Focal Point

Dave Deway: Well, every few weeks, a claim about the Bible makes the rounds again. And regardless of how true or false it may be, so long as it gets repeated often enough, it starts to sound like fact. Well, thankfully, Pastor Mike Fabarez goes live with listener questions every week to address the topics that are making the rounds and help believers discern truth from fiction. Today, we're hearing some interesting questions from Ask Pastor Mike Live and digging into topics like the Book of Enoch, the Emperor Constantine, and how to help a family in need. I'm Dave Deway, and now here's Pastor Mike.

Pastor Mike Fabarez: Matt, you're on the air with Pastor Mike Fabarez. How can I help?

Matt: Hi. Um, if the Book of Enoch is a pseudepigrapha and Jude is inspired scripture, why does Jude reference Enoch and that Yeah, I'm talking about the whole origin of Nephilim debate but why would Jude inspire scripture reference a pseudo uh pseudepigraphal work?

Pastor Mike Fabarez: Well, the same reason in Acts 17, the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers are quoted by the Apostle Paul because they're a point of contact with something that the audience knew and it happened to intersect with truth, right? So, whenever there is truth, even as Paul wrote to Titus about the you know, the Cretan poets, when there's something true um and they knew about it, just like I in my sermon last Sunday might refer to something in our culture that's true. It's a point of contact, it's an illustration, it's something that is referenced, it's something that might be quoted, it might be alluded to, and it's it's a rhetorical device that is useful in didactic presentations.

Happens all over the Bible. Um, you know, Book of Jashar is quoted in the Old Testament. It's not a biblical book, it's not a canonical book. Uh, God is not saying you should read everything the Epicureans or Stoic philosophers have said. Uh, certainly we we're not supposed to go find now the Cretan poets read everything they said and believe that it's God breathed. It's not. And neither is the Book of Enoch, which all you have to do is read it and you can see it's clearly pseudepigrapha. You said it and that means it is not written by Enoch.

Even just saying the title of the work is a lie because it's not from Enoch. Enoch did not write it. Right? This came about in the second and and and third century at the at the earliest, at least the second and first century BC. Enoch lived in in the time of Genesis. So, we know we're not dealing with a truthful book, not to mention that the things that it says about science and space and cosmology are clearly not true. And the whole premise of the book may have been popular as it relates to the Nephilim and demons, you know, materializing and having offspring, but it doesn't make it true just because that was something that was popularized by, you know, an interpretation of Genesis 6.

So, quotations are quotations and what was quoted is certainly true. Judgment is coming. Jude wants to make that point just like plenty of points are made by plenty of biblical authors by enlisting other material. It's not an endorsement of the material or the totality of the material. It's just an endorsement of what is being quoted.

Matt: Okay. That that makes perfect sense. Thank you.

Pastor Mike Fabarez: Okay. Thanks for the call, Matt. 1-877-913-5357. That's the number to call if you got a question, a comment, some thought. Maybe you're facing a an issue. That's just what I love to do if as a pastor. If you're facing some issue like what do I do about this as a Christian and there are principles involved and I want to be faithful as it relates to this, you know, confession of my my Christianity or my sanctification. Whatever you're facing, right? Maybe we can we can talk about it from a biblical perspective. If I can be helpful, I would love to be helpful.

That's really my philosophy of life. As a Christian, I would like to be helpful to your Christian life. I'd like to be helpful in any way I can. Stephanie writes in. She says we want to have a family in our small group facing serious financial hardships. Uh, they know we went through some unemployment ourselves. They may not accept the money from us, probably because of that. That makes sense. Should we try to give the money anonymously or is it better to let them know it's from us? What are your thoughts on giving uh horizontally in secret, right?

Versus being known. Okay. No problem. And remember when you talk about in secret, I'm sure you're alluding to what Jesus was saying um in the Sermon on the Mount or even in contra distinction to the Pharisees that love to blow the trumpets when they're giving. Uh, the whole point of that is not that you can't give and be known horizontally and by the way, Stephanie's using words that I like to use as I describe the kinds of giving that we're called to as Christians. We give vertically, which of course we don't throw money in the air and try and hope that God grabs it.

