The Narrow Path 8/20

Good afternoon and welcome to the Narrow Path radio broadcast, my name is Steve Graig and we're live for an hour each weekday afternoon with an open phone line so people like you can call in if you have questions, like to ask about the Bible or the Christian faith or if you have a different viewpoint from the host or want to talk about that. Feel free to give me a call.

The number is eight four four four. Eight.

Four fifty seven. Thirty seven.

That's eight four. Four four. Eight four.

Fifty seven. Thirty seven. Our first caller today is Richard calling from SEAL Beach, California. Richard, welcome to the Narrow Path. Thanks for calling.

Yes, Steve. Yesterday, you mentioned that sin is defined as transgression of the law. It's first, John. And you said the law basically in the New Testament is the law of Moses.

Etc.. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. In the Old Testament to LONGMONT'S, in the New Testament to the life of Christ.

Okay, if it's the love of Christ and love your neighbor as yourself would basically be the last five commandments of the Ten Commandments. Does that mean that the law now is the Ten Commandments?

No, the law is love. It's what Jesus said to do to love God with our hearts. Heart, souls, mind and strength and a lot of your sandwich. Part of that will be OK.

The commandments, the commandments, if you've heard of the Ten Commandments, some of them overlap with the duties of Christians, to be sure, because loving your neighbor would mean you wouldn't murder him or commit adultery against him or lie about him or steal from him, obviously. So, but that's not the whole of it. There's other things one might do that are unloving, too. So we don't just go by the Ten Commandments, we go by the Law of love, which is much more encompassing than the Ten Commandments. Commandments only cover a few things. And and law code of the Ten Commandments is not that which is imposed in the New Testament. But the law of Christ is. Remember, Jesus told after he rose from the dead. He said all authority in heaven and earth has been given to me. That means he's the king. He's the one who makes all the rules. He's got all the authority. And he said, therefore, go and make disciples. And he said, teach them to observe everything I have commanded you. So everything that Jesus commanded is what we're supposed to be teaching people to do, to observe. Because he has the authority. So he didn't say go in to teach people to keep the Ten Commandments, but do what he commanded. Now, of course, if we do it, Jesus commanded, then, you know, there's gonna be an awful lot of overlap between our behavior and what the Ten Commandments say, although, of course, the Ten Commandments only say don't commit adultery. But Jesus said, don't look at a woman to lust after the Ten Commandments. Always say don't murder. But Jesus said, why. Besides that, you don't even hate your brother. Oh, don't be angry with our cause. So, I mean, they the Ten Commandments are not the rule. Christ is the ruler.

Yeah. Well, how would I get a list of the commandments of Jesus then?

I don't know. You can make your own if you want to. All you have to do is read the New Testament.

I see. Very good, Steve. OK. Thank you very much.

OK. Richard, thanks for your call. Yeah, the New Testament probably in your house somewhere. You could read through it and make any, you know, make a list of all the things he commanded, if you'd like. They'd be very edifying project. I would think. OK. Daniel from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, welcome to The Narrow Path. Thanks for calling.

Hi, Steve. At the end of yesterday's program, you had an excellent call. Pardon me.

He was asking some great questions about divorce. Well, it was a woman who was separated and stuff like that. And I've been a Christian a long time. I was an addict in high school and I was supernaturally healed from booze and drugs.

I grew up, fortunately, in the Orthodox Church, which you know a lot about. I haven't heard you hear as long. I moved back to be from Virginia. But anyway, I love your honesty. Plus your obvious integrity. A few weeks ago, maybe not even that you admitted that you're on your third marriage and how you very eloquently spoke about your previous marriages. And I was hoping you would put that in, like in answering the caller yesterday. And I was married, you know, to a professed Christian. And this is my question for you. I mean, albeit for a year and supposedly was born again. But she was married before. And this is, you know, 40 years ago. And I became husband number one, just like the caller yesterday from what he was saying, whom she never forgave, who was committing adultery on her. So my question is, you know, without delving too much into your personal things, but were your previous wives where they professed Christians to. I know that goes both ways. You know, people ask.

