WWUTT 655 Q&A Coughing Ascended Married Elders with Good Headphones Resting?

Ascension, Enoch and Elijah, and Christ as the Only One Who Ascended Bodily

If Jesus was the only one to have ascended bodily into heaven, what about Enoch and Elijah? Did Paul say not to get married because the second coming was so close? And what does it mean that God rested?

The answers to these questions and many others when we understand the text.

Many of the Bible stories and verses we think we know, we don't. When we understand the text is an online ministry committed to teaching sound doctrine and exposing the faulty. Visit our website at www .utt .com.

Now here's our host, Pastor Gabe Hughes.

Thank you, Becky, who is not live in studio with me today because she is still struggling with her voice. She and I both got sick at the end of the week, which is why this episode is so late. I couldn't talk there for a while and anytime I even cracked a smile.

I don't know what it is about the muscles that you use to crack a smile, but it would make me start coughing. Before I jumped on to record today, I drank a milkshake made with vanilla ice cream, milk and some pineapple chunks mixed in.

I read that is good for suppressing a cough, but there's a side effect. When you drink dairy, it tends to thicken up your mucus and makes it more difficult to get rid of. So though I have suppressed my cough for this broadcast, and you can still tell I sound a little bit congested here, I may be holding on to this for a little bit longer because I drank that milkshake.

Pray for me since I'm preaching this weekend. We also have a long week coming up next week as it is Passion Week. That's what we call it in our church, traditionally called Holy Week. From Palm Sunday to Easter Sunday, we have evening services every night at six o 'clock while culminating in the Easter service on Sunday morning.

We don't do another service that night. So next week, I won't be offering the usual lessons. We still have one more chapter in First Timothy to go through, and I'm going to put the study in Second Chronicles on hold as well.

There won't be any Q &A next week. What you're going to hear instead are the messages that were delivered by our elders during Passion Week. I can't remember who it is that's preaching on Sunday night, on Palm Sunday, but you'll hear that message on Monday morning.

I think I preach Wednesday and Saturday are my two days in addition to Palm Sunday. And then the other elders have some of those other days. So you'll hear the messages that they deliver during our Passion Week services right here on this broadcast.

That's what's coming up next week. And then we'll resume the regular schedule for the New Testament, Old Testament study, and then the Q &A that first week in April. All right, since today is a Q &A day, let's get to it.

John 20:17, Proverbs 30:4, and Whether Enoch and Elijah Ascended or Were Taken

This first question comes from Jacob in Cleveland, Tennessee, and he sent a lengthy email with a number of questions. Jacob, I'm going to try to respond to those when I get the chance to reply to that email.

But his last question had to do with something that I responded to on the broadcast a couple of weeks ago. Someone wrote in and said they watched the what video about how Jesus did not descend into hell and said, I agree.

But what about in John 20, verse 17, where Jesus said to Mary, do not cling to me for I have not yet ascended to the father. If Jesus had not yet ascended to the father, then where was his spirit in those three days from the time that he died on Friday to when he rose again on Sunday morning?

And I pointed out that Jesus was telling Mary, don't cling to me as though I'm sticking around for a while because I'm about to ascend back to my father, not just in spirit, but also my body. So I will not be here anymore at all.

Proverbs 30, verse four says, who is ascended to heaven and come down? And the answer to that question is in John 3, 13, where Jesus said no one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the son of man.

So this has to do with someone ascending bodily into heaven. And Christ is the only one who has done that. So his response to Mary in John 20, verse 17, had to do with his body ascending into heaven, which had not yet happened, though his spirit did go to be with the Lord when he died on the cross.

His body had not yet ascended. So Jacob in Cleveland, Tennessee, he wrote in and said, weren't Enoch and Elijah taken up into heaven in flesh and blood? They are not our Lord, obviously. But the question came to mind as I was listening.

Well, that's true, but they did not ascend. They were taken. So you answered your own question, even in the question, weren't Enoch and Elijah taken up? Yes, they were. They were taken. They did not ascend.

Jesus ascended. He himself rose up to the father and sat at his right hand where he intercedes for us all who believe in Christ. He was the first to receive his glorified body. And if we believe in him, then on the day of redemption, we also will receive our glorified bodies.