Right? We're giving to people. Right? They're pastors in our case. In the Old Testament it was the Levites or the priests of the Old Testament, but we know we're giving it to God and it's consumed by the Levites and the priests. Right? As I just read this morning in my daily Bible reading, right? The the the burnt offerings, right? And and the the sacrifices, the meat of those sacrifices was given to to the Levites and their sons forever. That's that was their they had no land um allotment. This was their their their allotment for their sustenance.

So, um same in the church. Right? 1 Corinthians chapter 9. The church is is supplied, the staff and their children and the diapers are paid for by the gifts that are given vertically. They're given to God. Right? But we know it's consumed by human beings and, you know, to pay the the gas bill and the and the, you know, light bill, the the the electric bill at the church. So, uh all of that is is vertical giving. And then there's horizontal giving which Stephanie is asking about and that is I'm giving to people that I just see needs, starting with the Household of Faith Galatians 6.

And that is that um I see someone in need in my small group, in my church, whatever, and I say, oh, I want to meet that need. Right? They they need something, uh whatever it might be. They need a stroller and they can't afford it. And so, you know, they got 50 bucks and all they need is another 100 bucks and so I'm going to give some money or me and another guy are going to give 50 bucks each. We're going to make sure they get what they need. Uh, that's horizontal giving. And And so we need to do that uh first to the family of God and then beyond.

Could be my neighbor, could be a guy you know, I work with, whatever. Um, so secret, I want to get back to that. Uh, it's like praying in secret. The Pharisees were public because they wanted people to applaud them. Right? The whole point is about our motive. Doesn't mean we can't ever uh put money in a bag at church cuz someone might be looking. Of course. Right? Of course, that's not the point. The point is our motive about are we are we giving to be seen? Are we giving to get the applaud of people? Are we praying on a street corner so everyone can see us praying and think, oh, we're so godly.

Right? You can pray, right? In in in over a meal in a at a table with people around it seeing you. You don't have to go in the closet literally every time and shut the door. Uh, but that's a good thing to do too cuz it 's not about being seen. You can pray in church, you can pray in a small group. So, just know that the secret part doesn't mean consistently every time that no one needs to know it. It just means you don't do it to be seen. That's the whole point as it says elsewhere.

So, uh giving money. Uh, I I think what you've said, Stephanie, in your question which is really insightful. If I'm in a small group, I went through unemployment, someone's going through financial hardship, and I think they're going to feel really bad taking money from me because I just was telling them a year ago I'm going through unemployment and that was my prayer request and find a job. They knew I was without a job for 6 months or whatever and they're going to think, oh, I can't take money from Mike cuz he was without a job and and so uh I I I don't want them but then I would.

I would probably um give it through someone else. I would say to someone else, hey, give this money anonymously from me to that person because that is a unique situation. But in most cases, right? Four times out of five, right? I just give it to them. Put it in an envelope and say I just want to give I wanted to give to bless you with this and I saw you were in need. And I would even say depending on how long ago your unemployment was and these prayer requests went out to your small group, you might want to be able to say to them, uh hey, I know I was struggling before but God has blessed us now with enough to get by and I just want to bless you with this.

That's great. Matter of fact, that that gives glory to God that God is supplying for you. And uh I think that that honors the Lord and it gives you a chance to uh to even show that look at how God has supplied and now you're able to do exactly what it says in 2 Corinthians chapter 9 and 10 which are chapter 8 and 9 that he supplies once you are faithful to God to give you seed for sowing and now you can go bless others as it says in Proverbs. Right? Um, you know, God has refreshed you and now you get to refresh others.

This is just the pattern of of generosity. So, it's a great thing, Stephanie, and I would say if you can do it with that kind of statement, uh then I would I would do it. And here's the problem. Even when people are reluctant to take a gift from me, uh I I often will push them and depending on how close I am to them and I'll say, listen, stop resisting this gift. Right? I want to give you this gift and I want you to have this money uh and and I want you to have it because I know if you wanted to bless me, right?

