January 12, 2026 • 28 mins
On today’s Bible Answer Man broadcast (01/12/26), Hank answers the following questions:
Our youth pastor has problematic views on hell. My church still approves of him as a minister. Should I let this go, or walk away? Kara - KS (0:50)
Does the teaching on eunuchs in Matthew 19 support the idea that people are born gay? Christine - Chicago, IL (15:12)
Can you clarify the trumpets in 1 Corinthians 15 and Revelation 8? Would you say this is not mid-tribulation rapture? Saffron - Riverside, CA (17:55)
Our youth pastor has problematic views on hell. My church still approves of him as a minister. Should I let this go, or walk away? Kara - KS (0:50)
Does the teaching on eunuchs in Matthew 19 support the idea that people are born gay? Christine - Chicago, IL (15:12)
Can you clarify the trumpets in 1 Corinthians 15 and Revelation 8? Would you say this is not mid-tribulation rapture? Saffron - Riverside, CA (17:55)
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
From the Christian Research Institute and Charlotte, North Carolina. You're
listening to the Bible answer Man broadcast with Hank Canagraph.
We're on the air because life and truth matter. The
mission of the Christian Research Institute is to equip believers
to always be prepared to give an answer to everyone
who asks you, to give the reason for the hope
(00:27):
that you have with gentleness and respect. For more information
resources or to donate to CEURI, call eight eight eight
seven thousand CRI, or go online to equip dot org.
The following program was pre recorded and now here's Bible
answer Man host Hank Canagraph.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
Thank very much, Randy glad to be hanging on to
the phone line's Cara Europe First in Kansas.
Speaker 3 (00:54):
Hi Karra Hi, thank thank you for your ministry.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
You got it.
Speaker 3 (01:00):
Question is involving in our church. We have a youth
pastor and he's very well liked, and he read the
Rob Bell book and he loved it and kind of
put it in his newsletters that had asked good questions
and kind of got some of us concerned, and we
had conversations with him and through the conversations got a
(01:22):
little bit disturbed by some of his viewpoints with hell
and creation and had taken it to our church board
and they voted to keep him. My question is, at
what point do you say orgo? And I kind of
read the verse Romans sixteen seventeen and it talks about
(01:44):
being deceived and smooth talk and causing division. So I
don't know what point do you just let things go
and walk away or do you just stay and just
hope for the best for your kids.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
Well, I think this is a very significant point. The
book I Rob Bell is a book that I can
imagine some lay people falling for, but very difficult to
imagine a pastor falling for. First of all, he very
obviously takes people out of context. For example, he is
Martin Luther as an example of someone who believes in
(02:19):
a second chance after death. Now, if you just think
about that logically, without doing any research whatsoever, do you
suppose perhaps someone else might have noted that Martin Luther
didn't believe the words of Jesus Christ or the words
of Scripture in general. The point being that it is
(02:42):
appointed a de man wants to die, and after that
the judgment. Do you think that Rob Bell is the
first person to discover that the icon of the Reformation
actually believed in a second chance after death. So immediately
your intentation go up, particularly if you're a pastor, and
you should recognize. I don't know if that quote is
(03:05):
in context, and what you find out when you actually
read the quote is that Rob Bell stops it in
mid thought. The very next sentence of the quote points
out that Martin Luther emphatically did not believe in a
second chance after death. So discernment itself by any pastor
(03:26):
would be enough to immediately start scratching his head with
respect to this book. Secondly, this book takes on anyone
who has ever taught that we have this life to
choose Christ and that we do not have an opportunity
to come to Christ after death. As Rob Bell supposes
(03:49):
that Gandhi or Hitler or Garden variety pagan or anybody
else can come after death to Christ. He's taking on
anyone who believes leeves other than what he believes, and saying,
if you believe that this is the only life that
you have to choose Christ, then you believe, in a quote, cruel, mean,
(04:11):
vicious tormentor so he's using some very strong language here.
Speaker 3 (04:17):
Well, my youth pastor will claim that he doesn't believe
the same as Rob. He says that he just believes
that hell there's different degrees of hell and that it's
not eternal.
Speaker 2 (04:30):
Well, how can you believe that in light of scripture?
Speaker 3 (04:34):
Well, that's what I'm calling you for because I'm very disturbed.
I don't agree with him at all.
Speaker 4 (04:40):
So what do we do.
Speaker 3 (04:41):
When your church is backing him and keeping him on
his youth pastor?
Speaker 2 (04:47):
Well, I think that these things should be discussed with gentleness, reverence,
and respect. If you look at scripture, Scripture equates everlasting
destruction with ever last life. So there are those who
experience everlasting life, and there are those who experience everlasting destruction.
