Bible Study: Meaning of the Book of Galatians Part II

To give the study tonight, which I'm very happy to do, give me a chance to tie up a few loose ends from questions that were asked last night, and we had some more questions submitted. So we'll cover some of those things. And I think it's probably good that we begin with prayer. So if you'll bow your head, we'll ask God's blessing over the study.

A gracious, wonderful, eternal Father, we thank you so much for your word of truth.

We thank you so much for the Feast of Tabernacles and your instruction that we've received during the Feast this year. Please lift our hearts and give us hope, Father, and inspiration to help us through these very difficult days in this human world and look forward to your kingdom, that is, the kingdom of God. During this Bible study tonight, we pray that you will guide us, that you will inspire the speaking, inspire the hearing, help us to learn to love your word and the teachings of your word, help us to live by your word, because man cannot live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. So inspire us, Father, bless those who have come to this study tonight, help our hearts and minds to be enlightened. We thank you for your grace and love towards us, and we ask for your blessings. In the name of our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, we pray this. Amen.

Well, good evening again. It's great to see all of you with us. We've had a few pop in the doors since we got started. They've got the heaters on, so they're going to try to keep us nice and toasty, hopefully this evening. I wanted to finish up again, as I just mentioned, some of the questions that were asked last night, and then Mr. Miller was kind enough to forward to me some additional questions he had received. So let's begin more of the formal presentation, so I can catch up on some of these, and then later on we'll open it up to any other questions and answers that we can provide. A question was asked last night regarding Revelation 2 and verse 14. If you'd like to turn there. We were talking about eating meat sacrificed to idols, and how Paul—we'll take a look at his words in a little while—how Paul mentioned that for those, particularly if you were buying meat in a parking, in a market, if you were buying meat, and that was very common in Rome, what would happen is there was more meat left over after it was sacrificed to idols than was consumed during the ceremony. They would sell it in meat markets, and of course the gentile Christians, being people of value buyers, would go and buy meat, and sometimes that meat had been offered to idols. And Paul encouraged them, if you want to have a clean conscience, don't ask where the meat came from. But if you do ask, and they say the meat was offered to idols, he said then, I suggest that you certainly do not eat it. We'll touch upon that in a few minutes, but considering how Paul discussed spiritual maturity and not judging others for the things that they do, but realizing that the idol is just really a piece of wood. It's not a god, and the fact that a meat is a piece of meat and doesn't know any better. How does a scripture like this tie in with what Paul is saying about meat offered to idols? So here is Revelation chapter 2 and verse 14. But I have a few things against you. This is, if I recall correctly, towards the Church of Pergamos, if I remember correctly. But I have a few things against you, because you have there those that hold the doctrine of Balaam, taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the children of Israel, to eat things, sacrifice to idols, and to commit spiritual immorality. So that was a problem that the Church had, and a lot of these statements are metaphors rather than be taken exactly word by word. In other words, they were compromising with paganism, compromising with things of this world, rather than staying obedient to God's commands and God's law. So let's go to Numbers chapter 25 and verse 1 and see where this actual event happened so we can understand what was going on and how they ate food that had been sacrificed to idols. Numbers chapter 25 beginning in verse 1.

And here's what it says, now Israel remained in Acacia Grove and the people began to commit harlotry with the women of Moab and they invited the people to the sacrifices of their gods and the people ate and bowed down to their gods. So not only did they eat the meat that was intended to honor the idols, the people literally bowed down to these pagan gods and that's a direct violation of God's law. Indeed, verse 3. So Israel was joined to Baal of Peor and the anger of the Lord was aroused against Israel. That's rank of paganism and we still have some vestiges of that today in our modern culture in which the world has taken pagan holidays, pagan celebrations, and put a little lipstick on them and changed their name and called them Christian. Like Christmas, right? You take something that in ancient Rome was celebrated on the 25th of December and you put a little tinsel on it and you try to make it pretty and make it all about family and home and make it look attractive. But yet at its core it is a pagan celebration that originally was intended to worship the Roman pagan sun god. You take something like Easter. The name Easter itself is the name of a pagan sun goddess. That's what the very name means. By the way, many Protestants are beginning to realize that and are not using the name Easter anymore. Just like many are talking about, instead of using Christmas, many Protestants today talk about Advent because it sounds so much more righteous than using a word like the mass of Christ, which was a direct Catholic term.

So we see here in Numbers chapter 25 verses 1 through 3 that these individuals indeed did sin and not only did they eat, but they also bowed down to the gods and literally worship the veil, which is a direct violation of God's law. So that's not a good thing. And knowing that and having that in mind, it's why abstaining from meat offered to idols was part of the edict of the ministerial council of 49 AD. So if you go to Acts chapter 15 and verse 27, we will see where that literally was included in the edict that was given from the council and sent out to the churches.

And we'll pick it up after the opening greeting of the council and their deliberations. Acts chapter 15 and verse 27, we have therefore sent Judas and Silas, who will also report the same things by word of mouth, for it seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay upon you no greater burdens than these necessary things, that you abstain from things offered to idols, from blood, which by the way is from the law of Moses, and from things strangled, which by the way is part of the law of Moses, and from sexual immorality, not only in the law of Moses, but obviously sexual immorality has been a sin long before Moses came on the scene.

If you keep yourselves from these, you will do well, farewell. So you can see they weren't very talkative in those days. They kept their messages sweet, simple, and to the point. But you'll notice here in verse 29 that one of the things that they were cautioned, this is speaking of course to the Gentiles, is to abstain from things offered to idols.

So that's another part of the equation. Now let's see where Paul discusses in 1 Corinthians chapter 8 his discussion with the actual Gentiles in Corinth, helping them to understand the theology behind all of this. He wants them to understand why they should not eat meat offered to idols, not because the idol is anything, not because the meat is significant, but because you could offend someone. You could literally cause a brother or a sister to, against their own conscience, eat meat offered to idols and defile themselves because they felt they would feel guilty from doing so.

1 Corinthians chapter 8 verses 4 through 6, therefore, concerning the eating of things offered to idols, we know that an idol is nothing in the world, and there is no other God but one. For even if there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth, as there are many gods and many lords that the people worship, the pagans worship, verse 6, yet for us there is one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we for Him, and one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and through whom we live.

Picking up now here in verse 7. However, there is not in everyone that knowledge, that knowledge of knowing that the idol is really nothing. It's a piece of wood, it's worthless, has no meaning, has no value. The meat doesn't know whether it's been sacrificed to an idol or not. It's just a piece of meat. He says, however, not everyone has that knowledge. For some, with consciousness of the idol, in other words, they're so used to thinking of eating meat and worshiping an idol, that's what they did in their former lives before they were called into the church, that they're defiled by that thought.

