Much of tonight’s topic has to do with eschatology (end times). This is a topic that is both fascinating and frustrating for many. Fascinating for obvious reasons – we all want to know what’s going to happen. Frustrating because the subject can become an obsession distracting Christians from their actual mission of making disciples. Doubly so because it can cause deep conflict between Christians.

Ask Anything – Session 4

presented 8 May 2019

AUDIO

Presentation Notes

SPECIFIC QUESTIONS

Mark 13: 32, “But of that day or that hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.” If Jesus is the incarnate Word (John 1: 14), how can there be things He does not know?

  • Great question: how can Jesus, who is God in the flesh, who is one with the Father, not know when the End will be???
  • People have wrestled with this for centuries!
    • Council of Chalcedon in 451 AD settled the orthodox understanding of Jesus and His divinity and relationship with God the Father
    • I don’t know if it will help you in the slightest…
      • It affirms that Jesus is one person and one substance with God the Father, and yet that He has two natures – one human and one divine – in perfect union, but also distinct.
      • So it could be that His human nature did not know, while His divine nature did know, and that in teaching like this, He spoke from His human nature.
    • Or, Philippians 2: 5-11 – Jesus voluntarily chose not to know. Though fully God, He chose not to know this, at least when He walked the Earth.
      • I lean toward this – that Christ’s exercise of omniscience was self-limited at the incarnation, as in Luke 2: 52

Can someone get saved after the Rapture happens? If so, will God use these people to bring others to Christ during this time? Is God hoping that some do not get saved now? Instead is He waiting till after the Rapture so He can use them?

  • If there is a rapture…
    • Yes you can get saved after the Rapture. Because all believers would be raptured, but clearly many, many believers are sealed in Revelation 7:9-13. And in other passages, believers are clearly put to death.
    • Yes, God would be using that new generation of Christians to bring many to Christ during the first part of the tribulation until the final hardening occurs beyond which nobody will come to faith (Revelation 9: 20-21). Taking the mark of the beast described in Revelation 13 is an irrevocable decision.
    • God doesn’t hope, God wills. If there will be a Rapture then in God’s good and sovereign will, He already knows who won’t accept Christ until after the Rapture and He will absolutely use them!
  • If there isn’t a rapture…
    • People can choose Christ until they die or until the Last Judgment, which may or may not be separated from Christ’s return by the Millennium.

When we go to heaven, when will we be judged? Will it be immediate, or after the Rapture? Do we have any Biblical reference that tells us if it will be in front of all those in Heaven or just God?

  • We will all be judged at or after the return of Jesus. The good news is that for believers in Christ, we will definitely be judged “Not Guilty” because of Christ’s sacrifice.
  • Jesus is both the judge (John 5: 25-29, 2 Timothy 4: 1) and our defense attorney (1 John 2: 1-2). This is a very good deal for us!
  • The when goes back to that timetable – will it be after the Millennium or when Christ returns? That depends on your school of eschatology!
  • Descriptions of the judgment itself – will it be “public”?
    • Revelation 20: 11-15 – verse 12 sounds public
    • Matthew 25: 31-33 – likewise seems public
    • Romans 14: 10-12 – doesn’t answer the question, but a really good reminder!

MISCELLANEOUS

Is God still creating angels? Or are there just the same as at the beginning?

  • Let’s begin by noting that our knowledge about angels is limited, quite likely on purpose, to avoid us making too big of a deal about these heavenly messengers, who are very powerful, but should not distract us from God and Jesus
  • It would appear from Scripture that all angels were created in the beginning
    • Genesis 2: 1 – All heavens and earth finished and all the host of them. Angels = the heavenly host.
    • Exodus 20:11 – All created in six days
    • Job 38: 4-7 – Angels shouted for joy at the creation of the earth, so probably created before the earth was given form
    • Beyond that we shouldn’t speculate, or at least it won’t be fruitful, as Deuteronomy 29: 29 reminds us.

There are different opinions of what the unforgivable sin is. What is the unforgivable sin?

  • Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit!
  • Now what does that mean? We need to look at the context in which Jesus introduces the unforgivable sin
  • Matthew 12: 22-32
  • Jesus is clearly applying the phrase to his audience – so what did they do?
  • They attributed the diving healing of a blind and mute man to Satan
  • The unforgivable sin is to attribute the work of God to the devil – see verse 28, where the casting out of demons is by the Spirit
  • What makes this particularly unforgivable?
  • Because your heart is so hard against God and His works, power, and person that you can’t believe His work is by Him and say it’s by His adversary instead, even though you could and should know otherwise
  • When your heart is that hard, you’re never going to turn back to God in faith, hence you will die in that state of separation
  • Which, of course, is the only truly unforgivable sin – the sin of which you never ask forgiveness – to die without faith in Jesus Christ, or in other words, to resist the Hoy Spirit’s call to salvation!
  • Theologian Louis Berkhof defines it this way, “This sin consists in the conscious, malicious, and willful rejection and slander, against evidence and conviction, of the testimony of the Holy Spirit respecting the grace of God in Christ, attributing it out of hatred and enmity to the Prince of Darkness…in committing that sin man willfully, maliciously, and intentionally attributes what is clearly recognized as the work of God to the influence and operation of Satan.”
  • The good news is that if you’re ever afraid you’ve committed the unforgivable sin, you haven’t! Because you’re worried, it means your heart isn’t that hardened.

Why do we Baptists baptize in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit instead of only Jesus. My new friends from the apostolic church said they baptize in the name of Jesus because the apostles only baptized in the name of Jesus. They said there is power in the name of Jesus, so why do we baptize in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit?

  • The name  of Jesus is indeed powerful!
  • At the most basic level, because Jesus told us to: Matthew 28: 18-20
    • Note the name – singular – one name of the Triune God – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit
    • Our baptism is thus an affirmation of the Trinitarian nature of God
  • The early church took those words literally
  • Didache (7) – probably mid-100s – “But concerning baptism, thus shall ye baptize. Having first recited all these things, baptize {in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit} in living (running) water. But if thou hast not living water, then baptize in other water and if thou art not able in cold, then in warm. But if thou hast neither, then pour water on the head thrice in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”
  • Justin Martyr – mid-100s, writing to the Roman Emperor, “Then they are brought by us where there is water, and are regenerated in the same manner in which we were ourselves regenerated. For, in the name of God, the Father and Lord of the universe, and of our Saviour Jesus Christ, and of the Holy Spirit, they then receive the washing with water…there is pronounced over him who chooses to be born again, and has repented of his sins, the name of God the Father and Lord of the universe; he who leads to the layer the person that is to be washed calling him by this name alone. For no one can utter the name of the ineffable God; and if any one dare to say that there is a name, he raves with a hopeless madness. And this washing is called illumination, because they who learn these things are illuminated in their understandings. And in the name of Jesus Christ, who was crucified under Pontius Pilate, and in the name of the Holy Ghost, who through the prophets foretold all things about Jesus, he who is illuminated is washed.”

Are exorcisms still performed? Do Baptist pastors believe in this? Are there evil spirits walking this earth in human or ghostly form?

  • In the Roman Catholic Church, yes. They teach an annual course in Rome that covers the topic. In February, 2018, the Vatican Radio reported a three-fold increase in demand for exorcisms in Italy alone.
  • We Baptists absolutely believe in spiritual warfare – there are demonic forces at work in the world, to say otherwise would be to deny the plain teaching of the Bible.
  • I do think there’s less visible activity in the Western world than long ago – as C.S. Lewis would point out, the devil is very happy to get us to believe he doesn’t exist.
  • Believers in Jesus Christ can’t be demon-possessed – we’re sealed and inhabited by the Holy Spirit. That seal says we’re God’s property and Satan cannot enter, though he certainly can attack from outside. Satan’s power was defeated by the cross and resurrection.
  • Baptized don’t have a formal right of exorcism. In Scripture, there is no formal ceremony or struggle – the name of Jesus and proclamation of the gospel is sufficient to cast out demons.
  • Albert Mohler, “There is nothing the demons fear or hate more than evangelism and missions, where the Gospel pushes back with supernatural power against their possessions, rendering them impotent and powerless. Every time a believer shares the Gospel and declares the name of Jesus, the demons and the Devil lose their power.”
  • Ephesians 6: 10-20