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Speaker 1: From the Christian Research Institute and Charlotte, North Carolina. You're

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listening to the Bible answer Man broadcast with Hank Canagraph.

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We are on the air because life and truth matter.

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The mission of the Christian Research Institute is to equip

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believers to always be prepared to give an answer to

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everyone who asks you, to give the reason for the

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hope that you have with gentleness and respect. For more

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information resources or to donate to CRI, call eight eight

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eight seven thousand CRI, or go online to equip dot org.

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The following program was pre recorded and now here's Bible

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answer Man host Hank Canagraph.

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Speaker 2: Thank you very much, Randy. Our contact information on the

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web equipped dot org and via the mail it's box

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eighty five hundred, Charlotte, North Carolina, zip code two eight two.

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This month, we're moving into the category of reading. During

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the summer, a lot of people do what they don't

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normally do, and that is read and we have some

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good resources available for those who support the ministry. This

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month the Last Disciples series. It's a trilogy, it's historical fiction.

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What it does, though, is it gives you a handle

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on the logical truth propositions that are part and parcel

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of a healthy worldview on eschatology. I think you'll find

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the books incredibly insightful, stimulating their page turners. Again available

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for those who support the ministry, check it out on

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the web at equip dot org. Should also mention that

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June is a very significant month in our history. Each

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and every year, December is the most critical month, and

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lagging not far behind is June. This is the end

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of our fiscal year, not obviously the calendar year, but

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the fiscal year, and so if you can support the ministry,

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it would be deeply appreciated, used for God's glory and

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for the extension of his kingdom. Getting back to reading,

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the numbers of people not reading is simply staggering, and

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I hope that you will become the exception to the rule.

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A full quarter of the population did not so much

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as read a single book in the past year. But

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the good news is that, as with technology, all of

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us can get hooked on reading all over again. There

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are so many benefits to reading it's hard to know

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where to begin. Reading improves discipline, vocabulary, it improves memory, creativity,

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and even relaxation. Plus it can even stay off diseases

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such as Alzheimer's. More importantly, reading engages you with another mind,

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and when it comes to reading Scripture, the implications are

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simply staggering. By its words, we are brought into direct

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communication with the mind of God. And not only so,

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we have access to the minds of writers directly inspired

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by the Divine. Thus, in the pages of the inspired

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text we have mind to mind connection with minds that

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were awash in uncreated energy. Well as much more I

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could say about reading, and maybe I will, But we

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have a number of books, as I just mentioned available

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The Last Disciple trilogy has God spoken Muslim. These books

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available as my other books available for those who support

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the ministry. All this month, the critical month of June.

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It is so important that we achieve a financial stability

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as a result of the month of June. Each year

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you've given a safe, secure fashion on the web equipped

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dot org or as I mentioned, via the mailbox eighty

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five hundred Charlotte, North Carolina, zip code two eight two

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seven to one. Let's go to the phone lines. Judy

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listening in Oklahoma.

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Speaker 3: Hi, Judy, Hi, thank you for taking my call. It

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was told to me to call the babl answer man

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to get the solution to our discussion here. In Duterominy

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twenty four, it talks about a couple being married, the

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husband divorces the wife, he remarries another, and it says like,

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if she dies or they divorce, he's not allowed to

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go back and marry the original spouse because that was

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an abomination to God. So is that true for today?

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Speaker 2: Is that?

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Speaker 3: Just are we under grace that God redeems and forgives

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or for the abomination is a huge word.

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Speaker 2: So well, there's a historical context, and you're right in

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pointing that out divorce was wide spread in the ancient

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Near East, and therefore the commands given in Deuteronomy were

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given in order to regulate an existing practice. And in

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the context, remarried to her former husband would be tenemount

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to legal adultery, and therefore it was detestable to the Lord.

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But if you look at what Jesus Christ says in

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the Sermon on the Mount, it has said anyone who

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divorces his wife must give her a certificate of divorce.

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But I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife

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except for marital unfaithfulness, causes her to become an adulteress

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and anyone who marries divorced woman commits adultery, gives you

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the intent of what the law was. And furthermore, Jesus

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Christ makes clear that what's going on is a detestable

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practice for the reason that men would put away women

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for any or every reason. In other words, they use

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the lever right law. They used the laws given within

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the context of an ancient theocratic kingdom as the basis

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to do what they wanted to do. So it was

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tantamount to tithing your mint, but neglecting the way to

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your matters of the law, justice, righteousness, and equity. And

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that's what really is at the heart of this. We

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are not to see the other sex as an object

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for our own enjoyment or use some kind of legalistic

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prescription to do what we want, but we are to

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treat another person self lesslie as opposed to selfishly. So

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there's an intent behind the law. The law originally to

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protect a woman in the Old Testament, but ultimately to

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subscribe to that which the Bible ultimately appeals to, and

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that is complete ontological equality and not the abuse of

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another person.