They would be defiled by doing something like that. They would be offended by seeing a brother or a sister eat meat that had been offered to an idol, even if it had been purchased in a market. That would bother them, it would bother their conscience. It says, and their conscience, being weak, is defiled. But food does not commend us to God, for neither if we eat are we the better, nor if we do not eat are we the worse. But beware lest somehow this liberty of yours, what is this liberty they have, knowing that the idol is really nothing, there's nothing to fear, it can't move, it can't talk, it's just a worthless piece of wood carved into something, and the meat in itself, of itself, doesn't make you righteous or unrighteous.

Beware lest somehow this liberty of yours becomes a stumbling block to those who are weak, those who would be offended by your understanding that it's just a piece of wood. It's not a real God. You wouldn't worship that piece of wood anyway.

You're just considering purchasing a piece of meat in a marketplace that, yes, may have been sacrificed to idols. Verse 10, for if anyone sees you who have knowledge eating in an idol's temple, will not the conscious of him who is weak be emboldened to eat those things offered to idols? So he's bringing out a scenario here. He says you have knowledge, so you eat in an idol's temple. And let's say you did that. You went there and you ate the food.

You didn't worship the idol, but you ate the food there. But someone who's weak in the faith, this is the new century version, someone who's weak in the faith might see you eating there and be encouraged to eat meat sacrificed to idols while thinking it's wrong to do so.

In other words, they may be encouraged to do that even though they feel guilty. They feel a sense of shame that they're doing something that violates their conscience. And that's sin. And that's something that we should not be a partaker of doing that to our brothers and sisters or encouraging our brothers or sisters to do something that violates their own personal conscience. Now here in verse 11, and because of your knowledge, shall this weak brother perish for whom Christ died?

Would you want to be responsible for someone with a guilty conscience doing something that causes them to sin and could literally put them in danger of their eternal life by doing something that violates their conscience? Of course not. You wouldn't want to do that. Verse 12, But when you sin against the brethren and wound their weak conscience, you sin against Christ.

Now this is serious because they're our brothers. So if we consciously go out and offend someone, you know who we're really offending? We're offending Jesus Christ. And that's not a good thing. That's not what gives us a healthy relationship with God to literally sin against Christ. Therefore, if food makes my brother stumble, I will never eat meat lest I make my brother stumble. So he said, we've got to be very careful and realize that even though, yes, religiously and legally you understand that it's just an idol, it's just a piece of meat, that to other people in the congregation, this is a serious issue.

And if they see you, by example, eating meat that's offered to an idol, it might literally destroy their faith. It might ruin their conscience. It might literally pull them out of the faith and put them in jeopardy of losing eternal life. And again, when we offend someone purposely and consciously, we're literally offending Jesus Christ. Let's take a look at a few verses in 1 Corinthians 10 now. Paul brings up this issue again in a few chapters later, 1 Corinthians 10. So let's turn there.

1 Corinthians 10. We're going to begin in verse 19.

He says, What am I saying then? That an idol is anything, or what is offered to idols is anything, rather, that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice the demons and not to God. And I do not want you to have fellowship with demons. Continuing in verse 21. You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You cannot partake of the Lord's table and of the table of demons. So here he's strongly telling them, do not participate in those worship services.

Do not get involved and go in there and fellowship in these locations and eat this meat that's offered to idols and share your fellowship at that temple with those people. Because, in essence, now you are participating in their sin. Verse 32. Or, do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than He? All things are lawful to me, but not all things are helpful. Paul says, I know legally what sin and what is not sin and what this idol represents and what the meat represents, which is really nothing. He says, but that doesn't mean it's helpful to other people just because I have that knowledge. That doesn't mean that I just arrogantly can force my will upon other people or set a poor example. That's what he's saying here. It may be lawful for me to do something. That doesn't mean I should do it, because it's not helpful for the growth and development of others.

He says, all things are lawful for me, but not all things edify. The word edify coming from the root word of an edifice to build something up. So he says, even though you may have knowledge, you may be spiritually mature in some area, that doesn't mean that because you know that, that it's okay to do it. You have to think about the sensitivities of other people. Is our example building others up, or is it tearing other people down? We obviously want to build people up for 24.

Let no one seek his own, but each one the other's well-being. So it isn't about my rights, something that we Americans struggle with, because we're so rights-obsessive in our country. It's not about my rights. It's not about what I want. Paul says it's about the other person's well-being, and I won't do anything to offend them, anything to drive them away by my own example.

Eat whatever is sold in the meat market, asking no questions for conscience sake.

So he says, if you're not troubled, then just go to the meat market and say, I'll have a pound of that. I'll have a couple of pounds of that. So let's continue here.

Whatever is sold in the meat market, asking no questions for conscience sake. For the earth is the Lord's and all its fullness. Just trust God, and go ahead and buy that meat and enjoy it.

If any of those who do not believe invite you to dinner and you desire to go, eat whatever is set before you, asking no question for conscience sake. Now, obviously, if it's the leg of a pig.

Obviously, you know what's set before you. But if it's mystery meat, if it's some stew or something in which there's meat mixed in maybe its spaghetti sauce or whatever, he says, eat whatever is set before you, asking no questions for conscience sake. Just eat it in faith and don't allow your conscience to be violated if you're presented with something and you really don't know what's in it.

Verse 28, but if someone says to you, this was offered to idols to not eat it, for the sake of the one who told you and for conscience sake. Because that person might be trying you. If that person is not in the church and they say, oh, here's some meat and it was offered to idols, they may be testing you to see what you're going to do so they can condemn you for your example.

And for conscience sake, and continuing here, for, and he repeats his phrase, for the earth is the Lord's and all of its fullness. Conscience, I say, not your own, but that of the other.

For why is my liberty judged by another man's conscience? But if I partake with thanks, why am I spoken of for the food over which I give thanks? Therefore, whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all to the glory of God. Give no offense. That's why. So if you partake of thanks, he says, that's not good enough. Are you offending someone? Do you think that you have the liberty or right to do something? That's okay. But the real question is, are you giving offense to someone by what you do? I think I used the example last night, my wife and I have often had people who are former alcoholics and some go to Alcoholics Anonymous and they don't drink alcohol.

And when I know that, I don't bring out alcohol. I certainly don't have a huge five-gallon bottle of wine sitting in front of them all night. That would be rude and insensitive to them. Even though I drink wine and in moderation, I drink alcoholic beverages. That's a parallel of basically what Paul is saying here. Give no offense either to the Jews or to the Greeks or to the Church of God. Just as I also please all men and all things, not seeking my own profit, but the profit of many that they may be saved. So Paul said he denied himself of his liberties and the right to do certain things so that others could benefit, so that his example could be helpful to them.

Okay, another question that we had last night was the timeline of Timothy being circumcised. It really was a great question. It kind of caught us off guard. We weren't ready for that, but we will see the timeline. It's a very interesting timeline in Acts 16 and verse 1, if you'll turn there, because it occurs right after that ministerial conference in 49 AD. So it's about 50 AD. It's interesting that you may recall after the conference, Paul and Barnabas got into a dispute, a very heated dispute.

