WWUTT 1810 Q&A Nativity Scenes, End Times Views, Theonomy

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Is it a sin to have a nativity scene? Is that breaking the second commandment?

00:06

What are the different end times views? And what is theonomy? The answers to these questions and others, when we understand the text.

00:24

This is when we understand the text, a daily Bible commentary to help encourage your time in the word.

00:29

Tell your friends about our ministry at www .utt .com. And once again, it's

00:35

Pastor Gabe. Thank you, Becky. You're welcome. Hey, I want to remind everybody about the expository workshop that is coming up February 6th.

00:42

Sorry. Nope. I got that date wrong. Uh -oh. Don't come on February 6th. You'll be too late. February 2nd and 3rd.

00:49

Oh, yes. Definitely be late. Yeah. You would be late. It would be,

00:55

I think, past the weekend at that point. That's here at First Baptist Church in Lindale, Texas. Mike Riccardi is going to be our guest speaker, one of the pastors from Grace Community Church.

01:06

And he is helping to lead us through the book of 2 Corinthians.

01:12

Becky really likes Mike Riccardi, but you can't attend. I can attend. You cannot attend.

01:17

No, I can. I just can't do the breakouts. Okay. So you can come and sit and listen to Mike. I can.

01:23

That's true. That's what Tom said. I was like, yes. You're going to find somebody to watch the kids? I might.

01:30

If I can. So you can come on in? That'd be awesome. Space is limited to 80. Oh, yeah.

01:37

So I'm sure it's first come, first served type of thing. So pastors, we especially want to encourage you to be a part.

01:42

But in some of the breakout groups that I've led, there have been elders, there have been prospective elders, there have been

01:49

Sunday school teachers. You just want to learn how to teach the Bible well. You want to learn how to exposit the scriptures.

01:56

That's what the Expository Workshop is for. And so we would encourage you to be a part, especially if you're nearby.

02:02

And you don't even have to be nearby. I've already seen in the registrations, we've got people coming from states away. Awesome.

02:08

I think one church from Florida is coming. Yay. That's exciting. To the Expository Workshop, February 2nd and 3rd at First Baptist Church in Lindale, Texas.

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I believe you can register from our website. So go to FBCLindale .com.

02:23

For sure you can register on the G3 page. So you go to the letter G3MIN .com

02:31

and then register on that page for the Expository Workshop. Yeah, that'd be awesome.

02:38

So this week, taking questions from the listeners, that's what we do on Friday. And you can send a question to WhenWeUnderstandTheText at gmail .com.

02:46

The questions that we read today are picking up a copy of the book, 25 Christmas Myths and What the

02:54

Bible Says. Yay. You can find that book still on Amazon. I think I said last year

02:59

I was going to take it off of Amazon. And I still have that desire to move stuff off of Amazon. Yeah. But for now it's -

03:04

They haven't done it yet. Yeah. It's still there. I've had other things to do. And people are still buying the book and finding it.

03:11

So why hurry? Yeah. So Amazon's on there. Amazon - Is an option. Yeah.

03:16

It's on Amazon's page. Yes. You can get it there. 25 Christmas Myths and What the Bible Says, either for Kindle or you can get it in paperback.

03:25

The questions that we read today will automatically be getting a copy. This is the only week we're doing that. So you still have to go online to get a copy of the book.

03:33

Yes. And as I mentioned last week, it's laid out like an Advent book. So you would do a different myth every day.

03:42

Of course, it's pointing you to the truth. Yes. Here's the Christmas myth. Here's what the Bible actually says about Christmas.

03:49

There's a hymn in there, a Christmas carol for you to sing together if you want to do it together as a family. But check out the book and I hope you enjoy it.

03:57

And there's 24 of them or 25? 25. Because the title. Right. Never mind. I was thinking you do it for the 24 days leading up to Christmas, but then

04:06

I was like, no, I think there's 25. Yeah. There's one on Christmas Day as well. Yeah. Yeah. True Advent calendar is 24.

04:13

Yeah. Well, that's where I got the 24. Yeah. In my head. But then I was like, pretty sure it's, yeah, anyway, blonde moment.

04:21

It's good. We're good. It's all good. Yeah, you had a blonde moment earlier this week driving over a curb, too. I did.

