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Here we go. This is the, uh, ten questions with Mike Winger. I'm Mike Winger, trying to help you learn to think biblically about everything. That is. I want to provoke your thought process. I really mean that. Your intellectual thought process, working through difficult, challenging questions about the bible, christianity, life in general, as it relates to how a Christian should live, uh, the defense of christianity, all that kind of stuff, I want you to think about it. So our first question to think about today is, how do I pray without ceasing? So you've got this verse in the, uh, New Testament here first, thessalonians 517. Top of the screen there says, pray without ceasing.

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This can be quite a challenge for people when they think about it. Um, how do I pray without ceasing? And I've heard a lot of people talk about this, and I want to break it down. I'll use biblical examples that talk about prayer. I will also, um, talk about the value of prayer itself and then how to apply it. Now, let me just say, first off, when I'm analyzing a verse, uh, when you're analyzing a verse of scripture and you don't know what it means right away, like, you read it and you go, it's not immediately obvious what that means to me. It's good to think about your, what I call options. Now, it's not that all these are valid interpretations, but you sort of say, well, what could it mean? It could mean this. It could mean that. So it's a good process to go through with any verse of scripture where you're trying to understand what it means.

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So one option would be that pray without ceasing means that you're actually in a continual state of prayer. You're literally praying at all times. So right now, while I'm talking to you, that I'm actually praying at the same time. Um, that would be challenging. Um, you'd have to be praying while you're sleeping, praying while preaching, praying while you're running a marathon, praying while you're doing all sorts of other things that. Where. Yeah, you wouldn't normally think about prayer at those moments. I think that that's probably too wooden.

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Right. And there are examples in scripture that weigh in on this immediately. That option of, do. I mean, does it mean I literally pray at every moment of every day? And some of you are thinking, but I do, Mike, I'm in this sort of communal relationship with God where I'm praying at all times. That is a, um, it's not that that's not a valuable thing, but you're but that seems to not be what the Bible means when it says prayer.

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Right? Like you're sort of walking in the spirit. That's a different thing. But it's not. It's not what the Bible means when it says prayer. So the Bible will actually have people praying, and then they stop. They're done praying. Jesus then went off and prayed. But if Jesus was praying at all times, the gospels couldn't say he then went and prayed. Or when the disciples, he says, could you just, couldn't you just pray with me for an hour? They weren't praying while they were sleeping. They weren't praying at other times than they were when or, uh, supposed to when Jesus asked them to. In the garden of Gethsemane, those examples of people not praying in scripture, even ideals like Jesus, there's moments where he was not praying. It seems, uh, a normal reading of the text would seem to say, like, yeah, that's too strict of a thing to say. That pray without ceasing means christians have to, like being literally every second of every day, be in an active moment of prayer. I don't think that's quite right. There is, however, you could say, uh, prayer maybe as lower it down a notch on how wooden we are. Prayer is a general attitude of continual awareness and concern for God wherein. Wherein, like, whatever happens in your daily life, you have this gut reaction to pray. You know, you're driving and you have a spare moment of your time, and you just start praying. You. You hear something from a friend that's going on, and you just immediately think to pray. That prayer is this sort of constant reaction to the things that are going on in your life. That actually seems more doable, seems more, um, following examples we see in scripture, we see things like Paul the apostle praying. He prays a lot, this guy. And he's constantly praying for the people. He's. I pray for you continually. He doesn't mean every second or every day, but he does pray for them a lot. Okay, so another option would be, um, pray without ceasing means don't give up on prayer. As a Christian, don't become lax in your prayers, where you look at your last week, your last month, your last five years, and you say, I haven't been praying very much, have I? I pray kind of minimally. I pray maybe when I'm going to eat, um, when I'm in church. And that's kind of it. Like, I used to stop before bed and really have a time of prayer before God. Or I used to wake up. And the first thing I did was have a time of in the word in prayer, and you have grown lax in prayer. Um, another example of laxness in prayer is actually discouragement in prayer, where you, you are praying for things, you care about, things that are important to you, and you felt frustrated because you're not seeing God give you the thing you want. And so you just sort of get discouraged. You start to not believe in the efficacy of prayer, the value of prayer, and so you just kind of quit.

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Scripture does talk about that as well. That option of not, uh, growing lax in prayer is applicable in lots of different verses.

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Uh, Luke, chapter 18. Jesus gives them a parable that men always ought to pray and not lose heart. Not lose heart about prayer, about the action and activity of.

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So I think that that's a really good example, uh, of, of a way to continually be praying is that you don't quit in your prayer life. So here's a question for you right before I go on to other stuff, uh, on the same topic, because it's, there's a lot more to it. We're going to read this verse in context, which you really need to do when you ask what a verse means, um, is ask yourself this.

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When you first got saved, or maybe a year ago or maybe ten years ago, or even more, did you have more regular, continual prayer throughout your day than you do now? And this is a sobering question. It's not meant to condemn, it's meant to open our eyes, right, so we can address and correct our lives.

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Do you find that every moment of spontaneous prayer you used to have is now been taken over by your cell phone, dominating all your spare time?

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If that's the case, then I would encourage you to make some changes. Um, how about every half the time or every third time you reach to pick up your phone, you say, no, I'm going to pray right now instead. I'll bet that would radically change your life, just that one behavior, that one action. So praying without ceasing. So I think it could mean a continual state of prayer in the sense of your reactionary response to the situations of life. Is prayer on a regular basis or prayer as a general attitude of constantly, uh, taking things to God? Um, um, and not also growing lax in prayer. Both those options seem like they work, but the option of saying that I'm literally every second of every day, even when I sleep and when I'm awake, I'm always in an, in a time of prayer, I don't think that that's what's intended there, even though that feels very spiritual to say that. And there's probably plenty of people watching who are thinking, but I feel like I am doing that. Mike, I think more realistically, you're. You are connecting with God, but you're walking in the spirit. It's not the same as praying at all times.

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Um, prayer is more deliberate and conscious activity than that, I think, biblically speaking. So let's look then, at the context. All right. Um, before we do that, let me just talk about the value of prayer. Um, I, like you, often devalue prayer. It's not a quality, it's not a good thing, it's a bad thing. But like many of you, I will often devalue prayer. And there's something about the. The powerlessness of the prayer of the person who's praying that causes us to devalue prayer, because we. We are more conscience conscious of ourselves than we are of God, perhaps. So I'm conscious of me just talking, as opposed to being conscious of God, who is listening, and then I devalue prayer. But in scripture, prayer is so, so valuable. Um, Solomon, when he built the temple, here's a quick rundown. Right? Solomon builds the temple in the old testament. You can read about it in the. In, like, first chronicles. Um, he builds the temple, and there he initiates it. He puts it into place, and he asks God, hey, when we have sinned against you, when we have done crazy bad stuff and you kick us out and you judge us and you punish us, if we turn to this place and pray, restore us, and God does this, like, their catch this, their whole lives will fall apart in the future because of their sin. And the thing that will trigger the change and transformation will be literally them just turning and praying. That act of humility and trust, that will change everything. I think that's powerful to think about that. Um, uh, in the book of Exodus, it says that after all these years of them being enslaved to Egypt and getting worse and worse, God heard their groaning, he heard their prayer, and then he sent a deliverer, Moses. In the book of Daniel, we have a guy named Daniel, right? You guys know the story. Daniel gets thrown into the lion's den not just because he's jewish, not just because he worships the true God. He gets thrown in the lion's den because he refuses to stop praying on a regular basis, even from his balcony, where people could see him. So his regular habit of praying on a daily basis, multiple times a day, it gets him a death sentence, because prayer is that important. To him. And ultimately we're supposed to see it's that important to us. Uh, we quit praying for no reason other than we're being lazy and distracted and perhaps a bit worldly. Daniel, he was threatened with death and he wouldn't quit praying.

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That's how I know that maybe I am adopting a worldly mindset is when I treat prayer less than Daniel did.

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As a discipline, prayer is a good thing for you to do, not just spontaneously. Spontaneous prayer is great, but also intentional prayer where you set aside time to pray on a regular basis. So that's actually what Daniel was busted for. Three times a day, he would set aside specific times of prayer where he would just go and pray. And people knew it because he would go out onto the balcony. And so they were aware of it. Um, Jesus often did this too. In Luke chapter five, verse 16, it says that he would often withdraw to desolate places to pray.

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Interesting. Often. Now, there's a question of translation here. So the ESV doesn't say often, but the um net, the new king, James, the Niv, the NLT, they all say often because they're saying. The implication in the Greek is that this was regular practice of Jesus.

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But in the context of Luke chapter five, the people are coming to Jesus saying, teach us, minister to us, show us the truth. And Jesus withdraws from ministry that he might pray.

