Pastors' Perspective-11/18/25

Pastors' Perspective is a one-hour call-in program where listeners can call in and get answers to questions about the Bible, Christianity, family, and life. The program is live Monday through Friday from 3:00 PM - 4:00 PM Pacific. You can call 888-564-6173 to ask your questions.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:16):
Hello and welcome to Pastor's Perspective. I'm your host, Brian Perez,
and I'm all alone in the studio today. Where oh
where can the pastors be? Well, there they are at
a secret undisclosed location, also known as Calvary San Diego.
Pastors Brian Broderson and Phil Metzger are there, and yeah,

(00:37):
what are you guys doing there? How come you're not here?
We're in a bunker here in Calgary, San Diego.
We heard there's some serious stuff coming down. I think
it's like a rainstorm or something, and we knew we
had to.
Hunker down. We were gonna be safe. Yes, well, I
hope you guys are safe there and, uh, if that

(00:59):
is true, then I'll make my way down to Calvary,
San Diego too to be safe with you guys. It
looks like you have plenty of room there. What room are,
are you guys in?
So we're in the same room, Brian, where I always am,
but we're, we're facing the other direction. So this is
the green room for the church, and, um, I'm just, uh, we're,
we're just facing the other direction. So, oh, got it.
The odds are someone will open that door and, and

(01:20):
give a, a deer in the headlights look at some
point like, oh my gosh.
We'll be like that, um, that one video of the dad,
you know, who's doing the kid, the business meeting with
the kid coming into the background. Yeah, well, it's a
few kids like BBC News. It's like BBC News and
his kid came in. Oh yes, I think I saw that.

(01:40):
All right, so, um, yeah, but I, so.
Is it raining up there still, or are you guys, uh,
in the clear yet, or what's going on? Right this
second overcast but no rain. Yeah, right this second here
at the Kwave building on the campus of Calvary Chapel
Costa Mesa, there is no rain. It's, uh, very cloudy, uh,
but white puffy clouds, so you could say it's partly

(02:01):
sunny and, uh, just a beautiful day here. And yeah,
it rained a little bit this morning, but we're OK
right now.
So we're gonna get through this. All right, 888-564-6173 is
the number to call if you'd like to ask Brian
or Phil a question.
And you can also send in your questions online. We've

(02:23):
got the pastor's perspective Facebook Messenger or the pastor's perspective Instagram.
You can DM us there. You can go to Kwave.com
and look for the pastor's perspective page and get your
question to us that way. If you're watching us on Facebook, YouTube,
or Instagram right now, you can scan the QR code
and that will take you right to that pastor's perspective page,
which is what Regina from Garden Grove did.

(02:46):
She writes, Hi, pastors, and Brian Perez. Hi, Regina. Thank
you for the show. I have two questions. Please, I
want to learn and study about the end times in
the Bible, the rapture, the tribulation, the Second Coming, Judgment Day, etc.
So where should I begin? Second question, if you guys
have read the Left Behind series by Tim LaHaye and

(03:07):
Jerry Jenkins, in your opinion,
How accurate is it to the possibility of what the
last days will be like according to the, to the Bible? Brian,
what say you?
Yeah, man, I see you, um.
OK, you're always reading books, so I'm sure you would, uh,
you've read those. You know what I did, I never

(03:27):
read the Left Behind series, so I read them all. OK, great,
I'll talk about that. OK, you talk about the first part.
Teamwork makes the dream work. Teamwork, teamwork. Love it. Um, OK,
where to get started with, um, you know, studying the
end times. I, I, you know, I would just say
this because
I mean, obviously there's books of the Bible, but you're

(03:48):
gonna have some challenging parts of those that you're gonna go, OK,
I read that, but I don't, I still don't know
what it, what it's talking about. So.
Um, the book of Daniel, of course, is great. Um,
the book of Daniel is kind of divided into two halves,
you know, the first part is more autobiographical about, you know,
Daniel's experiences in Babylon and Persia. And then the second half, uh,

(04:13):
chapter 7 to the end, is more dealing with, uh, eschatology,
more dealing with, you know, the future things at the
end and so forth.
And so Daniel chapter 9 is very, very significant. Daniel, uh,
excuse me, yes, chapter 9, but chapter 7 is, uh.
79, and, uh, probably 12 are the chapters that are

(04:38):
really going to talk specifically about, you know, the Second Coming. Um,
and then, of course, you have the Book of Revelation.
The Book of Revelation has its challenges. Um, and, and
I think it's probably helpful for somebody who's like asking
these kinds of questions to go through it with somebody that, um,
you know, can give you some.

(05:00):
A bit of a roadmap through it. If you like
to listen to teaching, um, I've taught the Book of Revelation,
and you could find that series on my website, back
to back to Basradio.com. Um, actually, I don't know if
you can access the archives right now because we're in
the midst of updating that. But anyway, uh, I have that.

(05:23):
There's some good commentaries available on the book of Revelation.
You know, there's other New Testament passages that deal with
in time stuff like 1 Thessalonians 42 Thessalonians 2. So
I would say probably.
A pastor that you trust who's taught on these topics,

(05:46):
listen to them, go to their website, get their.
Whatever we use, yeah, however it is now, get the tape, yeah,
get the tape, yeah, by the, by the record, yeah.
Um, I, I would say that that would be probably the, the,
the best way to approach it. If there was a single, um,
volume that I would recommend to help you through it, um,

(06:09):
I'll think about that while Phil talks about Left Behind. Yeah, and,
and maybe too, I don't, I don't, maybe it's worth
it to tell those listening or watching.
There's no like one book of the Bible. Like when
you talk about eschatology, like you're saying there, there's not like, hey,
this is the book you go to to read eschatology. The, the,
the idea of eschatology is the study of last days.

