Join Bob George on this enlightening episode of Classic Christianity Radio as he dives into common misconceptions about biblical teachings with callers from across the nation. From Huntsville, caller Jay discusses the intriguing topic of ‘the keys to the kingdom’ and seeks clarity on biblical authority and interpretation. Kathy from Toronto brings to light the true nature of repentance and how it relates to our daily fight against sin, exploring the role of faith and forgiveness in a Christian life. Bob provides insightful explanations and reassures listeners about the simplicity yet profound truth of saving faith in Christ alone.
00:00:48 Discussion with Caller Jay on Scriptural Interpretation
00:22:24 Caller Sandy on Interfaith Marriage and Cults
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 02 :
We’re going to go immediately to Huntsville, Alabama, listening on WBXR. Jay, you’re on the air.
SPEAKER 05 :
Hi, Bob. This is Jay, and I’ve been a born-again, baptized believer for years and years and years, like 35 years before I read your book. And I’ll tell you what, it’s been one of the most enlightening experiences in my life to find out the other side of the coin, and I just want to appreciate it. I want to thank you for doing such a good job with that book.
SPEAKER 02 :
Well, you’re sure welcome, brother.
SPEAKER 05 :
Interesting analogies inside of that. It all makes sense. I’ve spent all my life arguing and fighting with people, and now I’m just completely blown away by your book, and it’s caused me to just find a love in everybody who I meet who is a Christian. But anyway, what I wanted to ask you is, I heard a thing on the radio a while back, and a fellow was talking about, out of Matthew 16, 15 or 16, I’m not sure, somewhere in there where he talks about, who am I, Peter? And Peter says that he answered who he was, and… and Jesus says He gives Peter the keys. And giving him the keys, I looked up and researched everything about keys, and Jesus has the keys, and He’s given the keys, and I mean, He’s given the keys to Peter. And I’m just wondering, what is that all about? Because a few times in Matthew, we talked about giving keys. One time was in a situation where He asked Peter who he was, and the second time, a few chapters later, in chapter 18, He says… the same thing regarding disfellowshipping someone in the church. I’m just wondering what your take is on the whole thing.
SPEAKER 02 :
Well, in the first place, Jay, what you’re talking about there, it’s such a misinterpreted piece of Scripture. He’s saying that, number one, of asking, who do you say that I am? And Simon Peter answered, you are the Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus replied to that, blessed are you, Simon, son of Jonah, And for this was not revealed to you by man, but by the Father in heaven. And I tell you that you are Peter. And that word in the Greek language is Petros. That’s the word for Peter, Petros. And upon this rock, Petra, I will build my church. So now what the word Petros means is a stone stone. It’s like a piece of stone that you would pick up off of the ground and throw it at somebody. The Petra is like a foundation. It’s not throwable. It is the foundation. And so he’s not saying that Peter is the rock. Jesus is the rock. And Jesus is the foundation of everything that you and I have. Peter is going to be a stone. He’s going to be a part of that action. But he in and of himself is not the action. And so he’s saying that I will give you the keys to the kingdom. Well, what is the purpose of a key? It’s to unlock something. What does Peter unlock as the apostle? He unlocked the gospel first to the Jew and then to the Gentile. And that was his job, along with the other apostles, is to unlock the truth of the kingdom of God to both the Jew first and then to the Gentile.
SPEAKER 05 :
Yes, sir. But also in chapter 18, it talks about a brother does you wrong, you go to the brother, and then if he still doesn’t understand or hear you, to bring several other people and tell them, or bring them to the brother and discuss the fact that he’s done you wrong. And then… take it to the church, and then it says, whatever you loose here on earth shall be loosed to heaven, and whatever you bind here on earth shall be bound in heaven.
