It's time to.
Clear the decks, to empty the inbox, to clear the spindle. There are so many questions that have come in, and what better time than today to seize the opportunity to answer those questions? Hello friends. Welcome to Open Line with Doctor Michael Ray Dolnick. This is Moody Radio's Bible study across America. My name is Michael Ray Dolnick. I'm the dean of Moody Bible Institute's undergraduate school, also professor of
Jewish studies and Bible right here at Moody. And we're coming to you from the campus of Moody Bible Institute in a special pre-recorded edition of Open Line. Thank you for joining me this Saturday. You know, you can learn more about Open Line. You can hear past programs, you can connect to our social media pages, even fill out your Bible question for me to answer at our website openline. radio.org. That's open line Radio talk in this hour of Open Line.
We'll take the questions you've sent in. Our phone lines are not open today, so please don't call because it's an all mailbag, all the time program for Open Line. Joining me today will be my very special guest, who really is the one that usually sends me the answers via text. But she's going to be here joining in telling me what those answers are. Eva Riedel, who's also a colleague at Moody Bible Institute and also a co-contributor to the Moody Bible Commentary. But most of all, she's
my partner for all these years, my wife. And so I'm glad you're here. She's I'm used to hearing Eva answer Bible questions. She answers my Bible questions all the time. So you get you get to hear them too. Awesome to be here. Yeah. Also with me today is Tricia McMillan. Tricia is the producer of Open Line, and she's the one that puts the mail back together. And so, Tricia, thank you for putting all this together.
Glad to be.
Here. Yeah, it's going to be a lot of fun. There's no one answering the calls.
Today, right?
Nope. Because please don't call today. Today is just all mailbag all the time. But you can write to us. The best way you can write to us is just go to Open Line radio.org. That's our website. And when you get to Open Line radio.org, what you can do is you'll scroll down, you'll see a link that says Ask Michael a question. And so you click on that, fill out the form and your question will come right in. And we will put that into a mailbag for the future.
So if you have a question that is prompted by today's program, that's the way to get it to us. And Tricia, you have a lot of questions here.
I do, I don't well, I do, but those are not the ones I brought today. The ones I brought today are the questions that everyone else has sent in for me. Yeah.
And they resonate with you. So they do.
Yeah. And there's a lot of good questions too.
So anyway, I'm really glad that we're going to do this and we're going to just jump right in and go right to the questions.
All right. Our first question is from Beverly in Oxford Alabama listens to WGR. W when the captives return from Babylon, did they include the tribes of Judah and Benjamin only, or were there other tribes present?
You know, that's this is sort of the background idea that there were lost tribes, that there were the ten lost tribes, but actually none of the tribes were lost, and that when the captives came back from Babylon, I think it included people from all of the all of the 12 tribes. And what happened was earlier on, during even during the Assyrian captivity, tribes from the north went down to the south. And this was like 707. 21 was when the northern Kingdom fell. They went down to
the south for safety. And then when the Babylonian captivity happened in 586, there were people from every tribe that were taken into captivity by the Babylonians. And after the captivity ended, 70 years later, the people came back to the land of Israel, and they came back being from every tribe. And one of the examples that we know of, from people being, from every tribe is that in the birth narrative of the Messiah, Jesus, when he was taken to the temple as a little baby, and Luke chapter two,
it talks about the prophetess Anna. She was from the tribe of Asher. So that's just one example of where we have people from a northern tribe that is mentioned in the New Testament era. So people came back from every tribe. There were no lost tribes.
That's from Luke 236.
Luke 236.
People are wondering about that. So also it's possible some of the northern tribes obviously intermarried with the Syrians, and that's how they became Samaritans. And then some of the northern tribes actually were taken captive to Assyria. And then when Judah was brought to Babylon. Babylon had taken over Assyria at that point. And so the community was just
merged and became one. The Jews who had gone into exile in 721, and their descendants now were merged with the Jews, who were brought into exile in Judah from Judah to Babylon. So they all got merged. And so no, there were not ten lost tribes. So when people want to say, oh, the, the people of of Great Britain are the true lost ten tribes.
Native Americans or.
Native Americans are the lost ten tribes. None of that's true. The lost Ten tribes were never lost. They came back to the land. Now, what was lost is that after the destruction of the temple, most of the the tribal records were lost with the destruction of the temple. And Jewish people, except for trying to remember who was from a priestly family and who was from a was a Levite. Otherwise all the other records of.