(05:08):
And the text in Thessalonians tells us specifically that they
are shut out from the presence of God. Not only that,
but to believe that God rubs out the crowning jewels
of his creation because they've decided that they don't want
a relationship with him is not a biblical idea either.
So he's holding on to ideas which seem to be
(05:31):
his own predilections. But I think as a pastor he
should test and subject his own opinion to what the
Bible clearly teaches.
Speaker 3 (05:41):
Yeah. Well, and through conversation with him, he believes that
God's grace extends into Hell and that God is present
in Hell.
Speaker 2 (05:50):
Well, that's the whole point of hell. The loving presence
of God is what we are separated from for all eternity.
Speaker 3 (05:58):
Yeah, I agree with you. It's just you know, well,
you don't want to cause division in your church, and
it's hard to know what to do exactly.
Speaker 2 (06:08):
But I think that the point of essential Christian doctrine
is that we should divide. I mean, essential Christian doctrine
is the line of demarcation between the Kingdom of Christ
and the kingdom of the cults.
Speaker 3 (06:22):
Okay, so you think we should stay and try to
bring to light what he's teaching.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
Or I think when you suggest, as Rob Bell does,
that you have a second chance after death, then you're
speaking directly against the teachings of Jesus Christ and the
Sermon on the Mount alone. He explicitly warned his followers
about the dangers of hell half a dozen or more times,
(06:53):
and he used hyperbly to drive home his point. If
you look at Matthew twenty five, the Lord says, when
the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all
the angels with him. He will sit on his throne
in heavenly glory. All the nations will be gathered before him,
and he will separate the people one from another, as
(07:14):
a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He'll put
the sheep on his right, the goats on his left.
And then he'll say to those on his left, depart
from me, you who are cursed into the eternal fire
prepared for the devil and his angels. Then they will
go away to eternal punishment, and the righteous to eternal life.
(07:36):
So this pastor is saying, well, eternal doesn't mean eternal,
But I don't know what else said could mean. If
the wicked, according to Paul, will be punished with everlasting
destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord
and from the majesty of his power. Now you have
a choice to make. Is the pastor correct or is
(07:58):
Paul correct? It's the choice. I mean. This is not
reading something into the text. This is reading the text
in the light of context, not only specific context, but
the general context of all the scripture. And Christ has
made this so clear in so many different ways. In
Luke chapter sixteen, Jesus Christ made it abundantly clear when
(08:23):
he told the story of a rich man and the
beggar named Lazarus that was lying by his gait. And
even when the rich man wanted to go back and
warn his five brothers, the response was, they have Moses
and the prophets. If they don't believe that, they're not
going to believe even if someone rises from the dead.
(08:44):
Not only that, but we have all the light we
need to choose Christ or to choose against Christ. We
have the light of conscience written large upon the tablet
of our consciousness. We have the light of creation, the sun, moon,
and stars declaring the glory of God. If we respond
to that light, we're told we will receive all the
(09:07):
light that we want. And Jesus, speaking to Nicodemus, said
that the real problem was not a lack of light,
but that men loved darkness rather than light because their
deeds were evil. So I think the panoply of scripture
could not be more clear. And to suggest that Gandhi,
(09:30):
who very clearly did not want a relationship with Jesus Christ,
though he knew about the Gospel, he had come into
contact with the Gospel, but yet rejected essential Christian doctrine
that somehow or other, Gandhi is going to be forced
into loving presence of God for all eternity. That smacks
(09:53):
against the teaching of Scripture. In fact, if that were true,
the righteous would not in herod heaven. The unrighteous would
be incarcerated in heaven against their will, which would be
a torment worse than hell. It's amazing that a guy
like Rob Bell, who not only prostitutes the Bible the
(10:16):
words of Paul, but then takes the icon of the Reformation,
takes him out of context, and one would presume knowingly.
I mean, it's hard to imagine that his eyes could
not go to the next sentence that Luther codifies and
missed the point that I don't believe in a second
chance after death. It's hard to imagine that he is
(10:38):
doing this innocently, but I can't judge his motives. The
one thing I can tell you is that common sense
would have told him that if the Icon if the
Reformation believed what he believed, a lot more people than
Rob Bell would know about it. Coming up to the
station break will be right back with more of the
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Speaker 1 (11:00):
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the Book of Revelation has become an international obsession, the
(12:07):
result has been rampant misreading of scripture, bad theology, and
even bad politics and foreign policy. In The Apocalypse Code,
find out what the Bible really says about the end
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the key to understanding the Last Book of the Bible
is the other sixty five books of the Bible, not
(12:28):
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answers to some very controversial questions, such as what does
it mean to take the Book of Revelation literally? Who
are the Antichrist and the Great Horror of Babylon? And
what is the real meaning of six hundred and sixty six?
Order The Apocalypse Code by Hank Cantigraph Today, available in softcover,
(12:50):
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Once again, that's equip dot Org. Let's return to your
(15:08):
host and catagraph.
