Welcome And Series Wrap-Up

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Welcome and thanks for joining us on this episode of the Midweek Podcast, brought to you by a Fresh Wind Church. Each week, our team brings you new content to help you take steps towards Jesus and discover more in Christ. Today's episode is hosted by Pastor Ryan.

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Well, hey, welcome back to the Midweek Podcast. Pastor Ryan with you again, and we are wrapping up our series Hard Questions, where we have been taking a look at some of the hard questions that people ask about God, faith, uh following Jesus, Christianity, and uh and what that looks like in everyday life. And so uh this has been a fun series to study for, and uh, you know, this past week was uh definitely probably a little bit more of an academic sermon than everyone's used to hearing, at least from me. Um you know, I I don't usually go that deep in the the academic side of things, but uh talking about uh the scripture and why we can trust it. The the thing that uh as I was studying that and just had a lot of conversations with people after church and in between services, is it's not that we have too little evidence, it's that the there's so much evidence really kind of narrowing it down to what are we going to talk about in this 40, 45 minute window was was challenging. Uh, but man, there's so much really good content out there by some some really smart uh people like Wes Huff and others who are kind of leading the way in this. And and I just want you to know, and hopefully you took this away from the sermon uh this past Sunday, is is you can have confidence in God's word that what we have is is the inspired word of God, that it is faithful and it is true, it is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness, that it never returns void. And so I hope your your confidence and faith in in scripture and what God is teaching us in scripture um increased uh as a result of that sermon. And and for any of the you know, someone who would identify themselves as a skeptic out there, I hope as you you hear a sermon like that that you would be open-minded. Uh, you know, I don't know that I can necessarily convince you in a in one 40, 45-minute uh sermon, but I think if uh if we can at least get to a get to a place where we can be open-minded and just look at um the history and the evidence that we have, that maybe there's enough there that you would say, hmm, there there might be something to this thing. And I would encourage you, if if that's you, uh, to just begin reading it. You don't have to be afraid of it, but just begin reading it. And uh, I think what you'll find is the more you study it, the more it studies you. And uh it's gonna begin to to work on on your heart and in your life, and it's gonna begin to maybe transform the way that you you think about some things. And and that I think is one of the greatest evidences uh for scripture is that it produces fruit in due season. It never returns void, um, and it's gonna accomplish all that God set out for it to accomplish. And so um I would just give that a try, Lord, if if this is real, if you're real, speak to me and uh just begin to to read, start in the Gospel of John. Uh that's where I usually point people, is to start there and uh just read a chapter a day. From there, you can read Romans or Mark, those are all great uh places to start. Genesis is a fascinating book. Um and just approach God's word with kind of a fresh mind and say, Lord, just just prove it to me. Show yourself to me in this and see what he does. And so that would be my encouragement to you. Um now, as we wrap up our hard series questions, we had uh some more questions come in uh through our form submission. And so these are the questions that you know we we didn't get to cover on Sunday, but people sitting uh out there in the blue chairs, uh, these are the questions you guys actually have. And so um looking forward to getting into the rest of those today. Hopefully, I can get through uh everything that came in. Um I know last week uh ran pretty long on the podcast trying to answer all those questions. So hopefully uh I can get them all in today. Um but first one is

