Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - Ep 977 ｜ Will All Jewish People Be Saved？｜ Guest： Dr. Jeremiah Johnston

00:00:00.000 What should Christians think about Israel? Where do they fit into God's plan of redemption?

00:00:07.480 Why should we pray if God already knows what's going to happen? And how can we trust that the

00:00:15.200 accounts that we read in the Gospels are really trustworthy? Dr. Jeremiah Johnston is a New

00:00:21.700 Testament scholar, and he equips Christians to love God with all of our hearts, minds,

00:00:27.740 souls, and strength. He is an expert in apologetics. We are going to be diving into these questions and

00:00:34.540 more on today's episode of Relatable. It's brought to you, of course, by our friends at Good Ranchers.

00:00:39.160 Go to goodranchers.com. Use code Allie at checkout. That's goodranchers.com. Code Allie.

00:00:53.380 Dr. Jeremiah Johnston, thanks so much for joining us again.

00:00:56.160 I'm a related bro. I'm so excited to be back on your show, Allie. So thanks for having me.

00:01:01.380 Yes. Thank you so much. And last year, we had you here right around Easter to talk about the

00:01:07.780 proof of the resurrection. You wrote a book called Body of Proof, and now we have a Bible study called

00:01:13.820 A Study on the Resurrection of Jesus. That's right.

00:01:17.820 So tell us, I know that we talked about this last year, but just as a recap, why did you write this?

00:01:22.120 I wrote this because unfortunately, and I've done a lot of work since I was with you last. And by the

00:01:26.100 way, I love being on your show, Allie Beth, because you ask the best questions. And I think your whole

00:01:30.020 audience would agree. Like you take us to the deep end of the pool. That's why I'm a related bro. I love

00:01:35.060 to watch. And I like the fact that I'm a better Christian thinker when I'm listening to your

00:01:39.680 program. So thanks for asking the good questions. I don't have to go into autopilot mentally when I'm

00:01:44.200 on your show, which I really enjoy. The resurrection is understudied. It is underpreached. It's

00:01:49.600 undertaught. It's underbelieved. Outside of Easter Sunday and funerals, we never hear the

00:01:56.600 resurrection taught. And that is not the faith that we see reflected in the New Testament. Every

00:02:00.800 sermon in the book of Acts is on the resurrection. 260 chapters in the New Testament, 300 references to

00:02:06.740 the resurrection. I'm doing a lot of work with different research groups. And unfortunately,

00:02:11.640 only 33% of Gen Z, huge segment of your audience, you know, both millennials and Gen Z, only 33%

00:02:18.680 of believers agree that Jesus's resurrection, believers, is a historical fact. So we've got to

00:02:25.580 turn the tide on those numbers. So Lifeway approached me with the way in which God used

00:02:30.560 the original black body approved book. And here's another kind of delicious detail. You know, when you

00:02:34.680 have the author on your show, you get the delicious details behind the book. Lifeway has done Bible

00:02:39.380 studies with authors I'm sure your community is familiar with. They said, Jeremiah, in our hundred year

00:02:44.440 history, we've never done a Bible study on the resurrection of Jesus. So Allie, they've covered

00:02:51.040 all the squishy middle evangelical stuff really well, the secondary stuff. But we're talking about

00:02:56.780 the epicenter of Christianity. I said, I'll do it under one condition. We have to go to Jerusalem, 0.99

00:03:01.480 and I want to take a film crew with me, and I want to film at the 11 resurrection sites of Jesus.

00:03:06.760 Jesus made 11 resurrection appearances. We went to Jerusalem. We filmed. So when you get the body

00:03:11.280 approved Bible study, there's a code at the back of the Bible study. There's no extra charge.

00:03:15.220 It unlocks all 11 episodes. We filmed inside the garden tomb. I filmed inside the church of the

00:03:21.840 Holy Sepulcher, Allie Beth. They stopped a line that looked like it was a Disney Rise of the Resistance

00:03:26.880 line of people waiting eight to 12 hours and said, you have five minutes to film inside the eticule,

00:03:34.320 which is the tomb of Jesus. So it's strengthened my faith. But here's the goal. The more I understand

00:03:40.440 about Jesus's resurrection, the more evidence I have for my own future resurrection. I live,

00:03:44.500 John 14, 19. Jesus said, because I live, you will live also. And we need that hope today. That's

00:03:48.780 why I'm thankful you're having me on for this conversation. Yes. Okay. We actually have a clip

00:03:52.120 of you in Israel at one of these sites. It's Saut 1. Let's play that. 0.91

00:03:57.380 We're in the very spot in Jerusalem, inside the rotunda of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher,

00:04:04.320 where Mary encountered the resurrected Christ. Just over my shoulder, there is a tomb,

00:04:09.600 but this isn't like any other tomb that we've been studying in Body of Proof, because this tomb

00:04:14.800 is venerated with a shrine, an eticule, because it is the place where Jesus physically, bodily rose

00:04:22.160 from the grave. Wow. That's pretty amazing.

00:04:26.340 Muslims have the keys to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. Are you aware of that? Because of 0.97

00:04:30.680 what they call the status quo, Muslims, this certain Muslim family, opens and closes the Church of the 1.00

00:04:37.320 Holy Sepulcher, which is the most holy site in all of Christianity. By the way, that would never

00:04:40.760 happen in the reverse. I don't see Christians unlocking anything at Mecca or Medina or the 0.85

00:04:45.020 Dome of the Rock, but I digress. So a Muslim man saw the cover of my book, saw I put the Church of 0.91

00:04:51.120 the Holy Sepulcher on it, and we had permission. This is kind of funny, Allie Beth. Well, I shouldn't

00:04:56.520 say funny, but it is to me. I got permission from His Beatitude. That's how He goes. The Theophilus,

00:05:04.100 who is the patriarch of the Greek Orthodox Church of Jerusalem, to film somewhere inside the Church.

00:05:10.620 But just because I had permission to film inside the Church doesn't mean I can film in the

00:05:14.620 resurrection tomb. And to be like, if I came over to your house, you're not going to necessarily let

00:05:17.860 me film in your bedroom. Well, the Muslim guy saw the cover of my book, and he's the one that stopped 1.00

00:05:24.260 the line and said, you guys can go film inside. And outside of Nat Geo that did an archaeology

00:05:29.580 video documentary series, I know of no Christian resource that has footage inside the tomb like

00:05:37.720 body of proof. I got to preach John 20, and I preached three sermons. It was the greatest

00:05:43.560 ministry experience of my life, and it was on a Sunday. I bet. Let's talk a little bit more about

00:05:48.300 Israel. I haven't visited Israel, man. I've wanted to. Come with me on my next tour. I know. We need to.

00:05:53.740 Let's go. I know. We really do. Let's bring the related bros with us to Israel.

00:05:57.760 And the related gals, related bros, related gals doing the Israel trip. That would be amazing.

