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Well, what about this supposed Bible contradiction? The question is, John 118 tells us that no man has seen God at any time. But Genesis 32 30, Jacob says, I have seen God face to face and my life is preserved. Which is it? Can no one see God, as the New Testament says, actually in a couple places? Or is it true that people have seen God and that this is something that can happen? It seems like just a flat contradiction, really, when you take those two concepts and just put them together. We're going to unpack that today. Um, I'm Mike Winger, by the way, and my goal is to help you learn to think biblically about everything. I labor at not just giving answers, but about giving people the process to coming to their own answers about the Bible and weighing the pros and cons and different views and that sort of thing. My goal here is to be a blessing to you, and I hope this is a blessing to you. I've got tons and tons and tons of free content, hundreds and hundreds of hours of free content here on my YouTube channel. Or maybe you're listening on podcast and right here on podcast as well as Bible thinker.org. But I gotta tell you two quick things before answer this question. The first thing is, I want you to watch out for scammers impersonating me. Um, there have been quite a few of these. We've had scammers impersonating me a lot for years now. Um, but I just recently was hearing about more people doing it through telegram and reaching out. Here's the story. I got. Someone says, hey, Mike, somebody reached out on YouTube and they commented and said, know, contact me on Telegram. And then they follow the link and they used my profile image so it made it look like it was my YouTube channel commenting. They follow the link and they go to telegram. And here the scammer tells, um, you know, God bless you, and what do you like about my ministry and stuff? And they try to impersonate me. They then go on to tell the person, I have a special gift for you. I'm going to give you the gift, but you need to just pay for the Shipping. And so the guy goes, okay, sure. Um, all right. And he's getting a little suspicious at this point because he just feels like it doesn't quite sound like me the way the guy's talking. And it just seems a little fishy, but he's kind of feeling it out. And the guy clicks on this little link and it says, here's where you can pay for shipping. And he's supposed to pay 50, $60 us dollars for shipping to get some mystery item in the mail. Listen, I will never do anything like that with you. I don't reach out to people personally and ask for money. I never will. Um, I don't even allow, at least unless for some reason this changes and there becomes a reason why I should change it. I don't even allow the, uh, YouTube monetization features where people can give super chats and super, thanks. And even we're live right now, there'd be money coming in through super chats. I don't allow it because the goal here in this ministry is to be a ministry and not to.

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I'm not trying to write other channels that do that for different reasons. Okay? My ministry goals, my direction is to not do that kind of stuff. If you ever have a question about something, go to biblethinker.org. That's the only, like, outside of my YouTube channel or official things like that. That's the only place you can double check that sort of thing. Go to biblethinker.org. Look there. See if what you see in other places is matching what you see right there. I just don't do that kind of stuff. So I want you guys to know that watch out for scammers. Um, if anybody reaches out to you and it looks even a little bit sketchy, it's probably not me. It's probably a fake person. And there's lots of people doing this. There's people impersonating all sorts of, uh, people that are online that have like a YouTube channel or something like that. So you got to be on your guard, okay? Don't click stuff. Don't send links. Western union telegram and Whatsapp are, like, some of the top three scamming things that people use. So when those pop up, something's very probably wrong.

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Um, at any rate, second thing is this. And then I'll answer the question about no man has seen God at any time. Second thing is this.

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Um, I made a mistake in yesterday's video. Yesterday's video I put up was the final video in the women in ministry series, and it covers all the questions you've been asking that you've been wanting me to answer this whole time. I did all the work of the Bible study stuff. Now it's like, practical application, summary of all of what scripture says on this stuff. One big video to put it all out there and get to the nitty gritty, uh, to the best of my ability. But I made one particular embarrassing mistake. And, yeah, I'm baiting you. I'm going to tell it to you at the end of today's ten questions livestream. So first we'll get to question number one. And it's going to be weird. I'm going to plug something in. Give me a second.

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Here's the behind the scenes. That's right, just some cheap counter I bought on the Internet. Um, okay, so question number one. Here we go. Little unorthodox today.

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Let's talk about first, how many verses have this issue? Uh, the bible tells us no one can see God yet. The bible also tells us that multiple people have seen God. And some would say this is an internal contradiction in the bible. Um, and it would unsettle them, it would concern them, or at least they would want an intellectual answer. So we can add, uh, more details to what we'll call the problem here, or at least the appearance of a problem.

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So Moses saw God, it says in exodus 33. Um, and it says he also talked with God face to face. Isaiah, uh, saw God. Isaiah 61. In the year that king uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on the throne, exalted. And all this stuff. Uh, verse six also says that, um, jacob saw God in Genesis 32. I'll put one of these verses up for you to see. Jacob called the name of the place peniel, saying, for I have seen God face to face, and yet my life has been delivered. That was the verse that was brought up in the question. Samson's, uh, parents saw God. Judges 1322. Manoah and his wife Ezekiel saw God. Hagar saw God in Genesis 1613. She says, truly here I have seen him. Who looks after me? Job saw God 42, verse five. Now my eyes have seen you, and I repent. Gideon in judges 622 and 23, I would argue he saw God as well, but scripture says no one can see God. So here's a few verses on that. John 118.

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No one has ever seen God.

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Okay. No one's ever seen God. One. Timothy 616. That God alone has immortality, who dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see.

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Okay? And I think, actually, spoiler. Um, I think John and Paul are talking about two different things when they make these statements. But, uh, we'll try to get into it in some detail. Hopefully. I remember to come back to that Timothy one first. Uh, John 412. No one has ever seen God.

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So we have these sort of conflicting ideas. And, uh, the first thing I want to point out is this is important. Anytime you're reading any work, listening to any teacher. And if you're looking for contradictions, they're not that hard to find.

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If you're not looking at context, if you just take statements out of context and cram them together, it's not difficult to find apparent contradictions in anybody's speech or writings. But when you look at them in context, you realize, and this is often the case, the authors are smarter than you think. Like for those who think, say, genesis one and two have, uh, a, uh, contradiction, because you've got the animals being made at a different time in Genesis one than they are in Genesis two, uh, people who make those kinds of statements, the order of creation is different in these two chapters. It's like they're not remembering that the same.

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They're appearing in the same work, one chapter from each other. Writers are more intelligent than that. And John, you should look for an explanation that makes more sense, that isn't this just assuming contradiction in the gospel of John, in John one, we read that no one has seen God, right? But in John twelve, we see that the new Testament authors are deeply aware of the Old Testament. This is going to be something I would say, and I think some people online would just kind of fluff it off. Like, yeah, he's just talking. He's making apologetic stuff up again. Um, I would say, hey, the authors of the scripture are intelligent. The New Testament writers who said no one has seen God, they knew about and believed the accounts in the Old Testament where someone says, I saw God, they knew that and believed it. And so we should assume there's some different meaning when they say, no one can do this thing, even though I've seen someone do this other thing in the Old Testament, they must be talking about something different. That seems to me a reasonable and charitable way of reading somebody. Now, some would push back, but I will say, let me quote to you scripture that demonstrates this. This is John, same author who brilliantly understands the Old Testament. And he writes, in John 1240, he quotes Isaiah six. Where did Isaiah see God? Isaiah, chapter six, he has blinded their eyes and hardened their heart, lest they see with their eyes and understand with their heart and turn, and I would heal them. So John is obviously not ignorant of Isaiah six, where Isaiah sees God. Yet John in John one says, no one has seen God. But, Mike, just because he knows Isaiah six doesn't mean that he remembers that Isaiah saw God. But look at verse 41. John, chapter twelve, verse 41. Isaiah said these things because he saw his God's glory and spoke of him.

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So John clearly believes that Isaiah uh, actually saw God. And it's that same John in John 118 who writes that no one has seen God.

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So what are we dealing with? We're dealing with here? Different kinds of seeing.

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Okay, already I know this number. Oh, this is more apologetic nonsense, but we do this all the time. When someone explains something to you you didn't understand, and you say, oh, I see.

