On this special call-in edition of Classic Christianity Radio, Bob George answers listener questions about grace, law, baptism, forgiveness, dreams, reincarnation, and several modern spiritual misconceptions.
Early in the program, Bob explains how the New Covenant replaces the Old Testament law system with the “law of love,” emphasizing that believers are no longer under the Mosaic law but are called to walk in love through Christ. He also clarifies passages that often confuse Christians regarding commandments, forgiveness, and the covering of sins.
Other callers ask about difficult Bible passages surrounding the resurrection of saints after Christ’s crucifixion, whether dreams and visions
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 :
Mission British Columbia, Canada. Let’s go to Larry on carry. Larry, you’re on the air.
SPEAKER 06 :
Hey, Bob. How you doing?
SPEAKER 04 :
You’re doing great. Thank you, brother.
SPEAKER 06 :
Awesome. I got a question for you about, I guess it’s about law and grace. I know that we are under grace because the New Covenant came in, and that’s what we’re under and what we live by. And I want to thank you for teaching us that and really helping me to understand that. But coming across here on 1 Corinthians 7, 19, Paul says, Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing, but what matters is The keeping of the commandments of God. And then I was reading what John says in 2 John 1, 6. And this is love that we walk according to his commandments. This is a commandment, just as you have heard from the beginning, that you should walk in it.
SPEAKER 04 :
And what are the commandments he’s talking about? You’ve got to keep reading.
SPEAKER 06 :
Yeah.
SPEAKER 04 :
Just love one another. Love your God with all your heart, mind, and soul. Love your neighbor as yourself upon these two commandments. Hence the fulfillment of the entirety of the law and the prophets. That’s what Jesus said. Yeah, and that’s the laws he’s talking about.
SPEAKER 06 :
Okay. Yeah, just a little. Because, you know, like 1 Corinthians there, 719, you read that, you know, circumcision is nothing, uncircumcision is nothing. But then it says, but what matters is keeping of the commandments of God. And it’s just kind of like,
SPEAKER 04 :
It makes it sound like he’s… Well, if you don’t read anything else on that, Larry, you could sit there and say, oh, that’s the Ten Commandments, but when you see all of Paul’s teaching is that we’re no longer under the law, but you’re under the law of love, why then you understand what that is. But you can certainly just take it, that’s the reason, just looking at a verse of something and not putting it in the context that it’s written, it can cause a person to go all over the place. But when you understand that the laws that they’re talking about is the law of love, Jesus fulfilled the law not because he didn’t do this or this, which he certainly didn’t, but he fulfilled the law because he walked in perfect love, and love is the fulfillment of the law.
SPEAKER 06 :
Yeah, and we couldn’t fulfill it.
SPEAKER 04 :
Absolutely, absolutely.
SPEAKER 06 :
All right, yeah, just, you know, sometimes you read it, right, and you’re like, like you say, you know, you’ve got to read on.
SPEAKER 04 :
and that uh that’s definitely true but i don’t know just sometimes those verses kind of like leap out at you and you think hmm yeah well that’s why that’s why i say to people that uh you know that’s why i don’t like giving verses to people yeah people normally when they get in a jam are looking for a verse just like give me an aspirin yeah uh and uh what i want to tell a person is, I don’t want to give you a verse. I want to give you a book. I want you to see the context of truth. Why don’t you sit down and read the book of Galatians or sit down and read the book of John and ask God to give you that ability to interpret the meaning of these things. So again, when all of this looked in the context of what it is saying, which basically is in the context of marriage, and then all of a sudden he comes into circumcision there. Yeah. But what counts, as he says, is keeping God’s commands is what counts, and the only commands that we are left with in the New Testament is the commands of Jesus to love one another. And he says that’s the fulfillment of all the law. Yeah, it’s most important.
SPEAKER 06 :
I have another question for you, if that’s all right. Quickly… I was reading there in first Peter four, eight, uh, above all, keep fervent in your love for one another because love covers the multitude of sins. Uh, I totally believe that, you know, the cross was forever and our sins are taken away. That’s what Jesus did. You know, he was promised of a better covenant and taken away the sins and all that. You know, Bob, you’ve really helped me, uh, uh, understand that. And I got your, uh, cassette series there on experiencing the forgiveness of God, and that’s so excellent. But, like, when Peter’s saying that in that verse, and then it says, because love covers a multitude of sins, it kind of, in a way, like, to me, it was kind of, like, almost saying that, like, he was portraying that Christ just atoned because of what he said.
