WWUTT 2145 Q&A The Top 10 Favorite WWUTT Videos

The Questions People Pretend Are in the Bible

What do people pretend is in the Bible, but is absolutely not in the Bible? Do you have to go to church to be a Christian? What does the Bible say about praying in tongues, or women pastors, or how long a sermon should be?

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

This is When We Understand The Text, a daily Bible commentary to help encourage your time in the Word. Thank you for telling your friends about our ministry, and be sure to leave a review on whatever podcast service you like to use.

Here once again is Pastor Gabe.

Thank you, Becky.

You're welcome.

Ten years.

Ten.

Ten years.

Ten years.

Of 90 second what videos. And those have since expanded out into two minute videos. We've got some longer form videos in there. It actually began with the four and a half minute videos, but decided there were topics in there.

It didn't take as long to explain, so we did the 90 second thing.

Yeah.

And so for this episode, since we're celebrating 10 years, we're going to count down our favorite. Our favorite. What videos?

90 second. What videos?

Yeah. Our favorite of the short videos.

Yes.

Yes.

But not the shorts.

Not what? Oh, yeah, because I have the 10, 15 second ones in there. That's true. So not the short, short ones, but the short ones.

The little short ones.

Yes. The longer short ones.

Longer short. There we go.

That's what we're at. Typically.

Not to confuse anybody.

Typically on the Friday episode, we take questions from the listeners and you can send those questions to whenweunderstandthetext at gmail .com. We'll get back to those questions maybe next week. Email is the best way to get them to us.

Are you willing?

I take DMs. Sometimes I'll grab a comment under one of the videos.

But don't count on him remembering where that's at.

Exactly.

Yeah. Email's just the safest way.

Everything's streamlined in the email. That's right. So here we go. We're being a little selfish with this episode because this one's ours.

Just ours.

These are our picks.

So you guys get to know us just a little bit better.

Over 400 videos in 10 years.

Yes.

And we had to narrow this down to our 10 favorites.

Oh, my goodness. It was so tough. And even as we're like ranking them, I'm like,.

Just like them all. I like that one better than that one.

This could be an ever-changing list, of course.

Yes.

But this is what today, my favorites were.

And as we go through this list, we will be sharing some memories along the way. And also remembering the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ that has been given to us. Because that was the purpose of this from the very beginning, to find more ways to communicate the truth of God's word, recognizing the lack of biblical literacy even in the church today, and bringing us back to a correct understanding of what the Bible has to say.

So each one of those videos comes back to what scripture says, pointing us to Christ. And so here we go.

All right.

This is number 10. Oh, and when we do this, by the way, we're getting the whole family involved. So our children are going to count down these videos for us.

Yes.

And the voices that you hear shouting out each number is going to be from our kids.

Yes.

All right. Shall we get started?

Yeah.

Here we are. Someone asked this question on social media. What do people pretend is in the Bible, but is absolutely not in the Bible? The responses were mostly things that are in the Bible. Andre said firsthand accounts.

The entire New Testament is firsthand accounts. Second Peter 1 16 says we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. And John said in John 21 24, he was the author of John. Stewart said an explicit statement that scripture is the word of God.

Second Timothy 3 16 says all scripture is God breathed. And in John 10 35, Jesus called scripture the word of God. Chris said, if you don't work, you don't eat. See Second Thessalonians 3 10. Judith said an eye for an eye.

See Exodus 21 24. Shannon said the meaning of life. See Ecclesiastes 12 13. Kermit the Frog said that same sex sexuality is condemned. See Leviticus 20 13. Sam said any claim that there is only one God.

Oh, please. See Deuteronomy 4 35. Isaiah 45 5. And First Timothy 2 5. Lucy said the truth. But Peter said they deliberately overlook this fact. That the earth was created by the word of God. And by that same word, it will be destroyed.

Only by faith in the truth of Jesus Christ will you be saved. Jesus said the one who rejects me and does not receive my words has a judge. The word that I have spoken in the Bible will judge him on the last day.

What do people pretend is in the Bible but is absolutely not in the Bible? Their own opinion. When we understand the text. Now, I remember when I did that video, it was like a Saturday or something like that.

