Dave Hunt

John 7:33-38 - A Verse by Verse Study with Dave Hunt and T. A. McMahon
https://www.bitchute.com/video/j83gCSgeBOMb/

Join Dave and Tom as they engage in an in-depth, verse-by-verse examination of the Gospel of John. We hope you will be challenged and convicted as you listen to these insightful, exegetical discussions compiled from nearly four years of Search the Scriptures Daily radio programs. Open your Bible and prepare for an edifying pilgrimage into God's Word.

John 7:33-38 - A Verse by Verse Study with Dave Hunt and T. A. McMahon Join Dave and Tom as they engage in an in-depth, verse-by-verse examination of the Gospel of John. We hope you will be challenged and convicted as you listen to these insightful, exegetical discussions compiled from nearly four years of Search the Scriptures Daily radio programs. Open your Bible and...

Is Pope Francis Really the Vicar of Christ? with Greg Durel (Part 2)

Is Pope Francis Really the Vicar of Christ? with Greg Durel (Part 2) On our website: https://www.thebereancall.org/content/pope-francis-really-vicar-christ-greg-durel-part-2 More about Entertainment: https://www.thebereancall.org/topic/entertainment Free eBooks: https:

The Rapture occurs during relative peace and prosperity when the world does not expect judgment from God:
“And as it was in the days of Noah [the last thing they expected was God’s judgment]...they did eat, they drank...married wives...were given in marriage [and as in] the days of Lot...they bought, they sold...planted...builded....Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed.” (Luke 17:26-30)

In complete contrast, the Second Coming occurs in the midst of the worst war the world has ever seen and following the greatest devastation this planet has ever suffered or ever will:
“Then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world...nor ever shall be. And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved” (Matthew 24:21-22)
“Behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed...power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with hunger....There was a great earthquake...every mountain and island were moved out of their places...[men] hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks...for the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?” (Revelation 6:8-17)
“And the four angels were loosed...to slay the third part of men” (Revelation 9:15)
“…and the...sea...became as the blood of a dead man: and every living soul died in the sea. And...the rivers and fountains of waters...became blood...the fourth angel poured out his vial upon the sun; and...men were scorched with great heat...and...there was a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the earth....And every island fled away and the mountains were not found. And there fell upon men a great hail [of large stones]...every stone about the weight of a talent” (Revelation 16:3-21)
“And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True....And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen....And I saw the beast [Antichrist], and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against him that sat upon the horse, and against his army. And the beast was taken, and...the false prophet [and they] were cast alive into a lake of fire...” (Revelation 19:11-21).

A teaching is growing within the church that salvation is only for a select group for whom alone Christ died. However, the patterns, pictures and promises in the Old Testament offered salvation to all who would believe. This was unquestionably true of the Passover, Day of Atonement, and Levitical sacrifices. None were limited to an "elect."

" All ...were under the cloud... all passed through the sea...[and] did all eat the same spiritual meat;...and did all drink the same spiritual drink....that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ" (1 Corinthians 10:1-4). When Isaiah said, "All we like sheep have gone astray," surely by all he didn't mean some of Israel. Likewise, when he followed that statement with "but the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all," it could only mean that the coming Messiah would pay the penalty for the sins of all. All Israel was offered deliverance from the serpent's poison through looking in faith to the bronze serpent lifted up on the pole (Numbers 21:8). And Christ made a direct connection between that event and His sacrifice for the sins of the world (John 3:14,15).

The sacrifices were offered for all Israel, yet this did not guarantee that all Israel would be saved. Salvation was offered to all; it was up to each person to accept or reject it: "but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it" (Hebrews 4:2). Tragically, salvation was both offered and available (as it is today through the gospel) to many who are now in hell through unbelief.

God said, "I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me" (Isaiah 1:2); "All day long I have stretched forth my hands unto a disobedient and gainsaying people" (Romans 10:21). Stephen indicted the rabbis and all Israel with these words: "ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye" (Acts 7:51).

The angel proclaimed "good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people..." (Luke 2:10). We have good news to announce to every person (Mark 16:15). All who receive Christ in faith are born again by God's Spirit (John 1:12,13) as children of God into His own family (Galatians 3:26). Our hope is in the One who is able to present us "faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy" (Jude 24). Indeed, "faithful is he that calleth you, who also will do it" (1 Thessalonians 5:24).

Question (composite of many—the largest number of questions we’ve ever received on one topic): In your May newsletter you agreed with Chuck Smith, et al. that “Jesus died spiritually.” That sounds like the doctrine of “soul sleep.” If man, who is mortal, has an immortal soul and spirit that will be in heaven or hell, how then could Christ’s Spirit die? If Christ was God, I can see how His human body could die, but how could God, who is Spirit, die?

