September 2023

Bible Q&A with Pastor Paul - September 2023 Teacher: Pastor Paul LeBoutillier Calvary Chapel Ontario Pastor Paul: Welcome to our September installment of Bible Q&A, I'm Pastor Paul from Calvary Chapel Ontario. I am joined with my lovely wife here to help answer and talk about some of these questions and these are things that you've been asking. We are compiling these questions from emails you've sent us over the course of this month. Also some of the comments and questions that come on our YouTube channel and elsewhere, so we're putting them all together. Sue: It's a menagerie. Pastor Paul: A menagerie of questions and hopefully bringing some useful answers to you. So shall we get started? Sue: All right, the first one is from Laura Gardner from YouTube, “Can a legalist be saved?” I like questions that are very short and to the point. Pastor Paul: And honestly, it depends on what you mean when you define legalist or how you define a legalist. Because when people ask this question, I think they're thinking usually about somebody who thinks of legalism as a means of being saved, but that's really not the definition of a legalist. A legalist is someone who tends toward following rules and regulations in their life and I believe a legalist can be saved as long as they don't interject or inject that legalism into salvation. As long as they understand that they are saved by grace through faith, they can keep rules all day long. Sue: Not by…, to finish that, not by works, lest anyone should boast. Pastor Paul: Exactly, as long as their works or their response to rules and legalistic requirements don't impact the means by which they are saved. I know people, I know Christians who just have a legalistic bent and they have a gravitational pull toward rules. Sue: Well, look, if you raise a whole bunch of children, in general, your firstborns will often be rule keepers and often have a desire to just do things the right way. To follow the rules to do it, so that's not what we're talking about. Pastor Paul: That's not what we're talking about. Well, that's not what most people are talking about when they refer to a legalist. They're thinking of, again, someone who is trying to be saved through legalistic means and if that's the case, that's going to be a problem, because you cannot be saved. The Bible makes it very clear that the righteousness that we have before God is not of ourselves, but is a gift through Jesus Christ. Sue: Great. Tomas said, “Can I get your reaction to the Jesus Revolution movie?” Pastor Paul: I liked it, we went together a long time now. Sue: It has been quite a while back to think about. Pastor Paul: I think people are still watching it from time to time, I know that it's on some of the streaming services. I don't know if it's on Netflix or Prime Video, I'm not really sure but we enjoyed it, we went to it. We've been in the Calvary Chapel movement for 30 plus years and I thought it was good. Whenever you're watching a movie of someone's life or ministry or whatever, it's not going to be perfect. They're going to take liberties and honestly the Jesus Revolution was really the narrative as told by someone other than pastor Chuck, it was Greg Laurie's story, originally. I kind of honestly forgot that when I went to watch it the first time, that this is Greg Laurie’s story and he's telling it from his perspective. And, like I said, they did some things to make it flow in a movie setting, but I thought it was a good movie. Sue: Yes, I really enjoyed it. Here's a question from the August Q&A and it says, “I heard someone say recently that in the Bible the disciples were no longer called “followers” after Pentecost because Jesus now lives in us. Therefore we do not need to follow. Your comment please?” Pastor Paul: Well, yes, speaking of legalism, I don't know, that's not something I've really ever heard or held to in any way, I still call myself a follower of Jesus Christ. So I think that's something that was just somebody's opinion and I don't think there's really any biblical merit to it, to be honest. Sue: Another YouTube question, “What is the Biblical definition of priest?” Pastor Paul: Well, it's difficult sometimes when I read a question like this to know if somebody's wanting to know about the actual definition or the function, because those are really two different things. The Hebrew word is “Cohen” and it's where we get that name. Often when you see someone with the name, Cohen, they are Jewish and that is the word for priest in Israel. Now of course there were priests, there are priests in many religious expressions but in Israel, the priests were direct descendants of the lineage of Aaron; the brother of Moses, who of course, was a Levite. And so, if you were in the line of Levi, but not Aaron, not the branch of Aaron, then you would be a helper to the priest, if you were in the line of Aaron, then you would be in line to be a priest or called a priest. And essentially, regarding their function, they made sacrifices, they interceded