In this episode, Bob George tackles compelling questions from callers, ranging from the necessity of baptism for salvation to the intricate explanations of repentance and faith. Listen as he navigates complex theological concepts with clarity, emphasizing the centrality of Christ in the believer’s life. The episode also delves into how different cultural understandings can affect one’s interpretation of the Bible, offering a grounded perspective on why Christ’s teachings transcend cultural boundaries and traditions.
00:00:49 Listener’s Testimonial and Spiritual Journey
00:04:50 Discussing Baptism and its Role in Salvation
00:12:02 Understanding the Bible Beyond Cultural Context
00:15:29 Role of Repentance and Faith in Salvation
00:20:41 Languages of the Bible and Their Importance
00:21:03 Deity of Jesus and Responding to Jehovah’s Witness Beliefs
SPEAKER 01 :
Welcome to Classic Christianity Radio with Bob George. Today we are pleased to present a special radio show featuring call-in listeners from Bob’s original people-to-people daily radio program that was on the air for over 30 years, offering real answers for real-life problems as he addresses common questions as well as the tough issues of today, directing callers to the centrality of Christ in you, your only hope of glory. We want to remind our listeners that Bob George Ministries needs your financial support to continue to have Classic Christianity Radio on the air. Please visit BobGeorge.net to find out how you can help support us financially. Let’s now join Bob as he presents practical biblical insights as he helps people experience a life of faith, hope, and love in Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER 04 :
We’re going to go to Chip in Richmond, Virginia, listening on the internet. Chip, you’re on the air.
SPEAKER 02 :
Well, hey, Bob and Bob, how are you guys doing tonight?
SPEAKER 04 :
We’re doing good, Chip. Thank you.
SPEAKER 02 :
Hey, Merry Christmas to you and the People to People staff. Well, thank you.
SPEAKER 04 :
Well, thanks, brother. I appreciate it.
SPEAKER 02 :
Hey, a little quick background on me before I get to my question. I started listening to you back in 1993. And before that, I’d been in Christ for about four years. And I just remember being so sincere in my faith. And I was just really living… the Christian life in my own flesh and the energy of my own flesh. For example, I remember memorizing about 300 Bible passages, and I really thought I was hot stuff. But the problem was I didn’t have any idea or understanding about what the New Covenant was, so I was just utterly confused about what they really meant. For example, I memorized the Sermon on the Mount and really tried to learn how to live righteously. And the Sermon on the Mount did what Jesus, I think, was doing in the Sermon on the Mount. It just killed me. It utterly… condemned me. And, uh, the more that I would memorize it, the more that I just, uh, began to question my own salvation and, uh, really just led me into, uh, you know, being a double-minded person. And, um, that was pretty soon after that where I, um, I started listening to the people to people broadcast and, uh, really just started, uh, understanding a little bit more about the finality of the cross and what Jesus really did to usher in that new covenant. And, uh, and then I began to experience the reality of the resurrection in my life. And, uh, It’s kind of funny because all those Bible passages that I memorized, then they begin to make sense. I still kind of wonder how I got off track. It’s just so funny how sometimes we complicate the gospel so much. It was just all there in front of me all the time. I just can’t thank you enough for the teaching that you guys have been doing for all these years. It is just setting literally thousands of people across the world free, and I’m a product of that. Thank you guys so much for that. It just means the world to me.
