10 Questions with Mike Winger (Episode 22)

Sometimes it is good to tackle the low hanging fruit. This is not just so we can feel good about ourselves, but because a lot of people actually believe and fall for the low hanging fruit stuff. That is, I've seen apologists online and I am a Christian who believes the Bible is true, right? And I've seen apologists, Christian apologists who want to defend the truth of scripture, the truth of Christianity. And they sometimes avoid guys like this right here.

because they view it as low-hanging fruit, right? But I'm going to tackle it as the first question in today's Q&A. This is a Q&A where we help you learn how to think biblically about everything. And right now we're going to think biblically about whether the Bible exists or not. This is Abraham Piper.

He is the son of John Piper. A lot of people have been talking about that, which is to me, I'd rather treat him as just a different person. I think it's just a good policy that you don't treat pastor's kids as their pastor's kids. You treat them as they're just their own individual human beings. And I'm not interested in getting involved in their family dynamics at all. But Abraham Piper has grown like millions of followers online.

as he criticizes Christianity, criticizes the stuff that he was raised with, of course, but he criticizes the stuff that we see in scripture, the stuff that I believe. And it's good to sometimes tackle the low-hanging fruit. of some of those criticisms so people will realize and this is kind of the main takeaway from question number one today um which is does the bible exist the main takeaway is notice how strong the posturing can be when at the base the logic

of the argument against god or against christianity or in this case against the bible the logic of the argument is entirely circular and completely without force there's no force or reason to trust it or think that it's accurate or real none whatsoever but the posturing is strong and

That's the nature of low-hanging fruit. Strong posturing, bad reasoning. So we're going to listen to it and think about it. This is the one-minute video about the Bible does not exist. See if you can actually identify the argument he presents. because it'll make it sound like there's a really good argument but is there really one notice the posturing versus the logic here we go

The Bible doesn't exist, and I can prove it. People are always so curious about whether others believe in God, but no one ever asks, do you think the Bible is real? It's not. It doesn't exist. Two things to start with, okay? I have to, I can't, I can't control myself. I got to pause it and tell you one straight statement. The Bible doesn't exist. Claim after that, I can prove it. So we expect proof.

here that the Bible does not exist, whatever he means by that. He'll explain what he means in a second. And he also seems to indicate through what he just said, the last sentence, that this is separate from the question of God's existence, right? People usually ask, does God exist? But I'm asking, does the Bible even exist? Ah, okay.

two different questions right right right let's let's get into it all the parts that make it up sure the unified whole no i've got five books here stack them up and now i've got one big book right no that's not how it works

Okay, so he doesn't disagree that you have like a group of books and texts that are written down that you call the Bible. He disagrees that it is, quote, a unified whole. All right, so we understand what he's saying doesn't exist. The Bible, the texts exist. They were written, you know, all...

Exodus and Genesis and First Chronicles and all this. They were all written, but compiled as a whole, by his analogy, he describes five random books. It's an arbitrary compiling. They don't have a unified message. They don't actually belong together. Okay, so that's what he's arguing against. That Bible, the idea of a unified whole, that does not exist. Let's listen in. Sentences like, the Bible teaches. Or, what do you think the Bible says about whatever? Nonsensical.

Do I accept that there's a collection of writings that a vast swath of the world's population takes seriously as the foundation of their religion? Sure. But when the more conservatively devout of these folks start talking about the Bible... Okay, slow down. He identifies here the more conservative types of these religious folks. Even the pretty liberal progressives. Not...

All of them, but even the more liberal side of Christianity who are not fundamentalists, and that's what Abraham Piper targets is what he calls fundamentalists. They believe the Bible is a unified whole. Even people who believe the Bible has errors in it. often believe still that is a unified whole that it in fact god did inspire and bring together this group of texts and so um this is to mischaracterize the people that he seems to be speaking for the

I could argue with someone like Brandon Robertson, who is like one of the most extreme out there leftist theology wise, left theology. Right. So pro LGBT. find your inner self as the guide for how you interpret and disagree with the Bible and all that. But he would even still suggest that the Bible is like a unified whole that God did inspire. Like this is not just a fundamentalist thing. Just to clarify.

He's creating a straw man there. Whatever it is they're talking about, it's not real. If they're going to insist that the Bible is God's word and that God is imaginary, it only follows that its word is imaginary too. The Bible doesn't exist. Did you catch the logic? What was the logic? Most of it was posturing right? Where was the part where he proved that the Bible doesn't exist?

Let me play it for you again. Here's the core logic, this tiny little clip right at the end. This is why the Bible doesn't exist according to him. If they're going to insist that the Bible is God's word and that God is imaginary. It only follows that its word is imaginary too. So the logic is as follows. The Bible doesn't exist. Why? Because God doesn't exist.

busted. You got me. I agree. I agree with you there. If God doesn't exist, the Bible as a unified whole does not exist. Not in any sense in which a Christian is intending. That's absolutely true. But what you've done is you've assumed atheism is true. in order to prove that the Bible doesn't exist. So your point relies on the truth of atheism, not even agnosticism, not even I'm not convinced God exists. No, no. A confident assertion that atheism is true is the grounding for your logic.

Bible doesn't exist but didn't he imply that this whole Bible doesn't exist thing is separate from the question of God let's look at that clip whether others believe in God but no one ever asks do you think the Bible is real it's not it doesn't exist

People ask whether others believe in God, but nobody asks whether the Bible is real. So this seems to be separate from the question of God's existence. Yeah, this is low-hanging fruit, but this is exactly what I find is amongst sort of the larger... groups of atheists that I see online and skeptics online is the low-hanging fruit does sway minds and so it's worth talking about and worth addressing and yeah I've got

videos dealing with, say, Bart Ehrman's claims about the Bible. There's not low-hanging fruit. And a video series on evidence for the Bible, arguing for things like the authorship and the dating of Daniel. That's definitely not low-hanging fruit, the authorship and dating of the book of Daniel. That's definitely scholarly stuff that we're dealing with there. Not that I'm claiming I'm a credentialed scholar. I'm just a guy that tries my best, you know, and I...

I think that it's good to handle both. It's good for even scholars to handle both. Any scholars listening in, hey, please don't just handle what scholars argue about in their circles and they laugh about privately when the world is being led astray. is ignorant about what you're arguing about in your circles, but they are being led astray by the things you laugh about privately. I think we need to address both things. That's why low-hanging fruit is sometimes worth grabbing.

And it's easy too, which makes it nice. It's a short first question for once. Let's go to question number two. So we're taking your questions from the live chat and... I am Mike Winger, and my goal here is to help you learn how to think biblically about everything. And let me tell you, before I go to question number two, I want to ask you...

to consider watching out on my YouTube channel for something that's coming up. This crazy stuff going on in our country right now. I'm not a political commentator. I don't have great wisdom when it comes to politics, so I don't talk about it that much. Not because I'm embarrassed or think Christians should be silent on such issues.

not because I don't have firm stances on certain political things that I think are biblically informed, and I'm willing to talk about that as well. But with the attempted assassination of Donald Trump, the response to the media, all this crazy stuff that's going on, it is wild times we live in.

One of the wild things that's happened that's kind of more in my wheelhouse is that there's a guy out there, and this is not really question two we're on yet, so maybe I'll back up. There's a guy out there who says that he...

predicted Donald Trump's attempted assassination in great detail, in specific detail. I'm actually going to be giving you guys a specific, like... statement about that about um let me see i'm gonna i'm sorry i'm trying to read while i'm talking here there's a video i'm going to be putting out

in within a week about this guy Brandon Biggs who supposedly prophesied Trump getting shot in his ear seeing blood go down his face seeing him fall to his knees and all these very specific details I believe that this is being misleading and deceptive And I've looked into Brandon Biggs and I think he's actually and I'm not I'm not saying this for clickbait or YouTube. I'm saying this for the sake. This is why I'm motivated to make this video that I'm going to be doing.

I believe he's actually dangerous for his followers, like actual true danger in their lives and harm that will befall them if they follow him and think that he's speaking for God. I asked, I tried to reach out to Brandon privately, received no response to my emails. I then just went on his...

YouTube channel and publicly posted because here's the thing with YouTube if you post a comment on someone's channel publicly Then on and you have a lot of followers online. They get a notification YouTube always does this email comments on my videos if they have like over

10,000 subs or something like that, then YouTube's like, oh, we're going to notify you. So it's like I felt pretty confident of all the noise of the emails he's getting because he's blowing up. He's getting like 30,000 subs a day right now. It's like crazy. I thought this would break through the noise and get his attention. Well, in response to this, within like half an hour, he deleted, not hid, he deleted my comment. He deleted it.

Like he removed it from his video. My comment saying, hey, I'd like to talk to you before I make a video about you. I have serious questions. I want you to be able to defend your own views here. I don't want to misrepresent you. I take that to mean... that I should go forward with the video without talking to him. So that's coming out real soon. If you guys have heard about this guy, I'm not desiring to just jump on a bandwagon.

Or just it's not just about getting this is about as it was say with the Benny and video the real-world harm that comes to real sincere Christians when they follow people who are misrepresenting God publicly. And because he's in a public forum, and there's no church authorities that are around to talk to him or deal with him or something like that. There's nobody overseeing. There's just us out here on the internet.

looking and dealing with and seeing people it's entirely appropriate for us to deal with someone who presents himself as a prophet from god giving statements to the world about i don't know um 350 million people dying really soon due to poison and in poison water, as well as like the next COVID plague that's going to be worse than COVID or the government engineering DNA. I kid you not. I have clips of all this. The government's going to engineer using DNA and AI.