Speaker 2 (15:10):
Thank you very much, Randian. We'll go right back to
our phone callers. Doctor Christine listening on the web in Chicago, Illinois.
Speaker 5 (15:18):
He Christine, Hi, I have a question about Matthew chapter nineteen.
I would meet a weird today that the passage that
says some eunuchs are made in their mother's womb is
used to defend the idea that gay people are born
(15:39):
that way.
Speaker 2 (15:41):
Well, first of all, I don't think that this has
anything to do with gay people. And the whole context
of the passage has to do with divorce and Lord, yeah,
I mean that's the context of the passage itself, starting
at the very first verse and going out. Well, that's
what the passage is. Jesus had finished saying these things,
he leaves Galilee. He goes into the region of Judea,
(16:04):
the other side of the Jordan. He has crowds following him,
and then the Pharisees come to test him, and they say,
is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife
for any and every reason? And then Jesus says, haven't
you read that at the beginning the Creator made them
male and female and said, for this reason, a man
(16:26):
will leave his father and mother and be united to
his wife, and the two will become one flesh. So
they are no longer two but one. Therefore, what God
has joined together, let not man separate. Well, then the
Pharisees and the teachers of law, said, did Moses command
(16:46):
that a man give his wife a certificate a divorce
and send her away? And Jesus Moses permitted you to
divorce your wise because your hearts were hard. But it
was not like that from the beginning. And then he
gets into the passage that you have now delineated that
follows and is part of this context. But even if
(17:09):
one suppose that because there are those who are born
as eunuchs and others that choose to live that way,
that that somehow or other presupposes that people are born gay,
the reality of the matter is this, even if you
can make a case for that, even if you are
born with sinful proclivities. Let's say I'm born with a
(17:30):
sinful proclivity to be an adulterer, that doesn't give me
license to pursue that kind of a lifestyle. So the
passage simply doesn't make the point in any case. You
can only come up with that conclusion if you wrench
the passage out of context and then use it as
a pretext to communicate what you want to communicate, as
opposed to bound your need to the clear teaching of
(17:54):
the Word of God. Next up is Saffron listening on
the web in Riverside, California.
Speaker 3 (18:00):
Hi, Hank, I.
Speaker 4 (18:02):
Had a question about the trumpets one of First Corinthians
fifteen and fifty two and in Revelation eight. I don'd
say to say that, you know, the pre tribulation rapture
is probably a no go. So I know that the
mid tribulation and the post tribulation is up for debate.
Now with the trumpets, it's if you can clarify that
(18:25):
for me, I want to know, because it's saying, you know,
we'll be changed into William and I at the sound
of the last trumpet. So would that would you say
that that would be not mid tribulation.
Speaker 2 (18:37):
Well, I think, first of all, these are things that
we can debate vigorously, the timing of the tribulation or
the meaning of the millennium. These are secondary issues. We
debate them vigorously, we don't have to divide over them.
But having said that, I think what's going on in
First Corinthians chapter fifteen is very clearly what happens when
Jesus Christ returns a second time and all things are
(18:58):
put to write. The dead will rise, immortal, imperishable, incorruptible.
We be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of
an eye. When well, it says in the text, I
tell you a mystery. We will not all sleep, but
we will be changed in a flash, in the twinkling
of an eye at the last trumpet, For the trumpet
(19:20):
will sound, the dead will be raised. And that happens
when the Lord Jesus Christ returns as he promised. So
that happens at the end of time. What's going on
in Revelation needs to be contextualized. Revelation is not a
mere book of riddles that originate from a shallow post
(19:42):
Christian mind. It's a book of symbols that are deeply
rooted in Old Testament history. And we're going to mistake
the meaning of John in the Apocalypse if we fail
to hear the background music of the Old Testament. So
with respect to the trumpets in Revelation, remember that the
(20:05):
letters of Christ to his persecuted bride in Revelation utilize images,
again deeply embedded in the language of Scripture. So the
judgment of Christ against a prostituted bride there which is
written on a seven sealed scroll, announced with seven trumpets
(20:31):
and depicted by seven plagues. Find a reference in the
Old Testament, and what you have there is a pattern
of sevenfold judgment against unfaithfulness on the part of Israel,
and it's spelled out in dreadful detail in Leviticus, where
(20:53):
four times God tells his covenant people, I will punish
you for your sins seven times over. So what you
have here in Revelation is the imagery of sevenfold judgment
against apostate Israel, and it's unveiled on four occasions in Revelation,
(21:16):
and the pronouncement of judgment for unfaithfulness in the Seven
Churches is followed by the judgment of seven seals, seven trumpets,
and seven bols. So again, if you have the background
music of the Old Testament coursing through your mind, you
see the reference and you get the meaning. Again, this
is not a meaning that we should associate with the
(21:37):
second appearing of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. This
has to do with judgment that takes place prior to
the fall of Jerusalem and the destruction of the Temple
in eighty seventy and these punishments lead up to the
ultimate destruction of the very temple that gave the Jews,
(21:57):
their spiritual and sociological significance, as well as the structure
of Jerusalem. So that's what's going on in the Book
of Revelation, the warning to the church not to become
part of the prostituted bride, but be the purified bride.