SPEAKER 04 :
Well, thank you, Chip, and we appreciate your sharing that with us. You know, that’s one of the things about Scripture memorization. People say, is Scripture memory good? And I say it just depends. If you memorize Scripture in its context, it’s good. But if you don’t, it can be bad because you don’t have any context as to understand the meaning of something. You certainly have memorized what it says. But to know what it means, you have to have it in its context. And most people that really promote scriptural memory really don’t promote it in its context. Just learn the verse. But once you see the context of those scriptures that you’ve memorized, thank God you’ve got them in your heart. But once you see the context, it all starts falling together for you. So we’re very grateful for you, pal.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yeah, another quick encouragement. Just so excited that you guys are on the Internet now. I haven’t been able to listen to you probably for about the past five years, but I’m able to get you online now. And I think podcasting is the greatest invention of all time, and so I’m able to listen to you just kind of whenever I want to now. And it’s just so good to get that teaching in me again. And I’m in Richmond right now, and I’m in the process of planning a church, and that’s going to be launching probably in November. Well, March of 2006, and just so you know that, I mean, you might not have a lot of active listeners right now in Richmond, but at the same time, just know that your ministry is touching my life, as you know, right now, but hopefully we’re going to be touching a lot of other people, so your ministry is multiplied, and you just touch so many people that you probably never even get to hear about, and I believe that you guys are doing God’s work, and I believe that Jesus Christ is saying well done, good and faithful servants to you now, and also to you when you go to be present with the Lord. So I just thought I’d offer that as an encouragement to you, and again, thank you for all that you do.
SPEAKER 04 :
Well, you’re welcome, Chip. Thank you so much for the encouragement.
SPEAKER 02 :
Thank you. All right, here’s my question. I’ve been talking with some people who have sort of been, well, I just say they’re on kind of a baptism kick. A lot of these guys that I know are from the Church of Christ denomination, and so we’ve kind of been you know, discussing more like debating about, um, the role of baptism in a, uh, in a believer’s life. And, uh, and, uh, so I was just, you know, talking to them a lot about these, uh, these scriptures. And I’ve done some, some scripture essays about, uh, baptism. And I firmly believe that scripture teaches that, that baptism is not, uh, crucial or necessary for salvation purposes. Um, the thing that they brought up to me was that, um, In the book of Acts, and again, Acts is not a doctrinal book, but it is a recorded history book. But there are all these conversions that are happening in the book of Acts, and then immediately followed by baptism. So it seems like there’s some kind of connection with that, and I didn’t really have a good answer for that. I talked about the verse that you always bring up in 1 Corinthians, where Paul said, I didn’t come to baptize, but to preach the gospel. In response to that, this guy showed that in… In Acts 19, I think that Paul was in Ephesus, and it looked like he was baptizing people there. So I really didn’t have a good answer for that. So I just wondered if you could kind of shed some light on baptisms in the book of Acts and kind of what the context of that and what that meant.
SPEAKER 04 :
Well, I don’t think you go to the book of Acts for any doctrine. If you’re going to do that, you ought to sell everything you have and lay it at the feet of the apostles because they did that as well. But certainly I don’t think people are following that. Chip, I’ve asked people at Church of Christ, number one, it’s a nonsensical theology. I’ve asked people, you know, who died for your sins? Jesus. Who was raised from the dead? Jesus. Who baptized you? My pastor. Well, that ought to tell you something right there. Nothing in conversion comes from us. Everything in conversion is God. You’ve got to be born again from above, not from below. And so there is nothing that we can do to save anybody. And so salvation is putting your faith in what Jesus did, not putting our faith in what we have done. And so that fact alone should be known to anybody who has the Spirit of God living in them. Is there anything that we can do to add to what Christ Jesus has done? And that’s precisely why the Apostle Paul, and I don’t think Paul lied when he wrote Corinthians, and he said he didn’t baptize anyone. And sometimes where people get confused on that, Chip, is the difference between the baptism of the Holy Spirit and the baptism in water.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yes.
