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In this enlightening episode, explore the intersections of faith and practicality with Charles Capps. Understand the role of faith as a seed, and discover how the act of speaking to your challenges can bring about change. Charles shares compelling stories of his journey, using faith to navigate and overcome real-life obstacles while providing insights into how you can do the same.
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We are glad you could join us today for the Concepts of Faith broadcast. This program is dedicated to teach you how to put the Word of God to work so that it will make a positive difference in the everyday circumstances of your life. And now, here's Charles Capps.
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Now, I spoke to the house. It didn't sell overnight, but it did sell. In fact, I went out there one day and I said, now Lord, I've done what you said to do. And I'm sitting there thinking, and my carnal mind got a hold of it. It said, now what are you going to do? I said, I know what I'll do. So I went out there, and I drove down the street, and I rolled the window down. It was cold that day, and I just stuck my head out. And I said, ha, ha, ha, ha. Went down and laughed at the other and went home. Learn to laugh at your problems. Now the reason I did that, the Spirit of God spoke this in one of our meetings. He said, learn to release your faith in laughter. Tears of self-pity and sorrow never release faith. They only release oppression and fear. So learn to release your faith in laughter. So I just simply did what I heard the Spirit of God say. I laughed at the house. Now the house sold. Not only did the houses sell. But I sold the whole project to one man. Not only that, I sold all the land behind the project that was not developed. And the notes were paid. Now somebody said, you're the luckiest guy that ever lived. Oh no, I don't even believe in luck. I believe in doing the sayings of Jesus. Now it may seem foolish to you. But if you'll do what Jesus said to do, you can have what Jesus said you'd have. Now, it's very simple to take God's Word and apply it to the natural things of life. But the church, so many times, has separated the two. Now, we had a piece of property right next door to our office building there. And we thought we might want to expand the office sometime. So it was put up for sale. So we decided to buy it. And I went out and walked around the property. Talk to the property. Now see, we're doing the sayings of Jesus. Jesus said, Whosoever shall say to the mountain, to the problem. See, he's not talking about literal rock mountains. He's talking about problem areas in your life. He's not talking about literal trees when he said the sycamine trees. He's talking about obstacles that are keeping you from what you know God wants. Speak to it. If you had faith as a seed, you would say to the sycamine tree. Now the reason many people don't speak to it, they don't have faith as a seed. You know how a seed works? A seed calls things that are not. Did you know that? When a farmer plants corn, he can take a bushel of corn, And he can go out and plant that bushel of corn. He doesn't want a bushel of corn. He wants 200 bushels of corn. So what is his seed doing? Calling things that are not. They're not there, but it's calling them because he planted them. Now Jesus said this, Luke 17, verse 5 and 6. He said, if you had faith as a seed, you would say. The way you plant the seed is to say it. So if you don't say to the sycamine tree, if you don't say to your problem... be plucked up and be removed and tell it where to go. It's because you don't believe or have faith as a seed. You may have faith alright. You may have faith that God's going to do it sometime. But it may never happen. The time may never come. Because you've never established anything for sure. Just sometime. If I came to this town, you know, and called up pastor here and said, well, now, you know, I'm in town and we need to get together. He said, well, all right, where? Oh, just anywhere. Well, when? Oh, just anytime. And just hung up the phone. How long do you think it'd take us to get together? You're never going to get together. So, you see, doing the things of Jesus is a practical thing. You do it because Jesus said to do it. You study, you meditate the Word, and you apply these things in the natural things of life. Now somebody said, I tried it and it didn't work. It won't work if you try it. It only works when you do it. Now let me show you the difference in a trier and a doer. A trier tries it for a little while, and when it didn't work, he quits in a week or two. He quits. That stuff doesn't work. But a doer just says, thank God Jesus said it worked, and he just keeps doing it until he gets the results. Now when I started doing these things, actually it never occurred to me that it might not work. Because I was firmly convinced and fully persuaded that what Jesus said was true. Now if it never did happen, then I missed it somewhere. But I saw it happen. I talked to this piece of property next door. Then I made an offer on it. I walked around that property. I said, listen to me, I'm talking to you. I'm calling you into the ministry. You come to me in Jesus' name. Then I made the offer on the property. They turned it down. So I just went on. Thank God I've done what the Word said to do. Now, a few months later, they got a big sign sitting up out there on the property. It said, Future Home of the Production Credit Association. And my head gave me trouble over that. And I said to my wife, I said, You reckon I better go talk to them about that. And I was sitting there thinking about it, and it just kept bugging me. And one morning, I'm walking down the hall, and my carnal mind said, He says, now what you going to do? And I just got tired of it. Finally, I just hollered out loud. I said, I know what I'll do. Nothing. Jesus said it would obey me. So I just went on. Put it out of my mind. Wouldn't even touch it in my thought life. Now, a few days, weeks later. I was down at the fishing camp there where we do some fishing. I was down there having a dominion seminar over the fish of the lake. And I called home and my wife said, the real estate lady wants you to call her right away. So I called her and she said, are you still interested in that piece of property out there? Yeah, I sure am. Well, you still give what you offered for it. I said, yes, I guess I would. Well, she said, you know, it's funny. She said, they've decided they're not going to build there. They're going to build over on this other street. I said, I don't doubt it. See, Jesus said, you're going to fail if you don't do my sayings. Now, don't go blaming God if you didn't do his sayings and things didn't work out. Now, it may not always work out that day, that week, that year even. But if you continue to do the sayings of Jesus, you're going to get the results Jesus said you could have. This is why I say it won't work for triers. You've got to be doers of the word. Now you see, when he said speak to things, I used this in the area of farming. See, I farmed for nearly 30 years. And I'd even read the Bible to my crops. I'd spray them with Malachi 3.11. Somebody said, that must be a new poison. No, but it's a good fertilizer. Now, I did use fertilizer. I had an individual come to me one time and said, two guys came over to Mississippi and they said, we came to this meeting just to ask you. We're farmers. We want to ask you, do you use fertilizer on your farm? Being a faith man. Well, because you're a faith man doesn't make you throw away all good business practices. See, some people get things all squirreled up. And they think if you were a faith man, well, you wouldn't even brush your teeth, you know. Or you wouldn't put fertilizer. I said, yeah, I put fertilizer on my farm. Do you put gas in your car? But you see, if you don't know the answer to a question, no question is stupid if you don't know the answer. So I'm not really putting them down, but I'm just saying that certainly I use fertilizer. But I talk to the farm. I talk to my crops. I spoke to wheat one time. We had some wheat we had planted, and it just looked like it didn't enough come up to leave. In fact, I'd already told the guys, you plow it up. When I'm leaving, going on a meeting, I said, it gets dry enough, plow it up. And... It had rained after I left and they didn't get to plow it up. So when we got back home, it was looking a little better. It had turned warm and it was greening up. My wife kept saying, let's just confess the word over it. I said, well, you've got to have something to confess over first. But finally, she talked me into it. So we go out there and we confess the word of God over it and talk to that wheat. We walked around out there and talked to it and said, listen to me, I'm talking to you. Jesus said, you would obey me. Now see, wheat will stool out, and from one seed it'll put out another shoot, and it may have 15 or 20 shoots from one seed. And so I started talking to it and telling it what to do. So we went ahead and fertilized it and did the things necessary for it, and we cut 50 bushel of wheat to the acre off of that wheat I was going to plow up. And it was just simply by doing what Jesus said to do. Now, you know, to just sit down and tell you exactly how that wheat could understand what I said, I don't know. I just know what Jesus said. And he said, if you come to me and hear my sayings and do them. Now, let me tell you some other things Jesus said to do. Jesus said, if your enemy is thirsty, give him drink. Well, maybe it was Paul that said that, but Jesus said, pray for your enemies. Do good to them that curse you. Now, that's doing the sayings of Jesus. You've got to do the thing that He said to do. Now, let me show you why you're to be good to your enemy and to pray for your enemy. Do good for them. And Paul says, if he's hungry, give him something to eat. If he's thirsty, give him drink. Now, in doing that, you're calling him your friend. Isn't that right? Isn't that right? You're calling things that are not. You're calling him your friend when you feed him. Anybody knows you don't feed your enemy. So you do it to your enemy to call him your friend. Everything produces after its kind. Start calling things that are not. Call it the way you want it. Call it the way the Word says it. Don't call it the way it is. When you do that, you only establish what is. But when you begin to call things that are not as though they were, then you're simply doing the sayings of Jesus. I appreciate so much you joining us for the Concepts of Faith broadcast today. I trust you've been blessed and been with us all this week as we minister the Word of God. This is the last day for CD offer number 7403. It's four CDs for $29 plus $5 postage and handling. a total of $34. It's entitled, Doing the Sayings of Jesus. When we talk about doing the sayings of Jesus, we're talking about doing the things that he taught. And of course, Mark 11, 23, here's the principle of faith and how it works. Whosoever shall say, believe, doubt not in his heart, believe what he is saying will come to pass. He shall have whatsoever he saith. Well, what have you been saying about your business or your house you have for sale or your property you've put up for sale? Are you saying nobody will ever buy it? I had a fellow tell me one time, he said, you know, we bought a piece of property. It was in a low area. We were going to let people dump field dirt in there, and we was going to eventually sell it and make money on it. But he said we got to needing to sell it and said we hadn't got much dirt in it and said we started saying nobody will ever buy this mud hole. We'll be paying for it the rest of our lives. And he said nobody was interested in it. Then he heard me teaching on this subject, and they decided to just do what Jesus said, to say to the sycamine tree or to the problem area or to the mountain, you will not hinder me anymore. You will be sold in Jesus' name. We call you sold. So they went out there on Monday morning. On Sunday night, I taught in his church. They went out there on Monday morning, and they talked to the property people. Now, on Wednesday, they called and said, someone bought that piece of property today. Now, it had been up for sale for two years. No one had bought it. But when they began to do what Jesus said to do, and to speak to inanimate objects, and say what the Word said to say, say what you want done with it, then it happened. Now, these are things that will happen to you if you'll just simply do what Jesus said to do. That's offer number 7403, Doing the Sayings of Jesus, for a total of $34. We have a toll-free order line, 1-877-396-9400. Until Monday, this is Charles Capps reminding you, the enemy is defeated, God is exalted, and Jesus is coming soon.