You're going to suffer if you do, but you'll suffer
for ten days. Your suffering will be short, your vindication
(22:18):
will be eternal.
Speaker 4 (22:19):
Okay, that's what I was hoping to hear, because the
reason why I asked this, and my logic is because
you know, just taking a look at what's going on,
you know, current events and what like that, I'm noticing
a cropping up of tribulation survival guides basically, you know,
get ready USA, because you know it's all going down.
(22:43):
And I kind of felt like this was a false paranoia,
but I just.
Speaker 2 (22:47):
Want to make sure, well, it's not only a false paranoia,
it's a prostitution of scripture. And again it is an
example of a shallow post Christian mind that does not
know how to read the Bible for all it's worth. Revelation,
as I mentioned, is not a mere book of riddles.
(23:08):
It's a book of symbols deeply rooted in Old Testament history,
and if we don't know how to read scripture in
light of scripture, we're bound to mistake their meaning. And
then what we have is sensationalism, and we have sophistry,
and we have script torture, and all the wild Christ's
name is dragged through the mud. That's why we have
people today who have come up with the date setting
(23:30):
schemes that are so popular in modern literature. It's why
Christians have been marginalized. Rather than transforming the culture, they've
been marginalized in the culture. And unfortunately, while we're being
marginalized in the West, what we're seeing is a resurgence
of the church in the East. In the East, the
(23:53):
church is being persecuted, and as a persecuted church's growing.
They're not worried about survival guides. They're like the early Christians.
They testify to the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and they
don't fear human agencies. Kings are counted like a drop
in the bucket because they know that like their Lord,
(24:13):
they'll rise immortal, imperishable, incorruptible. So they are fearless and
as a result, they are transforming a culture in the West.
We're doing like we did in the year two thousand.
We have short memories. Remember when we had the Millennium Bug.
Everybody was buying survival kits back then, and they're buying
(24:35):
freeze dried food, and they were thinking about moving out
of the cities and all these kinds of things. And
I remember saying on the Bible Answer Meen broadcast in
nineteen ninety eight and nineteen ninety nine that Y two
K wouldn't be a top ten story in the year
two thousand. Well, it seems like everybody who was anyone
in the Christian world was selling the books and the
(24:56):
food and all the paraphernalia and making lots of money
as ministries, and then Y two K came and went,
and you know, everybody forgot about it. I wrote a
book called The Millennium Bug Debugged, and I was absolutely
savaged by Christian leaders saying that I was going to
have the blood of millions of people on my hands
(25:18):
because I was causing complacency within the Body of Christ.
But those same Christian leaders didn't apologize to the Body
of Christ that they were wrong, and they were certainly wrong.
They were wrong in terms of how they read the scripture,
and they were wrong in terms of how they read
just plain old urban legends that were being communicated, like
(25:39):
you know, the bank doors were going to slam shot
and because there were computer chips that were going to
go haywire, and I didn't have the sense to recognize
that the bank doors are not even controlled by computer
ships but by tripoli redundant handwound mechanical timers. So they're
making these stories up, and unfortunately Christians all to often
(26:00):
fall for them. And that's why we're marginalized. We should
be setting the standard rather than allowing the world to
make fun of us because we haven't set the standard.
We'll see next time with more of the Bible Inchment Broadcast.
Speaker 1 (26:14):
Thanks for tuning into the Bible answer Man Broadcast. Our
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can also listen to the broadcast, download archived programs, get
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(26:38):
social media. All this and more at equip dot org. Again,
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broadcast is supported by listeners like you. We're on the
air because life and truth matter to breaking the Code.
(27:04):
If the Book of Revelation has become an international obsession,
the result has been rampant misreading of scripture, bad theology,
and even bad politics and foreign policy. In The Apocalypse Code,
find out what the Bible really says about the end
times and why it matters today. Hank Canagraph argues that
the key to understanding the Last Book of the Bible
(27:25):
is the other sixty five books of the Bible, not
current events or recent history. The Apocalypse Code offers sane
answers to some very controversial questions, such as what does
it mean to take the Book of Revelation literally? Who
are the Antichrist and the Great Horror of Babylon? And
what is the real meaning of six hundred and sixty six.
