Bibleline Radio Show – 2009-05-20

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Welcome to Bibleline with Dr. Hank Lindstrom, a ministry of Calvary Community Church in Tampa, Florida, declaring God’s love through radio and the internet, providing real answers to whenever searching world. To reach Bibleline and pledge your support to keep Bibleline on the air in your community, dial toll free 1-800-576-3771. That’s 1-800-576-3771. Number 1. Thanks for joining us here today. This is Tom Perry for Bibleline Ministries. You are just in time to hear Dr. Hank Lindstrom’s teaching series on the book of Revelation.

We pray that Bibleline will be glorifying to God as well as edifying to you. Through Bibleline’s combination of teachings from the Word of God and real life questions with answers taken straight from the Bible, we are continuing Dr. Lindstrom’s ministry of spreading the good news of salvation throughout the world, salvation through simply trusting Jesus Christ alone as your Savior. If you have not yet trusted Jesus, we encourage you to do so. Please visit our website at BibleLineMinistries.org for information that could change your eternity.

We pray that you will come to trust Jesus as your Savior and be saved to the glory of God. We hope that you will plan to open your Bible and join us for this verse by verse study of the book of Revelation. You might be familiar with the three major divisions of the book of Revelation. Things past, things present, and things future. During this series, these topics and more will be explored. Don’t forget to tell your friends and family about Bible line.

If Bibleline isn’t being broadcast in their area, then ask them to visit our website at BibleLineMinistries.org. If you miss any of the teachings in this series, then call our Resource Center at 1-800-576-3771. Now open your Bible to the book of Revelation chapter 1 and join us for Dr. Lynch from teaching for today. And here his eyes are like a flame of fire. Speaking about nothing escapes his view. In the book of Hebrews in 413 it says, naked are all things to the one with whom we have to deal.

Jesus Christ sees everything. Nothing is hidden from him. All things are naked and open to him. There’s nothing you can hide from Jesus Christ. And here we find he comes back and he knows everything about everybody and he’s going to judge the earth and take it over. It says his feet are like a defined brass. Brass is a symbol of judgment in the Bible. And the Bible says he comes back in his feet are like a defined brass. The Bible says that his feet will crush the unsaved and he’ll stomp on them with his feet.

And so he brings judgment with his feet upon the lost. And it says these feet are like as those that are burned in a furnace speaking of judgment and how fire destroys things that are not pure. Impurities are burnt up. And if you’re to put gold or silver to fire, it burns up the impurities and what is left behind is the pure or fine gold or the fine silver and the impurities are all burn up. Christ comes back like that and his feet will bring judgment and burn up those things which are unrighteous at his sight and all the lost.

His voice is the voice of many waters. Verse 16, he had in his right hand seven stars. What are the seven stars? We’re going to drop down and now look at the interpretation in verse 20 because I think we need to do that now. It says, the mystery of the seven stars which thou sauced in my right hand, the hand of Christ. It says in the mystery of the seven golden lampstands are as follows. The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches.

Now the word angel means messenger, and in this case the word angel is used of humans. It is talking about the communicator to that church, the elder, the pastor, the one who would be responsible for that congregation for each of those seven churches, he has those men in his hand. And it really shows that pastors, if they’re saved, are called of God, and he speaks to them. And then they communicate to the people. That doesn’t mean that you can’t have equal access, and you cannot go to the Word of God you can.

But God has given those who are teachers as a gift and a blessing to the church to equip the saints, to know his word and to do the job he wants. And so the messengers to the seven churches are in the hand of Christ. The seven stars are the seven elders, pastors, teachers, messengers of the seven churches. and the seven lampstands, which saw us are what, the seven churches. So each of these churches were a light into this world of the gospel just as each of us as individuals, our lights, and as we come together collectively, we are a light to our world and our community about Jesus Christ.

And Jesus has a particular message that he wants to deliver to these seven churches. Then we find here it says in verse 16, he had in his right hand seven stars, and out of his mouth, when a sharp two-edged sword, what is that? The word of God. Hebrews 4 12 says the word of God is living. Powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword. So when Jesus speaks, his words are the words of God because he is God. And so out of his mouth goes this swift sword, this two-edged sword, this sharp two-edged sword, which is God’s word, because when Christ speaks, it is God who is speaking.

And then his countenance was as the sun shining in his strength. Remember the amount of transfiguration when they saw Christ as he would be in a second coming? This is exactly the way he described. And the brilliance was like looking at the sun. As Christ comes back and all of his glory and all of his power, this is the way he will appear. And he in his countenance was as the sun shined in his strength. John, upon seeing Christ, he says, when I saw him, I fell on his feet as dead.

I believe he passed out. I believe it was a little bit much for him to take. Here he is on the island of Patmos. Jesus appears. He hears the voice, but when he spins around and takes a look, it was overwhelming. And he passes out. And he laid his right hand upon me, saying unto me, John, fear not. I am what? Here it is again the first and the last. Where you get a market? Maybe tie it back to verse 11.

Tie it back to Isaiah 44, verse 6. Christ is the first and the last. And then he says, I am he that liveth and was dead. I believe he’s referring to the crucifixion. He says, I am healed and was dead and behold, I am alive forevermore. So He was one who lived from eternity past, came and took on human flesh and died on the cross of Calvary. And now He says, behold, look at me. I am alive and not only alive, but I am alive forevermore.

We believe Jesus Christ not only came back from the dead, but He is never going to die again. He is alive forevermore. He is alive. We have a living Savior. of Jesus Christ is that one. And notice he says in verse 18, Amen. And then he says, and have the keys of hell. It should read Hades. If you have a Scofield, it’ll point that out. Hades and hell are not the same place. Hell is empty. Hades has a lot of occupants.