04:29

Thankfully, the van's okay. It's kind of okay. It runs. So I was parked right next to my wife.

04:35

Yes. And I'm not parked at a curb. I'm parked in a driveway. Right. And so when we pulled away from each other,

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I just went straight. Right. And I was getting ready to back up, but there were people driving crazy behind me and not giving me an opportunity to back up.

04:51

So I saw my husband drive forward and I was like, hey, that's a great idea. I have cement in front of me.

04:57

Why don't I just drive forward? Yeah. No. You were parked at a curb stop. I was parked at a curb and scratch, scrape, everything.

05:08

The kids were screaming. It was great fun. Good fun. The kids thought the world was ending.

05:13

They did. It's a disaster film all of a sudden. And then trolleys moaning and groaning ever since.

05:23

Yeah. Trolley is our van. Are we over 220 ,000 miles of that thing? Yeah. I think so. It's ready.

05:30

Yeah. Poor thing. Only Becky's trying to hurry it up. I didn't mean to. So I'll go ahead and get another van.

05:37

Yeah. It was. Oh, man. They need a sign or something. If they had a pole in front of me.

05:43

Or you can remember you were parked at a curb. Or, you know, I could be a little more patient too.

05:52

All right. Before we get to the questions here, I do have a Christmas related poll that I did on Twitter.

05:59

So the poll question was, how much Christmas music are you listening to? Like today?

06:04

Yeah. Like right now. How much Christmas music are you listening to? Zero. None at all. Well, okay.

06:10

Unless you count our children telling their Echo Dots, Merry Christmas or It's Christmas.

06:17

And then, you know, it does the little jingle. Yeah. That doesn't count. Okay. Then no. Yeah. So you're not listening to any

06:22

Christmas music? Not right now. No. The kids haven't even brought up their, like, they've got their Christmas songs they listen to every year.

06:28

Like all the time. Okay. So we listen to it from June until September. So I'm pretty sure

06:34

I've got these two months free. Okay. We have a lull then. Yes. October, November, and then once we hit

06:41

Thanksgiving, we're picking it back up. Probably. Yeah. They just haven't mentioned it yet. So the question on the poll that I presented was, how much

06:48

Christmas music are you listening to? 299 votes. Okay. That's a lot. 53 .5

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% said none. Wait until after Thanksgiving. There you go. So the majority is saying we're not listening to any

07:01

Christmas music right now. 23 .4 % said, okay, I admit a little.

07:08

10 .7 % said, I listened to some today. And 12 .4 % said,

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I've been listening to it for weeks. Now someone commented and said, only weeks?

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And I said, well, I thought about putting been listening to it for months, but I'd really only get one vote on that one.

07:27

Yeah. Right. And that's our friend Allen Nelson. That's what I was thinking too. Quatro. Quatro, our pastor friend down in Arkansas.

07:34

He listens to Christmas music, I think pretty much year round. Yes. He wishes Christmas was all the time. Yes. That's Quatro.

07:41

I got to admit, I love Christmas, which is why I wrote a book. Yes. Contributing to the holiday season.

07:46

You do love Christmas. I do. I love a good Christmas. So let's answer some of these Christmas related questions.

07:55

This one is, speaking of Arkansas, so this one comes from Arkansas. Sweet. Or rather, actually, it was written to us while they were in Arkansas.

08:04

Okay. I don't know that they're actually from Arkansas. I'd have to check the address. Sure. But this is Nancy. She says, hello,

08:09

Gabe and Becky. I am emailing from I -40 in Arkansas. My husband is driving, so it's okay that I'm composing this on my phone.

08:20

Well done. Commercial Christmas is once again upon us with all of its trappings from the garish to the sublime.

08:28

Yes. Yeah, indeed. I went into Home Depot. This was before November. It was still October at the time.

08:33

The first thing you see when you walk into Home Depot, Christmas everywhere. Everywhere. Now, Walmart certainly made more of a

08:42

Halloween effort. And now all the Halloween has been replaced by Christmas stuff.

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But places like Lowe's and Home Depot, they've been at the Christmas stuff since September or something.

08:54

Yeah. The candy store was putting up their Christmas lights and they had a Christmas tree. Oh, really? Yep. As we drove by today.

