Should Christians Try to Perform the Signs and Wonders in the Bible?

Should Christians try to perform the signs and wonders in the Bible? 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. You can leave us a voicemail at 833-THE-CORE anytime, 24 hours a day. We'd love to get your calls.

That's 833-843-2673. Of course, you can also post your question on one of our social media sites, and you can always email us at questionsatcorechristianity.com. Let's go to David, who's calling in from Missouri.

David, what's your question for Adriel? My question is along the lines of biblically, where do I go if I'm being accused of something that I didn't do? It's destroying my family.

It's destroying my wife. I feel like I'm in this where having done all but stand, stand therefore, know that I am God, to where I don't know if I need to defend myself. I don't know what to do. David, I'm sorry to hear about this situation. Let me just go back to you. Is this an accusation that's coming from outside of the church or within the church, assuming you guys are a part of a local church? No, this is one of those things where I can't go to my church because if you tell people in general, normal people automatically want to believe you're guilty. I'm sorry.

You know what I mean? I don't even know where to turn. That's the problem. I'm just literally stuck. I pray, I read, I'm a Christian. This is so violent against anything I would ever do, but I don't even know what course of action to take.

Boy, I'm so sorry to hear about this situation. Of course, scripture speaks very strongly about bearing false witness precisely because it is so destructive. I mean, this is one of the Ten Commandments, not bearing false witness. Paul, when he was writing to Timothy in 1 Timothy 5 verse 19, said, Do not admit a charge against an elder except on the evidence of two or three witnesses. It's not just something like hearsay that you hear from one person type of a thing, but when there's a legitimate charge and people are coming forward, we want to take those things seriously depending on the situation.

Again, I think this calls for wisdom. If it's an issue where your job is in jeopardy or your family is in jeopardy, there's nothing wrong with pursuing the truth and holding those who are bearing false witness to account. Sometimes that looks like an investigation being done. That's why I asked if it was within the church. I mean, within the church, this is why the process of church discipline can be really helpful.

Not church discipline in the sense of something negative or bad happening to you, but the church being able to come alongside and investigate and vindicate, ultimately, the person who is being charged with something that they didn't do. You also have, I mean, and that's another thing is you can take a step back and say, look, this is false, and I'm going to pray for those who are persecuting me and accusing me thinking of what Jesus says in the Sermon on the Mount, in particular, I'm going to love my enemies. And that is something that you're called to in this, but that doesn't mean loving your enemies doesn't mean just sort of putting up with the accusations, especially if it's causing great harm in your family. Is this something, I mean, obviously it sounds like your family is aware of these accusations, David, and is it something that is, are you finding that they're believing them or that they don't know what to do with them also? Well, what's happened is it's my wife is being cut off from her daughter and her granddaughter because of what I've been accused of doing, even though the state has stepped in, two different states have stepped in and said, there's absolutely nothing here and we are not going to ruin this man's life for something that didn't happen. So it's, um, the rest of the family doesn't know.

And I feel like on one hand, we need to tell them because you know, that old saying, the second liar doesn't stand a chance, but yet it's so absolute vile that I just can't even. I mean, it's, I actually told my wife, I hate that she's having to choose between me and her granddaughter and her daughter, but it's her daughter that's doing this. And the only thing we can think of is that she's mad because I was introducing her to Christ and reading the Bible with them and praying with her when we, when they're there. And that's the only thing we can come up with, with why this would even happen.

But I told my wife, I said, if you, because I don't want you to have to choose, if I need to walk away and, you know, separate, then if that's what you need, so you don't have to make this choice. I will, I even offered to take a lie detector test and I just, I don't know biblically where to go with this. I mean, I look at it as, I know that Jesus died on the cross and I know when it happened in those that watched that didn't understand, it seemed pointless and that didn't have a purpose. And I know that God works all things for good for those that are called to according to his purpose. I get all that. I know I'm paraphrasing, but I just, I can't find anywhere biblically how to approach this.