SPEAKER 04 :
But then I’m thinking, well… He’s saying to forgive each other, right? Yeah. Yeah. So, and the forgiveness… that we extend toward one another covers a multitude of sins. We live with each other. If we don’t love one another, the sins that we commit toward one another is never going to get covered. So this is talking about forgiveness down on our level, not God’s. Towards each other, okay. Toward one another, yeah.
SPEAKER 06 :
But we’ll keep her in love for one another because, okay. Yeah. All righty. Okay, brother. Quicks there. Okay.
SPEAKER 04 :
Thanks a lot, eh? You’re sure welcome, Larry. Good to talk to you, brother. Take care. Okay, bye-bye now. We’re going to go now to Nashville, Tennessee, listening on WNQM. Jimmy, you’re on the air.
SPEAKER 09 :
Yes, Bob, I just want to know if you can, I’ve been reading this in the Bible, and I’m sort of confused about it. I want to know if you can explain, it’s in Matthew 27, 50-53. It’s about when after Jesus was crucified and the temple, you know.
SPEAKER 04 :
Well, why don’t we read it? Why don’t we read it? That’s a good place to start, isn’t it, brother? So he said at that moment, the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. And you know what that’s all about, Jimmy, that no one entered into the Holy of Holies except Jesus. the designated priest of that year. And when they did, they used to tie a rope around his ankle in case he had a heart attack and died, they could pull him out because no one else could have gone in there and gotten him. So they literally had a rope around his foot. And so then that temple was, or that curtain was torn from top to bottom, not bottom to top. but top from the bottom showing it was god who ripped the curtain open now enabling all of us to enter into the holy of holies calling him daddy father and receiving mercy in our time of need a great picture of that so the earth shook the rock split the tombs broke open and the bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life and they came out of the tombs and after jesus resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many people you say okay the uh
SPEAKER 09 :
the people that were raised to life, would you say that’s the Old Testament saints’ resurrection?
SPEAKER 04 :
Well, what it says, “…the tombs broke open, and the bodies of many,” not all, but many holy people, who had died, were raised to life, and they came out of their tomb after the resurrection. They went into the holy city and appeared to many people. They would probably have been, most of whom would have been the Old Testament saints, who were saved by faith in the coming Messiah and were baptized. And it could also be another thing, too. It could be people who were in Christ Jesus who had recently died. We don’t know all the answers to those. All we know is the person that recorded this talks about the fact that not all, but many bodies came out. Many bodies, many holy people who had died were raised to life and came out of their tombs. That’s as good as we can go with it.
SPEAKER 09 :
Okay. I just always just wondered about it. You know, I was thinking it was probably the you know, that was the resurrection of the Old Testament saints, you know, like when Jesus come back, that’d be the ones that, you know, got saved from Jesus’ death on up to now. I thought that was probably the Old Testament saints.
SPEAKER 04 :
No, if that had been the case, it would have been all of them. So as I said, just many of them. So we just have to kind of take that for what it is, brother, and say that’s as good as we can do with it is that the bodies of many people, holy people, set-apart people who have died were raised to life. And that’s as good as we can do with that.
SPEAKER 09 :
All right, then. Thanks a lot.
SPEAKER 04 :
Okay, my friend. Good to talk to you, Jimmy, and thanks for your call. Bye-bye now. Washington, D.C. Let’s go on WFAX. Michelle, you’re on the air.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yes, I have one simple question I want to ask. I would like to know our dreams and visions for today.
SPEAKER 04 :
Well, you can certainly have dreams today, but they don’t have any meaning to them. In the book of Hebrews, again, Michelle, look what it says. In times past, God spoke to her forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways. So in the times past, he spoke to them through dreams, visions, spoke to us through a donkey one time. I think some of the things I see on television, I think he’s still doing the same today. uh but then now you have the but which is a contrast so whenever you see a but it’s a contrast in the past he spoke to us this way but in these last days he’s spoken to us by his son whom he has appointed heir of all things and through whom he made the universe everything that god wants you to know about himself has been revealed in jesus not in dreams not in visions but in jesus So, yes, you can have dreams, but they don’t have any bearing as far as God’s concerned.
SPEAKER 03 :
I see. And I have to try to find these scriptures. Okay, so Hebrews.
SPEAKER 04 :
It’s the first chapter of Hebrews.
SPEAKER 03 :
Okay. And what was the other, do you know what was the other scripture located at?
SPEAKER 04 :
All of it was out of Hebrews.
SPEAKER 03 :
All of it. Yeah.