for the nation of Israel to the Lord. But if someone really wants to know about the priesthood, I would really strongly encourage a study of the Book of Leviticus because that's the instruction book in the Bible for the Levitical priests. Sue: James asked, “Is it possible to recover from a seared conscience? Is there such a thing as a point of no return? God Bless you!” Pastor Paul: Well, there's 2 questions here. I personally believe, even if you have a hardened conscience, I believe it is possible to repent and to turn around from that situation. Now, we also know that there is a point when a person is given over to that sort of a conscience. But that's something that only God knows and when that is, we don't have any idea, it's no use even asking the question. But in answer to those 2 questions, I believe it is possible to recover by repentance from a seared conscience but there is a point and that's the second part of the question, where if someone doesn't repent or refuses to repent, that they are given over. Paul makes that very clear in Romans chapter 1. Sue: So don't go there. Pastor Paul: Yes, if the Holy Spirit is convicting, then respond to that. Sue: James Dillard wrote in through our website and asked or said, “In your YouTube video on Zephaniah, you intimate that ALL death is because of sin? Does that mean that animals can sin also? Maybe I took your explanation wrong.” Pastor Paul: No, the Bible doesn't specifically speak of animals sinning. I'm assuming what James is asking, he's saying, well, since animals die, does that mean that they sin as well. Animals, and frankly the rest of creation, were affected by the sin of the man and the woman, they were kind of the victims almost, if you will. And because man was put in charge, he was the caretaker of the world, his sin had repercussions, consequences to the animal kingdom and frankly, the rest of creation. So, it's not because animals sinned, necessarily, it's because they were affected by man's sins because sin entered the world and everything in the world got affected. Sue: We used to say, we have a terrible weed around here called puncture vine and we use to, it punctures all the bicycle tubes and we used to say, that was a result of sin for sure. Pastor Paul: I can't imagine God putting that in the world, this is a good thing. Sue: Janet has a question about the mark of the beast and I think you'd like to answer these. She said, “Pastor, as I saw the news that some of the places had begun accepting microchips in their hand for financial and other purposes, and I wonder if this is related to the event of accepting the mark of the beast? How should believers react to this? Will it affect a person's faith if they accept the microchip?” And then let me read the next question. “Regarding the mark of the beast, if a person has accepted it at first, but later changed their mind and accepted Christ, will he or she be saved, or is it too late?” Pastor Paul: People get confused between issues like microchips and the mark of the beast. First of all, we have no idea what the mark of the beast is going to be, we don't know if it's going to be a microchip, that's assumed by some people. But even if God revealed that the mark of the beast was an implanted microchip, somewhere in the human body, that doesn't mean microchips are evil. It doesn't mean that even having a microchip implanted in your body is evil, or would affect your salvation, whatsoever. What makes the mark of the beast significant, is the heart of the individual who through unbelief, rebellion and rejection of God, take this mark to show their devotion and dedication to the anti-Christ and that will only happen during the Great Tribulation. And it's going to be very clear at that time, who is on God's side and who isn't and that's one of the things that the mark of the beast is going to tell. When the anti-Christ institutes that mark, if you will, by which people must take or to be able to buy and sell. Those who are believers during the Great Tribulation and, yes, people will get saved during the Great Tribulation, those people are not going to take that mark and they're going to be martyred for it. But it's going to be very clear and those who take the mark, have absolutely no intention of repenting of their sin and coming to God, it’s going to be very clear at that time. So here's the real question, if someone prior to the Great Tribulation were to take an implanted chip, is that going to affect their salvation? Of course not, because there's nothing immoral about a chip. What is immoral, is the heart of man that rejects God. So we have to stop thinking that things are evil, it's the heart of man that is evil when he rejects God and he turns to other things to worship. Sue: So that's great. I like how you often share that the mark of the beast is actually a counterfeit to the mark of the Holy Spirit. In Ephesians we are marked with the Holy Spirit, sealed as His possession. Pastor Paul: Yes, it's a counterfeit that will take place during the Great