And that was in the 70 A.D., the Roman destruction of the temple in 70. That's when those records were lost.
And so ever since then, people don't really track their tribes.
Okay, thanks for that question, Beverly. That was a very quick history lesson on the captivity. Um, Tara wrote us from Bradenton, Florida, listened to us with her 12 year old's question. He would like to know who the last prophet was in the Bible.
Well, it depends on how you're looking at it. The last prophet of the Old Testament, obviously, is the book of Malachi. You've got three post-exile prophets, okay? You've got the prophets, and then you've got the exile, and then you've got Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi. And really, we know for sure by the dates of Haggai and Zechariah, that they were indeed post-exilic prophets. We just presume Malachi was because he's right there connected with them, and he's the
last book of the Bible. But there's no date on the book of Malachi to tell us that he was a post-exilic prophet. It's just we presume it because he's there along with Haggai and Zechariah, and then boom.
Yep. Long tradition of long.
Tradition of him being the third of the Post-exilic prophets. But it doesn't say it in Malachi.
Are all of the prophetic books in the Old Testament in order in how they were prophets?
Not necessarily so. But, you know, you look at Isaiah and then Jeremiah came after him. Ezekiel was compatible with Jeremiah. But, uh, at the same time, uh, but then you've got Daniel in another section. He's not really in the prophetic section in the Hebrew canon. He's in the writings. And then you've got the the 12 Minor Prophets. But what it does appear is that of the 12, it ends with
the Post-exilic prophets. And sort of the context of where Malachi is put would lead us to believe that, yes, indeed, he's a post-exilic prophet. But that's not the last necessary prophet in the Bible.
And then we knew there the post-exilic because of what they're talking about. They're talking about stuff after the exile.
Well, there's dates also in Haggai and Zechariah. And also when you get to the New Testament. There are prophets. I mean, I've just mentioned the prophetess Anna in Luke two. Right? Mhm. Uh, but of course we have the greatest prophet and that's John the Baptist according to Matthew 11. Uh, he's the greatest of the holes, and he's kind of classed with the Old Testament prophets, though he's in the New Testament.
And then there are prophets with the New Testament gift of prophecy that we see in the book of acts like Agabus. And he was a prophet, but he gave a prediction about Paul going to be bound from Jerusalem and taken, you know, captive and so forth. And so there are other prophets, and it does look like that there's going to be a prophetic witness in the book of revelation, or sort of a restoration of the office of prophet in, in the future, when there's the two
witnesses in revelation 11. So we still have not yet seen the last prophet, because the two witnesses are coming. And so yeah, it's like one of those questions that people say, well, who's the last prophet? Well, it depends on what you're asking.
So okay. Yeah. All right. Thanks for that information. Yeah. Exactly.
Like who discovered America. It depends on where you're looking. Yeah.
Thanks for that question, Tara. From your son Aaron wrote us from Spokane, Washington. Listens to KMBC. I'm reading Matthew 1818. Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven. Whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. And wondering what the terms binding and loosing refer to. My application Bible indicates this refers to conflict with within the church, which makes sense given the context of the
prior verses. Context is important though. Specifically what is being bound and loosed and how should this be applied?
Isn't that binding and loosing? That's kind of a rabbinic term, Michael.
It is a rabbinic term. To bind means to forbid and to loose means to permit, and it really is a reference there To a term that was used in Judaism at that time for making decisions.
And it makes sense it would be used in Matthew, since it's primarily a gospel focused toward the Jewish people who would be familiar with some of these terms.
Yeah. And of course, Jesus was in the event he was saying it, and he used that term because he was talking with Jewish people who completely understood what he was saying. And so the context is really, uh, church discipline. That's that's what it's talking about there in Matthew 18. Uh, it says, uh, that's where you gather if you have if your brother sins against you, you go and and address it in private. And then if he doesn't listen,
if you've listened, you've won your brother. If not, bring 2 or 3 witnesses by the mouth of 2 or 3 witnesses, every word will be tested. And so if that doesn't listen to that, then it says, bring it to the church. Here's Jesus anticipating the establishment of the church. It was not yet established, but he's giving them direction
for when the church is established. And then he says, whatever you bind in terms of the leadership of your church, whatever you bind or loose on earth is bound in heaven. In other words, whatever decision you make as a church, that's the decision of heaven. It is giving authority to the church leadership to make these kinds of decisions. So binding and loosing means technically it means to forbid or to permit, but it came to be when you use
them together a term for meaning make decisions. Uh, and the decision then would be whatever decision you make on earth that's confirmed in heaven. And of course, what I think is most interesting. Look at verse 20. Uh, Eva. Yeah. How do people use that verse?
