Questions and Answers, Part 8
Selected Scriptures
For tonight, we're gonna answer some Bible questions that were left from the...the last couple of times. We tried to cover all of the questions, but were unable to do it; and tonight we'll cover a few more of them.
Paul reasoned with them out of the Scripture. He dialogued. He answered their questions. Jesus spent a tremendous amount of time answering questions. Reading in the Gospels, you find that day after day after day, the disciples asked Jesus questions, and He gave them answers to the questions; and so I feel it's very important to do this; and we always have a great time doing it. Now, the questions may or may not be related; and I really don't know what's gonna happen when I get up here; so it's a grab bag for me. I sort things out in my mind as we go; and so I'm not always sure how it'll end up; but we trust the Holy Spirit to tie it all together.
The first question that comes is what does the Bible say about divining rods? Now, I don't know if you know what a divining rod is; but it's a stick that has been used in past history to find water. This is a very ancient custom; and just a couple of weeks ago, somebody asked me if I thought it was all right, because this person's father or uncle had hired somebody with a divining rod. You hold two ends of it. It's like a... it's a wishbone. You hold two ends of it, and the pointed end will take you to water, supposedly.
What does the Bible say about divining rods, or, as it's called in its scientific term, radiasthesis? Well, it does say something, believe it or not. Deuteronomy chapter 18. Deuteronomy chapter 18 verse 10...And, of course, the Lord is talking to the children of Israel, warning them that way...when they enter the land of Israel, they're gonna run into all kinds of strange religious customs; and He tells them that these things are an abomination, and they are not to be involved with 'em at all. And in verse 10, He says, "There shall not be found among you, that is, when you enter the land, of course, and you mingle with the people, the potential is there, but the abominations of the nations you're to avoid. Not be found among you any one who makes his son or daughter pass through the fire." And that was a custom of those who worshipped the God Moloch, to pass their children through the fire. "Or who useth divination, or an observer of times...that would be an astrologer, incidentally. Astrological charts are forbidden Scripture...or an enchanter, or a witch, or a charmer, or a consulter of mediums, or a wizard, or a necromancer."
Now, you have various terms. We're not gonna take the time to point out, but the word divination in verse 10 has to do with this idea of divining. That is trying to...to find something through a divine contact; and that is forbidden. In Hosea chapter 4 and verse 12, we read this. "My people ask counsel of their idols...now listen...and their staff declareth unto them." Now, staff there does not mean like the staff of the church. It means a divining rod. They literally consult a divining rod...and here He is speaking about their idolatry; and, of course, it's a forbidden thing to consult a divining rod. Now the reason is simple. Because you are entering the world of mediums and demons. Demons get their wishes and their will through all of the various methods mentioned in Deuteronomy 18; and divining rods is simply a way that you release your mind to an outside power, much like a Ouija board, and demonic control can be the result; and so it's a forbidden thing; and it has been ever since the time of Israel.
All right, a second question. My brother-in-law attends a church where a woman is the minister. Is this right? Well, the answer is no, it's not right; and I was interested, weren't you, last week to see where the Episcopal Church ordained a woman priest, not only a woman but a stated lesbian woman priest; and now the Episcopal Church has moved into that category. It's startling to realize how far afield the church has come from the Bible. I was talking to this fellow from Dallas Seminary yesterday, and he had just left the conference that was held up in the Berkeley area, around Stanford somewhere. No, it wasn't Berkeley, across the Bay. But there was a conference there of all seminary people involved in administration in seminaries; and he said what was so interesting about it was that they did not have prayer, lest they would offend someone. These are all seminary men; and the only song that they could agree on to sing was You Are My Sunshine, so they sang that before each session... Well, you know, when you see the Episcopal Church come to the place where they will ordain a woman and ordain a lesbian woman, you know that they have opted out for the floating ethics of a society that has no authority. They have abandoned the Scripture, because the Bible is very clear about whether a woman could pastor; and I'll show you a couple of incidents. In 1 Timothy, is a good place to begin; and we'll just do this briefly, because we've covered it before, but I...I wanna clear up your mind if you're the one who asked the question, or you still have this question.