09:00

Now, that's weird because, I mean, it's a candy store. Their biggest season has got to be

09:06

Halloween. Yeah. Well, and then the next biggest season, I guess, is Christmas. Well, true.

09:13

I mean, that's definitely the case. I'm not sure how much Thanksgiving they do. I'm not a big fan of the Halloween decorations.

09:18

And you know from our neighborhood, I mean, we've had people with Halloween decorations out. It looks like they spent at least a thousand bucks.

09:24

Oh, yeah. Definitely. Where in the world did you get all that stuff and where do you keep it? Yeah, no joke.

09:29

For 51, 50 weeks a year or something, you just pull it out for like half a month or something like that?

09:35

Yeah. I don't know. Well, no, I did. I saw some Halloween decorations starting in September.

09:41

I did see that. Yeah, a few. Yeah. But then they added to the yard. Oh, yeah. And then it just grew. Right. As people died and they put up more tombstones.

09:48

Yeah. It's weird. The Halloween decorations expanded. It's a weird way to put it.

09:53

Anyway, going on with Nancy's email here. Yes. My question concerns the appropriateness of nativity scenes.

10:01

I've never been overly drawn to them, but I do have a few in various sizes that were gifts. I know several people who collect them.

10:09

I'm a crafter. And for the last several years, I have come to question if making a nativity is to make a graven image or an idol.

10:16

Am I correct in my thinking? Am I over reading and therefore attributing to scripture that which is not there?

10:24

Thank you for your time and attention, grace and peace. Well, I think that goes with whatever your convictions are.

10:33

Yeah. So there's a lot of reformed folks will hold tightly to the second commandment.

10:41

You will not raise up a graven image. And any sort of image of Christ at all would be considered a violation of the second commandment.

10:48

Or you might see it posted on social media to the number two CV, and that stands for second commandment violation.

10:56

Oh, okay. So if they're talking about an image of God or an image of Christ and you see two CV. I've seen that here and there, but I didn't know.

11:03

That's what that stands for. I have any clue what that meant. They're making the accusation that this is a second commandment violation.

11:09

Gotcha. Now, I would agree that we should not post any images of God the

11:14

Father because no one has seen the Father. Right. John one says no one has seen the

11:19

Father. We should not be posting images of God the Father. I am opposed to the Sistine Chapel thing,

11:24

God the Father there and Adam there with their fingers reaching out to each other.

11:31

Yeah, we should not be doing images of God the Father. I'm a little more lenient on images of Christ, though I don't think as a matter of personal conviction, you should not be putting them in the worship service.

11:45

So they shouldn't be in the sanctuary. Too tempting to look at that and think of that as an image of Christ and therefore pray to that or worship that or something like that.

11:55

But I personally don't find there to be a second commandment violation with a nativity scene, although a person who believes they're consistently holding to that commandment would say that the nativity scene is therefore a violation of the second commandment because you've got an image of the baby

12:11

Jesus and he is the God man and so we shouldn't be having graven images such as that.

12:18

Now there are others, you know, you've probably seen like the very plain looking nativity scene versus little wooden figurines, they don't have a lot of definition to them and then the manger is just the manger, not really a baby in it, it's just a setup of a manger.

12:32

Maybe you'd be more comfortable with something like that because there isn't the image of God being demonstrated there in a nativity scene.

12:40

If you're worried about causing somebody else to stumble, that might be the way to go. I've walked into churches that have nativity scenes in their lobby, when you walk in, anywhere from the small figurine set to life -size sets.

12:53

Yep, real donkeys and everything. When we lived in Kansas, every single year we went to a living nativity and even friends of ours like their baby, their newborn son or daughter was

13:08

Jesus in the living nativity. So we've attended things like that, our kids have enjoyed stuff like that.

13:15

Like I said, it's not a matter of personal conviction to think that such a thing is therefore a second commandment violation.

13:22

But if in your conscience you do feel guilty in some way about having that kind of an image in a nativity scene, then you should not have a nativity scene.

13:31

Right. Now let's consider the commandment. Let's hear it the way that we have it in Exodus 20 and in Deuteronomy 5 it reads the exact same way.

13:39

Okay. So where you have the 10 commandments repeated in Deuteronomy 5, let's see that's starting in verse 8 and going through verse 10.