Tribulation. Sue: Vada says, “I want to ask Pastor Paul about the New Hebrew Year — what does it mean for a Christian?” Pastor Paul: Not a whole lot. The New Hebrew Year is celebrated in what we call a Rosh Hashanah and it changes, it fluctuates throughout the year. It'll usually end up sometime in September or October depending and this year, Rosh Hashanah began on September 15 and it lasted through, I think till sundown on the 17th of September and that is essentially that celebration period of the New Year. God may apply in the final days, some element of the Hebrew New Year in the way things play out, but essentially, for Christians, it really doesn't have any meaning or any real significance to our lives right here, right now. We're not to be led by those sorts of things, we're to be led by the Spirit and so, it really doesn't affect believers today. Sue: Matthew sent a few questions and I think these are follow ups from the last Q&A. I remember that Matthew is from Kenya and so he said, “Is there a problem in using terms of endearment (such as darling love, honey, dear, etc) with someone you love but not yet married to, but would like to marry someday? And if so, what are the dangers of using such terms while getting to know each other?” Pastor Paul: I don't think it's an issue with terms of endearment per se, I think that there is always a danger when an unmarried couple acts like a married couple. Regardless of how that might play out, it could come up play out in terms of endearment, but it's probably going to play out even more so in terms of danger with physical affection. Being alone with the other person in times of great temptation, those are the danger areas. So again, I would say to Matthew, anything that you do prior to marriage where you're acting like a married couple, that's a danger area and you should stay away from that. Sue: It’s the boundaries of the intimacy because a man and wife, we are to have total intimacy. I can remember one time when one of our kids was dating and the phone calls were just a little too much and I remember you said, that's for married people. It's for married people to find out all the details about your day, that's the intimacy that husband and wife have. Pastor Paul: When you're dating and you have to call each other several times a day, “how was your day honey? Oh, good, how was your day,” that's what married people do and if a couple begins to engage in that before they're married, there's a natural gravitational pull to want to complete that intimacy. They probably should get married and better to marry than burn with lust. But when you begin to express intimacy in a relationship, there is a natural gravitational to complete it, the way God intended intimacy to be completed between a husband and a wife and you have to be very careful. Once you open the door to that intimacy, it's extremely hard to close. Sue: And Matthew as a follow up question, “How does “do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers” apply in marriage in a case where marriage has promised between a Catholic and a Pentecostal Christian? What are the dangers of such a union and what would be the steps to take if a union is to happen.” And remember, this is in a country when he said, where a marriage is promised, which we don't know if he means it has been arranged and promised, we don’t know. Pastor Paul: More than likely, he's talking about an arranged type marriage, which of course, we don't do here in the United States but that creates a lot of difficulties. There are always dangers when two people come together in an unequal yoke and that's why the Bible says, don't be unequally yoked. And that unequal yoke can be many things, many, many things, including their church background or religious backgrounds. We normally think of it in terms of a believer marrying an unbeliever. But even if two people consider themselves believers, but yet they come from very, very different backgrounds, you have to resolve those issues before you get married, you have to talk about how are we going to live our Christian life. What church are we going to go to? How are we going to raise our children? You don't go into marriage and then figure that out after the fact, that's a recipe for danger and rough times. So I think that people need to look at their marriage and say, if there is anything in our relationship, not our marriage, but our relationship, that we would classify as an unequal yoke, we got to work that out before we get married. Sue: Michael says, “I have a question on Matthew 5:19, which says, ‘Therefore whoever relax is one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven. But whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.’ I listened to your sermon, but you didn't really touch on this. I know in Christ we are under a new covenant and not under the law. But this statement by Jesus is hard to understand. Are we still by the power of the Spirit to follow the commandments and teach others too? And if so which ones? Just the 10 or all the Law?” Pastor Paul: There is a fundamental misunderstanding in a lot of hearts and minds of believers as to how to apply the law. Because they see how much emphasis God placed on the law under the Old Covenant and then they see Jesus speaking very highly of the law, as He mentions here from Matthew chapter 5, where Jesus says, whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments will be called least in the kingdom of heaven. And people read that and they say, well, then that says, I need to keep the law, and so forth and tell others to and so the natural question comes out from someone like this and Michael, really, this is a good question. He's saying, so are we then to keep the commandments and to teach others to do that, and so forth? And he does add in his note, I saw, I heard there, are we to do it according to the Spirit. So he recognizes we can't keep it in our flesh, but through the Spirit… So how should believers think about the law? I think that a lot of Christians think that because we're no longer under the law for salvation, that the law is well, no big deal. Well, that's not true. There's nothing wrong with the law, Paul points this out in the New Testament. The issue isn't with the law, the issue is with us and our inability to keep it and so forth. But there's great wisdom and moral understanding that comes from the law. But here's what Christians keep forgetting, we have today as believers, something greater than the law and that is the law giver, living in us through His Holy Spirit. He who spoke the law, He who created the law and all the morality and all the wisdom that is encompassed in it, now lives in us. That's why the New Testament doesn't say that we are to keep the law, it says we are to follow the Spirit and keep in step with the Spirit. So as Christians, we're not to look at the law in an Old Testament way, we're to understand what the law says, we're to see the morality and wisdom that's contained in it, but we are to follow the Spirit because He, is the Spirit, a greater understanding of the law that now lives within you. The application of the law lives now inside of you, in your heart. God is going to speak to you about wisdom and morality, that frankly transcends the law because the law has to be written on pages, or maybe originally tablets and then later on pages. Well, that's a limited understanding of the law. But the Spirit who lives within you, there is no limit to what He can say, to how He can interpret and apply the wisdom of the law in the life of the believer. That's why the Bible doesn't say to Christians, keep the law, the Bible says, walk in the Spirit. Sue: Good, excellent. Char says, “I love listening to Pastor Paul's teachings. I just finished listening to John 15:1-9. My question is this: If we as branches are attached to the vine but bear no fruit and are then cut off and thrown into the fire what ultimately happens to us?” Pastor Paul: I think you got to be really careful when you're reading that passage in John 15 and I talked about this in my teaching. That you have to be very careful not to read that passage and say, okay, I'm saved, I'm a believer, but now I got to tow the line in terms of bearing fruit or He's going to lop me off and I'm going to lose my salvation. Because what you end up with is, salvation by works, simple. Sue: Or by fear, I have to. Pastor Paul: Either way, it's salvation by effort and people forget that. They think, well, salvation is by grace through faith, but then I have to work hard to keep myself in that place of being saved by being a good person, bearing fruit, and so on and so forth. You got to be very careful when you're there and I would encourage Char to maybe even go back and listen again to John 15, that first section 1 through 9, because we do talk about that. But what she is asking in this situation, if we're cut off and thrown into the fire, what happens to us. Jesus is using an extreme example here of really what applies mostly to the nation of Israel. Jesus as Messiah came to check the fruit of what God had planted, so many years before to see if there was fruit. And He was warning the nation of Israel largely, that there was a great danger here because they were failing to bear the fruit that God had called them to bear as a nation, and that they were in danger of being lopped off. And Paul talks about this, he talks about the fact that that's, in fact, what happened largely with Israel, and that branches contrary to nature were grafted in, who are the Gentiles. So Jesus is giving a larger illustration of Israel here rather than a specific personal illustration of a believer who gets saved and then fails to bear fruit and then they lose their salvation. That's not what He’s saying. Sue: One thing I like us to remember always is, in Women of the Word we say, before the Bible was written to me, it was written to someone else. These words were spoken in that moment to someone else, what did they mean to them? And of course, all the men hearing those