Bibleline Radio Show – 2007-03-23

This transcript was generated automatically and may contain errors.

Welcome to Bibleline with Dr. Hank Lindstrom. Coming to you from Calvary Community Church in Tampa, Florida. Declaring God’s love through radio and television. Providing real answers to an ever-searching world. Got a question? Dial toll free at 1-800-576-3771. That’s 1-800-576-3771. Now here’s the host of Bibleline, Dr. Hank Lindstrom. Alright, welcome to Bibleline great to be with you. Thanks for tuning into the broadcast. This is Bible and I’m Dr. England Stirmen. We are in Jerusalem in Israel and we’re bringing this broadcast to you from Israel.

Our group is here with us as we produce this program. We have been touring all day and we are here in the evening after dinner and you will here this program in the morning on Friday and the Tampa Bay Area in some stations later in the day but we welcome you to join us here on our adventure in Israel. We’re about ready to wind up our trip and come home this weekend. If you’re in the Tampa Bay Area we invite you to come to Calvary Community Church which I pastor and you’ll get to hear our fresh comments about the trip as we return and It’s also going to be our dinner Sunday and you’re welcome to be our guest and stay for dinner.

Normally we have our dinner on the third Sunday, so this month our third Sunday dinner will be on the fourth Sunday because we have been here in Israel and we held it till we would get back. So come bring your family, bring your appetite, bring your Bible and join us for the worship service at 1030 and then stay for dinner and be our guest and I know you’ll eat some great home-cooked food at our third Sunday dinner which this month will be the 25th of March.

It will be the fourth Sunday and we did that because we were here in Israel. We are having a great time and we would love to have you go on the next trip. We will be planning another one. We don’t know exactly when but we will be announcing that. You can call our 800 number, hit yourself on a list so that you will get a call from us when we start coming down with more details as to when we’ll depart, what it will cost, and so on.

So get your name on that list and that is a potential list to go to Israel. It doesn’t mean you’re signing up, but you’ll find out that we will call you when we know. By the way, we’ve all felt safe. Every one of us have not felt threatened at all. I know a lot of the people here tell me that their friends and relatives have told them that they’d be killed in Israel. go. Stay home where it’s safe, which you know it isn’t always safe at home either.

But we haven’t experienced any feeling of being in danger the whole trip which has been wonderful. And in fact some of the times it’s been so peaceful in some of the places where we’ve been quiet bird singing and just some beautiful sunshine and beautiful views of the valleys and the different wonderful scenes that we have seen here in Israel. In fact, even this morning, we found it so quiet as we walked down the Kidron Valley and it just was really, really peaceful and it was an enjoyable walk and maybe we’ll talk a little bit about that in a minute.

You can listen to this program on the internet at BibleLineMinistries.org. And you can do that by clicking on the spinning globe on the home page. You’ll be connected to our radio page. And there’s a place for you to submit your question. We’re getting lots of questions. We’ll try to take as many as we can as people are typing in their question and then hitting send and it’s all set up and ready to go for it. So just go to the website BibleLineMinistries.org.

Click on the Spinning Globe. There’s a place for you to type in your question in your first statement city and we’ll get that on the internet and we’ll answer it on radio shows. So you’ll get a chance to hear your question answered maybe while we’re here in Israel. But in any case, we should be back live on Monday Lord willing and again you can visit us this Sunday. Now if you’re in other parts of the country and cannot come to Calvary Community Church, you can go to the web and catch the worship service on the internet.

All you have to do is go to our home page, click on the camera. When you click on the camera, you’ll see a scene of it says Calvary Community Church worship service. Clouds will be floating by. You’ll hear the old rugged cross theme. When I actually begin the message, it’ll be a little after 11 o’clock. You’ll see the audio and the video come up on the screen and you’ll be able to actually watch our service from anywhere in the country.

You’re not restricted to that 11 o’clock time because you can go there. It’ll be an archive later in the week and it will probably sit there for a month or two where you can watch all of our worship services including this one as we get back from Israel. If you would go to our website there is also an online bookstore and we have some new things on our bookstore that we would like you to learn about. I hope you will check out what we have.

One of the new books that we have that’s not really new is a book called Jesus is Coming. That’s written by a man named Blackstone about a hundred years ago. He was ahead of his time. What a wonderful book that is just laying out the scriptures from the beginning of the Bible to the last book of the Bible that the coming of Christ is throughout the whole Bible. It’s a thrilling book. Sometimes old is better than new. In many cases, the books today are light and fluffy, mostly fluffy, and light.

The books 100 years ago were much more of a serious nature. You’ll benefit greatly by getting some of these older ones we have. We have others that we’ve added. Plus, we have our CDs and DVDs of my teachings. You can get those. I believe benefit as an individual, but also facilitate a Bible study or a study school class. you’re doing that around the country. One man in Clearwater, Florida started with my Revelation series and invited folks over on a weeknight and they would play a part or full CD and have refreshments.

He had to add on to his house. It became so popular and he wasn’t a teacher but he used the CDs to facilitate a study in his home. So you might use those ideas and learn from what others have done and And that’s been popular. So all you have to do is pop that thing in. And we’ve had people take a CD to a hospital room and play it for a friend or relative, especially the one we have called how permanent is your salvation.

