Bibleline Radio Show – 2009-06-10

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Welcome to Bibleline with Dr. Hank Lindstrom, a ministry of Calvary Community Church in Tampa, Florida. Declaring God’s love through radio and the internet. Providing real answers to whenever searching world. To reach Bibleline and pledge your support to keep Bibleline on the air in your community, dial toll free 1-800-576-3771. That’s 1-800-576-3771. 37.71. Thanks for joining us here today. This is Tom Perry for Bibleline Ministries. You are just in time to hear Dr. Hank Lindstrom’s teaching series on the Book of Revelation.

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

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

If Bibleline isn’t being broadcast in their area, then ask them to visit our website at BibleLineMinistries.org. If you miss any of the teachings in this series, call our Resource Center at 1-800-576-3771. Now, open your Bible to the Book of Revelation, chapter 9, and join us for Dr. Lynch from teaching for today. But here these Locusts won’t need anything green. They’ll only attack men, and they’ll only attack unsaved men, and they will sting them as a scorpion would sting them.

It says here to them was given that they should not kill them, but they should be tormented five months. And their torment was as the torment of a scorpion when he strike them in. Can you imagine? So five months, unsaved people will be under a locust plague like never seen before. These locusts will only strike unsaved people. In five months, people will be bitten. In those days, verse 6, men shall seek death and shall not find it. She’ll desire to die and death shall flee from them.

Some have imagined some strange things when they read this verse. They’ve said that people will try to commit suicide and they won’t be able to. They’ll keep shooting. Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. And if they’ll be alive, that’s not true. What it’s saying here? And if you’ve ever had a lot of pain sometimes you may be feel like I’m going to die or I’d like to die. Anything to escape the pain. But you live. And that’s the way it’s going to be here.

They will be extremely painful bites. And men will say, oh, I want to die. And they’ll just feel like they’re going to die. But they survive. These five months, they’ll be bitten again and again. And it’ll be very painful. And death will flee from them. They won’t die, but they’ll say, oh, God, let me die. And then it says in verse seven, the shapes of the locus were like the horses prepared in the battle. On their heads were as it were crowns like gold.

You’ve seen some locus with the gold and yellow colors or orange colors. And it will look like crowns upon their head. Their faces were as the faces of men. Verse 8 says they had hair as the hair of women. Wow. I have looked through psychopedias and different books and searched for different pictures of locus. I have never seen anything like this. This is a special group of locus that come out of the heart of the earth, out of the bottom of this pit.

Their teeth were the teeth of lions. Then it says they had breast plates that protect their body. And if you’ve ever noticed, and it says these are going to be like iron. Can you imagine to kill one of these will be really tough. I mean, you’ll have to stomp on it, stomp on it, beat it with whatever you can hit it with, and yet they’re going to be tough to kill. They’ll be like platelets of iron on them. They’re going to be tough insects, and they’re going to come at you with teeth that are like the teeth of lions.

They’ll have a face that looks like the face of a man. I have somewhat golden crowns around their head area, and they’ll have hair. Which is kind of unusual. And it says, the sound of their wings is the sound of chariots of many horses running the battle. I don’t know if you’ve ever heard locus. But one time I was driving through Texas and the lonely open highway and I heard this eerie sound. And it just was pervasive everywhere. And I don’t even know how to describe it to you.

But I pulled into a small town to gas up and I asked them, What is that sound?” And they said, that is a locus plate. And you could hear, for miles and miles, the sound of the wings of all these locus. And it was an eerie, eerie thing. Can you imagine during the tribulation, these locus coming, seeking after men that are unsaved and stinging them with a sting like the sting of a scorpion? And you could hear the sound of the horns of these locus coming, How do you protect yourself?

It’s almost like a worse science fiction movie you’ve ever seen and how these Locusts will come after you and we think this is literal It’s gonna happen and then to say had tails like in the scorpions and there were stings in their tails and their power was to hurt men five months and they had a king over them which is the Angel of the bottomless pit whose name in the Hebrew tongue is a bedon which means destroyer in the Greek tongue hath his name Apollion, which is also destroyer.

And this is, of course, the first whoa. And it’s a bad one, isn’t it? Interesting here, the saved are going to be bitten by these locusts. Did you know that back in Egypt there was a difference between the saved and the lost? That the children of Israel were spared, many of the plagues, that when they came upon Egypt that the children of Israel were spared in the plague. God protected them, even a ninth plague in Egypt. When darkness was everywhere, the Israelites had light in their homes.

God makes a difference here. And so the lost are going to really get stung, literally. And the pain will be intense. And this is just the first whoa. And then of course we move here to the sixth trumpet, which is the same as Armageddon. And we’ll just begin it because I don’t want to take too much time here because we’re out of time. But it says the sixth angel sounded. And I heard the voice from the four horns of the golden altar, which is before God.

That’s in heaven. And the real temple and the real altar is there in heaven. And of course, in heaven it was where Christ took his blood and offered it there upon the mercy seed in the holy of holies in heaven. Saying to the sixth angel, which had the trumpet, loose the four angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates. The great river Euphrates will play a major role at the time of the battle of Armageddon. The river Euphrates has been in the news ever since this Iraq conflict because the Euphrates River flows through Iraq.

