On this special call-in edition of Classic Christianity Radio, Bob George answers a wide range of listener questions dealing with salvation, grace, marriage, false doctrine, and spiritual deception.
One caller asks whether Hebrews 3 teaches that Christians can lose salvation, leading Bob into a detailed explanation of eternal life, the believer’s “Sabbath rest” in Christ, and why salvation is based on the life of Christ rather than human performance. Bob strongly emphasizes that eternal life cannot be temporary by definition.
Other callers ask about Christian marriage, whether a simple wedding ceremony is acceptable before God, and how believers should interact with
00:00:01 Introduction to Classic Christianity Radio
00:00:48 Discussion on Salvation and Rest in Christ
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 02 :
We’re going to go to Louisville, Kentucky, listening on WFIA. Tom, you’re on the air.
SPEAKER 07 :
Hi, Bob.
SPEAKER 02 :
Hi, Tom.
SPEAKER 07 :
I’ve got a friend who’s actually the pastor of a church I go to, and unfortunately he’s not resting in the finality of the cross, but he’s trying to work with me on some scriptures to try to understand it. He says in chapter 3 in the book of Hebrews 14, he threw this one out at me, that if we hold firmly till the end the confidence we had at first… will share in Christ. He’s trying to tell me, you know, you can lose your salvation. But what really is that talking about if we hold firmly to the end?
SPEAKER 02 :
Well, Tom, you’re talking, again, context. The solution to biblical interpretation is context. So what is the context of the first three chapters of the book of Hebrews? It’s the fact of the superiority of Christ. to all of the other things that the Jews were holding on to. He is superior to the angels. He is superior to Moses. He is superior to Abraham. He is God himself, and he is gearing us toward a rest, and that is coming up in chapter 4, is the Sabbath rest that he wants us to enter into. Now, you know that you have the story of the Jews who were in Egypt. They got into the desert. That could represent salvation. Now, there’s another place to go, and that’s into the promised land where you’re drinking from wells that you didn’t dig and eating from trees that you didn’t plant. You’re entering into a rest, which you cannot do in the desert. You’re out of Egypt. You’re saved, but you’re not resting. And so this whole area is pointing us toward this Sabbath rest that is talked about in chapter 4. So when it’s saying in 14, we have come to share in Christ. Now here’s another thing is the ifs. And that’s where our English language is very difficult sometimes. Because you, in the Greek language, you have an if that is, as an example, when Satan was tempting Jesus, he said, if you are the son of God, turn these stones into bread. That is not an if with a question. I don’t know whether you are or not. It’s an inasmuch as. In light of the fact that you are the son of God, turn these stones into bread. That’s one kind of if. There’s another that’s a conditional. If you do, he will. If you don’t, he won’t. This if isn’t in as much as. So we have come to share in Christ in light of the fact that we hold firmly till the end with the confidence we had at first. Now, again, if you do not hold to the confidence that you had at first, you’re not going to continue sharing. in the rest. You will still, you’re saved, but you’re still in the desert. Now, if you want to share in Christ with confidence, he wants you to have confidence at the end of your life the same way that you did at the beginning of your spiritual life. And you’re never going to do that until you rest. The only way we’ll ever have confidence is getting out of the desert. The desert is where you work. The promised land is where you rest. Why are you resting? Because by faith, you know that that you are a forgiven person. You know that you are a redeemed person. You know that you’re a justified person. You know your destiny as far as God’s concerned. You’re already seated in the heavenlies with him in Christ Jesus. That’s all a part of who you are. Now I can rest in that. I don’t have to work at it. I cannot add to what God has done. Certainly don’t want to subtract from it. I’m going to rest in it. So the only way that I’m ever going to continue to share not dealing with salvation, just to share in that relationship that you have with Christ is to enter into a rest. Because if you’re in the desert still wondering whether you’re there or not, you can’t rest. So this whole deal is pointing us toward what Joshua did, and that was to lead the Jews into the promised land, which Moses could not do and did not do. So this is not dealing with salvation and losing salvation. That is dealing to continue in your understanding of Christ to the point where you can rest in him and enter into that Sabbath rest.
SPEAKER 07 :
He reads out the New Revised Standard Version being a Methodist preacher. I’m sorry, I forgot.
