Does the Bible Prohibit Profanity?

The following program is recorded content created by the Truth Network. So, does the Bible actually address the subject of profanity? It's time for the Line of Fire with your host, biblical scholar and cultural commentator, Dr. Michael Brown. Your voice for moral sanity and spiritual clarity. Call 866-34-TRUTH to get on the Line of Fire.

And now, here's your host, Dr. Michael Brown. You know, if I was to use profanity here on the air, God forbid, if I was to use profanity, well, we have a seven-second delay and it would get bleeped out. In other words, we know what profanity is, at least certain words we agree on. If you're watching to network TV at seven in the evening or at three in the afternoon, you're not going to see profanity on if someone's being interviewed and it came on, it would be bleeped out. So, certain words we agree. These words are considered profane. Certain places call it cussing, other places call it cursing, other places call it swearing. But we agree at least on certain words.

The question is, does the Bible address that? When it talks about the kind of speech we should have, does it actually address that? Welcome to the broadcast, friends.

Michael Brown, delighted to be with you. We're going to have a great time opening up the Scriptures and talking about some larger cultural issues as well because the fact is there are more important issues, more important fish to fry, bigger fish to fry, but it is something that comes up and it has to do with standards in general. It has to do with our walks with the Lord. It has to do with our witness to the world.

It has to do with whether we are becoming like the world or helping the world become like Jesus. So, here's a number to call, but not just on this subject if you differ with me or want to add to it. 866-34-TRUTH, 866-348-7884. But any subject of any kind that you want to talk to me about, we do our best as many days of the week as we can to open the phones for your questions that can be completely off this topic.

866-348-7884. So, I've talked about this on the air recently because I've been asked questions. One caller asked specifically about this and some Christians say it doesn't matter and then there's been the phenomenon I addressed in an article going back 10 years on drunken worship leaders, mercenary musicians. So, I have colleagues of mine who are worship leaders, who are Christian singers, musicians, and they've been out with different worship leading groups, some of whom would be relatively well-known. In other words, it's not just someone with a church of three people and somebody off the street was singing a song that night.

No, I'm talking about, and don't try to figure out who, I can't even name the specific people, okay? But they contact me, grieve, Dr. Brown, we just went out, you know, we had a glorious night of worship and it was amazing and then we, they wanted to go, you know, out to a restaurant and bar afterwards and they're sitting there getting drunk, driving F-bombs, because Dr. Brown, what's going on? Of course, from my perspective, there's no way that you could really be encountering God's holy presence and just go out and do that. You'd have to really sin against the Spirit deeply to do that and then either be deeply, deeply repent or you're just going to walk away from God.

There's no way you can be walking intimately with God and be doing that. So, this has been going on for a while, I've been quite aware, but the subject came up more recently, so I addressed it and certain Christian leaders dialoguing about it and then my good friend John Cooper, you hear his voice at the beginning of his show and coming in and out, that's the voice of John Cooper and Skillet, the band Skillet, Christian rock band Skillet, unashamed witnesses for the Gospel, unashamed speaking the truth to the culture. So, John shot me an article that had referenced him, it was by Kevin McNeese, not familiar with Kevin, it was on a Christian music website, What the Bleep is Happening in Christian Music. So, you're actually talking about songs now with different Christian groups and in the songs there's actually profanity, Christian groups, allegedly Christian groups. And then John had done a whole podcast called The Rot in Christian Music and it was about that and more. So, that came up, that was interesting as well. And so, I decided to address it in an article, you can read it on our website, askdrbrown.org, you can read it there.

And my article is simply entitled, Does the Bible Prohibit Profanity? So, the first question we want to ask is maybe some of us are just hung up. Maybe this is just our church tradition. Maybe this is the way we've always done it. Maybe we're just being legalistic. Maybe we're acting like the morality police.

Now, we're not talking about telling the world what to do. In other words, if I'm an environment and I'm talking to a worldly person and they're using all kinds of profanity, whatever, it's their language, it's who they are, it's who I was before I was saved, that's how I talked. And when I got saved, God convicted me.

