WWUTT 2415 Q&A Will We See the Holy Spirit, Is Racism Growing, Questions for Pastor Candidates

1 view

May 23, 2025

Responding to questions from listeners about whether we will see the Holy Spirit in heaven, is racism growing in the church in America right now, and what are some good questions for elder candidates?

00:00: Will we see the Holy Spirit when we get to heaven? Is racism on the rise in the church in America and how should we respond to it?
00:08: And what are some good questions to ask of elder candidates? The answers to these questions, when we understand the text.
00:24: This is When We Understand The Text, a daily Bible commentary to help encourage your time in the Word, brought to you by Providence Reformed Baptist Church in Casa Grande, Arizona.
00:34: For more information about our ministry, go to www .utt .com.
00:40: Here once again is Pastor Gabe. Thank you, Becky. You're welcome. We've got this gnat bugging around in here.
00:46: How long until this thing becomes annoying and... Well, I guess if everybody hears a clap, you know that we tried to kill it.
00:54: It's going to be another one of those episodes where the outtake of the end is me chasing the fly around the room. At least you can't hear it buzzing.
01:02: Yeah. Oh, boy. I remember that one. That was a big fly. And it would like dive bomb us.
01:10: That's like a What Podcast memory right there. Yeah. That was hilarious. Okay.
01:16: Starting with the scriptures here. Proverbs 10. We're looking at verses 25, 26, and 27.
01:23: Verse 25 says, when the tempest passes, the wicked is no more, but the righteous is established forever.
01:31: The wicked will perish in judgment. The righteous will endure in Christ Jesus. Verse 26, like vinegar to the teeth and smoke to the eyes, so is the sluggard to those who send him.
01:46: You say that like you know what that means. Vinegar to the teeth is really bizarre.
01:52: Well, I would just think that's just, you know, isn't it like just the taste of it?
01:59: Like it's sour? Well, that would certainly be gross. Bitter. Yeah, there's a sourness to it. Yeah. But it's also that vinegar is -
02:05: Is it cleaning? It's cold. Oh, okay. And so, you know what something feels like, especially when it hits your fillings.
02:11: Oh, ouch. Yeah. Yes. So, I would imagine vinegar to the teeth would be like this.
02:16: Okay. And smoke to the eyes, it burns. Uh -huh. Yeah. It's just annoying. It's irritating. You can't get it to go away.
02:22: It makes you grumpy. Oh. Yeah. So is the sluggard to those who send him. You try to get a lazy man to do a job, and he doesn't do it.
02:31: And it's just like, ugh, who sent this guy to do this job? Verse 27, the fear of the
02:39: Lord prolongs life, but the years of the wicked will be short. Because if we fear
02:44: God, it keeps us on the path of doing the right thing. Also when contrasting with the sluggard who does little, the fear of the
02:54: Lord also keeps us active and working and doing and obedient unto the Lord. And so as Charles Spurgeon has said, fear
03:02: God and nothing else. Yes. Amen. Let's get to some questions here. This being the end of the week program, we take questions from the listeners and you can send your questions to when we understand the text at gmail .com.
03:15: I do have an email to get to here and two voicemails. Awesome. So you can also send us a voicemail by going to www .utt
03:24: .com, clicking on that voicemail tab and record it for us either using your phone or your computer.
03:31: We have changed websites, web hosts. You may have noticed that if you go to the website and you've been there anytime recently, then it looks different.
03:39: Funny thing is I had a critic just the other day. Somebody on social media was making fun of how my ministry is just, it's pointless and it doesn't reach anybody.
03:48: That was the point my critic was trying to make. So he went to the what website and he went to like traffic stats and he pointed out how like virtually nobody's visiting this website.
04:01: Oh yeah. That's because we started over. Really deflated his balloon when I said, yeah,
04:06: I just started that site. So of course there's no traffic to it. It's a brand new page.
04:13: It's on a different site that it wasn't on before. Anyway, but we appreciate you listening. Yes. Love having the listeners to the program, whether it's through the radio or through the podcast.
04:23: If you listen on the radio, let us know what radio station you listen to because we would like to give them a shout out.
04:30: Oh yeah. That'd be awesome. Let's get to this first voicemail. This is from a former
04:37: Texan named Rick. So we're former Texans. Okay. I didn't know you could be a former
04:42: Texan. Well I think. I thought once a Texan, always a Texan. Well, we were not there long enough. No, we weren't there long enough to establish.
04:50: Yeah. I don't know how many generations you have to be there before you're officially considered
04:55: Texan. We do consider one of us a Texan though. That's true. He was born there.
05:00: Ezekiel was born there. Our friend Doug, he told me he's like five generations
05:06: Texan and he said, and I'm still not a Texan. That's true. He did say that. How long you got to be there to be a
05:13: Texan? Rick has this to share. Hey, Pastor Gabe and Becky.
05:19: This is an old friend from Texas. This is Rick. I've recently moved to the
05:25: Pacific Northwest with my wife, Andrea, and we say hello to you. We have just an interesting question where we've been contemplating, but we don't necessarily know how to explain it or put it into words.
05:39: But the question that was given to us was from our daughter. Will we see the
05:45: Holy Spirit when we get in heaven? And hope you guys are doing well and love you.
05:52: Thank you for all your faithfulness to the scriptures. God bless brother. Love you too,
05:57: Rick. Thank you. Yeah. What a great question. Oh man. That's definitely a childlike question.
06:03: I know, right? Those ones that stump you. Yeah, that's right. I feel like I've got the Bible combed and then one of my kids asked me a question like, yeah,
06:10: I didn't study that one. I don't have any idea. I'll get back with you on that. If you read the heaven tourism literature, like heaven is for real,
06:21: Colton Burpo, it was said that when he was a kid, he went to heaven. He claimed to see the
06:26: Holy Spirit there and he was kind of blue. He even had a color or he was sad.
06:32: That's right. Now he's kind of blue. Okay. Yeah. Or that he's sad. I mean.
06:38: His Holy Spirit was kind of down when I was there. He was just blue. He was kind of blue. And there was
06:44: Jen Johnson, the gal from the heretical Bethel church in Redding, California, said that the
06:50: Holy Spirit looked like the genie from Aladdin. Who is also ironically blue. Yes.
06:56: Seemed to have a blue theme going on. Yes, we will see the Holy Spirit in heaven. 1
07:01: John 3, 1 through 3, see what kind of love the father has given to us that we should be called the children of God.
07:08: And so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him.
07:14: Beloved, we are God's children now. And what we will be has not yet appeared.
07:22: But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him because we shall see him as he is.
07:29: And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.
07:35: As God said to Moses, no one can see my face and live. As John 1 says, no one has seen
07:42: God, but the only God who is at the father's side, he has made him known. That's a reference to Christ making known the father.
