The Narrow Path 11/6

Music playing... Welcome to The Narrow Path Radio Broadcast. 844-484-5737. At the moment it looks like there's one line open.

844-484-5737. A couple of announcements. One is if you happen to be in Southern California, tomorrow night I have a meeting in Temecula that doesn't happen very often. Usually about once every two months I suppose. And it's just for anyone who wants to come and have some fellowship and have a Q&A.

And it's very casual. It starts at 630 tomorrow night and if you're interested, if you happen to be in the area or near enough to come, you can go to our website thenarrowpath.com and look under announcements and you'll find a list of where I'm going to be including tomorrow night in Temecula. So we want you to know about that. The other thing is yesterday a man named Patrick called who it sounded like he had lost his job and he was very distraught. And I hope you may be listening because after the show I received an email from somebody who said that he thinks he could help Patrick and maybe others like him to find work.

This is not some kind of a multi-level thing. He works for a hiring career agency. He usually works with veterans apparently, but he said he can help out Patrick also if Patrick happens to be listening at this moment.

Or frankly anyone who would like to be in touch with him. What you'll want to do is get in touch with me. Just write to me at Steve at thenarrowpath.com and ask me to put you in touch with Mitch Gilbert.

That's Mitch Gilbert. Or just tell me that you're interested in the guy who thought he could help people find careers. Just let me know who you are and I'll pass you along your information on to him.

So I hope that will be helpful to some. We're going to go to the phone lines now and talk to Carmen from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Hi Carmen, welcome to The Narrow Path. Thanks for calling. Hi Steve, thanks for taking my call. Also thank you for your ministry. You've been an extreme blessing to me and my family and I know many others as well, so thank you very much for that. I've prepared a significant amount here that I would like to try to squeeze in, so I'm going to jump right into it.

I'm going to try to speak quickly, but hopefully not too quickly. I listened to your recent debate with Chris Date and the meaning of the term Israel in the New Testament. While I think you answered him very thoroughly and won that debate, hearing Chris question you on this inspired me to call in regarding another give-in in the Preterist interpretation of Scripture. So I'm calling with a question about the use of the Greek word ganea by Jesus and the writers of the New Testament. One of the foundational premises of Preterism is that there's no evidence that Jesus or the New Testament writers use this word for generation in any special sense that would suggest that he was talking about anyone other than his contemporaries. And up until about a year ago, I would have definitely agreed with that assessment.

However, upon looking at this with some fresh eyes and in light of some other research I've been doing, I think that I would challenge this claim. Now, it does appear to me that there is a significant amount of evidence that both Jesus and the New Testament writers did often use this term ganea in a very, very special sense, and that there are two points that I think I would raise that should raise our suspicions immensely regarding this, and I wanted to quickly run those by you and see what your thoughts were on the subject. So I want to be respectful to the other callers and yourself and not take up too much time, but would it be okay with you if I just took a couple of minutes and ran through those points very quickly and then... If you could do so quickly, sure. Go ahead.

Okay, sure. So the first one here is both in the Olivet Discourse and the Sign of Jonah. Jesus is recorded to have described his judgment on his generation, and he says that they would essentially be held accountable for the murders of all the prophets all the way back to the murder of Abel by Cain. Now, those statements could have potential implications on our understanding of the justice of God and, at least on the surface, to contradict God's sense of justice as expressed in the Old Testament laws regarding capital punishment, like eye for eye, truth for truth, life for life, etc. But even if we can square those statements with God's perfect justice, perhaps by appealing to the difference between corporate versus individual accountability or hyperbole of some sort, it's very interesting that Jesus uses language that is directly in opposition to that used in Jeremiah 31, which, when compared to Zechariah 14, is obviously talking about the judgment on Jerusalem in 70 AD. And there, in Jeremiah 31, God says that a day is coming when all people would pay for their own sin, and not the sins of their fathers. So it seems very strange to me that Jesus would explicitly describe the wicked generation being judged for the sins of their fathers in the context of his own prophecy, which is predicting the same events as Jeremiah.

I would hope that Jesus would have a good reason for doing this. Could you tell me what the verse is? What is the verse you're looking at in Jeremiah 31? Oh, let me look very quickly here.

I have it up. Okay, Jeremiah 31, 29 through 30. 29 through 30. Okay, so it says, In those days they shall no more say, The fathers have eaten the sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge, but everyone shall die for his own iniquity. Okay. Now, I'm not sure that I would say that that is a, you know, I'm not sure if that's a reference to the judgment of 70 AD. I think it's...

I'm sorry, I'd like to... I've heard that before, and I think it becomes conclusive when you look at, let's see here, Jeremiah 38 through 40, and you compare that to the verses in Zechariah 14, 9 through 11, and it's very clear that Jeremiah is talking about the exact same thing. He refers to the Tower of Hananel, the Corner Gate, the whole valley, the city never being uprooted or demolished. Those are all paralleled in Zechariah 14, 9 through 11. Yeah, but I think in Zechariah chapter 14, he's talking about the New Jerusalem. I don't think he's talking about the city of Jerusalem in 70 AD. I believe that... Okay, okay.

