faith, spiritual values, moral issues, government, economy, education, work, responsibility. What we think about these depends on our worldview. Now, VCY America presents Worldview Weekend Radio with Brannon House. Welcome to the program. Glad you're with us. Dr. John Whitcomb is going to join us today. Dr. John Whitcomb, I reminded you in our last broadcast, I had the joy and privilege of meeting him in person when I was in about third grade. He was in our home for dinner with my family, my mom and dad and twin sister and brother and some folks from church as he was preaching at our church that evening. and had the joy of meeting him then. I'm 42 years old, so that was quite some time ago if I was in third grade then. He is still preaching, proclaiming the truth, and maybe not traveling quite as much, but he is still traveling. But he's also using the technology. And he's 87 years young and continuing to proclaim the gospel. No word such as retirement in his vocabulary. And we're thankful for that. Now, Dr. John has graciously agreed, as his schedule permits, to come on to the broadcast as a guest of ours, oh, about every two weeks or so. And maybe we'll miss a week due to his schedule or something. But we want to have him on regularly. And we're going to send him, as we've done this week, theological questions. He is a theologian. He is best known as a theologian, but he also wrote the book Genesis Flood with Henry Morris, which has now been published many, many years ago, but is still selling very, very well and being made available to people. But he's known as being a theologian, and he's a solid theologian. He's a theologian that I have found who is trustworthy. And so I have no reserves in presenting him to you to share with us from God's Word in context, good hermeneutics, good exegesis. And so if you want to email me your questions, your theological questions this week, then I will begin to compile a list for our next broadcast with Dr. Whitcomb, Lord willing, in about two weeks. And I'll send them on to him. I know many of these he could probably answer right off the top of his head, but I'm going to give him the chance to see them in advance, so if he wants to expand on it further, he'll have time to think about that and look into the Bible and read the scriptures in context and give us a good answer. So if you want to send me your theological questions for Dr. Whitcomb, Just email me, branon, B-R-A-N-N-O-N, at worldviewweekend.com, all one word. You'll end up with two W's in a row, and you spell worldviewweekend together. Again, www dot, well no, that's the website, worldviewweekend.com. The email address is branon, B-R-A-N-N-O-N, branon, B-R-A-N-N-O-N, no D. I know some of you call me Brandon, and I don't correct you because I don't really care. But if you're going to get the email to me, it needs to be brannon at worldviewweekend.com. And send me your question. I'll begin to compile our list of questions for Dr. Whitcomb for about two weeks from now. Let me also just say before we go to Dr. Whitcomb, who's on the line holding, that I've been thinking and praying about holding the Worldview Weekend Rally in Milwaukee again. I told you I thought maybe we'd just go with the one in Rockford, Illinois. But you know what? I think we're going to go ahead and hold a Worldview Weekend Rally again this fall. in Milwaukee. So we're working on the date for October right now, and I think Jason Carlson, Ron Carlson's son, will join us. As many of you know, he was in the Emergent Church when it was founded, got out, and is now busily proclaiming the biblical error of the Emergent Church. He will speak to us, really, on the new spirituality that is sweeping the church. and what to be aware of. I had an hour and a half conversation with him last night. He's a dear friend and become even a closer friend now that his father is gone to be with the Lord. I lean so heavily on his father that now Jason and I are leaning on each other. Jason is younger than I am, but we are both leaning on each other and encouraging each other, and that's what the scripture said we should do. Iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another. And the Bible tells us to encourage each other all the more as you see the day approaching. So, Jason is going to be with us. I think many of you will appreciate his biblical worldview, history, and heritage as his father worked with Walter Martin and proclaimed the truth. in 79 countries, and it'll be a joy to have Jason with us. He's spoken for us many times over the years, but I think that's the one I'm going to bring with me to Milwaukee, and we'll let you know the date as we work out the convention center that we'll hold it in. Well, without delay, I want to bring on the proprietor of WhitcombMinistries.org, Whitcomb, W-H-I-T-C-O-M-B, that's how you spell it, Whit, and then comb, WhitcombMinistries.org, Dr. John Whitcomb. Doctor, thanks for being with us. Thank you, sir, for the privilege of sharing. Well, it's our privilege, and let's get right to our questions. We have some that you and I talked about on the air last time, and then some I sent you by email for today. I want to address right off the bat the one out of Genesis chapter 6. There's been talk about that. Of course, I know coming from your background of helping to write theologically the Genesis flood with Henry Morris, I'm sure you guys dealt with Genesis 6. We have the context of the flood. God sees what's happening on the earth. It talks about the angels, the fallen angels is what I believe they are, that have embodied men. I think the key word there is they have possessed men. They're now having relations with the daughters of men and producing these giants or these Nephilim. Do you believe, A, that is what happened? B, do you believe that the verse, as it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be before the return of God's Son? could be giving us an indication that among the other things that might be occurring is a return of demonic entities possessing men and perhaps creating some kind of demonic off-breed. Did that happen then? Can it happen again? It's a very complex issue, brother, and it's certainly encouraging to hear you say that these sons of God in Genesis 6-2 who saw the daughters of men and took wives for themselves, whomever they chose, were angels. But