It begins up in Turkey and is one of the rivers that you read about even in the earliest pages of Genesis. It’s flowed for thousands and thousands of years happily along. It begins in Turkey, comes down through Syria, then it flows down through Iraq over 600 miles to Iraq and flows out to the Persian Gulf. And that river has flowed now for millenniums as we said. Back in 1991, Turkey built a series of dams similar to the Azwan Project in Egypt.

And for one month in order to fill up their reservoirs, hit a few electronic buttons which allowed a big plug, you might say, in a simplistic way, like the plug in your bathroom that stops the drain, stop the dams from allowing water to flow, and the waters were kept back to fill up the reservoirs behind the dams. And for one month, the river was shut off, and the river Euphrates ceased to flow. Wow. What is interesting is, for the first time in history, man has the capability to push a button and shut off the flow of the Euphrates River.

You know the political situation. And water is the major issue coming up in the Middle East in all these countries, and Turkey as a political decision could decide to shut off the water. And then Syria and Iraq would have that river dry up. And the Bible says, when the river Euphrates dries up by whatever means, and it could be done now by man, by simply the touch of a button and shutting off the river to stop the flow of river from going downstream.

The Bible says when this river is shut off, then the Chinese will move their arms up, armies into the Middle East for the Battle of Armageddon. Let’s look over to chapter 16. We’ll give you a little preview. But in chapter 16, the seventh bowl judgment is the same as the sixth trumpet judgment, which is the same as the sixth seal judgment. All of them are Armageddon, but each one of them gives us greater detail. And it says in verse 12, are you ready?

look at the river Euphrates here mentioned in the verse. The six things, you’ll chapter 16 verse 12, the six things you’ll pour out his vial upon the great river Euphrates and the water thereof was what? Bright up that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared. Wow. Take a a map when you get home, put a finger on Jerusalem, put a finger on China, move your finger from China to Jerusalem, and as you approach the Middle East, if you don’t pick up your finger, it’s going to get wet in the Euphrates River.

Okay? As you run your finger, you know, I was teasing about that. He’s taking me literally. But you have to cross the river Euphrates to get to Israel. And it is that river there that flows down through Iraq. Here it says once that river dries up, the way is prepared for China. Thank you for joining us. You are listening to Bibleline with your host, Dr. Hank Lindstrom. Bibleline is a teaching ministry that is dedicated to reaching out to people with the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

There are many resources available at Bibleline, such as Dr. Lindstrom’s DVD teachings on the topics of Saved by Grace, Baptism, and the Righteous vs. the Unrighteous. In addition to many others, please contact our Resource Center at 1-800-576-3771. Now please join us for a segment featuring Dr. Lynch from answering questions from callers. We have off the air Dan in St. Petersburg, Florida and he calls in and says explain James 224. And of course again it talks about you see by the way the focus is on how you or men see not how God sees God sees the heart or the mind man looks on the outward appearance And James is talking about what men see, which obviously is our influence upon others, which will bring about rewards at the Judge and the seat of Christ for the believer.

But we are saved by faith alone and without works. And you’re focusing on verse 24 about how that a man is justified by works and not by faith only. But that’s before men, not before God. If you read the verse prior to it, which Dan you’ve missed, it tells us exactly that. It tells us that Abraham, and it quotes Genesis 15-6, believed God, and it was imputed in him for righteousness. So Abraham was made righteous by belief, not by works.

But by Abraham’s works, he was justified before men and was rewarded of God, but his salvation was based upon faith alone without works. Verse 23 says, the Scripture was fulfilled. It said Abraham believed it was made righteous. If Abraham had to have works to be saved, then it would have to say the Scripture was contradicted. It said Abraham believed and was made righteous. Dan, thank you. That helps explain this passage in James. We now have off the air James and Boynton Beach Florida.

He says, how Lindsay once said, my God is God the Father, and the second my God is the Holy Spirit. Have you heard that? And I haven’t heard that. And I don’t necessarily think I would agree with that. I think it’s just the agony that Christ was going through. You know, verse is quoted for you in Psalm 22 where it gives the crucifixion a thousand years in advance described exactly as it would take place in Psalm 22 verse 1 says, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?

The very words that Christ spoke on the cross. We’re going to Tony and Plant City Tony. Welcome to Bibleline. You are on the air. Good morning. How are you? Good. I need your help. I’m dealing with Lutheran infant baptism and stuff like that. I really just wanted you to talk about that for a little bit this morning and give me something. I can go back home tonight and get on the computer and research. I guess I have to jump into the Lutheran religion.

and I don’t know. They’ve rejected the gospel that I’ve given them and I’m dealing with two entire families and I don’t want to give up on them and you know I know what they believe and I know what I believe but now I’ve got to start the educating and I don’t really know where to begin. Okay, we’ll tackle that for you Tony. Tony and Plant City, by the way on the Internet I have several pages or papers written about baptism if you go into Dr.

Lindstrom’s articles and read and download those. Also I believe in our archives on our website for radio we have a CD there on baptism that’s available for you to listen to and also you could order my CD on 10 baptisms, two Sunday messages that we combined together where I covered the 10 baptisms taught in the New Testament. Well, obviously, if you believe in baptism for salvation, you are not trusting Christ alone, and therefore you really are in danger of not being saved because you’re not really trusting Christ alone is the only hope of your salvation.

