Questions and Answers, Part 18
Selected Scriptures
Okay, tonight we're going to let you ask some questions so it's your time and there is a microphone over there and in the middle and over here and all you need to do is just stand behind a microphone and then I'll just kind of pick you out and you can ask a question, whatever is on your heart. Make them as brief as you can. Can you do that? So that we can get as many people covered as possible and you can just kind of jump up and get in line if you want and we'll go as long as we have. And I hate like everything to leave anybody out but it does happen so we'll do the best we can with folks that are there.
Okay we'll start over here on my right. Give us your name first and that'll help.
TONY: Hi John, my name is Tony Costanzo and first of all I just want to tell you I really thank you for the privilege we've have had of sitting in your ministry for the past several years. It's great. It's really been a blessing to us.
JOHN: Thank you, Tony.
TONY: It's really been a blessing to us. Two brief questions. One in Matthew 12:31-32 it talks about the blasphemy of the spirit, Holy Spirit and in Hebrews 6:4-6 it talks about crucifying again the Son of God. And I was wondering if you could explain the differences and/or similarities in those passages.
JOHN: What he's really asking is how does the Holy Spirit in Matthew 12 and we'll get to that sometime after I get back from my vacation Matthew 12, how does it relate to Hebrews 6? Now we talked about Hebrews 6 a little bit last time where it says those who were once enlightened pace at the heavenly gift. You know that passage? Were made partakers of the Holy Spirit. If they've fallen away, it's impossible to renew them again to repentance, seeing they crucify the Son of God and put him to an open shame. Essentially those two passages are parallel, Tony, because what happened in 12 of Matthew is identical to what the writer of Hebrews is talking about.
You see the Pharisees, the reason they blasphemed the Holy Spirit was they had seen everything Jesus did, right? All his miracles, all his works, they'd heard all his teaching, every possible exposure to him had been given to them and they rejected it and they concluded that he is of the devil. And so he says with all of that light and all of that information, you have concluded 180 degrees opposite the truth and therefore, in a sense, it's impossible for you to be renewed to repentance because when you had full light, you concluded the very opposite thing. So in Hebrews 6 he's saying the same thing. Some of you who have had full exposure to the full light and turned your back on Christ at that point can never be renewed again to repentance because you rejected with the full information. All right.
DENNIS: My name is Dennis Palmer. And my brother and sister-in-law just started attending a church where the pastor is a omillienialist and he also believes that you can lose your salvation. Should they feel comfortable and stay there or move on to a dispensational teaching church just a little bit further away?
JOHN: Well yeah. You know sure. I'd say go where the truth is taught. There's no - you see we are responsible for what we know and we're responsible to make the most out of our life. I don't hesitate to tell people, you don't have any obligation to sit in a church where you are not learning the truth, where you're being confused. You have responsibility before God to expose yourself to the truth, so you better find the place where that's being taught. Naturally I think that position is not a biblical position, that you can lose your salvation and that there is no kingdom coming and we've talked about that in other question/answer nights. So yeah. You know it's like some guy was saying to me today you know this guy said well I know our pastor doesn't really teach the word but I've been in this church for 35 years and I'll outlast him. But that isn't the way you look at the church. You know you aren't trying to outlast pastors. You are trying to get somewhere where you can get built up in the faith. So I don't hesitate to encourage people to make that kind of a transition.
Gordon?
GORDON: I'm Gordy Carlson. And I had a question here. I've been talking to several people and they've pushed me about reincarnation and I've been trying to research and find some point where reincarnation got mixed in with the scriptural teachings of the Old Testament and all the other writings that have been around, like the Kaballah and the Talmah and all this other exo-scriptural writings. Do they contain references to reincarnation that were eliminated?
JOHN: Basically the Kaballah, the Koran, the Bagavagida, all of those have references to reincarnation. Now all world religions stem from Babel but for us it's clear to understand because when the people were scattered, they were scattered from the Tower of Babel. But in a more contemporary mode, all the world religions basically have been born out of Hinduism. And Hinduism is built on a reincarnation system. And the whole idea is that you just keep reincarnating and reincarnating. That's why they won't kill cows and won't step on bugs and won't kill flies and I pointed that out remember when we were doing the series on the disciples' prayer about the food thing. The reason people in India are starving is not because there is not enough food. And Dera Ghandi herself says they can feed the nation three times over and export more than eat but 30% of it is eaten up by rats and mice, which they will not kill because they don't want to mess up somebody's karma who is living in the rat.
So it is their pagan religion that binds them in this kind of thing. But reincarnation answers the major problem that the pagan world faces. Romans 1:18, "the wrath of God is revealed" right? And that is the heart and soul of the gospel - that God is going to pour out wrath on sinful man. Now how can man deny that? So that's his dilemma. He doesn't want to accept God. He doesn't want to accept the truth. He doesn't want to accept the gospel. So somehow he's got to replace this concept of judgment. The bible says Hebrews 9:22 "is appointed unto men once to die, and after that, the judgment". So the bible denies reincarnation in that one verse.
