Tough Biblical Questions: God's Justice, Christmas, Election

He came in order to be our Savior. So I just want my children and my grandchildren to understand that, I mean, thoroughly and clearly. Just as Easter, I don't want them to be thinking bunny rabbits and chocolates. It's not that I think it's wrong to enjoy an Easter egg hunt, and I don't think it's wrong for kids to enjoy opening presents around a tree. What I don't love is if the focus is on Santa rather than on our Savior, or is focused on an Easter bunny rather than the blessing of what Christ did. [00:01:52] (33 seconds)  #CelebrateChrist

So I leave all of those arguments for other people. Well, to me, I just want to focus people on the most significant thing. What does the Bible say about God sending His Son? That He came according to the prophecies. He fulfilled all these Scriptures in being born in Bethlehem and Micah. And so to me, I just stick with the Scriptures as opposed to all these peripheral arguments as to the dating. It's irrelevant to me. It doesn't matter. [00:04:34] (31 seconds)  #FocusOnScripture

Amen, Josh. I say, let's follow His lead. Make the main things the main things. We so often want to ask questions about what the Bible doesn't say. And I'm the same kind of person. It's like, well, what about this, and what about that? And inquiring minds want to know. But when it comes down to it, many times that road just leads us into something that isn't important enough. If it were, God would have told us. So focus on what we do know, celebrate what we do know, and you'll have plenty to celebrate. [00:05:53] (30 seconds)  #FocusOnWhatMatters

God told Adam and Eve in the day that you eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, you'll die. And with that one sin, they were worthy to die. They lost their relationship with God's spiritual death, but they eventually brought death into this world. The wages of sin, singular, is death. So every human being on the planet has already justly violated God's law and is worthy of death. Nobody has a right to life, physical life, much less eternal life. So whenever God decides your time is, he has the right to take you out on the basis of that. [00:12:39] (40 seconds)  #AllHaveSinned

God has a right to pass that judgment. And what we need to realize is understanding who God is, he can't do anything but what is just. If God is doing it, it is just. And so we got to stop judging God as though he is somehow a human being who's angry or going after, you know, these people and wiping out their children. It's more akin to God dealing with cancer, the way we think of cancer cells that have to be taken out because they're going to do damage. [00:13:34] (29 seconds)  #GodActsJustly

So, for instance, when God executes people because he's just, that doesn't mean that they're going to hell. And it doesn't mean their life is over. They're going to live forever. But they are not going to live forever where they are, okay? And God has a bigger scope than man. So when we talk about, oh, it's not fair that, you know, they're wiping out these people as though they're ending their existence. It's not true. [00:14:27] (22 seconds)  #PreTribulationRapture

We need to back off at that point and say, let God be found true. And every man a liar, the Bible says, God is not to be judged, but God has the right to judge and will only judge righteously, man. Eternity changes, needs to change our perspective. We need to get closer to God's perspective on things. And therefore, if somebody is doing damage, let's say a believer who we believe is saved, is doing damage by the way they're living their life. [00:15:10] (61 seconds)  #BeReadyAlways

If we judge God, we are to be judged. You cannot judge God or he's no longer God. Wow. Meaning, you'll stand back when all the facts are known and go, you know what, that was the right decision. You're wise, God. And you're always just. Amen. And more than just, you're merciful. So we don't have to fear God's reputation is a problem here. [00:16:52] (20 seconds)  #DontJudgeGod

``And we stand back and say, you're right. If that was just a nation choosing to do that, that would be a war crime. That's evil. But when God commands it, that's a whole different thing. And we need to back off and say, God, let God be God in those cases where in Scripture he says that and does that. We don't need to say, that's a different God than the God of the New Testament. You know, God was in a bad mood. Jesus put him in a better mood. That's not scriptural. [00:20:19] (21 seconds)  #LetGodBeGod

What the Bible says is that God has predestined some for heaven, and that is as far as it goes. Some would then try to logically say, well, if he didn't choose you for heaven, hey, you're chosen for hell. God never says that. He would let the predestination rest for those who have experienced the grace of God to be privileged to go to heaven, but never be upon those that are going to hell. They've chosen that. [00:23:52] (27 seconds)  #PredestinationNotCondemnation

