WWUTT 1330 Q&A The Bible as a Love Letter, Witnessing to Jehovah's Witnesses, Sowing a Seed of Faith

Is the Bible a love letter that was written to believers? How do you witness to a

Jehovah's Witness? And can you sow a seed of money to receive success from God?

The answers to these questions and others when we understand the text. This is when we understand the text, a daily

Bible study in the word of Christ. That we may have the mind of Christ. Find all our videos and other resources at www .utt

.com Here once again is Pastor Gabe. Thank you, Becky. You're welcome. It's been like a month or longer.

Or longer. Since you've been on here. It's been a long time. It has been. Where you been? You know, this and that.

A couple states. We've crossed a few states. You know. Yep. We've gotten moved.

Not time zones though, thankfully. Yeah, still in the central time zone. That was funny when I first moved here and everybody was like texting me.

Everybody from back home going, are you still in the same time zone? Yeah. Can we talk on this time? Yes, I'm still.

I just moved straight south. It's almost directly south.

Yeah, but I mean time zones are weird. Oh yeah, they are. They're just, they're not a straight line.

Time zones and time change. Because the time change happened the same weekend we moved down here. Yeah, that was some getting used to.

It almost felt like we switched time zones. Yes. So in case you don't know, we are not in Kansas anymore.

It's surprising not a lot of people have used that joke. I think I've heard it once since we've left Kansas. Really? Yes.

Man. I thought for sure I was going to hear it all the time. You're not in Kansas anymore. I'm original.

I just came up with that. Yeah, I got it. Now that you said it, I get it more whenever I'm on vacation somewhere.

Oh yeah, definitely. Than I do. Yep. Than I have here. We heard it way more in Kansas when we were in Kansas.

Right? Not in Kansas anymore. Yeah, we are. You can't use that here. Doesn't work here.

But we're not. We're not in Kansas anymore. We're in Texas. We are Texans now at First Baptist Church Lindale.

Yeah. Under the teaching of Dr. Tom Buck, I've joined the pastoral staff here. Already preached a couple of times since I've been here.

One on Colossians 3 and the other in Exodus 39. And you can find both sermons actually by going to fbclindale .com.

Yes. Yes, it is .com. Because I think we found out there was another Lindale that already took fbc .org.

Oh really? Yes. So if you type in fbclindale .org, it's a Lindale somewhere else.

It's not in Texas. Yes. We're the .com. I think Tom's face is right on the front.

So when you bring it up, you see Dr. Buck. There you go. And the church, I think. And the church.

Oh, our devotional's on there right now. Oh, yeah. So as a church, we're going through an

Advent devotional that was written by David Atterbury, who is on staff here.

And it's called Son of God, Son of Man. So it takes you through 25 devotionals from December 1st to December 25th.

You can still hop on board and download it. Yeah. And taking you through some pretty awesome doctrine as a whole family.

It's nice and simplified. You and the kids can get it. The devotionals aren't very long.

I mean, it takes you five minutes or something like that to go through it. That's what I was going to say. All the scripture references are there, questions, and even things to be praying about afterward.

You can download it free. It's a free PDF when you go to fbclindale .com.

Yes. So if you're looking for some sort of an Advent devotional to do together and you haven't picked one yet, that's the one

I would recommend. There you go. We've been doing it together at breakfast in the morning. Mm -hmm.

And you can also grab the new book. Well, new book. I did it two years ago, but I only ever talk about it at Christmastime.

Oh, yeah. 25 Christmas Myths and What the Bible Says. Yep. Available now at Amazon, either in paperback or you can get the

Kindle version, which is just three bucks. There you go. Easy enough. Get it on Kindle.

It's an easy read. A friend of mine referred to it as a bathroom reader.

Oh, my. It's like, it's a John reader. If the chapters are short enough, I can... Anyway, I probably shouldn't elaborate any further.

No. No. It's good to stop there. Yeah. Yeah. I haven't gotten nothing.

Well, it's Friday and as we used to do before we took this long extended vacation, we answer...

Sure. Before we had to stop doing everything to move from one location to another.

Yes. We take questions from listeners and you can email those questions to whenweunderstandthetext at gmail .com.

This first question comes from Doug. Hi, Gabe. Hope you, Becky and your kids are all doing well.

COVID free and are now moved into your new home. Happy Thanksgiving. We were wondering when you are going to start your nightly podcast again as we really miss them up here in Canada.

Aw. That's so sweet. The answer, Doug, is right now. Yay. This week.

We're back on it again. So Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday is the New Testament study and I'm still in Romans.

Mm -hmm. Thursday is the Old Testament study. I'm in Proverbs. Mm -hmm.

And then of course... Which are each 20 minutes long. That's right. Yeah. Everything's about 20 minutes and Friday is our

Q &A. Oh, hey. Remember when a few weeks ago we had talked about a radio station in Wyoming that was airing the podcast?

Yeah. I remember that. Somebody alerted me to it, but then I lost the email and I could never figure out which station in Wyoming it was that was playing us.

Right. Well, I just found it. Did you really? Like earlier this week, I found it. It's KFGR 88 .1,

a radio ministry of Trinity Bible Church in Powell, Wyoming with the purpose to glorify the

Lord Jesus Christ and edify and encourage the saints. Oh, that's awesome. And they play our podcast.

That's so cool. Yay. Thanks, guys. Yeah, if you're still playing the podcast. Let's hope they are.

And we took a month off. Yeah. That's true. We messed up their programming schedule. Sorry, guys. Hey, what's going on? Well, thank you for used to playing the podcast.

Yeah. Maybe they ran some reruns. Hopefully. Yeah. I don't know.