And many have been led to Christ by hearing that presentation. So lots of ideas about getting the gospel to somebody in your family, mailing them to people, or shipping them out to people. And I know that they’re being used that way by many in all parts of the country. We have a guest here tonight. We have Iodi from Nigeria. And we had a wonderful blessing today. We ran into another group from Nigeria. And they were beautifully dressed in very colorful outfits.

And they also said they’ve been watching us and listening to us on Bibleline. And I just talked to IOD and asked if he knew these folks. He said he did not. He says they’re from Northern Nigeria. He’s from Southern Nigeria. So apparently we’re coast to coast in Nigeria. And in that a blessing. That was a great blessing for us to hear. Plus another group came into our hotel this afternoon. And they’re from Tennessee. And we heard that they also listened to Bibleline from Tennessee.

They’re from Memphis and we’re on everyday live in Memphis. And those of you that are listening from Memphis, we welcome you. And we’re glad that you’re listening today. We come on at 9 o’clock central time in Memphis while we go out of Tampa at 10 o’clock Eastern time. But it really is the same time. So they hear our program live there in Memphis. And we have some of your folks here in our hotel. And so that was exciting to hear that we have others here that are listening and hearing Bible lines.

So that’s really the hand of God and we thank God for that. Tomorrow we have a real exciting day. We’re going to be going in the morning to Calvary. And there you’ll see this city that rather this hill that is weathered and in it is etched the face of a skull. And that’s why it’s called the Skull Hill in the Bible. And you can still see that skull face to this very day. And Christ was crucified on the top.

And the main road that crosses across the city to the north of Jerusalem goes right by below. and uh… The Romans didn’t crucify people down some back alley. They wanted it to be out in front of everybody because they wanted to make a statement. You don’t mess with Rome. And so here Christ was on display for all those who passed by to see as he hung on that cross to pay for the sins of the world right there. Overlooking the city from the top of Calvary you could actually look over the whole city looking sound.

as Christ was crucified on the northernmost part of the Moriah mountain. There is a church here called the Church of the Holy Sepulchre where the Roman Catholics say Christ was crucified, but they make several mistakes. It’s not on the Moriah mountain, which according to Genesis 22, when Abraham offered up his son Isaac, he offered him up on Moriah, and God actually says in Genesis 22, what happened here with Abraham and Isaac is a prophecy that will be fulfilled later in the future when Jesus would come.

And so Christ had to be crucified on Moriah and the other church doesn’t qualify. Also the church and the Holy Sepulchres to the west of the Temple Mount and the Bible teaches that the sacrifices were to be offered northward. Leviticus 111 says that they offered thevelopes northward before the Lord. An implication that the Lord is in the north, that heaven is in the north, and there are numerous verses in the Bible that tell us that heaven is in the north.

We find that Lucifer in Isaiah 14 when he said he was going to overthrow God, there are five eye wills that lay out his plan. And the third one says, I will sit also upon the Mount of the congregation in the sides of the north. a descriptive phrase, the North, but having sides or a corridor described where there are no stars and at the end of that corridor is heaven itself. And we also know that in Job 26, 7, 3500 years ago the Bible says that God stretches out the North over the empty place.

And so the Bible tells us 3500 years ago about an empty place in the North that nobody knew about until rather recently. You know the first telescope came along with Galileo just a little over 200 years ago and it wasn’t until the 200 inch telescope was placed out at Mount Palomar, California that they finally discovered this void in the north in our universe where there are no stars. How could they have known? Well they couldn’t except by divine revelation.

God knew about it and certainly is the actual author of the Bible. He told the writers about this void and sure enough that’s where God resides and we’re Satan wanted to go to overthrow God and become God himself. So in any case, Christ was crucified on the northern most, highest most part of Mount Moriah and I believe that’s another proof that we have the right place. Plus, right there on the side of the hill of Calvary is a rich man’s tomb.

You can see it’s not an actual cave, it’s carved right out of the rock, it has the rolling stone and right in that area between Calvary and that tomb is a garden. And the Bible says that there was a garden and there was a tomb never used and Joseph loaned his tomb to Christ. It only was needed for three days. Then Christ rose and he left that tomb empty and so when we see it tomorrow we will see an empty tomb.

All the others who have ever claimed to be a spiritual leader are dead men and you can visit their tombs and cry out to them and they cannot help you because they are dead. Their bodies are still in the grave. But Jesus is the only one that came back from the dead to demonstrate that he’s alive and alive forever. If you haven’t trusted Christ as your Savior, then you’re in danger, the Bible says, of eternal damnation. That’s right, because every unsaved person, every person that has not trusted Christ and Savior is going to wind up in hell according to the Bible.

The only escape from hell is to trust Jesus Christ as your Savior, as that is the very reason why He came. John 3.17 says God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. So Jesus Christ came not to condemn us, but came to save us. And he became condemned because he took our sins upon himself and became sin and so he became condemned and died and paid the penalty of sin which is death in our place.

And when we trust his substitutionary payment, his death in our place, God saves all those that put their trust in him. And if you haven’t done that, let me encourage you to do it right now even while we speak. To just tell the Lord, maybe silently or out loud, however you want to do it, but just say, Lord, I am a sinner and I don’t understand a whole lot about the Bible, but I believe Jesus Christ did indeed die for the sins of the world and for my sins in particular and that he was buried and rose again from the dead and I trust him right now as my Savior and as my only hope of heaven and the moment you do my friend God will save you.

