Can We Be Separated From God?

Can we be separated from God? 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 also post your question on one of our social media sites, and of course, you can always email us your question at questionsatcorechristianity.com. And Pastor Adriel, I understand you took a little camping trip with all of your kids, all five of them, in one tent? In one tent, Bill. Yeah, it was pretty awesome. I mean, not a lot of sleeping happened, especially for my wife, Courtney. I mean, really, all of us, though. I mean, one tent, and we're about 10,000 feet elevation in southern Utah.

But it was beautiful. I mean, we just don't have some of those sites in southern California, so it was really nice to do that. We went on some pretty strenuous hikes, which I hope that the kids thank me for those later, but they were having a hard time during the hikes. You guys do some hiking around where you're at, right, Bill? We do. And I understand your kids had pocket knives. What were they doing with those pocket knives?

Yeah, we did. I mean, they all asked for pocket knives. We gave them, I mean, you know, small ones, not very big ones. What were they doing? They were whittling pieces of wood and trying to create spears, as young boys do, to hunt the squirrels around the campsite. Fortunately, no squirrels were injured during our camping trip, at least not this time.

And neither were any of my kids, so they were pretty safe with their pocket knives. Well, I'm glad you guys had a great time. It's so wonderful to experience God's creation up close and personal.

That is really cool. Amen. Well, let's go to the phones. We have a voicemail that came in from one of our listeners.

This is from Stanley. My question is, the First Commandment says, Thou shalt not worship any strange gods, nor make any graven image of anything on earth, beneath the earth, or above the earth, that you will bow down and worship in any way. Says, I am a jealous God, punishing to the second and third generation.

And I want to know if they could cause a curse on people. Thank you. Okay. Well, thank you for that question. Yeah, you're referring to the Ten Commandments, Exodus chapter 20. I'm just going to read it again, verse 5. You shall not bow down to them or serve them. It's talking about making graven images. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me.

But you don't want to miss the second half of this section, verse 6, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments. So I guess it just depends on what you mean by curse. If you mean, are the children going to be punished for the sins of the fathers in the sense that they're going to be put to death for those sins?

Well, the answer is no. And that's very clearly expressed elsewhere in the Old Testament. For example, in Deuteronomy 24, verse 16, it says that the children are not going to be put to death for the sins of their fathers. But there is the reality of the fact that our sins as fathers, as individuals, do affect the people around us, and in particular in the family.

I mean, just think of it practically, right? I mean, if you have a father who's an alcoholic or absentee, that has a powerful negative effect on his family, on his children in particular. In that sense, if we want to call that a curse, then we could say, yeah, there are consequences for our sinful behavior. But what's being highlighted here in particular in Exodus chapter 20 is the fact that God's steadfast love, his covenant love, is so much more powerful than even that. Visiting the iniquities or the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments sort of reminds me of what the psalmist said in Psalm chapter 30, verse 5. What does the psalmist say there? His anger is but for a moment, and his favor is for a lifetime. Weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes with the morning. And so, look, if you're concerned that maybe there's a curse on me because of my father's sin or my great grandfather's sin, just know this.

Turn to the Lord Jesus Christ. He wipes away all our sins and calls us to obey him and to follow him to experience that blessing that he gives that extends to thousands. He can even extend to you by faith in Christ. And so, appreciate that question, brother.

Thank you for giving us a call and God bless. You know, Adriel, I was just thinking about one of my favorite verses in the Old Testament, the fact that it's God's kindness that leads us to repentance. And that really does tie in, I mean, with the fact that God loves us so much. And if we trust in him and if we obey him, he lavishes that on us. That's right.

Yeah. Paul quotes that also in the book of Romans, right? The kindness of God that leads us to repentance. And so, what should we do? I mean, you think about all the kindness that God has shown to us, kindness and common grace, you know, those common blessings that God just extends to everyone in creation.

You think of good food, good health, good weather, getting to enjoy those things. That's God's kindness. But even beyond that, you have the mercy of God that he has not rewarded us according to our iniquities. He's been merciful to us. He's long-suffering, patient towards us, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. And so, we ought to. We ought to take God's kindness and say, Lord, you're so amazing. I love you. Help me to follow you and to honor you in all that I do.