(27:45):
Order The Apocalypse Code by Hank Cantigraph Today, available in softcover,
MP three CD or MP three download from equip dot
org or call eight eight eight seven thousand CRI
From the Christian Research Institute and Charlotte, North Carolina. You're
listening to the Bible answer Man broadcast with Hank Canagraph.
We're on the air because life and truth matter. The
mission of the Christian Research Institute is to equip believers
to always be prepared to give an answer to everyone
who asks you, to give the reason for the hope
(00:27):
that you have with gentleness and respect. For more information
resources or to donate to CEURI, call eight eight eight
seven thousand CRI, or go online to equip dot org.
The following program was pre recorded and now here's Bible
answer Man host Hank Canagraph.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
Thank very much, Randy glad to be hanging on to
the phone line's Cara Europe First in Kansas.
Speaker 3 (00:54):
Hi Karra Hi, thank thank you for your ministry.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
You got it.
Speaker 3 (01:00):
Question is involving in our church. We have a youth
pastor and he's very well liked, and he read the
Rob Bell book and he loved it and kind of
put it in his newsletters that had asked good questions
and kind of got some of us concerned, and we
had conversations with him and through the conversations got a
(01:22):
little bit disturbed by some of his viewpoints with hell
and creation and had taken it to our church board
and they voted to keep him. My question is, at
what point do you say orgo? And I kind of
read the verse Romans sixteen seventeen and it talks about
(01:44):
being deceived and smooth talk and causing division. So I
don't know what point do you just let things go
and walk away or do you just stay and just
hope for the best for your kids.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
Well, I think this is a very significant point. The
book I Rob Bell is a book that I can
imagine some lay people falling for, but very difficult to
imagine a pastor falling for. First of all, he very
obviously takes people out of context. For example, he is
Martin Luther as an example of someone who believes in
(02:19):
a second chance after death. Now, if you just think
about that logically, without doing any research whatsoever, do you
suppose perhaps someone else might have noted that Martin Luther
didn't believe the words of Jesus Christ or the words
of Scripture in general. The point being that it is
(02:42):
appointed a de man wants to die, and after that
the judgment. Do you think that Rob Bell is the
first person to discover that the icon of the Reformation
actually believed in a second chance after death. So immediately
your intentation go up, particularly if you're a pastor, and
you should recognize. I don't know if that quote is
(03:05):
in context, and what you find out when you actually
read the quote is that Rob Bell stops it in
mid thought. The very next sentence of the quote points
out that Martin Luther emphatically did not believe in a
second chance after death. So discernment itself by any pastor
(03:26):
would be enough to immediately start scratching his head with
respect to this book. Secondly, this book takes on anyone
who has ever taught that we have this life to
choose Christ and that we do not have an opportunity
to come to Christ after death. As Rob Bell supposes
(03:49):
that Gandhi or Hitler or Garden variety pagan or anybody
else can come after death to Christ. He's taking on
anyone who believes leeves other than what he believes, and saying,
if you believe that this is the only life that
you have to choose Christ, then you believe, in a quote, cruel, mean,
(04:11):
vicious tormentor so he's using some very strong language here.
Speaker 3 (04:17):
Well, my youth pastor will claim that he doesn't believe
the same as Rob. He says that he just believes
that hell there's different degrees of hell and that it's
not eternal.
Speaker 2 (04:30):
Well, how can you believe that in light of scripture?
Speaker 3 (04:34):
Well, that's what I'm calling you for because I'm very disturbed.
I don't agree with him at all.
Speaker 4 (04:40):
So what do we do.
Speaker 3 (04:41):
When your church is backing him and keeping him on
his youth pastor?
Speaker 2 (04:47):
Well, I think that these things should be discussed with gentleness, reverence,
and respect. If you look at scripture, Scripture equates everlasting
destruction with ever last life. So there are those who
experience everlasting life, and there are those who experience everlasting destruction.
(05:08):
And the text in Thessalonians tells us specifically that they
are shut out from the presence of God. Not only that,
but to believe that God rubs out the crowning jewels
of his creation because they've decided that they don't want
a relationship with him is not a biblical idea either.
So he's holding on to ideas which seem to be
(05:31):
his own predilections. But I think as a pastor he
should test and subject his own opinion to what the
Bible clearly teaches.
Speaker 3 (05:41):
Yeah. Well, and through conversation with him, he believes that
God's grace extends into Hell and that God is present
in Hell.
Speaker 2 (05:50):
Well, that's the whole point of hell. The loving presence
of God is what we are separated from for all eternity.
Speaker 3 (05:58):
Yeah, I agree with you. It's just you know, well,
you don't want to cause division in your church, and
it's hard to know what to do exactly.
Speaker 2 (06:08):
But I think that the point of essential Christian doctrine
is that we should divide. I mean, essential Christian doctrine
is the line of demarcation between the Kingdom of Christ
and the kingdom of the cults.