SPEAKER 02 :
Well, let me go back to what that is in verse 18. I tell you the truth, whatever you, that you is not singular, it’s plural. In Texas, we’d say y’all. But I don’t think he was speaking y’all there, but he’s saying to all of you. In other words, to all of the apostles, the reason that, and again, misinterpretation and mistranslation there, Jay. It’s not that whatever you loose or bind here on earth will be bound in heaven. It’s you bind here on earth because it’s been bound in heaven. You and I don’t bind anything. We don’t make up anything. God makes up everything. So whatever God has bound in heaven, we have the privilege of binding here on earth. As an example, do we have the privilege of going up to any person on the face of this earth or would have had that privilege for 2,000 years and if the Lord tarries for 2,000 more years to go up to a person and say to them, God was in Christ reconciling you unto himself, not counting your sins against him. Would we have the authority to do that? Why, absolutely. How come? Because it’s been bound in heaven. We didn’t bound that. We don’t say, well, I’m going to say that, so now, God, you’ve got to bind it. But it’s because that truth is bound in heaven, we can bind it here on earth.
SPEAKER 05 :
It wasn’t a problem. It wasn’t a problem. Any time I read it, I heard it in a sermon the other day, and the fellow was saying that we have the power to forgive sins.
SPEAKER 02 :
Well, we have the power to forgive one another’s sins, but we have no power at all to forgive God’s sins. That’s God’s business. Jesus was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself, not you and me. Anybody that’s putting us in that equation is putting ourselves in a position of being God.
SPEAKER 05 :
Yes, sir. That’s what he was saying. He was saying that, you know, to pray for somebody or to try to get somebody saved, to pray for them and to forgive them their sin breaks down the enmity between them and God and makes them more able to receive God’s Spirit.
SPEAKER 02 :
That is total, unbelievable nonsense.
SPEAKER 05 :
Well, I’ve never heard it in my life.
SPEAKER 02 :
Total nonsense.
SPEAKER 05 :
Brother George would know about it.
SPEAKER 02 :
I’m glad I hadn’t heard it before. That way I could enjoy my lunch.
SPEAKER 05 :
That’s a new thing that you want. But I still do appreciate it, and I appreciate everything. But I’m kind of lost now because I’ve been a member of the Church of Christ for years and years and years. I used to love to beat people up and say, this is wrong and that’s wrong. You’re doing this wrong and doing that. And now I’m just, I don’t know where to go or what to do. I’m just kind of like adrift in a sea of people who are kind of like loving me. But, I mean, it’s not church.
SPEAKER 02 :
Well, Jay, I think the thing of it is this. God wants you and me to learn how to walk in saving faith. Saving faith does not put anything to Jesus. It’s all him and none of us. Saving faith is putting your faith in the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ Jesus and adding nothing to that. Saving faith has nothing to do with you and me. Saving faith has everything to do with Jesus and what he accomplished in which we enter into that by faith, and that’s saving faith. Whenever we say that I’m going to put my faith in Jesus plus baptism, that is not saving faith, nor are you saved if you believe that. I’m going to put my faith in Jesus plus speaking in tongues. I’m sorry. That isn’t the gospel. And you have just put your faith in you as a part of the equation, and you cannot be saved doing that. God loves us too much to allow us to water down what he had to die in order to accomplish for us.
SPEAKER 05 :
Amen. But my question is, who do I get behind now that I used to be not a hater of religious groups, but I mean, I thought I had… a real good grasp of the fundamental of what you had to do to be saved. And now that all this other stuff is a wash, I mean, I still have the same things against the other people I had before, but now I don’t have a church to go to. I mean, the church I belong to is a bunch of judgmental people.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yeah. Well, Jay, what is the church? It’s not a building on the corner of Walk and Don’t Walk. It’s people. And if you cannot find a place to fellowship, start your own home Bible study. All of the early churches were in homes, weren’t they?
SPEAKER 05 :
Yes. Absolutely. Can you tell me where I can find one around here?
SPEAKER 02 :
Why don’t you start one?
SPEAKER 05 :
Well, I would, but, I mean, the first thing I’ve got to do is I’ve got to tell everybody that’s in my group now why… We’re not worshiping now.
