September 20, 2019 Show with Dr. Norman De Jong on “Esther: The God Who Is Silent Is Still Sovereign”

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Live from the historic parsonage of the 19th century gospel minister George Norcross in downtown

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Carlisle, Pennsylvania, it's Iron Sharpens Iron. This is a radio platform in which pastors,

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Christian scholars, and theologians address the burning issues facing the church and the world today.

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Proverbs chapter 27 verse 17 tells us, Iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.

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Matthew Henry said that in this passage, we are cautioned to take heed with whom we converse and directed to have in view in conversation to make one another wiser and better.

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It is our hope that this goal will be accomplished over the next two hours and we hope to hear from you, the listener, with your own questions and now here's your host,

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Chris Arnzen. Good afternoon,

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Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, Lake City, Florida, and the rest of humanity living on the planet Earth who are listening via live streaming at IronSharpensIronRadio .com.

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This is Chris Arnzen, your host of Iron Sharpens Iron Radio, wishing you all a happy Friday on this 20th day of September, 2019, and I'm thrilled to have on the program, at the request of Reformed Fellowship, a brother who

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I have not yet interviewed who I am really looking forward to interviewing. His name is Dr.

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Norman DeYoung, although if you look him up on the internet, it would be spelled as if you were pronouncing it

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DeJong, D -E, new word, J -O -N -G, Norman DeYoung.

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And we are going to be discussing his book, Esther, The God Who Is Silent Is Still Sovereign, and Dr.

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DeYoung has served as professor of Christian education at Dort College and Trinity College and is an ordained minister in the

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Orthodox Presbyterian Church and author of numerous books and his latest book on Esther, which is a

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Reformed Fellowship Bible study, is our discussion today and it's my honor and privilege to welcome you for the first time ever to Iron Sharpens Iron Radio, Norman DeYoung.

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Thank you very much, happy to be with you. It's great to be with you too, Dr. DeYoung, and let me give our listeners our email address right away in the event that they have questions for us.

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Our email address is ChrisArnzen at gmail .com, C -H -R -I -S -A -R -N -Z -E -N at gmail .com.

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As always, please give us at least your first name, your city and state, and your country of residence if you live outside the

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USA. Please only remain anonymous if your question involves a personal and private matter.

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Before we go into the theme of your book, Esther, The God Who Is Silent Is Still Sovereign, we have a tradition here on Iron Sharpens Iron Radio whenever we have a first time guest, we would like you to give a summary of your salvation testimony, which would include the kind of religious atmosphere you were raised in, if any, and what providential circumstances our

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Lord raised up in your life that drew you to himself and saved you. Well, that covers a bit of ground.

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I can refer back to the time when I was in grade school. As an 8th grade graduate,

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I was asked to give a little speech as a valedictorian, and I, at that point in my life already, was firmly convinced that I was a believer, that I belonged to Jesus Christ.

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I was raised in a very strong, positive Christian home. My parents, my grandparents, my descendants for a long ways down were all believers, and I continued that.

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I wanted already at that time in my life to become a minister of the gospel. Wow. A lot of things happened in between, some of which were interesting, some of which were unusual, but it wasn't until I was 58 years old,

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I had been a professor at Trinity Christian College for 13 years, a variety of circumstances convinced me that it was time to go off to seminary and become a pastor.

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Wow, that's kind of late in life. Yes, late in life. I was older than all my professors.

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Wow. You sound like my friend Pastor Tony Vega. Do you know

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Pastor Vega? No, I don't. Oh yeah, he entered into the ministry older in life.

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He is a PCA pastor these days, and also, who comes to mind, a brother who is with the

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Lord right now. I'm sorry, I said Tony Vega. His name is Lou Vega. Apologies to Lou Vega for calling you

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Tony. Okay. Lou Vega is from Cuban descent.

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In fact, his family fled Castro's communist Cuba right before it became overwhelmingly dangerous and deadly.

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The other brother that I was mentioning, who is with the Lord now, Orthodox Presbyterian pastor,

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Dr. Robert J. Cameron. I don't know if you ever knew or met. No, that name is not familiar to me.

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Dr. Cameron, at the time, I don't know how many African American pastors the

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Orthodox Presbyterian Church has now, but he was one of only two, I believe, when he switched from the

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PCA to the OPC. He entered into the ministry originally in the

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Reformed Episcopal Church. When he was an older man in his late 40s, I believe, maybe early 50s, he had owned a trucking business.

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And he believed the Lord was calling him to enter into the ministry, and that's what he did.

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But I'm sorry that I sidetracked your own testimony, so forgive me for that.

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Well, going back from the time that I graduated from college, I had really focused on becoming a

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Christian school teacher. I had been raised in Christian schools. My family tradition was solidly for Christian schools.

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And I felt called to become a school administrator and then a professor training teachers.

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So I was privileged to write some books, Education in the

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Truth, Teaching for a Change, which are still in print and which are translated into other languages.

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So I felt I was doing something good in the kingdom. But I was also always leading

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Bible studies. From the earliest time, I wanted to get into the

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Scriptures and understand what God's Word was saying. So I had been leading

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Bible studies in different churches, different groups, teaching young people.

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And it was natural for me then to finally say, all right, the Lord has opened the door so I can actually go off to seminary and become a pastor.

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It's a long, strange route, but I'm very comfortable with it.

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Well, praise God. Well, I'm going to read an endorsement from H.

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David Scheringa, who is the Christian Renewal Magazine contributor and North Star Ministry consultant.

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He is, or should I say, he has written a really powerful commendation for your book.

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Dr. Norm D. Young does it again. And his venerable experience as a professor and minister continues to shine through in this compact study of Esther.

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Debunking popular ideas about the book, he skillfully guides the reader through an analysis, yet comparing

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Scripture with Scripture, that uncovers true and creative insights. His engaging prose arouses irresistible curiosity as to the suspense, purpose, and meaning of this unique book of the

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Bible, one that contains no direct reference to God, but distinctively proclaims good news.

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D. Young reveals such, not only with respect to the unexpected and surprising workings of divine providence for God's people in dark captivity back then, but also for the church living in a pitch -black culture on this side of the cross.

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Discussion questions follow each chapter to facilitate a reader's or group's mindful processing and heartfelt appropriation of each movement in this enthralling episode of redemptive history.

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That's quite a powerful endorsement. David has been thanked for that.

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He was for a long time the director of Crossroads Prison Ministries.

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And he's very knowledgeable. I really appreciate very much that kind of an endorsement.

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Well, you mentioned the prison ministry. Let me just take a quick moment to announce to our listeners something that they might find fascinating.