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You're dealing with a different kind of seeing than if someone says, hey, do you see the squirrel? And you go, I see the squirrel.

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We do this in a different way.

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Um, like, I'm about to, uh, explain something to you you've never seen before. And I don't even mean seen there. I mean, no, don't I? So, in John 118, what kind of seeing are we talking about? Well, it seems clear in the passage, no one has ever seen God, the only God who is at the father's side. He has made him known. This seeing is talking about a knowing, not just a visual representation. But then maybe there's the aspects of it that are important there, but there's a knowing that takes place. Right? So Isaiah saw God, but not made known. In the way that John is showing Jesus makes us known there's differences. Let me give you some more on this. Um, there's Moses in Exodus 33, verses 20 through 23.

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Here it says, Moses is going through his experience of desiring to see God and even asks, please show me your glory. I want to see you. He wants to have this real vision of deep, deep awareness of God. He's almost asking for more than a visual of God, but maybe, uh, of a real experiential knowledge of God, like that deep knowing of God. Um, but God says, you cannot see my face, for a man shall not see me and live so well. Let me back up. We will need a little bit more here. Moses says in verse 18, moses says, please show me your glory. And he said, and here's what God will do for him. I will make all my goodness pass before you and will proclaim my name before you, the Lord. And I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy. But he said, you cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live. So he could see God in some sense, but he couldn't see him in another sense. And the Lord said, behold, there is a place by me where you shall stand on the rock. And while my glory passes by, I will put you in a cleft of the rock, and I will cover you with my hand. Until I have passed by. Then I will take away my hand, and you shall see my back, but my face shall not be seen.

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So I could say, oh, I saw God face to face. And what I mean is right in his presence. But there's another sense of seeing God that is like this what Moses was talking about, like seeing sort of the fullness of God. I mean, he's like, I'll put my hand there. Is it a literal hand? Probably not so much. It's like an anthropomorphism. But you'll be able to see my hand, see my back.

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You can see aspects of God, truly God, truly seeing God, but not seeing his face. So there's a seeing and not seeing at the same time. In other words, it's just more intelligent than a, um, simplistic seeing or not seeing.

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So context gives us some of that. In, uh, John 118, we have that parallel of seeing with knowing. So there's more to it than that. In John 17 three, we get more information.

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This actually gets to be pretty cool theology when we get into the details of it. This is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. Eternal life is what that they know you and Jesus Christ, whom you've sent. There's a knowing that has to happen. There's a revelation of who God is that's in Jesus. That is nowhere else found except in sort of, you see the side of it and the back of it in the Old Testament. And then it's the full frontal revelation of Christ, the full exposure to the truth of the prophecies fulfilled, the person of God, the love of God, the death and resurrection of Christ, his holiness, and all that amazing stuff.

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There's more context, though, we get in the gospel of John. Let me give it to you now. Uh, John one eight. Let's combine that with John 313. No one has ascended into heaven except he who has descended from heaven, the son of man. He's talking here about how Jesus is the.

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Everybody, uh, else was like a messenger who came, that brought a message. Jesus brings the knowledge of heaven with him in a very much deeper and bigger way. You catch that there is this revelation in Christ that is simply never known before. In John 646, we see the following. Not that anyone has seen the father, except he was from God. He has seen the Father. Again, this is a seeing that goes deeper than what Isaiah saw in where John twelve, same author. He's aware of Isaiah, but he's like, this is a different kind of seeing. Qualitatively a different sort of thing. Then we have, um, examples in the Old Testament of these types of qualitative differences. So Moses saw God, but with limitations. We see job saw God, but he saw him in a whirlwind. So there's like an obscured experience of seeing God. Isaiah saw God, but again, Isaiah sees him in a vision, and he's intimidated by the presence of God. He's fearful of judgment and the presence of God, but there's some distance associated there with his experience, it seems. Then you've got theophanes in the Old Testament. Now, theophanies in the Old Testament are, um, especially interesting because Moses sees the burning bush. He sees the angel of the Lord in the burning bush.

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Theophany means an appearance of God in the Old Testament. He sees the angel of the Lord in the burning bush. But when the angel speaks to him, it's clearly God speaking. So somehow the angel of the Lord is from God, but somehow the angel of the Lord is God. This becomes a picture of Christ as we see. I think it really is Jesus. And I have a video down below about the angel of the Lord going through a bunch of Old Testament scriptures on it. You guys can check out. Hagar saw God. We read, right? She sees him who sees her in Genesis 16. Yet the one she saw was the angel of the Lord. The text, uh, identifies this not just as sort of God in all of his glory, but God as this angel of the Lord, this sort of messenger. Um, um. And the angel of the Lord that speaks to hagar speaks as though he is God. He's identified as God in the passage. That's who she saw. But he speaks as though God is a third person. Interesting.

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Gideon, uh, Gideon, who sees God, but, well, in judges 622 and 23, I would argue you could check it out yourself, see if you agree. He sees the angel who speaks as God, the angel of the Lord who speaks as if he is God. Um, manoah and his wife saw effectively the angel of the Lord. This happens a lot in the Old Testament. What I'm saying is, qualitatively, these seeings of God in the scripture, in the Old Testament, um, are distanced in some way, are representative in some way, are like the angel of the Lord. Or you can see my back but not my front.

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So still, they didn't see God in the sense that Jesus revealed him in the New Testament. Jesus reveals God to us in a whole new way. This is, of course, a major theme in the scriptures, in the New Testament that there's this great revelation. Uh, we knew it was coming. The Old Testament was like, hey, there's a prophet that it will come one day, end of deuteronomy. And, um, listen to him. There's a great revelation coming. You're going to need to know. This will be a prophet like Moses. You're going to need to listen to him. This will be the big thing. I'll make a new covenant with my people. All these just amazing, amazing things.

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So Jesus shows up and he fulfills that. He fulfills that so that we see Jesus revealing God in a fuller and more complete way, in a way that we before would not really have known. So, yeah, you might have had these revelations about God, but in a sense, Jesus is the revelation of God. Like, in a greater sense. Hebrews one talks about this sort of, this superiority of the revelation of God in Jesus to all other things.

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Long ago, uh, at many times, and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets. But in these last days, he's spoken to us by his son, and then he talks about then the amazing wonders of Jesus. And what does he call Jesus? He's the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature. Jesus is not just one who reveals information about God, but one who reveals God. Okay, this is like, in a special way. So what do we do with this? Uh, application wise?

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I think it means this. It's not that the Old Testament appearances didn't reveal God, because they did. It's just that they didn't reveal God to the level that Jesus did. You couldn't say, I know God the way you can with Jesus. Jesus, when you see him, you trust in him. Even though I haven't physically seen it with my eyes, I've seen God in Christ. Right. It's more than a visual seeing. And now I know God. You trust in Christ, you're indwelt by the Holy Spirit. You are now seeing God in a way that was not possible before. Colossians 115 says he is the image of the invisible God. He makes God knowable is the idea Jesus reveals all of God's love and his holiness. In fact, right on the cross we see this, that God's love and holiness are both on display. Or as uh, scripture says, like, uh, justice and mercy have kissed, right? That there's justice because our sins are penalized. And we see how holy God is, that sin is that dark and sin is that bad, that the cross is something that needs to happen, but we see the love of God, that it's happening in my place. He's dying for me. And we see the power of God in the resurrection of Christ.

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These beautiful truths. It's amazing stuff. So Jesus makes God knowable, Jesus reveals all of God's holiness and love, and ultimately, then it's all just about Jesus. Uh, powerful and beautiful stuff. So, yeah, thanks for joining, guys. This is just question number one. We're going to question number two right now. And I take ten questions from the live chat every Friday at 01:00 p.m. Pacific time. Just trying to help you guys work through your questions in a biblical way. That is the agenda here. And let's do number two. Seth Elmore says, my wife had a question I did not know how to answer. If we are perfected at the end of time and perfect in God's presence, how are we not then equal with God? We realize that we will not be greater than God. But I'm not sure how to explain this subject. We would appreciate any help.

