Bible Questions & Answers #1 - 2024

Welcome to Sabbath Services. Today, we're going to have questions and answers.

Q #1—Why isn't Adam listed in the faithful ones in Heb. 11?

It starts out with Abel, but it doesn't include Adam. How can that be? We don't know how Adam conducted his life after he had sinned! There's only one mention of Adam in relationship to sin. We find that in:

Romans 5:12: "Therefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and by means of sin came death…"

Go back to Gen. 3 and that's exactly what God told Adam and Eve. Same way in Gen. 2 about The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.

"…in this way death passed into all mankind; and it is for this reason that all have sinned" (v 12).

One man said in one place that human beings must sin. That's not true! That is absolutely not true! Humans will sin; humans can sin; but it's not that they must! It's not that it is imperative that they must absolutely sin or they have no Savior. So, that's a complete misinterpretation of the Scriptures.

It really doesn't tell us why God did not include Adam in the situation there.

Q #2—What is the difference between being raised the third day, and being in the heart of the earth three days and three nights?

Let's see where Jesus said he would be in the heart of the earth three days and three nights. This becomes a question of we have to follow in order to get the answer; we have to follow what happened on the crucifixion day.

Jesus said in nine other places in the New Testament that He would rise the third day. We'll look at one in just a minute.

Matthew 12:38: "Then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered, saying, 'Master, we desire to see a sign from You.' And He answered and said to them, 'A wicked and adulterous generation seeks after a sign…'" (vs 38-39).

Stop and think for just a minute how that ties in with what Jesus said, that great signs and wonders would be given by false prophets. All of those who are seeking for a sign and not checking the Scriptures first, and not going by the Word of God, can be deceived by the signs, because they're great signs and great wonders.

So they seek after a sign, "…but no sign shall be given to it except the sign of Jonah the prophet. For just as Jonah was in the belly of the whale three days and three nights, in like manner the Son of man shall be in the heart of the earth three days and three nights" (vs 39-40).

Matthew 16:21: "From that time Jesus began to explain to His disciples that it was necessary… [mandatory] …for Him to go to Jerusalem, and to suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and to be killed, and to be raised the third day."

• What is the difference between the third day and three days and three nights?
• When did Jesus die on the cross? You should all know that! The ninth hour about 3 p.m.!

If He's going to be raised the third day, He can't have it go into any part of the fourth day.

What happened after He died at about 3 p.m.? Joseph of Arimathea went to Pilate and asked for the body. He got the body, and then Nicodemus came with extra aloes and myrrh and the wrapping linen for burying Jesus.

Now let's just back up one minute here. When we come to John 11, Lazarus was in the tomb for more than three days. When Jesus went to call him out of the tomb, Martha said to Him, 'Lord, he stinks. It's been four days.' So, He called Lazarus out, and he walked out. And He took the napkin off his face. He was able to walk out because his legs were wrapped individually as well as the rest of his body and his arms.

Sidebar: The Shroud of Turin can have nothing to do with the body of Christ. It is a complete and total fake. But the Catholics like to have it because it keeps all the people enslaved to idolatry. A shroud lays over.

Wrapping is with  the six-inch linen in rolls that is wrapped around the legs and around the body and so forth. Then they put the napkin on the head.

So, Jesus would be raised the third day, which means this. After Joseph of Arimathea got the body of Jesus and prepared it and put it in the tomb, they put it in just as that day was ending; just as the Passover Day was ending. So, He's put in there!

You have two things going. He was to be raised on the third day, not any part of the fourth day, and he was to be in the tomb three days and three nights. Therefore, we can conclude this, that since He died at the ninth hour on the Passover Day:

• then you have the first day of Unleavened Bread—Thursday
• then you have the next day, which is a Friday—day two
• then the next one is the Sabbath—day three.

He had to be raised from the dead right when the third day ended while He was still in the tomb. But He couldn't leave the tomb until it completed three whole days and three whole nights.

What do we have? When the disciples go in and look where the body of Jesus was, they saw His grave clothes! And then over here in a different place was the head napkin folded up! That shows and proves that He was raised from the dead, because napkins never fold themselves.

Now, all women would like it if all their clothes that they run through the laundry would fold themselves. You know, 'Hey, clothes be folded!' That would be perfect.

Also in seeing His burial clothes—now this is speculation—that probably was still in the form of His body, because as a spirit being He could just come right through all of the burial clothes and not disturb them. Just like when He appeared to the disciples when they were gathered together, He suddenly appeared before them.

How did He get there? He had to walk through the door, though it was closed and locked, or He had to walk through the wall! Either one. So, when they looked at where He was buried, do you suppose that they saw the form of His body in the wrapping clothes.

However, since His body wasn't there, they had fallen down? When they looked at that, when John looked at that and looked at the napkin, he believed that Jesus was raised from the dead.

So, what did Jesus do after He was raised from the dead while still in the tomb? He had to be in there for another three hours until the third day was completely ended. We don't know! What do you suppose that He would do? He would be praying to the Father and communicating directly with Him! Now then, no one saw Him until the next morning.