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On Monday, October 7th, I'm actually, for the very first time ever, interviewing a prison inmate from his prison cell, or from a room somewhere in the prison.

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He is spending a life sentence for murder, and he was in a cult when he was participating in that murder, and is now a born -again

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Christian. And not only that, while in prison, he earned his doctorate in theology. So his name is

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Ron Luff. He has written a book called Faith Gone Astray, in reference to the cult that he once belonged to.

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But since you just mentioned the prison ministry, that just popped into my head, and I thought that might be interesting to some of our listeners.

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Well, I have been involved in prison ministry one way or another since 1987, a long time ago.

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And I have encountered a number of very, very godly people in prisons who are just being transformed by the

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Word of God. Amen. And it is such a tremendous mission field.

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God works in mysterious ways sometimes, but back in March of this year,

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I had an opportunity to give a lecture in a prison in Florida, because one of the prisoners there had been reading my

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Esther book, and had made some contacts so that I was invited.

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And the number of men that showed up there for that lecture was just amazing.

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And they were the most godly men I had met in a long time. Beautiful, beautiful ministry.

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Wow. Praise God. And by the way, I want you to explain to our listeners what

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Reformed Fellowship is, or who Reformed Fellowship is. Well, Reformed Fellowship goes back to 1951.

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And if you have at all any familiarity with the Christian Reformed denomination,

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Yes. I was raised in that. So was my wife. So was my whole family.

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But in 1950s, early 1950s, there was a controversy brewing, especially at the seminary in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

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And there were two strains, or two sides, sort of competing with each other.

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There was a progressive or liberal side that published the

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Reformed Journal. But there was also a conservative side that said, no, we can't go that way, we have to stick to the text of Scripture.

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And that was the group that is Reformed Fellowship. So since 1951, they have been defending the biblical faith and hoping that the

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Church would stay true to it. Yes, it's a tragedy to see what happened to the Christian Reformed denomination, although there are, or is, is a better way of phrasing it, there is a remnant of biblically faithful folks there in ministry and in congregations who are members.

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And my friend, Dr. Joel Niederhood, who's been a guest on this program, was, or is, a holdout.

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He's holding on fast, remaining in that denomination, but many have gone into other denominations due to the liberalism that seems to have overwhelmed the denomination, although not completely, as I said.

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And many have joined the United Reformed Church of North America and other denominations. Is Reformed Fellowship still within the

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CRC? Not really. They are not a denominational organization.

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They're what you would call parachurch. They publish the Outlook magazine.

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They are, some of them are members of the United Reformed. Some of them are the solid

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Christian Reformed people who are staying in the denomination and sort of fighting to preserve it.

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There are others who are Orthodox Presbyterian. I've been writing for them now for about four years, every issue, and I've been

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Orthodox Presbyterian along with a number of others. So it cuts across denominational lines, but it's committed to biblical interpretation.

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Well, before I forget, a friend of yours sends his greetings, Pastor Bill Shishko of the

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Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Franklin Square. He was thrilled to hear that I was interviewing you today, and he said, please send my regards to Norman DeYoung, and he refers to you as a delightful brother.

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Well, thank you, Bill. I know him well. But you mentioned Joel Naderhood.

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Joel Naderhood is a godly man that I have had a wonderful relationship with ever since I became pastor in the

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OP. In fact, we were able to start a new congregation in Portland Park, Illinois, and whenever I had to be gone,

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I would call Joel and ask if he could possibly fill the pulpit. And he did a number of times.

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What a gifted brother. Yes, yes. And by the way, Bill Shishko's specific phrase for you is that you are a gem.

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Oh, you make me blush. Sorry. Well, we thank the

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Lord for Bill Shishko and his new church plant that he is overseeing.

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It is called The Haven in Deer Park, Long Island, New York, and it is under the oversight of the

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Orthodox Presbyterian Church denomination, and specifically the Bohemia Orthodox Presbyterian Church.

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And they sponsor this program, and they are a client of mine, actually, for a program of their own that Bill hosts a visit to the pastor's study.

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Oh! I am quite thrilled and blessed by my long -time friendship with Pastor Bill Shishko that goes back to the 1980s when he was a fairly new pastor at the

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Orthodox Presbyterian Church of Franklin Square, Long Island. Yes. Well, this book,

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Esther, is a controversial book, and even as David Scheringa mentions – by the way, am

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I pronouncing his name correctly? Scheringa. Scheringa. Well, as he even said, you debunk myths or false ideas about this book.

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Why was it, first of all, your mission to write a book on Esther? Oh, simply because the

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Reformed Fellowship Board asked me to. Okay. I had done a series for them in the magazine of The Outlook on Ezra, and that ran for about a year and a couple of months, and then they said, why don't you follow that right up with Nehemiah?

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Well, okay, sure. I had never done Nehemiah, but I enjoyed that and produced another series of articles for them.

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We got finished with that, and they said, well, why don't you go right on and do Esther? It's the next book in the

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Bible. Oh, excuse me? I don't really know anything about Esther.

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I'll have to do some research and get back to you. So, I spent quite a bit of time in prayer, quite a bit of time trying to figure out, how do

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I approach that book? Knowing that Martin Luther said, it doesn't belong in the

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Bible. You ought to get rid of it. I had read through it casually, but I had never really probed in depth of it.

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So, I finally said, alright, give me time and I will put together a proposal as to how

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I want to approach it. And they said, alright. So, the first chapter in the book, which is the introduction, is really my proposal to their

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Lord. And I started out there by saying, Esther is a part of the

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Old Testament. It's part of the Word of God. So, if it's

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God's Word, it's true. And it has a very specific purpose for being there.

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Esther is also an historical book. And you have to treat it as history.

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I had my background, my college major in history. I did a master's in American history.

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My doctorate was in history of education. So, as a historian, I said,

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I have to figure out where this book fits. When I started doing a chronology,

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I found out, you know, Esther doesn't follow Nehemiah. It comes before Ezra, and it comes immediately after the book of Daniel.

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What? You know, chronologically, you have to place it. The Bible isn't organized.

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The Old Testament, especially, is not organized chronologically. So, I approached it that way, and I said, okay,

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I need to construct a chronology that takes me all the way from the time of Isaiah, who is prophesying about Cyrus.

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Take that and put it all the way through the time of Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther.

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Once I presented that to them, to the board, they said, that sounds very good.

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Full speed ahead. So, I got pushed into it, but I delighted with the book once I got into it.

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Praise God. It's a fascinating book. Well, can you tell us, there are a wide range of people who listen to Iron Trip and Zion Radio.