00:06:02.980 Not every Christian understands the significance of Israel, and obviously that's been in the news

00:06:08.500 probably more than ever in recent history, at least. So talk to us a little bit more about the

00:06:14.960 biblical significance of Israel, why Christians need to care about it. 1.00

00:06:19.520 We care about Israel because our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, is still a Jewish man. We follow a

00:06:26.680 Jewish Savior. And so if we care about Jesus, we should care about Jews. We should care about Israel. 0.90

00:06:32.520 That's going to be controversial for some people. I've actually had some conversations with people

00:06:36.020 recently who want to even contest the fact that Jesus ever was a Jewish man, believe it or not.

00:06:41.680 Yeah. And that's just fake news. Jesus is a Jewish man. He is born in the line of Judah. This is one of

00:06:48.580 the best established facts of the ancient world. I would say it this way, Allie Beth, if we can't

00:06:52.180 believe Jesus is a Jew, don't bother believing anything from history at all. Jesus' death by Roman 1.00

00:06:57.780 crucifixion, his life, his burial, his death. We can build these facts, which we have about 60 to 65

00:07:03.620 facts historically within 100 years of the life of Jesus before I ever opened my Bible. So I'm not just

00:07:09.200 waving my Bible around on your program. I'm appealing to Roman historians like Tacitus,

00:07:14.900 Suetonius, Lucian, other artifactual remains. Here's a cool one. Did you know that Jesus' name

00:07:21.780 is known to have power in his lifetime? Of course, we see this in the Gospels because remember his

00:07:27.820 disciples come to him, and I love this, Allie Beth, because you're constantly quoting scripture,

00:07:31.260 unlike the other shows. You actually quote scripture on your show. Remember Jesus' disciples said,

00:07:35.640 Master, people are casting out demons in your name. Should we stop them? And Jesus said,

00:07:41.340 no, let them use my name. And we just, because of our historical distance, cannot overemphasize and

00:07:48.580 even understand how important it is, they're using Jesus' name for miracles and for exorcisms

00:07:55.380 while Jesus is alive. So if he's not a Jew, then why are Jewish exorcists using his name? And why do

00:08:04.280 we have artifacts, even curses, that they might not know the Gospel, but they knew there was power

00:08:09.080 with this name Jesus? I mean, we read the genealogy of Jesus in the book of Matthew. We know that he's

00:08:15.080 from the line of David. Which are historical documents. Right. And so I don't know, there's

00:08:19.940 probably something a little sinister behind any motivations to deny. Well, there's anti-Semitism,

00:08:25.640 and it's been around, sadly, for a long time. You actually have a coin that I gave to you,

00:08:30.400 if you don't mind holding up the bronze coin, which is the larger one. Allie Beth, I want to just make

00:08:35.920 sure our audience knows, Palestine is a word that Hadrian, the Roman emperor in the second century,

00:08:43.040 renamed the land of Israel as. I never use the word Palestine when I talk about the land of Israel.

00:08:49.540 After the third, which was a bloody Jewish revolt under Simon Bar Kokhba, that's 132 to 135 AD, 0.89

00:08:57.440 if you're following along with us, Hadrian lost so many in the Roman legions at the hands of the Jews, 1.00

00:09:03.780 he renames Jerusalem to Alia Capitolina, which is called essentially the capital of Jupiter. And that

00:09:11.140 bronze coin, which is very rare, was in circulation in the second century. We didn't have social media in

00:09:16.160 the second century. So if you wanted to know what was going on, you looked at your coins. Who won the

00:09:20.360 battle? Who was in charge? And we know from that coin that Hadrian renames the city, so it's no longer

00:09:26.540 Jerusalem, and he renames the region Palestine. So that is a pejorative term. I never refer to Israel

00:09:33.920 as Palestine or the Palestinian territories.

00:09:36.720 Right. And you said that when you were flying there, you noticed that, and I think we have a

00:09:42.760 picture of it, that they don't even, the airlines don't even put Israel.

00:09:46.760 The anti-Semitism on some of American Airlines' one-world partners is something I want to call out.

00:09:51.960 It concerns me. I love American Airlines. I'm an executive platinum. I ride the American

00:09:56.940 airline systems to speak. I'm on Qatari Airlines, a one-world partner. And you know how you're sitting,

00:10:02.180 you're bored out of your mind, and all you can do is sit and look at the map in front of you?

00:10:06.640 And I kind of like jostled. I said, wait a minute. It says we're flying over the Palestinian 1.00

00:10:11.880 territories. And if you look at this image, it doesn't even say the land of Israel, as if

00:10:16.820 Israel doesn't even even exist. And there's over a hundred airlines.

00:10:20.560 From the river to the sea. That's what the Palestinian activists say. From the river to

00:10:24.080 the sea, Palestine will be free.

00:10:25.300 They won't stop until that happens. So we see that anti-Semitism creeping in. And this is why,

00:10:30.620 back to your original question, every believer in Jesus Christ should support Israel. Does that

00:10:36.540 mean I agree with everything in the modern state of Israel? Absolutely not. I don't agree with

00:10:40.740 everything in the modern United States government, do we? We certainly don't. But I do support the

00:10:46.520 Jewish right to exist. The Christian worldview, and again, you teach us how to have a Christian 0.97

00:10:51.720 worldview, would stand against any kind of systematic oppression or genocide. Ali Beth,

00:10:57.020 I wrote a book on Islam a few years back. Do you remember when ISIS was killing

00:11:00.480 all the Yazidis? Do you remember that back when ISIS was really, really doing their bloody

00:11:06.400 murders? They were killing this group called the Yazidis. And even in that time, I stood up and said,

00:11:10.980 this is wrong. We don't agree with any worldview that exterminates other people groups. So I'm not being

00:11:17.100 inconsistent. I'm being consistent. And so God loves Israel. Our Savior is Jewish. The Bible says in

00:11:24.040 Romans 9 through 11, eventually all Israel will be saved. Now that doesn't mean they get saved in a 1.00

00:11:29.860 way that we, in a different way than we get saved. Anyone who gets saved has to repent of their sins

00:11:36.160 and place their faith in Yeshua, Messiah, Jesus. Now in my Jewish evangelism, I've actually been taught

00:11:44.240 by some Messianic rabbis, I should always say Yeshua, Jesus, Jesus the Messiah. Faith in Yeshua,

00:11:51.360 Jesus is the only way for Jews to be saved. And so I'm not talking about a different path or way or

00:11:57.660 mechanism of salvation. But when we study Romans 9 through 11 seriously, we cannot be anti-Semitic.