• Where did He go?
• Where did he go with meeting the disciples on many occasions?
• Where was He before He was arrested?

The Garden of Gethsemane!

It only seems proper that after He was in the tomb three days and three nights, that He would go to the Garden of Gethsemane the rest of that night, which then was the fourth night. Interesting indeed! He would spend the night there praying and continuing to converse with God the Father.

Then in the morning, the women got up early, and it says 'while it was still dark.' If you get up at about five o'clock in the morning nowadays where we live, at five o'clock in the morning, it's just starting to get a little bit light. But it's still dark, but you can see where you're going. So, they probably started out very early.

We don't know how far it was they had to walk to get to the tomb, but when they got there, the angels opened the tomb because it was sealed.

• How would the Romans seal that tomb because it was a big stone that was rolled over the face of the tomb?
• What were the Romans famous for to this day? Concrete!

So, they probably mixed up some concrete and put it all around that, and then it had two and a half days to set and get really tight.

Now, even today, centuries old Roman concrete is still strong. So, that tells you that an angel had to come and break all of that concrete seal, move the stone so they could see that he wasn't in the tomb.

So, after Peter and John went into the tomb, they went away. The women who were there also went away. Mary Magdalene—because she came real early—went and told Peter and John that the body of Jesus wasn't there because the tomb had been opened, and they ran to take a look at it. Then after they saw it, they left. But Mary Magdalene was still there (John 20). Mary Magdalene thought that Jesus was the gardener, so she went up to him and said, 'Where have you taken the body?'

Then Jesus said, 'Mary,' and at that time she realized that it was Jesus, and He told her immediately:

Don't touch Me because I have not yet ascended to the Father. Go to the apostles and disciples and tell them that I have been raised from the dead, and those that I will meet in Galilee, tell them to go there.

That's a summary of the difference between the third day and three days and three nights.

Q #3—Mark of the Beast—When will the mark be introduced?

Well, they're working on it right now, and they've been trying to figure out how they can do it. A form of it exists in working form in the countries of Sweden and Estonia, and other countries are experimenting with it, as well.

The Swedes are having problems with it because thieves are stealing the money that is listed with the chip. They put it right here (between the thumb and forefinger).

I don't know how they're doing it, but if you have it in your right hand, do they not tell you with your smart-phone or with your credit card that people can drive by or walk by and have special apparatuses on that can download from your smart-phone or from your credit card the information, and they can steal from you?

Well, this is what's happening in Sweden. They're having a problem with thieves being able to tap into that little computer chip they have right there in their hand, and then they take all the money out of their account.

So, they still have a long way to go. How long before the Tribulation? We don't know! We have no idea on that!

And there's another element involved with it, too, which is the Central Bank digital currency. Right now there's sort of a battle going on with currencies worldwide, between the BRICS nations that want to form another currency. I don't have much confidence that they'll be able to do it anytime soon because none of their currencies are worth very much at all.

How can they take the Brazil 'real,' the Russian 'ruble,' the Indian 'rupee,' and the Chinese 'yuan,' and then add into it whatever currency that the Arab oil nations have, and South Africa?

I don't see how there's enough strength in those currencies to form a whole other new worldwide currency and payment plan with trade, so they have a long way to go.

When will it come for the mark of the beast? Let me just add this to it: They are working overtime on A.I., and they're so far advanced on it they don't like to tell you. Now, I viewed on YouTube, but I can't find it anymore. So, I hope if anyone can find it, you can find it and send it to me:

There was one man who is of Asian descent, but I cannot tell what possible country he's from, but he's not Chinese, saying that they're able to take gigabytes, trillions of them, and put them into small areas, and that the whole A.I. thing is self-replicating itself in an unbelievable manner!

That has got to have something to do with the coming mark of the beast. How that will work out, we don't know, because remember what Daniel was told in Dan. 12, 'Many shall go to and fro, and knowledge shall increase.'

How far will knowledge increase? Well, we thought it was going real fast when it was increasing every five years!

• then it got down to three years
• then it got down to one year
• then it got down to six months

The doubling of information!

Now, with the A.I. the way that it is, who knows how quickly they can double the information. They're also trying to work on robots that have conscience, that have human feelings and emotions.

But remember this: every robot must have a battery, and all the massive banks of computers used for A.I. must have a lot of power of electricity.

So, all of the knowledge, all of the things that they have stored in there, God can wipe out, BANG! cut off all the energy!

• What are you going to do? Who knows what people can do!
• With A.I., what are we generating? We're generating a whole generation of ignoramus people who can run a smart-phone, but they have nothing up in their mind, because they rely on AI.

When that's gone, they won't know what to do. They will not know how to think!

So we don't know exactly when it will come to that point.

Q #4—The Temple in Ezekiel 40

A lot of commentaries say, 'This is the millennial temple.' That is not true!

• How did David get the plans for the temple?
• Did he sit down and draw them and say, 'Oh, look what I did'? No!

God gave him all the knowledge of what to do and the plans for everything, and also the courses of the priest and the courses of the garrison of troops that would rotate in to guard the temple area.