And it was this comment that was trending on Twitter. It was Twitter at the time. Now it's X.

Yes.

Twix, as we like to call it now.

Yes.

But it was from this guy, Guthrie Graves Fitzsimmons. And I can't remember who he is. He's like the president of some humanist league or something like that. And so he had this question that was going viral.

What do people pretend is in the Bible but is absolutely not in the Bible? So I just read through some of the responses and I made the video out of that. And it was one of those that I didn't really think was going to be that popular.

Okay.

Because I thought most of the responses were going to be, you know, what people were saying on Twitter. That the video wasn't going to be that watched. Because sometimes things that happen on Facebook or Twitter don't really translate well to YouTube.

Fair enough.

You know, YouTube is YouTube.

That's right.

But this turned out to be one of the most popular videos that I've ever done.

That was neat.

And was one of your favorites.

Yes, it was.

Because this was one that you picked. What did you like about that video?

Just how crazy it is that the truths that I can remember and recall that I know were in the Bible are the truths that they're saying. Is.

We're not there.

We're not there.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I know that was. The astonishing thing to me about most of those responses is like, guys, it's right there.

Yeah.

Like, I wouldn't be able to give you book or anything like that.

Chapter and verse.

Right.

Yeah.

But at the same time, I'm like, yeah, that's there. That is definitely there.

I know it's in there.

That was just astonishing. And I like to be reminded that the world just doesn't know.

And it doesn't revolve around me.

That might be it.

My opinion is not in there.

Yeah.

No joke.

It's the word of God, not the word of Gabe.

That's right.

All right.

So that was your first pick. This next one.

Not first pick.

Well, it's your first on this list.

Okay.

Number 10.

We're alternating. We're going back and forth here.

My fifth.

Your fifth. Right.

Yeah.

Because I picked five. You picked five.

Right.

And we have some extra ones we're going to throw in here, too. It's really more than just a top 10.

It is.

So this is mine. This would be my first selection, then coming in at number nine. Do I have to go to church to be a Christian? Though you may call yourself a Christian. If you don't go to church, you're probably going to hell.

What? No.

Church doesn't save anyone. You know, that thing about being in a garage doesn't make you a car. So going to church doesn't make you a Christian.

Sure.

But being a Christian means you're part of the body of Christ. And what is the body of Christ? Ephesians 5 23 says the body of Christ is the church. Jesus died on the cross for the sins of his people so they could be reconciled to God.

That word reconcile means to accept that which was not previously desired. Because of our sin, we did not desire God and he did not desire us in that state. But because he loves us, he sent his son to live and die in our place.

By faith in Jesus, we're made righteous in the eyes of a holy God. Titus 2 14 says he purified for himself a people for his own possession. And in so doing, he reconciled us not only to God, but to God's people.

In sin, we're far from God and against one another. But in Christ, we're one with his body and members of one another. Christian understand something. If you want to be with Christ, you will want to be with his body.

To be separate from the body is to be separate from Christ. If you don't want to be with his church, it's probably because you're still dead in your sins and you are not saved. Hebrews 10 25 says, do not neglect to meet together as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another and all the more as you see the day drawing near.

So be faithful to the body of Christ when we understand the text. It was our friend Nate Pickowitz who said that was the first video that he saw. And that made him go, oh, these videos are awesome.

Yeah.

Like he's not willing to pull punches there, right?

Yeah, that's a that's a tough one to swallow, too. Because I mean, you know, like you can hear the gospel. You can be receptive to it. You can read your Bible. But if you're not going to church.

Yeah.

If you don't want to be part of Christ's bride, you're not part of his body. You're separated from Christ.

Yeah.

And of course, that doesn't mean if you miss a Sunday, suddenly you've lost your faith.

Well, of course not.

As we have in our own confession at our church that, you know, unless providentially hindered.

Right.

We should want to be with the body of Christ. We should desire to be with Christ's people and praise God, building each other up in love, listening to the word preached. You can't practice the love one another's without one another.

Yeah.

I think you had mentioned this weekend about how you can't practice the fruit of the spirit. Because all of it has to do with one another.

Yeah.

You can't practice the fruit of the spirit without others to do the fruit of the spirit with.

Yeah.

Indeed.