This is what Paul meant in Colossians chapter one, where he describes Jesus as being the first born of the dead and also being first born means there will be others. And we who are in Christ will be the others who will receive our glorified bodies as he did.

Elders, Marriage, and the Qualifications of an Overseer

All right. This next question, it comes from Henry in Illinois, and this has to do with when I was in First Timothy chapter three and going through the qualifications of an overseer, I said where Paul mentioned that in order to be an overseer, someone must be the husband of one wife.

This not only means that he must not have a plurality of wives. It also means he must be a husband. And related to that, Henry wrote in and said, James White talked about whether an elder must be married in order to be qualified.

And it turns out he disagrees with you. This was on the February 22nd edition of the dividing line, and it starts around the fifty five fifty mark. Are his arguments convincing to you and what is your response to this argument?

Now, Dr. White was was responding to callers and his answer was very long winded. I'm going to cut this down quite a bit. But so what you're going to hear first is the caller presenting his question and then.

Dr. White with his answer going through the book of Titus and Titus one six. I seem to be in the minority that as a requirement, according to Titus one six, you do have to be a married man with children to be an elder in a church.

Everyone else seems to think that it that it is possible for a single man to be an elder in any capacity, whether they be a pastor or a teacher, but basically an elder in a church. You can be single. And I was just wondering what your thoughts are, if you've ever heard of anything like that, any kind of commentator throughout history, or is that like a little bit too much eisegesis?

Well, let me see if you're if you're consistent, because looking at Titus one six, do you also believe that you have to have children to be an elder?

Yes, that's above the above approach. And then those are requirements that are that follow are kind of like an explanation of above approach. You have to be a husband of one or believers and not given to debauchery or scorn based off of what I remember from the text.

OK, so but but searching for consistency. So you have to be married and you have to have older children. So just having young kids isn't enough, because how can you know if they believe so? So these are the only people that so that would disqualify Timothy, wouldn't it?

And I was saying the same thing about Paul's apostolic authority, because I believe like we believe that Paul was never married or he was at least a widow.

Yeah, yeah. No, this is well, my position is that the point is that if you are called to the eldership, if any man is above reproach, there's that's that's one. If you are married, you're the husband of one wife.

If you have children, they are. And by the way, I've got a whole when it when Pista is used here, look at the parallel in First Timothy. And I think it would be completely inappropriate because it leads to some incredible theological issues to say, what if you what if you have an Absalom in your family?

That's by God's elective decree. So what you're saying is, well, that means that even if you've been if you fulfill everything else, unless God saves your children, every single one of them, that you cannot be an elder in the church.

So Henry's question is, do I disagree with Dr. White's exegesis there? And yes, I do disagree with Dr. White. Now, somebody might be going, wow, Pastor Gabe, you've disagreed with Dr. MacArthur and Dr. White in the same week.

You're kind of playing with fire there. Look, I love these men and they have taught me much, including how to properly divide the word of truth. And so using the very thing that they have taught me how to do, I addressed Dr. MacArthur's answer related to pastoral authority on Monday.

You can go back and listen to the Monday edition of the podcast to know what I'm talking about there. I just did not think that he used the proper text to validate his answer. And with Dr. White, I hope that you can recognize he kind of added to the text a little bit said something about children have to be of a certain age in order for a man to be properly tested to see if his children are believers.

That's not what the text says. And that's never been my argument either. So First Timothy three, verse four, 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?

And then in Titus chapter one, verse six, if anyone is above reproach, the husband of one wife and his children are believers and not open to the charge of debauchery or insubordination. So there's nothing in there about the age of children.

But even young children need to it needs to be shown in that man's life that he's managing his own household well, even if his children are very young. And as I've stated before, as I clarified both of these qualifications out of First Timothy three and Titus chapter one, I don't think this means that a man to be qualified for the position of elder has to have children, because, as I said before, he might be an empty nester.

But he must have the desire for children if he and his wife, for whatever reason, can't have children. But they've certainly tried because they know that the purpose of marriage is to have a family and grow a family.