And David gave those to Solomon. What happened when the Babylonians came and finally destroyed Jerusalem? They destroyed the temple. They burned it to the ground.

Sidebar: No Ark of the Covenant was listed in the treasure they took from the temple. Everybody's wondering, where is it? They're trying to look in the underground caverns underneath the temple area, the Fort Antonia area, and trying to find out where did the Ark of the Covenant go?

Since the Jews don't believe the New Testament and hardly ever read it…

I watched one of Jonathan Cahn's prophecies concerning Iran and Jerusalem, and he doesn't know a thing. I can tell you that right now. He doesn't know a thing.

So, there were no plans to rebuild the temple if they weren't given to Ezekiel. It would be written down.

Ezek. 40—this will carry it all the way down to the temple of Jesus' day. When you get to the last chapters of Ezekiel about the water and going out and out and out, that's spreading the Gospel to the whole world from the second temple. What we find is this:

Ezekiel 40:1: "In the twenty-fifth year of our captivity, in the beginning of the year, on the tenth day of the month, in the fourteenth year after the city was stricken…" That's the first!

The Babylonians spent 20 years with three invasions. This is in the 14th year, meaning the temple still was standing,

"…in the same day the hand of the LORD was on me, and brought me there…. [this was in vision]: … in the same day the hand of the LORD was on me, and brought me there. In the visions of God He brought me into the land of Israel, and made me rest on a very high mountain, upon which was a structure like a city on the south. And He brought me there, and behold, a man whose appearance was like the look of bronze, and a line of flax in his hand, and a measuring reed. And he stood in the gate. And the man said to me, 'Son of man, behold with your eyes and hear with your ears, and set your heart on all that I shall show you. For you are brought here so that I might show them to you. Declare all that you see to the house of Israel.' And behold, a wall on the outside of the house all around, and in the man's hand was a measuring reed, six cubits long, with a cubit and a span. And he measured the building's breadth, one reed; and the height, one reed" (vs 1-5).

What I'm showing you here is that everything that you find about the temple are measurements that were given to Ezekiel of the temple before it was destroyed. So that when they came back out of Babylon, they would have the plans to be able to build the temple. It has nothing to do with a Millennial Temple. This talks about the prince, not the King of kings! It talks about animal sacrifices. But when Christ is here on the earth:

• What need is there for any animal sacrifices?
• Didn't Paul write in the book of Hebrews about the impossibility of the blood of goats and bulls and washings and things like that to take away sin?

Well, if Christ is here and all the saints are here and we're all ruling as kings and priests and teachers and administrators, what need is there for animal sacrifices? None! None!

Where does it tell us anything about a temple in the Millennium? There's only one place and it's just a couple of verses!

God is not going to dwell in a small little building made out of stone and have animal sacrifices that would defeat the whole purpose of the coming of Christ and setting up of the Millennium.

So here's the only thing that we know. We know this from Zech. 14 that Christ will return with all the saints with Him and his feet will stand where? On the Mount of Olives, which is just to the east of the temple! That's probably where this temple will be, and it will be huge. It's not going to be a little dinky stone building.

Isaiah 4:5: "And the LORD will create over every dwelling place of Mount Zion, and over her assemblies, a cloud and smoke by day, and the shining of a flaming fire by night; for over all the glory shall be a canopy. And there shall be a tabernacle for shade by day from the heat, and for refuge, and for shelter from storm and rain" (vs 5-6).

It's going to be a big tabernacle that's going to declare the presence of God day and night by fire and by sun. That's where it will be.

Anyone that says that the temple in Ezek. 40 onward is the Millennial Temple just doesn't know what they're talking about. The thing is in most commentaries that's what they will tell you.

Q #5—Concerning 1-Chronicles 21:1-7. Why did God allow this to happen?

We can't answer it here, but we can answer it from the New Testament. We can get part of the answer here and part from the New Testament.

1-Chronicles 21:1: "And Satan stood up against Israel and provoked David to number Israel. And David said to Joab and to the rulers of the people, 'Go number Israel from Beersheba to Dan. And bring the number of them to me so that I may know'" (vs 1-2).

Joab was a pretty good guy. But Joab was also in on the secrets of the kingship of David and all of the mistakes and things that he did. And Joab was the one whom David ordered to withdraw the troops in the heat of the battle so that Uriah the Hittite would die so that he could take Bathsheba. Joab knew that.

Now, he was a pretty righteous guy. Now later on, David told Solomon to have Joab done in. So, I don't know the exact reason why. Now notice what Joab answered, an answer that is true.

Verse 3: "And Joab answered, 'May the LORD add to His people a hundred times, but my lord the king, are they not all my lord's servants? Why then does my lord require this thing? Why will he be a cause of trespass to Israel?'"

In other words, if God is with you, it doesn't matter how many you have or how many you don't have.

Remember when David was first notarized by what he did? He went out against Goliath and he came with a slingshot and stones. All the armies of Israel were afraid of Goliath. So, David gets up there and he says, 'Who is this that defies the living God?' WHAM! He struck Goliath dead with a stone, like a bullet going right in the forehead.

