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.

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

More about the Bible: https://www.thebereancall.org/topic/bible

Our website: https://www.reachingcatholics.org

Our main website: www.thebereancall.org

Store: store.thebereancall.org

Download our app: www.thebereancall.org/app

Sign up for our email updates: https://www.thebereancall.org/subscribe

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

More about the Bible: https://www.thebereancall.org/topic/bible

Our website: https://www.reachingcatholics.org

Our main website: www.thebereancall.org

Store: store.thebereancall.org

Download our app: www.thebereancall.org/app

Sign up for our email updates: https://www.thebereancall.org/subscribe

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 have a Bible question which I don't understand—would you mind teaching me? In a Zoom Bible study originating from a Hong Kong Ministry, the teacher who is teaching suggested it is permissible to worship and sacrifice to the LORD at the high places since the Temple wasn't built yet and is forbidden after the Temple was built:

But thus shall ye deal with them; ye shall destroy their altars, and break down their images, and cut down their groves, and burn their graven images with fire (Deuteronomy 7:5); And ye shall overthrow their altars, and break their pillars, and burn their groves with fire; and ye shall hew down the graven images of their gods, and destroy the names of them out of that place. Ye shall not do so unto the LORD your God. But unto the place which the LORD your God shall choose out of all your tribes to put his name there, even unto his habitation shall ye seek, and thither thou shalt come: And thither ye shall bring your burnt offerings, and your sacrifices, and your tithes, and heave offerings of your hand, and your vows, and your freewill offerings, and the firstlings of your herds and of your flocks…. (Deuteronomy 12:3-6)

1 Kings 3:2-3 said that Solomon offered 1,000 sacrifices to the LORD at the high place at Gibeon and after that God was revealed to him and accepted him, but in 2 Chronicles 1:5 Solomon actually went to the Tabernacle and offered at the brazen altar. So, did he do the right thing? 

Response: 2 Chronicles 1:3 tells us that Solomon, early in his reign and before the temple was built, worshiped at a high place. Verse 3 reads, “So Solomon, and all the congregation with him, went to the high place that was at Gibeon; for there was the tabernacle of the congregation of God, which Moses the servant of the LORD had made in the wilderness.” We know that the tabernacle was set up there. But, both Deuteronomy 7:5 and 12:3-6 clearly tell us that all the pagan materials are to be removed from the high place prior to any worship of the Lord. A “high place” itself is not a pagan location, except if the statues and the other things used in their rituals are there.

Consequently, the reason Solomon worshiped at this particular high place was, as already noted, that the tabernacle was set up there. It was the same tabernacle that the children of Israel, according to the instructions given Moses, had constructed in the wilderness. Therefore, before the construction of the Jewish temple in Jerusalem, the tabernacle was what God had chosen for the sacrifice and worship by Israel.

It has been pointed out that Solomon’s father King David had previously worshiped the Lord at this high place in Gibeon. First Chronicles 16:39 notes, “[David left] Zadok the priest, and his brethren the priests, before the tabernacle of the LORD in the high place that was at Gibeon….” The tabernacle was where the altar of burnt offering had been set up (see 1 Chronicles 21:29).

Again, it was not the high place itself that made it a suitable place for the sacrifices, but rather a place cleansed of all pagan paraphernalia and with the tabernacle already set up there.

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

More about the Bible: https://www.thebereancall.org/topic/bible

Our website: https://www.reachingcatholics.org

Our main website: www.thebereancall.org

Store: store.thebereancall.org

Download our app: www.thebereancall.org/app

Sign up for our email updates: https://www.thebereancall.org/subscribe

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: What can you tell us about a group who say they are Christians, but tell us that Paul’s epistles should not be in the New Testament? Also, they say that we must learn the Scriptures through Hebrew eyes and culture. Finally, the names “Hebrews,” “Israel,” “Israelites,” and “Jews” have different meanings in today’s context and that “Israel” and “Jews” don’t mean the same people.

Response: From what you have said, you very likely have met a cultist who is presenting himself as the authority when it comes to learning Scripture. The intent to help Christians understand better the Scriptures through Hebrew eyes and culture is not in itself “bad.” But, if any group places emphasis upon these aspects, such as how someone is saved, we’re only seeing through their eyes and their assumed culture.

To them the Bible “must” be in error, because it contradicts what they teach. Yet, if they won’t include Paul as a part of the New Testament, consider what Peter said in 2 Peter 3:16: “As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they doalso the other scriptures, unto their own destruction” (emphasis added).

Further, the Lord has promised to preserve His Word, as in Psalm 12:6-7: “The words of the LORD are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times. Thou shalt keep them, O LORD, thou shalt preserve them from this generation forever.”

Regarding your question about the meaning of “Hebrews,” “Israel,” “Israelites,” and “Jews,” all speak of the descendants of Jacob (Israel). The Lord distinctly said that “...though I make a full end of all nations whither I have scattered thee, yet will I not make a full end of thee: but I will correct thee in measure, and will not leave thee altogether unpunished” (Jer 30:11).

As to their importance as “signs of the times,” the prophet Joel recorded that “I will also gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and will plead with them there for my people and for my heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and parted my land” (Jl 3:2; see also Zechariah 7, 8, 12, 14, etc.). Finally, the apostle Paul also noted that God was far from finished with the nation of Israel (Rom 11:1-25).

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

More about the Bible: https://www.thebereancall.org/topic/bible

Our website: https://www.reachingcatholics.org

Our main website: www.thebereancall.org

Store: store.thebereancall.org

Download our app: www.thebereancall.org/app

Sign up for our email updates: https://www.thebereancall.org/subscribe

On today’s program, we’re going to do something that is different from our usual interview programming, but actually not too different. It will still involve an interview, but I will be interviewing myself. 

The questions, for the most part, are derived from questions I’ve been asked over the last couple of years about movies - in particular, so-called biblical movies. Why me on movies? Well, that’s what I majored in in college as a graduate student. Following that, I worked in Hollywood for 20th Century Fox in publicity and advertising for a number of years, and later became a screenwriter. Since evangelical Christianity has of late become the favored audience of Hollywood filmmakers who have been generating movies to appeal to that audience, I thought it would be helpful to use my background in film and my decades of experience in biblical discernment to critique Hollywood’s attempt at translating the Bible visually. Hence, T.A. will be interviewing T.A., although Gary Carmichael, our producer/announcer, will be asking the questions, all of which I’ve been confronted with over the last couple of years.