Response: You seem to have two misconceptions: (1) that to die means cessation of conscious existence; and (2) therefore, only the body dies. We are “body, soul and spirit” (1 Thessalonians 5:23; Hebrews 4:12). Confusion arises because, contrary to the teaching of “soul sleep,” the soul and spirit remain conscious after physical death. Jesus said to the thief on the cross, “Today you will be with me in paradise” (Luke 23:43)—a meaningless statement if neither of them would be conscious. Jesus said the rich man was consciously in torment in hell; while in paradise (where the souls and spirits of Jesus and the converted thief went upon death) Abraham and Lazarus, the beggar—and by implication everyone else—were in a conscious state of bliss (Luke 16:19-31). Though physically dead, they were conscious in the spirit world.

The Bible clearly teaches that body, soul, and spirit die. Actually, spiritual death comes first, otherwise death would not be at work in our bodies from the moment we are born, a fact which medical science acknowledges but cannot explain. Adam died spiritually (i.e., in his soul and spirit) the very moment he ate of the forbidden tree—“in the day [moment] you eat therof you will surely die” (Genesis 2:17). His body wasn’t dead—yet. He must, therefore, have been spiritually dead, as are all of his descendants from the moment of birth. Even before our bodies die we are spiritually “dead in trespasses and sins” (Ephesians 2:1; Colossians 2:13).

These same verses say that when we are born again through faith in Christ we are “made alive.” Certainly the condition of our bodies hasn’t changed, so we must be made alive spiritually and thus restored to fellowship with God. At the death of the body, the Christian’s soul and spirit are taken into heaven (“absent from the body, present with the Lord” 2 Corinthians 5:8). At the Rapture the body is resurrected and reunited with the soul and spirit, which have been with Christ in heaven and which “God will bring with him: (1 Thessalonians 4:14).

One hardly needs complex arguments, much less a theological degree, to reach a conclusion as to whether you must accept Jesus as Lord in order to be saved. When confronted by Jesus on the road to Damascus a not-yet-converted Saul of Tarsus responded, "Who art thou, Lord ?" (Acts 9:5). To a jailer's urgent plea, "What must I do to be saved?" Paul and Silas replied, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved" (Acts 16:31). To be saved is to "confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus" (Romans 10:9). Referring to their salvation, Paul told the Colossian believers, "As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord" (Colossians 2:6). Peter explained that Cornelius and those with him and all others who had received the Holy Spirit had "believed on the Lord Jesus Christ" (Acts 11:17), and Paul agreed that the gospel he preached involved "faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ" (Acts 20:21). God's gift of "eternal life" is "through Jesus Christ our Lord " (Romans 6:23). The gospel itself is called "the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ" (2 Thessalonians 1:8); etc., etc. The biblical evidence is overwhelming.

If Jesus is not God, then He cannot be our Savior. And if He is God, then He surely is Lord. More than 100 times in the New Testament Jesus Christ is identified as Lord. This isn't some title that one is free to use or ignore. This is who He is . Thus to fail to know Him as Lord is not to know Him at all—and not to be saved at all, for no lesser "Christ" can be the Savior. While one may not understand the full implications of His lordship at the time of receiving Christ, any mistaken notion that the "Savior" who is being received is anything less than "Lord of all " (Acts 10:36) is to misunderstand the gospel itself and thus not to be saved.

Isn’t the doctrine of Calvinism really a libel on the character of God? Does it not present a God who does not love everyone enough to want all to go to heaven, a God who sent Christ to die only for the elect and not for all? Yet no basis can be given for why God (who is impartial) would elect one and not another (nor is there anything in any of us to cause God to elect us at all).

For the Calvinist to take verses which clearly say God loves the whole world, that He is not willing that any perish, that He wants all to come to the truth, etc. and to say that “world” and “any” and “all” only mean the elect is to impose on those verses a view which perverts the meaning of what is being said and conflicts with the rest of the Bible. We have at least one verse where this artificially imposed meaning won’t hold: “And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world” (1 John 2:2). Surely “our”/“ours” must be the elect and the “whole world” must be everyone else.

It could not be said in plainer language that Christ’s blood was shed not just for the elect but for the sins of the whole world. Limited atonement thus collapses and with it much of the rest of Calvinism. God is vindicated as a God who is love, who truly loves all so much that He has done everything needed to save the whole world. Christ paid the penalty for all; the Holy Spirit seeks to convict and draw all. Therefore, anyone who is in hell for eternity is there not because God could have saved them by extending irresistible grace but did not. They are there because they rejected the salvation God provided and freely offers to all.

