There are thousands of different religious groups all over the world, but what is it that makes certain religious groups cults? That's just one of the questions we'll be answering on today's edition of CORE Christianity. That's 1-833-843-2673. You can also email us with your question at questions at corechristianity.com. First up today, Adriel, you shared an Instagram message that came into our program that I wanted to share with our listeners because I just thought it was so encouraging. He says, Hey, Adriel, I just wanted to thank you for the ministry you've done through the CORE Christianity podcast.
I've been listening regularly for a few months now. Because of your show, I've noticed much more peace and rest in my life and much less restlessness and anxiety. Instead of focusing so much on how well I am obeying God, you've helped me to focus more on the gospel and the gracious God who planned, accomplished, and is accomplishing and will accomplish that redemption. So thank you again for helping me better understand the gospel and how to live in the light of it. Isn't that beautiful?
Yeah, it is. And those messages that we receive are so encouraging. I just want to encourage you, if you've been blessed by the program, reach out to us. We want to hear from you and hear about the things that God is doing in your life. And it also gives us an opportunity, gives me an opportunity to pray for you to keep reaching out to us.
We love to hear these stories about how God is helping you to direct your eyes to Jesus and to grow in His grace and the knowledge of Christ and being able to rest in what Christ has done for you. That really is what it's all about. And so thank you.
And Bill, I'm glad you shared that message. We have a Facebook account, Instagram, and Twitter, so you could post on any one of those. We got it all. Yeah, just look for us at Core Christianity. Well, let's get to our first question of the day.
This one was posted on our Facebook page. A friend of mine recently suggested that my wife and I stopped seeing a family therapist that we had been meeting with. He said we should only receive biblical counseling since it's based on scripture instead of other things. We found meeting with this therapist very helpful and are willing to meet with counselors in the church as well. But I'm unsure what we would do if we had to choose between one or the other.
I don't think that you need to choose between one or the other. And Bill, I'd be interested to hear your thoughts on this one, too, as a trained counselor. But let me give you my thoughts as a minister of the gospel who has had some experience with both marriage and family therapy and biblical counseling. I've seen marriages transformed for the better by a good family therapist, you know, someone who's been trained and educated and is able to spot things, patterns even that others may not be able to see right away, and provide some insight, some really helpful insight for strengthening the marriage. And I've also seen marriages transformed by solid biblical counseling, helping people to see their problem in light of scripture, meditating on God's word and what it has to say about things like communication, finances, intimacy, you know, some of the things that oftentimes pose problems in marriage. I think this is really important because a lot of people don't have the biblical foundation when they enter into a marriage. And so biblical counseling can be really impactful.
I don't think that you need to pick between one or the other, though. You know, in life and in marriage, we need all the help we can get. The teaching of the church, the encouragement of friends and family, you know, at times a marriage and family therapist or a biblical counselor.
And let me just add one thing. Don't be ashamed of the fact that you're sitting down with a therapist or a biblical counselor. The fact is there is no perfect marriage, and we all bring history and baggage into the relationship.
And as sinners, we're getting married to another sinner. So it takes a lot of help. It takes a lot of grace, wisdom, forgiveness, and the love that comes from God, the gift of the Holy Spirit. So if you're going to have a healthy marriage, it takes work, and that's okay. And so I think if you're benefiting from sitting down with this particular family therapist, keep doing it. And if you want to check out biblical counseling as well, we'll do that, too, if it's an opportunity to grow in God's Word. The one time that we do want to be cautious is if we're hearing something from a therapist that flat out contradicts what God has said in His Word.
Well, we know that God's Word ultimately is the final authority. And so this is another reason why it's really important for you to know the Word of God so that you can be able to sift through, you know, is what I'm hearing right now in line with what God has said in His Word. But the fact of the matter is there's just a lot of practical wisdom and helpful guidance that you can get from a therapist and someone who's trained in marriage and family therapy.
And so I like to encourage both, and I've seen both have a really positive impact on couples. Yeah, the only thing I would add is make sure that your therapist is willing to affirm your faith, or at least is not opposed to your faith, because the research shows that, unfortunately, a large percentage of psychologists and psychiatrists, social workers, tend to identify as agnostic or atheist. And as long as they're not, you know, attacking your faith, or they're not trying to undermine it anyway, I think you're right, I think the the expertise and the knowledge, the wisdom and family dynamics, psychological testing, the things that they bring to the therapy can be very, very helpful. Again, as long as they're not trying to do anything that would cause you to doubt your faith, or that would contradict God's Word in that in the counseling sessions.