00:12:04.060 We would never come to the conclusion that the Church has replaced Israel, that somehow God has

00:12:09.480 turned His back on Israel. The promises of God in Romans 9 through 11 are irrevocable. I love that 0.96

00:12:16.880 passage. He literally says the gifts and the promises of God are without repentance. God doesn't

00:12:21.240 forget. He doesn't turn His back on His Word. And this is why Paul said, look, if all Israel—but it's 0.66

00:12:27.400 a mystery. Paul said, if all Israel could be saved, I myself would be accursed if they could. There's 0.87

00:12:33.200 always going to be a remnant. And so Romans 9 through 11 is Paul's theology of salvation for the

00:12:39.700 nations with the Jew first, there'll be a hardening, and then a return to Christ. 0.94

00:12:51.240 So I have some questions about that. I was just—I mentioned Romans 9 through 11 just the other day

00:13:00.900 when we were talking about the whole Christ is king controversy.

00:13:04.360 Right. That was a great show, by the way.

00:13:05.940 And thank you. And what God thinks of Israel, and certainly Romans 9 through 11,

00:13:09.820 they're not for the faint of heart. There is so much there. I mean, you could spend your entire life

00:13:14.960 studying these passages and understanding what they mean. And so I have questions. I have questions

00:13:20.700 about that. So Paul says that not all Israel is Israel, but it has always been by faith that

00:13:29.940 salvation has come to the Jews, that salvation has come to anyone. And so when you say all Israel is 0.87

00:13:37.060 going to be saved versus Paul saying that there is going to be a remnant that is going to be saved by

00:13:43.740 grace through faith, what exactly does that mean? Is there a difference? Is there a difference there,

00:13:49.560 all Israel versus the remnant of Israel?

00:13:51.880 Right. And this is—that is such a great question. Again, thank you for asking the really good

00:13:56.160 questions.

00:13:56.600 Oh, well, no problem. I don't know the answer.

00:13:58.980 When Paul says—and by the way, Jeremiah didn't say it. St. Paul did. All Israel will be saved. It's in

00:14:03.640 that wonderful book of Romans. It's almost as if Paul's saying, for God so loved the nations. And remember,

00:14:09.240 when I—this is a great hermeneutical method. When I do exegesis,

00:14:12.520 Allie Beth, it's so important that I never lift a passage or two out of its context. I read it within

00:14:18.080 its context. To be a heretic—and I like that you call out the heretics—all I need is the Bible in 0.98

00:14:24.820 no context or Jesus in no context, and then I become a heretic. Unfortunately, it happens every

00:14:29.360 Sunday in a lot of churches. When people do free fall Bible study, let me tell you what it feels and

00:14:33.500 means to me. But when you read it in context—and again, this is a whole show we need to do at some

00:14:38.920 point to unpack. But the spiritual hardening that Paul is in a quandary about and that he is

00:14:44.540 living in that tension is, is both partial and temporary. It's almost, he says, it's almost like

00:14:50.800 Paul saying, for God so loved the nations that He chose Israel to be His instrument that both Jew

00:14:56.900 and Gentile might come to the knowledge of His Son. And he points out that the current hardening of

00:15:02.760 Israel is partial, so there's still a believing remnant, and it's temporary. Someday in the 0.98

00:15:08.660 future, Paul believes all Israel will be saved through faith in the Messiah.

00:15:13.500 And that's Romans 11, 26. And in this way, all Israel will be saved. As it is written,

00:15:18.920 the Deliverer will come from Zion. He will banish the ungodliness from Jacob. People can read the 1.00

00:15:23.520 entire chapter to see that context, but that's what you are referencing. Okay, I so appreciate you

00:15:30.220 explaining that distinction, because I could see how someone like me would read those chapters and

00:15:35.700 say, okay, well, I'm a little confused about the remnant versus all of Israel. So that makes a lot 0.96

00:15:40.660 of sense. And talk a little bit more about this, what people refer to as replacement theology versus

00:15:49.920 what you've said, that the church does not replace Israel. Because again, I could see just by reading

00:15:55.700 these few chapters how it almost seems like Paul is saying two different things. On the one hand,

00:16:00.820 he says, look, we've got these original branches that have been cut off, and then you've got new

00:16:07.420 branches grafted on. But then it also seems like he's saying, well, both Israel and these Gentiles 0.98

00:16:15.580 are going to be saved through Christ. And so, yeah, I don't know, parse that out for me,

00:16:21.700 help me understand. And we're doing this fast. First, the lostness of the Jews is the same. It's 1.00

00:16:27.560 a universal condition. That's Romans 3.23. Second, God has always restricted his mercy,

00:16:33.320 Alibeth, and his compassion to those whom he chooses. God chooses whom he chooses. That's Romans

00:16:39.400 9.6-29. Third, they are culpable, for though they heard and understood the good news, they've rejected

00:16:47.180 God's righteousness, which comes by faith, and they've sought their own righteousness instead. 0.91

00:16:51.820 This is what Paul says, which is based upon performance. If you're following at home,

00:16:55.760 that's Romans 9, verses 30-33, chapter 10, verse 3. The fourth and final reason for Israel's

00:17:01.940 unbelief is the spiritual blindness and hardness that Paul mentions in Romans 9.18, which he deals

00:17:08.300 with more fully, as you say, in Romans 11.7-10. In the midst of all of this unbelief,

00:17:13.240 God still stands with outstretched arms, longing for the day that all Israel will return to him. 0.98

00:17:20.780 That's the book of Romans. That's theology in a nutshell from Romans 9-11.

00:17:24.620 So obviously, any attitude of the Christian of, like, arrogance towards Jews or hatred towards

00:17:31.480 Jews, I mean, it really is just completely incongruent with what we see in God's word. Our 1.00

00:17:37.940 attitude should really be more like Paul's, just eagerness, earnestness for them to know Christ,

00:17:44.980 right?

00:17:45.100 Yes, and to preach the gospel to them, to share the gospel of Messiah Jesus. When you're in a

00:17:49.900 Jewish community, pray in the name of Yeshua Jesus. I've really learned this. I've been doing

00:17:55.200 so much ministry since I returned from filming Body of Proof in Jerusalem around the modern state

00:18:00.120 of Israel, around God's plan for Israel, and I've learned so much. And I've been heartened by the

00:18:04.460 fact that there is still a remnant of believing Jews, and they're strong in the Lord. They're

00:18:09.200 strong in the faith. And so never forget, Jesus is a Jew. He's still a Jew. He didn't cease becoming 0.96

00:18:14.540 a Jew. In the resurrection, we follow a Jewish Savior who is both fully God and fully man. So you

00:18:19.680 better believe I'm going to love the Jewish people.

00:18:22.520 Yes. Yes and amen. Yes and amen. I think some people also make the mistake on the other end of it to

00:18:28.660 read something like Romans 11-26 that says, all Israel will be saved, and think, well,

00:18:33.480 I don't need to share the gospel with them. God's got that. They're fine. But that's not

00:18:38.440 the means through which God has ordained, or that while sharing the gospel is the means

00:18:44.840 through which God has ordained that people come to know Him.