But again, caveat, that does not mean shut ins or people who are not physically able to go.

Right.

That doesn't include them.

We need to go to them.

Right.

And as much as it's possible for the church to bring them to us.

Yes.

If you have the means and the ability to do so, and it's not going to, you know, harm the person to try to get them out of bed and bring them to church, then as much as you can accommodate, make sure people can get there.

So we're celebrating together in baptism and partaking in the Lord's table together and being able to love each other, celebrate with one another, following as said in Romans 12, rejoicing with those who rejoice and weeping with those who weep.

Yes.

This next one is your next pick.

Yeah.

My number four.

All right, here we go. In second Timothy four, two, the apostle Paul told Timothy to preach the word, but for how long? Obviously, Paul wanted Timothy to preach the scriptures until his dying day in season and out of season.

But how long should a pastor preach a sermon? According to Pew Research, the median length of most sermons is 37 minutes. Throughout church history, sermons might be shorter to over an hour. The Puritan preachers would preach for hours more.

In the Old Testament, the people would listen to preaching that would last all day. The book of the law would be read aloud. That's the book of Deuteronomy, which takes about three hours to read out loud.

Nehemiah 8, 8 says they read from the book from the law of God clearly, and they gave the sense so that the people understood the reading. That would have taken even longer in the New Testament. The Sermon on the Mount is the longest written sermon read aloud.

It takes about 15 to 20 minutes. In Luke 4, Jesus stood up in the synagogue and read Isaiah 61, 1 and 2. Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, sat down, and said, Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.

That would have taken barely 90 seconds. In Acts 20, Paul preached so long a young man named Eutychus fell asleep, literally tumbling out a third story window to his death. But Paul ran down and brought him back to life.

Note to some zealous preachers out there, you can't raise the dead. Do not try this at home. So how long should a sermon be? Let's say anywhere from a minute to before someone dies when we understand the text.

Okay, so that was your pick.

Yes.

The title of that video being How Long Should a Sermon Be? What did you like about that one?

It's just clever. I enjoyed it very much.

There were some puns in there.

There were a lot.

Some visual puns even that you probably wouldn't get unless you watched the video.

Yes.

You actually have to see the images to know some of those puns. Okay, so this next one's my pick and there's some memories behind this one as well. So let's play it and we'll let you know some of the backstory behind this particular video.

Father God, thank you for this heavenly language.

What you're hearing is commonly referred to as speaking in tongues, but it's not.

It's just gibberish.

Nowhere in the Bible are we told to pray like this. In fact, there's not one verse in the Bible that encourages praying in tongues. What about the book of Acts? Well, the gift of tongues was given to share the gospel so everyone could hear it in their own language.

What about 1 Corinthians 14? Well, it's there Paul says, if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays but my mind is unfruitful. What am I to do? I will pray with my spirit, but I will pray with my mind also.

He doesn't encourage praying in tongues. He's discouraging the practice. But verse 39 says don't forbid speaking in tongues.

Right.

And the context is to prophesy, not private prayer. What is the gift of tongues for? It is a sign not for believers, but for unbelievers to hear the gospel spoken in their own language. Read every passage on tongues with that understanding.

It's not a prayer language and it's especially not incoherent babbling. Jesus said, when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the pagans do. Pray then like this, our father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we have also forgiven our debtors and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Jesus prayed clear prayers and so should we when we understand the text.

Now, the backstory behind that video is that when we started, when we understand the text, I was still a continuous.

Yeah.

I still believe that you could be speaking in tongues or that somebody could miraculously heal someone else. It was a very, I had a mild charismaticism, but most of the churches that I attended from about, let's see, 1999 to 2009.

Uh-huh. So for those 10 years, I was in mostly charismatic churches. And then when I started, when I became a pastor in 2010 and I started when we understand the text, of course, our first videos would have been at the end of 2013.

And then our first 90 second videos were in 2014. During that period of time, I was still a continuous. And it was sometime around 2015 that I became convinced that this is not biblical. And it was a friend of mine actually who walked me through 1 Corinthians, because where I started was 1 Corinthians 14.

Well, according to this chapter, and he said, no, no, no, you don't have the right understanding of speaking in tongues. If you're starting in chapter 14 and reading out from there, you're not reading the text correctly.