SPEAKER 04 :
You remember that Jesus said that John baptized with water, but I’m going to baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. And John the Baptist said that I baptize with water, but the one coming after me whose sandals I’m not worthy to untie will baptize you with the Holy Spirit. And so what we have done is the water baptism was a foreshadowing or a shadow, and the baptism is the reality. The baptism of the Holy Spirit is the reality, and we’re still pointing our finger at the shadow. That was merely a foreshadowing of the reality that’s going to be found in Christ Jesus. And that’s why Paul said, I didn’t baptize anyone. God didn’t send me to baptize. He said, oh, yeah, I did baptize Cleo’s household. Or, excuse me, Cephas, he said, and Apollos. I’m still not getting that right. Crispus and Gaius. Crispus and Gaius. And outside of that, I don’t remember I baptized anybody because I didn’t come to baptize but to proclaim the gospel. Now, in Corinthians, it tells us what the gospel is. It’s the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ Jesus. And there isn’t anything about baptism in the gospel anymore. And if Paul was able to say, I didn’t come to baptize but to preach the gospel, that negates the idea that baptism is in the gospel. So there’s only one thing and one person that can save you, and that’s Christ Jesus. So is there anything we can do to add to that? So the baptism, when you and I are indwelt by the Spirit of God, that’s Jesus living in you. Then the Spirit baptizes us into the body of Christ. This is a spiritual baptism. And that is us in Christ. And that completes the transaction. And so we’re not baptized. You’re baptized by the Holy Spirit. into the body of Christ Jesus, and that’s how we become members of his body. So anyone who thinks that you become members of his body by getting dunked in water has now put baptism, a part of salvation, into the hands of us instead of totally into the hands of Christ Jesus. They’re in a thing we do to add to what Christ Jesus did. So baptism was, you know, ceremonial washings was quite prevalent in Judaism. And baptism, that type of thing, was taking place long before even John the Baptist. But John the Baptist said he came baptizing because the one who told him to baptize told him that the one on whom the dove descends is the Messiah. So the reason John the Baptist was baptizing, the reason Jesus allowed himself to be baptized, was to point Jesus to Israel, that this is the Messiah. And that was the excitement of John the Baptist’s ministry, of everyone that he baptized, Is this the one? And that’s also why he said to the legalistic Pharisees, what are you doing out here, you bunch of whitewashed sepulchers? There’s no way in the world that you’re the Messiah. So baptism was a way of pointing you to that it was a ceremony of cleaning yourself up and preparing yourself for the Savior. And that’s precisely why in one of the passages of Acts when the people, when they came in and they asked them, did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed? They said, we don’t even know what the Holy Spirit is. Well, what baptism were you engaged in? Well, John the Baptist. All we know, all we were baptized in is John the Baptist. And they went ahead to explain the fullness of the gospel. And at that point, they were baptized by the Holy Spirit. They were saved at that point. Prior to that time, they had just received the preparatory baptism of John the Baptist. So, again, as you well know, as well as I do, Chip, you cannot take doctrine out of the book of Acts. And the Church of Christ and the people that are into tongues, they take it out of the… You see, this is the interesting thing. The people who are into the tongues teaching take it out of the book of Acts, but they don’t believe in baptismal regeneration. And the people who believe in baptismal regeneration don’t believe in tongues. It’s all out of the book of Acts.
SPEAKER 06 :
Right.
SPEAKER 04 :
So you really ought to make up your mind and be for all of it or none of it.
SPEAKER 02 :
Well, super. Well, I really appreciate your shedding some light on that, and God bless you all.
SPEAKER 04 :
Well, thank you so much, Chip, and the same to you, brother.
SPEAKER 01 :
Classic Christianity Radio is a listener-funded program, and because of your generous donations, we are able to be on the air. Go to bobgeorge.net online for more information about how to purchase helpful books and Bible study materials to guide you as you grow in your relationship with Jesus. The bobgeorge.net website also has additional information on how you can join us financially to help support the radio ministry. With your prayers and support, we can continue to share the good news of Jesus Christ. Let’s continue now with the teaching message.
SPEAKER 04 :
We’re going to go now to Atlanta, Georgia, listening on WGUN. David, you’re on the air.
SPEAKER 05 :
I was wondering if I had heard it said that to really have a true meaning and a true understanding, a lot of things in the Bible that you have to study it and understand it from a Hebraic Jewish point of view. And I was wondering what your opinion was of that.