No one told me, the Holy Spirit convicted me. I'm just talking about what happened to me very early on in the Lord to change my speech. So, and I remember instead of using profanity, I substituted the word stupid. Stupid, this, stupid, this.

And I thought, okay, let's do better. Step a little, just get rid of the, you know, not that stupid was a bad word, but it was just replacing the previous bad word. That was a stupid word.

So, I just had to get used to a new way of talking, right? But we're not talking about imposing our values on the world. We're not telling worldly people how to talk. We're talking about how Christians should talk. And if you struggle with profanity, you get mad. It's not the end of the world. Don't feel condemned over it. But continue to renew your heart, your mind, and exercise discipline, and you'll find the words don't come to your lips anymore.

Especially if you're not being entertained by it and taking it in all the time and hearing profanity, it's just not going to be in your system. But anyway, maybe we're just being the morality police. Don't say this, don't say this. Oh, oh, your hair's too long. Oh, you have too much makeup. Oh, too much jewelry. Oh, skirt's not long enough.

Oh, pants too tight. Oh, and and that's where our whole focus is. Are we doing the same thing here? Well, I can't tell you what's in someone else's heart. I can tell you when I address this, I'm simply asking the question, what does scripture say? What does the Bible say?

All right. So, I want to give you several verses for your contemplation. Ephesians 4 29 is often a go-to verse. Ephesians 4 29, I'm going to read it from the NIV.

Do not let any unwholesome talk, note that word unwholesome, do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to the needs that it may benefit those who listen. Some have suggested that what Paul's emphasizing there is not profanity, plus profanity is determined by every culture. In other words, there may be a word blah blah and in your language that's profanity and I just used a terrible curse word and in English like blah blah has no meaning, it's just nothing. So, we understand that and we understand that certain words that I can use in English, if I went to England, they'd be profanity and the reverse can be true as well. So, yes, things are culturally determined. We recognize that and the way the Bible works is you take the principle of scripture and then apply it to every culture. And Paul said, don't say these words. I'm not going to list the words you're not to say.

That's number one. And number two, well, what about all the other languages on the earth that weren't Greek as Paul was writing in Greek? So, obviously, it's the principle we take and apply it. As for English profanity, the English language didn't exist in Paul's day.

So, it's the same principle. Those things that are recognized as profane speech, we shouldn't say them because there's nothing unwholesome. Some have said, no, no, no, that's not really what it means. What it really means is gossip, slander, and of course, in terms of doing damage and being evil, then gossip and slander are much more harmful and destructive than someone using profanity. The question is, what does scripture say there? Nothing unwholesome. What does that actually mean? So, we're going to unpack that in Greek in a moment. And then, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.

That's the other question. Does the profanity benefit those who listen? Now, there are church services now where the worship leader or the pastor will use some edgy word or even a bit more blatantly profane word, the kind that would be censored if it came up on the air now. And, oh, you're the you're the religious pastor, we love you, you're real deal, and so on. That's really dangerous stuff. That's a dangerous deception. That's thinking the more fleshly I get, the cooler I am.

The more fleshly I get, the more my tongue can get loose. No, no, quite the contrary. And I'm quite sure that in the holy presence of God, overwhelmed by his goodness and grace, that those words would not just come flowing out to seem cool and not religious. But what does the Bible say? What do these words mean?

So, let's start here. I am going to take you into the Greek. The Greek word for unwholesome is sarpas. Sarpas is used elsewhere in the New Testament in the meaning of rotten.

It's like a bad tree producing bad fruit. It's normally used in that tangible, specific way. I'm going to read to you from the Loa Nida semantic lexicon, the New Testament, Greek New Testament. It's normally used in the New Testament as pertaining to being of poor or bad quality and hence of little or no value, particularly in reference to plants, either in the sense of seriously diseased or of seedling stock that is not budded or grafted. It's of poor or bad quality. Certainly, if there are words, don't let anything unwholesome come out of your lips that profanity, but it's very nature, would be poor or bad quality.