I pray that you will. We find that we have had so many people tell us that they have gotten saved by listening to Bible on. That is a real blessing. I know I hear a lot of religious programming, but seldom does anybody ever tell you how to be saved. It is interesting. How can they miss this important part? In fact, it is what the Great Commission is all about. Christ gave a commission to all of us who are believers to go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to every creature.

It seems like most churches have forgotten the mandate, the commission, the proclamation of Christ to go and tell. So it doesn’t happen. That is really, really unfortunate. There are many people who are raised in church who never hear the gospel. We have a gentleman in our church who is now in his 80s, but got saved in our church at He was raised in church from the time he was five and active in many different churches and many important roles, but yet never was saved until he came to us back when he was 76 years of age.

He is so grateful now that he knows the Lord as his Savior. It’s amazing how all the churches he attended apparently failed him in getting the most important message to him that they should have. They had him active, they had him busy, they had him involved, and he was religious, but he wasn’t saved. And there is a difference. You can be religious and go to hell. You need to trust Christ in order to go to heaven. We have some questions and we’ll go ahead and start taking some of these.

We have Jim in Tampa, Florida, and he calls in, and by the way that call and number is 1-800-576-3771, 1-800-576-3771, and Jim in Tampa calls in and says, your thought when the Pope dies, where is he going? Well, the answer is a simple one. If he has trusted Jesus Christ as his Savior as is only hope of going to heaven and the pope will go to heaven. But if he is trusting in the church and in its sacraments and all the other things that they teach to go to heaven, then he will not.

I don’t have the Lamb’s book of life, but there are many people who are religious and are following traditions and teachings of men rather than the teaching of Scripture. And it doesn’t matter who you are, where you are, how wealthy you are, what race you are, if you don’t trust Christ, you will not go to heaven. And so I haven’t had the opportunity to talk to him personally about that, and so we’ll have to wait and find out. But there are many, many religious that are not going to heaven.

You know in Matthew 23, Christ talks about the religious leaders of his time, the Pharisees in the scribes and he says, well we’re judgment unto you Pharisees and scribes, you hypocrites. It says you are not only not going to heaven, but you prevent or hinder those who would go to heaven because of your false message of works for salvation. Hopefully that helps Jim and the answer is John 14-6. I, Christ, said in the way the truth and the life and no man cometh unto the Father but by me.

We have here Donna and Renee in Tampa, Florida asking this question, have you witnessed any Jews and have they trusted Jesus Christ as their Savior? Well, we’ve had Jewish people we’ve witnessed too, but I’ll have to look around the room and see if anybody has had one trust the Lord. speaking, Jewish people are going to take a little time. The Lord uses a credit card to win the christ. You don’t usually do it at one setting. Certainly we plant seed and we pray that some of that seed will bear fruit and people trusting Christ as their Savior here.

Thanks for that question. Donna and Renee in Tampa, Florida. Renee calls in from Tampa, Florida. I don’t know if it’s the same Renee or Renee. It says here, have you seen the water that is coming from under the Temple Mount? As the Bible says, we’ve been here today. We didn’t get a chance to do anything like that because basically we were not allowed to go where we would have to go to see that. But we do know, Rennian, you are right on, that there will be a river that will flow out from underneath the Third Temple.

And that river will flow down to the Mediterranean and to the Dead Sea. And again, we still don’t expect that to happen until after the rapture during the tribulation when the third temple will be built and then that river will probably begin to flow when Christ comes back seven years later and establishes this rule. So I don’t really expect that river to flow until the second coming. So we’re still at least seven years away if the rapture were to happen today.

And if the rapture is 10 years off, then we’re 17 years away. I don’t know when the Lord is coming back, but I know that we’re close. We’re very close. And maybe He will come this year, certainly as possible. Betty from Palm Harbor calls in and she says, what is the difference in the beliefs of the Baptist, the Calvinist, and our church? All right, Baptist and Calvinist. And I don’t know what your church is, but Betty will give this a shot.

do they believe in the rapture, eternal salvation, speaking in tongues, etc.? Well the Calvinists are usually Presbyterian or Reformed churches and some others might call themselves or claim to be Calvinists. By the way the Calvinists teaches that God has already made the choice for everybody and you don’t have a choice. The Calvinist doctrine is summed up by the acronym TULIP and T in TULIP stands for total depravity. Now, I believe we’re totally depraved, that we’re sinners, that’s basically what it says that Adam felt and we’re unable to save ourselves.

But where Calvinism goes wrong is they go beyond that to say that we are not even capable of believing. They say that we are spiritually dead, which is true. And they say that a dead man cannot believe a dead man can’t do anything. And that’s not true. But you know Jesus tells us differently. In John chapter 5, Jesus makes this remarkable statement in John’s Gospel chapter 5. And he says in verse 25, Verily, Verily, I say unto you, the hour is coming and now is when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall live.