07:49: So we will see the father in heaven also. And whatever the Holy Spirit is, however his appearance is, whatever our perception of him will be, we will know it fully when we get to heaven.
08:01: And we will be made to be like him and we will see him as he is. We have occasions throughout the
08:08: New Testament where the uniqueness of the spirit is demonstrated as a person in the
08:14: Trinity, in the triune Godhead. So the spirit speaks to Philip in Acts 8 .29
08:20: audibly, the Holy Spirit is quoted there. He speaks to Peter in Acts 10 .19.
08:26: He speaks to the prophets and teachers in Acts 13 .1 and 2. And there are references to the
08:32: Holy Spirit in the book of Revelation. In fact, several times in Revelation, the spirit might be identified in some way other than being called the
08:41: Holy Spirit. Revelation is apocalyptic literature, so you have a lot of symbolism that's being used there.
08:48: And so sometimes the Holy Spirit might be referred to in different ways. Some commentaries will say that in Revelation 1 .4,
08:56: 4 .5, and 5 .6, the reference to the seven spirits is a reference to the
09:02: Holy Spirit. Oh, because seven is a number of completeness. Completion, right?
09:07: God's number as we would also might think of it being. Right. So Revelation 1 .4
09:13: says that the seven spirits are before his throne. So that's likely the
09:19: Holy Spirit. Interesting. And then the Holy Spirit also speaks in Revelation. In chapter 14, verse 13, the
09:27: Holy Spirit says, blessed indeed says the Holy Spirit that they may rest from their labors for their deeds follow them, talking about the saints finding rest in glory.
09:37: And then, of course, we have that very famous verse, Revelation 22 .17, the spirit and the bride say, come.
09:45: So the Holy Spirit calling those to himself and whoever drinks of the water will never thirst, will receive eternal life in glory.
09:55: We have these different ways that the Holy Spirit is identified through scripture, but definitely the uniqueness in his personhood.
10:03: It's going to be revealed in heaven. It will be revealed to us when we get there. The Holy Spirit kind of has the lesser of the three roles, and I don't want to say it that way.
10:15: Every time you talk about the Trinity, it's like, okay, what am I going to say that sounds heretical? Right. Yeah.
10:20: But he kind of intentionally takes more of a background role where you have the father who has decided everything, the son whom the spirit glorifies, who the father makes known, the son makes the father known, the son sends the
10:36: Holy Spirit, the father sends the Holy Spirit. Right. The spirit doesn't have as much of a spotlight in the
10:42: New Testament. Right. Even though the Holy Spirit is indeed himself God. Right. If I'm not mistaken, the
10:49: Holy Spirit is written about the least in scripture. Well, yes, of course. Is that accurate? Even if you include the
10:55: Old Testament especially, the Holy Spirit is talked about the least always there. Right. Right.
11:02: Between every single word, between every letter, the Holy Spirit is there. Right. Exactly. As Peter says in 2
11:08: Peter 1, the men who wrote scripture wrote as the Holy Spirit carried them. Exactly. So, the
11:14: Bible that we read is given by the Holy Spirit of God. Amen. But yet, it's kind of just like the way
11:20: Matthew writes the Gospel of Matthew. Matthew is never quoted in Matthew. Right.
11:26: Yes, exactly. He never has a speaking line. There's never dialogue from Matthew. Right. But he wrote that Gospel.
11:33: Right. And so, it's the same sort of thing with the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit's behind all of it. Yes. And yet doesn't...
11:39: In a humble way? In an honorable way? In a way that showcases Christ. There you go.
11:45: Yes. Because the emphasis... Our Savior. The one that is put forward is to be Christ.
11:50: Yes. Yeah. And Revelation especially. Very Christ glorifying book. Thank you for your question,
11:56: Rick. Yeah. And you can pass that on to your daughter as well. Appreciate you guys listening. All right.
12:01: This next question comes from Chris. Here we go. Good afternoon, Pastor Gabe and Becky. This is
12:07: Chris from Pence, North Carolina. And I just wanted to jump on here, weigh in and get your thoughts about the recent debate between Dr.
12:15: James White and Tori Mahler, knowing that this conversation has sort of taken the internet, especially among more
12:22: Christians, by storm, discussion about how this should have been handled.
12:28: And I wanted to get your thoughts on it. It's really been a grievous thing to my soul to see the kind of rhetoric being bantered about on social media, particularly on X, that tends to lend itself for this kind of thing.
12:45: But regarding racism and what essentially is white supremacy, and these people claim to be reformed
12:53: Baptists, or even Presbyterians, it's like a poison in the church.
12:59: And it's grievous because while I am very much a firm believer in the local church, the podcast and other media have inroads and are attracting younger men.
13:12: And I wanted to get your input on this. Thanks and have a great day. I appreciate your question,
13:17: Chris. I hope everybody was able to hear that okay. It was kind of an interesting audio quality. Yeah. But basically, the question that he's asking is with regards to a recent debate that was had between Dr.
13:27: James White, who's just up the road from us, about an hour away, and Corey Mahler, who is an excommunicated former
13:34: Lutheran. He was excommunicated from his church because of his racist ramblings.
13:41: He's one of the persons behind a podcast called the Stone Choir, and very kind of Nazi -esque in some of their commentary, very anti -Jewish, very white supremacist is the way that Chris had talked about that.
13:56: And then we see how this kind of stuff has been infecting even those who would proclaim themselves to be reformed.
14:04: Now, a lot of these guys who call themselves reformed, I wouldn't actually say that they're reformed. They're reformed in name only.
14:10: Right. I know that term Rhino is reserved for Republican in name only.
14:16: But in this case, they would be Rhinos. Reformed in name only. And both on the
14:23: Presbyterian and the Baptist side. There are reformed Baptists that claim to be reformed, but they may use the 1689 as a confession of faith, but nothing about their practice appears to be reformed.
14:36: They seem to be a lot more into social commentary, and a lot of that social commentary leaning toward the white supremacist side of things.
14:44: And then you have some others that claim to be Presbyterian, so likewise claim to be reformed, but they're not actually part of a
14:51: Presbytery. Yeah. And the funny thing about that is, if I were in some sort of casual conversation with those guys,
14:58: I would say, welcome to the Baptist world, fellas. Yeah, no joke. You want to be Presbyterian, but not be part of a
15:04: Presbytery? That's Baptist ecclesiology. Yeah. So anyway, but yeah, these are usually young men that are leading these churches, and they've gotten into this very racist kind of social commentary, like I said.
15:17: Now, the debate that James White had with Corey Mahler, it was regarding a racist claim that Corey Mahler had made toward a friend of ours,
15:28: Samuel C. Oh. And it was an online debate that Samuel had with Mahler, in which
15:33: Mahler said that a black man cannot be as sanctified as a white man.