I'm kind of curious. Gabe and Becky in syndication. Yeah. We've now been doing this long enough.

We're syndicated in Wyoming. But yeah, anyway, great job, guys, with the ministry.

I looked at some of your programming and other stuff that you air and God bless you and what it is that you do there in the great state of Wyoming.

That's awesome. We're in the great state of Texas where we're broadcasting from now and getting quite a few emails today from Canada.

Ooh. This one is from Ben. I'm not sure where he's writing from, but he says, hey, Pastor Gabe, my name is

Ben and I recently found your ministry and it helped both me and my wife overcome some pretty blatant lies that we've allowed ourselves to believe growing up in the church.

What you do is truly the work of God and I am so blessed and grateful for it. That's awesome.

Yeah. Thank you so much, Ben. I am currently in the middle of working toward my biblical studies degree and I have been tasked to write a paper regarding how the

Bible is a love letter. Something just did not sit right with me about that. And I thought to myself, that sounds like something what could do a video on.

Hey. I know that God's love is found in the Bible. The greatest example of his love being the son.

But looking at the full counsel of the word, I just can't see it as a love letter to anyone.

A letter containing his love. Sure. But it's more of a letter about his glory rather than his love.

Right. Anyway, just popped into my brain. Hope you and your wife are all settled in after your move.

Thank you again for everything that you do. Well, I love the idea. It's a great idea for a video.

Yeah, definitely. Have you heard that before? The whole love letter thing? I don't remember where. It wasn't often.

But I've heard of it before. Yeah. I know that you were in some more feeling good churches before we met.

I don't remember the churches saying that. But I remember people in like a

Bible study or something talking about it. Yeah. Yeah. It is kind of one of those things that people say more like an off comment.

Yeah. It's not really like a launching point for theology. But here it sounds like he's attending a class in which he's expected to write a letter on the

Bible being a love letter. Yeah, it does. Yeah. Or write a paper on it. Paper. Yeah. The biblical studies.

So I was planning on doing a couple of videos on how it's often said that Christianity is not a religion.

It's a relationship. And the other one being does God want a relationship with you?

Because you'll hear pastors do that too. Right? Like God wants to have a relationship with you.

That is Francis Chan's whole thing. Only if you're saved, I guess. Even when people were saying that Francis Chan was sound in his book

Crazy Love. There's one of the central thesis statements in his book is

God wants to have a relationship with you. Yeah, I remember reading part of that. I don't think

I ever got all the way through. I'm pretty sure my copy was yours. Possibly. It's the one you had before we got married.

It's possible. So yeah, in that book he's talking about God wanting to have a relationship with you. But the reality is everyone has a relationship with God.

Already. Yeah, that's right. Are you in a relationship with God through his son? In which case you're in fellowship with God.

Then it's you are a friend of God. You were adopted even. Yeah, you're an adopted son or daughter of God through faith in Jesus Christ.

But if you don't have, yeah, fellow heir. Right. That's Titus 3 .5. But if you do not have the son, then you're an enemy of God.

Right. Which is where we were before we came to faith in Christ. Right. So everybody's got a relationship with God.

Oh yeah. It's either as a friend of God. Or a foe. Yeah. Or as an enemy of God.

Now there's a certain vantage point from which I agree with the statement the Bible is a love letter.

But more as an analogy. Okay. Or an illustration. Certainly not as like a literary descriptor.

You wouldn't say as a genre that the Bible is a love letter. Yeah, no, definitely.

I mean there is so much in there of God's judgment. Yeah, right. So much. That's not really characteristic of a love letter.

I mean it is a love letter in the sense that God gave us Jesus. Yeah. You know.

God so loved the world he gave his only son. Right. So there's that. Yes. And I mean also like in the way that he disciplines.

Yes, disciplines us. That he is loving in doing so.

Right. Rather than automatically condemning us or having the world swallow us up. Like we're all the sons of Korah.

Yes. The earth is just opening up beneath us. I'm just saying. Well not the sons of Korah because they also wrote the

Psalms. But Korah. Korah. Yeah. And the people of Korah's rebellion. Yes. That. But yeah,

Hebrews 12 is what you make reference to there where the Lord disciplines those that he loves. Yes. Right. That also comes from the book of Proverbs.

So I mean it's kind of loving in the fact that his judgment you know and everything. I mean not kind of because God is love.

Yes. So it is love. So he has. But it's also. He has appeased. Judgment. Yes. He has appeased his own wrath by sending his son who willingly submitted to the father, died for us on the cross so that whoever believes in him will not perish but have everlasting life.

Amen. Christ came to redeem his own. So in the sense that the whole Bible points to Christ you could say sure yeah there's a love letter aspect to that.

Right. In that the Bible is the one who shows us Christ. Christ is the one who shows us the father. Right.

So if you go with like an analogy sort of a thing, a very limited analogy.

Limited. Yes. But you could say it in that sense. I had a friend named George and I did some evangelism with him one time and we were standing out at the park.

This was in Junction City. And there was somebody who was talking with him who was receptive to what it was that George was saying.

But there was another atheist that was standing close by. And I don't even know how the atheist came into the whole thing.

I'm guessing George tried to talk to him earlier. Okay. And then he. If I remember the story then yeah.

Yeah. Something like that. That's how it happened. Yeah. So the atheist became a heckler. Right. So George is sharing with this other guy who's willing to listen.

But the heckler's just there just lobbing stuff. Like every time George would say something the atheist would throw something else out there.

And it would be things like. Well I remember the last thing that he said that finally just got on George's nerves.

But he said, you can't understand what the Bible says anyway. I don't know what it means. You know what it means? And George just looks at him and goes, you don't understand it because it's a love letter and it wasn't written to you.