Why Pray If God Knows

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this. I thought Pastor Jared was kidding. He really submitted it. Uh, if you had a real job, what would you do? And uh Jared, um man, uh I would like to say that what I do is real. No, man, I you know, if you know, I've I've I felt God call me to ministry at uh at a young age. I think I think I was 13 years old, and I wanted nothing to do with it. Um I had plans to to make all kinds of money, to, to own and lead businesses, and uh I knew pastors don't make a lot of money, most of them. So I didn't want anything to do with that. Uh, but the Lord just kept making it clear to me this is what he was calling me to do. Um, but if I wasn't in ministry, which, you know, even being in ministry, I already have other jobs. You know, I do marketing for uh open door Christian schools. I I started a kind of a side hustle called efficient church. Uh so I do those things on the side, but if I wasn't doing that, um probably, you know, uh something where, you know, I'd I'd still be up early on Sundays, but you know, I'd I'd probably have a better reason to complain about getting up early. You know, it's hard to complain about having to go to church and and do that. Um and so something like that. Um I I joke with people all the time that if uh if I wasn't past in pastoral ministry, I'd probably be Toby from the office because I love kind of that uh HR side of of businesses and really not even so much like insurance and that kind of that stuff doesn't get me jazzed up, but I love figuring out how do we make teams work, how do we make things more efficient, how do we invest in in the culture and the people, and so uh that kind of stuff is interesting to me. I'd also love to own a watch shop, uh, which I know some of you guys have heard me talk about. Um and so a lot of a lot of things I'd love to do. I don't know how to do most of them. You know, I'd love to own some real estate, commercial real estate. Um just the idea of being kind of invested in the life of a of a community and being a part of that, I think is is pretty cool. And so I don't know how to do those things, uh, but all those things are interests that I have. So if I wasn't doing this real job, those are some of the other real jobs I guess I'd I'd look into. But uh thanks for your question, Pastor Jared. All right. Uh first, hopefully, real question is uh is this one. If God already knows, um, why do we pray? That was the that was the question. If God is all knowing and his will will be done and he knows the future, whether we pray or not, why do we pray? Are we truly able to change God's will and the trajectory of our lives? And what does intercession truly mean? Here is the the short answer to that. Um Jesus actually answered this kind of question for us, and he answered it in a way that was almost backwards, I think, from what we would what we would expect. He said, Your father already knows, therefore pray. Isn't that kind of interesting? God already knows, so because he knows, therefore pray. God knowing isn't the reason that prayer is pointless. In Jesus' logic, God knowing is the reason. The really the only prayer makes sense to begin with. He knows, therefore praying. So this is what he said. He says, When you pray, don't babble like the Gentiles, since they imagine they'll be heard for their many words. Don't be like them, because your father knows the things you need before you ask him. This is what Jesus says. He he already knows. Before you even ask, God already knows what you need. The very next word out of his mouth is, therefore. Therefore, because your father knows what you need before you ask, you should pray like this. And so, because God knows, Jesus says, that's the exact reason why we ought to pray. The pagans would would babble on because they thought they had to inform a distant God or wear him down or get, you know, convince him to do something on their behalf. And Jesus says, you don't have to inform anyone. You're talking to a father who already knows what you need and he already cares. That that's not an argument against asking. This is the invitation to go to the God, to go to your father who already knows, who already has what you need, and to ask him for it. And because he asks, or because he knows, then we're not just groveling or pleading or trying to convince him. He wants to do good things for his children. He says, even if you earthly fathers know how to give a good gift, how much more your heavenly father? You know, if if your your son asked for bread, you wouldn't give him a stone. I mean, who would do that? And he says, Your father in heaven, he already knows he wants to give you good gifts, he knows what you need. So bring these things to him. Paul said, Cast all your worries, your care, your anxiety upon him, because he cares for you. So these are the reasons that we bring uh bring our our our prayers and our requests to the Lord is because he knows, not not just in spite of the fact that he knows. Um it's he already knows, so therefore we do it. And I think if you think about it this way, God ordains, I guess, the the means and not just the ends. So he doesn't just decide decide what will happen, he decides how it's gonna happen. And he has decided that that many of the things that he does and accomplishes on the planet, he does through the prayers of his people. James, the brother of Jesus, said it like this. He says, You do not have because you do not ask. Now that sentence is meaningless unless asking genuinely changes outcomes, right? Otherwise, James, what are you talking about? But he says, You don't have because you did not ask. And so again, the God knowing is not a reason to not pray. Um I I think Pascal said it best. Uh I think C.S. Lewis quoted him too. He said, God instituted prayer in order to lend his creatures the dignity of causality. And man, that's true. God could do it all without you. And yet he decided instead to let you be a part of how it gets done. And and that's not just a formality, man. That that is a an invitation, a promotion. You know, God says, I want you to be a part of what I'm doing on the planet. And so he wants us to to pray, to commune with him, even though he already knows everything that we need. Now, the other question is this well, then can we change God's