what kind of angels? I might mention sons of God, B'nai Elohim in Hebrew always means angels in the Old Testament, like in Job chapter 1, etc., in Job 38. It means they were directly created by God. They had no mothers or fathers like humans do. So these angels, in this particular case, were evil ones. Why? Because immediately, in the very next verse, God said, my spirit shall not strive with man forever for he is flesh. And it says God saw the wickedness of man was great on the earth. These are evil angels, which Jesus called demons. And according to second Peter and the book of Jude, there were certain angels who kept not their first estate where they belong in the realm of the heavens, but went after strange flesh who were consigned in pits and trains of darkness until the judgment of the great day. Now, these particularly depraved demons Satan used to take over the human race in ways that are unbelievably complex for us to fathom today. What I believe must have happened, this is my opinion, is that these demons possess the bodies of human males to dominate human females. Why? Because in the New Testament, Jesus always describes demons as saying something or doing something through the means of a human body that they possessed. They could not even talk to Jesus without having a human mouth and tongue to use. The demoniac at Gadara that he met on the other side of the Sea of Galilee was able to tear chains and use superhuman strength to do that because of demon possession. But he couldn't do it without them, and the demons couldn't do it without a human body. By that analogy, with that connection, I believe that these especially depraved demons dominated depraved men who then in turn dominated depraved women. The result was unspeakable horror. And the Bible just doesn't even go into details. It simply says that the wickedness of man was great on the earth. Now listen to this, that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. Now, that was God's way of saying, dear reader, I didn't wipe out the world with a global flood for no reason. It was incomparably demonic and depraved. And I say, now, Lord, help me to understand this. What happened to these particular demons that were obviously cast out of the humans they possessed at the time of the flood? What happened to them? Well, 2 Peter and Jude said they are consigned to chains and pits of darkness until the judgment of the great day. They have no further access to human beings. When Jesus came, the demons that were not cast out at the flood into pits and chains of darkness approached Jesus and said, do not cast us into Sheol before the time. Don't do to us, in other words, what you did to them. So I don't believe these particular demons or their particular activity will ever happen again in the history of the world on this planet that would be my understanding of a very complex issue here in genesis chapter six let's move to thank you for that by the way all right here's another we discussed in our broadcast but people are definitely continuing to email me about it and wanting to hear your thoughts on it uh... jesus in john chapter ten kind of that uh... verse thirty one through verse thirty four He's talking there and he says to them, let me just pick up verse 31. Then the Jews took up stones again to stone him. Jesus answered them, many good works I have shown you from my father, for which of those works do you stone me? The Jews answered him saying, for a good work we do not stone you, but for blasphemy. And because you being a man, make yourself God. Verse 34, Jesus answered them. Is it not written in your law, I said, you are God's. Verse 35, if he called them gods to whom the word of God came and the scripture cannot be broken, do you say of him whom the father sanctified and sent into the world, you are blaspheming because I said, I am the son of God. I know that some of the prosperity teachers, the Name and Claimant, Word of Faith, New Apostolic Reformation people have used these verses to say, ye are gods. Jesus said it. We're little gods. Is that what he's saying here, Dr. Whitcomb? Alright, of course, if you look back at Psalm 82, which Jesus, of course, insisted that we do, you'll see this amazing statement. Psalm 82, verse 1. God takes a stand in his own congregation. He judges in the midst of the rulers. Now, what kind of rulers are these? Listen carefully. Verse 6, Psalm 82, verse 6, "...I said, Ye are gods, and all of you are the sons of the Most High." You mean they're deities? No. Next verse, "...Nevertheless you will die like men, and fall like any one of the princes." Now, they are so exalted in their authority in Israel as judges in the nation of Israel, that they are to be almost viewed as if they were gods. Now, of course, the connection there, as you remember, is Exodus chapter 22, where God tells us how significant were the judges that he appointed to rule over his people and his theocracy of Israel. Listen to what he said. Listen to what he said. And the Apostle Paul, of course, quoted this verse in a crisis in which he unwittingly denounced the high priest, not knowing who he was, in Acts 23.4. Now listen to what verse he quoted. Exodus 22 verse 28, you shall not curse God nor, now listen, nor curse a ruler of your people. It's almost like God and the rulers are on an equal level. And the point is this, of course, that these are God appointed rulers, but you see the tragedy, that horrible tragedy was that these high priests even in the temple, in many cases, especially in the days of Jesus, were blasphemous men, wicked men, selfish men, sinful men, and even demonic. And that is unbelievably awful. So the fact that Jesus simply says, if a God-appointed ruler in Israel, a mere man, can be honored by that title, God's, what about me, who came not just as an appointed ruler in Israel, But as the son of the living God, and of course in John 10 he explains, and that's the importance of looking at the context. Jesus didn't say he's a mere ruler. What did he say? Now listen. Why do you say of him whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world? You are blaspheming because I said I'm the son of God. He is claiming a higher level than any judge that ever ruled in Israel. That's the point. Wow. Hold right there. We'll be back. I want you to expand. I don't want the music to cut