Speaker 3 (06:22):
Okay, so you think we should stay and try to
bring to light what he's teaching.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
Or I think when you suggest, as Rob Bell does,
that you have a second chance after death, then you're
speaking directly against the teachings of Jesus Christ and the
Sermon on the Mount alone. He explicitly warned his followers
about the dangers of hell half a dozen or more times,
(06:53):
and he used hyperbly to drive home his point. If
you look at Matthew twenty five, the Lord says, when
the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all
the angels with him. He will sit on his throne
in heavenly glory. All the nations will be gathered before him,
and he will separate the people one from another, as
(07:14):
a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He'll put
the sheep on his right, the goats on his left.
And then he'll say to those on his left, depart
from me, you who are cursed into the eternal fire
prepared for the devil and his angels. Then they will
go away to eternal punishment, and the righteous to eternal life.
(07:36):
So this pastor is saying, well, eternal doesn't mean eternal,
But I don't know what else said could mean. If
the wicked, according to Paul, will be punished with everlasting
destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord
and from the majesty of his power. Now you have
a choice to make. Is the pastor correct or is
(07:58):
Paul correct? It's the choice. I mean. This is not
reading something into the text. This is reading the text
in the light of context, not only specific context, but
the general context of all the scripture. And Christ has
made this so clear in so many different ways. In
Luke chapter sixteen, Jesus Christ made it abundantly clear when
(08:23):
he told the story of a rich man and the
beggar named Lazarus that was lying by his gait. And
even when the rich man wanted to go back and
warn his five brothers, the response was, they have Moses
and the prophets. If they don't believe that, they're not
going to believe even if someone rises from the dead.
(08:44):
Not only that, but we have all the light we
need to choose Christ or to choose against Christ. We
have the light of conscience written large upon the tablet
of our consciousness. We have the light of creation, the sun, moon,
and stars declaring the glory of God. If we respond
to that light, we're told we will receive all the
(09:07):
light that we want. And Jesus, speaking to Nicodemus, said
that the real problem was not a lack of light,
but that men loved darkness rather than light because their
deeds were evil. So I think the panoply of scripture
could not be more clear. And to suggest that Gandhi,
(09:30):
who very clearly did not want a relationship with Jesus Christ,
though he knew about the Gospel, he had come into
contact with the Gospel, but yet rejected essential Christian doctrine
that somehow or other, Gandhi is going to be forced
into loving presence of God for all eternity. That smacks
(09:53):
against the teaching of Scripture. In fact, if that were true,
the righteous would not in herod heaven. The unrighteous would
be incarcerated in heaven against their will, which would be
a torment worse than hell. It's amazing that a guy
like Rob Bell, who not only prostitutes the Bible the
(10:16):
words of Paul, but then takes the icon of the Reformation,
takes him out of context, and one would presume knowingly.
I mean, it's hard to imagine that his eyes could
not go to the next sentence that Luther codifies and
missed the point that I don't believe in a second
chance after death. It's hard to imagine that he is
(10:38):
doing this innocently, but I can't judge his motives. The
one thing I can tell you is that common sense
would have told him that if the Icon if the
Reformation believed what he believed, a lot more people than
Rob Bell would know about it. Coming up to the
station break will be right back with more of the
Bible answer Man broadcast. Please don't touch that diet.
Speaker 1 (11:00):
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(11:23):
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the Book of Revelation has become an international obsession, the
(12:07):
result has been rampant misreading of scripture, bad theology, and
even bad politics and foreign policy. In The Apocalypse Code,
find out what the Bible really says about the end
times and why it matters today. Hank Canagraph argues that
the key to understanding the Last Book of the Bible
is the other sixty five books of the Bible, not
(12:28):
current events or recent history. The Apocalypse Code offers sane
answers to some very controversial questions, such as what does
it mean to take the Book of Revelation literally? Who
are the Antichrist and the Great Horror of Babylon? And
what is the real meaning of six hundred and sixty six?
Order The Apocalypse Code by Hank Cantigraph Today, available in softcover,
(12:50):
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Or are they, in fact the very words of God himself.
(13:15):
Three years in the making and based on two decades
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Spoken answers what is surely the most important question facing
our world. In Has God Spoken? Memorable proofs of the
Bible's Divine inspiration, Hank counters the contentions of the Bible
attackers and clearly shows that belief in the Holy Scriptures
(13:38):
is not a guess or wishful thinking. It is the
only logical conclusion after an honest examination of overwhelming evidence
ordered has God spoken? From the Christian Research Institute by
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(14:46):
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Once again, that's equip dot Org. Let's return to your
(15:08):
host and catagraph.
Speaker 2 (15:10):
Thank you very much, Randian. We'll go right back to
our phone callers. Doctor Christine listening on the web in Chicago, Illinois.