Can Prayer Change God’s Will

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will? And and I need to we gotta be honest about this because scripture says two things that kind of look like they're at odds. Uh first, we we read scriptures where it seems like God relents. Exodus uh 32. So the Lord relented concerning the disaster he said he would bring on his people. Uh Moses had just asked them to relent from that, and it says the Lord relented. And Jonah, uh, God saw the action, their actions, and God relented from the disaster he had threatened them with. So we we hear that again. Uh and Amos, twice after Amos intercedes, the Lord relented concerning this. Uh Hezekiah is told that he will die. He prays, and then the Lord gives him 15 more years because Hezekiah prayed. And so we have these times in scripture where people are praying and interceding, and it seems as if God relents or as if God changed his mind on the situation. But then there's other texts where we're told God does not change. Numbers 23, 19 tells us that God is not a man, that he might lie, or a son of man, that he might change his mind. Well, what do we do with that? 1 Samuel 15 29 says, the eternal one of Israel does not lie or change his mind, for he is not a man who changes his mind. And so in that one's particularly interesting because in 1 Samuel 15, we actually have both right there in one chapter. Verse 11 has God saying, I regret that I made king or saw king. So here's God. I I this regret language, I regret that I did it. And then just a few you know verses later, I don't change my mind. I'm not a I'm not like a man who changes his mind. Um, and so that it's pretty interesting. And I think uh the writer there uh was not unaware of the tension that that those two things hold, right? And so uh, can we change God's mind? Um it seems like maybe, possibly, you know, uh, and the key to unlock it might be uh Jeremiah 18, where God's kind of announces his policy in advance. He says, if I threaten judgment and a nation repents, I'll relent. And if I promise blessing and a nation rebels, I'm gonna reconsider. And so when Nineveh repents and then God relents from the disaster that he had uh threatened them with, God is being perfectly consistent with what he told us he does. The change happened in Nineveh, the policy uh never changed. And so, you know, I maybe the cleanest, the easiest way to say it is, you know, God never abandons what he has unconditionally promised, but he does respond as he said he would to what he has conditionally announced. And so uh prayer kind of operates there in that second category. Um, there are some things that we can pray about that that seem to move the heart of God. Um, you know, you you look at guys even like Abraham uh when God, the Lord came down, was walking with Abraham and told him he was going to destroy Sodom. Um Abraham said, Well, what if there's you know 50 people? And God says, Well, all right, but I won't do it. What if there's 45? All right, if there's 45, I won't do it. And on and on and it goes, you know, until he gets them all the way down. And yet still there was there was no one found. Is that God changing his mind? Well, here's what we do know God invited Abraham into that conversation, into that decision, and and worked uh through the prayers and intercession of Abraham for for the people. Now, faithful Christians differ kind of on on how this all works uh in in real life. Uh, the more reformed perspective is that God ordained the prayer and the answer together as one package. And so your prayer is a real cause, it's genuinely effective, precisely because God decreed it would be. And so the prayer was ordained, the answer was ordained, and they came ordained together in one package. Uh, the more you know, classical Armenian, I guess, perspective or answer is that God genuine genuinely responds. His foreknowledge includes your prayer, and he ordains the outcome in view of it. And so God knew that you would pray, and the outcome that he brings about is in view of that prayer that he knew about. But here's where both both agree, and this is this is what matters. Both agree that God knows the future exhaustively, and that prayer really accomplishes what God appointed it to accomplish. And so they might differ on the mechanism, but not the reality. And so both of them would be in disagreement with something like open theism, the claim that God doesn't know the future, um in the free decisions that people have because they're not yet knowable. But both both groups would would disagree with that. We we acknowledge um that God is all knowing, that he knows everything, that he knows the future. Um and you know, this is I guess maybe a little bit more of uh my take on it, is he knows, you know, infinite future uh possibilities. And so uh depending on you know what decision uh his free will creatures make, um God knows the future of that too. So nothing catches him out, you know, nothing's outside of his purview or catches him off guard. Um that's a little bit more my take uh on it, and I know that there's people gonna have a different look at that, but um, I think he knows all future realities. And because of our prayer and because of the decisions that we make, um God's never caught off guard. He knows, and so he responds in light of our prayers. And so hopefully that that answers that a little bit. Um the question kind of ended with this what does intercession