00:18:48.360 That's exactly right. And that's why Jesus even had to preach the gospel when He did His descent

00:18:53.020 into hell. We see the gospel is always being preached. It is always through faith in the Messiah

00:18:59.760 that we are saved. The mode of salvation has never changed from Genesis 3 to now. And I think that's

00:19:05.780 a very important point that we need to herald as careful Christian thinkers, and we need to take the

00:19:10.440 opportunity to be conversant on these issues. We need to make sure we read the Bible. We don't let

00:19:15.520 other, you know, learn from everyone, but don't let anyone think for you. Be a good Bible-based

00:19:20.840 Christian. Form your worldview from what the Scripture actually says. 0.73

00:19:23.960 Yes, and amen. All right. Let's talk about the Scriptures and the reliability of the Scriptures,

00:19:30.020 because I got some questions from my relatable audience on Instagram, and a lot of them were

00:19:35.180 very fundamental questions. Great questions, though. Questions that I think a lot of people,

00:19:40.800 even those who grew up in the church, really didn't get answers. It was just because we said so,

00:19:45.480 because this is what your parents believed, this is what you were taught at Sunday school,

00:19:48.620 which might work for a period of time when you're young, but as you grow up, you graduate from the

00:19:53.880 milk, and you need spiritual meat. You need the answers to these questions. So let's go to the

00:20:02.160 beginning, kind of, at least when it comes to the Scriptures that we rely on. Can you tell us why we

00:20:09.460 should rely on these 66 books of the Bible? Why not the other books, like the Book of Thomas,

00:20:14.740 or the Apocrypha? Why do we have this canon, and why should we trust it?

00:20:19.900 Now, you may not be aware, but I have a PhD, so that means I know a lot about a little. And my area

00:20:24.400 of specialty, Allie Beth, that I know a lot about the little N, is the second century, what some kind

00:20:30.100 of call apocryphal, what I call the extra-canonical gospel. So my area of specialty is actually all those

00:20:35.680 books that didn't make it into the canon. I spent three years of my life reading them. So here's a

00:20:41.280 couple of answers for you.

00:20:42.180 A lot of Catholic friends, both in the room, and who listen to this. So I'm excited about this.

00:20:46.940 Yes. And I want to make a distinction. There's the Catholic Apocrypha, which is, depending on

00:20:51.680 how you count them, 11, 12, maybe 13 books that are intertestamental books. These books are

00:20:57.260 excellent books. You should read them. You heard it right. You should read them. They're excellent

00:21:01.540 books. Jerome included them in the Latin Vulgate. You know, Jerome put together what became the Bible

00:21:08.780 of a thousand years, the Latin Vulgate. He did it in the grotto of the Church of the Nativity in

00:21:13.300 Bethlehem. He had a benefactor by the name of Paula, who literally wrote the checks for his ministry,

00:21:18.060 so he could continue to do his work. When Jerome includes the intertestamental apocrypha, which is

00:21:23.820 different from the Jewish pseudepigrapha, and even more different from the New Testament apocrypha,

00:21:29.060 okay? So this is why these distinctions are important. He includes these books. He says

00:21:33.680 they're helpful, but not sacred. It's likely that Jesus would have read all of the, what we call the

00:21:39.720 Catholic Apocrypha. These are books like 1 Maccabees, 2 Maccabees. Allie-Beth, these are super

00:21:45.620 inspirational texts if you're a Jew in late Second Temple Judaism with the Roman occupiers at hand.

00:21:51.980 Inspired.

00:21:52.720 Exactly. Inspirational, not inspired. So they were included. This might turn some people's

00:21:58.880 heads around if you're a KJV-only kind of Christian. The Apocrypha is actually included

00:22:03.720 in the original King James Bible. Let's transition now to the 2nd century Gospels, like Thomas. You

00:22:08.720 just asked about the Gospel of Peter. These texts, the first thing I share with my students, and always

00:22:15.660 pastorally, but have you actually read them before you ask me why they're not included in the library

00:22:20.640 called the Bible? That's what the Bible is. The Bible is a library of 66 books. Have you actually

00:22:27.380 read any of the quote-unquote Gospels? And I say that with a little g, lowercase g. Have you actually

00:22:33.840 read them? Because the Gospel of Peter, which is late 2nd century, it's written in Greek. We only have

00:22:38.460 one copy of it. It's been lost. It's called P. Cairo 10759. It was lost in the Cairo Museum. Some believe

00:22:46.360 this was the first Gospel, Ali Beth. And here's some of the features. Jesus is a giant, so he's

00:22:51.740 like a member of the Avengers team. He's like the Hulk when he comes out of the tomb. The cross

00:22:55.960 follows him out of the tomb. The cross talks. There's polymorphic Christology and polymorphic

00:23:01.080 angelology. What does that mean? That's kind of a weird big word. It means Christ gets bigger and

00:23:05.320 bigger, and he's even taller than the clouds. You actually have Jews that are spending the night 0.99

00:23:11.160 in a cemetery waiting to see what happens at the resurrection tomb. You can see immediately this

00:23:15.320 was a very unsophisticated author who knows nothing of the land of Israel, knows nothing of Jewish

00:23:20.940 customs, and yet the liberals, the skeptical scholars—these are groups that come out of

00:23:26.140 Helmut Kester School at Harvard Divinity College. I wouldn't send my dog to go to school there. I'm

00:23:30.640 sorry to say that on your show, but I'm not sorry, not sorry—they think these reveal something

00:23:35.960 of the historical Jesus. They don't. They are wonderful windows into 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th century

00:23:42.300 Christian communities, but just because they say the Gospel of Thomas, they're not written by Thomas,

00:23:47.900 or the Gospel of Peter, they're not written by Peter. So have you actually read them? Why do we

00:23:53.260 have the Gospels in the Bible, the big G Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John? Because they exhibit

00:24:00.060 what's called verisimilitude. That's a really cool word. I want your audience to get to know.

00:24:04.600 Veritas, Latin—you've said that word on your show—similitude. It's very similar. How do we

00:24:10.120 know what truth is? Truth corresponds to reality. So when I open up Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John,

00:24:15.040 everything I read about it from the geographical nature, the names, the places, it's all accurate.

00:24:20.880 Here's a cool thing, Ali Beth. I would summarize it this way. When you go to the land of Israel,

00:24:25.880 there's about 100 archaeological digs. These digs only happen twice a year because you recruit college

00:24:31.460 students who come at their own expense to volunteer. These are very expensive digs,

00:24:36.020 okay? Like, you've got to make sure you're digging in the right spot. And so there I am at one of these

00:24:40.080 digs. And most of the digs are sponsored by secular organizations, so there's no Christian bias. In fact, 0.80

00:24:46.480 there's a bias to not believe in the Bible. And yet, I began to notice that the archaeologists,

00:24:52.740 who are Jewish, agnostic, leaning towards atheists, they use six books to make sure they're digging in

00:24:58.360 the right spot. You may have heard of some of these six books. Are you ready for these? Matthew, Mark,

00:25:05.160 Luke, John, the Book of Acts, and Flavius Josephus. So if they're not reliable, why in the world are

00:25:12.640 Jewish atheist archaeologists using them to make sure that they're digging in the right spot because

00:25:18.320 they exhibit verisimilitude with Jesus and Judaica? In other words, they are reliable historical sources. 0.73

00:25:25.080 Wow. And as for the canon, can you tell us a little bit about the history?

