WWUTT 350 Q&A Transubstantiation, Holy Spirit, Hope, and Discernment?

What are the problems with the Roman Catholic doctrine of transubstantiation? How are we supposed to refer to the Holy Spirit? What is hope? And what is discernment? The answers to these questions and others coming up when we understand the text.

Many of the Bible stories and verses we think we know, we don't. When we understand the text, as 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. And greetings, everybody. It is Friday. We take questions from the listeners on the Friday episode of the broadcast. If you would like to submit a question, the email address is whenweunderstandthetextatgmail .com.

But before getting there, I have a couple of announcements that I want to make. Number one, my wife is nine months pregnant, well, over nine months pregnant now. We're approaching 40 weeks. The baby could come at any time.

In fact, we thought Tuesday night, that was baby time. Becky was having contractions. They were 10 minutes apart. We called the hospital. They said, no, you got to wait until they're five minutes apart.

Turned out to be a false alarm. And Becky hasn't had another instance of that since. But we know that any time could be baby time. So I'm letting you know that now. If it just so happens that you wake up one morning and you're expecting to hear the What podcast and it isn't there, and you don't hear from me for a couple of days, the reason is probably because we've just had a baby.

So I'm just letting you know that I'm trying to stay ahead on these episodes, especially heading into this next week. But just in case that happens, I'm letting you know that now be in prayer for us. We're over a half an hour away from the hospital and we have a chance of an ice storm this.

Weekend.

It's not even a chance. They're saying Kansas is getting an ice storm this weekend. So that could make travel a little bit hairy should the child decide to come over over the course of the weekend. So pray for safe delivery for the baby and safe delivery for mom and dad on our way to the hospital.

And we thank you so much for your prayers for our family. OK, here's my second announcement. Second announcement is that going back to Monday's episode of of the broadcast, if you listen all the way to the very end, even past the closing theme and all of that, I made an appeal for books, a request for donations of books to a library that we are putting together at our church.

We've cleared out a room. We've got several shelves in that library and hardly any books to go on those shelves. We're looking for some good material to help to feed our congregation and grow them spiritually.

And if you could donate books to that boy, that would be a great way that you could help support this ministry when we understand the text was born out of First Southern Baptist Church of Junction City, Kansas.

And and so we're looking for ways to feed our growing congregation because we just added a Palauan congregation that had been meeting in our town over the course of the past year and had been growing and they wanted to join a church.

So they've just been integrated into our church. So looking for more ways to feed our congregation, even beyond the preaching of the Bible studies that we do. So if you could donate books, they can be used books.

I did not say that on Monday, but you could give us new books or used books, give you an idea of some of the authors that we're looking for. Martin Lloyd-Jones, thank you, Rose from Pennsylvania. She's sending us a Martin Lloyd-Jones book, R .C. Sproul, John MacArthur, Mark Dever, Al Mohler, James White.

You can go with classics like Jonathan Edwards, even even Francis Schaeffer. You could give us some non-reformed authors like A .W. Tozer, Leonard Ravenhill. Those would be some great ones to charismatic reform like David Platt and Matt Chandler.

We will.

We will take those. Please know Rick Warren or Joyce Meyer, Joel Esteen. Those are out. I think if you're reading those authors, you're not listening to when we understand the text.

Anyway.

But you can send your donations to First Southern Baptist Church, 1220 West 8th Street, Junction City, Kansas, 66441. Maybe you got an Amazon gift card for Christmas and you want to buy a bunch of new books.

Hey, you could send them our way. Maybe you don't know what to buy for yourself, but you know what you would buy for somebody else. You could use that gift card and send those books our way. That would be great as well.

And thank you so much for your support of when we understand the text. All right. That's it for my announcements. And now let's get to our questions. The first comment that I have actually comes from a critic on Twitter, and it has to do with the most recent what video that we just published on the Roman Catholic doctrine of transubstantiation.

So here is that video and then we'll respond to the criticism. Transubstantiation is the belief that when the Lord's Supper is consecrated by the priest, the bread literally transforms into the actual flesh of Jesus Christ and the cup becomes his actual blood.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church defines it this way, because Christ our Redeemer said it was truly his body that he was offering under the species of bread. It has always been the conviction that by the consecration of the bread and wine, there takes place a change of the whole substance of the bread into the substance of the body of Christ.