(06:30):
That's what we would call like a systematic thing. So,
you're looking.
Looking through all of the Bible, where the Bible speaks
about last days, and it's all over like you pointed out. So, OK,
Left Behind series. First of all, when I, man, I,
I'm a reader, I like reading, um, fiction books. Left
Behind is a fictional series. It's not.
Not based on anything real. So then the question like

(06:51):
how does it connect to, it, it is, it is
specific to a particular view of last days, um, Bible teaching,
a very literal, um, there's gonna be a, the rapture
happens before the tribulation, um, there's a seven-year tribulation.
There's an anti-Christ, um, and then Jesus comes back at

(07:13):
the end of the seven years, and that's where the
books ended as far as I remember. It's been a while.
They were super fun to read, um, but I would
remind everybody listening, they're a fictional, they're fictional books, um,
so fun to read, um, not.
Not, not inaccurate, but it would be, it's difficult to
say with end times fictional books that they're accurate. They're

(07:34):
accurate from one particular perspective, and there are several great
perspectives that people hold to as it relates to end times.
This was based on one of them, definitely the most.
Popular because of the books, fun to read, but I wouldn't, um,
hitch your wagon to that theology alone. I would definitely
like to listen to a good pastor, go through, I, I,
I have it on mine on Calvary SD. We've gone

(07:57):
through revelation just a couple of years ago. Pick somebody
you trust like Brian said, and go through it with them.
All right, go ahead, Brian. What's the one, what's the
one book? Well, you know, actually the one, the one
book isn't a book because I just remembered we did
a year-long series on, um, we looked at kind of
the whole.

(08:18):
Story of God, starting in Genesis and all the way through.
And the very last study in that series, I did,
basically the Book of Revelation and kind of tied all
of it together. And that's recent. So that was like
a year ago. And, um, and I think in that
one study, what I try to do is, like you said, Phil,

(08:38):
because it's all over the Bible, I tried to just
sort of, you know, pack it all into this one
study looking at Revelation. So.
Um, I can't remember what that study was called right now,
but I'm gonna find it on my phone, and I will,
we'll send it to Brian Prez. I'll recommend it.
And when we're uh answering another question.

(09:02):
That'll work. Yeah, now if Regina's thinking, well, I wanna
listen to studies by a pastor who might, as they
used to say, have the Bible in one hand and
the newspaper in the other, and looking at the, oh,
here's what's going on over there, so here's what's happening.
How accurate are those teachings?

(09:24):
I'll start with that, um.
You know, it really depends on the issue, doesn't it?
It depends on what's going on. There's a danger when
we try to make every recent event fit a Bible verse.
Like this just proves it. Here it is, we see it,
it's so clear. Um, that's not how we're supposed to
understand the scriptures, um, but we're also big believers that,

(09:44):
that the Bible is, is telling us about things that
are coming. So,
A lot of the events that we see happening, I
would call like indicators of an eventual, right? So like,
like when people are saying, oh my gosh, this, this
thing is the mark of the beast. No, it's not
the mark of the beast, but we are certainly seeing.
Technological advancements, um, global opportunities that have now created the

(10:09):
environment where the idea of a singular mark for buying
and selling is totally realistic these days. So I think
I would look at, I would look at modern events as,
as indicators of something that is eventually going to happen,
but not to say, see, this proves it. Now we
know it's true. Look at what's happening in Iran. We
know it's true. It's, it's not meant to be lived

(10:30):
out like that.
Yeah, I, I agree. And I also found the uh
particular study that I was referring to, and you can
find it at backtobasicsradio.com, and it is the title is
The End and the Beginning, and it's two parts. And
if you go to Back to Basics Radio, right, uh,

(10:50):
If you can go there right now and then you
can scroll down to it and you could listen to it,
you know, immediately. There you go. Very nice, and Pastor
Brian's teachings are also available, uh, the, the podcasts on
iTunes and Spotify, and there's a link there at backtobasicsradio.com.
You can subscribe and you'll get them every day. All right,
let's take another question that was sent in online, by

(11:12):
the way, the phone line.
We'll get to those in just a little bit. 888-564-6173.
Brian Perez here with Pastors Brian Broderson and Phil Metzger
till 4 o'clock. 888-564-6173. George in San Pedro asks, if
God created laughter, what makes God laugh? Is it safe

(11:32):
to say that he has a sense of humor, Phil?
It is very safe to say God has a sense
of humor. If we have a sense of humor, it's
because it came from, like, you know, God has a
sense of humor. So the question like what would make
God laugh, I think probably.
I mean, in a pure and holy way, some of
the same things that make us laugh. I mean, the
things that bring us joy, I'm sure in a, in a,

(11:54):
I mean, you think like, what brings us joy? Well,
we're down here at a conference at our church and my,
one of my grandsons, you know, is in the preschool
here and he came running through to come and say
hi and uh it just makes me laugh and happy.
God takes a lot of delight and the Bible tells
us this over and over.
He takes so much delight in his people. He loves

(12:15):
his people. I mean, look at the animals that God's created.
Some of them are the weirdest things ever. And if
that doesn't tell me that God has a sense of humor,
it's like, why did you make that? It's so cool
and weird, and I love it, you know, so I
think definitely God has a sense of humor. Yeah, and,
you know, people have wondered, like with Jesus, you know,
where did

(12:36):
Did that ever come out? Did Jesus ever laugh? You know, some,
some people would assure you Jesus never laughed. He was,
he was about as depressed as they are, and, um,
but you know, when Jesus said, like, for example, when
he says, when he's teaching on judging, and he says
not to judge, and he, and then he says, you know,

(12:59):
how can you try to get the speck out of
your brother's eye and not consider the plank.
In your own eye. So how, how are you trying
to get a little bit of sawdust out of your
brother's eye, and you actually have like a 4 by 6,
you know, in your own eye? I think everybody started
snickering in the crowd, you know, if not, they weren't like,
oh wow, so deep. They're like, that's hilarious. So I

(13:22):
think you, you, you see that come out there. But
there is a place in scripture where it actually says
God laughs, and it's Psalm 2, but it's not.
It's because it's funny, it's because it's absurd that the
nations think they can overthrow God. He that sits in
heaven will laugh. I think too, like Jesus, like in
his life, just thinking about what you were saying there,
the fact that like little children were brought to him,