So the Bible says dead men can hear and dead men can believe. And so those that are spiritually dead can hear the voice of the Son of God. And if you notice the verse before, which is really one of my favorites, it says, and it’s Jesus speaking, verily, verily, he says, I say unto you, he that heareth what? My word. So that’s why it’s important to quote scripture or get people to look at scripture because when they hear the word of Christ and believe it says here three things, a heavy turn of life at that very moment and forever after and secondly shall not come into condemnation, they will never be condemned but thirdly they are passed from death and the life.

So when it says here the dead shall hear, this means they will hear receiving it. In other words you can hear it and reject it or hear it and not take it in but it says They can hear the voice of the Son of God, and they did hear that is here receiving it will live. There are two different words in the Greek for here. One is to just hear and not pay attention. The other is to hear receiving what you’re hearing.

And Christ is saying if you hear my words and believe, then you have eternal life. You’re not coming to condemnation. You’re past for nothing in the life. And Christ tells us dead people can believe. The second point of Calvinism is the I in Tulip which stands for irresistible grace. Calvin the Calvinist is taught that when somebody has been picked out to be saved by God, God, at a particular time in his life, will come upon him with grace that cannot be resisted, and they will become saved, and it has nothing to do with that person’s will or whether they believe or not.

That’s certainly again not true. When you look at the Bible, we see when Stephen preached in Acts 7 that rather Stephen, he said in verse 51 of Acts 7 to the Jewish audience that he preached to, you stiff-necked. uncircumcised and hard and ears. You do always resist the Holy Spirit as your fathers did so do ye.” So here clearly Stephen says, you can resist the Holy Spirit, you can reject the message of the gospel. They did and what did they do?

They stone Stephen, he became the first Christian martyr. He was stoned just outside the Lion Gate that we’ve moved by many times which is also called St. Stephen’s Gate because that’s where he was stoned just outside the city wall. We’re coming up on the end of the first half of the program and it goes by so quickly doesn’t it? Wow and we have lots more questions and lots more to share and of course when we get back we’ll share a whole lot.

I hope you’ll come out this Sunday. I’ll be there Lord willing and we’ll be sharing from the trip. We’ll also have a dinner this Sunday so if you can come by be my guest at 1030 and then stay for dinner bring your family appetite and Bible and join us. If you’re anywhere else in the country or in the world listening from other places, you can catch that message on the internet. We’ll be webcasting that and you’ll see the video and the audio a little after 11 o’clock but if you can’t catch it then you can go back as it’ll go into archive and it’ll be there for months in the future to watch or see.

So take advantage of those things. If you haven’t given a gift to Bible Iron for the month of March, please consider sending a gift or giving one by credit card over the phone. Our operators are right there now attending the phones you can call and give a gift. That would really be helpful. We’re totally dependent on our listeners to be able to produce these programs and if you’re enjoying them, pray for us and consider giving a gift. We have to go to break but we’ll be right back.

So don’t go away. We’ll be right back after this short break. Go away Bibleline will be back in a moment. Give us a call at 1-800-576-3771. That’s 1-800-576-3771. I love Dr. Hank Listerman. We’re here in Israel. We’re in Jerusalem. We’re in our hotel. We’re very close to the Old City. We’re very close to the Hill of Calvary. We’re very close to the Tomb of Christ. We’re very close to the Temple Mount, where the third temple will be built. We are very close to where Jesus will return the Mount of Olives, where he will come back and the mountain will split and he will enter the third temple that will be rebuilt after the rapture and set up his kingdom.

A kingdom of peace on earth could will toward men for a thousand years and the earth will finally be at peace and never learn war anymore. And we are having a great time and we hope that you will maybe We consider going with us on our next trip. Also we hope that you’ll be listening as we share with you many of the stories that we’ve had over the time we’ve been here. We’ve met a number of people that have listened to Bible and we have a group in our hotel that just came today and they listened from Memphis, Tennessee.

We have with us again tonight and he is Iodie from Nigeria and we welcome here as he sits in here with our group as we produce this program. We also met another group of many from Upper Nigeria. In fact, we had a photo op and exchanged email addresses and home addresses with a number of people. They watch our programs and hear them in Upper Nigeria. So we’re coast coast in Nigeria. And so pray for Bible and as we reach out to many parts of the world and and obviously this was an unexpected blessing to to find people that are listening.

One of these gentlemen today said you are a real blessing to us in Nigeria so that was wonderful to hear. And if you’ll pray I’m sure that God will continue to open doors for us to share this gospel. Again, we need your help without your gifts. We could not be on the air and to go further and expand out, it requires money and to pay for the bills we have He said, God bless you and thank you in advance.

All of you who give are really a vital part of our ministry and we thank God for you. No gift is too small, but if you can give a generous gift that would really be helpful. be helpful. We’re going to return now to the stations that have been on break and we’re going to do the second half hour of Bibleline and hopefully we’ll be able to enjoy a few more of our experiences with you. Would you like to call Bibleline and ask Dr.

Lindstrom a question? You can. Just pick Check up your phone and dial 1-800-576-3771. That’s 1-800-576-3771. Now here again is Dr. Hank Lindstrom. All right, we’re back from that break and this is Bible Ann and we’re coming to you from Jerusalem. We’re here in Israel. Have been now for, this is the end of two weeks and we’ll be coming home and we’re in our hotel and we’re with our group and we’re in one of the dining rooms of the of the hotel and we’re producing this program which you’ll hear tomorrow.