I believe Zechariah 14 begins by talking about 70 AD, but then it goes on to talk about God's protection of the true, the genuine Jerusalem, which I think is the remnant in the church. Okay. Okay. So your interpretation is a little bit different from what I've heard from other preterists. Okay. So, all right, that's good. Do you have any other comments?

Well, let me just say this. You wanted to give several examples, but this could go rather long if we did. Can you give me one or two real quickly?

One or two examples of the other? If you want to. I mean, I can answer your call right now, but I didn't want to cut you off before you had time to make the points you wanted to make. Okay, sure, sure.

I appreciate you giving me the time to do that. The other point that I wanted to raise was that the New Testament writers seem to go out of their way to associate the genea of the Greek term for generations with the number 42. Now, any preterist would recognize that as the number of months that Jerusalem was under siege in the first century, but it seems that the significance goes beyond that, because if I could just say before, for example, very quickly, the recorded genealogies of Jesus, which Matthew describes as His generation, are related to the number 42, because Jesus records 42 generations total, and further, He divides them up into three groups of 14, as you're probably aware, and a lot of scholars anyway think that that's related to the numerical value of David's Hebrew name. And likewise, in Luke's genealogy, he places David at the 42nd position in the 77 recorded generations that he has. And so these genealogies are obviously about leading up to the birth of Jesus, and in connection with the birth of Jesus, we find in Revelation 12 that the birth of Jesus, and it seems to bleed into the 70 AD judgment, it relates to...

Revelation 12 mentions the birth of Jesus in the context of the 1260-day career of the dragon. You know, Carmen, let me jump in here, because I know you apologized in advance for having to talk so fast, but I think you're leaving probably most of our listeners in the dust, and frankly, me too. I mean, I'm following your sentences, but I'm not understanding how they add to the argument. So maybe we could just very briefly say, you disagree with my saying that when Jesus said, this generation will not pass until all these things are fulfilled in Matthew 24, that I'm saying He's talking about the generation that was living at that time. Now, you're saying it has a different meaning. Could you just maybe summarize very quickly what that meaning is, without necessarily the defense of it? I won't further defend my view, but just go ahead, so we'll know what you're actually advocating.

Absolutely. Okay, so I believe that Jesus was referring to His generation, the wicked people of His generation, as representatives of the class of the wicked in general, okay? That He was speaking to them in terms of, in an apocalyptic sense, okay? This term generation referred to both His contemporaries, but it also, He was speaking about, in a secondary sense, or even a more significant sense, by referring to the wicked of all time, basically, all the way back to the dawn of man.

So in other words, He's not just talking about 70 AD, He's talking about 70 AD and the judgment of all the wicked at the end of the world when Jesus returns, correct? That's correct, yes. Okay. Well, I appreciate you sharing that. That's not necessarily self-evident to me, but hey, I'm not going to try to refute you.

I gave you a lot of time to share it, and I'm glad you called. Okay, great. Okay, brother, God bless. Bye now. Okay, Dave from Lake Tahoe.

Welcome to The Narrow Path. Thanks for calling. Dave, are you there? Do we need to slide his volume up or anything?

I don't have any control over that. Okay, Dave, we're not hearing you, so I have to go move on to the next caller. Steven from Wilmington, Ohio.

Steven, welcome to The Narrow Path. Thanks for calling. Hey, Steve, how's your day going? Good, thank you. Good. Yeah, I wanted to get your opinion on, like, what's your opinion on Christian parents letting their kids play video games? To play what?

Yu-Gi-Oh? Play video games. Oh, video games? Well, I have to tell you, I'm totally unfamiliar with video games.

I've never played one in my life, never had an interest in even finding out what they do, and therefore, I don't know much about their content. I know way back when video games were pretty new, back in the 80s, as I recall, or early 90s, perhaps, I remember hearing about some of the video games having tremendous violence and gore and, of course, encouraging bad values and so forth, which would be also true of television and a number of other things in our society. I think parents really need to be mindful of what kind of influences are getting into their children's heads, but I'm not familiar with the games.

I can't say this game or that game is okay or not okay. I would say this, that fortunately, my kids were raised before there was much of a video game craze, and so I wasn't around, and they weren't around when these things were coming out, so I'm pretty ignorant of the whole thing. I would just say that playing video games would be very much like watching movies or watching television, I should think, or any other cultural influence, with the possible exception that if you're playing a first-person shooter kind of a game, where you're the one maiming the zombies or whatever you're doing, I imagine that could get into your soul a little more than if you're just an outside observer of a bad movie, but I think that would be up to the parents to decide.