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Consider how important prayer is that the lord of glory sets aside this limited window of ministry time where he has like three plus years on earth to do this stuff, to pray. And ask yourself, are you praying like you should? Like in a way that is valuing prayer the way it is. The apostles too, the apostles made serious time for prayer. So in acts chapter six, there's one of the first dilemmas in the early church. They're feeding poor people and there's a group of widows who are being neglected in the distribution of food because of some, like, internal, uh, like click conflicts going on between the more hebrew Hebraic Jews versus the more greek ones.

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Like they had these cultural differences. At any rate, the, um, apostles want to appoint people to take care of these widows in their distribution. But what the reason why they're appointing, and they appoint these guys, Stephen, Phillip, other guys, the reason why they appoint them in acts six is because the apostles do not want to take time away from preaching the word and praying. That is, praying was taking so much time from the apostles daily lives that they had to schedule time for it and turn down other ministry opportunities. That to me is really impressive and I absolutely feel rebuked. And that's good. That's a great reminder to me. Prayer should be a regular time taking activity in the daily life of christians. That's part of prayer continually. The apostles made serious time for it. They're like, we're not going to leave the word of God in prayer. We're going to devote ourselves to those things and not just take on more and more tasks. We'll instead raise up others to minister, so it won't just be us. Good advice to those in ministry as well.

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Now we get the verse by verse analysis. Okay, so, acts, I'm sorry. First, thessalonians, chapter five. We're going to back up a little bit and we're going to see two things. One of them is this section right here on your screen. Verses 16 through 18 is one sentence, and it goes together. It's totally cohesive. But the sentence before it, verse 15, also seems quite relevant. So here it says, see that? No one. Oh, um. And what I'm asking you to do is notice the universals. Universals like no one, everyone, uh, always. Those are all universal statements. So see that? No one repays anyone evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another and to everyone. Lots of universals there. These are just big blanket rules. Then rejoice. Always pray without ceasing. Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

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These are like Paul's, like punchy boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. Quick instructions that are actually super valuable. We all need to hear these things as christians. I don't repay anybody evil for evil. I always seek to do good to one another and to everyone that seek to get to do good to Christians and everybody else. But then we get to this, this sentence. That's one cohesive idea, and it starts and ends with Thanksgiving. One. In the beginning, I rejoice always, and at the end I give thanks in all circumstances. That is a practical way of how you rejoice always is. You give thanks whenever you think my joy is low. This is a key in my experience in life. Whenever you think my joy is low, my happiness, um, is down. Here, um, give thanks. And now many will find this insulting, this instruction that when you're feeling down, you should be thankful. They'll feel insulted because they feel as though there's nothing to be thankful of. But that's actually part of why they're down. Why they're depressed is because they, in their minds, they've become blind to all the things to be grateful for and they were only seeing what is wrong. And so when you say, be thankful, they feel offended, like you're, like you're diminishing the harm that they're looking at, but you're not doing that at all. You're trying to expand their eyes to not only see that, but also see the rest of things to be thankful for. Maybe lungs that are working if you don't have that, be thankful for a brain that works. If you don't have that. Be thankful for a God who still cares for you and will carry you through to be thankful for the cross and the mercy of Jesus Christ.

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Um, there's a story of, I've shared it before, but of a pastor who is trying to counsel a lady who was feeling very, very depressed, and he tried to help work her through this, this idea of giving thanks in all circumstances, about rejoicing always. And he said to her, um, can you, can you think of something to thank God for? And she was very resistant because there's a sense in her, uh, where if she stopped and was thankful, it was like, it was diminishing the importance of the thing that she was upset and depressed about. And that's not true, that's not true, but it felt that way to her. And so he said, well, can you just say, thank you, God, for the forgiveness of my sins?

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Can you just say that? And she wouldn't do it over the phone. I hope she did afterwards when she got off the phone with him.

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This attitude of thankfulness is not just good for you. Um, I'm not just trying to psychologically build you up, although there is that. It's actually an essential quality for christians that keeps us from sin.

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One of the major problems in the Old Testament was the lack of thankfulness that they had towards God and that caused grumbling. And then God brought judgment upon them for it. Their lack of thankfulness in romans chapter one, the lack of gratitude towards God and thankfulness towards God leads to all manner of judgment and sin for the people. So this is a pretty important instruction. Now, I say all that. You're like, what about praying? How does this. Well, notice how pray without ceasing is sandwiched between rejoice, always give thanks in all circumstances.

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A central thing that we should be praying, praying at all times is thanks. I try to remember to open every prayer. It's like a habit I have. Um, I'm not all perfect about it, but I try to remember to open every prayer with something to be thankful for, some thankfulness to God or some gratitude to God, this could be something as simple as, father, um, in heaven, hallowed be your name.

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It's not a direct thanks, but there's a sense of gratitude that's there. There's a sense of honoring of who God is and what he's done that begins our prayer, that sets the stage for us to have a right heart. I think then that praying without ceasing includes in context thankfulness and rejoicing. And that is amazing. Did the apostles do this?

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Read acts, chapter four homework for you. Read acts, chapter four. They're beaten, they're attacked, and they rejoice that they are counted worthy to suffer for Christ's name. I can.

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This is hard to imagine.

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You're being punished, you're being hated, you're being ridiculed, you're being physically assaulted, and you find something to be thankful for. In the middle of that, there's an example for us to have, um, be thankful. So a thankful, regular, thankful prayer time. Not just when you. When I say, have regular prayer time, you're probably thinking, be making requests all day long, and requests are part of prayer. But that's not the emphasis that we're getting right here. It's not the emphasis. So that's worth thinking about. All right, let's go to question number two. They're all coming from the live chat right from you guys. And this one is from Nathaniel Brill, who says, does Isaiah 66 24 prove annihilationism? The only counterverse seems to be revelation 14 1011. And most of the bible talks about Sheol or all perishing or the wages being death. Thanks so much. I can't talk about most of the Bible and all of that stuff. It's much too big of a topic for not only for Q and A, but also for me. I'm not as familiar with all of the debates on this issue as I need to be to be able to answer all these questions. But, Nathaniel, I'll, uh, go to the passage with you, and perhaps I'll have a response. I may not. I may disappoint everybody. We'll see. Um. Okay. Isaiah 66 24, it says, and they shall go out and look on the dead bodies of the men who have rebelled against me, for their worms shall not die, their fire shall not be quenched, and they shall be in abhorrence to all flesh.

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So this is the last verse of the book of Isaiah, and it's clearly you're seeing Jesus. Uh, let me try to unpack why people think this is relevant to the debate, even if I can't answer it all for you today. Um.

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Um, the annihilationist or conditionalist viewpoint is that when people die, they perhaps there's a hell experience that maybe they're even resurrected. This is, I think the typical view is they're resurrected with bodies, but then they're cast into the everlasting fire, so to speak. Their body is destroyed and they're gone. Their soul's gone, their body's gone, their spirit's gone, they cease to exist. This is not necessarily an easy way out, um, but it definitely feels quite different. It's a very different thing than eternal conscious torment, which is the traditional view. Now, I hold the traditional view, though I don't hold it as like Dante's inferno description of hell. I don't think that's not my theological view, but I do think that the implication in scripture is that it does last forever and that there is some kind of consciousness, uh, but that it's different for each person. It's perfectly measured judgment. And when we try to describe it with, like, cartoony images that we do a disservice to it. Um, doesn't necessarily have to be physical pain at all times or something like that.

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Um, so there is this other view, this either annihilationist, as in you're completely annihilated when you finally, uh, pass, and not when you finally pass, but when final judgment comes, resurrection into revelation, all that.

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Um, or they like to be called conditionalist because what they're saying is that nobody has immortality naturally. Humans, if they die on a natural level, they just stop existing. That's just what happens. And, um, whether that's an initial death or second death. But the point is you stop existing naturally, and it was only conditionally that you could be immortal. And so, uh, they'll say Adam and Eve had to eat of the tree to be immortal. And that that would apply not only to their body, but also to their soul or their spirit.

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That's how I understand it. This stuff gets heavily nuanced because the debates are really hot and detailed, and I'm not all that familiar with all of them. So I'd love to do a project on this one day. No, it's probably years and years out. It's been massively delayed in my mind, so probably years and years out. But I'd love to do a little project on conditionalism and all this. You can be a Christian and be in either camp. Uh, you could be a non Christian in either camp because of other theological issues, but you could be a genuine believer in either camp, though generally the annihilationist conditionalist position has been treated as pretty suspect. Um, and for understandable reason, there's been those who, like, say, the Jehovah's witnesses have that view, and it's one of the things that they promote, and then they also promote so many other. Yeah. So the evangelism side of things. The conditionalist will view their. I. Their perspective that people will cease to exist at some point in the future as a type of evangelism, that this is going to help them, um, move forward in witnessing to people. A lot of people in the world will say, hey, um, the nature of hell, the idea that God will punish people forever and ever is so abhorrent to me that I actually reject belief in God and reject Christianity. And that may or may not be true, because if you were to convince them that hell was something different, they may still just reject God. And this is just an excuse. You know, people are complicated like that. But the conditionalist side might say, hey, this will help evangelism for people that have moral challenges to hell. And others would say, and I would push back on that and say, I don't change my theology for the sake of evangelism. So, um, that's something I wouldn't even consider when I'm trying to understand the text of scripture. I wouldn't put, if you try to sell me on that view because you think it'll be good for evangelism, I'm not listening. You need to show me with scripture truth, then I'll think of how to evangelize with truth. I'll never compromise truth to evangelize. So that side of things, I'm not so interested in.