13:47

It reads the same as Exodus 20 verse 4 through verse 6.

13:53

You shall not make for yourself an idol or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth.

14:02

You shall not worship them or serve them for I, Yahweh your God, am a jealous

14:08

God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate me, but showing loving kindness to thousands, to those who love me and keep my commandments.

14:22

So what does that sound like? Does it sound like you shall not make any sort of likeness of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath at all or you should only not make a likeness for the purpose of worshiping them?

14:37

It makes it, I mean the way that it's, that you're reading it to me, like before I would have said just don't worship, but now it sounds like it's don't make anything and don't worship anything that is already made.

14:50

So don't even make it at all. Right. Don't make a likeness of anything in heaven. That's how I'm seeing or how I'm hearing it right now.

14:56

But it says any likeness of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or even what's in the sea.

15:03

Right. So can we not have like little figurines of fishes? I don't know.

15:09

Fishes? Is that plural or just fish? No, it's just fish. Okay. It's fishes because we have children.

15:16

True. But it's fish. And you just came from the library. Yes, I did.

15:21

That's right. Library. How about the images of the angels that were in the temple?

15:30

Yeah, I just. Or the images of the angels on the top of the Ark of the Covenant. Right. Which God told them to make.

15:37

Right. That's true. Make two images of angels prostrate on the top of the Ark of the

15:43

Covenant. And see, that's where I was like, oh, it's okay. Just don't worship them. Like I said, taking that two verses that you read just now straight, it makes it sound like you can't do anything.

15:58

Well, so like I said. Or you shouldn't do anything. It has to do, there is an element of this that comes into personal conviction.

16:05

Now we shouldn't divide over this. This will come into, there's an aspect of interpreting this that comes into like a

16:13

Romans 14 principle of a matter of conscience. Oh, right. So don't quarrel over opinions.

16:19

Don't separate over opinions. And have patience with everybody. Yeah, and regarding their opinions.

16:25

Right. But let each person be fully convinced in his own mind. So if you think it's wrong to have a nativity scene, be fully convinced of that and don't have nativity scenes.

16:35

But if you think it's okay for you, as long as it's not causing somebody else to stumble, then personally,

16:42

I don't see the harm in it. Yeah. That's the big thing is not to let anybody else stumble.

16:48

Right. And see, that's where I'm very, very careful or cautious about anything like that. Because I don't want to do something or create something that's going to cause somebody else to stumble.

16:57

It is really, really easy for us to turn our attention and affections toward graven images.

17:03

You can see religions, even that claim to be Christian, that do this.

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Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy or Greek Orthodoxy. All of them have images that they bow to, they kiss, they show reverence to, they will claim they are not worshiping.

17:21

But how is bowing to it not worshiping it? How is praying before it and thinking that that prayer is therefore heard by a dead saint?

17:32

Not idolatry. Yeah. Which they'll even say, no, we're not praying. We're asking for that person, the saint or Mary or whoever else to take our prayers before God.

17:41

But no, you're praying to it. It's a quarreling over words, which the

17:46

Bible tells us not to do that too. Right. But anyway, bringing that back into the nativity scene thing.

17:52

Yes. I've written a chapter about this in 25 Christmas Myths and What the Bible Says. How about that?

17:58

If you even want to know where the whole tradition of the nativity scene started, I talk about that in the book as well.

18:05

But Nancy will get it herself. Nancy, you're getting a copy. Yay. So we thank you so much for the question that you sent.

18:11

We've given you some things to think about. Not an explicit yes or no answer. I don't know if there is one.

18:17

But some things you do have. Because it's opinionated. That's right. There's some aspects of this that are opinionated. It's some things to work through.

18:23

You know, R .C. Sproul, his church, St. Andrew's Chapel in Sanford, Florida, we had the chance to see him the same year that he died.

18:32

We went to go hear him preach in April of that year and then he died, I think it was in December.

18:38

Yes. I was in their lobby. There's paintings of Bible stories in the lobby. Now it's not in the worship center.

18:44

It's not where people are seated and worshiping. But out in the lobby are various scenes from the

18:50

Bible, lavish classical paintings. And some of those paintings do depict

18:56

Christ. There would be some that would look at that and would think that R .C. Sproul is violating the second commandment or anybody there at St.