(13:44):
that really you, I mean, the idea of Jesus is
like stoic and introverted and like kind of serious just
doesn't fit the idea of a person that kids loved.
He just, he was a, he was, it seems like he,
I mean, he was a person full of joy, full
of joy.
Yeah, I mean, if Jesus is, which we believe he,
he's the, he's the perfect human, right? So he's the

(14:06):
fullness of like what a human is, of course he's got,
I had a great sense of humor actually, yeah.
Alright, thank you, George, for sending in your question on
the pastor's perspective page at Kwave.com. Here's another one, it's
from Ruben, possibly in Indonesia. I'm not for sure about that,
but uh he's listening on the KWave app and he writes,

(14:28):
please address again the charge made by pro-gay theologians and
teachers that in passages dealing with homosexuality, the Bible has
been mistranslated. Brian, we'll start with you on that one.
Uh, well, gosh, I mean, I, I don't.
I, I, I don't know if that's such an argument

(14:49):
that they try to make anymore because
I think, I think most would say.
Uh, you know, the probably the most recent.
Example of that would be people talking about the term homosexual,
because there's a couple of versions that do include the
word homosexual, and then they want to bring up how

(15:11):
homosexual didn't even come into use until the 1940s or
whatever the dates were. And so therefore, um, this is
a mistranslation, because, you know, there's no word in in
the in the original text for homosexual.
Um, the word, the word in

(15:32):
The word in the original text that you find, say,
in 2 Corinthians chapter 6, Paul, where Paul's talking about
those who will not inherit the kingdom of God, he
literally says those who men who have sex with men.
OK, well, that's literally what it says. So it's not,
you know, homosexual is, is a modern, it's like a

(15:56):
modern interpretation of what Paul actually said. So this is
where I appreciate like, say the NIV or, you know,
the CSB, um, you know, the old version, like the,
the King James wasn't helpful to our generation because it
used the term like abuser of themselves with mankind.
Yeah, it's like, what, what the heck is that? No,

(16:20):
it the, the, the actual word means men having sex
with men. So today the argument isn't so much other
than that, maybe that part of it right there, but
the argument today is that
Well, what they were talking about was something different than
what we have today. So today we have gay marriage.

(16:40):
Today we have, you know, love and commitment. Back then
it was a lot of it was pedestery, which is the,
you know, kind of sex with young boys, and a
lot of it was, uh, forced, and it wasn't like
mutual love and commitment and things like that, but that
just simply isn't the case. And so it's just.

(17:03):
You know, a lot of times people would it be
inclusive of that though? It would in some places, obviously,
but not in, inclusive, yeah, yeah, men having sex with
men is just men having sex with men. It's not,
doesn't give you the circumstances, right? So, um.
Yeah, so it's, it's a matter of just not wanting to.

(17:25):
I think face what the text is saying, uh, truly
in the context that it was given that it was
actually forbidding same-sex relationships. That's what it's forbidding. It's not
forbidding certain kinds of same-sex relationships, it's forbidding all same-sex
sexual relationships. All right, Phil, any thoughts? No, it's great.

(17:46):
All right, Ruben, thank you for sending in your question
through the pastor's perspective page at kwave.com.
And here's a question from Linda, who is in Atlanta, Georgia,
and uh, she writes, hang on here. Yes, OK, sorry
about that. Here's Linda's question. I asked a friend who

(18:08):
goes to, let's call it a church with political leanings,
if my Democrat neighbors would feel comfortable at his church.
At this pastor's church, and um my neighbor said, yes,
because the truth shall set you free.
I was disappointed to hear her use that verse regarding politics. Anyway,

(18:31):
do you think the recent vote counts two weeks ago
on Prop 50 will convince California pastors to just stick
to the Bible on Sundays? Phil, what do you think?
No.
There was the that was a yes or no question. Yes,
you're right. You put it in a yes or no. Yeah, no, no,
I don't think, I think those that are in that, um, camp,

(18:54):
they're gonna, this is almost like, um, uh, like fuel,
fuel to the fire, uh, like we lost this and
we need to, we need to fight more and all, um,
and of course, like, you know.
We're like, this is a pastor's perspective show we're focused
on like giving biblical answers to real life circumstance, um,
that doesn't mean we don't have like our own opinions.
The difference is, is I think like, so when somebody says, 00,

(19:15):
your Democrat friend can come to our church because we
preach the truth, you know.
Like, I, I, I'm trying to create an environment in
our church where like, you could be Republican, you could
be Democrat, you could not care about any of that,
and you're gonna get to, you're gonna, you're gonna be
confronted with who God is and then who you are
in light of that.
And it won't, it'll, it'll impact your politics, but not

(19:38):
define your politics. So it should be impacting of our politics, right?
How I view the world, how I see God, um,
those will change how I vote. But if I start
with how you should vote, I may never win people
to Christ. I may only win them to voting in
my direction, and I don't wanna win people to vote
my opinion. I really wanna see them know Christ, and

(19:59):
then I'm fully confident that they will vote as God's
working in their life.
Brian?
I couldn't say that's any better. I mean that was excellent.
I agree. One.
100% with. Very good, Linda. Thank you for sending in
your question on Facebook. And let's do one more and

(20:20):
then we'll go to the phones. 888-564-6173 is the number
to call. We've got Brian Broderson and Phil Metzger here
answering your questions again, 888-564-6173. Lisa from Ontario, California wants
to know on the topic of Lucifer being ejected from heaven.
In Job one, why was he permitted to come back

(20:42):
into heaven to present himself before the Lord? And then
again later in Job, why did God give him permission
to bother Job yet again? Brian, what do you tell Lisa?
Well, I don't know.
Remember
We're not that again. This is a why did God

(21:03):
do something question. Yes, that's true. Oh my God. Yeah.
So wait, what did he do again? He gave, he gave, um,
Lucifer permission to come into the presence of God.
In Job one, you know, that, that he was before the, oh,
since he was kicked out of heaven, right, he'd been
removed from heaven. So why does he now in Job
one and then later in Job, why did God let