Some parents like to give their children some measured exposure to the things that they're going to be influenced by or be exposed to when they're no longer at home. Sometimes parents will monitor those kinds of things, and I would imagine that there's a great number of video games that parents would say, I wouldn't let my kid watch that at all or play that at all, but there would be other games probably more or less harmless, so it'd be a very difficult, I would say it'd be an impossible thing for me to broad brush all video games, because obviously, I myself, back in the 80s or whenever it was, played some Pac-Man or Donkey Kong, but those are hardly qualified as video games anymore. I don't even know if they're still around or Pong or whatever. Those were just really rudimentary games.

Everything's so realistic now in the graphics. It's harder not to become involved in it like you would in a movie. It's a new degree of danger that needs to be watched out for. If I had kids I was raising again today, I wouldn't let them have a smartphone until they were old enough to earn money and buy one for themselves. Even then, while they're living in my house, I don't know if I'd let them keep it overnight. I'd probably have all the smartphones in the house locked up until morning and let them use it primarily for phone calls and photos and maybe a few other things, but I'd really want to monitor that.

Actually, I'd probably give my kids just a flip phone so they could get in touch with me. I would not feel any obligation in raising children to keep up with all the trends in media and social networking and all those kinds of things that are so commonplace for kids now. I don't think those have been healthy for relationships. I don't think they've been healthy for families. I'm not saying my kids would never have any access or exposure to any technology.

That wouldn't be the case, but I'd want it to be very limited and very monitored until I knew that they were absolutely trustworthy. Gotcha. Thank you for your input, Steve.

All right. God bless you, Steven. Good talking to you. Andrew from Everett, Washington. Welcome to The Narrow Path. Thanks for calling.

Oh, hi, Steve. Thank you. Yeah, the question that I had is about a prayer. How often or how long should Christians pray about a particular need? Because a lot of the times I hear from my friends that they say, if we pray too many times, we're going to annoy God.

And then they give us or they give me the example of children asking their parents too many times and then parents get annoyed by their children asking them for something for too many times. And then the second part of the question, when we pray, when should we say to God, let your will be done? For example, this last few days, I've been praying for President Trump to win. So like, should I say, like at the end of the prayer, let your will be done? How do you look at this? So that's my question.

Sure. Well, yeah, I believe that all of our prayers either need to be conditioned verbally by your will be done, or if it is your will, or at least if it's not spoken, that that's what's in our mind. And God has to know that that's what's in our mind.

We're resigned to his will. We're not using prayer as a means to get what we want. We're using prayer, hopefully to advance the causes that God wants. And if he doesn't want what I'm praying for, then I hope he won't grant it.

Even if I can't see any good reason for him not to grant it, I hope he won't if it's not what he wants. Because again, prayer is not our way of twisting God's arm or, you know, making wishes to a genie in a lamp who owes us some kind of favors. We are God's children who are concerned, we should be concerned entirely with his project and with his kingdom and with his enterprise that he's involved in.

And so we know that he knows best, but he often will not act unless he's invited. Now, as far as your, so I do think that your will be done, that's what Jesus prayed when he even prayed the most important of all prayers he ever prayed, probably, which was, Father, if it's your will, let this cup pass from me. And you said, yeah, not my will, but yours will be done. Certainly, if he could pray that way, then we should too. And Jesus told us that we should pray your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. And I don't think that means just in a few things in earth as it is in heaven means as completely as in the same totality that his will is done in heaven. We should pray for his will to be done on earth as well. So submitting every prayer to God's will is absolutely necessary. John said in 1 John 5.14 that if we ask anything according to his will, we know that he hears us.

And so I'm all about that. Now, as far as asking God too many times for something and him getting bugged by it, we have to remember how many prayers God hears every single day from people around the world. It's got to be billions, billions of them every day. If someone wants to tell you, yeah, but you know, if you pray a hundred times, that's going to really, you know, stress God out. That's really going to tax his patience.

I don't think so. I think if you prayed every day of your life for things that are good things, as you waited for them to be fulfilled and granted, I don't think that that adds very much to the amount of prayers God is listening to all over the world on any given day. And I suspect he's very patient or else he wouldn't have made himself available like this.

I never found that I was impatient with my children when they asked me for something repeatedly unless I had said no to them. And if I said no to them, I didn't want them to keep asking. But, you know, I think that God would never be upset with us if we keep asking for something that we have every reason to believe is his will and he has not said no about it.

So I would consider continue praying. I mean, Jesus gave that parable in Luke 18 of the woman, the widow who was the victim of injustice, and she went to a judge and he wouldn't listen to her. And she just kept coming bugging him.

Every day she bugged him about it. He finally said, okay, okay, I'll give in. Now, of course, the judge in that story is in the same position God is in with reference to our prayers, but he's not like God. This judge was said to be somebody who didn't fear God and didn't care about people either. So he's unlike God. God cares about people a great deal. And what Jesus is saying, of course, is that if a judge who has no interest in your case can be prevailed upon this way, how much more can God who does have an interest in your case be prevailed upon? But we don't always get our prayers immediately answered.

