John Bradshaw - Drinking Alcohol, Lot's Wife, and Charles Darwin
John Bradshaw: Hi there, and welcome to "Line Upon Line," brought to you by It Is Written. This is where we get to answer your Bible questions. If you have a Bible question you'd like to share with us, giving us the opportunity to share the answer with you and others, email us at [email protected], [email protected]. If you'd like to study the Bible, go to itiswritten.study. We have a fantastic series of Bible studies online, absolutely free. They are in-depth, covers a wide range of subjects. They'll bless you, change your life: itiswritten.study. We hope you'll go there. I'm John Bradshaw; with me is Pastor Wes Peppers from It Is Written. Pastor Wes, good to see you.
Wes Peppers: Great to see you, Pastor John. We always have good questions on the show.
John Bradshaw: We do.
Wes Peppers: And we have some great people that participate. So thank you for those questions.
John Bradshaw: Yeah, amen to that. And here's what we've decided ahead of time. We are gonna try to answer a bunch of questions today. We're gonna go quickly rather than slowly, not that we ever go slowly-slowly.
Wes Peppers: No, never.
John Bradshaw: But let's see, unless the question demands we tarry, let's see if we can just charge on through, and this will be kind of a rapid-fire round of questions.
Wes Peppers: That's right, nothing wrong with that.
John Bradshaw: First question.
Wes Peppers: All right. First question is from Kamron: "Is it true that the Bible has been changed, [or] some parts of it have been removed"?
John Bradshaw: No.
Wes Peppers: No.
John Bradshaw: Everything that should be in the Bible is in the Bible. There's nothing missing from John, nothing missing from Revelation, nothing missing from Jeremiah. If it were necessary, God would've made sure it's there. So you don't have to worry about that. The apocryphal books of the Bible that were put into the Bible by some, they're not inspired; we don't wanna mess with them. But what you have... this? There's nothing missing. It's all there, and that's good.
— I have a hard time believing that if something needed to be there, God didn't get it in there.
— Absolutely right.
— That just... I can't make those compatible.
— Okay, Ezra asks, "We understand that Jesus Christ was the perfect, sinless person to redeem the world from its sin. Couldn't God just have forgiven the sins of humanity without having to sacrifice His Son"? Why have Jesus die? Couldn't God have done it another way? Well, firstly, if God could've done it another way, He would've done it another way. Who would allow his son to die on a cross if it wasn't absolutely necessary? So, explain.
— Sure. The Bible says that without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sins.
John Bradshaw: Got it.
— It has to be that. And so there has to be a death. Who qualifies for that death?
— Right.
— Only the one who hasn't sinned.
— Our sin was breaking the law.
Wes Peppers: Yes.
— Right? Jesus obeyed the law, kept the law; Jesus was the law giver.
Wes Peppers: That's right.
— The only one who could die for our sins of breaking the law of God was the One who gave the law.
— It couldn't even be an angel; it has to be the, they are high powers, but it had to be the One who created and the One who, like you say, gave the law.
— Yeah, amen. Thanks, Ezra. We gotta leave that question and move on to Lynne: "In the debate about Creation versus evolution, I believe the Bible, but it seems...Darwin made some valid observations as well. How do we [recognize] these two ideas so that everything makes sense"? You do, and you don't. Could it be that a well-trained scientist, for that time, made some good scientific observations? Sure. No one would say Darwin was a complete fool. And certainly some of what he studied and contributed to science was a great addition to the welfare of the human go-forward. But you don't reconcile survival of the fittest, natural selection with what the Bible teaches. Evolution and Creation are mutually exclusive. They just don't work together.
— Like oil and water. And, you know, having been an atheist, I've studied a lot of these concepts, and Darwin himself often doubted his own theories.
— Sure.
— And many of them have been proven to be invalid; more scientists today are realizing that. So, more and more we recognize that true science is always in harmony with Scripture.
— It's clear that Charles Darwin didn't understand the human cell.
— That's right.
— He couldn't have because there weren't the high-powered microscopes.
— Mm-hmm.