That’s where the unsaved go in the heart of the earth. And will remain until after Satan is cast into hell for whom it was created. And that’ll take place after of the thousand year reign of Christ. So he’s the one that has the keys to Hades and of death, death referring to the body. So nobody comes back from the dead without Christ’s express permission and unlocking the key. That’s one reason why we’re forbidden to deal in the realm of trying to contact the dead.

Why? Because the dead don’t come back. And what happens is Satan’s angels, which are demons, will impersonate the dead. And they know enough about your uncle Harry, or your aunt Sally, or whoever it might be, to deceive you. And you’ll think that you made contact with the dead. It is a deception every time. Number of years ago, Bishop Pike, who was an Episcopal priest and was so liberal that the Episcopal Church kicked him out. that’s being really radical. As you’ve noticed as of late, they’ve appointed an openly gay priest in the Episcopal Church.

They are very liberal. In fact, two years ago, they said that they didn’t believe in hell anymore. And so that’s where the Episcopal Church is going. But this guy was really radical. And he boasted that he was going to write a book to debunk Christianity. Well, he went to Israel in doing his research. He was wandering in the wilderness in the hills of Judea, in that dry desert environment he got lost, disoriented. And before the Israeli army found him, he died.

Perhaps God took him out because of what he openly boasted to do. He was going to try to debunk Christianity. There are others that are doing that right now. I would say you’re playing with fire when you want to take on the living God and try to attack his word and Attack him you’re in trouble. Maybe the Lord might take you out his son also in apostate was very very depressed and took his own life and before Bishop Pike died in Israel took a a shotgun to his chin and blew his brains out.

His dad very despondent over that tried to contact his dead son. He went to the best known Clairvoyance in all the world, finally wound up with the one in Canada named Ford who is very well known and supposedly in the seance contact it is dead son Jim. And Jim said everything is wonderful, everything is preachy craving. You know, it is the lie of Satan that comes back. He didn’t contact his son, I guarantee you. But Satan’s angels let him believe he had and brings back the same lie that Satan told back in Genesis when he told Eve, you’re not going to die.

If you eat at the tree of an honest good and evil, when God had said, you’re surely going to die if you eat at that tree. Satan tells his same lie, there is no penalty for sin, there is no hell. And whenever you run into a group that denies hell, you better believe that they’re getting their information not from God, not from His Word, but from other sources. And you need to watch out when you do that. So we’re forbidden.

The Bible says we’re not to pray to the saints or pray to angels. We’re only to pray to God. And we are not to try to contact the dead. And as soon as you begin to try to do that, you’re entering Satan’s territory and you’re going to be misled if you buy into that line. So Christ is the one that has the keys. So nobody comes back from the dead. Unless Christ allows it. And there were some exceptions in the Bible where God allowed someone to come back from the dead.

But otherwise it doesn’t happen. And only Christ is the one that gives permission. He has the keys in all those that are lost. You can’t reach them. They’re in Hades and They cannot be reached. There’s no cell phones and Hades to my knowledge. And only Christ can allow them to be released. And according to the book of Revelation, they’ll not be released until after the thousand year of Christ is over. So that’s it. Thank you for joining us. You are listening to Bibleline with your host, Dr.

Hank Lindstrom. Bibleline is a teaching ministry that is dedicated to reaching out to people with the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ. There are many resources available at Bibleline, such as Dr. Lindstrom’s DVD teachings on the topics of Saved by Grace, Baptism, and the Righteous versus the Unrighteous. In addition to many others, please contact our Resource Center at 1-800-576-3771. Now please join us for a segment featuring Dr. Lindstrom answering questions from callers. going to go to Ruskin and talk to John and John welcome to Bible Life.

Good morning my question is pertaining to the angels as you know in the size 6 verse 1 it talks about the seraphan angels and it had six wings. I don’t identify them as angels I believe they’re special creatures along with a cherubim the seraphim but they’re not angels and I believe that there are a very limited number of those whereas angels the Bible speaks about as they are innumerable but apparently you can count the seraphim and cherubim on your two hands.

And then Revelation 14 verse 6 says, and I saw not angel fly in the midst but it doesn’t say seraphim. Right, of course. But of course, flying doesn’t mean they have wings. I didn’t know if you were implying that or not. But definitely angels can be moved from heaven to earth as Gabriel came from heaven to earth to Nazareth to tell Mary that she was pregnant. But I don’t believe that they use wings to fly their bodies here. But angels do fly.

They’ve no doubt about it. Thank you. All right. Thank you, John. Apparently John has been doing his homework and doing some study and those are good questions. I believe that there are, there’s God, there’s the Godhead, all three members of the Trinity. We have Then seraphim and cherubim which are specially created beings. Then we have angels which are a totally different set of creative beings which apparently they are innumerable but in Revelation 4 when we read about the living creatures there are four there.

And so there are limited numbers of cherubim or seraphim but angels are innumerable and angels are separate from those others and some Bible teachers, very good ones lump all of them. of them together in one category and call them all angels, which is not really fair because they are different. The seraphim have six wings, the cherubim have four wings, they’re not alike. And when you read the descriptions more carefully, you’ll find many other differences between those special created beings, and obviously they’re special and different from what we call angels.

But John, thank you for that question, and hopefully inspire people to get into the Bible and dig a little deeper and take a look at what is happening as far as the details of what the Scriptures teach. One of the interesting things that we’ve pointed out over the holidays is that angels apparently don’t sing. At least there’s no reference in the Bible that angels sing. There’s no reference anywhere in the Scriptures that they do. And so most of us think that they sing because we’ve heard the Christmas hymns.