And then we’ll be back. We invite you to come this Sunday if you’re driving distance. I passed your Calvary Community Church where Bible and his headquartered and you’re welcome to come to our 1030 worship service. You’ll hear some of our fresh comments from the trip and also you’re invited to stay for a dinner. We’ll have a wonderful dinner after the service and just come and bring your Bible, your appetite your family and join us for the service. Be my guest, stay for dinner and we’ll have a wonderful dinner this Sunday.

We also want you to pray for us as we pray for a continued safe journey back to the United States and to Florida and to Tampa and we also of course I hope you’ll pray for Bibleline that we might continue to reach out. We’ve been excited to find people here that have have listened to Bible and from Southern Nigeria and we’ve met another group today Gaalusalem from Northern Nigeria that watch and® here are programsbtn and also a group just came in this afternoon from Memphis Tennessee that areDepilst our programs there in Memphis and we are from that indication.

I’m sure we have a lot more folks over here in Jerusalem that apparently are aware of Bible and but not aware that we’re here together in the same city. But that’s a blessing for us and encouragement. The Bible is reaching out and that we are touching many parts of the world. You could be a help to us, pray for us. And also if we want to expand further, we need the help of our listeners to be able to accomplish that.

We also want to come back to Israel and you can get your name on a list so that we’ll call you when we decide when and the particulars of that trip. So if you’re interested, and by the way we have not felt threatened at all on this entire trip, it’s been very peaceful and sometimes very, very quiet and just a real wonderful, wonderful trip that we’ve had. And a lot of our group want to come back. They said there’s too much information to process in one trip and they want to do it again.

And maybe you might plan to join us. So call in and say, I want to be on that list to be notified when you plan your next trip and we’ll get you on the list and we’ll let you know. Again, if you haven’t given a gift for the month of March, would you consider giving a gift? You can do it by credit card or by mail. But the Bible end would greatly appreciate that. And we applaud you and thank you in advance for your prayers and for your gifts to Bible end and make it all possible.

We were talking before the break with a question about different beliefs and one of those that Betty was asking from Paul Marver was about Calvinism and since I started the tulip acronym I’ll go on with the letter L. L is limited atonement. That is indefensible. That says, like the Lone Ranger, I used to like that program years ago, but he didn’t waste any silver bullets. And basically that’s the concept of Calvinism with El or limited atonement. They said that Christ didn’t waste one drop of blood.

He only died for the ones that God pre-chose to save. So he didn’t die for the ones he didn’t choose to save. And it almost sounds cruel and heartless, but the Bible didn’t say that. The Bible says in 1 John 2 1, it says, and Jesus Christ is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world. That’s limited to him and down the toilet. It doesn’t match up with the Bible.

For God’s love of the world that he gave his only beyond the Son, John 3 16. So the Bible doesn’t teach any such doctrine. Christ died for everyone. Hebrews 2 9 says, Christ tasted death for every man. So there is no such thing. Sometimes these things are being pointed out to people. So people that were 5-point Calvinists, all 5-points of Tulip, are now 4-point Calvinists because they can’t defend limited atonement. And then when they discover some of the others are wrong, they become 3-point or 2-point or 1-point and I’m a 0-point.

Because as they are presented, I can’t accept anything. But I do believe we are to crave and are unable to save ourselves, which is true about total depravity, but I don’t believe that we cannot believe as a person spiritually dead and become saved. We just read what Christ taught. So anyway, limited tome is wrong. The next one is, do you, El, I put eye before you, and I tell you that we’re tired at the end of the day here.

But anyway, the second letter is you, and I missed that one, but I gave you the eyeliner for irresistible grace. But you is unconditional election. And unconditional election is that God doesn’t save you on the basis of your works. And I agree with that. And I believe that. The Bible is very clear that he chooses to save us, not based on works, but on the imitation of God to save us. But the Calvinist says it’s not even conditioned upon belief or receiving Christ.

And that is not true. So I again disagree with unconditional election. The Calvinist believes that God picks you out, saves you, and then you believe as a consequence, not as the means of your salvation. So when a Calvinist said they believe, that’s something that happens after God has already saved them, and isn’t the means by which they are saved. So according to the Calvinist, you don’t have to believe to be saved. You don’t have to do anything. It’s unconditional, not even upon belief.

God simply saves those that He chooses, and you don’t even have to believe. But you do believe if he chose you because that’s a consequence of you doing or being chosen by God. So that is again completely incorrect. And the last one is the worst one of all. It’s the perseverance of the saints. This is the so-called eternal security talking point of the Calvinist and it’s totally backwards. Because I am not eternally saved because I persevere. I’m eternally saved because Jesus, my Savior, eternally perseveres.

And He can make good on His promise for eternity because He’s going to be around forever and ever and ever and He doesn’t change, He doesn’t change His mind. And so whatever He promised is going to come to pass. But this is where Calvinists become teachers of works. And many that you hear on the radio are Calvinists, which you think on conditional election, they don’t preach works, but the Calvinist brings works into the back door and says through this last point the perseverance of the saints, if you have saving faith, which is the faith that they say God gives to the one he chooses and saves, that you will persevere your Christian life will continually go on an upward incline until finally you die.