15:39: And so based on that statement, James White says, okay. Say what now? Yep, yep, yep. Oh my goodness.
15:46: Based on that statement, I'm going to single that out, and we're going to have a debate over that. Okay. And the ironic thing being the guy named
15:54: James White was the one who was saying, no, the black man can be as sanctified as the white guy.
16:01: So that's just one of those fun little ironies. And there was a statement that Corey Mahler made in there that was kind of snipped out of that debate and has been circulating around saying something to the effect of the majority of black men in the world are functionally mentally retarded or something like that.
16:23: Okay. Actually, I wanted to find the clip and play it, but I'm not going to do that.
16:29: I'm not going to give him a voice on my podcast. Mahler is one of those things, too. And this is the difficult balance in this.
16:35: As Chris is kind of drawing this out, and he's asking my thoughts on this, when I heard about James White doing the debate with Mahler, I was just like, why?
16:45: Why are we doing? Yeah, exactly. There are a lot of people who don't know who Corey Mahler is. Yeah.
16:51: And I mean, do people actually listen to him and regard him as? He's got a pretty significant following on his podcast.
16:57: Oh, yeah. Okay. Yeah. And I mean, I'm really quite surprised at the number of people that I will chat with and find there's some sort of connection with Stone Choir or Mahler.
17:08: So he somehow has his connections, his web. Yeah. I was going to say, like, his tentacles are out there and reaching into various places.
17:18: Interesting. And I don't think that he tries to do this. It's not like he's trying to elevate himself to be some sort of platform head, and he's got his minions that he's pulled to himself.
17:27: It doesn't seem like that's really his shtick. Okay. It just has kind of happened that way, because we do see this rise in racism and white supremacy that's going on, even among young men that would claim to be reformed.
17:43: I know it's absurd. It's totally absurd. Contrary to passages like James 2 .1, my brothers show no partiality as you hold the faith in our
17:51: Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory. And Colossians 3 .11 here, there is not Greek and Jews circumcised and uncircumcised barbarians get the enslaved free, but Christ is all and in all.
18:05: I mean, if I got to pick the color of my skin, that might be different, but I did not get to pick how white
18:12: I am. And a man who has grown up in an area of the world in which people are mostly dark, he's been impoverished and poor, has not had the access to the kind of technology that we've had or the opportunities that we've had.
18:29: Maybe he can't even read, but this man loves God and he loves to hear the gospel preached.
18:35: I can't read the Bible, but I love to hear people talk about it to me. And he just glorifies
18:41: Christ for the salvation that he has by faith in him. That man is more sanctified than any
18:48: American who has probably enjoyed a whole plethora of opportunities, has technology at his fingertips, maybe even has a doctorate to his name.
18:59: That doesn't live it. Exactly. Yeah. Memorized, half the Bible can quote to you constant passages and yet remains unchanged by it.
19:07: Yes. Amen. The poor man who can't read, but loves Christ is more sanctified than the guy who has greater riches and more opportunities, but has been unchanged by the stuff that he studied.
19:21: But they're not talking about poverty. They're talking about skin tone. Well, I mentioned that too.
19:27: I said, he lives in like a darker skin part of the world. Well, I know you mentioned it, but like, what does that change?
19:35: Doesn't change anything. It doesn't change anything. We're still the same. I'm not going to go through what
19:40: Mahler's arguments were regarding. It was largely philosophical. Thank you for saving me from that.
19:46: Largely philosophical, not biblical at all. How absurd. I will say that Bob the Baptist, you're looking up Bob Bobricky on either
19:54: X or on YouTube. I don't know that I'm pronouncing his last name correct, but it looks like that. Okay. So Bob the
20:01: Baptist is what he goes by. His channel on YouTube, he did a great breakdown of the white
20:06: Mahler debate. So if you don't want to watch it, but you want to get kind of the nuts and bolts of it, then I would recommend his channel to you.
20:13: And like Chris said, there is this growing sort of prejudice that exists even among reformed white men, young reformed white men.
20:25: And this is something that I caution. I've addressed this occasionally on the broadcast. There was a comment that Joel Webben had made a few weeks back, a month ago, that was very racist.
20:38: And I responded to that comment talking about how Haitian men have a low IQ. And if you deny that, then you're a liar and you're unfit to be a pastor.
20:48: Oh my goodness. I mean, it makes me laugh just saying this, just how stupid it is.
20:54: It's so absurd. It's ridiculous. But anyway, I've been talking about this stuff even since wokeness, even since wokeness was kind of on the rise in churches.
21:05: That's what I was thinking. This is just a repeat. It's the same thing. It is. It's just different terms used to cover up the same thing.
21:13: Right. When ministers that I previously admired started latching on to the social justice commentary that would also be labeled wokeness,
21:22: I mean, we were seeing that level of racism infect the church. Yes. And one of the things that I said while that was going on,
21:29: I wouldn't be able to pull up the podcast and tell you which one it was. But one of the things I said was, we've got to be careful about not letting the pendulum swing the other direction.
21:37: Because we can overreact to this stuff. And then the overreaction will become just as racist as the stuff that they're saying.
21:46: And that's what's going on right now. This is an overreaction to the wokeness stuff that was going on, or even like the anti -white men commentary that was coming from the left and the intersectionalists.
21:59: And so the attempt to try to reclaim some kind of pride in whiteness and in masculinity, now those guys have just become straight up racist and anti -Semitic.
22:09: Because they're also going after Jews who are also white. What? But yeah, oh yeah,
22:15: I know. Like I said, this whole thing's absurd. It's just utterly ridiculous. What do you consider white, then?
22:21: Like, define your terms so we can tell you how ridiculous it is.
22:26: Yeah. Western European in origin, I suppose. So American who are all not from here.
22:34: Okay. But my solution to this, my solution is the same as it was when wokeness was going on.
22:42: We just need the gospel. This is going away from the gospel. It's exactly what this is.
22:48: Remember what 1 Timothy 6, 3, 4, and 5 say. If anyone teaches a different doctrine and does not agree with the sound words of our
22:59: Lord Jesus Christ and the teaching that accords with godliness. So stop right there. What are we supposed to be teaching?
23:04: The sound words of our Lord Christ and the teaching that accords with godliness. When you're getting into all these social commentary hobby horses, you are not teaching that which accords with godliness.
23:17: You're adding to it. You're just responding, you're reacting to different news items that come up in the culture.
23:25: Yeah. And whatever the latest trend is, whatever the latest headline is, whatever story it is that everybody's latching onto, that's now the topic du jour.
23:36: And so everything that you're talking about is centered on that. It's not focusing on Christ and how we are to live godly lives in the present age.
23:46: It's instead being driven by the culture. You might think that you're pushing back against the culture, but you're not.
