Keep sharing good news without ads.
Responding to questions from listeners about generational curses, appearances of Jesus Christ, and what the Bible says about ghosts and seances. Visit wwutt.com for all of our videos!
What does the Bible say about generational curses? Does the Bible say we will have a vision of Christ? And what does the Bible say about ghosts? The answers to these questions and others when we understand the text.
Coming up on 2 years and 500 episodes of When We Understand The Text, a daily podcast ministry to encourage your time in the Word. For more resources visit our website www .tt .com. Now here's your host, Pastor Kate.
Thank you, Becky.
You're welcome. At Bible study tonight, it was pointed out to me that there was a section of 1 Kings chapter 21 that I should have read in a different voice when I did the podcast yesterday. So I read it in a certain voice in Bible study and didn't read it on the podcast that way.
It applied so well. So apparently this helps everybody capture the whininess of King Ahab to read it in a proper context. So to recap, 1 Kings 21, Ahab wants Naboth's vineyard, who's not going to give him his vineyard because it belonged to his fathers.
So then Ahab goes off and pouts. He rolls over on his side in his bed and refuses to eat anything. So Jezebel comes to him and says, why is your spirit so vexed that you eat no food? And he said to her, because I spoke to Naboth the Jezreelite and said to him, give me your vineyard for money or else if it please you, I'll give you another vineyard for it.
And he answered, I will not give you my vineyard. So I should have read it that way. And then she said to man up, she smacked him around a little bit, said, I'll go kill somebody for you.
And I can hand you back your man card.
If that, if he still had his man card after that. So anyway, I will try to be more theatrical in the podcast as I am in Bible study. So if anybody is ever in the area and they want to stop by and enjoy Bible study with us, Thursday nights, we enjoy some good food.
Yeah, I'm looking forward to a sweet tea, always, always an Arnold Palmer or two to be shared. I'm looking forward to Leanne's lasagna next week. Definitely. So somebody else is cooking. I'm not doing the food.
We're going to go Italian next week. All right. It is Friday and taking questions from the listeners as always. You can submit questions by email to when we understand the text at gmail .com. This first question comes from Mexico.
This is Celia. I believe I'm pronouncing that right. Oh, by the way, last week, before I get to this email, the fellow who emailed us, and we didn't know if that was a guy's name or a girl's name, it was a guy's name, evidently because you said fellow.
Yes. That kind of clued you in to what the outcome of that was going to be. So yeah. So now I can't even remember the name. Do you remember what it is? So we're going to mess up his name every week. I have slept since then.
I am so sorry. Again. But he was sure to email us and remind us or point out to us that it was a guy's name. That was very sweet. Thank you. Thank you. And eventually we'll remember your name. So Celia from Mexico says, hi, what?
I like watching the what videos and listening to your podcast. Both have helped me better understand scripture and not just read scripture and cherry pick verses to my own liking. I was wondering if there has been a what video done on generational curses.
For example, my parents are divorced and some people in my life have sometimes said stuff like, oh, you should break that generational curse that you're carrying around so that you or your future kids won't have to deal with that in the future.
I obviously don't agree with this nonsense because I know God is sovereign and he is the one who is ultimately in control of my future. But where are these people getting this generational curse idea from?
Are they misinterpreting scripture? And if so, which verses or passages? P .S. I think you should have your own merchandise. Thank you. Was that you that brought that up last week? That we need to be doing merch?
Okay. So where do they get, where do people get this generational curse concept from? Well, it's likely from the Ten Commandments where the second commandment is you shall not make for yourself a carved image or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above or that is in the earth beneath or that is in the water under the earth.
You shall not bow down to them or serve them for I the Lord your God am a jealous God visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.
And the reference to thousands is being thousands of generations, right? But the qualifying statement there is I am a jealous God visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, right?
So that's that's the statement. How do you break a quote unquote generational curse? You be obedient to the Lord and you walk in his statutes and you teach that to your children. That's how you would break such a curse.
So God is not taking the sins of the fathers and imposing them on his children as though to say, hey, your dad really messed up and you're going to have to pay for this, right? But a better understanding of this would be in Galatians 6 7.
Do not be deceived. God is not mocked for whatever one sows one will also reap. In other words, there are consequences for sin. If you sin, you will have to suffer the consequences. God will forgive you, but there are consequences for that.