But let's dig a little deeper. The Loa Nida lexicon to Ephesians 29 to that use of sarpas says, to that which is harmful in view of its being unwholesome and corrupting. In Ephesians 4 29, sarpas is in contrast with that which is agathos, good for building up what is necessary.

In such a context, agathos may be interpreted as that which is helpful and by contrast, sarpas may be understood to mean harmful. And then this, Andrew Lincoln, word biblical commentary, one of the preeminent commentaries on Ephesians was written by Andrew Lincoln. He said this, that sarpas is employed elsewhere in the New Testament in its literal sense of rotten or decaying of a tree and in contrast to agathos, good in Matthew 7 17 and 18. As for here in Ephesians, quote, what is prohibited under the category of evil talk, compare also Colossians 3 8 and Ephesians 5 4, includes obscenity. This is a top Greek scholar, top New Testament commentator, that would spoken of here includes obscenity, abusive language and spreading malicious gossip. The focus is on the destructive power of words and the harm they can produce in communal life. So, notice he includes, along with abusive language and spreading malicious gossip, obscenity. All these are certainly in the category of unwholesome speech. Of course, the Bible tells us not to use profanity, but hang on, there are more verses to look at and then we go into the phones and then I m going to give you my latest observations on the latest indictment of President Trump and the latest attempts perhaps to start impeachment against President Biden. I m just going to weigh in briefly.

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Welcome back to the broadcast. We re going to look at two more verses. Of course, there s a lot we could look at in Proverbs about the tongue and so on.

We re going to specifically focus on the type of language. We re going to look at two more verses and then I want to go to your calls. But first, a quick testimony. Nancy sent me this post on our Facebook page.

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I m so excited that we get this into your hands as a free gift with any of your orders. So, take advantage of that. Okay, two more verses. Two more verses. Colossians 3-8. This is one of the verses referenced by Professor Andrew Lincoln in his Ephesians commentary said, But now you must also rid yourselves of all such things as these. So, after you said deal with sexual immorality, deal with this, deal with that, so maybe you d say the more outward, obvious, serious sins that we were guilty of before we knew the Lord.

Now, also, rid yourself of these. Anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. So, also get rid of filthy language. Now, if profanity is not filthy language, what would be filthy?

Not just sexually explicit, but that would certainly be in the category of filthy. And Robert Mounts, Greek scholar Robert Mounts, defines the Greek word translated filthy there, eschrologia, as vile or obscene language, foul talk. So, here s another Greek word that certainly includes the concept of obscenity. And then, lastly, Ephesians 5-4. This is right after Ephesians 4-29 saying, Let nothing unwholesome proceed out of your lips.

Listen ten verses later. Nor should there be among you obscenity. Paul says it. There should not be obscenity among you, or foolish talk, or coarse stroking, which are out of place, but rather thanksgiving. And the Greek word translated obscenity is asgrotes, which the most major dictionary of the Greek New Testament, the BDAG, Bowerdank, or Gingrich lexicon, defines it as this, behavior that flouts social and moral standards, shamefulness, obscenity. That s what the word covers. And Paul says, It should not be among you. So, the word s clear.

We shouldn t use profanity. It s unbecoming for us as children of God. And most of us know better intuitively. Most of us sense it, understand it in our walk with God. Some just need to see it written in Scripture. So, you have these verses. It s certainly clear. And it s not the end of the world if you slip up or you struggle with profanity.

It s not the end of the world. And there are far more important issues, certainly in God s sight. So, we understand that. But let s glorify the Lord with our speech. And let s have speech that if we were right in the presence of God in heaven would be appropriate, not inappropriate. Sound good? All right, with that, we go to the phones.

Let s start with Greg in Cary, North Carolina. Welcome to the Line of Fire. Thank you, Dr. Brown. I have a question about, in the Old Testament, it talks about how you have, they take the Scripture, I think, of the Lord Jesus of God, and that s saying, and then they put it on their arm or their wrist, and then one on their forehead. I was just wondering if there s any correlation with the devil trying to distort and mess with God, try to mess with God about, with the mark of the beast being on the forehead and on their right hand.