Water baptism is a work. Water baptism is something that a Christian does as a testimony of their faith once they have become saved. Jesus, in fact, Obviously says that salvation is a work in Matthew 3.15 where he told John that allow us to do this work of righteousness here that we might fulfill the Old Testament type which was the priest in the Old Testament when he was 30 years of age was consecrated to the ministry by being baptized by total immersion once only once in their lifetime.

And guess what Jesus was 30 years of age when John baptized It was a total immersion in the Jordan River and that marked the beginning of the ministry of Christ. Certainly Christ didn’t have to be water baptized to be saved. This was the marking of his ministry and obviously water baptism doesn’t save. 1 Corinthians 1 14, I love it because Paul said because of the division caused over who baptized who in Corinth, Paul says, I thank God that I’ve baptized none of you.

Now, if it were a requirement for salvation, Paul would actually be saying, I thank God that none of you are saved. Obviously, we could never imagine that because Paul really loved the lost and one of them to be saved very badly. And so he says, I thank God that I baptized none of you. Then verse 17 is quite remarkable. 1 Corinthians 1, 17 says, Christ sent me not to baptize but to preach the the gospel. So the gospel is a message that excludes water baptism, or Paul could not have said that.

So if water baptism were part of the gospel, he could never have said Christ sent me not to baptize, but he sent me to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ. It is the gospel message that saves, and when you simply trust Christ, you become saved. But the Lutherans usually believe in infant baptism, which is something that Martin Luther should have cleaned up back there at the time of the Reformation, but it was carried over from Catholicism. And there is no such thing as infant baptism in the Bible.

They cannot demonstrate it to you. It cannot be found. It just doesn’t happen. And obviously that is a doctrinal error. Baptism, as for the believer, is described in Acts 8, where you have the Ethiopian eunuch saved and they come to a body of water, he asked the question, what does hinder me from being baptized, and Paul says if you believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, the Savior, then you may. And he confessed there that he trusted Christ and that Christ was the Son of God.

And they both Philip and the Iniquet down into the body of water and baptized him by immersion, then they both came up out of the waters and they parted their ways. By the way, if you have the NIV, Acts 8, 37 that talks about what you must do to be qualified to be baptized by water as a believer, that is your confession of faith that Christ is the Savior, the Son of God, is gone. It’s just gone. It’s not there.

There are 44 verses dropped in their entirety and it’s kind of shocking. You know the devil’s a clever devil. There’s only two ways that he can attack the Word of God. That’s by addition and subtraction. You see that in Revelation chapter 22 in verses 18 and 19 that there’s a warning to those that would add or to those that would subtract. But you know, if you add a lot of people who read the Bible would perhaps catch the addition.

But a more subtle way is by subtraction. If you leave things out of the Bible, you’re less likely to recognize that they’re missing. And guess what? Most of the modern translations you have, the amount of deletions, mount over 5,000. And it’s scary. How many times the blood is just omitted? And how many times the name of Christ is omitted? How many times they manipulate and drop words, and the NIV drops 44 verses in their entirety. And you’re less likely to discover that because it’s easier to pick up on something they add than it is something that they subtract.

And so the devil’s a clever devil really attacking the Bible today. We have the new age Bible version book about almost 800 pages that will just really blow your socks off when you read about 20 of the most modern translations out there and what they have done to the Word of God. We have Mary Lou calling in from Kansas City, Kansas. Boy, it’s nice to hear from you, Mary Lou. She says, what is your biblical thought on massage, acupuncture, alternate medicine healing?

You know, I think that if it works then fine. We’re not too familiar in this country with acupuncture because that’s something from the Far East, but apparently people get relief. Certainly the Bible talks about when you’re sick to go to the doctor. There are many today though that talk about you don’t need to go to any doctor and sometimes when that happens they die. I’ll never forget I had a young friend when I was just 15 years of age.

I had a paper route down in Miami, Florida and my 15 year old friend had diabetes and his parents were Christian science and they didn’t believe in going to the doctor. And so my friend went into a diabetic coma and died. And I believe the Christian science religion murdered him. And that was awful. That was awful. And I’ve never forgotten it. But you know, the wonderful thing was that later his mom and dad, because they were so hurt and began to search, they found Christ as Savior and became saved about the time that I became saved when I was 18.

But I’ve never forgotten the fact that they would not take him to the doctor. There are many groups that preach healing like the Christian scientist and others. I don’t know if you realize how much the Christian scientist focused on healing. But Mary Baker Eddy, who is the founder of the Christian Science for Religion, wrote the book called Key to the Scriptures in Science and Health. She talks about how there is no such thing as sickness, there is no such thing as disease, there is no such thing as death.

These are all illusions in your mind. So therefore your thinking is wrong and all you have to do is go to a Christian science practitioner and they’ll readjust your thinking. And so when you’re sick, you just think you’re sick. And of course, I guess when you die, you just think you’re dead. But there’s some crazy stuff out there and obviously there’s a lot that we watch on television, which I think is a counterfeit movement of healing. I think the good of your doctors find that we know that chiropractors bring a lot of relief and I understand from many the acupuncture really does help.