Yeah. My my marital history is included in my biography at our Web site. And, well, I'm not I'm not in my third marriage. I mean, my fourth I've had two wives who abandoned me. I've had two wives, mothers of my children who abandoned the marriage and abandoned their children. I had one wife that died in an accident. And now I'm married to a good wife, a wife who's been with me for almost two years. So. OK. So, yeah, I had I had a wife who was killed in accidents and that was sandwiched between two marriages. The first one, my wife ran off with another guy. The second wife died, the third wife. We had four children together, Mary, 20 years. And she just kind of left the marriage and the family, too, and did her own thing. So you ask where they Christians? Well, they all they all claim to be. I certainly would never have married somebody, you know, I didn't think was a good Christian. But my first wife, we were very young. I was 19 and she was 18 when we got married. And she was saved out of a hard background and hippie drug and alcohol background and sexually loose. But she got saved in the Jesus moment. And I was naive enough to think that people who got saved were not going to go back to their old ways. And we weren't married for very long before she went back to some of our old ways and eventually ran off with someone else. My second wife was a great wife. She was killed six months after we got married in an accident. And I my my third marriage was for 20 years. And that wife was had been a missionary, had been a Christian for, oh, five or so years. At the time. And she was served the Lord it seemed. I mean she looking back, I don't know that her heart was in it as much as you know her. I don't know. I mean, she seemed like she might've been legalistic, but anyway, she she tried to serve the Lord, but then she just gave up and left. Now, I never you know, I. She was she was pretty legalistic. And I think she had a hard time living up to her legalistic standards. I never was legalistic and I didn't put any standards on her that, you know, but she she put a ton of stamps on herself and the children and and on me. But I think she was frustrated because she couldn't live up to them. So after all, she just kind of caved in. I think legalism will do that to almost anyone eventually in 20 years. Actually, she's been a professing Christian for 25 years. And, you know, that's a long time to try to be a legalistic Christian. It's hardly bearable, but she should never have been that legalistic. But I mean, lots of people are anyway. She she remarried. Have she left me and then divorced her second husband? Both of my wives, actually, who divorced me, went off and remarried and divorced their second husbands, too. But I mean, that's my history. And that that's recorded at. So you're.

OK. Well, I might move back to be a long story short, my cousin, who I've seen like twice in 40 years, helped me move back. I'm very much handicapped from tons of injuries and over a dozen surgeries. And he stole or threw away my computer. So I have to get to control.

Right. So the other question for me, because I have lots of people waiting.

Well, I just wondered about that in a follow up to that last caller yesterday. And you would have mentioned that maybe didn't hear you.

Okay. Okay. Well, no, I actually the truth is that the caller's situation didn't have very much to do with mine. I get lots of calls about divorce and sometimes I say sometimes they parallel my situation. Sometimes they don't. I don't. It's not always necessary for me to talk about myself. All right. When we're talking those people and his and that situation didn't seem to parallel anything in my my own case. I appreciate your call, though, and God bless you. I hope. Hope you find. You know, peace and I know that you're. Your injuries are so you're in pain and I'm not sorry. I'm sorry to hear that. Let's talk to David from Eugene, Oregon. David, welcome to The Narrow Path. Thanks for calling.

Let's go to sleep in Matthew, Chapter three. Matthew, Chapter 17. We have a, you know, examples where God is expressing how he is pleased with his son, Jesus.

Other than those two examples, do you think that Jesus's relationship, when he was praying with God is more similar to ours? How we pray and ask him for things, but we don't necessarily hear him talk back.

Okay, so you're wondering if when Jesus pray, did he hear back from God? Like, sir, laudably. You know, I don't I don't have any reason to believe that he did. We don't have an extensive record of his prayer life. We do know that in John Chapter twelve, he said, Father, glorify your name. He said that out loud in public. And a voice from heaven spoken said, I have glorified it and I will glorified again. So I was like a direct answer to his prayer out loud that everyone could hear, though some said it thundered. Others said an angel spoke so well. Or God spoke out loud. Some people didn't recognize it as the voice of God. But as there's not really, you know, when the Bible says Jesus got up early. A great deal before Dean went out to pray alone for hours and so forth. Well, we don't have any record of what happened during that protest. Did God speak to me? Maybe. I don't know. But I suspect that Jesus prayer life as a man, because he had become a man and had to relate to God the way a man relates to God probably had a lot of the same features as our own. And no doubt he probably prayed many times without hearing anything back from God. Like most of us do.

Well, thank you. Yeah. That is that that helps I think that is actually, you know, in my personal opinion, I think that's pretty special for us that, you know, we have we will pray. We have the scriptures. And I know that Jesus would use the scriptures when the devil was trying to tempt him. And so I just thought I would call and get a little clarification on that.

OK, well, thank you for your call. Thank you, Steve. God bless.

All right. We'll talk to Jeanette from Seattle, Washington. We have some lines open at the moment. That's not always the case, but we do at the moment. If you'd like to call, you're listening to the narrow path you can get through it.

At number eight four four four. Eight four.

Fifty seven. Thirty seven. That's eight.

Four four. Four eight, four.

Fifty seven. Thirty seven. Jeanette, welcome to the Narrow Path. Thanks for calling.