Why would David need to know the number of people? He didn't! Because either God is going to give them the victory, or if they're sinning, they're going to lose. So, Joab was right. The word of the king prevailed!

Verse 4: "But the king's word prevailed against Joab…."—they went out to number them! Then it brought problems; David had three choices. The last choice was the hand of God, and a great number of people were destroyed.

How God selected the ones to destroy, I don't know. So, to answer the question, why did God allow Satan to do it? We find this:

Matt. 16—part of the answer is here. WHEN you rely on your own human nature and your own solution without looking to the Word of God, THEN you open the door for Satan to tempt you.

Matthew 16:21: "From that time Jesus began to explain to His disciples that it was necessary for Him to go to Jerusalem, and to suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and to be killed, and to be raised the third day. But after taking Him aside… [so here Peter comes up and takes Jesus by the arm] …Peter personally began to rebuke Him…" (vs 21-22)—doing something he should never do!

Numbering of the children of Israel was something David never should have done. But where did that attitude come from? The answer is right here.

Peter said to Jesus, "…saying, 'God will be favorable to you, Lord. In no way shall this happen to You'" (v 22).

Same kind of excuse, 'Go out and number them.' Joab said, 'You don't need to number them.' Same way here, so notice what Jesus said:

Verse 23: "Then He turned and said to Peter, 'Get behind Me, Satan!….'"

So, the lesson is this, IF you start relying on human solutions, when God says He will do something for you, who is tempting you? Satan! Just like right here.

"…'Get behind Me, Satan! You are an offense to Me, because your thoughts are not in accord with the things of God, but the things of men'" (v 23). That's why! So, that's the best we can answer that.

Q #6—The term Gentile, as we find it in the New Testament, does that sometime refer to the children of Israel?

The answer is no, it refers to other nations! Now, in a general sense, it could refer to the Jews if you refer to the nation—'ethnos.' That would be Gentiles or nations. But what did Jesus say to the disciples? Go to the lost sheep of the House of Israel!

Paul was the one who went to the Gentiles. But first of all, Peter had to be the one to open the door when God brought the situation to him concerning Cornelius.

You can read that in Acts 10. So, it's remotely possible it could refer to some of the Israelites, but when it's talking specifically about the children of Israel, they are not called Gentiles.

(break@40:10)

Q #7—Are sacrifices required today?

No! The sacrifice of Christ replaced all of the animal sacrifices! That's what it tells us in Heb. 11, and also in the 8th chapter.

For people to say we're going to have that itty bitty little stone temple as the Millennial Temple with sacrifices is not correct. That's only for the building of the second temple, which was destroyed in 70A.D.

Q #8—Why don't we have tongues today in the Church of God, the Protestants do?

Well, you listen to them and they don't make any sense at all. So, let's answer the question why, and then we'll look at what the Scriptures say.

The reason is we don't need to be speaking in tongues is because the Bible now is in so many different languages, it's not necessary. What is the universal language today? English! That's spoken more than any other language on earth.

Now, what the Protestants have is demonic! You need to understand, starting with the Catholics. Every single thing the Catholics have is pagan. Where in the New Testament does it talk about popes and priests and cardinals? Nowhere!

So, what the Catholics have done is put the name of Jesus on every pagan thing they can put it on and say it sanctifies it. It does not! Same way with the Protestants, 'Oh, we speak in tongues.'

It says in 1-Cor. 14 that 'tongues is for the unbeliever' who doesn't have access to the Word of God. That's the only reason there were tongues back there. We don't need them today.

You can go through and read the whole 14th chapter of 1-Corinthians and that will answer your question. It is not necessary today.

I could read you some Greek, which I may do one day. I may read you 2-John. It's not necessary to have it in that language for those who speak English because it is adequately translated into English. There's no need.

When they speak in tongues, it's an unknown, meaning it's not like any language of human beings so it doesn't do any good for anyone to listen to it. Therefore, it is demonic! So don't listen to the Protestants and think, 'Oh, well, they have this or that.'

• they don't have the Truth of God
• they don't have the Spirit of God
• they don't obey God

As a matter of fact, they hate the Sabbath and the Holy Days!

• they love their Sunday
• they love their holidays

Q #9—Spirit beings and angels can materialize as flesh. True!Satan and demons can possess a person. Can Satan or fallen angels materialize as flesh?

No, they cannot! That's why they have to possess. They can be almost anyplace. Anyplace there's an idol, they're probably a demon. When you walk into those vast cathedrals, try St. Peter's Basilica. You walk in there and you get this feeling of awe in this big building. It's nothing but a den of demons!

Catholicism is paganism faking as Christianity. They're so convincing that billions believe.

• What did Jesus say about the Church? Many are called, but few are chosen!
• Why? Because few repent!
• How many times in the Bible do you find it getting down to one man? One prophet!

You can start with Noah and Abraham and go on from there—one man! That tells you how prevalent evil is here!