So if you get relief from that wonderful, give it a try. Luke by the way who wrote two books in the New Testament was a physician. Did you know that? Dr. Luke, author, human writer of the book of Luke, the Gospel of Luke and the book of Acts. He was a doctor and certainly the Bible says, and Jesus said it himself, if you’re sick, then you need a physician. But if you’re well, then you don’t need one. And that’s kind of the way it goes.

We hope that you’re learning with us. As you listen to this question, answer segment featuring Dr. Hank Lindstrom. If you’d like to hear today’s program again, then please visit our website at bibleiminestries.org. There you’ll be able to replay today’s program in our audio archives, as well as access other resources, including an, am I going to Heaven quiz, in addition to many other resources in our online store? It’s time for us to take a short break now. When we return, we will continue this question and answer segment and then hear more Bible teaching from Dr.

Hank Lindstrom. Don’t go away. Bibleline will be back in a moment. To pledge your support for Bibleline, give us a call at 1-800-576-3771. That’s 1-800-576-3771. The Bible says in 2 Timothy 2.15 study to show thyself approved unto God as a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. Now obviously it tells us that we are to study our Bible and that implies a little more effort and a little more concentration than just to read the Bible.

A lot of people say they’ve read the Bible through, but have you ever taken time to study? Then it says there to study, to show yourself approved. The approval that is talking about in 2 Timothy 2, 15 is approval before God at the judgment seat of Christ, where all believers one day will give an account for what they’ve done since they’ve been saved as to the degree of reward or loss of reward they will have as they enter heaven.

gift. It’s received when you trust Christ as your Savior. But every believer one, they give an account for rewards and their works will be judged to determine the degree of reward or loss of reward as they enter heaven. So as a believer, you want to find yourself approved and in order to do that, you need to study the Word of God to find out what God wants you to do and how he wants you to do it. And to follow the pattern, the blueprint that’s in the Bible will allow you to be a workman that will be approved one day for rewards and God’s blessing in eternity as well as blessings here and now.

Second Timothy 2, 15, this is the verse we’re talking about, study to show thyself approved not for salvation. And it says there as a workman. Obviously we don’t study the Bible to become a bookworm. I had a wrong impression as a child that Christians like to just become bookworms. But we don’t study to be a bookworm, we study to be a workman. In other words, the whole purpose is that we’re going to serve, we’re going to be living for Christ and accomplishing His purposes.

And the Bible tells us what we ought to do and how we ought to do it. And so you need to study so you could be a workman. And then He goes on to say that does not need to be ashamed. There will be believers ashamed at the Judge of the City of Christ. That’s what James is warning his readers about in James chapter 2. When he talks about faith without works his day, he’s talking about Christians who have no works, will have no rewards.

And as a consequence, they will suffer the loss of reward and there will be regret, there will be sorrow, there will be tears, and there will be a shameless. And this verse tells us that if you study to be approved for that judgment when we stand before the Lord as a workman, you will not have to be ashamed. God will bless you and reward you for your faithful service and a Christian does not have to be ashamed. So that’s what James is warning about.

James is talking to Christians about getting off their blessed assurance and doing something significant for God. And if as we do that according to the Bible and following the orders and the instructions given in God’s Word, then we’ll be able to have rewards. Then it says in the last phrase, the second Timothy 2, 2, 15, rightly dividing the word of truth. This is where many go wrong and obviously rightly dividing means that we take the word of God and we divide it correctly, rightly dividing it.

And that is we separate doctrines so that we don’t mix things up. There’s a tremendous difference between the first coming and the second coming of Christ. There’s a tremendous difference between the rapture and the second coming of Christ. There’s obviously a difference between what happens to the believer and what happens to the unbeliever. And also there are two separate judgments, one for the believer that will determine the degree of reward and loss of reward in heaven, called the Judgement of the State of Christ, described in 1 Corinthians chapter 3 verses 11 through 15.

But there is another judgment for unbelievers where the unbelievers will have their works examined to determine the degree of punishment and hell described in Revelation chapter 20 verses 11 through 15. So you will find that if you are a believer you are not going to be at the great White-Thorne judgment, you are going to be at the Judgement of Christ. If you are an unbeliever you are not going to be at the judgment state of Christ, you’re going to be at the Great Wythorn judgment.

You have to be able to separate out. You have to separate between salvation and the Christian life. So many preachers mix it all together in one great big mixing bowl and leave you and me mixed up if we listen to them because there’s a difference between being saved and the difference between that and being a servant of Christ or a follower of Christ. Anyway, we are going to go back into the second half hour of Bible and so here we go.

We’re going to do Bibleline in the second half hour right now. Would you like to help Bibleline continue in your area? You can! Just pick up your phone and dial 1-800-576-3771. That’s 1-800-576-3771. And now back to Bibleline. Welcome back from the break. We hope that you’re learning with us as you listen to Bibleline and hear real-life questions with scriptural answers from Dr. Hank Lindstrom. Please make plans to join us and open your Bible as we also present in-depth studies covering a variety of biblical topics.