They're going to create a virus to kill fat people. Right? The Mississippi River, if you live there, you need to sell your house and move because a giant earthquake is going to split the whole river in half down bigger than Mississippi from New Orleans up to Chicago.

Split the country in half. That's just part of it. There's so much, so much more. And people believe him because of this Trump thing. Anyways, I'm getting off ahead of myself. I'll deal with it in a video that will come out soon. Let's go to your guys' questions here in the live chat.

Uh, bullet grin Vancho says in Luke four, nine through 12, Satan uses the term son of God. Yet Jesus responds with Deuteronomy 6.16. Is this a possible claim that Christ is God, similar to how he takes God's name for himself? Let's look at the passages that you brought up and let's talk about it. Luke chapter 4. verses 9 through 12 it says and he took him up to it took him to Jerusalem

and set him on the pinnacle of the temple and said to him, this is Satan tempting Jesus. Okay, this is where Jesus goes out in the wilderness in the beginning of his ministry, 40 days and 40 nights. And towards the end of this, when he's feeling very weak, Satan's trying to tempt him.

And he says, if you are the son of God, throw yourself down from here for it is written. He will command his angels concerning you to guard you. And on their hand, they will bear you up lest you strike your foot against a stone. And Jesus answered him. It is said. You shall not put the Lord your God to the test. So the question is, is it possible Jesus is referring to himself here? So he's saying, Satan, you're putting me to the test.

and I am God. I'm Yahweh, and you're putting me to the test. Logically, that is consistent. I'll say that. I don't agree with that interpretation, but I would say the logic of it could work. You could say it's a potential understanding of the term. that satan is is tempting the lord god and and it's almost like a warning hey you're gonna you're gonna get it if you keep doing this stuff you're gonna get it so

Let's look at the actual passage in Deuteronomy, and then we'll talk a little bit more about this. Deuteronomy 6.16. So it says here, you shall not put the Lord your God to the test. As you tested him at Massai, you shall diligently keep the commandments of the Lord your God and his testimonies and his statutes, which he has commanded you. The way in which they put God to the test.

And you can read more about this if you look at more of the details Maybe we'll read some of it today. Let me think if I want to get into this Exodus 17, two through seven. What was the original way they tested God here in Deuteronomy that Jesus is referring to? Therefore, the people quarreled with Moses and said, give us water to drink. And Moses said to them, why do you quarrel with me? Why do you test the Lord?

So they quarreled with him. They tested the Lord and this test the Lord I take to mean you are going to, um, you're pushing the wrong buttons with God, if you put it that way. But the people thirsted there for water and the people grumbled against Moses and said, why did you bring us up out of Egypt to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst? The lack of faith here is evident, and that's the main issue here with the Exodus is the lack of faith.

So Moses cried to the Lord, what shall I do with this people? They are almost ready to stone me. And the Lord said to Moses, pass on before the people, taking with you some of the elders of Israel and taking your hand, the staff with which you struck the Nile and go and behold, behold.

I will stand before you, and there on the rock at Horeb, and you shall strike the rock, and the water shall come out of it, and the people will drink. Moses did so in the sight of the elders, and he called the name of the place Massah. That's where we get the Deuteronomy reference.

to Massah and Meribah because of the quarreling of the people of Israel and because they tested the Lord by saying, is the Lord among us or not? And the footnotes, which you guys can't see, tell us here that Massah means testing and Meribah means quarreling.

So they were provided for but the manner in which they asked for help was wrong and in doing in doing a right thing Here's here's why I think I read all this stuff in doing the right thing the wrong way It reveals a way that you could test God right thing Help us. We're thirsty. We're starving, but we know that God has the power to provide for us. Moses, please pray for us. Please do something. But we believe, we trust.

That would be the right way to do it. The wrong way to do it is, you brought us out here to kill us, didn't you? I want you to imagine what it's like to be the leader of people like that. You brought it here to kill us. That is testing the Lord because of their attitude about it. Jesus, when he's being tempted, by Satan here in Luke, he's being asked to do something very similar that does connect to this. He's being told,

To jump off of a high location that would be a suicide move. It would kill him. Why? Because God will command his angels concerning you to guard you. He's encouraged to do a right thing. Trusting God's protection. So that he won't strike his foot against a stone. But he's being encouraged. I'll put it on your screen. To do it for a wrong reason. For pride and to prove God. And in a way that is meant to be like...

an arrogant sort of challenge about God, a testing of God. So I don't think it's Jesus here that's saying, don't tempt me, I'm God.

I think here, and it would make more sense if that ended the temptation, but I think here it's rather what most Christians have held it to be throughout time. Jesus is living as not only God, but as a man, right? As God in human form. And he's being asked, to sin and he rejects that sin and this connects with um with the whole idea that jesus was tempted in all ways as we are yet without sin and so you could say that satan's

breaking the command because he's tempting god and jesus is god and he's trying to test god but there's an additional aspect to this which is i think more directly Jesus is being asked to do the very thing that the Israelites did. Now, biblically speaking, and we'll get into this when we get into the book of Hebrews in the future. I'm excited about it. It will come. I'm sorry for how long you guys have to wait for it. But.

Jesus is pictured as the greater high priest, the greater Moses, the greater David. Whatever we see in the Old Testament, the greater judge, whatever we see of these leaders, deliverers, people God uses, Jesus is the better one. He's the better Adam. Jesus is also the better Israel.

And in this passage in the, in the temptations of Jesus, he goes out into the wilderness, kind of like Jesus going out or the Israel going out into the wilderness for 40 years, or even during that time before they enter the promised land. And the parallels are amazing.

So this is about the unity of the Bible, the inspiration of scripture. So cool. But here's just like a super brief sketch before I go to question number three. Israel goes out and here's some story beats of things that happen in the story, right? They go out into the wilderness.

There they are, and there they're tested. They're tested with hardship. They're tested with difficulty. They're tested with things that put pressure on them, and then they sin. They fail. Because of their failures in this wilderness, as they're on their way over to the promised land, they...

don't enter the promised land. That is, Moses gives them the law. The law gives them the rules. They don't respond with obedience or faith. They end up failing and they don't enter the promised land. Now flash forward to Jesus. Jesus comes and he's like the better Israel. He gets brought out into the wilderness to be tempted as Israel was brought out of Egypt to be tempted. And there he faces the temptation and he overcomes.

And then he provides us entrance. And when he leaves, of course, he's he's goes into Israel. He's in the promised land. But he provides us entrance into the promised land. That is what we couldn't do through the law to gain. peace and rest and the promised land of heaven and eternity and eternal life in Christ. We can do through Jesus because Jesus, unlike Israel, actually succeeds in resisting temptation and becoming the perfect.

offering for our sin. There's more there, but that's just some cool stuff. If you guys are new to this YouTube channel, my name is Mike Winger, and my goal is to help you learn to think biblically about everything. I like to try to process everything that's going on through the biblical lens.

And in my experience, I've got to be honest with you guys, most Christians think that they think biblically, but when asked to actually work through the process of thinking biblically about things, it's more often than not there's troubles that rise in that. in that spot. And I found one of the best ways to train people to think biblically is not to just give them lectures on it, but to actually tackle questions like this and just do it live, so to speak.

Because as you are hearing the question, I know you guys do this, you hear the question that's asked, you start answering it yourself. And then you go with me through the thought process and you agree and sometimes you disagree and that's okay.

But you're learning the process that you then carry with you into the rest of your life. You think biblically about things. You don't just go, well, here's what I think. Instead, you go, no, let me take it through a process. What does scripture actually say about this stuff?

All right, the question number three, this question comes in from somebody. Okay, here we go. Jay Van Brugel, who has this question. Why do we only talk... about what would what will get you into heaven faith or works or both the bible seems to teach only faith can get you in but lack of works can keep you out any thoughts um Jay, I think that you're still talking about the thing you're complaining about, to be honest here. When you're discussing...

Faith gets you in, but works can keep you out. You're still talking about how faith and works relate to getting into heaven, right? You're still having the same conversation as others here. You're not really having a different kind of discussion. You're just having...

a particular view so when you say why do we only talk about what will get you into heaven when you say works can keep you out of course you're still talking about how to get in you get what i mean it's just kind of posturing to to present it that way i'm just being straight with you jay just being straight with you I think that I would abandon that kind of line of reasoning and instead work on just explaining your theology with scripture. You're not the only one who's held that view.

um that faith can get you in but works can keep you out that works are necessary for final justification some will say i disagree with that view i don't think works are necessary for final justification i think works are um a necessary result of true justification. So they're fruit, not root. I say this a lot and I think it's a great catchy way to put it. Works are fruit of your salvation, not the root.

of your salvation they they're the result of you being saved they're not the cause of you being saved and um that's the short answer there Now, someone would say, yeah, but so you mean I could get saved and I could just go living the exact same life and do whatever I want and never have my life transformed by Christ. I continue doing all the same sins and I'm still going to get to heaven. And I'll go, well, no, you were probably never saved.