And the whole substance of the wine into the substance of his blood. There are massive theological problems with this doctrine. Most seriously, it argues for the re-offering of the sacrifice of Christ.

But the Bible states very plainly he died once for sins and has no need to offer sacrifices.

Daily.

He will never die again for death has no dominion over him. Transubstantiation also presents a false eschatology, arguing for the return of Christ in the Eucharist. But Jesus said to watch out for those saying, look, here he is, while performing false signs and wonders so as to lead many astray.

Roman Catholicism defends the doctrine by pointing to passages like John 6, where Jesus said, whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. But Jesus was talking about spiritual nourishment, not consuming his actual flesh and blood.

And this had nothing to do with the ordinance of communion. The false disciples who were with him couldn't make sense of this either, and they turned and walked away. The Roman Catholic Church does not follow the sound words of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Just when we understand the text. All right. So following that video, I received some criticisms, surprise, surprise, right? And this particular criticism comes from somebody on Twitter. This person was anonymous, and I don't typically respond to anonymous criticisms.

But in this case, it's a good example of the kinds of responses that you will get when presenting what was the arguments that were being presented in that video. So the person said, the video attempts to make claims like the church teaches the Eucharist is the second coming.

It doesn't. Or that the mass is the resacrificing of Christ. It isn't. First, let's respond to this person saying that the mass is not the resacrifice of Christ. That is actually what Roman Catholic catechism teaches.

Section 1365, because it is the memorial of Christ's Passover. The Eucharist is also a sacrifice. Section 1366. The Eucharist is thus a sacrifice because it represents or makes present the sacrifice of the cross because it is its memorial and because it applies its fruit.

Section 1367. The sacrifice of Christ and the sacrifice of the Eucharist are one single sacrifice. So first of all, we have this Roman Catholic teaching that contradicts itself. The Catholic Church wants to say that the Eucharist is a sacrifice and it is representing the sacrifice, but it's still one sacrifice with the sacrifice of Christ on the cross.

That's a contradiction. It cannot be a representing of the sacrifice and still yet the same sacrifice as Christ's sacrifice on the cross. So there's an inherent contradiction within the Roman Catholic Church's own teaching.

There is also a contradiction with what is taught in the scriptures. Hebrews 727 says, He has no need, Christ has no need, like those high priests, to offer sacrifices daily, first for his own sins and then for those of the people, since he did this once for all when he offered up himself.

So transubstantiation is a contradiction of the scriptures. It does not follow with what the scripture teaches. Okay, then the next argument this person made, or rather the first argument that they made, is that the video makes the argument that the Church teaches the Eucharist is the second coming of Christ.

Well, that wasn't the argument that's made in the video. What I said is that transubstantiation presents a false eschatology, arguing for the coming of Christ in the Eucharist. It doesn't matter that it's not his second coming.

It is nonetheless arguing for his coming, his presence, his body in the Eucharist. When Jesus explicitly said in Matthew 24, not to listen to anyone who has said that Christ has returned to a select few in secret.

They will say, look, here he is, or there he is in the inner rooms. Do not listen to them. And this is exactly that kind of teaching that Jesus was talking about when he warned us about those who will come presenting false signs and wonders, claiming that this is the Christ when it is not the Christ.

And again, go back and read Matthew 24 and you will see that explicitly. So the argument is not being made that transubstantiation is arguing for the second coming of Christ. That wasn't the argument that the video was making, but rather it presents a false eschatology, the return of Christ in the Eucharist before his second coming.

And Jesus said his next coming would be seen by the whole world as visible as lightning. I hope that made sense. So anyway, let's move on. This next question comes from Sly and we've had some questions from Sly before featured on the broadcast.

He says, Dear Pastor Gabe, I hope you're all doing well and pray for continued fruit in your ministry. I have a question about my friend who has over the past year or so been referring to the Holy Spirit as simply Holy Spirit.

I thought he misspoke the first couple of times, but when he kept doing it, I was bothered and asked him why he's doing that. He explained that you don't refer to a person as the Justin, for example. My rebuttal was that it's his name and title, kind of like Caesar.