That's not necessarily because God isn't in favor of it. In fact, Daniel chapter 10 tells us that when Daniel prayed for 21 days, it took 21 days for him to get an answer. But, but he was told by an angel, you know, God sent me here the day you started praying. So the very day that Daniel offered his prayer, God readily granted it. But the delivery system from God to Daniel was interfered with by demonic powers. And so Daniel's continually praying and fasting probably had a lot to do with persevering through that resistance.

And we may have to do that too. We have to be aware there is demonic resistance to the kingdom of God. And when we're praying for God's kingdom and his will to be done, the devil's not going to just sit back and take that lightly. He's going to resist it. And that's probably why good prayers often take longer than you think they would to be answered. But if you're pretty sure you're praying for something that's God's will, keep at it because God's not going to get worried, but the devil might. And that's good.

We might want to wear him out. Got it. All right. Thank you very much, Steve. God bless you.

All right, Andrew. Thanks for your call. God bless you. John in Sacramento, California.

Welcome to The Narrow Path. Thanks for calling. Hi, Steve. Hi. This is John from Salinas on my way from Sacramento North. Wait, are you the John? Are you the John who's my friend John from Salinas? I'm the John that's your friend from Salinas.

Correct. That we were driving north and picked up KFIA and I just couldn't resist calling for old time's sake and saying hello. I don't have a great theological question like that first caller did that made my head spin a little bit. But I did have two questions and that has to do with those of us who live in areas in which your programs no longer on a local radio station. Do you have an app that we could listen to? Absolutely. As some of the other programs have?

Yes, we absolutely do. If you go to your app store. Now, do you have iPhone or Android? iPhone? Yeah.

Okay. Well, then you go to the app. Yeah, go to the app store and just do a search The Narrow Path dot com. Just search for that and you'll see an app there.

You can download it for free and then you can listen to the show live or in archives later if you want to on your phone or your other device and you can also listen to the lectures from the website there. So, you have pretty much access more on the app than you do on the radio. Now, Steve, I have another question. Yeah, are you cutting out there? Are you in a bad spot? John, I think you're in a bad spot. You're cutting out badly.

I might be and if I am, I apologize. I'm coming into some congested area here in Redding. Okay. And if you lose me, it's talking to you.

Say hello to your wife and the next time we get to Temecula, we'll come over and see you. Okay, great. It's great to hear from you and say hi to Lorraine for me and we hope to see you sometime.

She's here in the car and she's listening as well. All right. Good to talk to you and take care. God bless. Okay, get the app, John. God bless you. Will do. All right.

Bye now. By the way, I would say this about that John was the station manager at the Salinas station. That was the second station I ever went on. Our first station was in Oregon, in Albany, Oregon, and we were there for the first year and then the second year, we went on the station in Salinas, California. And John and his wife were managers of that station for a long time. Then they retired and when they retired, I don't want to say too much, but the station kind of went to pot, I thought, and under new management. So we're not on the air there anymore, but John is a very long time friend of mine as a station manager. All right. Well, you know what we got?

We have a break coming up here, about a minute, and then we have another half hour coming up. So don't go away. You're listening to the Narrow Path radio broadcast. As you heard me tell John, we do have an app. You can get it for iPhone or Android, wherever you get your apps. It's the narrow path.com app. And you can hear this program live or later. There's archives going back many, many years, I think, and lectures from our website are there. Now, our website also has all these resources. It's the narrow path.com. We are listener supported and we pay for time on radio stations. So if you're interested in helping to stay on the air, you might want to write to the narrow path, P.O.

Box 1730 Temecula, California, 92593. Or as I said, you can go to our website. Now everything on our website is free. You don't have to donate to get everything that's there.

But if you want to donate, you can do it from the website as well. The narrow path.com. I'll be back in 30 seconds. Small is the gate and narrow is the path that leads to life. Welcome to the narrow path with Steve Greg.

Steve has nothing to sell you but everything to give you. When today's radio show is over, we invite you to study, learn and enjoy by visiting the narrow path.com where you'll find free topical audio teachings, blog articles, verse by verse teachings and archives of all the narrow path radio shows. We thank you for supporting the listener supported narrow path with Steve Greg.

Remember the narrow path.com. Welcome back to the narrow path radio broadcast. My name is Steve Greg and we're live for an hour. Well, we're on a half hour more. We've had a half hour already. We have another half hour ahead of us to take your calls. If you have questions about the Bible or about the Christian faith, feel free to join us. The number to call is 844-484-5737. And I want to remind those in Southern California that we do have a meeting tomorrow night in Temecula.