00:25:33.140 I promise I'll answer shorter from now on. I know you've got a lot of questions.

00:25:36.040 I do have a lot of questions. That's okay. That's okay. As long as it takes to answer it

00:25:40.320 thoroughly, that's fine. But the 66 books of the Bible, can you tell us a little bit about the

00:25:45.300 process of how those were created and why not just the Gospels, but the New Testament was decided

00:25:52.220 to be inspired by God? Yeah. Constantine did not choose the books of the Bible. Let's be very clear

00:25:57.400 about that. People later didn't say Jesus was God. Again, I'm a historian. So right now,

00:26:03.640 Allie Beth and I are not getting in some kind of religious trance, as far as I know. We're just

00:26:07.560 doing history. We're talking like two clear-thinking people. We're not doing this based on emotion or

00:26:13.200 feeling. If I want to know something of history, I want early eyewitness tradition. I want to get as

00:26:19.120 close to the event as I can, and I want to find artifactual remains. Allie, I used to live in

00:26:23.700 Franklin, Tennessee. Battle of Franklin takes place in Tennessee. Five Confederate generals. It's

00:26:29.140 the bloodiest five hours of the Civil War, okay? And guess what we have? We have artifacts all over it.

00:26:34.240 We have musket balls. We have letters. We have uniforms. We have all kinds of artifacts that help

00:26:40.060 us understand about the Battle of Franklin. What do we have when we open up the Gospels? The very same

00:26:44.440 thing. Within 50 years, we have letters that are circulating. Remember, the letters of Paul

00:26:49.600 antedate. They predate the Gospels. We have Thessalonians. It's probably the first book written

00:26:56.180 in the New Testament, probably in the 40s. I read a peer-reviewed article this week, the time that we're

00:27:01.760 recording Holy Week, that Mark might be dated as early as the 40s or 50s. I'm not saying I agree with

00:27:08.160 that, but can you believe that? One of the most authoritative World War II books that's ever been

00:27:13.480 written was published in the 90s by an eyewitness. That's 50 years after World War II, right? Why do

00:27:19.660 we second-guess the books of the Bible? Because we have this hyper-skepticism towards them. And so

00:27:26.900 when you study the 5,800 Greek fragments of the New Testament, as I have—you can go to Mount Athos,

00:27:33.440 by the way. There's a thousand Greek fragments there. You'll see that the Gospels begin traveling

00:27:39.680 together at the earliest stages. You mean we have fragments, Jeremiah, like the Chester Beattie

00:27:44.960 papyrus that are in Dublin, Ireland? You can go see it. Second century, these books are already

00:27:50.680 traveling together. By the way, that's long before Constantine. So again, if I just, as my grandpa

00:27:56.200 taught me, bother to learn these things, we see that we have an embarrassment of riches when we look

00:28:01.580 at the historicity of Jesus. And I often say this, and I say it. That's why I hope you'll encourage

00:28:05.920 people to get my body-approved Bible study, because I really want people to know this.

00:28:09.580 If I can't believe in Jesus of Nazareth from the historical documents that we call the Bible,

00:28:15.200 I shouldn't believe in the Roman Empire. I shouldn't believe in Alexander the Great.

00:28:18.940 Here's a great comparison. Alexander the Great's two primary sources. He's never questioned over here

00:28:24.780 at our state universities. Arian and Plutarch. Allie Beth, they're writing 400 years later,

00:28:31.720 after the fact. What do we have with the witnesses who write about Jesus? We have a hostile witness,

00:28:37.480 Paul, who is killing Christians until the resurrection, and he writes the earliest letters 0.90

00:28:42.320 within a few decades.

00:28:55.500 There are a lot of resources out there, too, just talking about the early church, and

00:29:00.340 Polycarp, and Ignatius, and all of the church councils, and the process that they went through

00:29:06.980 to decide upon, through the power of the Holy Spirit, on these 66 books.

00:29:11.740 They were eyewitnesses. They were authoritative. They had the gospel. It's very clear. And this is

00:29:17.080 why we need to know this. And I can't talk to you if you don't accept the Bible as a historical

00:29:22.040 document, because that means you don't know how to do history. We do history of the Bible the same

00:29:26.680 way we do history of any other subject. I don't do Christian history. I do normal history.

00:29:32.820 And is it true, would you agree, that the Bible does not contain any discrepancies or any errors?

00:29:41.280 Because sometimes people will say, well, it's infallible, but not inerrant. Or it's inerrant,

00:29:48.320 but not infallible.

00:29:49.880 They're equivocators. I know I'm going to a liberal church that I need to leave. If my pastor stands up

00:29:56.080 and says the following, I believe the Bible contains the Word of God, but it's not all the

00:30:01.080 Word of God. That's a catchphrase, which, hey, I'm a woke progressive, and that's your cue to get out

00:30:05.940 of that church. Make sure, make no mistake. The Bible is true. It is not only infallible, it is

00:30:13.080 inerrant. So I agree with the Chicago Statement of Inerrancy. Please Google that if you want to know

00:30:18.140 what inerrancy means. It means it's inerrant without error. Now, let me give you a footnote to that

00:30:23.580 answer. Every manuscript that we have before Gutenberg—you can get on a plane right now if

00:30:29.100 you want. It would be fun to do this—and go to Frankfurt, Germany. And right near the Frankfurt

00:30:34.860 airport is the little German town of Mainz, Germany, where the Gutenberg Press is located. Now,

00:30:39.880 Audrey and I made the mistake of going to the German tour. We don't speak German, so that was my bad.

00:30:45.520 But they do have English tours, and we were picking up a little bit, because I know some theological

00:30:50.420 German. Until the invention of the printing press—and let me use an example here—until books 0.94

00:30:57.560 came out—we have a nice copy book here, we have my book—until books were printed, no two manuscripts

00:31:04.340 were exactly the same. So what does that mean? If I wrote a letter and I wanted to keep a copy of the

00:31:10.580 letter, I might shorthand a little bit of it to you. If I was writing you a love letter, I might—I'm

00:31:15.520 going to keep a copy of that. In other words, there's more than one copy of the Book of Romans. There's not

00:31:19.600 just one copy of the Book of Romans. Paul didn't write the greatest document ever written, give it

00:31:25.160 to Phoebe to bring to the Church of Rome, and then just, like, not have his own copy, okay? Now, they

00:31:30.680 would be very, very similar, but they might have a few shorthand differences. A difference in a

00:31:36.840 handwritten manuscript is not automatically an error. Allie Beth, if I tell you right now, you're a very

00:31:43.420 smart person, praise God or praise the Lord. Am I making an error if I said God the first time and

00:31:50.280 Lord the second time? If I pray here in a minute in Jesus' name, but then you said, well, he prayed

00:31:56.040 in Christ's name, is there a question of whose name I'm praying in? No. So when you have over

00:32:02.120 500—when you have over 5,800 handwritten copies, pretend this is the Bible, you're going to have

00:32:10.280 some differences in those manuscripts. None of them affect any Bible doctrine. Does that make sense,

00:32:15.400 what I'm trying to say? Yeah, totally.

