The Berean Call Podcast

Join Dave and Tom as they engage in an in-depth, verse-by-verse examination of the Gospel of John. We hope you will be challenged and convicted as you listen to these insightful, exegetical discussions compiled from nearly four years of Search the Scriptures Daily radio programs. Open your Bible and get ready for an edifying pilgrimage into God's Word.

Question: I go to a Presbyterian church and they do communion monthly. I used to attend a non-denomination that did that as well. Are we not to do communion if we attend a church that does it?? I’m still trying to unlearn a lot of false teachings I learned over the years. But God is so good, and I’m grateful He’s gotten me out of those things.

Response: Communion is a memorial as Paul carefully explains: “For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord’s death till he come” (1 Cor 11:26). As Peter points out, we need to have our memories constantly jogged (2 Pet 1:13), in order to remember what the Lord has already done (Heb 10:12).

Paul’s remarks concerning communion clearly show the importance of this event. Although partaking of communion does not contribute to our salvation and should only be done by those already saved, it serves as a reminder of what the Lord Jesus has done for us.

“And when he had given thanks, he brake it, and said, Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me. After the same manner also he took the cup, when he had supped, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood: this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me” (1 Cor 11:24-25).

The message of this treasured epistle is just as clear and convicting today as it was to the early churches of Galatia: We are justified by grace through faith alone - not by works of the law.

Join T. A. McMahon and radio guests (Greg Durel, Mike Gendron, and Jim McCarthy) as they discuss this powerful Pauline epistle and its relevance to your daily walk.

Gary: Welcome to Search the Scriptures 24/7, a radio ministry of The Berean Call with T.A. McMahon. I’m Gary Carmichael. Thanks for tuning in. In today’s program, Tom begins a two-part series with guest, author and conference speaker Warren Smith. Here’s TBC executive director Tom McMahon.

Tom: Thanks, Gary. Today and next week I’ll be discussing an important topic with a friend of mine who is an author of numerous books, including The Light That Was Dark: From the New Age to Amazing Grace, and Deceived On Purpose, as well as another very valuable book that we discussed in detail when he was on with me last, and the book is Another Jesus Calling. But the topic for today and for next week, the Lord willing, is sorcery, and my guest is Warren Smith. Warren, thanks for joining me on Search the Scriptures 24/7.

Warren: Good to be with you, Tom.

Join Dave and Tom as they engage in an in-depth, verse-by-verse examination of the Gospel of John. We hope you will be challenged and convicted as you listen to these insightful, exegetical discussions compiled from nearly four years of Search the Scriptures Daily radio programs. Open your Bible and get ready for an edifying pilgrimage into God's Word.

Question: I am a registered psychotherapist and I reject Freudian and Jungian beliefs. However, I did find that when you remove these demonic influences and stick with the "science" behind psychology and filter it through the Bible that it's a powerful tool. Proverbs in particular along with New Testament scriptures encourage us to guard our heart and mind, renew our mind with God's Word, and find peace of mind. The Bible is actually the BASIS of TRUE Psychotherapy if you study the subject biblically. What do you say?

Response: It's instructive that just in the last week we have been contacted by Christian psychologists who insist that "psychotherapy" by name has been discarded by Christians who limit themselves to being called Biblical Counselors. Further, secular psychologists have also gone down this path. We appreciate your "rejection" of Freudian and Jungian beliefs. It is clear that your heart is for those you seek to help. With that in mind, the pertinent question to ask, however, is how thorough that process has been? We say that because some of these counselors are still using the teachings of those you correctly label as "demonic influences."

Other psychologists have "come out" with the same concern for how they have been trained, and what they have learned in practices that span several decades.

More recently, the Transgender movement has shown that "science" has very little to do with an utterly emotional, anti-science practice. So, we have to make sure we've gutted the structure of psychology/psychotherapy.

There is, however, the often seen reference to the “Science” of psychology. There's a fascinating article entitled The Puzzle of Paul Meehl: An intellectual history of research criticism in psychology (i.e., checking them out from the perspective of real science [https://bit.ly/4ihy1qX]).