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Um, yeah, interesting question, Seth. Yeah. If I'm perfect, and certainly God is perfect and I'm made perfect, that's part of the completion of my sanctification, how is it that I'm not just m, right? So here's a way to consider this, is that perfection doesn't mean sharing all the same qualities, but it means sharing sort of a perfected or completed version of the qualities you've got.

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Let me, uh, give an illustration. So a perfect circle is not like a perfect knife.

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A perfect circle is something that is just perfectly round. All the angles are exactly right. A perfect knife has a lot more complexity to it and a lot more details to it. Right. It's going to have, like, weighting and the sharpness of it and the durability of it and the handling ability and all this stuff. I don't know. I'm thinking of knives. But at any rate, the perfect knife is not like the perfect circle.

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A perfect God is not like a perfect creation.

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There are just different kinds of perfect. A perfect child is not like a perfect parent, not that we have any of either of those in our world. But when you get to heaven and you are given the purification, the sanctification that comes through being rid of the flesh and rid of temptation, you become a perfect child of God, a perfect Christian, a perfect follower of God. But you don't become perfect in the sense of, now you're omniscient and now you're omnipresent. Those kinds of perfections are just not. Just like I wouldn't look at a circle and go, boy, the circle is perfect. But it would be an even more perfect circle if it was omniscient or if it could cut tomatoes really well, those aren't really qualities of circles. So I think that that would be the difference. Um, we're using the word perfect too broadly when we do it that way. Now, in the Greek, it's kind of a cool tidbit. In the Greek and the New Testament, when you read the word perfect, usually it's this word that can also be translated as complete or mature. And so I think that that's a good way to think of perfection as the completion and full maturity of something. So another parallel to this could be animals, a, um, perfect cat, a perfect dog, a perfect turtle. Like when it's come to its maturity, when it's full maturity, it's different than a human at their full maturity. And so it's that same sense when you've fully grown into all that God has for you, you'll reach that completion, that perfection, that full maturity. So, yeah, uh, the New Testament writers, it helps to, when you read the word perfect, to think about that, especially as it relates to people, it may well be talking about maturity. Let patience, James one says, have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing that's talking about maturity. You could be a mature, responsible, strong person with strong character there. It's not even talking about other aspects of maturity.

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All right, let's go to question number three. Oh, wait. Okay. Yeah, there we are. This comes in from joy in the valley, who says, how does godly womanhood differ from godly manhood outside of marriage? How do we define biblical femininity, especially for the unmarried woman? Does discipleship look different for women? There's a lot of questions there, and I think I'd probably want to spend time being careful about it. But I'll share some thoughts with you right now. So how does, uh, godly womanhood differ from godly manhood outside of marriage? Um, so a lot of the differences are going to be found in marriage, and I think that the differences in marriage are core that my understanding, and you need to have your own understanding of this, of course. But what I think I see in scripture is that the Adam and Eve stuff about him having more authority than Eve in their relationship, but them both having dominion over the earth, and a lot of them both be made in the image of God and having all those things that, that is a specifically a marriage focused reality. For instance, my wife does not have to submit to every man, just me, right. And even that submission is qualified, and it's not like, obey every single thing I think and want her to do, like some sort of powerless, uh, authorityless person that I think is an unbiblical view and becomes oppressive and weird.

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But there is that difference. I think that marriage is the core of that. I think eldership in the church and ministry that grows out of marriage, meaning that what we're preserving in male elders in the church, m is a marriage principle. Um, that's my understanding of it. That being said, if you're not married, then your femininity, your womanhood isn't going to express itself in a marriage relationship. There's no marriage. Just like if you don't have kids. It's almost like saying it's different. But there's a parallel in motherhood. What kind of womanhood do I express that looks like motherhood if I'm not a mother? Well, for the most part, you just don't like, you're not expressing it now. There's little flavors of it you can get out right where you go, oh, maybe I am that much closer to nieces or nephews or I find people that don't have a mother, and I have a special relationship with them. And that's a beautiful thing. That's great. But it's not like I can make some rule about that, that I extend from motherhood into other areas. So what I'm suggesting is femininity becomes more like a flavor that affects things. It's not like this sort of policy or rule that's in place where I extend it beyond marriage and all that stuff. Um, what does a femininity look like? How does it differ outside of marriage between men and women? Um, on an individual level, uh, it seems, or I should say, how about, put this way, in general, women saying, oh, I think of myself as being more in support roles, say in certain ministries, I'm more of support than I am leading in certain ministries, other ministries I think women can lead. And I think I've, uh, did my whole big video, you guys can check that out, where I tried to share the nuance on that kind of stuff. Whenever it's not in an elderlike fashion, step into those roles. So there in church ministry, you see a difference.

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I think not kidding ourselves is good. When it comes to things like, um, in tv and movies, women are, you're sort of being taught unintentionally, maybe intentionally, by movies and tv shows and books, that women are supposed to be as strong as men fight as well as men, and be as tough as men.

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And I think that's weird. Um, in general, there's women who are stronger than some women, stronger than some men, but in general, men are bigger, stronger in those aspects, and those are good things to acknowledge and let us express those gifts and let that flow organically into society.

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But I don't have, like, I don't know what the rules to give you their joy in the valley. Um, I'm sure there's more. I'm just saying, I'm not sure off the top of my head what to say here. That's going to be fair, to carry forward things that speak of femininity, that seem to coincide, that seem to be parallels to the marriage and mothering roles are probably positive to encourage those for women, but not to make them rules. All women have to do these types of things. That would be my generic statement, and I hope people can take it with some wisdom. You said, how do we define biblical femininity, especially for the unmarried woman?

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I'm not sure.

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Um, maybe just recognizing the natural differences between men and women, both biologically and socially, in marriage as well as in church, and then not being ashamed of those things and letting that be okay. If those flavor our interaction with society, that's good. If those flavor our interaction with society, but they don't become hard and fast rules about, like, say, uh, well, that woman can't be in government because that's a rule I have. And I pushed hard against that stuff in my recent video.

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The, um, video is right in the description down below. Hope you guys will check it out. Does discipleship look different for women? Um, in a sense, I can say there. I feel like I can give you a more clear answer.

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Um, in the case of discipleship, Paul says, let the older women train the younger women, and it gives a list of character things that they're doing, to do these things for their home and their family and to be godly and not gossip and things like that. I think that discipleship looks different for women in that women have a special place for discipleship towards women, and they need to be teaching them the specific things you read about there in one Timothy and Titus and stuff. And then men have a special place for discipleship in the lives of men. We do need gendered ministry to each other. Uh, that seems to be something that rises not only naturally, but also from the teaching of scripture there. Let the older women teach the younger women these things. That. That is something that Timothy's like and Paul's like, hey, this isn't exactly our job to be teaching you all this stuff. So discipleship. There should be gendered discipleship, it seems, in our churches. Women's ministries are a good thing, but they need to focus on not feel good events. Not that you can't feel good at an event, but if that's the emphasis of your ministry, then your ministry gets really thin. They need to focus on genuine discipleship, teaching people to be honoring Christ in their lives.

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All right. Yeah, lots of stuff. Um, know some. Would, you know, you. You should have given more details about biblical femininity, uh, in different, uh, situations. And I'm going to say, well, I did a whole video where I talk about a bunch of different stuff, and I recommend you check that out. But also this, having a statement like, oh, letting marriage and eldership kind of responsibilities, letting them naturally and organically, not forcing but organically flavor the rest of society, I think is healthy, but that kind of statement is not wimpy or weak. What it's doing is it's preserving a policy without making it a rule. And that's what I think I get in scripture, the policy of the flavoring of life with natural femininity and masculinity, with all three of the pillars I talk about. For those who haven't seen it, go watch the video. At least click the three pillars thing. It's in the timestamps.

