Thru the Bible - Questions & Answers

Guest (Male): According to some, our modern-day Christmas tree is not modern at all, but dates back to Old Testament biblical times as part of pagan ritual and idolatry. Is that true, though? Well, stay with us for the answer.

You're listening to the Question and Answer program, a ministry of the Thru the Bible Radio Network. These questions were first discussed by our teacher Dr. J. Vernon McGee during the over 30 years of his broadcasting ministry. The questions and his answers have been preserved for our enjoyment and enlightenment in the word of God. Our first question comes to us from a listener in Newcastle, Pennsylvania who writes, "Would you please explain Galatians chapter 3 verses 19 through 20?"

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: And we'll be very happy to do that. I'm reading now, "Wherefore then serveth the law? It was added because of transgressions, till the seed should come to whom the promise was made; and it was ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator. Now a mediator is not a mediator of one, but God is one."

Now, let me say this, that you need the verses that go before and actually you need the verses that follow this passage of scripture here. Paul has made it very clear that men are justified by faith and by faith alone, and that by the deeds of the law, he says that no one or no flesh shall be justified. That is, you can never be saved by the law. Now, that naturally would raise this question that Paul asks here, "Wherefore then serveth the law?"

Now, it was added, not so much because of transgressions, but for the sake of transgressions. The law was given because man was already a sinner and doing things that God forbade, and the law is given now because of these transgressions to let man know that he's a sinner. And Paul said he'd never have known that coveting was a sin if the law hadn't said, "Thou shalt not covet."

Now, that is the reason the law was given. And it was a temporary thing. It was given till the seed should come to whom the promise was made. And that seed, of course, is Christ, and we get that from this chapter here. "And it was ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator. Now a mediator is not a mediator of one, but God is one." Now, you see a mediator's one who stands between one person and another person. He mediates. He brings them together.

Well, there must be then God is a mediator, but God is one. Who's he going to mediate with? Well, there must be somebody out there, and that's the sinner. And therefore, we're told that there's one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus. And he puts his hand in the hand of God and his other hand in the hand of man, and he brings them together in redemption with the blood-stained hands, nail-pierced, he brings them together.

And that, I think, is the meaning that is here. I'd like to follow on through how he goes on to show how the law was given to bring man to come to Christ, and that Christ is the one that can bring us to God. How wonderful this is.

Guest (Male): The same listener has a second question that also comes from a particular passage of scripture. He says, "Could you also explain Luke chapter 11 verse 14 and 23 through 26? Are these verses related?"

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: May I say to you that they are related. All of them are. They're part and parcel of one great subject here, and that is this subject of demonism. I read verse 14, "He was casting out a demon, it was dumb, and it came to pass when the demon was gone out, the dumb spoke, and the people wondered." Now he continues on in this area talking about, very frankly, the subject of demonism if you follow it on down.

And I'm not going to read that, but you'll find that he is talking about that, and he's accused of casting out demons by Satan. And he makes it very clear that he's not doing it by Beelzebub, but that he's doing it by the power of God. And then he gives them this verse here that you ask about, verse 23: "He that is not with me is against me, and he that gathereth not with me scattereth."

Well, he has made the statement that when a strong man armed keepeth his palace, his goods are in peace. And if he's doing it by Satan, why he'd be doing it against himself because he's casting out these demons which is satanic. And now he says to these that have accused him of casting out demons by the power of Satan, that if you're not with him, you're against him.

And therefore, the Lord Jesus draws a line of demarcation here for these that are making the accusation. Either they're going to be for him or they're going to be against him, because God and Satan and the Lord Jesus and Satan are on opposite sides here. Then he makes this observation by giving this parable here. He says when the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places seeking rest, and finding none, he saith, "I will return unto my house whence I came out."

And what he's illustrating here, just casting out a demon is not, after all, although he's not doing it by the power of Satan, casting out a demon is only half of the job. What happened here was, and if you'd read on in the parable, that there was a house, and he uses that as gone out of a man seeking rest. He considered the man his house, and he went out, and the man put him out, I guess, got rid of him, and the man was all swept clean and garnished. That is, he got reformed, all cleaned up.

And reformation is not enough. This business of trying to improve yourself, that's no good in God's sight. Because here was a demon actually put out of a man, but the demon still controlled the man because the day came when these spirits, they joined up with this one that was cast out. And when they came back, why they all moved in. Why? Because the man was empty. There's nothing there to take the place of the demon.

And that would seem to suggest that if this man here that had the demon cast out of him, if he did not take another step of coming to Christ and as he said—you gave me the verse—"He that gathereth not with me scattereth," if he did not come now to Christ, that he's actually on the devil's side. And if he's just reformed, that's no good. You have to come to Christ for transformation, and you have to come to him for a real change and to be now indwelt by the Spirit of God. The Spirit of Christ must come and dwell within you.