SPEAKER 04 :
don’t have an opinion david i can tell you the truth of it but it’s not an opinion it’s just an absolute true jesus said in christ there is no jew or gentile slave or free uh we’re one and therefore yet to study it quite frankly to study the bible from a jewish viewpoint today would be studying uh for the majority of jewish from an atheistic standpoint because the majority of them don’t even believe in god But the issue is if you’re talking about going back and studying it from the Jewish standpoint, are you talking about the Orthodox Jewish standpoint or the conservative Jewish standpoint? So to answer your question, no, absolutely. The Bible was written to you and me, and it is written to the Jew as well as to the Gentile. And God says in Christ there is no Jew or Gentile, slave or free. So this dividing up between the Jew and Gentile is not biblical.
SPEAKER 05 :
Well, I was just thinking maybe that they were thinking like some of his parables and stuff like this, that you would have a deeper or better understanding of them if you kind of understood the thinking of the times or something like that.
SPEAKER 04 :
A little hard to understand the thinking of the times when you’re 3,000 years away from the times.
SPEAKER 05 :
Okay.
SPEAKER 04 :
I appreciate it. I don’t think so, David. I think you just look. The Bible tells us that no eye has seen. That means no Jewish eye has seen or Gentile eye has seen or mind. That means a Gentile mind or a Jewish mind has conceived of those things that God has prepared for those who love him, but it must be revealed by the Spirit. And the Spirit doesn’t reveal one thing to the Jew and one thing to the Gentile.
SPEAKER 05 :
Okay. I appreciate it.
SPEAKER 04 :
You’re talking about people who had grabbed a hold of tradition, whether it be Protestant tradition, Catholic tradition, Jewish tradition, Muslim tradition. It doesn’t make any difference. It’s what you have been taught by man. And that’s what the Jewish people were doing in Jesus’ day, hanging on to their tradition. That’s why I said, you know, you don’t pay attention to the word of God. You worship at the foot of your tradition. So it doesn’t make any difference whether you’re a Jew who is a traditionalist or a Gentile or who it might be. It’s the idea that you’re hanging on to what some man taught you or some interpretation instead of allowing God to reveal the meaning of the word of God to you. Well, very good. Well, that I think was David. Thank you very much. Let’s go to Fairfax, Virginia. Listen on WFAX. Don, you’re on the air.
SPEAKER 06 :
Hi, Bob.
SPEAKER 04 :
How are you doing, brother?
SPEAKER 06 :
Doing well, sir. Question with regards to the prior, the previous call, not two callers ago. Okay, the connotation during the conversation of repentance related to forgiveness, and I’ve also wanted to know how much of the weight of the word repentance relates to turning from your sin, repenting from that type of sin or from any sin.
SPEAKER 04 :
Well, Don, what we’re talking about, the word repentance used in the scripture is not, I used to smoke, but I’ve repented, now I don’t. Because you can start again. Repentance is a total act of the will. It is a total belief system. You are not born a believer. No one came out of his mother’s womb saying, praise Jesus. You’re born into this world as an unbeliever. And that’s why everyone must be born again. Everyone is born once of his mom and dad. And then you have to have a spiritual birth if you’re going to enter into the kingdom of God. And that means that you’re not born spiritually alive. You’re born spiritually dead. And repentance is turning from that state of death to the life of Christ Jesus. And when that repentance, that is not one of, well, I believe, but I may not believe. It’s putting your faith in what you say you believe. And that’s why it says it’s for by grace you’re saved through faith. In other words, it’s not through just believing. The devil believes that Jesus was God. The devil could get in any church in town. Do you believe Jesus is God? Yeah, I do. Do you believe he died on a cross? Yeah, unfortunately, I was there. Do you believe he was raised from the dead? Yeah, I saw that too. Well, you’re in. Give me your tithing envelope and you’re in. But again, what was the difference between believing and putting faith? He did not put faith in what Jesus did. And so that’s what you repent of, the fact that you have faith because you’re not born with faith in Jesus. You had faith in yourself or whatever, and it’s repenting from that into Christ Jesus, taking yourself off of the throne of your life and putting Christ Jesus on it. And that is what repentance is dealing with. I laughingly say sometimes that repentance is kind of like your breakfast in the morning. The chicken made a contribution to it. The pig, total commitment. And repentance is total commitment. Yeah.