So this is so often used about for for a prayer meeting. Verse 20, for where 2 or 3 are gathered together in my name, I am there in their midst. And so, you know, if you've got 2 or 3 people together, Jesus is with us in a very special way.
Yeah, but that's not what it's talking about.
What it's talking about.
It's talking about church discipline.
And in fact, I think when we get together to pray, when we ask Jesus to be with us, it's like not understanding that like he is always with us. The Holy Spirit is always with us is present. He's always present. Yeah.
So but yeah, that's one of the things. Lord be with us now. He hasn't left. He said, I'll never leave you or forsake you. Right. Yeah. So how does.
How does that apply to church discipline?
Yeah. The 2 or 3. It's like when the leadership makes this decision, if it's brought to the whole body, and then the leadership could be two or 3 or 6 or whatever the elders are. And the church body makes a decision that the Lord Jesus is in the midst of that decision. Okay. It, uh, church discipline isn't a real popular topic, right? But it's one that is needs to be exercised by the church, and it doesn't
have to be harsh or unloving. It should be loving and redemptive, but Jesus is in the midst of it. So anyway, I think that's kind of a interesting verse that's frequently misused. Hey, you're listening to a very special all mailbag, all the time edition of Open Line. I'm Mike Radonich. Everett Dolnick is here. Tricia McMillan. We're going to be back with more of your questions in a moment. Do you want to read the Bible but don't know where to begin? Or maybe you just want to get
more out of your reading of the scriptures. Well, have I got a book for you? It's called 14 Fresh Ways to Enjoy the Bible. This innovative guide presents 14 practical principles to bring Scripture to life. Give a gift of any amount and we'll send you a copy just to say thanks. Call (888) 644-7122 or visit Open Line radio.org. Welcome back to this all mailbag, all the time edition
of Open Line. I'm Michael Ray Dolnick and with me today is Eva Ray Dolnick, my colleague at Moody Bible Institute and my wife for more years than we we were going to admit. Right. That's it. We've been married a long time. And Tricia McMillan, our producer of Open Line, is here. She's got the mailbag. She's put it all together. Before we get right back to the questions, I want to tell you about a terrific offer from Open Line. When autumn rolls around, people are always interested in the
Jewish fall holy days. That's why Chosen People Ministries is offering a free booklet, Celebrate Israel's High Holidays. This booklet explores the fall Jewish High holidays of Rosh Hashanah, which is the New Year, Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, and Sukkot, the Feast of Booths. Don't miss out, just
go to the Open Line website. Open Line radio.org. Scroll down and click on the link that says A free gift from Chosen People Ministries that will take you to a page where you can sign up for your very own copy of Celebrate Israel's High Holy Days. Okay, Tricia, we're we're ready to hit these questions one more time. All right. Okay.
Next question is you have your.
Favorites picked out, right?
Sure. They're all your favorites. They're all my favorites. They're these. Yeah. I actually had to stop myself. I was like, okay, we won't have time to get to all of these, so I'll just stop and I'll just make another one for later. So Elaine wrote us from Miami, Florida, listens to R&;B. In John ten, Jesus says, I am the good shepherd and I know my own. In verse 16 of that chapter he says, I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also.
Who are these other sheep he's talking about? Yeah. Is it Gentiles, or is it some other group of people?
It does appear that this is, you know, one of the things that Ephesians says, and this is kind of interesting to me. The Old Testament. Let's start there. The Old Testament always foretells that there will come a day when the Messiah comes, when the nations will know him. It doesn't predict the church. There's no place in the
Old Testament where it predicts the the church. But the Old Testament, particularly, uh, in the Psalms and in the prophets, it foretells a day when the nations will know him. It actually starts way back in Genesis, in Genesis 4910, where it talks about the lion of the tribe of Judah will come, and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples. And it uses the plural word there, so that it indicates that one day the nations will come, that the peoples will will submit to this king from
the tribe of Judah. And then, uh, in the other passage I was thinking about is from the the prophets in Isaiah, where in the servant song it says, it's too small a thing. It's Isaiah 42. It's too small a thing for you to just be the the Redeemer of Israel. This is what he says. I have called you. This is what he says to the Messiah. God says, I, the Lord God, have called you for a righteous purpose. I will keep you, and I will make you a covenant of the people and a light to the nations.