Yeah, Bill, that's so important. I was talking to a therapist one time, and they were asking me, you know, as a pastor, you talk about all these rules and regulations in your religion. And I have seen, this is what this person was telling me, I have seen, you know, people just come into me weighed down with guilt and shame. And so I just tell them, you know, you need to sort of fetishize those rules. If they're not helpful, if they're causing you to be like this, then there's a real problem.
And they were asking me, well, how do you deal with that? Because it sounds like you're putting all these burdens on people. And actually, it was kind of a neat opportunity to be able to clarify that distinction that we often talk about on this program between the law and the gospel.
I said, you know what, the law really does burden us many times, and it can lead us to feel completely crushed. But the good news of the Christian faith is that we don't just have law, we have gospel, that the God who gave us His law that we've broken also sent His Son into the world to perfectly fulfill the law so that we might experience forgiveness. So we don't have to deny that we do fail and that we do sin and that we do fall, because we have a God who's gracious and merciful and who forgives our sins. And so we can be honest about our sin and our failure and rest in the goodness of God our Savior. But you're totally right, Bill, it really is important that whoever we're hearing from isn't undermining what God has said in His word. You don't need that. I think that would actually lead to more problems in the marriage than anything else. And so, good advice.
Well, we certainly pray that God will continue to heal their marriage and that they'll be able to use the advice they get both in biblical counseling and from the family therapist. Let's get to another question that came in. This one was a call we received at 833 The Core. My name is Martin.
I live in Nashville, Tennessee. And my question is, as I was listening to Core of Christianity, they say that Enoch and Elijah went into heaven to be with God. I can't understand that when Jesus came and the blood wasn't shed yet. And he also said that no man has ascended to heaven for he that came down from heaven because the way wasn't made yet.
And it shows again in Hebrews that the veil in the temple, a way into the presence of God wasn't made yet because Jesus hasn't died and shed his blood yet. Could you expound on that, please? Thank you very much, and God bless you. Hey, God bless you too, Martin.
I really appreciate you following up with that previous question that we received. And believe it or not, Bill and I were in Nashville not too long ago, and my favorite memory was testing out all the hot chicken. You know, Prince's hot chicken and Hattie B's and all that. We had a blast. So, Bill, wouldn't you say? Ah, man, it was the best.
And you could get it really hot too. I did. Yeah, I did. I mean, I was paying for it later, but yeah.
So anyways, Martin, God bless you and enjoy the hot chicken out there. I mean, this is really, I think, your question. How could Old Testament believers be saved if Jesus hadn't died on the cross yet? I mean, really, when you think about me talking about the ascension of Elijah and Enoch, well, there are a couple of things.
I think that there's a misconception. I used to think, when I was a newer believer, you know, in the Old Testament, people were saved by law, keeping all of these rules, the Ten Commandments, that kind of a thing. But in the New Testament, when Jesus came, then they were saved by faith and forgiveness because of what he had accomplished, because of the gospel.
It's just really important for us to understand this. In the Old Testament, people were saved in the same way that people are saved now. They're saved by the gospel and by faith with one difference. They looked forward to the gospel through what we call types and shadows.
Now, what do I mean by types and shadows? I mean, you think about, like, the sacrificial system in the temple, you know, the atonement, the scapegoat, Leviticus 16, the Day of Atonement, those kinds of things, right? All of these pictures of the gospel that we have so clearly for us in the stories of the Old Testament, and even the promises that were given to the people of God. In particular, you know, the promise that was made in Genesis chapter 3 verse 15 about the seed of the woman crushing the head of the serpent, the promise that was made to Abraham that through his offspring, all of the nations of the earth would be blessed. Those were, Martin, gospel promises. And if you don't believe me, just listen to what the Apostle Paul said in Galatians chapter 3 verses 7 through 9. Listen to this. Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham and the scripture for seeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham.
Get that? The gospel was preached to Abraham in the promise that God gave to him saying, in you shall all the nations be blessed. So Paul goes on to say, so then those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith. And so you get this clear teaching in the scriptures that there's only one way of salvation.