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To order the product offered today, call 1-877-396-9400 or write Charles Capps, P.O. Box 69, England, Arkansas 72046. A complete list of CDs, books, and DVDs are available online at charlescapps.com. Through the website, you can listen to this radio program again and subscribe to our podcast. This broadcast is sponsored by Charles Capps Ministries and our listeners in this area.
Join Charles Capps on an enlightening journey of faith in action as he shares dynamic principles that empower believers to command their reality through positive declarations. This episode focuses on the synergy between belief and spoken words, offering myriad testimonies that highlight the tangible results of faith in action. Through real-life examples, Charles demonstrates how disciplined speech and faith-led proclamations have helped individuals overcome financial hurdles, sell real estate smoothly, and achieve goals that once seemed unattainable. He stresses not only on the importance of believing the words you profess but also on fine-tuning your language to reflect unwavering faith. By integrating biblical teachings with contemporary experiences, Charles provides a powerful resource for incorporating faith into the practical areas of everyday life. Discover the essential steps to achieve harmony between your faith and your finances, relationships, and personal development in this thought-provoking discussion.
SPEAKER 01 :
We are glad you could join us today for the Concepts of Faith broadcast. This program is dedicated to teach you how to put the Word of God to work so that it will make a positive difference in the everyday circumstances of your life. And now, here's Charles Capps.
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Remembered what Jesus said about the sycamine tree? Whosoever shall say to it, said it would obey you. So I just went in there and got all my mortgages out. Had three or four of them. Laid them on the table. Called my daughter Annette. She was in the bedroom. I said, come out here. I want you to be a witness to what I'm going to do. My wife was gone somewhere. So I got her out there. And she's standing there. And I said, I'm going to do what Jesus said to do. Because he said I'm going to fail if I don't. So I backed off about six feet. And I started talking to these notes. I said, listen to me, I'm talking to you. Jesus said you would obey me. In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, I command you, I say to you, be paid in full, dematerialize, depart, be gone, in Jesus' name, and you will obey me. I turned around and walked off. And my daughter's standing there blinking her eyes. She had seen me do a few strange things, but nothing this strange before. See, I come to the point that I'm going to do what Jesus says to do. Now somebody said, didn't you feel a little silly doing that? No, no, no. I felt a whole lot silly. But what does that have to do with it? Jesus said I was going to fail if I didn't. So I just did what he said to do. When you do what Jesus says to do, expect to get the results that Jesus said you would have. Now, he said, when the stream beats vehemently against this fellow that does my sayings, it could not shake him. Now, boy, I tell you, I've been in some places financially where there was no hope financially for me. Natural hope I'm talking about. See, like Abraham was. When there was no hope, I made a decision to believe in supernatural hope. Now that's what you have to do. Some of you may be that way financially. See, God's gospel is a practical thing. But when you tend to spiritualize everything that Jesus said, you miss the fundamental things that will work for you in your everyday life. If you're just going to tell me a bunch of Bible stories about David killing Goliath and Joshua defeating the giants, and don't teach me the principles that he used, then you haven't done anything for me. And I was raised in a full gospel church for years where that's what they taught. They taught you what they did, but never did apply any of these things to the natural circumstances of life that we face. The gospel is a practical gospel. So I learned something from that. I spoke to the notes. Now I had two houses sitting out there on this property that I'd built. I had built three and sold one of them. And I had already prayed about them. Lord, send me a buyer for these houses. And I'm driving around out there one day and I said, now Lord, why haven't these houses sold? He spoke right into my spirit and said, because you didn't do what I said to do. Well, I said, Lord, I've already prayed. He said, why don't you do what you've been teaching people to do? I said, you mean speak to them? See, I began to teach that at this time. I saw it and I did it and then I began to teach it. I said, all right. So I drove by the houses and got out and stood in the yard and talked to them. I said, listen to me, I'm talking to you. And I looked down the street this way and I looked that way. To make sure that there wasn't anybody there. And I said, somebody's impressed with you. Oh, they really like the color of your brick. I went inside and I talked to it. I said, I'm calling you sold in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ of Nazareth. And Jesus said, you would obey me. Be sold in Jesus' name. I went down and talked to the other one. Now somebody said, how in the world is that going to change anything? I don't know other than what Jesus said. At the time I didn't understand it all. I understand it better now. I'm just doing what Jesus said to do. He said I'm going to fail if I don't. Now I talked about this in Minneapolis, Minnesota. I was teaching and there was a lady in the congregation. She came to me after the service. And she said, oh Brother Capps, I can't wait to get home. Because she said, I've got a house that I've been trying to sell for eight months, haven't had one single offer on it. Ooh, she said, I'm going home and talk to my house. Well, she did talk to her house. In fact, she told me, she said, I'm going to send you the tithes off the profit that I make on the house when I sell it. Now, I was home two weeks and I got a check in the mail to the ministry. She sold her house in two weeks that she'd been eight months trying to sell because she did what Jesus said to do. She talked to him. You may not understand all that. You don't have to understand it all, but you do have to believe it. If Jesus said it, you're required to believe it. Now, if you'll believe it and act on it. Now, let me stop and say this, because sometimes it's the things we live unsaid that discourages people. It won't just happen overnight that you'll believe everything you say will come to pass. That's why it's necessary to control your vocabulary. Begin to speak only what you desire to come to pass. Don't talk foolishness day in and day out and expect to be able to talk to a house and get it to obey you. You say, whoo, isn't that a big dog when it's a little bit of chihuahua? Boy, isn't it hot today when it's 20 below outside. See, what you do, you weaken the inner man. You train the inner man not to release any faith in what you're saying. And therefore, you don't release faith when you begin to speak. See, when it comes time to speak the word of faith, there is no power there. That's why Jesus and Paul said, let your yea be yea and your nay nay. Anything more than that cometh of evil. That's a serious thing when you read what Jesus said in the 12th chapter of Matthew. He said, by thy words thou shalt be justified, by thy words thou shalt be condemned. Man will give account of every idle word that he speaks, non-working word. Any word you speak that doesn't work for you, you'll give account for it in the day of judgment. Now that doesn't mean that you'll go to hell because you didn't speak working words for you. it means you'll lose reward. Because there'll be many things you'll never attain in this life unless you learn how to speak the word of faith and release faith in every word you speak. Now, when you get highly developed in that, now, it takes weeks and months and sometimes even years to get highly developed in speaking the word of faith. You have to determine that you're going to speak what you believe and believe what you speak in everything. Now, if you're going to tell a joke and if you're going to be facetious about something, say, this man said this happened or this is a joke. Don't tell it on yourself as being true, even jokes. Are you listening? Because you see, it weakens the inner man. You get to the point that you don't release faith in the words you say. Now, the more highly developed you get in believing what you say will come to pass, the quicker the manifestation will come. That's why I'm people that are highly developed in the negative thing and speaking unbelief and talking all the doubt and fear and all the negative things. Laughed, I thought I'd die. I guess I'll be in a wheelchair before I'm 40 years old. My arthritis is getting worse every day. See, you're developing yourself highly in that fear or that negative form of faith. He shall have whatsoever he saith. If he believe, if he doubt not in his heart, if he believe what he says will come to pass. Now, it didn't happen just because he said it once. Because you know what? The devil's smart enough to know that if you was to say, whoo, tickle me to death, and you fell over dead. After about three people did that, somebody would say, maybe it was what he said that had something to do with it. But you see, it doesn't work that fast because you've got to believe what you say and it'll come to pass. But there's things that people speak about their finances that they don't really mean when they first say it, but they keep saying it long enough, you go to believe in it, and when you go to believe in it, you deceive your heart. If any man seemeth to be religious, bridleth not his tongue, he deceiveth his own heart. You deceive your heart into believing that you want to go bankrupt. You watch and see. Nobody can make a living out of this business. It's going down the tube. We're going bankrupt. Sure as a world. That's what you call hard-heartedness or poor-mouthing. You know what it means to poor mouth? When you first start saying it, you didn't really believe it. You say it long enough, you go to believing it. Now when it gets in your heart, you've deceived your heart, your heart will lead you, your spirit will lead you to the things that will cause you to fail. Absolutely will. The Bible