SPEAKER 02 :
Well, again, Tom, let me just say this. Anyone who believes that you can lose your salvation does not know what salvation is. Period. Salvation is life. In other words, you’re not saved by the death of Christ, you’re saved by the life of Christ. What are you saved from? The wages of sin, which is death, by the gift of God, which is life. Jesus said, I am the resurrection and the life, and whosoever believes in me, though he were dead. Well, obviously, we wouldn’t be talking about physical death, that’s spiritual death. Though he were dead spiritually, yet shall he live spiritually, and whosoever lives and believes in me will never die. So Christ came to offer us life. I came that you might have life. He who has the Son has life. He who does not have the Son does not have life. The whole issue of salvation is an issue of life and death. Now what kind of life did he give us? Temporal life or eternal life? Eternal life. And in order to give you eternal life, you have to have eternal forgiveness. Because if you didn’t have eternal forgiveness, you couldn’t have eternal life. So a person who does not, says you can lose life, is looking into the face of jesus it said no you can’t lose what’s eternal and saying oh yes you can so you don’t understand what it is now if your only understanding of salvation is that your sins are forgiven well you could probably get to the point to say well i think i’ve out sinned the cross but there’s no way when you have eternal life to lose what is eternal so a person teaching you can lose salvation doesn’t know what salvation is
SPEAKER 07 :
You can see how this would be confusing. It says, For we have become partners of Christ, if only we hold our first confidence firm to the end. I mean, we would know if as much as, but when you stick only in there, it sounds like a double condition. If only we hold our first confidence.
SPEAKER 02 :
Well, that’s the confidence that we’re talking about. Hold on to it if you’re going to enter into a rest. Again, Tom… context what is this leading us to a sabbath rest not salvation you’re already out of egypt he is resting in christ not whether or not you’re in christ or not no it’s whether you’re going to rest in him or not whether you’re going to enter into the sabbath rest or not people teaching what you’re teaching aren’t resting they’re in the desert that’s right so being a partner of christ some people would think
SPEAKER 07 :
is salvation, a partner of Christ, but it’s really in the context of being a partner of the rest of Christ.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yeah, it’s like being in partnership and being together. If you’re not going to rest in the completeness of the work, quite frankly, you’re going to end up falling away. You’re not going to lose your salvation, you’re just not going to have any joy.
SPEAKER 07 :
Right. Okay. Thank you very much.
SPEAKER 02 :
Does that help, Tom?
SPEAKER 07 :
That helps me, okay.
SPEAKER 02 :
Okay, brother. Bye-bye now. We’re going to go to Los Angeles, California. Let’s go on Kay Bright. And Richie, you’re on the air.
SPEAKER 04 :
Hi there.
SPEAKER 02 :
How you doing, pal?
SPEAKER 04 :
Pretty good, sir. Yeah, I listen to your ministries and all this, and everybody ministries throughout the day and all. And, you know, I’m reading the Bible for myself and all, and it’s a good thing. And my question is, it’s about marriage. Uh-huh. I know tradition has it that You know, that people go to the church to get married, and, you know, you’re both believers and all of this and that, you know. But, see, I can’t afford to shell out $8,000 or $20,000, whatever it may be, to get married in that way. But I was thinking about going to Las Vegas, and $100, $200, whatever it may be. But I mean well about this, you know. And I want to know if God, does he consider that marriage as well as you guys doing it in the church? What do you think of that?
