Join Steve Schwetz as he hosts another compelling Question and Answer session with Dr. J. Vernon McGee. This episode delves deep into the heart of biblical accounts and teachings to uncover profound truths. Beginning with the puzzling outcomes of David’s census in Israel, listeners are invited to explore the broader implications of leadership and responsibility as seen through biblical history. Dr. McGee provides insightful commentary on why the people suffered for David’s actions, tying together historical narratives and modern reflections.
00:06:49 David’s Punishment and Judgment on the People
00:11:43 Questions on Eternal Security and Fellowship
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In 2 Samuel 24, David gave orders to have a census of Israel. Afterward, he was condemned in his heart and by the Lord that he had sinned in doing so. However, the consequences of his sin fell upon the people as 70,000 men died in a plague. So why did the people have to suffer for David’s sin? Well, stay with us and find out.
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of foundation, ye saints of the Lord, is laid for your faith in his excellent word.
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What more can he say than to
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have said to you who for refuge to Jesus have fled fear not I am with
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This is Steve Schwetz, welcoming you to another edition of the Question and Answer program with our Bible teacher, Dr. J. Vernon McGee, who for over 30 years answered the questions of his many listeners. So pull up a chair and open your Bible and prepare yourself for the wit and wisdom that Dr. McGee brings to the understanding of God’s Word. Our first question comes to us from a listener in Dallas, Texas, who writes, Can you discuss the issue of self-defense against an attacker? What does the Bible say about this?
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May I say to you, first of all, that there is today this namby-pamby way of thinking that a Christian is not to defend himself. We are told to resist evil. And I would say that a man that entered your house with a gun to resist him would be to resist evil. And we are to resist evil. And we are today to take a stand. The Lord Jesus said, a strong man armed keepeth his house. Now, if he’s armed, what’s the purpose of him being armed? Well, the Lord Jesus said he’ll keep his house and he’ll protect it. Now, let me try to show how utterly preposterous and ridiculous it is that we are not to defend ourselves. The instance I’d like to use is this one. Suppose that you’re a man in your home and a man breaks into your home and is going to rape your wife and kill your daughter. Are you to sit there and take it? I don’t think so. I don’t think the Scripture teaches anything like that at all. We find that scriptures are used and taken out of context. Now, when it says over in the Sermon on the Mount, it says you’re there to resist not evil. And what does that mean? Well, to begin with, the Sermon on the Mount is the law of the kingdom. When Christ reigns, you’ll be able to take the locks off your door. Because after all, a lock on a door is to resist evil. And I think we are to resist evil today. But when he’s reigning on this earth, you can take the locks off your door. Today, I advise you to keep them on there, especially right now. And I think a man or woman should defend themselves the best that they possibly can in this day. It’s very foolish today to take the position that we’re not to resist. And may I say to you, I think it’s rather unscriptural.
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During one of the Through the Bible programs, this listener in Portland, Oregon, heard Dr. McGee say that Russia was the only modern nation mentioned in the Bible. He says, When I read my Bible, I come across the nations of Spain, Greece, Egypt, and Ethiopia, which are all presently in existence. Could you please explain what you mean by the term modern nation?
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Well, may I say to you that the very argument that you’re giving me here, that Spain, Egypt, Ethiopia are modern nations, they’re not. They come from ancient times. Egypt is one of the oldest, Ethiopia, but the name Russia you see, did not appear until, I believe it was Peter the Great that gave the name of Russia to that group of tribes that were scattered throughout Russia. And it’s more or less of a modern name, you see. In that sense, it’s not an ancient name. It doesn’t go back forever. like these that you’ve mentioned, like Greece, for instance. Greece is not a modern nation. It’s an old nation with a long history. And actually, Russia is the only nation in Europe and Asia that is a modern nation in the sense that it hasn’t been around as long as some of the others.
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Our next question comes to us from a listener in Birmingham, Alabama, and he says, Our pastor says that he does not believe in the rapture because of the verse that says, Absent from the body, present with the Lord. His question to us was, How can the dead be raptured? Can you help me with a response?