bears that out. Because the kingdom of God is if a man casts the seed into the ground. The seed is the word of God. Or the words that he speaks. It could either be the word of God or the words of the devil. Now, I spoke to the house. It didn't sell overnight. But it did sell. In fact, I went out there one day and I said, Now, Lord, I've done what you said to do. And I'm sitting there thinking, and my carnal mind got a hold of it. It said, Now, what are you going to do? I said, I know what I'll do. So I went out there and I drove down the street and I rolled the window down. It was cold that day and I just stuck my head out. And I said, Ha, ha, ha, ha. Went down and laughed at the other and went home. Learn to laugh at your problems. Now the reason I did that, the Spirit of God spoke this in one of our meetings. He said, learn to release your faith in laughter. Tears of self-pity and sorrow never release faith. They only release oppression and fear. So learn to release your faith in laughter. So I just simply did what I heard the Spirit of God say. I laughed at the house. Now the house sold. Not only did the houses sell. But I sold the whole project to one man. Not only that, I sold all the land behind the project that was not developed. And the notes were paid. Now somebody said, you're the luckiest guy that ever lived. Oh no, I don't even believe in luck. I believe in doing the sayings of Jesus. Now it may seem foolish to you. But if you'll do what Jesus said to do, you can have what Jesus said you'd have. I'm glad you could join us for the Concepts of Faith broadcast today. Now before we leave the broadcast, let me remind you that all of this week's CD offer number 7403 is our offer. It's entitled, Doing the Sayings of Jesus. That's four CDs for $29 plus $5 postage and handling, a total of $34. I get so excited when I start talking about this series because we have so many testimonies of how that people have put these principles to work in their life, to sell property, to sell their house. And I'm talking about people that had their house up for sale for two years, not one offer. The lady said to me, I'm so glad I came to the seminar tonight. This was back in 1980. And she said, I've had my house up for sale for two years, not one offer. I'm going home and talk to it. See, we talk about doing the sayings of Jesus. What did Jesus say to do? Whosoever shall say to the mountain, to the problem, be removed, be cast in the sea, shall not doubt his heart, but believe what he's saying, or come to pass, he shall have whatsoever he saith. So she said, I'm going home and talk to my house. And she did. In less than a week, it sold. Now, these are things you can apply in your everyday life. So many people think, well, now, you know, these things just work in spiritual things. These are things that will work in everyday life. I had a fellow that sent me a large offering for about three months in a row. I finally called him and said, I want to tell you how much I appreciate you sending this large donation to the ministry. He said, oh, I wanted to talk to you. He said, what happened? I had a piece of property. And I got to listening to your tapes on doing the sayings of Jesus. And I went out and talked to that piece of property and called it sold and began to confess the word of God over it. And it sold. And it sold for the price that he wanted. And he said, that's the reason I'm sending you this offering. Now, there's other people that every time I'd tell one of these stories, I'd get two or three more. This will be a blessing to you. It's offer number 7403. That's four CDs for a total of $34, doing the sayings of Jesus. We have a toll-free order line, 1-877-396-9400. Until tomorrow, this is Charles Capps reminding you that the enemy is defeated, God is exalted, and Jesus reigns.
SPEAKER 02 :
is coming soon to order the product offered today call 1-877-396-9400 or write charles caps p.o box 69 england arkansas 72046 a complete list of cds books and dvds are available online at charlescaps.com Through the website, you can listen to this radio program again and subscribe to our podcast. This broadcast is sponsored by Charles Capps Ministries and our listeners in this area.
Join us on this episode as Charles Capps delves into the importance of establishing a strong foundation in life based on the teachings of Jesus. You'll learn how applying the Word of God can influence your day-to-day circumstances, turning challenges into opportunities for growth and resilience. Drawing on biblical stories, Charles explores the need for a practical approach to faith, encouraging listeners to actively engage with Jesus' teachings and use them as a cornerstone for their lives. The discussion also covers personal testimonies and lessons on overcoming financial struggles with supernatural hope, as Charles shares his own journey of faith in building a successful ministry. He stresses the importance of not only hearing the Word but living it, providing insights on common misconceptions and demonstrating the power of faith through real-life applications. Whether you're facing storms or calm seas, this episode will equip you with the principles needed to stand strong and victorious.
SPEAKER 01 :
We are glad you could join us today for the Concepts of Faith broadcast. This program is dedicated to teach you how to put the Word of God to work so that it will make a positive difference in the everyday circumstances of your life. And now, here's Charles Capps.
SPEAKER 03 :
Now what we realize is that when we do what Jesus said to do, we'll get the results that Jesus said we'd have. But now how many of you know that you don't just hear this and operate in it perfectly overnight? You have to develop yourself in it. Now he said when the stream beats vehemently against this fellow that does my sayings, it could not shake him. Now boy, I tell you, I've been in some places financially where there was no hope. financially for me, natural hope I'm talking about. See, I was like Abraham was. When there was no hope, I made a decision to believe in supernatural hope. Now that's what you have to do. Some of you may be that way financially. The gospel is a practical thing. But when you tend to spiritualize everything that Jesus said, you miss the fundamental things that will work for you in your everyday life. All right, now let's take a look back over here again at Luke's Gospel, the sixth chapter. Jesus said, He cometh to me, heareth my sayings, and doeth them, I will show you who is like. But if he doesn't, then immediately his house fell. Let's read verse 49. But he that heareth and doeth not is like a man without foundation, without a foundation. The foundation, remember now, is doing what Jesus said to do. The rock that he talked about in the previous verses is the Word of God, or Jesus, or the Word of God. So the man based his doings on what Jesus said. He did the sayings, but he based it on the Word of God. So without foundation... He built a house on the earth against which the stream beat vehemently, and immediately it fell, and the ruin of that house was great. Now you have people that'll say, well, now you know, God always sends you through the wilderness. The wilderness experience will make you stronger. Now I hear people say that from time to time, but you better check up on the wilderness experience. The children of Israel spent 40 years there. It was not God's will for them to spend 40 years in the wilderness. He wanted to lead them through that wilderness to the promised land. See, the wilderness was between them and the promised land. It was not His will that they spend 48 years there. Somebody said, oh, it'll make your faith stronger. Check and see if it'd make their faith stronger. No, it didn't. It killed them. Killed all the doubters. And if you stay in the wilderness long enough, it'll kill you. Now, ask yourself this about this verse 49. If it was God testing and trying this fellow's faith when the flood and the stream beat vehemently against it, if it was God that was doing that, then it seemed like God was a partner to his failure. Now stop and look at it. Think about this for a minute. Ask yourself, who caused the flood and the stream to beat vehemently against it? And then ask yourself this question. What caused one house to fall or one life to fail and the other not to fail? Your first thought is it was the stream, it was the flood. No, it came against both of them. What caused one to fail was that he didn't do what Jesus said to do. Now they could have both been saved and filled with the Holy Ghost and gone to church every Sunday. Because I tell you, I was in that situation one time. Went to church every Sunday, did everything I knew to do, but I was sick in body, head over heels in debt. I was supernaturally in debt. You couldn't get that way naturally. Man, I got so poor I couldn't pay attention. Because there were some things I didn't know to do. But now let's look at this for a minute. If it were true that this is God trying this fellow. then it should read this way, if it was true that the problems of life, the wilderness experience, the negative things that come against you in life make you stronger, then this verse 49 should read this way, "...He that heareth and doeth not is like a man that without foundation built his house upon the earth, which the stream did beat vehemently, and it tore the porch off, knocked the blocks out from under it, and the window lights fell out, washed part of the house away." But then when the flood rose up and continued to beat upon it, the house began to come back together. And when it settled down, it settled on a firm foundation and was stronger. Sounds good, don't it? But that was not what Jesus said. And that's just about how foolish it is to say that the things the devil brings against you is to really make you more like Jesus. No, the devil brings these things to destroy you. Satan brought this stream and flood against this house. You remember the storm that Jesus was in the boat. He said, let us go to the other side. And they start over to the other side and things are going great. Jesus went to sleep in the back of the boat. And the waves, then the wind, the storm wind came on the lake. Who started that storm? It had to be the devil because it's trying to destroy Jesus. Not only that, but they came back and told Jesus, woke him up and said, you know what the devil said? Now, you don't read that in your Bible, but that's actually what they did. They told Jesus what the devil said. See, Jesus said, we're