And so God promises him that I will make you a light to the nations. And then he says in Isaiah 49, it's too small a thing for you to be a light just to Israel. I'm going to or the Redeemer of Israel. I'll make you a light to the nations. Uh, and uh, it is kind of amazing when, when we see this, that there's this promise that that God says, I'm going to do this and bring the nations to know me. And so then, of course, you come to John And in John ten, this is what
Jesus is saying. He's saying that I am not just the Messiah of Israel. I'm not just the King of Israel, but also I am the the one who will redeem the world. John three starts that way. For God so loved the world, right? And so here in John, what's the verse that she is citing verse 1616? Yeah. She says, uh, I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice, and there will be one flock, one shepherd.
And so the idea there is a promise, sort of a quiet hint that the church is coming and there's going to be this one, people composed of Jews and Gentiles, the one new man described in Ephesians two. And Jesus is going to bring them together into one body in the body of Christ. The body of Christ starts when the church acts. Two and then the first gentile is converted and brought in, and that is Cornelius. And then Paul writes in Ephesians two how there's this one new man,
Jew and Gentile, together. Now there's still I mean, Jews are Jews, and Gentiles are Gentiles, but spiritually fully equal in in the body of the Messiah. So there's a lot of content there. Yeah. Uh, but that's what I believe Jesus is hinting at to us.
Okay. And when John wrote this, was the church already in existence? Yes. So he could have because he. John's the one at the end who says, I've included these specific stories. There's a lot more he said and did. But these are the important things that I think you need to know. Um, that he could have included this because it already existed, and it was kind of saying he did talk about it. Look at this. He's kind of he's.
Clarifying what you see before you.
Okay. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Very cool. Thanks for that question. Elaine joins us from Illinois, listens to Wmbi. In Philippians 217, Paul talks about being poured out like a drink offering. So that verse says, but even if I am poured out as a drink offering on the sacrifice and service of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with all of you. In Luke 2220, Jesus says, this cup which is poured out for you is the new covenant in
my blood. Wouldn't this be a drink offering if yes, it seems like Jesus sacrifice would fulfill the need for this. Before Jesus died, he said, it is finished. Why would God then want Paul to be a drink offering?
Uh, you know, it's interesting. I think the idea of a drink offering, of course, comes. It's in the it's in the the law in numbers 15. There's a lot of things about drink offerings. One part of an offering often would be a sacrificial animal offering. And then there would be a pouring out of a libation, a of wine, along with that sacrifice. So often it didn't stand alone, but it was part of two things. And so but the but the idea is.
When Paul says that in Philippians 217, he's saying, basically, my life is like that drink offering. I'm pouring out my life in service to you and pouring.
Out my life in service to you. Right? Yeah. And and Jesus, of course, was saying, you know, his life was poured out in service for us. He he died and rose again. That was part of the atonement sacrifice. But there's also another picture of when Jesus says, let this cup pass from me, might be referring not so much to the drink offering idea of the cup of an offering, but of judgment, of undergoing the the the
judgment of death. Because another picture of the cup in the Old Testament is the cup of the wrath of God's judgment. And we see that in Jeremiah 25 and Isaiah 55, Psalm 60. So I think there are two images here that are at play.
The imagery of judgment in the Old Testament is it's like God takes out a cup and he pours out his wrath, right.
Which we see again in revelation. Yeah, right. The right judgment.
Yeah. The bowl judgments. Yeah. So basically what Jesus is saying here is let this cup of your wrath pass from me. If I if it were possible. But obviously it wasn't. But what the Lord Jesus was saying is, this is a very hard thing to undergo the wrath of God and take on the punishment that everyone deserves. And so, uh, there is his humanity. And I think that's so important. We often think of the Lord Jesus as God man and we emphasize God. Mhm. And we
forget that he's God man and he's also man. And there is the, the pain of, of falling under the wrath of God that it would have. That's a hard thing to.
Now the other cup that she's mentioning here in Luke 2220. That's the third one, is the third cup. The third way to look at it. Right. This is happening at the at the final Passover that Jesus had with his disciples. And at that point, he took one of the four cups of the Passover service, the third cup of the Passover service.