(21:24):
him be there? OK, yeah, we don't, we don't know
why God did that, but I think what we need
to understand is that although Jesus says, I saw Satan
fall as lightning from heaven, uh, it means that he
was cast out of his.
You know, his position that he held in heaven, um,
but it doesn't mean that he was no longer allowed

(21:47):
access to God's presence because we know he was allowed
access to God's presence, uh, all the way into the
book of Zechariah in the Old Testament, you know, but,
you know, closer to the time of the New Testament period.
Uh, we have a picture of the high priest standing
before the Lord and Satan there at his right hand

(22:09):
to accuse him. And then, um, you know, we have
the reference in revelation to him being the accuser of the,
of the brothers and sisters. But then there is that
point in Revelation where he is, I think what she's thinking,
where he's actually banned from heaven, where he's not only.
Out, but he's, he's out permanently. He had no longer

(22:32):
has access.
Phil?
Yeah, I mean, it's a great answer. Um, I'm thinking too,
like just like kind of take it a little bit further, like,
there's nowhere that Lucifer can go except God allows it,
like nowhere, not on earth, not in heaven, like there
is no like, and he is more, he's more hyper-aware
of that reality than I think even we are of

(22:54):
the sovereignty of God. That like, you know, the, the
breath that I'm just taking is because of the, the,
the grace of God.
Like, and I'm kind of unaware of that a lot
in my life. I'm gonna go to sleep tonight and
not be, you know, anxiety-filled, thinking, what if I stop breathing?
I just, I just live my life. The devil is
so insanely aware that every upper anywhere he can go

(23:15):
is only because God has allowed that, and I think
we gotta remember that that includes heaven, but it includes everywhere,
it includes every accusation, every bit. He has no right
except that God would allow certain things.
Lisa, thanks for sending in your question about Job from, um,
or the book of Job, I should say, from, uh,
the through the pastor's perspective page at Kwave.com, which you

(23:37):
can easily get to when you scan the QR code
on Facebook, YouTube, or Instagram if that's how you're watching
right now. Phone lines are open, 888-564-6173. Speaking of YouTube,
here is Teddy who is watching us there from Cerritos,
so we'll wave hi to Teddy. What's your question for us, Teddy?

Speaker 2 (23:57):
Hey, brothers, thank you. So I just, uh, finished Luke
and I got Chuck Smith's word for today Bible. And
in the commentary, he mentions, um,
John, like, people wanted to boil them.
And I think God protected them and um it mentions
Fox's Book of Martyrs. Chuck Smith mentions it. So I've

(24:19):
never heard of this. I just wanted to, to if
you guys can just, if you know anything about it
and your perspective and if I shouldn't buy the book.

Speaker 1 (24:29):
Um, yeah, we, we know about it, Teddy. We, I
think Phil's probably read it. I've read it. Um, it's,
it's really kind of a classic book written in, I think,
the 1600s, maybe 1700s, um.
By a man named John, I think it's John Fox, uh,
and he basically just goes back and he, he's kind

(24:49):
of looking at the martyrs throughout history, going back to
the apostles, uh, tracing, you know, as much of the
historical record as he can get, and then some of
it is, you know, a bit probably mixed with some
legendary kind of things and so forth. Um, so there
is a tradition, there, there is the idea.

(25:12):
That John, we know John was banished to the Isle
of Patmos because he tells us that that's the case
in Revelation. That's where he wrote Revelation from. So there
is also the tradition that he was, uh, that the
emperor attempted to kill him by boiling, putting him in
boiling oil, but like the Shadrack, Meshhek, and Abendigo that

(25:35):
Nebuchadnezzar threw into the fiery furnace, they were not harmed,
so John was not harmed either.
Um, and I
I would imagine Fox's Book of Marty Martyrs records that, so,
and I checked where that comes from, and it comes
from Tertullian, Tertullian in the year about 200, so about
100 years after John.

(25:56):
Maybe 110 15, he writes that that happened that that happened.
So the Fox's Book of Martyrs was taking it from.
So that's what, so that's what Fox did. He went
back and he compiled this. There, there are some aspects
I remember even in reading Fox's Book of Martyrs where
I thought, OK, this is more legend that has kind
of crept in here, um, but, and this could be too, right?

(26:16):
It could be, yeah, but, um.
You know, when you're 200 years away, you're, everybody's like,
you know, this guy said it, and he was 200 years,
200 years is a long time, and in those days
there tended to be kind of legendary easily got mixed in. So,
but all that to say, Teddy, Fox's Book of Martyrs is,
is great. It's kind of a classic, kind of a

(26:38):
Christian classic that, you know, there's probably better stuff today
on martyrs than Fox's book.
But it's a good overview. It's like the starting point, yeah,
the starting point, and it'll take you up through, uh,
pretty much the Reformation period because the Fox wrote, uh,
a little while after that. So there's a lot of

(26:58):
history from, you know, say the 1700s to today that's
obviously not gonna be included. Can you think of any
books that have been written recently that maybe cover that
last 2 to 300 years that aren't in Fox's Book
of Martyrs, um, you're talking about.
On on martyrs, not specifically, but a book called.

(27:19):
Um, from Jerusalem to Irian Jaya.
is a book about missions from the beginning, you know, Jerusalem,
and then Irian Jaya is Indonesia, and so it's kind
of looking at the history of missions, which is honestly

(27:39):
full of martyrdom. Um, one of the stories you'll read
in Jerusalem to Irian Jaya is the death of Jim
Elliott and his friends who died in Ecuador.
Uh, as, as martyrs trying to bring the gospel in,
so I think maybe that would be, it's, that's a,
that's a seminal, such an important missions book, Ruth Tucker

(28:03):
from Jerusalem to Irian Jaya. I'm looking up on my shelves.
FF Bruce has a book called The Flame, yes, and
that's a great, it's a great book as well, and, um.
And those are fantastic. Um, yeah, um, you know, just
specific to the Jim Elliott story is a book called
Through Gates of Splendor.
And that's the story that his wife wrote, Elizabeth Elliott,

(28:24):
about their kind of love story and then his, his martyrdom,
and it's fantastic. The, the other one I would read
connected to that is, um, Missionary to the Headhunters by
Frank Brown, who was also connected to that same story,
but it was amazing. I'm literally just looking at my
shelf here and I'm just gonna keep going with no.

