Is It Necessary to Have a Stance on the End Times?

Is it necessary to have a stance on truth network?

Yeah. John, great question. You know, believe it or not, that verse has been debated by theologians in part because, you know, we're talking about the second person of the Holy Trinity praying to the Father and saying, why have you forsaken me? And the question is, is that even possible?

Can the persons of the Holy Trinity be out of communion? And, of course, we would say, you know, in terms of, you know, God as He is in Himself, well, no, that would dissolve our doctrine of God, our understanding of who God is. And so how do we make sense of this? Well, the first thing, of course, I'm sure you know what Jesus is doing here. He's quoting from the Psalms, in particular in Psalm chapter 22 verse 1. This is a psalm of David, and he says, David, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me and from the words of my groaning? You know, what's interesting about this, too, is in this psalm, there's a lot of allusions to the cross and what would take place later in verse 16.

Let's start there. It says, dogs encompass me, a company of evildoers encircle me. They have pierced my hands and feet, and I can count all my bones. Well, what happened at the cross? Well, the hands and feet of our Lord Jesus were pierced, but His bones were not broken. John chapter 19 verse 33 makes that clear.

They didn't break His bones. And so there's something very messianic about all the psalms, but this psalm in particular is Jesus, you know, brings those words onto His lips while He is on the cross. And He says, again, this is in Matthew chapter 27.

I'm looking at that text right now. He says, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? And people at first, they think, well, what is He doing? You know, is He crying out to Elijah?

What's going on? But no, He's quoting from Psalm 22. Now, He's taking those words on His lips for us on our behalf. We, we who should have been forsaken because of our sins, because of our unbelief, because of our rebellion, we are justified and saved because Jesus has borne our curse on the cross. That's precisely, John, what Paul says in Galatians chapter 3, for example. He bore our curse on the cross. And so what's happening here is Jesus is taking our judgment.

This death, this curse, this wrath that's inflicted upon Him is what was due to us. But it doesn't mean that He's out of communion with the Father in the sense of being severed from the, you know, the Father and the Holy Trinity, because that could never be. In fact, when Jesus is telling His disciples that, you know, they're all going to abandon Him, when He's on the cross, He says, but I'm not alone.

I'm not alone because the Father is with me. So, and so that's the sort of fine line that we walk with that text. And I just want to go back to you and make sure that I've answered your question, at least what you were looking for, John. What was it specifically, I guess, about that text that has been troubling to you? Well, it's actually interesting because you hit the nail right on the head was that, you know, that the Father and the Son would fall out of communion. Yeah, that really makes me like better understand that passage, because like I said, it never really made a lot of sense to me. Well, I'm glad that I could help you with that, because like I said, if we go the route of saying the persons of the Holy Trinity are out of communion, well, now our atonement doctrine, our doctrine of the cross is compromising our doctrine of God. We're not understanding something about the Trinity. And tragically, I think there are pastors who when they preach the cross, they can sort of make it sound like that. Like now you have this cosmic rift within the Trinity between the persons of the Godhead. I think that's just not appropriately or properly preaching the cross. We have to embrace the fact that Christ has taken our curse, our judgment, without undermining the doctrine of the Holy Trinity. And so, like I said, Jesus is quoting from Psalm 22.

He's taking our curse upon himself. He's experiencing the exile of death, if you will, and judgment so that you and I could have eternal life so that we might be forgiven. And so thanks for reaching out with that question, brother, and may the Lord bless you. John, thanks so much for listening to Core Christianity.

If you have a question about the Bible or the Christian life, you can always feel free to leave us a voicemail at 833-THE-CORE. Let's go to Sherry, who is calling in from Missouri. Sherry, what's your question for Adriel?

Yes. Can you hear me? Hi, Sherry, I can hear you.

OK. Well, it's kind of a question that cannot be answered, I guess, but I mean, I'm not expecting you to tell me that he's there. But my son passed away in April of this year. And he was addicted to drugs all of his life since the age of 13. I tried. I mean.

It's hard to speak about, but. I would ask him all the time, and he did go to church when he was sober and he read his Bible, and I would ask him all the time if he was saved. Because I was afraid he would die. And he said in the beginning, he would always tell me no and that he didn't really believe in God. But in the later years, he told me yes. And one of the last conversations a year ago I had with him about it, because we were kind of estranged for the last year, was I told him, I said, I want you to be sure because I want to spend eternity with you. I want you in heaven with me. And he said, Mama, I'll be there.

Can someone be saved that never ever lived like they were? And I'm struggling so much, thinking that I'll never see him again. So, sister, our hearts break and we mourn with you.

And the first thing I would want to say to you, I mean, as a mother, you longing for your son to be well, to be healthy, doing everything that you could have done. This is not on you trusting in the Lord, knowing that God was not surprised by any of this, that God knew all of this. And this is something that you have to, we have to, in situations like this, surrender to the Lord.

Because we don't have the definitive answers. We can look at things and we can say, I'm thankful that there was an openness to read scripture and that God was, was it seemed like at work, but there was also this battle, this lifelong battle from a very young age with addiction. Now, does that mean that a person can't be saved who battles with addiction?