SPEAKER 04 :
What I just quoted to you is the first three chapter, first three verses of the first chapter of Hebrews.
SPEAKER 03 :
Okay. Then when I could tell this person, they didn’t believe and I believe, but that she was right. All right then.
SPEAKER 04 :
Okay.
SPEAKER 03 :
Thank you. Y’all have a blessed day. Thank you, Michelle.
SPEAKER 04 :
Same to you. God bless you now. Let’s go to Stone Mountain, Georgia. We’re listening on WGUN. Stanley, you’re on the air.
SPEAKER 08 :
How you doing?
SPEAKER 04 :
Pretty good, Stanley.
SPEAKER 08 :
I got a question for you, and I’ve been studying that word of God for 32 years. And my question is, to me, and my understanding of what God revealed to me was that when Christ went to Calvary, that he gave everything for a human being except their damned nature. How do you feel about that?
SPEAKER 04 :
That he did what now?
SPEAKER 08 :
that he carried everything in the cavalry, all your sins, your sickness, and everything he bade on the cross, except the damning nature of a human being.
SPEAKER 04 :
What do I mean? I don’t think that’s the best way in the world to put that, Stanley. Jesus went to the cross to take away the sins. of the entire world. And the only sin that is attributable to man, as Jesus said, the world’s sin is unbelief in me. So the only sin attributable to man is the sin of the rejection of Christ Jesus, the rejection of the testimony of God concerning his Son, that God has given us eternal life, and this life’s in his Son. And he who has the Son has life, and he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.
SPEAKER 08 :
Well, let me ask you a question concerning that. If a man was married and he had a wife and he was walking in the way of God, and at the time that he married, the family that he came from and the family that his wife came from were two whole different families. They married and stayed together 18 years before they found out one of them never believed in God in the first place. Now, would you say that You demand other women, they should have known more about each other’s spiritual background. If one was more avid in the Word of God, and the Word of God teaches us how shall we know those fruit, we shall know them by the fruit of their mouth.
SPEAKER 04 :
Well, I’ve known Stanley as an example. I worked at one time with a man that is one of the sweetest human beings you’d ever want to meet in your life. He taught Old Testament survey in the Bible college. Prior to that, he was a pastor and a missionary. And after being a pastor and a missionary and a professor in a Bible college for over 18 years, finally came to Christ Jesus as his Lord and Savior. Just like John Wesley in a Methodist religion, he said, although he had been trying to do a lot for God, he had never accepted what God had done for him in the person of Christ Jesus. And on the day that he understood it is all Jesus and none of us said his heart was strangely warmed. He was born again, even though. He had been to seminary. Even though he is pastoring, he still didn’t know Christ in a personal way. So that’s between an individual and God. Only you know whether you’re saved or not. And sometimes we could be living with a person who gives lip service to that and can be a great what I call an ape and a parrot. We can act and we can imitate verbiage but not have the reality of Christ Jesus. And so that could actually happen. But the issue is if it does happen and they come to Christ, why then that issue is all solved. It’s not how could I have been so dumb not to know because none of our business. It’s Christ’s business. But the issue now they have come to Christ. And so now we can all rejoice together.
SPEAKER 01 :
Be sure to go to bobgeorge.net to find our in-depth and practical Bible study guides. Each Bible study will teach you more about Jesus and will help strengthen your relationship with God. Now back to our Classic Christianity radio program.
SPEAKER 02 :
Bob, a nice letter from Lisa who lives in Glen St. Mary, Florida. And she says, Dear Bob, this past year, since I have learned of the fullness of His grace, the finality of the cross, and the reality of the resurrection, as well as the reality of Christ in me, I can’t tell you how much it has changed my life. Also, it has helped me in being able to be used by Christ to help others. It’s no longer me trying to help, teach, pray, and so forth for folks, but Christ in me and through me. I found it so much easier to forgive others. It is easier to love others without expecting something in return, and it’s all because of Christ. I’m so thankful to your ministry, so if you ever get disheartened, know that there are those who appreciate you, your materials, and your stuff. So hang in there, brother, and know that you have some folks here who are keeping you in prayer. And it’s signed, Love in Him, Lisa, from Glen St. Mary, Florida. Materials and stuff.