Well, Mike, how can you say that? Well, I say probably because I don't really know what's going on inside someone's soul, but I know this, that if someone plants an orange tree and it sits there for 10 years and it never produces an orange, I have a good reason to say, That's probably not an orange tree. That's probably something else. That's probably just a tree. It's not producing any fruit. Maybe it's not really a fruit tree. And I think that that's how work works.

present themselves as fruit not root and i can look at my own life and i can say the same thing i can say do i have fruit in my life that seems to indicate that we've actually got um genuine salvation going on. Hey, we have all 10 questions in for today. I just pinned a little message there for the live stream. I've got all 10 questions in for today, including a bonus one. So thank you guys for submitting those questions. I know most of you just come to listen.

And I'm sorry for those of you who struggle to get your questions in and you never seem to get them in. That's not deliberate. Check BibleThinker.org. You can use the clip search feature. Keep your brain on when I say that because clip search is different than this video search, but you can search for a term or a word or a phrase.

and find exactly the clip you're looking for where maybe I've answered your question before maybe five or six times, and that might be why you haven't been selected, even though you've put it in numerous times. Okay, let's go to question number four.

Robert Willis says, James 1.5 speaks about your desire giving birth to sin. But if you have an evil desire, isn't that already sin? That's a great question, Robert. And this is something I think people are kind of...

dividing over on the, at this point in time, um, on the topic of homosexuality. Um, not that I fully understand all their debates cause I haven't listened to everything they've talked about, but I think that I have an answer for you and your question so robert willis says and read it again james 1 15 speaks about your desire giving birth to sin let's read that let me back up a little bit to verse 13 let no one say when he's tempted

I'm being tempted by God. Now we heard, don't tempt the Lord, don't test the Lord. Tempting and testing are kind of two different things. They overlap for sure. You can sometimes use the same word to talk about the same things. But tempting has to do with trying to get you to sin. That's tempting. I'm trying to get you to sin. Whereas testing might be trying to find out what's inside of you.

Abraham was tested by the Lord, but he wasn't tempted. God wasn't trying to get him to sin. So let no one say when he's tempted, I'm being tempted by God. I actually knew a lady one time who said this. I share this story because I think that stories like this kind of connect with people in a real way. Let me share this before I go back to the question. This lady had... This is a true story. It makes me sad when I think about it. She...

Had a day where she was very frustrated and she was a married woman and There was a friend that she had it was just platonic friendship that she suddenly propositioned And then he turned her down. He was like, no, this is wrong. That's not what this is about kind of thing. And did the right thing. And this is a woman who was a Christian, at least in name. You know, God knows people's hearts. And she propositioned this man.

And after he turned her down, she got really, really angry at him and she threatened to beat him up. I know that sounds weird, but that's what she did. Afterwards, she was really distraught. This was a very difficult, awkward, embarrassing time for her.

And she was trying to process what happened. And what she shared with me was that the way she came to find peace in her heart about this moment was, I always thought, how could anybody cheat on their spouse how could anybody do those things and be like sexually promiscuous and stuff like that and i kind of judged people like that but i think god gave me that temptation at that one moment

so that I would have more compassion on other people. So I could be tempted like them and I could have compassion on them. You could even quote Hebrews here and say, Jesus has compassion because he was tempted in all ways like us. This verse jumped to my mind, right? Learning to think biblically about everything. Let no one say when he's tempted, I'm being tempted by God for God cannot be tempted with evil. And he himself tempts no one. He doesn't do that.

What that means is that what she was looking for was catharsis because something inside of her heart was truly Desiring something wicked that she was embarrassed about so she projected it out of herself Oh, it didn't come from me. It came from some outside source. It wasn't my moral failing It was God making me a better Christian. Our capacity

to justify and twist and rewrite the history of our own lives to make ourselves into our protagonists instead of being antagonists is very, very good. Like I'm very good at it. You're good at it. We're all born pretty, pretty skilled at this. Rewriting the story.

so that we're at the center of it and we're the protagonist. The Bible doesn't do this at all. It takes us very seriously. And so it says, yeah, that doesn't happen. But then verse 14, but each person is tempted. And now we'll talk about the difference between temptation versus sin. based on scripture each person is tempted when he's lured and enticed by his own desire then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin and sin when it's fully grown brings forth death

Let's talk about these two phrases here. When you're tempted, you're allured and enticed by your own desire. Is that sin? Are you already in sin? If I see something that's alluring to me as a man, and I am tempted, the source of the temptation is there's something in me that really wants this thing. Maybe it's lust. Maybe it's food.

Maybe it's road rage. Maybe it's spousal abuse. Maybe it's cussing out your children, your defenseless children when you're mad and using them as like your sort of emotional punching bag. The reason that you're tempted to do this is not because of some external thing. It's not a demon, right? It's not just some external thing. It's not, you made me do this to your kids or to whoever else. I couldn't help it.

Remember when Kenneth Copeland talked about buying that jet and he said, he made it so cheap I couldn't help but buy it. Oh, poor powerless Kenneth Copeland. He can't help but spend millions of donor dollars to buy himself a private jet. When you're tempted, you're tempted by your own desires. External factors are there. If a man is tempted by a woman's body or a woman is tempted by a man's friendship, sometimes that's the case.

You can be tempted by someone's friendship, you know, the emotional romanticism kicks in. When you're tempted by these things, that temptation isn't just that they're so irresistible. It's that you are...

you have something in you that desires that. There's something wrong with me, okay? It won't really be fixed fully until I get a new body in Christ and this flesh is gone and I am resurrected or I am transformed, whichever comes first, by Christ. And I no longer have temptations. Beautiful, wonderful story.

But is that sin? Have I sinned yet? Let's take the topic that everybody's debating today, homosexual temptation. Let's say I'm same-sex attracted. Now, I'm not, but if I was, I would actually be open about it because I feel like it would open doors of ministry to lots of people who need it. If I was, I would just totally be honest and open about it with you guys. But let's suppose I was same-sex attracted. And I see another man. And I desire that person. Right? Romantically.

I'm trying to be careful with my words here. I don't know how all the ages are everybody listening in. So I desire that man romantically. And the debate going on now is, have I already sinned because I simply have the desire? And this is where there's like this argument I've been watching on the internet amongst different Christians.

who with a good conscience are trying to navigate this stuff and they want to rescue people from homosexuality as well as also help people who are tempted with these things. And that battle between these two desires is like creating this big turmoil.

So there are those who say, hey, the person's tempted with homosexuality. They were already in sin. As soon as they're tempted, they've already sinned. Then there are those who say, no, you've been tempted. You haven't sinned yet. You haven't sinned until you've acted on it.

And I would say I have a position that disagrees with the first group, but it doesn't fully agree with the second group either. And it's based upon just, I've done verse by verse careful studies of things like James 1, and this is the conclusion I've come to. So let me walk you guys through it. Each person's tempted when he's lured and enticed by his own desire. Then it says, when desire, when it has conceived, gives birth to sin. Now, if the phrase said, when desire is conceived,

it is sin, then you would say the temptation itself is automatically sin. The moment you're tempted is the moment you've sinned. It doesn't say that. Instead, it says, then that's a timing indicator, right? First, you're tempted and lured. You have not yet sinned. When you are enticed by your own desire, when you are confronted with a desire to sin, you have not yet sinned. Then in verse 15, after that desire, when what happens? When desire conceives.

It's not when desire is conceived, that would mean to simply want something is sin, but it's when desire has conceived. When I'm confronted with temptation, I then, something happens. I somehow, it leads to something else. Something new happens. Something is conceived. I'll tell you what I think it is in just a second. That thing is now sin. Now I have sinned. So what is desire?

conceiving in the heart of a person. I think it's the acceptance or rejection of the temptation. When I'm tempted, let's say you're, we'll take a typical guy thing. You're flipping channels. You're scrolling through social media. You're doing something like that. And you're confronted with, nobody flips channels anymore. What am I talking about? You're scrolling through social media.

and you come across an image that's like a a video of a girl working out and it's probably a funny video or something else like that but you know the thing that got your attention and there's a desire that's there that you have You have not yet sinned, but then you choose to linger for a moment. Now you've sinned. See, you were confronted with a desire beyond your control simply coming from within you.

It's not outside of you, it's within you, but it's not something you controlled. You didn't choose at that moment to have that. It just happened. But you chose to linger. You didn't do the godly thing right away. And in doing that, you accepted the desire and harbored it in your heart. Now you haven't done much, but you have a loud desire to linger in your heart. You've accepted it as your own. That to me is when it becomes sin. And this means that temptation becomes sin.

A, when you act out on it, so like if someone goes and commits adultery, they've acted. But also, when you yield to it in your heart, this is really important, this is the thing I think people miss. When you yield to temptation in your heart, that is when you have harbored it in your heart, you've made a place for it, you've accepted it as something that's going to belong where you are in your heart, in your mind. So this could take the place of merely...

Mental fantasies. This is why Jesus can say, not when you commit adultery, you commit adultery, that's true. But when you look upon a woman to lust, that has some intention that's there, some harboring in the heart that's there, you've committed... committed adultery in your heart, it's not the same as you've committed adultery, but it is a sin. You've committed adultery in your heart. You've committed heart adultery. It's like a separate category. And that is an absolute issue.