It's through Jesus Christ by faith, by the grace of God. And so just because Jesus hadn't come yet doesn't mean that these individuals, Elijah, Enoch, etc., couldn't be saved, couldn't ascend into the presence of the Lord. And I think that other passage that you're referring to, you know, when Jesus talks about no one having ascended to the Father except the one who has come down, I mean, I think he's talking about something very specific there. It's obvious that Jesus knew about Enoch and Elijah, so he's not contradicting himself. I mean, he's the Son of God. He knows all things. I think there he's speaking very specifically about himself as the only begotten Son of God who has come down to us for our redemption and who is going to ascend into the presence of God for our sake as well.
So there's something very unique about that. But I think a lot of this gets down to recognizing that forgiveness flows from Jesus. And in the Old Testament, people received Jesus by faith, clinging to him in those types and shadows, the shadows of the sacrificial system and the promises of God. And in the New Testament, we have the reality.
We see the big picture now. We know the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, Jesus Christ. And so I hope that that clears things up a little bit for you, Martin.
I really appreciate you listening, and please give us a call again. You're listening to Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez, and some people claim that Jesus was a good man, a wonderful teacher, even a prophet, but deny that he's God. Well, we have a resource that will help clear up any confusion about who Jesus really is. Yeah, I mean, Bill, you say some people, it just seems like so many people today are willing to affirm that Jesus was a prophet. He's sort of like Muhammad or Buddha. He's a great spiritual teacher, a guru.
And maybe you think that. Maybe you're willing to say, Jesus was a great teacher, a spiritual guide, but I don't know if he was God. Well, we need to look at what Jesus himself said and what the Bible teaches, God's revelation. That's why we have this resource, Jesus is God, making it very clear for you there. You can download it for a donation of any amount.
This is a great study to go through with a group of friends or by yourself. If you've ever wondered why Christians believe in the deity of Jesus Christ, that Jesus is God, you're going to be helped by this study. Head over to corechristianity.com forward slash offers to download Jesus is God.
This will really help you as well. If you get into a conversation with someone who claims that Jesus is not God, you can get that resource by calling us at 833-843-2673. Again, that's 833, the core. Yeah, Bill, and I'm glad that you brought that up, getting into a conversation with someone who doesn't believe that Jesus is God, because it's not just a lot of people who affirm that Jesus was a good teacher or a prophet, but not God. You also have the cults that go knocking on your door and they want to talk to you about the kingdom of Jehovah or that kind of a thing, or the Mormons going around on their bicycles that teach something different about the identity of Jesus. And they want to convince you of what it is that they think the scriptures teach, and that's why it's so important for you to be equipped to know what the Bible actually teaches, so that when you get into these conversations, one, you can use the scriptures to demonstrate, no, here's who Jesus really is. And so part of this is just being equipped to have some of those conversations that probably many of you have already had. So get a hold of the three fours.
So critical. Let's get back to another question that came in through our website from Ellia, and she says, What's the difference between begotten and not made when referring to Jesus? Yes, well, you are, Ellia, referring to what's called the Nicene Creed, and it's this distinction in the Nicene Creed. Now, if you don't know what the Nicene Creed is, it's a statement defining the Christian faith, essentially what it is that we believe as Christians, the core doctrines of the Christian faith. We might even say core Christianity. It was a creed that was written in 325 and ultimately completed in 381. It was slightly amended in 381 in Constantinople. And again, it just highlights the core teachings about the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit, the church, salvation.
It's a brief statement. It's actually something that we use in my church, and it was written in response to false teachings about Jesus. But we've been talking about it a lot on this program already, you know, the differences of opinion regarding who Jesus is. There were a lot of false teachings in the early days. I mean, John talks about it in 1 John, the spirit of the Antichrist that denies that Jesus came in the flesh, that denies that he's the Christ.
Heresy, false teaching about God, tends to refine what the church says about the truth of Scripture, tends to refine Orthodoxy, or at least help us more clearly articulate it. Some people were saying way back in the day, and people say it today too, that Jesus was a creature, a created being, just like you and me. There was a guy in particular, Elia, named Arius. He's one of the first and most well-known false teachers in the ancient church. And he said that there was a time when Jesus was not. That is, he had a beginning. He came into existence. He was created by the Father. And the church responded with the resounding, no, that's false.
While he is begotten of the Father, he is not made or created. And that's what the Creed says. In the Nicene Creed, it says, believe in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all worlds, God of God, light of light, very God of very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father by whom all things were made. And it talks about the glory of the eternal Son of God, the one by whom all things were made of the same substance of the Father.
And then it says this, I think that this is just so beautiful. Who for us men and for our salvation came down from heaven, was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary, was made man, was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate. He suffered and was buried in the third day. He rose again according to the Scriptures.