Yeah, so it is interesting. So, the hand or the forehead in Revelation 13, the mark of the beast. So, Deuteronomy 6, which says bind them as a sign around your head and have them sign on your arm. So, in Judaism, you put it on, it s taken literally, it s believed that this is what God showed Moses on Mount Sinai. You literally have these phylacteries in Hebrew, so these prayer boxes that have Scripture inside of them, and then you have like, leather, you wrap it around your left arm, and then with that, you have it near your heart, and then you put it on your forehead.

It s like a headband with a box there. So, if you ve seen religious Jews praying, that s how they pray. Obviously, the hand, that s what you do, the things you do, the head, that s what you think.

So, it seems to be the connection there in terms of hand and head. And it could be the same thing, in other words, just a logical connection that there s going to be a mark, it s symbolized by hand and head. But, Greg, it s not impossible that it is a satanic counterfeit or the devil saying, Okay, this is what God gave to Israel, this is how religious Jews pray. I mean, we know it s ancient, we know Jesus talks about not against the practice, but against showing it publicly and look how holy I am, look how spiritual I am. And we know in the Dead Sea Scrolls, where those are found in the case of Qumran, that they were truly in there, a little bit different, some of them than the rabbinic version in terms of the number of boxes on the inside, but this goes way, way back.

So, these were things that were known in New Testament times. And is it kind of a satanic parallel? It s a possibility. We don t need to think that, in other words, there could be other reasons for it, but it s an interesting thought and not one to just throw out and discard. So, thank you, sir, for raising it.

I appreciate it. Some folks have asked me, Is this the mark of the beast or is that the mark of the beast? A separate question from Greg s. And I tell them, no. The vaccine, is that the mark of the beast, the COVID vaccine? No, because there s no beast yet. There is either going to be a one-world government or a one-world ruler and therefore under him a one-world government. To quote the beast, the antichrist, the man of sin. And when he is in power and there is a one-world government under him, then there can be a mark of the beast.

Until then, there is no beast. Now, could something be a prototype? Could something be a forerunner? Theoretically, could something get us ready for that coming? All kinds of things could be forerunners and prototypes, but there s no mark of the beast yet because there s no beast yet.

That being said, interesting question. All right, we got some interesting calls lined up, 866, three for a truth, got a line open if you want to try to get through now. Hey friends, Dr. Michael Brown here. Do you remember when people thought I was crazy when I said it s not too late for America, that God can still do something in our country that there is going to be a pushback, a gospel-based moral and cultural revolution? And do you remember when people thought that you were crazy because you felt the same way, because you believed what I was saying and already felt it in your heart? Well friends, that pushback is here. The gospel-based moral and cultural revolution we ve been talking about for 25 years is unfolding and we are right in the thick of it and the line of fire broadcast is divinely positioned for such a time as this. Friends, you would be so gratified and blessed as I hear, if you could hear what I hear, testimony after testimony as leaders, young people, old people, moms, dads, students, people from all backgrounds come up to me and say, Dr. Brown, you re providing a template for us. You re providing a blueprint for us. You re showing us how to do this, how to have hearts of compassion, backbones of steel.

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AskDrBrown.org. It s The Line of Fire with your host, Dr. Michael Brown. Get on the line of fire by calling 866-34 TRUTH. Here again is Dr. Michael Brown. Welcome, welcome back to The Line of Fire, 866-348-7884.

Tell you what, let s take a call related to profanity and we ll get to some other calls here. Let s go to Jeff in Marlboro, Maryland. Welcome to The Line of Fire. Hello, Dr. Michael Brown. Hey. How are you doing? That s Jeff.