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I think that a man that would make a statement like this is not thinking right or hasn’t really studied the subject because… How can the dead rise? Well, we’re talking about bodies now, the physical bodies. When a person is absent from the body and present with the Lord, it means he’s moved out of this earthly tabernacle. And the brother should put down, he says he’s marked beside two passages. I would suggest to him another passage, 2 Corinthians, the 5th chapter. And take all of the first part of that chapter, because we know that if the earthly house of this tabernacle be dissolved, we have a building of God not made with hands. You and I live in this body. Now, this body is ours. It’s part of us. And one day it’s to be raised. And there’s nothing wrong. With that statement, it’s just a misunderstanding of learning to separate the physical from the spiritual part of man, or what is the real person. The person lives inside of the body that we have today.
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Now let’s look at a question from a listener in Garden Grove, California. She writes, in 2 Samuel chapter 24, we have David’s sin in numbering the people. The Lord said it was sin and so did David. Why then did the Lord bring judgment on the people? Even David asks, what have these sheep done? Why wasn’t David punished?
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All right, let me answer the last question first. Why wasn’t David punished? And let me say that David was punished. David wanted to build the temple. God would not permit this man to build the temple because he had bloody hands and the blood of these people were on his hands. And God would not let him do the thing that he wanted to do above everything in his life. God would not let David do build the temple. And yet he gathered the materials, he had it in his heart to do it, wanted to do it, and God would not permit him. And as to his other sin, God took this man David to the woodshed and he never did take the lash off of his back as long as he lived. So when you make a statement or ask a question, why wasn’t David punished, I suggest you go back and read the entire life of David. And you’ll find out that he was punished. And I always put it like this. I feel like saying to the Lord, Lord, you punished him enough. Take the whip off his back and let him go ahead the rest of his life. But God didn’t do that. And David never asked God to do that. David’s prayer was, as the heart panneth after the water brook, so my heart panteth after thee, O God. This man panted after God. Now, the first question that you have is this. David sinned in numbering the people, and the Lord said it was sin. So why did the Lord bring judgment on the people? Well, there’s an interesting proverb that when we studied the book of Proverbs that You might have remembered, it’s in Proverbs 29, 2, and it’s a good one for us here in this country today. When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice. But when the wicked beareth rule, the people mourn. You see, it’s inevitable that whatever kind of rulers that a people have It is reflected in the life of the people. If it’s the right kind of ruler and there’s blessing, then the people can rejoice. But if it’s the wrong kind of ruler, they suffer under it. Now, would you like for me to bring this up to date? We had 50,000 young men that died in Vietnam. Why? Because these boys wanted to? No, they didn’t. Think of the anguish and suffering of the families. I’ve met so many young women married to a man that was killed over there. Tragic. It’s tragic indeed. Who’s to blame for it? These young men? No, they weren’t to blame. Their families were not to blame. And I’m not going to call names this morning, but we had a series of presidents that got us into that, and they were responsible. Of course, we voted them into office. And the way that we do it now, the good old American way, is to vote the wrong man into office and then start complaining about the way he’s running things. That’s what we’ve done ever since I can remember. We always vote the wrong man in office and then we begin to complain. Well, the Word of God says that’s exactly the way it’s going to be. This is a proverb that we might write in big letters on Washington, and the people will suffer when the ruler sins. That’s the reason that we ought to be a little more concerned about who’s ruling over us. I think that is a very good proverb. I think you’ve got a good question, but I think you ought to get the right answer to it.
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A listener in Bellevue, Washington sent us a number of questions dealing with eternal security, backsliding, and fellowship with others. Because the questions are continuous and in a series, we’ve decided to keep them in their original format. So here now is Dr. McGee with the questions and his answers.
