exploringthescriptures's Podcast

I just got back from my trip to West Africa a couple weeks ago.  I spoke briefly about it on my last podcast, so I thought I'd give an update on what happened.  It was my first time in Africa, so it was pretty exciting for me.  I intended it as a vacation to visit a friend I had been corresponding with the past couple years, and get to know her family.  I was given the opportunity to preach- something I had not done before.  I really don't like speaking in front of large crowds.  But when the Lord presents the opportunity, you take it.  So I did, and present the outline of it in my podcast.  The picture is of myself and the pastor.  Can you guess which one is which.  And yes, I stuck out like a sore thumb in Nigeria as the lone white guy.  But I was well received, and overall enjoyed my stay.  The music is from Kewlpak as usual.

My friend from church, Dave, shares the testimony of Lawrence Medici.  Lawrence is serving a life sentence in jail and has a ministry to the lost in jail.  Dave heard about Lawrence through a relative's jail ministry, and has been corresponding with Lawrence.  If you would like to correspond with Lawrence you can write to Lawrence Peter Medici #256003/ Keen Mountain Correctional Center/ PO Box 860/ Oakwood, VA 24631

Once again the music is from Kewlpack.

I just started a seminary class on hermeneutics (the science of interpretation) through Provident Bible Fellowship. This is not for credit, but is a video of an actual class from Masters' Seminary taught by Dr. James Rosscup. Hermeneutics is kind of like algebra. It's not that exciting when you take the class, but you find you'll need it later if you want to go any further in mathematics. Actually, the class is pretty interesting. Dr. Rosscup teaches the need for humble prayer to get wisdom from God in correctly understanding his word. I like the emphasis on the personal relation to Christ in order to get wisdom to interpret the scriptures as intended. This is not some philosophical debate or dry intellectualism, though you are encouraged to use the intelligence God gave you. Our final paper is to find 35 observations on ephesians 5:18. It sounds impossible right now, but I've heard most who go through the class tend to find many more after dilligent study and prayer. We are now learning the history of interpretation, different schools of thought and how they came to be. I did not realize how early biblical allegorization to get around difficult passages started. As early as the second century, some of the church fathers favored allegories as opposed to literal interpretations to deal with anthropromorphisms in the old testament. I had always thought allegorical interpretations were a result of the age of enlightenment and scientific advances. But an early departure from a literal reading as Jesus, the prophets, and the apostles presented it, would suggest this be a result of adhering to the Greek philosophy of the day, or simple lack of faith in the ultimate authority of scripture.

Last summer I was convicted by the good samaritan parable in Luke 10:30-37. I had always known that we were supposed to help others in need, but I was struck at how the Samaritan really went the extra mile for the man on the road. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, took him to an inn and took care of him. The next day he took out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper. 'Look after him,' he said, 'and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.' I am also convinced that Jesus� teaching is aimed at the individual, not the state. Jesus did not come to create a perfect government with a huge welfare system. He was saying that should you see a need come along your path, you should do what is right. I know many benevolent organizations use this and similar teachings to justify themselves and get support. I�m not against giving to charities, as I have done so in the past. I just don�t believe Jesus was saying to give to an organization, even the church, so they can fulfill this duty and you can go about your life as usual. Sometimes we can get so wrapped up in the needs of the poor, feeling guilty for what we have, then feeling like we should be devoting all our time to it. I think the simple reading of the parable is that you find someone who has been victimized and needs help. So should you see this, do as you wish someone would do for you. If you see someone with their car stuck by the side of the road, a co worker, or friend needs a ride somewhere, someone needs cash to get some food, we should do the right thing. I also notice that this was a man who was taken by robbers and victimized. This was not a beggar on the street looking for a free handout. Now I am not against giving to the poor, but I do think that it has to be balanced with 2 Thess 3:10. For even when we were with you, we gave you this rule: "If a man will not work, he shall not eat. There are also many commands against idleness. We are called to be working for the kingdom, not lazy for the kingdom. Last fall, I took a brother in who had no place to stay. He was disowned by his Muslim family because of his faith in Christ. He was more of an acquaintance as I did not know him that well. I was talking with a group of friends in church and he mentioned that he was kicked out of his uncle�s house and was living out of his car. I was convicted that someone in the church should help out, and that was me. So I offered my place while he found something. Well soon after he lost his job, and wasn�t able to pay any rent. My roommate and I helped him with food and gas as well as getting his car fixed when it broke down. 5 months later, he still had not found a job, and let all his bills pile up to the point of car repossession. Last month I informed him that enough is enough and he had one month to leave. I sometimes wish I never offered to help. He didn�t take any responsibility for himself, so it all fell on me. I no I was supposed to help, but maybe our (Rob and I) generosity enabled him to be lazy and avoid the hard lessons of life. Maybe this was something the Lord is teaching him. So I am struggling with finding the balance of helping the needy and rebuking the deadbeats.