short. What you're saying is very important. My guest is theologian Dr. John Whitcomb, and we'll give you his website address. I hope you get a pen and paper and be prepared to write down his website. I introduced my pastor to him and his website. You'll want to be introduced to it as well. We'll be right back. We've expanded the Worldview Weekend Situation Room yet again for 2011. The Worldview Weekend Situation Room now includes over $5,000 in resources for just $59.95 per year. We've gone through and made sure that we've added every Worldview Weekend keynote presentation from our vast library of DVDs. So that means we've ripped all the audio off of those DVDs and put them right into the situation room for you to listen to as MP3s. That means we have about 200 worldview weekend keynote presentations now on the situation room available for you to listen to when you want. And you have access to all of the worldview weekend radio programs since September 11th, 2007. So when you combine the worldview weekend keynote presentations, With all of the radio shows from 2007 forward, that means you have nearly 1,000 hours of MP3s available to you as a member of the Worldview Weekend Situation Room. We've also added my books into an e-book format that's right there for you to enjoy as a member of the Situation Room. That means my book, Christian Worldview for Children, Christian Worldview for Students, Volume 1, Christian Worldview for Students, Volume 2, Grave Influence, Put Your Beliefs to the Test, and Building a Biblical Worldview are all available inside the Situation Room as a bonus. Members also receive access to the audiobook, Grave Influence. That's over 10 hours of the audiobook, Grave Influence. We've also added the 2010-2011 Worldview Weekend Hour television program that you can watch on-demand inside the Situation Room. You also get a free tuition. Free tuition to the Worldview Weekend Online Institute. Now that's totally different than the Worldview Weekend Training Institute we do in Memphis. But nonetheless, it's a 12-week online course that you can take at your convenience, on your schedule, take as long as you want to take the class. You also receive a 20% discount on all Worldview Weekend items that you purchase inside the Worldview Weekend bookstore. You'll find complete details or can join at worldviewweekend.com or situationroom.net, situationroom.net. And when you join the Worldview Weekend Situation Room, you're not only coming to understand the times through the lens of a biblical worldview, but you're helping us to keep our radio show on the air. Welcome back to the program. Glad you're with us. Our guest is Dr. John Whitcomb, and I hope you'll write down his website, go to it, and mark it as a favorite, as I have done. It is WHITCOMB, W-H-I-T-C-O-M-B, WHITCOMBMINISTRIES.ORG, WHITCOMBMINISTRIES.ORG. You can also find them on Facebook, and what is it, Dr. Whitcomb? Sermonaudio.com forward slash Whitcomb, what is it? sermonaudio.com slash Whitcomb. Okay, sermonaudio.com slash Whitcomb. And he has a brand new radio broadcast starting up in August, and they have told us they will permit us to carry it on our website at worldviewradio.com, and so we're looking forward to carrying that as well. And we're going to have a regular here with Dr. Whitcomb every couple weeks, and if you'd like to send me your theological questions for him, I will consider adding them to the lineup of questions that I forward on to him, and then we ask him to answer live on the air. My email address is brannon, B-R-A-N-N-O-N, at worldviewweekend.com. Tonight's program will go out to about 200,000 on our email list. If you'd like to join our email list and receive our email newsletter free of charge, All you gotta do is go to worldviewweekend.com, look at the top of the page where it says email alerts. Click on that and add your email address and the state you live in and you will receive our free weekly worldview newsletter. Dr. Wickham, the music there interrupted us, but let's pick right up in the context of this verse what it means when Jesus said, ye are gods. It doesn't mean that we are little gods as some claim running around on earth. I'll let you continue here. Yes. Little gods. Well, of course, this refers specifically to the God-appointed judges and rulers of Israel, the theocracy of God on earth, the appointed nation and the appointed leaders of that appointed nation. It doesn't apply to us today at all in the church age. So we have to be sure that we're listening carefully to what Jesus is saying here. He's saying the scriptures cannot be broken. In other words, what the Bible says about your law has been written in your law. i said you are god's and of course in this case the psalms are included as the authority part of the old testament the law of god and he said it if they can be dignified by that title how much more the son of god now listen carefully from the father sanctified the father sanctified set apart and sent into the world you are blaspheme blaspheming because i said i have the son of god see how it is uses the lesser israel's judges to the higher God's own specially inaugurated and endorsed Son from heaven. You just used the phrase, the Church Age. Can you explain what that means, the Church Age? And why would some say that we're no longer in the Church Age? I've heard that taught. The Church Age, of course, began on the day of Pentecost, which was 50 days after Jesus rose from the dead, when the promise of the Father, as he said in Acts 1, was sent to create the church by spirit baptism. No human ever had been spirit baptized. Spirit indwelt, yes. New birth, born again, yes, by the Holy Spirit. But spirit baptism is a special divine provision to distinguish, set apart, and honor the body and bride of Christ, the true church, which is Israelites and Gentiles together in one body, as Ephesians chapter 2 tells us. And this is a brand new revelation that had never been known before. Paul makes that point very clear in Ephesians chapter 3, doesn't he? He said, a mystery hidden from ages past, the Jew and Gentile together are one body, equal before Jesus Christ, and indwelt, not just indwelt, but baptized by the Holy Spirit into that body. Now the Church's age began on the day of Pentecost and will end at the Rapture, which could be any day now, after which Israel