(28:45):
I was gonna say, do you have a like a
Martyr shelf. What is that shelf? Yeah, yeah, it's behind us, uh,
for today. Um, I, I just looked up. There are
some new ones in like 2023 that have come out. I,
I'm not gonna mention them because I don't know anything
about them. So, you know, this is, uh, I think
they say this is like one of the bloodiest centuries
for Christians, you know, we've ever had. And I mean,

(29:06):
at least since the first, you know, maybe 5 centuries.
So I think there's gonna be some insane stories coming out.
I know if I, if it's OK to just mention
right now.
I know a lot of people who are, are watching
news or hearing a lot about Nigeria these days, and
I know that's, I've been getting lots of calls because
of our experience and, and, um, friends over there and
I'm always reminding people like actually 2025 hasn't been.

(29:29):
A lot of these news articles are from a few
years ago, and, but it has been a brutal, brutal, uh,
for both Christians and if you can imagine this, for Muslims.
Terrorist groups don't care. And, and so quite often, uh,
Muslims have been killed just like Christians, but it's very,
very dangerous to be a Christian in some parts of Nigeria.

(29:51):
I think heaven's gonna tell us some great stories.
Teddy, thank you for your phone call today on Pastor's Perspective.
We've got to take a break. 888-564-6173 is the number
to call if you've got a question for us today
on Pastor's Perspective.

(30:21):
Hey, we're back on Pastor's Perspective, 888-564-6173. That's the number
to call from now till 4 o'clock. If you've got
a question about the Bible, the Christian faith, just about
anything that's on your mind, we've got a couple of
pastors here to answer your question that they're not actually
here in the studio with me.
They are on location at Calvary San Diego, which is

(30:43):
where Phil Metzger is the senior pastor. Brian Broderson's running
around there somewhere, I think. He's the guy from Echoesof Mercy.com.
I see him on camera. He's walking back. I think
he got a refill of his Coca-Cola or something. I
don't know, but, uh, we're ready to answer more questions.
At 888-564-6173 and also the questions that you send in

(31:05):
online like this one from Tub who says, I have
a question regarding worship music from certain worship groups and bands.
Is it wrong to sing certain worship songs from certain
churches that are mainstream? I was told that certain songs
from these churches should not be sung at church because
they are man-driven and not theological.

(31:27):
Uh, this is a question we used to get all
the time, and I thought maybe it had been resolved,
but I guess not. Maybe, uh, I don't know. Perez, yeah,
I guess not. Yeah, so what do you guys think, um.
About worship music sung by certain groups, and it doesn't
tell us which ones, but we can imagine which ones
they might be.
Uh, yeah, um.

(31:50):
I personally think that this is.
Um
A rather.
Oh, how do, how do I put it? I, I just,
I just think it's a.
Like it's a a question that's like why, why are
we asking this question? Um.

(32:12):
You know,
You know, people, people talk about.
You know, the hymns or they talk about, you know,
these deep theological songs, which it's great. I love hymns,
I love deep theological songs.
Uh, but you know, when you read the Psalms, you know,
some of the psalms are just like, um,

(32:33):
You know, they're, they're very simple. Some of the songs
seem very man centered because the man writing them is
talking about all of his struggles and difficulties and perspectives sometimes,
and of course he brings it around to God. So,
I mean, I think there are probably songs out there
that just are not very good songs, and I would
just say don't sing them, but if a song is

(32:56):
a great song.
And the people, the church that it came out of
or the movement that it's connected to, you don't particularly
agree with. So what? The the song says what it says,
and as long as it's not uh espousing or communicating
some heretical view of God.
I would say

(33:17):
I, I personally think it's fine. Um, what do you think?
I totally agree. I, I, I feel like
Like we should be concerned about the theology we're singing, OK, we, we,
we think we should be concerned with the theology we're singing,
but to assume that like, well, because it's written from
like man's perspective and how they feel about God, that
that's not.
Right, well, that's not true because like you said, there's

(33:39):
several songs that are like that. It's me expressing my
heart to God. Um, I, I'm, I'm, I'm more concerned
about songs not correctly, um, describing good theology, but you know,
like back in the day we used to sing a
song all the time, you know, creating me a clean
heart and cast me not away from thy presence, oh God.
God's not gonna in the New Testament, God's not going

(34:01):
to take his presence from me.
Like I'm filled with the Holy Spirit, right? But we
still love the song because it's, it's expressing a, a,
a feeling that I have with God, um, and so
I think we need to like maybe not be too
harsh on groups that we may not agree with, but
they write some songs that are like, wow, that is
so meaningful, and so, you know, let's make sure we
sing good theology, but beyond that, let's let's, let's have

(34:23):
charitable charity towards each other. Yeah, yeah, and you know, um, I,
I would say this too.
Uh, you know, I mean, stepping out on a little
bit of a limb here, like, um, like groups like Bethel,
for example, um, and even Hillsong, um, there would be
things that

(34:44):
I would not agree with their theological views on on
certain things.
But for the most part, the songs they've written, the
content of the songs, the theological.
Uh, perspectives from the songs are tremendous. They're very, very
deep and very biblical, and, you know, maybe they're doing

(35:07):
something in their church practice that I would kind of question,
you know, that the validity of that, that is not
coming across in their music to me. Um, I release
the songs that catch fire in the movement.
In the, in the Christendom, right, I mean, you listen
to these songs, you're like somebody's thinking pretty seriously about
this stuff. Same with like Hillsong stuff, yes, exactly. Same

(35:29):
with Hillsong stuff, yeah, because Hillsong was accused a long
time ago, and you know they, Hillsong was in the
earliest days Hillsong was very what, what we would have
called kind of prosperity, you know, but then they shifted
sort of away from that.
But then the, the music, my goodness, you listen to
some of the songs that those guys have written, so deep,
you're like this is deep, deep, like a theologian wrote