words in that moment were Jewish. And so there's some understanding, we need to be a little bit circumspect when we take any sentence out of the Bible and just immediately apply it to us. It all applies to us but who was it written to in the moment? Pastor Paul: If you go to John chapter 15, and you just focus on those verses alone, you're going to come up with a doctrine that says, we are saved by grace through faith and kept by works. Sue: Okay, a YouTube follower that I think had a handle with a bunch of numbers, so it just says YouTube follower here. “I've been struggling to understand Hebrews 2:9, thank you for making it so clear. One question, since man lost dominion over the earth because of sin, how was it given over to Satan?” Pastor Paul: Well, Satan was the one who instigated the temptation and we don't understand all the dynamics of the position of leadership and authority that was temporarily given over to Satan. But because he was there, because he won their affection, if you will. God gave them a command, Adam and Eve that is, Satan came in countermanded that and they believed him. And so they basically gave him, they handed that over in a sense, and again, we don't understand all the dynamics of that but it's because Satan was there and instigated the temptation. Sue: Melissa asked, “Is it okay to just talk to God instead of praying?” Pastor Paul: I love this one, I love this question, Melissa, bless your heart. Praying is talking to God and yes. I think people have a sense that praying is all, oh Lord, God, creator of the universe, I come to thee and with a lot of King James English and then have a hearty amen at the end or something. Prayer is just talking to God, it is crying out to God with all of your heart. It's talking with Him as you walk down the road, it's talking to Him before you fall asleep at night. It's talking to Him when you wake up. Good morning, Lord, thank you for a good night's rest, help me today to...talking to Him about the people that you care about, talking to Him throughout the day. It's interesting, I just went through a cold where I've been coughing, intermittently. It's interesting that when Paul talks about praying and praying continuously, he actually says that, pray continually. The Greek word is one that was often used to describe a recurring cough and so that's the prayer that we're supposed to have. It's just this ongoing conversation with God throughout the day. Sue: So your answer to Melissa is ,yes. Pastor Paul: I guess, I could have said that. I could have said, yes, next question. Sue: It was all good, we needed all of that. Robert says, “I've been watching Pastor Paul for some time. I really enjoy his teaching. My question is regarding the rapture of the church. I have seen and read many arguments that there will be no rapture and that a pre-tribulation rapture is not biblical. How can believers not see the biblical proof of the church being “caught up” or raptured before the tribulation?” And I would like to know too, how do people see that? Pastor Paul: Well, they are drawn away by convincing arguments made by people who appear to know what they're talking about. And there's a lot of people out there who disagree with the whole idea of a biblical rapture or the timing of the rapture. And frankly, the timing of the rapture isn't as important to me. We have people right here at Calvary Chapel, Ontario, who differ with me on the issue of the timing of the rapture. I teach that the rapture is going to take place prior to the Great Tribulation. In fact, I believe it's going to usher in the Great Tribulation but there are others in our body who believe that it's going to happen midway through the tribulation, some believe it's going to happen midway between the last 3 and a half years of the tribulation, which is called the pre-wrath position. And there are still others who believe the rapture is going to take place when Jesus returns at the end of the tribulation, I don't really care. I can fellowship with somebody who has difference of understanding as relates to timing. Now, when it comes to denying the rapture altogether, well, now we've got a problem. Because when you go to 1 Thessalonians, chapter 4, you see very clearly that Paul says, we will be caught up to be with the Lord in the air. Those words, “caught up” or where we get our word rapture and so it is clearly taught in the Word of God that we're going to be caught up or raptured. So I would have some questions for somebody who said, I don't believe there's going to be a rapture. I would say, well, then you got a problem with 1 Thessalonians 4. Sue: Penina from Kenya says, “Pastor Paul, I really enjoy your sermons. Thank you for the Q&A sessions, it has answered for me most questions. I would like to ask if it is okay for people to break into tongues while praying or singing, even though most of those listening will not understand? In my country, that happens a lot and I think it's considered really religious and people are really moved to believe that