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My husband and I are babes in Christ and therefore have many questions. I would like you to answer these on your Saturday question and answer program. Can a Christian lose their salvation? And of course, the answer is no. You cannot lose your salvation. Salvation is not a coin that you carry in your pocket. Salvation is a nature that you receive from God. It’s a new birth. Now, I can disgrace my father But I can never cease being his son. I’ll always be his son. And that is true of a child of God. We may not live as we should live, but if we’ve been born again and have a new nature, the nature of our father, I’m of the opinion that there’ll never be a time in your life that you will turn permanently away from him. If you do, then I would say that you never were born again to begin with. But if you have accepted Christ and born again, why, you have salvation. And He offers what is known as eternal life. He that hath the Son hath life. Eternal life is offered, everlasting life. Not perish, but have everlasting life. That’s the language of Scripture. Now, if it’s life that you can lose tomorrow, then it’s not everlasting life. He offers everlasting life. Now this party goes on. I know we are saved by faith and not by works, but do we need to continue our good works in order to keep it? No. Now your motivation is changed. You’re not working to get saved. You’re working because you are saved. I have a little poem that was in the first Bible given to me, and I’ve kept it down through the years. I think I can quote it. I do not work my soul to save that work my Lord has done, but I will work like any slave for love of God’s dear Son. Now the motivation is not in order to get saved, but because we are saved and we want to please Christ now. You see, it’s all together on a different basis. And then the party asks, what is a backslider? Well, the word that’s translated backsliding is quite figurative. God said of Israel that Israel was a backsliding heifer. I do not know whether you’ve had any experience in the country or not, but as a boy, I had the privilege of being brought up in the country. Though my dad was a cotton gin engineer, we did live in the country and lived with country people, lived among them. And I had the privilege as a boy working on the farm. Did you ever try to load a heifer into a wagon. In my day, it was a wagon. Today, it’s a truck, of course. And when you try to do that, the little old animal will put her feet down, those front feet down, and make them very stiff. And you know it’s all you can do to move that little animal. Now, that’s backsliding. You know, you try to get that little animal in the truck and you get her up a certain distance and puts down those little feet and then she just slides right back down where you started. Well, that’s the child of God today. That’s backsliding. God wants you to go this way and you put down your little feet and you go your way and you don’t do it his way. That’s backsliding. How important is it to fellowship with other Christians? Well, I think it’s essential to fellowship with other Christians. When you’re in a backslidden condition, you want to get away from other Christians. You don’t want to be with them. You get far from them. That was Jonah’s position. He ran away to Tarshish. There weren’t any God’s people over there, so he wanted to get as far away as he could. He was in a backslidden condition. Now this party goes on, and I’m delighted to try to answer these questions for them. and to attend worship service. Well, a backsliding Christian generally, that’s one of the marks, is they will drop out of church service. My long years as a pastor taught me that when a member who had been regular church drops out of church, you can just put it down that something’s happened to their spiritual life. They’re in a backslidden condition. And I think that We ought to attend worship services, but today, as many people write me when I make that statement, and I have great sympathy for them, they said, we live in a town where there’s about three or four denominational churches. They’re all liberal. Do you suggest that we go to those churches? And my answer is no. I’d get together my little group because I don’t know of a town today that there’s not a little group of believers. And I think the believers ought to get together. But no, I’ll be honest with you. I think you waste your time going to a lot of churches today. It’s almost sinful to go to some churches. But there are a lot of good Bible churches around today, and they’re springing up everywhere. I can remember when I came to Southern California, there were just a few in this area. Now, everywhere you turn, there are Bible churches. Thank God for that. Now, this part, it said, would appreciate some scripture to back this up. Well, may I say to you, I would suggest that you not just get a verse or two, you can go over to Hebrews and just lift out a verse where it says, “…forget not the assembling of yourselves together as the manner of some is.” But I would like for you to read the epistle to the Hebrews, your new Christians, but it’s good for you. And he makes the statement in the 10th chapter. at verse 25 of Hebrews, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some is, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as ye see the day approaching. Now, in this entire section here, he talks about the fact that you and I today, as believers, we have a great high priest under heaven, the Lord Jesus Christ. We are vitally joined to him. We are in the body of believers, which is his body today in the world. And you and I, therefore, should