— If he had understood the way the human cell worked, it is almost certain he would never have accepted the idea...
— Yes.
— ...of evolution.
Wes Peppers: That's right.
— Evolution came up at a time where, you know, it's a bit like what some of the stuff the medieval church taught. Ignorant people, uneducated people just believed it. The church was able to feed them all kind of stuff because what did they know anyway. A little bit like the evolutionary theory, it caught on where we didn't have the wherewithal to be able to look at things such as cells and really identify...
— That's right.
— Of course there are mysteries out there.
— Sure.
— "Well, these animals are kind of the same but kind of different. How did that happen"? Adaptation perhaps, special creation perhaps. But evolution isn't biblical; it'll never be biblical. You're not ever gonna make Charles Darwin and John the Revelator absolutely compatible. Thanks for the question. What's our next question?
— All right, our next question is from Arlene: "Why was there no hope for Lot's wife? Was she even given time to repent? Why couldn't she be saved, like the countless other sinners in the Bible"?
— Okay. God is either reasonable or unreasonable. If she was going to repent, He would've allowed her to repent.
— That's right.
— God knew she had passed the point of no return. If He didn't realize that, what are we saying about God? What a tyrant God, what a mean God, hence the question, and good question.
— Sure.
— Why turn her into a pillar of salt? She could've just said sorry like David who, after all, did some pretty terrible things. No, God knew. God knew her heart; she was not ever gonna be saved. God knew that, and she was an example, that people follow God, don't turn around; don't look back; move forward; when God calls you, don't tarry. It's an encouragement to us today. Poor Mrs. Lot would've been better had she trusted God. She didn't; God knew that. That's why she's lost.
— Also, the angel gave a very explicit warning not to look back.
— Very explicit.
— And the fact that she did was a symbol that her heart was really back in the city; it wasn't with what God's will was for them.
— She was rebellious.
— That's right.
— Okay, Ezra asks, "Why did God create man"?, the human family. Was it to worship God and so on? What was the purpose in creating the human family?
— Well, I think God created us because He loved us. And...
— That's right.
— ...love cannot exist just individually. And so, of course there was the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit, but God desired to share that love with others, with the creation that He made. He's made angels; He's made humans; He's made other life forms. The Bible is clear about that. And so He wanted to share that love, but also He wanted us to return that love to Him, because every human being loves to be loved, and we're created in the image of God, so therefore God also wants to have that love. And so He created us to share His love with us and for us to choose to return that love to Him. Let me just say this, too.
— Yeah.
— It's not that He needed us. He wanted us.
— Yes. It's kinda the same reason that parents have children...
— Mm-hmm.
— ...because love loves. Ezra did ask, "Are we all supposed to come to the earth because God said we should come to [the] earth? Shouldn't we have a say in that"? Yes, I can imagine that. God speaks to you before you were born, impossible, I know. He says, "I have salvation for you, everlasting life for you. I want you to be happy". And your response would be, "Nah".
— Mm-hmm.
— No, I don't think that would be your response. If you had a say in that, you would've said, "What a great idea! Count me in. This couldn't be better".
— Yes.
— Thank you, God, for creating me, for loving me that much. You want me to have everlasting life.
— Amen, what a blessing.
— All right. That was quick. I told you we'd be quick.
— That was quick.
— Our next question comes from Will: "The Bible says that when we are taken up to heaven, we will be reunited with our loved ones, ...there will be no more...sorrow". Ooh! "What if our loved ones weren't..., for [some] reason, ...taken...to heaven"?, weren't saved. "[Won't] we be sad because they are not there with us"?
— This is a, it's a great question, and a lot of people, there's a passage, Revelation, chapter 20, talks about the millennium.
— Yeah.
— In which the time, there will be a time where the saved understand why the lost were lost. What the Bible doesn't say is that there'll be no tear shed there. There will be sadness there as we understand that our loved ones, certain ones, may not be there, the ones that chose not to be there, but at the same time God's gonna help us understand why. And so once He does that, our hearts will be satisfied that God was fair, He did everything He could to save them, and then when the new earth is created, He's gonna wipe away every tear.