23:54: You're being driven by the culture. You're being led by it. You're being influenced, highly influenced by it.
24:01: Yeah. Folks, there's nothing new under the sun. Yes, exactly. That which was will be again.
24:06: Yeah. And so we need a heavy dose of the gospel. Same stuff that I've been talking about this past week when we were going through Luke chapter 12, now into 13, even in Jeremiah chapter 16.
24:18: We need the gospel. The times right now are calling for the gospel. Yes. The judgment of God is coming.
24:24: Turn from your sin to the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. Amen. And then the further teachings of Christ, which come from his prophets and apostles, that which we have in the scriptures grows us in godliness.
24:35: It's the teaching that accords with godliness to make us more like Christ, to not be tossed to and fro and led by every shifting wind of doctrine, which the scripture warns us against.
24:46: James chapter one, Ephesians chapter four. So the person that is going off into these different doctrines, first Timothy six, four, he is puffed up with conceit and understands nothing.
24:59: He has an unhealthy craving for controversy and for quarrels about words, which produce envy, dissension, slander, evil suspicions, and constant friction among people who are depraved in mind and deprived of the truth.
25:14: Imagining that godliness is a means of gain. That was exactly the passage that I was using to show what wokeness is and what it's turning the church into.
25:24: And this thing that's going on right now is the same thing. Yep. And the same passage applies to it.
25:31: And the same ridiculousness. Yeah. The same absurdity. It's men being led by carnal things, quite literally, because they're looking at their skin color and the narrative is being driven by exactly how much pigment
25:46: I see in front of me when I look down at my hands. And this is... So don't tan. Like, I mean, when does...
25:56: Yeah. Anyway, going back on how absurd it is. I know. Well, this goes back to... I just can't get over it.
26:02: This goes back to the wokeness stuff when they were saying that your churches need to be diverse. And if there's not enough diversity in your church, okay, well, how much pigmentation does it take before I'm finally achieving the diversity level that I'm supposed to have in my congregation?
26:18: Absolutely ridiculous. As 2 Corinthians 5 .16 says, from now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh.
26:26: Yes. For even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer.
26:32: Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old is passed away.
26:37: Behold, the new has come. Your skin color does not unite you. Christ unites you.
26:44: Amen. And anybody of any skin color is just as much my brother in the
26:50: Lord as anybody with the same skin color. Yes. There is no difference.
26:55: There is no distinction. All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Amen. And we are justified by his grace as a gift.
27:02: Praise the Lord. Through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. That's Romans 3 .23 and 24. All right.
27:08: Well, appreciate your question, Chris. I hope it's given us some things to think about. Yeah. I've got some other questions that I'm going to respond to here as we continue the podcast into the next half hour.
27:20: But Becky's going to be done with us for now. Yeah. Thank you, love. You're welcome. It's great to have you along.
27:25: And for those of you who are listening to the radio, don't forget that you can catch the whole podcast looking for WWUTT on whatever podcast app you like to use.
27:34: God bless. Calvinism, named after the 16th century reformer
27:46: John Calvin, is a word used for five biblical doctrines summarized in the acrostic tulip.
27:51: They include total depravity, unconditional election, limited atonement, irresistible grace and perseverance of the saints.
27:57: These are also called the doctrines of grace, biblical teaching, which glorifies the sovereignty of God in salvation.
28:04: In the 17th century, a pastor named Jacob Arminius preached a series of sermons that seemed to contradict the
28:10: Belgic confession, the statement of faith adopted by the church in the Netherlands. After Arminius died, his students wrote a letter to the
28:16: Dutch government asking permission to preach Arminius' objections freely. This was called the remonstrance, meaning protest.
28:23: They summarized five doctrines from Arminius, such as God chooses to give eternal life to those whom he knows beforehand will choose to believe in Jesus.
28:32: Jesus died for everyone, but only those who believe are saved. Human beings are born in sin and must be born again.
28:39: Anyone can choose to reject God's gift of salvation, and a Christian can lose their salvation.
28:45: Reformed ministers responded with these doctrinal points. God's choice of whom he will save is not conditioned upon what a person will do.
28:53: Jesus died for everyone whom God has chosen to save. All are born in sin and unable to choose to believe in Jesus unless they are born again by the regenerating grace of the
29:03: Holy Spirit. All whom God means to save will come to Christ in faith, and once saved, no one will snatch them from his hand.
29:11: This response, known then as the Canons of Dort, would later be called Calvinism, and the teaching summarized by Arminius' students was called
29:19: Arminianism. John Calvin did not invent a new belief system called Calvinism. It's what the
29:24: Bible teaches, summarized in a concise list called the Doctrines of Grace, or as most know them,
29:30: TULIP. Romans 3, 10 -12 says, No one does good, and no one seeks for God.
29:35: Jesus said, All that the Father gives me will come to me. No one can come to me unless the
29:41: Father who sent me draws him, and no one will snatch them from my hand. Ephesians 1 -11 says,
29:47: In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him, who works all things according to the counsel of his will.
29:56: And that's Calvinism, when we understand the text. These next couple of questions come to us via email, and once again our email address is whenweunderstandthetext at gmail .com.
30:09: This is from The Office Calvinist. He says, Good evening, Pastor Gabe and Becky. It's your friend from Twitter, The Office Calvinist.
30:16: That would be X now, by the way. Thank you for all the work that you do. I know that not only myself, but many people from my church are edified by the ministry that God is doing through you.
30:27: I so appreciate you sharing that. I am incredibly humbled every time I listen to your podcast because I get such a real conviction that it is the same spirit that works in you, that works in me, and has worked in brothers and sisters from all over the globe throughout history for those who put their faith in Jesus.
30:46: My question is along that line. I work with a lot of people who either do not speak
30:51: English or speak very broken English. I have tried to share the gospel with just about all of them.
30:56: We get new employees frequently and have learned that some of them are already believers. My question is, do you have any advice or tips on how to encourage slash edify my brothers in Christ who cannot speak
31:09: English very well? I hope this question finds you and your family in good health and that the providence of God supply you all your needs.
31:18: God bless. Same to you as well, brother. You know, I was excited when I saw this email at first because I remembered thinking, oh,
31:25: I've got something very particular that I can share with regards to this. But then when I got the emails together for this particular episode,
31:33: I can't remember what it was I was going to say. So whatever wisdom it was, it was fleeting and not as important as I thought.
31:40: But let me just share with you my experience regarding this. When I was a pastor in Kansas, we had a bilingual church.
31:47: We didn't start out that way. Well, we kind of did. We had a church plant that we did that was a
31:53: Korean church. So there was a Korean Baptist church also in Junction City where the main language that was spoken there was
32:00: Korean. So English was the second language in that congregation. A lot of English speakers in that church, but the services themselves were conducted in Korean.
