WWUTT 2120 Q&A Roles in Marriage, Disagreeing With Your Spouse, Confronting Phil Vischer's Reimagined Gospel

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March 22, 2024

Responding to questions from listeners about the roles of men and women in marriage, can a wife disagree with her husband and how to disagree respectfully, and confronting Phil Vischer of The Holy Post and his reimagined gospel. Visit wwutt.com for all our videos!

00:00: Is a wife sinning if she disagrees with her husband? How can a husband and wife disagree in a respectful way?
00:07: And does Phil Fisher have a better way to share the gospel? The answers to these questions and others, when we understand the text.
00:24: This is when we understand the text, a daily Bible study in the word of Christ, that we may be conformed to the image of Christ, looking forward to the day of his return.
00:34: Tell all your friends about our ministry at www .utt .com. Here once again is your teacher,
00:40: Pastor Gabe. Thank you, Becky. You're welcome. We're on to Psalm 15 this week.
00:46: Nice. Reading from the Legacy Standard Bible. O Yahweh, who may sojourn in your tent?
00:53: Who may dwell on your holy mountain? He who walks blamelessly, and works righteousness, and speaks truth in his heart.
01:04: He does not slander with his tongue, nor does evil to his neighbor, nor takes up a reproach against his friend, in whose eyes a reprobate is despised, but who honors those who fear
01:17: Yahweh. He swears to his own hurt and does not change. He does not put out his money at interest, nor does he take a bribe against the innocent.
01:29: He who does these things will never be shaken. Now if you'll remember back to last week, we were in Psalm 14, which began, the wicked fool says in his heart, there is no
01:42: God. And what have we read here about the heart of the righteous man? He who walks blamelessly, and works righteousness, he speaks truth in his heart.
01:53: So what is in his heart is what is true. What is in the heart of the wicked man is a denial of God.
02:00: There's no fear of God. He does not think God sees when he does wrong.
02:06: But this man, the righteous man, fears the Lord, does righteously, and deals in righteousness with his neighbor.
02:16: He doesn't show partiality. He treats everyone in love as the Lord has treated us.
02:22: Yes. I was just thinking that, sorry, you look at me and I'm like, what?
02:28: I didn't really have that much to say, but I was thinking that isn't the truth another way of saying the word, like the
02:40: Bible? Truth, right, yeah. The truth is scripture. It's God's word. Right. Right. And that's what's in his heart.
02:45: That's what's in his heart. God's word. Yeah. Very good. Like in Colossians 3, let the word of Christ dwell in you richly.
02:53: And this is the very thing that motivates us in showing love and kindness to one another.
02:58: Yeah. Because we have Christ's word in our heart. Well welcome to the Friday edition of When We Understand the
03:05: Text, when we take questions from the listeners, and you can submit those questions to whenweunderstandthetext at gmail .com.
03:13: We've still received some wonderful gifts from folks, as we had talked about in previous weeks, kind of the struggle where we're at right now financially, because we're still paying on a mortgage and we're paying rent at the same time.
03:26: And so there have been folks that have given us gifts, and we've still received some of those gifts, and we thank you so much for that.
03:32: There was a message that I got from a very generous donation, a message that I got that I don't have in front of me here, but he had asked me a question about an essay that was written by G .K.
03:43: Chesterton. I just want to say to that individual, I haven't forgotten about you, I've got that message, and in one of these podcasts, though it won't be this one, we'll come to that essay from G .K.
03:54: Chesterton and respond to it. So thank you for your gift, and also for your question, and we will certainly get to that soon.
04:03: Yes, we have been, definitely been blessed. Yes, thank you so much to every listener, who is just,
04:09: I mean, even if you've just been praying for us, maybe you haven't sent us a gift, but I thank you so much that you would include us in your prayers, that you would lift up our names before our
04:20: God. That is, that's blessing enough for us. Amen. And we thank you for that. Should we say, should we say where we are in this process of selling the house?
04:31: Well, I mean, I'm prepared to say that the negative part of that, if it ever, you know.
04:38: The negative part? Like, if it, anyway, go ahead. No, go ahead. No, no, no.
04:43: What were you saying? The negative part. Then I'll give it away. Yeah, you can give it away. Go ahead. Are you sure?
04:48: Yes, yes, yes. It's yours. The floor is yours. Okay. Well, I won't say it all properly.
04:55: Anyway, we did have an offer on the house. We did? We did?
05:01: Yes. We did. Okay. Which is great. It's great news. Yes. And I think we're in the process of starting the whole selling, month -long selling process.
05:12: That's right. Yeah. However long this whole thing takes. But if things go well, and it all remains as it should,
05:19: God willing, we will close on April the 29th. So we have received an offer.
05:27: It's less than what we had posted, but... That's totally fine. Yeah, we're kind of ready to move on beyond this thing.
05:37: So the negative part of that would have been, I'm prepared to say that it fell through or whatever later if that comes to fruition.
05:46: Oh, yeah, right. But I'm praying that that doesn't happen. That's right. We just give you all good news. Your mic is pretty quiet there.
05:53: I'm going to try to increase you a little bit. It's kind of weird. I was looking at you going, you got to be closer. No, you're close enough.
05:59: I am close. I'm practically eating it. Hopefully, I don't sneeze for you all. That would be awful.
06:06: Oh, I was drinking. I about spit that out when you said that. Then you may be able to clean up your computer that's been whacking.
06:15: It's just fine. Just fine? What's that? That's gross. It's a little...
06:21: I think that was actually a drop of ice cream. I was ready to make an excuse and I was like, no,
06:30: I'm pretty sure that's actually food. That got on my laptop there. There's no avoiding it.
06:38: That's definitely a spot. But it was solid enough that it didn't hit the keys.
06:45: It kind of stayed clear of any of the actual electronic part of that. It's just a surface level blemish is all it is.
06:54: Right. Okay. Yeah. There's a lot of surface level blemishes on your laptop.
07:02: On my laptop. I thought you were going to say on me. There's a lot of surface level blemishes there. Come on, babe.
07:10: I always try to clean his screen and he always yells at me because it's a touch screen and I forget. Yeah. I'm like, your screen's dirty.
07:16: He's like, no, no, no, no. There was a bug earlier today that was like flying around here and I tried to poke it.
07:22: And and and smash it. And yeah. Your screen. It just switched to a completely different screen.
07:29: And I was like, oh, man, what happened to that screen? Good times.
07:36: Anyway. Yeah. We have good news. So we are rejoicing very much. We are. Yeah. Pray that all this goes as it should.
07:44: The house will sell and we will we'll close that chapter. Finally. Yeah. I'm very looking forward to that.
07:50: This house definitely did not sell as fast as our house did in Kansas. When we moved from Kansas to Texas. But the
07:56: Lord is good in his timing and we've been blessed. Yeah. And I mean, we can't we can't ask for more than what the
08:03: Lord gives us. Of course. Yeah. I had a good pastor friend of mine call me up and just let me know, hey, the
08:10: Lord is making you seek him during this period of time. And I said, you're right. You're right. He's drawn us close.
08:16: That is definitely true. Becky and I would lay in bed and pray and read a psalm and just give us the right mindset and help us through this in a way that is seeking after God.
08:27: Yeah. Not getting frustrated or complaining about our circumstances, but continuing to press on. Yeah.
08:33: And I had some tough days there. I still just pressed on. Yeah. There's ministry to do. Still got to do it.
08:40: There have been preachers long before me that have been through much worse stuff than I've been through and and yet continue to press on for the joy of the
08:47: Lord. Amen. All right. I gave out the email address. Did I say that? So when we understand the text at gmail .com,
08:53: we're heading back to Texas. We are. We're going to be there actually for the eclipse because the full eclipse of the solar eclipse that's coming up on what date is that?
09:05: April 8th. Yeah. That Monday. Second Monday in April. So it's going to be a full eclipse over Lendale, which is where it's right in the path.
09:14: That's right. And so it's going to be a madhouse. They have a festival that the town has put together that they're planning on hosting.