I told him I was concerned because my grandfather was a Jehovah's Witness and he referred to the Holy Spirit as Holy Spirit. Do you think I'm making more of this than what it is or should I be concerned?

Also he's wrapped up in the Bethel Reading cult, so I don't know if he got that idea from there. I'm glad we're still friends because we had quite a few conversations about it and it got kind of intense, almost like I was back in the cage stage.

Prayerfully in the next couple of weeks, I can send your church a book or two when I finally have time to organize my library. Well, thank you, Sly, and that would be great if you're able to send us a book.

We would sure appreciate it. I don't think it's really a big deal that your friend is referring to the Holy Spirit as Holy Spirit. It's not an issue that he's dropping the article, the, that does not change who the Holy Spirit.

Is.

What's more important is, is his understanding of the Holy Spirit. And does that line up with scripture? You know, I'll be talking to a person sometimes and they'll refer to the Holy Spirit as Holy.

Ghost.

And oftentimes when saying Holy Ghost, they don't say the Holy Ghost, they just say Holy.

Ghost.

Well, that comes from a King James sort of a background or influence is why people refer to the Holy Spirit that way. It does not change who the Holy Spirit is. So do they, does your friend understand who the Holy Spirit is according to the scriptures?

And a good passage to use is Jesus's description of the Holy Spirit according to what he told the disciples in John 16. So he says, beginning in verse eight, when he comes referring to the Holy Spirit, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment concerning sin because they do not believe in me concerning righteousness because I go to the father and you will see me no longer.

Concerning judgment because the ruler of this world is judged. So as a person understands the Holy Spirit, as a person understands the Holy Spirit, do they know him first as someone who convicts a person regarding sin?

Because that is really going to be the first action of the Holy Spirit in a person's life that they were convicted of their sin, realizing that they are evil and in the eyes of God, they are worthy of wrath and judgment.

And yet it is by Christ that we have been justified in our sinfulness. We have been made righteous before God. And then the Holy Spirit still continues to convict us in our hearts. The work of the Holy Spirit is still conviction in understanding the word of God and shaping us and growing us in sanctification according to that word.

So is that the person's understanding of the work of the Holy Spirit in their life? Or do they go straight to spiritual gifts? Do they go straight to, well, the Holy Spirit is miraculous healings and speaking in tongues and some of these other things.

If that's the direction that they go with the Holy Spirit, then likely they have a wrong understanding of the Holy Spirit. And if there has never been an understanding of a conviction of sin, there's a possibility they might not actually be saved.

So they need to examine themselves in the faith. According to 2 Corinthians 13, test yourselves to see if you actually pass the test. So this is to be our understanding of the Holy Spirit more so than making sure that we're referring to him by the right title.

So just make sure that your friend understands this according to the scriptures. And you must, Sly, pray for a soundness of mind whenever you enter into these conversations. Not flying off the handle and turning into fights and quarrels because you will end up doing more damage in the life of your friend and some of these things that you have to teach him rather than being something that is helpful, beneficial, or impactful with the arguments that you say.

Once it develops into a quarrel where you're shouting back and forth at one another and it's like that cage stage like you were talking about, then it just becomes an encounter of anger rather than something that is helpful or beneficial.

So we have to do this with gentleness and respect. 1 Peter 3 .15 and as Paul encouraged Timothy also in 2 Timothy 2 .25 that we must correct opponents with gentleness and it is God who grants repentance leading to a knowledge of.

The truth.

Next question comes from Connor in Wisconsin. He says, Dear what? When Paul says that we as Christians need to have hope, what does that look like? What does it mean to hope as a Christian? Is it just optimism?

Well, I think one of the best explanations of hope that we have comes in Romans 8. And I'm going to begin reading in verse 18 where Paul says, For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed.

To us.

For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.

For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves who have the first fruits of the spirit grown inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.

For in this hope, we were saved. Now, hope that is seen is not hope for who hopes for what he sees. But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience. So basically, Paul's explanation of hope in this instance is simply this, knowing that God is going to reconcile all things to himself through the person and work of Jesus Christ, things in heaven and things on earth, things seen and unseen.

And we await for the deliverance through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ with hope. We know that we are going to be delivered from this world into his eternal and unperishable.

Kingdom.