So, applying this to someone tempted with, say, same-sex attraction, which is a big topic we're dealing with nowadays and we need to deal with because it's only going to increasingly affect and plague individuals and hurt them and ruin their lives. When you're tempted... you have not yet sinned but at that at that split at that millisecond of temptation is when the decision must be made

Lord, I see this. I feel this temptation. I reject it. I don't yield to it. I don't harbor it in my heart. I redirect my mind. I redirect my fantasies. I redirect my actions, my eyes. Whatever it is I need to do, I'm redirecting. That's how you can be tempted and not sin. And to strike this home even more, when you see Jesus and he was, quote, tempted in all ways as us, yet without sin, this proves that temptation itself is not sin. It's only when you yield to it.

The only thing I add to this is the heart can yield before the body does. The heart yielding to temptation is sin. So harboring those fantasies, feeding into those things, yielding to the temptation internally in my own mind and heart. That is a sin as well. We've got to fight it there. We have to fight our hearts from our own temptations. That's where the battle really is, not just the last stage of whatever sin you're committing.

Prayer is one of the biggest, best things you can do in that exact moment. Stop, pray, stop, pray. You're tempted? Right at that moment, stop and pray. It'll help you start fighting the battle where it really needs to be fought. Because too many of us, and I've been down that road many times in my life, we try to fight temptation long after we've yielded to it in our hearts. And then we find it impossible to defeat. For the same reason that fires are impossible to put out.

the longer you let them burn and the more size they get and the more fuel they get. You got to deal with it right away. Don't harbor it in your heart. It's starting to fire. Okay, let's go to question number five. Coming from Esther Nalubwama. Who says, hi, Pastor Mike. Thank you. Oh, by the way, I'm going to back up for one second and answer this because I feel like there's going to be pushback on the last question. Robert had asked, if you have an evil desire, isn't that already sin?

I think the way we can point this out is we could say the desire is sinful. It's just that it's not your sin yet. Do you catch that? It's a sinful desire. That's what temptation is. Jesus had those too. He had temptation. I don't house you catch it you couch it other than seeing that he was confronted with a desire

from within that was based upon his human nature. This is a big theological issue. I'll put a video down below where I talk about how Jesus was tempted, what that means, and my understanding of that. And you guys can, I'll subject it to your guys' judgment and consideration.

But the desire is sinful. That's the nature of a sinful desire. It doesn't mean that you have sinned because you have not partnered it with your heart yet. It's a desire that you can reject. That's how I would put that. I hope that makes sense.

Question number five, and this comes in from Esther Nalibwama, who says, Hi, Pastor Mike. Hi, Esther. Not functioning in a church as a pastor right now, even though I do have... pastoral qualities to my ministry online. So I don't, I don't claim that title. Not that I'm offended. I just, by reading it, I remember sometimes I noticed, sometimes I don't even notice I'm reading that because I've read it so many times over the years. But I want to just be transparent.

Um, yeah, Esther, um... I mean, we all know tornadoes come from the natural effects of wind and Earth's rotation and whatever else is going on, Coriolis effects and things like that that I don't understand that well. So we all know that about tornadoes is like they do happen naturally. There's a sense in which you can say God caused all anything and everything in scripture. My understanding of this. Okay.

Different people, different Christians, brothers and sisters in Christ have different views of this. But my understanding of this is God can be said to have caused everything in the broad sense that he drops the first domino. And he sets up, he sets up the not dominoes, not really the best way to put it, but he sets up the way the world works. And then he populates with, with people. And then, you know.

He's ultimately sovereign over all events and all things that doesn't mean he's a direct cause of each thing because

A boulder rolls downhill because time and erosion has brought it to the point where it rolls downhill. God set up time and set up erosion and set up the nature of matter and everything like that. So you can say God caused it, but it's obviously a different sense. You're not saying... on this day when that tornado came and that person died in it and that building was destroyed god was like i'm gonna get you well no obviously this is part of a um what do they call it philosophers call it a um

Oh, there's a word for it. The... No, I'm not going to think of it. Compendium, no. It's basically the state of affairs of the universe and everything that's in it. There's like...

Large number of things going on so the tornado wouldn't have happened if God had tweaked the properties of h2o and and oxygen and Air pressure if he had tweaked those values differently when he created the physics of the universe that tornado wouldn't have happened But that doesn't mean that that tornado targeted was God's created tornado to target a person Because certainly when God's deciding how he's going to create everything, he's balancing everything. Everything.

Sometimes a tornado happens in God's design and it's part of God's plan. He'll use it for good, but that doesn't mean everything about it was good and what God wanted. Now we get this in scripture. When Joseph was sold slave into Egypt by his brothers in the book of Genesis He says afterwards when God uses him raises him up to the right hand of Pharaoh and saves a bunch of people's lives through it

And Joseph has this amazing thing he says at the end of Genesis where he tells his brothers, what you intended for evil, God intended for good. So God... Didn't cause the brothers to sell him into Egypt, but he is sovereign over it because he created the situation where in which he knew it would happen Then God used it for good

God is working good through all things doesn't mean he's the direct cause of all things. So I don't believe in what's called like determinism, meticulous, like divine determinism, where every single thing is God has given causal credit for. without looking at sort of the large scope reality of the interplay of physics. I hate to talk about it like that. I don't know how else to think about it. Okay. So how do you tell this to your friend? You say,

I don't believe that God directly caused the tornado. Use the word directly. And I don't think you have any reason to say that he did unless you have some evidence for that. Do you have evidence that God directly caused this tornado? Do you think everything was directly caused? And if you're going to say God...

Let's go on the other side. You say that God divinely caused everything to happen. Then you have to say, yep, God made that tornado happen. But you also have to give him credit for every good thing that's ever happened in your whole life. You can't just get mad about the bad and then have it.

total take it for granted attitude about every good thing that's ever happened. Every time you tasted an orange and thought, that was good. God directly caused that to happen to you intentionally, purposely, just for you. So now you have to have a much bigger picture of God. You can't just blame him for bad and ignore all the good like a very entitled individual. You have to think, God made my soul. God...

gave me air. Every single breath I ever took, God directly caused. If I'm going to say he just, I have to assume he directly caused the tornado. So even if you go to the side where many Christians do, where you're the divine determinist, your gratitude should be so incredibly great. And then your view of God that he has the right.

This is something that's very controversial, but I believe it's a hundred percent true and it shouldn't be controversial God has the right to do what he wants with his creation if you I don't think he directly caused the tornado, but he'll use it that's my view but if your view is he caused it you have no objection to god he is the creator of the universe he designed and made your soul he created all of humanity he is yes he brought a tornado for whatever reason and purpose he has on his own

How can you possibly object to him? You've got to have some humility here because one day you'll stand before that God. The one you say caused the tornado that you're mad at, you'll literally stand before him and shaking your fist at him is only going to end bad for you. There's no wisdom.

and no insight no cuteness no smugness in shaking your fist at god no matter how bad you think he is you're definitely wrong and one day you'll see you're wrong when you're confronted by god The argument so many make, God's real and I don't like him, is to me the most ridiculous lack of self-awareness.

Lack of God awareness. This is why scripture says the beginning of wisdom, right? It's what the fear of the Lord. You have no respect for God when you're going to shake your fist at him. God, you did this and you have no right. If you're a parent.

and you go into your kid's room, and you create a tornado in their room, and you pull their stuff around, and you do things with it, there's a certain... Now, it may be that you violated them in some sense. That's possible. You're just a parent. You're not God dealing with humans. But there is a sense in which you have at least some right.

to mess with the life of your kids, right? And you have reasons, you got your own reasons. Sometimes you explain them, sometimes you don't. Sometimes you explain them and the kid doesn't care because they don't, because their brain's not very big yet, you know? And so much more. God has the right as creator of the universe to do what he wants with his creation. I don't understand why this is controversial in people's minds and lives, except for the pride of humans. Who am I?

to think that i can tell god what he can and can't do or should and shouldn't do i should instead be like lord i'm not going to ask you to come to me on my terms how arrogant and dangerous would that be i want to ask you what your terms are because you know you're god And I'm not. We used to say this phrase to people, right? Who do you think you are? God? Now they say it the other way around. They go, God, who do you think you are? And this.

This is monumentally foolish. So while part of me wants to answer your question by saying, I don't think God's directly causing a tornado unless you have some other reason to think so, some prophetic reason, some explanation of why. God directly used the tornado to target this person or this thing. Otherwise, I'll just say God's sovereign overall. But on the other hand, I don't want to yield ground.

to this idea that a person can stand in judgment over God. Like if God did cause a tornado, then I can shake my fist at him. That is not acceptable. Either camp, you've got to come to the place where you say, God, you're God and I'm not. Not who are you God, but... But who do you think you are? To humans, who do you think you are? God? You're not God. God is God. Question number six. This is rogue provisionist who says, hello, Mr. And Mrs. Winger.

Honey, Rogue Provisionist says hi. She said hi. She has to be quiet during my streams. We're very low pomp in this ministry. Um, she just has to like, be quiet. Um, okay. And all the mods, especially Sarah and to all my fellow winglings. Um, so I gotta mention when someone says wingling nowadays, you guys have never heard me use that term before. When someone says, I know you guys listen to David Wood.

Or maybe John McRae. They like to use that term. I have never given a nickname to people who follow my content. I think that's very cheesy. But that's exactly why David Wood gave them a nickname. Because he thinks it's cheesy and nerdy. And it's funny.