32:10: I had a few members of my church, one or two, not a whole lot, but would actually come between those two services.
32:17: So sometimes they were with us on Sunday morning and sometimes they'd go over to the Korean Baptist church.
32:22: And one of the ladies, in fact, told me that the reason why she came to my church was to get better at her
32:28: English. The other pastor sometimes would be in the same series that I was in. And so she would listen to that book of the
32:36: Bible preached in Korean, and then she would come to our church and listen to me preach it in English.
32:42: It wasn't the same sermon, but we're just going through the same passages in the same book.
32:48: And that way she's reading it in English and hearing it in Korean, that sort of thing. So then we also had a
32:55: Palauan congregation that was part of our church. Have you ever heard of the island of Palau? It's in the
33:00: Pacific near Guam. And when I say near Guam, it's still over 800 miles away.
33:06: It would be a two -hour flight from Guam to Palau, but that's the general region that Palau is in.
33:12: We happen to have a Palauan population in Junction City, Kansas. And they had gathered together to start a church, which they were doing in one of the
33:22: Palauan members' homes. And of course, the services were conducted mostly in Palauan.
33:28: And they got to a certain size where they couldn't fit in the home anymore. And so they asked if they could use our church, and we just simply told them, your congregation is part of ours now.
33:38: So it's not just a matter of using our building. We are the same body, and we're going to bring your pastor on our staff.
33:45: And Pastor Dwight is still there and doing a wonderful job with those people. It was great to be a part of that ministry for as long as we were there.
33:52: A lot of the Palauans would come to the main service that we did, Sunday morning from 1030 to noon.
33:59: And then they would have a Palauan service in the afternoon, which Dwight led, and he would preach in Palauan.
34:06: About half of that congregation was very Palauan in that that was their main language, though Palauan is largely a dying language.
34:16: But the children spoke fluent English and knew very little
34:21: Palauan. So that second service would be in Palauan, and sometimes I would be interacting with those folks who didn't understand me very well because they didn't speak good
34:31: English. So I would either speak through Dwight or through Joseph, who was one of the deacons with the
34:37: Palauans, or we would just kind of do our best to communicate with each other in very small phrases.
34:44: But we were still edifying each other. It was still a blessing to hear the way that they would speak about Jesus in their language to me.
34:53: And even though I may not have understood all of the words, I was still very edified by that for the same reason that you say in your email that it's the same spirit that works through us.
35:03: So though I may not have understood all the words, I knew that this was a brother or sister in Christ, that we love the same
35:10: Jesus, that we're going to be gathered around the same throne in glory, proclaiming the goodness of God in Christ, our
35:17: Savior, who has forgiven our sins, given us everlasting life, destroyed our enemies, and his kingdom will reign forever.
35:25: We were a very diverse congregation. So in the previous segment, when Becky and I were kind of joking about how much pigmentation do you need to have in your congregation before you actually become a diverse congregation, my congregation was always very diverse with all different kinds of nationalities and backgrounds.
35:45: But I was not going to boast about that because it wasn't the point. It wasn't to make me look good. It was because Christ is the one who had brought us together.
35:53: And we were just there together with a common purpose to glorify God, to rejoice in the goodness of the gospel, to hear the word preached and lift songs and hymns and spiritual songs, making melody in our hearts to God.
36:06: Which, by the way, the Palauans had a different set of hymns that they would sing than what we would sing.
36:11: And they sang in another language. But it was still beautiful to hear. And we know that we're all praising God together.
36:17: So I always had a very diverse congregation. In fact, an atheist friend of mine came to church one time, and he just wanted to see what
36:24: I was up to. It didn't change his mind or his heart in any way, at least not that day.
36:29: I hope the spirit still continues to work on him. But he came to my church and he listened to me preach.
36:35: And when I asked him afterward what he thought of the service, the very first thing he said was, you have a very diverse congregation.
36:42: And I said, it's interesting. That's the first thing that you point out. And he said, you haven't noticed.
36:47: And I said, well, of course I notice. But at the same time, I also don't, because it's not the point.
36:53: I don't come to church that day looking around to see that we have the right number of people representing a certain diversity demographic.
37:01: It's not something that I think about. You guys think about it. You know, and I'm saying this in the terms of him being a liberal and how much the liberals were pushing the diversity thing in the previous decade.
37:14: Now it's all over the place with wokeness and whatever else. But anyway, saying you guys think about that an awful lot to the point that when you come to church, it's the first thing you're looking for.
37:23: How diverse are we? Whereas for me, it's not what I'm thinking about at all. I'm thinking about how are we going to honor
37:30: Christ today? What am I going to preach? What am I going to pour into the hearts of these people as I shepherd them, that they may see
37:37: Christ more and desire to walk in holiness, to put off sin and be more
37:43: Christ like those are the things that I'm focusing on. And it does not matter to me at all what color skin the people are in the congregation, what shape their eyes are, what their hair looks like, what kind of clothes they wear, what kind of language they speak.
37:57: That's not what I'm concerned about. And frankly, it's not what any of the people in the congregation were concerned about either.
38:03: We never had issues with racism or prejudice. I mean, it would happen occasionally.
38:10: But the funny thing about it was it wouldn't be because this dark skin guy was upset at this light skin guy for some sort of racial or ethnic difference that they had.
38:22: It would actually be within groups of people of their own culture. So it would be something to the effect of, well, your mom and dad were actually descended from this, whereas my mom and dad were actually descended from this.
38:34: Kind of the same thing Becky and I were talking about with regards to how long do you have to be in Texas before you're a true
38:39: Texan? See, we can do that even among Americans.
38:46: English speaking Americans can do this kind of stuff too. Well, you're not really a true Texan because you haven't been here so long.
38:51: I was baptized in a Mennonite church, and I remember it was often said about my family.
38:56: Well, they're not really Mennonite because they haven't grown up in it and they weren't raised in all this other kind of thing.
39:02: I'm fine with that. I was just fine not being really a Mennonite. But it was still it just was kind of a reflection of the prejudice that can exist within our hearts in a myriad of different ways.
39:15: The issues that seem to be dominating our culture right now have to do with skin color or has to do with being south of the border.
39:25: They've they've jumped the border. They've come into the United States. They're here illegally, things like that. So those are the main conversations that we're having with regard to race and ethnicity.
39:36: But there's all different kinds of differences and prejudices that we can have toward one another prejudices that I've had to deal with in a church context that did not have to do with the color of somebody's skin.
39:47: But nonetheless, it is still a barrier to try to communicate with somebody who speaks another language.
39:53: I understand the complications that that that can be and what you're going through when you're trying to think of how can
40:01: I be a better encouragement? How can I be more edifying? One thing I might encourage you to do is look up the language that you think is most represented among these new employees that you get, the people that are at your work that are speaking these different languages.