(35:51):
that song, theologian and as a matter of fact, in
a lot of cases, you know, Matt Redman is a
friend of mine.
Matt's written some of the best songs in, you know,
the modern church era. Matt studied under a theologian in
order to enhance his theological understanding to write songs with

(36:11):
great content. Yeah, and I also think of our friends
Keith and Kristen Getty.
Yes, well, nobody's questioning the content of their songs. No, no, no,
I'm only bringing them up because you mentioned Matt Redmond,
but it's the same thing with, with the, with the
Gettys like Phil Wickham, who is so rooted. He's got
such a deep root in the word of God and

(36:31):
in theology, and then, and then he's able, and like
this is why we need these people. They're able to
express something. I'll listen to a Phil song and I'll
be like, I felt that.
Yeah, but I couldn't have written that, couldn't have said
it that way, you know, I couldn't have said it
that way and made it sound so great, and so
we have to give some space for those people, you know.
The song that I think everybody who's ever heard this

(36:53):
song sung loves this song and feels like this is
such an expression of almost everybody's heart at some point
in life. It is well with my soul. It is
well with my soul, you know, one of the great hymns.
If you read the backstory to the guy who wrote
the song, you'd be like, wait, I don't know if

(37:15):
we can sing this song because he, you know, he,
he had a lot of problems and, uh, you know,
he wrote that song because, uh, his children were crossing
the Atlantic in a ship that sunk and they died.
And so this was expressing, you know, God's comfort for him,

(37:36):
but he went on. He was a, he was a,
a partner in ministry with DL Moody. They had a
falling out. He had all kinds of financial problems that
were bizarre stuff, yeah, really weird stuff. And then his wife,
they went to Jerusalem and they started like a cult,
and goodness, but it's a great song.

(37:57):
And we still sing it to this day. So going
back to what you said about, uh, you know, that
some of these churches, what they preach on a Sunday
morning might be a little bit off, but their songs
are always spot on. Should we maybe just get the
worship leaders to lead the church then, because they seem
to have it together and the main pastor doesn't, I
don't know, just throwing that out there.

(38:18):
Yeah, I mean, that's not my call. Yeah, above my
pay grades. We got our own problems. We'll, we'll, we'll
work on ours, and that's a problem when your church,
and this is true for any of our churches, right?
It doesn't matter, yeah, where, where, where one part becomes
completely separated from the other part when that's not the church.
Like we're not just worship, we're not just.

(38:40):
Um, preaching where it's like this thing that happens together
and so when you, when you let that become separate,
that's its own problem. It's not even that the worship guy, um,
should be preaching and not the preacher, it's that like
where's the preacher in all this like they should be
a part of that, you know, um, uh, but you
know this goes back, remember Phil, when you were young
and I was younger, um.

(39:03):
Uh, back in the vineyard days, you know, there were
questions among Shari chapel pastors whether we sing the right
to sing vineyard songs, and now I think most of
us would look back and say.
How stupid was I? They, they, we needed that. We
needed them so bad. Well, even like, and just historically,
a lot of the songs, like, you know, Luther would,

(39:24):
would take a lot of songs, and he wrote a
ton of songs himself, but he used tunes that were
bar tunes. He used tunes that people back then were
familiar with, and he put Christian lyric to that. I mean,
you know, it, it sounds like that sounds so cheesy
and lame and dumb, and yet like.
You know, nobody's arguing when they hear a Luther hymn.
They're like, oh, that's totally anointed and great. Back then

(39:46):
it was from a bar song, you know, and I
think so we just, yeah, there's gotta be a lot
of like grace. We didn't have a lot of grace
in the past. I know we gotta be more gracious
about that. Yes, I have a, uh, vineyard story. When
I first started working here at Kwave, we played, you know,
a lot of Maratha music and vineyard music, but the
Uh, the rule here in the studio was, yes, you

(40:09):
can play a song by Vineyard, but don't mention that
it's Vineyard. So it's like the song would play and
we wouldn't tell people, oh yeah, that's a song by Vineyard.
It's like, nope, just skip it and go on to
the next song. That was like a kind of like
a policy that we had and um, we don't have
that policy anymore, but then again we don't play Vineyard anymore,
but yeah.
Thankfully we don't have that policy anymore. We, I spent

(40:31):
so much of my childhood at Anaheim Vineyard recording. We
used their studio back in the day for like Salty
and Colby, you know, before we had, um, Whitefields, and, um,
so yeah, yeah, front row seats to some of that, yeah,
so don't listen to any salty stuff. Yeah, it was
recorded I think.

(40:52):
Tub, thank you for sending in your question through the
pastor's perspective Facebook page using Messenger. Now we're gonna go
to the phones here. Oh, go ahead, go ahead, Brent. Yes.
You know, I just forgot about just the, the fact
that I am sitting next to.
A legend, a childhood star. We don't talk about that much.

(41:16):
I know, I, I forget. very good reason. Sometimes, sometimes
I forget who Phil actually is, and it's like, wow.
So can you, can you tell us who Phil really
is or who, yeah, tell us the story really quick.
Well, we were, um, in fact, we watched last night
with Debbie Kerner Reino on there. We were watching the
Story of Love Song, the documentary. So anyways, when I

(41:38):
was a kid, there was a show or there was
a theater production like uh albums and music that was
coming out, Salty, the Singing Songbook, and Ernie and Debbie Retino.
And Debbie Kerner Retino was one of the very first
kind of like Maratha artists, um, I think they did
Praise One. I think her and, yeah, her and Ernie
did Praise One. At any rate, um, they were having

(41:59):
auditions for kids to be a part of the show,
and I auditioned back then and was a part of that.
So I was singing for, you know, these Salty and
Colby and all these shows since I was about 8
or 9 years old. So yeah, so were you Salty? Famous?
Was that you?
What'd you say? Was that you, salty? Were you salty?