I know it may shock you to learn that sometimes ministers don't get along and have problems with one another, but right after this conference Barnabas wants to take his cousin, John Mark, with them to another missionary tour. And Paul says, absolutely not! It becomes very heated. So Barnabas and John Mark, they go their way on their own journey, and Paul chooses Silas, and they go on their way on a separate journey.

Very disappointing that that happened, but sometimes that does happen. So here we're going to pick it up here and be introduced to Timothy in Acts 16, verses 1 through 3.

It says, Then he came to Derby and Lystra, and behold a certain disciple was there named Timothy. And we'll read a lot about Timothy from this point on. He obviously was a young evangelist, very talented, someone Paul could trust. Paul sent him ahead of Paul to many different churches, oftentimes before Paul would even arrive. Sometimes he would send Timothy there in his place because he could trust Timothy, and he knew Timothy had a lot of strengths.

His name was Timothy, the son of a certain Jewish woman who believed, but his father was Greek. So he was a combination of Jew and Gentile. He was well spoken of by the brethren who were at Lystra and Iconium. So he already had a reputation as a young man, perhaps in his teens at this point, as a young man who was faithful and dedicated, and other people spoke very highly of him.

Verse 3, Paul wanted to have him go on with him. So he wanted him to become part of his missionary journey. But Paul knows, we've just covered so much about Paul's sensitivity about not offending people regarding meat. He also has the same feeling regarding circumcision, even though he's been through the conference in 49 A.D. And by the way, this happens before he writes the book to the Galatians. This happens before he writes 1 Corinthians, both books we touched upon last night.

But he didn't want to cause any problems. He wanted Timothy, who everyone knew was half Jew, to be able to go to any city, talk to Jews with any synagogue, anywhere, without the controversy coming up. Whoa! Is this guy circumcised or not? Is he circumcised according to the law of Moses? Paul wanted to have him go on with him everywhere and anywhere. He wanted him to be part of his team. And he took him and he circumcised him because of the Jews who were in that region.

They would have made things very difficult. They would have caused a lot of problems by the fact that he wasn't circumcised because they all knew that his father was Greek. So here we are in verse 4, Acts 16, verse 4. And as they went through the cities, they delivered to them the decrees to keep, which were determined by the apostles and elders of Jerusalem. So the churches were strengthened in the faith and increased in number daily. So Timothy was part of this group who went and instructed everyone with what the edict had been, the decision in a ministerial conference in 49 AD. So again, this was soon after the ministerial conference, probably about 50 AD to give it a timeline before Galatians was written.

So again, why did Paul do this? Because Timothy had a part Jewish background and it seemed expedient, helpful, was the phrase that he used when he was discussing the issue with people's sensitivities about meat. It would be helpful if Timothy was circumcised. It would be expedient in his case in order to enlarge his usefulness in being a witness and being part of Paul's team. Now does that mean Paul was a compromiser?

No, not at all. If you look at someone like Titus who was full gentile, Paul insisted that Titus not be circumcised, just to make a point, just to make a statement that gentiles are just as Christian, just as full participants in the New Covenant as the Jewish believers are. He insisted that Titus, who was fully gentile, was never circumcised. And he was part of his team, and he was also on those journeys with Paul along with Timothy. So that's the chronology of Timothy being circumcised.

Another question came in, and here it is, and I'm paraphrasing some of these questions, trying to shorten them just a little bit. Abraham and Sarah laughed at God's promise of a son, and God questioned why Sarah laughed, but he didn't question why Abraham laughed.

So that's part of the question. The other one was that Zechariah laughed and became mute.

What lessons are there for us here? Well, lesson number one is don't laugh at God, right? It is not healthy when God tells you something to burst out laughing. Let's take a look at Genesis chapter 18 and verse 12. Genesis 18.12.

We'll actually pick it up here in verse 11. Now, Abraham and Sarah were old. Give you a few minutes to turn there. If you're like me, you might be struggling to see the Scriptures tonight, all the shading. I'd hold it closer to this thing, but I'd afraid my Bible would go up in flames, so I won't do that. Now, Abraham and Sarah were old well advanced in age, and Sarah had passed the age of childbearing. Therefore, Sarah laughed within herself, saying, after I've grown old, shall I have pleasure, my Lord, being old also? And the Lord said to Abraham, why did Sarah laugh, saying, shall I surely bear a child, since I am old? Is anything too hard for the Lord? At the appointed time, I will return to you according to the time of life, and Sarah shall be with a son.

So, what's the difference? Well, the difference is, is actually in a way Abraham got his reward, so we don't spend a whole lot of time going through the rest of this story here.

Abraham laughed openly, and God said, okay, you think that's funny? Your son's name is going to be Isaac, and his name means he laughs. So, every time throughout your life you say, hey Isaac, oh, it's going to remind you that you burst out laughing when I told you that you were going to have a son. That's what the name Isaac literally means. Regarding Sarah, her issue was not simply that she laughed within herself, but when she was questioned by God, she lied and denied that she had laughed, and that obviously didn't please God. Her laughter was within herself. Abraham openly laughed out loud. So, again, what's to be learned about this is have faith, and rather than take the word of God lightly, or rather than humorously or sarcastically deride the word of God, or something that God puts in our heads, or something that the Spirit says to us, have faith. Listen. Don't mock it, and certainly don't take it lightly. Now, regarding Zechariah, the question said Zechariah laughed, and I couldn't necessarily find in Luke chapter 1 where he laughed, where he literally laughed at being told he was going to have a son. But he obviously was mute due to his lack of belief, and he was told by the angel, uh-oh, they're surrounding me. Is that Mr. Miller?

Oh, it is Mr. Miller. So, again, the moral of the story of these situations was Zechariah becoming mute, and Abraham, for really a lifetime, being kind of chided by God by the very name he would have to give his son that would remind him that he laughed, and Sarah denying the fact that privately within herself that she lacked is have faith. The moral of the story is trust God's word, and when God speaks to us, don't take it lightly, don't be sarcastic about it. Have the kind of faith that is necessary in order to obey God and to please him. Another question that came in is, what's the difference in being at the wedding feast as a bride and as a guest? That's a question I really never have pondered before. I cannot go to a series of scriptures and just show you some difference, but I'd like to just bring a little logic to think about this for a minute. Logic tells me that when you're the bride, you're entering the full benefits of a marriage relationship, but the guests don't. They may be very close friends. They may be family members. They may be people you love. They may be people you respect, but they are not entering that covenant relationship like you are as a bride. And the only scripture that I could think of to talk about why it's so important to be the bride, because in a spiritual sense, at the wedding feast of Jesus Christ, the guest will most likely be the heavenly host. And we've been, because we were made physical, under the heavenly, under the authority, weaker than the heavenly host as human beings. But there's coming a time when the bride of Christ, the church of God, is married to Jesus Christ, that we will actually be above that spiritual dominion of angels and archangels and all of those spiritual beings who will be guests, who will witness the wedding supper. Hebrews chapter 2 and verse 6. We'll take a look at something said here in the book of Hebrews that is quoting something that David himself wrote. Hebrews chapter 2 and verse 6. If you'll turn there, give you a few minutes to get there. Hebrews chapter 2 and verse 6. But one testified in a certain place, saying, what is man that you are mindful of him? Why are human beings so important to you, God?