09:24: And there's people coming in from all over the country from the sounds of things. Yes. It'll be exciting.
09:30: It'll be a lot. It'll be pretty crazy. Yeah. Praying that it won't be cloudy.
09:35: I know. That would be terrible. So it'd be quite a trip going all that way and then. Just for that.
09:41: Yeah. Thankfully, we have other reasons to be there. Yes. We're going to be at First Baptist Lendale on that Sunday, April 7th.
09:49: So looking forward to that. We'll get to see all our friends again. And then the eclipse on the 8th. And then we're pretty much turning back around and coming back to Arizona after that.
09:58: Yeah. We've got school to finish and. Bible study on Wednesday night. Bible study to do. Yeah. Yeah.
10:04: That'll be good. In fact, tomorrow on Saturday, we've got a bunch of work we're doing around the house because we're preparing for the first time since 2020 to host a
10:16: Bible study in our own home. Yeah. We haven't done this in four years. Can you believe that?
10:22: Yeah. That's been a minute. The kids have been on us about it for four years. For four years.
10:27: Yeah. When are we hosting Bible studies in our home again? When can we have them here? Yeah. They really liked that time together.
10:36: Well, that's really how the Old Testament study on the podcast came about was through that home study we were doing.
10:43: Because we had, we would be doing Old Testament study at our house on Wednesday night. And then that same lesson would be what would end up on the podcast the next day.
10:53: The Thursday edition. Great. So I just continued to do the Old Testament study, even though I wasn't hosting it in my home anymore.
10:59: But here we are in Arizona, ready to host our own home group again. Yeah. So we've got that coming up.
11:05: As soon as we get back from Texas. Looking forward to that. Yes. And speaking of the eclipse, speaking of that.
11:11: Okay. Now that we started talking about that, I remembered there was another question I wanted to grab for this episode.
11:17: As I was sitting down and I had the questions in front of me here, I was like, I feel like I'm missing one. Okay. There was one that I wanted to do.
11:24: Yeah. And it wasn't in my email inbox. It was in another place. Okay. So I had to, I was going, what's the message that I'm forgetting about here?
11:31: It had to do with the eclipse. Because as this eclipse is coming through the
11:36: US, another major eclipse, just like the one that went through in 2017, only that one. Was that that long ago?
11:42: Yeah. It was seven years ago. Oh, wow. Okay. August. August of 2017. They just weren't asking me when it was.
11:48: I was like, I don't know. Yeah. Mariah. I don't remember being there. Right. I knew Mariah wouldn't remember it, but Aria still remembered it.
11:56: ZGenanny remember it. And this will be Ezekiel's first, obviously. And he probably won't remember it.
12:03: So we had, see that eclipse in 2017 went from the northwest part of the
12:09: US to the southeast. This one starting in the southwest and going to the northeast. Yeah.
12:15: And so as that path travels over part of the US, there are something like seven towns called
12:23: Nineveh that are in the path of this eclipse. Oh, that's crazy. And I think there's a
12:28: Nineveh that has received both eclipses. So there was a Nineveh in 2017 and there's a
12:35: Nineveh in 2024. Is there a mass movement to that town? Yeah.
12:40: I don't know. Well, so all of that is. I'd be curious. All of that is stirring up these Bible conspiracies.
12:47: Oh, like seven Nineveh towns. I can see that happening very easily. Right. The path of a solar eclipse.
12:53: And there's seven. Seven's a big number. That's right. That's the number of completion. Right. And then there's like four
12:59: Salem's, which is Salem is Jerusalem. Oh, okay. It's like a shortened form of Jerusalem.
13:05: Okay. So then there's, you know, conspiracy. All these Salem's and then the
13:10: Nineveh's. Or it might be something like there was seven Salem's in the first eclipse in 2017.
13:17: And now there's seven Nineveh's in the eclipse in 2024. Some sort of coincidence. Yeah. It's something kooky like that where, of course, everybody, oh, this is a biblical sign.
13:26: And something amazing is going to happen here. Which that is so Western world
13:31: American thinking. Yeah. As if whatever is happening here in America has global ramifications.
13:39: Only we can see this eclipse in the United States of America or in North America. Right. And as if this has something to do with real world issues that are going on.
13:49: Has nothing to do with that. The world revolves around me. So of course it does.
13:57: No, that's such an easy mindset to get sucked into.
14:02: Yes. I mean, so easy, especially in America. I don't know about other countries how easy it is there.
14:09: But with Americans, they very much promote. What's it called?
14:16: Self love. And what was. I was putting it mildly. But yeah. The health.
14:22: Health and wealth. No, no, no, no. These are tag words. They promote these on commercials even.
14:29: Oh, yeah. Like self love. And what was the something about your health? And it doesn't have to do with your physical health.
14:38: It has to do with your mental health. Mental health. Yeah. Or you see like way more mental health prescription medication commercials than we've ever seen before.
14:46: Yeah. That's going on all the time. But anyway, so I don't have the question in front of me. I'll have to save it until next week.
14:53: But it has to do with like, like, have you heard of these conspiracies that are going on? How do we respond to this kind of stuff?
14:59: So, yeah, we'll get to that. We'll get to that question next week. Next week. Okay. This first one comes from Ariana.
15:05: I did not get the chance to read this to you in advance. So you're hearing this one for the first time. Gabe and Babe, which is most of them, to be clear.
15:13: That's true. Only about half the email I think I read to you in advance. And I don't even think it's half.
15:19: Yeah, that's that's probably true. I hear one or two. Maybe. Well, a lot of them come in later in the week.
15:26: They do. Because I think people are thinking. And we're busy at the end of the week. Yeah, that's right. It's tough to make a connection until we do the podcast.
15:35: Our most separated days are like Wednesday and Thursday. So, yeah, if you send it early enough, then I read it to Becky.
15:41: But if you wait until we get closer to recording, then she hears it for the first time when we're sitting down right here.
15:47: That's good. Either way. Go ahead. Long time listener here, but first time messaging.
15:53: Oh. I can still remember the first time I listened to you guys. I actually had no idea you were married.
15:59: Aw. Gabe said something kind of flirty to Becky. And I thought to myself, wait, he's a pastor.
16:04: He shouldn't be getting that friendly with someone who is not his wife. Then it occurred. Yes.
16:12: Then it occurred to me, wait, maybe that is his wife. I can honestly say that listening to you guys has changed the way my husband and I talk to one another.
16:21: Who knew you could get such a great example of healthy marriage conversation by listening to a podcast?
16:28: That's true. My question has somewhat to do with this subject.
16:34: I know that you are what has been termed complementarian. A woman is not to lead her household.
16:40: That is the responsibility of her husband. But how much can the woman direct her husband if she needs to?
16:47: Can she disagree with her husband? I heard you read from 1 Peter 3 and 1 Corinthians 7 about how a believing wife should conduct herself with an unbelieving husband.
16:57: But what about two believers? What if the husband needs correction? How far can a wife go in giving guidance to her husband?
17:06: I appreciate you both very much as always. I hope the Lord blesses your ministry that you can reach many more people as you have reached me.
17:14: In Christ, Ariana, Rochester, Minnesota. Oh, wow.
17:20: Up there in the cold. Minnesota. Minnesota. I love the accents. That's awesome.
17:27: So how much can a wife correct, guide, direct her husband?
17:34: How much can a wife do that? So first of all, let me kind of establish a couple of things with her question here.
17:40: So she said, I know that you are what has been termed complementarian. We don't really call ourselves that.
17:46: The word is out there. It means a certain thing. I think we've used it before. But really where we stand is more along what would be called biblical patriarchy.
17:57: That word kind of became a curse word in the culture. There were some Christians that were concerned.
18:03: If we start talking about patriarchy, people will have in their minds that we're talking about some sort of abusive household setup, something that's more along the
18:12: Bill Gothard lines of things or independent Baptist fundamentalism. And that's not the kind of picture that we want to create in somebody's mind.
18:21: So we're going to redefine this thing, and we're going to call it complementarianism.
18:27: So what is complementarianism is relatively young. It's only been around for a few decades.
