Thru the Bible - Questions & Answers

Guest (Male): Paul warns us in scripture to beware of those who are false apostles, but who appear as apostles of Christ. Scripture also warns us about the spirit of the Antichrist. How is it possible to know who is a false apostle or who has the spirit of the Antichrist? Well, stay with us to find out what the Bible says about these issues and many others as well.

Announcer: How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord, is laid for your faith in His excellent Word! What more can He say than to you He hath said, to you who for refuge to Jesus have fled?

You're listening to the Question and Answer program with our Bible teacher Dr. J. Vernon McGee, who for over thirty years answered the many questions of his listeners. This program is a ministry of the Thru the Bible Radio Network. Getting now to our first question, which comes from a listener in Issaquah, Washington. She says, will you please comment on the meaning of the wording used in the last part of Genesis 3:16, as compared with the meaning of the word used in the last part of Genesis 4:7.

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: We'll go back and look at that for just a moment. Genesis 3:16 reads, unto the woman He said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee. And the thing that she's apparently calling attention to here is, and he shall rule over thee.

And then let's go over to 4:7 where again we find it. If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? And if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him. Well, the relationship is just simply this. That because Eve, without the presence and the leadership of Adam, made a wrong decision, and then Adam had an opportunity either to go along with Eve or to stay in the Garden of Eden alone.

And he chose to go with Eve. And she is told now that he is to rule over her. And that doesn't mean that he's to use a whip, and that doesn't mean that he's a dictator at all. The thought is not that at all. That is, that he's in the place of decisions. They now are joined together in marriage.

And very candidly, in marriage, it is the man's prerogative to make a decision. For instance, a husband comes home and says to his wife, we're going to have to move over to Podunk because the company is transferring me over there and going to make me manager of the plant over there. It's a raise. But she says, I don't like Podunk. And he says, I don't either, but this is for me a promotion and I have to take it. Well, she should go with him. That is the place of rulership. The man is the one to determine that.

Now if they are getting ready to build a house, for instance, and she says, well now, I want this little room built here in the back to keep my flowers in. I want that. And he says, well now right now, honey, we can't do that. I've been working with the architect and it's going to just take all we got to make the house. Later on we'll add your flower house. Well, she's to yield to that.

That is the area and only the area. To say that he's going to say to her of a morning, I don't like eating that cereal that you're giving me. I'd like ham and eggs this morning. And she says, well, we just don't have in the family budget the amount of money to buy ham and eggs here when you want it. And we'll just have to go along this way. That's her decision, I would say. That is the area in which I think that man and a woman are to operate. And that is the meaning of that passage as far as the one in the third chapter.

Now where it refers here to Cain and Abel, He's saying now to Cain, you're not to be angry. If you will do well, and you'll be accepted. That is, if you would offer the sacrifice. That's to do well, to obey God. And if you don't do this, why sin like a couching animal's right at your door and will destroy you. Which, by the way, that's what happened to him.

And his desire shall be to thee. Now here is the rule and law of primogeniture. Cain is the oldest. And because of that, the younger son is to look up to the older son. The older son has prerogative over the younger son. And He's saying to him, in spite of the fact you brought the wrong sacrifice, you can correct all of that and you do not lose your position being the eldest son. And that has, I think, always been true. I think it's largely true today. I know so many families where the eldest son is the one that took over the business of the father. He's the one that made the decisions later on and the younger sons coming along followed the older son. That has certainly been a custom and a rule. Of course, all of them are being broken today, but this just happens to be what the Word of God is talking about. And I would say that that is the difference between the two. One refers to marriage and the other refers to children in the family.

Guest (Male): This next question comes to us from a listener right here in Pasadena, California. She says, should we observe the holy days such as Passover or Pentecost?

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: And this party has included a booklet calling the so-called holy days pagan holidays. Which, by the way, is largely true for that matter. To begin with, holy days are not really for Christians at all to tell the truth. I think that it's quite wonderful to remember the birth of Christ, if we do it in a manner that would make it a holy day.

I tell you, when we go down to the local department store and listen to the cash register and jingle bells coming over their loudspeaker system and I'm dreaming of a white Christmas, that, may I say to you, is a pagan celebration. It's as pagan as anything that's happening in the darkest part of Africa.

And when people put out a bunch of Easter eggs at Easter time, why they actually are joining in a pagan holiday. Now, the Christmas, and I don't really think He was born December the 25th, but what difference does that make? Since we don't know what day it was, there is a day in which you and I can remember the virgin birth of Christ and talk about the incarnation. That's the meaning of Christmas, the incarnation. God became a man and it's well to emphasize that in this world in which we live.

Easter speaks of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. And when the emphasis is put upon His death and resurrection, then that's not pagan. I don't care who says it is, it's not pagan at all. And neither is Christmas when we emphasize the incarnation.

But let's understand one thing, that the Bible makes it very clear. Paul says, one man observeth one day and another man observeth another day. Well, what about it? Listen to him. Romans 14:5, "One man esteemeth one day above another: another esteemeth every day alike. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind." Now, you need a conviction. That's the important thing. And I wish Christians today would remember the birth of Christ with more conviction than they do, and also Easter and emphasize the resurrection of Christ loud and clear and with no compromise at all.