I remember that. And then he turned around and he continued talking with the guy that wanted to hear what he had to say.

So in that sense, as kind of an argument in that way,

I got where he was coming from. Because 1 Corinthians 2 .14 says, the natural person does not accept the things of the

Spirit of God. They are folly to him and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.

Right. And the point Paul is making in that chapter is that we've been given the Holy Spirit that we may know the mind of God.

Right. And we can read his word and we know his will according to the spirit that is at work in us.

And just as we had read earlier this week out of Romans 12 .2, do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.

And then you will be able to test and approve God's will, what is good and pleasing and perfect. And we know

God's will according to what is said in the Bible. Later on in Romans 15 .4

we read, for whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the scriptures we might have hope.

These things were written for our benefit. So in that sense, yeah, you could say there's a love letter sort of a thing that's going on,

God giving this to us because he loves us. That's why we have his word. And for the fact that whatever

God is, he is fully that. Yeah, eternally that. Yes. Yeah.

So God is love. He's always love. Right. And God is judgment.

He is just. He is just. He's always just. He's always just. Yes. Just. I can't speak.

Not in the moment, but he is always. Whatever characteristic is of God, he is always that.

Right. Right. So I mean, yeah, okay. Okay. Right. We're nodding our heads. We're going, okay.

I see where that's coming from. But at the same time. But they're probably not looking for that. They're not looking for, oh, those characteristics of God.

For the paper. No. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. For his paper purpose. Well, yeah. Purpose of the paper. Generally when you say the

Bible is a love letter, what you're looking for is how does it make me feel squishy and good? Yeah. It feels good.

It's a feel good sort of a thing. Well, you haven't read the whole thing. It's a Hallmark movie. I wouldn't even say you've read all the way through the

Psalms. Oh, heavens. Becky went there. The Bible's a

Hallmark movie. Well, that's what they're asking for whenever they say it. Yeah, right. Give me a Hallmark script.

Yeah. That's pretty much it. They're like, you can forget about all the bad stuff because there's nothing bad in there. It's all love.

Yeah. Because God is only love. So then we've got the other side of this where it would really be an error to say that the

Bible is written exclusively as a love letter. Right. Even to say that the Bible is written exclusively as a love letter is a mistake.

Okay. Yeah. Because those who perish will be judged according to God's law.

Romans chapter two talks about that. Revelation 20 verse 12 where it talks about great books being opened and people are going to be judged according to what's written in those books.

Did your works line up with the works of Christ? And if not, then you will be cast into eternal damnation.

Yeah. And that's not to say that we're saved by our works. But if we believe by faith and we have been justified, the grace of God has been poured out upon us, then we're going to walk in that grace and demonstrate that we've been transformed by it.

And so our works will show that we have been born again in Christ. We're no longer conformed to the world, but we've been transformed by the renewing of the mind.

And so this is what we're judged by. Those great books being open, if we did not live according to the word of Christ, then that person will perish in judgment.

Yeah. And that said, so even the judge will not be able to say that we did not know.

It's there in the Bible. Yes. There's no excuse for anybody to say that they didn't know. Right.

Jesus said, John 12, 48, the word that I have spoken will judge him on the last day.

And we even have in the Old Testament, prophets addressed pagan kings and warned them of the judgment that would befall them.

Like you just take, for example, the warnings that were given to the king of Tyre in Isaiah 23,

Jeremiah 27, Ezekiel 26. We have warnings that were written to the king of Babylon, warnings that were given to Pharaoh, the king of Egypt.

True. This is throughout the scripture. So these things are hardly characteristic of a love letter. Right. You're not writing about your enemies in a love letter.

Right. And yet we know what will happen to the enemies of God according to what the Bible says.

So anyway, take all of this that we've talked about now and condense it down to 90 seconds and I'll try to come up with a video on that.

Okay. Good luck with that. I don't know when that's going to be because I've also got,

Pastor Tom is going through a series right now on Wednesday night where we've been addressing problem passages that are often used to like try to demolish

Calvinism. Problem passages? Yes. Problem passages. Yeah. Those are probably proof texts would be a better way to say it.

Oh, okay. But they're those verses, those clobber verses that Armenians will use to attack

Calvinists with. There's no way that Calvinism is true because John 3 .16 says, God so loved the world that he gave his only son.

Wow. And so we're going through those and kind of explaining, not that the verses totally affirm the doctrine of God's sovereign election, but they certainly don't work as clobber verses against that doctrine.

Right. Anyway, we've been going through. Yeah. We've been going through that and I said to the class yesterday, well

Wednesday, I said, hey, there's 90 second videos coming on all of this. So now

I've obligated myself to that. I've got to do those now. Yes, you do.

Better get started. I also want to re -release some of these, the Christmas videos. Oh, yeah.

And do promotion to pick up 25 Christmas myths and what the Bible says.

But yeah, if you've got friends, especially those friends that are saying Christmas is Oh, man. Or they're still repeating that three wise men showed up at the birth of Jesus.

Right. Yeah. Was Jesus born in a barn? We've got videos on that so you can look up.

Yes, we do. The what Christmas videos and share those with a friend. There you go. Start an argument on Facebook.

And then have fun at your Christmas gathering. That's right. Six feet apart, people.

Six feet apart. That Nativity scene you got right there. That isn't biblically correct. Ruin it for everybody.

No, I think it would be a fun conversation starter. Oh, sure. Yeah. And challenging people to understand what the

Bible says about this story. Yeah. Not the tradition that we continue to repeat every Christmas that may not be exactly what the

Bible says. Right. I mean, that's really how when we understand the text started.

Yes, it is. Some of the common things we say over and over and over again that we've just accepted them as true.