00:32:16.900 Not until the invention of the printing press do you have camera-ready copy, as it were,

00:32:22.160 with pages that don't have differences in them. I have a Torah scroll. I'd encourage you to check out

00:32:27.520 my social media because I love having artifacts. I have a Torah scroll that's 1,000 years old. It

00:32:33.940 reflects an 800 to 1,000-year scribal hand, and it was smuggled out of Iraq during the pogroms of

00:32:38.780 Saddam Hussein in a military tire. It has a very interesting provenance. But there's even an error,

00:32:45.580 I say this, a typo in the—my man, the scribe, does four lines of numbers 30 to 33. At the very end,

00:32:53.640 he forgets to write, of the land. And so he literally corrects it on the top, of the land,

00:32:58.840 which would be right to left if you're reading Hebrew. So does that make sense? Does that help people?

00:33:02.520 Yeah, distinction without a difference. There's going to be those things when you are copying a text

00:33:07.900 by hand before there was copy and paste, before you could do the things that you could do after

00:33:12.960 the printing press and, of course, today. Okay, let's move on to a different kind of question.

00:33:17.500 Someone asked, how to explain the Trinity to someone who thinks that that means that Christianity

00:33:24.320 is a polytheistic religion with three gods?

00:33:27.300 Absolutely. So important. We have to be careful with this. And again, thank you for pointing this

00:33:31.260 out. The Trinity is a fascinating subject. God reveals himself as one what and three who's. One

00:33:38.620 God, one God in essence, who has revealed himself in the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We believe in

00:33:45.560 inseparability of operations of the Trinity. My good friend Adonis Vidu, V-I-D-U, has done a

00:33:52.260 phenomenal book on the Trinity, if you just want to geek out on this, on the inseparability of

00:33:56.620 operations. Because as I was growing in the Lord, Allie Beth, I would have really sincere questions.

00:34:01.180 Like, if Jesus does something, does that mean God the Father and the Holy Spirit did it too?

00:34:05.280 Right.

00:34:05.560 If I pray to Jesus, am I also praying to God the Father and the Holy Spirit at the same time? And the

00:34:10.260 answer is yes. What the one does, the other two do automatically. So the Trinity,

00:34:15.260 that's perichorusus, the one indwells the other. We see this from John's gospel very clearly,

00:34:21.560 John 17, I in you, you and me, and then us in Christ. And so the Trinity is a fascinating subject.

00:34:30.220 I think the more you study it, the more wonderful it becomes. If I could explain it to you, though,

00:34:35.680 in five minutes on this show, it would be impossible to do. So I would just encourage you to...

00:34:41.560 So one what, three who's is a great place to start. All analogies eventually break down. Some

00:34:47.860 people use ice, water, different modes of moisture, but they're all the same thing at the same time as

00:34:54.240 well. And just watch out for modalism, watch out for false teachers out there that say, well, he was

00:35:00.440 God the Father in the Old Testament, then he was Jesus, and now he's just the Holy Spirit. There's some

00:35:06.140 very famous preachers who ascribe to that. Watch out as well for the Jesus-only cult movements,

00:35:12.600 oneness Pentecostal. They believe that God is just Jesus right now, like there's nothing else.

00:35:17.680 Again, I allow the Bible to inform my theology. I don't inform the Bible with my theology. And so

00:35:23.520 Scripture constantly refers to one what, that is God, three who's, the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit.

00:35:29.500 They're not divided. They never act indifference with one another, one mind. And listen, that's how

00:35:36.560 God should be. God is, we only know what he's revealed about himself, and that's how it should be.

00:35:42.520 Yeah, it is, of course, can be confusing. But if you go back to something that you said,

00:35:47.640 if we keep this in mind, that Scripture has to interpret Scripture. So we can't read any verse

00:35:53.040 in isolation. When we read, when Jesus says, you know, it's better for you that I go,

00:35:57.520 because the Holy Spirit's going to come, he's going to be your helper. That might seem like,

00:36:01.700 okay, these are two different people doing two different things. Jesus is going there. The

00:36:05.060 Holy Spirit is going there. It is confusing by itself. But you read that in light of John 1,

00:36:10.260 you read that in light of the rest of the New Testament, how in the beginning was the Word,

00:36:14.880 the Word was God, and then the Word came down and dwelt among us. Okay, right there, we at least get

00:36:20.740 some sense of the Trinity. And yes, the Bible doesn't say the word the Trinity. That is the

00:36:27.140 name of the concept, though, that we read. Tertullian said the name Trinity.

00:36:31.000 Yes, that we read it. And there's a lot of things and a lot of terms that we might not read in

00:36:35.420 Scripture, but we see the definition of that in Scripture. So yeah, that was very helpful. But it's

00:36:41.520 okay if you don't fully understand the Trinity. You're going to struggle with it. It's all right,

00:36:44.980 no one really fully understands. We can fully understand how to explain it, but we're finite.

00:36:50.120 God is infinite. We're doing the best that we can.

00:36:52.140 Yeah. And again, I can't emphasize enough, too, that when you pray, you never pray alone. This

00:36:57.100 is a great application of what we're saying. Read Romans 8. The searcher of hearts is who we're

00:37:02.240 praying to. When I pray, the Holy Spirit prays on my behalf with groanings which cannot be uttered.

00:37:07.460 That's Romans 8. Hebrews tells us that when I pray, Jesus is praying as well. And so isn't it great,

00:37:12.460 no matter what I'm going through right now, Allie Beth, no matter what I'm facing, when I pray,

00:37:17.900 I don't pray alone because Jesus prays with me and for me when I pray. The Holy Spirit prays with

00:37:22.360 me and for me when I pray. And God is called the searcher of our hearts. And so when it comes to

00:37:26.380 the Trinity, pay attention to the terms through which God reveals Himself in Scripture. He's not

00:37:32.520 just called God or Lord. He is called Lord 6,000 times in the Bible, but He's also called the

00:37:37.340 searcher of our hearts. Call on the searcher of your heart. Use those same names that

00:37:42.300 appear in Scripture that help us have a better understanding of who God is.

00:37:47.020 Yes. Okay. Speaking of prayer, this is another question that we received. Why do we pray if

00:37:52.620 God is totally sovereign? He already knows what's going to happen. What's the point of us praying?

00:37:58.220 Absolutely. That's a great question. I want to thank the person who asked this, Unrelatable.