SPEAKER 06 :
All right. Well, I also had one additional question, and I read an article on the Internet about Iraq and how early in the war a couple years ago when – there were different types of groups of people and who were being oppressed, if you will, by some of the different Muslim sects. And one of them was the… I’m sorry, I’m driving and I’m somewhat distracted, but the point of it is that they are the last group of people on Earth that speak Aramaic. and they were saying the language that Jesus spoke in. And so my question is, how does that fit in or relate to in the stack of when everybody says, in the original Greek, where does Aramaic fit in to all of the early and original translations?
SPEAKER 04 :
Well, basically the thing called the Septuagint was the translation of the Old Testament from Hebrew into the Greek language, which was the language of the day. And it is the most distinct language. Hebrew is more of a thought language whereby the Greek literally spells it out word by word and syllable by syllable almost. And so the whole Old Testament was already translated into the Septuagint in Jesus’ day. And then the New Testament had to be written in Greek, in the Greek language, by an apostle or an amanuensis of an apostle. And so the language, the spoken language at that time, is irrelevant to us the issue is that god decided to put the bible in the greek language and those were the original manuscripts of the new testament were all written in the greek language in which we have hundreds of of manuscripts today copies of those originals now so what they spoke or what jesus spoke was irrelevant uh… because we have functioning off of the written word today and uh… again We are assuming because of the background that Jesus spoke in Hebrew or Aramaic. We don’t know that. That’s merely speculation. He could have been speaking in Greek. We don’t know, but probably not.
SPEAKER 06 :
Okay.
SPEAKER 04 :
Okay, brother.
SPEAKER 06 :
I really enjoy biblical history, and that was just hanging out there, and I just wanted to get your take on it.
SPEAKER 04 :
Does that help?
SPEAKER 06 :
Absolutely.
SPEAKER 04 :
Okay, brother. Thanks for your call, Don. You call again, my friend. We’re going to go to Upland, California, listening on Kay Bright. Sandy, you’re on the air.
SPEAKER 03 :
Hi, Bob.
SPEAKER 04 :
Hi, Sandy.
SPEAKER 03 :
God bless you. You do great work.
SPEAKER 04 :
Well, thank you.
SPEAKER 03 :
I’m kind of at odds because I have a sister-in-law whom I dearly love. She’s a Jehovah Witness, and You know, I’ve been really praying for, you know, the truth to be revealed to her, but I just get so stumped. And, you know, sometimes I just don’t know the words to say, you know. And I was hoping that you might be able, because, you know, sometimes we go with Scripture, her and I, but she always counters me. with the things that they believe. And she’s a wonderful person, but they don’t acknowledge Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER 04 :
Right. Well, there’s where you have to start, and that’s where you have to end, Sandy, because they live as what the Bible would call antichrist. It doesn’t make any difference how nice your sister-in-law is. The Bible calls her an antichrist. of people who devote their lives trying to convince people that Jesus is not God. And there’s no other title that you can put on people such as that except what the Bible does, and that is that of being an antichrist. You can have people that believe, well, you’ve got to do this, you’ve got to do that, and you say, well, you could probably go either way on that. But when you’re dealing with the deity of Christ, you’re dealing with the very essence of who God is and who Jesus is. So that’s where I start and that’s where I end. I don’t get involved in any other discussions with them at all except the fact that who Jesus is and Jesus declared himself to be God. And it would appear to me that if there was a declaration on the part of Jesus to declare himself to be God, that you would have to come to the conclusion that we talk about so many times that anybody claiming himself to be God would either be a nitwit or he would be an imposter or he would be God. I don’t know any other options to that. Do you?
