Biblical Audio Commentary – Bible Stories

Biblical Audio Commentary – Bible Stories

Transcript:

Over the years I’ve been doing these Commentaries, one of the foremost concepts I’ve constantly urged is that as true believers in Jesus Christ – especially those of us who are watching for His soon return in the pre-Tribulation Rapture – we should double-down on being in God’s Word each and every day.

There are many reasons for this in these last days and final hours, but let me just state a few:

• Avoid deception
  • Scripture is very clear that apostasy will be rampant during this time prior to the 7-year Tribulation. It’s easy to see how true this is with the proliferation of social justice, LGBT, black liberation, New Age, and anti-Israel rhetoric being taught each week among often extremely large congregations.

In my estimation, what has led to this sorry state of affairs is the absence of the fear of God and reverence for Him and His Word.  Although just reported this was on display on steroids on Super Bowl Sunday in 2020 as the pastrix of an extremely large megachurch kicked off their service by kicking a Bible off the stage into the crowd.  Can you imagine the Muslim response if anyone did this with the Qur’an?

For last year’s Super Bowl, the “church” replicated something that Miley Cyrus had done and also played secular songs by Usher and AC/DC.  No word yet as to how the congregation was entertained this year.  For the record, this church in Cincinnati, Ohio has 40,000 members and 14 campuses.

In any rational-thinking, truly Christ-centered church, this ultra-seeker-sensitive foolishness would never have occurred.  However, the only possible explanation for this is that deception here is off-the-charts because the “pastoral” staff and those who attend have little use for God’s holy Word.

I wonder what will happen to all these people in this church once real persecution hits on a level with what occurs in the 10-40 Window in Muslim, Hindu, and Communist nations?  The question reminds me of the dream by Pastor Dana Coverstone had several years ago of all the wolves sitting in the pews of the church waiting to devour true believers.

• Bad eschatology
  • It has been said that bad eschatology leads to bad theology. That has been a repetitive theme in my Commentaries.  Pastors and their churches who go down various roads in their flawed Bible interpretations that end in post-Trib, a-millennial, or NAR/Kingdom Now/Dominionism thinking inevitably miss the true intent of God’s purposes.  They often miss the bigger narrative of God’s necessity of dealing with Israel for her redemption by placing the church as the recipient of God’s covenant promises to the Jewish people.  This is poor or completely absent Biblical exegesis which can result in the hatred of what God loves; it’s a very dangerous position to say the least.
• Wrong focus
  • There’s a strange irony at play in which non-pre-Trib believers accuse pre-Tribbers of leading people astray because we are expectantly awaiting the Lord’s return.

They accuse us of not getting people ready to go through the Tribulation.  Just think, they say, how awful that is because when we do have to face those terrible times, our disappointment will be so great that we’ll fall away from the faith.

But, of course, this is turned completely inside-out.  The non-pre-Trib folks are focusing on the world, digging in, prepping, and doing everything they can to make this their long-term home.  Many think Jesus’ return won’t be for generations, or – astoundingly – that He’s already come back in some symbolic way.  Jesus said this world is not our home, that we should consider it an alien and hostile abode for only a season.  That season is about finished.

Indeed, pre-Tribbers want to be with the Lord so as to be rid of this place with its sin and perversions.  “Take this world, you people!  I’m more than happy to leave it to you.  I’d much rather be with Jesus.”  As for being wrong in our interpretation, if that’s so, then we’ve really misread the character of God and His love for us that He would never subject His beloved Bride to the depredations of these coming terrible seven years.  In that case, I’ll be very glad to die first thing as the Tribulation begins.  But I absolutely know that Jesus will snatch us from here in the twinkling of an eye.

With that as an introduction, I want to do something a little different.  My wife and I have supported Iran Alive and Voice of the Martyrs for many years.  As such, we receive various newsletters from them which often recount dramatic events in the lives of persecuted believers.  A couple such brief accounts really struck home with me, and I wanted to share them with you.  They very much are in line with the theme of this Commentary, as you’ll hear.

Without further ado, here are these narratives:

Iran Alive (iranalive.org)

Mahsa is a woman living in Iran who watches our programs daily. When we spoke, I was very amazed by her Bible knowledge and biblical worldview. We talked about marriage and I was impressed by her biblical perspective on marriage. We talked about persecution, and she gave me the best 3-minute speech I had ever heard about why persecution is good for Christians and how it helps them grow and be strong in their faith.

Even more impressive was that for every subject that we talked about, she quoted multiple verses from memory. I was shocked to know that she had come to Christ through watching our Satellite programs just over a year before. Yes, I was impressed by her, but I was also jealous because as a pastor and Christian leader, I felt I had not memorized as many verses as she had.

