Intrigued by the mysteries of angels or the idea of guardian angels? This episode discusses whether such beings exist and what role they might play in modern faith. Learn about Old Testament figures and their salvation, broadening your understanding of how faith worked before Christ and what that means for believers today. Discover how Dr. McGee interprets these timeless questions through the lens of faith and reason.
Hebrews 13 verse 2 says, Be not forgetful to entertain strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares. If angels are spirits, how can we entertain them unawares? Well, this is just one of the questions that we’ll deal with today, so stay with us.
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The foundation, ye saints of the Lord, is laid for your faith in his excellent word. What more can he say than to you? he hath said to you who for refuge to Jesus have fled fear not I am
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This is Steve Schwetz for the Through the Bible Radio Network, and you’re listening to the Question and Answer program with our Bible teacher, Dr. J. Vernon McGee. We hope that you’ll be able to join us for the next 30 minutes as we learn from the wit and wisdom that Dr. McGee brought to answering the questions of his listeners. Let’s get to our questions now. The first one comes to us from a listener in Beverly Hills, California. He writes, Could you please provide me with a definition of the soul?
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Now, the soul is, I think, in Scripture used in two different ways. I think that it’s used sometimes as synonymous with the spirit. And when God breathed into man the breath of life, he became a living soul. Actually, I think that that means also spirit too, you see. But there is a distinction made between soul and spirit. The Word of God, Paul says in Hebrews, is quick and sharp, sharper than any two-edged sword. And it divides even soul and spirit. So there is a distinction. Now, the word soul in the scripture is psuche. That’s the word that’s translated. Whereas the word for spirit is pneuma. And we get our word psuche, psychology, from it. And actually, it has to do with that which controls this whole nature of ours. The soul of man is that which controls our nature. We have a soul. That soul, of course, never dies when it leaves this body. why no longer controls this body at all. But the soul of man refers to that which controls and dominates the physical man today. Uses the body just like you use a telephone. There’s a question today whether the mind even originates thought or not. And it’s a belief right now that the mind that we have, our brain up here, is nothing in the world but a sort of a high-powered telephone system where connections are made and that thoughts have to originate somewhere else. It’s a very interesting sort of thing. Well, that is the soul of man. And scripture speaks of that. The soul is not something at all that dies. We’re told the body dies and the body’s raised. The soul, we’re told, the spirit goes to God that gave it. And so we have times when they’re used, the soul and spirit are used in a synonymous way. But there is a distinction between soul and spirit. Now, in the limited time that we have, we are unable to take up. all the scriptures on this subject. It would take an entire hour to deal with this and take up all the scriptures and come to a proper induction. So you’ll just have to accept this very fragmentary and more or less of a survey of the subject.
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The same listener has a second question. He says, could you also explain the meaning of the word begotten?
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Well, in certain cases, it has to do with birth, but it also has to do with the resurrection. The Lord Jesus is called, you know, he is the son of thou art my son. This day have I begotten thee. Well, Paul makes it very clear in the book of Acts that that had to do not with the birth of the Lord Jesus at all, but it did have to do with the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. So that it’s quite interesting to note that this is, and I’m trying to put my… hand down on the Scripture here, well, I think, no, I’m unable at this particular moment to put my hand on the verse of Scripture that I had in mind Oh, yes, yes, I can. It’s over in the 13th chapter of the book of Acts, where it says there, God hath fulfilled the same unto us, their children, in that he hath raised up Jesus again, as it is also written in the second Psalm, thou art my son this day, have I begotten thee. So begotten there, Paul says, refers to his resurrection, you see. So it doesn’t necessarily mean generation at all. It just doesn’t refer at all to that.
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The next several questions come from the same listener in Arizona. The first one says, concerning James the Less, apostle, son of Alphaeus, brother of our Lord, is Joseph his father and Mary his mother?