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Um, but there are issues in scripture where, um, you just ask, is it destruction? Or is it like, you're completely destroyed upon final judgment, death is just the end. Or is it the end of the physical body? And there's the ongoing existence of the spirit for all eternity, even after that happens.

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Flash to, uh, this passage. Isaiah 66.

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Jesus quotes this their worms shall not die, their fire shall not be quenched, and they shall be in abhorrence to all flesh. But it says it in reference to dead bodies.

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They're just dead bodies.

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Um, you might say then, that this phrase refers to those who just physically die, that the worm not dying, the fire not being quenched, that is simply, you're gone. Even though. So the worm doesn't continue to consume forever, the fire doesn't continue to burn forever. It's just that the person dies and is destroyed before the worm, the fire continues to burn until there's nothing left. That's where the fire is not quenched. Um, and so they're just dead.

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Um, I don't think that this helps us get very far with the debate, because in my mind, as I'm just kind of working this through with you, you could say that, uh, Jesus appealing to this is talking about the physical destruction of the bodies of persons in hell. But that doesn't mean that their spirit or soul does not continue to have some sort of ongoing, punishing existence in all eternity. It would just mean that the physical is destroyed.

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This, however, could be that Jesus is quoting this, but then applying it to something different, applying it to second resurrection, final judgment. Whereas Isaiah could be in reference to something else. I would need to study these passages more carefully, more freshly than I have to answer, in more details than that. Um, I do not answer your question in full. I apologize for that. It's just because I don't have the ability, so I can only do what I can.

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Um, I would encourage those who are interested in this debate. You're welcome to go into it. A, um, lot of people, they jump on annihilationism nowadays as like, the shiny new thing. And my encouragement would be like when I did my women in ministry study, I really, really underscored the importance of checking footnotes, looking at the arguments people are making, not trying to quickly come to your conclusions on these things and being very patient with it. That's what I would encourage here, too. If you really want to, want to tackle this and come to firm conclusions on it, where you're going to maybe change your view, at least do it slowly and patiently. I don't think the annihilationist view is correct for a number of reasons. Um, and I don't think this particular verse gives a strong indication one way or the other about it, in my view anyway. I know that's probably not good enough, and I acknowledge that, so I'll just move on. Uh, anonymous question comes in here. I know I'm supposed to believe cuss words are bad to use as a Christian, but can you help me really understand why most of them don't feel wrong to say I in casual settings, especially if I'm by myself, home alone, and I trip on something. So you're like, oh, bloop. I say bloop, by the way. Obviously I say bloop. No, I don't. That would be, um, strange.

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Okay, cuss words. Um, I do have some videos on this. I will link a video below where I do like more of a thorough analysis on cussing. I'll link it down below at the end of the stream. It won't be there yet, but when the stream's over, I'll put it there. And we also have timestamps at the end of the stream. It takes us time to go through the video, check everything. If I have to edit, like a mute mistake like I made, it takes a few more hours, but we will get time stamps up as well.

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Cussing. As a Christian, um, the, the idea of cussing, what it, the way we do cussing in modern times, there wasn't much of that in ancient, in the text of scripture. You just don't see that kind of cussing where we use like, sailor language, where you literally just have a word that's meant to be. Here's a foul word I'm going to use just to emphasize a point I'm making. There are words used like dung, but only to actually reference dung. Does that make sense? They're words that are used, but they're only used to actually mean the thing they mean. They're not just vague expressions that are meant that are like bad words, that stuff. I don't see that in the text of scripture.

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I do, however, see statements about, um, being watchful over the words we say, making, uh, sure that our words are accurate and true, and also that we should put off all. And this is just a blanket statement, all filthy language. Okay, so let's, let's look at that. Um, and hopefully I can help answer your question about not only whether we can do this, but about like, why, why, um, so colossians 318 says here, but, uh, now you must put them all away. Anger, wrath, malice, slander and obscene talk from your mouth. Now, slander is one of those, too. Slander is probably the curse language that we forget is literal. It's slander. It's almost like you're cursing somebody. Um, and then we have obscene talk, which is meant to be this very generic, broad statement. It's just talk that is just inappropriate because you are a Christian, you are a vessel of Christ, you are filled with the Holy Spirit.

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You are precious to God. You are his people, and you're his mouthpieces in this world. So you should not say those things. And this is, um, um, part of the reason why the justification is even given here. Also, uh, don't lie. But it's because you've put off the old self with his practices and you've put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator, you are then called to be holy. As Christ is holy, perfect. As God is perfect.

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Can you use strong words? Can you say strong things and even harsh things? Yeah. But when it's appropriate, not as an expression of your uncontrolled anger or as, um, an expression of your sort of, um, your debased mentality about life, I think in general, um, as long as there is such a thing as here's words that are bad words that are curse words, that christians should not use those things if that changes over time and language moves over time. So you move to a point where a word no longer really carries any of those connotations. And maybe it once did. I wouldn't see a problem with a Christian using that, but it's complicated because he might be like, well, when I use it amongst this group, they don't care. And when I use it amongst this group, they do care, in which case, you should be all things to all people and nothing, not violate others, um, for the sake of loving them, you should not push on them, those types of things.

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I know that this is not actually a popular view, especially amongst men.

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The men, we like cussing, we enjoy it. It makes us feel powerful, it makes us feel adult, it makes us feel strong. And all of those things, I think, are just like the most petty ways to feel powerful, adult and strong, they're just petty. It's like saying that, uh, drinking, uh, a bunch of alcohol makes you a tough guy. It's just stupid. Um, I think that this is a really debased form of manhood or strength. And I think that men should be aware that we're drawn by not only true manhood, but we're also drawn by, like, the imitation of manhood. And it's. It's no, it's no good. And sometimes it seems the same, and it's not. It's not. It's like when I go to a sushi place, I love sushi. And you order some crab item. If it says crab with a k, it's not real crab. Did you know that crab with a k is not real crab? It's imitation crab. And then there's crab with a c, and then you're like, you're going to pay more, but it's going to taste right. It's going to be good. Otherwise it's like whitefish. So if you get crab with a k, it's kind of like this manliness. That's not really manliness. It's like manliness with a k, I don't know what that means, but you get it.

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Um, so let me read your question again. I know I'm supposed to believe cuss words are bad to use as a christian, but can you help me understand why? Um, so the idea is that, um, the things that we say as christians are far more important than we think. James chapter three says that the words of our mouth are incredibly important, and they guide the whole ship. They're super, super valid. Read James three. That's your homework for you, anonymous person. Okay? Please read James three. I know your words really, really matter. Jesus himself, he also said, we be judged for every idle word, even just the empty words that we say. See, they were empty to you, but they were not empty to God, who will judge us for the very words we say, every word that comes out of our mouths, that's powerful. Um, you said most of the words don't feel wrong to say in casual settings, especially if you're by yourself.

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And I would say, that's totally fine. I didn't feel wrong when I was cussing because I was not raised in the church, and it took me a while to get that normal language that I was using out of my system. Took me years. Um, but I had to develop an awareness that I was doing it and a sense that something was wrong with it because I didn't think so or I thought, well, it's normally wrong, but when I'm really angry, it's okay. I mean, but I was a teenager, so, you know, you think what you think at that age, and those things were not. Not quite accurate. I think that the self control of not using that language is a great disciplinary practice for real manliness, for real self control in all things that you say. If I can control myself, to never say a bad word, to never lash out in rage against people wrongly, I am so far along in controlling all of my character, my discipline, my habits, everything I do. So I think those things are good. You just have to be aware that, um, the allure of foul language, that it strengthens you. Um, is a deceptive thing, because what's happening is you are losing control of your tongue and you're becoming weaker, not stronger. At least that's my opinion. So I do think as long as there is a category of words that are crude, foul language, cuss word, that's what they are. Socially, then that's a category of words. As a Christian, you don't want to use. And you might think, but, Mike, what about this one exception? What about this one exception? And I'm like, well, uh, look, there are often exceptions to rules, but you need to at least establish the rule firmly in your heart and in your habits before you start asking about exceptions to those rules. That would be my encouragement.

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Let's go to the next question. One thing in, uh, question number four. One thing is the name of the YouTube channel. He says, when Jesus cast the legion of demons into the swine, why do they proceed to drown themselves? It's a good question. It showed the validity of the man being healed. But what was the actual reason for the demons to do so? Um, that's a really good question. All right.