And I do believe that that is a requirement for an elder to do. If he's going to serve in the position of elder, he must at least try to have a family. John Owen, the great Puritan, had eleven children who died in infancy.

Would I say that he was somehow unqualified for that position? No, of course not. He and his wife clearly wanted children, but only had one child that eventually matured all the way into adulthood. But then she died of tuberculosis.

But I do maintain that a man in order to be qualified for that position must be a husband, not just the husband of one wife, but he must be a husband. And contending with that, Dr. White said, well, what about Paul?

What about Timothy? These men were not husbands. So are they somehow disqualified from being able to fulfill the role as elder? Paul was sending Timothy to Ephesus to be the pastor of that church. So is he contradicting himself by telling Timothy that that an elder must be the husband of one wife?

This was a completely different matter with Paul and with Timothy. Now, Paul previously was married. There's there's scholarship that has argued the fact that Paul did have a wife at one point, though we don't know what happened to her.

Denny Burke was writing on that recently. You might look that up from him and see what he said about that. Timothy, on the other hand, was always single, at least as far as church tradition has recorded of Timothy, that he did not have a wife and children.

But again, this is a separate matter concerning Paul and Timothy. Paul was an apostle. He was appointed by Christ to go and preach the gospel to the Gentiles. He was an itinerant minister. So though he might have stayed in one place for like a year and a half, as he did in Corinth or three years, as he did in Ephesus, he was a guy that was always on the go.

Even when he was there in Ephesus, he's going around to surrounding towns and stuff like that. It wasn't just within that city. And with Timothy, it's the same issue. Now, the unique thing with First Timothy is Paul says at the start of this letter to remain in Ephesus, but he didn't stay there because eventually, as we read in Second Timothy, Paul sent for Timothy to come to him as he was in prison in Rome.

So he was there for a longer stay than he usually was in one place because of Paul's great concern for the church in Ephesus. And as an itinerant minister who was appointed by an apostle to go and do this work in the church in Ephesus, that is a different list of qualifications for Paul and Timothy.

Remember that Paul said that Timothy received his calling by the laying on of Paul's hands. And we know how Paul received his calling when Jesus appeared to him on the road to Damascus. Now, this is table conversation.

So if I was talking with Dr. MacArthur or Dr. White at a table, you know, this this is how I would raise these issues exactly the way that I talked about it on Monday related to Dr. MacArthur's answer concerning pastoral authority.

And then the way that I'm responding to this question here about whether or not a man is qualified to be a an elder if he's not a husband. I just don't think that that Dr. White's assessment of the text was correct.

And just so you know that I'm not going rogue on my answer to what First Timothy three, four says, and I've mentioned this before, Dr. Albert Moller has preached the same way. He has said that a man must be more than just the husband of one wife.

He must actually be a husband. And in today's age, when you're talking about accountability, you see the wisdom in that instruction that a man must indeed be a husband. He's got a wife to not just show that he can lead God's church well.

But there is somebody who lives in his home that can attest to the fact that this man is godly and he treats me as Christ treats the church, laying down his life for her, that she might be sanctified, washing her with the water of the word.

So a man who is an elder must do the same for his wife. I hope that clarified some things, Henry, and thank you so much for your question. This next one is not a theology related question. This comes from Landon, who says you recommended a pair of studio headphones.

I don't know how long ago, but I am in the market for a good pair and was trying to remember your recommendations. Thanks. Yes, I use the Sennheiser HD202 headphones. If I remember right, you can get them on Amazon for $19 .95.

They are much better than the most expensive pair of Beats headphones. I am telling you, Beats are awful headphones. It's just marketing as to why they're so big and popular. They are terrible headphones.

These Sennheisers are much better and you won't break the bank having to buy a pair. Now when you buy something like Bose, usually what you pay for in a pair of Bose headphones is the noise canceling technology, all the research and everything that they did to come up with these headphones that cancels out any outside noise.

These Sennheisers are good enough. They're not like totally noise canceling, but they will envelop your ear and if you're playing music, that's what you hear is the music. You don't hear anything else outside of that.

So anyway, I hope you can find a pair of Landon. I highly recommend them. If Becky was here, she would tell me that I've not yet bought her a pair and she would be right. I need to get on Amazon and buy her a pair of those headphones.