And perhaps the best example of how generations suffer the consequences of their parents is simply in divorce. So your parents are still married, very true, still loving our kids. And our kids have a great example in their grandmother and grandfather on both sides of the family.
So my parents are not divorced. And I have not ever experienced directly the sting of divorce. But my mom's dad was divorced. Mom and dad. Parents. Yeah. Grandparents on my mom's side. Is that maternal grandparents?
Yes. Oh, yeah. Paternal is father. Right. Maternal is mother. So my maternal grandparents were divorced. And we felt the sting of that in all of our family gatherings. There was always some kind of reminder of the fact that the family is suffering from the sting of divorce because my grandmother's husband was unfaithful.
And so that definitely has an effect on a family. We feel that rippled down all the way into us as grandkids who never had a good relationship with our grandfather. I did not know my dad's dad. He died when I was one or two years old.
And then the relationship that I had with my mom's dad, I maybe even saw him a dozen times in my life. So there is that sort of feeling of absence for us as grandkids to not have that kind of relationship with our grandfathers.
And that's one of the reasons why I love when your folks come over and I want the kids to spend as much time with them as possible because of how great a resource that is to be able to have grandparents to glean wisdom from.
And furthermore, what's extra cool on your side of the family is that both sets of great grandparents are still alive. Yep. And married. And married. Right. So there's just wonderful blessing on Becky's side of the family in this example of marriage from great grandparents to grandparents to their parents.
So they don't experience that on Becky's side of the family, but my side, a little bit more broken because of some divorce that was that goes back a couple of generations. And so they don't have the experience of getting to know their great grandparents on my side of the family, but they do on Becky's side of the family.
So or even their grandparents. The only grandparent I had that Annie got to know was Mimi, my mom's mom. Yeah. But anyway, so that's just an example of how a sin will continue to affect families for generations.
And how do you break those patterns of sin? You be obedient to the Lord and you walk in his righteousness. Right. That's how you break that pattern. So so there's nothing to fear of a generational curse and something happens to you and you're going, oh, well, it must be that generational curse.
Right. So I need to go get somebody to, you know, do some sort of blessing or anoint my family. Exactly. Precisely. That's exactly what it is. It's just a superstition. So it's passages like that, like in the Ten Commandments and also where the Lord declares himself to Moses in Exodus 34, where he says the same thing that that I I curse those who hate me and I bless those who obey me.
And that statement made there again, that's where people get this concept of generational curse. But while there are consequences for sin and we will feel those consequences, even when we don't sin, somebody who's close to us sins and we feel the consequences of that.
That doesn't mean you are paying the price for somebody else's sin. You are responsible for your own actions and need to be responsible to say before the Lord, forgive me of my sin. And we're promised in scripture that he will.
That's right. And and he will. Praise God. Amen. Throw our sins as far as the East is from the West, remembers them no more, drops them in the bottom of the ocean. They have been blotted out and praise God for that mercy.
All right. Next question comes from Alex, who didn't say where he was from. So Alex from Blankton, U .S. says, Hi, Pastor Gabe, I really enjoy watching your videos and podcasts. My question is, if it's possible for people to have encounters with Jesus in the world today in visions and dreams, etc., if we test them and it does pass the scripture test, is it possible?
Good question. Well, it won't pass the scripture test because Jesus plainly said in Matthew 24, starting in verse 23, if anyone says to you, look, here is the Christ or there he is, don't believe it. For false Christ and false prophets will arise and perform great signs and wonders.
So as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect, see, I have told you beforehand. So if they say to you, look, he is in the wilderness, do not go out. If they say, look, he is in the inner rooms, do not believe it.
For as the lightning comes from the East and shines as far as the West, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. So I've read that passage before in reference to how Christ is not going to be appearing to anybody before his coming.
And if somebody claims he is, Jesus has said not to believe it. But furthermore, there's no reason for him to because the word of the Lord is sufficient. If you say that Christ has appeared to you and said something to you, then it's as though you are saying the Bible was not convincing enough for me and I needed an appearance of Christ.
Right. But Jesus talked about this in the book of Luke when he said that if they won't believe Moses and the prophets, neither will they believe if someone should rise from the dead. So if you're not reading the Bible and you're not convinced by what is here in the scriptures, then if Christ who has risen from the dead appears to you to tell you something, you're not even going to be convinced by that word.
Right.
Because you weren't. Well, I mean, wandering around in the desert for 40 years or whatever, when they were getting manna and everything, they totally like they don't trust him after that. It's like he took care of you.