18:32: And it was guys like John Piper that kind of helped push it. It was the something for biblical manhood and womanhood.
18:40: The Council for Biblical Manhood and Womanhood kind of put the whole thing of complementarianism versus egalitarianism.
18:47: So the concept behind complementarianism is just simply that a man and a woman are equal in the eyes of God, but we are made for different roles.
18:58: A man has certain roles that he's supposed to fill. A woman has certain roles that she's supposed to fill.
19:04: But the two of them complement one another with their strengths and weaknesses. That's all very true. And if you're talking about a base point of complementarianism, then
19:13: I agree. Of course, I would say that's really just biblical patriarchy. And the husband's role is that he is to be the head of his household.
19:22: A wife is to submit to her husband as to the Lord. And she's a picture of the way that the whole church is supposed to submit to Christ.
19:29: And this is, of course, talked about in Ephesians 5. This is kind of the main chapter that we go to when it comes to husband, love your wife as Christ loved the church.
19:39: Wife, submit to your husband as to the Lord, beginning in Ephesians 5, beginning in verse 22.
19:46: So complementarianism, that's the name that gets used, but we're more along the lines of biblical patriarchy.
19:51: There wasn't anything wrong with that term. It just got added in complementarian.
19:57: So now the problem is that you've got some complementarians who are claiming to be complementarian when they're really egalitarian.
20:04: They believe that men and women are equal, even to the extent that they can fill the same roles.
20:10: There's no role that a man can do that a woman can't do just as well. And even though there are some egalitarians that might think, yeah, there are definitely differences between men and women.
20:19: But the egalitarians, for the most part, believe that a woman can do everything that a man can do.
20:24: And kind of the central mark of egalitarianism is a woman can be a pastor. That's kind of the main argument that they have.
20:32: There's nothing in Scripture that prohibits a woman from being a pastor. So, yes, in the sense, right, you said complementarian.
20:38: That's where we are. But we would prefer to use the term biblical patriarchy. You said a woman is not to lead her household.
20:47: Now, I disagree with that. And I don't think that a complementarian holds that position either.
20:52: A woman should lead in her household, but she doesn't lead her husband. So we have instructions in Scripture that a woman is to put her household in order and she is to love her children.
21:08: And so putting a household in order, there's going to be some leadership there. Even she will play a role in the discipline of the children.
21:15: Now, that's primarily going to be on the dad, especially when you consider that in Ephesians 6, it says, fathers do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and the instruction of the
21:26: Lord. That command is specifically given to fathers. And so the father is to lead the household in terms of discipline.
21:34: He's supposed to be the primary discipline giver in his home, raising his children in what is right and what is wrong.
21:41: But that doesn't mean that the wife or the mom is not going to issue discipline. My wife issues discipline.
21:48: Sometimes she gets fed up with how much she's had to do the discipline. And so then when I get home, so -and -so did this.
21:55: You know, Zej lied. Annie hit him. Aria pulled somebody's hair. You know, whatever.
22:01: Whatever's going on with the kids. And Becky's had it up to here. She's disciplined enough.
22:06: And so now Daddy comes home, and he gets to do the one to deal out the discipline. So in this way,
22:12: Becky is also putting together most of the lesson plans that the kids do with the homeschooling stuff that we do.
22:18: There's leadership there. So she's leading. She's making some of those decisions. And I'm trusting her to make those decisions.
22:24: Like, I'm not, what do you call it, like micromanaging everything that you're doing.
22:30: In fact, when it came to educating our kids, at the very start of our marriage,
22:35: I said, You're going to be the one that's primarily doing that because I'm going to be at work, and you're going to be leading them in homeschool.
22:41: So you pick the curriculum that you know that you can do the easiest, you think would be the most effective for our kids, and is something that you can get behind.
22:51: And she picked the curriculum. I think all I knew about homeschool curriculum was a BECA. Yeah. I think it was the only one
22:57: I knew of. Yeah. And then you found these curriculums that I'm going, This is awesome, but I never would have, you know, if left to me,
23:04: I wouldn't have thought this would have worked. Yeah. And yet you're doing these things. And I hear my kids speaking Latin.
23:10: I'm like, What in the world? Yeah. So anyway, all of that was very cool. So in that way,
23:15: I mean, Becky has had leadership roles in the home, but she doesn't take the primary position of being the head of the household or being the spiritual leader of me and the kids.
23:28: She certainly spiritually guides me. You know, like I said, talking about us reading Psalms together or praying together.
23:35: And there have been some days in which I've been rather grumpy, and she can tell
23:41: Gabe probably hasn't stopped in his mood to pray. So I'm going to do that.
23:48: And, you know, like on my way out the door or something like that, she'll say, Let me pray for you before you leave or something. All of that is very, very good.
23:54: There's nothing in there where she's stepping out of bounds and assuming a role that she shouldn't have.
24:01: This is very complimentarian. And to go back to that term, we're complimenting one another in our strengths and weaknesses.
24:07: So where you say a woman is not to lead her household, there is leadership that happens there, but she doesn't hold authority over her husband.
24:16: So coming back to Ephesians 522, wives be subject to your own husbands as to the
24:24: Lord. What does it mean to be subject? To be subject means to yield to authority.
24:31: So essentially here, even by telling a wife to be subject to her husband, already it's being implied that he is the authority of the household.
24:39: Even before we get to the next verse, for the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ also is the head of the church, he himself being savior of the body.
24:48: Does Christ ever yield to the authority of the church? Not unless you're
24:54: Catholic. I was going to say. Maybe in the Catholic church that happens, but the priest, when he does the mass, calling
25:03: Christ into the Eucharist and the cup and whatever else. So anyway, yeah, there's probably a sense there in which
25:08: Christ is yielding to the authority of the church. But no, not according to scripture. So in that same way, a husband does not yield to the authority of his wife.
25:17: The husband has been given the authority by God in the way that God has established the marriage.
25:24: And the wife is to be subject to her husband because she is yielding to his authority.
25:30: Right. I think that everybody has their own strengths and weaknesses and not every.
25:38: Sorry. We've been this way lately. I mean, with the allergies going on and stuff like that.
25:44: Yeah. Anyway. So not every male fits the.
25:51: My words like the type a personality sort of thing. Is that what you're thinking of? No. Like the the the stigma, the the what you expect a male like the all the jokes, you know, for the blondes, they they.
26:05: You know what I'm saying? You went to blonde jokes. That's hilarious. I did. I totally did. So you're talking like the archetypal male.
26:11: Right. Or, you know, typical male. Right. Right. Right. Right. OK. So so there's a word for that. And it's failing me.
26:17: It's not generalization. No, it'll come to me. All right. It is not that important.
26:23: But anyway, you get the gist that not every male is this way. It's the typical male.
26:29: Right. And not every female fits this way. So not every husband is going to be this mold and not every wife is going to be this mold.
26:37: But you do work together through Christ and find your strengths and weaknesses and help one another out in managing the house together.
26:50: And yes. And so there's there's not going to be like a one size fits all. Just like whenever you read the
26:57: Proverbs 31 woman, people get discouraged, women especially, because they can't do that.
27:05: They think that this is all done in one day. It's not done in one day. I will let you know that.
27:12: But and the heart of that, the heart of that in Proverbs 31 is a woman who fears the
27:17: Lord. Yes. So you can be that woman. Yes. Being a woman who fears the Lord. Right. Yeah.
27:23: But not everybody's cut out to do that. And plus, we don't like go out and buy land and you don't go praise me at the gates.
27:32: It's a little different. Stands at the entrance of Casa Grande and like, my husband.
27:38: Yes, come on. So you get it.
27:44: It's not to discourage you, but to encourage you that you find where your strengths are and you go for it and to help your household meld with or come together to just praise
27:59: Christ together. Yeah, right. Exactly. I mean, communication is and this is the way you started, Ariana.
28:05: I mean, you began with love. I love to hear your communication. Yes. And that's really what it's what it comes down to.
28:12: There is still a need in your family to communicate well with one another. Yes.