What Intercession Really Means

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mean? Uh to intercede means to stand between, to ask God on behalf of someone who isn't you. And we see this kind of happening at three different levels at once. Uh, first, Romans uh chapter eight says that the spirit intercedes in you, that the spirit himself intercedes for us with inexpressible groanings, and that he intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. And so your in at inadequacy at prayer is not a barrier. Uh, when you don't know what to say, the spirit inside you does and prays and intercedes on your behalf, which is, man, how incredible that the Lord has has put his spirit in us to do just that. Secondly, Romans 8, verse 34 says that Christ uh himself intercedes for us, that Christ is at the right hand of God and intercedes for us. The author of Hebrews tells us that he always lives to intercede for them. And so this isn't Jesus talking uh, you know, a reluctant father into it. God, you know, dad, you you gotta do this for him. This is the the living high priest permanently presenting a finished sacrifice in intercession for us. He he intercedes for you right before the Father. And then third, and this is where we kind of get invited into the process, we get to intercede for others. And scripture treats this as serious business. Uh, we talked earlier about Abraham negotiating down from 50 all the way down to 10. We see Moses uh where he offers to be blotted out in Israel's place. Uh Saul basically um, who becomes the apostle Paul uh prays basically the same exact prayer. Lord, I if I I would be cursed, I would be cast out if uh it meant that the people of Israel would be saved. Uh so we see him offering, you know, pleading on behalf of his people. Uh Samuel, he said this, he says, As for me, I vow that I will not sin against the Lord by ceasing to pray for you. He calls not praying for people a sin, which is a pretty strong word. And so this intercession thing is is a huge deal to God that we would stand in the gap for people. And that's what God said through Ezekiel, he said, I am looking for a man, someone who would repair the wall and stand in the gap before me on behalf of the land. But the depressing thing in Ezekiel, he says, I found no one. And man, we are called to be people who will stand in the gap for the people that God has placed in our lives, for our for our friends, for our family, for our churches, for our pastors and leaders. We need to be people who will stand in the gap and intercede for them and lift those people up. And so prayer doesn't inform God. It doesn't overpower them. You're not going to strong arm God, but it is one of the instruments he chooses to work through. And he has chosen so that his children would be a part of what he's doing in the world. He doesn't need your help, but he invites you and I to be a part of the process. And I don't think that should hinder our prayer. I think we should see that as an incredible privilege and honor that the God who already knows what we need before we ask, who already cares about us, um, invites us to pray anyways.