Professor Andrew Gelman writes, "There’s nothing wrong with Meehl. He’s great. The Puzzle of Paul Meehl is that everything we’re saying now, all this stuff about the problems with Psychological Science and PPNAS and Ted Talks and all that, Paul Meehl was saying 50 years ago. And it was no secret. So how is it that all this was happening, in plain sight, and now here we are?"

Meehl concluded his 1967 article by saying, "Some of the more horrible examples of this process would require the combined analytic and reconstructive efforts of Carnap, Hempel, and Popper to unscramble the logical relationships of theories and hypotheses to evidence. Meanwhile our eager-beaver researcher, undismayed by logic-of-science considerations and relying blissfully on the ‘exactitude’ of modem statistical hypothesis-testing, has produced a long publication list and been promoted to a full professorship. In terms of his contribution to the enduring body of psychological knowledge, he has done hardly anything."

We will pray that as you devise your way, the Lord will direct your steps further.

The message of this treasured epistle is just as clear and convicting today as it was to the early churches of Galatia: We are justified by grace through faith alone - not by works of the law.

Join T. A. McMahon and radio guests (Greg Durel, Mike Gendron, and Jim McCarthy) as they discuss this powerful Pauline epistle and its relevance to your daily walk.

Join Dave and Tom as they engage in an in-depth, verse-by-verse examination of the Gospel of John. We hope you will be challenged and convicted as you listen to these insightful, exegetical discussions compiled from nearly four years of Search the Scriptures Daily radio programs. Open your Bible and get ready for an edifying pilgrimage into God's Word.

Question: We have been asked to respond to the question of whether or not someone who is a believer and commits suicide will still go to heaven. The individual who committed suicide had some form of depression for years, which caused great suffering.

Response: This is certainly a difficult question to ask and whether we take one position or the other, we still have to admit that we can't see what's going on in an individual's mind. We have prayed for an individual whose spouse had a stroke that changed their personality. They knew the Lord and throughout married life the individual was a good and kind spouse. But post-stroke the victim’s personality changed. We can't say they "willfully" changed their personality. Did they arrange for the stroke to happen? Their spouse said they constantly struggled to control their temper. When we are saved, scripture tells us we are a new creation, old things have passed away (sins are forgiven), and all things have become new (2 Cor 5:17). But, we still inhabit a body subject to illness and pain.

Scripture very clearly says "the old man" is still active in our life. Paul writes in Romans 7 about his struggle. That will continue until we die or are raptured. Then, and only then, "we all shall be changed" (1 Cor 15:51). That is, the old body we inhabit will undergo a resurrection and all the "evil" is done away with. In the meanwhile, the Scriptures speak of the security of the believer.

I remember a conversation I had with a Christian doctor when he was briefing me about some oral surgery I was advised to have. I made a joke, saying, "Please don't record what I say under anesthesia." The doctor laughed and said he wouldn't listen and then spoke of some patients he described as “beautiful grandmothers who were saved and yet under anesthesia would sometimes say some of the most vile things.”

And, let's also acknowledge mental issues. We’re not talking about psychology. As Tom and Dave both noted and medical science has shown, there can be biological damage to the brain that affects someone's ability to communicate, whether the damage is from an accident, internal tumors, or other disease. The question then arises: is there a point where disease or other factors bring an individual to a point where they are not thinking with a right mind? James 4:17 tells us, “Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.”

We must also consider the biological issues that come with old age. We don't have the insight to understand what is physically happening to an elderly person's brain. But, if things progress to where an individual isn't fully in control of themselves, can we arbitrarily believe God will send them to hell for that? "Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?" (Gen 18:25).

The message of this treasured epistle is just as clear and convicting today as it was to the early churches of Galatia: We are justified by grace through faith alone - not by works of the law.

Join T. A. McMahon and radio guests (Greg Durel, Mike Gendron, and Jim McCarthy) as they discuss this powerful Pauline epistle and its relevance to your daily walk.

View the full series: https://www.thebereancall.org/galatians

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