be joined to him down here in a local assembly. And that’s the thing that he’s talking about. Believers ought to come together and in a public way. Now, that’s the scripture there. I would suggest that you read the pastoral epistles, 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, Titus. I just don’t like to give one verse like I’ve done here. I think that when you give one verse, you need to consider the entire context, and it will enforce the verse, and it’ll deliver you from giving a wrong interpretation to it also. Now, this party goes on, and I’m taking time because these are new Christians. It says, how can you tell if what you hear is truly from the Word of God or just someone’s opinion? Well, I believe as a believer that the Holy Spirit will be your teacher, and you can test everything that you hear from the Word of God. I remember that I had a man and his wife that told me how they worked their way all the way down Wilshire Boulevard to come to the church I was pastor of in downtown Los Angeles. They said, in each church, we knew we weren’t hearing the Bible, but we couldn’t put our finger on it. They were new Christians. And finally, they heard the Word of God. And I say this to you. I think that you’ll learn to recognize your father’s voice. you’ll begin to know when he’s speaking. The Lord Jesus says, my sheep hear my voice and learn to listen to him and get in the Word of God. That’s important. And it says, how does one know if they’re doing God’s will or being tempted by the devil? Well, I would say that that would be comparatively easy to make that kind of a distinction. If you’re tempted by the devil, he tempts you to do something that’s not entirely right. And if you are a child of God, you will know that that’s not right for you to do. God never tempts you or tests you with evil. He always wants you to do something wrong. that would be honorable and something that’s in keeping of His will. But there are decisions that come up that are very difficult, and all I can say to you is that sometimes it’s by trial and error. There have been many decisions I’ve made in life that I did not know at the time whether I was doing God’s will or not. I thought I was, And there have been times that I found out that I wasn’t doing God’s will. And believe me, I got out of that. I never shall forget, as a young preacher, I was invited to whole meetings in a certain place. And I accepted, and I’ll be honest with you, I accepted without very much prayer. I think the only thing I prayed was when I opened the letter, the invitation, I just lifted my heart and said, Lord, thank you for this invitation and help me to accept it. Well, I didn’t ask him whether I should go or not. I was too eager to go in those days. And so I accepted. When I got there, I knew after the first service I was in the wrong place. I found out that there was a fight going on in the church. I found out that I was invited more or less as a spite on the part of the preacher that he actually didn’t want me, but he did it as a matter of spite. I guess he thought that’s a good way to get even with somebody, to invite me there as a young preacher. But I never got in such a situation. I felt that the Spirit of God was not with us. And so after the sermon that night, Sunday night, I announced to the congregation, I said, this will be my last service here. I have to return home. Now, I didn’t tell them the rest of the story. Why did I have to return home? I got out of the Lord’s will, and I got back home just as quick as I could get back there because I knew that the will of God was for me to be where I was pastor at the time, and I really got away from that place. Now, I think you can test whether you’re in God’s will or not as you go along, and sometimes we stump our toe and we get out of the will of God, but He can always get us back. The important thing, let’s stay close to him, and the way you stay close to him is to stay close to the Word of God. That’s the important thing for every child of God.
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Well, we hope that you’ve come to a greater understanding of God’s Word today through the ministry of this program. Perhaps you still have a question in your mind about certain verses or doctrines. Well, if that’s the case, then we suggest that you contact us for a copy of our resource catalog, which contains hundreds of books and booklets, CDs, and more, all of which can be used to greatly assist you in your own study of the Bible. To receive your copy, call us at 1-800-65-BIBLE anytime and leave your voicemail request along with your name, address, and the call letters of the station. Today’s program and all our question and answer programs are available for purchase on individual CDs. To place an order for this or any of our other programs or to request a resource catalog, just give us a call at 1-800-65-BIBLE Monday through Thursday from 6 a.m. to 3 p.m. Pacific Time. Orders can also be placed via our online bookstore when you go to ttb.org. If you prefer to write, send your letters to Questions and Answers. For those in the U.S., Box 7100, Pasadena, California, 91109. In Canada, Box 25325, London, Ontario, N6C 6B1. Now, we’d like to remind you to join us this week on the Through the Bible radio program as we continue Dr. McGee’s five-year journey through the whole Word of God. If you find that you have a deep desire to study along with Dr. McGee, we’d love for you to join us on the Bible bus. Now we pray that God will answer all your questions and solve all your problems. This program has been brought to you by the faithful friends and supporters of Through the Bible Radio Network.