Yes, that s Jeff. All right, so hang on. I m just going to make a public confession here. I do not schedule things for my calendar unless it s just Nancy and I are going to do something with some couple, et cetera, because things get bogged down with me and between travel and other things. So, everything goes through my personal assistant when it gets on my calendar. However, if I m feeling guilty about something because it s been months and I haven t responded to the text, I leave it on my phone. So, Jeff, I ve been staring at your text for, since June or something, but we ll do that Tuesday night thing for your Bible study. Oh, man, don t feel bad, Mike.

I don t feel too guilty, trust me. So, this just relieves depression now for another few months. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Let me hear your thoughts.

Okay. So, I just wanted to carry a little bit further on that conversation about profanity Yes, sir. and look at it from specifically what Jesus said, and maybe this may be useful for people, but when you look at Matthew chapter 15, where the Lord is talking about in verse 19, He s being thrown into this controversy about what defiles a man and why His disciples are not washing and things like that. So, He has to help people to understand, if you re talking about defilement, it s not the things that are on the outside that does that, but it s the things that come out of you that defile that. And He specifically says in verse 19, For out of the heart proceeds evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witnesses, blasphemies. These are things which defile the man, but to eat with unwashing hands does not defile a man. And the thing is that if we really want to have a sincere walk with the Lord, we can t keep making excuses for saying things that we know defile us, and the Lord keeps a record of that kind of stuff. And so, you know, we should take in the heart, take the heart that we want to be as pure as possible. The scripture says that blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. So, you know, it may be true that people may struggle trying to get a hold of profanity, but man, I ll tell you my own personal testimony is that I used to be very proud of the way that I could conjugate profanity and sin when I received the Holy Ghost.

All that stuff stopped, all of it. And I know it s possible to be done. So, I just wanted to share that. Yeah, you know, Jeff, thanks for weighing in. And obviously, appreciate it, man.

So, obviously, the key is the condition of our heart, right? And that s the biggest thing that God s looking at. So, Jeff, who s been a pastor for many years, we would agree that it s very cool when someone is brand new in the Lord, brand new, and they re giving a testimony in church. You know, it s like, Hey, I hear God s been working in your life so many.

Yeah, come on up here, Tony, tell folks what s going on. And they say, Man, I m so, and they use some profanity. And then everyone like starts laughing and goes, Oh, I guess I shouldn t do that in church.

I think that s amazing. You know what I m saying? That the person s so new that they re so excited about Jesus that to express it, they use the wrong word. And God s looking at the heart, and He s not hung up over that, right?

He sees where this person s come from and how they re changed. But like, I know for me, and I m not telling anyone else how their walk has been, but I remember, I remember the night when I got convicted of using the wrong language. And it was just after some fine fellowship with some Christians, and they were hanging out of their house.

You know, I m a new believer, hanging out with some other new believers, and a couple had been saved maybe a year or longer. And we were all young, and hanging out after service, having some pizza at my house. And as they were leaving, one of the young ladies said, Hey, thanks for having us over. And I just, blah, yeah, it s nothing, and used profanity.

And she just kind of like, like a polite smile. I thought, Okay, I don t think that sounded right. So it wasn t anyone told me. I just knew it.

Same with Nancy. She was convicted by the Spirit. But in any case, the Word s clear on this, so let s step higher.

Whether we feel the conviction or not, we follow the Word. Hey, thanks for reaching out, Jeff. 866-348-7884.

Let s go over to the Dominican Republic. Francis, thanks so much for holding. Welcome to the line of fire. Are you there?

Ah, guests couldn t hold. Question about Daniel line, which is always interesting. Let us go over to an anonymous caller from somewhere.

Welcome to the line of fire. Are you there? Another interesting question.

This is about atmospheric shift. But I don t know what happened. All right.

Oh, it s sad. I was ready to answer those questions. Can we just open up a couple of phone lines if you want to try to get through? Now is a good time.

866-348-7884. Okay. Which controversial statement do I make first? The one about the end times or one about politics? Let s go with politics first and then my controversial statement about the end times. Okay. It shouldn t be controversial.

It s going to be. But it shouldn t be. And I m not making it to be controversial.