40:17: What's the most common language that you see come through the door? Learn a little bit about that language. We have the benefit of the
40:24: Internet in these days. You don't have to pay for a college course or some sort of foreign language thing where you have to go sit in night classes and do that over and over and over again for years, possibly before you even get to a second or third grade level of understanding the language.
40:38: You can actually learn this stuff just from YouTube or from certain apps that are out there that you can go through for five or 15 minutes at a time.
40:47: A lot of times, devoting yourself to learning a language is going to require hours and hours and hours of work. Of course, it will.
40:53: But sometimes if the best thing that you can do is just listen to it on your app for your 15 or 20 minute break, then go ahead and do that.
40:59: Put your earphones in. Be more constructive with the time that you're using your computer or your smartphone than just watching cat videos or or other dumb random things on YouTube.
41:10: And honestly, I'm speaking to myself when I say that, because I can sure blow a lot of time watching dumb, pointless videos.
41:18: How can I use that time more constructively? How can I use it in a way that might even be edifying or upbuilding to other
41:24: Christians, other believers? Learning another language might be one of those ways. I think even we as Americans need to get out of this idea of thinking, well, if you come here to America, then you need to speak
41:35: English. That's fine if America wants to pass a law or an edict in that way.
41:41: Here in the United States, our main language is English. So if you want to live here, you need to learn English. But it's still good and humbling.
41:47: And with the purpose of reaching out with the gospel of Jesus Christ, that we be willing to learn another language.
41:54: It's a good idea to do that. So maybe Office Calvinist with some of the time that you have on your hands, you could be doing a little bit of that.
42:00: Learning just simple phrases can be something by which you can edify a friend, a brother or sister in the
42:08: Lord that speaks another language or speaks English in a broken way.
42:13: It's just not their native language. It's not their first language. The more that you have conversations with those who speak broken
42:21: English, the better they'll get at their English and the more you might learn something as well.
42:26: So don't let the language barrier be something that would prevent you from sharing with somebody else.
42:32: There's certainly hurdles that you're going to have to get over and there's things for you to learn.
42:38: But I hope that this advice can be helpful to you. I do have a person or two in my congregation now who doesn't speak
42:45: English as a first language. They understand English, but it's very broken. Sometimes I have to speak to them through somebody else.
42:52: But I don't let our language differences prevent me from speaking to them.
42:58: And if I can share any kind of word at all, I'm going to do so, hoping that he or she is going to be able to understand me and that I did my best to communicate, even though we sometimes have these differences still as a result of the fall.
43:13: I mean, the whole fact that we speak different languages from one another is a result of the sin that happened at Babel.
43:19: And God confused the languages and scattered the people all over the face of the earth. And ever since then, there has been these language differences that can sometimes separate and divide cultures.
43:31: But just because we speak different languages doesn't mean that we are not one in Christ Jesus. And so finding those ways where, at least on this side of heaven, we can communicate with one another and be of mutual benefit and edification to each other until we get to glory, where whatever tribe, tongue, nation we're from, we're all going to be around the throne singing the same praises to God, our king.
43:55: Thanks again for your email. Let's go on to this next one. This is from Chris, different Chris from the previous segment.
44:00: Hey, Gabe, our church is currently selecting lay elders to serve after passing a new church bylaws proposal.
44:08: There are potentially four men who are candidates for elders and are members of the congregation.
44:14: Three of them have been members for over 20 years and another over six years. I was wondering what are some good questions to be asking these men when we conduct interviews of each of them individually at town hall meetings?
44:27: Thank you for your ministry and for your answer in advance. Well, this is a questionnaire that I have had in my folder, and I've used this in various different capacities.
44:38: When it was my responsibility to put together an elder ordination panel a couple of years ago, yeah, this would have been two years ago.
44:47: That's right. I first had the elder candidates fill out this particular questionnaire. And then
44:52: I also sent this questionnaire to everybody who was going to sit on that elder ordination panel.
44:57: And I've had to answer a questionnaire like this before in the past as well. So here are some basic questions that can be helpful for you.
45:05: Some of these you might just take as suggestions. You can kind of morph them or tweak them however you need to fit the situation regarding the interview that you'll have with these elders.
45:16: It sounds like you're doing like a town hall sort of a scenario. So people asking questions,
45:22: I don't know if they're going to be able to ask questions, but you're obviously leading with the questions from stage and then having these elders respond to those questions.
45:30: Stage, chancel, whatever you call the platform in a church. All right. So here you go.
45:36: Here's those questions. Number one, what is the gospel? Very simply, I think you start with that question.
45:41: So you ask each of the elder candidates, tell me what the gospel is and and back it up with scripture.
45:48: There was a debate recently. I'm going to throw my friend Quatro Allen Nelson out here.
45:54: He just did a debate with a Roman Catholic priest in front of his community. I watched it on YouTube.
46:00: I didn't get all the way through it, but about half of it. And one of the things that I noticed is that Quatro very clearly and plainly defined what the gospel is.
46:09: The Roman Catholic priest acted like it was beneath him to do that. Like, I don't have to prove to you that we have the gospel.
46:18: We're Roman Catholics. We already do. That's really the way that he came across. And so what a great difference.
46:25: What a great distinction that my brother was able to show in that debate. His joy and his enthusiasm for the gospel and then the
46:32: Roman Catholic just being smug and arrogant about it. It's such a basic question. It really does separate the men from the boys, or it can separate those who are true from those who are false.
46:45: So great question to start with. Asking what is the gospel? Secondly, ask a question that's something to the effect of defend the inspiration, the inerrancy, the authority and the sufficiency of scripture.
46:59: So maybe shortening that question. Do you believe in the inerrancy of scripture? Can you defend it? That sort of a thing or make a distinction between what is the inspiration?
47:08: What's inerrancy? What's sufficiency? Maybe play with that question a little bit. But through that question, you're going to hear from those elder candidates how high they regard the scriptures.
47:20: A third question, defend the doctrine of the Trinity. And I would hope that in a defense of the doctrine of the
47:27: Trinity, explaining it better than I did in the previous segment, which I kind of stumbled through that, but hopefully in their defense, they're going to provide some sort of understanding of the historic creeds that the church has believed in and affixed itself to as good defining statements regarding what we believe about the
47:48: Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. So not just explain the Trinity, but specifically defend the doctrine of the
47:55: Trinity. And this is something that I've found myself having to do in various different circumstances, whether I am talking to a
48:03: Mormon or a Jehovah's Witness, or there is just somebody who is they may be a
48:08: Protestant, maybe Baptist, could be a lifelong Baptist, but they just have not thought much about some of these core doctrines that we believe as Christians.