— That's correct.
— So, that's a beautiful picture to me. There will be sadness, of course, but the love of God is gonna so fill our hearts that it's gonna bring that healing.
— There's another thing people don't stop to realize, and that is this: Right now we are very human. You understand? And we feel the emotions that we feel. Okay. Give us glorified bodies, new minds, put us in the presence of God, we are not going to think then about things the way we do now.
— Yes.
— We'll see differently. "Now we see through a glass, darkly," Paul wrote, "then face to face". Our understanding and our capacity to understand will be broader. Maybe that means the depth of our mourning will, for a time, be deeper; I do not know. Certainly there'll be some initial sadness, but throughout eternity, that's not gonna drag on us. We will be in the presence of God and the redeemed and the angels throughout eternity. So I think that's gonna balance out...
— Absolutely.
— ...quite okay. Rufina asks, "The Lord's supper in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and 1 Corinthians talks about the Lord's 'SUPPER.' So why do some [people do this] in the morning"?
— I don't really know. I think that you, the Bible doesn't say when exactly you should do it.
— No.
— Certainly the word "supper," to many of us, signifies an evening meal.
— Well, and that's because the first Lord's supper...
— Wasn't, yes.
— ...took place in an evening.
— But that doesn't mean we have to always do it.
— That's correct.
— There are many church services do it in the morning time, and that's perfectly okay. The most important thing is that we are doing it and we understand why we are doing it.
— I would say this: If the Lord's supper was a casserole and some steamed broccoli and peach cobbler...
— There you go.
— ...and some of my favorite healthy ice cream for dessert, yeah, it might be a bit weird to have that in the morning.
— I think so.
— Yeah, maybe. But this was a little bread and little grape juice. So it doesn't matter what time of the day.
— It's not intended to be a meal. It's the symbols of the blood and body of Jesus.
— Yeah. Rufina also asks us to explain 1 Corinthians 12 and verse 13. It says, "For by one Spirit", that's through the Holy Spirit, we're "all baptized into one body whether we're Jews or Gentiles, bond or free," we've "all been made to drink into one Spirit". This means that the Holy Spirit calls us, irrespective of the diversity of our backgrounds, into one body, and that body is the church. The church is marvelously diverse...
Wes Peppers: That's right.
John Bradshaw: ...all kinds of people, all kinds of backgrounds. Through the Holy Spirit we can be made one.
Wes Peppers: Yes.
John Bradshaw: White and black and Asian and Hispanic and African and Asian and Inuit and... I'm running out of nationalities now.
Wes Peppers: Anyone, all upon the earth.
John Bradshaw: South American.
Wes Peppers: Yes.
John Bradshaw: One.
Wes Peppers: Yes.
John Bradshaw: This is what the Holy Spirit can do.
Wes Peppers: That's an amazing thought. There is no other power on the earth that can bring unity like that, except for the Spirit of God.
John Bradshaw: Yeah.
Wes Peppers: And the blood of Christ is in each one of us, and that's what makes us brothers and sisters. It doesn't matter what our background is or where we're from; we can be one in Him. And I mean, to me, that's just a beautiful picture.
John Bradshaw: Amen. Connie's question... might require more time than we have: "What constitutes an affair"? Hmm. "I know God says that when a person lusts after someone else in their heart, they've committed adultery. But what about pornography and if someone flirts with someone else"? It doesn't really matter if it's an affair or not. Flirting isn't an "affair," even though it's an affair of the heart.
— Mm-hmm.
— But it's wrong. Pornography...it's kind of like an affair because something's carrying on, perhaps on an ongoing basis. And it needs to be said, and it must be said by us, it's not only wrong, but it's damaging. It's not cool, edgy, hip, funny, exciting. It's damaging. Pornography is an absolute curse. So I don't know, Connie, if you're gonna call that an affair, but it's wrong. Is pornography adultery? It's unfaithfulness to the marriage vow, that's for sure. Might require counseling and talking, certainly God's help. Let's look at it again in a minute. With Wes Peppers, I'm John Bradshaw. This is "Line Upon Line," brought to you by It Is Written.