28:18: A husband could certainly say, hey, I'm the head of this household. So you got to do what what
28:23: I tell you to do. Yep. And just as Christ could stand in front of us and say, I'm God.
28:29: So you got to do what I tell you to do. He certainly has the right to do that. But he's much more gracious and loving than that.
28:35: Yes. He does communicate with us. Christ does through his word. We know his will, what he desires for us when we open the pages of Scripture and we read what it is that we're supposed to do, what role a man is supposed to fill, what role a woman is supposed to fill.
28:50: So there can be this tendency to get into this very rigid, kind of like, as I described before, the independent fundamentalist thing or the
28:59: Bill Gothard thing. You get into this very rigid, here's the command and here's what it is that you do. And it can become rather loveless.
29:07: So remember 1 Corinthians 13, where Paul says, I could have all knowledge, but if I don't have love,
29:13: I'm nothing. Yeah. So you could have all this head knowledge, all this great theology, which on paper is completely solid.
29:21: But then when you're doing it, it's... It's all about what's in your heart. Right. It's just, we're going to keep this set of rules and these commands, and that's the extent to which it's going to go.
29:31: There still has to be love behind it, or it doesn't mean anything. Mm -hmm. There was love behind the words when
29:38: God gave them to us. There's love behind his reproof whenever he has to correct us because we do something wrong.
29:45: Mm -hmm. There is good communication between God and man. Mm -hmm. And so likewise, as a marriage is supposed to be a picture of the way that Christ loves his church and the way that the church submits to Christ, then we also need to have good communication in our marriage.
30:01: Mm -hmm. You need to talk with one another. You need to establish these things. You need to decide what responsibilities the wife is going to have, what responsibilities the husband is going to have.
30:10: He can't abdicate his position of authority. He has to accept the fact that he is the head of his household.
30:17: Right. If he abdicates that role, then he's sinning, and he's causing his wife to sin. Mm -hmm.
30:22: So he has to fill that role. I know that's harder in couples where maybe the husband has a more melancholy personality, and she has a more choleric personality.
30:32: Yeah. More assertive. There are struggles, I'm sure. Right. I mean, there are different things that you have to deal with, and again, going back to your strengths and weaknesses.
30:41: Yes. But this is still what the Bible instructs. It doesn't give any loopholes based on personality types or a type
30:48: A or type B sort of a person. Right. The husband's still got to be the head of his household.
30:54: He still has to lead, and the wife still has to be subject to her husband. But it is our delight to do these things.
31:00: Mm -hmm. Definitely. It's not in any way enslaving us. Right. Oh, I have to be subject to my husband.
31:06: You delight in the Lord to fill that role, to be subject to your husband, because it is a picture of the way that the whole church is to submit to Christ.
31:17: Everybody has to be subject. Yes. A wife is subject to her husband because the church has to be subject to Christ.
31:24: And everybody is the church. Every Christian. Well, that's what I meant.
31:30: Yeah, sure. Oh, you were talking everybody, everybody has to submit. Well, yeah.
31:35: I mean, I need to offer clarity there as well. But yeah, we're all supposed to be subject to Christ.
31:41: Yeah, everybody in the world should be subject to Christ. Yeah. But especially the church should be. And then, of course, the instruction that's given to a husband, husbands love your wives just as Christ also loved the church and gave himself up for her so that he might sanctify her having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word.
32:00: So we are being sanctified by the word of Christ, exactly what you opened with. And just as Christ sanctifies us by his word, so it is by the word of Christ that a husband is to lead in his home, that he's even to build up his wife and discipline his children.
32:17: Because again, going back to chapter six, verse four, fathers bring them up in the discipline and the instruction of the
32:24: Lord. So you have the instruction that's given to husbands to lead his wife in the word.
32:29: And you have the instruction given also to the father, the husband slash father, to raise his children up in the word.
32:36: All of this, the word is filling them up. Right. When you go to Titus two, and you see the instructions there for how older women can help guide younger women in the way they love their husbands and their children.
32:49: It says there that they do these things so that the word of God would not be reviled.
32:56: Right. So even there in a woman's responsibility to be subject to her husband and to love and raise her children, she is also doing this filled up in the word of Christ and doing it according to the instruction of the
33:09: Lord. The truth that should be filling your heart. Yeah. As we read in the beginning from Psalm 15.
33:16: Yes. Now, let me make sure here that I've got everything that... Well, she talked about disciplining one another.
33:21: Oh, yes. Right. And so I think it should start off with a conversation first, not just disciplining.
33:28: So if your husband is doing something for which he needs correction... Yeah, I think that you should approach it with a conversation first.
33:37: Like a sit down and be like, hey, I kind of noticed this was going on. Yeah. And talk about it.
33:43: And usually, usually with us anyway, that's enough to convict the other person to correction right there.
33:54: Right. And so it doesn't go any further with us. But usually, I would,
33:59: I mean, I don't think we've ever... We have never... Gotten that far. We've never raised our voices to each other unless I'm speaking passionately about something.
34:09: In which case, you have to tell me to be quiet. Or yelling at me from the other room. Yeah, that's right. Hey. And then you have to tell me to be quiet because our two -year -old is napping.
34:17: Yes. So see, she corrects me there. Yeah. I'm being too loud. I saw a comment on social media recently where somebody said something to the effect of husband don't...
34:30: Or sorry, no, it was to a wife. It was to a woman. Okay. Don't argue with your husband. And I was looking at that and I was like, see,
34:37: I would say, don't argue with your spouse at all. Yeah. Doesn't matter whether it's a husband and a wife or a wife to her husband.
34:45: Yeah. And what do we mean by arguing? I'm kind of thinking of that going like into fighting.
34:50: Yes. Don't fight with each other. Don't contend against one another. Again, there needs to be conversation. What's that?
34:57: You can disagree. Yeah, you can disagree. That's totally fine. A wife can disagree with her husband. Mm -hmm.
35:02: And sometimes I say, I don't agree with that, but we can give it a shot and we'll see who's right.
35:09: Like the couch I was picking the other day. Uh -huh. Exactly. Which I'm looking at it more from the standpoint of what we can afford.
35:18: Right. And Becky's looking at it from the standpoint of what matches. What looks the coziest.
35:25: Well, no, I'll definitely go with comfort. Yeah. Like I will pick the couch that's the most comfortable. You don't have to tell me that.
35:31: I want longevity. That's all I want. Sure. If I'm going to spend the money on something, I want it to last, you know?
35:37: Yeah. It's got to be comfortable. Unless it's food. I still want it to last. Food's still got to last.
35:43: You kind of got it. That's going to be, yeah. I need to be able to take a good nap on it. Yeah. See, that's what
35:49: I wish you could do in the furniture stores. Can I just nap on this? Yeah. And then I'll let you know. I'll run. Right. Let me take this home.
35:55: If my neck feels okay. Not take it home. I'll sleep on it right there. Nope. I can't do it.
36:02: Let me take a nap. If my neck feels okay when I wake up, then I might take this couch. Just keep it down.
36:11: But, yeah, you're not a slave to your spouse. So don't think of this from the standpoint of like you have to check all your thinking at the door and you just have to do whatever it is that they tell you to do.
36:22: Yeah. You're not a robot. Yeah, exactly. Stepford Wives. Yeah. That whole thing, right? Yeah.
36:27: Where the wife is a robot and does whatever the, it's a perfect wife, does whatever the husband tells her to do.
36:34: It's not going to happen. Which I would say if that's the kind of wife you're looking for, that's not a perfect wife anyway.
36:40: No. I mean, they won't compliment you. Right. It's never genuine. No. Uh -uh.
36:46: It's just I'm doing what I'm told to do. Right. So, yeah, a wife can disagree with her husband, but you do that in a respectful manner.
36:53: You got to show honor to one another. Mm -hmm. You have to be willing to disagree in a respectful way.
37:01: And husbands, likewise, you need to be willing to take that disagreement in a charitable way, not being immediately offended because your wife didn't like a decision that you were making.
37:12: Maybe you're wrong. Maybe she has a better judgment about it than you do. And maybe she can help advise you in that decision that you have to make.