Now let’s return to our question and answer segment and then we’ll hear more Bible teaching from Dr. Hank Lindstrom. All right we have Joel in Clearwater calling in and says have you heard of Christian heathenism by John Piper? No I haven’t read the book and so I don’t really know what he’s talking about but I I don’t doubt that we have hethanism creeping into not only America but in even Christianity. By the way, along that line, look at how many Christians today along with the world are putting tattoos on their body.

Did you know in the Old Testament it says that you’re not to print any marks on your body? That’s right. It is forbidden to print any marks on your body. And so if you’re a believer It’s like putting graffiti on a house or on a on a building downtown God doesn’t want you to put graffiti on your body and you’re not also to make any cuttings in your body So if you’re a believer, this is something that we’re forbidden to do But look at what has happened our culture now is including paganism or hethanism in our society and certainly it’s crept even into the church well the verses back here in Leviticus chapter 19 verse 28 it says you shall not make any cuttings in your flesh and it also says you’re not to print any marks upon you and God says I am the

Lord. The Lord is the one that makes that decision so if you already have a tattoo obviously you’re kind of stuck but if you haven’t this is preventative you’re not to print marks in your body and you’re not to cut your flesh so that’s a good warning. That’s Leviticus 19-28. Thank you for the question, but certainly we’re becoming more heathen like, aren’t we? I remember as a boy we just saw the ones in the jungle in the National Geographic magazines having all the body cuttings and the tattoos and marks on their body, but now you just go into the mall and we see our teens marking their bodies up in tattoos today are becoming popular.

It’s a part of the hethanism I believe it’s creeping into America. We are living in the end times and no doubt about it. Not only is the written Word of God under attacked, but of course Jesus himself, the Word, is under attack. Unless you know what the Bible teaches about Christ, you might be seduced to accept a false Christ. You know, the cults all offer a Christ that’s not the Christ of the Bible. The Jesus of the Jehovah’s Witnesses is not the Jesus of the Bible.

The Jesus of the Christian scientist is not the Jesus of the Bible. And the Jesus of Mormonism is not the Jesus of the Bible. So don’t get tricked when the Mormons say that they’re the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-day Saints. The Jesus that they are talking about is not the Jesus of the Bible. And the Jesus that the Jehovah’s Witnesses talk about is not the Jesus of the Bible. And those are more obvious than those that are pretending that they’re mainstream Christianity, because we know that there are denominations and churches today who have really presented to us a different Jesus.

By the way, any church that teaches that you have to work your way to heaven is presenting a different Jesus because Jesus didn’t ever say that you had to work to be saved. He said you had to trust Him. He says, barely, barely in John 647. He, the believer or trust upon me, has everlasting life. Any church that says that Jesus taught you could lose your salvation is really presenting a different Jesus because Jesus, let me quote Jesus and let’s just see which Jesus you believe in because Jesus in John 637 says, him that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out.

So do you believe in Jesus? Even the Jesus of the Bible or do you believe in a Jesus that your church is invented? Because the Jesus of the Bible says, Him that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out. So if your church says yes, you can be cast out, you can lose your salvation. Have you been seduced to believe in a Jesus that’s not the Jesus of the Bible? You know the Bible warns about that. In fact, the Bible says in 2 Corinthians 11, 3, Paul says, I fear, lest by any means as the serpent, Satan, seduced Eve in the garden, that your mind should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.

The message is so simple that people stumble over it and fall down. It’s amazing. And then the next verse says, it warns us that you might receive another Jesus that somebody might present to you, not the Jesus of the Bible. If your church teaches that you can lose your salvation, they’re giving you a different Jesus because the Jesus that I read about, the Jesus that I’m just now quoting from the Bible, Jesus says in John 637, him that cometh to me I will have no wise cast out.

And not only that in John 639, Jesus said, this is the Father’s will, that of all of which have given me I should lose none, but raise them up again at the last day. Not one would be lost. Not one would be lost. If one person in history were ever lost after they became saved, Jesus would be a liar, the Bible would be wrong, you might as well light a match and walk away. But you know it’s a subtle thing because sometimes they’ll present some truths about Christ which are correct.

But you have to ask yourself, is this really the true Jesus that they’re presenting? Or is it another Jesus? and you’ll find that if you are not careful, you’ll be seduced. The DaVinci Code coming out on film presents a different Jesus than the Jesus of the Bible. And most Christian fiction does exactly that. You need to be very careful. Why would you want to pick up fiction anyway when you can go to the Bible and have the direct source?

We are so privileged to be able to have the Word of God. God has given us His words, 66 books, 39 in the Old Testament, 27 in the New. I believe every one of them to be the inspired Word of God. That’s the testimony of Scripture. 2 Timothy 3, 16 says, all Scripture is given by inspiration of God. And it’s profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction and righteousness that the man of God or the woman of God may be throughly or completely furnished unto all good works.

The Bible is all that we need to completely equip us for this life. God tells us in the area of spiritual things. This is the book that God has left. There’s no book like it. And yet, there seems to be somewhat of a famine for the hearing of the Word of God. A few years back I flew with a friend. His son was a student at Auburn University and he had a twin-engine plane. and we flew together to speak to a group that his son had assembled at Auburn University.

And I got to sit there and kind of co-pilot. I didn’t know what I was doing, but we made it safely and then landed there with this nice twin-engine plane that he had. And we had some spare time before I was to speak there at Auburn. I said, let’s go to the library. So we went to the Auburn University Library and I went up and I said, where would I be able to find a Bible in this library. And they told me at the main desk that they didn’t have any.