John Bradshaw: Welcome back to "Line Upon Line," brought to you by It Is Written, where we answer your Bible questions. One thing I just wanna mention: We've got a slew of resources, a lot of excellent, helpful resources at It Is Written. You can find them online at itiswritten.shop, itiswritten.shop. Don't forget the It Is Written app. You wanna get that and our It Is Written TV app as well so you can access many programs at many times wherever you might be. Did we have anything more we wanted to add to Connie's question about, really, infidelity and affairs?
Wes Peppers: Yeah, you know, pornography really is an addiction.
John Bradshaw: Yeah.
Wes Peppers: And it can quickly become an addiction for many people, and, in fact, it's as addicting as any drug out there is because it does send triggers to the brain and the more you engage in it, the more you want to do it, so it becomes a source of control in your life.
John Bradshaw: It also becomes desensitizing.
Wes Peppers: Yes.
John Bradshaw: A lot like gateway drugs you start moderate and get bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger. With pornography, the experts tell us people may start here, but then they eventually get into the stuff that's...
Wes Peppers: True.
— ...you know, highly illegal and absolutely reprehensible. I think Connie's question does raise a good point, many good points. So she mentioned here about an affair. That's wrong. Lust is, I don't wanna say "wrong", it's certainly wrong, it's damaging.
— Mm-hmm.
— Flirting, why would you do that? What's wrong with you that you'd wanna flirt with somebody else?
— That's right.
— Pornography... The point is purity.
— Mm-hmm.
— And it may not sound as enlightened as someone who's... advocating for letting people do just about everything and promoting that. But, man, it's God's way; purity is God's way. If you struggle with impurity, talk to the Lord. If you need to talk to a counselor, please do. But know that God is able to deliver you from that and give you joy and purity, which has never destroyed a marriage, never wrecked a relationship, and never led anybody to spiritual or emotional or physical ruin. Purity, that's God's way.
— Amen, that's beautiful.
— What's our next question? That was Connie, and now we're asking this question from Stacy: "What are the liquors in Exodus 22, verse 29"? Yeah. I'll read from the New King James. The King James, it uses the word "liquors".
— Mm-hmm.
— "You shall not delay to offer the first of your ripe produce," New King James says, "and your juices". The RSV says, "You shall not delay... from the fullness of your harvest and from the outflow of your presses". So, she's saying, "Well, why would you be offering God liquor, alcohol"? Well, you're not. This is juice; it's the fruit of the vine. You're offering that to God as an offering, and so that makes a little bit more sense, doesn't it?
— The fresh juice.
— Yeah. Rodney, question for you: "Can you help me understand the concept of the Trinity? I've heard...it isn't biblical", and you've heard from us that it is, and it seems to be "confusing. If God gave His only begotten Son, how could God (Jesus) die"? Keeping in mind that when Jesus came to the earth, He came fully God, fully man, laid His divinity aside. He laid His divinity aside. That's quite the study, but that's what He did. Let's do the Trinity quickly.
— Mm-hmm.
— A unity of three co-eternal persons, They're all existed from eternity past and will all exist to eternity-eternity. The Father is God; the Son, "In the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, and the Word was God". That's what John wrote about Jesus, God. The Holy Spirit, clearly God because Ananias and Sapphira lied to the Holy Spirit, and it was said they lied to God.
— Yes.
— Yeah. So you have three that are God; it's not three gods; the three combined are one God. Is it a little complex? If you like. I find that relatively simple. But it's okay for God to be complex because He's God.
— Mm-hmm.
— So let's keep it simple: There are three, and They are one. The Bible appears, to me, to be clear. Now, if you go listening to a skeptic or a naysayer or a critic or a troublemaker, yeah, and if you allow your mind to be opened to that, you may end up getting really confused. So I would respect anybody who would disagree, but the Bible to me seems to be very clear.