I m making it to be practical. All right? But first, my political observations. Let me back up and say that when I see controversy in the culture and I see division in the church, I try to step back and try to understand what s really happening. And I recognize we all have perceptions.

We all have blind spots. So, what s really going on? And sometimes I ll reflect on something from months and months and months before, bing, the light goes on to just reduce it to like a sentence. So, when there is a trial with George Zimmerman who had killed Trayvon Martin, who had killed Trayvon Martin, was it self-defense, was it homicide, and was it second or third degree murder, et cetera. So, we tackled the subject.

We tackled it during the trial, after the trial, to talk it through as believers on the air and to try to filter through different perspectives and to help us each understand one another s perspectives. So, one of the, my summary, my simple summary back then was that whites, white Americans, white Americans often do not see racism when it is there. It s things were happened because of racist attitudes. They often don t see that even when it is there. On the flip side, black Americans often see racism when it isn t there. In other words, because of both of our sensitivities and backgrounds and histories and the way we see the world and our own life experiences, as white Americans sometimes there is something that is racist in front of our eyes and we don t see it. On the flip side, black Americans because of their unique experience and background, maybe they see racism when it isn t there. So, it s just a simple observation. So, my observation here in terms of the fourth indictment now against Donald Trump and fresh charges against Hunter Biden, which could well implicate President Biden, here s how I look at it. And I don t have the data.

I don t have the inside information. God didn t show me and give me revelation where now I know something others don t know. This is an observation based on what I see out there. And to me it seems pretty obvious and self-evident.

And there s a reason why I talk about it on the air every day because we re just not getting caught up but let things play out and then we ll comment more as relevant. It seems to me that both President Trump, former President Trump, and President Biden have crossed lines and done certain things wrong. That seems self-evident to me. In other words, neither of them are blameless or guiltless as best as I can tell. As for the mainstream media, they re doing their best to destroy Trump and protect Biden. Right? If you swing it over, the more left you go, the more extreme it is trying to protect President Biden and destroy former President Trump.

You swing over to the right, it s the exact opposite, basically. And in addition to that, that the legal system right now is slanted against Trump and for Biden. So, let s just say, and God knows who did what. God knows how serious the corruption charges are with President Biden when he was Vice President.

They d be very serious if true. And God knows how many lines President Trump has crossed. God knows.

You don t know, I don t know. And I m saying this honestly from a neutral perspective. Not for or against either, just from a neutral perspective. That s the way it seems to me. They both crossed lines, they shouldn t. There s guilt both ways. It s getting exaggerated in the courts against Trump and downplayed in the courts against Biden. And the same with the secular media exaggerating it with Trump, downplaying it with Biden, and the further you go to the right, it reverses.

The further you go to the left, it gets more extreme. Okay, those are my observations. With that, let s try to reconnect with Frances in Dominican Republic. Thanks for getting back on the line. Hi.

Hey. I have a quick question about Daniel 9. Yes. So, I saw a video saying that the prophecy that Jonah told the people about the town being destroyed in 40 days, that it was a conditional prophecy, so they had to behave well and it wouldn t happen, right?

Yes. So, why is Daniel 9 not conditional about the people behaving well and it would happen? Ah, great question.

Great question. First thing, there is the principle of Jeremiah 18, where God says when he s going to bless a nation, if they turn to sin, he ll turn the blessing into a curse. If he s going to curse the nation and they turn to repentance, he ll turn the curse into a blessing. So, here is repentance preaching to Nineveh because of sin. And the Hebrews says five words, od arba'im yom ve-niniveh napakhet, just 40 days, and Nineveh will be destroyed. So, there was a call of proclamation of coming judgment because of sin, so the divine principle is always, if there is repentance, unless it s too late, as happens, say, in Jeremiah s day, for a generation, unless it s too late, then the principle is always, if you repent, God will have mercy. So, judgment s coming, if you repent, God will have mercy. It comes to Daniel 9, and I ll expand more on the other side of the break, but it comes to Daniel 9. The reality is, it s not a conditional anything. It s God declaring what is going to happen in the future.