I would say that the answer to that is no. That's not what it means. I mean, we can't be presumptuous one way or another. One story, Sherry, that often gives me hope and comfort is the story in the Old Testament of Samson. Because you have an individual who is struggling, truly struggling, living this kind of life of contradiction and going back to things that he shouldn't go back to. And yet there were serious consequences. I mean, ultimately his quote unquote struggle, his rebellion, his sin led to his death. And it was tragic. I mean, the story of Samson in the Old Testament is one of the most tragic stories in all of the Bible.

And yet, somehow, Samson is still included in the Hall of Faith, in Hebrews chapter 11. So what that says to me is an individual who struggles, who really struggles but is and has trusted in Christ and is living this life of struggle, that doesn't necessarily mean that they're not saved. And of course, again, we can't know, we want to hope in God's mercy and we entrust the lives of our loved ones to a merciful God. And that's what you have to do, sister, and that's my encouragement to you. And I hope that you've been able to get the support and care that you need as you continue to mourn and to grieve. But that you also come to the point where you're able to say, Lord, this is in your hands and I know, God, that you are gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. And you see my broken heart as a mother and I entrust this entire situation to you, my son, to you.

You were not caught off guard by these things. And I'm grateful that there was at least some evidence of a desire to read scripture. I'm sure that he could see, as you would plead with him, as you would plead with him to know and love Jesus and follow Jesus, that he could see that, that he knew, that he knew the Gospel. Now, that's something that I'm grateful for and you never know what's going on in a person's heart, especially towards the end. And so you entrust all of that to the Lord. And I just want to pray for you, Sherri, and ask that the Lord would continue to be with you in this season of grief. Father, we lift our sister up to you and we ask, Lord, for your peace and your presence in her life. We pray, God, that you would help her to trust in you and to surrender these circumstances to you as a God who is good and merciful. We pray, Lord, for support for her in family and others, Lord, church community. Just ask, Lord, for your healing hand to be at work in our sister's life. Pray also right now, Lord, for all those battling with addiction, maybe even some listening right now.

And they're grieved by it and they long to be set free. Jesus, I pray that you would work even right now in their lives, breaking the chains and the shackles. And for those, Lord God, who question, who wonder, God, do you still love me?

Could you still love me even through this battle? I pray that they would see and sense your great love and that they would come to you, Lord, even now as we pray. And so be with our sister, comfort her and be with all of those right now, Lord, in that fight and bring them to yourself. We pray in Jesus' name.

Amen. Sherry, thank you for your call. We will continue to pray for you here at CORE Christianity.

And hang on the line if you would for a second. We'd like to tell you about a resource that we think would be helpful. This is CORE Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. We talk a lot about the value of life on this program. And we have a resource that we'd like to offer you that actually really gets into God's view of life.

And it's called Fearfully Made. Yeah, it's a new devotional that we're offering. You can get a digital download for free by going to corechristianity.com forward slash offers.

And it really gets to the heart of that issue of life, so controversial in our culture today, but something that Christians do need to stand up for. Again, the devotional is called Fearfully Made, and I hope that you access it today over at corechristianity.com forward slash offers. We have a lot of great offers available to you at our website.

Many of those are absolutely free. Some of our CORE guides and our CORE questions we know will be helpful to you. So check that out and just browse around for a while, corechristianity.com. And of course, you can always send us an email at questions at corechristianity.com if you have a question for Adriel. Well, let's go to a voicemail that came in from one of our listeners.

This is Abby from Georgia. My question for Pastor Adriel is how concerned should I be with figuring out the eschatology I believe in? There's so much to unpack and so many denominations and things have different viewpoints and a lot which I think are valid on many sides.

And what's going to happen is going to happen regardless of whether or not I figure out exactly what I think is right. And it's just so overwhelming. So should I really be concerned with trying to read through all the different passages, determine if they're really metaphorical or if things are going to be pre-trip, post-trip, millennial reign rapture or not? Should I really be concerned or should I just be focused on the gospel and what my mission is here on earth that God's given me?

Thank you. It can be overwhelming, right? And especially with all of the debates and differences of opinion out there between various churches, it can just sort of feel like I just want to throw my hands in the air and say I'm going to just focus on Jesus and trying to love him. I already have a hard enough time just loving Jesus well.

Here's what I would want to say. So when it comes to our eschatology, the fundamental thing that we have to embrace is that Jesus is coming back bodily. There are heretical eschatological views. There's a view known as hyper-preterism. It's the idea that essentially everything in the book of Revelation has already taken place, the final judgment, the resurrection of the dead and so forth. Well, that's not the case. There's a view that says, well, the second coming has already happened.

Well, yeah, you want to reject that. Among the different eschatological views that are, I think, within the bounds of Christianity, within the bounds of you can embrace this, we can have differences of opinion on this eschatology, but it doesn't put us outside of the communion of the church. Among those views, what they all agree on is that Christ is coming back bodily to judge the world, that we're looking forward to the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come as is confessed in creeds like the Nicene Creed. So in one sense, I think you can be comforted by that.