Or the Son of Man that you take care of him? You have made him a little lower than the angels. And that's the status that we have today. Yes, we have dominion over this earth, and we are able to carve tunnels in the mountains. We're able to reroute rivers and create dams and create beautiful cities and civilizations. And we have incredible strengths and gifts and abilities, but we're still lower than angels. But there will come a time when we become the literal bride of Jesus Christ, that we will be in the family of God and literally will be ruling over the angels and ruling over the heavenly host. So continuing here, you've made him a little lower than the angels. You have crowned him with glory and honor and set him over the works of your hands. In other words, you've given mankind dominion over this earth, and we've certainly demonstrated it on what we've done on the face of this world. You put all things in subjection under his feet, for in that he, that is God, put in all subjection under him. God gave us that gift. He gave us that instruction.

He left nothing that is not put under him, but now we do not yet see all things put under him. What isn't under us right now is the spiritual realm, the angels. Yeah, we're, you know, we're king of the crop here in planet earth. As far as physical creatures that God created, we're the pinnacle, and we have done remarkable things to this earth, and sadly we've also done some terrible destruction with the pollution that we've created and some of the things that we've done to the earth as well, having dominion over it. But as the author of the book of Hebrews says here, but now we do not yet see all things put under him. And the point is we will. That's the promise.

That's what will occur when we literally become the bride of Jesus Christ and the fullness of the sonship and the family of God. So again, that was the question, what's the difference in being at the wedding feast as a bride or as a guest? Another question, why don't we blow the shofar today to call the congregation? Well, some may and some may not. It's not a required part of the New Covenant. Is there a problem with it? If a particular church group or a church pastor, whatever, wanted to call the congregation to order with a shofar, there wouldn't necessarily be a problem with it, but it's certainly not required as part of the New Covenant. So if a church chooses to do so, that's cool. I think I mentioned last night we do that on the Feast of Trumpets. We just want to respect the tradition, the literal name of the meaning of that day, and we take out a little shofar and we toot on it a few times. At least people try to. We don't have many skillful trumpet players in our congregation. So again, like many other things, you can see dozens of things that were done in the Old Testament that may be good and right and productive things. That doesn't necessarily mean we need or should or it's required for us to do those things today. For example, in the Old Testament, because there was always a difficulty determining the new moon. You may or may not know this, but many Jews usually kept two holy days back to back instead of one, just to be sure. Just in case they were off a little bit in the counting of the new moon, they would keep two feast days back to back, not one. Why did they do that? Because they just wanted to make sure in case Levi, you know, with his old cataracts looking up and said, I think I see the new moon, and maybe he was off a little bit, that they would have a safety factor there. And you know, that was very easy in an agricultural society, but it's not so easy today. And besides that, God has given mankind the ability to grow to the point where we can calculate every new moon and when it's going to occur for the next 10,000 years through math, something called mathematics, and knowing how the world works, and knowing the exact period of time that it takes the heavens and stars and the moon to circulate in one calendar year. We can calculate the new moons and everything to the seconds for a long, long time in the future because we've advanced to that point. So there are many things that were done as part of the traditions, as part of the culture of the Old Testament that are not necessarily applicable to what we do today in the Church of God. All right, another question. Revelation chapter 14 and verse 4. If you'll turn there with me, the phrase was not defiled by women. This is actually talking about the 144,000 who were called as a result of the Great Tribulation. And the question is, it appears only men could become firstfruits or even only virgin males? So let's read it here. Revelation chapter 4 and verse 14.

Revelation chapter 14 verse 4. These are the ones who were not defiled with women, for they are virgins. These are the ones who followed the Lamb wherever He goes. These were redeemed from among men, being firstfruits to God and to the Lamb. So again, the question is, it appears, reading this, that only men could become firstfruits or even, perhaps even only, virgin males? And that is the question. Well, like many things in the book of Revelation, these statements oftentimes are made as metaphors. This isn't specifically talking about a gender. That's not its point. What it is talking about is these individuals being separate from the world. In this metaphor, the woman, in general, represent the metaphor for the world system. After all, the book of Revelation talks about a great whore, right? It talks about a church, a woman, who controls the world and has deceived so many people in the world. And that phrase, a whore or a woman, a harlot, is a metaphor for a church. And in this way, in this statement, these women are just a metaphor that these 144,000 have not bought into and participated in the evils of this world. They have separated themselves. They're not deceived by the woman, the church. They are righteous, people who have turned to righteousness, people who have repented because of the painful things that they've seen going on in the world, because they have decided to change their lives. They've repented of their sins. So, like many things in the book of Revelation, we just have to be careful sometimes not to read things too literally and realize that the book of Revelation has a lot of metaphors that represents a quality of the true topic or subject that it's talking about. The beast is a metaphor for political nations that unite together and prepare for a major world war and ultimately participate in fighting Christ when he returns. Again, the term beast is a metaphor for something else. In the book of Revelation, it is loaded with those kinds of metaphors. We have to be careful not to think that it's a literal beast creature with a lion's head or whatever. Again, those are symbols to represent something else. Okay, another question. How do we align deadly things will not harm you? And that's in quotations with all of the COVID issues that are going on.

All right, let's take a look at Mark chapter 16 and verse 18. I think this is with Scripture that, or this, you know, we use the phrase in our hymns, deadly things will not harm you, I believe. And you're welcome, whoever sent the question, and I don't know who you are, are welcome to correct me if you didn't need to mean this particular Scripture. But Jesus is talking about those that he's sending on a mission in context to preach the gospel to the world.

It says, they will take up serpents, and if they drink anything deadly, it will by no means hurt them. They will lay hands in the sick, and they will recover. Well, again, in context, this is talking about the protection of those who are on a missionary journey. It may be, I'm guessing, maybe 12 years ago, for example, that Peter Eddington went to Africa and came back deathly sick and almost died because he acquired a virus or something while he was serving in the church's work there in an African nation, and his body acquired something it had no immunity to, and he was hospitalized for a very long period of time. So again, in context, this is talking about the protection of those who are endangering their lives on a mission. And I want to just add to this that it is unbiblical to tempt God by doing things that are foolish.

When Paul was bitten by a snake, he didn't put his hand into the...here, sneaky, sneaky, sneaky!