Why Protestants Use 66 Books

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Next question is this uh why sixty-six books instead of including those in the Catholic Bible? And so if you're familiar with the Catholic Bible, uh they have a few more books than uh what most of us Protestants read. Uh they have 73, where uh the standard Protestant Bible has 66. And so uh why why these 66 books? Short answer again here is uh really it boils down to this. Israel never regarded those extra books as scripture. If you look at the uh Hebrew Old Testament, it is a perfect match. Now they count some of the books differently than we do. Um 1st and 2nd Samuel to them is just the book of Samuel. We count, you know, we separate that into two books, but it's the same exact set of books that we have in the Protestant Old Bible, uh Protestant Old Testament. And so we have 39 Old Testament books that would match up to the books that that the Hebrew Bible has. Like I said, they count it different, but same same text. And so Israel never regarded those books as scripture. And secondly, Jesus and the apostles treated Israel's collection, so those 39 Old Testament books, um, as the settled word of God. And so the Protestant Old Testament is the Hebrew canon, and it's the same books that Jesus had. And so that's really the reason that the reformers when They kind of nailed this down. And again, we talked about this on Sunday. Nobody really said, um, these are the books that get in and get out. I what happened is the church recognized the voice of the Savior who was speaking, and they knew the books that were inspired. And so when it comes to the Old Testament, they they lean back on what the uh the the Israel Hebrew Bible had, their Old Testament. And and scripture says that um, you know, those those books belong to to them, and so they they took that approach and said, okay, well, if they were responsible for it, these are the books that they they include, then these are the books that we're going to include and nothing else. Um, and so here here's kind of, I guess, the the Protestant case for it. Um, first, Jesus treated the Hebrew canon as closed and complete. In Luke 24, he says, the law of Moses, the prophets, and the Psalms, that's the standard threefold Jewish division of the Old Testament. And so when he says that, he's saying that their Old Testament is that's what I'm talking about, those books. Uh in Luke 11, 51, he says, from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, uh, which brackets the whole span from Genesis to Second Chronicles, the first and last books of the Hebrew Bible. And so they're they're arranged differently than we have it. Um, but again, from the very first to the very last um book in the Hebrew Bible, Jesus is saying, from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah. And so that's Jesus saying from Genesis to Malachi, uh, just in a the order that he would have used. Uh second, the oracles were entrusted to Israel. This is what I was mentioning earlier. Romans 3 2 says they were entrusted with the very words of God. And so Protestants kind of look at it like this. If it was Israel's job to receive and keep God's word, then what Israel received as inspired scripture matters. Uh Josephus said that we do not possess myriads of inconsistent books, but our books, those which are justly believed, are only 22. And so 22, uh, not 39 again, because they combine books. Samuel's one, the 12 minor prophets is one. Uh, same books, different counting, but um, he says these these are the ones that that are justly believed. And then uh the books themselves say that the prophets had stopped. Um, first Maccabees states that there was no prophet in Israel. Um, some of the books distinguished themselves from the law itself and the prophets and the rest of the books. And so the books themselves do not claim to be scripture. And Jerome, who translated the Vulgate, which is the Catholic Bible, he put them outside the canon proper, saying they were for edification of the people, not for the confirmation of ecclesiastical doctrines. And so the guy who translated and put it all together, he himself uh also said that these books fall outside of the canon. Um so we have kind of all these reasons why the the Protestants lean that direction, but Catholics have have their case too. Um, and it's not just the Council of Trent said so. Um, you know, they they would tell you that the apostles used the Greek Old Testament and um the surviving Greek codices contain these books, and the apostles nowhere that we see told converts to to skip seven of them. You know, hey, don't read those ones. Um so it's likely that the apostles would have used that Greek Old Testament. Many of the church fathers uh cited them, uh some even as scripture. Augustine accepted the wider canon, um and uh I think it was the historian um J.N.D. Kelly conceded that in the first two centuries of the church, uh, they seem to have accepted all or most of these additional books as inspired. So they leaned kind of back into early church history there and say, uh, you know, a lot of the early churches would have considered these books to be inspired. And then there's the regional councils that listed them and that they would say, you know, Trent, the Council of Trent kind of codified rather than invented. Um and so they they have they have their case too, right? And so we can't just say, well, we're right, they're wrong. Um they have some solid points uh for why those books are included. I think if when it comes down to is the Protestant position is stronger on the Jewish evidence, what Israel actually received as scripture. Um and if if you look at the New Testament authors, there are times, very few uh times, where an author might allude to one of the um those other books, the Deuterocanon. Uh we would call it the Apocrypha, they call it the Deuterocanon, Catholics do, um, that they would allude to maybe one of those books, but they never say it is written or quote it as scripture when there are plenty of other times when they say, as scripture says, or it as it is written, talking about books in the the Jewish Old Testament. And so it seems that even the New Testament writers likely they would have read those books and they weren't afraid of them, they wouldn't, you know, have told churches to skip them or anything. Um, but even they seem to not have seen them as inspired scripture. And so I I think the the Protestant position is the stronger one. Um the Catholic position uh leans a little bit stronger on early church usage. Um, what may have actually been read aloud in churches, I don't know how how often it was read, you know, in in light of of other books that would have been read. Um, but it was certainly something that was was readily available to them that they they could have read. And uh I think they they leaned back on that position. So that the disagreement is ultimately about where the authority s sits, is it with the church or is it with um kind of scripture itself and the the evidence that we have there? Uh and I I would lean back that direction and think that as you look at just how Jesus kind of bookended things, how the New Testament authors treat uh the the Jewish Hebrew Old Testament versus how they treat some of the those works in the Deutero canon, um, I think the Protestant position is stronger on that. And so um bottom line, I guess, is this Protestants didn't subtract seven books. We kept the list that Israel kept and that Jesus used, and um, and then later when the church, you know, disagreed with itself, um reformers uh sided with the the older witness, they went back to what the Jews considered to be inspired scripture, and and I I tend to uh to think they made the right call