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There are probably the majority, judging by at least the correspondence I received, the majority would be studious

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Reformed Christians, and even pastors, and even seminary professors, and so on.

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But there are not only brand new believers. There are people who

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I would guess are unregenerate, but the Lord is drawing them. There are people in other religions outside of Christianity.

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We have Muslims that occasionally contact me. There are members of groups that we would call cults that sometimes contact me.

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Roman Catholics, and Eastern Orthodox, and a wide range of people outside of the

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Christian faith. So, let's try to be as clear as possible about some of the things that Christians might take for granted, or basics.

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Like, for instance, could you start with, who was Esther? And why was she such a prominent figure that we have this book in the canon called

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The Book of Esther? Well, Esther, this may sound strange, but Esther is a crooked stick that God uses to draw a straight line.

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There are a lot of people who think of Esther as this beautiful, ravishingly beautiful queen of Persia who saves

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God's people from extermination. That's not really the right picture.

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If you're going to understand Esther, you have to see it against the background of the book of Daniel.

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I had studied Daniel for a number of times. I had presented Bible studies,

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I would guess, maybe 8 -10 times to different church groups. Daniel is a favorite of mine because it so clearly and so powerfully brings the message of God's sovereignty.

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God's sovereignty comes all through the book of Daniel. And Daniel and his friends are truly

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God -fearing young men. They're eunuchs. They've been castrated to serve in Nebuchadnezzar's empire.

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But they will not do anything to violate God's law. And then

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God deals with them in such marvelous ways. God presents, through the book of Daniel, a number of appearances of the pre -incarnate

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Christ. He shows up there in Nebuchadnezzar's dream as the rock cut out of the mountain, not by human hands.

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He shows there in the fiery furnace as the fourth person. He shows up many times, so the book of Daniel is very messianic.

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Now, that is the book immediately preceding, chronologically preceding, the time of Esther.

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And then you have to see Esther against that backdrop and you see tremendous contrast.

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Esther is completely contrasted with the book of Daniel. There is no reference to God.

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There is no time for prayer. There is no sign of repentance. There is a totally secular picture.

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You can read the book of Esther as though it were a secular novel. And some people do.

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They're fascinated by this beautiful woman and they make all kinds of stories about this beautiful queen.

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I've heard a series of sermons that said, no, the book of Esther must have pictures of Jesus Christ in it.

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Let's find it. And then they fabricate pictures from the book of Esther which have no resemblance to reality.

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Then I say, okay, why is this book in the Bible? What is there about Esther that makes it important?

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God obviously has it there for a reason. And then I start asking that question.

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No other book in the Bible makes any reference to Esther, to Mordecai, to Haman, to Purim, the feast.

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The rest of Scripture is totally silent about all of those things. And yet it sits there.

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The book of Esther sits like a sore thumb, just waiting to be analyzed.

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So that was part of the challenge. Now, I didn't really answer the question that you asked, but I'm hoping that I can be true to the text, that I can give an honest, accurate explanation about this book.

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We do have a listener, Susan Margaret in Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, who asks,

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Is one of the reasons that Esther was doubted to be truly divinely inspired that there is no mention directly of God himself in the book?

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That is the argument that's often used. There is no reference to God.

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There is no reference to prayer. There are no prophets that God sends to rebuke or to chastise or to teach the people.

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On the surface of it, it's a fascinating novel. It reads like a novel.

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There are all kinds of interesting twists and turns. There are sections that I call an absolute literary delicacy.

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The writer of Esther is doing something that is very skillful, but with no reference to God, no prayer, no repentance, no prophets coming.

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Yes, that's why a number of people say it doesn't belong there. Now, in contrast to that, the

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Jewish people think of Esther as one of the most important books in the

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Bible. And they are required to read and study Esther every year if they want to be classified as an

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Orthodox Jew. At the same time, the

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Jews tend to hate the book of Daniel.

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Because Daniel is all about Jesus Christ. All these pictures, these messianic pictures of the pre -incarnate

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Christ are an offense to Jews. The book of Daniel is so in the face of the

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Jews that they react in anger to it. But Esther is their great hero.

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She saved the Jewish people. And my reaction to them would be,

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Esther didn't save anybody. God did. Amen. By the way, we have another listener.

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Oh, before I forget, Susan Margaret, you've won a free copy of Esther, The God Who Is Silent Is Still Sovereign.

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I love that subtitle, by the way. That is probably the best subtitle of a book that I've ever seen in print.

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But make sure we have your full mailing address so that CVBBS, Cumberland Valley Bible Book Service, CVBBS .com,

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so that they can ship it out to you. And we want to thank, again, Reformed Fellowship, Inc.

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for providing us with these three copies. And we have a listener,

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CJ in Lindenhurst, Long Island, New York, who asks, I hope this is not too far afield from what you were discussing today, but wanted to respond to what you just said about the

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Orthodox Jews hating the book of Daniel. Is it true, or is it just folklore or urban legend that Orthodox Jews do not read

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Isaiah 53 in the synagogue? I'm totally ignorant of that.

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I just do not have enough knowledge of Jewish practice to answer that question. Okay. Well, we thank you,

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CJ, for that question. And of course, since it's a Messianic prophecy, people have said that the

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Jews try to do a lot of eisegesis in order to make it not point to Christ.

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But I'll have to do some further investigation myself. I have heard that myself, but I don't know 100 % if it's true or not.

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CJ, you're getting a free copy of the book as well, so make sure we have your full mailing address.

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We're going to our first break right now. And if anybody else has a question, our email address is chrisarnson at gmail dot com.

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chrisarnson at gmail dot com. And as always, please give us your first name, your city and state, and your country of residence if you live outside the

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USA. Only remain anonymous if your question involves a personal and private matter. Don't go away.

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We'll be right back after these messages with more of Norman DeYoung and the book of Esther.

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It's great to see him there. You and I actually did some recordings in the lobby at that place.

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today. Thank you, Daniel P. Buttafuoco, attorney at law, for your faithful support of Iron Sharpens Iron Radio.

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Hi, this is John Sampson, pastor of King's Church in Peoria, Arizona.

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Taking a moment of your day to talk about Chris Arnson and the Iron Sharpens Iron podcast. I consider

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Chris a true friend and a man of high integrity. He's a skilled interviewer who's not afraid to ask the big penetrating questions while always defending the key doctrines of the

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Christian faith. I've always been happy to point people to this podcast knowing it's one of the very few safe places on the internet where folk won't be led astray.

