Questions and Answers, Part 13

Transcript

GRM 1211
1/13/2019
Questions and Answers, Part 13
Selected Verses
Gil Rugh

Thought we’d take the evening for questions. There’s a little bit where I see us going as we move into the year I’d like to intersperse the evenings with some studies. Do shorter studies, then some evenings part of it will be a study, part of it will be questions. And if we do a study for a couple of weeks then we might take a full evening for questions. So, a little bit how I see the future unfolding there. Looking for some stuff, I have to tell you, we’re moving and what a mess. I couldn’t find my questions. Couldn’t find them at home so I came to church. Low and behold, somebody had moved them at church. So, I got into the car and went back home. And I found where Marilyn hid them. Ha, ha. So, there’s stuff scattered everywhere. Marilyn is the scheduled, ordered person. I’m reminded in our move, my responsibility is primarily to stay out of the way and do what I’m told. That’s my contribution. Marilyn got me a little plaque, I thought, oh, is that right? She said, if it wasn’t for the last minute, nothing would ever get done. Ha, and that’s a little bit the way I operate.

Alright. So, I have some questions that you’ve submitted. Some of the questions may generate a study for an evening or two. So, if I haven’t addressed them it is because it will take more time and preparation for me to maybe get those ready, but I haven’t discarded them. We try to keep track of them and try to keep up to date on what you’ve asked.

One that came to me recently, I’ll go backwards and then I’ll just stop. So, if you’ve got a question.
Matthew 24:36, and you might want to turn there in your bible. Familiar passage because it does raise a question, specifically in connection with the deity of Christ. Matthew 24:36 where Jesus is talking about events related to His second coming. And He says in verse 36, “But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone.” The question was, how only the Father knows the day and the hour? Jesus knows everything and is God, so why doesn’t’ Jesus know the day and the hour?

In Christ, we have what we call the theanthropic union. From the Greek word for Theos, God and Anthropos, man, the God-man union. And how does the deity and the humanity coincide? He’s fully God, He’s fully man. And this is one of those passages where Jesus says He does not know the hour, but God is omniscient. I think the answer may be connected most simply to the kenosis, Philippians 2, where Christ emptied Himself. In Philippians 2:5, “Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself.” That word ‘emptied’ is where we get the word, kenosis, the word translated emptied. So, when we talk about the kenosis, I just take the Greek word and use it for this passage, talking about His emptying. I think what you have in the margin of your bible, in the New American Standard, they decide His privileges, gets to the idea, He couldn’t cease having all the attributes that go into His being God. His Omnipotence, He is all powerful, He is omniscient, all knowing, His omnipresence. He is everywhere always and yet He can choose not to use those attributes. It becomes difficult to maybe illustrate those. Don’t want to create a misunderstanding but for example, God does choose not to openly exercise His attributes, He’s all powerful and all sovereign and yet we have rulers in the world, openly defying Him. It doesn’t mean He is not powerful, it means He chooses not to exercise that power openly and in display. So, Christ could choose not to use His omniscience, but to function completely as a man. And do His earthly ministry, not in His own power but in the power of the Holy Spirit. And I don’t want to imply that we can fully explain all that was involved. But I think that’s where it gets to, He didn’t cease to be God, but he chose, when He became a man, not to exercise those attributes and prerogatives that were His as God, while He was a man, but to function totally as a human. And so, He would get tired, He would get hungry, He would suffer abuse. Obviously, it would not be possible for anyone to go to heaven and attack God on His throne. But it was possible for God, through whom all of the creation to come into existence, as John 1 says, to be crucified, to be tortured in preparation for His crucifixion, He chose not to exercise those attributes and prerogatives that were His as deity. So, I take it that’s true in the area of His knowledge. He chose not to know; which was His prerogative, His omniscience to know when he was functioning truly as a man. Like I say, there is a point where we go about as far as we can, because something is unique here. He is the only one who was ever the God-man. So, our comprehension and resolving everything that would be involved, Colossians says all things were created by Him and for Him, and in Him all things hold together. And yet He was a baby at Bethlehem. You know, there are things that are marvelous and amazing. But my understanding is Philippians 2 is explaining, He chose not to exercise those attributes that were His as deity. He didn’t cease to have them, He chose not to use them. But to function as totally and completely human during His earthly ministry. And that’s what He could say, He does not know the hour. He chose not to, He was a man. Something that God the Father has reserved for Himself. That doesn’t resolve all questions, but it is, I think about as far as I’ve been able to go with that.

Connected to prophecy, what is your view on there being more than one Anti-Christ? Could there be an Anti-Christ, but he might not be “the” Anti-Christ? And I think that’s true. 1 John 2, John says that very thing. 1 John 2:18, “Children, it is the last hour; and just as you heard that antichrist is coming.” And he’d be talking about “the Anti-Christ” is coming. He goes on to say; “even now many anti-christs have arisen; from this we know that it is the last hour.”