And that if you even live your life faithfully till the last two weeks of your life. John MacArthur in one of his latest books says, if in the last two weeks you turn away from Christ, then you haven’t had saving faith and you go to hell. So basically the Calvinist is always trusting in works really because they’re always hoping to have that perseverance element in their life. The Bible doesn’t teach that. Lot went in a negative direction. He chose, he went down, down, down, down, down, and lived in Sodom, became a city councilman, and leader in Sodom, sat in the gate of Sodom, and I had no testimony whatsoever, and yet the Bible tells us that he was a righteous man.

Not by his works, not by his deeds, not by his choices, not by his environment, but because of his faith in Christ. That is why Lot and his wife and two daughters were delivered out of Sodom before God destroyed it. They were called the righteous. The righteous are those that believe. Just two chapters earlier, God said Abraham believed God and it was kind of the Abraham for righteousness. So when Abraham believed he was declared righteous before God, Lot also was declared righteous in the same way and Lot was a saved man.

So obviously a person can go negative and not positive and so that fifth point is just totally wrong. I can show example after example after example in the Bible. If you’ve ever read 1 Corinthians you’ve got to agree that that was not a nice group. That group, after they were saved, were extorting people, living in fornication, and just about every sin you could commit, they were committing, and yet they were saved. They were saved by faith in Jesus Christ as Savior.

Now, there were consequences, and that’s what Paul spends a lot of time in Corinthians talking about. It says, you’re going to stand before the judgment seems of Christ and give it account for how you live out your life after you get saved. Also, he talks a lot about God’s chasing upon a delinquent believer. But once you get saved, you’re saved forever. So the fifth point of Calvinism, I can’t accept it all, it’s totally wrong. And that’s why a lot of so-called Calvinists really sneak around the back door and say, and it’s kind of like a prideful thing on the part of some, they’ll say, do you really have saving faith and they rob a genuine believer of their assurance, cause them to panic and go into this works mode where they really are counting on the fact that they’re continuing faithful and works so that they supposedly have this perseverance that

Calvinism teaches in order that they might be saved at the end and it’s just totally wrong. So I really am a no point Calvinist but yet the basic tenants are there. I certainly believe we’re totally depraved, unable to save ourselves. I do believe that God saves us with disregard to our works. It’s not a work that says that you mention both. So it’s unconditional in that regard, but you do. Does require you put your trust in Christ. They of course say that God gives you the faith.

He picks you out and then he gives you faith. In fact they use Ephesians 2.8 to do that. Four by grace are you saved through faith and that not of yourselves is the gift of God, of works, as Danny mentioned, so they say that faith is none of yourself, it’s God-given, and it is faith that is the gift of God. Not true. The phrase there and that none of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works, is all in the Greek neuter.

And that means all the words in Greek have either a masculine, feminine, or neuter-ending. And that’s the way the sentences are connected, not by periods and other exclamation points and things that we have in the English language. And so therefore, the phrase and that, not of yourself, has to refer back to a neuter subject. Faith in Greek is feminine. It can’t refer to faith. So what is not of yourself is salvation through faith. What is the gift of God is salvation through faith.

What is not of works, as St. Benjamin should boast, is salvation through faith. It’s not directed back to faith, but it’s directed back to salvation, which is neuter in the Greek and that’s the new subject and that salvation is received through faith and that salvation is not of yourself, salvation is the gift of God, salvation is not of works. So don’t let a Calvinist fool you with that. It is absolutely wrong. They are really in error and tell you that when God picks you out, he gives you faith.

He saves you first, then he gives you faith and you believe in the consequence rather than trusting Christ and being saved as I believe the Bible teaches. Anyway, that helps a little bit, maybe. Baptist basically are eternal security, salvation by faith, but again each church has to be judged on its own merit. And generally, neither of these groups are speaking in tongues, although tongues now is permeating many, many doctrinal and denominational lines. So that is certainly a doctrine that is wrong as well because there are no bitty.

There’s no one speaking in tongues today. We have James in the land Florida over on the east coast of Florida. He says, you mentioned in Genesis 15, 6, about Abraham had faith and it was counted to him for righteousness. What is the faith he had and why was it counted for righteousness? How come the people in Israel don’t understand? Okay. Well, in Genesis 15, you read that God made a promise there about the coming seed of Messiah that would come through Abraham’s lineage.

And Abraham believed that promise, which is about Jesus. And so when he believed the gospel message concerning Christ, Then that was counted to him for righteousness because of the substitutionary death that Christ would make for Abraham and for every other person on the planet. And so in Abraham believed that message about Christ, he became righteous or saved. Galatians 3 is a wonderful verse to look to. It says in the scripture, for seeing that God would justify the heathen through faith preached the gospel before on Abraham.

Abraham heard the Gospel, believed the Gospel, and was saved by trusting Christ as Savior that Christ would future come as God promised that he believed it, he was saved, and then later Christ actually came. Thank you for that question. We have another question from Tampa, Florida, and this one is my, I don’t know who it is, but it says, have you seen what’s Rennie in Tampa? Have you seen the bulge on the side of the temple mount and how big is it?