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I've thought about this myself as well, and I've wondered, um, so there's this demoniac. Jesus travels to, like, on the sea of Galilee to this area called, I believe it was the gadarenes. And there, there's a man who has a bunch of demons in him. He casts the demons out, and they go, can we just go into the swine? Is it, can we have permission to just go into the swine? He says, yes. So they go into the swine, and then the herd runs downhill. They go into the water and they drown. And so this leads to a ton of questions about demons. Did they have to have a body? Couldn't they just get cast out of the mandev? Do they have to have a body?

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I mean, other times, Jesus casts demons out all throughout scripture. Do we have any of them, like, immediately jumping into another vessel?

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No. Do we have them asking about jumping into a vessel? No. Why were they asking to go into these swine? What was the motive there? What was the reason for that? That's an interesting question. The text doesn't give us a lot to go on. We have Jesus who gives a story about, um, casting a demon out of a man. And it goes out through desolate places, traveling and traveling, and it finds no place. And then it goes back to the man, and it basically, it repossesses the man, and it brings seven others worse than himself.

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This is a picture of a demon who goes out of a man and for some extended period of time is not inhabiting a body. So why did they go to the swine in the first place? Here's a thought.

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This is Israel.

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This is Israel. There's something that they're not supposed to be eating or farming or having in their land, and that would be swine. Pigs not welcome in the land of Israel. In fact, even now, to this day, if you go to Israel, there is, I think, one pig farm in Israel. Maybe there's more now, years ago, there was only one, but they had to elevate the whole farm up off the ground so that technically the pigs would not be touching hoof on the land of Israel. Or so I heard. I didn't go see it myself, but it seems credible to me, the story I heard of.

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So, yeah, um, that's interesting.

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Is it possible that demons just want to destroy things? They were destroying this man and they asked permission to go to the swine because they know that the swine are not allowed anyways. And so it may be a picture. I've never heard someone else suggest this. This is my idea. Maybe someone else has suggested, I just haven't heard it. So maybe I'm out on a limb. Is it possible that the reason that these guys were like, the demons were like, hey, let's go to the swine is because Satan knows that the hedge of protection is lowered when people are living in rebellion to God. And so they want to go into the swine because they want to bring destruction. They want to act out against man and God. And so he allows them to do it because there is no protection over that. There is no guarding over what's going on there. Something, God forbid for the land of Israel. And so they do that. And maybe, maybe they're also intending to cause Jesus problems with the local townspeople. So after the swine, a, uh, runoff, maybe this was their plan. God knows it's going to happen. It's not like God's surprise, but they drive the swine off, they drown.

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And then the townspeople come out and they see the man in his right mind clothed, the crazy demon possessed guy, fine. But they asked Jesus to leave, please leave our shore. Go somewhere else. The reason they asked him to leave was probably because of the swine. I, that scared them, that intimidated them. Somebody lost financial, uh, gain because of it, and so they asked him to leave.

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Maybe that's part of the agenda of Satan wanting to throw worldly monetary concerns, uh, up as an obstacle to the gospel for people. And of course, God allows this because you're going to have to choose between him and your money at some point.

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There's a final option that I'll mention, and it has to do with legs, pig legs.

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Okay, so pigs can, so I've been told, right? And I have looked into this and this is, seems to be the case. The story was that pigs can be, it's unconfirmed, but I think it's the case. Um, pigs can generally swim, but the archaeology, they found bones of pigs on that area, the Gadarenes of Galilee, that were these very short legged pigs. They were just particular pigs that have very short legs. These pigs can't swim. It may be that the um, uh, the demons wanted to escape Jesus and get away from him knowing he came from the water. He's heading into the land, they're going to go into the water and get away from him. And they ran the pigs into the water to escape and ended up drowning as a result. Not knowing that the pigs wouldn't be able to swim. I don't know if that's the case. This is like way on the limb with conjecture. Let's acknowledge this. I would note, put a burden of on anybody that they have to believe that interpretation. There's um, two different views there. Perhaps it had to do with them wanting to destroy things or cause problems for Jesus. Um, perhaps they were trying to flee and were ignorant of the fact that these pigs were not going to be able to swim. And um, I don't know. What do you think?

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All right, let's take the next question. Question five or six? Five? Yes, five. All right. Faith and reason says, my friend says he doesn't want forgiveness because he won't learn from his mistakes if he doesn't face consequences. How would you respond?

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Um, there's a number of responses that immediately come to mind. Okay, so let me, let me m try to think. If your friend was listening to me right now, um, how would I respond to them? Not just analyzing them but actually responding to them, which is two different things. I can analyze a person that's not the same as actually responding to them. And so if I was speaking with somebody and they said that um, I don't want forgiveness because I won't learn from my mistakes. And um, one thing I would do is I would want to challenge them on that. I would say, is there anybody who you've ever wronged and they forgave you? Like really stop and let them think. Like don't answer them, don't interrupt them. Just let them sit and think about this. Is there anybody who you've wronged and they forgave you?

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Let them think.

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And then when they answer maybe can you give me an example?

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And then um, you want to ask them a question? Did you still learn from your mistake when you were forgiven?

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And they're probably going to say yes.

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Then you can ask again, is there anybody you've wronged and they did not forgive you? Give them time.

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There's a chance they'll say that's never happened. I've never wronged anybody where they had to forgive me. In which case, uh, you're exposing that there's probably a delusion. If you were to ask family or friends of theirs, they'd be like, oh, yes, I forgive them all the time. This person is just very blind to it. So they think they don't want forgiveness because they really think there's very little to forgive them about.

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Um, that might be the case, but perhaps you could point them to one event where they wronged someone and there was no forgiveness, and then you can ask them a question, did you learn from that? And they might say, yes, I did, and maybe I learned better because I was never forgiven. And you say, yes, but what happened to your relationship with that person?

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Let them answer. They'll tell you, it's over. I lost that relationship because of a lack of forgiveness. There is no longer a relationship with that person. And I'm saying, is that what you want with God? You want to be like, I learned my lessons, and now I'm in hell forever apart from you.

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And now I die without the knowledge of God. Now I'm separated from all time from my creator.

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Is that what you want?

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Another thing to bring to them? And I like to use questions for people. Um, when you're trying to help them understand something they haven't seen, is using questions can be good. Lecturing them can help. It just depends. God give you wisdom?

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Um, but other question would be, um, if you never get forgiveness for the things you've done in your life, when you stand before God, what do you expect to happen?

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Let them answer. Let them answer, can I?

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And when they answer, say, can I show with you in scripture? Can I tell you what happens upon this moment? You might look and say, go to revelation and see those who die, uh, apart from Christ. And without forgiveness, without being covered by the blood of Jesus, they are cast into fire. They are apart from the presence of God. They are into darkness. And all these analogies for the type of judgment that they'll get, darkness and fire and being, um, away from God and away from the presence of the Lord. These types of things Jesus describes, actually the people who don't get forgiveness in life. And he doesn't describe them as, like, mature and healthy and people who grow and learn and become those who discover truth because of consequences. He describes them as people who have weeping and gnashing of teeth.

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What do you think about that? Let them answer. Because you're not trying to tell them what you think you're trying to get them to think.

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So I encourage you to let them answer. So, let me read this again. You said, my friend says he doesn't want forgiveness because he won't learn from his mistakes if he doesn't face consequences. How would you respond? Um, the thing I would respond as well is, um, God is committed to growing us as christians. Uh, Hebrews talks about this. Hebrews eleven talks about this.

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And it talks about how God chastens us. And the final point here, I would say, is in Hebrews eleven, we're going to learn that. Even though. I'm sorry. It's not eleven. Is it ten? Is it? Oh, mandy, I get all these mixed up.

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Anyways, the, um.

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Oh, no. Okay, so the. The idea is that God, even though he forgives us, he still chastens us. That's the word. Chastening. So a parent does this with their child. A parent will discipline their children, but they still forgive them. But, like, I'm going to discipline you. You did something wrong. I'm going to discipline you to teach you a lesson. But discipline can teach you. Not unforgiveness. Unforgiveness just ruins relationships. It doesn't teach. It just ruins relationships. So you could do that, and you could say, yeah, um, God is going to discipline us. And, um, you could read about it here in Hebrews twelve, where it says, it is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom the father does not discipline? If you're left without discipline in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. We should rejoice when God disciplines us. So as christians are not left without education, without discipleship, without teaching, without growing, when we mess up in sin.

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And maybe a great follow up question for your friend would be this, to ask him, you know, if he had, let's assume he has kids. If not, when you have kids, say, when you have kids, will you maintain a policy? This is a great question, that when they sin or when they do something wrong to you, you will not forgive them. You refuse forgiveness to give to them. I will never forgive you, son, because I want you to learn the lesson so you will never be forgiven. Is that how it works for you?