Unaware as the snake jumped out and lashed on his hand, he had been doing everything he could to protect himself from the snake, and he shook the snake off, and everybody expected him to soon drop dead, and he didn't drop dead. And there's a lesson for that. It's the reason Jesus, at Satan's urgent, would not just jump off of the temple and kill himself. We should not tempt the Lord our God. It is our responsibility as God's people to do everything that we can with wisdom, and then have faith that God will go beyond that and will give us protection. We have no right to be foolish and say, okay, God, protect me. I have faith. Okay, God, do it all. We do have a responsibility to do our part, whatever that may be. Unfortunately, I've been around a long time. I'm probably older than dirt, but I remember in the early 70s having conversations with people about insurance. People in the church would say to me, oh, I don't have insurance. That's a lack of faith. Really? Well, it wasn't a lack of faith when they were in a terrible automobile accident, and their car was totaled. It wasn't an act of faith when they got sick and couldn't pay their hospital bills and went into bankruptcy. You see, brethren, we have to do what we can do. That's our part and our responsibility, whatever area of life, and that our faith believes that God will do the rest to protect us. But we shouldn't be foolish. We should not do things that are unwise and risk putting ourselves in situations that we can avoid. And that's the teaching of the Word of God.

Another question. It was really more of a statement, so I'll just talk about it without turning to a whole lot of scriptures, but the person who wrote this was absolutely right in their synopsis. They talked about how Jacob planned for reconciliation with his brother, and it's true. If you want to see how Jacob went to meet his brother, he sent a gift there in advance of himself.

Then he went, but he left his family behind. He did lots of overtures to say to his brother, please forgive me. I haven't always acted the way that I should. Please help me to reconcile with you. I want to have a real relationship with you as my brother, and that he planned for it. This was pointed out in the question that was written, and I really appreciate that because it's certainly very true. And then the statement was made in the question that I just want to comment on for a few minutes. The statement made is that forgiveness is good, but it's not reconciliation. And that's exactly right. Forgiving someone is very good. As a matter of fact, it's a command from God that we forgive others. But it takes greater effort than forgiveness to be reconciled with someone. It takes meeting with them. It takes talking with them. It takes talking through what the issue was. It usually takes apologizing on our part for what we did that caused the difficulty. It usually takes time and effort for reconciliation to occur, and that is hard.

And that goes beyond just forgiving someone for offending us or forgiving someone for putting us in a difficult situation that caused offense. Forgiveness is very important, and we should forgive quickly of other people. For all Jesus said, forgive us our trespasses as we forgive. He's talking to the Father in the Lord's Prayer. Forgive us of our trespasses, in essence, to the same degree that we forgive others of their trespasses. That's what forgiveness is. That's the power. That's probably the most powerful concept in Christianity, is forgiveness.

Forgiveness is what makes our relationship with God even possible. That forgiveness was because of the shed blood of Jesus Christ. That wipes the slate clean, removes our sin, and gives us an opportunity to go directly to the throne of grace and say, Dad, Papa, Father, I love you. I want to have a relationship with you. I want to get to know you. And Jesus Christ, through that forgiveness, makes that reconciliation possible. The reconciliation is us going to God in prayer, after we've been forgiven. The reconciliation is us building a daily relationship with our Father through prayer and study and meditation and all of those important biblical tools. So yes, forgiveness is good, but it's not reconciliation. Reconciliation takes great effort, but it's worth it. And it's certainly something that we should strive for when we have an offense that's been going on over a period of time. It has not been reconciled, even though we may have forgiven that person, even though technically that person may have forgiven us. So it was an excellent point or statement made more or less rather than a Bible question itself. And I agree that just like Jacob planned for reconciliation with his brother, he made steps, he made efforts to make it happen, that is the best way to achieve reconciliation with anyone and at any time. Okay, those were our planned questions for tonight. I think we've caught up with most of them.

We did have another question, and it's the last one that I really had here. It's really a carryover from last night. We ran out of time and didn't have enough time to talk about it. And the question went something like this. I don't have it in front of me. I apologize. And the question was basically, why was Paul different than the other 12 disciples? Was it because Paul was going to have kind of his own flock, his own gentile ministry, in contrast to what others were doing with the Jews?

And that just doesn't seem to make sense because it seems like God would be playing favorites, that there would be a difference between the Jews and the Gentiles. So let's talk about that just for a few minutes. Paul was a unique individual. There was no one who could have fulfilled Paul's Jews as well as he did. First of all, his background was he was a Pharisaic Jew, which means he knew the Scriptures inside and out. He could quote Scriptures if you look at his writings.

You see continually that he's quoting from the prophets. He's quoting from Genesis. He's quoting from the Old Testament. Remember that when they talk about Scriptures, when Paul and Peter and John talk about Scriptures, the only Scriptures they had are what we call the Old Testament today. The New Testament had not been written. Paul knew them inside and out. That obviously was very important for someone who was going to be a missionary, was going to teach people who had heard nothing about God and teach them about God and be able to quote Scriptures as authority.

So that's the first thing. Number two, he grew up in a Gentile city, Tarsus. He elbowed and hopped up with Gentiles his whole life. He was comfortable around Gentiles. Where Jewish oral laws, the Gentiles, are unclean, you don't eat with them, you avoid them.

As a matter of fact, rather than traveling through Samaria, they are so despised and despicable people, we travel around Samaria to avoid them, rather than having to talk to them. That was the mindset. And oral Judaism said we have nothing to do with Gentiles.

They're unclean, they're foul. Well, Paul elbowed. He worked with Gentiles. He knew Gentiles. He grew up in a Gentile city. He was a minority in a city that had lots of Gentiles. He learned to communicate with them. He was comfortable with them. And then God did something truly incredible in that God called this former Pharisee, someone who had a knowledge and was comfortable around Gentiles to God's way of life. And he had one added benefit.

He was a citizen of the Roman Empire, which none of the other 12 apostles were. What that meant is that if he got in a tough situation politically in any of the Roman provinces he traveled with, before they could execute him or beat him severely, if he chose, he could say, oh, by the way, I'm a Roman citizen. That gave him protection from scourging, and it gave him protection from simply being executed for being a troublemaker. Peter didn't have that same level of protection.

Matthew wouldn't have had any of the other disciples, disciples of Jesus who were there with him, would not have had the protection of being a citizen of the Roman Empire. So when we read that someone like Peter went to Corinth, and we know that from the beginning of the book that Paul mentions that Peter had been there, Peter was really taking his life in his own hands to travel to that part of the Greek world without having the protection of being a Roman citizen.

But Paul did, so that also gave him open doors to do things that the other disciples would have a lot of difficulty doing. And Paul obviously was courageous and energetic. Think about this as a lifestyle. Think about waking up in the morning, many mornings, and you're going to go to a strange city for the first time.

And usually you're going to go to a synagogue. You're going to look for a synagogue in the Sabbath day because that's a ready audience. You know the Jewish scriptures. They're Jewish, and the great way to create a foundation of any congregation is get a few Jewish converts because they know scripture, and when the Gentiles begin to come in, they can help mentor the Gentiles about God's way of life because it's their background.

It's what they know. It's who they are. But when you walked into these cities, you had no idea how you would be accepted. Sometimes he went into a city and he'd enter into a synagogue and he'd preach, and some people would respond. Some of the Jewish people would become converts. Other cities he walked in, it seemed like he caused a riot and commotion every time he opened his mouth.