And each cup had symbolic significance. And the third cup was the cup of redemption at the Passover meal. Now they're not listed out, but it's the meal, the cup that they took after they had eaten that he he uses here. That's the third cup in a Passover meal, and the third cup is the cup of redemption. And that's what he was talking about there. The cup of redemption in the Passover meal always reminded us that God redeemed us from slavery in Egypt by the blood of
a lamb. And so Jesus really now is mentioning this third cup as his redemption. This is the new covenant in my blood. He has redeemed us by his own blood and established the new covenant with it. And he uses the the cup of redemption to do that.
So let me just add here that when the disciples heard him say, this is the new covenant, They didn't think, oh, this is a new idea that I've never heard of before, but they would remember what the prophet Jeremiah had said that the days are coming, declares the Lord. This is in Jeremiah 3131, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made at Sinai, but this covenant will I will make with the house of
Israel after those days the final covenant. That was the covenant that was introduced right here by Jesus. That's the new covenant.
So so here's the thing. Here's a little hermeneutics lesson. You see the word cup. Don't presume that every time you see the word cup it means exactly the same thing. You have to say, okay, in context, what is he alluding to? So you have the cup of judgment that's there. There's also libations, right? That's the one that Paul was referring to. And then what Jesus was talking about in terms of the this is the new covenant in my blood. That third cup that that's a different cup. Yet it's
the cup from Passover. So, uh, one of the mistakes that we make is we get things to be we say they're all the same thing and they're not. And I see people make that same mistake all the time when they're studying the Bible. They grab one word and they want to make it represent the same thing every place. We have to read it in context, know what the whole word is talking about and refer to that. Does
that make sense to everyone? Yeah, yeah, I think I think when we give words technical meaning, uh, one of one of my favorites is that people will pull the word where Stephen talks about the church in the wilderness and they say, oh, see, there's a church in the Old Testament. No, there wasn't the word ecclesia that that he uses just means the gathering. And it comes to mean something later on of a gathering of, you know, the body of Christ. But when when Stephen uses it,
he's just using it as a gathering. And then when it's used in acts 19, it's used of a mob. So you can't always give it a technical sense. You have to be careful and read it in its context. So anyway, that's how the.
Cup is more than a cup.
Or sometimes many times more. We're going to be back with more of the questions you've sent in on this special all male bag, all the time edition of Open Line with Tricia McMillan and me, Mike Radonich. So don't go away.
We'll be right back.
We're so glad that Febc partners with Open Line with Doctor Michael Radonich, bringing the Febc mailbag every week. Learn how far East Broadcasting Company is taking Christ to the world at febc. Org on their weekly podcast. Until all have heard with Ed Cannon, you'll hear stories of lives changed by Messiah all across the globe. Again, you can hear the podcast when you visit febc. Org That's febc.org. Welcome to Open Line with Michael Zelnick. I'm glad that
you're joining me today. We want to get through all the questions that have been piling up in the mailbag. And so Tricia McMillan made a huge mailbag for today. And I invited Eva Radulovic to join us, because together, we're going to go through this assortment of questions that you've mailed in. And so don't call today. Just listen in. Perhaps your question that you mailed in will be answered. Well, Tricia.
Yes.
Okay.
You ready?
You got you have you have them here for me I see it, and Eva's ready. So. All right.
We're going to go to first Peter three. Okay.
Oh there we go.
So we had two listeners who wrote us with this similar question, Juanita in Chattanooga, Tennessee. And Rosa wrote us on Facebook. Um, does first Peter 319 mean that Jesus went to hell and preached during the three days he was in the grave? I know Christ told the thief on the cross next to him, today you will be with me in Paradise. So when a person told me that first Peter 319 meant that Christ went to hell and preached, I was very disturbed. She's a regular Saturday
morning listener. And then Rosa wanted to know, because the Bible says that Jesus descended to hell before he went up to the father. What was the purpose of it? Okay. Well, so did he descend to hell? I mean, what?
That's the bottom line right there.
Well.
In in the gospels, at the crucifixion, it is absolutely true that Jesus said, this day you'll be together with me in Paradise. He said that to the thief. And I believe that was when the Lord Jesus went. Well, he says, father, into your hands I commit my spirit. Right. So His spirit went to be with his father immediately upon death. He was. The word Paradise has to do with the Jewish word that was called that we would call heaven. The presence of God. And so it doesn't
appear to me that Jesus descended to hell. So first Peter three. What's it talking about, Eva? Do you have your first Peter three there in in the official the new American Standard Version?
Do you want me to start to read.
Read verses, uh.