Well, yeah. And, and I mean, so this is a wisdom thing, but I think I'm connecting the dots a little bit here in terms of, you know, the, obviously the relationship pain and the mentioned daughter, granddaughter. I don't think that the answer is, is fleeing from the situation at all. I think, I think transparency and accountability are key here, David. And I think if there's, if there's an accusation that you have done something, I think you want to, you want to be totally transparent with, with the people around you. And I think, I think you want to do everything that you can to, to demonstrate that, to show that, that you're not trying to hide anything. Now, again, I don't know the specifics of what the accusation is. But, you know, when, when there are accusations related to children or, or abuse, those kinds of things, just, just throwing that out there, typically what I would say is bringing in a third party is important. I think that's something that you ought to do is bringing in a third party that specialize, specializes in, in looking into these things, investigating these things. And just, and just saying, look, this is, this is so important.

This is important because it's, it's important for my family, for our family, for, for my wife. And, and, and so I would say doing everything that you can to, to be open, transparent, not running from the situation and, and bringing in somebody else who's going to, going to be the third party and able to, to speak into this, specializing in these kinds of maybe questions and accusations as well. You, you don't need to, I mean, I don't think it's, it's necessarily like I have to, from a biblical perspective, not try to vindicate my name or something like that. No, there's, there's an accusation.

You're saying it's a false accusation. And I think, you know, as someone who's innocent, you should, you should do everything that you can to shine a light on the situation, to bring others in, into it, to allow them to look into the situation and, and dig and, and be vindicated in and through that process. I do think you mentioned, man, I just can't even bring this up to the church that I'm at. I do think you, you, you want to, and, and again, that doesn't mean you stand up and make an announcement on a Sunday morning, but certainly the, the leadership of the church, the pastor, the, the elders, bring them in one so that they can encourage you and comfort you and be there for your family, including your wife, but, but also so that they can probably help in that process of, of getting to the truth and, and getting vindication. And, and if, you know, there's, I, I, I realize that that's difficult and hard and, and, and oftentimes painful, but I think that's what you want. You want to be able to, to clear your name in this.

And so you should do everything you can to make that happen. David, thank you for, for reaching out to us and God bless. David, we'll be praying for you in the situation.

We know how difficult it is. Thanks for your call. Thanks for listening to Core Christianity.

We appreciate you. Bill, can I just say, I mean, when, and I don't know the, the total specifics of David's situation, but whenever in the church, especially, but whenever there is an accusation of abuse, I think that's where we have to just take a step back and say, okay, we need to shine a light on this. Let's not, this is not going to be something that we just handle in house.

We need to bring in somebody. We need to bring in the experts, essentially, who can spend some time with this, answering questions, investigating and getting to the bottom of it. And so I just, I just wanted to add that because it's a really important thing in the church. Oftentimes when you have within the church, these kinds of things, you know, accusations of abuse, it's, it's stuff that can get brushed under the rug or isn't investigated properly, not dealt with properly. And what, what that, what I'm, what I'm saying is a lot of times it's just sort of this in-house trying to figure things out. No, you want to bring in others and you want to walk in integrity and in the light, and you want there to be that vindication ultimately in the truth to come out.

That's so well said. I know both you and I have been through trainings on this topic, through different ministries, and actually there's one that you have recommended on this program before. If a church is dealing with this issue right now or wants to protect themselves from possible accusations of this sort of thing, what's the organization that you recommend? Yeah, I'm glad to plug them. It's called GRACE, stands for Godly Response to Abuse in a Christian Environment.

They have a ton of resources. Even for, for this brother that just called in terms of, I mean, they would be a great group to reach out to in terms of just asking what, what would be the right godly next steps, but their website is netgrace.org. All right, jot that down if you are at a church that could use that resource, netgrace.org.

This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adrian Sanchez. We'd love to get your call if you have a question about the Bible, the Christian life, doctrine, theology, you name it. The number is 833-THE-CORE. That's 1-833-843-2673. If you've got our voicemail system, feel free to leave a voicemail. We do our best to review those questions each day. Let's go to Brennan who's calling in from California.