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I believe this podcast needs to be heard far and wide. This is a day of great spiritual compromise, and yet God has raised

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Chris up for just such a time. And knowing this, it's up to us as members of the body of Christ to stand with such a ministry in prayer and in finances.

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I'm pleased to do so, and would like to ask you to prayerfully consider joining me in supporting

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Iron Sharpens Iron financially. Would you consider sending either a one -time gift or even becoming a regular monthly partner with this ministry?

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I know it would be a huge encouragement to Chris if you would. All the details can be found at ironsharpensironradio .com

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where you can click support. That's ironsharpensironradio .com As host of Iron Sharpens Iron Radio, I frequently get requests from listeners for church recommendations.

39:30

A church I've been strongly recommending as far back as the 1980s is Grace Covenant Baptist Church in Flemington, New Jersey, pastored by Alan Dunn.

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Grace Covenant Baptist Church believes it's God's prerogative to determine how he shall be worshipped and how he shall be represented in the world.

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They believe churches need to turn to the Bible to discover what to include in worship and how to worship

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Or call them at 908 -996 -7654 That's 908 -996 -7654

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Tell Pastor Dunn that you heard about Grace Covenant Baptist Church on Iron Sharpens Iron Radio.

41:02

Welcome back. This is Chris Arnzen. If you just tuned us in, our guest today on Iron Sharpens Iron Radio for the full two hours with a little less than an hour to go is

41:12

Dr. Norman DeYoung, and we are discussing his book, Esther, The God Who Is Silent Is Still Sovereign.

41:20

And before I go to a listener question, we just have greetings to you,

41:27

Dr. DeYoung, from Myron Rao, the president of Reformed Fellowship, or president of the

41:35

Reformed Fellowship Board. And Myron Rao says, Thanks to Dr. DeYoung for so nicely explaining what

41:42

Reformed Fellowship is. We much appreciate our relationship with Dr. DeYoung and how the

41:47

Lord continues to use him even in his advanced years. So, thank you very much, Myron, for a wonderful tribute to our guest today.

41:57

Thank you, Myron. We have Grady from Asheboro, North Carolina, who is one of the most loyal listeners to Iron Sharpens Iron Radio and a very generous contributor to this program financially.

42:13

Grady asks, Who is credited for writing Esther? About what time period in Jewish history was it written?

42:23

Well, the authorship of Esther is very much in doubt.

42:29

St. Augustine, living around 400 A .D.,

42:36

came to the conclusion that Ezra was the author of Esther.

42:43

And part of the reason he came to that conclusion is because the books of 1 and 2

42:49

Chronicles are about the same time period and include a lot of information that corroborates what

42:59

Esther is about. And then the writing style in 1 and 2

43:06

Chronicles is also very similar to that in Esther. And I have a strong hunch that that's true.

43:18

Ezra is living at about the very same time as Esther.

43:23

The same is true for Nehemiah. So they are writing during the time around 450 years before Christ.

43:35

The people of God, the Jews, are no longer under Babylonian captivity.

43:42

They are now living in the Persian Empire. And the Persian Empire goes from 539

43:49

B .C. up until about 330 B .C.

43:55

when the Greeks take over. So in that period of time, Ezra is a very skillful historian.

44:05

He's also one of the best Bible teachers at the time in history.

44:10

And he is writing about all the events surrounding

44:16

Esther. But in his own book, in the book of Ezra, he never once mentions it.

44:24

Even though he lived during the time of Esther's reign, he knew Mordecai well.

44:30

He knew all about Haman and about Purim. So it's a mystery, but I'm inclined to believe that Ezra is the author of Esther.

44:43

But don't put too much money on it. Are Orthodox Presbyterians permitted to gamble?

44:55

We have a listener in Cork, Ireland.

45:02

We have Mary in Cork, Ireland, who has a question or series of questions.

45:07

I have to enlarge the font of her email because it is very microscopic.

45:12

Okay, it says, Hello, brothers. Isn't it interesting, first of all, how

45:20

Haman is a descendant of the Amalekites and Mordecai a descendant of Saul, and so the same old conflict arises once again.

45:31

As I can see that, although God's name is not mentioned in the book of Esther, his fingerprints are seen all over it.

45:39

I have learned that God has strategically placed this book in the canon between two exiles, the first in 538

45:49

B .C. and Ezra's return, 458 B .C. As after the book of Malachi, there will be 400 years of silence where there will be no direct word from God until John the

46:02

Baptist will announce the coming of the Lamb of God. Therefore, God, by an act of His mercy and grace, is preparing them for this time of silence.

46:11

It will be a time of persecution where the Jews will be attacked, the temple desecrated, and the empires will resist and oppose them, but the people will have the scriptures and be able to look back and remember this time of history and see how

46:24

God was there all the time with His people moving behind the scenes. They will recall God's providential acts in Esther while they wait for the next message to be given.

46:34

It will give them assurance that God will protect them as He is greater than any empire, and despite all opposition,

46:42

He will save them. They will be able to take great encouragement from the book of Esther. Sorry if this is very long, but what are your thoughts on this?

46:51

Sounds like Mary could write her own commentary on Esther. Mary has it very straight, and she has a good chronology there.

47:03

Malachi is a prophet of God at the very same time as Nehemiah.

47:10

Nehemiah is sent to Jerusalem by Artaxerxes, the king of Persia, in order to rebuild the city and to repopulate the city.

47:23

Malachi comes there in a real sense as a critical or a prosecuting attorney and says, you people, you're really not worshipping

47:33

God the way you want to. And I'm warning you, the

47:40

Messiah is coming, and He's going to come like a fuller's soul.

47:45

He's going to come with a great deal of difficulty for you. You have to shape up.

47:53

So Mary has it straight. I appreciate very much her comments. I have no criticism of it.

48:02

My only criticism is I think Mary's showing off. You might say that.

48:12

Just kidding, Mary. That was very insightful and quite brilliant. And perhaps you should write your own commentary.

48:19

Just one other thing I would add to Mary. The idea of God's sovereignty runs all through history.

48:28

It comes through so powerfully in the book of Daniel. And then immediately after it, it seems as though it's not on the surface.

48:38

But God's hand is there in every one of these events. I marvel, and Mary probably knows this too, that the casting of the prayer is controlled by God in such a way that it matches up almost perfectly with the dates for the

48:58

Passover. Come to the

49:28

United States or he can mail it out to you. Just to explain to our listeners, we typically do not send, or should

49:36

I say CVBBS, Cumberland Valley Bible Book Service, typically does not ship books to our listeners who are overseas because the shipping costs when they would be mounted up would be astronomical because we have a lot of listeners overseas and in Canada.