Oh, yeah. Sure. Totally watched over you. I get what you're saying. And everything. Absolutely. Totally like flushed it down the toilet. Yeah.
But they didn't have toilet paper. Then they're saying, hey, we need to go and raise up new prophets for us that will lead us back to Egypt. Right. Instead of following Moses and Aaron. Because this isn't okay anymore.
We're not being taken care of. So it's the same with the stiff necked Israelites. So what they saw, the miracles that were performed for them, God leading them out of slavery wasn't enough. They needed something else.
And they didn't want to listen to the word of Moses and Aaron.
And I'm sorry if the waters parted for me, I would have a hard time going back.
Let's follow the God who parted the Red Sea and then wiped out all the Egyptians in it. I think that would be the one we want to follow. Yeah. You know, that might be the one. That would be a little terrifying.
And yet, and we talked about this when we were going through Jude, yet Christ who delivered them from slavery in Egypt destroyed those who did not believe in the wilderness. If they could not be convinced by that, their hearts were always going to be hard toward God.
Right. And so God who tests the heart, he knows the thoughts of man, puts to destruction those who no matter what was done for them, they were never going to believe. And God is glorified in this. And the people celebrate God and his goodness for the mercy that they have shown to them and delivered them from judgment, though we are all sinners before a holy God.
So if the word of God is not convincing for you, then an appearance of Christ in a dream is not going to be convincing either. Right. But anyway, I kind of didn't finish this thought earlier. Whenever I've read this particular section of scripture to say, no, it was my fault.
Oh, okay. It wasn't you. I had two trails form in my mind and I followed one and got off the other. But whenever I've read this to say that Christ will not make an appearance, he's not appearing in anybody's dream.
He's not making an appearance in your bedroom. He's not going to appear to a pastor in his office so that he can then go before his congregation and say, Christ has spoken to me and here's what he told me to tell you.
Whenever I've used this passage to point that out, there are people that have said, well, yeah, this is in Matthew 24. And then in Acts chapter nine, Jesus appears to Paul on the road to Damascus. Well, at that time, Saul and appoints him to be apostle to the Gentiles.
Or you've got John who has the revelation of Jesus Christ and Jesus appears to him. And then you've got the whole last book of the Bible based on that appearance. But these are apostles. If Jesus appeared to you, guess what that makes you?
An apostle.
Sure. So he appears. But then you would add to the Bible and the Bible is complete. Precisely.
Right. So whatever Christ had said to you in that moment that he appeared to you would be in addition to what has already been given to us in the scriptures by the prophets and the apostles. So this is why Christ is not going to make an appearance to you.
So to even ask the question in a manner, and this is nothing against you, Alex, but even to ask the question in a manner of what if we test the vision of Christ and it lines up with scripture? Well, I would hope that when you test that vision, you find out it doesn't line up with scripture.
John Owen, there's a famous quote from John Owen, and I believe, I'm throwing this out off the top of my head, but I believe that the way that we have the quote and the way that we use it is translated by J .I. Packer because Owen didn't write in English.
So this quote is from Packer's translation. But John Owen has said, if private revelations agree with the scriptures, they are needless. And if they disagree, they are false. So if a person receives a word or vision from the Lord and it doesn't line up with the scripture, then it's useless.
But if you receive a word or vision from the Lord and it does line up with the scripture, it's still useless because we have the scripture. So everything that is written down for us in the Bible is sufficient and we don't need another word.
Now, if something appeared to you in a dream, whether it was a vision of Christ or an appearance of Christ or an angel or whatever, I would still have to say to you that whatever you saw was in your own mind.
And it's because you were thinking about those things when you fell asleep. And if you're convinced by what you saw or the dream that you had or the vision or whatever, and it got you back on track, praise God.
But I hope you repent before the Lord and tell him you're sorry that his word wasn't good enough for you and you needed little spark plugs in your mind in order to get you back on track. But the word of the Lord is enough.
This is what we need and this is what we have. I love Justin Peter's quote, if you want to hear God speak to you, read the Bible. If you want to hear him speak to you out loud, read the Bible out loud.
So anyway, that's my response for you, Alex, and that we will not see visions of Christ until he comes in glory, which Jesus... And then it won't be in a vision, it will be seen by the whole world, right?
Which is precisely what Jesus said there in Matthew 24. So thank you again for your question and I hope that that answer is helpful for you. Okay, last question here, and this kind of is in the same line of thought, but from the other side.