Thank you. The reason I was calling is because I would like me and some clarification or some maybe encouragement. I'm not really sure. I mean, Peter's prayer. I was praying recently that the Lord would help me to live. I've been praying that he helped make my heart and inside of me live the way that he wants me to. To be more to glorify him and as my entire being to be bold in my things, in my faith. Well, may I have a sister who is getting married and this is her second marriage. Her first marriage, her her first husband before they were married, beat her up so badly she was in a hospital and she married him anyway. So anyway, they got divorced after 24 years of marriage and she's getting married to someone else. And this now and this guy, he seems like a nice guy, but there are some things they just don't see. They seem not cool. One of the things my dad, my sister had wanted me to do a lot of work on the wedding for her. And I was like, well, okay. And she said, come to my house. I want you to stay live. She and her fiancee live together. I want you to see this while we've got a lot of movie pictures like him up. And they were all horror movie pictures. And that was like not like not like the little things in the 60s, the blob or something. It's like Stephen King is more serious kind of horror things. And in the center, the picture that bothered me the most was the center picture that she had, and it's the Last Supper. But every character, including the ones who would be Jesus, was the lead of a horror movie. I asked her about is how you would know, because it was just it's a really disturbing picture.

All right. Let me ask you this, because I'm sure you could give a very graphic description. A picture is worth a thousand words. But let me ask you, what are you calling me about when I'm calling you about is that I went ahead and I spoke to her afterwards about it.

I waited a couple of days and I told her, I believe that you need to look carefully into this man and and that I think that this is bad. I told her that that was bad. I tried to explain why it was bad. So she said it's just a picture. It's if nothing else. And then and I tried to tell her how it wasn't it didn't work anyway. And so now she doesn't want me to have anything to do with the wedding, which is fine. But I feel like I. I mean, how there is there are things and they're not I don't know. There are things in the Bible that tell us that this stuff is not good. And I'm not going to go over and bitter over the head with Bible verses, because that's certainly not going to help. But it would help my mind.

Well, she's not a believer. She.

No, she OK.

Well, then, well, then if she's not a believer, it's awfully hard to to speak to her about all the things that are wrong in her life. And I don't think we're obligated to. You know, Paul said in First Corinthians, Chapter 11. I guess it is. He said.

No. No, I'm certain. Chapter five. Paul said. For who am I to judge those who are outside the church? Those people outside the church? God judges. We must judge those who are inside. Now she's outside the church. She's not part of the body of Christ. She doesn't profess to be a Christian. And therefore it's not ours to be, you know, taking her to task. But every little thing, what she needs to know is that she's living a life of rebellion against Christ. And that's true regardless of what she thinks about those pictures. You know, it is true that having a picture like that is can hardly be taken as anything other than an insult to Christ. I mean, have you ever seen it live? Have you ever seen that painting that Jeffrey Epstein had on his wall of of President Clinton in the blue dress from Monica Lewinsky?

Yes, I think I did actually know that. OK, now.

Now, if if Clinton or somebody who is a relative of his said I object to that picture, it'd be strange for someone to say, oh, it's only a picture. Well, no, it's not only a picture. It's an insulting picture. It's a degrading picture of somebody, you know. And and when you take something like the Last Supper and substitute the disciples and Jesus with, you know, horrendous characters from evil movies, you know, things. So it's just a picture. Well, no, it's not. It's it's an intentional insult to Christ.

That's what I did, man. But it wasn't like we weren't really aren't we weren't really arguing as much as you were saying. This is what I think. And she said, this is what I was thinking. Okay. Well, okay.

What I'm saying what I'm saying is this. She's not a Christian, although she's your sister and you feel like you can speak into her life, all kinds of things. Well, you can speak anything into her life that she'll let you speak, but you don't have an obligation to clean up her act. She's her whole she lives with her boyfriend, which is a sin. She's rejecting Christ as her lord. That's a sin. That's the biggest sin. And no doubt there's students there's some other since she's involved in, including some bad taste in pictures. OK. But you can't really take her to task on everything. Just take her to task about. About her relationship with Jesus Christ. Because if she gets right with Jesus Christ, then she'll feel convicted about those kinds of things. And so I would just say there's one issue between you and a non Christian that you need to address, and that is that they need to surrender their life to Christ, not that they have to, you know, all the things they have to get rid of once they become a Christian. That's in a way between them and God. I mean, certainly it's between them and the rest, the body of Christ, too, if it's a problem. But I guess, you know, I just I would just say you're worried about details when in fact, it's the problem is not with the trees, but with the forest.

I see. So it's not so much just like leading trying to lead someone to Christ or plant a seed for them as much as it is to just kind of be quiet and go and pray for them.

Well, I mean, you can plant a seed, but I don't think that complaining about their taste in art or about the, you know, sacrilege of their art.

I don't think that's planting a seed necessarily of, you know, the word of God into the answer not to make kind of seed.

All right. I would. I'd try to make it familiar with Christ. That's what she needs. All right.

OK. Thank you so much.

All right. I appreciate your call. God bless you. OK. This is Gary from Lemon Grove, California, next. Gary, welcome to The Narrow Path. Thanks for calling.

Yes, sir. I've got something that's been weighing on me, and I just don't have an answer for it. And I think I need the answer in case somebody against. You know, I talked to tells me of all the faults in the Bible, but it's one, two after three days.