But it's not what the Bible says about that. So anyway, that's what the book addresses as well.

You can find some videos on that. And then there's the book, 25 Christmas Myths and What the Bible Says. This next email, this comes from Courtney, who says, hey,

Gabe, hope you and Becky and your family are doing well. Growing up a portion of my family has always been

Jehovah's Witness. Some practicing and others just associating with the religion.

My cousin has been getting sucked into the religion. I realized this when she missed her niece's third birthday just recently.

Lately, she's been liking my posts on Facebook where I deeply express my faith and doctrines of the

Bible. And just two weeks ago, she started to dialogue with me in private messages. Reading what she says, she's clearly proselytizing me, which has given me more chance to share the gospel and biblical truth.

However, I'm not sure if she's even reading my responses because the beginning of a message will contain words that I know are not from her.

And a body of text that I know is not her words. Well, sorry,

I misread that. The beginning of the message will contain words that I know are from her. And then a body of text

I know is not her words. Oh, I gotcha. Yeah, I'm nearly convinced that she's copy pasting from a handler or something like that.

How can I continue to share the gospel with her and hopefully rip her from this religion?

I've been researching a lot, but hope you may also have some insights.

Well, I mean, you do that with great care and patience. I don't remember. I know

Mormons are going to tell you whatever you want to hear. But Jehovah's Witness isn't that way.

Not generally. I mean, I've straight up asked Jehovah's Witness. You know, I've said, so you believe that that the archangel

Michael is Jesus. And they'll affirm that. They'll say yes. I sometimes when

I have that conversation with Mormons, they don't believe that about Jesus. And they believe that Jesus is the literal brother of Satan.

Right. Anyway, but when you have talks like that, it's either that they're dumb to it.

Because it could be that some of these elders. That they don't know it. Yeah, that you encounter the guys with the white shirts and the ties riding the bicycles.

Okay. Those are generally the folks that I'll encounter and have a conversation like that. Right. It's not just a casual encountering somebody and finding out that they're a

Mormon. Right. I've gone up and approached one of the missionary guys because I know they're a Mormon. Yeah. But when

I'm having those conversations with them, they're either actually dumb to it. Okay. Like in the sense they don't know.

Right. Some of those doctrines that I'll repeat back to them, they actually don't know that. Okay. Or they're playing dumb.

They really do know that. Yeah. But they're just not going to get into the argument about it. Right. They've already kind of made up in their minds, we can't talk to this guy.

Right. This isn't going to be one of our converts today. Right. And so I've had my book, Forty Mormon Beliefs and What the

Bible Says. And I've handed that to some of those Mormon guys before. I've had it in my car.

I really thought I might get a call from the local bishop, you know. Yeah. Of the local

Latter Day Saints church. I never did meet that guy though when I was in Junction City. Yeah. I never did get the chance to meet him and I never got any calls.

I just kind of wonder if I got blacklisted somehow. Make sure you don't talk to him. Probably. If he comes up, don't talk to that guy.

But anyway, back to Jehovah's Witness. Anyway, yeah. That's Mormonism. So Jehovah's Witnesses believe that they have a completely different text in the

Bible. Same thing that the Mormons believe. So the Bible became corrupt over the years. We lost the true meaning.

For the Mormons, it was Joseph Smith. Well, God revealed to me the true text.

And here it is, the Second Testament, which is the Book of Mormon. And then Joseph Smith went through the process of even rewriting the

Bible after that, which he never finished. But Charles Taze Russell, who's the founder of the

Jehovah's Witnesses, he likewise has his own translation, which is the New World Translation of the

Holy Scriptures. That's what they call their Bible. Oh, okay. And it's often gray. You'll have that light gray cover on the outside.

I once went to a Ligonier booth. It was back when they had just come out with the condensed version of the

Reformation Study Bible. And they had it in light gray. And the guy, the salesman at the booth, tried to sell me the light gray version.

And I said, no, I can't carry the light gray one around. Right. And he said, oh, okay. And it was kind of funny because we kept talking about other

Bibles. And then he came back to that. And he goes, I'm just curious. Why can't you carry the light gray one? And I said, well, because it looks like the

New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures. And I'm afraid somebody will see. I witness to Jehovah's Witnesses.

I witness to Jehovah's Witnesses. And I'm afraid that they'll see that and think that I'm reading the

New World Translation. And I don't want to promote that to them. Right. And he and the other guy that were manning the booth kind of looked at each other and like, we never even thought of that.

Never thought about the light gray cover being Jehovah's Witness. And not to say there's anything wrong with having a light gray cover

Bible if you do. Right. For me personally, it wouldn't be a good idea.

Maybe if you're evangelizing specifically to them, it would be good to carry a different Bible.

Yeah. One that's not the same shade as theirs is. Right. But anyway, so sharing with Jehovah's Witnesses.

I don't really want to say anything characteristic of their personality because it really could be more of a person thing than it is a religion thing.

A lot of the Jehovah's Witnesses in Junction City, actually I would have to say 100 % of the

Jehovah's Witnesses that I witnessed to who were the door -to -door missionaries, all women.

Ah, yeah. So the great majority of them at least in our community were women. I very rarely ran into men.

I did occasionally, but I never had the chance to witness to any of them. So the missionaries, the ones that would even stand outside with the book displays and stuff like that, they were almost all women.