By the way, me and Dave, we're friendly. We like each other. Don't worry about it. He's just joking for those who know. Okay, so hi to Sarah and the mods. Hello, everybody. Thank you so much for the mods. I'll just shout this out real quick. I really appreciate the mods that are in there that tackle.

let's be honest, some of the awkward and difficult moments that happen in live chat, trying to make it a better environment, because that's what I've asked them to do, is try to make it like a good place to be in the chat. That's what I really want to see for believers and non-believers, Christians and non-Christians. And so we try to... make it that environment by by keeping tone in a good way at any rate grateful for them okay so here's the question from rogue provisionist says

Is Hebrews 1.1 supportive of the idea that there are no prophets since the first century as God only speaks from Jesus Christ? I'm actually going to tackle this in detail when I get into Hebrews chapter 1 in my verse by verse series that I'm going to do. In the future. I'm just going to keep it vague. In the future. But let's do a cursory look at it now. Does this passage mean that there are no prophets speaking after Jesus? Long ago.

At many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets. But in these last days, he has spoken to us by his son, whom he's appointed the heir of all things, through whom he also created the world. This is used as a cessationist verse, I think unwisely, and I'll explain why. Again, cessationists are my brothers in Christ, my sisters in Christ.

I have no beef with them on a personal level. And I fellowship with them and I get along with them great. And I go to a church that has cessationist and continuationist both together. And I'm grateful for that. So this... This question though is about a Bible verse, a particular Bible verse. Okay, let me put it this way. You can be cessationist for some other reason. I still think you're, I don't agree with you, but please don't let it be because of this verse. And here's how the case goes. Hey.

God stopped speaking through the spiritual gifts after the close of the canon of scripture. That's usually the time they'll put on it. And they'll use verse Hebrews 1 and 2 to say it, right? In the past, God spoke to the fathers by the prophets.

The spiritual sign gifts. But in these last days, he has spoken to us by his son, not the spiritual sign gifts, whom he's appointed the heir of all things through whom also he created the world. Beautiful, amazing Christology stuff that's right there. So yeah, before.

prophets now the sun if that was meant to be a stopping point and cessationists have heard this before many of them if that was meant to be a stopping point for say someone speaking prophetically and i'm about to make a video about how this this trump uh assassination prophet i think is not a real prophet i think he's dangerous okay so i'm not arguing for gullible charism charismania here i'm just suggesting we have um thoughtful careful

understanding of scripture. So the idea is, okay, in the past it was the prophets, now it's the son. Yet in the text of scripture, in the book of Acts, we see long after Jesus has done his three years plus of ministry, he's died, he rose again, he did his 40 days. tour after that then he ascended into heaven to the right hand of the most high and after all this happens and the apostles are out there preaching they've got the message we still have prophets even in the book of acts we got

Philip's daughters, and we got Agabus, and we have others who prophesy in the book of Acts. We then have statements about the gift of prophecy in the book of Romans, Romans 12, about using, continually, ongoingly using the gift of prophecy. being written long after the death and resurrection of Christ, long after God spoke through his son, right? Then we have...

Other things like 1 Corinthians talking about the use of prophecy, not to despise prophecy, not to forbid speaking in tongues. We have these statements being given after that moment. And that's pretty significant. Because when you look at the passage...

If you were to interpret verse one as saying something extra that it doesn't say, let me add, I'll read it and I'll add extra words at the end. Long ago, at many times, in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets. But in these last days, he's spoken to us by his son. Therefore, he no longer speaks through prophets. No. No, no, no, no, no. In fact...

It doesn't say, therefore, it's a stopping point for God using prophets. We also know Acts, Romans, 1 Corinthians. We know that there was continued prophecy going on in the church after God spoke through his son, right? And some will say, yeah, yeah, yeah. But after the close of the canon. Okay, but now you're out of, you're not in Hebrews 1.1 anymore and 1.2 because this is about God speaking through his son. Right? It doesn't say anything about the close of the canon of scripture.

Oh, well, God spoke through the Son, so the Son then speaks through the prophets in the book of Acts and later on, and that's the Son speaking, not the prophets. And if that's the case, if you interpret it that way, then I'll just say that modern prophets are also the Son speaking through prophets.

And so it's still the sun. So it just doesn't work. We're spinning a verse of scripture to force a conclusion that's not in the passage. What is Hebrews really talking about? Hebrews constantly does these comparisons of Jesus compared to this Old Testament thing. It's not even talking about prophets as a whole, every prophet in the Bible or every prophet that God has used. It's speaking about how God spoke in the old covenant.

to the specific prophets of the Old Testament and now how he has spoken to his son. This is laying out the main theme in the book of Hebrews, which is like this idea that, hey, that Old Testament thing was true. And that's the basis and foundation for this even more important reality that you're confronted with now. Jesus is true. That's the thrust of Hebrews. It is not about cessationism. That's not what Hebrews 1 or 1.

1 verses 1 and 2 are talking about at all. It's just in the context of Hebrews, it's talking about how there was a message that God gave before. Through angels, mediator, all this stuff, Moses, all that stuff. And they were held accountable to it. You do it or you die. Cursed is the one who doesn't obey all this stuff. And how much more if you reject this new message from Jesus?

will the consequences be if you would turn your back on Christ? Because they died a physical death, but Jesus, you will die the death of afterlife judgment if you reject Jesus. So again, it's showing Jesus is stronger, better, bigger in every way. than what we read about there in the Old Testament. Better than Adam, better. Even the judgment is bigger, right? The salvation is bigger because it's not just deliverance from Egypt and into a promised land. It's eternal life.

but also the judgment's bigger. It's not just dying in the wilderness, it's dying and having your soul cast into hell. So that's the context of Hebrews 1. There's my thought on that. I'm honestly, first time I heard a cessationist use this argument, Hebrews 1, 1 and 2, I was shocked because I've studied Hebrews before I heard it. And I was like, wait, what? You guys think what? I think that it exhibits.

somebody's desire to push their view into the text of Scripture, something that most cessationists are really good about not doing. They're very careful not to do this. Most cessationists very much care about careful Bible study. They're not interested in hijacking scriptures out of context. But it doesn't mean that you never do it. You've done it. I've done it before at some point in my time.

And I've had to change my view on things over the years, right? Fortunately, I taught for many, many years before I started doing it online. So a lot of that correction happened before I started putting out public videos and thank God that last forever. But I wish it had happened earlier. There's times where I had misused scripture and only found out down the road. So we should all, of course, be open to that. I'm open to it still. I'm sure I've made mistakes.

I'm sure I have. It just seems like statistical impossibility that I've gotten everything right. Number seven.

Blitz Turbo says, hi, Pastor Mike. Much love from the Caribbean is the fact that we can commit blasphemy against the Holy Spirit proof that Calvinism is false. No, I don't think so. Again, I'm not a Calvinist, you guys, who are into that sort of debate and discussion. You're aware of that. You know I'm not a Calvinist, but I consider them very much my brothers and sisters. And I also would say...

If you have a hard time fellowshipping, if you're a non-Calvinist and you can't fellowship with a Calvinist, something's wrong in your heart. If you're a Calvinist and you can't fellowship with a non-Calvinist, something's wrong in your heart. If just that one thing is making it so you can't fellowship with them, something's wrong.

And so I, I'm, you know, don't want any division over that topic, but it doesn't mean we shouldn't discuss it. I'm not going to make things the Bible talks about off limits because people get mad when I talk about it. Like that's not a, instead, how about we don't get mad? How about we talk about it and we don't get angry? There's an idea. So let me talk about it. Jesus talks about the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit. I have a video on that. I'll link it down below.

I give a short answer of what I think the blasphemy of the spirit is right at the beginning of the video. If you don't got time, you just want to hear the quick answers right there at the beginning. You can just click off the video after that. If you want the long thought out answer, that's the whole video. I'll link it below as soon as the stream is over.

But I don't think it's a good argument against Calvinism because the Calvinist could simply say, whatever the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit is, it's something that a true born-again Christian would never do. That's easy. It's just an easy solution in the systematic to deal with that problem. Yeah, if they commit the blasphemy of the spirit, they'll never be forgiven.

Okay, so we know they're non-elect if they do it. And guess what? The elect would never, ever do that. So they just, they would accept that it happens, but they would deny that it happens to one of the elect. So then that would... not disprove calvinism there there's let me see there's another approach you might take with challenging calvinism maybe this is in your mind because your um your question didn't maybe specify i'm trying to guess a little bit here um

could be to say if jesus is worried that some people can commit a blasphemy of the spirit this is this is nuanced it's against total depravity actually um then that means that somebody who is not already in a state of unsavable, unforgivable, they can come into a state of being unsavable. Now on at least some interpretation of Calvinism,

You have a doctrine of total depravity, which would effectively say everybody's in that state already. They're already unforgivable. And so that could be confusing to suggest that that. They progress from one state of I haven't committed the blasphemy of the spirit, but I'm not elect and I'm ultimately I'm unforgivable Jesus if you take the total tulip idea, right? Jesus didn't actually die for my sins the

The the heart my heart rejects the gospel and will always reject the gospel and I am I Don't have an option of getting saved like it's not gonna happen. My heart would never let me I would never desire to And then now I'm in that state, then I'm going to commit a sin that is the unforgivable sin that will never be forgiven. That at least, I'll just say this, it at least is odd.

on that view of calvinism okay i'm not going to say it disproves it because i think we're pushing a little too hard to try to make it a proof text i could be wrong here maybe if i worked on it more i'd think about it and say no no i feel more confident now but off the cuff um At least it presents some challenge, some pressure on the ideas presented in the full, the full five, you know, letters of tulips. So that might've been what you're getting out there. I'm not really sure.