After nearly 20 minutes of this rich discussion, I asked Mahsa, “I am enjoying this conversation. But I am sorry, I have another meeting and I have to go. But first, tell me what can I do for you today?  Why did you call?” Her response floored me. She said, “I called because I want you to send me a Bible, please.”

“What do you mean? You don’t already have a Bible?” I asked her, puzzled. “No,” she responded quietly. “May I have one?”

“Of course, we will send you one.” I assured her. “But I have to know, how is it that you know so much Scripture? How are you able to quote so many Bible passages and how do you know so much about its meaning?”

Mahsa quickly responded, “I watch your programs every day. Every time you quote a Bible passage, or place it on the screen, I write it down in my notebook, I memorize it, and then I do what it says. I have dozens of pages of Bible verses which I have gathered listening to your sermons and teachings. That is how I know what I know. I would really love to have a Bible of my own, though.”*

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Is that amazing, or what?  Here is a woman who has gained a rich theology by absorbing the Bible simply by listening, and then doing what God’s Word says.  What might our lives be like if we all did what Mahsa does?

Voice of the Martyrs (persecution.com)

Pastor Houmayoun was leading a prayer meeting at his home in Shiraz, Iran, when secret police arrived and arrested the pastor, his wife, their 17-year-old son, and four other church leaders.

The seven Christians were blindfolded and driven to an intelligence prison for questioning. After days of interrogation, they were moved to a public prison and ordered to keep quiet about why they had been arrested; the guards rightly feared the spread of the gospel among the prison’s 6,000 inmates.

But Houmayoun and the other believers felt compelled to obey a higher authority. “It would have been comfortable just to be quiet and not talk about Jesus,” Houmayoun said. “Things would have gone better for us in prison.”

Despite repeated warnings not to talk about their faith in Christ, the believers shared their testimonies and the gospel with fellow inmates who were Muslims. One thing became very clear: They were going to need Bibles.

The seven Christians began writing memorized Bible verses on any paper they could find and encouraging one another by sharing the verses.

Eventually, the prisoners were allowed to call their families and friends. They asked them to write down chapters of Scripture in English and give them to an imam who visited prisoners regularly. Neither the imam nor the guards could read English, so they could not read the “letters.” The Christians who could read English then translated the Scripture into Farsi so other inmates could read the Bible.

After several months, the believers had complete, handwritten copies of some books of the Bible to read and share. And as they continued to receive new chapters, they started making additional copies. While Bibles were highly restricted outside the prison. . .  inside, God’s Word was spreading.

Houmayoun continued sharing the love of Christ and the truths of Scripture with Muslims in his cell. But as the guards saw prisoners responding to Houmayoun’s evangelism, they grew increasingly frustrated and finally moved him to a part of the prison that the inmates called “Hell.”

There, in the prison’s basement, 200 violent prisoners were serving life sentences or awaiting execution by hanging. Houmayoun knew he didn’t have long to share the gospel with each inmate; many were executed after only a few weeks there. He rejoiced, therefore, when several prisoners placed their faith in Christ.

“People who were serving a life sentence gave their life to Jesus,” Houmayoun said. “We know the gospel is in the heart of that prison.”

After three years and five months behind bars, Houmayoun was released. Under constant threat and continual watch by police and other local authorities, Houmayoun and his family were forced to flee to a nearby country. There, he quickly began sharing the gospel with Muslims in his new community.

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The moral of this story is that God’s Word will not be bound.  It is transformational because it is supernatural in nature.  Jesus doesn’t just “get us”, He saves and changes us.  Often, we see in countries like Iran that is extremely hostile to Christianity, God moves even more dramatically.  Persecution against the people of God seems to inevitably cause the community of believers to grow, and to grow as deeply committed Christ-followers.

I don’t think it’s coincidence that Christianity in America is Laodicean – lukewarm and without the fear of God.  It’s for this very reason that we have churches like the one noted earlier.  They have lots of people attending and they’re all getting their itching ears scratched.  In many cases, it’s the small church meeting in a tiny building or even a cafeteria which has a pastor truly seeking God and congregants who are hungry for the Lord.

Finding a good church is difficult these days, but God’s Word is alive and well.  If we seek it, we will find it.  However that works out, our daily efforts should be geared toward reading, studying, and absorbing God’s Word.  If you don’t read and comprehend well, then listen to the Bible read to you.  Don’t make excuses not to read the Scriptures daily.  God knows our heart.  When we devote ourselves to Him with persistence and discipline, He sees that, and it pleases Him.

And that’s certainly my prayer every day: that I would be pleasing to Him as His beloved child.