And in some situations, he was beaten. He was left for dead. He was persecuted. He had no idea when he walked into a city for the first time what the end of that day was going to be like. Whether he was going to have a place to stay, to sleep that night because someone would be sympathetic to his message, or whether they'd be dragging him outside of the city to stone him and spit on him and curse him because he had mentioned the name of Jesus Christ.

He just didn't know. So that took incredible courage and strength for him to do that day after day after day. It was not an easy lifestyle that the Apostle Paul had. On top of that, some of his biggest critics are surprised church members.

People in Corinth challenging him, oh, you're not a real apostle like those who were with Jesus for three and a half years. You're kind of like an interloper who came in afterward, who's trying to do your own thing, who's kind of an independent thinker, and you're not as good as the real apostles are. Those are the kind of things that he heard over and over again, attempting to belittle him to demean his ministry. And again, you can read through the book of Corinthians, and you can see many times where he was wounded by these accusations and these statements that church members, of all people, wouldn't make about him. So he was truly a remarkable man. And I want to say one final thing about when you think about the old covenant and the new covenant, I'm going to give you a different word that might help you to understand the difference between the two. Instead of using the word covenant, I want you to replace that with the word relationship. God had an old relationship.

That relationship was with the physical descents of Abraham. And he said, this is a physical relationship, physical promises. If you keep this covenant and keep these laws, I will give you fields that have bountiful harvest. I'll give you good health. I will protect you from your enemies. Every promise was physical. That was an old relationship. But a period of time came when he sent his son Jesus Christ of the earth that God decided to have an institute the beginning of the new covenant, what we'll call the new relationship. That's a spiritual relationship. It's not limited to the physical descendants of Abraham. It's anyone, Jew or Gentile, whom God calls through receiving the word and repenting of their sins and being baptized and receiving the gift of the Holy Spirit. It's a new relationship that's spiritual. It's not about physical blessings. As a matter of fact, I kind of guarantee you that when you're called, you're going to go through a lot of trials in life. So it's not about physical blessings, even though you certainly will have lots of joy. That's one of the fruit of the Spirit. And you will be blessed in many ways. But that's not the goal of the new relationship. It's not about always being healthy. It's not about physical things. It is a spiritual relationship with spiritual promises. And one difficulty we have as Americans who grew up in the world, the wonderful world of Disney, is sometimes we tend to look upon God as if he's some kind of great genie. Well, I'll just pray this and it'll happen. Or I'll believe this and it'll happen. Just like a genie does, right? What are your three wishes? And you know, I want that it happens and I want it to happen. God isn't interested in being a genie. He's the awesome creator and father of the universe. He's interested in our character. To God, character matters. And that means that oftentimes he will not fulfill our prayers, our wishes. Sometimes he will greatly delay our prayers or what we want because everything that we do, he's interested in the long term. He's interested in our character development. And usually that happens when we are denied things that we want so badly. We learn a quality of the Spirit called patience. We learn endurance.

We learn to go back to God day after day after day in faith and continue to ask for something that isn't happening. And that's hard. That's difficult. But remember that God is not a genie.

He's our creator. He's interested not in making us happy the next 20 seconds.

He's interested in making us productive and living fulfilled existences for the rest of eternity.

And for that to happen, we need to develop a level of character, godly character. He already created one Lucifer, someone who turned against him and turned against his laws and his ways.

He doesn't ever want that to happen again. He wants to make sure that we endure, that we are solid, that we are faithful, that we are committed to God's way of life forever. Not just for a year, a thousand years, ten thousand years, but that we will always be faithful and grateful to him for the privilege of having sonship within his family, something that none of us deserve, that's only possible by the grace of God. Okay, those basically are our questions.

We ate up an hour. We've got a few minutes here to maybe handle a few other questions if they come up, and if they're too difficult, I'll have Mr. Miller answer them.

That's why he's here this evening. Yes, Mr. Miller, go ahead.

I would just like to thank Mr. Thomas for the last evenings. He said after tonight he's going to retire from answering questions, but I really appreciate it. I've been around the church a long time. I will tell you that the explanation of Galatians last evening I thought was the best I've ever heard, so I benefited from it. So what I'd like to do, if you want me to, I had two questions handed to me that came in today, and I know we've got a few more Hillary that you sent me, which we'll deal with a little bit later. But I looked at the forecast, and tomorrow the low is supposed to be 60, and I have confirmation from my music people that they will provide some kind of music program on the pavilion tomorrow evening. So I thought what I'd do is I'd just quickly address two of the questions that were handed to me, and then we can have open up for questions for either me or Mr. Thomas, if that's okay with you.

Okay. So one is a follow-up question from the Q&A we had earlier regarding the prodigal son, and I will just respond to that. The question goes like this. The mention was made to the father's joy after the return of the son, and the son who was faithful was told, all that I have is yours.

So where does that leave the prodigal son? I think that that's a good question. And the answer is, in that particular passage, it doesn't answer that question. And I don't know that the Bible precisely answers exactly that, but I think the sense here is that, you know, well, actually, I'll just continue. What will happen to those of us who lost faith and left and returned after some time? What is the reward? What reward remains for us? And so I think I get the sense of the question, and I'd like to offer some encouragement over in Matthew chapter 20.

Matthew chapter 20 is one of Christ's many parables, and I'm just going to read this to you because I think it answers the question.

So the last will be the first, and the first the last, for many are called, but few are chosen. I think the sense that is given here is the fact that the reward is the same in that all will get eternal life. So for the questioner here, if you left and came back, the reward is the same as defined by eternal life. The other question that is here is SACARIA 14 verse 17, and then I see at chapter 2, Revelation chapter 15 verse 4. I'll just turn to SACARIA chapter 14. We've been there earlier, and a question is asked here of practicality, but let me just read verse 14. Verse 16, and it shall come to pass that everyone who is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall go up from year to year to worship the king, the Lord of hosts to keep the feast of tabernacles. So the question is, logistically, how will everybody fit in Jerusalem? That's a very good question.

But, I know we've speculated, we've said, well, obviously not everybody in all the nations. If you read Isaiah chapter 2, it talks about all nations going up to the mountain of the Lord, and so some have speculated in order to make, you know, sense of the obvious logistical problem of tens of millions of people going up to Jerusalem that envoys from the different nations would be sent there as representatives. So the my answer is, all I know is what the Bible says, and whether it's envoys or whether God will figure out a way to logistically make provision, that we will find out. I have, I think, learned, you know, just as an example, if you read commentaries in the 19th century, for example, about the two witnesses being drug around in the streets and the entire world watching it happen, you will have, you will find some very interesting commentary on why that can't mean what it says, because obviously nobody would be able, the entire world would not be able to see people being drug around in the city of Jerusalem. Well, today we've got these wonderful devices like cell phones, you know, and that's what was impossible a hundred years ago, now seems very practical. So there were a couple of other scriptures that were mentioned in this question that, I mean, the underlying question is, how is that possible? And, you know, the answer is we can speculate what it might be, but at the end of the day, we'll find out when we get there. So that was a very good question. So I will let Mr. Thomas come back up, because the questions I'm sure you'll direct to him, and I'll go back to carrying the mic around. Thank you, Mr. Miller, I think. Any questions on anything that we covered this evening or last night, particularly? If it's something that's just way out the box, I may have to punt if I don't have an answer for you, but.