Amen. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. Our phone lines are open if you have a question about the Bible, the Christian life, doctrine, theology, maybe something going on in your Christian walk that you're struggling with right now. We would love to hear from you. Here's our phone number. It's 833-THE-CORE. That's 1-833-843-2673. We'll be taking calls for the next 20 minutes or so.

So now is the time to call in. Adriel, here's an email from one of our listeners named Stacy. And Stacy said, and this really ties in with a lot of what we've been seeing in the news lately about extraterrestrials. She says, I was wondering lately what the biblical view of extraterrestrial life or other creatures beyond Earth is. And has the Lord revealed himself to them as he did with us? Or would they have a different history than we do with God?

Well, I think I'd have to speculate a little bit with some of those. But in terms of other creatures besides, you have obviously all of the creatures here on Earth. You do also have in Genesis the description of God creating the heavenly beings, the heavenly hosts. And so there is an unseen realm that oftentimes we're just not aware of, but it's very, very much real.

And it's there. Now, I'm not saying that those are aliens, but I'm just saying that that's what the Bible says about other creatures. The angels are creatures, created beings, heavenly beings. Genesis chapter one, verse one. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the Earth. The Earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters, and God said, let there be light, and there was light. But when it says there that God created the heavens and the Earth, the heavens there probably does include not just the stars and the planets, but also the heavenly hosts.

Psalm 148, verses one through four, Colossians 1, 16, talking about all of the heavenly hosts that were created for the glory of Christ ultimately. And so I know that doesn't get specifically to your question about, well, what about ET, alien life? And Bill, you're right, there has been a lot of talk about that recently in the news. But we don't want to speculate too much. We know that there are heavenly beings, that there is an unseen realm out there, angelic hosts.

We don't know exactly how many there are, but we know that they're powerful. And ultimately that the angels of God are called to perform his will, to minister to those, to serve those who are going to inherit salvation. That's what the New Testament tells us. And then with regard to spaceships and all those other things, the Bible doesn't speak clearly about that. And so, Bill, what do you think? Have you ever been abducted?

No. You know, if aliens come to earth, I just want to invite them to church and share the four spiritual laws with them. Our producer is shaking his head right now. I'm looking at him as he shakes his head as we speculate about aliens. Okay. But here's the thing.

What I'm concerned with, and I think one issue is not letting these kinds of speculations, you see them in the news, trip us up. We know that ultimately there is one God who created all things in heaven and on earth. There aren't other creatures that exist apart from God, or that were not created by the true and the living God. John says in the beginning of his gospel that by Jesus, all things were made and apart from him, there wasn't anything made that was made. And so the God that we worship, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, the Triune God is the creator of all things. Is there, you know, life out there?

You know, ET life. Well, I've not done all the research on that specifically, but I do know who created everything. And that's where we need to focus our attention is on him and on worshiping him rightly.

So well said. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. If you've got a question about the Bible, the Christian life, ET, whatever, we'd love to hear from you. Here's the number. It's 833-THECORE. That's 1-833-843-2673. Give us a call right now, especially maybe if you're a person who just stumbled across this program and you consider yourself to be an agnostic or an atheist, and you're really not agreeing with some of the stuff you hear on Core Christianity. Adriel is more than happy to talk to you about your doubts.

So give us a call at 833-THECORE. Well, I want to mention a great Bible study that we have available. It's on the book of Daniel, which can be a confusing book at times, given some of the prophetic things that we find in it, but also a wonderful book as far as how we live out our faith in a difficult culture. So a 10-week Bible study that I got to help with in terms of putting together some of the content on the book of Daniel available on our website. Just a great opportunity for you if you're interested in studying, in particular, the Old Testament, digging into the book of Daniel. This is a good resource that you could go through on your own or maybe with a small group from your church, a 10-week study on the book of Daniel. Again, Bill, I like that you mentioned that, thinking about how to live in the midst of a difficult culture, society, and certainly that was what Daniel and many of the exiles had to experience in terms of clinging to their faith when they were being called to rebellion, called to idolatry even. And so what does it look like for us as the people of God to hold fast to the truth of God's word in the midst of a world, and this isn't anything new. I mean, Daniel is experiencing this in the Old Testament, but how do we in the midst of the world that we're in hold fast to the truth of God's word as we experience those temptations? And so get ahold of this resource over at corechristianity.com forward slash Daniel, and I know that will be a blessing to you.

