Bibleline Radio Show – 2009-03-17

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So, share is the only way for us, till I throw the endless light in time. Welcome to Bibleline with Dr. Hank Lindstrom, a ministry of Calvary Community Church in Tampa, Florida. Florida, declaring God’s love through radio and television, providing real answers to an ever-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. Now here’s a re-broadcast of Dr. Hank Lindstrom, host of Bibleline. Hi, this is Tom Perry with a listener update on Bibleline Ministries.

As we mentioned to you previously, Bibleline will be undergoing some format changes over the upcoming months, and the first of these format changes is almost ready for its debut. Please pray for us as we strive to continue Dr. Lindstrom’s work of spreading the gospel across the world. With With your prayers and if the Lord wills, the new format will debut on Monday, March 30. We’d like to express our appreciation to our listeners and contributors for the prayers and the support that continue to keep Bibleline on the air.

Bibleline could not continue without you, and we thank God for you. If you’d like to help support Bibleline, please contact our Resource Center at 1-800-576-3771 to get copies of Dr. Lynch from Sunday Sermons for teachings such as Beliefs That Matter or What Is The Gospel. If you prefer, you can visit our website at BibleLineMinistries.org. Now please join us as we listen to Bibleline with your host, Dr. Hank Lindstrom. Well, good morning and welcome to Bibleline. And great to be with you today.

Thanks for tuning into the broadcast. We appreciate each and every one of you. And we’re glad you’re listening today to the Bibleline program. We’re coming to you from our studios right here at Calvary Community Church in Tampa, located at 4811 George Road in Tampa, just a block west of the Tampa International Airport, Just four tenths of a mile south of Hillsborough, Avenue and Tampa. We would love to have you drop by. If you get close in the area, please take that extra minute to stop in and knock on the door and say hello.

Please come and introduce yourself. You’re also officially deputized to bring a friend if you’d like to bring a friend with you. We’re praying about expanding. Certainly we need your prayers and we’ll need your support to open those big doors and push the program Bible and out to the nation. and we’ll be letting you know as we know details as we get closer to those things happening. So keep praying for us. We certainly appreciate each and every one of your prayers.

If you’d like to come by on a Sunday, we worship at 10.30 in the morning, 6 p.m. in the evening, and you’re most welcome to come by on a Sunday as well. If you’d like to call in the phone number here, Bibleline is 1-800-576-3771. 1-800-576-3771. You know, the Word of God is an incredible book. It proves to be the Word of God, and we talked about that the other day, by its accuracy concerning everything. It is the infallible, inspired Word of God when it talks about history.

It’s right. When it talks about geography, it’s right. When it talks about science, it’s right. When it talks about medicine, it’s right. No matter what topic it talks about, it is extremely right on. And what is amazing to me is that the myths and fairy tales of superstition of past ages is not found in the Bible, but the Bible gives us an accurate book that tells the future and demonstrates to be the Word of God. God said in Isaiah 48, 4, I know that you’re obstinate, I know that you’re brass-headed, I know that you’re iron-necked, I know you’re hard to be convinced.

So God says, I’m going to give you proof that will demonstrate that this book is true. Another book on the earth is like this book written over a period of 1600 years by about forty different men, prophets and apostles that gave us the old and new testaments. And yet it’s in perfect harmony. There are no contradictions. This book has to be indeed the word of God. Tells the life of Christ before he ever came, 330 some odd prophecies of the first coming of Christ.

All of them literally fulfilled. The probability of that would be if you gave each one a one in ten chance of probability would be one chance in ten to the 330th power. Can you imagine just writing 330 zeros after a one? Well it would be one chance in 330th power that all of these prophecies about Christ’s first coming could be fulfilled in one person, yet they were. Amazing. The Bible has obviously got convincing proof. He said, if you’re an honest skeptic and you take a look at the Bible, you’ll either no longer be a skeptic or you’ll no longer be honest.

Think about that one for a minute. So if you’re an honest skeptic and you approach the Bible, you’ll either no longer be a skeptic, you’ll be a believer, you’ll trust the Lord Jesus as your Savior and receive the wonderful free gift of eternal life, or you won’t be honest because this Bible is without a doubt the Word of God. Isn’t that amazing? You know, even way back in the earliest pages of Genesis, you have the first surgical operation mentioned, And that was that Adam was put into a deep sleep, and then God performed the surgery where he took a part of his side and created a woman.

Did you know that the whole field of anesthesiology was discovered by a doctor who was reading the Bible of Christian who said, wow, if that’s the way to do it, that’s what we’ll do. He read how God put Adam into a deep sleep. Isn’t that what they do when they perform surgery? They take you into a very deep sleep. In fact, if they don’t monitor you and watch over you carefully, you might never come out of it. It’s a very, very skilled profession to be an anesthesiologist.