With some gift, I wouldn't want to take that joy or the reward that God might want to give you away from you by rejecting your gift. Right? And I think I I try to think that way all the time because Jesus said do unto others as you would have them do unto you and I would never want to have someone who God is going to be so pleased, as Paul said in Philippians 4, with their sacrificial gift of generosity and see it as a a sweet smelling savor to God. I wouldn't want to take that away from from that person's spiritual life.

So, I 'm going to accept their gift. I'm going to say thank you. That's wonderful. It's amazing. And I I I would accept it graciously and humbly because I don't want to take away that that that thing that there that great act of righteousness.

Dave Deway: That's Pastor Mike Fabarez working through some callers' questions on Ask Pastor Mike Live. This call in program airs live every Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday at 1:00 p.m. Central. And you're always welcome to dial in with a question of your own. Find the number, the schedule, and more over at ask pastormike.live. We'll now back to the program. Ruth, you're on the air with Pastor Mike. How can I help?

Ruth: Hello. I was addressing the um the caller's question regarding the Book of Enoch. I would say that

Pastor Mike Fabarez: Mhm.

Ruth: the truth is is that Constantine separated those books. He He convinced them to what is the main point of the Bible, which I agree is the grace and mercy of Jesus Christ. However, those books are for guidance of each for our guidance here on this earth because God did not create us to be alone. He gave us all 88 books in order for us to live by. There are important books, pertinent books that were removed. All of them were cannot They were not canonical because Constantine separated them but they were all given by God.

Pastor Mike Fabarez: Well, that's just not true, Ruth, because Constantine in the 4th century at the Council of Nicaea, which I'm sure you're trying to refer to, had zero to do with the canon or the Bible books. This is something that you probably heard from the Da Vinci Code, which is all fiction and made up. It's not at all true. Right? What they said was something completely fictional. Constantine had nothing to do with picking the books of the Bible. What is talked about in the Da Vinci Code is something called the Gnostic Gospels. Right? Had nothing to do with even what we see in the Apocrypha.

The Apocrypha is a different set of books. What Matt was talking about is something that he rightly identified is the pseudepigrapha. There are three at least different sets of books that we are now talking about. The Gnostic Gospels, which people are saying that Constantine excluded from the canon, which is not true. He did not. He had nothing to do with creating the canon at all. The confusion in the church that he called the Council for and then stepped out of it cuz he had no decision making power in it was the divinity of Christ and how to describe it.

was the divinity of Christ and and the the deity of Christ. Was it like the Father or was it uh was it like the Father or was it exactly was it the same as the Father? That's all the Council of Nicaea was trying to solve. Had nothing to do with the canon. The other set of scriptures were called the Apocrypha and the Apocrypha, those 13 books were all about um things that always the church had said, well, these are important and they're important for us to read. Uh, there was no discussion that that Constantine had about the Apocrypha.

None. That That was not the point. Had nothing to do with it. Constantine was a politician. He was not a clergyman. He was not a priest. He was not involved in theological discussions. He just wasn't part of it. The The It wasn't until the Council of Trent. Right? After the Reformation, 450 years ago that the Roman Catholic Church said, no, we're going to put the Apocrypha on equal par with uh the Old and New Testament. And And that was a huge mistake and the only reason they did that is because they were selling indulgences to build their cathedrals and they had two passages in the Apocrypha that spoke about praying for the dead, which had nothing to do with selling indulgences or trying to get people out of purgatory cuz none of that was in the Apocrypha.

But because Judas Maccabeus prayed for a dead soldier on the battlefield, they thought, oh, well, there's our justification for praying for dead people and they put it on equal par. It had never been on equal par with with the Old Testament or the New Testament. And

Ruth: Well, Jesus said Jesus said let the dead deal with the dead. So, I don't believe that. I just believe that Jesus came and he came to teach us grace and mercy amongst one another and that the Ethiopian Bible also have those 88 books is what they're telling us and what I've been reading. So, I um the Apocrypha is what you mentioned, the pseudo whatever. I've never heard of those. I will do my homework.