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Um, but not making it a hard and fast rule. The more I talk about those things in specific details, making rules, the more I think I'm going beyond the text of scripture, and then people feel good, because I'm answering these questions with clarity. But that clarity may not be biblical, and it can end up becoming overly restrictive. Um, or the opposite, where you're trying to create an ideal out of what is just permitted. Um, I hope that makes sense. I'm just going to go to the next question. Josh lateral says, is the Septuagint more reliable for finding Jesus in the Old Testament? And then you follow that up with S. Douglas Woodward and others say that messianic passages and timelines in the masoretic text were altered in the second century to keep jews from converting to Christianity.

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Um.

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Hmm.

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Uh, I don't know that there's a hard and fast answer to this kind of question.

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So for those of us who don't know some of the details here, your old Testament comes from Hebrew, right? And the Hebrew that we use typically use most, pretty much just about almost all english translations we're reading, they're getting the Hebrew, Old Testament from something called the masoretic text, or the Mt, as it's abbreviated in your question there, Josh.

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There is, however, at the time of Jesus, there was also a greek translation of the Old Testament that had been done prior to Jesus'time called the Septuagint.

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There's some debate about the Septuagint, the nature of it, and, um, it does have different readings in different places, and this is where it gets complicated. And you're like, well, if the Masoretic says this, but the Septuagint says that, which one is more accurate to the original? Is the Masoretic representing the original? Is it possible?

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Uh, here's a potential issue, that post christians stepping in and preaching and all these people getting saved, and then there were Jews who were maybe controlling some of these texts, that they maybe changed some stuff where they're like, oh, Isaiah 53 looks a little too much like Jesus. Let's alter this word here, Daniel. Let's change this word here, whatever it is. Maybe there's places where they change things. Um, I don't personally believe that, but I think that it's too complicated to simply have a broad yes or no answer to a statement like that. It's possible instead to take more of what, uh, scholars call an eclectic approach. And I'm not a scholar in this area. I'm just telling you guys what I've learned. An eclectic approach says this. Hey, how about we just look at a given passage, Isaiah 53, and we look at the Masoretic, and we look at the Septuagint, and we compare them, and we learn what we can, and maybe we'll say we like the Septuagint a little better on this part, and maybe we'll say we like the Masoretic better. Maybe what we'll do is we'll generally say we want the masoretic Old Testament, and sometimes the Septuagint alters our views a little bit here and there, because we're looking at the history of this and that, and it's helping us figure this is the most likely reading that was original.

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That being said, there's more complexity you could add to this, which is the New Testament authors are commonly thought to quote from the Septuagint, where we frequently hear that, oh, well, the New Testament, they're always quoting the Septuagint, the greek translation of the Old Testament.

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Um, that is not always true. In some cases they don't like. In particular, with Isaiah 53 in the New Testament, when they're talking about Isaiah 53, the authors continually seem to be going to maybe their own translation of Isaiah 53 because they're writing in Greek. Now, they're not going to be able to quote exactly the masoretic word for word because you need new words.

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But in some cases, it seems like they're writing their own, doing their own translation of things. They break from the Septuagint in different places. And so that would imply the Septuagint is not this hard and fast rule, and we have to follow it strictly. It would also imply some other things. Kind of cool. Translation is not inherently bad, right? Because the New Testament translates the Old Testament. So translation in principle is not inherently wrong or something like that. But, yeah, I'm going to suggest, um, I don't know who Douglas Woodward is. I haven't read his work on this stuff, but I need good evidence to say that something was intentionally altered. And even if it was, I would say, oh, well, this one passage may have been. Now, here's a cool little tidbit about, um, psalm ah 22 relating to these things. Psalm 22. It's like, does it say, they nailed my hands and my feet, or does it say, like a lion, they are at my hands and feet? Which is it? You guys know the passage? My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? It's this amazing messianic passage where Jesus quotes it on the cross, and you read it and you go, wow. This predicted the cross a thousand years before it happened and hundreds of years before crucifixion was even a thing. Talks about these specific things, like the swelling of the tongue and the dehydration and the stretching out of the body and the bones being out of joint, all these specific. The gambling for, uh, our clothes, things that we know did happen in first century crucifixions and public executions. And when you put them all together, you go, wow, this looks like this is totally a prophetic statement about Jesus. But there's one verse that's debated, even though you still have to look and see all that other stuff there. There's one. Does it say they pierced my hands and my feet? Or like a lion, they were at my hands and my feet. Which one is it? And there's a debate in that. Um, but when they dug up the Dead Sea Scrolls and they found some very, very old copies of Isaiah and even some old hebrew copies of Isaiah stuff, they found support. Uh, um, if I'm remembering all this correctly, forgive me if I get some of the details wrong. I have this in a video somewhere on psalm 22.

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I'll share that in a link down below after this. So you can get it. All the accurate details there. But they found, here's what I'll say. They found the dead sea scrolls to confirm this stuff that was written before Christ. And it was pierced my hands and my feet. Right. That there's this implication of these sort of nails piercing his hands and feet, not a lion doing it, which fits even that much better with Psalm 22 and the cross. Okay, so, Josh. Yeah. Um, otherwise, this is just my thoughts. I'm not giving you the final answer and all that stuff because I don't know the final answer, but some things I would at least be weighing.

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Don Miguelio has a question. How are we expected to help homeless people in our modern culture? Are we expected to invite strangers into our very homes as they did in Bible times? Um, well, the danger of saying yes or no to a question like this is, of course, that I'm opening the door wide or I'm closing it shut. And neither of those seem like wisdom to me. And so telling everybody like, no, nobody should invite homeless people to their homes, it's like, well, why not? Why can't at least some people do that? And then saying, well, everybody should do it. Well, that's also a problem. Um, I've actually done homeless ministry. I don't know those of you who you have ideas about helping homeless people, but you've only ever handed money to homeless people. You've never actually spent real time with them. Like, real time with them where you know somebody for months or even years, and you've done, made real efforts to get them to this halfway house. And you coordinate with, uh, the thing, and then you meet with them and you take them out to lunch and you guys talk.

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If you actually get to know them more, you become more realistic about the homeless issues. So, um, this is my personal opinion here, is that most people who have not done real homeless ministry are a little bit, uh, unaware of some of the issues that go on with homelessness. And the stuff that at least I saw doing that is that, um, antisocial behavior was one of the biggest issues with homelessness. That, uh, obviously, drug abuse and, uh, alcohol abuse is also a major, major issue. But of course, that's just connected to this general antisocial behavior because of this. Because antisocial behavior is not always, but commonly a major, major issue amongst those who are long term homeless. Because short term homeless is almost its own category. Uh, a woman flees an abusive relationship, and the man was hyper controlling, and he was controlling all the money and so she's out on the streets for a while because she has nothing. She left with absolutely nothing. That was the nature of his abuse and control in her life. So she flees and so temporarily she's homeless. She's a very different scenario than this guy who's been homeless, uh, for the last eight years. He has not been sober for a minute if he could help it. Um, he has family who has tried to reach out and help him, who he's stolen from so that he could buy whatever stuff he wanted to buy. He's already burned all those bridges and then now someone comes along and they're like, hey, want to come to my house for a meal with my four year old daughter? I'm like, yeah, uh, that doesn't seem very wise. Like we should be wise. Gentle as serpents, but wise or gentle as snakes? Don't be as gentle as serpent. That's not cool. Uh, gentle as doves, but wise as serpents.

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So it depends, right? But if you saw that woman and she's like, I've been those streets for three nights and stuff, I fled this guy, you'd be like, dude invited her to your house, why not? So a blanket answer seems wrong here. We need wisdom. We need wisdom. Um, you say, how are we expected to help homeless people in our modern culture? Let me tell you about a friend of mine. His name is Kevin Kennington. Great, great guy. And, uh, we hardly ever talk. He's just like a guy I really loved and respect and care about.