All right. When Christ was crucified, he went to paradise. And then while he was down there, did he take captives or the Old Testament saints into heaven. But yet, if he did that, then he had already ascended. But according to the Bible, I mean, he was on average for 40 days after the crucifixion, before he actually ascended.

And your question.

So that is my question.

I just answered that just sound like a recitation of events. What what was your question about them?

Well, my question is, did he actually take the Old Testament Saints into heaven from paradise, which means that Christ had to go into heaven, which means he ascended. And those that would say, no, he couldn't have because he had not yet ascended yet.

Right. Well, I. I do believe that he did not go to heaven until his ascension. That's my understanding. When he rose from the dead, he told Mary, don't touch me. I have yet to ascend to my father. So the ascension to the father had not yet occurred. But that doesn't mean that when he did later acen that he didn't take with him the souls of the Saints from the Old Testament. It's not clear whether he did or not. The whole idea that he did comes from Ephesians Chapter four, where it says in verse nine. Now this. He ascended. Well, I go go to verse eight if patients for eight. It says therefore, he says when he ascended on high. He led captivity captive. Now, a lot of translations say he led a host of captives and gave gifts to men. And that's really that verse, it's a it's actually a citation of Psalm 68, verse 18. But when he ascended, he he led a host of captives. That's that's basically what most translations like to say from this first. Now, who are the captives?

Well, one theory is they are the saints who in the Old Testament had not been able to go to heaven because Jesus had not yet died and risen. And so they had been kept in a holding place called Abraham's bosom or paradise. And when Jesus ascended, he took them out of that place where they were essentially imprisoned, and he took the captives away to heaven with him when he ascended. That is one view, the one that you've heard, of course. Another view is that when he says he led a host of captives, it's talking about the demonic spirits that were led as a as captives to Christ that he led when he ascended into heaven. This be a figure of speech, I think, because I don't know that he. Well, I mean, I don't know what it actually it literally happened there when he ascended. But we do have Paul in Colossians, Chapter two, and I think it's verse fifteen saying that Jesus triumphed over the principalities and powers, I mean, the demonic powers in the cross and so forth. And it says the word or two he triumphed over them is a term to choose from the from the Greek. It's a Greek term. It is from the Roman practice of Roman generals who have conquered their enemies, leading them back to Rome in chains as captives, leading their kings and their generals, their, you know, their leaders back to Rome. And an arch of triumph was set up. For example, the arch of Titus is still showing. You can still see it in Rome. And the there'd be a great parade where the conquering Roman ruler would bring the captives that he captured and parade them through Rome before they were executed. And Paul uses that imagery in collections to fifteen of what Christ did to the demonic powers. So some think that when it says in evasions, when he is said it on high, he led a host of captives. That's not talking there about the Old Testament saints, but talking about the demons that he had captured, that he had conquered and that he's leading them as as a, you know, conquered force on display through heaven. Now, this would be probably a figure of speech. I don't think that we have to assume that he actually dragged a bunch of demons up into heaven to, you know, display them to the angels, but rather, he's getting across the fact that what Christ did to the demons is comparable to what the Roman generals did to their enemies, and that when they came home victoriously there, their conquest was celebrated. And so also that Christianity celebrates Christ's victory over the demonic powers. In fact, in another place and Second Corinthians, I think it's Insec Corinthians, Second Corinthians two. He talks about how we are led by Christ in triumph. Also, that is to say that we have been captive where his captives as well. And so in a different sense. But the idea is this imagery of a general parading his victory with his captives in tow is used in more than one way in the Bible. Now, again, it is possible that if patients for aid is saying that the those souls of the Old Testament saints, you know, were taken to heaven when Jesus went up, that's possible. But it would not have been so until he ascended.

Right. Right.

Okay. Well, all of the stuff I was really getting into it and trying to come up with an answer, but just a lot of the things that I guess that we shouldn't waste. There's.

Yeah. It seems crazy that you mentioned that this is something that unbeliever might ask about. I, I don't know how many unbelievers would have that as a concern, but it is it's certainly not one of the issues that most needs to be discussed with unbelievers. What they need to be discussed with is not those kinds of details of whether the Old Testament saints went up at that time or not, but rather, you know, whether Jesus is, in fact risen from the dead and whether God has, in fact, seated him in his right hand and commanded all people everywhere to battle the need to him and confessing his lord.

All right. I'm going to take a break here. Appreciate your call. Well, we have another half hour coming up. We're not done. The music sounds like we're closing. We're not. We take a break at this point every day to let you know that the narrow path is a listener supported ministry. We have no commercial breaks. We don't sell anything. We don't sell anything at our Web site either. We don't sell anything anywhere. Although there are things you can buy that we don't sell my books, for example. But we do pay for radio time.

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Welcome back to the Narrow Path radio broadcast.

My name is Steve Greg and we're live for another half hour, taking your calls if you have questions about the Bible or the Christian faith. Right now, our lines are full, but they do. We do have lines that open up in the course of the half hour. So you can call in in a few minutes if you have the number ready and you might find a line has opened for you. The number to have an on hand is eight four.