Advice on how to handle that. It's very common for those who share or preach to Jehovah's Witnesses to go to John 1 where it says,

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. Now, why does that passage not work with a

Jehovah's Witness? Do you know why? I don't know. Because in their Bible it says, In the beginning was the

Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was a God. Oh. So they don't believe that Jesus Christ is the true

God. Interesting. And therefore, Charles Taze Russell has retranslated that verse to say that Jesus is a

God, not the God. So what you could do instead of using John 1 -1 is that you could go to John 1 -18 because in their

Bible it actually reads the same way. And their version of the Bible, John 1 -18, says the same as your

Bible if you're reading an ESV or an NASB or King James or something like that. Okay. So in John 1 -18 we have,

No one has ever seen God, the only God who is at the Father's side. He has made him known.

And the same thing is said in John 1 -18 in the

New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures. Now, God there, referring to Christ, is lowercase.

Okay. Where it says that no one has ever seen God, that's an uppercase G. The only

God, lowercase G, who is at the Father's side, he has made him known.

According to, that's according to the Jehovah's Witness Bible. Oh, okay. So they lowercase the G, but you could at least start from that passage to show that even in the

New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures, Jesus is referred to as God. Why did

Charles Taze Russell add an article to the translation of John 1 -1?

Yeah, switch the article. The word was a God, but then when he translated John 1 -18 he didn't use an article.

He didn't say a God. He said God, but lowercase the G. So that's worthy of a discussion.

You might start there and start to have the discussion. Also in the New World Translation, 1

John 5 -20, we read this. And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding so that we may know him who is true.

And we are in him who is true, in his Son, Jesus Christ.

He is the true God and eternal life. And in the

New World Translation, it reads the same and there the word God is even uppercase.

Oh, interesting. So you could say that according to even your own Bible, yeah, Charles Taze Russell was inconsistent in his translation of that.

He did not stay consistent in his attempt to show that Jesus was a

God. His attempt to show that he was a God, not the true God. Right. Now the passage of Scripture that they get their name from,

Jehovah's Witness, they get it from Isaiah 43 -9. Now I'm giving this to you,

Courtney, because this is – oh, I'm sorry, Isaiah 43 -10. But I'm giving this to you because it's going to require a little bit of homework.

More time to explain than we do here. Maybe I'll go back and do my own homework and then

I'll come back with a more direct link for you. But if you go to the passage that they use from which their name comes,

Isaiah 43 -10, this is how it reads. I'm reading it from the New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures.

You are my witnesses, declares Jehovah. Yes, my servant whom

I have chosen, so that you may know and have faith in me, and understand that I am the same one.

Before me no God was formed, and after me there has been none.

Now one thing that you will find, if you go to JW .org, that's the Jehovah's Witness website, and you read their version of the

Bible there, you will notice that they have all kinds of cross -references there. This is in the

New World Translation of the Scriptures as well. Like if you had a Jehovah's Witness Bible, you would have all kinds of footnotes and everything.

All the cross -references are down there. If you go to that passage, Isaiah 43 -10, and you do your cross -references, what you will find is, eventually it is going to link to the fact that the

New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures ties Jehovah to actually being

Jesus Christ. Wow. You have to follow the cross -references, but eventually that's where you get.

And again, that's just that careless thing where Charles Taze Russell, it was impossible for him to be that consistent.

Oh yeah. In trying to de -deify Jesus. Trying to say that he was an angel instead of actually being

God. So if you go and do that cross -referencing on Isaiah 43 -10, connect the dots, and maybe you can even show your cousin there,

And her handler. Yeah, and her handler. I went to your own version of the

Bible, and I can show you from your own translation how even Charles Taze Russell linked

Jehovah to being Jesus Christ. Yeah. That would be pretty amazing. Yeah. So that's one thing that you can do.

Now, I will also say this, that it's probably not productive for you to continue to have this conversation online.

Right. Or over social media like you were doing. If you can. Yeah, if possible. I mean, if your cousin is far away, then

I get how that would be complicated. Maybe you can try to talk her into having a phone conversation or something like that.

But doing it the way that you've been doing it, especially if you're suspicious that some of these answers might be coming from somebody that is not.

Your cousin. Yeah, not your cousin. Then you need to eliminate that middleman. And this is common.

When I've had these kinds of conversations, especially with a less experienced Jehovah's Witness, they'll shut down, and they'll say,

I need to have somebody here with me to go through this. Or if you call this person and go talk to them, they'll set you straight on that.

That's pretty common. I encounter that quite a bit. It may be better for you to want to have a more personal conversation where you're kind of eliminating, especially even that sort of the mindset that we'll have whenever we're responding to somebody online, where it's like, this is already wrong.

Right. So now I'm going to go find. The wrong in it. Yes. Yeah. Or find my links to disprove your wrong.

You know what I mean? Yeah. Just amplifies the situation. Yeah. They piecemeal it as they're going through it.

Like, well, that sentence is wrong. And now, you know, because I've done this before, too.

When somebody has written me a letter, and they get to a certain point, already I have the thought. So I start typing.

And I haven't even read the whole thing yet. Oh, my goodness. I've been there. It's human nature.

We're right, and everybody else is wrong. OK. So I've done that.

Yes. Exactly. You're on the defense or ready to throw yourself on the offense. I mean, whichever way you go about that.

Yeah. Anyway, I hope I've given you kind of a little bit of material and maybe even some homework to follow up with.

Because I think it is important whenever we engage in these discussions, you want to try to understand the other side as best as possible.

R .C. Sproul would talk about whenever he would start engaging his classes on some of these kinds of things.

He would pick somebody from the class to represent the opposing side. Right. And then somebody from the class that's representing the truth that we're trying to convey.

And the opposing side, it is left up to them to do their homework and be able to represent that side accurately.

Because if you can't represent that side, then you don't know how to engage with that particular belief or faith, no matter how false it might be.

We're not winning anybody over by just throwing personal insults at them. Well, you're an idiot for believing that or that's just stupid.