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Speaker 3: Okay, So is that just are we under grace now

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that that can happen or you know, like if they repented,

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got right with the Lord, wanted to get the original

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family intact, are they allowed to do that or not?

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Speaker 2: Well, if in fact there is a door to reconciliation

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that is open, yes, we must always walk through the

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door of reconciliation because that is the ultimate goal. The

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ultimate goal is reconciliation. Reconciliation always requires two parties. There's

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someone who is willing to forgive and someone wanting to

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be forgiven, and so that is the ultimate good that

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we should always strive towards. And there are some cases

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in which that door to reconciliation simply isn't open, and

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that is because someone has married someone else and then

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unscrambling the egg leads to a multiplicity of problems.

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Speaker 3: Right, So I can see that. And I didn't know

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if it was like in the Old Testament that they

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didn't want wife swapping, you know, back and forth to this.

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But I thought, well, if if a wife was never

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married again and the other marriage ended, I just didn't

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know if that would be an abomination to God in

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this day and age to consider that.

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Speaker 2: So the question becomes, you get divorced, and the question

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is is an abomination to get remarried to.

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Speaker 3: The original one if at the marriage that he was

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in doesn't work out.

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Speaker 2: Well, again, there's a whole lot of conjecture there. I mean,

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there's a lot of explaining to do. Why did the

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marriage not work out? Ultimately, the intent here is love

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and reconciliation as opposed to using every reason possible to

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do something that becomes selfish instead of self less. I mean,

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that's the intent. So the intent is the protection of

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a person. But you can't look at a situation where

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a man is married to a woman, then the man

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gets out of that marriage and marries the original person

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that they were married to. That's the metaphor I was

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using with respect to unscrambling the egg, which can't do.

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So if someone gets a divorce, that's one mistake. They

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get remarried. Now they're going to compound the error by

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getting divorced again and marrying the original person. No, you

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have to move on and be faithful to the commitment

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that you have at that point.

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Speaker 3: Okay, Well, if I, like you know, said in the Bible,

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if that.

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Speaker 2: Spouse dies, well, if that spouse dies, I mean that's

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why I said, there's a lot explaining to do. There

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are a lot of converging factors that are possible. Certainly,

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if that spouse dies, it would not be an abomination

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if the Lord led you to get remarried to the

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original person, you know, in other words, if there's no

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obstacle in the way morally or ethically in doing that.

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I don't see anything that would preclude that. But I

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do think that that has to be done in concert

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with prayerful consideration before the Lord and good counseling within

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the context of a healthy, well bounced church.

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Speaker 3: Right, all right, well, thank you, I appreciate it.

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Speaker 2: You got it. Thank you so much for your call

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coming to the station. Break will be right back.

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Speaker 1: In our post truth age of confus usion, the need

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for Christians to be equipped with answers has never been greater.

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The Christian Research Institute exists to provide those answers, and

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this provision is made possible only by people like you,

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people unafraid to stand up for truth while it's under assault.

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People like you, whose contributions to our many outreaches are

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making a difference for time and eternity. Stand with Hank

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Hanagraph and the Christian Research Institute during the Key month

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of June to ensure that we end the financial year

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in a position of strength. To make a gift to

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support CRI's life changing outreaches, simply call eight eight eight

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seven thousand CROI. That's eight eight eight seven thousand CROI

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or visit us at equip dot org. Thank you, don't

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go anywhere. We're coming right back with more answers from

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The Bible answer Man. The Complete Bible answer Book Collector's

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Edition is the comprehensive collection of the most often asked

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questions Hank Hannigraph has received throughout his four decades as

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host of The Bible answer Man broadcast. With more than

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half a million copies already in print, this newly revised

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and expanded Collector's Edition helped seekers and skeptics alike sort

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through the truth on topics such as reliability of the Bible,

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religions and cults, the resurrection and afterlife, and many more

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issues vital to a better understanding of God in Christ

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and our relationship to Him. To receive your copy of

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The Complete Bible answer Book Collector's Edition, Revised and expanded,

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call eight eight eight seven thousand CRII and make a

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gift to support the Christian Research Institute's Life changing outreaches

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eight eight eight seven thousand CRII or visit us at

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equip dot org. The Soviet Red Army won the Battle

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of Stalingrad. It appeared at first the Nazi war machine

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would secure the victory, but the Soviets battled back from

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near certain defeat with extraordinary courage and resoluteness to turn

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the tide of the battle and ultimately the war. The

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lesson is that both men and material people and provisions

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played a critical role. Willingness to fight and munitions in

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the arsenal were pivotal. Our contemporary battle for truth against

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anti Christian secularists raises the stakes above the significance of Stalingrad.