A lot of them talked about choirs of angels and angels sing, heart to herald angels sing, and so on. And apparently the hymn writers all got it wrong. They all speak or say, but there’s no reference to them singing. We’re going to go to Jose in St. Pete. This seems to be St. Pete day today. And Jose, welcome to Babylon. Yes, hi, how you doing this morning? All right. Hey, just wanted to give you a quick comment in a question on what armando uh…

was asking a little earlier uh… when he talked about you know god-visiting normally uh… well when i look at not doing something like that coming down to visit you know literally checking things out making it present he doesn’t do that for his benefit i think he does it for our benefit exactly exactly i would agree with that a hundred percent Yeah, we’re the ones who are limited, you know, so he will, according to what he thinks will better benefit us through, you know, communication, you know, he’ll make his presence known, you know.

Absolutely, you know, and he loves us. And obviously in the garden, he walked in the garden in a human body and fellowshiped with man until man sinned and then obviously God withdrew his presence. A man was separated from God which is what spiritual death is all about and then we find that man was expelled from the garden. But truly from the very beginning we see God making appearances as he directly wants to be involved in our lives and is concerned about our eternal future.

Exactly and I used to really think long and hard about the salvation process and I was And you make this point really clear, and you also stick by this point that you have to be saved before you pass away. And I’m thinking to myself, well, how can that be physically possible for people like in the deep parts of China or India where it’s just totally Hindu or something like that? And I think to myself, well, you know, there’s one example where Pharaoh was visited by God because of a situation that occurred with Abraham and Abraham’s wife.

And I think that before an individual dies, sometime in that 60, 70, 80 year process, God makes if none of us do, no one who saved, no one who’s sharing the gospel makes a personal visit. God himself will make a personal visit. I don’t know if I would agree with that, but certainly he’ll send somebody. The Bible says in Jeremiah 29, 13, and you shall seek me and find me when you shall search me with all your heart. And by the way, there are millions of Christians in China and in India, and we don’t get a lot of publicity on it, but there’s the underground church that’s very strong in China, and people are willing to die for their f- their faith and we’re hearing more and more reports.

In fact, they believe in the soon-coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. Amazingly, they believe in the second coming. They’re quite amazing how up to speed they are with what’s going on. One more quick question. Go ahead. With this one word in the New Testament that gets used every once in a while, the word infin-dell, is that correct? In-fident. It means an unbeliever. Is that what would also be used for someone who’s an atheist? Of course. Yeah, of course. If you would be in infidel, for sure.

Okay, but I mean, is an atheist. Yeah, I guess. Okay. I’m just an atheist. Atheist is believed that. They don’t believe in God at all. And the Bible says about atheists that they’re fools. Psalm 14 1, it says, The fool safety in his heart there is no God So I usually like to tell atheist casey might be interested all of it. I’m believing God, but God thinks about themhered their fools That he exists Not all infant delk According to the blind all infidels are atheists, but infidels reject divine, divine truth and reject hieric God Perl verages280Updated Unloaded });cockricted corrid Pod Celt227 2RELATEDflushutable of course, and of course, and of course,ixel are atheists, right?

We can’tt apply it that way, right? That’s right. All right. Thank you. Great day. That was Jose and C. We’re going to go to Tampa and talk to Fred. Fred, welcome to my blood. Hello, Hank. How are you? conservancy Good morning. Good. They are,hoe, I think, four passages of scripture and revelation that identify the Lord Jesus Christ as the Alpha and Omega. Now I thought previously I’ve heard you teach in some of our classes that Alpha and Omega is the name for Jehovah God in the Old Testament.

Would I haven’t been able to find the reference? Can you help me out? And I’ll go ahead and hang up and listen to you. Well it doesn’t actually say Alpha and Omega because that’s Greek. But it does say, and it’s made equivalent to the first and the last. The Alpha and the Omega are the first last letters of the Greek alphabet, but there are numerous references like Isaiah 44-6 that say God is the first and the last, the beginning and the end, and that’s equivalent to Alpha Omega.

Okay, so it’s Isaiah 44. Isaiah 44-6 and I’m sure your Bible will guide you to other references and say the same thing. It says it a number of times that God is the first and the last, he’s the beginning and the end. And in the New Testament it uses the expression Alpha Omega, which would be like to say I’m the A and the Z. And then the Jehovah’s Witnesses are faced with a dilemma here. So either the word of God is not reliable or Jesus Christ is God.

Absolutely because Jehovah said he is the first and the last and here Jesus says he’s the first and the last. So either the Bible is in harmony and Jesus is Jehovah or God or Yahweh or Christ is an imposter, a liar and we have a contradiction. It’s a major contradiction and we’d have to reject obviously all of the New Testament if that were the case and reject Christ. Okay. All right. Thank you very much. Hang up and listen. Very good.

Thank you, Fred. And obviously Jesus was toldartney Old Testament. I have a sheet that I’ve written where I have 180 different names for Christ in the Bible and we begin early in Genesis and it’s a wonderful Bible study because if you look up each one and then you can find it. Christ is there in the Old Testament in Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Ruth and so on because the prophets all spoke about him and Peter tells us that in Acts 10, 43, Peter says to Christ give all the prophets witness that through his name, the name of Jesus Christ, that whosoever believeth in him shall receive the remission of their sins.

So Peter clearly tells us that all the prophets talked about Christ and that they taught salvation by faith in Christ and Old Testament saints were saved by believing on Christ. In Galatians 3-8 it says Abraham heard the gospel and believed it and that’s how he was saved. So God preached before the gospel unto Abraham according to Galatians He is the Father of all those that believe and he believed on Christ. And if you want to be saved the way Abraham was saved, you have to believe on Christ as your Savior.