again becomes God's earthly instrument for revival, for evangelism, for conversion, for instruction in the Word of God, beginning in Jerusalem. And that's a distinct program. Israel and the Church are distinct programs of God on this earth. I agree. It seems to me, I don't know if you've noticed as well, replacement theology, the church is Israel, that is really gaining speed. Do you think that the view that you and I hold, that you just explained, is the minority view now? It could be the minority view, but the amazing thing is this, that now we're beginning to see something happening in Israel. I was a soldier in Germany in 1945 and saw the aftermath of the Holocaust. six million Jews slaughtered. How could I have imagined that I would live long enough to see nearly six million Jews back in their own land in Israel, in a capital city in Jerusalem, and I think, Lord, you're just about to do something special. And I say, Lord, I can see the beginning of a new program coming upon this earth through your people who are still your chosen people. Now that is, of course, explained to us, isn't it, in Romans 11? all Israel, Paul said, would be saved. Well, that can't be the church. The church is already saved. We're talking about a totally different group. And the reason why replacement theology is popular with so many people is they think Israel doesn't deserve to be ever restored or saved. Well, that's true. Don't talk about what we deserve. None of us deserve to be saved. It's by the grace of God, isn't it? The mercy of God alone that he will fulfill his unconditional Abrahamic covenant that he will bring that nation back to their land and transform them by his grace into a living entity for the glory of God. Now, when you say all of Israel, as we quote out of Romans, will be saved, that doesn't mean that every Jew in Israel will become a believer, does it? Well, it means that by the time the kingdom begins, every Jew on earth will be a believer. Jesus put it this way, didn't he? He said, he that endures to the end, the same shall be what? Saved. In other words, if you're still here, you remember Daniel? This appeals back to Daniel 12. Blessed is he who comes to the 1335th day. What's that? 75 days after the second coming, when the whole human race has been purged of unbelief, everyone who's still alive is saved. That's the way it was at the time of the flood. By the time the flood ended, everybody in the world was saved. Why? Because everyone else is gone. The believers remain to repopulate the world. So will it be, Jesus said in Matthew 24, at the end. One will be taken, taken to judgment like in the flood, and the other will be left to repopulate the world. So they're not saved simply because they lived long enough. They were saved because of faith and repentance in Jesus Christ, then were preserved to the end. Absolutely. So it's going to be just as it was Jesus said in the days of Noah, Matthew 24. It's going to be a repeat performance that God is going to wash away, as it were, all remaining unbelief so that when the kingdom starts, Everyone who's still on the earth is a believer and a participant in the inaugural banquet of the great kingdom that Jesus alone can establish. I want to inform our radio audience the last two or three questions I've asked him have not been on the list. I did not send those to him. Did you hear what he just did off the top of his head? That is what comes from studying the Bible For what, 60 years? Dr. Whitcomb, have you been a believer? You've been preaching publicly for 60 years. How long have you been a believer? Well, I was saved at Princeton University as a godless evolutionist in February 1943. 1943. So that was many, many years ago, and I thank God for his continued mercy. Wow. All right, another question. Psalm chapter 105 verse 15. Oh boy, this one gets quoted to me. Whenever I write an article about Joel Osteen or what he's saying or Rick Warren and the unbiblical things he's doing or the unbiblical things Robert Shuler said over the years, I get blasted with not only judge not lest ye be judged, but another one I get is Psalm 105 verse 15. Do not touch my anointed ones and do my prophets no harm. and people say, oh, you're not to touch Rick or Joel or any of these false teachers that you're writing about. Don't touch them. They're God's anointed. Is that difficult? That, in one way, is a very, very easy question to answer, because the Apostle Paul is constantly warning us to avoid false teachers, like in 2 Timothy 4, from such turn away. People heaping unto themselves teaching, having itching ears. uh... and turn from the truth to fables titus one deal you know over and over deal with false teachers false doctrine and and how do you know what's true and false how do you know it's a good true teacher in a false teacher and the only answer of course is this by the measuring stick of holy scripture what if they what they say is in a hurry with the bible teaches it doesn't matter how good they look at it because if you remember And Paul warned us, didn't he, in 2 Corinthians 11? Satan transforms himself into an angel of light, a messenger of light. It's no great thing, therefore, said Paul, if his messengers, his ministers, come across as ministers of righteousness. They look good, they look educated, they're very eloquent, they're well-dressed, oh yes, but they're occultists, they're a false teacher, and they're sitting behind a desk in a theological seminary classroom, Or behind a pulpit in a very impressive looking church building. And that is very, very deceptive, isn't it? Yes. Satan loves to deceive people into thinking that he's speaking through a true messenger. And we have a measuring stick, though. Is he speaking in harmony with the Bible? And every believer has that measuring stick. Thank God we can determine who is a false teacher and who is a true one. And so in Psalm 105 verse 15, the context is he's really speaking of real prophets. Is he not speaking of, I mean, the real prophets that were of God, not the phony prophets today. He's talking about the real office. Right. Do not touch God's anointed. When you look, you find out who the anointed was. In Genesis 12, it was Abraham who went to Egypt, and Pharaoh was going to take his wife, Sarah, and God plagued him and said, And in chapter 20 of Genesis, when Abraham went