'll go into this question a little bit more. Appreciate that you're digging into the scriptures and that you're wanting to rightly divide the word of truth. May the Lord bless you as you do that. Explore the truth of God's Word together.