going to the other side. They let his word slip. They come back and woke Jesus up and said, you know, we're going to all drown. You know what Jesus did? He got up. I can just see him walk up to the bow of that boat, put his foot on the front of it. He looked out there and he said, Peace! Be still. Now wait a minute. There's not any peace out there. There's a storm out there. What's he doing? He's calling things that are not. He's doing his own sayings. He's showing you how it works. He spoke to the wind. And he stopped the cause of the waves before he stopped the waves. Now, if you're not careful, you'll get it backwards and start talking to the waves. If he'd have talked to the waves and got them stopped and hadn't got the wind stopped, you'd have had another storm in just a few minutes. Isn't that right? See, sometimes we do that. We treat the symptoms instead of the problem. You get mad at the person instead of the spirit that's driving the individuals. You've got to go to the spirit that's driving the individual that's causing the problems in your life. Don't get mad at the individual. They may not even know why they're doing what they're doing. They're causing the problems for you. And that'll help you. But Jesus destroyed the storm, didn't he? Didn't he destroy the storm? Now, the Bible says that Jesus came to destroy the works of the devil. Now, if the storm there was to try their faith and it was sin of God, then Jesus ended up destroying the works of his Father. Can you see that? It couldn't be that God sent the storm. And you hear this all the time. Well, you know, God sent a tornado to our town the other night. No, it might have been your God, but it wasn't my God. That's a perversion of nature. It is the work of the devil. Now what we realize is that when we do what Jesus said to do, we'll get the results that Jesus said we'd have. But now how many of you know that you don't just hear this and operate in it perfectly overnight? You have to develop yourself in it. Now here's the way that the Lord began to deal with me about this. I read Luke the 6th chapter from verse 46 down through the end of the chapter there. Now at the time I read that several years ago, I had started a housing project north of England there, England, Arkansas that is. And I had spent a lot of money putting in sewer, water lines, and getting it ready to build on and we'd start building some houses. Now, that's about the time the ministry, the teaching ministry, began to flourish, and the Lord began to open doors, and I got to where I had so many invitations. I didn't have time to do all this other stuff. So I'm sitting there one day thinking, I sure wish I could get these notes paid off. I borrowed the money at the bank, you know, to put in these facilities. And I read this, and I was reading one morning, meditating on this, and I saw this. It was illuminated in my spirit. If you don't do my sayings, you're going to fail. So I said, well, Jesus was a prophet. He prophesied I'm going to fail if I don't do what he said. And I said, now, what did Jesus say? See, if you'll ask yourself questions, you'll learn some things because yourself knows more than you do. That's the truth. See, ask yourself. Yourself is the real you, the spirit man on the inside. Then it came right up out of my spirit. Jesus said, whosoever shall say to the mountains, Well, immediately I connected the mountain with the notes, the mortgage at the bank. That's what I wanted to get rid of. It's what was before me, keeping me from being able to do the things I wanted to do in the teaching ministry and being free to travel and do what I wanted to do. So I read that and then I remembered what Jesus said about the sycamine tree. Whosoever shall say to it, said it would obey you. So I just went in there and got all my mortgages out. Had three or four of them, laid them on the tables. I called my daughter Annette. She was in the bedroom. I said, come out here. I want you to be a witness to what I'm going to do. My wife was gone somewhere, so I got her out there. She's standing there and I said, I'm going to do what Jesus said to do. Because he said I'm going to fail if I don't. So I backed off about six feet and I started talking to these notes. I said, listen to me, I'm talking to you. Jesus said you would obey me. In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, I command you, I say to you, be paid in full, dematerialize, depart, be gone, in Jesus' name, and you will obey me. I turned around and walked off. And my daughter's standing there blinking her eyes. She had seen me do a few strange things, but nothing this strange before. See, I come to the point that I'm going to do what Jesus says to do. Now somebody said, didn't you feel a little silly doing that? No, no, no. I felt a whole lot silly. But what does that have to do with it? Jesus said I was going to fail if I didn't. So I just did what he said to do. Thank you so much for joining us for the Concepts of Faith broadcast today as we've been talking about doing the sayings of Jesus. Now, all of this week we have a CD offer number 7403. It's entitled, Doing the Sayings of Jesus. It's four CDs for $29 plus $5 postage and handling, a total of $34. In this series, we deal extensively of how to put the principles of God in operation in your everyday life. In the parable that Jesus talked about in the sixth chapter of Luke, he says, Whosoever cometh to me, and heareth my sayings, and doeth them, I will show you who he is like. Now, he's talking about three things here. First, you come to Jesus, you hear what he said, and you do them. Now, he said, if you do that, you're like a man that built his house. He digged deep, and he laid the foundation on the rock. When the stream beat vehemently against it, it could not shake it. Now, he didn't say it didn't shake it. He said it couldn't shake it. It's impossible to, because he laid the foundation on the rock. Now, what is the foundation here? The foundation is doing the sayings of Jesus, and the Word of God, or Christ Jesus, is the rock. So he laid the the foundation on the rock. In other words, everything that the man did was based on the authority of the Word of God. But then he tells about a man that came to him and heard his sayings and didn't do them. And when the stream beat the Himalaya upon him, immediately his house fell, and the ruin of that house was great. Now, you know he's not talking about a housing project here. He's talking about individual lives. And he's telling you there's three simple things that you do, that if you do them, you'll not fail in life. Come to Jesus, hear his saying, then start doing what Jesus said. Now, this series will actually carry you into an area where you can see how to operate in the principles of God. That is offer number 7403 for a total of $34.00. We have a toll-free order line, 1-877-396-9400. Until tomorrow, this is Charles Capps reminding you that the enemy is defeated, God is exalted, and Jesus is coming soon.
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To order the product offered today, call 1-877-396-9400 or write Charles Capps, P.O. Box 69, England, Arkansas 72046. A complete list of CDs, books, and DVDs are available online at charlescapps.com. Through the website, you can listen to this radio program again and subscribe to our podcast. This broadcast is sponsored by Charles Capps Ministries and our listeners in this area.
Join us on today's episode of The Narrow Path with Steve Gregg as we delve into the biblical practice of anointing with oil and its implications for modern Christians. With insights from historical traditions and scripture, we discuss the nuances of this ritual and how it applies to the faithful today. Additionally, we explore the phenomenon of apostolic martyrdom, unraveling the truths and myths surrounding the early disciples' commitment and courage.
SPEAKER 1 :
Thank you.
SPEAKER 08 :
Good afternoon and welcome to the Narrow Path radio broadcast. My name is Steve Gregg and we're live for an hour, as we usually are on weekdays, taking your calls. If you have questions about the Bible or the Christian faith, we'd love to talk to you. You can call me at this number, 844-484-5737. That's 844-484-5737. And, boy, I don't think I have anything to announce today, so we can just go directly to our callers. Oh, I should mention, yeah, there is something that should be mentioned. A major part of our ministry is our website. It's been up for many years, and it has lots and lots of resources. I give the website out every day on the air so you can go and get those resources, or you can even donate from there. But the website's been down. We don't understand the technology, but we think somebody does. We have a webmaster in Connecticut who I think he feels everything's under control. Something is being copied or something is being done. Whenever something goes wrong with the web, I'm totally at a loss. I have no idea how technology works. But I will say this, that there's a lot of people who kind of are used to going to the website all the time. And it's been down for several days. We're not sure exactly when it'll be back up, hopefully very soon. But in the meantime, although you can't donate from this site, there is a backup site that has all of our stuff on it, or not all of it, but all the audio, all the lectures, the shows, archives, and so forth. And it's working well. That's called Theos, that's T-H-E-O-S, theos.org slash media. So if you go to theos.org. slash media. You can't donate from there, but you can certainly access the resources. So if you become kind of addicted to listening to those and they're not now at the moment available, I don't even think they're on our app because I think our app depends on the website. So this is a kind of a crippling thing, but we have backup. There's another website that has at least the things you can listen to that you want to, the radio shows and the Bible studies and so forth are all at www.theos.org slash media. So you can go there for the time being. Hopefully I will announce when the website's back up. Okay. Having said that, we're going to talk to Benjamin from Greenville, Ohio. Benjamin, welcome to The Narrow Path. Thanks for calling.
SPEAKER 03 :
Good afternoon, brother. Thank you. I have a question on trying to get your insight on Anointing with oil, for instance, our homes or a sick person. And I guess my questions would be the actual procedure of doing it and the frequency that we should be doing something like that. And I can take the answer offline.