SPEAKER 02 :
Well, Richie, again, I think that all of this boils down to the fact of are you marrying somebody that is in Christ? Because it tells us not to be unequally yoked one to another. And there’s a reason for that, that what does darkness have in common with light? What does evil have in common with righteousness? So the main thing in marriage, there’s very little talked about it in the scripture. But the one thing is that a person is to leave their father and mother and cleave to their wife and to their husband and the two of them become as one. and not to be unequally yoked one to another. Now, as far as what you’re talking about, spending that kind of money, I’ll guarantee you there are churches in an area that would do a small wedding for somebody without spending that kind of money. So I don’t know. It’s your decision on there. I think that as far as the woman is concerned, because really when you’re dealing with a wedding type of deal, they’re the ones who really are the ones who determine what takes place in a wedding. We just kind of show up. But the woman is the one who plans it. So I would think that would be basically in her hands as to what she wants to do, the average woman. a woman, a girl that I know would prefer to have some sort of a church wedding, whether there was anyone there or not. Amy and I got married in the military. There were four people there, a pastor and the two of us and two other people in my military police company, and that was it. And we’ve been married 40-some years, so that stuck pretty good without having a big, oh, huge wedding. As a matter of fact, I think the bigger the weddings, by the time it occurs, you’re ready to get divorced.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, see, I’m going on 31, and I’ve been single, like, just about all my life, sort of, in a sense. But, you know, I can’t find a good woman here in the U.S., so I found one in the Philippines. I went out there last October, giving her a ring, and I took the other one home with me, the actual wedding ring. But now she’s on her way out here, like, probably in about three weeks, and I don’t have a, like I said, I don’t have the money for, like, the church thing and all these people and all that. But I was going to go to Vegas and do the wedding. So would he look at that like, oh, you know, these two are married in his eyes?
SPEAKER 02 :
No, that’s not the issue. The issue is, Richie, again, as a person who you’re claiming to be a child of God, right?
SPEAKER 04 :
Yes.
SPEAKER 02 :
Okay. Well, then what does a child of God in Vegas have in common?
SPEAKER 04 :
That’s a dork. I understand. That’s Sin City. I understand that.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yeah, what do the two have in common? So find a Justice of the Peace or find a place there in Los Angeles. You know, just make some calls. There are a lot of small churches around where a pastor would love for… To do a ceremony, you could do that for $100 someplace. So you’re going to spend a lot less money checking around in Los Angeles for a pastor that would marry the two of you than going to Las Vegas to get married. So you can do what you want to on there. The thing of it is you are getting with a legal document, and that’s what it says in the Scripture, to obey the government, and the government laws and rules are that criteria for marriage. So you’re fulfilling that criteria for marriage. And where you do it is not so much the issue. I just don’t think that a born-again Christian in Las Vegas have a lot in common with each other. Right.
SPEAKER 04 :
Well, I don’t drink or gamble or nothing. I see this stuff all around me. It doesn’t bother me. But… I see what you’re saying on that, you know, the darkness and fellowship light and all of that. Yeah, I understand that.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yeah, I think that if she’s a Christian, I think she would appreciate you’re probably inquiring of her as to what she would like to do. But I think I’ll guarantee you can find a church there in the area, some small little church where a pastor would be more than happy to marry the two of you.
SPEAKER 04 :
Okay, I’m going to do that. I’m going to change my mind. Yeah. Okay.
SPEAKER 02 :
All right, brother.
SPEAKER 04 :
All right. Thank you, sir.
SPEAKER 02 :
You’re welcome, my brother. God bless. You too, pal. Okay, bye. Bye now.
SPEAKER 01 :
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SPEAKER 02 :
We’re going to go to Bryan, Texas. Let’s go on KBBW. Janice, you’re on the air.
SPEAKER 03 :
Hi there, Bob. I just appreciate your ministry so much.
SPEAKER 02 :
Well, thanks, Janice.
SPEAKER 03 :
It really helped free me. My husband was reading in a book last night and read this scripture. It’s 1 Corinthians 5, 11. I am writing you that you must not associate with anyone who calls himself a brother who is sexually immoral or greedy or idolater or slanderer or drunkard. or a swindler, with such a man do not even eat. And I guess I was wondering, how do we relate to that as a believer if we are going to have lunch with someone we know is in that position in their life and we want to share the Lord with them, or at least… Relate to them in hopes that at some point we can witness to them?