Well we saw where the bulge was. It has been repaired. A few years back there was a scare that the wall on the south was bulging out and could cause the wall to collapse which you call the Alaxanosc to collapse and maybe bring down the whole temple mount platform which is all supported. Well, obviously the danger was real and since then they have repaired it and I was looking at the repaired portion in fact today when we walked right by that and so it’s repaired there is no danger of collapsing now and so that’s something that was kind of a potential that might bring the air musks down if the wall were to collapse and Israel probably would have been blamed for that but Israel actually helped repair that and restore it So it’s not going to come down.

Thank you for that question, Renny, and it sounds like you’re on top of your game. We have part two of the question from James. How come people in Israel don’t understand? Well, there is partly its blindness. If you read Romans, chapter 11, it says, in part blindness has come upon the children of Israel. And so they are blinded until the church age ends. Then the blindness comes off and many millions of Jews will become saved and trust Jesus as their Savior.

So it says in Romans chapter 11 and verse 25, it says, until, until, until. So this blindness is upon Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles become. The fullness of the Gentiles is a reference to this Gentile age that began to Pentecost It will end at the rapture when the last Gentile is added to the body of Christ and this period has concluded then the Bible talks about the blinders coming off and Israel, many of them becoming saved. So thank you James in the land of Florida.

Hopefully that helps you. Question James in the land again, he’s asking a lot of questions. Did you see the place where Isaac was offered up to God and how did the Jewish people see this as it relates to the picture of Christ? Well yes we did see that and that’s on the Temple Mount platform and the Jewish people of course react to it that Isaac was offered up on the Temple Mount. They don’t see the connection with Christ and that’s unfortunate but it really is a picture of Christ being slain on Mount Moriah and if you read Genesis 22 carefully you’ll find that it says what has happened there on that day with Abraham and Isaac.

It was a prophecy to be fulfilled later when the Messiah would come. We have Paul in Sarasota, Florida calling in. Paul says, are the local Jewish people starting to have their blinders come off or are they just worshiping God without knowing him? I believe the blinders are starting to come off and there are many more Messianic Jews in Israel today than ever and they’re coming to see that their Messiah has already come once. And that’s exciting. I think it’s kind of like a transition that occurs here that lets us know we’re getting close to when the actual rapture happens and the switch over takes place that more of that will take place.

Of course, all of those Jewish people that know Jesus as their Savior now are going to leave with us at the rapture. Julie calls in from Chattanooga, Tennessee, and Julie says, are you visiting all the Catholic Church sites in Israel even though you don’t believe what they believe. And do you believe the Catholic Church is the end time church? How does God look at the Catholics? Well that’s a loaded question. We have been visiting quite a number of Catholic Church sites because they have actually built over the traditional or actual sites of where things happen.

We thank God that they preserve those sites by building the churches over them and making them a sacred site. But otherwise, we don’t believe the Roman Catholic doctrine of salvation by the sacraments. If you ask a Roman Catholic, do you believe in Christ, they will say yes. But do you ask a Roman Catholic, do you trust Christ as the only means of your salvation, they’ll say no. That’s the difference between whether a person is saved or lost. So if you want to know whether a Roman Catholic is saved, and there are many that are, but you have to ask them the question, do you trust Jesus Christ as your only hope of heaven.

The average Roman Catholic will say, no, I trust the church. I trust the sacraments. And they’re trusting in obviously their works. And if that be the case, they will not be saved. And so that’s the question to ask everybody really, because the word believe in English is a word that means in some cases, mental assent to historical facts. And you can believe in all the facts concerning Christ and his life and not be saved. But if you trust that Jesus died and shed his blood and paid your sin debt and full I believe that in Coles Vareden Rosigen from the dead God will save you.

Julie, thank you for calling in and we are visiting because we are looking for the sites where things happen. Do I believe the Catholic Church is the in-time church? I believe it is. But remember all of those that maybe It may be saved in the Roman Catholic Church are going to be raptured with us, and then the Church will be totally without spiritual life at all. And there will be no unbelievers left after the rapture, and the Church, not only the Catholic Church, but every denomination will be filled with unbelievers.

No believers will be left behind, they will all be raptured on. That in-time Church will be manipulated by the devil, and it will become the in-time Church. a Revelation 17 hints that it’s a city, that it’s a religious system, it’s built on seven hills, and even in the Roman Catholic Bibles I have, and I have many in my library, they all in their footnotes say in Revelation 17 this is talking about Rome. And the problem is they don’t see themselves because they see the book of Revelation as being a historical document and talking about things that are already passed.

So therefore they don’t even bother to look for themselves there. And of course all preters do the same thing. Many of the Protestant denominations believe that God is through with Israel. There is no future plan. Some are preters which teach that Christ came back in 8070 and all of his power and all of his glory. Of course nobody saw it. But he began his kingdom then and we’re supposedly in the kingdom now. That is nonsense. I remember speaking in a banquet at the McDill Air Force Base in Tampa, Florida of around 300 people.

There were about nine chaplains there. And I always like to throw my meetings open for question answer after I get done. And I was getting quite a number of questions, but I discovered that most of them were coming from the chaplains. And then I asked the question I thought would be interesting. I said, how many of you chaplains have agreed with what I said? Only one of them did. Now I said, how many of you chaplains take the Bible to be literal?