Why, if that doesn't take place, then these people that are just cleaned up, they are in more danger than anyone else because the demon can enter and bring in all of his friends and we're told the last state of the man is worse than the first. And that's my reason for saying that I think the church members today that have really not been born again, that actually hear the gospel, and they are all reformed, they're nice sweet lovely people to know.

They do many nice things, but they still belong to the devil. And it's not until that they are born again and come over on Christ's side. So he's put together quite a bit here, you see, and he goes farther than just casting out the demon. That ought to be a lesson for many of these people today that are spending a lot of time in casting out demons. We've got a lot of people that are doing that today. At least they think they're doing it.

Guest (Male): Moving on, our next question comes from a listener in Indianapolis, Indiana who writes, "Could you please explain the difference between the spirit and the soul?"

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: May I say to you that many times in the scripture, the word spirit and soul are used synonymously. That is, they mean the same thing. But there are times when the spirit and the soul are different. Now, the word that is translated soul is the word "psyche." We get our word "psychology" from it. It is that part of man that is the mental part of man, and it's more than mental. There's the emotional part, the part of man where he makes judgments, all of that sort of thing. That is part of our personality and that's actually the soul.

Now the word for spirit is "pneuma." And that actually means wind, breath. And so it is used of the Holy Spirit also. And that part of man is the part of man that you can't put your finger on at all. And it's the part of man that actually is depraved. You and I, born in this world with a depraved nature. Not just physical and not just psychological, but a spirit that controls our body and our mind that leads us into evil, leads us down the wrong path.

Now, that's the reason we must be born again. And therefore, the scripture makes a distinction between the soul and the spirit. You remember in the epistle to the Hebrews that the writer says, "The word of God is quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, dividing asunder even bone and marrow and soul and spirit." So that there is a distinction and yet they are used in places in a synonymous way.

Guest (Male): Our next question comes to us from a listener in East Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania who says, "You've mentioned that Ishmael, the son of the bondwoman Hagar, would not be heir with Isaac, the son of the free woman Sarah. Isn't this a contradictory action on the part of God as compared to the situation with Jacob who had 12 sons by four women, two being his wives and the other two maidservants? Could you please provide your understanding to this situation?"

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: Now, very candidly, when you're dealing with Abraham, you are dealing with the son that God had promised to Abraham and Sarah. And the son of Hagar, Ishmael, is not the one God had promised. And therefore Abraham and this woman Sarah, they were entirely wrong in the fact that Hagar had a child by Abraham at Sarah's suggestion and they named him Ishmael. Now, that boy could not inherit because of the fact that God is making it crystal clear that it'll have to be according to His will.

Now, that I think explains Abraham because, actually, I think that when you read the record, you see that Ishmael could not be accepted, could not be in the line. But actually, these 12 sons of Jacob's, they're all in the line. They're in the line that leads from Abraham. You see, the twin brother of old Jacob had been set aside. Esau had been set aside and now it has to be Jacob's offspring.

And it's quite interesting that he was tricked into marrying Leah. I don't think you can blame old Jacob for that because he was tricked into that. He thought he was marrying Rachel. But God blessed that union because actually it was a real union. And from that came several of the outstanding sons and tribes of Israel. In fact, Judah came from that line. And then you notice that Joseph and Benjamin came from Rachel. And so you have here these two boys that were outstanding.

Of course, Joseph became a prime minister and two tribes actually came from him and then also there was the little tribe of Benjamin. But the other tribes never really filled a very prominent place. It was the ones that came from the actually the two wives and this man was tricked into that first marriage as we well know. But they are all in the line that comes from Abraham that was to be blessed. But Ishmael was not in that line of Abraham and of Sarah that God had promised to bless.

And I think that when you read that, that you see that that is the explanation. You impress me that you are questioning God's judgment in doing this, that He had no right to do it. Well, whether we believe it or not, He certainly had a right here. And I believe that it was consistent and not contradictory, certainly with His nature. God never does anything contradictory with His nature. The problem is with you and with me, by the way.

Guest (Male): The same listener also has a second question. He says, "Why did God allow such harassment of David in his conflict with Saul?"

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: Well, God was training this man. He was conditioning this man and preparing him to rule over His people. And that was the explanation of this training. You might think it's pretty rough, but you'd have to talk to David and the Lord about that because neither one of them thought it was. You do not find David complaining to God about this at all. I'm afraid you're finding fault where you ought not to find fault and you're in danger of really questioning the judgment of God, the wisdom of God in what He does.