to the Philistines, Abimelech, the king, was going to take his wife, Sarah, and God plagued him. So God said, in effect, don't you touch my anointed. I'm sure God was, in a sense, embarrassed by the misconduct of Abraham in this case, where he lied about his wife. But he protected him because of who he was. He was specially appointed by God, anointed by God, and endorsed by God, and anybody who would destroy Abraham's family, Abraham's life, Abraham's testimony, was under God's judgment. Do not touch God's anointed. Now, that raises the question again, doesn't it, brother? Who is God's anointed? And the answer is, whoever is in harmony with God's revealed and scriptured revelation in the Bible. when they say, don't touch God's anointed, all who have come to faith in Jesus Christ and repented of their sins are God's anointed, correct? In a lesser sense of that term, yes. And so anyone who attacks God's child, God's church, is under God's judgment, right? Because the church, the body, the bride of Christ is very precious to him. Dr. Whitcomb is my guest. We're going to take a break here in a minute, so I don't want to ask another question because I don't want to have to have him be interrupted. So let me just give to you real quick his website address, WhitcombMinistries.org, W-H-I-T-C-O-M-B, just like wit and then comb. Whitcomb. ministries.org, and you also find there links to sermonaudio.com, which is also sermonaudio.com forward slash Whitcomb. You can find him on Facebook, and he's got a brand new radio broadcast beginning in August. We'll be honored to carry that on our website. And again, if you want to email your theological questions to me for our next broadcast in about two weeks, We will gladly look through those questions and pull the best ones out. Send them on to Dr. Whitcomb for him to answer on the air. So if you want to do that, you can just email me, Brandon, B-R-A-N-N-O-N, at worldviewweekend.com. Now we come back, I want to ask Dr. Whitcomb, is the Office of Prophets, speaking of Prophets, is the Office of Prophets An apostle closed. A lot of people running around claiming to be apostles and prophets. Is that office closed? I also want to ask him about if God is sovereign, does man have a free will? Is this a contradiction to say God is sovereign but yet man has a free will? If time allows, I also want to address the issue of binding Satan. A lot of people running around holding events to bind Satan and then take over with an earthly kingdom, Dominion Theology. Is it anywhere in the scripture where to bind Satan? These are the questions yet to come from my guest, Dr. Whitcomb of WhitcombMinistries.org. I'm Brandon House. This is Worldview Weekend Radio. We'll be right back with Dr. John Whitcomb. Hello, I'm Brandon House. Have you ever wondered how we can make available the free Worldview Weekend Rallies all over the country and our free national television broadcast, the Worldview Weekend Hour? Well, one of the ways we're able to do these things is because of the generosity of you. through the Worldview Weekend Foundation. The Worldview Weekend Foundation is working with Worldview Weekend to make the free Worldview Weekend rallies possible. And the Worldview Weekend Foundation is a generous supporter of the airtime that we have to purchase to make available the Worldview Weekend Hour national television broadcast. 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Make sure you please go to situationroom.net. Dr. John Whitcomb is our guest for Ask Dr. Whitcomb, and that's what we call it, and it's WhitcombMinistries.org is his website, WhitcombMinistries.org. Dr. Whitcomb, before the break I told him what questions we want to ask, and we'll do that, and then open up the phone lines. This verse here, touch not my anointed or my prophet, do my prophets no harm. A lot of people running around today, have you noticed? I guess this goes back to the latter rain movement, the Kansas City prophets, and now it continues in what's called the new apostolic reformation. It just gets repackaged. A lot of folks running around claiming to be prophets and apostles. Is that office of apostle and prophet closed, or are these people real prophets and apostles? Well, of course, we know there are only 12 apostles. In fact, the book of Revelation says that in the New Jerusalem, there'll be 12 foundations of the New Jerusalem. Precious stones with the names of those 12 apostles. Now, of course, in Acts 4 and elsewhere, Paul and Barnabas are called apostles in a lesser sense, because God specially used them to inaugurate the Gentile ministry outreach in the Christian world. But Paul knew he wasn't part of that twelve. In fact, Paul actually lived to see the end of miracles being performed, which were the signs of an apostle that he said he performed. Remember 2 Corinthians 12, 12. I have done all the signs of an apostle, miracles, signs, and wonders. But finally he said to Timothy, Trophimus, I had to leave it. My lead is sick. Timothy, I can't heal you anymore. Change your diet from, you know, contaminated water to some fruit juice. I can't even heal myself. I've prayed three times. God said, my grace is sufficient for you. The sign miracle time of the apostolic era had ended. In fact, we read about that, don't we, in Hebrews chapter two, where the writer of Hebrews could have been Barnabas or Apollos, wasn't Paul. He said, how should we escape if we neglect so great a salvation after, now listen carefully, after it was at the first spoken through the Lord, it was confirmed to us by those who heard god bearing uh... witness with them both by both by signs and wonders and various miracles and by gifts of the holy spirit according to his will don't we did you hear that bearing witness with them it's over with the author of hebrews says i'm not part of them i i didn't see them i didn't hear that from from jesus directly like they did in fact I am terrified by a final warning, aren't you, in Revelation 22, that if anyone adds to the words of the prophecy of this book, Revelation 22, 18, what will happen? God will add to him the plagues that are written in this book. I don't want to do that. I do not want to do that. I don't want to say, I just had a new revelation from God. God just spoke to me. Listen to the latest word from the Lord. In the early church, that was a hard