37:21: It doesn't mean that you're any less of a man because she had a better idea than you did.
37:27: Again, this comes down to good communication. Mm -hmm. And sometimes it's not the type of communication.
37:36: Certain subjects need to be short. And then after that, let them mull over it, think about it, establish where they stand, and then you can come back to that and talk.
37:48: Right. It doesn't have to be a full -length conversation at that time to hash out. Yeah. I had a pastor friend that would say, if a meeting's going beyond an hour, then you're not going to solve anything.
38:00: Right. So, it should be over by then. Of course, this was coming from a guy who had some of the longest meetings that I've ever been in.
38:09: So, I kind of found that to be a little, yeah, you say that, but then we're in those meetings for hours.
38:15: So, yeah. And I mean, however long it takes, really. It might be the sort of a thing where maybe we can't solve it today, but you can come back to it later.
38:23: Yeah. As long as it's not an emergency. Yeah. You know, like this has to be hashed out. Yeah. Some things you got to decide right now.
38:30: Right. So, let's do it now. Right. But, I mean, just keep a level head, do it out of love.
38:38: Mm -hmm. Make sure that's first and foremost. And if you're nervous about it, pray about it before you even start the conversation.
38:45: Right. Maybe you can pray together even. Now, some of this, you know, we go to the answer that you and I usually give.
38:53: Mm -hmm. Talk to your pastor about it. Right. But, before saying that and before going to that step, you do have to talk it out between the two of you first.
39:02: Right. If you jump straight into, well, let's take it to our pastor. Well, then that's like, that kind of comes across as,
39:08: I'm going to get him on my side. Yeah. I need somebody to back me up in this. So, let's go to the pastor about it.
39:14: Yeah. And that also creates trust issues too. Right. Like, you didn't trust me enough to come to me first.
39:20: You know, you had to go to this person to, you know. Yeah. Anyway. Or even jumping from, like, we've been talking about this for 10 minutes and now suddenly we're going straight to, well, let's get the pastor involved.
39:29: Mm -hmm. Yeah. There might be some communication problems going on between the two of you there.
39:36: Yeah. So, let's see. Did I get all that? How far can a wife go in giving guidance to her husband? I don't know.
39:42: I don't know the answer to that. How far can she go? I think it depends on the subject. Yeah, definitely.
39:49: Definitely. It depends on the subject, situation, circumstances. I mean, if you've got a husband that is in sin, like, say he's been giving himself over to drunkenness, you're probably in a situation at that point where it looks more like 1
40:03: Peter 3. Like, he's acting as an unbelieving husband and you're a believing wife, and so what did
40:09: Peter say to wives of unbelieving husbands there in 1 Peter 3? Is it the sort of a thing where you've tried to appeal to him multiple times because he's in sin and he won't repent, so now you need to go to the elders of the church and you need to say to him,
40:24: I've confronted him on this multiple times. He won't listen to me. Are there some men that can come alongside him and confront him in these matters?
40:31: It just kind of depends on what the issue is. If it's a light subject, well, maybe sometimes between the two of you, if you can't come to an agreement,
40:41: I would say the default position for the wife should be, well, fine, you're the husband, you're making the decision for the family, so I'm going to let you make it, even if you disagree with it.
40:51: You can express that disagreement, but again, as said before, be respectful about it. But when it comes to bigger issues, if it comes to something sinful, for example, then do what you need to do to confront that sin still in a respectful manner.
41:05: If he won't listen to you, maybe you're going through the steps and the processes like we have laid out in Matthew 18.
41:12: You bring one or two others along. If he doesn't listen to them, you take it to the church. So you're going through these steps and doing that for his benefit, for his good.
41:20: Right. You still need to communicate love in the midst of all of that.
41:25: Like, I'm doing this because I love you. I don't want to see you destroy yourself with this sin that you continually give yourself over to and won't repent.
41:33: And so that's why you're getting others involved. So anyway, but when it comes to that, definitely you want to get pastoral guidance there.
41:41: Getting people involved that are in your church, elders, Sunday school teacher, whoever, so that they can see what's going on in your household and how they can shepherd you or help you in the midst of all of that.
41:53: I had a finishing thought to my original thought. Okay. Disagreement. Sure. But you let him decide, you know, ultimately, and then see if you're wrong or who's right type of thing.
42:05: If he is right, you should celebrate with him. Say, yes, good job.
42:10: You got it. That's right. Don't just let that off as, well, okay, whatever.
42:15: Yeah. Be encouraging of one another. Yeah, exactly. Definitely. Well, thank you for your question.
42:21: Yeah. Thank you. And thank you for listening. Absolutely. Yeah. However many years it's been. And just so everybody knows, we're married.
42:28: Yes. So dear Gabe and Becky, this says dead Gabe and Becky. What? What?
42:35: Wow. Should I take, I just now, I just now noticed that dead Gabe and Becky. Gotta love that autocorrect.
42:43: Yeah. Did he send this from his phone and it autocorrected for him there? It happened. Dead Gabe and Becky.
42:49: Oh man, I can't tell you how many times I'm like sending him one text and it ends up being three or four because the autocorrect just messes with it.
42:58: Yeah. At the send, you know, as you're like pushing send. I've read the rest of the email, so I know it's not a threat, but I did not notice that the first time
43:07: I read it. So dead Gabe and Becky, thank you for your podcast. I never miss a
43:12: Friday Q &A and I've been loving the lessons in Matthew and Isaiah recently too. I don't know if you planned that, but what a great thing to be studying through Matthew seven and Isaiah 53 at the same time.
43:24: 27. 20. Yeah. Matt, what did I say? You said seven. Oh yeah. Matthew 27. Right. Yeah. Matthew 27 and Isaiah 53 at the same time.
43:32: Yeah. No, that's all by the providence of God. I did not plan on getting to the crucifixion of Christ and the suffering servant passage in Isaiah 53 at the same time.
43:47: That just happened to be by God's providence that it worked out that way. So this has been a great lesson for me too. I've enjoyed it also.
43:53: I don't know if you noticed, but our dear evangelical leader, Phil Fisher of Veggie Tales fame has been producing videos lately addressing many critical issues.
44:03: I think he's being sarcastic here, such as does the Bible say the earth is 6 ,000 years old and the rapture is not in the
44:11: Bible. Now, for those of you who are not familiar with Phil Fisher and his present ministry that he has, which is called the
44:18: Holy post, I call it the unholy post, but he is an anti fundamentalist, absolutely hates just general run of the mill evangelicalism.
44:27: And we're seeing this a lot from, uh, from the, uh,
44:33: I don't know the elitists. I don't know what you would term them as, but people like David French who writes for the
44:39: New York times, Russell Moore, who used to be with the ERLC and now he's the president and I, or not
44:46: CEO, but the lead editor, I guess is what it is. He is the, uh, the chief editor at Christianity today.
44:52: And at some of these guys, along with Phil Fisher and others, Sky Jitani, who's part of the unholy post, they, they can't stand those
45:01: Christians who adhere to fundamental aspects of the faith. And even recently they've been interviewing people on their program who are just outright heretics.
45:11: Like one of their recent interviews was somebody I talked about on the podcast this past week,
45:17: Brian Zond, who Zond is an outspoken opponent against the doctrine of penal substitutionary atonement, which as we've been going through Isaiah 53, this is a doctrine that is plainly taught that Christ in his death on the cross took our sins upon himself for us.
45:35: He died for us as an atoning sacrifice. That's wrapped up in the very fact that he's called a propitiation for our sins.
45:42: Romans three, first John and other places. And then he gives to us his righteousness.
45:48: So our sins are taken upon himself. The father crushed him on the cross, putting him to death for our sake.
45:55: Again, all that is plainly stated in Isaiah 53. And then as we read in second Corinthians 521, for our sake, he became sin who knew no sin that we might become the righteousness of God in him.
46:07: So his righteousness given to us that when the father looks at us, he sees not the sinful selves that are deserving of his wrath, but he sees the righteousness of Christ that we've now been clothed in.