Seeing how I've been talking about Calvinism vs. Armenianism in my previous posts, I thought this would be a good resource. Phil Johnson gave an excellent talk on The History of Calvanism. Go to the above link, and it is posted as the sermon for 10/23/2005. He goes through church history and how the church fathers looked at the doctrines of grace or 5 points as they are better known.

I believe the security of the believer follows directly from the fact that salvation is a total work of God by grace through faith. Salvation belongs to our God. We didn't do it, so we cannot screw it up. This is precisely how the apostles encouraged the young church to perservere. God was responsible for their redemption and he would see through the sanctification proccess. Eph 1:13 Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, 14who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God's possession�¢??to the praise of his glory. The Holy Spirit is our gaurantee that we inherit heaven. An inheritance is given, not earned. And you cannot lose it. Also, we are commanded in Eph4:30 not to grieve the Holy Spirit, by whom we were sealed for the day of redemption. If we could lose our salvation and are thrown into hell, does the Holy Spirit come with us? 2Tim 2:13 if we are faithless, he will remain faithful. For he cannot disown himself. John 10:28-29 Jesus gives us eternal life and will not perish. No one can snatch us out of his hand. 1Thess 5:23-24 23May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 24The one who calls you is faithful and he will do it. 2Cor1:21-22 21Now it is God who makes both us and you stand firm in Christ. He anointed us, 22set his seal of ownership on us, and put his Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come. Think of the Corinthian man given to Satan to save his soul on the last day. Why would the church kick him out to be devoured by Satan if God wasn't ensuring his soul's survival. If he has to maintain his salvation, what kind of chance does he have without the support of the church. Remember he has already committed a grave sin by marrying his father's wife, and Paul cast judgement on him. Finally Romans 8:37-39 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons,[] neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

My first goal is to establish man's total depravity, or inability to please or seek God outside of His finished work through Christ. First, we can look at the conversion of Paul in Acts 9. Before his encounter with Christ, he was zealously pursuing the traditions of men and pursecuting Christians. His zeal did not bring him any closer to God, and Paul considered all his works before Christ as dung. Christ draws him to himself on the road to Damascus. Notice there is no decision on Paul's part, and Paul says he was set apart at birth. Romans 5:10 says that while we wer enemies, we were reconciled to God through his son. We were not seeking God, but enemies of him. We did the opposite of what was required. Without Him, we have no desire to please God. Eph 2:5, Col 2:13 while we were dead in transgressions, we were made alive in Christ. A dead man does not raise himself, pursue God, or do anything on his own. Only God can raise him from the dead. Eph 2:8-10 by grace we have been saved, not of our works so no man can boast. If we made any effort to accept or pursue God, we could boast over those that did not choose him. We are also called his workmanship to do his works. He is the potter, a pot does not choose his potter or tell him how to create. John 1:12-13 we, the redeemed, we not born of blood, or flesh or the will of man, but of God. We cannot will ourselves to be Christians, God must choose us. In my last podcast "born of water and spirit" Jesus tells Nicodemus he must be born again and this is an act of God, not man's will. The Holy Spirit blows like the wind and we cannot decipher where it comes or goes. Only God knows according to his good pleasure. 1Peter 1:3-7 God caused us to be born again to a living hope. We did not cause it. John 17:6 Jesus prays for those God, the Father gave to him. He is quite clear that he is not praying for everyone, only those the Father chose for him to save. Finally, Romans 8:28 ties in sanctification with justification by illustrating those that are being sanctified were chosen by God to be justified, and that is why it is happening. 28And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. 29For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. 30And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified

This week I am discussing John 3:1-15 with Mike Nevarr, pastor of Provident Bible Fellowship in Reston, VA. We also touch on Ezek 36:25, John 15:3, Eph 5:26, 1 Peter 1:23. Although the "my church" link on the website is Reston Bible Church, I currently attend Mike's church. I still go to RBC's Saturday night service when I can. PBF does not have a website up yet, and I will post it when it's available. The music is from Kewlpack as usual.

Joshua brought an interesting comment on my sanctification post. He suggests that because we are actively involved in sanctification, we must have been, or be actively involved in justification. A similar arguement as my other friend who said that because we were saved by faith and no works of our own, sanctification is a proccess of simply allowing God to continue his work. They come from two different sides, but the same logic. Last post I dealt with our part in sanctification, so next post I will search the scriptures to look at justification. If we play a part in being reconciled to God through Jesus Christ, then do we play a part in maintaining our salvation. Now I did poing out that we are actively involved in our sanctification, I would not go as so far as to say that we are responsible to keep our salvation intact. I believe if it took anything on your part to be saved, then it is reasonable to assume there is something you could do to lose it. A chain is only as good as it's weakest link. I believe the apostles argued there was nothing that we could do to lose salvation, and anyone who left the church, was never among them to begin with. In fact this was a teaching the apostles used to bolster the faith of the believers and allowed them to stay strong under persecution. This is the old "once saved, always saved debate". I believe it's the logical extension of armenianism vs. calvinism. A good book on this topic is "Debating Calvinism" with Dr. James White and Dave Hunt.