Well, the first, the one to discover that was a Christian looking at the Bible and saw that that’s the way God performs surgery. You go back, not even 150 or 200 years in our country, And what they would do is get you drunk or they’d knock you out somehow. But today we know that the Bible had the right procedure and that was to put you into a deep sleep. You know, there are hundreds of medical facts, scientific facts, other facts in the Bible that demonstrate this book to be true.

That’s why I believe it to be true. And especially the prophecies that tell the history of the world. And what is happening in the world today right now is exciting. And we are being confronted by Islam. Zola Levitt reports in his newsletter that two elaborate well-funded mosques are being constructed near the Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton. That one is a copy of the Al-Aqsa Mosque built upon the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, and they are building a replica of that right down in Boca Raton.

To the chagrin of most Floridians, the Sunshine State has become known as the center of Islamic radicalism in America. 13 of the 9-11 hijackers were tied to the state of Florida. Bin Laden’s private pilot lived in the Orlando area. We’re seeing Islam moving along. They say on their websites that they plan to control the whole world by another 20 or 30 years. And we’re understanding that the latest thing in Israel is that they say because Israel just took out three terrorist operatives that now the next month or so will be the blackest days in Israeli history as that they are going to take revenge like they never had before against Israel.

the temple mount is the center piece of the focus and no doubt about it. Last week’s riots up on top where the Muslims rushed from their worship to the wailing wall and threw rocks down upon the Jewish worshipers and then violence broke out on top, stun guns, bullets were fired, people killed. We’re living in a time that the Bible has predicted what happened. We’re excited about Jesus coming back and straighten this world out, but until He comes, there will be no peace on earth, no good will toward men.

Well, it’s exciting to be with you. I hope you are a believer. I hope you’re assured of your salvation. The Bible says that if you trust Christ as your only hope of heaven, as your Savior, that God saves you and you become saved eternally from the very moment you trust Christ. The key word is trust. The biblical word is the Greek word pestuo, P-I-S-T-E-U-O, translated believe. Did you know that that word occurs over a hundred times in the Gospel of John?

I won’t tell you the exact number because I’d love to have you use that as a challenge to study the Gospel of John and maybe underscore and mark every time you see the word believe. Over a hundred times. If you think you have the right answer, call me after the program and tell me and I’ll tell you whether you got it right or not. Please don’t cheat music and cordance to be able to discover the correct answer, but it will be a great incentive.

The Bible divides the world into two groups. Wherever you look, you see the two groups. Whether you look in the gospel of John or other parts of the Bible, the Bible describes two groups as believers and unbelievers. Those that are saved and those that are lost. Those that are going to heaven, those that are going to hell. And the difference being whether or not they have believed on the Lord Jesus Christ. And you’ll find that that is something I believe to be The Bible describes two groups as believers and unbelievers.

Those that are saved and those that are lost. Those that are going to heaven. Those that are going to hell. And the difference being whether or not they have believed on the Lord Jesus Christ. And you’ll find that And that is something I believe to be. looked for. For example, Paul goes to Thessalonica. There he preaches the gospel and opens up the Old Testament and explains that the prophecies about Christ were fulfilled in Jesus Christ that he was the Messiah, that if they would believe on him they would be saved.

It says in Acts chapter 17 and verse 4, and some of them believed, and some of them believed, some of them believed. Then verse 5 speaks about another group, but the Jews which believed not, which believed not, which believed not. You’ll see that wherever you look in the Bible, once you’re clued in on that, there are those that believe and there are those that believe not. And you’ll see the contrast. And the Bible, of course, says those that believe on Christ, those that the English word, the best equivalent is trust.

When they trust on Christ, they become saved. I trusted Jesus Christ as my Savior when I was 18 and I received the gift of everlasting life. I was confirmed and baptized and homogenized and pasteurized and capsized and Simonized and you name it, I went through it. But I never was saved in the church I was raised in. Nobody ever told me that I had to trust in the finished work of Jesus Christ at Calvary in order that I might be saved.

And the wonderful truth of Scripture is that Jesus paid it all. He paid for every sin I would ever commit past, present, and future. And when I trust the fact that He did that for me, God saves me. I received eternal life at the moment I trusted Christ that night as a teenager and I still possess it. I’m not any less saved today. I’m not any more saved today than I was the night that I trusted Christ. become saved completely.

The Bible says, in Hebrews to the uttermost, when you trust Jesus Christ as your Savior. Nobody is too sinful to be saved. Nobody has committed too many crimes that they cannot be forgiven. The Bible opens the invitation to everyone and it says, Whosoever, whosoever, bully within him, should not perish but have everlasting It doesn’t limit those who might come. Anybody can come. You can come. You could receive Christ. You could trust Him as your Savior. You could receive the gift of everlasting life.

It says it right there. Who’s whoever? Believeth in Him. That means to trust in Him would not perish because Christ perished in your place. But you would have everlasting life, everlasting life, to live forever and ever and ever and ever and ever. It’s a message that is so plain and so simple that a child can receive it, and yet it seems like adults want to complicate it and make it confusing. I hear people all the time, and I just heard it this morning.