A better angle, perhaps, to approach would be to challenge Calvinism with the view that there is divine hardening, hardening of hearts. in relation to the gospel this is a key key phrase in relation to the gospel Calvinism can explain hardening of hearts in other ways they cannot explain to my knowledge hardening of hearts in relation to the gospel itself which Jesus talks about I have a video on it somewhere if I find it I'll link it below

I don't even remember, I don't remember what video I did that in. It's in the Mark series, I think I talk about it. Maybe someone will find it and send it to me and I'll link it. That's something else to think about, but I'll move on. Again, Calvinist brothers and sisters in Christ, we can agree.

to disagree on that topic and still agree on things like our trust in Scripture, faith alone is salvation, the authority of God's Word above human authorities, all sorts of other things that we agree on that mean we can work past these other things.

Okay, number eight. Callie Olson says, Hi, Mike. Was Jesus pointing out the sin of the Samaritan woman or was he letting her know he understood her circumstances considering women had little control over their marital status? Okay, good question. So the woman at the well, let's look at the passage and ask the question, like, why did Jesus bring up all these other husbands? And there's a guy she's living with. It's not her husband. Like, why did he bring this stuff up? Let's read it. Verse four.

And he had to pass through Samaria. So he came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, near the field that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob's well was there. So Jesus, wearied as he was from his journey, was sitting beside the well.

It was about the sixth hour. A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, give me a drink. Okay, here's where it begins. Verse seven. For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food. Now it's thought that you probably had to bring your own bucket.

to the well that's why he's like giving a drink she's got a bucket she's going to draw water and he asks for a drink not even a whole bucket of water some of the water that she's going to be drawing up from her bucket that's probably what happened i think for his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food

The Samaritan woman said to him, how is it that you, a Jew, ask me a drink from me, a woman of Samaria? For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans. And they didn't. And they had strong disagreements. the samaritans and i'll have to explain this because it'll come up in a second the samaritans believed

that it wasn't Zion and Jerusalem that God had placed his name and had put the temple and orchestrated as this is the place you have to pray. Remember, there's one temple in Judaism and you've got to go here to worship God properly certain times of year and things like that. that like this is the this is the the way like the way the truth in life this is the way that is ultimately a picture of how jesus is the only way

But the Samaritans had broke off and kind of developed an offshoot religion, which they sort of still thought they called their Jewish Samaritan, really. But they called it as coming from Moses. And they were like, ah, it wasn't their mountain. It was our mountain.

It's our location. So they had like this cult-like religion that they followed. They rejected a lot of the Old Testament, but not all of it. So, okay, the Samaritan woman said to him, how is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink from me, a Samaritan, a woman of Samaria? for Jews have no dealings with Samaritans. Jesus answered her, if you knew the gift of God and who it is that is saying to you, give me a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.

The woman said to him, sir, you have nothing to draw water with. Again, she would have had the bucket for the well. And the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? And she doesn't really get it. She's kind of laughing at him. Are you greater than our father, Jacob? Okay, so they would have thought he was their father as well. Remember, they're kind of like an offshoot.

and they're mixed their blood is mixed i think i don't really care too much about that but i think that historically was the case he gave us the well and drank from it himself as did his sons and his livestock jesus said to her

Remember, Jesus is the fulfillment. Jesus is the fulfillment of these things. Oh yeah, he gave you water. I'm going to give you living water. They gave you a temple. I'm going to provide you the true way to God. The high priest provided an offering for your sins, but he never...

could stop. He's always standing. He's always offering again. I'm going to do one offer. Then I'm going to sit down because I'm done. It's Jesus is better in every way. Jesus said to her, everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again. But whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again.

The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life. Keep this in mind that Jesus speaks symbolically of water just like in John 6. He speaks symbolically of drinking his blood and eating his flesh.

He does this a lot in John. He calls himself the bread of life. As a side note for those who are studying John 6, they're like, wait, the Catholic Eucharist is true. Not in the context of John, only in the out of context of John 6. um the woman said to him sir give me this water so that i will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water so she still is thinking this is like physical water but she's also perhaps mocking

So I won't have to come here anymore. Give me the water that makes it so I'm never thirsty again, right? I won't need water anymore. I think she's sort of like calling his bluff in her mind, calling his bluff. So then he says this, go call your husband and come here. The woman answered him, I have no husband.

And then what Jesus says next is what we're dealing with today. People struggle with this. I've heard pastors teach on this and people talk about it. And they very often, I think, try to soften what Jesus says because they want to make it sound like he's nice. Jesus always has to be nice.

He has to be nice at all times. He wasn't nice at all times. He was good at all times. He was nice a lot of the time. He was not nice all the time. Jesus said to her, you are right in saying I have no husband. And then he reveals secret knowledge about her life. For you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true. She's had five, and the one she has now is not her husband.

This is embarrassing for her, potentially, if she's embarrassed about her sin. I mean, I say sin because I'm assuming, okay, and I could be wrong, but I'm assuming that there's something wrong in her life, in her past.

And it's possible that it's not. It's possible that if we got the real backstory of the Samaritan woman, it would be a Hallmark movie where she was just sort of constantly getting caught up with the wrong guys. Or maybe all of her husbands just keep dying mysteriously of... of something that they can't explain one had a heart attack one got hit by a bird really hard something happened we don't know but we do know that um

The five husbands she had is followed up by there's a man she has now who is not her husband. That is, it is either someone else's husband, the worst case scenario, or she's just shacking up with someone she's not married to.

which does which does happen often for people who've had multiple marriages they just kind of like yeah and they just I'll just I'll just sleep around whatever I you know and they get sort of desensitized so you've had five husbands the one you have now is not your husband there's The question you had is, let me find it on my screeners, on my screens. Was Jesus pointing out the sin of the Samaritan woman or was he letting her know he understood her circumstances?

Considering the woman had little control over their marital status. Well, I think that women did have more control than you're thinking. It was hard for a woman to divorce a man. That is true. That is true. It could happen.

It was difficult. I don't know in the Samaritan culture if it was different than the Jewish culture. I don't know what Samaritan laws were. Jewish laws for divorce were difficult. Roman laws for women getting divorced at the time were actually not that hard. You could literally just leave and you were considered divorced.

So a woman could leave her husband under Roman law at the time. This is why in 1 Corinthians, when Paul's writing to the Greeks about, you know, who are under Roman law and have Roman culture. He's writing to them about this in 1 Corinthians 7, is it? He talks about a woman not leaving her husband, yet Jesus, when he's talking to a Jewish audience, he just talks about a man divorcing his wife because it was difficult for a woman to get a divorce.

It was possible again, but it was difficult. It wasn't the same thing. Men could do it pretty easily at the time. Now, some people think justice is making it easier for women to get a divorce. And I think more, well, I think that's more modern thinking. Jesus' response was actually about making it harder for men to get a divorce, not easier for women. There are extreme situations, but again, those are extreme. We don't want to make easy divorce common as a...

as a policy, but especially as something that's in the hearts of human beings. It's an evil thing Jesus was opposed to. So he is definitely pointing out her sin. Of all the things Jesus could say about her circumstances, he could have said anything. I know you have a pet named Shalulu who has a little white spot on her nose. He could have said a million different things about this woman's private life and she would have responded the same way, which by the way, in verse 19 was,

Sir, I perceive that you're a prophet. I guess for time I won't get into verse 20 where she talks about which place do we worship? And Jesus gives this cool answer. It's about what he's going to do to change things. But... I will share this. Jesus targeted a sin in her life for sure. He didn't just say, look, I have prophetic knowledge about your life. He actually targeted something that would be

A sin. I don't think this woman was offended. Modern Westerners would be offended. But modern Westerners are not the people you're reading about in the Bible. They get offended over different things. You know what they get offended about?

Your disciples were rubbing the grain together and then eating it on the Sabbath. They went like this and ate on the Sabbath and they would get offended by that. You wouldn't get offended by that. They did. You have to understand why they did to understand the text of scripture. This woman was not offended.

Women today likely would be, okay? That's the way it is because we have different issues of pride than they had back then. Her pride was in the mountain they worshiped on in Samaria. Her pride wasn't in thinking that her life was sinless. That's where our pride is today. So Jesus did target a sin, and he did so in a way that would prove who he was, that he was like a prophet. He's the prophet. He's not just a prophet. He's more than that, but he's also...

the prophet of God. I don't want to downplay that. I want to go, yeah, you know what? The living water Jesus gives us does deal with our sin and Jesus highlights a sin issue in the life of the woman he's talking to. That's probably not an accident.

It's probably good for us in evangelism to talk about sin. Jesus did. He actually did it a lot. He preached to people to repent when he went town to town. He didn't hide from the sin issue. I don't want to do what I've heard like say Todd White do or others where they say,

and these of course they're public teachings here i'm not picking on individuals private individuals these are their public teachings where he was like i don't talk about sin when i go out and witness because people already know about that stuff and i'm like no the real reason you don't talk about sin is because

You don't want to shut people down and you want to have a good, happy experience with them. The real reason you don't talk about sin is because people are so arrogant about it that you know they're going to freak out on you. This woman didn't freak out. Props to her. She accepted the fact that those things were true. All right, let's go to the next question. Number nine, Danielle Spohn or Spohn says,

Are people who believe in modalism or oneness truly saved? Should I allow my kids to participate in church events who believe in modalism? So let me answer this question. in reverse. So I'll answer the second part first and then the first part second. But first let's talk about what's modalism or oneness. Modalism or oneness affirms that the Holy Spirit is God, affirms that Jesus is God, affirms that the Father is God. Okay, we agree there.