It's available both as a physical copy or a PDF download. We also offer leaders guides for all of our Bible studies, which make this a perfect resource to send to your pastor or your small group leader as maybe they're planning their next Bible study. Again, as Adriel said, head over to corechristianity.com forward slash Daniel to get your copy of this new Bible study, which Adriel helped to write, so we'd love to get that into your hands.

Well, we do receive voicemails here at the core, and here's one that came in from one of our listeners named John. Hello, brethren. Good morning. Good Sabbath. I have a question concerning this concept of being blotted out. I know and love the doctrines of grace, and there's clear Scripture that talks about how nothing will separate us from the love of God. John 6, John 10, Ephesians, all of that.

I love it. But there's a few places like Exodus 32, verse 33, Deuteronomy 9, 14, Revelation 3, 5, 17, 18, and 22, 19, that speak about blotting out, or there's a promise somewhere in there that God will not blot us out. I'm just confused. Why would that even come up if—you see where I'm going with this? Unless there's a different context that I'm missing.

Thank you so much. Hey, John, appreciate that question, and certainly one of those questions that I think has been on—I mean, for all of us as believers, at one point or another, we ask that question, you know, is God, because of my sin, is he going to just cut me off? Is he going to blot my name out of the Book of Life? That's a language that you're referring to in those various passages, both in the Old Testament and Deuteronomy, but then specifically in Revelation chapter 3, where Jesus promised the church in Sardis, to the one who conquers, the one who conquers, will be clothed thus in white garments, and I will never blot his name out of the Book of Life. I will confess his name before my Father and before his angels. And then he closes it the same way he closes his other exhortations to the seven churches in Asia Minor. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

And so here's the thing. We know that the Book of Revelation is full of, you know, this highly symbolic language, but we don't want to minimize what Jesus is saying here. The only thing I would highlight is that later in the Book of Revelation, both in Revelation chapter 13 and in Revelation chapter 17, 13a and 17a, Jesus talks about the names that are in the Book of Life being there from before the foundation of the world. So this isn't one of those things where God has this book and, you know, our names are in it, and he's got this, you know, Holy Spirit eraser, and if people have been sinning too much, well, he blots them out, and then maybe if they do better, he can add them back in.

No, it's a picture of this book, the names that are in the book from the foundation of the world. We're talking about God's elect, God's people, and I don't think God is going to lose any of them. I don't think Jesus is going to lose any of them, but there is a strong warning here for those who are in the church, I would say, who have experienced some of the blessings of that covenantal life with the body of Christ, the presence of God's Spirit in one sense or another, and yet are turning away from the faith, apostatizing. I don't think it's that they're losing their salvation. I think it's that they've experienced many of the blessings of Christian community and the Christian truth, and yet they're turning away from them.

They're turning back to the pagan ideas and sinful practices of the world. I mean, that's what you're getting in these warnings in Revelation chapter 2 and 3. And so you do have that vivid language, but we have to remember that that book of life, it's this symbol, this picture provided for us there in the book of Revelation of all those who are God's people.

And the names that are there are there from the very foundation of the world. And so we want to be careful that we don't read this too literalistically to say, well, God actually has this literal book and he's putting your name on it and taking it out and so on and so forth. We can have confidence. You can have confidence if you are in Jesus Christ that you will be saved, not because you're perfect. And this is where we really have to get, because I think for a lot of us who wrestle with our assurance, wrestle with, you know, am I really saved?

The problem is we're looking to ourselves. If I have to keep myself, if it's on me, well, then I'm in a lot of trouble. But if it's the Good Shepherd, Jesus himself who keeps me, if my hope is in him, he's the anchor of my soul, then even though we experience great trials and tribulations, even times of discipline for sin, God, Jesus, is not going to let go of you. And so we're preserved and we persevere because we have a good and faithful high priest, a Good Shepherd, Jesus. God bless. Great words of assurance. Thank you for that, Adriel.