Q #10—Concerning Adam

After Adam was created and all the animals were brought by and then God created Eve and then Adam said, 'At long last.'

• Do you find that in Genesis? No! You do not!
• What did we just cover before the break?

When you add human thoughts to replace the teachings of God, you get in trouble!

Q #11—Gen. 15—Why does it say they are afflicted 400 years?

Now you must read things properly, and that's one of the reasons that we have The Faithful Version, Because difficult things like these are straightened out so that we know what it is.

Now this is when God told Abraham what He was going to do; what God did is He gave the promises. Now, when you give the promises and then you have the sacrifice to make it a covenant, the promises become part of the covenant!

Genesis 15:13: "And He said to Abram, 'You must surely know that your seed shall be sojourners in a land that is not theirs..."

Now here is a parenthetical statement. A parenthetical statement is an add-in, which does not follow in sequence.

[parenthetical statement] "…(and shall serve them and they shall afflict them)…"

Set aside that parenthetical statement and it reads.

"You must surely know that your seed shall be sojourners in a land that is not theirs four hundred years."

It's not talking about the time they were afflicted. It doesn't mean they were afflicted for 400 years. Beginning with Isaac and then Jacob and then the 12 sons of Jacob:

• Were they in the land? Yes!
• Were they sojourners? Yes!
• Were they afflicted? No!

But when they went to Egypt, later they were afflicted.

So, when you have a parenthetical statement, that means that that is not running along in sequential order to say that they were going to be tormented and afflicted 400 years.

No! They were to be strangers and sojourners 400 years; not that they were afflicted 400 years.

The problem is, with questions like this, you need to read it correctly.

When you look at it, and we have a chart on our website there {truthofgod.org}, that it was somewhere a little over 200 years, maybe even less, that they were afflicted as slaves. But they were still sojourning.

Now then, you look at the chart and then you compare that with Exo. 12 where it says 430 years.

• Where do you get the 30 years?

Well, the promise given in Gen. 15 was when Abraham was 85-years.

• When was Isaac born? When Abraham was 100 years old!

From 85 to 100 is 15 years?

Then Isaac was taken out—before he was an adult because he's called 'a lad'—to be sacrificed! So, if we have 400 years and 15 years, that means the other 15 years must, by deduction, tell us that Isaac was 15 years-old when he was offered.

So, you have the 430 years and the 400 years; they don't conflict. It's just depending on how you count the chronology.

Q #12—Colossians 2—Shadows

Here again, you need to read correctly. The hardest thing for people to do is to get preconceived notions out of their mind when they're reading the Bible. Especially if you were a 'dyed-in-the-wool' Protestant. So, let's read Col. 2 and see what it's telling us.

The question is about shadows because they say that if it is a shadow, the thing is not here, yet. Wrong!

Here's a pole and it casts a shadow on the ground. If you don't have a pole, you don't have a shadow. You can't have a shadow without the reality.

If you come to the shadow and you start walking to the reality, what are you going to find? If it's a pole, you're going to find a pole.

Same way with what it talks about here when we get to v 16. It is a shadow of things that are coming! The things that are coming are already established by the Word of God and the Holy Days lead us to the reality of those things.

We'll go through this so we'll know it. I haven't covered it in a long time, so it's a good thing that we're going to do it.

Colossians 2:6: "Therefore, as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, be walking in Him."

What was it with the pagans and the Gentiles here in Colossi as well as Laodicea and Hierapolis?

Sidebar: if you get a chance to watch American Science Channel or American History Channel, I think it's a science channel, they have a special on Hierapolis and Laodicea and you will get a good understanding what they were facing because these were strong, spiritual, pagan, demonic centers.

That's what Paul was up against all the time. Today we have sort of a crossbreed with it with Catholicism and Protestantism.

Verse 7: "Being rooted and built up in Him, and being confirmed in the faith, exactly as you were taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving."

Here's a warning; this applies to all of us! Right here what we were talking about earlier:

Verse 8: "Be on guard so that no one takes you captive through philosophy…" What is philosophy? Human reasoning!

The great philosophers were those who brought to light all the demonic manifestations of their gods and had statues of them. Just like Paul when he went into Athens, he came into Athens and he was startled. All of the idols, they had this one to 'The Unknown God.'

So when they invited him to speak to all of the philosophers, he was up there and he said:

Now, men, I see that you're very reverent to deities.' That actually means demons! Because you have this inscription to 'The Unknown God.' Him I'm going to tell you about because you don't know Him!

What did he start out in saying?

In the true God who made the heavens, who made the earth, and who made all of mankind of one blood under the sun, we live and move and have our being in Him!

In other words, every human being on earth:

• whether they know God or not
• whether they believe in God or not
• whether they understand anything at all or not

if they live and breathe and move, they are doing so because God made them! What did God also do? He made:

• all the air
• all the water
• all the food
• all the land
• day and night
• the operation of the body and everything that goes with it

Isn't that correct? Yes!

That's what Paul was going to teach them. Because WHEN you come to philosophy and you add human thoughts—as we saw with David—to what God wants, THEN you get yourself in trouble.