But modalism would reject the tripersonal nature of God. So that we're going to say, Jesus isn't like God the Son. The Father is God the Father. And the Holy Spirit is not... god the holy spirit rather maybe you could put it this way jesus is god being the son and then the father's god being the father and the spirit is god being the spirit and so that it's god in different modes

right i don't have like if i was to sort of glimpse heaven and see into the spirit whatever that means whatever that means and i was to see the father the son and the spirit i could see the three persons of god with one god uh communing communicating whatever somehow coexisting together i wouldn't see that rather as god reveals himself to people he like puts on the father hat and he reveals himself as father then he takes the hat off puts on the sun hat

And then he takes the hat off, puts on the spirit hat. Then you have modalism has challenging verses that has to deal with. So like the baptism of Jesus, where the father speaks and the Holy Spirit descends and the son is there being baptized. All three persons are active at the same moment, which does imply that God is either being really deceptive about who he is, or he actually has three persons that are there. So you've got the father.

speaking behold my son and whom i'm well pleased you have the spirit descending upon the sun visibly and then you have the sun being physically baptized or the statement in um in scripture that says baptize them in the name Matthew 28, the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. There's one name and there's three individuals that are discussed or persons or, you know, language fails me when we talk about the details of the Trinity sometimes. Or I fail language maybe, but...

Take that with a bit of wisdom there. But that's modalism. So modalism is, in a sense, it's not a denial of the deity of Christ. It's not a denial of the humanity of Christ. It's a denial of the tri-personal nature of God. This to me puts it into a strange category as it, as it, you could say, Hey, that seems like a heresy. And it certainly has been condemned as a heresy throughout church history.

But I'm not convinced that modalists are all unsaved. So let me... let me walk through that because this is super controversial but sometimes controversial stuff is the more important stuff to talk about for the very reason that it's controversial that people need to try to think about it patiently and carefully um but let me i said this can answer your question in reverse so here's the second part of your question

Should I allow my kids to go to a church event in people who believe in modalism? And I would be like, no way. No way, Jose. Do not let them be involved in anything going on with a church that teaches modalism. These churches are almost always... super aggressive in their modalism. They're incredibly focused on it. They talk more about modalism than you would ever talk about the Trinity. They teach more against the Trinity than Trinitarian churches ever teach on the Trinity or even bring it up.

If you send kids that are Trinitarian to a modalist congregation, there's a really high probability they're going to make it a goal and agenda to convert them to their modalism. It's extremely likely. So I would never send my kids or let my kids go to those church and group events. This does not, however, mean the first part of your question that that you're going to get.

To the place of saying that a modalist is definitely not saved because there are certain things that they affirm that are just so Christian, right? Like they could be like, they're saying you're saved by grace. through faith alone, apart from works. Works are fruit, not root. They could tell you that. They could tell you Jesus died on the cross for my sins and rose from the dead. And you go, well, who's Jesus? He's God. Then you say,

And you believe in the Holy Spirit? Absolutely. I believe the Bible's God's inerrant word, inspired and all this. They would go preach the gospel. And if modalism didn't come up as a topic, you wouldn't know the difference. The the thing about modalism as I understand it, please you guys bring me correction if you think I'm wrong here I'm absolutely open to it make make a careful thoughtful Critique and I'm totally open to it. Okay, but I am of the opinion that

We shouldn't assume, and let me say this carefully, you shouldn't assume a modalist is unsaved. It might depend on how strongly they are preaching against something that's biblically true, which is the Trinity. So that most of the modalists, just people randomly...

calling themselves modalists or Christians you went into who simply are wrong about the Trinity. Do you know the average Christian who you push on the Trinity? A lot of them just become modalists without even meaning to. They're just answering hard questions about the Trinity and they suddenly become modalists.

This happens when you address these issues. And I don't want to just assume, oh, not saved. You said that, not saved, not saved. I think that a lot of error can exist in a genuine believer's heart. A lot of error can exist. in a real Christian. I don't know where the boundaries of that error are exactly. Modalism is one of those things that seems like it dances on that boundary. I don't want to affirm modalists are all saved because I think that that would be an error.

I don't want to say modalists are all unsaved because I also think that would be assuming too much. So I'm hopeful, but the louder and more vocal and more informed the modalist is, the less hopeful I become. So it's kind of a graded. Expectation that I have please guys bring me your pushback and your thoughts on this. I'm all for it Let's go to the next question the question number 10

Brent Castor says, when does a Christian receive the Holy Spirit? The apostles, it seems, received the Holy Spirit twice. And you list two verses there. Others had different experiences. Yeah, so Brent. There's...

The way that I've historically handled this, and I'm open to changing my mind on this too, but the way I've understood it, Brent, is, and I'm not alone in this, is that you can think of the Holy Spirit, your experiences with the Holy Spirit being of two different kinds. You can think of three different kinds.

One would be the Holy Spirit being with people, bringing conviction of sin, that kind of thing he does to everybody. So there's a sense in which the non-believer doesn't have the Holy Spirit, but the Holy Spirit is... present, working on their lives, striving with them to try to bring them to Christ, bring conviction of sin, righteousness, and judgment to come. Jesus talked about that. Then there's a sense of the spirit being in you. This is what I, and I say this as most...

of people who have a charismatic type background, even charismatic light background are going to disagree with me on this, I think, would say that the phrase baptism of the spirit is a reference to the next thing, which is just the spirit indwelling you. indwelling you not a post-salvation experience not some second level of experience with glory or something like that but just simply every christian when they get saved is

baptized in the spirit. That is, they become filled with the spirit internally. The Holy Spirit joins to your spirit. You are now indwelt by the spirit, not just with you, but in you, in you. That is an experience I think happens upon salvation. Then there's another experience that I think you're looking at. And let's look at a couple passages. So one of them is John 20.

where jesus says as he's he's you know this is before the ascension after the death and resurrection he uh and when he had said this he breathed on them that the apostles and said receive the holy spirit So they received the spirit at that point. That's how I take that. That's how I understand that. There are Christians who have other views. I don't agree, but they exist and they could be right and I could be wrong.

But there's a receiving of the Spirit. I take this as being the indwelling of the Spirit. This is initial salvation indwelling of the Spirit. It's kind of been inaugurated now that Jesus has died and risen again, and now he's going to ascend. Now the Holy Spirit is the regular experience of believers in Jesus, whereas...

The indwelling of the spirit was not before. This is a new covenant thing. Then in Acts 2, we have some of the guys that were there when Jesus breathed on them and said, receive the spirit. This is the third experience with the spirit that I will call, not with, not in, but upon. Although that...

That term is just a term. It's a little fuzzy. But this is, I think, a term to refer to empowerment. The Holy Spirit, you're already filled with the Spirit internally in the sense of I'm saved. But now you're given a special... empowering by the Holy Spirit for a particular purpose. That empowering is not to say you didn't have the Holy Spirit before or won't have the Holy Spirit later, but there's a special empowerment for some specific purpose. That's what I see in Acts 2.

When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place and suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind and it filled the entire house where they were sitting and divided tongues of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them and they were all filled with the spirit and began to speak in other tongues.

as the Spirit gave them utterance. Now, for some of them, maybe it was the first time they were given the Holy Spirit in dwelling, but there was, in addition to that, some sort of special empowerment they received. And Peter got it too, and John got it too. The apostles got it too. Let me give you another example from Acts 4. Peter and John call before the council. They threaten them. They beat them. And then Peter...

offers this prayer for boldness after all this happens in Acts chapter 4. He talks about how they're attacking us. They rejoice that they're kind of worthy to suffer. Let me find the verse. Verse 30.

Here, actually verse 29. And now Lord, look upon their threats and grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness. The prayer is Lord, help us to be bold. We don't want to be cowards. We don't want to be scared. We've been threatened. We've been attacked. Help us have boldness. We're looking to you.

to empower us with boldness. While you stretch out your hand to heal and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant, Jesus. They're also asking that God would confirm the gospel with these things. And when they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to do what? Speak the word of God with boldness. They were given empowerment to be bold. Courage.

This is guys who've already been filled with the spirit and John. They've already experienced the filling of the spirit in Acts chapter two. Then they get filled with the spirit. Again, the place is shaken and they were all, this seems to be a special empowerment by the spirit that comes at a later time. So as a Christian, I think when you get saved, you're given the Holy spirit, you're indwelt by the spirit. Every Christian has the Holy spirit.

At any point in your life after that, God may or may not empower you with a special enabling through the Holy Spirit to do something specific for him. Maybe in response to prayer, maybe just because he just gives you.

that power in acts later on when stephen when he looks up to heaven and he sees jesus and he's preaching to to the people who are about to murder him it says he's filled with the spirit now you might you might say well that was leftover filling from earlier But it could also potentially just be he was empowered in that exact moment to have an incredible moment of standing for Christ and sharing the truth and preaching the gospel, even though it was rejected, that he did it really well.