thing to endure. new revelation coming along. Remember, Apollos had to be informed by Priscilla and Aquila of all the latest things about Jesus. Now we have the final word, and if somebody came along and said, I have a new word from God, I'm a modern apostle, that would be an incomparable tragedy. We'd all have to stop teaching and preaching until we hear the latest word from God through this so-called self-appointed apostle. So I would say be extremely careful of anyone who makes even hints at a claim like that. They could also come in and say, you know what, pastor? I'm relieving you of your duty. I'm an apostle. I'm above you. Sit down. Be quiet. You're off the payroll. I mean, how many of them want a general or an apostle coming in and taking over their city, as some of them are talking about doing? And now you have to be under the, quote, authority of this apostle or this prophet, all you pastors. How many of you want that? That's a real dangerous concept here. And if you're buying into this or you're allowing it and you're not exposing it, I wonder what it would take for you to expose false prophets and apostles. A lot of people don't want to do it. It's controversial. But I wonder how many of you pastors would stand up and reveal the heresy of false prophets and apostles if one of them marched into your town and said, now all of you pastors are under our authority. You can't preach anything unless I sign off on it. You can't do anything unless I sign off on it. I bet a lot of you pastors that aren't saying anything right now about these false prophets and apostles would have a lot to say then when it involved your own independence. And so my question to you is, Do you want to wait to that point? Because I know friends who have seen churches destroyed all over the world when apostles or prophets, in quotes, come in and tell them they're the new authority and churches have been destroyed and split. Dr. Whitcomb, moving on to another question. What about the binding of Satan? One of the ideas is if we get together and have prayer marches and events where we bind Satan, that we can take dominion of city by city, town by town. What are the verses? Is that, A, scriptural, and B, is there anywhere in the Bible where we are called to bind Satan? Well, let's listen to what Jesus said in Matthew 16, 19. I will give you, said Jesus to the Apostle Peter, I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven." Now, to whom did Jesus give that commission? To the chief of the Apostles. And of course you know how he used it, don't you? This is amazing. As you read through the New Testament, you begin to see, step by step, how peter open the doors of the kingdom to what first the jews at pentecost acts chapter two then to the to the samaritans acts chapter seven uh... chapter eight then to the gentiles through the apostle paul especially and especially through paul later but peter himself in acts ten at the house of cornelius he is opening the doors and he is uh... saying in effect from now on if you believe in jesus as the one who died in your place on the cross and paid in full the penalty of your sin, and you believe that he rose bodily from the grave because of the finished work on the cross, you will be saved. You are loosed from the power of Satan." In other words, he's announcing guilt or innocence, as the case may be. One of the most amazing cases, I think, of all is how Peter did that in Acts chapter 5. Now, this frightens me at times. Here are two disciples, I mean, these were born-again Christians, Ananias and Sapphira, decided to give a very substantial gift to the church that they brought to the Apostle Peter. But look what happened. As soon as Ananias brought his gift and said, we have given everything we have to the church, Peter said, Ananias, Why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back some of the price of land? While it was yours, you could have kept it. Why did you lie to God and he dropped dead? His wife came in. She said the same thing. Why did you put the spirit of the Lord to the test and she dropped dead? Now you see what you don't, we don't do that anymore. The Apostle Paul had a special and enabling endorsement, imprimatur from God, to prevent the early church from entering into drastic heresy at the beginning, at the very, very delicate, fragile stage of the birth of that baby church. And so we begin to see how this happened, to announce innocence or guilt, in the case may be, that only the Holy Spirit could have showed him. And I say, well, thank you, Lord, Because now we know that we can't bind Satan, but we can sure resist the devil, James 4, 7. Resist the devil. Humble yourselves beneath the mighty hand of God and resist the devil, and he will flee from you. You can't bind him, but you can resist him. Same thing in 1 Peter 5, 8 and 9. Ephesians 6, we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers and rulers of the darkness. We are in a warfare, yes, but we're not doing binding of Satan kinds of things, as if we were the Apostle Peter himself. I say be careful how you handle God's specific commands. Dr. John Whitcomb is our guest. The website for Dr. Whitcomb, I hope you will mark it as a favorite. A lot of great resources on there. His website, WhitcombMinistries.org, W-H-I-T-C-O-M-B-Ministries.org, WhitcombMinistries.org. And again, if you want to email me your theological questions for our next broadcast, in about two weeks, for Dr. Whitcomb, our email address is Brannon, B-R-A-N-N-O-N, at worldviewweekend.com. Brannon, B-R-A-N-N-O-N, at worldviewweekend.com. Another question here. We're going to have a break in about two minutes, Dr. Whitcomb, before we come back. Let me get the phone number, by the way. If you have a comment or a question, 1-800-347-9829. 1-800-347-9829. Come back for the break. We'll take a few of your calls. 1-800-347-9829. 