The Berean Call Podcast

Gary: Welcome to Search the Scriptures 24/7, a radio ministry of The Berean Call featuring T.A. McMahon. I’m Gary Carmichael. We’re glad you could join us. In today’s program, Tom welcomes Matt Ferguson, youth pastor at Calvary Chapel here in Bend, Oregon. Now, along with his guest, here’s TBC executive director, Tom McMahon.

Tom: Thanks, Gary. On our program today, I’ll be having a conversation with Matt Ferguson, and we’ll be discussing a religious cult that most people are aware of because they—well, they seem to show up at everyone’s door. And some weeks ago we addressed the followers of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, who take the same approach in trying to attract converts, but this week and next week we’ll be talking about Jehovah’s Witnesses.

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: The pain and suffering caused by crime and sickness is bad enough. Christianity, however, creates worse suffering by threatening mankind with hell for having broken God’s laws. An irrational fear of eternal punishment haunts those who come under Christianity’s destructive influence. The world would be a better place without such delusions!

Response: Contrary to your suggestion that Christianity creates an irrational fear of eternal punishment, it alone delivers from such fear all who believe the gospel of Jesus Christ. No one lives in fear of God’s judgment for one’s sin who believes that Jesus Christ paid the full penalty. Christ promised that all those who believe in Him have eternal life and they will not “come into condemnation” but have “passed from death unto life” (Jn 5:24). All who believe that promise are thereby delivered from the very fear which you blame upon Christianity.

Nor do those who have heard and rejected that gospel worry very much about God’s judgment. If they were truly concerned, they would have accepted His offer of mercy. Take a poll of those who were once under Christian influence but who rejected the gospel and you will find individuals who have little if any fear of judgment because they don’t believe in it.

Originally published April 1, 1993

Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel...for IT is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth [IT].

—Mark 16:15; Romans 1:16

What is the gospel and from what does it save us? We must begin in the Garden. Persuaded by Satan that God had lied to her, and seduced by the appealing promise of godhood, Eve rebelled against her Creator. Not wanting to be separated from his wife, whom he loved more than God, Adam, who was not deceived (1 Timothy 2:14), deliberately joined in her disobedience. Thus "by one man [Adam] sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men [and women], for that all have sinned" (Romans 5:12). Death not only ends this short earthly life, but it separates the sinner from God forever.

In His infinite foreknowledge, wisdom and love, God had already planned what He would do to reunite mankind with Himself. Without ceasing to be God (an impossibility), He would become a man through a virgin birth. Only God could be the Savior (Isaiah 43:11; 45:21, etc.), thus the Messiah had to be God (Isaiah 9:6; Isaiah 45:15; Titus 1:3-4, etc.). He would die for our sins to pay the penalty demanded by His justice: “’Tis mystery all, the immortal dies!" (Charles Wesley). Then He would rise from the dead to live in those who would believe in and receive Him as their Lord and Savior, giving them forgiveness of sins and eternal life as a free gift of His grace.

Gary: Welcome to Search the Scriptures 24/7, a radio ministry of The Berean Call featuring T.A. McMahon. I’m Gary Carmichael. We’re glad you could join us. In today’s program, Tom welcomes Matt Ferguson, youth pastor at Calvary Chapel here in Bend, Oregon. Now, along with his guest, here’s TBC executive director, Tom McMahon.

Tom: Thanks, Gary. On our program today, I’ll be having a conversation with Matt Ferguson, and we’ll be discussing a religious cult that most people are aware of because they—well, they seem to show up at everyone’s door. And some weeks ago we addressed the followers of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, who take the same approach in trying to attract converts, but this week and next week we’ll be talking about Jehovah’s Witnesses.

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: The idea that the Antichrist will be resurrected from the dead by Satan seems to be the prevailing opinion among evangelical pre-Trib teachers. I would appreciate an expression of your opinion in a future issue of The Berean Call.

Response: This popular idea comes from Revelation 13:3. For example, in his book, The Prewrath Rapture of the Church, Marvin Rosenthal states, “According to the Word of God, the Antichrist is a man who lived before. He ruled one of the seven great empires which directly impacted Israel. He will literally be raised from the dead. Concerning this raised ruler...the Word of God has much to say. ‘And I saw one of his heads as though it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed...’ (Rev 13:3).”

Note, however, that it is one of the beast’s seven heads, not all of them, that is affected. Furthermore, the head (much less the beast) is not killed but appears “as though it were wounded to death.” Seemingly, the beast could have died from this wound, but verses 3 and 12 declare that its “deadly wound was healed.” So we have a healing, not a resurrection. I believe it is referring to the Roman Empire which has indeed suffered from a deadly wound but has never died and is being revived before our eyes.