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CRII likewise needs military partners willing to stand for truth,

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along with the financial means to accomplish the mission. Stand

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with us during the key month of June to end

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the fiscal year in a position of strength. Call eight

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eight eight seven thousand CROI and make a gift to

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support CRI's life changing outreaches or visit equip dot org.

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Has God spoken? Are the words of Scripture merely human

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in origin? Or are they in fact the very words

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of God himself. Three years in the making and based

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on two decades of research and reflection, Hank Henagraph's monumental

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book Has God Spoken answers what is surely the most

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important question facing our world. In Has God Spoken? Memorable

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proofs of the Bible's Divine inspiration, Hank counters the contentions

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of the Bible attackers and clearly shows that belief in

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the Holy Scriptures is not a guess or wishful thinking.

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It is the only logical conclusion after an honest examination

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of overwhelming evidence. Order Has God Spoken? From the Christian

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Research Institute by calling eighty eight seven thousand CRII, or

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go online to equip dot org. Equip dot org and

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now here's Hank Anagraph.

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Speaker 2: Thank you, Randy. Back to the phone lines. Ana next

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listening in Tacoma, Washington, Hyannah.

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Speaker 4: Hi, Hank, thank you for taking my call pleasure. I

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just have a quick question. Is it possible to call

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yourself a Christian, a believer in Jesus Christ, but yet

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not be a disciple.

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Speaker 2: No, I don't think it is possible, And I think

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that if you understand what discipleship is, a disciple is

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a learner or a follower of Jesus Christ. And this

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does not just entail understanding truth propositions about Christ. It

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means that you follow him in his manner of life,

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which means that you embrace the disciplines that Christ embraced.

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So if Christ fasted, we should fast. If Christ talked

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about giving alms to the poor and exemplified that very

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thing in his own ministry, we ought to do the

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same thing. In other words, we need to partake of

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the graces that God gives us, to partake of, graces

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by which we are transformed, and graces by which we

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become transformational, meaning that we can transform the world as well.

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So yeah, I mean a disciple as a learner or

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follower of Jesus Christ. And if we simply give lip

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service to believing things about Christ but don't embrace his

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manner of life, then we are hardly truly followers of

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Christ or believers.

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Speaker 4: And that's kind of the way that I perceived it.

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I had been hearing certain teachers that tend to be

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more of that hyper grace teachers insinuating that it's possible

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to have a mental belief in Jesus yet not you know,

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have to follow him and not have to learn of

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him and not have to you know, everything that you

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just mentioned earlier, don't have to do any of that.

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All you have to do is in your mind, just

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believe in Jesus. And it's never set well with me.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, and it ought not to set well with you.

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And this is part of the cheap grace kind of

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pandemonium that we have in Christianity, where you pray a

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prayer and then you have a card that keeps you

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out of hell and gets you into heaven, but your

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life doesn't change. I mean, if you're a follower of

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Jesus Christ, your life will be transformed because you will

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be in the spiritual gymnasium. You will gymnasize yourself, as

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Paul said to Timothy, unto godliness. So we want to

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embrace the life of Christ. And Christ had twelve followers.

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They were with him, and Christ modeled how to live

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the Christian life, and therefore they were legitimately called his disciples.

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Speaker 4: It's right, well, thank you, Hank. That that kind of

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affirms to me because that's what I had experienced in

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my own life as a radical transformation of my life.

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You know, after coming to Christ and being born again

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and I'm seeing a lot of theology.

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Speaker 2: That is.

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Speaker 4: I've even heard people say that you're a false convert

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if you say that your life has been changed since

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you know, coming to Christ. So there's a lot of confusion.

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But I was pretty sure from reading the scriptures myself

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and from what my own experience was, that that was

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truly false.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, And you know, Paul, and it makes a distinction

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between dead works and living works. So if you engage

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in works the flesh, the kinds of works that Paul

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talks about in Glatians chapter five, that obviously is not good.

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And dead works can even be works that are good

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in nature, but they're done for the wrong reason. In

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other words, they're done out of a selfish motive. And

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that's why God looks at the heart. We see the

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outer appearance. God looks at the heart. So dead works

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are spoken out against voluminously in scripture. Living works, however,

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these are works that are done which are not only

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done for a good purpose, but they are good works

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in and of themselves. And this is the kind of

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work that Scripture commends. I mean, you think about Jesus

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saying that if you give a piece of bread and

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a cup of water in his name. Then you've done

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that unto him. If you've done that to someone else

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one of the least you've done it unto Jesus. Well,

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that's a great commendation, not only too mouth a particular

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set of beliefs, but it is to actually put those

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beliefs in practice. And that's why James is pretty strong

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about this. He's talking about the fact that you know

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that if you have faith without works, then that faith

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ends up being dead faith because true faith always manifests

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itself in the works.