48:18: And so when they will ask something like, well, Trinity is not in the Bible, how important is it for us to understand this anyway and be able to defend that doctrine?
48:25: I remember having to do this may have been about 10 years ago when my church had decided that we were not going to partner with a certain ministry organization in our community anymore, because the person who was spearheading that ministry was of a church that denied the doctrine of the
48:42: Trinity. And so there were a lot of people that were asking us, you're going to separate from this ministry, a mercy ministry that was doing good work for people in the community, and you're not going to be part of that anymore over this?
48:56: Why? And then having to defend what we believed about the Trinity versus what this other church was teaching.
49:04: And there are other circumstances in which I've had to warn a person, don't be a part of this church or this congregation or this denomination because they deny the
49:12: Trinity. So these things are very important, of course, being a foundational doctrine of our faith to not just define, but also defend the doctrine of the
49:20: Trinity. Fourth question, name and explain two attributes of God.
49:27: So what two attributes of God would you pick? That God is just and God is merciful, or he is all powerful, omnipotent.
49:36: He is all loving. He's omnibenevolent. He is infinite. He is unchangeable.
49:43: He is holy. He is good. All these different things that we can say about God regarding his attributes.
49:52: Name two of those attributes and be able to defend them or explain them according to scripture.
49:58: It's a question, something like that. Number five, explain and defend the hypostatic union of Christ.
50:06: So just like with Trinity, you're not just defining the doctrine, but you're also defending the doctrine. What is the hypostatic union and how do you defend it?
50:15: Everybody understands what I mean when I say hypostatic union, right? The hypostatic union is simply the understanding that Jesus is two natures, one human and one divine in one person.
50:29: So he's not two people. He's not God, the person of God, and then the person,
50:35: Jesus, the human. He's one person, but two natures in the one person, divine and human.
50:43: It's also in explaining the hypostatic union that we come into the Latin phrase vera homo vera deus, meaning that he is very man and very
50:51: God or truly man and truly God is the other way to put that as well. So be able to defend the hypostatic union.
50:58: And through that, in defending that doctrine, you also come to understand what that elder believes about Christ being man and Christ being
51:07: God. Number six, number six, I simply have here who is the
51:13: Holy Spirit, but maybe have some kind of a question that's more along the lines of what is the role of the
51:19: Holy Spirit? What do you believe about the Holy Spirit? So you have a question that's specifically about the son and specifically about his two natures as divine and human in the one person who is
51:33: Jesus Christ. And then you also have some kind of a question about the Holy Spirit.
51:39: And it's through that question that you're going to come to understand what this elder thinks, even about the continuous versus cessationist belief.
51:47: You may want to have a question about that. I don't know what your church believes and what you state as part of your doctrine, what you practice with regards to spiritual gifts or something like that.
51:57: But in this question about who is the Holy Spirit, some of that will come about in the candidates answer as well.
52:04: Number seven, when is man guilty of sin? Now, you're not asking the question, is man guilty of sin?
52:11: You're not asking the question, what is the extent to which you think man is sinful, which are relevant questions.
52:20: But I would hope that as an elder candidate, they already have that figured out. And that's not necessarily a topic of discussion because your church surely has some sort of a statement regarding that.
52:31: And the elder is already in agreement or the candidate rather is in agreement with that statement. But rather asking, when is man guilty of sin?
52:40: Is he guilty at conception? Is he guilty when he's born? Is he guilty when he finally commits his first sin?
52:49: These are relevant discussion points. And you may come up with different answers from your different candidates.
52:57: It may be an area or a territory that you don't want to wade into, but it could be something that would be very helpful and relevant to your congregation to understand these things as well.
53:08: To hear this question asked of those candidates who are being considered for shepherding their souls.
53:15: Question number eight, explain the atonement. And it's in explaining the atonement that they're likely also going to make some sort of a statement regarding penal substitutionary atonement.
53:25: What do they believe about Christ's death, that he died in our place, taking the wrath of God upon himself for us, and that he gives us his righteousness?
53:38: You also have that double imputation thing going on. So our sins imputed to him, his righteousness imputed to us, and then understanding that his death in our place is as a substitutionary sacrifice, taking
53:51: God's wrath upon himself so that we don't suffer under the wrath of God. We become recipients of his love and mercy and grace.
53:59: So explaining the atonement, asking some sort of question related to that, will come into other relevant doctrines.
54:06: Question number nine, explain salvation, its various components, and its applications.
54:13: You may just want to come at this by asking, what is the order of salvation? You may ask that.
54:19: Or can you explain when a person gets saved? When are they justified?
54:25: Or something like that. Maybe zero in on a specific aspect of salvation, but some question regarding that.
54:31: So you hear from the elder candidate what their understanding is of how God works salvation in the center.
54:39: Question number 10, what is the purpose of the church's gathering? Why do we gather?
54:45: Is it to be entertained? Is it to worship and glorify God? What sorts of things should be happening in a church service?
54:54: What should the church's commitments be? So somewhere in that question, question number 10, about the purpose of the church's gathering.
55:02: And then you understand from that elder candidate what his responsibilities are. He knows something about what his responsibilities are as a shepherd in leading the church in worship.
55:14: Question number 11, this still kind of related to the same thing, explain and defend your view of church government.
55:21: So you're finding out from the candidate, what's your polity? Do you think the church has good polity?
55:27: You may want to have a question in there too that's something to the effect of, have you read the church's statement of faith?
55:36: Have you read all of our bylaws? So on and so forth. You've just passed a new constitution, it sounds like, with new bylaws.
55:41: So have you read those bylaws? Are you in full agreement with all those bylaws? If you could change something, what would it be?
55:49: I've been asked a question like that before as well. In fact, when we do membership interviews at our church,
55:55: Providence Reformed Baptist Church in Casa Grande, one of the questions that we ask of the member candidate is, have you read the 1689?
56:04: Because that's our statement of faith, the Second London Baptist Confession of Faith of 1689. Have you read it?
56:10: And do you have any disagreements with it? And if there's something you could add or change or whatever with the statement of faith, what would it be?
56:20: And it's not wrong for somebody to speak up and say, well, I didn't really like this part, or this could have been more clear or something like that.
56:27: There's nothing wrong with them saying that. They might say something that might make us say, okay, well,
56:32: I don't think your membership's going to work here. Haven't had that happen yet, but it could happen. But nonetheless, hearing them express what they think would be different or what could be better helps us also as elders to know that might be something that we want to teach about in the future, or we're answering any questions they may have.
56:52: Well, the statement of faith says this. I don't know that I agree with that. And then we can say, well, here's what's meant by that in the statement of faith so that we can come to an understanding.
57:00: So maybe some sort of question like that, explain and defend your view of church government. What do you think of the church's polity?