— Several places in Scripture you find this element. In Creation, it says the Spirit "was hovering over...the waters". "Then God said, 'Let us make man in our image.'"
John Bradshaw: That's correct.
— And you find all those verses, John, chapter 16, there's the three mentioned: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
— Jesus was baptized, Jesus in the water, the Father spoke from heaven, and the Holy Spirit landed upon Him.
— The Godhead is one in unity, one in purpose, one in heart. It's three separate persons, but one God, and that, it's really not that difficult to understand. It's pretty clear, it's pretty simple, pretty straightforward, and people try to overthink it, I think.
— I think so.
— And they try to make it something that it isn't, and that becomes very confusing, and sometimes folks can kind of prey on people that, you gotta watch that; you gotta be very careful.
— What happens is this. So somebody will talk to somebody who's never really given it a lot of thought, and they'll expose 'em and say, "What about that"? "Oh! Oh yeah". And they swoop in.
— Mm-hmm.
— It's unfortunate.
— It is very sad.
— Karen: "I know little about the Sabbath, but I see it in the Bible. Can you explain how it ought to be kept? What to do and what not to do? Thank you"! Karen, the answer is yes, we can, and no, we can't. We are not gonna give you the exhaustive "thou shalt" and "thou must never" because we don't wanna bog it down with that right now. So here's the thing; the Bible says we "keep it holy". The Bible says clearly we don't do secular work on that day. It makes it clear it's a day to spend with God. Nehemiah made really clear we don't conduct commerce, no buying and selling on the Sabbath. It's a day to do good. Jesus went about doing good. What would you add to that? We don't wanna say you can't, you can't, you can't, you can't, you can't, because this is a growing thing. If Karen talks with God and reads her Bible, she will get an idea of, you know...
— Sure.
— ...and may even grow in that idea of what's appropriate. But let's see it as a day of great possibility.
— I see it as a great, a day of great freedom, and Jesus sets us free on that day, free from the cares of this world, free from the cares of this life, from having to pay bills, and from being answerable to a boss. And really, God has created that day for us to be in relationship with Him. So we wanna do that. The Bible says that Jesus went to church on the Sabbath.
— Yes.
— Luke, chapter 4, verse 16, it's a beautiful example to go fellowship with other believers. But people sometimes ask, "Well, why, why can't we buy? Why don't we, why don't we work"? Very simply, Jesus sets us free on that day, and He wants us to set others free as well. He wants us to be inviting them into that same relationship with Him. So there are many good things to do. You can go out into nature.
John Bradshaw: Yes.
— You can visit your friends. You can go to church. You can go visit that relative that you never seem to have time for.
— Or that elderly person or that unwell person that no one ever seems to visit.
— That's right.
— Yeah.
— So there's many wonderful things to do to keep the Sabbath, and the Bible gives very guarded principles, and this is really a growing experience.
— It is.
— It's growing. Some things you might think to yourself, yeah, I don't see any harm in that. Two or three years down the road God may say, "That's not the best idea," you know.
— Yeah.
— ...you've done that, but you're growing. So keep growing in Jesus, follow the clear principles right up front, and let God continue to strengthen you in that.
— I was a Sunday-go-to-church person for many years, and that's, I'm not knocking anybody who's still there.
— Sure.
— I'd go to church, mass, in the morning, eight o'clock. I'd slip out a little early, start work at the gas station at 9:30, work all day. The word "Sabbath" means "rest".
— Yes.
— That wasn't a Sabbath. We are wired, programmed to need rest that seventh day. We're not only on a circadian rhythm, but a circaseptan rhythm, a seven-day rhythm. God knows best. What does it say about God? He says, "I wanna give you a day off". That's pretty good. "I wanna spend that day with you".
— Couldn't get better than that.
— That's outstanding.
— That's amazing.
— Yeah, amazing.
— Absolutely.
— Isabelle: "Was Satan in the world in the beginning when the Almighty God made man and woman"? Well, he existed, he existed at that time, but was he on the planet? It doesn't seem that he was.