I mean, it really just encapsulates the whole story of redemption right there for us. The eternal Son of God who was never made, He's uncreated, He's the Lord of glory, came down for us and for our salvation. That's what the church said. And look, Elia, this is the clear teaching of Scripture. If you have a Bible, turn to John chapter one, the Gospel of John, and this is where you're going to see that distinction very clearly, the distinction between begotten, not made. John chapter one, beginning in verse one, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made.
In Him was life, and the life was the light of men and the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. Now, you know very clearly what John says there, especially in verse two and three. He was in the beginning with God, and all things were made through Him, and without Him, there isn't one thing in all of creation that was made, which is to say Jesus is not in the category of the creature, but of the Creator. I know that this is getting kind of technical here, but it really is so important because we're talking about who Jesus is. This is core Christianity. It's about the relations within the Holy Trinity, the Son.
He's eternal. You're listening to Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez, and Adriel, here's an email question we received from Joy. She says, What is it that makes a Christian group a cult?
Are the Mormon Church and Jehovah's Witnesses cults? Man, I just feel today's program, Bill, a lot about the identity of Jesus, a lot about having a right understanding of the gospel, of the Trinity, and that's one thing, Joy, that comes to mind when it comes to defining a cult. They take the teaching of the Bible, and they twist it to such a degree that they end up denying who Jesus is according to the Scriptures, and this is a real serious thing. I mean, Paul talked about this in 2 Corinthians. He said, you know, there might be some people that come and preach to you another Jesus or another gospel. This was something that the apostles were absolutely concerned about in the early church. It was this great apostasy, people turning away from Jesus because they were led astray by deceptive spirits, the doctrines of demons. Well, I think that's what you see in these cults. They deny the orthodox teaching, the right teaching, about who Jesus is. They have an incorrect understanding about God and an incorrect understanding about the gospel, salvation. Now, one of the things that's so tricky about this, Joy, is frequently what cults will do is they will use all of the same terminology that Christians use. They'll talk about grace, about Jesus, about the gospel, about salvation, about the Holy Spirit, and yet they'll define each of those words differently than how the church has defined them or understood them for the last 2,000 years. And so it's a subtle deception, but that's what makes it so destructive, and that's why so many people fall for it. Oh, it just sounds good. It sounds like you believe what everybody else believes.
Well, no. So key here, Joy, is what does the Bible teach about Jesus? That's what the spirit of the Antichrist is trying to confuse people about in the world today. It wants us to deny Jesus by embracing an unbiblical view, the correct view of who he was. Another thing that I see a lot of times in these cults, Joy, is this idea that they're restoring the gospel, at least when they start out. Some of these cults that are more recent, like Mormonism or like the Jehovah's Witnesses, they begin by saying everyone else is wrong, the gospel has been lost, and we are restoring the gospel.
We're bringing the truth back. Well, the reason you know that that's false right from the get-go is Jesus said, when he was speaking to his disciples, I'm going to build my church, and the gates of hell will never prevail against her. And so what a lot of these cults do is they say, well, actually, yeah, the gates of hell did prevail against the church for these many years, hundreds of years, thousands of years, and now we need to come and restore the gospel because it's been so lost that it just was basically non-existent. Well, that's precisely what the Mormon Church said, that's precisely what the Jehovah's Witnesses said, and there's a problem with that.
It's just not true. Another thing that you oftentimes see in cults is spiritual abuse in leadership. Sometimes it can be very, very evident, other times the way it happens is they'll just say, well, if you begin to ask questions or have doubts, well, you're going to be ostracized. It really is tragic. I've had so many conversations with Mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses who the moment they start really asking questions, studying the scriptures, and they realize that they don't have good answers according to what their teachers say, they're either told you need to stop asking these questions or they're ostracized. They're treated as a pariah.
It really is heartbreaking. We have, Joy, the true gospel in God's word. What a treasure we have, and it centers around who Jesus is, and that's what these cults don't understand. That's what all false teaching fails to understand is the identity of Jesus, and that's why we need to go back to the scriptures, searching the scriptures every day to know Jesus, study the scriptures. Jesus said, you search the scriptures for in them, you think that you have eternal life, but these are they which testify about me, John chapter five. As we know the word of God, we get to know the word of God better, the eternal word of God, Jesus.
And as we know him, we're protected from all of these false teachings that are propping up everywhere around us. 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 podcast, and be sure to join us next time as we explore the truth of God's word together. Thank you.
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