From the Old Testament perspective, the times of Messiah were the end times, the last times. And since the Old Testament did not separate the first coming of Christ and the second coming, you can talk about the end times, the last times, from the first coming of Christ to the second coming. Because the Old Testament would refer to that because it did not distinguish, it had not been revealed that there was a times separation between when He would come and suffer and die and when He would come and rule and reign. So, the times of the Messiah, are the last times. They began with His first coming, they conclude with His second coming. So, we are in the last hour, Messiah has come to accomplish what He had to accomplish at His first coming and we await His second coming. And many anti-christs are present, those who have risen up to oppose Christ, to be instruments that Satan uses to try to prevent the rule of Christ. I think that is true in the world. But there is a coming Anti-Christ, so these are just preliminary. You can look at maybe individuals, one that we hear so much about, Hitler and his attempt to destroy the Jews. In some ways you could say he was an anti-christ. He was consumed with a passion to destroy and illuminate the Jews. Well, that’s what “the Anti-Christ” will attempt to do. Remember in Revelation 12, annihilate the Jews, destroy the Jews. Though there have been others like that in history, attempts to thwart the purposes of God as revealed in His word. Because remember, the goal of Satan is if he can keep God from establishing the Kingdom, he can rule. Obviously he can’t, but many anti-christs. So, I think the observation is true. There is “the Anti-Christ”, the one in the first beast in Revelation 13, the individual, the lawless one who is revealed in 11 Thessalonians 2. But there are anti-christs present. Some made the mistake by mentioning World War 2 and Adolph Hitler, some of those who study prophetic scriptures were convinced that this was the one. Some thought it was Mousseline. So, you need to be careful, because some of these individuals may have something of the character of this final individual. But they’re just sort of forerunners, previews. So, there are many, there were in John’s day, many anti-christs. There are today, but “the Anti-Christ” will rise and he will be that final figure.
One more question, then I’ll open it up for yours. Something comes up and you often hear people in the news and so on, the issue of capitol punishment gets involved in this. Why is killing in military or law enforcement activity ok, when murder is condemned as sin? What about capital punishment?