And it is because of the hope that we have that we know that. Piggyback off of a definition of faith and then apply that to hope. So in Hebrews chapter 11, it says faith is the assurance of things hoped for the conviction of things not seen.

So the faith that we have is something that isn't seen. It is something that we hope for. And faith is also described there as a conviction. So in other words, we are so certain of the thing that has been spoken to us by Christ through his word, the Bible, that we are convicted to turn from worldliness and obey in godliness.

Does that make sense? So the faith has developed in us a conviction. If you just simply say, I believe in God, I believe in his son, Jesus Christ, I believe that he died on the cross and rose again from the grave and you use all the right words, but your your living does not change.

You still live as a person in this world instead of as a person who is to be delivered into the kingdom of God because you have been delivered into that kingdom. According to what we read in Colossians chapter three verses one through four, you are a citizen of that kingdom now.

So if in your behavior you have not changed, you're still living as a person in the world, then faith means nothing. Your claim of faith is really non-existent. It's just words that come out of your mouth, but it is not lived out in your life by way of conviction of the Holy Spirit.

So if you are convicted to change your course in living as a citizen of the kingdom rather than as a citizen of the world, then you show that the hope that you have is living and active within you. It is something that you are certain about.

It is not hope the way that we use hope in the worldly sense, like I hope that the Kansas City Chiefs win their playoff game this weekend. You don't know whether that's going to happen or not. It's just wishful thinking.

If that's your understanding of hope, then that's not true and genuine hope in Christ Jesus, which is something certain rather than just wishful thinking. So in Christ, we hope for the kingdom of heaven.

We hope for that day that we are going to walk through those gates. We will be transformed from these lowly bodies that we have now into the glorious body like that of Christ. We know that is going to happen.

We know because the word of God tells us that that is going to happen, but it hasn't happened yet. So we hope for it. We aspire toward it. We we we hope for it with longing. There's a longing in our hearts for it.

All of that is hope. All of that is the hope that we have in Christ Jesus, our Lord. We have not received it yet, but we hope for it knowing that we are going to get it because Christ said we would if we are in him.

If we have been justified by his grace, that is the promise of his eternal kingdom that we have been given. So I hope that I hope that helps you to understand hope a little bit more. And I thank you, Connor, for your question.

OK, I've got one more question to get to here. And this is from Yuhan in Sydney, Australia. Yuhan, you are welcome to rebuke me for mispronouncing your name. He says greetings again from Sydney, Pastor Gabe.

A few weeks back in a Q &A podcast, you mentioned that some in the church have gifts of discernment. I wanted to ask, how does that show up in a person? Do they necessarily have to have their heresy radar on 24 -7, actively seeking it out?

Or is it more subtle in regards to questioning things that don't sound right and perusing that further in scripture to verify? More often than not, I find myself in the latter. I don't make it a habit to the point that it distracts me from service to the Lord, nor do I look to be boastful in trying to sound right.

But if I encounter something, it usually draws my attention enough to investigate. Is this perhaps something I may need more discipline on, especially in terms of personal motives and how it may impact others in the church?

I don't want to cause trouble for the sake of trouble, but do things with a loving heart for the sake of my brothers and sisters in Christ. Thank you for your continuing service to the Lord. Johan, I would say that you're on the right track because with any spiritual gift that we have, we must have love.

And that was exactly the point that Paul was making. He mentions spiritual gifts in 1 Corinthians 12, and then he says, but I'll show you a more excellent way. And then in 1 Corinthians 13, he says, if I have all knowledge, but do not have love, then it means nothing.

And what you encounter on the web more often than not are these discernment ministries that might be correct in some of the things that they're pointing out, what is true and what is false, but they are not exercising with grace or with wisdom or with love.

And with any spiritual gift that we are given, we must exercise these things with love. So when it comes to discernment, first of all, let's ask this question. What is discernment? Well, in Hebrews 5, 14, it suggests that those who are mature have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.

And I think that Charles Spurgeon narrowed down a definition of discernment even further when he said, discernment is not knowing the difference between right and wrong. It is knowing the difference between right and almost right.

That's a great picture of discernment. So Hebrews 5, 14 says distinguishing good from evil. Charles Spurgeon clarifies it even more specifically when he says it's the difference between right and almost right.