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And then you'll see. It would be terribly cruel if he did this to others. Something else is going on. And that's where I would want to really zero in on him and say, hey, buddy, you want to not get forgiveness for some reason other than wanting to be a strong person who takes care of their own stuff, because this plan doesn't work in reality, you need forgiveness from God. Maybe it's just pride. Maybe it's just pride. I don't want to submit to God. I don't want to yield to God. I don't want to rely on God.

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And that ultimately is something that you need forgiveness for. So, man, I hope it helps. Uh, okay, let's go to the next question. Number six.

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This comes from Spencer, um, Goddard, who says, hey, Mike, thank uh, you for your thoughtful ministry. Thank you, Spencer. Uh, does Matthew 20 414 teach that the rapture will not happen until all people groups hear the gospel? Or could Christ return before this happens? That's a good question. Um, let's read the passage and we'll tell you guys, for those who don't know, I'll make sure that you understand why this is a significant thing. Those, uh, who've been spent a lot of years in like a community of people who believe in, uh, the eschatology that says the end times events, that says like, hey, in the future, uh, Jesus will pull the church out of the world. Boom, all the christians are gone. And then like, a great time of judgment comes for seven years, and then Jesus returns with his saints to rule the world for a thousand years. And then final judgment. That's the, that's the basic view. But that view that has what we call a pre tribulational rapture view. Or basically Jesus is going to pull everybody out right before that seven years of hard times. That view. Sometimes people in that camp say that this verse gives us a timeline of when that rapture will happen. All right, so the gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.

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This could be seen as a timeline.

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The gospel goes into all the world. And here's where you add a timeline to it. The moment the last piece of the world gets the gospel, then the incomes. And so some would view evangelism as causing end times events to take place. Because once maybe I get out to that one remote village that still left and boom, the gospel's gone everywhere. Now the end comes. Is that what Jesus was trying to say?

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Um, I don't think so. Um, I think rather he was saying there's actually a delay before the incomes. And our task is to preach the gospel through the whole world as testimony to all nations. That's what our job is to do while we're waiting on whatever comes next, rapture, second coming, whatever it is that God has on his timeline next, that while we're waiting on this, our goal and our agenda is to preach the gospel to all the world.

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There's also, um, a bit of a challenge to this, which is in the book of acts, Paul writes and says that the gospel has been preached in the whole world. And you're like, but there's no way it wasn't preached in the whole world in the book of acts. Well, that's because we use the phrase whole world to mean every place on the planet. And they use the phrase whole world in a flexible number of ways. They could use it to talk about like, the expanse of whole world. But they would often say whole world, whole earth to literally mean everything within a reasonable distance of where I live.

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They could just mean that. And they did frequently. They did frequently. That happens a lot. There's a lot of examples. If you look at just the word earth in scripture, it is often used of a local environment, a local area.

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Ends of the earth. We would think of ends of the earth as being the furthest possible place on the planet. Or if you're flat earther, you'd be thinking of as the edge, the, uh, ice wall or something. Um, that's not the case in scripture. Ends of the earth is used in Jerusalem. They say ends of the earth. And they're talking about Babylon, which isn't even that far away from all of humanity. Look at all the territory of the world and all the continents. That's not that far away from Jerusalem to Babylon. Um, so they would use the term in a way that we often don't. And we should know that when we're reading the text of scripture. So when Jesus says the gospel we proclaimed throughout the whole world, they weren't generally thinking of that as, okay, when Madagascar gets it and when Hawaii gets it, uh, and when all the indonesian islands get it, and when all the countries of Africa get it, and, you know, the 1040 window, they're not probably thinking about that. They're just thinking, our task is to share the gospel everywhere. That's how Matthew ends as well. Matthew, this is 24. Matthew ends with 28, where he goes, preach the gospel and go into the whole world. Preach the gospel. Go preach to everybody.

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I don't think it's a timeline. Um, I have a study on this where I talk about views of end times, and I talk about Matthew 24 and Luke and Mark and, uh, the three parallel passages where Jesus talks about the same stuff. And I think the key. Sorry, I'll put it on your screen again, is if there's one thing to look for. It's not how far has the gospel gotten? It's not those things. It's when you see the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel. So I have a video on what is the abomination of desolation? It's my understanding of that. You're welcome to consider it. I'll put it in the link below. As soon as the stream is over, you guys can check it out. There's a sign. It's the only sign to look for this. All the stuff that is said before, these are not signs. All this stuff is going to happen. Wars, rumors of wars. This is. I have a controversial view here, but I think it's accurate. Okay. It's just controversial amongst most of the churches that I've, I find myself agreeing with most of the time. Um, but, uh, uh, but yeah, he gives a list of things that are not, you know, let me, here, I'll just read it. See that no one leads you astray. That's the first warning that he gives to them when they're asking, hey, when is everything going to happen? When is when it tell us, when will these things be and what will be the sign of your coming in the end of the age?

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He goes, well, first thing, don't be misled.

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People looking for signs, don't be misled. For many will come in my name saying, I'm the Christ and they'll lead many astray. And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you're not alarmed, for this must take place, but the end is not yet. Wars and rumors of wars are not signs of in the general generally. Wars and rumors of wars are not signs of the end. Right. See that you're not alarmed. This must take place, but the end is not yet. That's where I take a controversial view, which I think is the accurate view.

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But, you know, ultimately, God knows, for nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places. This is going to happen, guys. And it's not the end. These are but the beginning of birth painst.

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Somebody says, see, it's their signs of the end. They're the beginning of birth pains. But he means that they're going to be taking place throughout time. They're just the beginning. It's like, no, not yet. This is like, don't even go to the hospital yet. You're not, you're not. Birth pains aren't far enough along yet. It's just things that are going to happen throughout time, that you shouldn't think it's here every 5 seconds in human history, because there's always something. The black plague, the mongol invasion, there's always something going on. There's the Holocaust or there's the rise of neuralinkers. Um, there's always something going on.

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Don't overreact. That's actually a main theme in Jesus end time stuff, is don't overreact. Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and put you to death, and you'll be hated by all nations for my name's sake. And then many will fall away and betray one another and hate one another. And many false prophets will arise and lead many astray. And because of lawlessness, um, because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold. But the one who what endures to the end will be saved. That's your goal.

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End times people are often, uh, I believe that Jesus is coming. I believe in times are going to happen. But people who focus on it and try to set dates and try to see it always happening within their lifetime, um, they tend to not think about enduring to the end. They think about preparing for some short term boom. It's going to happen within, within some short term. That doesn't help us prepare for enduring to the end.

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The end. It's long term endurance that Christ is setting us up for when it comes to end times. And the gospel will be preached and proclaimed the whole world as a testimony, and then the end will come and he finally gives a sign. So when you see the abomination of desolation, I will link a video down below that talks about what the abomination is.

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And, um, christians disagree on that. But I do have a view and I share my reasons for it. All right, the, um, question number seven, anonymous question.

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Uh, actually, I think that's the name of your YouTube channel, is anonymous, so it's not an anonymous question. Uh, what did it take? Or. Excuse me? What does it take for someone to be considered married in the eyes of Goddesse? A ceremony, a presiding religious leader, religious words spoken, having a legal certificate or intimate acts? Um, this is a great question, and the Bible is not totally clear on this, so we have to kind of suss it out a little bit. Let me start at the bottom, at the bottom end of your question here. The last thing you said was intimate acts. You said, so, like, if two adults are intimate, if they, quote, know each other in that biblical sense, are they now officially married? Well, that certainly seems to be the case with, um, it seems to be the case that that action is assumed to be the immediate thing that happens upon marriage. So they get married, and we even call it consummating the marriage, that it's something that's considered normally integral to the process of marriage.

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Um, but does the act actually make you married?

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Does the act itself make you married?

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That. I don't think so, because there are some counterexamples in scripture. So, for instance, a man who commits adultery on his wife with the, uh, woman at the well, and he says to her, um, go call your husband. And he's having this conversation with this woman. It's in John, chapter four. And he says, go call your husband. And she says, I don't have a husband. And then Jesus zeros in on her life, tells her stuff she didn't know he knew about her. He says, you're right. You don't have a husband. Remember that. You don't have a husband. And he said, you've had, was it five husbands? And the man you have now is not your husband. She has a man now. That implies that they're being intimate together, right? But he's not your husband. Meaning that the physical act was not enough to constitute a marriage. It's so. So in other words, physical intimacy is part of marriage, but it does not equal marriage. Do you catch that? It's an important element in marriage, but it does not cause marriage. Inherently. 216 year olds sleep together. They're not married. Now, that's important that we understand this. It changes how we view things and how we look at our lives. Um, otherwise, a woman who's slept with six men has literally been married six times. And, um, that's not the case.