19:03

Andrew's Chapel. Again that's got to be a matter of conscience. Yeah. And that's going to be between you and the

19:08

Lord. Don't cause anybody to stumble. This next question, it comes from Juanita in Walla Walla, Washington.

19:15

Oh fun. I have heard of Walla Walla, never been there, but I believe this is the first email we've received from Walla Walla.

19:23

Mm -hmm. Definitely. Juanita says, recently in one of your Q &As you mentioned

19:29

John MacArthur was a premillennialist or a dispensationalist. I'm not sure

19:35

I'm spelling it right, but I was wondering if you could give me an idea of what that is. Thank you so very much.

19:41

I am new to your podcast, but enjoy your teaching. God bless you and your sweet family.

19:47

Aw, thanks. Well, you've been listening long enough to know I've got a sweet family. Thank you for your question,

19:52

Juanita. So what is premillennialism or dispensationalism? Mm -hmm. There are two main views of the end times.

20:00

When we talk about a study of the end times, the word that we use for that is eschatology.

20:06

Right. And there are two main views of eschatology. There's premillennialism and postmillennialism.

20:12

Mm -hmm. Now even those two views can be split into two smaller factions. Yeah. You have historic or classical premillennialism, and then you have dispensationalism.

20:22

Mm -hmm. And yeah, I know I'm slurring my word because that's a lot of syllables to get out of. And then in postmillennialism, you have classical postmillennialism, and you have amillennialism.

20:32

So let's talk about just - And then you have people in between everything. Yeah, right. In dispensationalism, you have pre -rapture dispensationalists, you have mid -tribulation rapture dispensationalists, and you have post -tribulation rapture dispensationalists.

20:47

Okay. So basically, we can get more detailed, but we're going to keep it at the elementary level this time.

20:54

Okay. Just for your sanity. Yes. And so we don't spend the next hour explaining this.

21:01

So the two main views basically set a timeline in relation to the millennium, the millennium, the millennial kingdom that we read about in Revelation chapter 20.

21:15

So this is Christ reigning in the millennial kingdom. Mm -hmm. But since Revelation is apocalyptic literature, it's writing about things that have not yet happened, there's some differing opinions on what's being talked about there.

21:29

Is the millennial kingdom in the present, or is the millennial kingdom yet to come?

21:35

The premillennialist believes that we are not yet in the millennial kingdom, and it's going to be a literal kingdom set up here on the earth in which

21:45

Christ will dwell, he will reign on the throne of David in Jerusalem, and that kingdom will not be established on the earth until Christ's return, what we're waiting for next, which is his second coming.

21:58

Mm -hmm. At his second coming, he sets up a kingdom that will last for a thousand years. Some will say that number's symbolic, others will even claim that it is literally a thousand years or somewhat relative to that.

22:09

He will set up that kingdom for a thousand years in which Satan will be bound. At the end of the thousand years, he will be unbound until Christ finally destroys him, he'll deceive the nations again,

22:19

Christ will destroy him, and then we enter into the new heavens and the new earth and everything will be perfect from that point forward.

22:26

Mm -hmm. So that's premillennialism. Postmillennialism believes that what we are having described for us there in Revelation 20 is actually right now.

22:35

And the way John writes Revelation, we have some recapitulation. Mm -hmm. That means that John will describe a series of events to us one way, then he's given another vantage point of the same events and he'll write about those events from a different vantage point.

22:51

Right. And then he's given a different vantage point and will write it from that vantage point. And so, therefore, even though the millennium appears toward the end of the book of Revelation, he's describing something that he's actually written about earlier in the book, but from a different vantage point.

23:06

Right. And so he calls it the thousand year millennial reign of Christ, in which Christ is on the throne in heaven reigning with even the saints who have died and have gone to live with him there in heaven.

23:16

Mm -hmm. So our loved ones, our relatives that we have lost who were Christians who have gone to be with Christ, they're reigning now with him as he reigns from his throne until all of his enemies are put under his feet.

23:28

And then at the end of that thousand year period, that's when he returns. Mm -hmm. So the postmillennialists and the amillennialists differ a little bit on how they apply those things.

23:37

The postmillennialists will believe that in the state in which we live, things are actually getting progressively better.