That’s just the way it works. We hope that you’re learning with us as you listen to this question and answer segment featuring Dr. Hank Lindstrom. If you’d like to hear today’s program again, then please visit our website at BibleLineMinistries.org. there you’ll be able to replay today’s program in our audio archives as well as access other resources including an am I going to Heaven quiz in addition to many other resources in our online store. It’s time for us to take a short break now.

When we return, we will continue this question and answer segment and then hear more Bible teaching from Dr. Hank Lindstrom. Don’t go away. Bibleline will be back in a moment. To pledge your support for Bibleline, give us a call at 1-800-576-3771. That’s 1-800-576-3771. Wow so many things were happening in the world right now. It leads us to believe that we’re getting close to the Lord’s return Especially as we watch Jerusalem the Bible tells us that that is the city to keep your eye on and of course We know that the temple was there the first and second temples the third temple will be rebuilt there That’s where Jesus will come back to and prior to his second coming after the Rapture The Bible tells us all nations will come together against Jerusalem to battle So we need to look at Jerusalem and watch what’s happening in the

Middle East. And right now it looks like they’re talking about war in the Middle East. We don’t know. Well, there’s expecting to be a lot of fallout and of course Israel will be retaliated against. And it looks like there’s a lot of talk on the Internet about a potential war here coming up with Iran. So we know that the stage is being set for the Antichrist who is going to actually militarily take over all the core countries there in the Middle East.

And what will escape is a portion of land that is really modern day Jordan. Do you have your Bible there? Do you have it handy? Can you reach over and grab your Bible? Can you open it up to Daniel? And can you turn to Daniel chapter 11? If you can, you can be looking at what I’m looking at here. Daniel chapter 11, it says here about the Antichrist that he will actually enter into the Middle at least militarily. And in verse 41 it says he shall enter also into the glorious land.

He’s actually going to take over Israel halfway through the seven year tribulation period that will follow the Rapture. Once we’re raptured out three and a half years later the Antichrist will take over the Middle East and he will take over even Israel. It says here many countries will be overthrown. I believe they are known as ancient Assyria which includes all of Saudi Arabia, all of all of Syria, all of Lebanon, all of Israel, and all of Egypt. It actually says that here, many countries shall be overthrown, but even these shall escape out of his hand, even Edom and Moab and the children of Amman.

Now Amman today is the present day capital of the country of Jordan. If you look at Amman, Edom and Moab are all modern-day Jordan. And it says here in my Bible that the Antichrist, when he takes over these many countries in the Middle which will be everything that was ancient Assyria. And by the way, when Assyria grew, it grew in a counterclockwise direction. If you start off in Saudi Arabia and you move up to the left and around, you will go through Iraq.

You will go through Syria. You’ll start coming down and go through Lebanon. You’ll come down through Israel and you’ll wind up down in Egypt. And that’s exactly, it seems like, what the plan is here coming up in the future where the Antichrist will take over all these countries and it’ll include Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Israel and Egypt. But Jordan is going to escape out of his hands. Now we’ve been talking here in the past about Petra, a rock city carved out of the rock 2500 years ago that remained lost to the world for about 2000 years.

It’s been rediscovered since 1850 by a British archaeologist named Burkhardt. But it’s a city of about 40 square miles of territory carved right out of the rock that’s ready for the Jews to go to to flee from the Antichrist. And the Bible actually speaks about a city that is prepared of God where God will feed and take care of Israel once again during the tribulation period. It’s called the beautiful rose-red city of Petra, but in numerous times, and its beauty is incredible.

And it’s a place where the Bible describes the Jewish people of Flee, and it’s in what is modern-day Jordan, and that says here that that land will apparently be politically neutral and be out of the hands of the Antichrist. That’s why they’ll be safe there. But it’s also in verse 42, the Antichrist will stretch forth his hand upon the countries and the land of Egypt shall not escape. So he’ll wind up taking over Egypt. He’ll have power over the treasures of gold and silver and over all the precious things of Egypt and the Libyans and the Ethiopians shall be at his steps.

If you look at a map, when you look at Egypt to the right, you have Ethiopia to the left, you have Libya. The Antichrist will have taken over Egypt and will be ready to take over Libya and Ethiopia but he stops. is he stopped. It tells us right here why he stops. He doesn’t go any further. It says because Tydings out of the East, I believe that’s China and Tydings out of the North, I believe that’s Russia will trouble him.

And you know, Libya and Ethiopia both have ties with Russia. And so apparently Russia is saying, you better not touch them. And China also. And we find apparently he stops right there at the borders of Libya and Ethiopia. And the Antichrist, according to verse 45 of Daniel, it says, He’ll plant the tabernacle of his palace between the seas. Now, the two seas it’s talking about here is the Dead Sea and the Mediterranean. Look at a map. You’ll find that dead center between the Mediterranean and the Dead Sea is Jerusalem.

We’re going to rejoin stations that have been on break into the second half hour Bible and so keep you ready to tune right where it is. Would you like to help Bibleline continue in your area? You can. Just pick up your phone and dial 1-800-576-3771. That’s 1-800-576-3771. And now back to Bibleline. Welcome back from the break. We hope that you’re learning with us as you listen to Bibleline and hear real life questions with scriptural answers from Dr. Hank Lindstrom.