SPEAKER 03 :
No, I don’t. And the thing is, is that, you know, I lost my brother, younger brother to cancer six months ago and I took care of him. He had a brain tumor, and I used to pray, too, that God would not let him suffer the indignities of having to wear a pamper. And the Lord was good. He did take him, but I went through something that I would never believe. And I know the Apostle Paul says that we are not to mourn like the unbeliever. I just… I just was having such a hard time coming to terms with just not having him. I loved him so much, and he was a believer. I know before he died, I whispered to him to run to Jesus. Those were my last words to him. And I know my heart and soul knows where he’s at, but I guess it’s the flesh that just misses him desperately.
SPEAKER 04 :
Well, you’d be strange if you didn’t miss somebody that you love, but the issue is you’re going to see him again.
SPEAKER 03 :
Right, exactly.
SPEAKER 04 :
And if you would look at that, the fact, on that fact alone, that if you had a loved one that… had a certain sickness that they had to go. There was no option except they had to go live in Hawaii. I don’t think you’d be sitting here mourning over where they were. And the issue is that here is loved ones that are in the presence of God, never to see this sin that we have to live with, the dishonesty, the politicians, the wars, the rumors of wars, never again. And to say, would I trade places with him? I wouldn’t call him back in a million years.
SPEAKER 03 :
And he is in the presence of the Lord, isn’t he, Bob? He is.
SPEAKER 04 :
If he’s in Christ Jesus, he certainly is.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yes, he was absolutely in Christ.
SPEAKER 04 :
And then if you’re in Christ, you’re going to be with him someday. So this is not like any of my wife’s books. Goodbye is not forever as a Christian. It’s just a matter of time. And, you know, Sandy, think about it for a minute. How many times have you been away from somebody or maybe not seen a high school person or a college person or whatever it might be for 10, 15 years? And all of a sudden get back together and five minutes after you’re together, it seems like you’ve never been separated. It’s that’s what’s going to happen to us. We’re going to be in the presence of God with our loved ones and said it’ll be like time flew so fast. You know, it’s like yesterday. So that’s what you rejoice in as a Christian. That’s why we do not mourn and weep like the heathen do. But rejoice in the fact as to where they are and rejoice in the fact that you’re going to see them again. And all of that sadness, even though you miss them, is going to disappear. Okay.
SPEAKER 03 :
Okay. Thank you, Bob.
SPEAKER 04 :
You’re sure welcome. As far as your other person is concerned, just don’t get off of the subject of Jesus and his deity. You know, it’s interesting, the 22nd chapter of Revelation, and they’re always quoting out of Revelation, where it talks about, behold, I’m coming soon. Well, in the earlier chapters, you’d see, I’m coming soon, says Jehovah God. So we know who they’re talking about, Jehovah God. I’m coming soon. It’s right there. You know that. Then in verse 12, behold, I am coming soon. My reward is with me, and I’ll give to everyone according to what he has done. I am the Alpha and Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end. Earlier in the book, who does it say is the Alpha and Omega, first and last, beginning and end, Jehovah God. And then in verse 16, what does it say? I, Jesus, have sent my angel to give you the testimony of the churches. I am the root, the offspring of David and the bright morning star, identifying him exactly by name, Jesus, as who they would call Jehovah God, the Alpha and Omega, the first and last, the beginning and the end. How anybody can deny that is beyond me.
SPEAKER 03 :
Right, right.
SPEAKER 04 :
You’ve got to have, you have to have, Sandy. Yes. There’s something inside of you that has to say, I am not going to accept Jesus as God in order to believe what you’re believing. That’s the ultimate rebellion of man.
SPEAKER 03 :
Okay, okay. Okay? Okay, thank you, Bob. God bless you. Bye-bye. Thanks, Sandy.
SPEAKER 04 :
Same to you, Sandy. Bye-bye.
SPEAKER 01 :
Until next time, walk in faith, be good to one another, and praise the Lord. Amen.