00:38:02.820 Well, the point of prayer is to have a relationship with God. Could you imagine being married to your

00:38:07.960 husband and never speaking to him? I couldn't imagine being married to my wife, Audrey, and

00:38:12.480 never talking to her. I want to talk to her all the time. She gets tired of how much I want to talk

00:38:15.720 to her. I want to just talk to her all the time because I love her so much. Prayer is not about

00:38:20.780 me getting things from God, Allie Beth. Prayer is about me communing with God relationally.

00:38:26.340 I'm praying right now while I'm talking to you. I'm asking the Holy Spirit to use me and to let me not

00:38:30.840 forget things, even as I'm talking to you right now. Isn't that the beauty of prayer? Prayer is not about

00:38:35.720 getting things from God. And yes, God is sovereign. Yes, He designed the world in such a way He knew

00:38:42.840 the things we would ask in prayer before we even asked Him. That's what Jesus said. Don't pray like

00:38:47.960 those pagan jabberers. Don't keep saying the same word over and over again. I just preached at 1.00

00:38:53.800 Prestonwood Baptist Church not long ago. And I said, would you please stop praying long prayers? Because

00:38:59.220 there's no long prayers in the Bible. Did you know the longest prayer in the Bible takes about three

00:39:03.340 minutes? Most prayers in the Bible are short and to the point. They don't say Father God 50 times.

00:39:10.140 They get to the point. I want to pray short prayers. I want to pray Bible prayers. And I want 0.94

00:39:15.420 to pray like that public and God be merciful to me a sinner. Jesus said your Father knows what you need

00:39:20.900 even before you ask Him. So don't feel like you need to pray something over and over again. This

00:39:24.820 doesn't mean that we don't intercede for healing. You know, since I was on your show last year,

00:39:30.200 my dad has been healed of terminal cancer. I was with my dad in a cancer ward where he was given a

00:39:36.840 death sentence. So I believe in the power of collective prayer. But I can tell you a lot of

00:39:41.960 those prayers in the critical cancer ward where, God, I need you now. God, I don't even know what

00:39:48.340 to say. Help. Help. Did you know that's a prayer? So I pray because I love Jesus Christ. I want to be

00:39:55.860 close to Him. He already knows what I'm going to ask. And I think that is just all the more

00:40:00.020 assuring to pray. We shouldn't think about God like we're trying to hail a cab. I know no one

00:40:05.000 does that anymore because of the rideshare apps. But a lot of us feel like we need to call down God

00:40:09.160 like we're trying to signal a taxi to listen to us. God is more eager to hear your prayers than you

00:40:15.100 are to pray. And that's a great assurance to me in prayer today when I pray. He's more eager to hear

00:40:20.780 me than I'm even eager to talk to Him. He never tires of my voice. He never tires of my requests.

00:40:25.460 But let's pray like the Bible. And here's a little thing. I don't like to say amen when I pray during

00:40:29.400 the day because I'm just in a constant conversation with the Lord. And we are to pray without ceasing.

00:40:35.020 That's right.

00:40:35.600 And I do think it's cool that God has ordained prayer to be, just like evangelism, a means by

00:40:55.720 which He works. Because we do read in the book of James that the prayer of a righteous person,

00:41:00.640 which of course all Christians are made righteous because of Christ's righteousness,

00:41:05.880 has much power as it is working, which I just love. So prayer actually does something. And maybe

00:41:14.420 we don't ever fully understand how God, who is in the eternal now, so He's not suspended by time the

00:41:20.320 way that we are, and who knows everything that we need before we ask it, and the Holy Spirit is

00:41:25.340 interceding for us. We might not ever understand exactly how that is working itself out. All I know,

00:41:33.520 all I can trust is that yes, God knows everyone who's going to be saved. Yes, God knows everything

00:41:37.820 that's going to happen, and He's totally sovereign. And yet He has commanded me to pray. He's commanded

00:41:42.800 me to share the gospel. And so in some method that I don't fully understand, God has ordained before

00:41:49.660 the beginning of time, that those would be two means by which He accomplishes His will. And it's

00:41:56.000 not really my responsibility to understand exactly why or how that works, but just to trust that,

00:42:04.240 just like we see throughout Scripture, there are a lot of things that God could have done

00:42:07.500 automatically. Like, why did they have to circle seven times before the walls of Jericho fell?

00:42:15.840 God didn't need them to do that. It's not like He was waiting on that to happen before His power

00:42:21.660 could work. Like you said, it's not hailing a cab. It's not rubbing a genie in a bottle. And yet,

00:42:26.900 I think sometimes He implements those processes for our sanctification, because obedience is good for

00:42:33.860 us, and it glorifies Him. And I don't know exactly why they had to circle seven times. I don't know why

00:42:41.200 Noah had to follow all of those rules to build this great big ark when God could have plopped it out of

00:42:47.040 the sky, except for that our faith and faithfulness does something for us, in us, and also to bring

00:42:56.060 God glory. And that, I think, sometimes just has to be enough for us as an answer, too.

00:43:00.760 And that's huge. And it's obedience, isn't it? Like, why did Naam and the Syrian have to go dip 1.00

00:43:04.360 in the water that many times? He didn't want to do it at first. Prayer is an act of obedience as

00:43:09.860 well. It's an act of humility. It's an act of surrender. And if you don't mind, could I share

00:43:14.080 a personal story, Allie? So I've been in prayer for my kids, and I'm a dad of five. And as I

00:43:20.000 mentioned a year ago, I still haven't slept. My triplets are seven years old now, so I haven't

00:43:23.760 slept in seven years, ladies and gentlemen. They are nonstop, 24-7, eight days a week. But they've

00:43:29.520 been asking my wife, Audrey, so many questions about the spiritual life lately. And I want to

00:43:35.180 just share this with you. Audrey and I talk about God in our home like other people talk about golf

00:43:39.540 and football. God is the harmonizing factor of our life. We talk about Jesus like He's in the room all

00:43:44.860 the time. We talk about Him naturally. We don't get into holy mode when we talk about God. And Monday

00:43:50.080 night, just this past Monday, we were having a wonderful salmon dinner my wife had made. I was

00:43:55.060 starving, kind of not really there, just starving, eating. I don't really need to say much when you

00:44:02.440 have seven people eating dinner every night at your dinner table. And all of a sudden, Abel,

00:44:07.000 who is one of our triplets, said, Dad, we want to get saved. And then Ryder said, I do too, Dad.

00:44:12.500 And then Jackson said, yes, I do too. And then leave it to my theologian son, Justin. He's like,

00:44:18.320 well, you're not saved. You have to accept Jesus into your heart to be saved for the forgiveness of

00:44:22.980 your sins. You have to believe He rose from the dead for you. Abel goes, I believe that, Justin.