Yes.

And that was a good reminder when we understand the text. So he took me through Acts and then through 1 Corinthians. And by the end of that three hour discussion, I was a cessationist. So that was the change that happened in the midst of my own pastoral ministry.

And then also in the videos that we did for when we understand the text, there was another video in there before that one, where I talked about how speaking in tongues was acceptable. And then that video was really the announcement, so to speak, that I had changed my views on this.

Yeah.

So what we call speaking in tongues is not the gibberish, or what scripture says speaking in tongues is.

Yes.

It's not speaking gibberish. It is actual human languages. As Christ prayed clear prayers, as we see throughout the New Testament that the apostles prayed clear prayers.

Yes.

Then that's the way we should pray.

Yeah.

There's really not a reason or an excuse to pray things that neither you understand nor anyone else who is around you. You ever prayed in tongues before?

Um, that I went once with a friend, um, in, I think it was in high school.

Or believed you had prayed in tongues before. I should probably put it that way.

Yeah. No.

So she told me how to, and I was like, this is odd. And it was just so uncomfortable.

Yeah.

Like you can force yourself to do it.

Yeah.

It just didn't, it didn't flow for me. And I'm, I'm thinking the whole time that I'm speaking something over and over and over again, it never changed. So it wasn't like I was speaking a language. It was just repetitive.

But in my mind, I'm still speaking English and repeating whatever, or not repeating, but saying whatever my prayer is. I'm like, why, why am I doing this extra work?

Why not just pray what I want to pray?

Yeah.

So, so I gave it up very quickly. I think it was all within the span of maybe two minutes.

Well, it's in the book of James where it says you do not have because you do not ask.

Yeah.

Of course, because you've been praying nonsense. So that's why.

Yeah.

That's why the Lord is not giving to you. So yeah, this is, this is not the model of prayer that scripture gives to us. This, this speaking gibberish, articulate clear prayers. And if you don't know what to pray, pray the scriptures.

A Public Prayer for Congress and the Meaning of Amen

This next one is, is one of your picks.

Yes.

There's a great joke in here. I got to give credit where credit is due. So I'm going to say where the joke came from in this particular video.

Okay.

Here we go. On the opening day of the 117th United States Congress, representative Emanuel Cleaver got up to pray. And that's when this happened.

May the Lord lift up the light of his countenance upon us and give us peace, peace in our families, peace across this land. And dare I ask O Lord peace, even in this chamber now and evermore. We ask it in the name of the monotheistic God, Brahma and God known by many names by many different faiths.

Amen. And a woman.

Yup.

He just said, amen. And a woman as if amen is a gendered word. Amen means so be it. A woman means nothing unless he's singing a Michael Bolton song. And this was a prayer to Brahma, the Hindu God, not the true God of the Bible.

Romans 1 21 says, although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking and their foolish hearts were darkened. Hence concluding a prayer with a man and a woman.

This is the blasphemous pagan religion of the left who want to force everyone to bow to their sex gods and pay for their child sacrifices. They have the audacity to stand before Congress and pray for peace.

When their hands are full of innocent blood. We read in 2 John 1 9, that everyone who does not abide in the teaching of Christ does not have God. Whoever abides in the teaching has both the father and the son.

When we understand the text. I'm sure it's the Michael Bolton references. The reason why, the reason why you picked that one. And I have to give credit where credit is due. It was actually Anonymous, our friend, Kevin.

Oh yeah.

The anonymous cow who made that joke on social media. And when I saw him say that, I was like, oh, that's going in a video. That's just too good.

Well done.

Well done.

He has the greatest puns too.

Oh yes. Maybe we should do like a, we should get him on and just have like a pun war sometime. Used to be on the, uh, the theology driven podcast, which is defunct. It doesn't exist anymore.

I'm sad about that.

It was a great podcast. I enjoyed that one.

Yeah.

So sometime we'll, we'll just get him on here just for fun.

Yeah.

Just for laughs.

Now in light of that video, this is an evergreen instruction here in first Timothy chapter two, where the apostle Paul says, first of all, then I exhort that petitions and prayers, requests and thanksgivings be made for all men, for Kings and all who are in authority so that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity.