SPEAKER 02 :
Well, I’ll tell you, the context of this is in regard to his admonishing the Corinthians who had a deep problem. They were prideful over the sin of a man who was having or having sex with his father’s wife. And he said, are you so proud? So in the Corinthian church, this is an example of people who were taking grace and saying, praise God, I can do anything that I want to. In other words, all the standards have gone down. All the instructions have gone down. And I’m just a free spirit that can just do anything I want to. And not only that, we’re going to be proud of that. And so what was happening there was when that starts taking place, you’d better do something as a pastor. If I had somebody in my congregation that was openly flaunting and were saying, praise God, hey, we’re under grace and we’re flaunting this relationship and we’re doing this, it would be time for the sake of the health of the body. Right. to say to that person, if you’re going to flaunt this sin, I’m going to ask you to leave until God gets a hold of your life. It’s not that I don’t love you. It’s the fact that you’re disturbing the body. And you’re boasting, in verse 6, your boasting is not good. And so don’t you know that a little yeast works through the whole batch of dough. So he’s written in this whole thing that here are people calling themselves brothers in Christ and yet engaged, In this particular case of incest, calling yourself a brother and going through all kinds of the things of the world, swindling people, idol worshipers, greedy. Of course, if that greedy, you know, you might not be able to have dinner with anybody with that one. So what it’s saying there is the fact that if you’re going to be calling yourself a brother, How would you know these things unless someone’s flaunting it? And so if you’re going to call yourself a brother and yet be involved in all these things and think nothing of it, it’s saying don’t associate with people like that. These are people who are like con artists. I know people on television who call themselves ministers that I guarantee I wouldn’t associate with. They’re con artists. Mm-hmm. uh coming back after doing all kinds of stuff coming back after three wives coming back and now coming back on television raising 20 million dollars what would i want to associate with a con artist like that for uh and so that’s what it’s saying there it didn’t it’s not saying it uh to don’t associate with people but these kind of things he’s talking about i don’t know He’s saying these are people who are claiming to be brothers. These are people who have been exposed to truth. They’ve never accepted truth, but they’re acting like they have. So there’s no sense in messing around with people like that. And that’s why he said to this guy to kick him out of the fellowship until God can get a hold of them.
SPEAKER 03 :
Okay, that leads me to ask one more question, if I might. I have a friend who is in New Age. I do not know if she is a believer or not, but she made a statement the other day that she had read a book and the author had said that the Bible was not written by God. And she obviously agreed with that, and I really didn’t hear very much of what she said after that. I was so stunned by what she had said. And I have been praying about what my part in this is, whether I am to have lunch with her and ask her specifically if she really does believe that or if I am to avoid her at this point. Because, you know, I would hate to think that she would spend eternity separated from God when I could possibly have You know, the Holy Spirit could say something through me that might cause her to think.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yeah, no reason why you shouldn’t do that. You know, if she’s saying that she believed, you know, again, that’s kind of stupid to say I was reading a book and somebody said the book that the Bible wasn’t written by God. And so you just believe this guy, you know, who wrote New Age, who wrote the New Age book.
SPEAKER 05 :
Right.
SPEAKER 02 :
So that’s not the issue. The issue is what you have to sit down with a person like that and say, it is obvious that you are looking for something. Religion certainly is not going to get it, so we’re not going to talk about religion. But my dear friend, you’re not going to find the peace of God that passes understanding, searching for it in new age. If it’s new, it’s not gospel.
SPEAKER 05 :
Right.
SPEAKER 02 :
And try to get them to Christ. Nothing wrong at all with that. Okay. Absolutely. No, that would be what God commissioned us to do.
SPEAKER 03 :
Okay.
SPEAKER 02 :
See, this other deal is people claiming to be Christians and yet engaging in all of the activities of the lost world and flaunting it, thinking nothing of it, in fact, being proud of it.
SPEAKER 03 :
Right. Okay. Well, thank you so much.
SPEAKER 02 :
You’re sure welcome, Janice, and let us know how you come out, okay?
SPEAKER 03 :
Thank you. I will.
SPEAKER 02 :
Okay.
SPEAKER 03 :
Bye-bye.
SPEAKER 02 :
Bye-bye. We’re going to go to Weston, Virginia, listening on WFAX. Tina, you’re on the air.
SPEAKER 06 :
Yes. Hi, Bob. How are you today?
SPEAKER 02 :
I’m doing fine, Tina. Thank you.
SPEAKER 06 :
God bless you for your ministry.
SPEAKER 02 :
Well, thank you.
SPEAKER 06 :
I’m calling because I’m hearing all of this. It’s like a new phenomena of people saying they’re being slain in the spirit. And I’ve looked everywhere in the word of God, and I can’t find any reference to that. So I just wanted to know what your take was on that.