You're welcome to join us there. If you go to our website, the narrow path.com and look under announcements, you'll find everything you need to know about that meeting tomorrow night in Temecula, California. And again, if our friend Patrick, who called in yesterday, very distraught about the loss of his job, um, if he's listening or anybody else who's very distraught about the loss of the job, uh, I was contacted yesterday after a call from Patrick and, uh, uh, a man, uh, I don't know, contacted me and said his job is finding employment and careers, uh, usually for veterans and for disabled veterans. But he says he can help other people too. And so if you're in that position and you would like to contact this gentleman, uh, email me, Steve at the narrow path.com. That is Steve at the narrow path.com and just say, I'm interested in the guy, you know, who might be able to help me find a job and I'll send you his information to contact him. All right. We're gonna talk to Neil in Phoenix, Arizona. Neil, welcome to the narrow path.

Thanks for calling. I don't, this is a question, but I've got a request that people, if they're so like-minded would get core change and start praying that Donald Trump would be the next president still. I believe there's a whole lot of crooked going on just trying to steal the election. I would like for every vote that Joe Biden has to be given to him. And I would like for every honest vote that Joe Biden has to be granted to him and every honest vote that Donald Trump has. I just want fairness. Thank you.

Yes, I appreciate that. I think that there's an awful lot of people listening who have been praying for that very thing. Um, yeah, it's a shame when it's evident that corruption is involved in the election process and that's true no matter who wins.

Uh, if a person wins because of corruption and cheating and lying and stealing votes, uh, illegitimately, I'm not really sure how a person who wins that way could live with himself knowing that the nation legitimately elected somebody else, but that he himself has seized power as it were with a bloodless coup. And, um, so, I mean, we are praying for justice to be done. We are praying that God's will be done. And again, I think most of us Christians, most conservative Christians anyway, believe that Donald Trump will govern in a way more suiting suited to a Christian concerns than, than would Joe Biden, but not everyone listening believes that, uh, there's a lot of people who listen to show for some reason who, who think otherwise, um, I'm not sure why they listen because everything about my program is about the Bible and what it says. And I'm not sure how anyone who would be familiar with the Bible would hold that view, but that some do. And so I don't think they're going to be praying for Donald Trump to win, but I know probably the majority of our listeners because they do uphold biblical values would be very concerned about this and are praying about it.

I think, I think maybe this election this week has done more for getting Christians to pray than much of anything else in the whole year has, although there's been some, a lot of things this year that have elicited desperation and probably prayer. Uh, Randy from Sacramento, California, welcome to The Narrow Path. Thanks for calling.

Hello, Steve. Um, I was calling, I was going to ask you about Gnosticism, but I've been listening to some of your broadcasts from last December and every December people call in and say, Oh, we got to celebrate Jesus's birthday on this day or that day or figure out what day it is. And it always kind of bothers me because Jesus said, um, it's better to obey than to sacrifice. And then in the upper room, when he was within 24 hours of being crucified, he told all of his disciples, he says, this do in remembrance of me, you know, remember me, not because of my birthday, but because I died and now you have a birthday, you have a must be born again, birthday. And they make all of this, I don't know this importance on something Christ never even told it. Well, and the disciples, the disciples must not have celebrated Christ's birthday. I mean, they never, they never recorded even what day of the year it was.

So it can't be of something that they were very concerned about. And I agree with you that, um, uh, concern about the date of Christ, of Christ's birth or even the celebration of it is not something that's a, basically a biblical obligation at all. Now Christians of course can celebrate Christ in many ways, as long as they don't do something sinful in doing so. And therefore I don't, I would never come out and say, Christians can't give gifts on December 25th or any other day of the year, frankly, if they want to remember the birth of Jesus on that day. Uh, I'm, I've said before, I'm not really one who cares very much about holidays at all, uh, including my own birthday.

So it's not really a, uh, you know, it's not an issue to me. I've, I've been aware almost all my life that 20 the 25th of December is not Jesus' actual birthday. Uh, but I'm not against people who want to celebrate, uh, his birthday in doing so on any given day they want to, as long as they're not failing to celebrate the rest of his life and his death and his resurrection and his current reign.

I mean, I agree with your sentiments that, you know, it's more important to obey than to sacrifice. And, and the, you know, the word Christmas is based on the word, the mass, Christ's mass. It's a Catholic term that, uh, refers to, you know, the sacrifice of the mass done on December 25th. Uh, and I don't, I would never be involved in that kind of celebration of course, but, uh, cause I don't believe in the sacrifice of the mass, but I will say that to many people, uh, the tradition of celebrating Christmas is very meaningful as they get together with family in ways they can't do most of the time. And if they're very godly Christians, then they are, they are focusing on Jesus. Obviously though, and I think this is implied in what you said, many people across the world celebrate something on December 25th and they, they use the name Christmas for it, but they are not Christ followers. They're not Christ lovers. They're not, they might even be atheist, but if they're not atheist, they might even be church people, but they don't follow Christ.