Pastor Mike Fabarez: Yeah, do your homework. It's called the pseudepigrapha and I hadn't even addressed that yet but there's a whole group of books called the pseudepigrapha. Epigrapha means writing, pseudo means false, and there was a bunch of books that were given titles as though they were written by people like Noah, Abraham, Enoch. And Enoch is in that group of scriptures and I know it's Ethiopian. I get that but remember Enoch is made up of Ethiopian, Slavic, and Hebrew. There are three different sets of of Enochian books, right? And it's created and if you know the books, there's five sections that are each separate books in in in Enoch.

Matter of fact, the thing that we call first Enoch involves the Watchers. That's the first book. It's the first 36 sections, the similitudes, the astronomical books, the Book of Dreams, and the Epistle of Enoch. That's the 105 sections of the Book of Enoch. And you need to understand that none of this ever was seen as scripture, ever. They run quotation of Jude is just simply talking about the judgment that is to come and of course all the things that people were reading in the intertestamental period believed in judgment and that's why Jude is quoting it.

That's the only thing and the only reason it was quoted. All you have to read and I would say start in the astronomical sections, which is section 72 through 82, and what you have if you go to Barnes & Noble and buy uh an a book of Enoch, uh read first Enoch section 72 through 82 and you'll see immediately it's full of errors. Errors that you can easily disprove. And if it's full of errors, we know the Bible is God breathed and clearly the Book of Enoch should not be included in the Bible because it's not accurate.

Therefore, we toss it out. Not to mention the Book of Dreams. Right? That it's just it's it's absurd. Read it and you'll see. The pseudepigrapha everyone knows is not written by the people it claims to be written by because it's written hundreds and hundreds of years, thousands of years after the people that that claims to be written. Right? There's no way Abraham wrote the Book of Abraham. Right? This is just not. Right? The The Book of Solomon they have the Book of Solomon filled with incantations as to how to uh get demons to come out of people.

Hundreds and hundreds of years after after Solomon. So, those aren't scripture and neither is the Apocrypha even though the Roman Catholic Church says it is. It is not. So, the the the Slavic, the Ethiopian, uh even the even the Hebrew sections of Enoch are not and never were considered to be scripture. So, we have 66 books of the Bible. I know you've read things about the 88 books but this is not what we have. It's never been accepted by any scholars or any churches. The only group that's ever accepted this of any substance has been the Roman Catholic Church and that came 450 years ago at the Council of Trent and they only did it for political reasons cuz they were mad at the reformers by saying that you can't buy people out of purgatory.

Ruth, so I I hope that explanation helps a little bit but do your homework on it and see if I'm not right. And if I'm wrong and you come up with something you think, well, this doesn't make sense, call me back and I am happy to talk about it.

Ruth: Thank you. Have a great day.

Pastor Mike Fabarez: Okay, Ruth. Thanks for calling. Dennis, you're on the air with Pastor Mike Fabarez. How can I help?

Dennis: Hi, sir. How are you doing today?

Pastor Mike Fabarez: I'm doing okay.

Dennis: Uh, I'm currently going to a church. The pastor there is having us at in small groups looking studying a book by John MacArthur Holmes.

Pastor Mike Fabarez: Okay.

Dennis: And I did some digging and um well, basically I'm in question of the church itself.

Pastor Mike Fabarez: If the church is pushing that book, you should have problems with the church. Uh, Holmes is one that you should not only see a red flag, the flag should be on fire. Um, I know he's crept into plenty of evangelical churches but um yeah, I'm going to I'm going to walk the other way really fast because it's it's it's not one I would ever recommend uh to any evangelical church. Um, I I understand you can put a lot of his stuff under the banner of spiritual formation but it's a lot of the spiritual formation that takes you into the kinds of uh contemplative prayer and the traditions of monasticism and it just takes you into all kinds of places that really focuses more on feelings and uh loving the ambiguity over confessionalism and truth and objectivity.

And that just that's not what Christianity is about. I mean, take the whole contemplative prayer movement that's based on people like Thomas Merton and Thomas Keaton and Richard Foster and going back to John St. John of the Cross and Teresa Avila. These are These are mystics. These are mostly Roman Catholic mystics. And I'm a Protestant who believes in objective propositional truth. Uh, I'm not going to do what they do and what they teach, which is to sit silently and kind of wait to take up some kind of chant where I'm going to try and turn my mind off with some love word or some chanting word and try to get pacified and nullified.