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But, um, old friend at any rate, Kevin, uh, owned his own business. I worked with him sometimes, the little jobs, stamping concrete, stamping concrete and dyeing concrete and, uh, cleaning windows like office buildings. So in the middle of the night you're wiping windows for hours and hours while the business is closed.

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And uh, at one point Kevin came across a guy who was homeless who was holding up a sign that said, uh, we'll work for food. And so he pulled over and he asked the guy, do you really want a job?

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Do you really want a job or you just want money? And he goes, no, I'd really want a job. And he goes, all right, I'll hire you for the day. Come with me, I'll pay you for the day. So he brought the guy with him doing his work, stamping concrete and stuff. And then at the end of the day he took him wherever the guy stayed. Uh, he's homeless, so he stays just probably under something and dropped him off and gave him some money and he goes, you want to do it? Again tomorrow. I'll be back to pick you up at 06:00 a.m. Whatever early time it was that Kevin went to work. So then he went and picked him up, and he does this day after day. The guy just keeps showing up, getting back to work for weeks and then months and then years. And now the guy's got a house, uh, or at least an know, and he's actually living. He's back integrated to society. That's amazing. Not everybody can do this, but Kevin was willing to do it. He didn't put his wife or kids in some danger. By doing this, he's taking the guy to work. He found a guy who was long term homeless and probably had burnt bridges and probably fit a lot of the descriptions I've given you, but the guy was ready to have a change.

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You don't want to have too many stereotypes.

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You just don't want to have too many stereotypes. Homelessness is a freaky thing. It's a terrible thing. Instances of violence, instances, especially. People don't know this, uh, of rape, especially homeless women experiencing rape is very, very common, very freaky, uh, and crazy to think about, but it's chaos. They need help, but the real help that gets them back integrated into normal social interactions with jobs, that's the help that's needed. And that's the hardest help to get somebody, because you can't just hand them money and drive away, and, uh, you've given them money, maybe that'll help them. Maybe they'll get some food. Maybe they'll get something else. Maybe that'll hurt them. I don't know.

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But, yeah. What are we supposed to do? Um, do what you can to help your neighbors. But don't be foolish about inviting probably socially problematic individuals into your home, especially if you have kids and there's vulnerable people in your house. You want to be wise about those things. Um, I'm just offering what I think is basic wisdom and some experience. What does scripture say about it? Scripture, um, does say that we want to have a special concern for those that are down and out, but there is some wisdom and understanding that people that are down and out because they're causing their own problems, which is certainly a noticeable number of homeless people, not all of them, but they're down and out because they're causing their own issues.

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You're not trying to simply, um, enable continued lifestyles like that. We got to have wisdom here.

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Life's complicated. We should approach each person individually and not just think of homeless as one broad category. There's individual people. There's the guy that's homeless that's hooked on meth. There's the woman that's homeless that's fleeing an abusive spouse. Ah. Or something like that. There's another guy that's. He's a nice guy, but he's been lazy. He's never really taken responsibility for things. And maybe he needs someone to kind of like, be his boss, give him a job. Um, and maybe that will help. They're all different categories, so no easy fix.

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V. Rose, question number six. And no more questions. We got all ten loaded up for today. Thanks, guys, for joining. V. Rose says, do you think it's important to have a view on eschatology? Can we just all agree that one day, if we believe in Jesus and what he did on the cross abide in him, that we will go to?

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Well, um, yes, yes and no. I think it's important for us to have some views on eschatology. Um, very, very important. Some views, I say some views, because biblically speaking, the return of Christ, that is an eschatology event. Eschatology means end times, the study of end things or last things.

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And the last things that we read about in the scripture, the return of Jesus and us being resurrected and given new bodies, those aren't just things to debate over. Like, this is stuff you've got to believe as a Christian. You really need to believe it. If you haven't been taught it, you really should be. If you read revelation and you scratch your head and you say, I don't really understand if some of this is past or if it's future. But I do know this.

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I know that Jesus is coming to claim his own, and he's going to rule and reign on the earth. Heaven and earth read the end of revelation. There's real judgment, right? There's all sin punished. But those who are in Christ washed of all their sin, for it was already punished on the cross in the person of Christ.

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So there's judgment, there's actually future judgment. So if I go preach the gospel to people, I mean, yeah, you will stand in judgment. That's eschatology. Then there's a return of Christ, bodily return of Christ, where he's going to resurrect his people and bring us into eternal life. And that eternal life is not just a disembodied heavenly experience. Heaven and earth meet in the end of revelation. If you at least get that, heaven and earth join together in this eternal, glorious city where God is with us, Christ is with us.

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Uh, we are in our exalted state, we are in a glorified condition, right, where they have a new body, never to die, where righteousness dwells. All those things, that stuff you could say and affirm without saying things like, I think that there's going to be a rapture in the middle of a tribulational seven year judgment period right before what I would call the great tribulation.

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That stuff. I think it's okay to go. I don't know. I don't know about that. I'm not, um, we. And here's a great way to say it. I believe that what scripture says is true. I just am not sure how it's going to play out in detail, but I know it ends with me and Jesus forever, and, uh, real judgment on those outside of Christ, real salvation and eternal life for those in Christ. I think those are things we should believe. Those are pretty clear in scripture. The glorious hope. According to the New Testament, our glorious hope is the appearing of Christ. So I don't want to answer your question by saying eschatology doesn't matter and have people thinking, my glorious hope doesn't matter.

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Uh, so, yeah, you need at least bare bones eschatology of those elements. Judgment of sin. Right. Resurrection of believers, presence of God with his people for all eternity, not in a distant, faraway place, but in a new earth and a new heavens, and there we will dwell perfectly. Those are some elements you want to absolutely have in place. And, yes, it's okay to not agree on the other stuff. Um, very, very good to have that attitude that we don't all have to agree on those issues. I think that's very healthy. I seek that out now. I try to propagate that and encourage that in others that it's okay if we disagree. There was a time in my own life when I would have thought, um, that I would have looked a little sideways. Okay. I was, like, 19, right? 1920 years old. I would have looked a little sideways at you. If you were a Christian who believed in the millennium, you're pre millennial, like I am even now. And you believed in the. There was a future seven year tribulation, but you thought that we would be raptured in the middle of that time. I would have been like, ooh, I don't really know what to think about that guy. Yeah, I was a young guy, okay? But that's what I would have thought.

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Um, now I'm not only less certain about those details, for certain, m especially when it comes to when first thessalonians talks about us being caught up to be with the Lord. Like, when does that take place?

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I don't have any teaching on that for you. Um, but I would not look sideways at anybody over those kinds of issues. And I don't think we should, we should hope that they just, one thing, don't make it the biggest deal in the world.

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That's the thing that makes me look a little sideways is why are you making that such a big deal that everybody agrees with you on that? We got the basics. I think that we can move forward. Yeah, I think that's where I'm at. And I'd encourage you to be out there too. Um, Christians don't agree on everything, but what we agree on makes us christian.

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John Dutton has a question. Hebrews 813 says that the old covenant is becoming obsolete and about to disappear. Does this mean that the old covenant was still in effect at the time this book was written? That's a super good question, John. I will dig into more of that in many months from now. Many, many months from now, probably when I get to Hebrews eight, because I'm going to start a Hebrews series. Probably in a couple of months, I'll start digging in. It'll be verse by verse, regular teaching through the book of Hebrews. And, uh, yeah, Hebrews 813, I'll dig into that more. But yeah, it implies something of a transition. Let's look at it here.

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Um, in speaking of a new covenant, he makes the first one obsolete. And what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.