Now let me just go a little step further. But at that point the system of man says we deny judgment. In 2Peter it says, "where is the promise of his coming, all things continuing as they were from the beginning" so forth and so forth. They don't want to admit judgment. Now the way they get out of judgment is by this constant cycle of reincarnation. You are never judged. You just keep cycling through human existence again and again. There's no consequences to what you do except the lowering or raising of your karma in life. And it is a calculated design to evade the reality of judgment.
GORDY: Has anybody done any research on how it got from eastern religions into Judaism and Christianity?
JOHN: Well there really is no reincarnation in true Judaism and there is no reincarnation in Christianity.
GORDY: None of the Old Testament writings that were around at the same time had reincarnation in them?
JOHN: Well sure. Reincarnation has been around for a long time but the bible never picks it up. In fact the bible doesn't even comment on it. I mean if you are looking for a verse, it doesn't even comment. I have a friend named John Weldon who has done a lot of research on reincarnation. He has a new book out on the occult. You might check in there. There might be a section on it. Also International Standard Bible Encyclopedia or Zonervan's Encyclopedia or Baker's Dictionary of Theology might have a section on reincarnation, give you some historical background.
GORDON: Okay. Thank you.
PHILLIP: John, my name is Phillip. I was talking to a friend today and his church up in Oxnard is having a little controversy within the congregation about faith. Apparently some people are getting involved in a very charismatic type of thinking and specifically I guess it comes from Ken Copeland. He's talking about well it's kind of like let God, let go thinking. And human responsibility has little to do to exercise your faith. You just trust God. Now I explained to him to look at what biblical faith was in Hebrews 11 and the fact that the patriarchs for example did things that their faith changed their behavior. I was wondering what you might suggest to tell him to help him along.
JOHN: The reason basically, Phillip, that people get involved in that Kenneth Hagen, Kenneth Copeland, Frederick Price and a lot of lesser lights stuff, the reason people get involved in that is because they do not understand the nature of God. And God for them is nothing more than a utilitarian genie. You rub the bottle; he jumps out and does what you demand. It is a man-centered theology. It is based on health, wealth and happiness. I can say it to you simply this way. Those guys say you can - they call it affirmation faith. They use a lot of different terms but ever increasing faith, affirmation faith and you know they are like the clock that doesn't run. They are right twice a day and that's what confuses people.
See I mean they just intersect with the truth a couple of times and so people - and they are clever. But basically what they are saying is you can demand healing. Hagen and Copeland say they never have been sick. Never been sick. But they are going to die but they are never sick, they never have problems, they are always successful, always enough money and so forth. So that's what they are promising. Now I would just say that the problem basically is of a man-centered theology, you get into for what you can get out of it. You demand healing. You demand prosperity. You demand a new job. You demand a new car. And they call it faith and it isn't faith at all. It is indulgence under the guise of faith.
They just absolutely murder the scripture by misinterpretation. They just adulterate it all over the place, twisting it to make their own goals and there is always a sort of a major ego thing that you see just as big as a spotlight in the middle of the whole deal. Just another step I would add. Any system that comes along and promises health and prosperity and all of that stuff is the utter antithesis to what the gospel offers men. Jesus said, "If you do not want to take up the cross and follow me, you are not willing to be my disciple." Jesus said to the young guy who came along and said I got to go home and bury my father, which means collect my inheritance, forget it. Another guy came along and said I'll follow you wherever you go. He said the foxes have holes; the birds of the air have nests. The son of man has nowhere to lay his head and the guy split. In other words, he said I don't want you on the terms that you are looking for comfort. I want you on the terms that you are going to abandon comfort.
But these guys are coming around and the very things that Jesus rejected in followers, they are giving to followers and saying this is the gospel and this is the very opposite gospel to what Jesus offered. So you see they don't understand that the character and nature of God. He is holy. He is sovereign. He is Lord. They have made man the Lord who will tell God what to do. And I think as I've said before that is one of the most insidious things happening in America today because it sounds so good and so flowery and warm and they're almost like - Copeland is almost like a standup comic. You know he's funny. He's really funny and he sort of draws people in with his humor. Fred Price is a clever speaker.
But you know I'm more and more convinced and that's why I don't hesitate to talk about these things that I am called by God to preserve the sacredness of sound doctrine. Just for an illustration of that, be with you in a minute Pat. I got to preach here a minute. But in 1 Timothy, just to give you the perspective and when I get done with Romans or Matthew, I'm going to teach 1 Timothy. But it says, "If a man desires the opposite of a bishop or an elder or a pastor, he desires the good work." All right. Then it gives all of the qualifications. 1 Timothy 3, he has to be a one woman man, b