Please make plans to join us and open your Bible as we also present in-depth studies covering a variety of biblical topics. Now let’s return to our question and answer segment and then we’ll hear more Bible teaching from Dr. Hank Lindstrom. We’re going to go to Clearwater and we’re going to talk to Elijah. Welcome. What’s your money doing? All right. Well, it’s privileged to have Elijah come on the air with us and… I think it’s a privilege to hear you teaching.

Thank you. It’s a wonderful name you have. And obviously the Bible says that Elijah will come back before the second coming and that would be a sign. And so I guess you’re a sign to us today. We’re talking about the Middle East, you know. I’m a movable sign. that anyway welcome to the program you have a question for us today yeah i was just you know flicking to the t-v and i happen to see it’s a certain person talking about uh…

like healing and stuff like that and saying you know pretty much just you know sit there and listen to me and you’ll get healed if you follow this and listen to this and he referred to germany at thirty seventeen okay reading it it doesn’t seem like that’s the context of the thing you explain more that well in your mind thirty is talking about israel and obviously because of their disobedience, they would be afflicted and dispersed around the world and they would come back as a result of affliction.

And in fact, the tribulation period after the rapture in this chapter, Jeremiah chapter 30 is the time called the time of Jacob’s trouble. And it does say that he’ll be saved out of it, verse 7. verse 17 that you just referred to says I will restore health unto thee and I will heal the of thy wounds, sayeth the Lord, because they called thee an outcast, saying this is Zion whom no man seeketh after. So the Jewish people were made outcast, they were cast out of their land and God is saying that he would bind up their wounds and heal them and bring them back into their land and this is not talking about personal healing.

And by the way, it’s not always God’s will for us to be well. We have a mistaken idea that’s being preached by many groups that you’re supposed to be well. But you know Paul was given an illness in 2 Corinthians chapter 12 to keep him humble and Paul prayed three times for God to heal him and the Lord said no, no, no. So three times he asked in prayer and three times God said, no. And then the Lord said, you know, Paul, my grace is sufficient for you.

And when Paul learned the answer that God had done this on purpose to keep him humble and that God would give him grace that would be sufficient to take him through the trial he said, basically praise God I’m sick. I find very few Christians say that when they get ill. Yeah, I don’t think I’ve heard that. You know, when you come in prayer meeting You have people tell about their problems and about their illnesses and so on. But very few times, in fact, I don’t know if I’ve ever heard it where somebody says, thank God I’m sick.

Hallelujah. I’m sick. Yeah. But Paul said, I take pleasure in infirmities and weaknesses and distresses and persecutions and so on for Christ’s sake. So sometimes it’s within the will of God that you are sick and we have to face that. You know these bodies are only going to last about 70 years or a little bit more. Psalm 90 verse 10 says God has appointed unto us 70 years. And as we get older… Our bodies are going to begin to fail, and God, I think, in the process of our failing bodies is preparing us to leave this body behind and to get our brand new body in heaven.

So it’s kind of like getting us ready to leave the nest. Even as children, as they mature through adolescence, they are prepared to leave home, and mom and dad are prepared to let them go. And the same thing is true as we end life. We get ready to say, OK, I’m going to say goodbye to this old house. Ain’t gonna need it no longer. You know, I like that old song. It’s that used to talk about how The body being out like a house that we aren’t gonna need it any longer.

We’re gonna get a brand new house in heaven and It’s true absent from the body present with the Lord second Corinthians 5 8 and in that wonderful chapter second Corinthians 5 It talks about how we have a new body God made for us eternal in the heavens waiting for us And I’m looking forward personally to my brand new body and this body here We’re gonna suffer Illnesses and firmities and and as we get older our bodies will fail. There’s no doubt about it So hopefully that answered your question there Elijah that verse in Jeremiah is not a verse that I would apply for Persons personal healing is clearly right saying here.

They called the an Outcast that’s referring to Israel. See I think that part was left out on the TV. Oh, okay Yeah, well, that’s what happened. That’s what we talked about lifting versus out of context and so on But thank you for the call. Hey, no problem. Thank you. We’re going to go to the phone lines. We’re going to go down to Sarasota. We’re going to talk to Dave. Dave, welcome to Bibleline. Thank you. Dr. Loon, Mr. Miles, I wanted to tell you where we got the current version of the Bible, the collection of books that make up the Bible that we have today.

Did that come out of the Council of Jamnia? And if folks, you could tell us a little bit about what that was and when it took place and who was involved with that. Alright, you know the Bible we have today, really, each book was collected as it was written as being the Word of God. You know in the Old Testament, for example Moses was an authentic spokesperson for God and everybody recognized that. And each of his books, the first five Moses wrote Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy.

Each book as it was written was accepted as the Word of God. And God even told him to design a piece of furniture to place these scrolls in, which was called the Ark of the Covenant. And then each successive prophet that came along that was an authentic spokesperson for God’s spoke. And their writings were immediately accepted as being the Word of God and were added to that collection which we call the canon. The canon coming from a Latin word meaning rule or measure.

And it had to meet up to this measurement or standard that it was written by an authentic spokesperson recognized as one of God’s prophets or later the apostles. Same thing was true of the apostles. When Paul wrote his writings were recognized as scripture, Peter in 2 Peter chapter 3 talks about how that Paul’s writings were scripture, gives it the same level of importance as the Old Testament scriptures using that word scripture. And we find that the people, for example in 1 Thessalonians chapter 2 who received Paul’s letter to them, received it as the word of God.

says and commends them for so doing because indeed his words were scripture. And so they were received immediately upon being written. Councils came along later and there were a number of them beginning with a council of Nicaea and successive ones down through time that simply reaffirmed or confirmed the fact that the 66 books that we have, the 27 of the New Testament and the 39 of the Old Testament were indeed the word of God. nobody’s ever changed the content.