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Here again, is Dr. Michael Brown. All right, welcome back to The Line of Fire, 866-34-TRUTH. So, we go back to Frances. So, Frances, do you believe that it is a fixed thing that one day Jesus will return? Yes. Right, so when it happens, we don t know, but it s going to happen.

It s not conditional. In other words, there s no possibility that He will not return, correct? Yes. Okay. Do you believe it is a fixed thing that there will be a future resurrection of the dead? Yes.

Okay. So, there are certain things that are going to happen. What about Jesus coming into the world, being born of the virgin, coming into the world to die for our sins? Was that conditional, like maybe it would happen if we re obedient, or maybe not, or was that something fixed before the foundation of the world?

That was fixed. Right, okay. So, we agree then that there are certain things God says, I m going to do this, and He does it. And in the Old Testament, He gave a time frame for the coming of the Messiah, that it would be before the second temple was destroyed. So, that wasn t a matter of whether obedient or righteous, whether we repent or not.

There s nothing conditional about it. It wasn t judgments coming, so repent. It was my son is coming into the world within a certain time frame. So, Daniel 9 lays that time frame out when atonement has to be made for our sins and everlasting righteousness has to be brought in. So, that had to happen within that time frame, and God s just telling Daniel in advance, this is the time frame with which it s going to happen, within which it s going to happen, this period of 490 years, maybe with one short break in the midst of it, between the 69th and 70th week, the way that the Hebrew is worded. So, it s not an if thing, it s a time frame. It s a certain time frame where God s explaining things, and this helps us to identify the Messiah.

In other words, as I m sharing the Gospel with a Jewish person, this is one of the passages I can go to and say, look, all this had to happen before the Second Temple was destroyed. If it doesn t happen, because it s laid out within a time frame, then it can never happen, because it had to happen before the Second Temple was destroyed. So, if it doesn t happen then, then it doesn t happen, right? Like if I tell you. But I have a question.

Yeah, go ahead, go ahead. So, Jonah did not say that it would maybe or maybe not happen, he just said that it would happen, but it didn t. How do we know that it s the same thing with Daniel 9? That s my question, but I want to talk to Jewish people, and I m not sure if they re going to raise that objection. Okay, so they normally don t, by the way. It s not an objection that s normally raised.

They would say there are other indicators that Messiah was supposed to come like 18, 1900 years ago, but because of our sins, he didn t. There is that theology that s found in the Talmud, but it doesn t specifically mention Daniel 9. So, that s not an objection they raised. But here s the difference.

Let me review it again. When God says he s going to bring judgment, this is his principle based in Jeremiah 18, when God says he s going to bring judgment on a nation and the nation repents, then he withholds the judgment. So, this isn t always principle with God.

He doesn t have to announce it, and that s the first instinct. You hear judgments coming, you cry out for mercy, you repent. This is not the condition. So, read Jeremiah 18 carefully. Daniel 9 is not that. Daniel 9 is not, I will bless this nation because they ve been obedient, I will judge this nation because they ve been in sin. No, this is God simply saying, this is what I m going to do within this time frame, and I m telling you in advance.

Can you see that difference? Okay, thank you. Yep, yeah, and these are great questions, by the way.

I love these questions because you need to anticipate the objections that could come up. So, great questions, and thank you for probing until it was clear. Thank you so much.

Thank you. Alright, 866-34-TRUTH, let us go over to Kaelin in Woodland, Washington. Hey Kaelin, where is Woodland related to Seattle and related to Spokane? Yeah, it s about two hours south of Seattle, so just on the I-5, yeah, north of Portland. Yeah, because I was, last week I flew into Spokane en route to Idaho, and then about a week and a half before that I flew into Seattle, going over the Federal Way, so I ve been in and out of Washington State.

Washington State is not that close to Charlotte, North Carolina, that s for sure. Anyway, sorry, sorry for the diversion there. Over to your question, sir.