Brennan, what's your question for Adriel? Hi, I had a Jehovah's Witness lady call, and I thought I'd give it a try and have a conversation with her, but we started talking about, I talked to her a little about the Trinity, and I kind of talked about John 1-1, and anyway, my question is, can a person have saving faith? Talking about myself, and I have kids we do a Bible study with where I describe the Trinity to them, and I feel like I don't fully understand it, but I believe it, and I know Jehovah's Witness, they've changed things and distorted things, but can a person have saving faith if they don't fully understand the Trinity, I guess, is my question. Hey, Brennan, great question, and I'd love to hear that you're seeking to raise your kids in the truth, and boy, having five little kids myself, I've gotten those questions about the Trinity over and over again. I remember having dinner one time with my family, and I think it was my daughter who said, okay, we say that God is one, but we say that God lives in my heart and in your heart and in mommy's heart, and so doesn't that mean that God is divided?

How can he be one but live in everybody's hearts? Just kids ask the greatest questions, and we have to distinguish, getting to your question, we have to distinguish between growing in our understanding of grace, embracing these doctrines even though we don't fully grasp them, and we never will. I mean, we're talking about the depth of who God is as he reveals himself.

You're not gonna come to some exhaustive knowledge, perfect knowledge on that. I mean, yet we embrace it by faith. We embrace God's word. We distinguish between that and people who know the doctrine and reject it and say, no, I don't actually believe that Jesus is God.

In fact, he isn't God. It isn't our perfect and full understanding that saves us. We're saved by Jesus. It's not even our perfect faith that saves us. Faith is, you know, our faith is fickle, weak.

It's mustard seed size, right? It's not great. And yet even our weak faith can lay hold of the true Christ for our redemption, for our salvation. And so I think that's something that you should take comfort in for yourself and for your children as they're growing and they're asking questions and they're piecing things together. They won't fully understand everything. And even after years and years of study, we don't perfectly understand everything. And yet we come to a deeper understanding and we find better ways of articulating the doctrine that's faithful to the scriptures and we receive God's grace. But for someone like a Jehovah's Witness who rejects the biblical teaching, well, there's a deep concern there. I think of what Jesus said to the religious leaders in John chapter 8 verse 24. I told you that you would die in your sins for unless you believe that I am He, you will die in your sins.

And just a little bit later, you know, these same people are asking, you know, who do you make yourself out to be? And he says to them in John chapter 8 verse 58, truly, truly, I say to you before Abraham was, I am. Now, of course, he's quoting from the book of Exodus there, the burning bush passage where God revealed himself to Moses as the great I am.

I am who I am. Jesus is identifying himself as the Lord. And he says to these religious people who are rejecting him, unless you believe that, you're going to die in your sins.

And of course, many of them did. And so I think it's also great that you're talking to these Jehovah's Witnesses. May God give you wisdom in opening up the scriptures and being patient and getting to the heart of the gospel, the identity of Jesus and the nature of his work for the forgiveness of our sins. One tip is that, you know, if you go to John chapter 1 verse 1, Jehovah's Witnesses in their Bible, the New World Translation, they mistranslate that. John chapter 1 verse 1 to read, in the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was a God, they'll say. And of course, that's not what our Bibles say. The word was God and the word became flesh, verse 14, and dwelt among us.

And so there are some challenges there because they've got, you know, a different Bible that they've changed. But getting to the heart of the matter, I think, as you're seeking to do and calling them to embrace the true Christ by faith is key. And may God bless you and your children as you continue to grow in Christ.

Brennan, thanks so much for calling CORE Christianity. By the way, we have a great resource that we think will help you to grow in your faith and also to defend your Christianity, maybe when talking to somebody who is opposed to it, who doesn't believe the claims of scripture, doesn't believe in the resurrection. It's called The Case for Christ by Lee Strobel. Yeah, it could also be a great resource in terms of growing in our faith to engage with some of these cults that reject some of the primary tenets of the Christian faith because in this book, A Case for Christ, or The Case for Christ, Strobel doesn't just get into the doctrine of the resurrection, but who Christ is, the doctrine of scripture, so many things that are important for us to know as believers for ourselves, for our own comfort, but also as we engage with those who reject the faith or just aren't sure about what Christianity is all about. I hope you get a hold of this resource again. The book is called The Case for Christ by Lee Strobel.

Pretty amazing. New York Times bestseller, over five million copies of this soul we've mentioned before. It's probably the best-selling apologetics book on the market, and we know it will help you in defending your faith. It's The Case for Christ by Lee Strobel. You can find it by going to corechristianity.com forward slash offers.