Guest (Male): We come now to a serious doctrinal question about the spirit of Antichrist. The listener writes, I agree with the basic understanding that the spirit of Antichrist is the denial of the deity of Christ, but I'm having difficulty with such passages of scripture as 2 Corinthians 11 verses 13 through 15. This passage speaks of false apostles appearing as apostles of Christ, and other passages speak about another Jesus and another gospel. Is it then possible for a person to preach about Christ, appearing to be correct doctrinally, and yet be a false prophet? If so, what would be the characteristics of such a person?

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: Well, you'd have to examine them very carefully. Therefore, let's go to the verses that you referred to in which Paul deals with this sort of thing. The verses you give are verses 13 through 15 in 2 Corinthians 11. I'm reading: "For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works."

All right, that's a very revealing passage of scripture, is it not? And I'm of the opinion that not only do you not understand it fully, I do not understand it fully because I do think that you and I both can be taken in today by certain ones that are actually false prophets. Now, you also refer to verses 3 and 4. I think I should read those.

Verse 3: "But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if ye receive another spirit, which ye have not received, or another gospel, which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with him."

Now, let's take a look at this matter of the false prophet or false apostle or false preacher today. What are the marks? Well, first of all, the man today who denies the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ is in the camp of liberalism. And Paul has labeled him a false apostle, a false prophet.

And then for any man today to call himself an apostle is a title that doesn't belong to anybody today. And the minute anyone takes that title, you can mark him off your list. That is, if you want to follow the scripture, because the office of the apostles went out long time ago after the death of the original apostles and those that saw the living Christ. And that, of course, was for a limited time. And after that, it's the written record that they gave to us that we are to turn to.

Now, that is one group and I think they're easily detected today. And that's the reason I'm rather hard boiled on the liberal preacher today. I don't think that it is right for him to be called a preacher of the Word of God. He's flying under false colors. You have a perfect right to deny the deity of Christ, but you have no right to claim to be a preacher of the gospel of Jesus Christ and then deny the very one that you're preaching, of course.

So that that class, very easy to detect. There's no difficulty there. The only thing today is that many Christians today will follow a liberal preacher and they are born again folk. They'll follow a false shepherd. And there's always that danger. And that's one of the things Paul is warning of, why he says, why the devil makes himself an angel of light. And if you could really see him, I think you'd see the most beautiful creature that you've ever seen. I think God created him as the most beautiful creature that he ever created. And that you can be deceived.

Now, let me move over now into the other area that he's talking about. And this is rather important. I fear, he says, lest by any means as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. Now, that is the man today that is the religious racketeer. May I say to you, I don't know what to say about them.

I listen to one of them on radio. Why, he preached the gospel, friends. But I happened to know personally some things about this man. In fact, some things that have to do with his ethics, his morality, and his personal life. And I'll be honest with you, if you would ask me the direct question, do I think the man is a saved man, I would have to say I don't know. I don't know. And I don't know because, my, he rings the bell on he believes in the inerrancy of scripture.

And Paul says beware of those that are taking you away from the simplicity of Christ. Now, I detect one little thing in his teaching. It is this: that he has a system that is his own. It's different from everybody else. And it takes you pretty far from the Word of God. There is always the idea of sending you little gadgets and going through all kinds of little performances, little rituals, you see. That is taking you away from the simplicity that's in Christ.

Do you know that the hardest thing in the world to do is to get on this radio today and just say to you, all you have to do to be saved is to trust Christ? And you don't have to write to the Thru the Bible Radio. You can just forget about me altogether and about this program. You don't have to support it. You don't have to support anything. You can trust Christ and be saved. And it won't be going through a ceremony. It won't be doing something. It's trusting Christ. And that's all.

Do you know, it's hard to say that today? Because even I'm saying it right now, I'm going to get letters from people that are going to say, oh, you're making it too easy. Oh, you've got to do something. My friend, this little old nature that you and I got really wants to do something, you know. And we like to do something religious. We like to do something pious that makes us feel good. My friend, you and I are lost sinners and we come to Jesus Christ as lost sinners, bringing nothing and we receive everything from Him. Our salvation comes from Him. And everything comes from Him. And if you are able to give, if you're able to serve, if you're able to witness, that's all comes from Him and you can't do anything without being filled with the Holy Spirit for Him. Now, that is the real test. Do you see, it's so easy to get away from the simplicity that is in Christ.

Guest (Male): Our next question comes to us from a listener in Epworth, Iowa. She says, the two witnesses in Revelation 11 are often identified as Moses and Elijah, or others who were translated as Enoch and Elijah. Those men would have had glorified incorruptible bodies, so how could they be slain? How could their bodies die again? Why can't these two witnesses simply be two prominent mortal evangelists converted during the early part of the tribulation?

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: May I say to you that they could be. And since this is a guessing game, your guess is as good as anybody else's. And the very interesting thing is, the Word of God says that there'll be two witnesses. And I can't find anywhere in any manuscript or uncial where it says that there will be two witnesses named Moses and Elijah. We all have to speculate.