A preacher saying, to give your life to Christ to be saved. Well, guess what? That’s the opposite of what the Bible teaches. We don’t give anything to Christ to be saved. trust in what He did for us. It’s not what we do for God that saves us, it’s what He did for us at the cross. It’s not you’re giving anything to God that saves, it’s God giving His Son in the person of Christ at Calvary to pay for your sin that brings about our salvation.

It’s very confusing, I’m sure, to the lost. Let’s see, you’re in a meeting, and the preacher says, give your life to Christ. Where do you deposit on your way out? There’s a place to put your life, just put it in a can as you go out the door. I don’t know. I think in my mind, what does a lost person think when they hear these phrases? What does it really mean? Not only that, it’s just wrong because we don’t give anything to be saved.

We receive. The Bible says in John 1, 12, to as many as received Him, Christ, that is. To them God gave, God gave, God gave authority for them to become the sons of God, specifically to them that believe on His name. I certainly hope you’ve trusted Christ as your Savior, as your only hope of heaven. And if you have, you can be sure of going to heaven. We’re going to go to the phone lines. I’m Dr. Anglican. This is Bible.

We’re living in exciting days. These are the days. What a privilege to be living today to see the events unfold that will bring about the coming of Jesus Christ again to this earth, first at the rapture to catch us out. And then seven years later to come back and rule and reign on this earth as King of Kings and Lord of Lords. We’re in that special time of year when we’re approaching the week of the crucifixion. If you’d like my chart of the events, you can send me a self-ad Domlo, that’ll make it easy for me and we’ll put it right in there.

I have a chart that I’ve developed that takes you from Palm Sunday all the way through Resurrection Sunday and everything that happens in between. We give you the Scriptures the time of day and when things happen and it’s wonderful to be able to have that as we approach that very special week for Christians to be able to kind of get a handle on when everything happened. And by the way, we believe Christ was crucified on Wednesday, not Friday. You’ll see why.

You might want to get that chart and the sheet that goes along with it where I explain the crucifixion week. Send a self-addressed damn envelope to Bibleline at 4811 George Road in Tampa. And we’ll just mention the crucifixion week chart and we’ll send that right out. Again, thank you all who I’ve given and continue to give to Bibleline, you are really our lifeblood. You’re the ones who keep the program in the air. We obviously need your help to be able to pull the program off.

It’s much bigger than we are, much bigger than we’re able to handle financially without your help. And it’s wonderful to have Bibleline friends who have given and continue to give to keep us on the air. you’d like to give a gift. You can send it to the Bibleline at 4811 George Road in Tampa. And we’re at the zip code here is 33634. Please feel free to write to us or call us. And we’d love to have your prayers. And if you can send something to help Bibleline, that would be greatly appreciated.

We have some new things though. We have a fellow that is a student in our Moody classes who’s an embroidery and did some marvelous T-shirts and ball caps. We have them in small, medium, large and extra large. The shirts are 100% cotton pre-shrunk and it says Bibleline on it. The ball caps are beautiful, blue caps with the Bibleline embroidered on them. And the ball caps go for a gift of $10 and the shirts go for a gift of $12.

And if you’d like to help Bibleline and proudly display your Bible line t-shirt or cap, you can get them here as well as the many resources we have in the way of Bibles, Concordances, dictionaries, commentaries and books that are going to be very helpful to you as you study the Bible. We have Anthony and Clearwater on the line In the Mintany we welcome you to the Bible and program. Can you explain about the women that shouldn’t cut their hair or men that have long hair and also to finalize it in verse 16?

What exactly that means also if you could? I’ll be happy to do that, Anthony. Okay, thank you, sir. Thank you. That’s in 1 Corinthians that Anthony is talking about and it’s 1 Corinthians chapter 11. There it says it is a shame for a man to have long hair. It says in 1 Corinthians 14, or other chapter 11 verse 14, it says, does not even nature itself teach you that if a man have long hair it is a shame unto him.

So there’s a distinction between the sexes here as it says it meant you to have short hair. By the way that was the hairstyle in the time of Jesus Christ. It was set by the Romans and the Romans, the Caesar, I guess, was the trend setter. You’ve seen the statues, I’m sure, short haircut, off the ears, off the neck, comb forward, short bangs. That was the style. If you were a man and you went into the barber shop 2,000 years ago when Jesus Christ was here and the barber said, what kind of haircut today?

And the average guy would say, hey, I think I’ll pick that Caesar cut. Short off the ears, off the neck, short haircut, short bangs in the front. That was stylish. That was it. And by the way, I believe Christ had short hair. I don’t believe he violated Scripture. Also, if he were the only one with long hair, then why did they have to pay Judas to betray him? They could have told the soldiers, go out and grab the first guy with long hair.

You’ve got him. Bring him in. But obviously he looked just like everybody else. And that’s why the Judas had to be paid to betray him. This long hair, Jesus, is certainly not scriptural. And I believe we have been misled in that area. I believe we had short hair. Also for the woman, it says, but if a woman has long hair, it is a glory to her. Her hair is given to her for recovering. And so it talks here that women have been told to have long hair, or longer hair than a man anyway.