So to me, it's not like God chose in eternity past some people and he said, I don't want these. Why? Because Jesus died for the sins of the whole world. And the Bible says salvation is to whosoever will. So anybody can discover they're chosen by receiving Christ. But the election isn't because of something about me at all. There's nothing about me. It's that I'm in Christ, and therefore I become one who is chosen. [00:24:59] (27 seconds)  #ChosenInChrist

There's even an interesting verse that many people argue in the book of Romans, chapter 9, where Paul says, What if God is willing to be patient with vessels prepared for wrath, that were prepared for wrath, made for wrath? And they say, well, see, there are vessels that God made for wrath. But the word, it's very interesting. The word, the verb, prepared, is in the middle voice in Greek, which can mean and does mean a verb that you're acting upon yourself. It means they prepared themselves for wrath. [00:26:32] (31 seconds)  #TheyPreparedThemselves

That's where those two are tied together. The election is the fact that we're in Christ. No one is chosen who is not in Christ. And if you say, well, you can be chosen, but you're not in Christ yet. Well, you'll be in Christ then by the time you die, because our election is tied to who he is because he's going to come and die for the sins of the world. So if we remove Christ from the equation and try to separate it, I don't see it biblically and I don't see it logically. [00:28:34] (26 seconds)  #ElectionThroughChrist

First of all, if the rapture can't happen at any time, then basically the imminent return of Christ, being ready right now, isn't necessary, because if you say something has to happen before that, such as the tribulation, the revelation of the Antichrist, the building of the temple that the Antichrist is going to go into and declare himself to be God, there's no temple in Jerusalem right now, so Jesus can't come back today, you find yourself in a bad predicament of, Jesus wants us to be ready at any time. Paul says you need to be ready. [00:34:55] (30 seconds)  #JudgeDoctrineNotLabels

And those who claim, well, the real time of his wrath is the last three and a half years, they just haven't read the book of Revelation. Start in chapter 6, the beginning of the Revelation, and people are dying all over the planet by the plagues that are coming. If you want to say, well, it really doesn't start till the middle, I would have an argument that those people who are all dying from the plagues would feel like the wrath of God is upon the earth. So it's just a misconception. [00:37:15] (22 seconds)  #WrathBeginsEarly

We are in danger as soon as we go anywhere off of scripture, out of scripture into church history so that the church came to terms with what it believed. I still judge everything the church came to its understanding on based on the scriptures. If they did it, then it's orthodox. If the church practiced something or still practices something and does generally, that's not orthodoxy to me. [00:39:47] (24 seconds)  #JudgeByScripture

And by the way, I don't take Sola Scriptura and say, that's exactly what the Reformed Church is doing. No, I think that many people that hold Reformation theology go beyond Scripture in some of their teachings of Calvinism. They draw conclusions based on certain things that are true, then they come up with things they say, this must be true. That's a dangerous conclusion when you, in your commitment to God's word, start speculating or reasoning beyond the word of God. [00:43:03] (30 seconds)  #DontGoBeyondScripture

That's not the theology of the New Testament, that you must receive Mary, that you must take her as somehow divine, sinless. The Bible does not teach she was sinless. She recognized she was a sinner. Even in what she said when she was talking to Elizabeth, she makes reference to it. She knew that she needed a Savior. So let's not exalt her to a place where God does not. That is not honoring the Lord, and it is dangerous. [00:48:25] (26 seconds)  #ChristAboveAll

However, where the Catholic Church tends to have its problems is in adding to the Bible, just like all the cults, and I'm not calling it a cult because it's not technically a cult, but it's in the adding of expectations, demands on believers in order to be saved. This is not taught in Scripture. The keeping of the seven sacraments, the adding to revelation, meaning we have God's word about what happened, now we have the popes speaking a cathedra, and we can add that to the Bible. [00:49:42] (35 seconds)  #DontAddToScripture

So there's nothing that you're going to say to him that's going to convince him to give it to you or somehow, you know, magic words or talking with the King James language so he can understand you. He already knows, but he wants you to have a relationship with him. So just share your heart. Just talk to him about what's on your heart. He'll enjoy every minute of it. But you'll realize I don't have to come up with some planned prayer with perfect words and theologically accurate, you know, kinds of ideas. And I think that that freedom is just great when we just start being with the Lord. [01:01:35] (31 seconds)  #PrayFromTheHeart