17 through 19?
Uh, yeah. Do that. For it is.
Better if God should will it so that, uh.
Start with verse 18.
Yeah. For Messiah also died for sin once for all the just for the unjust, so that he might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit, in which also he went and made proclamation to the spirits now in prison, who once were disobedient, when the patience of God kept waiting in the days of Noah during the construction of the ark, in which a few, that is, eight persons were brought safely through.
That's good. So here we go. It seems to me that people have made a an idea that that they took it from the Apostles Creed, where it says he descended to hell. It never says that he descended to hell. It says that he he went. How does your verse 19 say in that way? Or is it in.
Which also he went and made proclamation? So he talked about the spirit, and then in which he also.
Made he made proclamation to the spirits in prison. I believe that should be understood as the spirits who are now in prison.
New American standard supplies that. Yeah.
The spirits who are now in prison, who in the past were disobedient when God patiently waited in the days of Noah. So it's talking about here's what happened. There were people who were disobedient in the days of Noah. That's why God judged the world. And during the whole time Noah was building the ark, he's telling them to repent and they remain disobedient. And the message was proclaimed to them to repent and they wouldn't listen. And so he went and made proclamation to the spirits who are
now in prison, when? When they were still alive. How did he do it? Through Noah.
So the in prison, though, is referring to hell.
It's referring to people who are bound, awaiting future judgment. Okay. Yeah. So they're.
There now. But when they were hearing the message, they were alive in the days of Noah. And it was being taught to them by Noah, by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Yeah. And in the same way, I mean that people say, well, why does it say that Jesus proclaimed Jesus proclaimed it through Noah in the same way that it says in Ephesians two he preached peace to those of you who are far, and those of you who are near. Uh, well, Jesus really didn't go preach to the Gentiles. But the reason he did it is he preached through the. It can say that he preached to the those who were far the Gentiles. Why? Because he preached through the apostles
to the Gentiles. And so to say that Jesus preached to someone doesn't mean or made proclamation doesn't mean that he had to have proclaimed it to them directly. He could use agents like Noah or the apostles to accomplish that. So I don't think it's talking about Jesus going to hell. The only other verse I think that people really rest on for saying that Jesus descended to hell is from John. When Mary Magdalene meets Jesus in the garden after the resurrection.
She thinks he's the gardener. Do you remember that verse at the empty tomb? And she's crying and she doesn't recognize him. And then she sees him and he says in verse 17 of John 20, I have not yet ascended to the father. Let don't touch me. I've not yet ascended to the father. A lot of versions say, don't touch me. But the the, the clearest meaning of the Greek is stop clinging to me. I have not yet ascended to the father. That doesn't mean that his
spirit didn't go to be with the father. Uh, when he died. But rather what that saying is I have not yet ascended as I will in acts one, 40 days later. 40 days later. Literally bodily ascent. I've not done that. I'm still here with you. I'm going to be with you. Don't. You can let go of me. I'm not going anywhere. That's really what he's saying. I've not yet ascended to the father. I'm here with you, and I'm going to be teaching you guys for the next 40 days. That's what he did. And so that's
not saying that there's some sort of, like, dangerous. Don't touch me. I'm not yet ascended. Uh, that's not what it's saying. Uh, it's saying I've not yet ascended to the father. You can let go of me. Okay.
All right. Thank you for that. I hope that cleared it up for you. Rosa and Juanita and.
I love one of the things that Wayne Grudem once said that about the Apostles Creed. He does remind us that the Apostles Creed that has this the earliest versions did not did not say that. And he said, even if it's old, even if it's an old error, it's still an error. So I like that even old mistakes are still mistakes. So.
All right. Thank you. Our next question is from Esther in Tampa, Florida. Listens to kiss the Bible lists in first Corinthians six nine and ten, a group of people that will not inherit God's kingdom. Does this include believers that still uphold these habitual ungodly practices? Churches today are preaching that once you're saved, your past, current, and future sins are washed and covered by the blood of Christ and that they will go to heaven despite habitual knowing sins.
In my heart, I see societies plummeting because of that philosophy or doctrine that I believe is deceptive based on what she thinks. First Corinthians six nine and ten is saying. So is that what it's saying? That this is believers who are still doing these practices?
I mean, I look at this verse and it says it lists all these sins And obviously some are sexual, some are not. Uh, I think it's interesting that swindlers are included in there, but they're all very serious.
Sins and greedy.