It’s simply been a collection that was received as the books were written, as they were received as the word of God. And no counsel ever got together and voted which books would go in or which books would not. Now there was some discussion from time to time of some books that were somewhat disputed, but none of them were ever removed or no new books were ever added, except for the Roman Catholic Church in the Council of Trent in 1554 added some books to the Old Testament, but they were not written by authentic spokesperson for God.

They were simply Jewish histories, and they were added to the Old Testament, and they really missed the boat here, because if they truly were scripture, they should have been accepted and added as they were written. But the Jewish people never did accept them as being the word of God. They were certainly Jewish histories. And Christ could have corrected them if they were wrong and said, Look guys, you missed all these wonderful books but he never did. They were never accepted by Christ or by later the apostles or the early church fathers.

It wasn’t until 2000 years after they were written that the Roman Catholic Church added those 14 or 15 books to the Old Testament. They don’t affect any doctrine so let’s not lose any sleep over it but I think they made a mistake in adding those books, but the 66 that we have are set in concrete from the very beginning the Dead Sea Scrolls certainly contained all 39 that we today accept as being the Old Testament and Apparently those 39 were all accepted and in place 500 years before Christ ever came along and then the New Testament books were accepted as they were being written and The 27 seemed to be the number that just was the complete number the book of Revelation Revelation being the last and final book, the capstone of the Bible and that ended it.

Did that help a little bit? Oncoidless books from the Roman Catholic Church that was the Apocrypha with the Maccabees and all of those. Exactly. And it’s just basically the history of the Jews during the interim between when God shut off the prophets. You know, God had promised them that he would withdraw himself if they would disobey him and he did and he withdrew the prophets. And I think there was a couple of reasons. God had really said everything He’d wanted to say already, so He didn’t need to say anything more.

And also, this withdrawing of the prophets was a judgment against Israel, and they were also dispersed, and they went through a number of trials. But also, God, I think, wanted to solidify the Old Testament because it contains so much prophecy, long before Christ ever came to show that they were truly genuine prophecies. Even after that, some critics have said, well, some of the Old Testament passages were written after Christ, and really the Dead Sea Scrolls silenced them on that because those copies of the Old Testament are dated back to 200 years before Christ.

And if you have a copy of the Old Testament 200 years before Christ, which contains prophecy about Christ, obviously the original had to have been written earlier than that. So those books that they added are just histories. they don’t really affect any doctrine and they’re interesting but that you can’t rely upon them with the accuracy that you can uh… of what god’s word in fact the catholics try to support a couple their doctrines from them including purgatory and prayers for the dead and so on out of those fourteen books but nothing major in the way of uh…

upsetting any doctrines that we have in the bible okay well thank you very much alright thanks for the call that was Dave from Sarasota. And I think that was probably the first time caller. I didn’t recognize the name from previously. That wraps up today’s question and answer segment. As believers in Jesus, there is no other topic that is more important to us than the gospel of Jesus Christ. And it was Dr. Hank Lindstrom’s mission to spread the gospel. Through your prayers and ongoing financial support for Bibleline, you too can help spread the gospel of Christ throughout the world and reach others with the message of salvation through Jesus.

Please, prayerfully consider supporting Bibleline by visiting our website at BibleLineMinistries.org and getting copies of any of our resources, such as Dr. Lindstrom’s audio CDs on the books of Matthew or Genesis, plus many others. Join us now as we continue today’s teaching series from Dr. Hank Lindstrom. Those that are dead, that are unsaved, will be brought up out of Hades after the thousand year rule of Christ, and they’ll be cast into hell along with Satan and his angels who will be the first in.

Verse 19, the threefold division of the book of Revelation, write the things which thou hast seen past tense. That’s chapter 1, and I have a Roman numeral number 1 up here to say that when John wrote this, the things that were passed, we’re looking back to the cross and the things that Christ accomplished and are written about in chapter 1. Then it says the things which are, that’s present tense and that covers the present age and covers chapters 2 and 3 in the book of Revelation and takes us from Pentecost until the Rapture.

And then we notice here and the things which will be hereafter and that is the Rapture on into eternity. And If you go to chapter 4 verse 1 with me, we’ll take a look at that third division where it says here, after this I looked chapter 4 verse 1, and behold, a door was opened in heaven, and the first voice which I heard was, as it were, of a trumpet talking with me which said, come up hither, and I will show you, and here’s that third division, the things which must be hereafter.

And notice Christ is the voice. It’s with his shout that the rapture happens. His voice is at where it was like a trumpet. He says, come up hither. Now John is caught into the future. And he sees the tribulation period unfold and the things which take us all into eternity. What is interesting is that from this point on the church is no longer mentioned in the book of Revelation because we believe it’s caught up and pictured being caught up here in chapter 4 verse 1.

And now we’re into the future. Chapters 4 through 19 now are an outline in an overview of the seven years of tribulation. So the seven years there, which is a small part of the drawing up here encompasses most of the book of Revelation chapters four through 19. Anywhere in there you’re in the tribulation period. Chapter 20 covers the millennium. That’s that thousand years up here on the board called the Day of the Lord. And then chapters 21 and 22 are eternity.

We see a new heavens, a new earth, a new Jerusalem and so on and we’re into eternity. So that’s the divisions. Now we’re going to go to chapter two. There are seven literal churches that typify seven different kinds of churches you might find today. Also since churches are comprised of people, it represents seven different types of Christians. And prophetically, it pictures to us seven distinct periods in church history that if we look back in hindsight, we can see how neatly this fits church history for the past 2000 years and the church at Ephesus representing the first century church.