I hope this is too far out. Okay. When they talk about the 144,000, and there's 12,000 from each of the tribes of, you know, whatever, I had it recently, like, proffered as a possibility that the lost 10 tribes, we could be actual physical descendants. Is there any notion on that, or is that just smoke and crack? Ouch! Well, I'm not sure that is smoke and crack. First of all, I'll tell you what the Church of God's traditional view is, because, like Mr.

Miller mentioned, I really don't know anything more than what the Scriptures reveal. Traditionally, we have believed that it was literal physical descendants of those 12 tribes who would be sealed.

But I will say, as I mentioned a little earlier, that it could be a metaphor for the tribes. And if I recall correctly, is the tribe of Dan not included? If I recall correctly in that number. So, we only know what we know. And I suppose that it's possible that it's the descendants of the lost 10 tribes, but that would be pure speculation. All we know is what the Scripture tells us. And it tells us, if we don't want to read it as a metaphor—and again, that's not necessarily bad, because much of Revelation is a metaphor—is to read it literally. And that is that there are physical descendants today of those 12 tribes, and that literally those individuals would be sealed, would be chosen from those 12 tribes.

Do you have anything to add to that, John?

Again, like you said, I would be, I would lean more towards the fact that they will be literal descendants. I did quite a bit of research—well, I should, let me restate that. I did research alongside Dr. Rick Sherrod when I was at Ambassador College, and my contribution was reading a number of German historical works and then translating relevant portions.

Prior to that, to me, the concept of United States and Britain in prophecy, I thought, okay, that's a very interesting construct. It makes sense. But this goes back about 25 years ago when I did the work. What I found surprising was just how much evidence there is to that effect, not from the Bible necessarily, but from historical works. At that time, he had 120-page annotated bibliography of rare books and information that was assembled.

I did—there are 41 hour lectures that he did, and Dr. Sherrod was a trained historian with the University of Michigan. He walked through very systematically the pros and cons to the topic. I have found 20 of those and converted them, digitized them, and uploaded them to YouTube. You can find them out there. He does a very good job as a trained historian to say, okay, here's the information we have. Here are the pros and cons. Unfortunately, the first 20 talk mostly about all the criticisms to the topic. So after you get through the first 20, you might get the sense that, well, I mean, this is very questionable. I've not been able to find it, and Dr. Sherrod has since died, so I'm trying to—I'm sure somebody has a copy of these. I just haven't been able to find it. So my sense is that 144,000 most likely are literal physical descendants of the tribes of Israel. Any other questions? Here's a hand down here. He's going to bring the mic to you. I don't want you to go into all of these, but we are interested in relations.

Can you repeat the questions?

I'm interested in the relations that you found really interesting. If it's not too much time, it was actually recorded, so I would encourage you to listen to the whole—because I get background— I probably spoke for an hour on Galatians 3, so it was—and to really get the full impact from it, it's really important to go in the background, understand when Galatians was written, what was the problem that caused the church so much turmoil around 49 A.D. that led into so many things happening regarding circumcision, why Paul was angry in the book, why he was extremely sarcastic in the book. So it's just very complicated. Is this a sermon of yours online? No. It's something that I just—Mr. Miller had asked me to prepare to talk about Galatians 3, and I did.

So I'll answer the question. Everything that was given here, including the Bible studies and the Q&A, is Tashia, bless her, recorded everything, and it's going to be uploaded to YouTube.

The links are being put on the Facebook page, feastoftapernacles-burlin, and they'll also be able to be found on the UCC website. So what Mr. Thomas said, everything that was said last evening is recorded, so you'll be able to go and look at that. But I'll just say again what I said. It was really really good. That's a good question. Thank you for that.

Not related, John, to the Bible studies. Hang on.

This question is for you. Not necessarily related to the Bible studies, but the Facebook site that you put up, feastoftapernacles-burlin, are people capable of posting their own pictures and things to that? The answer should be yes. Have you tried it? It didn't work? Okay, because I've been telling people to post things to it. I'll go back in and look at the settings on that tonight. The intent was that everybody would post our collective pictures and experiences here, so I may have made the mistake of not allowing people, probably defaulted, so I'll take a look at that tonight and try to correct the problem. Actually, what comes up when you do post something that comes up is a visitor post. I did post something on there with a picture and it didn't work. So if you check, if you click on posts, there's the option to see the visitor posts. I believe it just comes up as a visitor post unless you're an administrator for the page. I'll talk to Mr. Shenfield to get this figured out. Our technology expert, Mr. Shenfield. Hi. On the 144,000, I don't know which one of you want to answer this. I'm a little, I won't say confused, but are we, does the Bible say that there is only going to be 144,000 that can learn that song and that there's only going to be 144,000 that were redeemed from the earth? It talks about a great multitude. It's the one that was redeemed from among men and being their first fruits unto God and to the Lamb. That used to come up years and years and years ago. I don't remember the answer and I don't know if... So where are you at? Give us, if you would, chapter and verse so we can all turn there. Please. Sure. Revelation 14, verse 2, where he hears the voice of many waters, the voice of a great thunder, and heard the voice of harpers harping without their harps. Verse 3, they sung a new song before the throne and before the four beasts and the elders and no man could learn that song but the 140 and 4,000 which were redeemed from the earth. These are they which were not defiled with women, for they are virgins. They are they which follow the Lamb whither ever so he goes. They were redeemed from among men, being their first fruits unto God and to the Lamb.

I'm looking for a verse that I can't find that's in addition to the 144,000. It refers to a great multitude. Can anyone pinpoint that? Okay.

Use my little Bible search program here and see if I can find it.

Thank you.

Let's see.

True. There does see a great multitude. Yeah, thank you. That's what I was looking for. This is after the individual 12,000 from the various tribes are sealed. Verse 9, and after these things, I looked and behold a great multitude, which no one could number of all nations. So that goes beyond those who were genetically connected through the lineage of Abraham. All nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb clothed with white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out loud with a loud voice, saying, salvation belongs to our God who sits in the throne and to the Lamb. All the angels stood around the throne, and the elders and the four living creatures fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, saying, amen. Blessing and glory and wisdom, thanksgiving and honor, and power and might be to our God forever and ever. Amen. And we don't know how large this great multitude could be. Hundreds of millions. We literally don't know. Let's pray that it indeed is a very, very large number. I'm sorry, I can't hear you with this. We just read Revelation chapter 7 beginning in verse 9, which is immediately after the tribes are sealed with 12,000 each, 12 tribes. Chapter 7 verse 9.