She uses an older pair of Sony headphones that I have. Anyway, I hope David doesn't mind that I grabbed this next question. It was something that he asked of me on Twitter and I guess this even goes a little bit with the question I answered a moment ago.

1 Corinthians 7, the Present Distress, and Advice About Marriage

David from the UK. As a preacher, how would you tackle Paul's advice in 1 Corinthians that it was best not to marry as the second coming was so close? It's in the scripture, but is this really good advice for couples thinking about getting hitched?

Well, in the context of what Paul said there in 1 Corinthians 7, he didn't say not to get married because the second coming was on the way. On the contrary, he was talking about a present distress. So this was 1 Corinthians 7 verse 25.

Now concerning the betrothed, I have no command from the Lord, but I give my judgment as one who by the Lord's mercy is trustworthy. So Paul is basically saying here, I'm giving advice. This isn't a command, but I'm giving advice about marriage.

So verse 26, I think that in view of the present distress, it is good for a person to remain as he is. Are you bound to a wife? Do not seek to be free. Are you free from a wife? Do not seek a wife. But if you do marry, you have not sinned.

And if a betrothed woman marries, she has not sinned. Yet those who marry will have worldly troubles, and I would spare you of that. This is what I mean, brothers. The appointed time has grown very short.

From now on, let those who have wives live as though they had none, and those who mourn as though they were not mourning, and those who rejoice as though they were not rejoicing, and those who buy as though they had no goods, and those who deal with the world as though they had no dealings with it, for the present form of this world is passing away.

Paul was not talking about the second coming there. He was talking about a coming distress that was about to afflict the church, and it was a great period of persecution that was not only under Nero, but it extended all the way to Diocletian at the start of the fourth century.

So this was a great time of persecution against the church, and it's amazing that the church even survived that period of persecution. It was only by the power of the Holy Spirit that the church managed to come through that.

Paul knew that that was coming, and he was saying, to save you from the present distresses of this world, here is what I would advise to you. I would advise that you don't get married, because as families are going to be torn apart and people are going to be killed for sharing the gospel, you will have to watch your family suffer and die.

And I want to spare you of that. And once again, he mentions this only as advice. It's not a command, which is the error that the Roman Catholic Church makes. They apply this to their priests that they cannot marry.

But as we've read in First Timothy chapter four, if a person forbids marriage, what they are teaching is the teaching of demons. Now even though Paul advises not getting married to save a person from the present distress, he does give practical application to singleness, and this is in verses 32 to 35.

I want you to be free from anxieties, Paul says. The unmarried man is anxious about the things of the Lord, how to please the Lord. But the married man is anxious about worldly things, how to please his wife, and his interests are divided.

And worldly things in the sense that marriage is only something that we enjoy here on this earth. It is not something that will be done in heaven. Jesus mentioned this when he responded to the Sadducees and says, only in this life are we given in marriage in heaven.

There will not be any giving in marriage. So this is why Paul says that the married man is anxious about worldly things, how to please his wife, and his interests are divided going on. And the unmarried or betrothed woman is anxious about the things of the Lord, how to be holy in body and spirit.

But the married woman is anxious about worldly things, how to please her husband. I say this for your own benefit, not to lay any restraint upon you, but to promote good order and to secure your undivided devotion to the Lord.

So in a marriage, you've got two people and two people who are sinful. And so there's going to be disagreements and sometimes that might result in fighting. And so Paul is saying that a person who is not married doesn't have to think about such things.

But a person who is married does have to concern themselves with how to please their spouse. So so remaining single has practical application. But again, I go back to an answer that I gave a moment ago.

I still think it is good for an elder to take a wife and this being one of the qualifications that he must meet in order to be an elder in the church. If somebody wants to remain single, then they can be an itinerant minister, which is more of what I think Paul is addressing here, that they can respond to God's call to go to a place and preach the gospel instead of having to take a family along with them, concerning themselves with how am I going to provide for my wife and kids on this road trip?

Peter had to think about that, but the Apostle Paul and Timothy did not. So a person who is not married is more suited for itinerant ministry and a person who is married might be better suited for for ministry at home.