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Now, first Corinthians suggests that still the two become one flesh. So there is no such thing as casual intimacy. Um, but even if you're not getting married, you sleep with somebody, there's a oneness that the two of you have created. It's just not called marriage. It's not actually marriage. So now let's look at the other options. What makes it marriage then? Um, is it a ceremony? Um, well, certainly ceremonies are normal with marriage, but you look at the garden of Eden and you have Adam and Eve, and you don't see a ceremony taking place. Now, you could say behind the scenes there was a ceremony. It's just not written about.

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That's possible, but I don't want to project that onto scripture and then make it a rule for everybody. Um, so the ceremony might be a normal thing. There seems to be a normal thing, and it seems very natural to have a ceremony, to acknowledge publicly that this wedding is taking place. But I don't see, like, a command in scripture that the ceremony has to take place. If two people elope and they run away, but they commit to each other like, I'm married to you, you're married to me, we're going to live together, we're going to be together, we're going to have kids and build a family. And for some reason, they ran away. Whatever the reason, good or bad.

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Would I call that a real marriage? Nobody was there.

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I would acknowledge it as a real marriage. I wouldn't see justification to nothing. Um, does it require a presiding religious leader? Uh, current marriages, almost all of them have that. At least in people I'm aware of, they have a presiding religious leader. Even if it's just someone who got, uh, a chaplain license or a marriage license for a day and they did it, they'll still do it in a religious way. And that's good. It's healthy that in marriage we acknowledge God. He is the one who. Jesus says, what? God is joined together, let not men separate. So God is the one joining us in marriage. It's not just us. God joins us. I would say, based on that in scripture, what constitutes a marriage is God joins two people together in marriage. It's a supernatural event. God joins them together. He does it with pagans, he does it with christians. Marriage is something God designed, God instituted, and God is the one who joins you. Which is why, like, same sex marriage can't actually be real marriage, because God is not joining you together. You could try to have a religious ceremony. You could try to have physical intimacy, although you literally cannot do the thing that a man or woman can do, you physically can't. Right. It's not possible to do the exact same thing with the same qualities and potentials for children and stuff. Um, uh, but still, God is not joining you together. I think that then what we can do is we look at scripture and we say, well, what are common elements in marriage? Maybe it's not a hard and fast rule across every marriage, but what are the common elements? You commonly see? Um, that God is acknowledged as one who joins together. You see that there are two people who make a commitment to one another that is binding, and it's binding not only between them, but also in their greater culture. That's something that's actually pretty consistent. You don't see it in Adam and Eve because there is no greater culture. They're literally a community of two people. But in every other example, you seem to see where there's, where there's enough data to look at it. Um, um, a community accountability that, that they're actually married. So that when Moses is talking about the potential of divorce, he talks about it like it's an issue that the community has to weigh in on. Right. Like your marriage isn't just a private thing. I think marriages ideally should be, uh, public. They should be, uh, a serious commitment between the man and woman. They should acknowledge God, the creator, who joins man and woman together. And whether they have a religious leader involved or not is optional. But it seems generally positive.

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Catch that? It seems generally positive. I have done many weddings. I don't. I very rarely do that stuff nowadays. But, um. Um. So please, please don't ask. Sorry. I'm sorry. I just. I just can't split myself eight different ways. But, uh.

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But I. In my view of marriage, I don't look at it like some pastors do. Wherever they look at a couple and they're sizing them up to see if they're. If they'll qualify for the. For them to be married. Now, uh, you might pull yourself out of a marriage, out of. Out of doing a wedding as a pastor, because you have some objection, but I have no right to tell people who, who isn't, isn't going to get married.

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I, um, could say what I think is right and wrong, but I can't actually control whether they become married. Like, my presence doesn't make them married. It just seems like a nice thing to have.

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So, two people, commitment to marriage and the intimacy that follows is a important thing to do. Obviously, if people can't physically, because of medical issues or something like that, then I think that the Lord meets them there. Um, but, yeah, you don't really have a straight, simple formula in scripture. You have regular examples, a man and a woman.

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Serious, um, commitment. I am committed to you. And when I say serious commitment, I don't mean like, any generic commitment. Like, I'm really committed to you, probably. I mean, like, till death do us part. I'll be your husband, you'll be my wife. I'll, uh, be your wife. I will support you. All that. All that commitment in marriage, serious intention. So perhaps it's two people joining with the intention of being married.

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Right. And all that that encompasses is enough to form a marriage. Bare bones. And the other stuff is extra, that it seems healthy and normal. M that'd be my formula. What do you think?

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All right, let's go to question number eight.

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Sleet eight. All right. Rdmprodi says, are we judged twice?

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Then you give two verses. Luke 16 and revelation 20. And you think this suggests two different judgments that we undergo. So let's look at Luke 16, 1923. Are we judged twice? There was a rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen, who feasted sumptuously every day. And at his gate was laid a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, who desired to be fed with what fell from the rich man's table. Moreover, even the dogs came and licked his sores. The poor man died and was carried by the angels to Abraham's side. The rich man also died and was buried and in Hades. Being in torment, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham afar, uh, off, and Lazarus at his side. And he called out, father Abraham, have mercy on me. And send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in anguish in this flame. But Abraham said, childhood, remember that in your lifetime you received, um, you in your lifetime received your good things and Lazarus in like manner, bad things. But now he's comforted and you are in anguish. Um, I could keep reading, but it's not necessary for the sake of understanding what we've already covered. The first passage is this. Jesus is like, hey, it seems to be. Actually, I do need to keep reading. Uh, it seems to be that this happened in Jesus's story here, not in final judgment, in the future, in revelation, but, like, right away. Like, they died, and right away they were split into two camps. One was in a place of torment and one was in a place of comfort. And the evidence of this is he, um, says, um, I beg you, father, send Lazarus to my father's house. For I have five brothers, so that he may warn them lest they also come to this place of torment. This confirms that in this story, Jesus is talking about something that's happening right at the moment. Like, they die and his brothers are still there. Because if it wasn't, if it was in the future, final judgment, the brothers wouldn't still be in his father's house. He wouldn't be like, send him up like, this is death. And then they're separated. And all this stuff is taking place long before final judgment. But if they weren't already judged in some sense, why wouldn't they be in the same camp or the same category or the same side of the chasm? Why is one comforted and one suffering?

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That would imply perhaps more than one judgment. Because then you read revelation. Revelation, chapter uh, 20.

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And you have verses eleven through 13.

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Then I saw a great white throne, and him who was seated on it. From his presence, the earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne. And books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the Book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books according to what they had done. So these books are meant to be records of the things they did in their lives. They're judged based on that. And so you have two sets of books. Uh, a book with all of our things we did, good and bad. And then you have another book called just the Book of Life. Are you written in that or are you not? And ultimately, Jesus is how you get written in that one.

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Um, and the sea gave up the dead that were in it, death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them. And they were judged, each of them, according to what they had done.

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So are there two judgments, then?

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Um, some people would push back on this, and they would say, well, I don't think the Lazarus story is anything other than a parable. I don't think it's describing the way things really are. It's just like one of those stories where someone's, like someone died, and they said to Saint Peter at the gate, can I come in? And nobody's trying to establish that when you die, you actually see Peter or something like that, although some people would suggest you do. Um, I don't take that camp. Um, I think that the story of Lazarus and the rich, Mandy, even if it is a parable, um, it could be.

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It doesn't start the same as the parables. It feels a little different than parables. He has names for the people, at least for Lazarus, one of them. And then there is a guy named Lazarus who actually dies and comes back.

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Was Jesus forming a story that was meant to have more meaning? When Lazarus died and Rose, um, he didn't really resurrect, but he was resuscitated. He was brought back to life. Um, or is it maybe just a parable? Let's say if it was a parable, that would be the hardest to handle in this regard. If it was just a parable, is Jesus making a parable about the afterlife that is completely, 100% unlike what you experience initially upon death that I find hard to believe. And that's why I tend to think that this story of Lazarus and the rich man, even if we're using imagery like finger and water and flames, and it's imagery that's meant to picture something that's not exactly like that. I think still, it requires, reasonably, that Jesus is saying upon death, you are, you're separated into two camps. Those who are comforted and those who are in torment or are in, I would, I would add, waiting on final judgment. And I would liken it to the two different types of places. Um, we put prisoners.

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So in the US, we have jails and we have prison, and they're two different things. You even have a local jail versus the county jail or whatever you've got. The sheriff's station has a little jail. That's all temporary storage. If your sentence is over a year long, you're supposed to go to prison. If it's under a year, you usually go to jail. Now, overcrowding and stuff changes. Some things like this. Um, there is such a thing as a guy who, preliminarily, he was found with enough evidence to show that he is going to be stored in. In jail or in, or in wherever.

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He's going to be stored somewhere while they're still doing his court case. So you have a guy who's actually, he's. He's not out on bail. He is stuck in, like, confinement in a cage, so to speak. Then he's brought before the judge and he's judged again.