A friend of mine emailed me a response to the recent podcast,"flying solo". In short, he believes that the we don't actively fight against our evil desires, but rest in Christ. The fight according to him, is to allow God to do the work. Here's my response to the "let go and let God" fallacy. I believe that sanctification is 100% god and 100% us. We are actively involved, not on the sidelines. Holiness does not come through osmosis. Let's look at some verses to see how this plays out. 1 Cor6:18 "flee immorality". This is active. He is talking to members of the body saying they should not be joined with a prostitute. Your body is not your own and it was not intended for fornication. His admonition is to not engage in this act, not that they do not trust Christ's work on the cross enough. The problem the Corinthian church had was not that they were trusting in themselves too much, but they were not even trying to live a holy life and bragging about their evil acts. Actually, I think this comes from the Greek idea that body and spirit are seperate and opposite. the physical world is fallen and evil, the spirit is holy and perfect. So one could do all the evil acts with his body and remain holy in the spirit as a christian. Paul destroys this idea and says not even to associate with someone who does this in the hopes that those that are truly born again will repent and return, and those that are not will fall away and not contaminate the church. Paul's admonition is strictly for those in the church. Those unsaved pagans naturally pursue these things and need to hear the gospel. 1 Cor 10:12-14 12So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don't fall! 13No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it. Here is a warning for proud christians who think they are above falling. So we should not actively engage in things that could cause us to stumble. Our holines is purely God's grace, not our own knowledge or spirituality. God allows a temporary time of testing, we are to resist the devil and God provides a way out and restores us. 1 Timothy 6:10-15 10For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs. 11But you, man of God, flee from all this, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness. 12Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses. 13In the sight of God, who gives life to everything, and of Christ Jesus, who while testifying before Pontius Pilate made the good confession, I charge you 14to keep this command without spot or blame until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, 15which God will bring about in his own time Paul here warns Timothy of the trappings of this world. People ministering the gospel fell into a love of money and left or changed their focus and teaching. Paul says to actively flee this temptation and stay focused on the eternal glory of Christ in his life and in his teaching to the body. 2 Tim 2:19 "The Lord knows those who are his,"[a] and, "Everyone who confesses the name of the Lord must turn away from wickedness." 20In a large house there are articles not only of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay; some are for noble purposes and some for ignoble. 21If a man cleanses himself from the latter, he will be an instrument for noble purposes, made holy, useful to the Master and prepared to do any good work. 22Flee the evil desires of youth, and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, along with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart. Here Paul is instructing Peter to teach sound doctrine and not into pointless arguments. If you confess the Lord, you must turn from wickedness. You actively remove the ignoble articles in your life so you can be an instrument of God. You are to actively pursue the things of God, and run from your evil desires. James 4:7-10 7Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. 10Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up. James is speaking to quarreling in the church. These come out of selfish desires, wrong motives, and a love for the things of this world. James says to actively fight against these sinful desires and humble yourself before God. 2 Cor8:9 8I urge you, therefore, to reaffirm your love for him. 9The reason I wrote you was to see if you would stand the test and be obedient in everything. I like this one because the testing is to the obedience of forgiving a brother as Christ has forgiven us. We are not allowed to hold grudges in the kingdom. So despite someone's sin, we are still forbidden to discipline out of anger and resentment. It can never get personal, always perfect judgement and justice is required. Vengeance is a temptation we must actively fight. And Paul acknowledges this as Satan's scheme to break up the body. 1 Peter 5:8 6Humble yourselves, therefore, under God's mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. 7Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you. 8Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. 9Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings. 10And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast. This almost brings our two points of view together. Our trust is entirely in God, not in our abilities. So we are completely humble in a trial, and completely confident that God will deliver us. If we are not alert and self-controlled, we are easy prey for Satan. I like the predator/ prey analogy. We resist, suffer for a time, then God restores us. We are not winning God's favor. We already have God's favor by grace through faith. The Lord disciplines those he loves. This is a sovereignly ordained trial, just as Jesus in the desert. Job is tested by Satan to curse God. God invites Satan to test his servant and puts parameters, or hedges of protection around Job. After each trial is passed, God allowes less protection. Finally when the trial is over, Job is given manifold more than he had at the start. Job is able to do this because he knows "his redeemer lives" and he knows the character of God despite his present circumstances. The great sin committed by Job's friends is they spoke what was untrue of God and questioned his character. Job was to pray for them. Joseph actively flees Potipher's wife, and does not want to sin against His God by committing adultery. It's interesting that he says against his God and not against Potipher. Finally, there is Romans 5:1-5 (there is much more, but this is what i was able to come up with for now). This shows the active proccess of sanctification. We rejoice in our sufferings because they produce character which produces hope in our God. This is a proccess we are actively involved in. I don't think the suffering is do to not letting God do the work, or accepting the atonement on the cross. Paul accepted it, embraced it, preached it and still had more suffering than we could imagine.

Since Rob has relocated to Florida for work, I will be doing the show solo. I will try and have guests on in the future as well. In today's show I am trying to recreate a discussion with Rob and myself that came up after our last show on Christian freedom. Rob asked which sin was worse, self righteousness or gross immorality. It seemed Rob was willing to sacrifice the pursuit of moral purity for fear of self righteous attitudes. I countered that it is a false dichotomy, and that the scriptures command purity under the backdrop of our complete moral depravity outside of the blood of Christ. As a side note, Kewlpack said in an email that he likes the show, and offered to do special music for us in the future.