Well, we do receive voicemails here at the Core, and here's one that came in from one of our listeners named Gail. I'm wanting to ask what about this new book called A Course in Miracles. My friend, he's studying this book, and it worries me.

I don't really believe in it. I believe the Bible's complete, Genesis to Revelation. I need an answer what this book is. That book, A Course in Miracles, is not a good book. It's not just a course in terms of how to perform miraculous things like Jesus. It really is chocked full of false doctrine pertaining to who Christ is.

I would be very concerned for your friend. In fact, I've had friends as well who have gotten caught up in this book in particular who have completely abandoned the faith. It's heartbreaking. And so just with the previous caller, thinking about those things that are floating out there around, sort of trying to be related to the Christian faith, you think of Jehovah's Witnesses or Mormons even, you think of stuff like this, A Course in Miracles, which seeks to draw on some biblical principles and teachings and stuff related to Jesus. But at the end of the day, it twists everything in terms of rightly understanding who Christ is and rightly understanding what the gospel is.

And it causes people to suffer a shipwreck in their faith. And so I would say pray for your friend. Have conversations.

It could be that they're interested in talking about these things. Have conversations, but steer the conversation back, not to the miracles that we do, but to the true Christ of Scripture and calling this friend to embrace that Christ and to repent. If they're buying into these other false doctrines, frankly, I mean, you think of what John said in 1 John. The spirit of the Antichrist is already at work in the world. And what does he want us to do? He wants us to deny the true Jesus, that Jesus came in the flesh, to deny what Jesus came to do. The devil's happy with us accepting another Jesus, as Paul talks about in Galatians and in 2 Corinthians, right? A false Christ. And Jesus himself said there would be many false Christs.

Don't believe them. Stick to the Scriptures and grow in your understanding of Christ and your relationship with him through the Holy Bible. God bless. So well said. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez.

We'd love to hear from you. If you have a question about the Bible or the Christian life, feel free to send us an email. Questions at CoreChristianity.com. That's questions at CoreChristianity.com. Let's go to Christine calling in from California. Christine, what's your question for Adriel?

Hi Pastor Adriel. My question is this. Why did Adam wait to name Eve until after the fall when he named everything else right when it was presented to him? Great question. I mean he was just so blown away by the beauty of Eve that he just, the words I think didn't come, all he could do is say in verse 23 of Genesis 2, this at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh. He shall be called woman because she was taken out of man. I mean he's just overwhelmed with poetry when he sees Eve.

Good question. You know what's interesting there in Genesis chapter 2 is the focus on Eve as this helper for Adam, for the man. And of course sometimes people today hear that word helper and they think, oh what does that mean? Is Eve less than Adam or something like that? But it's interesting because that word in particular is most often used I think in the Old Testament with reference to God. God is the great helper of his people and so you have this picture of this complementary pair that is there created for the glory of God and for the advancement of God's kingdom and of the human race. Now when we get to Genesis chapter 3 after the fall as you note, Christine, that's where we read in verse 20, the man called his wife's name Eve because she was the mother of all living. And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them.

Now what some people will say, and I actually like this, is there's certainly an element of hope in verse 21. The fall has taken place and what you have God doing, you have God clothing the naked man and woman. Of course you have a picture of sacrifice and atonement there with these garments of skin. An animal had to die somewhere.

We're not told where they're in the garden but an animal had to die and God takes those skins and he clothes Adam and Eve, their nakedness. And so there's hope there but there's also hope I think in verse 20. And that's one of the things that's highlighted with the naming of Eve if you will here at this point in the story, Eve, the mother of all living. In other words, it's not hopeless. Their story isn't going to end there. The human race isn't going to be cut off there because of their sin in the garden.

No, you have here a new start. Eve, the mother of all living and you also have that promise, what we refer to as the proto-Euangelion in Genesis chapter 3 verse 15. The first preaching or promise of the gospel where God says he's going to put enmity between the serpent and the woman between your offspring and her offspring. He shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel. And so it's probably rooted in that promise that he received that he heard from the Lord this hope that the seed of the woman, the seed of Eve if you will, is going to crush the head of the serpent. And of course we know who that offspring was. It was Jesus Christ the Lord. And we rejoice in that that the serpent's head has been crushed by the seed of the woman and we rejoice. God bless. We hope 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.