So we've talked about appearances of Christ, what about appearances of demons? Bryn Jones writes in and he says, hi Gabe, and this was a rather lengthy email. This is the trimmed down version. So in my studies, I've come to question the common idea among Christians that demons have power to do miracles or affect things on our earthly plane.
Of course, there are stories of hauntings, moving lamps, closing doors, creaky footsteps, etc. Then there are statues that supposedly bleed, cry. Now I've read some stories about this, like statues that bleed and whatnot, and I think they've always determined that it was a trick.
Like they've always come to find out that it was some sort of gag.
Yes, I have yet to hear of one that actually...
Like genuinely they could not explain what it was that went wrong. Right.
Because eventually it comes out that somebody had done such and such to it.
Yeah, I think it was Thomas Aquinas. During his time, they exposed a Catholic church that was doing funny things with a cross that would like jiggle whenever some money was offered to that cross. And then when it was exposed that it was all a big trick, then people just made fun of the fact that there was this mechanism behind the cross that would make it jiggle whenever somebody put money in the offering plate or whatever.
It was just during Thomas Aquinas' day. Maybe it was Luther. I don't remember for sure. Anyway, getting my church history mixed up here. But this is all just to say that any instances of this have always kind of shown to be there's some sort of explanation or it was a complete fraud.
Right. But as for poltergeists, like stories of hauntings, moving lamps, closing doors, creaky footsteps, I've read a little bit into this. I've even witnessed something in my life that I thought, it's a little creepy and I can't explain it, but I don't believe in ghosts.
I mean, they're evil spirits that do things. So I wouldn't I can't say that what I witnessed was something supernatural. Like I said, there's probably some rational explanation for what it was that I witnessed.
Bryn goes on. We have the seances, the TV ministers with their healing hands, the witch doctors who their followers believe do things. But in the Bible, I don't see any evidence of demons or Satan having any power over the physical things of this world, not apart from God's action, as in the case of Job, where he specifically gave Satan power to inflict disease.
And that would be correct. So Satan can't do anything that God does not allow him to do. Right. Because we do see in the scriptures demonic possession. And you even have the instance of the Apostle Paul talking in 2 Corinthians 12 of a an evil spirit that's a thorn in his flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me.
So even in instances like that, you have occasions where there are spiritual things going on that will make things difficult on you. And yet Paul's response in that circumstance was to just praise the Lord all the more.
It was learning to praise him more. Which he started the letter talking about, 2 Corinthians 1. These things happened so that we would learn to praise God who raises the dead. So our reliance is on Christ for all things.
So these things do kind of happen. They do exist. Maybe there's poltergeists and whatnot, depending on what God allows demons to do. And to be perfectly clear, if there are such kinds of things as these hauntings and poltergeists, they would be demons, not the leftover souls of dead people.
A person who is dead is dead. Their soul is not permitted to wander around and haunt their old stomping grounds. But anyway, Brin says, at any rate, I tend to think people are giving Satan more credit in areas that he's not powerful and thus being drawn in by the places that they're not aware of his power.
Namely, the false teachers in the evangelical community who appear as angels of light. Another reference to 2 Corinthians there. I'm eager to hear your thoughts on this. I rest in the verse, greater is he that is in me than he that is in the world.
Amen. I believe Satan is a defeated foe. Amen. But I seem to get pretty harsh reactions from people when I suggest that his power is not in the magical stuff of Hollywood. Certainly not. Yeah, Satan is not working in ways that basically would equate to being Hollywood special effects.
So once again, Jesus said in Matthew 24 that false Christs and false prophets will arise and perform great signs and wonders so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect. And I take this to mean that it's not just going to look like that they're doing false signs and wonders.
They actually are doing false signs and wonders. So again, going with what Paul says in 2 Corinthians 11 about Satan disguising himself as an angel of light. How are we going to know if somebody does some great miraculous sign, whether it comes from God or it has been done by the devil?
And it's going to be by the words that they say. So are they leading you astray to follow a false version of God or Christ or follow a false God altogether or is the message that they are speaking the gospel of Jesus Christ according to what we have in the scriptures?
So whether we're talking about testing a vision from God or we're talking about testing some sort of evil manifestation of the devil, either way, we come back to the scriptures to understand these things.
Right. And if it doesn't line up with the Bible, then it is not of God. Right. Easiest way to understand. Heretical garbage. Thank you for that stamp, by the way. There is, there's two versions. What's the one that I have?