SPEAKER 02 :
Well, there isn’t any take on it at all, Tina. God didn’t, the Holy Spirit didn’t come to knock people over. He came to give life to the dead, not to slay people, but to give life to the people. It’s all a hoax from the word go, and it’s perpetuated by people who perpetuate hoaxes. a hoax on people, deceivers. That’s what the Scripture talks about, people who are deceiving people with some kind of a trick or a deception that has no biblical basis for it at all.
SPEAKER 06 :
So do you think that it’s steeped in witchcraft?
SPEAKER 02 :
Yes, it gets steeped in error. It’s steeped in lies, and Satan is the author of lies, so it’s steeped in satanic worship. Whether we want to think so or not, that’s the source of it. It’s not truth. Uh, it’s amazing, isn’t it? That everybody who has slain the spirit always falls back into the arms of those with the gift of catching. Uh, and, uh, so, uh, you know, you, there’s nothing to it in the scripture. There’s not a place in scripture about slaying people in the spirit. And yet you have people standing up the same people who teach a prosperity gospel. You know, I think, uh, Tina, when I go back to, um, the sixth chapter of 1 Timothy, and I see in there the love of money. And say, why would anyone be out deceiving people with fake miracles and fake this and fake that and slaying people in the spirit if it wasn’t for the love of money? Because those things attract money. And it says in that passage, if anyone teaches false doctrines, and that’s a false doctrine. and does not agree to the sound instruction of our Lord Jesus Christ and to godly teaching. So you have godly teaching, you have ungodly teaching. What it said is a person that does not teach godly teaching. He’s conceited and he understands nothing. Now I see when I look at men strutting across the stage with their chest all puffed out and going over and then blowing out the side of their mouth on somebody and they fall over, just proud as a peacock, And I say one day a peacock, the next day a feather duster. And I think we have to realize the truth of that. But their people are conceited. They don’t understand anything. They have an unhealthy interest for told in controversies and quarrels about words that result in envy, strife, malicious talk, evil suspicions, and constant friction between men of corrupt mind who have been robbed of the truth and and who think that godliness is a means to financial gain. Now, a person who thinks that godliness is a means to financial gain is a person who teaches that godliness is a means to financial gain. That’s the name it and claim it, the blab it and grab it concept. that we all are supposed to be rich. I don’t know where anybody gets that with the life of the apostles and Jesus himself, but everyone’s supposed to be rich. Now, what it says about a person teaching that, and they’re the very same ones teaching slain in the spirit. It said these are people of corrupt mind. They’re people who have been robbed of the truth. And there are people who absolutely have an unhealthy interest in in not only the things of God, but an unhealthy interest in the things of the world. But they’re people of a corrupt mind, a perverted mind, who have been robbed of the truth. And so, if that’s the case of a person teaching the prosperity gospel, then they’re the same ones teaching slain in the spirit. They’re the same ones who teach an awful lot of false doctrines. And what I have to do, if I hear a man teaching uh, a prosperity gospel. I know one thing about them. According to the word of God, they’re a person who’s been robbed of the truth and they’re a person of a corrupt mind.
SPEAKER 06 :
Okay. Thank you.
SPEAKER 02 :
And you’re going to find that very, very prevalent on television because it gets attention. And, uh, my goodness, does it draw crowds? People?
SPEAKER 06 :
I have a friend who claims that, um, she was slain in the spirit and, um, that she was out so long she almost died, and it just didn’t line up with my spirit.
SPEAKER 02 :
Well, she may have been slain to the spirit all right, but she wasn’t slain with the Holy Spirit of God, obviously. God didn’t come to kill people. He came to give life to the dead.
SPEAKER 06 :
And at that point, I went to my search engine and put in slain, and there’s nothing about being slain. in the spirit, and as it relates to Godliness.
SPEAKER 02 :
Absolutely. Absolutely. For sure. Well, I appreciate the fact of your searching out the Word of God, Tina, and not taking things at face value, which many people do, and of searching it out and finding out if it’s not in the Scripture, we should be chucking it. Right.
SPEAKER 06 :
And I know you could be a man of truth, so I said that’s one place I can go and get the truth. So I thank God for you.
SPEAKER 02 :
Well, I appreciate it, Tina, and thank God for your call. Okay, thank you. Okay, bye-bye now.
SPEAKER 01 :
Until next time, walk in faith, be good to one another, and praise the Lord. Amen.