49:57

So please forgive us, those of you who live overseas who want to write in and win a free book, but we just can't do it.

50:04

This is an exception because Mary has a relative here in the United States. Anyway, if you could, before we go to our midway break, which is the longer than normal break, could you break down in summary form the main things that Christians should glean, should exegete, should learn from the book of Esther and in summary form, and then when we come back after the midway break you could provide more detail for those main points.

50:38

Okay. One of the things that lies sort of beneath the surface is what

50:45

Abraham Kuyper called the Great Antithesis. The conflict between God and Satan is present throughout history and it is magnified here in the story of Esther because you have two primary characters who are in conflict with each other.

51:09

They're the primary combatants. Haman on one side, Mordecai on the other side.

51:16

And Haman goes all the way back to King Agag, the king of the

51:23

Amalekites, who pestered and harassed the Jews on their return from Egypt as they were traveling through the wilderness.

51:35

The Amalekites were there picking off the weak and the children and the women at the end of that big caravan.

51:43

At the same time, God gives very specific instructions to King Saul and says,

51:52

Saul, you are my servant. You have to destroy that tribe. I am so angry at them because of what they did to my people and you must kill every one of that tribe including

52:04

King Agag. And Saul foolishly says,

52:10

Oh, I'm going to spare King Agag. I can't kill him. The amazing thing in scripture when you read through the story in Samuel is that Samuel the prophet himself packs

52:26

King Agag to death. Now that's the background of Haman and every time you read about Haman you have his full name there and the recollection that he is a descendant of the

52:41

Amalekites. And then Mordecai, on the other hand, is a descendant of Saul, son of Kish.

52:51

So those are the combatants. But that theme of conflict, that theme of warfare between God and his people,

53:01

God and his enemies, is so strong when you see it. And then you have to recognize that this finally comes to a culmination when

53:13

Haman's edict allowing the Persians to kill all of the

53:19

Jews in the whole empire, men, women, and children, and then take all of their goods, all of their wealth, all of their possessions for themselves.

53:32

That conflict becomes so powerful that if that happens,

53:38

God's people, his special chosen people, will be totally wiped off history and you would have all the descendants and descendants of Christ missing.

53:51

You would have a big part of Scripture that wouldn't be there. God himself intervenes at that day when the edict is to be carried out.

54:02

There are 75 ,810 Persian enemies of God who are killed basically in two days, and not one

54:16

Israelite, not one Jew dies. Esther says, we have to celebrate our great victory.

54:25

She should be saying, God has spared us. Let's bow before him.

54:32

Let's worship him. She doesn't. Esther foolishly says, let's have a big feast and call it the

54:39

Feast of Purim. Let's celebrate how we... No, you didn't. God did it.

54:48

That's... Did you just swat a fly or something?

54:54

I just heard a loud smack noise. What was that,

55:01

Chris? I heard a loud smacking noise. I don't know if you slapped the table or were swatting at a fly or something.

55:08

You have to excuse me. I'm just reflecting on it. I slapped my knee.

55:16

Out of exuberance, out of excitement over what you were saying. Well, I love to teach

55:22

God's Word because it's so rich and so full of exciting things.

55:28

Well, it sounds like it. And we are going to our midway break right now. If anybody has a question, send it in as soon as you can to chrisarnson at gmail dot com.

55:38

chrisarnson at gmail dot com. Always give us your first name, city and state, and country of residence if you live outside the USA and only remain anonymous if your question involves a personal and private matter.

55:47

And keep in mind, this is a longer than normal break. We ask for your patience, but Grace Life Radio 90 .1

55:53

FM in Lake City, Florida always requires of us a longer break in the middle. They air our show in a pre -recorded format twice a day in morning drive 8 to 10 a .m.

56:02

and also 8 to 10 p .m. every day the day after we air live. And they air their own public service announcements and local announcements to localize

56:13

Iron Sherpa's Iron Radio to Lake City, Florida, which is a requirement of the FCC. So while they are airing their announcements, we air our global commercials that are heard by everybody in the world.

56:25

And so, therefore, we ask you to use this time wisely. Write down the information provided by our advertisers so that you can more frequently and successfully patronize our advertisers.

56:37

Because the more you do that, the more likely our advertisers will remain our advertisers, which means we will more likely remain on the air for a longer period of time because we depend upon our advertisers to exist.

56:50

So please try to patronize them as often as you can. Also, write down questions for Norman B. Young about Esther and The God Who Is Silent Is Still Sovereign.

57:01

Our email address again is chrisarnson at gmail dot com chrisarnson at gmail dot com Don't go away, we'll be right back after these messages from our sponsors.

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01:15:42

Before we return to our guest today, Norman D. Young, in a continuation of our discussion on Esther, the

01:15:51

God who is silent is still sovereign, we have a couple of very important announcements to make regarding special events we hope you attend.

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The first one is only for men in ministry leadership, and that is the Foundations Conference. I will be attending,

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God willing, Thursday and Friday, December 19th and 20th, in Manhattan. And what better place to spend a part of the

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Christmas season than in New York City? I can't think of any place where I'd rather be during the Christmas season than New York City.

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And that's where the Foundations Conference is, Thursday and Friday, December 19th and 20th. It's a conference of sermonaudio .com,

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and Andrew Quigley. If you would like to join me in Manhattan at the Foundations Conference, Thursday and Friday, December 19th and 20th, go to thefoundationsconference .com,

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thefoundationsconference .com. And then I'm packing up my bags and heading down south in January, specifically

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Thursday, January 16th through Saturday, January 18th, to the G3 Conference at the

01:17:05

Georgia International Convention Center in College Park, Georgia. College Park is a suburb of Atlanta, and the

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G3 Conference is a phenomena. It is really a remarkable conference with a huge and very impressive, spectacular roster.

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G3, by the way, stands for Gospel, Grace, and Glory. And the theme this

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January is Worship Matters. Worship Matters is the theme of the

01:17:40

G3 Conference 2020. The speakers on the roster include

01:17:45

Dr. Stephen J. Lawson, Dr. James R. White of Alpha Omega Ministries, a dear friend of mine since 1995,

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Phil Johnson, the Executive Director of John MacArthur's Media Ministry, grace to you, Todd Friel of Wretched TV and Wretched Radio, Derek Thomas, who is a world -renowned

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Reformed writer, preacher, and teacher and conference speaker. Dr. Tom Askell, a very good friend of mine for many years, who is the

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Executive Director of Founders Ministries, the Calvinistic ministry in the Southern Baptist Convention. Stephen J.