I said, you’re kidding. This is a university of learning. And you are telling me that you don’t have any Bibles in this library. We have some in our special collections section, but they’re in a safe and they’re very old and you could maybe look at one, but you would not be able to touch it. I said, well, I insist I would like to look at one. So they took us upstairs and they had this locked room and one of the museum persons pulled out a Bible or two rare additions and set them out and we kind of looked at them at a distance.

But I thought to myself, isn’t that amazing? If you would just open your eyes and check this out, go to the public library and see if you can find a copy of Scripture. It’s not easy. You can find all kinds of trash in our public libraries, our university libraries, but try to find a copy of the Word of God. We’re living in the last days. And these are days when more than ever you and I need to know what the Bible has to say.

because if we’re not informed as to what the Bible says, we’re easily deceived. And I just want to go back and say this again now. If you have a Jesus, according to what your church teaches, that says you have to work your way to heaven, then you have a false Jesus. That’s not the Jesus of the Bible. Jesus said it’s finished, which in the Greek means he paid it in full. There’s nothing for you or me to do to be saved, but to receive what Christ has already done for us at the cross of Calvary.

If your church teaches you can lose your salvation, you don’t have the Jesus of the Bible. Because the Jesus of the Bible said in John 637, him that cometh to me, I will know why it’s cast out. So if your Jesus will cast you out, you don’t have the same Jesus as the Jesus of the Bible. And if you think you can be lost once you become saved, you don’t have the same Jesus as the Jesus of the Bible because in John 6.39 Jesus says, this is the Father’s will that of all which you have given me I should lose none, but raise them up again at the last day.

Satan is a clever devil, I’ll tell you. And you’ll go to church and they might be a picture of Jesus and they talk about Jesus and they sing about Jesus. But yet, if you don’t pay attention to what the Bible says and see if the quotes or the statements or the doctrines that are being taught are in line with what Jesus said, you’ve been seduced, my friend. You’ve been snookered. You’ve been deceived. The devil has been successful. It says in 2 Corinthians 4 and 4 that the God of this world Satan hath blinded the minds of those which believe not.

Have you been blinded? Have you been deceived? Have you been snookered? you’ve been taken for a fool? You need to read your Bible because unless you pay attention to what you’re being taught versus what the Bible says, you may believe in a Jesus that is not the Jesus of the Bible. Watch out this Da Vinci code is another clever tool of the devil to present a different Jesus than the Jesus of the Bible. Don’t fall for it. Check out your Bible.

Know it well and you won’t I hope you to see it. That wraps up today’s question and answer segment. As believers in Jesus, there is no other topic that is more important to us than the gospel of Jesus Christ, and it was Dr. Hank Lindstrom’s mission to spread the gospel. Through your prayers and ongoing financial support for Bibleline, you too can help spread the gospel of Christ throughout the world and reach others with the message of salvation through Jesus.

Please, prayerfully consider supporting Bibleline by visiting our website at BibleLineMinistries.org and getting copies of any of our resources, such as Dr. Lindstrom’s audio CDs on the books of Matthew or Genesis, plus many others. Join us now as we continue today’s teaching series from Dr. Hank Lindstrom. You have to cross the River Euphrates to get to Israel. And it is that river there that flows down through Iraq. Here it says once that river dries up, the way is prepared for China to enter this engagement called the Battle of Armageddon, which will involve the West.

It will involve Russia. It will involve China. It will involve the Arab states. And that is the battle of all battles that will take one third of the world’s population, as we’ll find back in chapter 9 of Revelation. But this river will dry up. Isn’t it interesting that for one month it was shut off already by man, that the capability for this river to be shut off by the punch of a button in a computer to allow in a sense simplistically the plug to be lowered into the bottom and prevent the water from flowing through.

Well, we’re living in an interesting time because never before in history is the capability been there but has been since 1991. So we’ve had quite a bit of time here where the potential is ready for the Battle of Armageddon, at least for the Chinese to come. China will be involved in any case, isn’t that interesting that we’re living in such a time when that river has been shut off for a month and could be shut off again. As water is one of the major concerns in the Middle East, and it could be a political weapon, a political decision is made to shut it off, China will march toward the Middle East once that happens.

So the river you phrase is significant, and let’s go back to chapter 9, and it says, notice in the four angels which were loose, were prepared for, it should read, Scofield points it out on the margin, the hour, the day and the month and the year for to slay the third part of men. This is the Battle of Armageddon. The consequences will be one third of the world’s population destroyed. Revelation 9 verse 15. The Earth’s population is over 6 billion today.

That means over 2 billion people will die in one war. Incredible, isn’t it? It’s unbelievable. But this is what will happen. And so it will happen. And one of the things to watch for is the river Euphrates. We’ve seen it on the news. in the recent war in Iraq. Our troops crossing back and forth across the Euphrates, and you’ve seen it in the news and so on. But this river, when it dries up, we can know that that’s when the Chinese will march their army in.