23:43

Mm -hmm. And it's toward the end of that period in which Christ will then come and judge those who are his enemies and rescue those who are his saints.

23:54

Mm -hmm. The premillennialists believes that things are getting progressively worse. Mm -hmm. Now, the classical premillennialist does not believe that there is a seven year period of tribulation.

24:04

All that we're waiting for next is the appearance of Christ. Mm -hmm. There's gonna be a rapture of the church. There's gonna be the judgment that will come upon those who do not believe.

24:13

Christ sets up his millennial kingdom on the earth. That's what the classical premillennialist believes.

24:20

The dispensationalist believes that there is a rapture of the church that's gonna happen that begins the seven year period of tribulation.

24:28

And like I said, there are some that believe that rapture happens in the middle of the seven years and at the end of the seven years. But anyway, we have this seven year period of great tribulation that's to come where the antichrist is gonna be revealed and he's gonna rule on the earth and that's where we have the mark of the beast and all these other kinds of things.

24:43

And God deals with Israel and then it's at the end of that seven years that Christ returns again and he takes up those who were saved during the seven year period and establishes his kingdom on the earth and then we reign with Christ for a thousand years in the earthly millennial kingdom.

24:58

Right. That is not the view that I hold. I'm on the more post -millennial side and probably falling more in the amillennial camp on the post -millennial views.

25:08

So I don't hold the dispensational view that John MacArthur holds. And I've written about that and even provided some arguments against premillennialism and dispensationalism and I can send you that email,

25:21

Juanita, I'll just include it in my response. There you go. So that you can read that yourself since we're kind of crunched for time and I'm not gonna go on into that.

25:28

Yeah. But all of that to say that we have these differing viewpoints of eschatology between MacArthur and I.

25:35

I believe that he is one of the greatest expositors in our present day, that there has not been a greater expositor of scripture since Martin Lloyd Jones.

25:44

Yeah. John MacArthur is doing a phenomenal job. Yes, he is. I just disagree with him on certain aspects of eschatology.

25:50

While these four perspectives may disagree on some things, we all agree that Jesus Christ will return to judge the living and the dead.

26:02

And those who believe in him will also reign with him, 2 Timothy 2 .12. We should not divide over this.

26:10

Rather, we should comfort one another with these words, 1 Thessalonians 4 .18.

26:16

So, I've got friends that have differing viewpoints on the end times than I have. As a matter of fact, among our elders here at First Baptist Church of Lindale, all of our elders hold all four positions.

26:27

You'll find all four eschatological positions among our elders. And yet we love one another and minister together and teach our respective classes without any cause of division.

26:39

Yeah, any disputes or anything like that. Now we rib each other. Right. I'm here. Tom will constantly say things like, well,

26:46

I'm going in the rapture, I don't know where you're going to be. You could be hanging out down here waiting for your amillennialism to come true.

26:52

You know, something like that. You know, we'll rib each other about stuff like that. And I'll tell him, well,

26:57

I believe what the Bible says. I don't know what you're, what you're thinking. But yeah, let's not be divisive over those things.

27:06

But rather, we encourage one another, sharpen one another according to what we understand the scriptures say.

27:11

If you don't understand something, go back to the Bible and be able to back up your view according to what scripture says, not just according to what you, what your opinion is.

27:21

Right. Or your favorite teacher's opinion. Yeah. Something like that. Yeah. This next question comes from Jeremy in Indianapolis, Indiana.

27:30

He says, I listened to your Friday Q &A last week and I've been too busy to sit down on my computer and respond before now.

27:36

You said that day, the 28th, was your daughter's eighth birthday. So yeah, this is going back to our

27:43

October 28th broadcast. Yes. I wanted to say that my first baby,

27:49

Kaylee, was born early that morning. Oh, awesome. In that episode, you talked about Old Testament civic laws being used as a guide for the laws of nations today.

28:01

It sounded very theonomic to me. And I wanted to ask what you think about theonomy. I'm not going to cancel you if you are, like many people do the first moment they hear anyone is a theonomist.

28:12

I am one myself and I have a theonomic economics podcast called

28:17

Theonamoney. Neat. That's a creative title. I also have a question about Hebrews.

28:24

You said that you, and I assume Pastor Tom Buck as well, think Hebrews was an expositional sermon on Psalm 95.