01:18:20

Nichols, the President of Reformation Bible College, the college that was founded by the late

01:18:25

R .C. Sproul and Ligonier Ministries, a name that you heard earlier, you heard

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James White of Alpha Omega Ministries announce this particular speaker. Kosti Hinn, truly a fascinating brother, the nephew of the notorious charlatan and heretic

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Benny Hinn, and Kosti would not be offended at all by me saying that because he spends much of his time outside of his own pulpit warning the body of Christ about the dangerous, deadly and damning deceptions of the

01:18:58

Word of Faith movement that he was once a part of, along with his uncle and other members of his family, he has renounced that and is now a

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Reformed Baptist pastor and a cessationist. He is on the roster and, among many others,

01:19:13

John MacArthur himself. I would go to this conference if it was just John MacArthur. So if you would like to join me in Atlanta, Georgia, from Thursday, January 16th through Saturday, January 18th for the

01:19:25

G3 Conference, go to g3conference .com, g3conference .com to register. I strongly urge you not only to register to attend, but if you have a business, a parachurch ministry, some kind of an event that you want to promote, anything that you want to promote to the body of Christ to a large number of people at the same time,

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I would strongly urge you to register for an exhibitor's booth at the G3 Conference as well, just like I will be manning.

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It has always proven to be an extremely beneficial and fruitful experience when

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I have manned an exhibitor's booth at the G3 Conference. So since John MacArthur is on the lineup,

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I strongly urge you to register for an exhibitor's booth if you plan to as quickly as possible because they will run out of room for exhibitor's booths a lot quicker than they will run out of room for attendance.

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So please go to g3conference .com as soon as possible and register not only for an exhibitor's booth, but also if you just want to attend, that will be the website to go to as well.

01:20:30

g3conference .com, g3conference .com. Last but not least, if you love Iron Sharpens Iron Radio and you do not want us to disappear from the airwaves, please go to ironsharpensironradio .com,

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01:22:42

If you are not a member of a local Bible -believing church, and you're not even prayerfully looking for one, you're living in rebellion against God, if you need help finding a church, please send me an email to chrisarnson at gmail .com,

01:22:54

and put, I need a church in the subject line, I have lists of biblically faithful churches all over the world, and I've already helped quite a number of people in our audience find churches where they have joined, some have visited them when they were on vacation, and some of our listeners have referred these churches to family, friends, and loved ones.

01:23:09

So please, send me an email to chrisarnson at gmail .com, and put, I need a church in the subject line. That's also the email address to send in a question to Norman D.

01:23:16

Young about the Book of Esther. That's chrisarnson at gmail .com, chrisarnson at gmail .com.

01:23:24

And we have for you Dr. D. Young, a listener from Hilltop Lakes, Texas, her name is

01:23:32

Linda, and Linda asks, please ask

01:23:37

Dr. D. Young, would you not consider fasting as a type of prayer mentioned in the

01:23:44

Book of Esther? That's a good question.

01:23:50

The fact that fasting is mentioned a number of times, and that Mordecai does significant fasting as well as Esther does, the fact that prayer is never mentioned, leads me to believe that they weren't praying, they were simply fasting.

01:24:13

And normally, when you understand biblical history, fasting and prayer should always go together.

01:24:22

But in the Book of Esther, it never mentions prayer. And I think that's intentional,

01:24:29

I don't think that's accidental. Wow, so in other words, you would think, for lack of a better way to describe it, you would think the worst of those involved in the fasting, rather than the assumption being made there was prayer because there was fasting, and fasting is an act of devotion and obedience and honor to God, instead of assuming that the prayer was existing along with the fasting, you would assume that they were basically doing it out of ritual or some kind of reason that was not honoring to God, even if they thought it was?

01:25:08

I see it more as an act of desperation. I see. Mordecai goes out of his residence and he goes to the city gate, and he literally is screaming, and he's wearing sackcloth and ashes, and then

01:25:25

Esther comes out and says, why is he doing this strange stuff? And then she asks for fasting again.

01:25:34

See, I see the book of Esther cast as primarily a secular picture.

01:25:42

But a secular picture to show what's missing. When you get into the book of Ezra, and then you go ahead into the book of Nehemiah or Malachi, you see the shift is so pronounced.

01:26:01

They are concerned about one primary thing, and that is the proper worship of God.

01:26:09

Ezra writes about the first wave of migrants under Cyrus, and why they go to Jerusalem, and the way in which they worship, and he concentrates on the feast of the

01:26:23

Passover. Nehemiah does the same thing. In contrast to that, the book of Esther is completely secular.

01:26:35

And I think God is saying, that's a negative example. But Ezra and Nehemiah and Malachi are positive examples.

01:26:45

This is what I want. So, I don't see it as, you know, implying, some people have concluded, that because there was fasting, therefore there also must be prayer.

01:27:01

That's not a logical conclusion. That's hope. And Linda also says,

01:27:08

I highly respect Orthodox Presbyterian church ministers as some of the best

01:27:14

I have ever listened to. Thank you very much. Well, thank you,

01:27:20

Linda, and keep listening to Iron Trip and Zion Radio, and sending in those excellent questions.

01:27:27

And thank you for your generosity and faithful support of Iron Trip and Zion Radio as well. If you could, before I go to any other listener question,

01:27:36

I want you to perhaps just spell out some more vital facts that you believe

01:27:42

God intends us to learn from Esther, and then we can take a couple of more questions. Well, if you read the last chapter in my book, you will recognize that this is a second edition.

01:27:59

The first edition, published by Reformed Fellowship, just had eight. The introduction had eight chapters.

01:28:06

And I knew there was something missing. I was thrilled that they published it and they did such a beautiful job.

01:28:15

And yet at the same time, I said, wait a minute. I have all these questions at the end.

01:28:22

Why doesn't Ezra ever talk about it? Why doesn't Nehemiah ever talk about it?

01:28:28

Why is it never referenced any other place in Scripture? And then

01:28:33

I found the clue, or the answer to that, in Nehemiah, where he talks about his...

01:28:45

He's going to send... While you're looking,

01:28:51

I'll just give our email address again. It's ChrisArnzen at gmail .com, C -H -R -I -S -A -R -N -Z -E -N at gmail .com

01:28:58

if you have a question. And as always, give us your first name at least, your city and state of residence, and your country of residence if you live outside the

01:29:05

USA. Only remain anonymous if your question is personal and private. Back to my comment there.

01:29:14

Nehemiah makes a statement, or Artaxerxes makes a statement when he sends Nehemiah out.