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Well, if your premise that you ask here, he’s James the Less, and he’s the son of Alphaeus, and he’s brother of our Lord. Now, this question of the Jameses in Scripture in the New Testament has always been a mooted and a debatable question, and there is actually no satisfactory answer to it. Many find four Jameses mentioned in Scripture. Apparently, there are three. And when I get to the Epistle of James in the Through the Bible program, I’ll be going into this in a certain amount of depth, and I’ll take the position that there are three Jameses. And let me just mention them in passing here. And James the son of Zebedee. I think that we have a very much of a cameo character study given of him, so that we are able to segregate him from any of the other Jameses. Now there is James the son of Alpheus. And he’s one of the apostles of the Lord Jesus. And he is sometimes identified as being James the Less. And he apparently was called that because he was small of stature. But that, of course, cannot be definitely stated. It’s merely an assumption to say that he is James the Lord’s brother. It’s merely speculation to say that. So that if you were right in your speculations that James the Less, an apostle, was the son of Alphaeus and the brother of our Lord, if these three are the same person, then you’d certainly be right. But the assumption is… not substantiated, I do not think. And then there is the third James that is called James the Lord’s brother. And I’m not going into a great deal of detail here other than to say to you that until you establish the fact that the three Jameses that you mention are one person, then your assumptions or your conclusions are not valid by any means at all. So my point is that in view of the fact that we can’t know sharp details here, that we should stay away from speculation. And that’s the reason in my little book on briefing the Bible in the Epistle of James and through the Bible program, I’ll take the position when we get there that there are only three James. And my reason for doing it is not to be dogmatic, but to say that apparently there are three clear-cut James, but say there’s a fourth James. could be and it could not be true. We don’t know.
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His second question is, since angels are spirits, how is it that we can entertain them unaware?
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Well, I don’t know. Are you planning on entertaining some angels? Personally, I don’t think that you’ll be entertaining angels. That was used by the writer in the New Testament, and he was referring back to Abraham. Abraham, you’ll recall, had these visitors that came to see him and to tell him about that they were on the way to the city of Sodom and that Sodom and Gomorrah were to be destroyed. And Abraham did not recognize apparently at the time who they were. He entertained them rather lavishly. But he was entertaining actually angels unawares. Now, I do not know whether there are angels that are traveling about today that you could entertain. I do believe that today, and this custom has gone out of style. I’m rather glad that it has. When I started out in the ministry, when you went to hold a meeting in a place, have a conference, and call it an evangelistic crusade, or any number of names can be given to what a preacher conducts in a church. We were always entertained in homes, and I never felt that was satisfactory. It’s not satisfactory to the family and to whose home you go, and it’s not satisfactory for the preacher. He doesn’t have enough time to himself for preparation and prayer. And so many homes had prophet’s chambers. I’ve been in many of those prophet’s chambers, I can tell you that. And many of them have been quite lovely. And many of them, in fact, display the love that these people had for servants of God. And I remember being in a lovely home down in Louisiana. And I never shall forget that they told me about the different ones that they had had and said, you know, we have entertained angels here unawares. Well, if they feel that way about some preachers, I never heard they ever said that about me, but nevertheless, if they feel that way, fine. But I don’t think that you can expect an angel to knock on your door and ask to spend the night today. So we cannot, from my viewpoint, entertain angels unawares today. But The whole thought here, of course, is to illustrate an attitude for us to have today for God’s servants and for actually, I think, other believers. And in the early church, there was a great deal of traveling around and the average inn, even if there was one in the town, was generally not a very attractive place to stay. In fact, you wouldn’t want to stay there. They didn’t have private rooms to begin with. There’s one big room and you brought your own beauty rest mattress, which was just a little roll and you rolled it out. on the floor. And I can imagine what a night of snoring you might have to go through so that today the situation is quite differently. And I do not mean to be facetious, but if an angel knocks at your door and send them down to the Hilton Inn or the Holiday Inn or some inn and pay for their lodge, and I think that would be the best way to handle it today.