Although this site was originally intended for Christian scriptural discussion, I thought I would weigh in on the recent Islamic outrage over the cartoon depiction of their prophet, Mohamed. I believe the two issues are 1. The cartoons portray Mohamed and Islam in a negative light. 2. You are not to have any picture of the prophet, Mohamed. I can understand being angry when poked fun at, but I cannot understand the second one. I believe not making a graven image commandment is restricted only to God. Also, blaspheming, a crime punishable by death is also restricted to God as well. By taking offenses against Mohamed, and applying the punishment reserved for blaspheming God, they are in effect deifying Mohamed and committing idolatry. I do not have a Quran to quote, but I believe Muslims acknowledge the Torah, and the 10 commandments to be divine.

Do to Rob's job, he has relocated to Florida. In a few months he will be in Iraq supporting the computer infrastructure of the war. So needless to say, the format of the program has changed. I will be trying to bring guests in as well as teaching or examing of the scriptures on my own. I will also try and text blog more often. Actually, I just posted the first one today.

If you wish to contact me with questions or ideas for shows, email me at exploringthescriptures@gmail.com.

I have a friend of 8 years who is not a christian, and has no desire to know who God is. I have shared my faith with him on different occassions and I believe I gave a clear gospel message. He called the other night after a night of drinking. Not that that is so important, but he tends to get philosophical and deep when he is drunk. Anyways the subject came to religion and Christianity as it usually does. He started with his usual rant of attacking the church for being hypocritical for accumulating wealth and spending it on itself. I of course acknowledged this tendency as man's sinful nature, and got back to his sinful nature and his need of a savior. We started talking about heaven and hell, who's in and who's out. He didn't think it fair that because of my beliefs I could say I'm saved and his unbelief sent him to hell. I explained that it is his sin that sends him to hell and Christ's blood that saves me. What excuses would he have before God on judgement day. I am thankful that Christ will speak for me and cover me in His righteousness. He finally said "That makes sense...I don't believe it, but that makes sense..." Then he said something peculiar "I don't want a God like that, I want one that's more forgiving." He was thinking God would give him a break because he's trying to make himself a better person. I believe he wanted a flippant god, not a loving one. A god who would be flippant about sin and letting his holiness be violated at no cost. Just sweep it under the rug and forget it. God is not flippant, but loving. He loves and forgives so strongly that he gave his only begotten Son to die in our place. Through this blood sacrifice we can be holy in His sight. What a mighty God we have in Christ Jesus. Too many times I have been flippant about my sin, and not realize the extent of the price he paid so that I might live.

This progam was actually our first recording, but didn't make it as a podcast. I decided there was enough interesting stuff to salvage it, and post it on the show. We start out with the topic of baptism and move into the cults who believe baptism is neccessary for salvation. The conversation became a debate on how to define a cult. I brought up ICOC, or Boston movement and Seventh Day Adventists. Rob did not think they were cults because they acknowledge Jesus Christ as divine, and the trinity as it is alluded to in scripture. I acknowledged that the ICOC has recanted some of their doctrines (like being the ONLY true church), but I am not sure of their current position on baptism. If you have any information on the ICOC or Adventists, please post a comment or send an email. Once again, the music is from Kewlpack

Today Rob and I are talking about how are christian life impacts the entertainment we choose such as movies and music. This is a bit longer than the normal 20-30 minute podcast due to the unstructured nature of the discussion. We recommend you download the file to your hard drive instead of streaming so you can stop and start at your leisure. The music is from Kewlpack

This week's discussion is on the parable of the shrewd manager in Luke 16:1-6. We also used 2nd Cor 5:1-4 and Luke 21:19 in the discussion. Our musical guests were Joshua-percussion, Justin -electic guitar, and Phillip- acoustic guitar. After the show, Rob did in fact concede that his interpretation concerning "eternal dwellings" holds no water biblically. It still remains his least favorite parable.