01:29:20

And he says, we have to be very careful that we worship

01:29:25

God the way he wants. We have to do everything that he asks.

01:29:31

And you say, what in the world prompts this evil pagan king, this idol worshiper, to make that kind of proclamation and to provide everything that the

01:29:46

Jews would ever need for proper worship? And the one answer is the slaying of 75 ,000

01:29:55

Persians in one day. 800 of the leaders in this capital city are killed.

01:30:05

500 the first day, 300 the second day. These people suddenly realize, or it takes them a while to realize, that they have to fear

01:30:16

Jehovah. They have to fear this God who can do this.

01:30:23

And they say, the one response to everything that happens in the book of Esther is proper fear.

01:30:35

We have to do, because God could do the same thing to us. God could destroy the whole

01:30:42

Persian empire if he so chose. That's a message,

01:30:47

I think, that doesn't show up right away. But then when

01:30:54

Artaxerxes makes that statement and sends Nehemiah off, and sends

01:31:00

Ezra off, that is a tremendous message that I think the church today needs to hear.

01:31:12

The typical evangelical church in the world today does not fear

01:31:18

God. They treat him as a nice doting grandfather who will approve of whatever they say, whatever they want to do.

01:31:29

This old grandfather God approves of homosexuality, he approves of gambling, he approves of abortion, he approves of divorce.

01:31:40

Churches are preaching that today. They ought to fear God who can destroy a nation like he did there in Persia.

01:31:54

So I'm assuming that is a part of what David Scheringa was speaking about when he wrote in his commendation for your book, that you contain in the book that there is the surprising workings of divine providence for God's people in dark captivity back then, but also for the church living in a pitch black culture on this side of the cross.

01:32:29

I'm assuming that's one of the things that he was speaking about. Yes. I know David well. He's a personal friend of mine.

01:32:37

And I know that David is deeply, deeply concerned about the situation in the church world today.

01:32:44

And everybody should be. Every Christian should be. They should be. You mentioned earlier that the

01:32:49

Christian Reformed denomination has lost so much. They've run themselves in the ditch.

01:32:55

They keep shooting themselves in the foot with their bad decisions. The Reformed Church of America, which was the parent of the

01:33:04

Christian Reformed, has lost 45 % of its members since 1980.

01:33:13

And you can say the same thing about Methodist, Presbyterian, USA, all kinds of churches are losing their members because they no longer fear

01:33:23

God. And we do have to remind our listeners that there is a remnant in both the

01:33:29

CRC and the RCA, a remnant of pastors and congregants who are still faithful and steadfast in clinging to the word of God while remaining in those denominations.

01:33:42

Yes, very much so. In fact, every one of my siblings and my wife's siblings are all members of the

01:33:48

Christian Reformed Church. And they're saddened by what's happening there.

01:33:56

Any interesting arguments over the dinner table during holidays on this? Well, you know what?

01:34:03

Sometimes family peace tells you, don't create a fight that you can't finish.

01:34:13

We love each other as brothers and sisters in Christ. We're believers, we're not perfect, we're on the road to sanctification.

01:34:23

But they know where I stand, they know my concerns. And we just pray for faithfulness.

01:34:38

We do have Arnie in Perry County, Pennsylvania who wants to know, what are some of the primary false assumptions or complete myths and legends about the book of Esther that you can set our listeners straight on today?

01:35:00

The one that comes to mind right away is that Esther is a heroine.

01:35:08

She is a wonderful woman who sort of ought to be emulated. And I think that is seriously wrong.

01:35:18

Esther does everything she can to accommodate herself to the society and to the sexual evil practices of that culture.

01:35:30

Contrast her with Daniel's friends. They stand up and say, we will not compromise.

01:35:39

Esther does everything she can to compromise so that she can get into bed with the king.

01:35:48

That's what it's all about. Esther is a very sexual book.

01:35:55

It's all about virgins and it's all about eunuchs. And it's all about a king who just demands virgins every day of the week.

01:36:06

And that's evil to the core. The idea that Esther saved her people is completely false.

01:36:21

The Jewish, the Orthodox Jews who worship Esther are making a serious mistake.

01:36:28

They ought to read the book. Obviously you meant who perhaps too highly venerate or you don't mean that they literally worship her.

01:36:38

Depending on how you define worship. Worship is adoration of something and it quite often is something other than God.

01:36:49

I can worship my car. I can worship a baseball team.

01:36:56

So the Orthodox Jews you would say go above the proper reverence and admiration, not adoration, admiration that we would have as Christians toward the

01:37:10

Apostle Paul, towards extra biblical figures and heroes like Charles Spurgeon and John Bunyan.

01:37:17

You're saying that they go above and beyond that. Yes, yes, I definitely conclude that.

01:37:23

Wow, that's interesting. For a group of people who think we are blaspheming by worshiping

01:37:33

Jesus Christ, of course they deny the Trinity and do not believe that Christ is deity.

01:37:40

But to even be upset that we are worshiping someone that they would view as being not

01:37:50

God, that they would still simultaneously blindly worship Esther.

01:37:57

In response to the previous question, there's another thing that comes out. King Ahasuerus, also known as Xerxes, is really setting himself up to be

01:38:09

God. He is to be worshipped by all the people in his empire.

01:38:18

And that is so typical of humanity. If we don't worship

01:38:25

God, the Triune God, we will create a substitute of some sort.

01:38:32

We might carve a piece of wood and set it in a corner and call it as an idol.

01:38:38

We might create all kinds of substitutes, and God is a jealous

01:38:45

God. That is something that comes through so powerfully in the

01:38:50

Old Testament. God hates substitutes with a passion.

01:38:57

He can't tolerate idolatry. And the Jews reject

01:39:03

Jesus Christ, so they're rejecting God, and they're putting a substitute of some sort or other in his place.

01:39:15

That's strong condemnation, I'm sorry, but I think it has to be said.

01:39:44

C -H -R -I -S -A -R -N -Z -E -N -Gmail .com And as always, give us your first name, at least your city and state, and your country of residence if you live outside the

01:39:53

USA. Only remain anonymous if your question involves a personal or private matter. We'll be right back, God willing, with Norman DeYoung, and more of our discussion on Esther.

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Solid Ground Christian Books is honored to be a weekly sponsor of Iron Sharpens Iron Radio. I'm Dr.

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Gary Kimbrell, Patron of Bethlehem Baptist Church in Laurel, Mississippi. God tells us in James 127 that pure and undefiled religion is a visit to fatherless and widows in their affliction.