The stamp says. Heretical. It just says heretical for research only. And then there's the one that's heretical garbage for research purposes only. Yes. Okay. So yeah, find a stamp, mark your books in your library that are heresy so that when your kids find them, they won't think, hey, this is a book that daddy used to read and learn about God.
And then you have the sins of the father being passed on to the son. That's a generational curse. Yes. Right there. That you caused. Yeah. Pray for our generation that all the false teaching that is floating around out there like the shack and coming up a wrinkle in time is not going to lead our children astray.
So I've been reading that. That's what I'm reading when I come to bed. And I mean, there are different biblical references in the book that Madeline L. Engel is putting in there, even quoting Bible verses.
She'll even give the verse reference of it. But it's clearly like Oprah's theology. Jesus isn't the only way to God. He's just one of the ways to God. That's really the way that Madeline L. Engel wrote.
Because that lines up with the Bible completely.
Right. That goes totally with John 14, six. I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the father except through me, except through Christ, the only way to eternal life. So be careful with that book.
And I'm going to do a review on it. The funny thing about that book, I'm probably going to give away my review a little bit here before giving to it. The thing about that book is I don't necessarily alert spoiler alert to the blog.
I don't necessarily think that the misuse of God's name and the misuse of scripture is the reason why you shouldn't let your kids read that book. Because you probably are going to let your kids read some things that are kind of questionable in their doctrine or theology that might be present in the book.
You just have to talk with your kids about it to make sure that they understand that that's not what the Bible says. And they can ask questions about it. Right. Like when our kids watch a movie and they mention a demigod, you know, we talk to our kids, she's not really demigods.
Oh, we know, dad. You know, there's only one true God. So they got it. I appreciate that. But the thing that I think makes A Wrinkle in Time inappropriate for kids is this weird relationship going on between Meg, the main character, and Calvin, one of the other boys in that story.
Like Madeline L. Engel spends a significant amount of time describing what it is that Meg feels whenever Calvin touches her. And it's weird and creepy when I think that as an adult, I'm reading about these feelings that a 12 or 13 year old is having about a member of the opposite sex holding a hand or something like that.
It's like you're reading her diary or something. Yeah, it is. It feels just like that. So anyway, I think that's more a reason why parents might not want their kids to read the book. You know, developing in their heads these fantasies of I need a boyfriend or a girlfriend in order to be happy, to experience these same feelings and feel fulfilled.
And God help me, I'm the daughter. Or I'm the daughter. You're the daughter. Oh boy. There was something. That goes right along with our culture. Suddenly Gabe's getting secular. What in the world? I almost said I'm the son.
I'm the son of three daughters. I am the father of three daughters. Whatever point I was going to make there is now totally gone. Everybody's laughing. Not even on track with me anymore. So God help me in more ways than one.
No joke. But I am the father of three daughters. I own a gun though, fellas. And I'm going to have to go through all these emotions and heartbreak with boys. We're not letting our kids date until they're 30 though, so.
Okay, not that late because we want them out of the house. Yes. Anyway. All right. Well, I think after all of that, we need prayer. Let us pray. As soon as Becky's done laughing, we'll pray. Got it. Lord, we thank you for this time together that we can read your word.
And we have this word to guide us in matters of faith and practice. That all truth, all understanding of truth is bound up in Christ. Who is Paul described in Colossians chapter two is we find all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge in Christ alone.
The way, the truth and the life. We have access to you through Christ. The reason why we're able to pray right now is because Christ is our mediator between God and man. And so now we can call upon you as our loving, benevolent, heavenly father who gives us all good things in Christ Jesus, including the ability to understand what it is that we read and test all things by the scriptures.
So keep us faithful to this word, submissive to the word of God as we go. And we pray these things in Jesus name. And I might add one more thing to this prayer, especially given the light of certain things that have been talked about in the media this week related to the army and transgenders.
Lord, give us the wisdom to know how to respond to this world and do so in a loving way, correcting our opponents with gentleness. Amen. Pray for our generation that all the false teaching that is floating around out there like the shack and coming up a wrinkle in time is not going to lead our children astray.
So I've been reading that. That's what I'm reading when I come to bed and can only last like 15 minutes before I start falling asleep. Before farting asleep. Oh, I'll cut that out. Are you going to be able to continue?
Sure. So that's what I've been reading before falling asleep. I think that's a wrap.