1-800-347-9829. Now you probably won't be able to finish this question before the music starts. We'll have to finish it on the other side, but let's get started. What about the sovereignty of God? If you'll say, I believe in the sovereignty of God, A, what are they saying? What do they mean by that? And B, is the sovereignty of God and man's free will in contradiction? Well, that of course is an amazing problem. Amazing problem. Because to us it looks hopelessly contradictory. But listen carefully to how Jesus handled this. Jesus didn't say, God is totally sovereign, you have no choices. No, no. Listen to this, John 6, 37. he said all that the father gives me shall come to me that's god's sovereignty but listen to this and the one who comes to me i will certainly not cast out god is sovereign and who comes to me but you have a choice they see to us that's a complete contradiction but you see if this is not a country it's a it's what we theologians called a theological antennae at first glance it looks hopelessly contradictory but at the end of the line god doesn't lie, deceive us. We have a free will to make a choice and that's why we're accountable to God having his image and likeness. We're not animals, we're not robots. We have a choice. That is a major issue in the Bible, isn't it? He said to Adam and Eve, I want you to love me and you can love me by making a choice. Here it is. Of all the trees you may freely eat except that one. They made a choice and fell. Now here's the question. Did they have a choice? or were they predestined and had to fall? You see the problem we have here with this idea? No. In every age of human history, even in the coming kingdom, you must choose voluntarily to love the Lord, to serve the Lord, and if you do, you'll be honored by God in marvelous ways that we don't deserve. But you can't say, I had no choice. I was predestined to sin, to rebel, to be an atheist, etc., etc. this is a very serious issue in theology and I say Lord help me to see that you are not lying to us you're not deceiving us we have a choice to make to love you and serve you excellent Dr. John Whitcomb of WhitcombMinistries.org we come back we'll get your calls 1-800-347-9829 1-800-347-9829 we'll be right back at Brand House it's worldview weekend radio Hello, I'm Brandon House. Are you concerned about the decline of the American dollar? Are you looking for a way to preserve your purchasing power since the creation of the Federal Reserve in 1913? Your dollar today has the purchasing power of four cents. Your parents paid less for their first house than we do for an SUV today. That's what you call inflation. John Maynard Keynes, a Fabian socialist, said, the most popular way to implement socialism will be through the inflation of the currency. By doing this, we can steal the majority of the people's wealth, and not one man in a million will know what we're doing. Well, that's exactly what they're doing, as they destroy the dollar. And as a result, gold and silver is going up. If you want to receive a free CD, a DVD and two free reports on how to protect your assets with gold and silver, you can visit our website worldviewtimes.com and click on the banner for Swiss America or you may call toll-free 1-877-864-1072. That's 1-877-864-1072. Hello, I'm Brandon House, and I want to invite you to join us here in Memphis, Tennessee for the next Worldview Weekend Training Institute. We have had numerous classes now that have been filled to capacity, and they're attended by people like you. Lay people, mostly. Some are pastors, but most are lay people who want to learn how to accurately defend a biblical worldview, and then go back to their community and teach others how to do it. In fact, really what they're interested in is fulfilling the Great Commission, making disciples, knowing what they believe, why they believe it, and defending it from the Scriptures. They want to know how to apply a biblical worldview to law, science, economics, history, family, social issues, education, and religion. They want to learn apologetics, defense of the essential Christian doctrines, how we know Jesus is God, how we know Jesus rose from the dead, how we know the Bible is true, how to prepare for the great deception that's sweeping across America. Why the rise in pagan spirituality? How should Christians respond? All this and much, much more included in the Worldview Weekend Training Institute. Now, when you leave, you'll leave with a three-wing binder. It'll have leader's manual, student worksheets, PowerPoint, video clips, everything you need to become a biblical Worldview Weekend instructor in your community. Now, if you think you can't do it, I got another story for you. You can. We have just literally dozens upon dozens of graduates of the Worldview Weekend Training Institute who are now back in their communities successfully teaching over and over this 13-week biblical worldview course. In fact, you can read some of their testimonies at our website worldviewweekend.com and just click on the link for the training institute. worldviewweekend.com and then just look for the link for the next training institute. You can read the testimonies of past graduates of our Worldview Weekend Training Institute. We also have a special price for husbands and wives. They can attend for one price. All the information is at www.worldviewweekend.com www.worldviewweekend.com because you can and must become a biblical worldview instructor. Welcome back to the program. Glad you're with us. My guest is Dr. John Whitcomb for Ask Dr. Whitcomb. And we've certainly been asking him a lot of questions, and he's been answering them right out of the word of God. Let's go to the phone lines, because they're lit up. Let's go first to Mary in Wisconsin. Mary, thank you for calling in. You're on with Dr. John Whitcomb. Go right ahead, Mary. This is not Mary. I'm wondering... What's your name? I'm Judy. Judy. Okay, go right ahead, Judy. Regarding Matthew 18, 18, regarding the binding and so forth again, a lady prayed with me and vowed, anything not serving the living God, spirits of fear, spirits of depression, self-hate, in the name of Jesus, as it is on earth, so in heaven. Then she prayed that for the Lord to loose everything that God wanted for me, you know, peace and joy and salvation and everything else, you know. In the name of Jesus, as on earth and so in heaven, could he address that as far as binding and loosing, and I'll hang up and listen. Okay, Dr. Wickham, you want to answer that? Of course, we have to be extremely careful that we're balancing the things of God, Bible verses and Bible verses in context. That's the key, isn't it? Take the verses in context with parallel passages. Is there any clue as to how that could be misused? Of course. It's being misused constantly. That's because