This is good and acceptable in the sight of God, our savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the full knowledge of the truth. So be in prayer for our governing officials.

Amen.

False Signs and Wonders in the New Apostolic Reformation

This next video is, I guess this one's my pick that we got up next year.

Yeah.

Ah, yes.

Okay.

I remember this one. Now I have to look at my own list. I don't remember what I chose. Bethel church in Redding, California, manipulates audiences by piping in fog through the ventilation system, calling it glory clouds, an actual manifestation of the Holy Spirit.

It's not, it's a fog machine. They do this with gold dust and feathers to saying they're actual angel feathers. Todd White goes up to some people on the street and says the Holy Spirit is telling him.

One of them has back problems. He does this gag with their feet showing one leg is longer than the other. Then he prays to God and makes it look like God is growing out their leg to even it with the other.

One.

He's literally pulling their leg. These men are lying, manipulative charlatans. But I repeat myself yet. When you try to call them heretics, they have staunch defenders. No, they preach the gospel. They keep the main thing.

The main thing. Yeah, they really don't. But let's for the sake of argument, say they did all this with the glory clouds and street magic. They call the Holy Spirit. Do you really think God is okay with that?

How is that not taking his name in vain? These men do not love the truth. They oppose it. Corrupt magicians who are disqualified regarding the faith. Jesus said that we're to worship God in spirit and truth.

The Bible says to share the truth in love. If it isn't true, it isn't loving. Paul said to the Corinthians, we have renounced disgraceful, underhanded ways. We refuse to practice cunning or tamper with God's word.

But by the open statement of the truth, we'd commend ourselves to everyone's conscience in the sight of God. There's no question Bethel Church, Todd White, and others that do what they do are false teachers.

We're to have nothing to do with them when we understand the text. And that's a great deal of the new apostolic reformation, using those tricks and gimmicks and cons in order to manipulate people, avoid them at all cost.

Now, it was making that particular video that led to a bit of graffiti on Bethel Church's campus.

Yeah.

I'm going to try to recall this story as best I can, because this was seven years ago.

It was.

So I don't know that I remember.

Yeah.

Apparently, there's this big rock on Bethel's campus. And I think it's at their school of supernatural ministry, the Christian Hogwarts.

Yes.

It's not really Christian. So the charismatic Hogwarts, maybe call it that way. They had this rock where you could write prayers on it or draw prayers or paint prayers. So people would inscribe things on this big stone.

And somebody on this campus, it was either somebody who came out of the ministry, or it was somebody who was doing ministry on the Bethel campus, trying to share the gospel with those who had been manipulated by Bethel's ministry.

They painted the entire rock with when we understand the text.

Right.

And it had www .tt .com on it. Now, my understanding is that they got in trouble for that.

Yeah.

I don't condone doing anything illegal. Don't graffiti what on stuff, at least not illegally. You get somebody's permission to put a big mural up of when we understand the text, www .tt .com. I'm all in favor of that.

That'd be awesome.

But don't be breaking the law to do something like that. So my understanding is they got in trouble for it, and they had to repaint the rock or something like this. But I still would have wanted to interview the perpetrators and ask, like, what would have been wrong with that?

If the point of the rock is to put on it, whatever you want to put on it, then what was wrong with painting the whole thing with www .tt .com?

I don't know.

I don't know the rules of it.

I was notified of it. An email was sent to us, and I had a meeting with my elders about it. And we made a decision that we weren't going to say anything positive or negative about it publicly because we didn't know the details.

Right.

But it was still one of those stories. I'm going to cherish that one. I'm going to hold on to that one and always remember that video was connected to that. Now, something that was done perfectly legally is there was a fellow in the Southeast who had a monster truck.

Oh, yeah.

And he put the What logo on his monster truck.

Yes.

Loved it.

That was awesome.

We got to meet him at one of the G3 conferences.

We did.

And he showed us a picture of it. That was fantastic.

It's so cool.

Another memory I'm going to hold on to.

Okay.

So that so far, what have we gone through? We've been through five videos, six videos.

Yes.

So that's 10 through five. We're going to pause right here before we get to our top two. My top two choices, your top two choices.

Right.

And these are our favorite Christmas videos.

Yes.