And obviously that is the woman’s glory. Verse 16 says, if any man seemed to be contentious, we have no such custom, either the church or God. And that’s talking about putting a covering on top of your head as a woman. And some churches practice that where they were a hat or a cloth or something over their head as a symbol of their subjection to God, but that custom is not necessarily enforceable as it says that was, I think, a matter of choice.

But really the woman’s long hair is her covering, and the man’s short hair is his distinction as a man. I hope that answered your question there for you, Anthony. Thank you for your call. We have Kyle in Sarasota. Kyle, welcome to Bibleline You’re on the Earth. a dot com make things so easy to understand ideas that i was not going to be a month and do you uh… have a listen to preachers or any preachers and not who you listen to if you do well i like to read but i don’t have listen to too many but i do like their repair my charles family uh…

and a number of others that are that are good i think the best source is is the bible And it’s hard to find really good preachers out there that are true to the Word of God. So you have to really, whenever you’re listening, just be very careful that you don’t buy everything they say. That includes me. You need to check everything out against the Scripture. That’s the only way to be safe. So I don’t ask anybody to believe me.

I ask you to believe the Scriptures. And that’s why I quote the Bible. So often on this program, we never give an answer generally without giving some kind of scripture to support it because that’s the way it ought to be. It ought to be chapter and verse please for everything that you believe. It ought to be able to be supportable by the Bible. And if you don’t question, then you get yourself into trouble. For example, yesterday we were talking about Lent.

There is no L-E-N-T in anybody’s Bible. And nobody seems to be asking questions. Yesterday in the Tampa Bay area, the Tampa Tribune and also the St. Pete Times had a big page, full page article about people beginning Lent with Ash Wednesday. There’s no Ash Wednesday in the Bible. There is no Lent in the Bible. Now if you held your Bible up so that a shook it, L-I-M-T might fall out Lent, but certainly no Lent because there is no Lent in anybody’s Bible.

Isn’t that amazing? It really is. And we’re living in time when more and more people are departing away from sound doctrine. Lent is totally pagan and precedes Christ coming by thousands of years because Lent begins all the way back in Genesis chapter 10 and is the part of the pagan worship system of Baal worship. I hope that helps with that question. And this is Bible and the phone number is 1-800-576-3771. So give us a call 1-800-576-3771, and we’d love to hear from you.

In Israel, there was an earthquake a couple of weeks ago, it caused a crack damage to the Dome of the Rock. an email from Gershaun Solomon, who has a Temple Mount Faithful. He says, Hallelujah. He believes that God is preparing the way for that third temple to be rebuilt and another good shake in the whole Temple Mount Plump platform could collapse and both Muslim mosques could go down. We’re living in a time that the focus is on that Temple Mount and we believe it’s getting close.

We’re going to Lillian in Tampa and Lillian. Welcome to my blind. Good morning, Nablus. Let me talk to you on the radio. I can hear an echo. Yes, I just want to say that God has been working in me. I just recently came back to him. now the devil is keeping me apart things but it’s you know He had a hard time with us in the middle of my life, and I just made it get worse than I really wanted to go back.

And there were things stopping me from going and being tired now, that I’m trying to stay firm. He’s inside of me, keeping me going wanting to go and everything. I said, I gotta go when it comes out. You know, it gives us movies. And then at least I gotta see the interview. And the line, I believe it was. He was Kated Kirk. And I said, I have to go see that first before I go see the movie. And then go see it once.

and it opens up to make my impression that I was there in the box office with Guy, to him, to Jesus that I was there to watch. And I went in with a strong hardness. And I’m going to say, because I know it’s going to be probably, but I didn’t imagine how strong it was going to be. But I cried so much the first time that movie rocks. It’s awesome. And I’ve been researching a lot of things and listening to the station all day.

Every day I’ve been putting that the first thing I put on, I don’t put anymore the world music or nothing like that. That’s what I have tuned into my alarm and thank God I’ve been waking up, you know, but if I’m tired, I just get up, you know, I didn’t want to get up this morning. It was a little bit cold and I just got up. I said, I gotta get up quite a life-based sleep, you know. The depression was so big that, you know, the world.

It was letting me, you know, the devil wanted to destroy me. He didn’t want me to cook back to God. Thank you, ladies. Hold on, Leland, because we’re going to break here. And this is Dr. Englund’s room, and this is Bibleline, and we’re going to take a short break. And maybe Leland will hold over. We’ll talk to her. Don’t change that dial. I’ll be right back in just a moment to answer your Bible question here on Bible Line. No way.

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. Well, I’m Dr. Englund. It’s great to be with you again. Thank you for tuning in today. We’re coming to you live from Tampa, Florida, from our studios here at the Calvary Community Church. If you’re ever in the area, please come by and visit with us, would you? If you fly in, we’re right next to the airport. So just take that extra minute and come by and knock on our door.