we're taking the verse out of context. Parallel passages tell us that we can't function as the body and bride of Christ, the true Church of Jesus Christ, without what? Being carefully disciplined in the Bible. What does the Bible say, not just in this verse, or that verse, that looks like something that this or that person may believe is an authority basis for their thinking? What does the whole Bible teach about this? in dispensations, the church age, Israel, things that are for apostles and for normal Christians, we have to be extremely careful because somebody can come along and actually destroy the life of a Christian or split a church over something that is absolutely unbiblical. And the details of what this person is saying to you, I'm not familiar with. I'm not familiar with that. but I am familiar with problems that can be taken, uh, created by taking a verse or a statement out of context. So if you will kindly write to me sometime about that, it'll give me an opportunity to research the question and perhaps come up with some more help than I'm able to give at this moment. But that's the key to interpreting the Bible. The golden rule is what now? Take the verse in context with parallel passages to see exactly what God meant by what he said. Great answer. Let's go to Mary. Mary, I think this is now Mary. Mary, thank you for calling in. Go right ahead. Yeah, I was wondering, you were talking about how miracles and prophecy were kind of like a gift for the apostles, but in 1 Corinthians 12, 6, it lists those as one of the spiritual gifts and speaking in tongues, and I was just wondering who that was addressed to, if it was not addressed to the church today. Speaking in tongues was a special gift God gave to the early church. For whom? For the Jews. To convince the Jews that the church was a legitimate, divine creation of God. Remember, there's a transition period between the creation of the church in Acts 2, and the end of that transition period was the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70. During that transition period of about 40 years, there were two groups of Christians, weren't there? There were Jewish Christians who could worship in the temple and even offer sacrifices. Paul endorsed that, participated in it. There were Gentile Christians who didn't have to become Jews and were totally acceptable to God as Gentile Christians. Now during that particular period of time then, there was a tension between the two groups. And at that time, one of the ways that God showed the Jewish Christians, and in fact non-Jewish Christians too, that the church was a legitimate divine organism, even though it had Gentiles, more and more, was the speaking in tongues. Now, that has ended. Of course, we know from 1 Corinthians 13 that tongues shall cease. And in the early church, sign miracles all ended, as we discussed a little bit earlier this afternoon. And the writer of Hebrews chapter 2 says, all those signs and miracles, all of them, were done by them, past tense, looking into the previous generation, and they're all over with. So you can see today when people do this kind of thing, claim to speak in tongues, you can see the difference between the New Testament function of the Holy Spirit and the way it's being done today. And I have written, in fact, a little booklet on this. Does God want Christians to perform miracles, sign miracles today? No, not sign miracles, God is able to do whatever He wants, but He has given the Church today something better. The solid, complete, finished, written Word of God. We don't need to sign miracles like the early Church did to confirm who we are. We have the whole counsel of God to confirm our identity with God the Holy Spirit who wrote the Bible. Let's go quickly to Mike in Wisconsin. Mike, you're on with Dr. John Whitcomb. Go right ahead. I appreciate you taking my call. This is getting kinda confusing um... in that um... first corinthians twelve and that that was my point um... first corinthians twelve spiritual gifts and then first corinthians uh... fourteen were uh... the gift uh... spiritual gift of prophecy is encouraged to be sought further I'm just wondering if we are picking and choosing through the book of 1 Corinthians as far as what today applies. Okay, let me have him answer that before we run out of time. Don't we have to make the distinction, Dr. Whitcomb, between the spiritual gift of prophecy, proclaiming the Word of God, versus the office of prophet? Isn't that where the confusion is coming? That's part of the confusion, yes. A prophet in the Bible is one who doesn't just predict future events, but speaks forth the Word of the Lord from God. Now, of course, prophets, in the sense of a technical term like that, are no longer existing today. Why not? Because the Bible, the prophetic word, has been completed. Remember, Revelation 22, don't add a single new word to what God has already said. So the office, the function of prophet, in that technical sense, is finished today, in this phase of church history. But in the early church, prophets were functioning to give new revelation, new truth from God in the formation of the body and Bride of Christ in the completion of the Bible. So we're not picking and choosing. We still have the office of teacher, or elder, or pastor, or shepherd, apostle, meaning small a, missionary, a sent one, a messenger. We just have to be very specific in studying out the scriptures, and that's where the hermeneutics come in. Correct, Dr. John? Absolutely. If we don't know for sure what God said or what he didn't say, or where the Bible starts and where it stops, we're completely helpless. We're victims of everyone who comes along and says, well, I have a new word from God. May God help us to stick with the scriptures and thank the Lord that we have a final, inspired, infallible word. Amen to that. Dr. John Whitcomb has been my guest. I hope you'll visit his website, WhitcombMinistries.org. Thank you, Dr. John. This has been Worldview Weekend Radio with Brannon House. CDs are available by calling 1-800-729-9829. Or to hear an MP3 file of this or earlier programs, go to worldviewweekend.com. Views expressed may or may not be those of Worldview Weekend, VCY America, or this station. This program is a public affairs presentation of worldviewweekend.com and is heard weekdays on VCY America.