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Speaker 1: That you do.

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Speaker 4: Yep, I agree. Well, thank you for taking that call.

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I appreciate it and I'll be praying for you. Hank.

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Speaker 2: Thank you, and it was a pleasure talking to you.

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Thank you. Back to the phone as we'll talk to

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Anthony listening in Longview, Texas by Anthony Hank.

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Speaker 5: How are you doing today?

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Speaker 2: I'm good.

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Speaker 5: I got a question specifically about the Second Caribbean, Chapter two,

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verse two, and the question is he says, am you

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man fourteen years ago, and who was called up to

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the third level of heaven and the just the fact

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that there's levels of heaven is kind of beyond me.

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If maybe you can elaborate a little bit and kind

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of explain to me the different levels of heaven.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, well, it's not different levels of heaven, it's different

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ways in which heaven is used in the text of scripture.

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And so you can think about the first heaven is

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the atmosphere which surrounds the earth. The reason I say

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that is Job points out that the frost in the

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wind come from heaven, and Deuteronomy says that the dew

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comes from heaven, and Psalm says that clouds are in

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the heavens. And then you can think of the second

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heaven as the celestial heavens, where the heavens are the

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realm of the sun, the moon, the stars, which God

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placed in the heavens. We see that in Genesis chapter one.

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But the third heaven that's in view, and I think

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the passage is Tewod Corinthiers chapter twelve. The third heaven

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that is in view is the dwelling place of God,

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and that's what's in view when Jesus taught us to

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pray our Father, which art in heaven. So that's the idea,

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and that's in essence what happens when we die. We're

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absent from the body, we're present with the Lord, and

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so we're in the realm of God, in the dwelling

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place of God until the time that Jesus appears the

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second time. Reginald. Next he's listening in ohio. Hi, Reginald, Hi, Hey.

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Speaker 6: Thank you take it by call. What is your understand

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of the nature of God? How do one know that

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nature of God?

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Speaker 2: Yeah? You know what's interesting about that, Reginald, is you

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know that because not only did the Church pass on

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the letters of the Great Apostles, so that we have

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a corpus of twenty seven books ultimately ratified in Church history,

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codified formally in three sixty seven by Athanasius the Great.

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So not only we to have that, but we also

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have proper interpretition of the scriptures passed down for us.

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And those proper interpretations with respect to the nature of

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God are amplified, they're underscored in the great ecumenical councils.

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Some of the early Church fathers talked about those ecumenical councils,

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particularly the First four, which developed Christology and Trinitarian theology.

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They talked about those councils in the same breath as

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talking about the Four Gospels. So these are important truths

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that have been passed down and hammered out on the

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envil of history. And I don't think in the twenty

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first century we ought to be redefining that the Church

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passed on not only the books of the Bible, but

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passed on a proper way of reading the books of

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the Bible. And I think we ought to take that seriously.

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Speaker 6: Okay, So that's like you myself come to agreement. Is

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that what it is? It's fine by the Holy Spirit.

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Speaker 2: Well, no, I think that what we have is we

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have the treasure trove of history where godly men that

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were anointed to give us the corpus of scripture also

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gave us a proper interpretation with respect to scripture. And

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I think the problem today is that we oftentimes succumb

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to a wide ranging cornucopia, if you will, of people

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who are coming up with new interpretations in our epic

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of time. And I think that's a huge, huge mistake.

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I think what we need to do is go back

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and see not only the books that God has given

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us and read those in a sanctified sense, but also

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we need the wisdom to understand what we're reading. You

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think about Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch. Philip asked the

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Ethiopian eunuch, do you understand what you're reading? And what

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did the eunuch say? How can I unless someone teach me?

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Speaker 4: So?

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Speaker 2: There are hard things in scripture, things that are hard

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to understand. And I think we are very blessed that

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we have historically a legacy that we can follow, and

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that legacy has been found to be tried and true,

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particularly when it comes to the essential of the historic

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Christian faith. And as I said earlier, no greater essential

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than having a proper grasp of the nature of God.

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Virtually every single theological heresy begins with the misconception of

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nature of God. Thanks for the conversation, Reginald. We are

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out of time for this edition of the viblence Man

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00:25:45,880 --> 00:25:48,839
broadcast as shout out to all of you who stand

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shulder to shoulder with me and the midst of the

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Christian Research Institute in the battle for life and truth.

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You're touching the lives of people for time and for eternity,

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and for that you have my deepest gratitude and thanks.

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You can give it a say secure fashion on the

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women equip dot org or write me at post of

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his box eighty five one hundred, Charlotte, North Carolina, zip

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code two eight two seven one.

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Speaker 1: So long for now, Thank you for joining us today.

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