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So in the past tense, right? He's speaking here of an old, of an, of an old Testament scripture quote. At that pastime, there was a speaking of a new covenant. And in speaking of it, that logically makes the first one obsolete or it supersedes the old one. The new covenant supersedes the old one, becomes the new. It's kind of like when, uh, you get sent a new contract by apple or Samsung or whoever, and you agree this supersedes the old. The old was true. The old was valid. The old really is in many ways embedded in the new. But the new takes, uh, the authority. Um, and what is becoming obsolete. And growing old is ready to vanish. This phrase appears to be in the present tense from the writer of the book of Hebrews. What is becoming obsolete? Okay. It's in the process. And growing old is ready to vanish away. It does appear that there's this transition. And you look at. I'll give you some more details. You look at the book of acts.

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And the Jews in the book of acts are still, many of them are still performing temple rituals and even sacrifices, right? Even Peter, John, they go to the temple. It seems they're doing that to do some sort of sacrifice. Um, Paul is an example. It's pretty clear. He takes a vow and he grows his hair out, and then at the end of the vow, he's cutting his hair and he goes to the temple to perform the sacrifices. It would be animal sacrifice associated with that. Yet we know, Paul teaches that we're not under the law, we're not bound to the law, that Christ is the end of the law for those who are in Christ. But Paul himself still does those things. Yet when Paul encounters people that tell gentiles they're supposed to obey the law, he gets up and he's, no, no, uh, you stop it. They're not under the law. They're not under the law. So what is the rule that's allowing Jews, and at least allowing them to, even if not telling them to, allowing them to continue doing things in the temple after the resurrection of Christ, yet has a rule that says gentiles. No one can dump that on you. Nobody can say to you that you're supposed to do this stuff. What is the rule there? I think it's this sort of, there's a process. It's becoming obsolete. It's fading away. And I, uh, would add to this would be my understanding, it is not wrong in the New Testament, as those events are happening in the early church, it is not wrong for a jew to continue participating in observing the law and doing the rituals of the law, including the sacrifices like Passover and Yom Kippur and things like that.

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Nothing wrong with that. What's wrong is making that a requirement for salvation, making that a requirement for being called God's people. And that's why a hard boundary is placed on whether you would require the gentiles to do those things. Do I tell a jew who's always observed those things to stop when they get saved, and I'm in the first century christian? No, I don't. But would I let him go around telling all these gentiles, you got to start observing, uh, all of the things. You got to get in a tent for a week. You got to come to Jerusalem once a year, you got to do that? No, I wouldn't do that. And there's evidence of this in the book of acts too. So in acts, um, not only is there clear teaching, like the acts 15, the council, where they're like, don't put this stuff on the gentiles. They never said the Jews couldn't do it. They said, don't put it on the gentiles. Right? Then you get, uh, Paul when he's heading over to Jerusalem for Passover. So he's still going to Jerusalem for Passover. That's interesting, right? Jews can still observe those things, but he meets the elders for Ephesus at some neutral town on his way to Passover.

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The reason he meets them there is because they're not going to Passover. Otherwise he'd see them in Jerusalem. He meets them, and then they're going to go back home, and he goes to Passover. Why? Because he was never teaching the church to all observe these laws.

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There was a sense in which it was there in memory of Christ. It was there in commemoration of what God had done through Israel, but you weren't allowed to make it a barrier for believers where they had to follow the laws. That seems to be the balance in the New Testament, which is why Paul will take a vow, he'll go to the temple, he'll perform a sacrifice. But then when Peter gets to Galatia, and there he's separating himself from the Gentiles. In Galatians one and two, we read about him separating himself from the Gentiles because he wants to appeal to the Jews, who, these particular groups of Jews, they feel like you have to have the law to be a child of God. And so Peter, um, does this, and Paul stands up and he goes, I rebuked his hypocrisy right in front of them all, and it's a pretty big deal. I think that that's the balance. If you want more on this and a detailed examination of the book of acts, I will put a link below. After the stream of what does the book of acts say about the law and Jews and Gentiles and their observance of the law? I think you'll see that connection there. And I do talk about this Hebrews passage, I think, in that video.

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All right, that was kind of a long answer, but I hope it helps. Do you see that it's more complicated than simply, um, what the Judaizers used to do? Everybody has to obey the law. God requires it of you. If you're going to really be obedient to him, you have to be under the law. Um, and then the opposite is a new attitude, which sort of is like, hey, nobody should have ever done those sacrifices. As though the minute Christ rose from the dead, all of his disciples just quit doing all that jewish stuff. But they didn't. So we need a nuanced, balanced view.

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A jew that gets saved, that has been observing those things may very well be free to continue observing those things in memory and in honor of God, but they cannot make it a requirement of salvation or push it onto others as something that they need to do. All right.

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Helene has a question. Says, I'm married to an unbeliever. I regret it and worry that I've jeopardized my son's salvation. Would it be better not to have any more children in my ungodly marriage? Even though we'd like to have more. Helene. Um. Oh, my sister in Christ, I want to calm your heart and tell you, have kids.

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Have kids. It is a blessing to have kids.

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The first Peter, it talks about this sort of. Maybe I'll find the passage for you here.

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Uh, likewise, wives, be subject to your own husbands, so that even if some do not obey the word, that's your husband, he's not obedient to the word, the word of the gospel. They may be won without a word by the conduct of their wives. Hopefully, your influence, and this is where it talks about your powerful influence. You have a powerful influence. Don't forget this. You really do. It's not always through words. In fact, especially when he knows what you believe and you've told him a hundred times, it's more powerful when you just live out the christian life through your godly character that stunned and shocks him and hopefully drives him towards Christ. Lee Strobel talked about this. Uh, it's not guaranteed, but it happens. Lee Strobel, his wife got saved, and he hated that she was a Christian. He thought it was going to ruin their marriage and ruin their lives. And she became more fun and more joyful and just a better person to be around, more supportive and more of all those things. And it ended up being part of the story that drew him to Christ.

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When they see your respectful conduct, it says in verse two, respectful and pure conduct. Do not let your adorning be external, the braiding of hair and the putting on of gold jewelry or clothing, the clothing you wear. But let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God's sight is very precious. Glorify, uh, God in your character, and you will please him. And read on, though it says, for this is how the holy women who hoped in God used to adorn themselves, by submitting to their own husbands. As Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord, and you are her children if you do good and do not fear anything that is frightful. Likewise, husbands, live with your wives in an understanding way. And it goes showing honor to the woman as the weaker vessel. And then it is like the prayer threat, since their heirs with you of the grace of life, so that your prayers may not be hindered.

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The idea here is you are an influence in your home.

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Uh, you are an influence in your home. First Corinthians talks about this as well. The wife of an unbeliever, a wife who's married to an unbeliever. Your children have a purity, a, uh, sanctification that comes from your very presence in their lives. So those things I'd encourage you with and just say, um, my gut, helene, is to say to you, you're wrestling with some things you don't need to worry about. You just need to worry about, like honor the Lord. Be, uh, a great wife for the sake of Jesus.

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Try to be all in committed to your marriage. Don't let your Christianity have you put 1ft out the door of your marriage. Don't let that be the effect. It should lock you in full on where you're just like, really trying to make this work as best you can and delighting in the Lord. When you can't delight in your husband, you can't delight in your marriage. Exactly. You're delighting in the Lord and you're seeking to serve Christ as you serve in your marriage.

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But in, uh, that relationship with kids, generally speaking, kids are a beautiful, wonderful thing. That's the bible just talks about over and over again. Blessed, uh, is the man whose quiver is full. The idea of children is a blessing, is a wonderful thing.

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You can't control their salvation. Even if you had a wonderful, godly husband, you still couldn't guarantee those kids were going to be saved. You just couldn't. What you can do is you can learn about the challenges that your kids will face in this world, have good relationships with them, try to prepare yourself for talking to them about the difficult topics that come up. I think there's books written and a blog by a lady named Natasha Crane. Natasha Crane with a c. Crane, who has done a great job of this, of helping equip parents to better deal with the things their kids face and intellectual challenges and stuff which are so common today. But, yeah, it doesn't make sense to say, I'm going to not have kids as a way of keeping those kids from losing their salvation or from not coming to Christ, it's over your pay grade. Just over your pay grade. Have kids. Delight in them. Share with them the family I grew up in. I shouldn't be saved, if that's what it takes, is, uh, two godly parents. I shouldn't be saved. Um, so I hope that helps. Helene. There's a proverb. Uh, there's a psalm.