Um, some people do, but many people do not. And if somebody doesn't follow Christ and they celebrate Christmas, it seems rather hypocritical because after all you celebrate the birth of somebody important, you don't celebrate the birth of someone no one's ever heard of or that is not considered to be worth remembering. Uh, but if Christ is worth remembering at all, if he was anything, then he's what he claimed to be. He's the son of God. He's the Lord. He's the King of Kings.

If he's, if he's anything other than an ordinary man, he's all of that because if he's not all of that and he said that he was, then of course he was a very bad man. So we wouldn't want to celebrate the birth of a bad man. And we also would not want to celebrate the birth of a King without living in the light of that reality that he is the King. So when people are not living under his Kingship and Lordship, it seems extremely hypocritical, maybe even self condemning to celebrate his birthday. Yes.

Well, thank you very much, Steve. It's just that I've seen the traditions of man render the word of God of no effect over and over again. That certainly has happened a lot. They're missing the point here. Christ died and paid your price.

These are propitiation. Amen. Well, they don't all miss it.

I mean, not everybody misses that, but you're right. Some do. Continue. Thank you. Thank you, Randy, for joining us today.

Okay. Our next caller is Teresa from East Haven, Connecticut. And by the way, we do have some lines that have opened up if you're interested in joining us. The number is 844-484-5737. That's 844-484-5737. Teresa, welcome to The Narrow Path. Thanks for calling.

Yes. I'm calling to really disagree with you as far as when you mentioned to someone about when you said that about politics, that you don't agree. Something about corruption is not a Christian way. And what you made me believe is that you're saying that there was no corruption with Donald Trump and that he is a Christian, in other words.

I believe that God's going to put in place who he feels he knows that will do the right thing as far as being a Christian or even what Christians can do is just pray for the person that's in office, not side with one person or the other, thinking that one, he's a Christian, Donald Trump's a Christian, and fighting to not. Okay. Well, I certainly didn't say that Trump was a Christian.

And when people have asked me, I've always said I can't say whether it is or not. Right. But you said that people forgot your words, but you made me feel safe to say the class is a Christian. Let me repeat back what you said I said, because you may have heard me wrong or you might have heard me right and just you disagree. You said you didn't appreciate my saying that Christians should be against corruption. And my statement had to do with corruption in the election process, corruption where they don't allow all the votes to be counted properly.

They bring in a bunch of extra votes that were invalid, all of them for their favorite candidate and none for the other. I mean, there's a lot of corruption. Oh, haven't you been paying attention? Aren't you listening to the news? Aren't you paying attention?

There's been incredible corruption. But we as Christians are not supposed to go by what the world is saying. Well, where are we going to get our information?

Where are we going to get our information if we don't get it from someplace? OK, so that's what I really disagree. You know, I listen to your program every single day and I've called in several times and I, you know, I just think I do agree with you on. But as far as lifting up a man that says derogatory things to people, you're making him seem like he's a Christian. Well, Teresa, Teresa, I have said nothing.

Teresa, I've never said anything remotely like that about Mr. Trump. I've never lifted up that man as if he is a Christian. I've never lifted up as even as he's a good man. I don't know if he's a good man. I don't know the man. The truth is, I don't know Joe Biden either. I know what he stands for because it's I hope I know because unless he's lying, he tells us what he stands for.

And Mr. Trump tells us what he stands for. So I don't care about, you know, what kind of a man we're talking about. I care about what he stands for. And the reason I don't care about what kind of man he is, is because he's not going to have any impact on my Christianity, even if the next president outlaws Christianity, even if I have to go to jail for saying the things I say on the radio.

And I consider that to be a very real possibility in some future date. He's not going to affect my Christianity. My walk with God is not related to who's the president. But really, what kind of policies are enacted has a great deal to do with who's the president, as we see in the last four years. I mean, Donald Trump changed a lot of things because he had different policies from those that the previous presidents had. And the changes he made, I think, are for the better. So it's not it's not that I idolize the man. I'm just looking at what he does. And I think a bad man or let's just say a man who's not altogether good can nonetheless do some good things. And so, you know, you make it sound like I'm placing Trump on some kind of a pedestal. You see, I'm not one of those who does that.

But I do know this. The people who vote against Trump very often are extremely hateful toward him as a man. They hardly ever talk about his policies because they despise him so much for his personality. And therefore, they must assume that the person who votes differently than they do must just love Donald Trump. Now, I believe we're supposed to love everybody, but I don't particularly love Donald Trump more than I love the average person. My vote has nothing to do with who I love or hate. It has to do with my stewardship as a person who has some responsibility to leave to my children and my grandchildren a better country to live in, a free country, a country where they can continue to serve God without being in jail for it, where they can speak plainly and have an influence on their friends without being silenced. And, you know, so I'm in favor of the candidate that's in favor of that.