SPEAKER 08 :
All right. All right. Thank you for your call, Benjamin. Well, the Bible doesn't actually advocate the anointing of oil except in the case of a sick person. calling on the elders of the church. In James chapter five, it says, is any of you sick or is any sick among you? Let him call for the elders of the church and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. In the prayer of faith, she'll save the sick and the Lord shall raise him up. And if he's committed sins, they'll be forgiven him. Now, many people think that this is simply what the Roman Catholics call the extreme unction, that when somebody's dying, they're sick and dying, that they should call for the the priests or the leaders of the church, and have them, as it were, kind of baptize them, although it says oil, not water. So it's questionable whether that's what it means. But that's, for example, how Catholics understand it. Most evangelicals, especially charismatic people, believe that anointing with oil is simply a procedure to accompany the prayer for healing. Now, because there's so little said about it, and there's little or no explanation about it, you know, there's some questions as to what its effectiveness is. Some people think it's merely a point of contact for faith. That is that, you know, a person, if you just say, well, just believe, well, that's kind of, for some people, it's a little nebulous. Okay, I kind of believe. Do I believe now? Do I believe enough? You know, when am I supposed to believe? When is something supposed to happen? And there are people who say that, excuse me, sorry, that such procedures as laying on of hands for healing or anointing with oil, that these really only function as a point of contact for faith. So that if a person kind of has a vague idea that God's going to heal them at some point that you, you can, their expectations will be raised that that point will be when hands are laid on them or when oil is put on them. And it becomes sort of a symbolic gesture, uh, Usually the oil is thought to represent the Holy Spirit, but I'm not sure that that's even an essential part of the whole thing. The point is that we're not told why anointing of oil is of use. Now, there are some teachers who have simply said anointing with oil is what is done to a wounded person. You know, in the Good Samaritan parable, the man who fell among thieves, when he was found by the Good Samaritan and ministered to, the man poured wine and oil into his wounds, wine probably to disinfect them and oil to promote healing. And use of oil medicinally, topically, was an ancient medical procedure for certain conditions. And so some say, well, James is envisaging a situation where somebody who's sick has got wounds or festering sores or whatever, and that the elders should come and administer medical procedures with oil. Now, I don't personally think that's what it's saying, but I've heard it said. I'm just trying to tell you there's a lot of different opinions about that. And the reason there's so many opinions is the Bible says nothing to explain it. It just says do this. And so many people will just do it out of obedience to the scriptures without having any particular or precise understanding of what it's supposed to accomplish. But apart from that one passage in James 5, we are not really told to anoint anything with oil. Now in the Old Testament, the priests and the kings, when they were installed into office, had oil poured over their heads, and even a prophet might in some cases. But the point there is simply it's an installation service, probably represented the Holy Spirit coming on them, the oil representing that. But this was not a situational thing where someone's sick or you're trying to accomplish something in particular through it. It's just part of the ceremony of installment. And that's just an Old Testament thing with kings and priests and others who were installed into divine office. But in the New Testament, we only have that one usage of it mentioned. Now, I'm aware of people anointing their houses, their cars, the windows of their houses. And I think the implication they have in mind is they're kind of putting protection upon their house or their car against, I'm not sure what, maybe demons coming in or something. This... I mean, I don't mean to be critical of people who do it. There's simply no biblical grounds for it. It strikes me as superstitious. But on the other hand, one might say, well, it's no more superstitious than anointing a sick person to get well. Well, the one exception to that is that anointing a sick person to get well is a scriptural, you know, a scriptural suggestion where to start anointing all kinds of things for oil for nebulous reasons, you know, seeking undefined results, it just begins to be sort of a, it can be superstitious. Now, I'm not saying God can't honor it if your faith is in him. And somehow, you know, you're just thinking, hey, God, this place I'm putting the oil, I want you to please, you know, protect it there. I don't do that kind of thing. I've been with people who did that kind of thing. I even at the time, I thought it was a little superstitious, but I didn't want to be critical. I mean. It's just not a biblical practice, okay? And I, generally speaking, do not like to include in my Christian practice anything that the Bible does not command and which I cannot see having any obvious value, you know? And therefore, I don't practice it. If you're wondering how often should this be done and so forth, yeah, there's nothing in the Bible that says it should be done at all. So, you know, I personally don't do those kinds of things. And, you know, if someone could come up with a biblical rationale for it, I would certainly relook at my thoughts about that. But I don't know of any. All right. Let's talk to Ryan from Spartanburg, South Carolina. Hi, Ryan. Welcome.
SPEAKER 06 :
Casey, thank you. I had heard it said that all of the disciples of Christ had died as martyrs because they refused to basically admit, or I'm sorry, they refused to affirm that they did not actually see Jesus risen from the dead, and as such, because of their conviction, they were martyred, except for John, I believe. And it was always used as a very powerful argument rationale for the fact that Jesus actually did resurrect from the dead, because the disciples had nothing to gain by lying in that sense and dying for something that they didn't actually believe to be true. And I always thought that that was a very powerful argument, and so then I went in to check what kind of external sources we have if someone was to say to me, well, what evidence is there that they were all martyred in the various ways? And as far as I could find, there was only James, the son of Zebedee, James, the son of Joseph, Peter, and Paul, who we have external sources for that they were martyred. I think the rest, as far as I know, is only church history or church tradition that teaches that they were martyred.
SPEAKER 08 :
Is that correct? Well, all of them are church tradition, with the exception of James, the son of Zebedee. We have the record of his death given to us in Acts chapter 12. We don't actually have the record of the death of any of the other apostles in the Bible, but what we do have is early traditions that And since these early traditions, you know, are, you know, they're not all alike for each apostle, even John. I mean, the tradition is that John wasn't killed as a martyr. So we can figure out that, you know, the church didn't decide to make up martyr stories for all the apostles or else they would have done so for John too. I mean, my impression is the church fathers were interested in preserving accurate memories of what happened to these founders of the church as apostles. I know if I were them, I'd want to. I think some people think the church was led by con artists, and therefore they made up stories promiscuously that they thought would be edifying or convincing to people. But I think these men are themselves, many of them, martyrs. I mean, the sources, Christians were being martyred, and especially the leaders of the churches were hunted down and martyred for the first three centuries. And it's from men living at that time that we have the stories about the martyrdom of the apostles and of other Christians like Polycarp and such and James, the brother of Jesus. There's really no reason I can think of why these stories would be fake. Now, uh, you've heard this, the martyrdom of the apostles used as a, uh, an apologetic for the truthfulness of their testimony that they'd seen Jesus after he rose from the dead. Um, And I use it that way, too. I mean, I'll just say I do use it that way. But sometimes the way it's presented is just simply, well, these people could have not been martyred if they'd simply admitted that Jesus was not risen from the dead. And you might get the impression that every one of them stood with, as it were, a gun to his head saying, confess that Jesus didn't rise from the dead or I'll kill you. And each one of them stood with that testimony. that's not exactly how it happened. Many of them were martyred because simply they were church leaders. Some of them were martyred because they wouldn't burn incense to the Caesar. Some of them were martyred just for going against paganism. And so it's not really the case that each one of them was put on a trial where they had a specific question asked to them. And the wrong answer they die for and the right answer they would, you know, be granted freedom for. And that question is, did Jesus really rise from the dead? OK, that's not how it happened. What is true, though, is that they they went into situations facing deliberate danger and martyrdom. because they believe that Jesus rose from the dead. The point is, if they were not persuaded that Jesus rose from the dead, they wouldn't be risking their lives. Paul himself said that in 1 Corinthians 15. He says, if Jesus isn't risen from the dead, why am I facing these wild beasts and risking my life every hour? So it's not so much that they literally died on the spot for saying Jesus is risen from the dead on an occasion when someone would have said, we'll spare you if you say he didn't. But the point is that their whole careers faced death, faced danger, faced hardship, faced imprisonment and beatings. I mean, the apostles had all that. And the only reason they were motivated to do it is because they believed Jesus was risen from the dead. If they hadn't believed it, they would have gone somewhere else and done something else with their lives and avoided all that danger. So when someone says, well, they all died confessing that Jesus is risen from the dead, And therefore he did. Well, that's true. I mean, that was their confession. That is what they believed. But it's not always the case that somebody would have let them off the hook if they had said, OK, he didn't. I mean, because sometimes people just want to kill their mobs. You know, Nero didn't like Christians in general and killed Paul and Peter and others. So, you know, if what you heard, and you could easily have heard it because I've said things very similar myself, is that, you know, if Jesus didn't rise from the dead, these guys wouldn't have risked their lives like this. They all died confessing that Jesus had risen from the dead. And that was, they did. They believed that and they said that right up until the time they died. But it wasn't always that one statement of theirs that was, you know, what got their heads cut off or got them fed to the lions. Sometimes it was more of a the general embrace of Christianity in a hostile world that got them killed.
SPEAKER 06 :
Right. The place that I read that James, the son of Zebedee, the son of Joseph, Peter, and Paul were martyred, or at least the external evidence was in Clement, I believe, 1 Clement 5. I'm not too familiar, however, with that book. Is that a church father?
SPEAKER 08 :
Clement of Rome was a bishop in Rome in the generation after the apostles, but not long after the apostles. He was like before the end of the first century. I'm not sure. I think the Catholic Church places him as like the third bishop of Rome or something like that. But Paul, in writing to Rome... mentions Clement, and many people think that's the same Clement that wrote the book Clement of Rome. It's an epistle to the Corinthians that Clement wrote, or that somebody wrote. So we don't know if he's the same Clement that Paul mentioned, but he was certainly a man of the first century church who would be in a prime position to know how Peter and Paul had died and so forth. Now, we don't have any one church father telling us everything about it, but there is, like in Fox's Book of Martyrs, I'm pretty sure he's got most of the apostles named in there, right in the opening chapters of Fox's Book of Martyrs. Sometimes it's not very much detail, but... I don't think there's very many of the apostles that aren't mentioned there. And I don't know what all of his sources were, but, you know, Fox was a historian and would have looked at all the sources available.