it's a powerful move of God.” Pastor Paul: She probably means, it's considered to be a very spiritual thing, when people just break out. Paul specifically told the Corinthians not just a breakout in tongues. He specifically explained that people who came in and didn't understand and weren't being edified were going to have a problem with it. When churches ignore the biblical admonition that Paul gives in 1 Corinthians about the usage of tongues in the church, they are ignoring scripture, and they are doing it, and it's a very dangerous sort of thing. It drives people away, it really does and so, no, it's not okay. Sue: She also asked, “Second question. (She said) A pastor told me that the male population in the world is decreasing and women are increasing because women want to rule themselves and God is allowing us to thrive in our own empowerment. Is this true?” Pastor Paul: I don't know of any numbers that are saying that the male population of the world is decreasing. I haven't heard that, he might have some inside information that I don't have. But this whole idea that it's happening because women are wanting to rule themselves, that's 100% conjecture, 100%. So you got to understand conjecture and opinion, versus facts. Sue: Norman has a follow up question from the August Q&A, saying, “Does Satan still have access to heaven? In Job, Satan gave an account of what he was doing to God. Where did this encounter take place?” Pastor Paul: When we are dealing with spiritual realities, we struggle, because we want to know where, where's heaven? Where is the throne of God? Where is it located? We want to apply the physics of time and space to something that transcends time and space and so the question is legitimate. Does Satan still have access to God? Well, yes, he does. We know even in the New Testament, the Bible says, Jesus told Peter, Satan has asked to sift you as wheat. So Satan had the opportunity to come before God and ask the question. So does Satan still have access to God? Yes, but we got to stop thinking about it as a locale, you can't apply locale, but I understand why people do. We are subject to time and space, we assume everything else is too but heaven is not subject to time and space. Sue: Danie says, “My daughter Kira and I just started watching your YouTube sermons and listened to Revelation chapter 1. We have a question for you. If a person does not meet Jesus in the clouds at the end of the church age and continues to live on Earth during the Tribulation (so an unsaved person) and (then) repents and asked Jesus to save him/her, but dies before the second coming at the end of the trials, where will he or she go? Heaven or Hell?” Pastor Paul: Well, certainly if they receive Jesus Christ as a Savior, God’s not going to send them to hell just because they missed the rapture. We know that there are going to be tribulation saints, John sees them in the Book of Revelation and the Bible talks about, these are they who came out of the Great Tribulation and washed their robes in the blood of the Lamb. There's going to be many people who come to Christ, now John saw them under the altar. Now, that's a spiritual visual picture that John was given but we take from that, that they were in the presence of God. That just like anybody else, they died during the Great Tribulation and they are taken into the presence of God. There they await the coming of Christ and the resurrection of their physical bodies, when they will be joined with those incorruptible bodies. But we assume that whenever anybody gets saved, I don't care if they get saved, it doesn't matter when, they go to be with the Lord. Sue: Matthew says, “I have a question concerning the Holy Spirit. In Acts 2:17, Peter states the prophecy of Joel has come to fruition…, (which is) the Holy Spirit is falling upon all flesh. Joel's prophecy states the same in Joel 2:28. I was taught that the Holy Spirit only was poured on believers. Could you shed some light on Joel's prophecy and the Pentecost sermon given by Peter?” Pastor Paul: Well, Matthew, if you go over, if you do my study through Joel and if you also do my study, in Acts chapter 2, you will learn that the prophecy of Joel, along with many other prophecies in the Bible is one that falls under the category of what we call the Law of Double Reference, meaning that it has a dual fulfillment attached to it. And when Joel gave his prophecy, there was a partial fulfillment of that on the day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit was poured out on believers. But in Joel, he then goes on to talk about the events or circumstances that are more tied to the tribulation period or the coming of the Lord. And so there is going to be a greater, fuller, if I can put it that way, fulfillment of Joel's prophecy yet to come. So again, the prophecy of Joel, like many other prophecies falls under that category, the Law of Double Reference. There's more than one fulfillment. Sue: Rob asked a follow up question to the August Q&A and I think this is a question