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In the providence of God, three years ago, I discovered a poor, small church outside Lusaka, Zambia in a township called

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Cabanana who are taking care of 24 orphans. I found them just at the time when they had lost all their funding.

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What was I to do? Could I just say God bless you and walk away? The situation of the children set heavily upon me.

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As I was praying concerning this need, it came to me, I trust from the Lord, to tell the orphans' plight to a broader audience.

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The entire need for their clothing, food, education, and some medical services is $73 per month per child.

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If just 50 of us would give $35 a month, we could meet the need. Bethlehem Baptist Church will pay the fee to get the funds there, so if you give a dollar, a dollar will get to the orphans.

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In this season of hope and giving, will you consider giving hope to 24 orphans? Please send your gift of any amount to Bethlehem Baptist Church, 838

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Reed Road, Laurel, Mississippi 39443 or donate through our website bbclaurel .com.

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Again, the address is Bethlehem Baptist Church, 838 Reed Road, Laurel, Mississippi 39443 or bbclaurel .com.

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Thank you. Music Listening to Christian radio can be a big gamble spiritually.

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Even many of the major Christian networks that include excellent biblically faithful teachers on their lineup sadly often also include the worst of doctrinally dangerous heretics.

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If you are a lover of the doctrines of sovereign grace, you need not fear listening 24 hours a day to FirstLoveRadio .org.

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They feature Christ -centered programming from Reformed pastors and teachers you can rely upon for theological soundness and biblical faithfulness, such as Dr.

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W .R. Downing, Dr. Peter Masters, Pastor Joe Jackowitz, Pastor Robert Gifford, Al Martin, Edward Delcor, and more.

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FirstLoveRadio .org also live streams my Iron Trepans Iron Radio program daily.

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Please stick around on FirstLoveRadio .org after Iron Trepans Iron Radio is over to continue being blessed by the unwavering proclamation of the gospel of sovereign grace.

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Spread the word about FirstLoveRadio .org. Music And please remember folks to continue praying for Joe Jackowitz, the founder and president of FirstLoveRadio whose ad you just heard.

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As many of you know who listen regularly, Joe was not long ago diagnosed with a very rare and aggressive and deadly form of leukemia.

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We had you praying for a miraculous healing and God was pleased at least so far as we know to bring

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Joe into a state which is called pre -remission. And for all we know he might be in full remission.

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The doctors are just being cautious. But please continue to pray for Joe because most of us know people who had cancer who went into complete remission, at least as much as the doctors knew.

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And then the cancer came back with a vengeance and took their lives. So while we are rejoicing and celebrating the great news that Joe is doing so well and is back home from the hospital two weeks before the doctors had assumed he would be returning.

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While we rejoice in that we are still bringing our prayers forth to the throne of grace to pray that this is a full and complete healing.

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And we ask of you also obviously to be with the Jackowitz family that they would continue to be a great encouragement to Joe and that God would give the

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Jackowitz's peace of mind and heart whatever the will of God may reveal itself to be.

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And I just thank Joe Jackowitz himself for being such an example to me of demonstrating courage and joy in the midst of a very frightening trial.

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And I know that I fail miserably with things in my life that are infinitely less frightening and infinitely less serious.

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So I want to thank Joe again for the role model he has been to me and the great friend he has been to me. We will keep you updated on Joe's health.

01:54:52

Also just want to quickly let you know please remember Solid Ground Christian Books for all your gift giving needs.

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The holidays are coming up. Thanksgiving and Christmas will be here before you know it even if you wanted to give gifts for Reformation Day in October.

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Solid -Ground -Books .com Solid -Ground -Books .com is the website for Solid Ground Christian Books a primary sponsor of this program.

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We could not exist without the financial support of Solid Ground Christian Books. And you can also order everything they publish from CVBBS .com

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our other sponsor that involves books. Unlike Solid Ground Christian Books CVBBS is a warehouse and a book distributor not a publisher.

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So you can order your books that are published by Solid Ground Christian Books from CVBBS .com

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and make both of our sponsors happy. Just a quick reminder we have a fascinating guest this

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Monday September 23rd Ryan Glesman who is an evangelical pastor specifically in the

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Church of God Anderson, Indiana denomination. He is the brother of the man who would call himself the husband of Pete Buttigieg the openly homosexual candidate for president of the

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United States. We of course would not consider that a marriage nor would we consider

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Pastor Glesman's brother Pete Buttigieg's husband. This is obviously a fiction in the minds of sinners.

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But Pastor Ryan Glesman who is firmly committed to Biblical truth on these major issues such as homosexuality and abortion things that Pete Buttigieg supports

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Pastor Ryan Glesman is going to be discussing the false Christianity of Pete Buttigieg this

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Monday September 23rd so mark your calendars for that and we look forward to hearing your questions.

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We are now back with our guest and we look forward to at least having a couple more questions answered by him before we go off the air today.

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But Pastor, or should I say Dr. Norman DeYoung we have a question from, let's see here

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RJ in White Plains, New York asks, I know that you are not omniscient, but do you expect to see

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Esther in Heaven? Oh I will be surprised if she's there.

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I really, I don't see her as a believer at all.

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If you ask me about King Nebuchadnezzar I say yes, I think

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I will see him there. He obviously repented after he was roaming around eating grass like an animal.

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God really transformed his life. But before I go I would just like to make a correction.

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A while ago I said that there was a quotation from Nehemiah actually it's in Ezra chapter 7 that I would like to leave as a final word to our listeners.

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King Artaxerxes of Persia is making tremendous promises and blessings on God's people and he says here whatever is decreed by the

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God of Heaven let it be done in full for the house of the God of Heaven lest his wrath be against the realm of the king and his sons.

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Artaxerxes and all of his advisers begin to realize that God is powerful he can destroy a nation just in an amazing kind of way.

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We need to fear him. We need to honor him. Amen.

01:58:59

Well I want to make sure that our listeners have the necessary contact information if they want to purchase this book reformed fellowship .net

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reformedfellowship .net is the website of Reformed Fellowship Inc publishers of the

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Outlook magazine and also publishers of this book that we have been addressing today on Esther. Do you have any other contact information that you want to share?

01:59:24

No I'm happy to be part of your program. I really appreciate the opportunity.

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It's just one more way we can call people to the word of God. Amen.

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I want to thank you so much for being our guest. I look forward to your return visits frequently in the future, God willing. I want to thank everybody who listened today especially those who took the time to write in questions

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I hope you all have a safe and blessed and happy weekend and God honoring Lord's Day and I hope you all remember for the rest of your lives that Jesus Christ is a far greater