Look if you will at verse 1, under the angel, the messenger, the pastor, the elder of the church of Ephesus right. All of this should be read letter, if you have a read letter edition of the Bible because Christ is delivering this message to the seven pastors which are in his right hand, the seven stars that John saw in his right hand. These things said he that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand, who walketh in the midst of the seven golden lampstands, which are the seven churches.

So here Christ has a message to the seven churches and now one in particular to the church at Ephesus. He says in verse 2, I know thy works. And of course Christ being God is omniscient. He knows everything. Nothing escapes his eye. And so he says, I know thy works. And look at what he says about the first century church. He says, Thy labor and Thy patience and how Thou can’t not bear them which are evil and how Thou has tried them which save their apostles and are not and has found them liars.”

So notice that they labored hard, they were a patient church and they also were doctrinally on target. They recognized those that came along, they were false preachers that would claim that they were true and identified them as being false and found them to be liars. Christianity right now, very few can do that. There are multitudes of false teachers out there. Unless you’re familiar with your Bible, you’ll be deceived every time. And you just don’t know. One of those is Robert Schuler in his Glasgow Theatre in a lot of California.

I don’t believe he’s a Christian at all. If you read his book Self-esteem, he says sin as he redefines everything. Sin is the lack of self-esteem. He says salvation is regaining yourself esteem. He said the reason why Christians can’t get along is because of the Bible. If we could only do away with the Bible, we could have Christian unity. I mean, most people don’t do their homework. They don’t know what these people are saying. And yet he’s probably seen on more TV programs and stations across America and the world and any other so-called Christian preacher.

But you really have to pay attention. He’s just one of those positive thinking guys. and the disciple of Norman Vincent Peele and that’s his whole thing. But to talk about believing the fundamentals of the Bible, he does not. So are you able to pick out a false teacher? You need to know your Bible well enough to be able to do that so you’re not fooled by these people and support the ones that are false. Verse 3, man has born and has patience and for my name’s sake has labored and you didn’t throw in the towel, you didn’t give up.

By the way, the word Ephesus in the Greek means desirable. It’s a beautiful picture of this first century church, a very desirable church. It was a hard-working, patient group that was doctorally on target, could expose false teachers, and brought the gospel to many. The gospel was bred out to the known world at that time through them. Verse 4, Nevertheless Christ says, I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love. What was their first love? We believe it was Christ.

This time began to move. They began to do the works, but forgot their personal walk with Jesus and kind of left Him a little bit to the side. And there are many Christians who do that. You get busy, busy, busy, busy, and you spend no time with Jesus and you do the works, but you lose that personal intimacy that Christ wants you to have with Him. He says in verse 5, remember, therefore from whence thou art fallen and repent, the word repent means change your mind.

It comes from the Greek word metanoia, metamating change, noi meaning mine. The two words together metanoia mean a change of mind and here they were to change your mind and it says here do the first works or else I will come into the quickly and remove my candlestick out of his place except you change your mind. It’s not talking at loss of service but loss of testimony. Each church was a lamp. A light in this world. And as they departed, then their light would be diminished and they’d be taken aside and God would replace them with another group that would be a light.

And so each of us are too a light for Christ in this world. And if we depart, God will use someone else to be a light in our place. And so here they were reminded, don’t go back to the first works and so you’ll be able to remain a light. This church was a great church, but they began to drift away. from a personal walk with Christ as time went along. Verse 6 says, this thou hast that thou hatest the deeds of the nickel leatons, which I also hate.

Now, this was a doctrine that began to creep in and later became actually accepted in the 4th century church, and that was a separation between the clergy and the laity. Schofield does a good job in telling us that below where the Greek words actually talk about a hierarchy or difference between the layperson and the clergy. It says there is no ancient authority for a sect of the Nicoleitans. If the word is symbolic, it refers to the earliest form of the notion of a priestly order or clergy which later divided and equal brotherhood into priests and laity.

Let’s turn to the verses, Scofield uses there in his note in Matthew 23 for just a moment, which I think is important to see. In Matthew 23, we’re coming back to Revelation, page 1031, Jesus said here in Matthew 23 verse 8, being not called Rabbi or teacher, for one is your master, that one means master teacher, even Christ, and all you are what? Brethren, notice there’s an equal brotherhood in Christianity where we all have equal access to God’s Word and we can go directly to the Word and let God speak to us.

We can also go directly to God through prayer, through Christ, and so there’s nothing different from any of us. Now there are pastor teachers which are gifts the Bible says to the church to help people to be edified or to teach them and mature them for the work of the ministry. But I’m not any closer to God than you are. We have an equal brotherhood. And yet this became a division later where some are taught that they have to bring their prayers to the clergy and then they relay them on to God and so on.

Or go to the clergy to have their sins forgiven. It’s together to go directly to Christ. That’s all false. And so here was the beginnings of a false doctrine that they hated and did not embrace, but later became doctrine later on. So there is no difference between the clergy and the lay person in the sight of God. We’re all equal and brothers of Christ. Thanks for listening to Bible Eye with Dr. Hank Lindstrom. You’d like to continue with Dr.

Lindstrom’s teaching, but we are out of time for today. We hope that you’ve enjoyed today’s program and that you are learning from it. If you missed any part of today’s program or if you’d like to hear it again, please visit our website at BibleLineMinistries.org, where you can either listen to today’s program again or if you prefer, you can get the entire teaching series through our online store. If you have any questions or comments about today’s program, please call us at 1-800-576-3771 or you can write us at Bible-lined Ministries 4811 George Road, Tampa, Florida, 33634.