It doesn't matter who he is. If Joe Biden was in favor of that, if Joe Biden was the man who was going to, you know, promise to do more to give more freedoms, freedom of worship, freedom of speech. And if Donald Trump was not advocating those things, then I would, of course, vote for Biden. It's not the man I'm interested in.

It's his policy. So I think you've got me all wrong there. But when I said I said there's been a great deal of corruption, I'm talking about in the election process. And anyone says, how do you know that has simply, you know, I don't know what they've been doing the last three days, not paying attention, apparently. But anyway, I appreciate your your call. And go ahead.

What's that? You can't put people down like that. If you're if you're going to be a Christian, you cannot judge people. Well, wait, wait, what are you talking about? You can't put people who who am I putting down? You you lifted up Biden.

I mean, you lifted up Trump and and and put Biden at the bottom of the list. You gotta say I'm sorry. No, I'm sorry. Excuse me. I didn't do that. I didn't do anything like that.

Well, I'm afraid. Okay, Teresa, I'm afraid we're not communicating and I've got a lot of people waiting. I did clearly I did clearly address this and you didn't hear it apparently.

So if you want to go back and listen to the recording of the program on our archives, you'll see that I answered the very things you're saying and I can't understand why you're repeating them. Okay, let's talk to somebody who hasn't had a chance yet. Like Ryan from Garden Grove, California.

Ryan, welcome to the narrow path. Thanks for calling. Hey, Steve, thanks for taking my call. You know, today was the first time I heard you talking and I just really appreciate your tone and your patience and you seem like a good listener and good follower of things.

So I just want to ask you about this a couple series I have. I was wondering, have you ever heard the idea that the Trump Pence ticket is the seven trumpets blaring the signaling of the new age? No, and if I did hear it, I wouldn't agree with it because I have a totally different outlook on revelation than that. But I'm not surprised. I'm not surprised there's people out there saying that because every political development has somebody out there trying to connect it with the book of revelation.

Well, you know, I think that Trump is called Trump for a reason. You know, the cross was put out here for a reason. And the rump is the back end of it. It's the remnant of it. And I think we are kind of leaving that age now.

My message has always been it's time to clean up the mess of the old age. And that story about Moses coming down to worship, coming down from Mount Sinai with the Ten Commandments, and seeing the Jews worshipping the golden cow. That's not a story about him getting angry because they're worshipping a false idol. It's about them getting angry because they're worshipping the old age, the Taurus, the bull. Well, you know, I've heard that kind of Ryan, I've heard that kind of thing before. And I'll tell you what, I've lived long enough to know that there will always be people who favor that kind of interpretive approach to the Bible.

It's very contrary to my own approach to the Bible, but I appreciate you having a chance to say it, because we do have an open mic here. Let's talk to Hank in Denver, Colorado. Hi, Hank, welcome to The Neuropath. Thanks for calling.

Hi, Steve. I just want to ask you about your interpretation of the growth of the kingdom. First of all, your interpretation of Luke 18, verse 8, when Jesus said that, well, he found faith in the earth. We know that the kingdom is growing right now, but how do you interpret the prediction that he may not find any faith in the earth?

Right. Well, there's two ways to read this verse, because the word earth is the Greek word ge, which can also mean the land. And much of what Jesus had to say was related to the condition of Israel, the land that is the nation of Israel. And when he said, when the son of man comes, will he find faith in the land, would be a very proper interpretation of that. Though it could be translated earth also, which makes it ambiguous, because if he's talking about, will he find faith in the land?

He's looking at his own land. He's looking at his own country, Israel, God's country at the time. And he would hope to find faith in the land. Remember he said to the centurion, I've not found such faith in all of Israel. In other words, he's not finding faith in Israel now, not much.

I wonder if I will, when the time comes for the judgment. Now, if he's talking about finding faith in the land, then the judgment that he has in mind might well be the judgment that came on the land in 70 AD. Of course, we know historically that there was a community of faith in Israel, the Christian church, who escaped that judgment.

They fled from the nation of Israel before the Romans came in and destroyed it. So there were some that he did find some faith in the land, but they were a small minority, unfortunately. And he's just raising that, I think, as a wistful kind of challenge to us all, or to his generation anyway, that, you know, it's possible, since he's not finding much faith in Israel as he speaks, that there might not be much at the time that he comes in judgment upon them. Now, if on the other hand, he's talking about the end of the world and his second coming at the end of the age, which is perhaps how most people take it. And will he find faith on the earth?

I wouldn't think that would, I don't think that would fit as well the idea that we know from the Bible that there will be faith on the earth. We know that, you know, at the coming of Christ, there's going to be righteous who are caught up to meet the Lord in the air. We know that there's going to be those who, you know, reign with him as a result of their faithfulness to him. And some of them apparently will be caught up even at the time he comes back. I'm not really sure which way he's looking at this, but I think I'm inclined toward the view that he's talking about when he comes in judgment against Israel in AD 70, will the land have anyone left in it or who's actually believed in him? Since at the time he was speaking, the nation was pretty much turned against him.