SPEAKER 04 :
With stuff, yeah. Well, Lisa, thanks for writing to us. You know, Bob, so many times we talk about serving people and serving the Lord, and you stop to think about the Lord Jesus Christ himself, who said, I didn’t come to be served, but I came to serve. But you know, the one in whom Christ served was his father. And that’s why he said that I’m serving by living in total dependency upon what you are telling me to do and then going out and doing that. So the serving of us is the byproduct of serving the Father, following the instructions of the Father. It’s living in submission to someone else. And so we think about, well, I’m serving people. No, you’re serving the Lord. Because what you’re doing is if you’re living in a dependent mindset toward Christ, then what you’re doing is seeking what do you want me to do, Lord, in this particular case. Not my will, but yours be done. I’ve asked people many times, do you want your prayers answered? Do you want God’s will for your life? And so if the Lord is telling you to love somebody or to forgive somebody, Why, then you’re serving him because he’s the one who said to do that. You’re serving him by going and exercising that forgiveness. Now, in so doing, you may be serving that person, but that’s a byproduct. The one you’re serving is him. Because you can go out and come up with some lip service that I forgive you, brother. but don’t turn your back on me. And all that is is just gutting out your flesh for God. But when you’re doing it because God said to do it, you’re serving him, and the byproduct of that is we’re serving one another. We’re going to go to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, listening on WEMP. Paul, you’re on the air.
SPEAKER 07 :
Hi, Bob.
SPEAKER 04 :
Hi, Paul.
SPEAKER 07 :
Thank you for taking my call.
SPEAKER 04 :
You’re sure welcome, brother.
SPEAKER 07 :
Bob, I have one question. Is baptism essential to my salvation?
SPEAKER 04 :
No, it isn’t at all, Paul. As a matter of fact, when you see into the writings of Paul, and again, don’t ever take your doctrine from the book of Acts. I don’t care what you’re talking about, whether you’re talking about baptism, whether you’re talking about laying all your goods down at the feet of the apostles. That’s not a doctrinal book. It’s a historical book, and doctrine should never be taken out of the book of Acts. There’s no theologian on the face of the earth that ever considered the book of Acts as a theological book. That’s not a doctrinal book, rather not theological. So you go to the epistles for your doctrine. Now, Paul, as an example, in the first chapter of 1 Corinthians, said that I don’t remember if I baptized anyone, for I did not come to baptize. God didn’t send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not with words of human wisdom, lest the cross be emptied of its power. Now, if baptism was in the gospel, and we’re told, aren’t we, that the gospel saves, the message of the gospel is what saves us. If baptism was in the gospel, could Paul make the statement that I didn’t come to baptize, but to preach the gospel? No, of course not. So, baptism is not in the gospel. There’s no saving value to baptism at all. John the Baptist said, I baptize with water, But there’s the contrast again. One who is coming after me, whose sandals I’m not worthy to untie, will baptize with the Holy Spirit. We’re told then in Peter that the water is a symbol of the baptism that now saves us. That’s the baptism of the Spirit that John was talking about. I come to baptize with water, but one coming after me will baptize with the Spirit. Now, what does baptize the spirit mean? Well, the very moment that you were saved, the spirit of God comes to live within you. And Romans says, if the spirit of God does not live in you, you do not belong to him. So you couldn’t be born again unless you’re born again of the spirit. Now, that’s why this teaching that you can be born again today and then receive the Spirit tomorrow is ludicrous. It’s an impossibility because you couldn’t be born again unless you were born again of the Spirit. And if the Spirit doesn’t live in you, you don’t belong to Him. You’re not born again. At that very instant, the Spirit of God who lives in you baptized or placed you into the body of Christ. Now that’s why whether Jew or Gentile, slave or free, we were all given that one spirit to drink. So at the very moment of spiritual birth, whether you’re a Jew or a Gentile, you became a child of the living God by placing your faith in Jesus, being indwelt by him and placed into a new body, not a Jew body or a Gentile body, but a Jesus body. And that’s what the Lord’s Supper is a picture of that we’ve perverted beyond comprehension. Jesus was holding up a single loaf of bread. If you were to look for the body of Christ 2,000 years ago, you’d have had to go back to Jerusalem and look for Jesus of Nazareth. There you would have seen the body of Christ. But he said, I’m going away. And it’s good for you that I go away. For when I do, I’m going to send the Spirit of God to come and live in you. And you’re going to be my body. So this loaf is a picture of that. Here is my body broken for you not take and eat. So what happens when