Verse 16 says, the number of the army of the horsemen were 200,000,000. That’s 200 million. Guess what? Go to your internet. Go to the CIA Fact book, F-A-C-T. book and you’ll see all the countries in the world. You look up China and guess what the CIA says that China’s army is 200 million. Not 205 not 195 but the very number the book revelation talks about 2000 years ago. Wow. Is that a coincidence? I do not believe so. God knows the future and if you were to add up every man, woman and child and parakeet 2000 years ago when John wrote the book of Revelation, you would not have come up with 200 million people because the world’s population was less than that at the time John wrote this book, but today China herself is 1.2 billion people and the CIA says her army is 200 million.

I think we’re close. I think we’re watching the stage being set for the events that will take place after the Rapture and the fact that we can see them now tells us that we ought to get up on our tippy toes and get ready to leave. In the meantime, do all that we can do to make sure our family, friends, and loved ones are saved and that we’re doing all we can do for the Lord while we have time left.

Time is running out and we just can’t take for granted that there is another opportunity coming along. I talked to a man today, his son says that the Bible and Christianity is a lot of hogwash. And his pastor counseled him just be patient and just waited out. And I said, you don’t have time to wait it out. What if the Lord were to come? I think you need to be more aggressive. And I said, I’ll talk to your son if you want.

But we need to really not mess around if we have people that are unsaved. And we need to try to make sure that they’re saved while we have opportunity because the time may come when you’ll say, I wish I had been more aggressive. You know, the time is up, I can’t do it anymore because we’re gone. We’re out of here at the Rapture. Verse 17, Thus I saw the horses in the vision and them that sat upon them, having breastplates of fire and adjacent to brimstone and the heads of the horses were as the heads of lions and out of the mouths issued fire and smoke and brimstone.

This is probably talking about some of the weapons of the end times, maybe planes, maybe helicopters, maybe weapons that they can fire. And definitely, we know that there will be nuclear weapons used in the tribulation period. I had a tour of McBill Air Force Base not too many years ago and I climbed up into the cockpit, the pilot was in the cockpit and he was just giving a little talk about his plane. I was asking what he had on his wingtips out there and he said those were nuclear weapons.

And I said, whoa, I said, if you fired just one of those, what could it do? He said, I could take out Tampa International Airport with one rocket. Take out the whole place. And it gives you kind of a funny feeling when you’re talking about it. Here’s a guy in the seat of a plane who has the power in that weapon that’s on his wing tip out there, one on each side that could each one just take out a complete airport, just take it right out or take out downtown Tampa and just leave a crater.

But we’re living in a time when weapons are pretty serious and here it talks about those kinds of weapons. It says by these, verse 18, by these three were the third part of men killed by the fire, by the smoke, by the brimstone which issued out of their mouths. For their powers in their mouth and in their tails, for their tails were like in the serpents and had heads and the width of them they do hurt. In some of these modern weapons we have to be fired to the rear or to the front.

Maybe that’s the description here. Verse 20, and the rest of the men which would not been killed by these plagues, yet they repented not. That means they did not change their mind of the works of their hands that they should not worship demons and idols of gold and silver and brass and stone and of wood, which can either see nor hear nor walk. Verse 21, neither repentant, that means again the Greek word is metanoia, a change of mind. Neither did they change their mind of their murders, nor their sorceries.

Let me stop for a moment. The word sorceries comes from a Greek word pharmacyia. We get the English word pharmacy. It means drugs. Notice how drugs would play a major part in the tribulation period and it says they would not change their mind of their murders nor their sorceries, their drugs nor their fornication nor their thefts. Right now we’re entering a culture that the kids all say it’s gangster. I hear that word all the time among teens and the gangster music, the gangster rap music, what is encompassing all that music?

The very things you read about in this verse, murder, some of the gangster rappers have been killed, you probably read about it, murdered in their apartments in New York and other places. It says here of their drugs and of sex, fordication and of thefts. That is the whole lifestyle of the gangster lifestyle today that’s popular in our music. And every teenager knows about what it is, gangster. You hear that phrase, you know why that was gangster. And it’s a way of describing things that are happening about them.

the teenage culture today, everything you read in that verse is being described by that. We’re living in that time, I think. And once the rapture happens, murder and drugs and fornication and thefts, have you ever seen so much drugs in your life? I mean, today, drugs is just everywhere. It doesn’t seem like it can be stopped. And everybody is being afflicted with this drug thing. if not being a user, inflicted by the people who use it who steal, or rob, or murder, and the sexual abuse and other things that happen are all part of the gangster scene.

This is the end times. I think we’re living and seeing it. This week I think they arrested a 96-year-old grandmother who found cocaine in her wheelchair. Perhaps somebody else planted it there because they didn’t ever thought they’d search her chair, but the police arrested her. But, I mean, today, look at that. I mean, drugs everywhere and a person who maybe is innocent is probably that 96-year-old grandmother was, was Ken Houghton taking the jail because they found it on our wheelchair.

We’re living in an interesting time, aren’t we? And so here it is, drugs. So look at all the legal drugs. Go home and open your medicine cabinet. Do you have any pills in there? My goodness. I mean, we’re living in a time that this word, pharma kia, well describes our society today, one that is using different drugs and there are legal and illegal drugs and there are many who are addicts on drugs legally and they just cannot get off.