57:08: What do you think of our bylaws? If there's something that you could change, what would you change about the church? Question number 12, what is your view on spiritual gifts and their function today?
57:20: It goes back up to what I said with regard to the Holy Spirit. But if you wanted to make the
57:26: Holy Spirit question very specifically about pneumatology, which is the study of the
57:32: Holy Spirit, and then this question be more directly toward the cessationist versus continuous debate.
57:40: And again, it just kind of depends on what your church's views are of this, where that discussion's been with your congregation and things like that.
57:46: But you may want to have a question related to that in there so that everybody can hear what this person thinks of the spiritual gifts and how he's going to shepherd us in those gifts.
57:56: Question number 13, what is church discipline and explain its function?
58:02: This is going to be one of the responsibilities of the elders to oversee and carry out church discipline.
58:09: Now, the entire congregation has a share in that, in what you read in Matthew chapter 18 verses 15 to 17.
58:16: When it comes to that initial confrontation with a person who is in sin, that's not left to the elder to have to do that.
58:24: It's for anybody in the church. According to Matthew 18, 15, I gave the right chapter, didn't
58:29: I? Matthew 18, 15 to 17. Okay. So in verse 15, it's if your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone.
58:39: So that's not an elder that does that. It could be a member of the congregation that does that. So the entire church has a responsibility to understand the process of church discipline.
58:47: But how is that elder going to shepherd the church in that process? And you're also hearing in his answer an understanding of the purpose, the function of church discipline.
59:00: And it's not to discipline the person to repentance, because that may not happen.
59:06: So if the purpose of church discipline is to bring that person to repentance, and then they don't come to repentance, then the process of discipline failed, didn't it?
59:17: So what would be the purpose of church discipline? It's actually the purity of the bride. So whether that person repents or whether they are excommunicated and have to be removed from the church, the purpose of church discipline was carried out in obedience to God and glorifying him because it was for the purity of the bride.
59:38: And the bride, the church, the bride of Christ was kept pure by that process.
59:43: So hopefully in that elder candidates answer, you're going to hear something like that, his understanding of discipline and what its purpose is to be in the way that it is carried out in the church.
59:56: Question number 14, explain your views on baptism in the Lord's Supper. These are the two sacraments that Jesus gave us.
01:00:03: What are the candidates views of baptism? How often should we have the Lord's Supper?
01:00:08: What should the Lord's Supper consist of as far as its elements go? Is it okay to have grape juice?
01:00:13: Should we have wine? Things like that. And then question number 15. These are just 15 questions that I have here.
01:00:20: Explain your view of the return of Christ and its literalness. So now we get down to eschatology.
01:00:26: And as much as we don't want to talk about these subjects sometimes because they can be terribly divisive, when it comes to your elder candidates, it's actually very important that your church, your congregation knows where they stand on these matters of eschatology.
01:00:40: This is the third church that I've been a pastor of. And every time that I have done an interview to be a pastor, whether it was at Providence in Junction City, First Baptist in Texas or here at Providence in Casa Grande, Arizona.
01:00:57: In every one of the interviews that I did, there was always a question about eschatology. And it was always a big deal.
01:01:03: Even if I didn't think that my view on eschatology was that big a deal, there were people who thought it was a big deal.
01:01:10: So explaining your view of the return of Christ and its literalness. Where do you stand on your view of eschatology?
01:01:19: Like what view do you take? Things like that. So some sort of question like that in there, I think is important for the church to know.
01:01:26: And then some extra kind of bonus questions you might want to add in there. You could watch some what videos to help you out with this.
01:01:34: Pick some phrases that are common to evangelicalism, to modern
01:01:39: American evangelicalism. Pick some phrases and have the candidates either agree or disagree with them and then give a defense according to scripture.
01:01:49: So like, for example, a very popular quote that goes about in American evangelicalism is from St.
01:01:57: Francis of Assisi. Preach the gospel at all times when necessary, use words. Do you agree or disagree with that statement and why?
01:02:04: Now, St. Francis of Assisi didn't actually say it, but it's also the easiest way to answer that is to say the gospel is necessary, so we should preach it.
01:02:13: We must use words. So have the candidates respond to something like that. Or what would be another one?
01:02:20: God hates the sin but loves the sinner. Explain your view on that. What are your views on hell?
01:02:29: Like, is hell a state of mind? Is hell annihilationism? Is hell actually a place of eternal torment that people go to?
01:02:37: That would be a relevant question to ask your elders. Another phrase that's pretty ubiquitous,
01:02:43: Christianity is not a religion, it's a relationship. Do you agree or disagree with that? So pick some phrases like that and then respond to them.
01:02:51: Have the candidates respond to them and give a biblical defense for their answer.
01:02:58: So anyway, I hope that was helpful to you, Chris. It's a great question. It's not something that I've had to revisit in a while, but I appreciate you making me grab into my bag of stuff and pull this out.
01:03:08: First Timothy 3 .1, the saying is trustworthy. If anyone aspires to the office of overseer, pastor, elder, bishop, all of those words synonymous, he desires a noble task.
01:03:20: Therefore, an overseer must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, sober -minded, self -controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not a drunkard, not violent, but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money.
01:03:35: He must manage his own household well with all dignity, keeping his children submissive. For if someone does not know how to manage his own household, how will he care for God's church?
01:03:45: He must not be a recent convert or he may become puffed up with conceit and fall into the condemnation of the devil.
01:03:51: Moreover, he must be well thought of by outsiders so that he may not fall into disgrace, into a snare of the devil.
01:04:00: Let me close here with prayer and Chris, I'll be praying for your eldership process with these candidates that you are considering there at your church.
01:04:09: Heavenly Father, we thank you for the goodness that you show to us in Christ, our Savior, and may it be our desire to grow in Christ's likeness, to grow in those doctrines that accord with godliness.
01:04:21: So learning the truth that makes us more holy by the power of your spirit, growing us in holiness, that we would be sanctified and prepared on that day to stand before God as righteous, clothed in the righteousness of Christ that we've been given by faith in him.
01:04:40: But growing in that sanctification and looking forward to that day when we get to enter glory and be with you.
01:04:46: And may those things always be in our view. We're not too attached to this world and its stuff, but we're always looking toward heaven and those things that we do even here in this world, preparing us for that day when we will be with our
01:05:01: Lord forever. I pray for Chris and for his church as they are considering these elder candidates, give those candidates wisdom and give wisdom to that church body as they listen to these qualified men and make a determination as to which ones are going to be the most effective in the shepherding of that particular body.
01:05:19: You have set these things out for us in your word. So may we continue to be faithful to that word, holding fast to the word of life as a lamp shining in a dark place until the day dawns and the morning star rises in our hearts as said in 2
01:05:35: Peter 1 19. It's in these things in the name of Jesus that we pray for these things.