Now, the Bible constantly states that David was a man after God's own heart. He loved David. So why did God permit this harassment of an innocent boy? Well now, you must remember he was not an innocent boy. We know from his later conduct he was not, and even before his sin with Bathsheba, David revealed a very hot nature. In fact, the matter is he was very narrow and bigoted in some of his judgments. God had to train this man. And God's not beating up an innocent boy. I don't like the tone of your questions, I must confess.

Guest (Male): Our next question comes from Los Angeles and this listener writes, "I recently heard a minister say that the Christmas tree was a pagan ritual. He based his comments on Jeremiah chapter 10 verses 1 through 3. Could you please explain your position?"

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: And may I say to you, there are several groups that always use that and that is a question that came to me and I answered it during the Christmas season. And I'm going to answer it for this party and you're going to hear it in the good old summertime, but why shouldn't we deal with a question like this? May I say to you these groups today and certain individuals have majored in this type of thing in the Bible, and I can't believe that it can do anything in the world but cause confusion, and it takes our attention off of the important thing.

Now to spend your time talking about the Christmas tree being a pagan rite isn't quite accurate by any means, and the passage that they use, they've taken it absolutely out of context. And I want to read it because I'd like for you to hear it. It's Jeremiah tenth chapter and I'll begin reading at verse 1. And I'm going to read a little farther than this fellow reads because I think you need to understand it fully and he just read enough, you know, to make his point, but it's totally taken out of context. I'm reading now.

"Hear ye the word which the Lord speaketh unto you, O house of Israel. Thus saith the Lord, learn not the way of the heathen, and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven; for the heathen are dismayed at them. For the customs of the people are vain: for one cutteth a tree out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman with the axe."

Now you see he stops there. Now let's keep reading. "They deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it move not. They are upright as the palm tree, but speak not: they must needs be borne, because they cannot go. Be not afraid of them; for they cannot do evil, neither also is it in them to do good." Now what's he talking about? He's talking about idols. They go into the forest, they cut down a tree, and they make an idol out of it.

All those idols of the past were wooden idols. You see them in many, many places today, and of course, many have disappeared because of the deterioration of the wood. But they went into the forest, they cut down a tree. This is not somebody going into the forest, cutting down a tree to decorate it for Christmas. It has no relation whatsoever.

And they would cut down this tree, make an idol of it, deck it with all kinds of decorations, and then they'd fall down and worship it. Now God says to His people back there, speaking to Israel by the way, He says, "Don't be afraid of that, it can't move." Now, I never knew anybody that was afraid of a Christmas tree. Even the most pagan heathen people I know, they're not afraid of the Christmas tree, and I've never heard of any of those heathen around us today falling down and worshipping the Christmas tree. They just use it as a matter of decoration. Now I do think that Christmas today, taking it as a whole, has become really a pagan holiday. But that's no reason for Christians not having a Christmas tree.

Guest (Male): Our final question today comes from Los Angeles. The person says, "In Ephesians chapter 6 verses 2 and 3, there is a promise of a long life and that it may be well with us if we honor our parents. If we do not honor them, will the opposite be true? That we will have a short life and things never being well with us?"

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: May I say that the scripture doesn't say that. First of all, I think I should read the scripture. It says in Ephesians 6 beginning with 2: "Honor thy father and mother, which is the first commandment with promise; that it may be well with thee, and thou mayest live long on the earth." Now for the child of God today, why it says, "Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right."

And then he quotes from the Old Testament. Now in the Old Testament, God promised long life because the blessings of the Old Testament were largely earthly blessings and were confined largely to that area, although there were many spiritual blessings. But today, our blessings are spiritual blessings and there are also physical blessings that come to us. Many of us have experienced that.

But the important blessings and here in Ephesians, it's blessed with all spiritual blessings in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus. So that I don't think that you can lift this out and say that today if you honor your father and mother, why that means long life. That was the way it was under the Old Testament. Today children are told to obey their parents.

Now this party goes on with another question here: "Can that person never look forward to anything being well with them?" Why, no, I don't think that's true today because we see the opposite true. There are some folk that disgrace their parents and they've lived a long life and things have gone well with them. I don't think that that is applicable today. Does it apply to both Christians and non-Christians?

Well, I don't think it's applicable today to either one for that matter, because it's not given that way at all. It just says under the Old Testament this was a commandment in the Old Testament and there it was given with a promise. And Paul doesn't put a promise with it here. He just says, "Children, obey your parents in the Lord for this is right." And that is the motivation for today, and not the other at all.

The other was true in the Old Testament. So my feeling is that you're trying to bring that up out of the Old Testament, make it applicable today. And actually, that's not what Paul's doing. All of the commandments are repeated in the New Testament for us with the exception of the Sabbath day, and it's not given for us today. And boy, will I hear from that.

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