SPEAKER 06 :
Thank you so much. You've all checked that out. Thank you for your time.
SPEAKER 08 :
Okay, Ryan. Good talking to you, brother. Thanks for your call. Bye now. All right. See, Jacob in Orange County, California. Welcome.
SPEAKER 05 :
Good afternoon, Steve. Thank you for this ministry. My question is, would you be willing to give a brief hypothetical defense of dispensational eschatology? I'm familiar with some of their teaching points, but I'm curious to hear someone with a gift for teaching as yourself describe their position, and I'll listen to your answer up there. Thank you, Steve.
SPEAKER 08 :
All right, sure. Thank you. Well, dispensational theology basically was introduced by a very intelligent man. John Nelson Darby, he's sometimes seen as kind of a villain in the minds of anti-dispensationalists. And there were things about him that were not very savory. He could be very divisive in his personality. In fact, he actually excommunicated one of my favorite people, George Mueller. George Mueller and he were acquainted, and both of them were in the Plymouth Brethren movement. And Darby excommunicated Mueller because he didn't agree with Darby about everything. And so, I mean, the guy was a little divisive. Let's just say quite divisive. And so I don't like Darby much, but there's still... The truth, he's a very brilliant man, and he made a complete translation of the Bible, the Darby Translation, which is still available, usually online. And he wrote lots of books. I think he wrote like over 50 books of theology. And they're not lightweight stuff. So, I mean, he was very persuasive in his own generation in certain evangelical circles. He He was Anglican, and he came out of that and became part of the Plymouth Brethren movement. But his theory was that Christians had been inconsistent throughout history in spiritualizing many Old Testament prophecies. The prophecies of Isaiah and Jeremiah and Ezekiel and the minor prophets often are spiritualized by all the church fathers, all the medieval church, all the reformers, and in modern times by people like myself, who see many of the prophecies that mention Israel in the Old Testament are in some cases spiritualized, that is interpreted to refer to the spiritual Israel. And that's called spiritualizing. At least that's what people who don't like the practice call it. And so he said, that's not right. If it says Israel, it should be natural Israel. I mean, why do we take Genesis literally and the Gospels literally, but we don't take these prophecies literally when they say Israel and Jerusalem? And so he felt... the church was inconsistent and needed to consistently take things literally, including these Old Testament prophets. And in doing so, of course, he came up with an entirely different theology about Israel than the church had ever held before. And of course, he's living around 1830-ish when this was done. So for the first 1800 years, the church taught a certain theology about Israel and the church And Darby challenged it and said he actually felt he was rediscovering truths that only the apostles had taught. He knew he was going against the whole church for 1,800 years before him. And his view was that there are promises that God made to Israel and Jerusalem that simply have not occurred. That the Messiah was supposed to come and sit on David's throne in Jerusalem and restore Jerusalem to its former glory and glory. And Jesus didn't do that, so that still has to happen. He thought when Jesus comes back, that's got to happen. And so his argument was you find all these prophecies about the Messiah reigning over a restored Israel and Jerusalem and all the nations bringing gifts to him and him ruling the world with a rod of iron and so forth. And since Jesus didn't do that, now Darby's idea was Jesus would have done that. Jesus actually came intending to do that, but couldn't because the Jews rejected him as the Messiah. Now, I'm not sure why God would come and make his program so vulnerable to the Jews' disapproval. I mean, the Jews had rejected all the prophets before. Why would anyone think they'd accept Jesus? You know, I mean, so it's like Jesus comes and says, the time is fulfilled. The kingdom of God is drawn near. And yet it's not going to come because God knows very well that the Jews are going to respond to him exactly as they responded to the prophets before him. So in other words, it wasn't near. It was a mistake or it was, you know, I don't know, conditional or something. But Jesus didn't say the coming of the kingdom was conditional. He didn't say it depended on the Jews accepting him. But Darby said, well, because the Jews didn't accept him, Jesus did not bring the kingdom that he said he was going to bring. It was postponed. Jesus went back to heaven, took with him the kingdom that he had in mind. And he'll bring it back when he comes back. And he'll set up the millennial kingdom and set up the temple in Jerusalem. And he'll reign from Jerusalem, from David's throne, for a thousand years. That's the dispensational idea. And Darby also believed that the church and Israel should never be confused with each other. He felt like that was a big problem the church had done for 1800 years is take these prophecies about Israel and apply them to the church. He said, no, no, no, no, no. The church in Israel, different things. He said the church was an institution that was not even anticipated in the Old Testament. It was a mystery that only was revealed to Paul and the apostles, and therefore it didn't even exist in the Old Testament. It wasn't even anticipated. The church is, he said, a parenthesis because the Jews who God came to bring the kingdom to had rejected christ and caused the kingdom to be postponed there was now this parenthetical phenomenon of god going to the gentiles and creating the body of christ and you know doing what he's doing now until he's done doing that and when he's done doing that he'll rapture the church out of the world But then he'll keep working in the world on the Jews, and the tribulation will be his way of disciplining and bringing the Jews to himself. And then they will come to him, and then Jesus will come and set up the millennium. That's Darby's ideas. Now, there are, I guess you wanted me to give an exegetical polemic in favor of dispensationalism. I used to think I could do that, but it really wasn't exegetical. It was more or less just assumption. It was the assumption that my teachers had told the truth about these things and that interpreting the Bible the way my teachers did is the only honest and faithful way of handling Scripture. And it took me years of my own study of Scripture to realize that that's not the best way to interpret Scripture. I didn't know what dispensationalism was. I was dispensational. I never heard the term before. I just thought dispensationalism, or I should say, I thought what they were teaching me was what the Bible teaches. They didn't tell me. My teachers never told me. This is a view called dispensationalism. I had to discover that the hard way over years after teaching dispensationalism without knowing that it was that. But I found out that the early church actually had been more accurate in the way that they handled scriptures. That the apostles in the New Testament, when they quoted Old Testament scriptures, the very ones that Darby said should be taken literally about the literal Israel and Jerusalem, whenever the apostles quoted those scriptures, they didn't take them literally. They applied them to the church. And that's why the whole church understood them that way. They thought the apostles were right. And that Jesus was right because he did the same thing. When they quoted... Old Testament passages, which Darby thinks we should apply to Israel and Jerusalem, and which dispensationalists say we should, the apostles and Jesus didn't take them that way. They took them in a spiritual sense and thought that Jesus actually came to fulfill the prophets and that he did not fail to do so. At the end of his life, Jesus prayed and he said, Father, I have finished the work you gave me to do. He didn't say, hey, I tried, but the Jews wouldn't let it happen, so sorry, God, I couldn't do it. No, he said, I finished it. And this is what the church has always believed, that Jesus did not fail. He succeeded. And I don't think there's a good exegetical case for dispensationalism, but there's just a grid you can read the Bible through in order to think about it that way. Hey, I'm out of time for this segment. I'll be back in about 30 seconds or so. Please stay tuned.
SPEAKER 09 :
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SPEAKER 08 :
Welcome back to the Narrow Path radio broadcast. My name is Steve Gregg, and we're live for another half hour, taking your calls. If you have questions about the Bible or about the Christian faith, feel free to give me a call. The number is 844-825-8000. 484-5737. And you're always welcome to call if you disagree with me about something too. Again, our website has been down for a few days. Hopefully it'll be up. I don't know. It could be up today, tomorrow. I'm not sure. It might be down for a while. If you're used to, you know, listening to things from our website, we've got thousands of things there to listen to on a regular basis. And you're kind of going through withdrawal because the site's down. Go to this alternative website, It's called theos, T-H-E-O-S, theos.org slash media. It at least has all, I think, has the archives of the radio show and it's got the lectures there. And that's mostly what people want when they go to our website. Our website has some other things, too, that aren't there. But essentially, you know, if you're listening to the lectures or the archives, you can get them there, too. All right, at least last I checked. I haven't been there for a long time myself, but I hope it's up and running too. Technology is not always our friend, but it certainly has been convenient sometimes. Okay, let's talk next to Roberto from Kansas City, Missouri. Hi, Roberto.
SPEAKER 07 :
Hi, Steve, Greg. Thank you for taking my call. I would like to ask you, Well, I watch you on YouTube. That's mainly where I get your program and everything. How can we pray in a godly manner for our president not to be set up the way he was today? All we can pray is that, you know, God's will be done. That's all I've been praying for lately is God's will be done. We learned the hard way over the last, like, you know, to elections. And, um, he was set up today to go to this, uh, church service where the, uh, pastor, if you will, uh, was begging him for mercy on, um, on the homosexual community, gay rights and, uh, migrants. Um, how can we pray, uh, for his spiritual direction and leadership? Because he has apparently surrounded himself with the same crowd like, um, Paula White was a prosperity gospel person.