John MacArthur...[claims]...there is a difference between “God’s will of decree (His eternal purpose) [and] God’s will of desire. There is a distinction between God’s desire and His eternal saving purpose, which must transcend His desires.” Where does the Bible make such a distinction—and how could it be? Calvinism denies that a man's choice has anything to do with his eternal destiny, but that God sovereignly regenerates whom He will. Commenting on “desires all men to be saved” (1 Timothy 2:4), MacArthur writes, “In His eternal purpose, He chose only the elect out of the world (John 17:6) and passed over the rest [whom He desired to save], leaving them to the consequences of their sin....”

Here again we have an attempt by a “moderate” Calvinist to distance himself from “hyper-Calvinism.” But in doing so, he entraps himself in the absurdity that God (who in Calvinism can save anyone He desires to save) predestined to eternal doom some whom He desired to save.

Israel is the major topic of the Bible. The word “Israel” occurs 2,565 times in 2,293 verses. More than enough prophecies have already been fulfilled in Israel’s unique history to prove that “the God of Israel” (203 times) is the true God. In Zechariah 12:2-3, He declares:

Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling unto all the people round about, when they shall be in the siege both against Judah and against Jerusalem. And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people: all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it.

This is an amazing prophecy not only that Jerusalem, which was then in ruins, would become a burden to the whole world, but that all of Israel’s neighbors would be united against her. They have fought one another in the past. Yet today, for the first time in history, “all the people round about” are united by Islam to destroy Israel.

Question: There are many who advocate that a born-again believer in Christ can commit su***de and still be saved. They stress the fact that there is only one sin that God will not forgive: blaspheming the Holy Spirit. They use King Saul, Samson, and Judas Iscariot. My thought on this is that no saint can/could ever give up on life, self, or God because His Spirit is in them and is the Life of the believer. The works of the flesh are described in Galatians 5:19-21a. Could you explain the differences between these three men (Samson, Judas, and King Saul) as to what their deaths proved? Is it possible for a saint to commit su***de?

Answer: The answer to your question has little to do with King Saul, Samson, nor especially Judas. The answer is predicated upon this biblical absolute: Everyone who is truly born again, who has by grace alone through faith alone believed that Jesus paid the full penalty for one's sins (which He did--past, present, and future!) has therefore received the gift of eternal life.

One might as well ask if a saint of God could commit adultery, steal, or even murder. Tragically, it has proved to be possible for Christians to commit all manner of wickedness. Such is the nature of mankind, whose heart is "deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked" (Jeremiah 17:9). As such a person goes through life and, for whatever reasons, is overtaken by the world, the flesh, or the devil--even to the point of su***de--his fruitfulness in life and his eternal rewards will be affected, but it cannot affect his gift of eternal life, which he neither earned nor could pay for.

A believer who is truly saved and maturing in Christ should not desire to commit any sin. The Word of God abounds in exhortations directed at believers to live their temporal life for Christ, to fight the good fight of faith, to beware of the wiles of the devil, who goes about seeking whom he may devour, etc. There would be no such admonitions directed at believers if they were immune to those things that would shipwreck their faith. But as God's Word repeatedly affirms, we are assured that His gift of eternal life extends even to those saints who fail.

Question for Dave Hunt: In his book, George Mueller tells how God uses trials to increase our faith. Such an interpretation would have to be read into the [biblical] text. Abraham’s life (for example) proves that notion wrong. Otherwise, God would be a child abuser!

Answer: You seem to think that no Christian should face any trials; or that if they do come, they could only be from Satan. But was it not God who commanded Abraham to offer Isaac? Was Job wrong when he said submissively, “What? shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil?” (Job 2:10). Paul clearly says that God gave him a “thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me,” and he explains why: “lest I should be exalted above measure.” Paul also rejoices in the blessed result: “Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong” (2 Corinthians 12:7, 9).

Surely, if anyone was in God’s perfect will it was Christ himself. Yet He endured many trials and was a “man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief” (Isaiah 53:3). Indeed, He learned obedience by the things which he suffered (Hebrews 5:8). And Christ declared that Christians would likewise suffer for His sake: “The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you” (John 15:20).

There was no greater apostle than Paul, yet he suffered “in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths oft. Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one. Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I have been in the deep...in perils of robbers, in perils by mine own countrymen, in perils by the heathen...in weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst...in cold and nakedness...” (2 Corinthians 11:22-33).

Those who preach the “prosperity gospel” today must conclude that Paul didn’t know how to make a “positive confession,” or he would have prospered like they do. We would have to conclude the same concerning the heroes and heroines of the faith mentioned in Hebrews 11 who suffered such horrible trials. On the contrary, the trials strengthened their faith. Indeed, how else could one demonstrate one’s faith without it being put to the test? Thus Peter speaks of “the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold...[which] might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ...” (1 Peter 1:7).

The Bible is literally filled from beginning to end with the thrilling testimonies of those whose faith our gracious Lord strengthened through many trials. Perhaps today’s church’s neglect of that part of Scripture has contributed to a warped view of living the life of faith.