Are Ghosts Witches And Spirits Real

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there. All right, next question Are ghost and or spirits and witches real? And uh they this uh person who submitted this points to 1 Samuel, where the ghost of Samuel appears when King Saul asks the witch of Indore to summon the dead prophet. And does this mean ghost and spirits and witches are real? Short answer on this one is uh yes, the unseen world is real. Yes, occult practice is real enough that God outright bans it. But no, I do not believe the dead just wander around. And I think 1 Samuel chapter 28 is actually the exception that proves it, not the precedent that allows it. Um, so first we see that the spirit world is real. Hebrews says that angels are ministering spirits sent out to serve those who are going to inherit salvation. Uh Paul told the Ephesians our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of darkness, against evil spiritual forces in the heavens. And uh, we even see in Acts where Paul encounters a slave girl who had a spirit by which he predicted the future, and he commands it to come out of her. And so Luke reports that as a real event with a real spirit, and we see Jesus all throughout the Gospels um interacting with demonic spirits, casting them out. And so the spirit world is real. Second, witchcraft in that kind of practice is real enough that scripture takes time to forbid it. And Deuteronomy chapter 18, uh, verses nine through fourteen is kind of a definitive text, and it just lays out um each of these practices and for forbids each of them. And it starts like this you know, sacrificing a child in the fire, practicing divination, telling fortunes, interpreting omens, practic, practicing sorcery, casting spells, consulting a medium medum, medium or a spiritist in inquiring of the dead. And in verse 12, it says, Everyone who does these acts is detestable to the Lord. And so pretty strong language uh from the Lord Himself here. Uh, these are things that are are to be forbidden. And God doesn't forbid them because they're a harmless parlor trick, he forbids them because they're real enough to be dangerous and because they go to the wrong source. And I think we need to be very, very careful about the the doors that we open because there is a spiritual reality um that we do not see taking place all around us. And when we get involved in things like these, we open doors uh to that spiritual realm and we don't know what's on the other side. Um and and Paul just flat out told us our battle is against those authorities, those cosmic powers of darkness, against evil spiritual forces in the heaven. And you don't want to be messing with those things, especially unprepared. Um now, greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world. And so I, you know, I I don't know that we have to be, you know, live in fear of them. That's not what I'm saying. Uh, but we we should not be consulting them, playing around with these things. Uh scripture just outright forbids it, and and I think we need to be careful to protect ourselves from that. Now, 1 Samuel 28, uh, which is kind of the the passage that prompted the question, um is interesting. Now, the CSB version, which we uh often use at the the church, doesn't call her a witch. It calls uh just says that she's a woman who's a medium medium. Um I think witch of indoor is the King James phrasing. Um and so I'm not not saying that you're wrong. I just mean if you're reading the CSB, you wouldn't see that word there. Um but in verse 13, this medium, this witch, whatever you want to call her, says, I see a spirit form coming up out of the earth. And so a little bit of background here. Uh Samuel the prophet is dead. Saul comes to this medium and asks her to summon Samuel, and she begins this process, and before you know it, Samuel shows up. And so there's kind of four historic readings on what is happening in that moment. Number one, God genuinely sent Samuel. And so this would be a real appearance by God's sovereign act, not the medium's power. So Medium thinks she's calling Samuel up. God himself is actually the one by a sovereign act who causes Samuel to appear, and it's a real appearance. Uh, second option would be um a demonic impersonation. And so this is a deceiving spirit who is posing as Samuel. The third uh way to look at this would be you know, this is fraud, the the medium just staged it. Or fourth, subjective vision. Uh, the narrator reports Saul's perception without ruling on the metaphysics. Which one is best supported by scripture, I think, would be option one, that it wasn't, in fact, the medium that called up Samuel, but that God genuinely sent Samuel. And here's why I believe that. In verse 12, it says, When the woman saw Samuel, she screamed. That is not a con artist reaction to her own trick. You don't, you know, do what you usually do, and then when it shows up, you're freaked out, right? She got something she was not equipped to produce and did not expect. And so when Samuel shows up, she's terrified. And the narrator says, Samuel, not the spirit, not the apparition. Um, Samuel said to Saul. And so this is a real appearance of Saul. And then the message that Samuel gives to Saul is a genuine prophetic oracle that comes true. It rebukes Saul, it uh restates the Amalekite judgment from uh chapter 15, it announces that the kingdom is going to David and predicts Saul's death the next day. Demons in Scripture do not preach accurate covenant theology, especially at their own uh expense. And so um, I think point one uh that God genuinely sent Samuel is the best supported by Scripture. Um here's what the passage actually teaches. God did this, not the medium. And the result was a terrified woman, a devastated king, and a death sentence carried out the next day. And so 1 Samuel 28 is actually one of the stronger anti-occult narratives in Old Testament. It's not a demonstration that um that this is works uh or this is something that we should be a part of. It's a demonstration of what happens when God answers the question you had no business asking. And so, can the dead come back? Uh, I would say not normally and never at our initiative. Um, you know, Jesus causes the dead to rise, but that's that's different than you know these spirits coming back. Uh Luke tells us of the great chasm that's been fixed between us, and uh Jesus is teaching that God does not use post-mortem visitation as a delivery method. Uh he says they have, you know, the rich man there in that passage asks for someone to be sent to warn his brothers, and Abraham refuses. Abraham tells him they have Moses and the prophets, and so saying we're not going to send someone from the dead to as a delivery method. They they have Moses and the prophets already. Uh Hebrews tells us it's appointed for people to die once, and after this the judgment. And 2 Corinthians says that believers are away from the body and at home with the Lord, which means they're not wandering around, they're at home. And so is this real? Yes, uh, the spirit world is real. The occult is really forbidden, um, and something that we as as followers of Jesus need to be very, very careful. Um, we do not engage with and entertain. And like I said, you you just open a door to to something that that you should not be messing with. And um we just need to to seek the Lord in these things. You don't need to to go to uh you know tarot card reader or um fortune telling you we we don't need any of that stuff. Uh we have the creator of the universe and his spirit lives inside of us, and so um he's gonna lead us into all truth. And so just continue to to seek him in those things. And and these other things, uh, yes, they are real. The spirit world is real, and uh, we are called to to abstain from those things. And you know, there's actually an interesting time in uh the book of Acts when this group of people um they all come together, they they get saved, begin to follow Jesus, and it says then they burned all of their magic books. And so um pretty interesting that one of the very first things that these people did once they turned to Christ is they got rid of all of that stuff. And and I think that's uh wise wisdom for us today is uh if you're engaged in anything like that, um it's time to to repent, to turn away from those things, to get rid of those things. Um I encourage you just take it outside, burn it, check with city ordinance first. But uh definitely uh something that uh the Lord has has told us that that is not for us. All right, next question.