00:44:27.660 And I thought, oh, well, we'll do that in a minute. And then Abel said, no, Dad, we want to

00:44:31.460 do it right now. In the course of our dinner conversation, we began to pray. And I led all

00:44:39.400 three of my boys at the same moment, Abel, Ryder, and Jackson, to Jesus Christ. And I don't mind saying

00:44:45.380 the date, March 24, 2024. And they wrote it in their Bibles. And I want to tell you, that's the

00:44:51.700 power of prayer. That's the power of talking to God. And you can do that in your own home. You can

00:44:56.100 talk about God like you talk about your golf game. He's the constant reality. He's everything we need

00:45:00.260 in every moment. And so this isn't just an academic exercise that we're doing right now,

00:45:04.620 Ali Beth. This is real. And it makes a difference. And now we're on the road to sanctification. The

00:45:10.240 Johnston triplets now need to learn sanctification. We knew that immediately. They got saved. Now it's

00:45:14.920 time to be a little more sanctified.

00:45:16.700 Right, right, right. Yes, that's amazing. You know, I saw Kanye West recently. He was in

00:45:21.680 some, doing some interview, and he said something along the lines of, I have my issues with Jesus

00:45:27.780 because I have asked him to do some things. I've asked him to show up sometimes, and he doesn't. And

00:45:34.440 you know, I'm like, yeah, you're in pretty good company, Kanye, in that there have been plenty of

00:45:40.680 times where we have all prayed for something, expected something, even out of good desires. We wanted

00:45:47.500 something good. And we wanted God to do this for us. And we believed that he could, and he did it.

00:45:53.720 He showed up in a different way. Or maybe at the time, we felt like he wasn't showing up at all,

00:45:58.820 or he answered no. And that can rock people's faith. It's like, okay, I asked for this good thing,

00:46:07.000 and you didn't do it. You didn't heal my dad. You didn't provide a husband. You didn't allow us to

00:46:14.280 get pregnant. You didn't help me, you know, save my job, whatever it is. So walk us through that. 0.98

00:46:20.780 Like, why would God not answer even good prayers? I have a word for Kanye West. You need to listen

00:46:26.240 to more country music, Kanye, because this guy named Garth Brooks wrote an awesome song once,

00:46:31.100 and he sang it, and it was the top of the billboard chart. It was called Thank God for Unanswered

00:46:35.420 Prayers. And some of us need a little Garth Brooks theology right now. I thank God he doesn't answer all

00:46:41.720 my prayers, because I wouldn't be married to the redhead for 20 years. Thank God he didn't answer

00:46:45.980 my prayers before I met Audrey. Thank God I married the right person. Thank God that he said no to some

00:46:51.620 of my prayers. Thank God he said wait to some of my prayers. My word is God knows better, and thank God

00:46:58.860 he doesn't answer all our prayers, because sometimes we just don't know. In week four of my Body Approved

00:47:04.060 Bible Study, Allie Beth, I point out the dejection of Cleopas, and we know his wife's name, 0.97

00:47:08.900 Mary, from John's Gospel. They're walking seven miles from Jerusalem to Emmaus. And I know this

00:47:15.700 is Easter Monday. We're thinking about this. It's been in our mind. And they felt like they had had

00:47:20.080 an unanswered prayer as well. Their Messiah had just been massacred on the cross. And in Luke 24,

00:47:25.780 21, Cleopas says to this stranger who's walking the road to Emmaus, we had hoped he was the Messiah,

00:47:31.680 but he wasn't. He was just killed. Haven't you heard what's gone on in Israel? Now, by the way,

00:47:35.820 we filmed at the very spot with two drones and four cameras. Had to take a Hummer there. I got

00:47:40.380 car sick, like literally off-roading to the road to Emmaus. And they're talking to Jesus. They're

00:47:46.340 praying. They don't even know it. They thought that he didn't answer their prayers. They invite Jesus

00:47:51.920 into their home. This is the 13th meal scene in the Gospel of Luke. I can't wait to meet Luke. The

00:47:57.240 guy loved to eat dinner with people. That gives me hope. This is the final meal scene in the Gospel of

00:48:02.540 Luke. And it's only when Jesus takes the bread and he breaks it, and he gives thanks for it.

00:48:07.500 And here's that power verse, Luke 24, 32. They realized he had answered their prayer when they

00:48:12.580 thought he hadn't. Were not our hearts burning within us when he opened the Scriptures to us?

00:48:18.960 And so, here's the application. If I feel like God's not answering my prayer, just go back to the Bible,

00:48:24.540 go back to the Scriptures, pray the Scriptures, and then just keep praying the Scriptures,

00:48:28.740 and then trust the Lord. Yes and amen. Man, well, we've got about 100 other questions that we could

00:48:35.020 ask you that we don't have time, that we don't have time to answer. Is there any last word that

00:48:39.580 you want to give everyone? The last word that I want to give you is the promise of hope. Hope is a

00:48:44.760 power word. And the reason that I'm a regular watcher of Allie Beth Stuckey is because you give me

00:48:51.460 hope when I watch you, Allie Beth. Legacy Media, one thing I learned going through COVID was I wanted to

00:48:57.440 just get into a depression watching Legacy Media because they learned that body counts meant

00:49:03.280 greater ratings. And so, I had to turn that off. That was part of my personal peace plan.

00:49:08.660 And I had to start turning into thinkers like you regularly, tuning into thinkers like you,

00:49:14.160 because you speak truth and truth gives me hope. I have no hope without truth. Everything outside of

00:49:19.000 truth is a lie. So, I want to encourage more people to watch your show because you give us hope.

00:49:23.800 I want to encourage people to share this broadcast because we've covered so much ground. But I also

00:49:30.020 want to encourage you to go through the Body of Proof Bible study for one reason and one reason only.

00:49:34.380 It will give you hope. The Bible promises us a living hope in 1 Peter 1.3. Not because I feel

00:49:41.420 like being hopeful today. I've been trying to memorize this verse. I don't have it perfectly,

00:49:44.940 but let me try. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has brought us into a

00:49:50.280 living hope because of the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. It's something like that.

00:49:55.320 That's about 90% accuracy. The point is, we have a living hope because Jesus rose from the grave.

00:50:01.020 Yes.

00:50:01.540 And so, I can have a living hope. Romans says, we've been in Romans this whole time. The book of Romans

00:50:06.780 says we have a hope that never disappoints. The book of Hebrews says we have a better hope. Hope is

00:50:11.620 mentioned a hundred times in the New Testament, and it's always tied to the resurrection of Jesus. So,

00:50:16.180 have hope today. He's alive. Yes, and amen. Thank you so much. I appreciate it.

00:50:20.420 Thank you for having me.

Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - April 01, 2024

Ep 977 ｜ Will All Jewish People Be Saved？｜ Guest： Dr. Jeremiah Johnston

Episode Stats

Summary

Transcript

Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - April 01, 2024

Ep 977 ｜ Will All Jewish People Be Saved？ ｜ Guest： Dr. Jeremiah Johnston

Episode Stats

Summary

Transcript

Ep 977 ｜ Will All Jewish People Be Saved？｜ Guest： Dr. Jeremiah Johnston