Where We Go When We Die: Conscious Presence With Christ

All right, next question. And this comes from Timothy, not the Timothy of the Bible. Hello, would you mind doing a video on this? I've come across a few videos that through scripture defend the position that when we die, we just sleep until the second coming.

Then there are those that say the spirit will go to Hades with two sides, one for torment and the other paradise or the bosom of Abraham. Then there is the one I have believed for so long that after death, either heaven or hell after death, the judgment.

But the slumber in the grave sounds plausible. What say ye? I love the the King James conclusion there. That was a good touch. I have been asked this question multiple times, so I certainly should do a video on this.

But the scripture tells us that to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. The moment you die, you go to be with the Lord in glory. Second Corinthians five, six through eight. So we are always of good courage.

We know that while we are at home in the body, we are away from the Lord. For we walk by faith, not by sight. Yes, we are of good courage and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord.

Also in the book of Philippians, the apostle Paul is talking with the church in Philippi and telling them, I hope that I can come and be with you. I don't know if, you know, while I'm here in jail, if I'm going to be killed or I'm going to get the chance to get out and come and be with you.

And I'm hard pressed between the two. I don't know which one I would I would rather have. This is verse twenty three of chapter one. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better. But to remain in the flesh is more necessary on your account.

Convinced of this, I know that I will remain and continue with you all for your progress and joy in the faith. So even there, Paul is saying that the moment he dies, he goes to be with Christ. And that is something that he is looking forward to, as he also said a few verses before that, to live as Christ, to live as Christ, to die is gain.

God Rested on the Seventh Day and What That Means

This next question comes from Rose in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Hello, Pastor Gabe. Genesis two, one and two talks about how on the seventh day God rested. Why did God need to rest? I know that in verse three, he blesses the day and makes it holy.

But is the reason for his rest simply a type and shadow for us? Or is there more to it? As always, thank you for tackling my question. Well, this is certainly metaphorical. It doesn't mean that God laid down and slept.

It simply means that he stopped working. Everything that he was creating was done. He was he was done as far as the process of creation was concerned. And so on the seventh day, God rested meant that his work was concluded.

And on that day, he blessed it and made it holy. This doesn't mean that God sleeps or slumbers, for we have it in multiple places in the scripture. It being said that God is not one who sleeps in Psalm 121.

I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come? My help comes from the Lord who made heaven and earth. He will not let your foot be moved. He who keeps you will not slumber. Behold, he who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.

In Isaiah chapter 40, verse 28. Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary. His understanding is unsearchable.

So even there in that passage, you have it said that God creates all things. And even when he created all things, he didn't get faint or grow weary. He rested from his work. He concluded the work. And then on that day, which marked the conclusion of creation, of the process of creation.

He blessed it and made it holy. It made it a day that we as human beings were supposed to literally rest from our work. That we might give it to the Lord. And that day, of course, now is Sunday, not Saturday.

Used to be the end of the week, but now it's the start of the week. It was moved to Sunday because that is the Lord's day. It is the day that Christ came back to life, rose from the grave. And so that is the day that is blessed that we give to God.

We see it throughout the New Testament that the regular day of worship for the body of Christ was there on Sunday, the first day of the week, so that we might give the first of ourselves to God before every week begins.

And as this has also been interpreted, and I think it is a sound interpretation, every day for the believer is a Sabbath. Since Christ is the Lord of the Sabbath, we rest from working to attain salvation, which we cannot attain anyway.

It is given to us by God, our Savior. So every day that we submit ourselves to Christ is a day that we rest from work and rejoice in his salvation. But for the unbeliever, every day they break the Sabbath, constantly working to think that they can attain righteousness by their good deeds.

But this day of rest that is spoken about for us in the scriptures, this is metaphorical as it pertains to God. He did not literally lay down and sleep. Even used in the figurative sense, we see that come up again in Psalm 78, verses 65 and 66.

Then the Lord awoke as from sleep, like a strong man shouting because of wine, and he put his adversaries to rout. He put them to everlasting shame. So in a period of time in which God's judgment is not being poured out on those who are wicked, it's very tempting to be able to say, well, God's sleeping.