— It doesn't seem that he was, and, you know, later, shortly after Adam and Eve were created, there he was in the garden. So he came at some point; we don't know exactly when that was. Doesn't seem like the devil was there when God was creating the world, but I'm sure he was observing very closely what God was doing, and when God placed Adam and Eve in the garden, he was right there; he wanted to bring that temptation on. So, great question, but the answer is, probably not, but was soon after.
— Amen, amen. Question from Joshua: "Is it a sin to drink alcohol? Can you please provide scriptures with answers"? Let's ask ourselves this question, free for a moment from the specter of sin. You think it's God's will for you to poison yourself? For every 10 deaths, for every 10 smoking cancer deaths, there's 6 alcohol cancer deaths.
— Mm-hmm.
— No one's talking about that. Alcohol causes cancer. Alcohol causes misery. Just ask some poor wife or girlfriend with a black eye and a split lip if she thinks people who love Jesus should drink alcohol. I think she's going to tell you no. Alcohol is damaging, and your body "is the temple of the Holy Spirit". The thing is, man, there's peer pressure. People drink these days.
— That's right, yes.
— They drink, and if you don't, you the oddball. Except...these days people eat weird stuff, drink whatever they wanna drink. It's easier than ever before to say, "No, thanks. I just don't do that". Easier than ever before.
— Mm-hmm.
— Let's look at some Bible verses. You got something for us?
— Yeah. You know, There's a great text here in Proverbs 31 and verse 4. Now, I'm gonna read two texts in two different places, but there's a very strong connection. Proverbs 31, verse 4, he says, "It is not for kings, O Lemuel, it is not for kings to drink wine, nor for princess intoxicating drink; lest they drink and forget the law, and pervert the justice of all the afflicted". Now, if you go to Revelation, chapter 1, I find this very powerful connection here.
— Okay.
— In Revelation, chapter 1, you find John here, and it is in verse 5 and 6. It says, "And from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler over the kings of the earth. To Him who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood, and...made us kings and priests..."
John Bradshaw: Mm-hmm!
— So in Proverbs it says alcohol, the destructive kind, is not for kings, and Revelation, the Bible says that Jesus makes us kings and priests. I can't imagine the priest being drunk. Now, I wanna say this, Pastor John. My grandmother was killed in a car accident by a guy who was on his way to the liquor store to buy liquor...
— Ooh! Yeah.
— ...on Thanksgiving Day.
— Mmm.
— I can't find any good thing that liquor has brought about in society, not one good thing.
John Bradshaw: No.
— And many people say, "Oh, there's health benefits to it". But the same benefits that perceivably are found there are actually found in the fresh juice as well.
— Yeah, they'll tell you that there's the stuff in red wine...
— Yes.
— ...that's evidently good. Well, the same properties are in...
— That's right.
— ...red grape juice.
— Just regular juice.
— Proverbs: "Who hath woe"? Interesting, this comes right after a passage talking about immorality.
Wes Peppers: That's right.
— "Who hath woe? Who hath sorrow? Who hath contentions? Who hath babbling? Who hath wounds without cause"? People wake up in the morning like, "What in the world happened to me"? "Who hath redness of eyes"? The answer: "They that tarry long at the wine; they that go to seek mixed wine. Look not thou upon the wine when it is red, when it giveth his colour in the cup, when it moveth itself aright", when it's fermented, "At the last it bites like a serpent,... stings like an adder. Your eyes shall behold strange women, ...your heart shall utter perverse things. You'll be like one who lied down in the midst of the sea, or...he that lieth upon the top of a mast. You'll say, 'They have stricken me,...and I was not sick; they have beaten me,...I didn't feel it: and when...I awake? I will seek it yet again". It's better to live without it.
— I have to say none of that sounds attractive to me.
— Not at all.
— Not one bit.
— Great program.
— Yes.
— Thank you very much.
Wes Peppers: Thank you.
— Thank you very much, we have loved having you with us. We will do it again. With Wes Peppers, I'm John Bradshaw. This has been "Line Upon Line," brought to you by It Is Written.