The Witch Of Endor Explained

SPEAKER_01 39:00

Are there really levels to heaven? Uh this person noted that they've tried researching online, but read opposing opinions regarding certain verses using heaven as plural, as well as Paul sharing in 2 Corinthians chapter 12 how he knew a man 14 years ago who was caught up in the third heaven. Short answer is this uh third heaven is not a tier of blessedness, it's ancient shorthand for all the way up where God is. And so Paul tells us uh this himself, actually just two verses later, where he calls the same place paradise. And so scripture does uh what scripture does teach is a degree of reward, which is an entirely different thing than uh degrees or levels of heaven. And here's what we what Paul said, 2 Corinthians chapter 12. He says, I know a man in Christ who was caught up to the third heaven 14 years ago, and whether he was in the body or out of the body, I don't know, God knows. I know that this man, whether in the body or out of the body, I don't know, God knows, was caught up into paradise and heard inexpressible words, which a human being is not allowed to speak. Now we need to notice the structure there. There's two statements mirrored almost word for word. He's caught up to the third heaven, caught up into paradise. So they use both of those words interchangeably, each with whether in the body or out of the body, I don't know, God knows. And that is Hebrew parallelism, saying one thing twice, one experience, one destination, but using two different names for it. And so the the Hebrew uh uses kind of three different, I guess, uh tiers or pictures of heaven. The first heaven is the sky where you know the birds fly. That would be the first heaven. The second heaven is where the sun, the moon, and the stars are, and then the third heaven is where God dwells. So all the way up there with God. Now, there is Second Temple Judaism, um, where you know, some of the texts like Second Enoch has seven heavens, uh, the Talmud name seven, uh, which is actually where we get that English phrase and seventh heaven, where that comes from. Um so I guess we we you know we can't be certain whether Paul assumed three tiers or or seven, but what we can be certain uh of by what he meant, because he calls it paradise. And so if three, third is the top, and if seven, the third is where paradise is. Either way, Paul's telling you he reached the place where God is, and then he he kind of refuses to describe what that is for us. And so I think we don't see this, you know, tiered heaven um thing like like most people, you know, in in culture, how they how they might describe it. I think when Paul is saying that he was caught up into the third heaven, he's saying he was caught up to that place where where God is. Um not where the birds are, not not where the sun, moon, and stars are, but all the way, all the way where God is. Um so what scripture does teach is degrees of reward. And like I said, this is uh completely different than than tiers or levels in heaven. And so um, depending on on how we live here, there's going to be different rewards uh in heaven. Um 1 Corinthians chapter 3 says our works are tested by fire. If anyone's work that he has built survives, he will receive a reward. And if anyone's work is burned up, he will experience loss, but he himself will be saved, but only as through the fire. And so the reward varies, but salvation does not. And so I think that's important. Um, what you'll find online often is things that are not uh really consistent with long-held Christian doctrine. Um, primarily uh Mormon doctrine of three degrees of glory. And so uh Telestial is a coin word that Joseph Smith inserted into his revision of these verses, and it exists in no Greek manuscript and in no lexicon before 1832. And so this is a word that he kind of coined and just inserted in there when he revised uh those verses. And so he has kind of these these three levels or separate eternal destinies with nearly everyone saved into one of them and hell functionally emptied. Um and and I think that as you you look at what Paul was saying here, it he wasn't saying anything, anything of that sort. I think we just need to be very careful about what we we find online, uh, because there is certainly a lot out there. Um but when it comes to heaven, uh, I I think when Paul says caught up in the third heaven, he just means he's caught up into that place where God is. And, you know, if beneath that question, you know, is sometimes uh a different question, you know, will I be a second-class citizen when I get there? What level am I gonna Gonna be in. Um here's what we know. Jesus said this in my father's house are many rooms, and I'm going to prepare a place for you, and I will come again and take you to myself, so that where I am, you may be also. And so the point is this the address is wherever he is. And and when we go, we're gonna be with him where he is. And so there aren't tiers of heaven that you have to climb. There's no balcony where the lesser Christians sit. There's one place, and the whole of what makes it heaven is the fact that he's there. And so whatever else differs, whatever the rewards look like from one person to the other, uh, nobody arrives and finds they got less of Jesus than the person next to them. Um, we're gonna be like him, and that's the promise. That's the promise of heaven. All right, I think that is all the questions that came in this week, and uh hopefully uh answered those uh in a way that made sense for you. If not, uh would love for you to just you know shoot me an email. I'll do my best to take another another crack at it for you. Um this one was a little bit more uh theological than last week, and so it's kind of fun diving into these different topics. Um and and again, I think as we we pour into it, what we find is that and God's word is faithful and it is true, it is a solid foundation on which we can build our lives, and so uh we can trust it and have um have confidence in in who God is and what he says uh about us. And so as these questions come up, I would encourage you, uh, don't stop asking. Keep going back to