I mean, his disciples followed him, but they would be dead before AD 70, most of them. And so he, you know, he's just, I think he's musing. I don't think he's, he's asking a question, but of course his disciples don't know the answer. So I think the question stands almost as rhetorical as something of a muse about, you know, you know, there's not much faith here in the land now, but will there be, when the crisis comes, will there be many?

And he's not answering that question, but the fact that he asks it is very possibly rhetorical. I'm not sure. Thanks so much for that. Thank you.

It makes sense. Thank you. All right, Hank, God bless you.

Thanks for your call. God bless you. Thank you.

All right. Good talking to you. We're going to talk next to Mark from Groton, Massachusetts, or Groton. Hello, Mark. Welcome. Welcome.

Hi, Steve. Fairly long time listening out here on the East coast. First thing I'd like to let you know that a lot of your listeners are praying for Biden to be elected president. And, you know, I think you're, you're getting a lot of, you know, fake news where, you know, where you're talking about ballots being brought in and stuff. There's been no evidence of that, but my question is, you know, in light of all the things the Bible says, I just, I just don't see how a Christian can, can support Donald Trump, you know, as president.

And, and what are the, what are the reasons that you find that difficult? Well, I mean, you know, I wrote down a few things here. I know, in the old Testament somewhere, it says that, this was to Israel, that they should welcome the foreigner in the land. And you think that Trump doesn't? Well, I mean, he's, you know, if you watch the news, he's cut way back on the number of immigrants, you know, way back from a hundred and something thousand next year, he proposed it to be like, I don't know, eight or 10,000 or something. Well, while we're on that subject, I just want to know your position about this. So are you thinking the border should just be totally open and anyone who wants to can just cross in and live off the welfare system of this country, no matter what country they come from?

No, absolutely not. Well, that's what Biden, that's what Biden wants. Biden said during the democratic primaries, the interviewer said, how many of you candidates would give free healthcare, government healthcare to illegal aliens? And every one of them, including Mr. Biden raised his hand.

Of course, he was slow to do it because he's slow to do everything, but he, he, he looked around, made sure everyone else was phrasing their hands. So he raised his hand and therefore he has said that illegal people coming in here will, will be, their healthcare will be paid by the taxpayers who, who, who legally are here and who work to pay the taxes to make that happen. So I don't think that's, I don't think that's justice to you. Well, first of all, that, that term illegal is, is, it means the term is undocumented.

No, wait, wait, wait, wait. We use, we use the word illegal. We use the word illegal to speak of something that's against the law.

All right. So you can call them undocumented if that's less offensive to them, but we don't change the fact that if they came here against the law, that's, that's illegal. And therefore they are illegally here. But if they're seeking refuge, refuge here from coming from a war zone or something, that, that makes them illegal. Well, for example, the Guatemalans, the Guatemalans that were coming up here and the, and the Hondurans that were coming up here in those caravans, I don't think they were fleeing from war. They were fleeing from poverty and from just a bad government. It's true. But if everyone who's in poverty and has, you know, bad government were permitted to come in here without any kind of vetting or anything like that, do you think, do you think there've been any poor people left in any other part of the world? I don't.

And I think the taxpayers here are paying for everything. Well, can I, can I ask you another quick question? Can we disagree on that?

That's fine. I'd like to listen to you as much as I can. Have you ever heard of a guy from the sixties and seventies, Dr. Worl, who has, he has a large following still. It's kind of a cult. I think he wrote a book. I don't know his first name. Have you ever heard of him? I think he wrote a book. Is Jesus God? Where he comes to the conclusion that Jesus is not God.

And therefore, so all his followers are, you know, primarily home church people. Are you talking about Victor Werville? Victor Werville? I know he's, he's, he's the founder of Indiana. I was at his church where his daughter, the reason I asked, the reason I asked is because Victor Werville was the founder of a group called the way. And they definitely, I did have his book. I think he did.

They did not believe that Jesus is God. So yeah, I have heard of him. How do you, how do you spell that bad Victor? How do you spell that last name? I'm not sure I can remember how he spelled his name. W-E-R-W-I-L or something. I'm not really sure.

I believe that's it. Well, thanks a lot, Steve. And I really appreciate your show. I learn a lot when I listen to it and we'll see what happens with the election.

But you have a great biblical mind. I love listening to you, Steve. Well, I appreciate your call very much. Thanks for joining us. Okay, thank you. Yep. All right.

God bless you. You've been listening to The Narrow Path Radio Broadcast. My name is Steve Gregg and we are live Monday through Friday at this same time. We are listener supported. If you'd like to help us stay on the air, you can write to us at The Narrow Path P.O. Box 1730 Temecula, California 92593 or go to our website thenarrowpath.com where everything is free, but you can donate if you want. Have a good weekend. God bless you.