Discernment is a gift of the Holy Spirit. Once again, as I mentioned, we have it listed among the spiritual gifts in 1 Corinthians 12, 10. It says to one is given through the spirit, the utterance of wisdom to another, the utterance of knowledge, according to the same spirit, to another faith by the same spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one spirit, to another, the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another, the ability to distinguish between spirits.

And it's right there that we have the same Greek word appear for distinguish that we have appear in Hebrews 5, 14, where it's translated discernment. It's the same Greek word. So this is the gift of discernment as we have it defined in the scriptures.

John warned us in 1 John 4, 1 that not every spirit is from God. We are to test the spirits for many false prophets have gone out into the world. And so we've taken that, applied it to this passage in 1 Corinthians 12, 10, distinguishing between spirits.

This is the gift of discernment. Now, discernment needs to be coupled with wisdom. So it's not just knowing the difference between a right teacher and a false one. It's also knowing when to speak up and when to be quiet, which issues need to be addressed and which ones don't need to be addressed.

Which persons need to be confronted and which ones don't need to be drawn attention to, because it could be that the false teacher is just trying to get somebody's attention. And so we know, hey, I'm just going to stay away from that guy and not draw other people's attention to him.

All of these things, again, requiring wisdom to know what to respond to and what not to respond to. But you, Han, you mentioned using the gift to benefit the body of Christ. That is exactly the way we need to be using spiritual gifts to benefit others.

And once again, I come back to Hebrews 5, 14, where it says that those who are mature have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice. Well, where do we constantly practice our spiritual gifts?

In the body of believers, the congregation that we are a part of, that we are maturing and being matured by. That is where we perfect that gift. If you think that you have a gift of discernment, the next step is not to jump on Twitter and Facebook and let everybody know that you have this gift.

And here's what you need to know about this teacher or that teacher or this, that or the.

Other.

No, you need to have that gift trained and perfected by those who are within the body that you are a part of. There is maturing that needs to happen there. And there are people that you can help to mature by using this gift of discernment to help them identify who the true teachers are, who is in right and sound doctrinal teaching and who is not.

And there are, you know, there are also going to be some false teachers out there. You may identify right away that this person's teaching is off, but others who are not as mature are not going to recognize that.

And if you even single out that teacher as being false to those who are not as mature, it's just going to sound nitpicky. It's not going to sound convincing at all. It's going to sound like that. You have it out for any and every person that doesn't agree with you.

So you also have to have wisdom in knowing how to respond to each person. And this was an instruction that Paul gave in Colossians chapter four. Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt so that you may know how to answer each person.

We're not going to respond to every issue the exact same way, and we're not going to talk to every person the same way either. So, again, it's using that wisdom, knowledge, discernment, love, grace, mercy, knowing which issues need to be talked about and which ones not, where to use that gift and where not to, and how to respond to each person.

All of this needs to go into exercising that gift of discernment. So I hope that I've given you some things to think about, and we will have a what video coming up in the near future regarding this gift of discernment.

You know, you can take when we understand the text as an example. If you go on to YouTube and you type in W W U T T, not only will you come up with what videos, but you will come up with people who have made videos in response to what videos arguing with some of our videos.

What you will not find are then what videos that respond to those guys videos, because it's not necessary. It is not necessary for us to have to respond to each and every criticism that comes our.

Way.

That's also the gift of discernment, knowing who to respond to and who not to. And sometimes we'll receive criticisms that come before our elders at our church. I don't respond to those things alone. I will confer with my elders to decide what needs to be responded to and what not to.

Good counsel is also needed when exercising discernment. If you have a question that you would like to submit to having answered on the Friday edition of the broadcast, send it to when we understand the text at gmail .com.

I'll try to catch up with some of those emails this weekend. I might be hunkered down at home in the middle of an ice storm. We'll see how things go. And once again, would appreciate your prayers regarding this baby that we have on the way.

And I will let you know when the baby comes, weight and length and all that stuff, because I know that moms out there, they love that kind of information. God bless you. We'll talk to you again on Monday as we continue our study of 2 Peter.

Jumping next into Chapter 2.

Gabriel Hughes is the pastor of First Southern Baptist Church in Junction City, Kansas. Find out more online at www .utt .com.