46:20: Vischer and Giattani are having guests on their show that oppose that clearly biblical doctrine.
46:26: And they oppose these biblical things because they just have a massive distaste for what would often be termed fundamentalism.
46:34: So anyway, Ethan goes on here. I've kind of interrupted in the middle of that just to catch everybody up on it.
46:39: Yeah. But he says, I happen to catch that he just uploaded a short video called Reimagining a
46:45: Better Gospel. And the moment I see someone claiming that they have a better gospel than the true gospel red flags start going up.
46:53: Thank you. He talked about how most evangelical presentations of the gospel begin in Genesis 3 and not in Genesis 1.
47:02: I have no idea what he's talking about. Have you ever heard of this before? Thank you for your videos,
47:09: Ethan. I sure appreciate you, brother. Now, I don't know if they changed the title of this video since you asked about it.
47:17: But when I looked for it, I didn't find Reimagining a Better Gospel. I found Reimagining a
47:22: Better Story from Creation to Redemption. Maybe it was previously named
47:28: Reimagining a Better Gospel and people complained about it so they changed the title. Could. It could have been that.
47:34: Could have. Or maybe you misread it. I don't know. But this thing where you said, like Vischer says that a common evangelical presentation of the gospel begins in Genesis 3 rather than Genesis 1.
47:44: I have heard him say this before. I've never experienced it. Like you, Ethan, I have no idea like where that comes from.
47:52: Okay. I grew up in Christian radio. For over 20 years I was in Christian radio. So I was at the heart of what we typically term pop evangelicalism or what is called today
48:04: Big Eva, big evangelicalism. Oh yeah. I was right in the middle of all of that. Like if you're in Christian radio, you can see and experience all of the setting trends in evangelicalism.
48:18: And yet I never heard of this thing of the gospel being shared from Genesis 3 rather than Genesis 1.
48:24: I have a theory as to what he means. So let's go to the portion of this interview.
48:29: It's with the three main hosts. I can't remember the gal's name. Not important in any way. But Sky Jatani is the other guy.
48:36: Sky and Phil are kind of the main guys behind the unholy post. So anyway, this is where Vischer picks up in that talk.
48:48: And he's talking about a better story, a better way for us to be sharing the gospel. Okay. So here's that.
48:54: Right. Okay. I want to piggyback on something Caitlin said about telling a better story or a more beautiful story because it feels like, and I don't know if this goes back a thousand years or just like a couple hundred years or if it's really just like the second great awakening when we started doing this.
49:11: But we really started telling the story from Genesis 3. We started in Genesis 3 with the fall and we end, you know, two chapters before the end of Revelation with judgment.
49:22: So we tell a story that starts with fall and ends with judgment. Okay. So here's my theory.
49:30: Here's what I think is going on here. He's not saying that we begin our presentations with the gospel by talking about Adam and Eve in the garden and the snake tempting
49:41: Eve and her eating the fruit gives it to Adam. They sinned. They fell. God kicks them out of the garden.
49:49: I don't think that's what he means. I think what he means is that when we do our presentations of the gospel, we start by talking about how we're all sinners in need of a savior.
49:58: Okay. I think that's what he means. Yeah. Like you said, Ethan, I've never heard this thing of anybody presenting a gospel by saying, well, let's go back to Genesis 3 and let's yeah, you know, no idea what that means.
50:12: So he Vischer is not one for clarity. Exactly. He's one of the nuance guys who speak with a lot of nuance doesn't really know how to speak clearly the truth.
50:22: So, so I think what he means here is that when we start our presentations of the gospel, we talk about sin and how we've, you know,
50:31: Romans 3 23 for all of sin and fallen short of the glory of God or Romans 6 23 for the wages of sin is death.
50:39: But the free gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. We begin with those presentations of the gospel.
50:45: So for Phil, he's like, well, we're starting in Genesis 3 rather than in Genesis 1, but we're preaching the gospel the way the apostles did.
50:53: This is exactly what the apostles did. They start by talking about our sin.
50:59: Show me one apostle in Acts or in any of the epistles who start with creation was beautiful and it was wonderful and everything was rightly ordered.
51:09: And then we came along and messed it up. But God has made a way for us to be restored, you know, which is kind of where he's going with this.
51:16: Show me anywhere that any of the apostles presented the gospel that way. They start with sin.
51:22: The very first sermon in Acts 2 is Peter telling the people at Pentecost, you put the son of God to death.
51:31: Yeah, he uses, he uses the scriptures to prove that Jesus is the Christ.
51:36: Well, first of all, using the scriptures to say what you're witnessing here with the speaking in tongues. Some of them thought the apostles are drunk.
51:44: What you're witnessing here is a fulfillment of the scriptures. And so he speaks from the prophets and then from those same prophets showing that Jesus is the
51:52: Christ, the very one that you put to death. And then they're cut to the heart, recognizing their sin.
51:58: And Peter saying to them, repent and be baptized all of you for the forgiveness of your sins and you will receive the
52:04: Holy Spirit. So this is the presentation of the gospel. Even when you talk about Paul preaching to the pagans at the
52:12: Areopagus in Acts chapter 17, his preaching is telling them that God is coming to judge the world and so repent.
52:22: He's calling all people everywhere to repent and to believe in the one whom he is going to judge the world through.
52:31: And that's the one whom he raised from the dead. This is the way that the gospel was presented. That's why we present the gospel this way.
52:39: Right. So for him to say this is the wrong way to be presenting the gospel, he's going against the apostolic examples that we have in scripture.
52:47: You know, I also kind of think he might have the whole Romans road concept in mind. Yeah, that's what
52:53: I was wondering too. Right. The whole Romans road thing is you begin with talking about sin because that's the way
52:58: Romans starts. Romans 1 .18 where Paul says that all the ungodliness and unrighteousness of men,
53:06: God's wrath is burning against. And then he lays out in chapters one, two, and three, how all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God so that we would see our sin and our need for a savior.
53:17: That is a right way to present the gospel. It's not the only way to present the gospel. Right. But it's certainly a right way to do it.
53:24: And Vischer should not have any complaint against this. Again, where he makes this statement of like,
53:30: I don't know when this started with the second great awakening. It started in the Bible, dude. Yeah. That's where it comes from.
53:38: And that's a scary story and a motivating story. If you already accept all the premises underlying it, if you don't accept the premises, it's a very easy story to ignore.
53:50: Now, I don't know what he means by premises. He might mean presuppositions. Like if you're talking to somebody, they presuppose that we are all sinners in need of a savior, which is not the point at all.
54:03: Because first you need to show somebody that they're a sinner and then you show them a savior. I was going to say, there's barely anybody that I've talked to when evangelizing that actually,
54:15: I don't, I can't recall any time that they've thought that they were sinners, you know, in need of the gospel.
54:21: Well, one thing too is that, well, you know, if we're going to the whole Genesis 3 concept like he was talking about,
54:26: Genesis 3 explains to us why our world has fallen. I don't know that I've ever met anybody, believer or unbeliever, that doesn't agree that the world has fallen.
54:37: Right. True. Like you can look around and see the effects of evil and wickedness in our world.
54:43: You can see that. So his thing of like... Their definitions of evil might be different, but...
54:49: Right. So for him to say, you know, what he just said there about you have to accept the presuppositions first or the, what was the word he used?
54:57: I missed it now. Premises. Premises. Yeah. You have to accept the premises.
55:04: Well, find me somebody that doesn't believe that the world is evil.
55:09: Yeah. That we're being plagued by evil. So that to me seems like a pretty natural acceptance of the way things are.
55:19: So going on here. Just like, well, why would I want that to be true? That's terrible.
55:26: When you start Genesis 1 with creation and you end with new creation, you're telling a completely different story.
55:33: You know, the story isn't about you. It's not about how bad you are and how badly you've messed up.
55:38: And maybe there's a chance for you to be okay and not burn forever. Maybe there isn't.
55:44: But it's a completely different story of a good God who made a good creation and then invited us to be a part of expanding that good creation.
55:50: And then here's what went wrong. And here's what God did about it. But we're still going to end up exactly where God wants us to end up, which is new creation and joining him in it.