(42:19):
I was not. Nope, I was one of the kids
in the show, not it. I was not the giant
blue costume. That's Ernie Retino. That's Ernie. Yes, that's right. Yes.
A little bit of history there. I hang out with Phil.
That's right. Hey, yeah, I'm gonna hang out with him
more now because total street cred with the eight year olds,
you know. Yeah, you can walk up right to the
front of the line at, uh, the coffee shop just to, say,

(42:39):
Do you know who I am? Yeah, it works every time.
All right, Leticia in Vista, thank you so much for
calling in today. How can we help you? By the way,
the number Leticia called is 888-564-6173. Hi, Leticia.
Uh, good afternoon and thank you for taking my call.
My question is, my husband has just recently said in

(43:03):
front of me that he is an agnostic, which he's
never said before. I am a Christian. I like to
listen to Christian radio. He does not. He specifically asked
that I not play Christian radio when he is in
the car with me, which I do a lot. And
so I want to know if
In your opinion, is that denying Christ? Because it says

(43:27):
in the Bible, if you don't know me, then I
don't know you. So you're wondering if you're denying Christ
if you turn off K wave in the car when
your husband is in the car with you. What do
you say, Brian?
Uh, Leticia, no, not at all, of course not. I mean,
you're not denying Christ, you're just
Complying with your husband's wish, even though you don't really

(43:49):
like his request to not listen to the radio, um, there's, there's,
there's nothing to do with that. You, you still love Jesus,
you still have your faith in the Lord, uh, he's
not telling you, uh, you know, if you're gonna be
my wife, you can't believe in Jesus, you're not saying, OK,
I don't believe in Jesus, so.

(44:09):
So no, not at all. You're, I think you're, I,
I think that's if you're responding by just saying, OK, fine,
I won't listen to it here. I, I think that's
probably just the, the best way to go. It's not
anything to have a war over. Uh, you can listen
to it when he's not in the car, and, you know,
this is his problem, and I think you can just

(44:34):
Be gracious and pray for him that God will work
on his heart. Obviously he's got issues there, so, but
what do you think? Yeah, I totally agree. Yeah, maybe
if you want any pushback, it would be, hey, how
about fifty-fifty? I won't listen to it the whole time,
but let's, you know, I want that a little bit,
but I don't, like Brian said, don't feel any condemnation

(44:56):
that I think it grieves us that you would even
think that this is denying Christ. This is.
Not in any way, shape or form denying Christ. Not
even close. Not even close. So be free from that, um, yeah, well, yeah,
and you know, on a personal note, um, whenever my
wife gets in the car with me, she says, turn
that radio off.
And I say yes ma'am. So I know, but it's

(45:17):
not K wave that I'm listening to. Let's just make it. Oh,
that's why, yeah, yeah, you're not on. Yeah, back to
basics is on, and she's like, turn that off. She
just hates the radio being on when she's in the car. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
like I accommodate that. Now, let, let's look at this
angle too based on the answer the two guys gave, um,
people might wonder.
Specifically women, they might say, wait a minute, so the,

(45:40):
the guy should just control or what gets played on
the radio in the car or not played. So is,
is it an issue with Christian radio or, I mean,
even if it was a country station or a rock
station or something and the guy was saying, turn that off,
what would you say to that, Phil? Uh, I'd say
it's definitely not a male-female issue at all. It's more

(46:03):
of like an accommodation to each other, right? So, you know.
Yeah, like Joy, my wife is like, hey, let's turn
the radio on. Sometimes I'll just forget. I'm just driving
and I don't have it on, like, turn it on,
and I'm thinking we're having a good conversation. Why do
you wanna stop that? And, but she's not, it's like
she just likes to have music on. We gotta, dude,
like relationships are about like just like accommodating each other's preferences, um,

(46:25):
and I wouldn't necessarily, like, obviously if you're non, if
you're married to a person who's agnostic or not Christian.
And they're making it about like faith that becomes a
little bit touchy, but otherwise I would just say this
is about like, I wanna serve, we're, we're in a
marriage to serve each other, right? And so something as
simple as that, I would never, I would never wanna
lose sleep over or fight over, those are not worth it.

(46:47):
Those are easy accommodations, um, and I don't think I
should always win and I don't think she should always win.
It's not about winning, it's just about serving each other.
All right, uh, thank you, Leticia for calling in to
Pastor's Perspective at 888-564-6173. And now here's Chuck in Alpine,
who's listening on the K-Wave app. Hello, Chuck, thanks for

(47:08):
downloading the KWave app and thanks for calling 888-564-6173.

Speaker 2 (47:15):
Well, thank you. Um, as we get into the Christmas season,
we'll say, um,
A lot of, a lot of people will put, uh, Xmas,
and I, and I'm not sure if I had heard
a story.
That the actual X and and had something to do

(47:36):
with the birth of Christ or a a story in
the Bible. Am I just daydreaming or is there something
related to that where most people think they're crossing out Christ,
but there really is a story to it? Yeah.

Speaker 1 (47:53):
Yeah, there, there is.
Um, the X is the Greek chi.
And the chi is the CH in Christ. So,
X becomes
Short for Christ. That's, that's the simplest way to put it.

(48:14):
Um, now, I, there, I think there are people who
It's probably a bunch of people never think about it.
There might be a few people that actually think I'm
gonna X Jesus out of this thing, right, but I
think they're the minority, and I think the majority of
people don't know that the X stands for the chii, uh,
the Greek chii, uh, but that is actually where it originated.

(48:37):
So all these campaigns we've had over the over the
years of keep Christ in Christmas, how dare you put Xmas,
it's almost like, well, they are, they just don't even
know he is still in it, yeah, but, but I mean,
you know, a lot of that Xmas stuff, modern is
trying to get Christ out of it, but it's not,
like we, we, those aren't fights that we Christians should
be having.
Those should not be, you know, or like if somebody said, I,

(48:59):
I'm already getting ahead because we're gonna get these for
the next, um, 5 weeks. Happy holidays, and I've gotta
say Merry Christmas, you know, I always add the, um,
you filthy animal, was that, uh, Home Alone, Merry Christmas,
you filthy animal. I think there's this like battle that
we think we need to have to prove our Christian
faith that like,
We may not be winning in ways we think we are.