Thanks for listening to Bible Eye with Dr. Hank Lindstrom. We’d like to continue with Dr. Lindstrom’s teaching but we are out of time for today. We hope that you’ve enjoyed today’s program and that you are learning from it. If you missed any part of today’s program or if you’d like to hear it again, please visit our website at BibleLineMinistries.org where you can either listen to today’s program again or if you prefer you can get the entire teaching series through our online store.

If you have any questions or comments about today’s program please call us at 1-800-576-3771 Or you can write us at Bible-ign ministries, 4811, George Road, Tampa, Florida, 33634. It was Dr. Lindstrom’s ministry to spread the gospel of salvation by telling all who would listen about the shed blood, death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus to pay the sin debt that we all owe but cannot pay for ourselves. If you have not yet trusted Jesus as your Savior, we encourage you to do so.

Just visit our website at BibleLineMinistries.org and watch Dr. Lynch from 7 Minute Video that will greet you there. If you have already trusted Jesus as your Savior, then we encourage you to develop and strengthen the foundation of your Christian life by spending time reading your Bible and learning with us about God’s Word by listening to Bibleline. We’d like to say thank you to our audio team for their work on today’s program. Until next time, this has been Tom Perry for Bibleline Ministries.

We invite you to join us again for another edition of Bibleline. And as Dr. Lindstrom would say, keep looking up. Jesus is coming. You’ve been listening to Bibleline, the presentation of Bibleline Ministries of Tampa, Florida. Your regular monthly donations to Bibleline make it possible for this ministry to continue in your area and on the internet. Please contact us today and lend your prayerful and financial support. Bible Lines Address is 4811 George Road, Tampa, Florida, 33634. Or visit Bibleline Online and BibleLineMinistries.org.

Be sure to tune in to another edition of Bibleline from Calvary Community Church in Tampa, Florida. So many preachers mix it all together in one great big mixing bowl and leave you in me mixed up if we listen to them because there’s a difference between being saved and a difference between that and being a servant of Christ or a follower of Christ. After we become saved then we are to become followers of Christ and when we follow Christ Matthew 4 19 says, follow me and I will make you fishers of men.

me and I’ll make you fishers of men. So a disciple is one who pursues following Christ in order to become a fisher of men. But to be saved you simply come to Christ and trust in the finished work that Christ accomplished for us on the cross of Calvary. So many times believers are confused because preachers use terms that are related to discipleship for salvation. For example, how many times have you possibly heard a preacher say, I want you to follow Christ today.

I want you to take up his cross and follow Christ for sake all and make him the Lord of your life. Well, everything I just said now has nothing to do with salvation. That has to do with the Christian life. And yet people don’t rightly divide and preachers don’t even rightly divide. But let me just quote to you from Luke 14 verse 27 where it says, whosoever doth not bear his cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.

Let’s not say you can’t be saved. It says you cannot be my disciple. There’s a difference between being saved and being in the disciple that’s called rightly dividing the word of truth is to be able to separate that out. It says a little but later here in verse 33 of Luke 14. So likewise, whosoever he be of you that forsakeeth not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple. So it doesn’t say he can’t be saved, but to be a disciple, you have to be willing to forsake all that you have.

You have to be willing to take up Christ’s cross. You have to be willing to follow him and come after him. And all of these are requisites for being a disciple, not for being saved. To be saved, we come just as we are, lost and headed for hell, and just simply trust in the finished work of Christ at the cross. I hope you’ve done that, and unless you’ve trusted Christ and Christ alone, apart from all human works, you’ll not be saved.

As believers, we need to rightly divide, and that will enable us to be clear in our presentation. Christians are not clear, they’re not able to present a clear presentation on how to be saved, and they’re all over the place. And many preachers the same way. We’ll tell you that salvation is by grace, but then you have to go to mass, you have to do penance, you have to go to confession, you have to turn over your life to Christ, you have to give you your heart and all kinds of things which are some of them unbiblical, not even Christian.

And yet we’re told to do those things in order to go to heaven. That’s why you’ve got to get into your Bible study, 2 Timothy 2, 15, to show thyself approved unto God as a workman that needeth not to be ashamed rightly divided into order of truth. 2 Timothy 2, 15 is talking to the Christian now and it’s a discipleship burst. It’s a Christian life And it’s a verse where we’re told as believers to study to show ourselves approved one day when we stand at the Judge of the City of Christ as workmen that don’t have to be ashamed, but will be rewarded for our faithful service because we have rightly divided.

The word of truth. We have separated the doctrines and made clear the distinction between salvation and discipleship. Between the first coming and the second coming, between the rapture and the second coming between heaven and hell. And the many different doctrines of the Bible that we need to separate out and make it very, very clear. I’m Dr. Hank Lindstrom. This is Bibleline. Keep looking up. Jesus is coming and we believe he’s coming soon. You’ve been listening to Bibleline, a presentation of Bibleline Ministries of Tampa, Florida.

Your regular monthly donations to Bibleline make it possible for this ministry to continue in your area and on the Internet. Please contact us today and lend your prayerful and financial support. Bibleline’s address is 4811 George Road, Tampa, Florida, 33634. Or visit Bibleline Online and BibleLineMinistries.org. Be sure to tune in to another edition of Bibleline from Calvary. Community Church in Tampa, Florida.