People. Greedy people. Yeah, yeah. And, uh, covetous people.
Yeah.
Some of you were like this, but you were washed. You were sanctified. You were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the spirit of our God. That's talking. I find it interesting. He doesn't say you changed your behavior so much as you changed your spiritual condition. Now, I do believe he says, you were like this, but you're no longer. But what happened to them? They believed in Jesus and their sins were washed away.
So she's looking at this verse. It's not really saying what she's saying.
It's saying no. But they were changed. They were sanctified. And the word justified means declared righteous, not on the basis of our merit, not on the basis of our deeds, but declared righteous based on the righteousness of the Lord Jesus. That's what this is saying. We are declared righteous not because of anything we've done, but because of what he has done. And so that's a crucial perspective to get. And I do believe that Romans eight one is clear.
There is no condemnation for those of us who are in Messiah Jesus. If we've put our trust in Jesus, our sins are forgiven past, present, and future. What do we.
That doesn't mean, though, because they were forgiven that we can do anything we want. No, no. Should we sin? That grace may abound?
Romans six says no, no.
May it never be. Yeah.
But on the other hand, there's a pattern. Sometimes if someone's in a just an uncaring, habitual sin, they just. This is what I do. This is me, man. This is what I'm like. Uh, then that might reflect someone that really doesn't understand the grace of God.
The Popeye philosophy. I am what I am. Maybe you don't know what's going on.
Yeah. Maybe you've never really trust the Lord. But other people struggle with sin and constantly confess it and turn it over to the Lord. The Lord's going to keep forgiving them and restoring them. That's that's a different story. So anyway, we're going to be back with more of your questions in just a moment with Tricia McMillan, Eva Dolnick and me, Michael Dolnick right here on Open Line. Stay with us. Sometimes we want to read the Bible but don't know how to get the most out of it.
My friend, Moody Professor Doctor Jim Coakley, has written 14 Fresh Ways to Enjoy the Bible, a book that helps us understand the full riches of Scripture by giving 14 practical principles to bring them to life. Request your copy today with a gift of any amount to open line, call (888) 644-7122 or visit Open Line radio.org. Welcome back to this special edition of Open Line. It's special because it's all your questions that you've sent in. It's an all
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I have a cup of coffee.
Oh, there we go.
There he goes. Our next question is from Wesley in Tennessee. Listen to Wpcm in Hebrews chapter ten, there's a passage that talks about trampling in the blood of trampling on the blood of Christ. Uh, he wants to know who this audience is that that it was being written to. It seems that it would be hard to go on sinning when just a couple chapters later, the author talks about being chastised by the Lord as a believer who
continues in sin. So this is Hebrews ten starting at verse 26, and it goes through 29.
Yeah, but here's what I'll read. If we deliberately sin after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a terrifying expectation of judgment and the fury of fire about to consume the adversaries. And then how? If you scroll down, he's talking about those who in the law of Moses were punished. Then verse 29, how much worse punishment do you think one
will deserve? Who has trampled the Son of God, regarded as profane, as ordinary, as insignificant, the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified and insulted, the spirit of grace. Now, just to we have to understand the audience. This is a book written to the Hebrews that means to Jewish people. And these were Jewish people undergoing serious persecution just before the in the early 60s. That's the period of time. And some people were thinking, you know,
what we need to do? What we should do is just stop identifying as followers of Jesus, kind of go back to traditional Judaism. And then when everything blows over, we can we can then get back. We can do that. But we don't have to identify as believers now. And so the writer of Hebrews is writing to the whole group. And yet he has these asides, these parenthetical portions where he warns those who are thinking about abandoning the faith and he thinks better of them. He doesn't think they
will abandon the faith. But he's saying, if you abandon the faith, you're demonstrating that you really never knew the Lord, that if you apostatize, it demonstrates an evil, unbelieving heart that is not the heart of a believer, but it is the heart of someone who never knew the Lord. He's saying, you will have come close, but you know
you really don't know him. And so in verse 26, he's it says, if we deliberately sin after receiving the knowledge of the truth in that context, it's not talking about, you know, I keep committing this particular sin and you can name the sin, uh, but it is talking about A special, specific sin that he's been talking about. And that's the sin of apostasy. If we deliberately commit the sin of apostasy after we know what's true, then the
benefits of the atonement are no longer ours. Because what we're doing is we're taking the precious blood of the Messiah and trampling it under foot and saying it's not anything special at all. And so therefore, if we do that, we demonstrate that we don't know the Lord. So that's the specific sin it's talking about. Okay. Uh, did you want to add anything on that? No. That's good. Yeah. Okay.