First Timothy chapter 3 and verse...2. Now, the word bishop here is the same as pastor or elder, minister of a church is what it means. "A bishop must be blameless, the husband of one wife," a one-woman man is literally the Greek, a one-woman man. Now, it's very hard for a woman to be a one-woman man. Very difficult...Like the lesbian, she could be a one-woman woman, but not a one-woman man. So here you have the husband of one wife, indicating that an elder would be one who was a man totally devoted to his wife. Now, backing up to verse 11 of 1 Timothy 2, it says, "Let the women learn in silence with all subjection. I permit not a woman to teach, nor to take authority over the man, but to be in silence. For Adam was first formed, then Eve. And Adam was not deceived; but the woman." In other words, because Adam was made first and because the woman was the first to sin, confirming the priority of man in terms of leadership. God says, "This is an age-old principle that the man is in authority, and the woman takes the place of submission.
In 2 Timothy, I think it most interesting that 2 Timothy 2:2 gives us a pattern for leadership in the church. "And the things that thou hast heard from me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men who shall be able to teach others also." The teachers within the church are to be men who have the responsibility to teach others also. Titus 1:6, again, "The husband of one wife," or a one-woman man...again implying that women are not in a position of being ministers. No, I believe that, in the church, men are to minister. Now, that is not...that is not a chauvinistic statement. That is a Biblical statement; and I'm not here to advocate a chauvinistic viewpoint or anti-woman or any of that. I'm just echoing what the Spirit of God has said in the Scripture, and so it is not right for a woman to be in the role of a pastor.
Now, there are some people who say, "Well, that was just cultural." No, it wasn't just cultural; and that's why Paul pointed back to Adam and Eve. It was...it was from the beginning that way. It was not just a Corinthian culture or a culture around the time of the Apostle Paul. So I think it's wrong; and, of course, if it's wrong, then I don't think that we oughta associate with such a church, because I think that is in very obvious defiance of the Word of God.
Okay, a third question, and this will take a little more time to answer, but I think it's a really interesting question. If there is no more condemnation to those in Christ, does God still punish believers? That's a good question. If there's no more condemnation to those in Christ, does God still punish believers? Let's look at Hebrews chapter 12. Hebrews chapter 12, and let's see what the Bible has to say...Because here you have a great statement relative to chastening. Now, notice in verse 5, he says, "Have you forgotten the exhortation which speaks unto you as unto sons: 'My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when you're rebuked of Him.'" Now, you see the word chastening. The word chastening is an interesting word. In the Bible you have some words associated with punishment and some words associated with training. This word is associated with training. It is piedaya, and piedaya is a word very similar to piedeya, and piedeya means child; and piedaya has to do with the training of a child. So the term here is not krino. Krino is a term of judgment. It is not kotakrino, which is the term for damnation; but it is the term for training. There will be in the life of a believer a certain amount of chastening or a certain amount of difficulty brought on for the purpose of training him to spiritual maturity.
In 1 Corinthians 11:29, it even uses the word krino, and krino means punishment, but not kotakrino, which is the very forceful kind of condemnation and damnation that Paul speaks of in Romans 8 when he says, "There's therefore now no kotakrino. No condemnation." There will never be kotakrino or damnation to the believer, because Christ has already borne that; but there will be krino, which is a lesser kind of punishment, and there will be piedaya, which is a training process, or a chastening with a view to changing behavior.
Now, I believe there are three reasons for which God responds in chastening. No. 1 is retribution. I do believe that in the life of a believer, when he sins, God will respond with some chastening. People wanna say today, "Well, we're under grace, and God never chastens us. God never, for our sin, it's all covered." I don't believe that. I believe though the sin is forgiven and set aside, God still chastens the believer so that he will remember not to do that again. As in...as in David's case, God forgave David, and then God made him pay a terrible penalty, so he wouldn't think about doing it again. Your children are the same way. You spank your child and forgive your child at the same time. Forgiving him because you're gracious and loving and spanking him so he doesn't do it again, so he learns that there are consequences to that kind of behavior. And David, in Bathsheba's case, it's pointed up. It also is pointed up in 1 Corinthians 11, where it says, "Because of the sin of the Corinthians, many of them are weak and sickly, and some of them were actually dead." So the Lord might even take your life, ultimately, as an act of retribution against your sin; and when that happens, you say, "Well, that's for sure you'd never do it again if