Why do you believe that? You know, that's not going to work. Handle these things patiently. Do it with gentleness, for that's the instruction that we are given.

First Peter 315, we all have a responsibility to give an answer for the hope that lies within us and to do so with gentleness and respect.

In our hearts, setting apart Christ as holy. Desire to worship

God even with the answers that you give to those who want to oppose the faith that you have.

And keep in mind that, you know, we were all there once. That's right. And that because of that, we need to have patience because that's up to the

Holy Spirit to save them. Yes, right. Yeah, this is God who is the one who grants repentance and leads them to a knowledge of the truth.

Right. Glorify God with your words and pray that the

Spirit will soften their heart and break through that stone and transform them into somebody who loves

God. That'd be amazing. We had, I mean, yeah, at some point we had to have somebody explain to us the truths that we were rejecting.

Yep. And praise the Lord that he granted us repentance. Amen. This next one comes from Vincent.

Hello, Pastor Gabe and Becky. Greetings from the Philippines. Oh, hello. Mabuhay. I think

I'm pronouncing that right. I don't know. I actually watched a video on it and it means life.

Oh, that's awesome. So the statement, and it's given as an imperative. So it's basically like live, go live, you know, or live long.

Okay, that's awesome. I like it. Half of the Vulcan greeting, live long and prosper. Anyway, yeah, hopefully it didn't just insult your culture there.

My name is Vincent and I have been a believer for almost seven years now and I am very blessed by your podcast, especially the

Friday edition. Yay. Of course, because Becky's on here. Oh, stop. I am currently attending a church where we have a gesture of giving offerings, monetary offerings, and we call them seeds for the salvation of people who we are praying for.

We are also encouraged to give monetary offerings to God and treat them as seeds for other things that we are praying for.

May it be for a successful deal, an exam in school, in our relationships, etc.

I would like to ask, is this something that is rooted in any biblical principle? I am not sure if this can be related to the parable of the sower,

Matthew 13, one through 23, or any other similar verse. I pray for you and your family safety. May God continue to bless all of you.

Where have you heard this before? Where does this come from? Does this sound familiar to you? Yeah, it does.

It's all over Trinity Broadcasting Network. Sow a seed. Yep, sow a seed. Send us money.

And you're sowing seeds. And sow a seed, yes. That's not good. Now, I think that there is a way that you can say that that would be,

I mean, perfectly innocent. It's not like those words are instant trigger words and you know that whoever is saying it.

But it's a yellow flag. It's a flag, yes. It's a caution flag. It is something that should make you go, how are you using that exactly?

What do you mean by sow a seed? I don't know. I mean, there could be like a cultural difference.

There is that possibility because it is the Philippines. So that in America would be like, ooh.

But in the Philippines, I'm not sure if that's a common thing or if that's still a trigger like a flag.

Yeah, I'm fairly certain here that we're talking about word of faith theology, especially with the examples he gave.

Yeah, I would definitely ask. Maybe ask your pastor even if you're able to and see what

Bible verse they can link that to. Ask for clarification from them what it is that they're talking about.

Yeah, but saying things like, okay, so the examples he's giving here are you're sowing a seed for the salvation of the people that we're praying for.

Yeah, that just doesn't sound good. You cannot give money for somebody's salvation.

No. It doesn't work. No. That's nonsense. I would say that's heresy. You're giving offering as part of your worship to God, as part of your obedience.

And you're not paying for someone's salvation.

No, yeah. The church uses that money for ministry efforts. Right. And the church is to be good stewards with that and they're to use that responsibly.

But that money itself cannot buy someone's salvation. So if the church is saying it in that way, if they're saying that you're giving money to basically purchase someone's salvation, that would be heresy.

Yeah. Because that is not the way that that's done. But, I mean, you go to 1

Corinthians 16 where Paul talks about collecting money for the offering that he's going to then take to help the brothers in Jerusalem who need it.

Right. So, yeah, the money is going to benefit others, but it's not salvation.

Yeah. You're not buying somebody's salvation. You're not linking it to their. Yeah. You're linking it to the missionaries.

It's certainly fine to collect an offering and pray for the gospel to go forth, that God is going to use this in a powerful way to reach other people.

Right. Definitely. Well, that's why I was thinking that, I'm hoping it's just a cultural difference.

Sure, but then you've got the statements like sow a seed for a successful deal.

Yeah. Unexamined school. Okay. In our relationships. So now what you're talking about is this church telling you that you're giving an offering so that you'll have a good deal in the job that you're doing.

Oh, man. No, that's not right. Because what is the burden that is inevitably being placed on you here.

Is if you can't give enough, then you're not going to have anything good. Well, there's that.

Yeah. The one I was thinking of more specifically is that if you don't get that good deal. Oh.

It must be because I didn't. You didn't give enough. I didn't give enough. Oh, my goodness. Yes. Yeah. Oh. It's setting you up for future failure.

Oh, that's so bad. It is placing a burden on you that is just false doctrine.

That's not for you to bear. Right. There's just no other way to say it. It's just wrong. It's not in the Bible. Yeah. If you give money, then you'll get a certain grade on an exam in school.

All of this is bad. It's word of faith theology. That's what this is. Right. This is the stuff that Daystar, the

Daystar network throws out. Turner Broadcasting, Benny Hinn uses it. That's what I was going to say. Joyce Meyer uses it.

Yeah. One of the places that I more recently heard this used. Well, it wasn't recently.

It was a few years ago. But John Gray, who was the pastor that came from Joel Osteen's church.

Right. And then he planted a church in North Carolina where he's the pastor now. Has been unfaithful to his wife numerous times.