It was Dr. Lindstrom’s ministry to spread the gospel of salvation by telling all who would listen about the shed blood, death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus to pay the sin debt that we all owe but cannot pay for ourselves. If you have not yet trusted Jesus as your Savior, we encourage you to do so. Just visit our website at BibleLineMinistries.org and watch Dr. Lynch from 7 minute video that will greet you there. If you have already trusted Jesus as your Savior, then we encourage you to develop and strengthen the foundation of your Christian life by spending time reading your Bible and learning with us about God’s Word by listening to Bibleline.

We’d like to say thank you to our audio team for their work on today’s program. Until next time, this has been Tom Perry for Bibleline Ministries. We invite you to join us again for another edition of Bibleline and as Dr. Lindstrom would say, keep looking up. Jesus is coming. You’ve been listening to Bibleline, a presentation of Bibleline Ministries of Tampa, Florida. Your regular monthly donations to Bibleline make it possible for this ministry to continue in your area and on the internet.

Please contact us today and lend your prayerful and financial support. Bibleline’s address is 4811 George Road, Tampa, Florida, 33634. Or visit Bibleline Online and BibleLineMinistries.org. Be sure to tune in to another edition of Bibleline from Calvary Community Church in Tampa, Florida. Look at a map. You’ll find that dead center between the Mediterranean and the Dead Sea is Jerusalem. It’s in the middle. It’s right there. And it says here he’ll plant the tabernacle of his palace between the seas in the glorious holy mountain.

That is Jerusalem. And so Jerusalem will be the place where the Antichrist will build his tabernacle where he will live and where he will rule the Western world. So we got some insight here as to what’s going to happen in the Middle East. We are living close to when these things are going to take place. And it’s not just one thing that’s happening. Everything that Christ said is beginning to come to pass before our very eyes. We find also that there are these incurable diseases.

Lots of new things happening here. And the Bible said in Matthew 24 that there would be these incurable diseases. And boy, we have a host of them today, don’t we? These are all new to us. I don’t think anybody ever talked about these things when I was a child, about AIDS or the Ebola or the West Nile virus or Asian bird flu or all these other crazy things that are out there, these man-eating, flesh-eating bacteria that they have today, the MRSA germs that now are common everywhere, the people can get that and it can kill you.

The staff infection today that’s so powerful that only a few antibiotics will be able to stop it. We’re living in the last days, famine, all the time now. We’re reading about food shortages worldwide. As Quakes and Divers places all apart of the End Times, and I think we’re living close here, but the Antichrist will take over Israel and the neighbors around Israel, but one part of the Middle East will escape the hand of the Antichrist. According to verse 41 of Daniel chapter 12, and it says, Even Edom and Moab and the chief of the children of Amman, that is modern-day Jordan.

But Amman is the capital of Jordan. I’ve stayed there numerous times on trips to Israel in the Middle East. And that is the capital. If you go south, you have the land of Moab and Edom. And that’s where the Rock City of Petra is. And no wonder it is going to be protected by God so that huge people can get there. By the way, if you flee from Jerusalem to Petra, you’ll find if you draw a straight line between Jerusalem and Petra, you go right through the Dead Sea.

And guess what’s happened? the Dead Sea because the surface is going down, down, down as they don’t allow water from the Jordan to flow into the Dead Sea anymore. There has been exposed now a sandbar that is like a highway that runs diagonally right across the Dead Sea. And if you run a line from Jerusalem to Petri, guess what? There’s a highway. God has apparently had them to the Dead Sea all along, but now is exposed that will allow the Jewish people to flee straight down across the Dead Sea right into Petri.

I have a satellite map and boy you can see it’s so good from outer space. This sandbar, this highway, God has prepared for the Jews to be able to flee and you can see this highway so clear. It’s a clear shot for Jewish people fleeing the Antichrist. When he takes over the land of Israel in the middle of the tribulation period, they’ll be able to flee straight to Petra where they’ll be protected by God miraculously and fed there until the end of the tribulation.

The Bible says in Isaiah 16 that the Messiah will go to Petra and actually lead these people back into the Promised Land as he will gather them back into his land as he rules over them during the millennium. I’m excited I don’t know about you but I think maybe we’re getting close to when the Lord’s going to snatch us all out are you aware of that? And by the way if he comes this year it will probably be on the Feast of Trumpets.

That’s the most reasonable day for him to come as the feast days all picture events related to the two companies of Christ. Christ died on the Feast of Passover, buried during the Feast of Unleavened Bread, rose from the dead on the Feast of First Fruits. The Holy Spirit came on the day of Pentecost and began his present age to the next feast that will end the sages when the rapture happens. That’s Rosh Hashanah. You might have a few months left before we’re raptured out.

I don’t know if the Lord is coming this year or not, but could be that he would. If he did, you might start counting down because at the end of September, might all be going out of here. Now please play this back if you thought I said the refs sure was happening this year. I didn’t say that. People like to misquote you, but I didn’t say that I said it could happen. It could happen. It could happen this year.

Wouldn’t that be something? In any case, we got around, but we’ll be back tomorrow. So keep looking up. Jesus is coming. We’ll be good soon. You’ve been listening to Bibleline, a presentation of Bibleline Ministries of Tampa, Florida. Your regular monthly donations to Bibleline make it possible for this ministry to continue in your area and on the internet. Please contact us today and lend your prayerful and financial support. Bibleline’s address is 4811 George Road, Tampa, Florida, 3-3-6-3-4. Or visit Bibleline Online and BibleLineMinistries.org.

Be sure to tune in to another edition of Bibleline from Calvary Community Church in Tampa, Florida.