What I'm opposed to though when it comes to this stuff personally, and I've seen it in Pentecostal type circles, and again, as a brother I disagree with this, is to try to tell every Christian out there, that you have two experiences with the spirit you need. What I outlined is everybody gets indwelt and as God wills, he may or may not empower you for special causes throughout your life at any point in time.

That's very different than what I've heard in some Pentecostal circles and was even taught at a younger age, which is that you have two experiences with the Holy Spirit that every Christian is supposed to have. Yes, every Christian's initially indwelt. You all get the Spirit. But later on...

You have a special baptism of the Spirit. Again, I use that term to talk about salvation, not a later event, because that's how I think it's used biblically. That's a terminological thing. I have a video on that. I'll link it down below where I talk about that in some detail.

about how that term is used. I want to think biblically about things, so I want to use biblical terms in biblical ways. But they'll call this baptism of the Spirit. And this is when you get... like spiritual gifts unleashed so now you're speaking in tongues and now you're doing these things and and you can go to one passage in acts where something similar to that happens but i think that that passage better fits into the basic idea that god gives

who he what he wants to who he wants when he wants not to some rule where you you go like in acts when paul goes and he says to them did you receive the spirit when you believed and they go we didn't even hear there was a spirit obviously they had a different experience than christians today who receive who get saved

they're baptized and dwelt in the spirit they received the spirit when they believed this is a different thing they had heard a partial gospel then later they heard the full gospel um let's not then make it a rule That every Christian, if they haven't yet spoken in tongues, they're lacking, they haven't yet got that second baptism of the spirit moment. That if they haven't had active prophecy and active things, this creates weird environments.

And it's the foundation of a lot of churches' views of the spiritual gifts. But I don't think that it's grounded in scripture. You've got one passage in Acts. Acts 8, I think it is. And then you've got a bunch of other...

versus that seem to challenge that. So let's not make a rule out of one event that happened one time in Acts while ignoring all the other events of Acts. This deserves a lot longer video. I'm not going to make it. I got way too much other stuff going on. Maybe one of these years I'll do it.

But, uh, but yeah, I hope that helps. Okay. I have a bonus question today. Final thing today from, uh, I Len Ardale, who says, what language do you think we will speak in heaven? And, and I know this ahead of time because, because of my, my special. ways um why do you guys need to know how i know um island is a 10 year old who's asking this question and yeah that's pretty cool hi island i'm glad you're watching and interested in this kind of content it's exciting to hear that you're

thinking biblically about this stuff at such a young age you're like actually working through these issues and take your time with it and if you don't know the answer to a question that's okay you can just go i'm not sure i'll figure that out later that's i do that still that's absolutely fine

So you ask, what language do you think we will speak in heaven? I think that that's a super interesting thing to talk about. So it seems like we would use language, like not, we wouldn't not use language. God. communicates and is always communicated through language we also see some hints about this in scripture so the hint is that we're all going to understand each other in heaven and here's why

When God makes Adam and Eve, everybody speaks the same language. The Tower of Babel happens. Now languages get confused as God's judgment on mankind. Then when Jesus... rises from the dead, ascends, gives the spirit, and all this cool stuff happens in Acts 2. There's this moment where the languages come back together.

They speak in tongues and they're going, everybody, we're all hearing our own language. Now that didn't continue on and on forever, but that moment is to say something about what Jesus does. The division that's caused by man's sin and judgment is fixed in Jesus and we're brought together. We understand each other. Isn't that interesting? Then we have this thing in Revelation that's really cool. You have people in Revelation.

singing in one language even though they're people from all tongues and tribes and nations. You guys ever notice this in the book of Revelation? You've got this vision where John

sees people from tribes and tongues and nations they're from every place around the world and then they sing songs and they say things and they're saying them in unison together which means they're all speaking probably the same language now you might say but mike you know you're kind of pushing that vision a little a little bit

And I go, well, when you combine that with Adam and Eve, with the Tower of Babel in Acts chapter two, and then people all speaking the same language, I think it's actually a message that we're getting in scripture that we will all speak a language in heaven.

An alternative is not that we would speak one language, but that we would all speak different languages, but we would all learn each other's languages or just through maybe the Holy Spirit understand each other's languages. And that's possible.

It'll be like one of those sci-fi shows where people just speak in different languages back and forth to each other. That is possible. But I wouldn't assume that. I think the symmetry of what I see in the Bible, my guess, is that we're speaking one language. So then what language is it?

Well, some would say it'll be Hebrew. Hebrew is, of course, the language of the Old Testament, but not the New. If God was really serious about like making Hebrew the best and most important language, you know, you'd think maybe the New Testament would have been written in Hebrew too. Yeah, I don't know about that. So then you say, okay, well, what about Greek? Greek is, of course, the language.

that jesus's words are all recorded in it's the the language that the gospel went out into the world maybe it'll be greek i don't know i suppose it could be um So am I going to learn that? Does the Holy Spirit give that to me? I'm just going to know it. Another option is that we look throughout history. Here's some things to think about. What if we go through history and we say, how about we just find out what language most humans have spoke through time?

which i don't know today it would be chinese right right now it would be chinese maybe that would just be the least amount of work i'm way out on a limb here i'm just throwing out possibilities i don't think it's realistic at all

But the least amount of work to have people just speak whatever human language was the most popular throughout time, which I don't know if that's Chinese throughout time or just right now. I don't know. I don't know how long has Chinese even been around. Longer than English, I know.

Then there's other scriptures which seem to indicate that angels have their own languages. First Corinthians talks about this, the tongues of men and of angels. So if angels have a language, maybe there is this sort of heavenly language that we're all going to learn. You know, in these sci-fi movies,

You often have these like comment this common language. I'll use an analogy here Where people have a bunch of different languages and planets and nobody can learn all these languages, but when they come together like say a a a a space port where they come together and they're going to talk and you're going to encounter all these different languages there's a common tongue a common language this is a language everybody learn everywhere learns so that we can communicate with each other

If I had to pick a common language, I would wonder if it might just be whatever language angels speak. Assuming that that verse tongues of angels literally means there are languages that angels communicate in. and speak it which seems reasonable to me but I'm not sure of it in the end I don't know I know most people will probably say Hebrew because they tend to kind of romanticize the Hebrew language

I've heard people say they thought Adam and Eve spoke Hebrew. I don't think there's a good reason to think that that's the case. Abraham, you know, but Moses, but yeah.

the did abraham i think i don't know i have to check on that but you know the the hebrew of the old testament becomes to them like sort of romantic romanticized idea of hebrew and it's possible i'm cool with whatever the answer is but i really don't know i do think we'll speak a single language that we all share i don't know for sure what that'll be lord knows probably most of the chat will say hebrew i'm guessing um i would lean towards the tongue the tongue of the tongue of angels

Because I guess, honestly, I'm just leaning there because I just like the idea that we're all brought together and then speaking this language that just seems, and it's romantic, I'll admit it, seems close to God, you know?

We're speaking the language of heaven. It's heaven that's brought us together. I like the idea of that. It doesn't mean it's true just because I like it. Okay, that's the last one for today, you guys. I'm glad to have that question from you guys, all the questions from you guys, but especially from a 10-year-old. That's just exciting for me, honestly.

He's excited for me to get that question from you. The stuff that's going on right now with this prophet I'll mention before closing in prayer. This Trump... profit guy um i truly do think he's dangerous i hope you guys will check out the video when i make it i'm working on it um i don't want to spend a lot of time on it but i can't help investing some time on it because it just keeps getting weirder the stuff i look into

I think that what's going to happen because of this guy's prophecy about Trump saying that, you know, the bullet's going to go past his ear. And then a lot, I mean, a lot of people, even news media is saying like, this guy seems like he prophesied Trump's near assassination.

What's gonna happen next is people are gonna follow him and He got like 30 over 30,000 subs in a day just one day. I didn't keep checking I'm sure he's getting more his videos are getting tons of views now And he's continuing to prophesy things about plagues and about the dollar collapsing and how to secure your money and giving you specific currencies, specific...

cryptocurrencies that he says God gave him the name of this currency and you should look into it. And he's not going to be too specific because he doesn't want accountability, but he's going to go ahead and give you a prophecy that will change your life and probably for the worst. So this is a pretty big deal.

So I'm going to make a video about this for the sake of those who will be harmed by it. And I do think that there's harm coming. And I hope that it helps. Given some time, though, he's such a strange individual that says so many weird things that I think that given time, people are going to be like, yeah, that was kind of a fluke.

But he will, in the meantime, have gained a big following of people who will do whatever he says. And that's unfortunate. All right, let's pray. Lord, we thank you for your word. Your word is true. We trust it. We pray that you'd help us to have a better understanding about scripture. That as we wrestle with our questions of understanding a verse, understanding a concept that you'd show us.

Not only what it means, but also how to apply it into our lives so we can be people who think and live biblically. We pray for our country right now. The temperatures of both sides have been rising a lot. The stakes are very high. We're seeing the Democratic Party implode, and we're seeing the Republican Party move in ways that are compromising some of the best things that were there about it, morally speaking, on abortion and things like that.

We just pray for wisdom now as Christians that we would know how to handle these types of issues, how to process it, what to do about it. Give us wisdom, Lord. Let your church be united. Let us find some unity and some agreement amongst ourselves, even if we can't walk in agreement and unity with any of the political stuff we see going on. In Jesus' name, amen.