Hey, we actually do share a lot in common. It's really when we get into the specifics and application that there begin to be differences. Again, that looks like what is the tribulation, what is that going to be like, what kind of change can we expect in this world prior to the second coming, prior to the consummation. Should we expect that the entire world is going to be Christianized, that there's going to be a kind of a golden age on earth, a millennial reign on earth prior to the second coming of Jesus? That's the view associated with, that's the view of post-millennialism.

Or is it going to be that good and evil are just sort of continuing and that Christ is going to come back and judge evil and glorify his church, different views. I don't want to minimize the fact that what you believe about these things does have and can have practical implications for how you live, for how you think about the world. And ultimately, the Bible talks about these things and so we should care about this.

But I wouldn't say that it's something where it's like I have to have this all figured out or else I'm in deep trouble. No, I would say as you continue to study the scriptures and to look at these passages and to read up on the matter, do so with humility. Do so saying, Lord, guide me and in all of this, help me not to become arrogant or puffed up, but help me to grow in love for you and for my neighbor. May my eschatology be right in line with that, with a longing, a desire to see people turn to Jesus with the seriousness about the coming of our Lord. Being vigilant, being watchful, that's what's oftentimes associated with those passages that speak about the second coming, right?

Coming as a thief in the night, being prepared, being watchful. And so God help all of us to that end. And so, well, I don't think that you should worry about this.

It's not something that should keep you up at night or you shouldn't feel like, oh, man, I'm really in trouble if I don't figure this out. No, you don't have to look at it like that, but I would say this is in God's word, right? We're talking about God's word and God's word is meant to be read and understood and embraced. And so it's not like the views don't matter. And it's not like there isn't a view that's true. I happen to hold a one particular eschatological view because I feel like, OK, this is my view. And here's why I think this way. Here's how I'm compelled by scripture.

But I wouldn't divide with another brother or sister over something like that. And I think it's good for us to have these conversations. Ultimately, to sharpen each other and to seek to honor the Lord in all things. And so God bless you, God comfort you, and God give you wisdom as you continue to open up the scriptures. By the way, we have a great Bible study on the Book of Revelation, which is available at our website.

If you want to learn more about what Revelation is really saying about the end times, you can find that by going to corechristianity.com and go through the Bible studies, look for the one on the Book of Revelation. Well, let's go to Charlotte, who's calling in from Illinois. Charlotte, what's your question for Adriel? I just want to encourage that lady that lost her son. The fall of Tarsus got saved by Jesus Christ for all the things he'd done.

So maybe Jesus was with her son right before he died. And hope is, hang on, possibilities exist. I want you to know the greatest power God gave us is the power to choose.

Well, I just wondered, how did the devil, you take the D off the devil, which is evil, get into a perfect garden? Charlotte, I want to say a couple of things. One, I just want to thank you for caring for our sister who called in earlier. We continue to keep her in our prayers for healing. One of the things I love about the core Christianity audience is how much we get to pray for each other and want to encourage you. We've gotten calls before from people who are really struggling with something. And afterwards, we'll get letters, people saying, hey, can you connect me with that person because I want to come alongside of that person or pray for that person or offer to help in some way. And it's something that just really blesses me, being able to be a part of this ministry, being able to see how the body of Christ, how we want to come alongside of each other and encourage each other.

So, Charlotte, thank you for that. Now, with regard to your question, how did the serpent get into the garden? If it was a perfect garden, of course, God made everything good. You read the early chapters of Genesis and that's very clear. The world that God made, he didn't make with sin. Sin is this sort of foreign thing that has entered into the world, but that God didn't make the world in that way. I think that's really important for us as we look at the world around us today with the evil that we see and people wonder, well, how could God do this? Well, no, God did not intend or create the world initially to have sin and to have death.

That's our own doing. Now, what God gave Adam and Eve in the garden was that freedom of choice that you were talking about and left to the freedom of their own wills, they sinned against God by eating of the forbidden fruit. God allowed the serpent in the garden. It's not that the serpent snuck in and God didn't notice. No, God allowed it because there was this point of testing there for Adam and Eve, there with the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Adam was to judge the serpent at that tree.

That's what he should have done. There was a choice that was set before him, again, the choice that you bring up, and instead of choosing to follow God, sin entered the world. He chose to disobey God, the good creator, the creator who had given us everything, who created all things good, an overwhelming abundance of generosity, all the food, all the animals, all the beauty of the Garden of Eden, and yet man, Adam, wanted something else, something that God said you can't have. And ever since then, we continue to make the same mistake. We continue to sin in Adam and we have our own sins, despite the fact that God has been so good to us. Oftentimes we continue to do just like he did.

And so what's the hope? The hope is that the seed of the woman is going to crush the head of the serpent, and that's precisely what we see prophesied in Genesis 3, verse 15, and that's precisely what was fulfilled in Jesus Christ. The serpent Satan has been crushed by the crucifixion of Jesus and his resurrection from the dead. God bless. 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.