Sidebar: What happened with Herbert Armstrong since a lot of you out there really love him?

Now, I'll confess this: I was personally ordained by Herbert Armstrong, and that was when Loma was still living. At that time, when we were up in Portland during the Feast of Unleavened Bread, my wife Dolores was sitting right next to Loma because they were good friends when she was at college. I gave a sermonette.

Loma liked it so much that she said, 'Herbert, you've got to ordain that man.' He told her, 'We're going to, because that's the day I was ordained.'

When Herbert changed the Gospel from the coming Kingdom of God and power and great glory to 'he was an ambassador for peace' and that he would help fund the joint project of bringing the Catholics, the Jews, and the Muslims together in a sort of a triangular arrangement of a building for each one of the three. Herbert Armstrong changed the Gospel from the visible return of Christ to the unseen hand!

That's anything but the Truth! What happened to Worldwide Church of God? It was because of that, and because of bringing in too many human things attached to the Word of God that God destroyed it.

We need to understand. Don't bring philosophy or human teaching into the Word of God!

Now, if you want to talk about thinking so you can think things through and you don't know then you do like I do. You have a cowbell [for speculation] which says, 'Don't rely on this as the Word of God. We're just thinking.'

Now with the Colossians here, what happened? He said,  v 8: "Be on guard…" This goes for us! We need to be on guard all the time!

"…so that no one takes you captive through philosophy and vain deceit, according to the traditions of men, according to the elements of the world, and not according to Christ" (v 8).

That's exactly what the Catholics do. That's exactly what the Protestants do. They give every reason in the world why they do it. Of course, the Catholics have so many we're not going to mention them, but both of them have in common Sunday and the holidays.

They still can't explain why they talk about the resurrection of Christ after a day and a half in honor of the Queen of Heaven, Ishtar, and say that's the day Christ was resurrected on.

So you see what happens when you get philosophy all mixed in there? And philosophy is another form of religion.

Verse 9: "For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily…. [that was after His resurrection] …and you are complete in Him, Who is the Head of all principality and power in Whom you have also been circumcised with the circumcision not made by hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ" (vs 9-11).

What is that circumcision? Circumcision of the heart! That means that you yield to God completely in everything that you do and think.

Verse 12: "Having been buried with Him in baptism…"

Baptism is important. Not only is the sacrifice of Christ applied to you when you were baptized, when you read Rom. 6, it shows that we're conjoined to His death. That's why baptism is a covenant. It's important!

We don't need any other thoughts of any other people, any other religion. That's what Paul is telling us.

"…by which you have also been raised with Him through the inner working of God, Who raised Him from the dead. For you, who were once dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has now made alive with Him, having forgiven all your trespasses. He has blotted out the note of debt against us with the decrees of our sins…" (vs 12-14).

That's what it is. The Protestants believe that's nailing the Ten Commandments to the cross. Well, what was the only sign written on the cross? The sign that Pilate made: Here is the King of the Jews:

• in Greek
• in Hebrew
• in Latin

Verse 14: "He has blotted out the note of debt against us with the decrees of our sins, which was contrary to us…"

• Are the Ten Commandments contrary to us? No!
• Are the Holy Days contrary to us? No!

"…and He has taken it away, having nailed it to the cross…. [that is our sins] …After stripping the principalities and the powers, He made a public spectacle of them, and has triumphed over them in it" (vs 14-15). Now then, that means over:

• everything pagan
• everything demonic
• everything of philosophy
• everything of human knowledge

Verse 16: "Therefore, do not allow anyone to judge you… [that means that you are doing it] …in eating or in drinking…"

• Did they have different eating habits after they became converted? Yes, they didn't eat unclean food!.
• Did they have different drinking patterns after they were converted? Yes, they didn't go into wine-drunken orgies!

"…or with regard to a Festival…" (v 16).

Now, if you don't keep the Festival, they can't judge you! When someone hears that you keep the Passover and Feast of Unleavened Bread, they say, 'What is that? We don't do that.' They just judge you.

So, that's what was happening. This means they were keeping the Feast if they were keeping all of the holidays of the world, and the Greeks had them all back then. !o, we've been rescued from it.

"…or new moon, or the Sabbaths" (v 16).

This does not mean meeting on the new moon days. This means the Calculated Hebrew Calendar. Did they follow a different calendar than they had with the Romans and with the Greeks? Yes, they followed the Calculated Hebrew Calendar. When is that figured? That figured on the new moon of the seventh month!

"…or the Sabbaths," (v 16)—because they were keeping Sabbath all the time!

Now the pagans were sun-worshipers. When do you suppose that they had their services? On Sunday! All of these things:

• the circumcision not made with hands
• the eating, the drinking
• the festivals
• the calendar
• the Sabbath

Verse 17: "Which are a foreshadow… [of the reality of what is coming] …of the things that are coming…"

So those things are stated in the Bible, and if we follow the shadow, we come to the Truth of it.

Just like what I said with the pole. If you see a shadow of a pole and you follow the shadow to the pole, what do you have? You have the reality of what the shadow showed!  The real thing. That's what he's saying with this.