Four four. Eight four.

Fifty seven. Thirty seven.

That's eight four four four. Eight four.

Fifty seven. Thirty seven. Our next caller is Scott from Arizona, Scottsdale and Phenix, Arizona. Hi, Scott. Good to hear from you.

Good afternoon. My question is about Constantinos and what you may know about what I'm about to say.

I've heard that e convert to Christianity, Coty had a dream or vision of like putting crosses on sheild will start before you went to war over some bridge.

And then I heard a I looked at a documentary on him and said after that war that he won it. That's an art. And I'm not art. There's nothing about Christianity, but there's a lot of pagan gods on the ark that commemorates his victory.

And I was wondering if you know anything about those things.

Well, I know something about it. There's a lot of details, I'm sure. I don't know. But, yeah, before Constantine invaded Rome to conquer his his rival there, he had a vision of a cross and he either saw or heard the words in this sign conquer. So he took that as a instructions from heaven to to use the sign of the cross. And you're right. He had put it on the shields of his soldiers and things like that. Now, that doesn't mean he became a Christian at that point. He certainly was not a Christian when he when he had the vision. And there's no indication he became a Christian when when division appeared to him. But he did cross the Sylvian Bridge and did conquer Rome. And he did recognize that, you know, the Christian God had had something to do with his victory, that he had not converted yet from paganism, and therefore he still honored other gods. At some point, he did convert, that is to he he professed to convert and he was called a Christian forever after that. He did not apparently get baptized until near the end of his life.

And some say the reason for that is because they had the idea back then that if you get baptized, you can never seen again. And if you ever sin again after you get baptized, you go to hell. So people sometimes wanted to delay baptism till the last possible moment and he got baptized on his deathbed. And that apparently reflected the idea, which is not a biblical idea, that if you sin after you've been baptized, you're lost. So he didn't. He wanted to be sure he got baptized at a point where he would probably not sinning it afterwards, which is a straight it means he wasn't very well instructed in true biblical Christianity. But but he was it must be a view that the church was sponsoring in those days. This was, of course, the fourth century social, pretty far removed from the apostolic times. And a lot of traditions have come in. But I don't know the exact time of his conversion. I think he was converted in 312 or 313 A.D., if I recall. But he he was not converted necessarily at the at the time that he conquered Rome anymore.

But I hear something about him, like going into some temple where there are lots of pagan gods and just there were like Idaho stuff. And he just added the cross inside of this temple to like add Christianity with the other pagan gods.

Yeah, I don't I don't remember if that's true enough, but it could be. It's very possible.

I think I heard something.

But he did he did compromise a lot, even even once became a Christian. He apparently or at least under his influence.

That was the time when the church began to adopt a lot of pagan ideas, but converted them to Christian ideas. A lot of things, you know, done traditionally at Easter time or at Christmas time, which have pagan roots are believed by many to have come into the church because of Constantinos desire to, you know, keep the peace between Christianity and the pagan religions that the people held. See, when he became a Christian doesn't mean his whole kingdom became a Christian. It did not. In fact, when when Konstanty became Christian, he didn't even make Christianity mandatory. A later emperor did. But he didn't. He just issued an edict of toleration of Christians. The Christians had been persecuted officially by emperors previously. And he he made that not not OK. It is not possible to persecute Christians for being Christians under his oversight. But he did not require people to be Christians. So there's plenty of paganism in Rome at that time. In fact, he was the first the first emperor of Rome not to be a pagan himself.

All right. All right, Steve, thank you. All right. Thanks, Scott, for your call. Michael from Atlanta, Georgia, welcome to The Narrow Path. Thanks for calling.

Yes. Thank you, Steve, for taking my call. Listen, I'm going down the road that a lot of your callers have been calling in about, and this is my second marriage, my wife's third. Her ex-husband was abusive and she got out of it. And I met her up messed up my first marriage. I was a cheater. I did all of things wrong in my first marriage. And I changed my life. You got it on the right track in an accepted Jesus Christ into my life. And I'm a minister in music and all that good stuff. Well, I remarried and I have a 10 year old son. And now that I'm listening, I'm wondering and I know this is a hard question, but am I going to hell because I remarried and and I have a child. I mean, I can't see divorce in my life and leave in my family. And I'm just confused because at this point, it says I shouldn't have remarried or not worthy of remarrying.

Can you explain?

Well, let me ask you. Let me ask you a couple questions, if I could. OK. You left your wife, your first wife, right?

No, no, no, she didn't. She she gave me a divorce. She she divorced you. Me and I was out and I was out in the world doing everything. Yes.

OK. So she she had grounds and she divorced you. OK, did she remarry.

Yes.

OK. I believe since you did all those sins before you were a Christian, that when you became a Christian, that, you know, you're clean from from all your sin of the past.

