The Berean Call Podcast

My guest is author Paul Wilkinson, and we are about - critiquing a radio interview that the Bible Answer Man (according to many [who] refer to him as that) Hank Hanegraaff is interviewing Dr. Gary Burge, a professor at Wheaton College, and we are just being Bereans. We’re listening to the programs – you can listen with us – and we are… Nothing out of context here. We’re trying to play as much as we can, and we’re evaluating it biblically. We’re checking it out to see how what they’re saying holds up to the Word of God.

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: How can you believe both in God’s foreknowledge and that man has the power of choice? If God knows ahead of time that Mr. A is going to do something, how can Mr. A decide for himself? Isn’t foreknowledge the same as predestination?

Response: The biblical doctrine of foreknowledge simply states that God knows everything that will happen before it happens—which, as God, He must know. Prophecy, in which God reveals His foreknowledge, is the major part of Scriptures, the great proof that God exists and that the Bible is His Word (Isaiah 42:9; 43:10; 46:9-10; 48:5, etc.). Prophecy is also the foundation of the gospel (Romans 1:1-3; 1 Corinthians 15:1-4, etc.). Scripture never says or even implies that God knows all beforehand because He has caused it—much less that He must cause it in order to know it. The future is as plain to Him as the past. 

The future is part of time, which is part of this physical universe. God is not part of the universe (which He created out of nothing), but He is separate from it. Perhaps He observes the universe from the outside including past, present, and future time, seeing it all at once. It is not necessary for us to know how God knows the future but we know He must.

This is number 241 in our series of “Get Biblical Understanding.” In this session we’re reading many but certainly not all of the biblical verses that have to do with a Deterrent.

Webster’s dictionary of 1828 (which many of its definitions are taken from the Scriptures) records the act of deterring as discouraging or stopping by fear; to stop or prevent from proceeding, by danger, difficulty or other consideration which disheartens, or countervails the motive for an act.

We are often deterred from our duty by trivial difficulties.

HEBREWS 12:26-29 Whose voice then shook the earth: but now he hath promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven. And this word, Yet once more, signifieth the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain. Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear: For our God is a consuming fire.

JAMES 5:9 Grudge not one against another, brethren, lest ye be condemned: behold, the judge standeth before the door.

2 PETER 2:5-6 And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly; And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrha into ashes condemned them with an overthrow, making them an ensample unto those that after should live ungodly;

REVELATION 2:21-23 And I gave her space to repent of her fornication; and she repented not. Behold, I will cast her into a bed, and them that commit adultery with her into great tribulation, except they repent of their deeds. And I will kill her children with death; and all the churches shall know that I am he which searcheth the reins and hearts: and I will give unto every one of you according to your works.

REVELATION 3:3 Remember therefore how thou hast received and heard, and hold fast, and repent. If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come on thee as a thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee.

REVELATION 14:9-11 And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand, The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb: And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name. 

Thanks for listening and we hope you’ll join us again as we search the Scriptures in order to “Get Biblical Understanding.”

This is number 240 in our series of “Get Biblical Understanding.” In this session we’re reading many but certainly not all of the biblical verses that have to do with a Deterrent.

Webster’s dictionary of 1828 (which many of its definitions are taken from the Scriptures) records the act of deterring as discouraging or stopping by fear; to stop or prevent from proceeding, by danger, difficulty or other consideration which disheartens, or countervails the motive for an act.

We are often deterred from our duty by trivial difficulties.

1 TIMOTHY 5:20 Them that sin rebuke before all, that others also may fear.

TITUS 1:9-14 Holding fast the faithful word as he hath been taught, that he may be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and to convince the gainsayers. For there are many unruly and vain talkers and deceivers, specially they of the circumcision: Whose mouths must be stopped, who subvert whole houses, teaching things which they ought not, for filthy lucre’s sake. One of themselves, even a prophet of their own, said, The Cretians are alway liars, evil beasts, slow bellies. This witness is true. Wherefore rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith; Not giving heed to Jewish fables, and commandments of men, that turn from the truth.

HEBREWS 2:2 For if the word spoken by angels was stedfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense of reward;

HEBREWS 3:17-19 But with whom was he grieved forty years? was it not with them that had sinned, whose carcases fell in the wilderness? And to whom sware he that they should not enter into his rest, but to them that believed not? So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.

HEBREWS 12:5-8 And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him: For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons.

HEBREWS 12:9-11 Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live? For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure; but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness. Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.

Thanks for listening and we hope you’ll join us again as we search the Scriptures in order to “Get Biblical Understanding.”

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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My guest is Paul Wilkinson, and if you’ve been tracking with us, we have been going through a series of critiquing, evaluating a program by Hank Hanegraaff in which he interviews Dr. Gary Burge, a professor at Wheaton College. And I guess we could say that their perspective, their position, is that they are in support of what’s called Christian Palestinianism, much to, in my view, the denigration – actually, it’s far worse than that – the denigration of Israel and the distortion of the Scriptures. But that’s our perspective. You as listeners, you need to be Bereans. We’re going to play again the dialogue between Hanegraaff and Burge, and you decide. You be a Berean and you check these things out.

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: If only those in the church are resurrected and taken to heaven at the Rapture, when do Old Testament saints get resurrected? If at the Rapture, then wouldn’t they be in the church?

Response: Before Christ’s resurrection, the souls and spirits of Old Testament believers went upon death to “Abraham’s bosom” (Lk 16:22-23), where Christ’s soul and spirit went upon His death as did the believing thief crucified with Him: “To day shalt thou be with me in paradise” (Lk 23:43). When Christ ascended to heaven after His resurrection, He took these believers with Him.

It cannot only be those who died in faith in Christ since His resurrection, but Old Testament believers as well, who are described as the “saints” who come back with Christ at the Second Coming to the Mount of Olives (Zec 14:4-5; Jude 14), “those who sleep in Jesus” (1 Thes 4:14) and “the dead in Christ” (v. 16) resurrected at the Rapture. If Abraham, who “rejoiced to see [Christ’s] day” (Jn 8:56) and David and Isaiah, who foretold the Crucifixion and Resurrection, are not raised from the dead at the Rapture, they never will be resurrected.

The only other mention of a resurrection of believers is of those who “were beheaded [by antichrist]…which had not worshiped the beast” (Rv 20:4), completing the “first resurrection” (Rv 20:5). Old Testament saints must therefore be resurrected at the Rapture, and are in the church.

All Jews and Gentiles who believe in Christ before the Second Coming are in the church. Those who (whether Jews or Gentiles) only believe when they see Christ return at Armageddon will continue alive into the Millennium as the earthly people.

Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils. —1 Timothy 4:1

In my two previous TBC articles this year (Mar and Apr ’06), I addressed the destructive influence psychological counseling is having on the evangelical church. Simply put, the church has turned from God’s Word to man’s bankrupt theories in attempting to resolve mental, emotional, and behavioral problems. The greater part of the church no longer believes what the Scriptures proclaim: that God, in His Word, has given us “all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue” (2 Peter 1:3). The results, sadly, are what one might expect: there is often little statistical difference between those who profess to be Christians and those who do not, regarding the number of divorces, the reliance upon psychological counseling theories and methods, living together outside of marriage, illegitimate childbirth, pornography, sexual and physical abuse, and so forth.