Verse 17: "Which are a foreshadow of the things that are coming, but the Body of Christ."

Meaning the things that you are doing for God the way that God wants; the Church is to make whatever decisions necessary. Or determine when we're going to keep them as related to the calendar. And also what the meaning is. What happens when you leave that?

Verse 18: "Do not allow anyone to defraud you… [that's what we read over here in v 16] … of the prize by doing his will in self-abasement…"

Didn't the pagans have that? A lot of things. Look at what they do even today in India. Self-abasement of the body.

"…and the worship of angels…" (v 18)—that has to be demons! Why? How do we know?

What happened when John was going to bow down to the angel after bringing the message to him of the marriage supper of the Lamb? He says, 'Don't worship me. Worship God.'

That happened when he got the final message in Rev. 22. The angel brought it to him and John was going to bow down to the angel and he said, 'Don't worship me; worship God.'

So, what it is here, the worship of angels has to be demons. And do not demons want people to worship them? Yes indeed, because that will take them away from God.

You can see on the ads today, there's one ad where they have a lot of people sitting in the meditating position of cross legs and then they put their hands on their knees like this. This is the way of inviting demons into you. Then they have a witch looking woman, who is probably a witch, leading in that particular thing. You can see it in one of these ads.

So this kind of demonism is right there in the ads that come on television.

"…and the worship of angels, intruding into things that he has not seen, vainly puffed up by his own carnal mind" (v 18).

That's exactly what demonism does. It gets people puffed up in their great importance.

Verse 19: "And not holding fast to the Head, from Whom all the body, being supplied and knit together by the joints and bands, is increasing with the increase of God. Therefore, if you have died together with Christ from the elements of the world, why are you subjecting yourselves to the decrees of men as if you were living in the world?" (vs 19-20).

That is the way the world does things, the religions of the world the way that they do it, and with their demons.

Remember what did Jesus said in Matt. 24, that there will be false prophets and false Christ, which will show great signs and wonders.

• Can demons do that? Yes!
• Do they do that? Yes!
• Do people follow that? Yes!

I'll never forget this; this is indelible in my mind. I was watching a great assembly of those in Wembley State Stadium. They can get 100,000 in Wembley. All the people were there and it was a great rock festival. The one who was up on stage got them to singing 'The Whole World is in his Hands.' The whole 100,000 out there were in unison. He's got the whole world in his hands! He got the whole world in his hands!

What is that? That is a praise to Satan! They don't know it because Satan has deceived the whole world! If he deceives the whole world, he's going to control it! Does he do it? Yes, he does!

Now, let's go one step further from that. Let's add that in to the coming A.I., which is going to be so powerful and be so convincing that people are going to fall for it, hook, line, and sinker. So, we're up against some pretty heavy stuff that's coming.

Not what's here, but we have to be holding fast to the Head Who is Christ!

Verse 20: "Therefore, if you have died together with Christ from the elements of the world, why are you subjecting yourselves to the decrees of men as if you were living in the world?"

Let's put it another way. Why would you go into a Catholic Church and bow down and do the sign of the cross and take the Eucharist and pray a prayer with a rosary? That's pure paganism!

I don't care how many times you use the name of Christ, and using the name of Mary is of no account; she's not in heaven.

But watch out if you listen to some of these preachers that are out there, IF you don't have yourself totally grounded and know right from wrong, THEN you can make some wrong thoughts and wrong decisions concerning what they're talking about.

So if you're going to watch them or listen to them, you have to have the Word of God in your mind and understand what God has said so that you won't believe anything that they say.

Doesn't matter if they talk in tongues. Today that's all demonic!

Q #13—We know Jesus, Paul, Peter, and John, plus others, preached the Gospel message. Are we hearing it today?

Yes! IF you listen to the Truth!

Out there, with all the 'Christianity' of the world, you're not hearing it at all! It has to be according to the Word of God and the Truth of God and nothing else.

So yes, we're doing that. We will be preaching the coming Kingdom of God and keep doing it, and when God opens any doors for us to go through…

Sidebar: By the way, I'll be on Caravan to Midnight on May 30th. I don't know what time I'll be on there, but I'm going to bring a review on the return of Christ, because a lot of people will be saying, 'Oh, Christ is going to return here and return there.' How many times have we heard it down through the years?

The reason it hasn't happened is because we do not comprehend how great and how powerful that this end-time thing of Satan the devil is going to be on the earth. When they're doing great science and great wonders, everybody's going to believe. That's why we've got to be grounded in the Word of God.

Q #14—Regarding making and keeping our vows and oaths to God. What are Christians to learn from his foolish vow?

Never make a foolish vow! Matt. 5—let's look at it. Let's see what Jesus said. We're not to vow anything at all.

Jesus covers this various topic. We do not make vows. However, if you make a promise to God, you better well keep it!

Now I've got one promise I made to God, and that's between me and God. But I tell myself every day, remember your promise to God. Here's why.