Only one raises hand, the same one that agreed with me. And that’s the difference. If you take the Bible literally, it doesn’t come out lots of different ways, and the chaplains that did not agree with me did not take the Bible literally. And if you take the Bible literally, you’re going to agree with me because the Bible doesn’t come out four and five different ways, but if you read the Bible through these lenses of these other views, then you have to say as some do that the book of Revelation is metaphorical.

Metaphorical. I get tired of hearing that word, metaphorical. The book of Revelation is literal, and in some cases if it’s metaphoric, a little k in the context that you’re seeing something metaphorical, but otherwise it’s literal, it’s to be taken literally and that is where people divide. And I believe the Bible is the Word of God and God said what he meant and meant what he said and that we don’t need to look for any other interpretation than what God has plainly said.

Somebody once said if it makes plain sense then don’t try to make any other sense out of it. We have John in Tampa, Florida, and he says, what does your stand on the Jewish customs? Are they necessary for the children of God? And I say, no. Galatians chapter 3 really does answer that. It says, why? Oh, foolish Galatians, do you want to go back and observe times and dates and festivals and all those kind of things? And I believe the Jews that come to know Christ who want to cling on to all of that are really going backward.

I think it’s clearly wrong. And so that is not going to happen. Now the question goes on here that what about when he comes back? In the tribulation period we know that they’ll be back actually living out the last seven years of the tribulation. The seven years of the tribulation are really the last seven years of the Old Testament that haven’t yet ticked off the clock. Daniel talks about a 70th week of years called a 70th week of Daniel and that is one that would be interrupted after the 69th week which is when Christ would die and there’s been a 2,000 year age slipped in between the 69th and 70th week and that last week is the last 7 years of the Old Testament.

So once the rapture happens the program for Israel begins to tick off the clock again and we find that 7 years will tick off and then Christ will be back. That seven years will all be Jewish. A third temple, animal sacrifices, two Old Testament prophets, Moses and Elijah coming back and much, much more. We have Josh in St. Petersburg asking, do the Jewish people believe in hell and how bad is it going to be? Well many Jewish people today don’t even believe the Bible and don’t believe in a hell, but that doesn’t put out the flames of hell.

Israel is going to be very bad. The Bible says there will be wailing and gnashing of teeth. I think that says it very well. Are the Scriptures the Old Testament? Absolutely. In Isaiah 66 it talks about the soul will never die and the fire will never be quenched in hell. We’re going to have to wind this program up. We’re at the end of the hour. It’s going so fast. But please again come out and see me in Tampa if you’re in the Tampa Bay area this Sunday at 1030 for the morning worship and stay for dinner.

Also if you’re on the internet you can catch by morning worship service by clicking on the camera on the home page from anywhere in the world and watch our Sunday service. Also we want you to know if you haven’t given a gift for the month of March you can help us a great deal by giving a gift by credit card over the phone or sending one in by mail. Just call at 800 number our operators are standing by and they’ll be glad to help you.

We hope you have a great weekend go to church someplace hopefully a good Bible Church and we’ll catch you on the airline from Tampa when we’re back. Keep looking up Jesus is coming and we believe very soon. You’ve been listening to Bibleline, a presentation of Bibleline Ministries of Tampa, Florida. Your donation to Bibleline makes it possible for this ministry to continue in your area. The headlines address is 4811 George Road, Tampa, Florida, 33634. Or visit Bibleline Online at BibleLineMinistries.com.

Be sure to tune in for another edition of Bibleline from Calvary Community Church of Tampa, Florida. Well, I’m Dr. A. Lynch-Tremen. We’ve had fun being with you all this week and last week coming to you from Israel. right now in our hotel in Jerusalem. We’re in the dining hall and there our group is gathered around as we bring this program to you. This program will be here tomorrow or Friday all over North America and around the world on the internet and we hope that you’ll listen as often as you’d like.

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All says in Philippians 4 17, not that I desire a gift, but I desire a fruit that may abound your account. That verses forever influence my life because I learned that if I didn’t give, I was the loser. And if I wanted fruit to accrue to my account in heaven, I needed a gift. And to the degree I gave, that to that degree I would share in the fruit of God’s ministries that I supported. Consider Bibleline as one of those, if not the one that you would support.

We could use your help and we’d want to reach all the world for Christ. In fact, we are looking at some opportunities to be on the air in Africa and in Europe on the radio. And those are going to be some free wins on shortwave. And so we’re excited about that. And those of you that are listening already in foreign countries over the Internet might be able to hear us on shortwave radio. So hopefully shortly. That’s kind of like a pun on that I guess, but we are praying as God is opening doors.

We met some people that would like to put us up on the air. We’ll even translate this and that’s exciting. We got to run, have a good weekend, go to church someplace, watch our programs or hear our programs on the internet, keep looking up. Jesus is coming and we’ll be back Lord willing live from Tampa, Florida on Monday. Have you been listening to Bibleline, a presentation of Bibleline Ministries of Tampa, Florida? Your donation to Bibleline makes it possible for this ministry to continue in your area.

Bibleline’s address is 40-8-11-George Road, Tampa, Florida, 33634. Or visit Bibleline online at BibleLineMinistries.com. Be sure to tune in for another edition of Bibleline from Calvary Community Church of Tampa, Florida.