you partake of that supper is each individual begins to eat off of the loaf. That’s a picture of the day you became a Christian. After that’s been passed around, the loaf is gone. Where is it? In you. That’s a picture of Christ in you, your hope of glory. Why? Because the body of Christ is you now. You’re a part of the body of Christ. I’m a part of the body of Christ. Jesus is the head, and we are the body. And so how that took place was through the Spirit of God placing, baptizing us into the body of Christ. That’s the salvation that saves us. That’s the baptism that saves us. Water is symbolic of that. Something symbolic is nothing but a symbol. It’s a shadow. The reality is found in Christ. Now, on the other hand, is what is baptism then today? Well, it’s an outward reality, outward expression of an inward reality. It’s a way of standing in front of other born-again believers and saying, this is a picture of what happened to me spiritually. It doesn’t cause it to happen. It’s a picture of what happened. And that’s why submersion, quite frankly, is the only type of baptism that gives that picture. Sprinkling somebody doesn’t give that picture. But I’m saying what the baptism, the submersion is, represents death. Water was an instrument of death to us. Not to fish, it’s not. But to us, it is. And so it shows you died, and you died to the law. You were under the law. You died to the law. In order to be raised into the newness of life, now to serve in a new way of life, being married to Jesus Christ as his bride. So the baptism is a picture of that. I died, and I’ve been raised to life to walk in a newness of life, and that is and dwelt with the living Christ. So that’s beneficial. It’s beneficial to the body. It’s beneficial for that service to take place. It’s not a necessity, but it’s beneficial. But when people take that and try to equate that with a way to be saved, they really have overstepped their boundary.
SPEAKER 07 :
Okay. I didn’t quite understand because when I read Mark 16, he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved, I wondered if I could still be saved without being baptized.
SPEAKER 04 :
Well, I’ll tell you, you have to be very careful with those verses from verse 9 down to the end of the chapter, the 16th chapter of Mark, because in the earlier manuscripts, those verses were not even there. And if you will take a look at your translation, you’ll see a notation on that, that in the most reliable and early manuscripts of other ancient witnesses who do not have Mark 16, 9 through 20 in them. So, again, you’re not picking up snakes today, I hope. I hope you’re not drinking poison, and both of those things are in that passage as well. So I think those were something that was added later by some of the old students of their own persuasion.
SPEAKER 07 :
Well, thank you so much.
SPEAKER 04 :
Okay, brother.
SPEAKER 07 :
I appreciate what you’re doing there, and thank you for answering my question.
SPEAKER 04 :
You’re sure welcome, Paul.
SPEAKER 07 :
Thank you.
SPEAKER 04 :
God bless you, my brother.
SPEAKER 07 :
Bye-bye.
SPEAKER 04 :
Bye-bye. Let’s go to Nashville, Tennessee, listening on WNQM. Logan, you’re on the air.
SPEAKER 05 :
Okay. Bob, I myself feel like that sin is transgression of the law. That means all the words of the Creator.
SPEAKER 04 :
Well, that’s one of the definitions of it, Logan. It said that which is not of faith is sin. And I think the root of all sin is unbelief. That’s the sin in the Garden of Eden. There wasn’t a law to break there. There wasn’t anybody to commit adultery with or steal from. It was when Adam and Eve decided to believe the lie of Satan and in so doing deny the truth of God. So the root of all sin is unbelief in Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER 05 :
Technically, technically, they did have a law. They were told not to eat of a certain tree.
SPEAKER 04 :
And so there was law there and there was also grace there. But it says in the scripture that the law came through Jesus Christ. The law came through Moses and the grace of God through Jesus Christ, our Lord.
SPEAKER 05 :
So, I mean, I think both personally. But now my question is, there’s a lot of false doctrines about there’s reincarnation. and there’s parallel universes, and we just keep on living all these different reincarnated lives until we get it right. But that’s contrary to Scripture because it says it’s appointed for man to live one time and then the judgment.
SPEAKER 04 :
Sure, absolutely.
SPEAKER 05 :
So all these people teaching reincarnation, either they’re a liar or Yahweh the Father of the Creator is a liar, either one or the other. You can’t have both.
SPEAKER 04 :
I agree with you, brother. That’s why there’s no reincarnation in the Bible.
SPEAKER 05 :
And not only that, they’re teaching that God is a woman now. He’s a homosexual, and that he changes into a woman. I mean, they’re teaching all kinds of blasphemy.
SPEAKER 04 :
I don’t know who you’re hearing, but wherever we are, they need to be silenced. Well, we have to go off the air, brother. I appreciate your call, Logan. God bless you, Pat. Hallelujah. Bye-bye.
SPEAKER 01 :
Until next time, walk in faith, be good to one another, and praise the Lord. Amen.