Right. And yet continues to be the pastor there. He spoke at Elevation Church, which is

Stephen Furtick's. And it was there in one of his sermons that he said something about like sowing a seed for a student in the audience that needed some student debt forgiveness.

And so by sowing a seed, you're going to receive forgiveness or relief.

I think it was relief was the word that he used. So student debt relief. You're actually your money is or that debt is somehow just going to vanish because you gave money to God.

That's crazy. That is crazy. You still have to pay off your debts. You do. It's not like giving money to God makes your debts magically go away.

Yeah, that's odd. You still have to pay your bills. So Vincent says about the parable of the sower.

That's not what that. No, no, no. Is talking about. Right. The parable of the sower is about those who are genuine in the faith and those who are not.

Right. There's seed that falls on the path. The enemy immediately comes and snatches it away before it has a chance to take root.

You've got the message of the kingdom that falls among the rocks. That's what the seed represents is the message of the kingdom falls among the rocks.

And it immediately sprouts up as one who receives the message of the kingdom with joy.

But then over time, they have no root in themselves and they just wither away and die. Right. Then you've got the message of the kingdom that falls among the thorns, which doesn't mean that they fall away from the faith.

It means that they didn't have the faith. They didn't have the faith to begin with. Right. That's what's being demonstrated in the parable of the soaking it.

Yeah. Right. There are some that are going to look for a period of time like they've got it. Right. But then with the message that falls in the thorns, it's the cares of this world and the enticement of riches that eventually choke out the word and it proves to be unfruitful.

Right. But then you have some of the seed that falls in good soil and produces a harvest. And those are the ones who receive the word and it's real.

It's genuine. It gets implanted in that person's life and they demonstrate the fruitfulness of the spirit in their hearts and continue to share the gospel with others in the meantime as well.

And others come to hear the message of the gospel through what it is that they say. Amen. That's the parable of the sower.

So it's not about sowing a seed to receive something in return. Monetary. Yeah. It's not monetary.

There's nothing that's being returned from that. Other than the promise of the kingdom, which doesn't come from anything that you do.

Right. It's what God has done for you. Right. So praying for you, Vincent, I know that that's a tough situation.

From what I gathered about the Philippines, there's few and far between biblically sound churches.

Yeah. It's tough there. Yeah. A lot of Islam. Oh, okay.

Yeah. Praying for you, Vincent. And as Becky said, this is something to ask your pastors about.

Definitely. What do you mean by that exactly? Clarify first before assuming. And show the scriptures on this.

2 Corinthians 9, 6 is really where this comes from. The point is this. Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly.

And whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.

So these word -faith theologians, the sowing -a -seed theology, this comes from a misinterpretation of that passage in 2

Corinthians 6 and 7. It's not talking about that you give money and therefore you're going to receive some earthly reward from that.

2 Corinthians 9, 6 and 7? Oh, yeah. What did I say? You just skipped the chapter. Okay. 2

Corinthians 9. Yes, that's the chapter. 2 Corinthians 9, 6 and 7. These passages are not talking about giving money and then getting some sort of earthly reward from it.

We're talking about heavenly kingdom reward here. Right. And as Becky made a mention of earlier, that in Christ, according to Titus 3, we're fellow heirs of the kingdom of God.

Right. So it's what you receive in glory. It's not what you receive here on this earth. There is no guarantee at all that you are going to live a posh, wonderful, no -cares -in -the -world life as long as you're a

Christian on this earth. Right. Oh, no. Definitely not. In fact, according to Christ, life is harder as a

Christian. Yep. Because they hated him. Yeah. Remember, if they hate you, they hated him first.

Mm -hmm. The world hates you because it hated Christ. Mm -hmm. The apostle Paul is saying to Timothy, those who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.

Yeah. Peter's saying in 2 Peter 4 that those who live in debauchery are going to malign you because you won't join them in their flood of debauchery.

Right. Because it points out their sins. Yes. And they don't want to feel guilty about it. You just think about the very beginning of the

Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5, where it says, blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.

Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven. Yeah. For so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

We don't have any promise of any luxury as we live on this earth. Right. It is the reward that we have eternally with God in heaven because we believed in his son,

Jesus Christ. It is through Christ that we are fellow heirs of the kingdom. And the seeds that we plant are spreading the gospel.

Yeah, that's right. It's sharing the gospel with others. That's right. The harvest is those who are needing to hear the gospel.

Yes. That will come into the kingdom because they heard and they turned from their sin and believed in Christ.

Right. Let's do one last one. I think I can get through this one fairly quickly. This is from Bill, also in Canada. Dear Pastor Gabe, I had a friend recommend that I watch the

Bible Project and a piece about Satan and demons. I watched two minutes and felt in my spirit.

And he says that very, you know, not like I feel like this was wrong. Right. But I just felt in my spirit that these guys were not telling the truth.

I did not wish to spend the 45 minutes watching the video so my friend accused me of being closed -minded.

I found at least two articles claiming these guys teach wrong on the atonement. And when

I pointed it out to my friend, it is obvious he already has watched some of the erroneous parts.

Twice within two minutes of the video, they were talking about the Satan, claiming that Satan was the angel of the

Lord. They claim that he is called the Satan in Hebrew, which I did not find in my strong concordance.

Of course, he is also called the devil, but not the Satan from what I could tell. Well, that's really what

Satan means. It's Hasatan, which means he is the accuser or the adversary.

Okay. That might be what they were referring to there. I'm not sure. Anyway, so going on, I did not wish to waste 45 minutes on such stuff.

I am one who wants something to give to him so I don't have to do a week of research. Is your website comprehensive on these two teachers of the

Bible Project? We are being flooded with false teachers, but it concerns me most when people who I minister to call me to task for pointing out errors as though I am wrong.