Only God can raise the dead. Satan has no such power. At best he might pull off a “fake death and resurrection” of Antichrist.

This is number 221 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 The Heart.

The heart addressed in this series is not the physical organ within our body but rather the non-physical aspects that pervade humanity, which is at the center of our spiritual and mental life. Only God knows our heart and from Him alone comes our only true insights.

DEUTERONOMY 30:10 If thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to keep his commandments and his statutes which are written in this book of the law, and if thou turn unto the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul.

DEUTERONOMY 30:15-17 See, I have set before thee this day life and good, and death and evil; In that I command thee this day to love the Lord thy God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commandments and his statutes and his judgments, that thou mayest live and multiply: and the Lord thy God shall bless thee in the land whither thou goest to possess it. But if thine heart turn away, so that thou wilt not hear, but shalt be drawn away, and worship other gods, and serve them; I denounce unto you this day, that ye shall surely perish, and that ye shall not prolong your days upon the land, whither thou passest over Jordan to go to possess it.

1 SAMUEL 10:9 And it was so, that when he had turned his back to go from Samuel, God gave him another heart: and all those signs came to pass that day.

1 SAMUEL 10:26 And Saul also went home to Gibeah; and there went with him a band of men, whose hearts God had touched.

1 SAMUEL 13:13-14 But now thy kingdom shall not continue: the LORD hath sought him a man after his own heart, and the LORD hath commanded him to be captain over his people, because thou hast not kept that which the LORD commanded thee.

1 SAMUEL 16:7 But the LORD said unto Samuel, Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for the LORD seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the LORD looketh on the heart.

1 KINGS 8:39 Then hear thou in heaven thy dwelling place, and forgive, and do, and give to every man according to his ways, whose heart thou knowest; (for thou, even thou only, knowest the hearts of all the children of men;)

This is number 221 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 The Heart.

The heart addressed in this series is not the physical organ within our body but rather the non-physical aspects that pervade humanity, which is at the center of our spiritual and mental life. Only God knows our heart and from Him alone comes our only true insights.

DEUTERONOMY 30:10 If thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to keep his commandments and his statutes which are written in this book of the law, and if thou turn unto the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul.

DEUTERONOMY 30:15-17 See, I have set before thee this day life and good, and death and evil; In that I command thee this day to love the Lord thy God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commandments and his statutes and his judgments, that thou mayest live and multiply: and the Lord thy God shall bless thee in the land whither thou goest to possess it. But if thine heart turn away, so that thou wilt not hear, but shalt be drawn away, and worship other gods, and serve them; I denounce unto you this day, that ye shall surely perish, and that ye shall not prolong your days upon the land, whither thou passest over Jordan to go to possess it.

1 SAMUEL 10:9 And it was so, that when he had turned his back to go from Samuel, God gave him another heart: and all those signs came to pass that day.

1 SAMUEL 10:26 And Saul also went home to Gibeah; and there went with him a band of men, whose hearts God had touched.

1 SAMUEL 13:13-14 But now thy kingdom shall not continue: the LORD hath sought him a man after his own heart, and the LORD hath commanded him to be captain over his people, because thou hast not kept that which the LORD commanded thee.

1 SAMUEL 16:7 But the LORD said unto Samuel, Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for the LORD seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the LORD looketh on the heart.

1 KINGS 8:39 Then hear thou in heaven thy dwelling place, and forgive, and do, and give to every man according to his ways, whose heart thou knowest; (for thou, even thou only, knowest the hearts of all the children of men;)

Gary: Welcome to Search the Scriptures 24/7, a radio ministry of The Berean Call, featuring T.A. McMahon. I’m Gary Carmichael, thanks for tuning in. In today’s program, Tom continues his visit with Dr. Don Chittick, author and speaker on the topic of origins and earth history. Now, along with his guest, here’s TBC executive director, Tom McMahon.

Tom: Thanks, Gary. My guest today is Dr. Don Chittick. We’re in the second session, talking about his book The Puzzle of Ancient Man. Don’s an author and speaker on the topic of origins and earth history. His PhD is in physical chemistry, but for us non-science people, Don just lays it out very simply, very clearly, so those of us who have a little problem in that area – we can get it, and we have...last week’s program - if you haven’t listened to it, I highly recommend that you check it out.

Don, I want to pick up where we left off last week. We were talking about the pyramids, particularly the early pyramids. Now, why would I say “early pyramids”? I’m talking about the Great Pyramid at Giza as opposed to some of those that were…should have been better, should have been of higher quality from what they learned on the early ones, but why do you think that didn’t take place?

Tom: Thanks, Gary. My guest today is Dr. Don Chittick. Don’s doctorate is in physical chemistry. He’s an author and a speaker on the topic of origins and earth history. Don, welcome to Search the Scriptures 24/7!