SPEAKER 08 :
Is she still in the picture there? I didn't know she was still in the picture. I thought he'd moved on to someone like Jack Hibbs.
SPEAKER 07 :
I thought she was out of the picture, but I pulled up a video that was just done two months ago. by Forbes, which is, you know, a liberal source. But two months ago, she was praying over him with that type of crowd. So I didn't know that either.
SPEAKER 08 :
Okay, let me jump in. Let me jump in here. I hadn't heard about what happened today. So I don't know anything about that. But as far as being set up, I'm not sure how you mean that. I mean, the president is going to be challenged about lots of things throughout his term and should be. Presidents always should be. And I didn't obviously hear how he responded. So I can't tell. But all I can say, if your question is how shall we pray for him? I mean, if that's not just a way of you making some statements, but you're really wondering how should we pray for him, I think we should pray for him to be wise and for him to be committed to justice. And, of course, we should pray for him and everybody that they be converted to Christ. Now, I don't know. I'm not going to say he's not a Christian. He doesn't. If he's a Christian, I don't think he's a very mature Christian, and I don't think he's been discipled very thoroughly, obviously. So we could pray either that he'll get converted, or if he has been converted, that he'll be properly discipled, that he'll have better Christian influences around him, hopefully, than Paula White, and that he'll be a wise ruler. Yeah. I also pray for his protection since there's, I don't think we've had a more hated president. Although, I mean, some people obviously almost idolize him, which is bad too. We don't want to idolize him, but he's a very polarizing figure. In my opinion, I don't think he did anything to encourage that polarization, but it's just the fact. I think he's following his conscience, if I'm not mistaken. I don't know him, so he might be worse than I think. I've heard him give speeches. I've watched how he governed before. He was a president before, after all. and you know i've actually seen how he conducted himself in the years he was not president since then so my impression is that he's he's got some convictions and he's he's trying to put them forward and fortunately they are agreeable with the constitution and you know if he had constant if he had convictions that were unconstitutional i'd be very concerned because he kind of moves moves like a bulldozer uh you know forward with his programs um But it seems to me, as far as I can tell, the main controversial features of his plans are quite in keeping with the Constitution, which is what the president's supposed to be. Now, some people, but he doesn't follow the Bible. Well, I don't know what he does in terms of following the Bible, but the job description of the president is not about following the Bible. I think everybody should follow the Bible, including the president. I don't know if we have any national leaders around the world who do follow the Bible, and I don't know that Trump does either. But the special job description of the president is to uphold the Constitution. which is something our previous president had no interest in doing. In fact, he allegedly added an amendment to the Constitution just as he was walking out the door, which, of course, a president can't do. That's unconstitutional itself. So, I mean, we've had a president for four years who had no interest in the Constitution, just his own agendas. Now, Trump has agendas, too. No question about that. But as near as I can tell, his main agenda is to restore Congress. a constitutional integrity to the government. He might have other agendas too, but as long as he does restore constitutional integrity, that's a positive. It'll be a net positive that he became president in that case. But we should pray that he will be able to do what's good and that he will fail if he has any plans that are evil, and that he'll be converted, and that he'll be kept safe from assassins, I would say. You know, I didn't specifically pray that for many presidents before, but But this one's had a couple of attempts on his life, and I don't think his assassins or would-be assassins have gone anywhere. I don't think they've gone away. So those are the ways I would pray for him. And, you know, inherent in the prayer that he would have wisdom is that he would know how to address situations like the one you described today. And, of course, presidents have to face those all the time. They face challenges, and they should be able to. I think he's up to it. But on the other hand... He doesn't always know the truth. He's not omniscient. So we should pray that God will give him wisdom in those situations. Thank you for your call. All right, we're going to talk next to Oscar in Napa, California. Oscar, welcome.
SPEAKER 02 :
Hey, Steve. Enjoy your ministry. I learned a lot from it. A lot of Hebrews. about Melchizedek. I heard some people say, I don't know if it's true or not, but some say he wasn't a human being. Was he a real man? Because they say he had no descendants, no mother or father. And I was just curious. Can you answer that for me?
SPEAKER 08 :
I think I can, but not everyone would agree with me. Melchizedek, appeared very briefly at the end of Genesis 14 and met with Abraham. And there's a very brief description of the transaction between them. And it's mysterious because he kind of appears out of nowhere. He's described as a priest of the Most High God and the King of Salem, which most scholars think refers to Jerusalem at the time. Now, remember, Jerusalem in Abraham's day, it was not a Jewish city. There were no Jews. Jerusalem was a pagan city, a Canaanite city in those days. So If he was the king of Jerusalem, he was ruling a pagan Canaanite people. Now, Jewish tradition holds that he was Shem, the last surviving son of Noah. And it is true that Shem, if you follow the chronology, Shem would still be alive at that time. So that would explain why Abraham died. would show such deference to Melchizedek if he was Shem, because Abram was descended from Shem. He is a Shemite or a Semite himself, as Jewish people today understand themselves to be also. So, you know, the Jews think he was Shem. Now, the author of Hebrews did not think that was a satisfying answer. He thought there were things about Melchizedek that would not apply to Shem. And I have to agree. I mean, it does say in Hebrews, he had no father, no mother, no beginning of days, nor end of life. Now, this would suggest he wasn't an ordinary man, that he was a divine being, almost like when an angel comes to earth, although I think it was more a theophany. You remember when Jacob wrestled with a man all night? The man just kind of showed up, wrestled all night, and then went away. The man presumably was God, at least that's how Jacob understood it, God in a human-type appearance to interact with Jacob. And I kind of think Melchizedek is like that, that he just kind of showed up that he is God. We might even say Christ, the Word, in his pre-incarnate state, coming in a human form to meet with Abraham and to bless him and to allow Abraham to interact with him face-to-face as if he was a human. Now, when God does that, and he does it several times in the Old Testament, although the Bible doesn't tell us in the Old Testament that Melchizedek is an example of this phenomenon, but there are other examples of that phenomenon in the Old Testament. I think Melchizedek probably is. because that would be the only case in which he's without father and without mother. and no beginning of days or end of life. Now, those who don't take this view, who think he's maybe Shem, or maybe that he's just some other guy who was a king of Salem at the time, and many commentators don't believe he's Christ, or don't believe he's God, they would say, well, when it says he had no father or mother, it just means his father and mother were not recorded. And when it says he had no beginning of days or end of life, it means his birth and death were not recorded. Well, that's hardly worth mentioning. Most of the people in the Bible who are named, their births and deaths are not recorded. In many cases, their parents are not recorded. But if it was Shem, his parentage is known. He's the son of Noah and Noah's wife. So we don't know the exact birthday to celebrate of his birth, but we do have record of his birth. Noah had three sons, it says. That means they were born. Shem, Ham, and Japheth. So If he was actually Shem, as the Jews believe, the writer of Hebrews wasn't buying it. Because even if he was saying he has no recorded parentage, well, that wouldn't be true of Shem. I don't believe he's saying there's no recorded parentage. He could have said that if he wanted to. And by the way, if it was Shem, I'm not sure why Moses, when he was writing Genesis, wouldn't just mention it was Shem. After all, Moses had recorded that Shem had been one of the sons of Noah who came out of the ark and that Shem was an ancestor of Abraham. That's all recorded in the Genesis. Why would he not refer to him as Shem? Why would he refer to him by a term that means king of righteousness? So I don't think we can easily get away from the fact that the writer of Hebrews was identifying Melchizedek as Christ himself. And I have a whole discussion about that. If you go to my lectures on Hebrews, Hebrews chapter 7, I go into this in great detail. And normally I could say you'd find that at our website, thenarrowpath.com. But as I said earlier, our website's kind of down for the moment, but you can go to theos.org. dot org slash medium and find those lectures and i do go in depth both in my lecture on genesis 14 and in my lecture on hebrews 7. i go into that in much more detail i appreciate your call brother all right thanks thanks for joining us all right we're going to talk next to james from fresno california james welcome
SPEAKER 04 :
Hey, Steve, thanks for taking my call. Just real quick, in regards to the website, I was just on there. I'm on an iPhone. Is it working? It was working, but I had to bypass the warning that Safari gave me saying that somebody was trying to impersonate the website. So I just click on Go Ahead and View Anyway and take the risk. And that way I was able to finish your book today, which was phenomenal, by the way.
SPEAKER 08 :
Which one is that, The Empire of the Rising Sun?