This is more mystical. This is more transcendental. This is more eastern. You might as well take up, you know, the the kind of yogi uh you know, eastern religion that the Beatles got involved in. This you need to run away from it. And I would say if the pastors in this church know anything about what they're recommending uh then I'd say, okay, I mean, maybe they just maybe they maybe they don't know what they're doing and then I would say, okay, I'd give them another chant but if they know what John MacArthur is all about, then I'm going to say uh I would tell you, Dennis, it's time to find another church with a good doctrinal statement on their website and maybe even the pastor putting where he went to school on the website.

I I I'm tired of websites who the the pastor all they list on the website is what his favorite ice cream flavor is. I mean, this is silly. Right? I want to know where the guy went to school so hopefully I can know something about his doctrine that he's been vetted and at least has studied somewhere and I want a doctrinal statement on the website that shows me what his confession is. What What do you believe? Give me something. Even if it's short, at least tell me you believe something about how to get saved and who Christ is and I want more than just your your favorite, you know, place to vacation because if I'm getting that, then I just know the whole appeal is based on, you know, feelings and and love and it's all just one love not in the biblical sense but in the worldly sense.

So, yeah, John MacArthur uh no good. Go Go the other way and I know he's very popular today. He's selling a lot more books than all of us sell but I I'll tell you it's uh it's not helpful. It's an emotional appeal. It's uh it's it's not what you want and that's that's what I'm going to tell you right now.

Dennis: Okay. Yeah, cuz I've been getting, you know, I've been going to the church for a little more than a year and I've been getting kind of the message that it it's all about feeling.

Pastor Mike Fabarez: Yep.

Dennis: And you know, it's just yeah.

Pastor Mike Fabarez: Yeah. Well,

Dennis: And you know, when he recommended the book for all the small groups of the church, I uh you know, I asked who recommended the book and they said he did.

Pastor Mike Fabarez: Who? The pastor?

Dennis: I asked him of Yes.

Pastor Mike Fabarez: Okay. Yeah, that's your that's your final straw right there, Dennis. And I don't I don't want to I mean, I know I'm not your pastor but as an outsider, let's just talk brother to brother here. To me, I'm going to tell you I would I would suggest that probably God signed that that's your last straw. If that came as a recommendation from the the senior leader of that church and you've already picked up through the time you've been at the church, it's been about feelings, yeah, I want your church that you go to next, Dennis, to be about facts, to be about doctrinal truth.

Right? This is what it's about. I mean, just read through And you know all this but that's what matters. There's days that you're going to feel a lot of things and you need to be corrected by the truth of God's word, the facts in God's word. So, let's find a church that reaffirms that every Sunday and maybe every Wednesday night or whenever you end up there and and it sounds like you're in the in the place where you shouldn't be.

Dennis: All right. I I've been looking and

Pastor Mike Fabarez: Okay, good good good.

Dennis: yes.

Pastor Mike Fabarez: Well, I I would look being in the pew of a different church every week that I've seen on the internet that has a doctrinal statement. You know, I I'll give a pass, I suppose, if they don't have the pastors, you know, schooling and education but at least, right? They may have his ice cream flavor there and it's the name of his pet or whatever but at least have a doctrinal statement. Give me something that shows me that the church knows what doctrine is and that they believe in something and make it clear.

Dave Deway: That's Pastor Mike Fabarez wrapping up another edition of Ask Pastor Mike Live right here on Focal Point. Got a question of your own? Well, these calls happen live every Tuesday through Thursday at 1 p.m. Central. Get the number and everything else you need at askpastormike.live or catch up anytime on YouTube by searching Ask Pastor Mike Live. For Pastor Mike's regular verse by verse teaching, head on over to focalpointradio.org or grab the free Focal Point app and carry his full library wherever you go. Now, today's calls are exactly the kind of conversation Pastor Mike wrote his newest book to help you have.

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We'll see you next time here on Focal Point with Pastor Mike Fabarez. Today's program was produced and sponsored by Focal Point Ministries.