I see you have had the same thing. I read just enough of your blog to guess they also do not believe in hell.

Is this correct? They almost sound like they are universalists. What particular denomination do they fall out of?

Thanks for taking a couple of minutes to answer these questions and God bless you. Well, I don't think that they are the guys with the

Bible Project. I don't know that they're tied to any particular denomination. I know that they attended

Multnomah in Oregon, and Mackey has his doctorate.

I can't remember where he got his doctorate from. In Hebrew, though, that's what his doctorate is in. But anyway, that's really beside the point.

I think that Bill may have only read the email, or I'm sorry, the blog that I did responding to a bunch of the comments that I got on my video.

Okay, yeah. But it didn't sound like from his email that he's actually watched my video response to the

Bible Project. He said he hates 45 -minute things. Well, the video is 20 minutes. Yeah, there you go.

If you can cut it down to half of the time and you're all right with that, I cover some of the more erroneous areas in 20 minutes, specifically that they're wrong on the atonement, and secondly, a doctrine like hell.

Because the point that I'm trying to make there is that if you're wrong on propitiation, if you're wrong on the atonement, they're going to be wrong on a lot of other things as well.

If you don't get the atonement right, there's going to be a bunch of other wonky things there in their soteriology.

Yeah. So, of course, they sound like universalists. I don't draw that conclusion in the video.

I don't say matter -of -factly, well, they're universalists. They think everybody's going to heaven anyway. But the language certainly sounds that way.

Yeah. So I think that you're all right with that. With the spiritual realm videos that they did on angels and demons and stuff like that,

I have not watched all of those. I'm going to have to go back and catch a couple and see if they refer to Satan as the angel of the

Lord. That would certainly be, because the angel of the Lord in the

Old Testament is not Satan. That would be a big, big problem. Michael Heiser is where they get a lot of that stuff from.

He was kind of a consultant on those videos.

I don't know that he wrote the scripts, but he definitely helped them out in the stuff that they did on angels and demons, which is a more recent series they did.

It was either earlier this year or last year. Anyway, Bill, I hope that gives you enough stuff. We've talked about the Bible Project many times.

We have. And I'll link that video to you so you're sure to watch it and get kind of the Cliff Notes version of some of the stuff.

Of what you missed. Yeah. And then once you see that, once you see where they're wrong in those areas, you start seeing it in a lot of their videos.

Everywhere, yeah. So that was the Holy Spirit giving you discernment there.

That's right. Definitely. Making you go, yeah, there's just not something right about that. Well, it's probably because you know the word and what they're saying is not in line with what scripture says.

Yes. Just be patient with your friend who recommended it, because we are to bear with the feelings of the weak.

Yeah. Romans 15 .1. Yeah. We who are strong have an obligation to bear with the failings of the weak, and not to please ourselves, but our neighbor for his good, to build him up.

That's right. So just be patient and don't toss it in his face,

I guess. Have a good discussion about it. Yeah. And maybe take him through the

Bible and say, you know, this is where they're not saying it, and then maybe he'll start picking those out and noticing the discrepancies.

Oh, one last thing before we close out. Oh, Fred's book. That's right. Fred Butler has written a book.

I've been wanting him to do this for a while. Yeah. Royal Deceptions, Exposing the King James Only Conspiracies Against God's Word.

You can get it right now on Amazon in paperback, I believe, or for your

Kindle. That's awesome. I love that he's done this, because I think Fred's just a great writer. Yeah, definitely.

And a loyal listener to when we understand the text, especially the Friday Q &A. And he says it's just not a

Friday Q &A without Becky on there. Aww. So we had to get Becky back on this program. He's such a sweetheart.

But Fred works for Grace To You. He has written for his blog, Hip and Thigh, and so he's taken some writings that he's done in the past on King James Onlyism and compiled them in this book,

Royal Deceptions. It's probably a good primer to go along with James White's book,

The King James Only Controversy. If you liked that one, check out Fred Butler's as well. Definitely.

All right. God bless you all. Lord willing, we'll be back next week. Yes. Let us pray.

Yes, let's. Heavenly Father, we are so grateful to you for the goodness and kindness that you show to us in Christ.

While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. And while we were ignorant, you sent somebody to us to give us the gospel and explain the scriptures to us.

And as we've considered a lot of these emails today, they're mostly from folks who say that, hey,

I'm trying to witness to somebody or I have a friend or a relative that believes this, how do

I respond to that? And I pray that we respond to these things with gentleness as we are instructed to do, honoring

Christ the Lord as holy, giving an answer for the hope that lies within us, doing so with gentleness and respect.

I pray that for those who have written in, for all of our listeners and for us as well, that we would continue to hold out the word of life, doing all things without grumbling or complaining, that we may be as children of God in a crooked and depraved generation in which we shine as lights in the world.

So we are told in Philippians chapter two, verses 14 and 15, guide us in the light of Christ, especially this holiday season.

In Jesus name we pray. Amen. Amen. Let's do this.

Babe. I know. Babe. I'm here. Babe. I'm right beside you, babe.

I know, but you're on your phone. I am. Finishing up my texts.

Alrighty. This is when we understand the text. This is when we understand the text. Are you ready now?

Yeah, yeah. Are you sure? Yep. Sure, sure? Yep. Had to get the puns out. Uh -huh. Oh dear.

I got big puns. Yes. I'm just waiting.

Making sure. Warm and toasty puns. Oh my goodness.

It's been too long since we've recorded together. Yes. Alright. Getting all this out.

This is when we understand the text, a daily Bible study in the word of Christ. And I just kicked something.

What are you doing? I kicked something. We've got a lot more obstacles in here than we had. We did before.