We have had visitors this past weekend from Ghana, Africa, from San Diego, California, from Fort Myers, Florida, which is about a three-hour drive south, and from Lakeland, Florida, Plant City, Dunedin, Florida, and of course, St. Pete, Lager, and all those areas. People are coming, and you’re welcome to come by and visit with us as well. tonight. We have our classes and I hope that you’ll consider getting those on CD or DVD. Second Peter’s a powerful book, one that Satan hates and all liberal theologians would like to rip out of the Bible and throw away.

It is extremely powerful and Satan doesn’t like Second Peter. So I know you’ll want to learn what’s inside that book because the devil doesn’t want you to know. And so you can order after tonight we will have finished all 10 hours, and you can get 2nd Peter on CD or DVD. By the way, our worship services are sitting there on the internet. You can go there anytime of day or night, go to BibleLineMinistries.org, click on the camera and you’ll get our worship service archives.

And there’s a year’s worth of sermons you can watch and listen to sitting there in the archives. And by the way, if you go on Sunday at 11 o’clock in the morning, you can actually get the worship service live from wherever you might be. That’s exciting. And I hope that you’ll take advantage of that. And we have so many wonderful blessings that are connected with this website of ours. We have at least 1500 people a month that take the quiz on, am I going to heaven right at the beginning of the website and fail to come back and take it and pass it.

So possibly 30 to 50 people a day are getting saved just by going to the website and in that wonderful. So we praise the Lord and maybe you’d like to have a part in helping Bible on because I believe that whatever fruit we bear for Christ will be yours as well as you give to support Bibleline. We really do need your help. We aren’t trying to get your money. We do want to get the gospel out and we don’t pay any salary.

So this money really goes out to get the maximum for your investment. So would you please consider giving a gift to Bibleline today. Call and you can give it by credit card over the phone or ask for an envelope to be and then you can We’re going to do the second half hour of Bibleline, so I hope you’ll stay tuned right now. We’re going to go to Bibleline Part 2.

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. Now here again is Dr. Hank Lindstrom. Oh, right. We’re back from that break and we had a personal positive testimony from Lillian just a moment ago. She said that she saw that movie and apparently that’s helped bring her back closer to the Lord. We’re glad to hear those kind of reports and hopefully all of us as believers would be ready to give an answer to those that bring up this conversation because this movie certainly is bringing up the topic all the time and we who are believers I believe need to be ready.

You know the false groups are always out there to take advantage of an opportunity like this when people are talking about the Lord to give them the wrong spin and give them the wrong answer but I believe we ought to be giving the correct answer and if you’re a believer maybe there’s a family member that you have that is unsaved. This is an ideal time to mention the Lord because I think because of the film the conversation is open.

This is Bibleline the phone number is 1-800-576-3771 1-800-576-3771 and we are so pleased to be able to bring this program to you. And we want to thank those who are responsible for that, because that is all of you who pray, and give the Bible, and because you make it possible for us to be on the air. We’re excited about some of the new things that we’ve added here. We’ve got a little booklet now by Clarence Larkin called, The Second Company of Christ that has some wonderful charts in it.

We have the cheat sheet that we have for the cults called, The Spirit of Truth and the Spirit of Error. has about seven or eight cults and what they believe right from their writings at a column that says what the Bible teaches in contrast and We have one of those on the world religions as well So you’re ready to go when a cult member comes to your door doesn’t matter who they are They’re probably covered in the sheet and you just say excuse me a minute You go get your sheet whip it out and you’re ready to go It has what they believe and it has what the Bible says which really makes it neat We also have this book on Roman Catholicism, which has been a really popular one.

It’s called Understanding Roman Catholicism, where Rick Jones takes 37 Roman Catholic doctrines and pulls out the quotes from the Catechism, which is a lot of work if you attempt to do that. And then he gives you the scriptures that show you the differences between the Catechism, the official book of doctrine for the Roman Catholic Church and what the Bible teaches. You’ll find it fascinating. You can have that book, Understanding Roman Catholicism, and it’s a marvel. We also have one of the greatest books in all the world that gives you a visual picture of God’s overall plan for the ages.

It is called Dispensational Truth, but it has 160-something charts in there. Clarence Larkin, who wrote it, was an architect, got saved, used as architectural skills to draw these incredible charts. He’s got Daniel outlined on a chart, Revelation outlined on a chart. Daniel Revelation combined outline on a chart. The book of Ezekiel, the book of Matthew, the different prophetic books are outlined. Just a fascinating overall view of what God is doing and going to do. And it was written about a hundred years ago, but it’s written as though it were written today.

It’s just unbelievably right on because this man believed the Bible and it’s my favorite book, it really is. And it has chapters that explain all these things, the spirit world, the resurrections, the judgments, all of these things are charted out for you. You definitely need to have that if you want to really get into the Bible and understand what God is going to do, what the future holds, and what eternity holds. He visualizes it for you in these 160 charts that are inside.