This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. You can call us anytime, 24 hours a day and leave a voicemail on our system. Here's the number. It's 833-THE-CORE.

That's 1-833-843-2673. And you can feel free to email us your questions anytime at questions at corechristianity.com. Let's go to Marty, who's in Wichita, Kansas. Marty, what's your question for Adriel? Yeah, when the Romans were nailing Christ to the cross and Christ said, Father, forgive them for they don't know what they do, can you expound on those words? I don't understand it clearly. Well, I mean, Jesus has been crucified by the Romans and they truly don't understand what it is that they're doing. I mean, what they're doing is heinous, hideous, sinful. Did they fully comprehend that they're murdering the second person of the Holy Trinity, the eternal Son of God?

No, they didn't. And now they're still guilty. They're still responsible for their sin. But Jesus, who is being put to death, who's being murdered unjustly, is pleading for mercy. He's praying for those who are persecuting him, who are killing him. Of course, Stephen does this also in the book of Acts, following the example of the Lord Jesus Christ. And we're called to pray for those who persecute us. You think of Jesus' Sermon on the Mount, specifically called to love our enemies. But I think the reason Jesus says that, and he's able to say that, is because there was still a disconnect. They didn't recognize that this was the Lord of glory.

Now, I want to just go back to you really quickly, Marty. Was that phrase in particular, you know, they don't know what they're doing? Yeah.

Does that help to make sense of it for you, or were you looking for something else? Well, I just didn't know whether, when he said, Father, forgive them, for they don't know what they do. Is that a plea for their salvation, or I just don't understand the wording. Yeah. Well, no.

Okay. It is a plea for their salvation. And, I mean, we should marvel at this, that Jesus, as he is being put to death, is praying for those who are hammering in the nails, and saying, Father, forgive.

They don't know what they're doing. I think a good parallel passage here, actually, is in 1 Corinthians 2, verse 8, where Paul said, None of the rulers of this age understood this. For if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.

But as it is written, What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him. And so here we see a beautiful picture of the compassion of Christ on those who were sinning against him, putting him to death. And, brothers and sisters, friends, as you listen to this, each of us need to recognize that it was our sins, too, that placed Jesus on the cross.

It was our iniquities. That's why he went to the cross. It wasn't because he had sinned. It's because you and I had sinned.

And he was bearing the weight of the curse of death that we deserve for our sins so that we might have the hope of eternal life. And as you hear Jesus praying for those Roman soldiers, hear him praying for all the lost, for you, for your repentance, to come to faith, to know him, and to experience his grace and forgiveness today. Amen.

Well said. Marty, thanks so much for your call. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez.

Let's go to Garrett calling in from Missouri. Garrett, what's your question for Adriel? Hey, what my question is, is what's the most accurate Bible translation to get? Because I've been going from translation to translation, and I've noticed using some of the older translations, like the King James, there are some, there has been some new manuscripts since that one was written. But I've been recommended like 10 different ones, and I'm having trouble deciding. Yeah.

Well, boy, you're going to get all sorts of different answers depending on who you ask. But I think that there are a handful that are pretty good. I use the English Standard Version in my preaching and then even on this broadcast of the ESV. For a while, I was using the NASB, the New American Standard Bible.

That's going to be a little bit more, I would say, of a wooden translation. I even think, I mean, there are people who think that the NIV is not wooden enough, but I think even the NIV, depending on who's reading and maybe for someone who's just beginning to get into the scriptures might be a little bit smoother. But I think the ESV, the NASB, even the New King James Version of the Bible is good. Of course, it sounds like you understand that there are different bodies of manuscripts that are used for these various translations. It's also helpful, Garrett, just to have a handful of different Bibles so that as you're reading through the scriptures, if you have a question, you can compare that with other translations. Sometimes even getting a Greek and Hebrew inner linear might be helpful in terms of seeing some of the words behind what the English translation is, behind the Greek or Hebrew translation translated into English, what that is. But I would say you could be confident as you're reading the ESV, the NASB, that you're getting God's revelation for you, his word. And so consider some of those and maybe get a couple of them and read through them and continue to dig into the scriptures. And as you do, the Lord will bless you. And so thanks for giving us a call and God bless your day. 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.