This is what the pagans believed, that the reason why they didn't have rain on their crops or the reason why there was not fertility in the household is because the God of rain or the God of fertility was sleeping and we must do some sort of ritual in order to rouse him.

But God does not sleep on the day that he pours out judgment on the wicked. It's going to seem like to the wicked that God suddenly woke up. But again, that's all metaphorical as it pertains to God. He does not literally rest in the seventh day of creation.

He stopped from the work that he was doing. Final question here. This comes from Jason. I've heard some Christians use this term called the Jezebel spirit or a Delilah spirit and how people have these spirits within them or how these so-called spirits have entered the church.

I get very confused when I hear these terms. What exactly are these teachings? Is it a false teaching or is it biblical? Thank you. It's it's junk theology to believe that there's like some sort of Jezebel spirit or Delilah spirit.

And it usually comes from charismatics and Pentecostals that talk about these kinds of things. Nothing in the Bible says anything about a Jezebel spirit or a Delilah spirit. There was a an episode of Supernatural.

This is the Sid Roth program. And this was I think last year sometime. It was when Jonathan Cahn was coming out with his new book and Dr. Michael Brown was filling in for Sid Roth on the program. I remember taking a snippet of this interview and putting it in a what video.

At the end of the at the end of the interview, Dr. Brown asked Jonathan Cahn to pray for an Elijah spirit. Would you pray for an Elijah spirit upon us? I think one of the most absurd things about that entire interview, if memory serves, the name of Christ was never even mentioned.

And yet Dr. Brown was asking Jonathan Cahn to pray for an Elijah spirit. This is again, it's absurd charismaticism. There is nothing in the scriptures that says anything about a a spirit of a person that we can pray and receive, not in a positive sense, nor in a demonic sense.

So in Revelation chapter two, Jesus addresses the church at Thyatira and he says, I know your works, your love and faith and service and patient endurance, and that your latter works exceed the first.

But I have this against you, that you tolerate that woman, Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess and is teaching and seducing my servants to practice sexual immorality and to eat food sacrificed to idols.

Now, some scholars in evaluating that text have said that there was actually a woman there in Thyatira whose name was Jezebel. So this isn't metaphorical, that that there's a woman named Jezebel who is a false prophetess.

I tend to go with the interpretation that says that this is a reference back to the Old Testament Jezebel, who herself was a false prophet. She was the one that appointed the priests of Baal and led Israel to Baal worship instead of worshiping the true God, which is exactly what this false prophetess is doing in Thyatira.

And Jesus refers to her as Jezebel metaphorically. Once again, this is metaphorical. It's not she's got some sort of Jezebel spirit. That is a false, charismatic, Pentecostal thing. And it's just junk theology, as I said.

So no, we shouldn't be praying for Elijah spirits or praying against Jezebel or Delilah spirits. Rather, we should submit ourselves fully to the Lord Christ and pray to him for his Holy Spirit to fill our lives, that we might understand what the scriptures say and follow the scriptures faithfully.

And when it comes to sin, that we turn far from the devil's schemes and cling to Christ. And then the devil will flee from us, as James talked about in his letter. Let us pray now. Our Lord Christ, we thank you for this time that we have together to digest your word and rightly divide the word of truth.

And I pray that we would handle this in a right way when it comes to disagreement with one another, that we would be respectful of each other and we would be patient with each other. There are going to be disagreements over certain interpretations of the text, but we should be able to express those disagreements in a way that edifies our brothers and sisters in the Lord rather than tearing someone down.

But for those who teach falsely, who deny essential truths of the scripture, even in those circumstances, may we correct opponents with gentleness, knowing that God grants repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth and away from a snare of the devil who has captured the hearts of mankind to do his will.

It's by your spirit that we've been freed from the bonds of sin and death and delivered into your eternal kingdom. Come quickly, Lord Jesus, and bring us to yourself. We pray these things in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Gabriel Hughes is the pastor of First Southern Baptist Church in Junction City, Kansas. For all of our podcasts, episodes, videos, books, and more, visit our website at www .utt .com and let your friends know about our ministry.

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