Do Levels Of Heaven Exist

SPEAKER_01 45:40

Scripture and say, Lord, show me the truth here. Let your spirit lead me into all truth. And I believe that he's gonna be faithful to do that for you. Uh, that he wants to reveal himself to you, he wants to lead you into truth. Um, and so uh keep keep asking questions. Just because this series is over doesn't mean you have to stop asking. Um go to God's word. Uh, be careful online. Like I said, you'll find some stuff that that are not consistent um with Christian doctrine out there. Uh there's there's a lot of goofiness on the internet. Uh, and so if you if you're going to scripture and you're still confused, you're you're not sure on something, um, this is what your church is for. I would encourage you to to reach out, uh, email Pastor Tim or myself. Take uh you know, sign up for a discovery class. We talk about uh some of these things in our discovery classes. Uh we to you know talk about dealing with demons. That's a class that Pastor Tim teaches. Uh he teaches another class called You Will Be Like Him. The More Pathway launches this fall. And we're going to walk you through uh some more some more topics and in classes on on scripture and what it means to follow Jesus and what that looks like in everyday life. And so I would encourage you to to keep pressing into those things and allow these questions to lead you to greater intimacy with Christ, not not away from him. Let me pray for you. Father, I thank you so much for for your word, um, Lord, and that it never returns void. And I pray that even now it would begin to just plant seeds that would produce good fruit in in each each of our hearts and each of our lives. And so, uh Lord, where these questions exist, I know that a lot of times some of it is just fascinating stuff that that we like to dig into. And and Lord, that's great. Um, and I pray that we would continue to be in all and inspired by your word and and just you as our creator, as our father, the God who, even though you know, invites us to to pray and and be a part of what you're doing on the planet. But Lord, I know that's under some of these questions are are even deeper questions. And so, Father, I pray that um you would give give those people peace in their searching and that these questions would lead them to to greater intimacy and trust with you. Um, as we've talked about in the series, the people who asked often are the people who who got closer to you than the people who who were too afraid or never dared to ask. And so, uh Lord, I thank you that you're not afraid of these these hard questions, that we can bring them to you. And I just pray that you would continue to give us wisdom and guidance uh as we seek to live faithfully uh here and now. In Jesus' name. Amen.

SPEAKER_00 48:15

Thanks again for joining us for this episode of the Midweek Podcast. We'd love to hear from you. Let us know how God is using this resource in your life or send any podcast questions or topic ideas to podcast at a freshwind.org. If you would like to support this ministry financially and help us continue offering new resources that equip you to discover more in Christ, simply text any amount to the number 84321. We're so grateful for your support. Make sure to tune in next week for a brand new episode of the Midweek Podcast. Be blessed and have a great week.