Matthew 5:33: "Again, you have heard that it was said to those in ancient times, 'You shall not forswear yourself, but you shall perform your oaths to the Lord.' But I say to you, do not swear at all, neither by heaven, for it is God's Throne; nor by the earth, for it is the footstool of His feet; nor by Jerusalem, because it is the city of the great King. Neither shall you swear by your head, because you do not have the power to make one hair white or black. But let your word be good, your 'Yes' be yes and your 'No' be no…" (vs 33-37).

In other words, that's fulfilling which commandment? You shall not bear false witness! That's truth and honesty.

Verse 37: "But let your word be good, your 'Yes' be yes and your 'No' be no; for anything that is added to these is from the evil one."

Now remember what we read there about Peter and Jesus. Peter was well intentioned. Now we'll cover this next time. I don't know if we'll have enough time to cover it here, but I'll just mention it. We'll come back to it next week.

Q #15—Why can we not take the good from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil and attach it to the things of God?

Because the good from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, or the good that the world always leads to sin!

It starts out good, but it ends up in sin. If you don't believe that, look at all of the religions today. Look at Protestantism, Catholicism and Judaism. All the good that they do:

Oh, well we had the most wonderful Sunday services. You couldn't believe the music and everybody was there.

If you dare, tell them, 'Hey, that's the wrong day.' How could that be? So, all of that good is enveloped in sin!

Q #16—What are the Noahide Laws?

The Jews have in mind that when they build a temple, they're going to rule the world. That's the reason they want to build the temple. Because they think that they are going to rule the world because they read all of the prophecies in the Old Testament about what Christ is going to do during the Millennium.

They apply that to themselves, if they can only build the temple and only have that there,

Then God must bless us and we will rule the world. We will have a set of rules for all the Gentiles, which excludes the Sabbath.

So, these are seven commandments that the Jews from Judaism will devise for all the Gentiles; that's called the Noahide Laws, based upon what was stated to Noah after the Flood.

Well, just because those were stated to Noah after the Flood does not mean that that's all God requires of Gentiles. God requires the same thing of Gentiles that He does:

• of Jews
• of male
• of female
• of free
• of bond

Is now what it says in Gal. 3.29 that if you are Christ, you're Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise? Yes!

So, the Noahide Laws are just another philosophical way of the Jews wanting to rule the world. They think they're smarter than anybody else on earth, that they are the greatest people that there ever has been.

Well, the Germans think that, too, and the Chinese are worse than both of them.

Q #17—Why are some people re-baptized?

The whole purpose of baptism is to receive the Holy Spirit!

Paul came from Corinth and they came to Ephesus and in verse

Acts 19:1: "Now, it came to pass that while Apollos was in Corinth, Paul traveled through the upper parts and came to Ephesus; and when he found certain disciples, he said to them, 'Did you receive the Holy Spirit after you believed?'…." (vs 1-2)—because he found those who believed!

"…And they said to him, 'We have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.' Then he said to them, 'Unto what then were you baptized?'" (vs 2-3). So they were baptized once!

"…And they said, 'Unto the baptism of John'" (v3).

Well now, if there's any baptism that's close to the baptism of Christ, it would be the baptism of John. That was for the remission of sins. But notice what Paul said and did.

Verse 4: "And Paul said, 'John truly baptized with a baptism unto repentance, saying to the people that they should believe in Him Who was coming after him—that is, in Jesus, the Christ.' And after hearing this, they were baptized into the name of the Lord Jesus" (vs 4-5).

They were re-baptized because they didn't have the Holy Spirit! That would be a cause of baptizing a second time because the first one was not valid.

If you're baptized in a Baptist church, chances are that's not valid.

I've still got a whole other stack here, so we'll continue the questions next week. I don't want to ask you to send in any more, because we'd have to go on way beyond that.

Scriptural References:

Q #1—Adam
Romans 5:12
            Not quoted: Hebrews 11
                               Genesis 3; 2

Q #2—Difference in 3rd day and 3 days/3 nights
Matthew 12:38
Matthew 16:21
            Not quoted: John 11; 20

Q #3—Mark of the Beast
            Not quoted: Daniel 12

Q #4—Temple in Ezek. 40
Ezekiel 40:1-5
Isaiah 4:5-6
            Not quoted: Zechariah 14

Q #5—1-Chron. 21:1-7
1-Chronicles 21:1-7
Matthew 16:21

Q #6—Gentiles
            Not quoted: Acts 10

Q #7—Sacrifices Today
            Not quoted: Hebrews 11; 8

Q #8—Tongues
            Not quoted: 1 Corinthians 14
                                2-John

Q #11—400 & 430 years
Genesis 15:13
            Not quoted: Exodus 12

Q #12—Shadows; Col. 2
Colossians 2:6-20
            Not quoted: Romans 6
                               Revelation 22
                               Matthew 24

Q #14—Vows
Matthew 5:33-37

Q #16—Noachide Laws
            Not quoted: Galatians 3:29

Q #17—Re-Baptism
Acts 19:1-5

FRC:bo/po
Transcribed: 5/23/24

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