Well, I. I call myself a Christian back then, too, because I did. I was a musician in church and went to church. But I wasn't leading a Christian life.

Well, then you weren't really a Christian, right? I mean, you weren't following Jesus. You were talking. I was talking. The talk. You're talking the talk of the year following Jesus. Yeah. Okay. So, I mean, being a Christian, being a Christian isn't about talking to talk me to Christians about following Christ as a disciple. So yeah. But you are doing that now. You're following Christ now, correct? Yes.

OK. So, so to me, I understand the scriptures say that the fact that you're a follower of Christ today, if we walk in the light, which I think you're doing as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another mean that we God and we have fellowship together and the blood of Jesus Christ, his son cleanses us from all since I think you're cleansed of that. Now that the other question about your case would be, if I didn't already know what you told me about your ex-wife. If she was faithful to you, if she had not divorced you, but you divorced her and she wanted you to come home and she's a faithful wife, went for her unfaithful husband to repent, come home, then upon your conversion, I think you would have had to return to her. But when you converted, she had divorced you. She didn't want you. And she married somebody else. And once she's remarried, for you to have her back isn't really an option. So you're free. In that case. And although, I mean, that doesn't make anything that you did in the past less wrong or evil, but you're forgiven of that if you're following Christ genuinely. And. And therefore, for you to remarry is not necessarily a sin. Now now the woman you married have a 10 year old child with whom she left her husband because he was abusive, correct?

Yes. And what did he do after the divorce?

He remarried and it was a failed marriage because it was the same way again.

Once again, once again, if if he had been an abuser, I would have told her at the time, if she's in danger, move out and go somewhere safe. But I wouldn't have told her to divorce him because abuse is not listed in the Bible as grounds for divorce. But the fact that he has remarried means that even if their marriage was considered to be intact when she left and even if she was even wrong, did she divorce him or to hear her?

She divorced him.

OK. So let's just say even if she divorced without grounds, let's say that's a possibility. And say she she was wrong to do so. Well, the fact that he did not remain faithful and hope for her to come back, but he went out, married somebody else means that he has given up on that marriage. He's he's slept with another if if the marriage was still intact. And God. Sighs He has now committed adultery and she would be free to remarry. In my opinion, that's how I understand it. So I believe that both of you, because of the circumstances, especially of your ex spouses, that both of your ex spouses have remarried. I think that puts both of you in a position to be free to marry each other.

OK. OK. I feel better, but I guess I was like, how can when it was my wife and leave my family in order to make it into the kingdom.

I understand. I understand, brother. You know, I need to tell you this.

The information I gave you, I think would be agreed upon by the vast majority of evangelical Bible scholars, but not everyone. Some would say there's no grounds for divorce. Some would say that even if you do have grounds or she can't remarry somewhat, some are much more strict than I am. I am strict. I am strict, as I think the Bible is. I think some people are more strict than the Bible is. And I don't think this is a value in being more strict than God. But I do have an article where I really analyze all the biblical material on this and answer most of the questions people have on the subject, which it's posted online. If you go to the Web site, the narrow path dot com. And go to the tabs as topical articles, you'll find I have an article on divorce or marriage and it's a very thorough treatment of the biblical material and explanation and execution of the material. So anyway, what I'm saying is what I told you, I believe, is biblically true and extremely defensible biblically. And I believe it's what the Bible teaches. But there are plenty of people who, in my opinion, don't execute the Bible very well, but have come up with other views. So you're going to run into people who do think that you and your wife are living in adultery, but you need to be convinced of what the Bible says yourself. I mean, not just because I say so, but you might want to read that material, Neal. I think you'll you'll. You can feel comfortable that you have, you know, satisfied all the biblical data in the matter.

Nicolazzi.

All right, brother. All right. Well, thank you for answering my question.

All right. God bless you. And this present marriage. Be good. All right. Stay faithful. All right.

I know I am. I learned a lot from that last one and what to do and what not to do.

All right, Father Michael, love us. I appreciate your call.

OK. Claudet from Las Vegas, Nevada. Welcome to the narrow path, KLEMET.

Thank you, Steve. I like listening to a radio preacher here today, and he said that the rapture is like it's not a rain, it's a seed. So my question is, is the church going to be raptured prior to the tribulation or no.