56:01: Only if you're a Christian. Yeah, I was going to say that that needs to be clarified. Only if you're a follower of Christ are you going to end up in this new creation.
56:10: What's going to happen to you if you're not? You're going to go to hell. And here's the thing with the Holy Post guys.
56:15: I don't think they believe that. It didn't sound like it. Especially if they're going to have guests on like Brian Zahn.
56:21: Brian Zahn denies that there is an eternal hell. He is a universalist.
56:28: He believes that everybody at some point is going to end up in heaven. Yeah. And I know that because I've had these conversations with him.
56:34: I've had back and forth with Brian Zahn in which I even tried to get him to say that he's a universalist, but he absolutely wouldn't do it because he knew the moment those words came out of his mouth that the conversation was over.
56:45: Yeah. He's like, I don't want you to be able to pigeonhole my theology in a place where you can say, well,
56:50: Brian, you're a heretic, you know? Yeah. And it's the same with the Holy Post folks. I don't think they believe that there is a hell, which is why
56:59: Phil doesn't think there's any reason for us to be giving this story that scares people of you're a sinner.
57:05: God's judgment is on you. And the only way that you can be saved is to turn to Christ. I don't know if you being the listeners had listened to my sermon, which would have aired on this podcast this past Sunday, but I opened with the story of D .L.
57:20: Moody, who was preaching in England and had huge crowds that were coming to listening to him.
57:26: They were coming to listen to him preach. And some of the ministers in England were kind of jealous of this because D .L.
57:34: Moody was a Yankee and not an educated man. He had nothing better than a sixth grade education.
57:40: So they go to the flat where he was staying and they say to him, Mr. Moody, how is it that you preach such powerful sermons that attract so many people?
57:49: And he invited them in his flat and he took them over to the window and said, look out the window and tell me what it is that you see.
57:55: And one said, I see some children in the park playing. And another said, I see an old man sitting on a park bench feeding the birds.
58:03: And another said, I see a couple walking hand in hand through the park. And when they turned around and looked at Mr.
58:08: Moody, he had tears streaming down his face. And they said, well, Mr. Moody, what do you see?
58:14: And Moody said, I see people going to hell. And that's my motivation for preaching the sermons the way that I preach them is so that people will hear the good news of the gospel and turn to Jesus Christ and live.
58:27: I don't think the Holy Post folks are aware of that. I don't think they have an understanding of most of the people in the world are going to hell.
58:37: And what are you going to do to warn them of the judgment that is to come? Will you preach like Paul at the
58:43: Areopagus? The times of ignorance God has overlooked, but now he's commanding all people everywhere to repent because a day of judgment is coming, which he has fixed in which he will judge the world in righteousness through one man whom he has shown who that will be by raising him from the dead.
59:03: Are you going to preach that message? Or do you think that, no, it's more warm and fuzzy to tell people about, you know, everything was perfect in the beginning.
59:12: We've messed it up, but we're all going to end up in the new heavens and the new earth. Not if they don't believe in Jesus, they won't.
59:18: Right. And I don't hear any emphasis in the version of the gospel that he thinks that we should be sharing, which, you know, and I would say if you're going to share the gospel with like that, fine.
59:28: But there still has to be something about judgment and need for a savior in there. Yeah. I'm just wondering if the baggage, you know, kind of the fundamentalist baggage in American evangelicalism is...
59:42: So see, there you hear it. His anti -fundamentalism. Yeah. Which is coming out. Partly why a lot of people who are rejecting the fundamentalist aspect, but don't want to reject
59:54: Jesus, you know, are becoming evangelical Anglicans and, you know, are looking more to British evangelicalism and different forms of evangelicalism that don't have the baggage of the modernist fundamentalist controversy and the isolationism that developed.
01:00:10: Huh? That's a pretty good theory, huh? Well, most churches in America are not preaching about hell.
01:00:17: I would agree with that. So I think that, I think what he's saying there is really kind of foolish. Like, why are some people moving away from American evangelicalism and going to something like Anglicanism?
01:00:27: Well, it can't be because Anglicanism has a better message than evangelicalism, because the vast majority of evangelicalism is preaching a soft gospel.
01:00:36: They aren't talking about hell and they aren't talking about your need for a savior. They're trying to present something comfortable and trying to entertain people.
01:00:45: Right. Rather than making people feel uncomfortable. And whereas my, for me as a preacher,
01:00:53: I want you to feel uncomfortable. Yeah. Because you need to know your errors and you need to know how
01:01:01: Christ has redeemed us and has called us to walk in that redemption.
01:01:07: If you are in Christ and you've been clothed in his righteousness, what does that look like? And so every week, and I mean every week that I'm preparing a sermon,
01:01:16: I'm checking myself first. Where is this stuff convicting my heart that I need the correction in my life?
01:01:22: And so then I'm going to come and present to the church all the stuff that I've been wrestling with all week long.
01:01:29: And now you get to hear it and you get to wrestle with it all this next week long. That's how that goes.
01:01:35: I like it. Yeah. I mean, I remember my first semester of seminary, my first week of seminary, probably.
01:01:41: We all had to take a spiritual formation class our first semester. And the first couple lectures were all about this picture from Genesis to Revelation.
01:01:48: And the professor said something very similar to what you just said, Phil. Of like, our anthropology cannot start in Genesis 3.
01:01:53: It needs to start in Genesis 1. And the story he told of this beautiful creation to redemption story,
01:01:59: I remember thinking, I have grown up in the church my whole life. I have never heard that. I remember being in high school and asking a youth leader, what about new heavens and new earth kind of situation?
01:02:10: And she was like, oh, that's not in the Bible. Where'd you hear that? And now I feel sympathy for her because I think she was probably 16 and I was nine.
01:02:17: And why was anyone? Okay. There's the problem. So, it wasn't that this was the common way that the gospel is being shared in evangelical churches.
01:02:26: Because again, as I said before, I was right in the thick of it and I've never heard anything like this before. So, the problem was she had a teacher who was 16.
01:02:35: What in the world? Yeah. I mean, it happens. That was a unique situation.
01:02:42: That is not the way that it's typically found in most of evangelicalism. Nor have
01:02:47: I encountered this thing before of like our anthropology needs to begin in Genesis 1 and not Genesis 3.
01:02:53: I've been hearing about create. Okay. Here's the other thing. Okay. Let me back up. Let me back up. All right.
01:02:58: All right. So, remember that Ethan in his email, he said that the unholy post has recently been putting out these videos that are attacking fundamentalist concepts.
01:03:10: Like the rapture is not in the Bible. And does the Bible say that the earth is 6 ,000 years old? Okay. Where do we get the idea that the earth is 6 ,000 years old?
01:03:20: Creation. Genesis 1. Yeah. So, are we starting in Genesis 1 or not?
01:03:27: Because right here he's saying we don't start in Genesis 1. We start in Genesis 3. This is the problem with fundamentalism.
01:03:32: But they just did a video attacking fundamentalism starting in Genesis 1. He's contradicting himself.
01:03:39: You get what I'm saying? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I get it. Am I articulating my argument well enough? Yes. Maybe that's what
01:03:45: I should be asking. So, yeah. They just did a video on, you know, six -day creation.
01:03:51: Is the earth only 6 ,000 years old? So on and so forth, which they hold. And I've heard them attack this position before.
01:03:57: They hold that that's exclusively a fundamentalist idea. And you don't have to believe that to be saved and so on and so forth.
01:04:03: So, they're accusing the fundamentalists of starting in Genesis 1. And they're accusing the fundamentalists of saying, no, no, no.
01:04:08: They don't start in Genesis 1. They start in Genesis 3. I think they need more things to talk about.
01:04:15: I have had it grilled into me my whole life. Six -day creation.
01:04:21: That's what I've been getting since I was a kid. Yep. So, I don't even know where they're coming from on this whole thing of like, well, we start in Genesis 3 instead of Genesis 1.
01:04:30: Like I said, I think what they're really going after is when we're sharing the gospel and talking about you're a sinner in need of a savior.