that we get in some form once or twice every week, “Can a born again Christian lose their salvation?” Pastor Paul: First of all, I want to say that I covered this in my book and also on my blog. If somebody wants to go to the blog, you will find it at ccontario.com/blog and if you look up the title, it's going to be “Can a believer ever become unsaved?” That is essentially what the title is. From the many times I've gotten this question that I don't like to answer this question quickly, because it takes careful understanding, it takes a full understanding of the Word of God. And not everyone who asked the question, is asking the same question, that's the problem. Some are asking, if I'm a born again, Christian and I keep making mistakes, is there a point where God is going to say, that's it, I've had enough for you, I'm erasing your name from the book of life, that's what they're asking. To that question I would say, no, you're not going to lose your salvation because you didn't gain your salvation by being good, you can't lose it by being bad. We are going to mess up, we continue to repent, come to God, and pray for forgiveness, that forgiveness is perpetual. But, see, other people are asking the question more in a different way. They're saying, if I commit some sin and then failed to confess it before I die, am I going to lose my salvation? In other words, I believe that I'm saved, I'm saved, I'm saved but then I go on, I do something really nasty and that night, I get hit by a truck and I die, am I going to hell? Well, again, the answer is no. I don't believe our salvation is dependent upon us perfectly and completely repenting of every sin we've ever committed. But now, there is another question that is worth considering from a biblical standpoint and that is the question, is it possible for a born again believer to go from a place of faith to a place of unbelief, is that a possibility? And that is where I have to pause and I have to disagree with some people who say, no, there's no possible way for that to happen and here's why. I see warning after warning after warning, in the New Testament against that very thing, against coming to a place of unbelief, where faith once existed. So I encourage Christians to honestly pursue this question, from a biblical standpoint. To read through the New Testament, particularly read the letters, the epistles by Paul, the letter of Hebrews, Peter, and so forth, James, and to really open your heart and say, what is this saying here? What are these warnings about? What are these warnings about? Paul gives strong warnings in the Book of Galatians, why? Because the churches in Galatia were being tempted to set aside grace through faith and begin to embrace circumcision and other elements of the law. What that translates to is unbelief, its unbelief in the finished work of Jesus on the cross. So what did he do? He warned them, he said to them in Galatians, I tell you, if you allow yourself to be circumcised, Christ will be of no value to you. Well, that's a very, very sobering warning. But when we understand why it was given, it was given because of unbelief. We are saved through our faith in the finished work of Jesus on the cross. When something interferes with that faith, there is a danger and we need to make sure that we come back to that place of faith and faith alone is what saves me. Sue: Very good, excellent answer. Edson says, “Greetings Pastor Paul, I thank God for using you and teaching people all across the globe. I'm currently in China. My question is, when someone accepts Christ, yet decides to live a carefree life, and when confronted answers that he will still make it to heaven despite what he does (saved by grace through faith, lest anyone should boast), how then do we respond to such a situation? Once someone consciously knows that he is saved by belief in the finished work of Christ, yet chooses to live fulfilling the desires of the flesh? Will those actions have any repercussions to his salvation?” Pastor Paul: Well, that's up to the Lord, sin always has repercussions, always has repercussions. The Bible says, if anyone is caught in a sin, those who are spiritual should restore them gently but they must also be careful, thus, they're not pulled into the same sort of a situation. And I'm quoting that because the question was, how should we respond? You should respond by going to the individual, you should confront them about their sinful lifestyle, their lack of willingness to walk after the Lord in terms of His word and so forth and there should be repercussions. In the church, there were repercussions, Paul talks about this in Corinthians. There was a man who was going to the church in Corinth, who was like the way Edson describes this, he claimed to be a believer, but he was living a sinful lifestyle. Well, there was confrontation and eventually the church had to take a stand and put the man out of the fellowship. Now, again, this was still for purposes of restoration so there are things that need to be