28:30

Can you go into more detail on why you think it would be Psalm 95 and not Psalm 110? Thank you for your ministry,

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Pastor. I've been listening since 2018 and first watched the YouTube videos a couple of years before then.

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Oh, that's awesome. Well, I appreciate that, Jeremy. I'm going to wait on the Hebrews question. Okay. So let me get to that another time, since we are a little short for time.

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It's another one of those half hour episodes. It is. Sorry, we got to keep it short this week. I actually, as soon as we get done,

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I got to go teach a class and I've got about 15 minutes right now. I got to gather up my things and go teach my class.

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But yeah, with regards to theonomy, so in case you don't know, theonomy means God's law. Theo meaning

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God and nomi meaning law. Am I a theonomist? I've certainly said things where other people have called me a theonomist.

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I don't have any reason to hold on to that label and really it's a loaded term.

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People will tend to think that when you say that you're a theonomist, that you're ready to impose Old Testament law and we need to go back to Old Testament law like the

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Muslims are trying to enforce Sharia law, something like that. That's not what I'm trying to do, but rather all of our laws need to be based on something.

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I mean, are we going off of whatever man thinks is a good idea for his nation? We're going from man's wisdom or are we applying

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God's wisdom? And we see in the Bible how that turns out when everybody does what is right in their own minds.

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Yeah, right. That's exactly in Judges. And you have a couple of places in Judges where it says everyone did what was right in their own eyes.

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It's bad. And in fact, one of those closing stories - It's always bad. It's always bad. One of those closing stories in Judges is actually a good story to go along with the first question that we answered about graven images.

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Oh, yeah. Because there's a man who makes a shrine and he makes another sort of an image which he thinks represents

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God. He believes he's worshipping the true God of Israel, but he makes these things to be the objects of his worship.

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And yet the book of Judges is demonstrating there, you think you're worshipping the true God, but you're an idol worshipper and you're actually far from God.

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Right. So lest anybody like, you know, we're talking about the Catholic tradition and things like that, that worship these things, even an image of a crucifix of Jesus hanging on the cross, they think they're truly worshipping the

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Messiah. Well, according to what's said in Judges, no, you're worshipping an idol, even though you think it's

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God. You think that. I've just made this thing that's supposed to give homage to God. If you're bowing down to that, you're worshipping an idol.

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This is one of the reasons why the Puritans did not even want images of the cross in their worship services.

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You know, the cross itself is a very reformed, like Protestant reformed image, because we've taken

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Christ off the cross since he's not on the cross anymore. We took the image of the crucifix in Catholic tradition and took

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Christ off of it because Christ is not on the cross anymore. He was buried and he's risen again. So hence the empty cross in many

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Protestant churches, that's a symbol that comes out of the Protestant Reformation from over 500 years ago.

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But the crucifix image of Christ hanging on the cross that's used in Catholicism and in Eastern Orthodoxy and things like that, you know, that's an idol.

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When they worship that or kiss that or pray to that or whatever they do, that's idol worship. So anyway, how did

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I get into that? I don't know. We're talking, oh, everybody did what was right in their own eyes in Judges.

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That's right. Yes. So so our laws have to be based on something.

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So therefore, where should they be based? They should be based on the Bible. Our laws should be based, based on the

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Bible, based on God's law. And as the example I gave, I think it was in that episode on October 28th, like somebody could argue, well, what about bicycle laws?

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Because there are bicycles in the Bible. Well, you can you can still make bicycle laws, but laws that are based on what we have in Scripture.

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Now, that's what I believe as a Christian. That's what I believe our laws should be based on.

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That doesn't mean that's necessarily going to happen. Right. That is sadly. Yeah. That's what according to Scripture, our laws should be following God's law.

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Laws in America should be following God's law. The reason why you have many states right now, like the state of California being one of them that just legalized abortion at every stage of pregnancy all the way up to birth.

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That was that was a measure. I think it was measure one was the name of it. That was just passed this past Tuesday in the election that we just had.

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There were other Vermont was another one, another state that did that. So you have laws like this.

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These laws are godless. They destroy lives that were made in the image of God.

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It's the destruction of a child's life. And the emotional trauma that it is takes on the parents.

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Yeah. All kinds of damage that that does. Murdering a child. The long term effects of that.