Speaker 5 (15:18):
He Christine, Hi, I have a question about Matthew chapter nineteen.
I would meet a weird today that the passage that
says some eunuchs are made in their mother's womb is
used to defend the idea that gay people are born
(15:39):
that way.
Speaker 2 (15:41):
Well, first of all, I don't think that this has
anything to do with gay people. And the whole context
of the passage has to do with divorce and Lord, yeah,
I mean that's the context of the passage itself, starting
at the very first verse and going out. Well, that's
what the passage is. Jesus had finished saying these things,
he leaves Galilee. He goes into the region of Judea,
(16:04):
the other side of the Jordan. He has crowds following him,
and then the Pharisees come to test him, and they say,
is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife
for any and every reason? And then Jesus says, haven't
you read that at the beginning the Creator made them
male and female and said, for this reason, a man
(16:26):
will leave his father and mother and be united to
his wife, and the two will become one flesh. So
they are no longer two but one. Therefore, what God
has joined together, let not man separate. Well, then the
Pharisees and the teachers of law, said, did Moses command
(16:46):
that a man give his wife a certificate a divorce
and send her away? And Jesus Moses permitted you to
divorce your wise because your hearts were hard. But it
was not like that from the beginning. And then he
gets into the passage that you have now delineated that
follows and is part of this context. But even if
(17:09):
one suppose that because there are those who are born
as eunuchs and others that choose to live that way,
that that somehow or other presupposes that people are born gay,
the reality of the matter is this, even if you
can make a case for that, even if you are
born with sinful proclivities. Let's say I'm born with a
(17:30):
sinful proclivity to be an adulterer, that doesn't give me
license to pursue that kind of a lifestyle. So the
passage simply doesn't make the point in any case. You
can only come up with that conclusion if you wrench
the passage out of context and then use it as
a pretext to communicate what you want to communicate, as
opposed to bound your need to the clear teaching of
(17:54):
the Word of God. Next up is Saffron listening on
the web in Riverside, California.
Speaker 3 (18:00):
Hi, Hank, I.
Speaker 4 (18:02):
Had a question about the trumpets one of First Corinthians
fifteen and fifty two and in Revelation eight. I don'd
say to say that, you know, the pre tribulation rapture
is probably a no go. So I know that the
mid tribulation and the post tribulation is up for debate.
Now with the trumpets, it's if you can clarify that
(18:25):
for me, I want to know, because it's saying, you know,
we'll be changed into William and I at the sound
of the last trumpet. So would that would you say
that that would be not mid tribulation.
Speaker 2 (18:37):
Well, I think, first of all, these are things that
we can debate vigorously, the timing of the tribulation or
the meaning of the millennium. These are secondary issues. We
debate them vigorously, we don't have to divide over them.
But having said that, I think what's going on in
First Corinthians chapter fifteen is very clearly what happens when
Jesus Christ returns a second time and all things are
(18:58):
put to write. The dead will rise, immortal, imperishable, incorruptible.
We be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of
an eye. When well, it says in the text, I
tell you a mystery. We will not all sleep, but
we will be changed in a flash, in the twinkling
of an eye at the last trumpet, For the trumpet
(19:20):
will sound, the dead will be raised. And that happens
when the Lord Jesus Christ returns as he promised. So
that happens at the end of time. What's going on
in Revelation needs to be contextualized. Revelation is not a
mere book of riddles that originate from a shallow post
(19:42):
Christian mind. It's a book of symbols that are deeply
rooted in Old Testament history. And we're going to mistake
the meaning of John in the Apocalypse if we fail
to hear the background music of the Old Testament. So
with respect to the trumpets in Revelation, remember that the
(20:05):
letters of Christ to his persecuted bride in Revelation utilize images,
again deeply embedded in the language of Scripture. So the
judgment of Christ against a prostituted bride there which is
written on a seven sealed scroll, announced with seven trumpets
(20:31):
and depicted by seven plagues. Find a reference in the
Old Testament, and what you have there is a pattern
of sevenfold judgment against unfaithfulness on the part of Israel,
and it's spelled out in dreadful detail in Leviticus, where
(20:53):
four times God tells his covenant people, I will punish
you for your sins seven times over. So what you
have here in Revelation is the imagery of sevenfold judgment
against apostate Israel, and it's unveiled on four occasions in Revelation,
(21:16):
and the pronouncement of judgment for unfaithfulness in the Seven
Churches is followed by the judgment of seven seals, seven trumpets,
and seven bols. So again, if you have the background
music of the Old Testament coursing through your mind, you
see the reference and you get the meaning. Again, this
is not a meaning that we should associate with the
(21:37):
second appearing of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. This
has to do with judgment that takes place prior to
the fall of Jerusalem and the destruction of the Temple
in eighty seventy and these punishments lead up to the
ultimate destruction of the very temple that gave the Jews,
(21:57):
their spiritual and sociological significance, as well as the structure
of Jerusalem. So that's what's going on in the Book
of Revelation, the warning to the church not to become
part of the prostituted bride, but be the purified bride.