done. They can be done on an individual level, they can be done on a church corporate level, if the person is part of a church body, but things should be done and we should also be praying for that person. And so are there repercussions? Yes, are there repercussions to their salvation? That's up to God but what you want to say to somebody is, hey, don't mess with this thing. Don't mess with this beautiful thing that God has given. Sue: Daronda asked, “Pastor, what language did Jesus speak?” Pastor Paul: Well, Jesus would have spoken probably two different languages that were just very popular in the day. He would have spoken Hebrew, mostly to His fellow Jews, but He would have also spoken Aramaic, which was the language of the Roman Empire at the time. And so those are the languages He would have spoken. Sue: Don’t you think people were so much smarter in that time? Everyone spoke multiple languages. Pastor Paul: I speak English and struggle at that. I even struggled with pig Latin and so I think they were brilliant. Sue: Raymond says, “What kind of a body will a born again Christian have after death while waiting for the resurrection of their glorified body?” Pastor Paul: Yes, it is a good question and it's not answered in the Bible. The Bible does not give us an answer. I don't believe we're just going to be these ethereal spirits. I think there's going to be some kind of spiritual body, probably something similar to maybe an image or a body that the angels took up when they walked among men, that type of a body. But the Bible doesn't say. Sue: Well along those lines, then Julie asked, “What are your thoughts on cremation?” Pastor Paul: Again, I have responded to this many times. It's in my book, it is also on my blog. If you go to my blog, again, ccontario.com/blog, and look up, “What about cremation for a believer?,” you can read what I wrote there. The bottom line is, there's nothing in the Bible that says that a body burned in fire cannot or will not be raised incorruptible. We have to remember that there were a lot of Saints who were burned at the stake or and their bodies, you know. Sue: Even apostles. Pastor Paul: Even apostles, and so there's nothing to say that it would disqualify them from a resurrection. Sue: And here's our last question. I think it's also Julie's question, a follow up to last Q&A, “Second question: You mentioned that 1 and 2 Maccabees were never considered biblical books. What qualifies books that are included in the Bible?” Pastor Paul: I get this question quite often, people really wanting to know, how did we come up with the Books of the Bible, and we inherited, I say, we Christians, Gentiles, we inherited the Old Testament, obviously, from the Jews. And that was something that was considered canonical inspired way before the time of Christ. And then Jesus Himself spoke and quoted heavily from the Old Testament Books, lending once again, that authority and acceptance and so forth. So we basically inherited those from the Jews and then in the New Testament, the church has almost universally embraced the books that we have, because they display apostolic authority. We've got Matthew, written by one of the 12 apostles, Mark, which we believe was written primarily, well, it was written by Mark but it was the memories, if you will of Peter, that was John Mark. And then we've got Luke, who travelled extensively with the apostle Paul, and John who is an apostle. And then we have the Book of Acts, again, written by Luke, who traveled extensively with Paul. All of the epistles of Paul, the apostle Paul. The writer of Hebrews is really the only book that we really don't know who the author is, I have my own ideas, but they're just conjecture. But yet, it still has apostolic authority. If you read through the book, you see that apostolic authority that this individual trafficked with the apostles: Peter, Jude, Jude was a brother of Jesus, James, the leader of the church in Jerusalem. So all of these books have the same apostolic authority during that time. And the other books that are not there, like 1 and 2 Maccabees, which are fine historical accounts, just do not bear that same apostolic authority. Sue: All right, that's a wrap, so that's it for September. Pastor Paul: We got through it and I think, close to about an hour here. So thank you so much for your questions, we really appreciate them and you can send in your questions by emailing us office@ccontario.com. And we'll do our best to compile those and answer them, Lord willing, in our upcoming October Q&A. So anything else you'd like to add? Sue: Nope. I think that's good. Pastor Paul: I think we'll just remind people that many of these questions are also in a book that I wrote, called, Pastor, I Have a Question. And you can get that book on amazon.com or Amazon dot whatever it is in the country in which you live and those can be ordered and show up right on your doorstep. So until next time, God bless you. Have a good rest of your day, and we'll look forward to seeing you again soon. Bye.