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Moving on with this same listener’s next question, in your opinion of scripture, are there guardian angels?
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No, I do not believe that they are guardian angels at all. I do not think that the Scripture teaches that, that they are guardian angels. The passage that is used is back in the 18th chapter of the Gospel of Matthew, and it is found in verse 1. It says, Take heed that she despised not one of these little ones, For I say unto you that in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven. And the word angels, they’re spirits. And I understand that to mean that when the little ones die, they go immediately to be with Christ as any believer would. I think every child dying in infancy goes immediately to be with Christ. I personally believe that I have one up there myself. And that’s what it means here. It doesn’t mean that there are guardian angels. Now I know again this will evoke a great deal of correspondence. I’ll get a lot of letters on this because people will feel like I’m taking away from them something that they, as one lady said, it’s very precious that I have a guardian angel. Well, if you’re a child of God, you’re indwelt by the Spirit of God. And now can you improve on that? is it better for you to have a created angel to watch over you, or is it better to have the third person of the Godhead indwelling you? And I don’t think you can beat that arrangement, and that seems to be God’s arrangement for the day. And I personally would forget the idea of guardian angels. I’m always kidded about the fact that I move about quite a bit that day, My guardian angel is always 10 miles back of me, and therefore couldn’t do me much good. But I’m sure that if I had one, he’d be right along with me. But I do believe I’m indwelt by the Spirit of God. Paul could say even to the carnal Corinthians, what, know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit? And you’re indwelt by the Spirit of God, you see.
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For his fourth question, this listener writes, could you speak about the Bible’s mention of evil spirits from God?
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Now, I wish you would give me your scripture reference for that because I don’t like just going out, you know, out on a limb and answering this if you had reference to something else. I do not know this, but I am almost confident that you had reference to the evil spirit from the Lord that’s mentioned several times in connection with King Saul when he turned away from God. And it is simply this, that as long as Saul was doing God’s will and obeying God, then God would not permit evil spirit to disturb him at all. And there came a day when he did not obey God in anything. And you remember when Samuel, the prophet, came to him the last time, he said to him, “‘To obey is better than sacrifice and to hearken than the fat of rams.'” In other words, to go through a ritual is no good unless your heart is right toward God. And so this man came to the place of stepping over. And when he did, then God permitted evil spirits to get through to him. Now that’s been God’s method. It was God’s method in the past. You’ll find that here was Job. God called attention to him. And Satan says, well, you just let me get to him. You’ve got a hedge around him. And I want you to know if you’d let me get to him, I’d change all that. He wouldn’t be the man you think he is. Well, the fact of the matter is God did have a hedge around Job. And then God permitted Satan to get through to him. Now, I believe that today that God has a hedge around his own. And I don’t think that anything can get through to you or to me but what God permits it. Now, you might come back with the question then, does God permit Satan to attack those that are his own? Well, let’s look again at Scripture, and that’s all we have to go by here. You remember that the Lord Jesus said to Simon Peter, Satan hath desired to have you. He wants to sift you. He wants to put you through the mill. And he did, you remember. Peter went so far as to deny the Lord Jesus. And yet, the man’s heart was right with him. Now, I do not believe that a Christian can be demon possessed. I see, I cannot find that anywhere. I do not think that you could be indwelt by the Holy Spirit. We said a moment ago in another connection that every child of God is indwelt by the Spirit of God. Therefore, he could never be demon possessed. But I tell you, I think that the devil could really give him a lot of trouble. and in many different ways. And I’m not sure what demons could give you a lot of trouble. And I’m of the opinion we are seeing a manifestation of that. But I see no reason that we should run off and write a rash of books on demonism today unless we’re interested in selling books. And that seems to be motive today by all these books that are coming out on certain subjects that are of a passing fancy to people. And the books that appeared a few months ago, setting a date for the coming of Christ. May I say to you, you couldn’t get rid of those books today, and yet they were selling like hotcakes a few months ago. These are things that are passing fancy, even among Christians today, unfortunately. And again, I come back to it, We need to dwell upon the person of Christ. And I think as long as you dwell upon him, that you’re not going to be trouble with demons.