(49:20):
We might actually be losing, and so, you know, um,
and that'll be coming up, but Xmas is not an
atheistic or agnostic thing at all, not originally. And you know,
if you think about it, it's actually, it could be
a great conversation piece. You could just say, hey, hey,
did you know? And you know what I mean, yeah, yeah,
did you know that the X stands for Christ?
And that's true. Like, just because we just got done

(49:41):
with it. I spend so much time. I know we
both do. Halloween. I take so much time to say,
did you know what Halloween originally was? Like, let's talk
about that. Oh my gosh, nobody knows that. They all
think it's Hell's bells and all that kind of stuff
when there's like a whole Christian story behind that. So
it's good to educate people in those ways.
For sure. And when you do tell people about the
X and Christmas or the true meaning of Halloween, you

(50:03):
can tell them you heard about it on K-wave, and
then that kind of gives a plug for the radio station.
I like it. All right, Chuck, does this answer your question?

Speaker 2 (50:11):
Yes, and can I say one more thing? Speaking of Christmas,
there was
This is really to Brian.
Of, uh
His father-in-law, Chuck, went to Fallbrook for when he was
having chemo, and he showed up that night and his
cheeks looked exactly like Santa Claus because the chemo had

(50:35):
turned him bright red and everything. And that night, what
a special night.

Speaker 1 (50:40):
Mm. Mm.
That's, that's special. It was a special night just to
get to have Chuck there. That's sweet.
Oh yeah, that's great, and he had the best, um,
Santa Claus like laugh, you know, just that great deep, yes,
and that was year round, not just around Christmas time, exactly, exactly,
that's special, yeah, he could have, he could have pulled

(51:02):
off a good Santa Claus had he put on a,
a little red cap and beard, beard, yeah.
All right, Joseph in Riverside, you're next here on Pastor's Perspective. Hello.

Speaker 2 (51:15):
Hi, um, I hope you guys are having a good day.
I just wanted to get your guys' perspective on the
topic of smoking tobacco, um, whether that be like cigarettes
or vapes or even freshly tobacco in a tobacco pipe. Um,
I know a lot of times we'll be graceful and.

(51:38):
Uh, not necessarily fall back on, but, you know, have
it rely on personal conviction, but I just wanted to
get your guys' perspective and also um see if there's anything,
you know, in the Bible more, more black and white
about yes or no on the topic of, of doing that.

Speaker 1 (51:56):
OK, so Joseph, are you a smoker or are you
asking on behalf of someone else, or what?

Speaker 2 (52:03):
Um, I used to smoke a lot of cigarettes and
fresh leaf tobacco back when I was in the military
and then even using like those the like little pouches
in the mouth. I stopped after I got out and
I gave my life to the Lord, and it's

(52:26):
Been coming back a little bit more with um through
vaping with myself and my wife. She also used to
and then stopped and we kind of both were recently
within the past like two weeks, so I wanted to
pick your guys' brain on it.

Speaker 1 (52:43):
OK, so you've started vaping in the last 2 weeks
is what you're asking.
Yeah, OK, all right, what do you guys think?
Brian.
Well, you know, I know Phil's into vaping, but I'm not,
so I can't really, uh.
He's joking people.
We like to have fun here. Yes, we do, um.

(53:04):
Yeah, you know, look, tobacco is not, there's nothing in
the scripture that's gonna say, you know, don't smoke tobacco.
We make a distinction between tobacco and marijuana because marijuana
alters your, you know, thinking process and so forth. So
we consider that a different kind of a thing. It
would be like, uh,

(53:25):
Having it would be like drinking alcohol and getting drunk
on alcohol and so, you know, so those, those are
different things. The Bible doesn't say you can't drink wine
or beer or whatever. The Bible just says don't do
not be drunk, yeah.
So with this, the Bible doesn't really address it. I
think that, I think the most obvious concern about tobacco is, uh,

(53:49):
it's proven linked to cancer. And so, um, I think
if you're, you know, if you're a person who occasionally
smokes a cigar or a pipe or something like that, your,
your risks are much lower than a person who's like,
you know, 3 packs a day or something like that. So.
Um, and, and I think the other thing, and we've,

(54:10):
we've answered this before this way, that anything that has
a hold on you, like an addictive kind of a thing,
just isn't really probably healthy.
Um, I know you could argue about what about coffee,
and what about caffeine, you know, cause people do have
that addiction too. OK, so, you know, my answer to you,

(54:31):
Phil might have a different take. My answer is that
this is not sin at all, and it's something that
you just kind of have to figure out between you and,
and I guess your wife too, and you have to
think about.
Is is this, is this a health issue for us?
Are we gonna, you know, set ourselves up for

(54:53):
Something that we don't, um, really wanna experience later down
the road. But, but again, I think if it's in moderation,
you're probably not even risking that. So Phil Metzkar, I'll
give you 30 seconds. Uh, I'll give you 30 seconds
to answer those questions. People might say, well, what about
the verse that says the body is the temple of
the Holy Spirit, and if you're smoking or drinking or whatever,
you're going against that.

(55:14):
Yeah, I think that's a culturally appropriating that verse to
meet that, um, which I know you're not doing, Brian,
but that's why I think people are doing that. They're,
they're taking current things. That, that, that, that verse has
a lot more, you know, we want to take care
of the body God's given us for His glory, but,
you know, I mean, Paul didn't get to take care
of his body. He was beaten.
By people, it was abused, and it was later, you know, martyred. So,

(55:38):
you know, I think we can take that maybe too
far in that direction. Yeah, and the, and the, the
body being the temple there, he's talking about really like
moral and spiritual purity. That's what he's referring to. He's
not referring to, you know, my goodness, I mean, wait, wait, wait, sorry, sorry, sorry,
we're out of time. Forgive me, guys, we'll talk to
you tomorrow. Sean McDowell will be on the program tomorrow.

(56:00):
Talk to you then on Pastor's perspective.