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This is what happens when man tries to take laws into his own hands. When a nation becomes godless and they start passing godless laws.

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What kind of nation are we going to be? Are we going to be a nation that desires to honor God? Or are we honoring ourselves in our own minds?

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The futility of our own minds. So in whatever category that puts me in making that argument, does that make me a theonomist?

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That's where you want to label me. Then who am I to argue? But I'm not sitting here attributing that to myself.

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I'm going to go on what the Bible says. Yeah. Same way when somebody labels me a Calvinist. You will not find any sermon or any video anywhere of me saying

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I am a Calvinist. Except me doing something like that right there. Right. The label is is really weighted.

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It comes with a lot of baggage. So I would rather just tell you, here's what

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I believe the Bible says. And if that happens to line up with one of these other isms or anomies, then so be it.

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I'm not going to argue it unless it's something that contradicts scripture. Yeah. Well, it doesn't sound like he was arguing, thankfully.

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But there's there's others out there who kind of, I don't know, jab you. Yeah. Well, that tweet that I got banned for.

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Oh, yeah. When I was saying these people deserve the death penalty, according to the Bible. And then I had people going, oh, you're a theonomist.

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Yeah. Well, you give me a better measure. Yeah. What do these people deserve? According to what? Like, what are you going to base this off of when a person sins?

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So they do specifically this sin. What should be the penalty for it? And what do you base that penalty off of? Yeah. But yeah,

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I got banned for I got banned from Twitter for saying what the Bible says. I'm still waiting for Elon to get me out of jail.

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Need another movement. That's right. All right, folks. Well, that's it. I got to go teach a class.

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Yes. So I got to go listen. Congratulations to Jeremy and to Walla Walla.

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No, sorry, Juanita. Walla Walla and Nancy. Juanita from Walla Walla and Nancy, who are picking up a copy of 25

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Christmas myths and what the Bible says. We're going to gift all of Walla Walla, Washington.

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Don't say that. Yeah, that's just you, Juanita. Yes. But thank you so much for sending your emails.

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And a reminder, once again, if you want to get an email to us, send it to when we understand the text at Gmail dot com is the best way to get a question for the broadcast.

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Let's pray. Yes, let's. Heavenly Father, we thank you for your goodness and your grace. The salvation that we have in Jesus Christ, our

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Lord, who died on the cross for our sins and rose again from the grave so that whoever believes in him will not perish under the judgment of God.

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But we will have everlasting life. We can wake up every single day rejoicing in you for this wonder of the gospel that you have delivered to us.

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We have so believed and so we are saved. And may we have the courage and the boldness to go out with the message of the gospel into this wicked, fallen world so that we may, as it says in Philippians two, shine as lights in the midst of a crooked and depraved generation holding fast to the word of life.

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After the election this past Tuesday, I know that a lot of people were disappointed with how things turned out.

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There's just so much wickedness in our culture. We can read in Psalm 10 about the wicked. His mouth is full of curses and deceit and oppression.

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Under his tongue is mischief and wickedness. But in verse 12, arise,

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O Yahweh, O God, lift up your hand. Do not forget the afflicted. Why has the wicked spurned

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God? He has said in his heart, you will not require it. You have seen it for you have beheld mischief and vexation to take it into your hand.

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The unfortunate commits himself to you. You have been the helper of the orphan.

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Break the arm of the wicked and the evildoer. Seek out his wickedness until you find none.

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Yahweh is king forever and ever. Nations have perished from his land.

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And so may we hold fast to your promises, Heavenly Father, knowing that you are king and nothing that has happened in this election or in any other election or or any other rule or authority in this world.

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None of those things have dethroned you or even shocked you. And so we continue to trust in the sovereignty of our

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God, knowing that you are working something out for our good and for your glory, even in the midst of these times.

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Come quickly, Lord Jesus, we pray in your name. Amen. Amen. And as the example

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I gave, I think it was in that episode on October 28th, like somebody could argue, well, what about bicycle laws?

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Because there are bicycles in the Bible. Well, you know, yeah, you can still make bicycle laws, but laws that are based on what we have in Scripture, not based on, you know, man having.

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Well, you know, I'll come up with my own ideas. Bicycles should not have more than two wheels.