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, I just finished both books, and I've got to say, I've been waiting to read that for years. I just didn't know it was out there. I came across it recently, and man, I'm so impressed. I feel so blessed that I was able to read that. You explain things in a way that, like I said, I've just been waiting to hear for a long time. You did it in a way that you just take out all all the biased theology, all the denominationalism, and I really appreciate your honesty and your integrity in writing that. Thank you. In fact, I just finished it a couple hours ago, like I said, and I really just wanted to call and thank you. But I did have one question that's been bugging me for a long time, and I was hoping you could elaborate a little more. In the book, you said that the disciples prayed to the Father, and that we as disciples... should pray to the Father also. And I was just wondering if you could maybe get a little more in-depth on what's the difference in our prayer life when we pray to the Father, pray to Jesus, and how we include the Holy Spirit in that. And one more thing I just want to know, do you have any kind of curriculum about discipleship that I can share with my church, and maybe I might be able to lead, I might be able to borrow from you?
SPEAKER 08 :
I haven't prepared any curriculum, but the second book of the Empire of the Risen Sun, you know, book two?
SPEAKER 03 :
Yes.
SPEAKER 08 :
I intended that to be, you know, at least functional as a curriculum for discipleship. It definitely is. It's all about discipleship, and I think it's quite practical and goes into the weeds, even about, you know, application and so forth. So I I don't have it laid out as sort of a curriculum with lead questions and workbooks or anything like that. But I could see, and I'd certainly welcome anybody taking that material and developing it into a curriculum. You know, I would think that, you know, if someone wanted to, or I mean, they could, like I said, they could make a curriculum out of it. But if they didn't want to go to that trouble, they could just have a study group where they'd each read it. You know, they'd read a chapter of it each week and get together and discuss it and look up the scriptures in it and talk about it. You know, there's 40 chapters in those two books. So it'd make almost close to a year's curriculum. But I don't have anything prepared in the form of a curriculum. No, I'm sorry to say.
SPEAKER 04 :
Okay. Well, I'm so thankful that you have the book, at least. And I'll definitely use that.
SPEAKER 08 :
All right, brother.
SPEAKER 04 :
All right. Thank you, brother.
SPEAKER 08 :
Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yes.
SPEAKER 08 :
I'll talk about the prayer. Thank you. Yeah. Jesus said that we should pray to the Father in his name. That is in Jesus' name. Now, the Bible also talks about us praying in the Holy Spirit. And praying in the Holy Spirit, I believe, means directed by the Holy Spirit and, you know, through empowered by the Holy Spirit. So, I mean, the Holy Spirit is living inside of us, so he's active in our prayers, at least he should be. We need to count on that to be so, that the Holy Spirit will be guiding us and directing us in our prayers, energizing our prayers, convicting us about what we need to pray about, and so forth. But our prayers, of course, are the actual utterances, the actual petitions we present. to God, external to us. The Holy Spirit is in us, but we're addressing God who's out there, just like Jesus did. Obviously the Father was in Christ, but Jesus spoke to the Father as someone external also. So praying to the Father is simply what Jesus taught us to do. He said, when you pray, say, Our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be your name. Or Paul said, I bow my knee to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. in, I guess it's Ephesians chapter 3, you know, the apostles, when they prayed in Acts... chapter 4, when they addressed their prayer, they said, Lord, which could be Jesus or could be the Father, but as you read on what they said, they go on and speak to the Lord and say, for truly against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed. So they refer to Jesus as the holy servant of the one they're speaking to, which of course would be the Father. So we find, you know, prayers to the Father just as Jesus instructed us to pray to the Father. Now, prayer in Jesus' name, many people don't understand what that means, but that simply means praying to the Father with the authorization and access that Christ's name grants us. You know, it's like if there's a, you know, a card slot to enter into the throne room, and you've got Christ's access card, you know, you're authorized, as long as you got it legitimately. You know, you've got authorization to come in. And that's what the name of Jesus is. Jesus is our authorization to come before the Father as if we were him. And, of course, with that authorization comes the obligation to pray in his interest for In other words, Jesus doesn't just give us an Aladdin's lamp and says, listen, say Jesus, and that's like rubbing the lamp, and then whatever comes out, your wish is our command, God's command. No, when you act in someone else's name, you're acting on their behalf. You're acting as their agent. You're doing what they would do. And with their authorization to do it. So praying is that way, too. When you pray in Jesus' name, you're going to the Father, authorized by Christ, to go as if you were him. And to pray such prayers as he would be inclined to pray, according to his will. And that's what prayer in Jesus' name means. But it's the Father we're praying to. Now, some people say, well, is it okay if I pray to Jesus or pray to the Holy Spirit? Well, I'll just tell you. Prayer, technically, is presenting petitions to God. And Jesus said, present your petitions to the Father. That doesn't mean you can't speak to Jesus or even to the Holy Spirit. But I think we've tended to use the word prayer to be kind of an umbrella term for every time we say anything to God, that's part of our prayer life. Well, prayer is part of our relationship with God. But there are other parts of our relationship with God, too. are thanksgiving, worship, praise. Those aren't exactly the same thing as prayer, but they are presented to God just as petitions are. So prayer and praise and thanksgiving are all parts of our relationship with God. Now, Jesus made it very clear when we present our petitions, we should present them to the Father. And that's what the apostles did when they prayed. They put presented petitions to the Father. That doesn't mean you can't praise Jesus or that you can't even just, as far as I'm concerned, converse with him. I find it very natural to converse both with Jesus and with God and, you know, in my life. So there's nothing wrong, I think, at least the Bible doesn't say there's anything wrong with speaking to Jesus or even to the Holy Spirit, though I don't know of any case of that being done. The thing is, It's not wrong. I mean, we have a relationship with God. We have with the Father and with the Son and with the Holy Spirit. It's just that the Father is the one that Jesus tells us to bring our requests to. Because it's the Father who will grant them. And he'll grant them because we're praying as agents of Christ, authorized by Christ, presenting the prayers that Christ himself would approve of being prayed and that he himself would pray. So that's what it means to pray to the Father in Jesus' name. I appreciate you asking. Let's talk to Tim from Marietta, Georgia. Tim, welcome.
SPEAKER 01 :
Hi. Good afternoon, Steve Gregg. I hope you're doing well. So I had a quick question. I have a grandfather who's about in his late 80s and his son or my uncle who is in his late 50s. you could say converted maybe a decade ago to Islam, even though my grandfather raised all of his kids in a Christian upbringing, but maybe he was not faithfully secure. But recently, my uncle, when he visits my grandfather, he would bring his mat and demand to pray, or choose to pray in my grandfather's house, and in one of the rooms, not like within the presence of my grandfather, but in a room within his house. And I was just wondering if, you know, what steps, whether that's, whether my grandfather has the ability to communicate to him that he's not able to pray in the house, or what steps he should take as a Christian man. Because I know in Deuteronomy 7, they talk about not worshiping or not encouraging the worship of idols, but I'm wondering if that's a plus to that situation.
SPEAKER 08 :
Right. Well, first of all, your grandfather has every right to forbid any activity in his house that he doesn't want happening there. It is his domain. It's just like he could forbid someone from bringing their girlfriend over and sleeping with them when they're a guest in his house. It's his home. He can maintain it and its sanctity however he sees fit. Different people have had different opinions. Different Christians have had different opinions exactly about the identity of Allah. I personally would not feel comfortable having anyone praying to Allah in my house because I don't believe that that's necessarily acceptable to God. Some people have seen things a bit differently than that. But I think that if your grandfather has objection to it as a Christian, He should just tell, is it your cousin I think you're talking about? You should tell him that he, you know, he can't do that there. I mean, if he wants to pray outside on the lawn, you know, or out in the car or whatever, he could do that. But he doesn't want that happening under his roof. Now, some might feel it's unkind or unfair, but once again, A person has to go by their own convictions. You know, I mean, some people would not allow statues in their home, even if they're not in any sense being worshipped. But they might say, well, this is this, you know, we got this from, you know, some African tribe or something. We don't know. They might have worshipped it. So I don't want it in my home. I mean, a person would have every right to do that. Although, I mean, I also think that'd be up to them because I'm not so sure that a statue, you know, is itself an idol unless someone's worshipping it. So anyway, that'd be simply a matter of conviction. I think your grandfather's convictions about that should be honored by anyone who comes into his home. I'm not saying what his conviction should necessarily be about it, simply because I'm aware of more than one Christian way to look at this whole issue of Allah. You know, the Athenians were worshipping a god they didn't know. They had an altar to the unknown god. And when Paul saw it, he said, I saw a lot of false gods, a lot of idols in your city, but there was also an idol to one you call the unknown God. And I'm here to tell you about him, this one that you worship ignorantly. I'm here to tell you who he is. In other words, he considered that the Athenians may well have been worshiping the true God, but didn't know him and needed to know him. And so it's possible that some Muslims are worshiping the true God, but they don't know him properly. They don't have accurate knowledge of him. So, I mean, that's one way that some have understood it. I'm not pushing one way or the other of seeing this. But, yeah, I'd just say your grandfather should make his own decision according to his conscience about that. Oh, I'm sorry, we're out of time. I'd like to tell you, you can donate at the website, but I'm not sure you can get there. So if you wish to donate to help us stay on the air, you can write to The Narrow Path, P.O. Box 1730, Temecula, California, 92593. And our website is thenarrowpath.com. Thanks for joining us. Let's talk tomorrow.