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This person’s next question is, since no one could keep the law, how were Old Testament saints saved before the coming of Christ?
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They were saved, friend, the same way you are. And somebody says, wait a minute, Christ hadn’t come. That’s true. He hadn’t come. But they were saved by faith. Read the 11th chapter of Hebrews. By faith, Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain. He brought a little lamb that pointed to the coming of Christ, the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world. Whereas you and I look back in faith, to His coming because that’s a historical fact that He died for our sins according to the Scripture, buried and rose again according to the Scripture. So that at the heart of the Mosaic system there was a tabernacle and in that tabernacle there was a burnt altar. on which sacrifices were offered. There was a mercy seat on which blood was placed. And through that, the high priest as the representative of the nation was able to approach God. That is the way it took place in the Old Testament. And then this part, it draws a false conclusion here in the next question by saying that Then the founder of a cult then would accuse the followers of his cult. Well, of course not. God hasn’t had but one way of saving sinners. It’s not through Moses and not through the Ten Commandments. The Ten Commandments showed them that they were sinners. God has never had but one way, and that’s through Christ. And any system that does not point to Christ as the Savior is a false system. And I don’t care what system it is, friends, because the Word of God is clear at that point. And that’s certainly one place that believers can agree.
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This same listener has one more question. He writes, Scripture seems to indicate that Christ died for all sinners, not just for some. So how do we as Christians come to the understanding that salvation is for only those who believe?
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Well, he died for all, but you have to accept the pardon that he paid for until it becomes yours. There is a record in Pennsylvania, I’m told, the record of a prisoner who was granted a pardon by the governor and he refused to accept it. He would not accept the pardon at all. They took it to court because his friends wanted him out of there. And the judgment was that, yes, a pardon could be granted, but it wasn’t valid until it was accepted by the individual. Now, there’s a pardon for every sinner on topside of earth, but you have to call for it by faith before it becomes yours. In other words, you have to trust Christ as your Savior. That’s something that’s very important.
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Let’s have one more question today. This one comes from a listener in Manhattan Beach, California. She writes, could you please explain what a spiritual sword is in the whole armor of God?
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Well, we’re told there in the sixth chapter of Ephesians that the sword is the word of God. We realize, now this I’m reading now again, we realize that anyone familiar with the Bible would immediately say the sword of the Spirit is the word of God. However, I feel that we must go further and qualify that definition. For just as we know that there are those who are ever learning and never coming to the knowledge of the truth, we also realize that though the Word has the requisite efficiency, the soul does not have the requisite susceptibility until wrought upon by the Spirit of God. And hence the Word alone could not in the strict sense be called the sword of the Spirit. There appears to be an illustration of this in the record of our Lord’s temptation. Satan has a knowledge of the Word and he used it against our Lord. But would anyone say he was clothed in God’s arm and wielding the sword of the Spirit? I don’t get your point. May I say to you very candidly that I still say, in view of the fact that the Word of God says it, that the Word of God is the sword of the Spirit. Now, if you will check very carefully these statements of Satan, Satan does not quote Scripture for his purpose. Shakespeare said that. Satan misquotes Scripture for his purpose. And if you will look up his quotation, you will find out he didn’t give all of them. He didn’t give the true sense of it at all and didn’t put it back in its context as he should. Of course, a lot of preachers do that also, but that certainly was his method. And he did not use the word of God as a sword because he misused it, of course. I think you’ve missed the point. The Word of God is still the sword of the Spirit, regardless of the fact that it can be misused. After all, a sword can get into the wrong hands sometimes and do damage, as it should not do damage, but it doesn’t keep it from being a sword by any means.
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Now until the same time next week, we leave you with the prayer that God will answer all your questions and solve all your problems.
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