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Uh, what is it? Psalm.

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Um, I'm going to find it for you.

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Great reminder.

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Psalm 131. I was thinking it was 130.

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It was not.

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Um, where did I go? One. Oh, wait, hold on just a second. I mean, I'm bringing it up. I'm just doing it very clumsily.

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Okay. I like the title that humans have put upon this. This is. I've calmed and quieted my soul. Here's advice for you. For me, when we have these things where you go, this bothers me. This worries me. But you can honestly say it's also not my worry to have, um, a song of David, O Lord, my heart is not lifted up. Right? I'm not pride. My eyes are not raised too high. I do not occupy myself with things too great and too marvelous for me. I have calmed and quieted my soul like a weaned child with its mother. Like a weaned child. Is my soul within me.

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It's okay as humans. In fact, it's healthy and good to say.

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It's above my pay grade, to use a clumsy phrase. It's above my pay grade to sit here and dwell upon the potential domino effects that may or may not lead or contribute to the salvation of people that don't even exist yet. Like, this kind of thing is over my head. When you look at some of the big troubles in the world and the things that are going on around, you remind yourself of this. Like, yeah, ah, there's all kinds of craziness going on, but these things are, in a sense, too great for me. I can't do anything about that. It's beyond my capacity. It's beyond my ability. I could just pray about it and then give it to God, and that will give me a calm and quiet soul, because I'm not worrying and stressing about stuff I have no control over.

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I am not responsible for that. I don't control that.

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It's things that are too great for me. I don't want to have a heart that's lifted up. Like, I can control things I can't. And eyes that are raised too high where I'm constantly dwelling on things that are over my pay grade, so to speak, that is a good thing to be able to remind yourself.

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Question number nine. Calthasar says, why is the advocate unable to come unless Jesus leaves? Why does this not imply modalism? Let's check it out. Okay, so this is talking about Jesus and the Holy Spirit. John 16, verse seven.

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Jesus and the Holy Spirit.

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Here we've got Jesus saying, talking to the disciples about how he's going to leave, he's going to depart. Um, let me back up just a little bit, because I've said these things. I'm going to back up a little bit more.

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Okay. Verse five, I'll say here, but now I'm going to him who sent me. Jesus came from the Father is going back to the Father. This already is a problem for modalism. I'll just point this out, right? Because modalism is that the Father and the Son are the same person. So that the Father doesn't just send the Son, the Father becomes the Son, who becomes the spirit. And for this complaint to work or this challenge to work, modalism is like Jesus had to leave so the Holy Spirit could come, because Jesus just is the Holy Spirit. They couldn't both be there at the same time, in the same place. But if that's the case, if that's trill modalism, then how is it that Jesus is going to the Father came from the Father going back to the father, implying they were both distant in some personal way. Right. Because I say there's more than one person in the Trinity in the nature of God. Um, how does that make sense? Or how do you have, like, the baptism of Jesus where you've got the Father speaking and the spirit descending and the Son, the spirit's descending right there, and the Son is there.

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If the Son and the spirit can co occupy the same location, then it's not possible that the modalist argument is correct, that the reason Jesus doesn't send the spirit until he leaves is because they can't co occupy the same location. That couldn't be it, because we see that happening in the text of scripture. But let me read on. I'm going to him who sent me. And none of you asked me, where are you going? Because I've said these things to you. Sorrow has filled your heart. Nevertheless, I tell you the truth now. He's like, here's the good news. It's to your advantage. I go away. For if I do not go away, the helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you again, implying that locality in some sense of locality. Jesus is sending the spirit. The spirit isn't. He's not just becoming, he's sending. This language doesn't fit modalism. It fits multiple persons, uh, in the nature of God that God can send and be sent at the same time.

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So it is to your advantage I go, um, now why did Jesus then, if he didn't have to go? Because there was like a limit on locality where the Father and the Son and the Spirit couldn't sort of be in the same area at the same time or something. Then why is it that Jesus says, I have to go to send the spirit? I think here has to do with the nature of, um, the death and resurrection of Christ and the vessels that get filled. So Jesus in John 16 also says other things like this. The Holy Spirit has been with you, but he will be in you. What's going to happen when the spirit comes is there's an indwelling experience you'll have that has not been the standard thing for people throughout time. Something new is going to happen. How is that going to happen? Well, you're going to be, think of it like this. You're the vessel who is filled with the spirit, but that vessel is not, you know, God wants clean vessels. Look at the temple rules, right? He wants clean vessels to fill. And so Jesus goes to the cross, he dies for our sin. He, uh, washes us clean in that sacrifice and then he makes us prepared to become vessels of the Holy Spirit. His going isn't just, I have to leave so he can come. His going is, I go to the cross, I die for your sins. I rise from the dead. You are changed. Now you can receive the Spirit. The Holy Spirit was already in the world around, so to speak, in senses, but not indwelling the believers in the way that happened after the resurrection of Christ and his death, so that his going is that this is John 1617. It's all talking about how he's going to go to the cross, how he's going to die for us before this. In John 13, he's washing the disciples feet. What is he doing? He's cleansing them.

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This is what he eventually he washes our hearts. Right? We're a new creation in Christ. So that's what I think this language of the Spirit is from. I could go over more scripture, read John 16 and see if you don't see that the Holy Spirit's already present in the world, but you're going to get cleansed so that you can be indwelt by the spirit. What will do that. Me going not just to heaven or leaving, but going to the cross. Yeah, neat stuff. Question, uh, number ten. I'm, uh, about to tell you guys my big mistake I made in yesterday's video. Brandon P. Says, how do I bring the gospel to someone who believes there is a God but rejects the Bible? My mom doesn't believe God gave us the Bible and thinks that Christianity is man made.

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I think there are a number of ways you can approach this, Brandon. First, I would say, always speak to your mom with as much respect as you can and calmness and, um, avoid negative argumentation and try to show her that even in telling her you disagree with her on this stuff, you're being a good son. Let her feel that as much as you can. It's not all up to you what she feels, but send that out.

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But there's a number of ways to approach this. Ah. One could, uh, set aside the scripture and sort of. You think of this as priming the pump. I'm getting her ready for it. So I sort of. Let's not talk about the Bible just now. Let's just talk about Jesus. Mom, I know you got issues with the Bible, but what do you think about Jesus? And you can talk to her about Jesus and talk to her about his death and his resurrection as historical realities. You could give evidence for the resurrection of Christ. I don't know if she'd be open to that sort of thing. You could talk to her about your testimony. She believes in God, which means she believes in the supernatural. So you're just trying to get her to believe that a supernatural thing happened with Jesus.

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For many people, they didn't come to believe in Jesus because they came to believe the Bible. But they came to believe the Bible because they believed in Jesus.

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And not only that, but you get Jesus, you get salvation. And even if you're wrong about the Bible in ways, you might still have that wonderful salvation.

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I would say maybe emphasize Jesus, focus on Jesus. You could also, if she's patient, you could talk about Prophecy, um, fulfilled in scripture, where it predicts events and those events actually happen. And I have videos on this in my evidence for the Bible series. So I have a whole. I don't know if you know this. I have a whole, Brandon, I have a whole series of videos called evidence for the Bible. And I give tons and tons of evidence. I don't know if it's like 20 hours of content. I'll put the playlist link down below. After the stream is over, please check it out. You may find stuff in there that you want to share. Uh, and some of it's prophecy about Jesus and stuff like that. Maybe that would be a great thing to put them both together. Prophecy, specifically about Jesus. Share that with her. At any rate, you'll need to prepare yourself for this stuff. Like, you're heading into the realm of apologetics, where you're sort of stripping away people's excuses and resistance, intellectual resistance to the gospel. So that then that life changing message of Jesus dying for you, rising from the dead, that you might trust in him and be forgiven and know God, that that can get through.