Well, the rapture is not a fable because Paul speaks of it in First Thessalonians four. He says that the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the Archangel on the trumpet of God and the dead and krischer rise first. That's the resurrection. Then he said, then we who are alive and remain. That is those who have not died. Therefore will not be resurrected from the dead. We will be caught up to meet the Lord in the air. Now the word caught up is the word that is in the Latin Bible, the word for rapture. And so Paul says there will be a rapture. Now, what you're wondering is whether the rapture is going to be before the tribulation or not. Let me just say this. There's nothing in the Bible that places the resurrection or the rapture, which, of course, Paul said happened together any time other than the last day. Now, if it's on the last day, then it's after everything. It's not it's not before anything. It's after everything. So Jesus said in John six verse thirty nine and also verse 40 and also verse 44 and verse fifty four, four times in John six. Jesus says that he's going to raise his people up on the last day. And there's very good reasonably if he's talking about the resurrection and the rapture at that time. So he places it at the last day. Now a last day would mean one that there's no other days after that. So it's not seven years before the last day or three and a half years before the last day or even one day before the last. It's the last day. So I would say that, geez, according to Jesus, he's going to raise his people up on the last day. And that would not encourage me to believe that it's gonna be before anything before the tribulation or before anything else except the new earth, because the new earth, the last day has lasted this earth. And after this earth is destroyed, then there's a new earth. So it's when Jesus comes back at the end of the age that he's going to raise the dead and rapture of the church. Now, people who say that there's going to be a seven year tribulation after the rapture, you know, I used to say that myself, and I honestly can't say that. I can't think of one verse in the Bible that says it. I cannot find one verse in the Bible.

I used I was taught it. And so I taught it because you at the beginning, you sometimes teach what you think is true because someone else taught it. But when I did my own study, I found there was not one verse in the Bible that said there's a seven year tribulation that comes after the Rapture. So I. I don't believe in a what we call a pre tribulation or rapture. But I do believe the Rapture will. We will be caught up to meet the Lord there. Because Paul said so.

OK. Thank you so much. You've answered my question. Thanks a lot.

God bless you. Thank you. OK. Alex from Honolulu, Hawaii. Welcome to The Narrow Path. Thanks for calling.

Hi, Steve. Good to talk to you again. I wanted to talk today about the instances in the Old Testament where you see kind of process and even David wishing destruction upon their animals, such as Jeremiah 1718, where he wishes they would have like double destruction. And even it seems like they even have joy in their enemy's destruction. And I know, Nosik, your God says that he doesn't take joy in the death of the wicked. So I was one of the few I could get your thoughts on it. You don't talk about it, right?

Well, it says in his akl that God has no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that the wicked return from his evil ways and live. And I think every Christian should have that precise attitude, too. We should say I. I don't want to see the wicked have to die. I'd rather see them turn and be righteous.

However, it is known that many wicked people do not turn. Many people simply go on to the day they die in a career of destruction, destruction of other people's lives, destruction of their own lives, destruction of their powerful people, destruction of whole societies and and and those who will not repent and who are only going to destroy. It's not ungodly to say, you know, God, why did you stop them and stop them? Might mean let them die. Of course, it always would allow for a prayer, a preferable outcome, stop them by converting them. But God, I don't think is the one who converts people completely. I think people have to agree to that. I don't think God comes to somebody who is absolutely unwilling to follow God and makes their heart change. Some people believe that. But I don't. And so I believe that some people have, you know, such as stubbornness in their evil ways that stopping them, although God and we would prefer that he'd stop them by converting them. If that's not going to happen, then the other way is to take him out now, by the way. We know very well that not only they, but we are going to be taken out. We're all going to die. You know, we don't have an infinite lifetime guarantee to us here at this time. And therefore, I could die today. I could die 10 years from now. I could die 20 years from now. I'd be pretty old. But the truth is that I'm going to die someday. And so are they. So for us to say, OK. God. You know, these people, if they don't turn, they're just gonna keep damaging other people and damaging society and leading other people away from you. So why don't you let the day they go be soon instead of later? Why don't you shorten their career? That's exactly what that might shorten the career of these troublemakers. And I don't think David would have any problem with God converting them or leading, you know, with them coming to Christ or coming to God and becoming good people. It's there. It's not them that he hates. It's their evil. You know, David didn't really hate people even. Well, I mean, he did in a sense. But, I mean, he didn't hate people because of them being people, but because of what they did. And, you know, Absolom, his own son, betrayed him and tried to kill him. Saul, the previous king, tried to kill him, too. And David didn't hate them. David didn't wish evil on them. But and he wept, both of them, when they died. Even though both of them had tried to kill him, he wept over their death. You know, he had pity on them, but he you know, he often spoke what they call empiric imprecations. These solms that that wish evil on someone are called Impractically Solms. He often wished these imprecations or curses on people whom he described as God's enemies. You know, the people who are his own enemies. He he was he loved and wish. Wish better for. He was sad when they died. But people who are God's enemies. David could be very angry at her. David said, you know, do not I hate those who hate you. Oh, Lord, I hate them with perfect hatred. I count them my enemies.

Now, notice, the people he hates are not the people who are his enemies. He has to he he chooses to count them as his enemies because they are God's enemies, because they hate God.

He says, because they hate you. I'm going to hate them. And by hate. He doesn't just mean be have nasty feelings toward them. He means that he is going to oppose them at just because they're opposing God. So usually when Jesus was this way, too, I mean, Jesus wished curses on recurse the Pharisees because the harm they were doing to people. But when people crucified him.