Hi. Just as a follow-up to the 144,000 and a couple other things that we're talking about, Mr. Petty does have a wonderful study out there. It's prophecy 101, and it is fantastic, and it covers all of this to great detail as a template, but it's really a good basis for an understanding study, and he talks about the 144,000 and the great multitude. Awesome, wonderful. Thanks, you, thank you for that. Good. What a wonderful age to be alive. I think the first feast I attended, the choice seats in the Tabernacle in the Wisconsin Dells, it was the first year in the Wisconsin Dells, 1972, the choice seats were ones that had a pole that came, a rare pole that came down with an electrical outlet on it, and what people would do, I would sit there, and watch people fight for these positions, they had these large reel-to-reel tape recorders, and they carried, it was like a suitcase. They'd have to carry it in, and they'd open it up, they'd plug it in, and they would hold a microphone all through services like this, pointing in the direction of the speaker. It was so precious to capture a sermon on this tape, so they could go home and listen to it over and over again. Fast forward to the 21st century. We just, it is just so easy. We've captured thousands and thousands and thousands of sermons and Bible studies and various things, and we just take it for granted. We're like, oh, it's just there. But there was a time when it was precious, even in the Church of God 40, 50 years ago, to capture a sermon or a message that was given, and I remember that. So we've come a long way. Thanks for sharing that with us.

Additional questions going once. That wraps it up. Tomorrow night, oh, way, way in the back. I didn't go three times. Way in the back.

Well, that is way in the back.

It's like taking bids at an auction.

My question would be, is right now, it's obviously, it's a hot button topic, but it's like vaccines. You're talking about New Covenant and, you know, growing and how we've passed on from certain things. I think we still hold as a church a belief in the food laws, clean and unclean. What would you think that the, let's put it this way, what do you think God's position would be on vaccines in the past and the ones they're making now, where there's alterations of the RNA in the past, almost all vaccines, all have had dog, pork, rats, pigs, monkeys, have been used in part of the vaccination process as they develop them. And then those viruses that are part of all species have been shown to come through and be part of the human DNA. Do you think that that factors in when it's used that way versus just eating a meal, if you had any thoughts on that? The only thing that I would comment regarding vaccines is it's really a personal choice. I'll give you an example from my own life and we'll talk about chemotherapy, which probably there's nothing less organic and has more garbage in it than chemotherapy, but I'm alive because of chemotherapy. I had leukemia and God chose not to heal me and if I hadn't taken cancer treatments, I would be dead. So I made the personal choice to take chemotherapy through a clinical trial, something that was experimental, was later reduced to the general public, and I'm alive because I made that choice at that time. Every year I have a flu vaccine.

My children, who are all in the church, were vaccinated growing up because that's a personal choice. When my wife and I were young, we took our newborn baby daughter, Kelly, to the doctor, the man who was the physician at Ambassador College in Big Sandy that we were attending. His name was Wilmer Parrish. He was a dear old man. We took our child there. We said, should we have our daughter vaccinated? And his answer was, as a doctor, have you ever seen a child die of whooping cough?

I have, and it's a pretty terrible way to die. So he said, my opinion is if we've advanced to the point to discover enough about biology to protect people from getting diseases, use it and take advantage of it. So I think the concept of whether one chooses to have their child vaccinated or not is a personal choice. I don't think it's a theological issue. I don't think it's a biblical issue. I think it's a matter of personal choice and using the discretion and wisdom that you have to make the decision that's best for your own life.

Did I answer your question? Okay. You answered it. I guess it's... I mean, and I fully understand the explanation. I do know, and I try to go back because we do use the Old Testament a lot, but I don't think we put life into it. So, you know, I realize in Psalm 106, where it talks about you sacrifice your children to the idols and you pass your children through the fire. I'm just trying to think, what would that look like in today's world?

Because the idols were associated with demons passing the kids through the fire. It was a serious offense in the eyes of God. And so you do take it very seriously. How would that look in today's world? And why would the Israelites have been deceived into that after being given an incredible sense of promises and very, very, you know, it's specific, the life is in the blood and knowing that poisoning can cause downstream issues.

I think it's a very, very legitimate issue. And so because God put so much emphasis when they came out of a system where they had been just taught by the Egyptians, much of God's ways seemed to be like, we don't, this is just too tough. And they didn't get it. So I'm just trying to take something from that time period and make it real, relevant, but honest to today's time period. For those of us, obviously, they're very, very rare anymore, but they do have young children.

I think it's a serious and a very, very intense issue, because there's a lot of research that is there. It's kind of like us. We talk about us being a tiny, tiny, tiny percent of truth. There is a whole issue of a tiny, tiny percent of reputable professionals that are adamant that there are dangers to it.

And because, like I said, right now, it is a very, very powerful issue. It is going to be something that a lot of people have got to make decisions on. And I would think that God's Word would not be like, oh no, I didn't know how to prepare for 2020. There's got to be principles that could be extracted to your point. It will be a personal choice. I get that. But it is something. Is God's Word mute on it? And we just aren't able to see it, or we just don't see it. I guess that would be, you know, trying to make it real, but not more real than the real that's there.

Okay. I appreciate your statement. I really don't have any comment on it. I appreciate, you know, how you feel and your personal views on it. Again, I think it's a personal choice, and I don't believe it's a theological issue. When I look at the Old Testament and see people sacrificing their children, I would define that personally in the 21st century, as people sacrificing their children to the altar of materialism. Too many parents are interested in the big house, and both parents working all the time, latched key children, ignoring their children, teaching them moral and ethical values, all in the search of a buck, or a big 401k, or a new car, or all the material things that people strive for today while neglecting their children.

They've sacrificed their children to the altar of materialism. That is the god of the 21st century. It's materialism, and I think that's what we struggle with as a culture. That's what we struggle with as a society.

What's the most important issue for most voters according to statistics? The economy. That's materialism. Not that we don't want to have a healthy economy, but it's how much money do I make? How wealthy am I? Am I keeping up with the Joneses? Do I have a big house? Do I have a new car every couple of years? Do I have all the technological toys?

So that would be my interpretation in the 21st century about sacrificing our children to false gods. Yes, Ruth? Sacrificing the two abortions. That's the biggest sacrifice. We're sacrificing our children for abortion. That's all I get to say. Yeah, I mean, that's the most literal thing right now is all the abortions that occur, like you said, in the interest of materialism. If you look at the reasons given, what is often used in political discourse is the life of the mother. But if you look at the actual number of abortions where the life of the mother is in danger, it doesn't even become statistically significant. Most people, it's an inconvenience of having a child. And I shudder at the judgment that will come upon us when we sacrifice the life of an innocent child in the interest of economics. Okay. Okay, one last question, if there is one. Just one more question.

Tomorrow. Are we having a musical interlude at Bible study time, or are we having an actual Bible study tomorrow? Right. So it's still being developed. What we had on the schedule initially is a hymn sing fellowship on the pavilion. So Micah and Chad are working on that. So it's going to be a combination of sing along and listening to the music that they'll have. I looked at the weather. We're supposed to be at 59 degrees, 60 degrees. It should be quite comfortable if we take the heaters down there. So it'll be a music and hymn sing, not a Bible study.