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And then final judgment comes and his final fate is decided along with, like, how much time have you served? How does that weigh on your final sentence? We do this in our society, is my point. I think that upon initial death, my interpretation of this, my view of judgment for humans is we're separated into two categories. One is going to be for the unsaved, and they're going to be like, there's an awareness of future final judgment coming upon them. And there's. That alone is tormenting, of course, then there is those who are in Christ. And before Christ's death, we would have gone into some sort of like, comfort place, like where Abraham was after Christ's resurrection. We're going to be in Christ's presence, so that if I die now, I go to where Abraham is now, which is in the very presence of God. Once Jesus died and rose, he sort of opened the door to take all those people who were waiting and bring them into the very presence of God. So that Paul is able to say, I would rather, uh, die. He'd rather be absent from the body and present with the Lord.

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So that makes sense to me. And that brings together a few different ideas in scripture, I think I'm consciously present with God the moment I die. And a person is consciously away from the presence of God if they don't know Christ the moment they die. That's my understanding of this. Preliminary judgment separates us into these two categories. But in the. In the distant future, after every human has had their chance to live and die and do all that, then the books will be opened and final judgment will come along with final punishment. So that nobody's in hell at this exact moment. They're in, like, Hades, whatever. They're in, like, a different location, temporary, like jail versus prison. Then in the future, they're cast into hell.

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All right, let's go to question number nine. Corey Finch says popular worship song lyrics. I bless you, as in humans blessing God. Is that biblical? And, uh, other ones like, you are enough, so I am enough. I haven't heard that lyric, but I'll tackle that too. Does Christ's righteousness imparted on us also make us enough? Okay, worship lyrics. Let's talk about some stuff with that. I'll add some other things too, that are just on my mind. Can you say, I will bless you, God, I bless the Lord? That is actually a strange idea for many of us, but it is entirely biblical. Entirely biblical to bless God. Let me give you some scripture on that.

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Here is psalm 134. One. Come bless the Lord, all you servants of the Lord who stand by night in the house of the Lord, lift up your hands to the holy place and bless the Lord.

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You're going to bless God according to scripture, you can bless God.

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Um, psalm 103. One.

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Bless the Lord, o my soul and all that is within me. Bless his holy name, bless the Lord, o my soul. And forget not all his benefits. Then it just talks about how good God is.

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Is it possible then, that what it means by blessing God is you're just proclaiming how good God is that that blesses God? Yeah. So it's not I'm blessing you. Like, I will cause positive things to happen to you. For by giving, putting a blessing upon you, blessing God can just be us worshiping him. I'm just blessing the Lord. He is. He delights in the praises of his people. He and he enjoys. He loves that. It's relational, it's harmony.

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There's, uh, a rightness to it. When I tell my wife I love her, hopefully she delights in that. You know, there's a delight that is in knowing the truth of that and hearing it. And there is something there about knowing. Like when God says, if God just says, whispers in your ear, says, I love you. I care for you. That is, that blesses you, does it not? Yes. So I think we can bless the Lord in these things. We just do it from the perspective of him being the all powerful, all knowing, all good creator. But it happens in many other psalms. So. Psalm 104, verse one says, bless the Lord. Psalm 134, verse two, bless the Lord. Lift up your hands in the sanctuary and bless the Lord, implying that the act of worship is itself blessing God. Um, there's other ones. Ah, psalm 20 612.

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I will bless the Lord.

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Psalm 130, 519. Bless the Lord, O Israel, o house of Israel. Bless the Lord, o house of Aaron.

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Verse 20 says it again. There's other places. So, yeah, you can bless God. That's 100% true. So the problem is only that, um, maybe we have a sub biblical understanding of the word bless. We should look at scripture and see how it's used in different ways. When Abraham blessed his sons, it was not the same as the way I bless God, but both of those are blessing in a different way.

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Um, so, yeah, that's great. I bless you, Lord. Now, if the song's like, I bless you, Lord, because I add to your greatness through my greatness pouring into you or some garbage like that, yeah, you throw it out. But the very concept of blessing God is biblical. As long as you understand it is an act of simply giving God credit, giving God praise. Uh, giving God the attention and the love and the devotion that he deserves is a way to bless the Lord.

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He blesses us in very different ways.

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But there's more. So you said the phrase, the quote, uh, you are enough, so I am enough. Is that okay to sing now? I do not know the worship song this part of. So my answer would change depending on the context of that song. That song. If it's. If it's dictating, um, that you're enough, so I'm enough. Because I'm, you know. You know what I mean? Like, the songs that are, like, I'm amazing. I'm amazing. Like, right? Like, don't call me someone who has flaws and issues and needs to rely on the grace of God every moment of every day, because I am enough. Then throw it out. Like, that's garbage. But there's a way in which you can say God is enough, and therefore I'm enough, because I am not. Because I'm nothing. But God is everything. And you can. It's on my coffee cup this morning or today. It's not even morning. I can do all things through. Through, uh, him who strengthens me here. I'm going to show it to you guys. Yeah.

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There's another verse that's often taken one of two ways. People think, oh, I'm going to win this football game through Christ, who strengthens me, or I'm going to have business success through Christ, who strengthens me. And actually it's talking about going through hardship or having positive things happen, but not letting that draw you away from Christ. It's actually, those are the two things that Paul's talking about. But there's nothing wrong with saying I can do all things through Christ, who strengthens me. As long as you know what it means. Are you enough? Let me think. There's a scripture I want to share with you guys that relates to this, that I think parallels this dilemma of, can we say that? Um.

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And it is, yeah. So, two Corinthians, chapter twelve.

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A great parallel for this.

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This is the right way to say it.

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Um, okay. To keep me from being conceited, Paul says, because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. He says it twice. He was given continual bad experiences that made his life hard, literally. He looked at it and said, let's talk about being thankful in all things. He says, thank you, God. I'm not thanking you that I'm suffering, but I'm thanking that you're using it to keep me humble because I would become arrogant, and that would be the worst thing that could happen to me. It would ruin me, ruin my ministry. It would lead to all manner of things. So he's grateful for that, for what God does through it. Then he says, three times I pleaded with the Lord about it, that it should leave me. But he said to me, my grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. This is the sense in which God's enough, so I'm enough, if that same person can say, I am terribly weak. But God is strong and his strength is made perfect in my weakness. So I rejoice even in my weakness, because I know God is using it. Yeah, if it's that you can sing that. The question is, does the song carry some of those elements in it, or does it just sort of in an isolated way, throw out this phrase in a world that is full of people puffing each other up, talking about how great they are and how much self confidence they should have and self assurance and self esteem? If it doesn't, add some of these elements that it's actually your weakness that brings out God's strength.

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Then I would. I wouldn't do the song, because then it would become a worldly thing, I think, in people's minds. But he says, therefore, I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ. Then I'm content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak.

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Here's. Here's a great worship songline. Then I am strong.

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Oh, uh, you can see it, too, now. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

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If that was in a song by itself, I would have pause. When I'm, um, weak, then I'm strong.

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But when you add other things, like the description he just gave us in the earlier part of the chapter, you go, oh, I know what this means. He doesn't mean he's strong at all. He means that, like, he has incapacities and inabilities and suffering and difficult things. And these cause him to say, lord, this will never work unless you enable it. This will never happen unless you empower it. I can't get through this day without your help. And then he realizes he's walking in God's strength, and God gets all the credit. That's a beautiful thing. But if it's about pride, feeling good about yourself, you know what? Like, every actor, when they give advice to people who are coming up, believe in yourself. You gotta believe in yourself. Believe in yourself. Believe in yourself. And I'm just like. It's like actors learn how to live. Live a fantasy in their lives somehow, because it's the way the whole industry is designed.

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Um, it's weird.

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And musicians, too, sadly, big time musicians are just the most self obsessed, arrogant people. And. And you know this because they tell you that that's how you should be, too, if it comes off that way. Yeah, it's bad for a worship song. There's another thing I'll add here. Repetitive worship songs. There's a lot of pushback from people like me who care a lot about theology, and I want meaningful worship songs, and I want thoughtful worship songs. There's a lot of pushback against repetitive choruses where you just say the same thing over and over again. And I don't push back on that, but from people who agree with me on a lot, there is a lot of pushback. So I want to mention that real quick and say there's nothing wrong inherently with repetitive choruses. It's in the psalms, dude. Right? Bless the Lord, um, over and over again, it says, like, his m mercy endures forever over and over again. If you sang a worship song that said, his mercy endures forever as many times as that happens in the psalm, you would probably be like, this is lame.

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Instead, I'm going to suggest that the scripture is telling us here, and I've got it highlighted so you could see all the occurrences of it.

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The scripture is telling us that it's entirely good to repeat every time it says his mercy endorses. It's highlighted for you. I'm going to scroll down. Verse 45678. 910. Eleven. Keep going. 1516. 2022. 26 verses. It's in every verse.