Some people express themselves, they’re against capitol punishment because the bible says we should not kill. We shouldn’t take a life. But obviously, you’re familiar with the bible, God commands people to be killed. He gave instructions for people to be stoned. We want to be careful here. Some writers, even evangelical writers that we would respect, I think it’s perilously close to putting themselves in a box. One writer criticizing John Calvin for being involved in the burning at the stake of heretic, Servetus. No Christian could do that, that is, really be careful, God instructed people to be stoned in the Old Testament. You know, that wasn’t an immediate way to kill people. There were quicker ways to put a person to death than stoning. You know what stoning was, people gathered around, they brought their collection of stones and they just continued throwing stones at that person. Every stone that hit him had to be painful and hurt! That was the goal, you threw those stones, you threw them hard. But he didn’t die when he got hit with the first stone, maybe not the second stone. Some people were pore throwers, you know you get bruises all over. It’s a process of dying. But we want to be careful, oh our God wouldn’t, but wait a minute, we want to be careful when we make those kinds of characteristics. I think the bible makes a distinction between murder as we know murder. Taking a life that we have no authority to than war. That’s why some liberal theologians distinguish between the God of the Old Testament and the God of the New Testament. Sometimes when I’m reading evangelical Christians, it sounds to me like they’re doing the same thing. We’ve just studied the book of Revelation, the God of the Old Testament is the God of the New Testament. And when He pours His wrath out on this world in the coming tribulation, there are going to be billions of people who die. Some of them die terrible deaths! They’ll curse God because they realize He’s the one bringing the pain and agony upon them as we saw in Revelation 16. So, we want to be careful that we don’t make distinctions that are not biblical. Murder, I don’t have the right to take someone’s life except those representing government have the power of capital authority. Capital punishment, Romans 13, they don’t bear the sword in vain. Paul doesn’t condemn Rome for carrying out punishments. He says he’s innocent, he says if I’m guilty of a crime, I’m willing to suffer. So, we want to be careful, law enforcement, they are entrusted with protecting people. Now, we make a distinction, a police officer can’t shoot just anyone he feels like because he’s a police officer. But there are times, in his carrying out his duty where it is necessary. That’s not murder. But if he just walks out the door and shoots somebody, that is murder. Both situations, a police officer would be involved. We see in our news, where a police officer has been charged with murder because what? He uses authority improperly, he took a life that he didn’t have the authority to take it. But if he shoots somebody and they’re in the process of a crime, then he’s exercising a certain authority. So, we want to be careful that we see and recognize the distinctions that God carries out. Israel was an earthly nation, so there are distinctions. The Church doesn’t have the power of capital punishment, government does. Israel was an earthly nation, it had the right and authority to exercise capitol punishment. It had the right to go to war. What did God say? He sent Israelites under Joshua, into Canaan, what did He say? You kill every man, every woman, every child. You say wait a minute, doesn’t that go beyond what God would do? Taking the life of a child? What God instructed the Jews to do and when they didn’t do it, they were in rebellion against God. So, all of this, we want to be careful, there’s a distinction in war, there is a distinction in the kind of death that takes place in it’s context. So, not every taking of a life is condemned in scripture. Thou shalt not kill. I cringe when I hear on TV, somebody will say, well the bible says Thou Shalt not Kill, we’re against capital punishment. Wait a minute, you know, they just pull out a verse, they have no understanding of what it is. So, the bible makes a distinction between military action between proper governmental authority. In fact God established capital punishment in the Noahic Covenant which is a general covenant. But whoever takes a life, should give his life, because that’s an act against God. That’s in the context of murder. So, God’s not saying, well take a life if this person murders someone, you should take their life. Well, aren’t they guilty of murder? Well, then God would be contradicting Himself. You’re aware of the scripture that the Old Testament particularly are filled with examples. Israel was an earthly nation, it functioned as an earthly nation with its governmental structure and so on. It was also a theocratic nation where it had its religious system. Today, we’re the Church, we function, not as a nation but as God’s people, in whatever nation God has placed us. We don’t have governmental authority. We have the right of self-protection and so on that our government gives us. So the distinction I think, it’s important to keep biblical distinctions and be careful about talking about certain activities that maybe happened down through history. Calvin’s problem in dealing with a heretic was he confused Israel and the Church. Israel did have the right to execute heretics, like witches, the Church did not. The Salem Witch trials all come out of a defective theology of trying to equate the Church with Israel. It’s not a different God, we are a different people. We are not a nation. And in this context, let me take you to Peter. 1 Peter, now this verse is misunderstood often by Dispensationalists and Non-Dispensationalists. In 1 Peter 2:9, “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession.” Some take it and see, the church is called a race. You know what a race is, the different races of the world. You’re a chosen race, a royal priesthood and obviously you can see, he’s quoting from the Old Testament here. But the problem comes, to whom is Peter addressing this letter under the inspiration of the Spirit? Back in chapter 1:1, “Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who reside as aliens, scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia and so on. And that is literally, he’s writing to the elect sojourners of the Diaspora. Now, the diaspora is a term that has come right down to us. It refers to the Jews who have been scattered outside their land. So, this is written to Jewish believers scattered in various places. And he mentions it, Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, Bithynia. They are the elect sojourners of the Diaspora. And so, as Jewish believers they are that remnant. Remember, Paul says I haven’t lost my identity as a Jew. I’m of the tribe of Benjamin and so on. So, I want to be careful, he’s not just writing to the church at large, he’s writing to Jewish believers who are part of the church. But they are representatives of God’s grace. Remember Paul said, I am one in Romans 9, 10 and 11 as he shows God’s plan for Israel and the overall context of the plan of salvation. Has God cast away His people? God forbid (moi genoito) such a thought is inconceivable, it cannot be; I’m a Jew. So, there is that elect remnant. So, Jewish believers down to today are a testimony that God is not through with Israel. And they are the remnant of that elect nation, God’s chosen race. That’s not true of me as a Gentile believer. I’m not part of the chosen race. And we’re gathered here as the church as a mixture of race, races, with different backgrounds and so on. But Jewish believes are the chosen race. So, God hasn’t rejected the nation as a nation. They just haven’t been disseminated and their identity is lost. We know of the nation Israel, but believers who are Jews, are a testimony that God has not finally rejected the nation. They are now part of the church. But even as part of the church, they remain in that special place. So, Peter is writing to the elect sojourners of the Diaspora. And I don’t have the verses written down right now but I think the word diaspora was used three times in the New Testament. The other two times clearly of Jews. But for some reason, some good writers come and say, well diaspora here, just means Christians scattered. Well, as soon as they do that, when they get to chapter 2:9, “You are a chosen race,” see, the church is called a race. A church is called a nation. Wait a minute, back up, why would you say that the diaspora on this one occasion refers to Jews. Remember when Jesus was ministering and He said, “You can not go where I’m going,” the Jews at the time questioned said, will He go to the diaspora? They weren’t asking, will He go to the Gentiles, is He going to leave Israel and go out to other places like Pontus and Galatia to reach Jews there? So, the diaspora is a technical term. So, I just mention that because sometimes church gets confused here, then when you’re into that, and now you think, here’s a verse that clearly says that the church is a chosen race, the church is a chosen nation, elect nation. Then you begin to blur the concepts of Israel and the church. But even Dispensationalists who don’t want to blur the concept of Israel and the church, for some reason get off track there. Alright, that’s a little thing I got off my chest so, didn’t even plan on that.

Maybe you have a question. You’re here tonight so I want to give you a chance.

Gil, I have three that have been texted in. I may have said this one already, what book will you be teaching next on Sunday morning?

Remember what I told you Marilyn gave me? If it wasn’t for the last minute, nothing would get done. I can tell you what I’ve been working on since last summer, off and on. It’s the book of Ecclesiastes. And I was working in Ecclesiastes and Proverbs and the whole issue of wisdom literature of Solomon over Christmas when I was gone, after Christmas there. So it was interesting to me when I heard the men preaching and talking about Proverbs, talking about wisdom. I thought well, that’s just where I am. So, if it goes the way I’m anticipating, I hope to do a study of the book of Ecclesiastes as a little variation from where we usually are. I say it that way because, you know sometimes the Lord leads me at the last minute. But I’ve enjoyed Ecclesiastes. That’s where I’ve been, one of the books right now that I read repeatedly just to get it in my mind.

You have my vote!