You're going to suffer if you do, but you'll suffer
for ten days. Your suffering will be short, your vindication
(22:18):
will be eternal.
Speaker 4 (22:19):
Okay, that's what I was hoping to hear, because the
reason why I asked this, and my logic is because
you know, just taking a look at what's going on,
you know, current events and what like that, I'm noticing
a cropping up of tribulation survival guides basically, you know,
get ready USA, because you know it's all going down.
(22:43):
And I kind of felt like this was a false paranoia,
but I just.
Speaker 2 (22:47):
Want to make sure, well, it's not only a false paranoia,
it's a prostitution of scripture. And again it is an
example of a shallow post Christian mind that does not
know how to read the Bible for all it's worth. Revelation,
as I mentioned, is not a mere book of riddles.
(23:08):
It's a book of symbols deeply rooted in Old Testament history,
and if we don't know how to read scripture in
light of scripture, we're bound to mistake their meaning. And
then what we have is sensationalism, and we have sophistry,
and we have script torture, and all the wild Christ's
name is dragged through the mud. That's why we have
people today who have come up with the date setting
(23:30):
schemes that are so popular in modern literature. It's why
Christians have been marginalized. Rather than transforming the culture, they've
been marginalized in the culture. And unfortunately, while we're being
marginalized in the West, what we're seeing is a resurgence
of the church in the East. In the East, the
(23:53):
church is being persecuted, and as a persecuted church's growing.
They're not worried about survival guides. They're like the early Christians.
They testify to the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and they
don't fear human agencies. Kings are counted like a drop
in the bucket because they know that like their Lord,
(24:13):
they'll rise immortal, imperishable, incorruptible. So they are fearless and
as a result, they are transforming a culture in the West.
We're doing like we did in the year two thousand.
We have short memories. Remember when we had the Millennium Bug.
Everybody was buying survival kits back then, and they're buying
(24:35):
freeze dried food, and they were thinking about moving out
of the cities and all these kinds of things. And
I remember saying on the Bible Answer Meen broadcast in
nineteen ninety eight and nineteen ninety nine that Y two
K wouldn't be a top ten story in the year
two thousand. Well, it seems like everybody who was anyone
in the Christian world was selling the books and the
(24:56):
food and all the paraphernalia and making lots of money
as ministries, and then Y two K came and went,
and you know, everybody forgot about it. I wrote a
book called The Millennium Bug Debugged, and I was absolutely
savaged by Christian leaders saying that I was going to
have the blood of millions of people on my hands
(25:18):
because I was causing complacency within the Body of Christ.
But those same Christian leaders didn't apologize to the Body
of Christ that they were wrong, and they were certainly wrong.
They were wrong in terms of how they read the scripture,
and they were wrong in terms of how they read
just plain old urban legends that were being communicated, like
(25:39):
you know, the bank doors were going to slam shot
and because there were computer chips that were going to
go haywire, and I didn't have the sense to recognize
that the bank doors are not even controlled by computer
ships but by tripoli redundant handwound mechanical timers. So they're
making these stories up, and unfortunately Christians all to often
(26:00):
fall for them. And that's why we're marginalized. We should
be setting the standard rather than allowing the world to
make fun of us because we haven't set the standard.
We'll see next time with more of the Bible Inchment Broadcast.
Speaker 1 (26:14):
Thanks for tuning into the Bible answer Man Broadcast. Our
website equip dot org has an abundance of resources to
sharpen your discernment skills and help you grow in life
and truth. We provide books, videos, and informative articles. You
can also listen to the broadcast, download archived programs, get
answers to pressing Bible questions, or connect with us via
(26:38):
social media. All this and more at equip dot org. Again,
the address is equip dot org. The Bible answer Man
broadcast is supported by listeners like you. We're on the
air because life and truth matter to breaking the Code.
(27:04):
If the Book of Revelation has become an international obsession,
the result has been rampant misreading of scripture, bad theology,
and even bad politics and foreign policy. In The Apocalypse Code,
find out what the Bible really says about the end
times and why it matters today. Hank Canagraph argues that
the key to understanding the Last Book of the Bible
(27:25):
is the other sixty five books of the Bible, not
current events or recent history. The Apocalypse Code offers sane
answers to some very controversial questions, such as what does
it mean to take the Book of Revelation literally? Who
are the Antichrist and the Great Horror of Babylon? And
what is the real meaning of six hundred and sixty six.
(27:45):
Order The Apocalypse Code by Hank Cantigraph Today, available in softcover,
MP three CD or MP three download from equip dot
org or call eight eight eight seven thousand CRI
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