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You cannot rip on worship songs for being repetitive when scripture does this, Jesus is not opposed to repetition. He's opposed to vain repetition. So that's the thing. I just encourage us to remember. Vain repetition is singing it, not meaning it. Yes, if you're doing it, that's a problem. But it's okay to say his mercy endures and say it again and again and again and again and again. Does every worship song need to do that? No, it doesn't need to do that. But it. But it doesn't. It's not ruled out.

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Repetition is okay as long as it's genuine, as long as it's real. And there is something to be said. And a lot of people get this, but they usually don't talk about it. Usually I only hear people complain about it. A lot of people do get it. They get that when you say over and over again some truth about God, it often does reinforce it in a new way. It often is more solidly in your mind and heart and not less, as long as you're nothing. Not using empty repetition, which Jesus warned against. So I just want to encourage you guys in that be biblical in our worship.

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Number ten. Last question. Graham says, hey, Mike, thanks for your ministry. You're very welcome, Graham. I am honored that I get to do it. That in my weakness, which I have quite a few of those, um, God is showing his strength. It has been a blessing during my walk. Good to know. Is it biblical to vote for the lesser of two evils? Could you point to someone or something in scripture to help us understand?

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Can you vote for the lesser of two evils?

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Um, let me share with you. Kind of like how at least I've heard people talk about this because I looked into this a bit, this idea. Is it lesser of two evils or is it the greatest good?

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That's a different way of looking at the same problem. Almost like a. You know, some people who say the glass is half empty and others say the glass is half full, there's people who go, am I voting for the least evil option or the most good option?

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There's just two different ways of looking at it in that regard. Um, if I was to say I will vote for the most good option, it's almost like nobody could argue with me about that. And I'll. Okay, I'll vote for the most good option. Okay. That if the options are, like, in our situation, Kamala Harris and Donald Trump, that's probably Donald Trump.

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He's.

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He's not really good, in my opinion. Okay. But. But most good, probably. Clearly from the issues of, like, trans ideology stuff, even abortion, which he is not solid on abortion, but he. It would be more baby saved that way. Um, yeah. Okay. So if those are the two options, and I'm going to pick between those two options, it seems. It would seem clear to me as a Christian, where I would have to vote grudgingly. Okay. That's my opinion. I know I made a lot of people mad by saying that, um, the fact that you're mad is part of the problem. Um, that's going on right now amongst believers is that we can't discuss these things and just go like, hey, actually, I take a different view and share it instead of being angry, and then all communication shuts down, at any rate.

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Um, but is it justifiable to do that? To vote for the greater good or the least evil?

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There are times where there's moral dilemmas in scripture, and they do things that just seem very much not ideal. So I could think of, um, when they give up the kids of Saul.

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They're not kids. They're not children, but the descendants of Saul that are left to the. Is it the gibeonites? Um, and they'll kill them. And it's because of this treaty violation that happened in the past.

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It seems to be this sort of situation where it's just a very non ideal scenario and you have to pick an option, but you don't have a great option that's left. I do think some things like that do happen in scripture where non ideal scenarios present themselves and you do the best thing you can. So David does this, in a sense, when he eats, um, of the bread that is only for priests to eat. So David, King David, he's fleeing Saul. A lot of you know the story, but basically think of Saul is like the king that got arrogant and started going crazy, and he tries to kill David, who God has chosen to replace him, and he tries to kill him. So David's running away, he's fleeing, but he has a lot of people loyal to him because he's been a good dude, you know, kill Goliath, all that stuff. So David's fleeing and he's like, he ran in a hurry. He doesn't have food. So he goes and he asks this in this one town, he's like, hey, priest, do you have any food? And he goes like, all I got is the, the special ceremonial bread that by law you're not allowed to eat. But David is fleeing for his life. His men are fleeing for their lives. Their lives hang upon this. And so he gives them the bread and they eat what they're not legally, lawfully allowed to eat more. So Jesus talks about this as a justified act, suggesting that they were faced with two bad options. Let David's people die or violate the rule about who can eat this bread.

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And they chose the lesser of two evils or the greater of two goods.

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Let's say life will trump this ceremonial rule, and Jesus uses this to apply why he would heal on the Sabbath. Life will trump your ceremonial rule. Preservation of life is going to trump a ceremonial rule. That seems to be a principle that Jesus holds because there are some situations that are exceptions to rules. Um, and so one could say, oh, yeah, well, preservation of life. Okay, so maybe the abortion issue pushes me to vote more conservative, um, even though it's not truly solid, like, you know, because currently, for those of you who are interested to know this stuff, right, I don't talk too much about politics stuff, but I don't want to pretend like it doesn't exist or act like christians aren't supposed to think about it, or that the Bible has nothing to say to weigh in on our political views. I just don't find that to be something that I know it's not something I focus on. Okay. There's plenty of things I don't focus on. That's one of them. But I do try to think about as a Christian, I have a responsibility to vote.

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So, yeah, I think that voting, um, for the least evil option is a legitimate option as a Christian, because what you're doing is you're exerting an influence in society to push it in a direction that is better than the alternative.

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Maybe, uh, another example would be, lets say youre on a bridge and theres a train come in and theres a dude stuck on the bridge, and you can either tackle him, in which case you guys will fall 10ft down the bridge and youll both hit the ground, probably break something or you can leave him alone, in which case hell get hit by a train and die. Youre like, oh, well that seems obvious, right? You tackle him, it's still bad. Like you're actually hurting the man, but you don't see a better way to do it. Again, I think that that could be justified and it seems reasonable. Um, and there seems to be some biblical precedents for that sort of thing.

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Then there's another debate which is is it even evil to choose the least evil option available?

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And that's where I actually would say, I'm not even sure this is evil. That's why I would use the language greatest good, nothing were at least, you know, less evil option because greatest good suggests that uh, given the available options this is actually a good move. It's not just an acceptable evil, it is the morally right thing to do. And that is where, at least in my thinking I'm currently at, I'm working through this stuff and trying to think about it because there's other factors that come in that as a christian I say, yeah, but maybe Christians abstaining from a vote because I don't think you can as a Christian you can consistently vote for the Democrat side right now or haven't been able to for a long time. I think as thinking biblically christian, I don't think that's an option for me. Um, uh, um. The question is whether the other side is still an option. That's where the debate lies in my mind. But what about voting? You know, let's say we vote third party and it's about we're going to lose this election, you know, all that. But it's about sending a message and cultivating a party atmosphere that you want to see long term that is a viable or it's a possible option. I don't know if it's viable and that's where my debate is. Do I really think it's viable for us to be like we'll just like take our ball and go home as Christians and that will somehow fix the things we don't like in the only party that is still got some remnants of our actual worldview and I'm not sure that that's, that doesn't seem viable to me, but maybe it is. I'm thinking about it, praying about it. I would, I would let christians in good conscience disagree on this topic. Um, um. But I would want to talk to them about it if they'd be open to it, because there's a lot to be said about it. And it does matter. In the end, though, how you vote matters. Um, um.

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But how you treat people as a Christian in the midst of the political turmoil we're in, also really matters that you seek peace with all people as much as is possible with you. That you still care about people, even if you see them as like the. The woke mind virus people, you still have to see them as people that God loves, made in his image, people that are by the grace of God. There go you. And outreach to them as a Christian and not just polarize and demonize, because as a Christian, every side is kind of, in a sense, the bad guys. We're all fallen people who need the grace of Christ, but that doesn't mean that we're all equally impacting society so that we can just vote any direction or just act like christians are just in a permanent middle ground where everybody has pros and cons and who knows? And christians can go any way they want. You can be a Christian and vote differently. I do not think you can consistently vote with your Christianity and do so, um, to the most evil option, which would, in this case be Kamala, uh, Harris, this election. And I realized that my ministry could lose. I could lose my 501 for saying these things. So be it. We'll lose it. I've already. I've told that there's only, like, you know, we only have three employees, but I've already told people, like, that's just how it's going to be. We'll just lose it. That's. I'm not going to ever hold back from applying scripture to important issues because of worries about that kind of stuff.

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Um, anyways, that's about all I got to say. Let me close this in prayer. Father, we pray. Uh, first, we thank you for your truth and your goodness that guides us in all these circumstances and really does weigh in on the complex, difficult issues of our lives. We, um. We pray for wisdom now, as we talk about this, on this last question, issues of the election and who we should vote for and can vote for. And some of it's tough. Like, do we. Do we take our ball and go home, or do we vote third party, or do we vote for, you know, Donald Trump? It's a tough thing as a Christian. Um, it's a tough thing.

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But, lord, we ask for wisdom, and we pray also that you'd help christians to walk in love. That even if we have to take a strong stance and a strong stance against evils. Against the continued depravity and degradation and deceptions and lies that are especially happening in the democratic party. We pray that you'd help us take a strong stand that is grounded in love. Love for you, love for our fellow man, and not just in anger. In Jesus name, amen.

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Mhm.