No worries. Yeah, I called in the other weekend, unfortunately the phone lines weren t working, but I wanted to touch base on the idea of soul ties, which I ve heard a lot about from different ministries, and I m not thinking so much about the idea of, say, between husband or wife or to people that, you know, have actual experience together, but which I believe there s a biblical basis that there s a deeper spirit level, soul level tie that happens there, but I ve heard in different ministries this idea that there can be soul ties between just other people in general, whether it be family relationships, friendships that get too close, there s kind of a codependency that develops, and it can get to this unhealthy place where something not just kind of on a, I guess, natural level, but kind of in the immaterial part of us, there s something that gets, there s a tie that can be formed when those kinds of unhealthy, I guess, degrees of connection are sustained. And so I ve wondered about it, because in my life I ve experienced, outside of any kind of romantic relationship, but just something that feels that way, definitely that language, it feels right through what I ve experienced.

Yeah, for sure. Is that biblical? So here s the thing. The Bible doesn t use the term soul tie. It can talk about a deep, deep friendship, David s soul being bound together with Jonathan s or something like that. But for sure, we all know that there can be unhealthy relationships that are hard to break away from, whether it s an unhealthy codependency, whether it is being drawn away into sin because of a person.

So maybe you have a married woman and she s having struggles in her relationship with her husband, and there s this guy at work who s really nice and funny and likes to talk to her and always compliments her, and next thing she realizes that she s attracted to this guy, next thing she realizes is that it s hard for her to just walk away from it. We know the principle that whatever we give ourselves to, we become servants of. That it s written in 1 Peter 2 that a man is overcome by whatever enslaves him. So the principle, I believe, is a biblical principle principle, simply coming under the power of something else, simply coming under the flesh in different ways. And because of that, a psychologist could explain it in more secular terms, but they would have understanding of the human psyche and how it works. Others would explain it in a more spiritual realm. Sometimes if we really open ourselves to the wrong way, it can become demonically influenced as well.

But I actually remember, we ve installed these great new phone lines, improved the quality of the calls and things, but there was a glitch that came up because of which one day when I went, the board was lit up, I went to take one call after another after another, we couldn t connect. So I actually remember, I tried to address it briefly if I recall at the end of the show, about the question of soul ties. The key thing is what I said from, the principle is in Matthew 5, when Jesus says, If your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off, throw it away. If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out, throw it away.

So he s speaking metaphorically. But the key is not to cut something back, but to cut something off. That s always the key. That if there is an unhealthy soul tie, now if it s someone right within your own family, it s not so much a soul tie, it could just be an unhealthy relationship. The soul tie is someone you should not be having that relationship with that needs to be broken.

That s the unhealthy tie there. And that s why it s really important then, let s say that Christian woman comes under conviction and realizes, okay, I ve got to stop hanging out with the coworker and I ve got to deal with this, but now she sees him and wants to talk and now she s texting him at night and she s like, this is getting worse, this is pull on me. So the key thing there is, okay, she just has to sit down and say, look, I m a married woman and I love God and this is wrong and we simply cannot, we cannot text, we cannot have lunch together, we cannot sit during coffee break and I m sorry, you re a nice guy, this is my fault and you may have the best of intentions, but either way, this is not healthy for me. And if it means very uncomfortable moments of passing each other in the hallway, you live with that.

You don t try to be more friendly, well, I ll just text a little to show I m a civil person. No, no, no. You break the thing. You have to break the thing.

If you feed it a little, it will grow back even more intensely. So it s not to treat the person as the enemy, but to say, hey, this is on me, open the door, I ve got to shut the door and then you shut it in other ways. You get counsel from someone that can help you, minister to you.

Depending on how far the thing went, you have to sit down with your spouse and these things just help kill it. There are times when you have to ask for transfer to another part of a company or get a different job because you have to say, I ve got to do this or my life will be destroyed, my marriage will be destroyed. So wherever those things occur, it s a biblical principle, even if the specific words aren t used. And we need to deal with like any other sin that so easily descends. All right, friends, back with you tomorrow. I ll get to the end times tomorrow. How s that? Another program powered by the Truth Network.