01:04:36: And they think, no, that's not the way that you should start. Yeah. Your presentation of the gospel. Putting her in authority over me.
01:04:43: Like that was terrible. But I do think it's not only important to say, this is a more desirable story.
01:04:49: This is a more beautiful story. This is a more true story. But also, it not only gives us greater hope for eternity, but it changes the meaningfulness and value of life here and now and the work we're doing here and now.
01:05:02: And I think part of what we got really wrong in the past was not just telling the gospel wrong, but then saying all that matters then is you go around and turn and say that same gospel to other people because everything else you do is kind of ultimately worthless.
01:05:14: Instead, now it's like you're a social worker. That's amazing. That's you providing glimpses of the coming kingdom of God, and that work will be perfected and continue into eternity.
01:05:23: If you're an architect, if you're a doctor, if you're, I don't know about podcasts and eternity, but whatever it is that you do, there will be a way in which if that is faithfully done by the power of the
01:05:31: Holy Spirit, that continues into eternity. And that feels a lot more hopeful than just the either avoiding damnation or even like the vision
01:05:40: I had, which was like we're sitting on a cloud singing and mostly being bored. It's like no work now is meaningful, and the parts of it that are hard now won't exist.
01:05:50: Now, see, I've said exactly that. You've heard me preach that. Whatever you do, you do it to the glory of God.
01:05:56: I said that in a recent sermon because we were in 1 Timothy 6. I went back to Colossians chapter 3.
01:06:02: Whatever you do, remember you work first for the Lord and not for men. So whatever occupation you have, you do it to the glory of God.
01:06:09: You think that you're worth more money than you're getting paid? Okay, but you are thankful to God for the paycheck that you get because it provides for you and provides for your family.
01:06:19: And everything that you do has eternal ramifications to it. So give glory to God in the work that you do, and it will roll up into praise to God.
01:06:28: It can be glimpses of eternity. It is praise that you're kind of storing up in the heavenly registry that you will be enjoying for all eternity when you finally get to that place.
01:06:39: Is that what she was saying? Because I kind of was thinking she was trying to say that—
01:06:45: Well, she started with social workers, so right away it's like— We have jobs in heaven. Yeah, well, yeah.
01:06:50: Like the same job will be in heaven that we do here. Right, it did kind of sound like that. It did.
01:06:55: Was I just confused? I don't know. I don't know if that's what she meant. Like literally we're going to be doing these jobs in eternity.
01:07:02: Because if all is perfect in heaven, which it will be, why would we need a doctor?
01:07:08: Yeah, why would you need a social worker? Or a social worker. Or anything like that. Right, those are not jobs we're going to be doing.
01:07:14: I'm confused. So I'm giving her the benefit of the doubt. But here on earth, yes, we need them.
01:07:21: And yes, you can do it to the glory of God. Right. So yeah, giving her the benefit of the doubt that that's what she meant.
01:07:27: That's what she intended by that. But like I said, that's the way that I've always presented the gospel. And we're obviously in disagreement on what the gospel really is.
01:07:36: And how you should be presenting it. But I have always spoken of those things in that way. What she didn't articulate, what she didn't say, is that this is only for the
01:07:45: Christian. That's true. For the unbeliever, whatever they do will have no eternal glory to it whatsoever.
01:07:54: Yeah. Well, I mean, that's stated in the Bible, too. With the Lord, Lord, I did all these things for you.
01:08:02: Yes. I never. Right. In Matthew 7. Yeah. You never knew me. Right. And Jesus is going to reply to them, depart from me, you worker of lawlessness.
01:08:10: I never knew you. That's what it is. Yeah. Yeah. So despite that they will claim, I did all of these things in your name.
01:08:16: Yet Jesus is going to say, I didn't know you. Right. And I think that's proof enough that that will happen.
01:08:27: Because it's in the Bible and the Bible is true. So anyway. So we'll end it there. I won't keep going.
01:08:32: Okay, thank you. We're almost at the end. But yeah, as you kind of raised that question,
01:08:38: Ethan, about where does this come from or whatever. I mean, this is all motivated by their anti -fundamentalism.
01:08:45: They hate the basic understanding of the gospel in the way that it should be preached.
01:08:51: According to the examples that we follow in scripture. Yeah. And notice there wasn't any scripture in anything that they said.
01:08:58: This was all their own philosophy and theory. But it didn't come back to what
01:09:03: God's word says about these things. So with the exception of Caitlin's comment about she had a teacher who said that there isn't a new heavens and a new earth in the
01:09:14: Bible. It's like, yeah, your teacher's wrong about that. But do you understand what the scripture says about the new heavens and the new earth?
01:09:23: Yeah. Instead, they're investing their time talking about the earth is older than 6 ,000 years and there's no rapture in the
01:09:31: Bible. That seems to be what they think are the most pressing issues of our day that we need to be confronting right now.
01:09:39: I've got no comment. Well, that's our show for this week, folks.
01:09:44: Yeah. And we thank you so much for tuning in. We'll be back to talk about Eclipse next week,
01:09:50: I guess. Yeah. I'll come back to that question. And any other questions you would like to submit, you can send them to whenweunderstandthetext at gmail .com.
01:09:57: Oh, the podcast here, The Word of the Lord, works now. Yay. I tested it myself.
01:10:03: I actually brought it up on my own podcast listener and I found it on my iPhone. Nice. So it's working.
01:10:09: You can get to it. Daily Bible readings, no commentary, no music or anything. It just it'll jump right into the
01:10:15: Bible reading. So hear the word of the Lord is the name of that podcast. And right now we're in the middle of Exodus, just got through the
01:10:21: Ten Commandments. Nice. And you can go back, go back and listen to Genesis 1, which started on March the 1st.
01:10:27: We're going to go read through the entire Bible in a year. That's where you can find it. Anything else?
01:10:33: So if you did have a gift that you wanted to send to us, you can send it through the email address that I gave.
01:10:40: Whenweunderstandthetext at gmail .com. PayPal is how we receive that. Or you can send something to our church, which
01:10:47: I don't have the address in front of me. But you can address it to Providence Reformed Baptist Church in Casa Grande, Arizona and just say, attention,
01:10:54: Pastor Gabe, it'll get to me. All right. I was going to look it up, but I was too slow to the draw.
01:11:04: Now we're at the end. You can look it up yourself. Yeah, there you go. Thank you for thinking of us and praying for us.
01:11:10: We sure appreciate it. Amen. Heavenly Father, we thank you for this time that we have together. And I thank you that as we comb your word, we are seeking those things that are pleasing to God.
01:11:21: What does it mean to be a godly husband? What does it mean to be a godly wife? What does it mean to share the gospel with others?
01:11:28: How do we bring a person to a knowledge of their sin and need of a Savior? Because we don't want to see our friends and loved ones go to hell.
01:11:36: We don't want to see strangers go to hell. We want them to know the Christ who saves and that they will live forever with God in eternity for those who have faith in Jesus.
01:11:46: He who died on a cross as an atoning sacrifice for sins. Who rose again. Who ascended to heaven.
01:11:52: Is seated at the right hand of God. Is coming back again to judge the living and the dead. All who believe in him will be saved.
01:12:00: And may that gospel continue to be in the things that we say and do that we may show love for others in this way.
01:12:08: Wanting them to know the Christ who saves and live. It's in Jesus name we pray. Amen.
01:12:14: Amen. Good? Like in Colossians 3, let the word of Christ dwell in you richly.
01:12:27: And this is the very thing that motivates us in showing love and kindness to one another.
01:12:32: Yeah. Because we have Christ's word in our heart. Well, welcome to the Friday edition of When We Understand the
01:12:38: Text. What are you doing? There was a bug on my hand. So I smushed it.
01:12:44: But I don't know if I got it or not. Hmm. Are you sure you're not seeing things?
01:12:54: I can't even hear myself. Can you not hear yourself? Is this not up loud enough?
01:13:00: No. How's that? Oh, that's better. Is that better? Okay. I feel like I need to lean into the mic. It's weird.