It’s incredible. We have lots of good things like that. Call our number after the program and we’ll be glad to talk to you about them and you can order them over the phone and for a gift to Bibleline which will help Bible and we’ll send those right on out. We’re gonna go to Paul down in Sarasota and Paul welcome to Bibleline. Hello Hank and we thank very much for your program and joy on a daily basis I’m in theigmatic “$10”, theitement of the outside-sale person My question concerns church, government and structure.

And of course I’m familiar with the passages that define eldership and deacons and qualifications thereof. But my question concerns more. YouNJ Church is sprouting up who have basically run by a pastor. The church is founded by this individual and is run completely by this individual. The absence of a board of elders or any other kind of governing body. Just wanted to consider that a scriptural approach. All right. Well, you’re going to stay on the line or will you just…

Whichever you prefer. It doesn’t matter. Anyway, yeah, I know that what’s happening is a new trend where it seems like the Bible is divorced from what is going on today in so many different areas of doctrine. And that certainly seems to be one of them. In my church here, we have elders and deacons. I am on the elder board as a pastor, but otherwise the newer ones insurgent seems like a corporation that don’t even have membership. They have a small group that are running it like a business and nobody else has any say so.

So it’s interesting the different forms of government. Of course the Roman Catholic Church totally has charge of their church without the people having much input and of course many of the other churches that came out of the Reformation have different forms of government where they at least have accountability and they have leaders who the pastor or the leader is accountable to. But the Bible I think is pretty clear that there were to be elders in every church and He was a very famous church and also deacons.

Apparently the elders were like the apostles that they were the spiritual overseers and were to give themselves to the word of God and to prayer. Whereas the deacons were to carry out the administrative tasks of handling the church and carrying for its people in the needs and were a separate group. I think that… that today we just see as the Bible said it would happen that would be a departure from the Bible. And we are seeing it in many areas of doctrine including church structure and leadership and men that are in pulpits that have not been ordained or in many cases don’t even know the Lord.

They just decide they’re going to start a church. So it’s interesting to live in this time and everybody needs to be careful to I think take a look at what they’re joining before they join so that they know what they’re getting themselves involved with. Does that help a little bit or? Yeah, actually quite a bit and in fact that’s really a lot of lives of my own thinking but I wanted to get a more knowledgeable of you, an opinion on it and I believe that that’s exactly what I was thinking and I see it’s quite the same so something to be aware of.

you would be wary of? Be wary of because nowadays, you know, churches are springing up and there, sometimes you don’t really find out what they believe until after you’ve been there for quite a while and then oftentimes when a difficulty arises then it’s a real problem because you don’t have this real connection to the Bible as being the authority and you have sometimes just an individual as an authority. And that’s what’s happened in the cults for sure. Usually it’s a Joseph Smith or it’s a whatever is named Judge Rutherford that was the founder of the Jehovah’s Witnesses and these other men that were the head guy and they pretty much did what they chose to do and their doctrines obviously reflected that because they departed from the Bible.

Yes. Okay. Well, thank you very much. You’re very welcome. Thanks for listening. Sure. Bye bye. to call in, the phone number is 1-800-576-3771, 1-800-576-3771. Paul says, and I like this verse 1 Corinthians chapter 11 verse 1, he says, Be followers of me even as I also am of Christ. So here Paul, although he asked the Corinthians to follow him, he says, follow me as I follow Christ. Christ is our leader and the Bible is of course God’s word and we are only to follow a man like the Apostle Paul as they follow Christ.

when they depart from the Bible and from following God’s Word, then I believe that we are not obligated to followlimits. We are to follow. As Paul says, be followers of me even as I also am of Christ. And Paul was a faithful servant following the Lord. And therefore those kinds of persons can be mentors and leaders and people that we would follow in our faith and say, hey, they’re leading us correctly according to God’s word. always need to be as we use the word, worry a moment ago, to check out everything we believe against the Scriptures to make sure that we are in the faith.

Second Corinthians Corinthians 3 5 says, examine Judaics, whether you be in the faith, which is the body of truth that’s contained in God’s word. We’re going to go to Bob and Tampa. Bob, welcome to Bibleline. I’m sure glad to be able to speak to you this morning. I hear you when in my car and this morning I would like your opinion about the verse in Ephesians chapter one that talks about glorification. Sure. If I’m in my car I’m going to hang up and listen to me.

Ephesians 1-4 and we’ll take a look at that. I’m turning over there right now. In Ephesians 1-4 it says, according as yet chosen us in him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace wherein He hath made us accepted in a beloved.

Well what often happens here is people read verse 4 of Ephesians 1 according as He has chosen us in Him before the foundation of the earth. And then they immediately say, well, see, we were chosen before the foundation of the earth. But what is missed here is two key words. It says, according as you have chosen us in Him. In Him, that means in Christ. And that phrase is used throughout the New Testament. And in Philippians 3-9, and here’s a good one for you to write down, Bob.