He said, Father, forgive them. They don't know what they do. Paul was that way, too. A second Timothy chapter. For I think it is. Paul talks about how all his friends forsook him when he was on trial for his life or for Nero says no one stood with me. They all fled. He says, I pray that the Lord will not hold that against them. So he's very forgiving to his his his people who who owed him more and who had abandoned him and betrayed him. But he said, Alexander, the Coppersmith did me great harm. May God reward him according to his works. Now, that's an implication that's wishing harm on the man, he says, because he is also resisted our words. Now, was this man was not just someone who abandoned Paul when Paul needed a friend. This is a man who opposed the gospel. He's opposing the church. He's opposing God's purposes at a godly man like Jesus or Paul could or David or Jeremiah could be very angry at those whose lives are doing nothing but damage to other people. And yet they could also be very sympathetic toward people who were nasty to them. They could love their enemies, but still hate God's enemies because God's enemies were seen as the enemies of humanity in general. So there there is a place for for a praying for God to stop the evil.

I agree with. I think that's good. But also, unlike someone thirty seven and nine.

It's, you know, blessed shall be he who takes your little ones and dashes them against the rock.

Yeah, I'm talking about the Babylonians who had done that to the Jewish babies and the Jew who's in captivity in that song. He's remembering that when he was in Jerusalem, the Babylonians came in and and slaughtered people, disemboweled pregnant women, babies, and dashed their heads against the walls and things like that. And he was grieving over that. He says you blessed is the man who does those things to you. In other words, I'm you know, I'm on the side of the person who comes and settles the score with you. It's not gonna be me. And that's an important thing. You know, David. And when he prayed those things, he didn't write Psalm 139, but he wrote lots of the songs. It's interesting. David was praying that God would take care of this. He wasn't saying, I'm gonna get my arms and I'm going to go out and kill these people. You think, God, you take care of it. And that's very much in keeping with Paul says in Romans Chapter 12. He says, Do not avenge yourselves, but give place to God's wrath, for he has said vengeance is mine. I will repace as the Lord. So Paul says we should not avenge ourselves, but let God do it. That's exactly what David was praying for. The God would do it. I think Jeremiah's prince, same thing. And, you know, and so is Paul. And, you know, anyone who prays these imprecations. It's interesting. They are not doing anything to hurt somebody, but they're putting it in God's hands. Say, God, you know what these people deserve. Why don't you take care of it's your job. And I think that's how we're to understand these precatory prayers. All right. Let's talk to Donny from eastern Michigan. Donny, welcome to The Narrow Path. Thanks for calling.

Rep. I met with says that to the weaponless who loves to work as low as. It was of the question. You have a glass of milk.

I can hardly understand your question.

It has nothing to do with the rest. It has nothing to do with the pain of the world but of the spirit. We have to lie.

Okay. I don't have time for a sermon. Right. I only have a few hours farm. I have people waiting. I've got a question. I would like to hear it or even something where you disagreed with the host. I do invite people to do both of those things, but not to call to give a sermon, especially when I can't even make out what you're saying. John from Grandview, Texas, welcome to the Narrow Path. Thanks for calling.

Hey. Very good. Thanks.

Listen, I've listened to you for several years. My first call. I've got a question that can't dances around the rapture out ever for the tribulation. I've studied it and come to the conclusion that I now know that I'm right or wrong. But that the book of Daniel and Daniel's policy of the 70 weeks of years. Huh? That's a 60 ninth week has happened. And we're still waiting for the final seven years, which I take to be tribulation, which is punishment for the Jewish people, that the dispensation of the church when it began to put the last week on hold. And if that's true, then. The Christians won't be here because. The dispensation of it that the prophecy or the punishment couldn't come during the dispensation of the church. It had to wait till the church was gone. And then happened.

So OK. Well, this is this is it. Yeah. This is this is precisely what the dispensation of view holds, that there's a big gap between the sixty ninth week and the 17th week of Daniel and the 17th week, like all the other weeks, are seven years long. And so this last week of seven years is postponed until the church is gone.

Now, the problem I have is I don't I'm not really finding anything in the Bible that says that there's a postponement of the seventieth week. I mean, I've been told this, but I don't find anything in scripture saying and it seems to me like Daniel is told there's a hundred and there's four hundred and ninety years, 70 weeks of years from one point to another. And the dispensation view says, no, there's there's two thousand four hundred ninety years because there's a two thousand year gap between two of the years.

But the Bible doesn't say so.

And therefore, I would always have problems with that suggestion just because I can't find it anywhere. Likewise, I don't know why God couldn't deal with the Jews while the church was still here. He did, after all, destroy Jerusalem in 70 A.D. while the church was still here. I'm out of time. I appreciate your call, though, God. God bless you, brother. You've been listening to the narrow path. Our Web site is the Narrow Path dot com. Let's talk again tomorrow. God bless you.