Thanks, Wesley, for that question. Dottie wrote us in Conyers, Georgia. Listens on our mobile app. What resources do you recommend for understanding end times prophecy?
Yes, a couple that I thought when I saw that note, I thought Paul Walker's book on End Times prophecy. Just really basic.
Understanding. End times prophecy.
Yeah, I think it's the best book there is on that.
Yeah. And if you are, if you really enjoy Erwin Lutzer style of writing, he also wrote The Coming King, which has to do with, yeah, I know the.
Guy that wrote the foreword on that one.
I heard that. I heard I heard of that guy. So I think those would be two good resources from a slightly different perspective, but good resources. Understanding end Times prophecy by Ben. Where or the Coming King by Erwin Lutzer. Yeah.
Now, the thing Lutzer is definitely, uh, Pastor Luther's is very much more pastoral.
Mhm. So it's kind of perspective.
And then Paul Benware, it's a little bit more, uh, content, uh, more detailed in the content I would say. Uh, and both of them are really good friends of ours. And so I'm happy for anyone to read either of those books. Uh, but they're really, really helpful. Both of them. I really I really like the. If you want a little bit more detail about end times understanding end times prophecy. Uh, Paul Benware and both of them, by the way, are available through the Moody Publishers catalog.
They're both. Moody publishers books.
Great. Thanks for that question, Dottie. So that leads us into. Then Lisa wrote us. Sorry. Liz wrote us in Valparaiso, Indiana. Listens to WNBA. She's wondering if Christ will come back when everyone he has predetermined to give eternal life to has received it. Like, is that what we're waiting for? That there's this.
The magic number.
Is. Yeah. Like, okay, everyone's got the question. Um, number.
16 is.
When Christ comes back. Is that because everyone he has predetermined to give eternal life to has received it? Is that kind of the trigger? Oh, there's number whatever that. Okay. It flips this magic switch, and now now he can come back. Is that what we're waiting for? I love.
It. I love.
That image. Like Hollywood.
No, I just don't, you know, I don't know. Uh, no one knows when he's coming back. He's. He will come back when it says, In Romans 11, uh, let's see, uh, Romans 11 that it talks about the not the times of the Gentiles, but the, uh, the fullness of the Gentiles come in, says so that this is and it's talking here at the end of the tribulation period, uh, the, the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. Uh, and in this way. And then all Israel will be saved.
And so it's talking about that when I think the the last Gentile person will be saved. It doesn't say that God said, okay, that's the elect. Flip the switch. But when the last Gentile is saved, when the fullness of the Gentiles, when God has completed his work that he's doing to bring Gentile nations in, then, uh, the the nation of Israel will turn in faith to Jesus, and then he will be, all Israel will be saved. He'll save Israel. And that that's through the second coming.
So I just don't I don't I think it may be so what she's saying, I just don't uh, that's sort of saying the election, God has determined the whole thing. And then, like you say, the switch.
I'm just waiting for that person right there. Okay, that was it. That was my trigger. I don't think.
It's like that. So. But, you know, I can see where the person's thinking that. But no.
Yeah. Okay. Well, thanks for that question. Uh, and then Eunice wrote us from Miami, Florida. Revelation one seven says they will see him coming from heaven, even those who pierced him. Does this mean the ones who pierced Jesus were saved after Christ's death? My understanding of the rapture is that those who believe will be taken up. So in 60s or less. Yeah.
Okay, I'm going to do this quick. Uh, revelation one seven is an allusion to Zechariah 1210, which is been. It says there that the they will look upon me whom they have pierced, as one mourns for an only son. And then this is saying in revelation one seven that all the tram, all the tribes of the land will
mourn over him. That's talking about the Jewish people. So it's just saying that the Jewish people who were involved as a nation in the death of the Messiah, not all individuals, but that they will recognize him and turn in faith to him. So that's what it's talking about. I can't believe that's the that's the our. We have another hour of open line coming up on most of these stations, so stick with us. Check out our web page openlibrary.org. It's got everything you might need, everything you
might want. All the links that you're looking for. Uh, also, be sure you can, uh, keep listening to the next hour. We'll talk more about all these things. Open line with Doctor Michael Jelinek is a production of Moody Radio, a ministry of Moody Bible Institute.