Philippians 3-9, be careful, God, I know you’re driving. But Philippians 3 and 9 says, be found in Him. Let’s just jump most of the middle of the verse there and go to the very end of the verse that says, by faith, be found in Him by faith. In other words, when we place our faith in Christ, we are then placed into Christ and we are found in Him or in Christ. Now what God chose before the foundations of the earth is that everyone in Christ was predestinated to go to heaven and to be like Christ and so on and so on and so on.

and to be glorified. And basically what it’s saying here is that God chose the save and take all to heaven that would believe on Christ. Because you and I have the choice to be found in Christ when we place our faith in Christ, we are then found in Christ, Philippians 3 and 9. And if you read this verse here, knowing that, it says, according as he hath chosen us in him. So it’s I like to illustrate it this way.

Let’s say that there’s a plane taking off from the Tampa International Airport this afternoon at three o’clock from Tampa nonstop to Chicago. The airlines is already determined probably months ago and maybe longer than that ago that that plane that would leave this afternoon would leave from Tampa and fly nonstop to Chicago. You though have a choice to be found in that plane. And if you decide you wanna be in that plane, by a ticket and get on that particular plane but the airline is already determined and predestined that plane would land in chicago so basically god is determined that flight jesus is going to heaven all those in heaven those in our net for five and that all i don’t want to fight and then you know that to be in flight jesus are not and then happens when we trust christ so it’s an

says, be found in Him by faith. If you read the whole verse, it says, be found in Him not having my own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of in Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith. So when we trust Christ, we are found in Christ, having His righteousness, and therefore eligible to enter heaven, and if we’re in Christ, then we’re in a sense on flight Jesus, which has already been predetermined before the foundations of the earth that that flight will arrive in heaven.

And so I hope that helps you Bob with this question about predestination. God has predetermined and predestined all those that believe to go to heaven. And we are going to heaven if we’re in Christ, but it’s our choice to be placed into Christ, Philippians 3.9. All right, you’re welcome to call us. The phone number is 1-800-576-3771. And that’s 1-800-576-3771. And we’d love to hear from you. Joe, welcome to Bibleline. Thanks. That last call reminds me of people who are of a five-point Calvinism background.

You know what I’m saying? It’s all pre-determination, pre-destination. He’s going there, but he may not be one. No, no, I didn’t mean he was. But I mean, I’ve had people that are really hard-line five-pointers say you have no choice. But I always wanted to throw out one of my favorite verses. And it’s first Timothy 2-4 where it says, well, I just first Timothy 2. to ignore all therefore that first of all prayer supplications intercessions giving a thank you made for all men for kings and those are in store this is good and acceptable inside of God our Savior who will have all men to be saved and to come on to the knowledge of the truth so that would that would that would preclude mr.

Calvin’s supposition well that’s true it also second Peter chapter three where he said he’s not willing that any right should perish not many but not really that any should perish that counter dick that that theory of Calvinism and I don’t agree with it obviously Just wanted to throw that out there. There is a Bible position. Yeah, I’m a biblicist not a Calvinist or an Armenian There you go or anything else well Joe you always have something good to say and we appreciate your call Well, you should ask my wife.

You might tell you something different now. I’m just he’s all right Well, I’ll call her after the program and see what she has to say All right, that was Joe up in Hudson, Florida. You’re welcome to call us 1 800 576 3, 7, 7, 1. And please feel free to call us up. I believe that if you take a Christian who is in their early stages especially, and as a believer when we lead someone to Christ, then we need to disciple them and the way we disciple them is to get them to get into the Word and continue in the Word.

You know, Jesus said in John 831, if you continue in my Word, my word, if you continue in my word, then are you my disciples indeed? We become disciples by continuing in the Word of God and obeying it and following it. We’re going to go to Douglas in Sefner. Welcome to Bibleline. Yes, Dr. Hank. Thank you for taking my call. You’re welcome. I got, and some years ago I had what took place in the book of Job. since then I’ve been saved child God.

But in the book of Joel that talks about the sons of God coming to present themselves to the Lord and Satan coming in the midst of them. I’ve got kind of a twofold question. These sons of God, who are they and why was Satan And with them I did suggest that Satan, or that he allowed Satan to bring difficulties into Job’s life just to prove a point or to, as a teaching for us later. That book, honestly, it gave me some real problems for a long time.

I can understand. Well, the first point, the sons of God are believers. And what they did is they came to a particular place to worship the Lord. As in the Old Testament, God always had a place, like the tabernacle in the wilderness or the temple later that was built by Solomon, where God would, his presence would be made known and they would come to worship. And I believe this was a pre-all of that. And so there was a place where they would come.

Hebrews 1, 5 tells us that it could not be angels because it asked the question with the implied answer to which of the angels did God ever call his son? And God obviously is implied he never called an angel his son, so that’s the end of that story. So they were believers and Satan, if you notice the context, was he’s the God of this world, he’s still in charge of this world system and he was roaming up and down throughout the earth and when God asked him where he had been, he had been roaming around the earth, which he does all the time.