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So there's a couple different avenues to take. Um, another way to approach this is I've sort of given you a trajectory that I feel like it's going to give you a whole bunch of research, and then you're going to be like, well, what do I start with? And what do I actually share? And I feel like I have tons of work. So maybe before you do all that research, it. You start by asking her questions.

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Mom, what's keeping you from believing in Jesus? Don't push back on her. Uh, just start. You're just digging. Oh, okay. I hear you. Anything else? Oh, okay. I hear you. Well, what do you mean by that? Oh, I'm not sure I understood this point. Could you explain that part to me a little better? Gather this stuff, because what you're getting is. You're getting, hey, maybe these are the things that if I could help her with these things, she would come to faith, or at least be open to that. So maybe do, like, informational gathering. Then you'll have Tailored apologetics. Mom. Mama jetics. Right there. Specifically for your mom. That may help. Um, I hope it does. Brandon, uh, God bless you as you try to reach your mother, give you wisdom, give you insight. Um, you never know, man. Sometimes just inviting her to church could just overwhelm her with the truth of God. You never really know. God help you with wisdom. Um, okay, so there's a bonus question. I'll come to that in a second. But first, let me share with you guys the big mistake I made. Okay. I felt awkward and embarrassed about this, genuinely. Um, I wanted to give an illustration in the video from yesterday about everything the women can or can't do according to the bible. Provocative, um, title. I know I got to try to get people to watch it, but I went through this, like, 4 hours of content. All these things about what women have, their roles, and, uh, how those roles can be diminished or neglected by people who are looking at, um, failing, uh, to look at all of what scripture says about those things. And anyway, I go through all that stuff. So one of the illustrations I wanted to give was simply to simply say, there are obvious differences between men and women, and we are kidding ourselves if we pretend those things aren't there. For example, men are generally much stronger and larger than women. And to pretend that's not the case is actually dangerous for women. Right? Because when we do this tv thing where people, all the girls are beating up all the guys, and you're like, dude, none of them could do this in real life. Um, it could create false equivalencies about the physical capabilities of men and women that actually puts women in danger. And it certainly has, as you look at women who are in martial arts, having to face up against men who go like, well, I'm a woman too. And we have to act like there's no difference as he cracks a woman's skull because he's, um, brutalizing those who are much weaker than him. Even pound for pound, men who weigh the same as women, men are usually stronger. So in my illustration, was this my hands compared to my wife's hands? I noticed this the other day. Looked at her hand and was like, man, your hands. Like, it's almost like a child's hand to me. She picks something up and she's got this little hand.

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And I said, my hands are much bigger than her. And I gave the measurement of my hands, which I use to measure things sometimes. And I was like, my hands are seven inches from fingertip to the base of the palm right here. So that if you lay your hand down, boom.

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Well, I was wrong. My hands aren't seven inches. And so what happened is, lot of people, they watched the video and they said, his hands are seven inches. And then they pulled out a measuring tape and they measured. A lot of ladies, measure your hands. And you went, I got man hands. My hands are seven inches, too.

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The average guy's hand is not seven inches, is bigger than that. It's like 7.6 or something.

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Here's the thing.

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Let me just clarify for you. Look.

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My hands are, like, closer to eight inches in length, which means I've been measuring things wrong recently. I guess I forgot. I don't know I got it wrong. Um, I always remember my hands. I should remember my hands are eight inches. My feet in shoes are typically twelve inches, which helps because you're always wearing shoes when you're measuring things.

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Ladies, um, I'm sorry, I didn't even make a lot of you think you had man hands. And also my illustration was embarrassing and awkward now because I basically was like, my hands are so much bigger than hers and they're, how big are your hands now? Kind of like woman sized.

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So no offense, guys, if you're out there and you're a guy that has smaller hands, that might feel awkward. Uh, I don't care. I'm talking about in general, men are stronger and bigger than women. And you take the average strength and size and height of women, men are going to dominate even smaller. Guys are usually stronger than women. Uh, comparative to them, there's just a lot of big differences between us. Anyway, it was just awkward. Like, it was embarrassing. I was like, anyways, what's your hand size? And you can also measure it like this way. That's a different measurement. Uh, I think it's like nine something, maybe. Anyway, how big are your hands?

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There's a difference between men and women. I'm like six foot, my wife's like five four.

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There's a difference between men and women. These are, differences are good, right? And someone goes, well, how are women better than men? I don't know. They can make babies.

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That's insulting to people. But, uh, the fact that it's insulting, that's the weird thing. The fact that you think that's insulting is, uh, that's where your brain is broken when it comes to gender and got to be fixed. So there was my error. Now, my videos out there sharing with people, and if I change it, then it messes up all the timestamps. If I go and I could only remove, I could remove that section, but I don't know if I'm going to bother. Just let everybody think I have like weird understandings of the size of my own hands.

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Oh, well, um, bonus question, though, before we, here's question bonus number eleven. This is from drumba. Uh, what's your favorite video game? Oh, man, I'm not very good at favorites. Drumba. So, bonus question. My favorite video game, um, years ago it would have been, uh, when I was a kid, it was bubble bobble. I kid you not. My mom would go bowling and then she would give us like, uh, $5. And we were there for like three or 4 hours with $5. And I'd spend most of it on food. So then I'd go through the arcade pushing the little quarter release buttons because occasionally you'd get a free quarter. So then I'd had very little money, so I'd use a quarter to play the game in the arcade that you could play the longest on one quarter. Not the funnest, the longest on one quarter, which was bubble bobble. Play that game for a really long time on one quarter. So that's what I would do. Spend my money on a hamburger and then drop a quarter in the bubble bobble game, and I would play that thing for a long period of time, and then I would go around looking for more quarters.

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There it was. Favorite game right now? I don't know right now.

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Um, I've played a game recently, recently that is, um, called super ah, auto pets. That's pretty fun.

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I'm not doing a lot of gaming right now. That's just a little quick. Play a little bit and then you're done. Super autopets, check it out. Maybe you'll find me on there and we'll compete against each other. All right, you guys have a great day. Uh, let's close in prayer. Father, we thank you for this time. We thank you for the reality of your word. Um, it has the answers. I know I don't have a lot of answers, but your scripture has the answers constantly. For us, to help us through our hardships, we pray that you'd remind us to be people of the word, to be people who are reading the word, who are soaking in the word.

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It's by just reading continually that so often we come across those verses that become life changing for us and we pray we'd see more of that.

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Uh, this year, we'd remember that in January we talked about reading the bible more. And here we are. It's march.

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Remind us of that. Help us to focus on those things, to be people of the word. In Jesus name. Amen. Amen. And check it out down below the link to the newest final video on the women in ministry series. I'm so very happy and very tired to be done with the series completely. It took way longer than I thought it would for a number of reasons. Um, but I'm done. I'm moving on to other things.

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I'm writing a book, uh, and so I'm working on that. I need some real devoted time to focus on writing that book. I'll tell you more about it in the future. It's going to be quite a while before it comes out. Um, but very excited about that. It's not about women in ministry. It's about the real Jesus biblically, uh, speaking. And it's going to be very, very exciting to get into that. Then I'll be doing, once I get a little ahead on that project, then I'll start doing the book of Hebrews here online and can't wait to do that with you guys verse by verse. It's going to be beautiful, wonderful stuff. So, Lord bless you and keep you. Make his face to shine upon you.

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Isn't that a beautiful blessing right there in scripture? The Lord bless you and keep you. Make his face to shine upon you. That'd be gracious to you, um, beautiful things. God gave us that blessing because that's what his desire is for us. That's beautiful. All right, I'm done.