And he is fully aware of what is going on in his kingdom, which is this world system. Of course, at the Second Coming, Jesus will take the kingdoms of this world away from Satan and Christ will then rule forever and ever and ever. But so here we have Satan coming to observe the believers as they worshiped. And I don’t think things have changed. I think that Satan is fully aware of what we as believers are doing and obviously has many angels under his charge which are the fall angels the third fall of him and his initial rebellion and they are out to hinder us in our efforts to live for Christ and share the gospel of Christ with lost and dying people.

And so here it was God though who bragged on Joby says Satan have you noticed Job? And of course, Satan of course says that he is so faithful and is such a dedicated He’s a servant of God because God had put a hedge about him and protected him from Satan. But God, Satan says, if you only let me take away the things he possesses, he’ll curse you. And of course God allowed that knowing again that Job could handle the situation.

And obviously he’s become a wonderful lesson to all of us and that was the answer to your third part in what endurance is all about, what patience is all about, trusting God. And even though circumstances may not look like God is still there or present, he was very much present and super intended this whole thing that Job went through. And Job, of course, successfully passed the test here. And I believe that we’re all put through tests, and God knows our limits, so he’ll never test us greater than we’re able to handle.

But through the test, we grow, we develop, we become better. And also others are edified and learned through how we handle life circumstances as a believer. We have got to fall back on and Job certainly got an A plus on his test there, where Satan was allowed to test him. And he came out as an example now for all believers of all time as to how to handle those difficult times and difficult experiences that come into our So basically you said two different things, one that Joe passed the test but it wasn’t actually the Lord that tested the test.

What did that test at him? He allowed Satan to test him? He allowed Satan to bring the trial, but actually the Lord super intended the test so we can say that basically God never ever allows a test to come into our life with the intent that we fail it, but that we pass it. And the passage I like to complement this whole book of Job with is in 1 Corinthians 10, 13, where it says that there have no testing taken you but such as as common to man.

But God is faithful who will not allow you to be tested above that which you’re able. But will with the testing provide a way for you to escape it may be able to bear it. So the Bible tells us in 2 Corinthians that God watches over the tests that we go through And now Satan does bring a trial in order to cause us to fail, but God never allows, God is behind it, never, Satan can’t do anything except God would allow it.

And so anytime a trial comes into our life that Satan might bring, God is allowing or sets the limits as to how much or what Satan can do. And that is so that, you know, the trials of life help us to develop and become stronger and more equipped to handle the problems that will come along in our future. And so he knows all about us. God knows our every thought. He knows every thing that we are thinking in our minds and even when we daydream.

And God intends that every past can be born and successfully passed because he allows or sets the limits for Satan. First reading that in my mind pictured as in heavenly places and Satan thus having access to the throne of the Lord But that’s not the case. No, it’s on the earth the whole scene is on the planet earth. Yes Does this still take place? I believe it still is taking place and I’ve had my share of trials and tribulations and you know you you wondered the time I lost a son a 16 in the car accident and And I believe that was a real test.

And I told my wife, I said, we immediately need to turn this into an event where his friends will come to know Christ. And we planned the service for that end. And in fact, we planned it to happen after school, in time enough for kids to leave school and attend his funeral service. The funeral home argued with me. They said, you know, that’s going to be an awkward time for them. You’ll have to pay overtime. Also, it’ll be when people are driving home from work and that’ll cause the traffic problems.

I had to hire 11 sheriff’s cars to direct the funeral passage. You know, we had over 600 teenagers that 10 is funeral and many hunters got saved and it turned out to be a wonderful event. But I knew immediately that nothing happens in my life by accident and that I had to respond in the correct way to do what God would have me to do under those circumstances. So we let a lot of his friends to Christ. I sure appreciate you.

God. Okay, Doug, thank you very much for calling. This is Bibleline. We’ll be back tomorrow morning at 10 o’clock. I hope you’ll join us for Bibleline tomorrow. I hope you’ve trusted Jesus as your Savior. Just whisper that prayer, Lord, I’m a sinner. But I believe Jesus paid my sin dead and full of the cross was buried and rose again from the dead. I trust you as my only hope of heaven is my very own Savior and God will save you.

Then make that second choice to serve him and live for him and God will bring blessing and reward. And we of course want you to call our 800 number after the program is over or or drop by or both. The 800 numbers, 1-800-576-36. 771-800-576-3771. I’m Dr. Englund Strom and we are going to have to run for today. We’ll be back tomorrow morning at 10. Join me then, but in the meantime, keep looking up. Jesus is coming and it’s exciting.

It really is. Have a great day. You’ve been listening to Bibleline, a presentation of Bibleline ministries of Tampa, Florida. Now more than ever, your regular monthly donations to Bibleline make it possible for this ministry to continue in your area. 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 at BibleLineMinistries.org. Be sure to tune in to another edition of Bibleline from Calvary Community Church in Tampa, Florida.

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