SPEAKER 02 :
Well, until I come to the study and I’ll show you why. Absolutely. I mean, that’s an idea. I don’t think that, I don’t know, we may have some people in Huntsville, Alabama, but I don’t think so. I haven’t been there that long. So I don’t think we’re going to be beneficial to you there. But again, Jay, if you cannot find a place to fellowship. Start your own home Bible study. That’s a church where two or more are gathered together in my name. There I am in the midst of you, and I’d hate for somebody to have the audacity to say that where Jesus is in the midst of it, that that’s not a church. So, again, we’ve got Bible studies, Jay, that, quite frankly, I weaned on. That’s the reason I can do what I do today is because of the study of those things. You can order those and just go through them with people. Start a study exactly like I did when I first became a Christian. and tell people that we’re going to study the Scriptures together and give them the Bible study books and work through them together and watch people grow faster, probably in six months, and they have it their whole lifetime sitting in church.
SPEAKER 05 :
So what is the publication that you’re recommending as far as the Bible study group books?
SPEAKER 02 :
It’s a series that we have taking a closer look at the person of Christ, the Word of God, law and grace, identity, all of the major subjects that is absolutely essential foundation to your spiritual growth.
SPEAKER 05 :
Okay. I’d like to get a hold of something.
SPEAKER 02 :
Okay. I’m going to put you on hold, and we’ll get that information to you, brother.
SPEAKER 05 :
I appreciate it. Thank you, sir.
SPEAKER 02 :
God bless you, my friend. You hang on now. Okay. All right now. Bye. Toronto, Canada, listening on Joy. Kathy, you’re on the air.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yes. I heard that in a sermon recently, repent means to change your mind. But we’re constantly sinning. I believe in God with all my heart, in Christ, that he died on the cross. I believe with everything that’s inside of me. But I continue to sin. It’s not that I want to. And I repent every day. And I try to change.
SPEAKER 02 :
Well, now, if you repented and sinned again, then you didn’t repent, did you? Kathy, get rid of that word repent in regard to what you’re thinking about. The word repent is used in regard to salvation. It is not something like there’s no sin in the world that you’ve totally repented of or that you couldn’t go back to except the sin of the rejection of the Son of God. That’s what repentance is, changing your mind in regard to what Christ did, not changing your mind in regard to what you do, changing your mind in regard to what Christ did. That’s repentance. When you talk about I used to smoke, but now I don’t, you could start again. I used to have sex, but now I don’t, you could start again. I used to steal, but now I don’t, you could start again. But there’s one thing you cannot change your mind on, and that is when you have totally changed your mind in regard to what Jesus Christ accomplished for you. You’re not putting your faith in you. You’re putting your faith in him and saying, he is it. When I go stand before God and God says, what have you done to deserve to be in my heaven? I have one answer. I believed in your son, period. Now, that’s true repentance. And a person who believes that and then goes back has never believed that.
SPEAKER 04 :
See, the sermon I heard was the changing of yourself, that repentance means to change your own mind and the way you think about what you’ve done.
SPEAKER 02 :
Well, you see, again, it’s not the case about the thinking. It’s the thinking about what you’ve done. The issue is when you think about what you’ve done, you’ve got to start thinking about what did he do and what did he do with what you’ve done.
SPEAKER 04 :
When we’re sinning and when I ask God to help me not do the things again, how does that work?
SPEAKER 02 :
Well, that would be a good prayer. Lord, you know, but to get to the root of it, the root of all sin is unbelief. Lord Jesus, everything that you’ve done is unbelief. Every sin I’ve ever committed, the root of it was I wasn’t trusting Jesus. So you get back to say, Lord, keep teaching me how to trust you, how to walk with you, how to never doubt you.
SPEAKER 04 :
It does not make us human. I think we try to represent ourselves as God.
SPEAKER 02 :
That’s why the Christian world thinks we’re hypocrites. is because we act like if you come to Jesus, you’re going to live a perfect life, and we don’t, and people see it, and they call us hypocrites. If you were out preaching what the true gospel is, you wouldn’t be ever called a hypocrite because no one’s expecting anything out of you anyway. What you’re expecting is when you yield to him, as a branch yields to the vine, he will produce in me love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, and goodness. But when I yield to the flesh, I’m the same old person that I was before I knew Christ. Kathy, quit beating up on yourself. Start trusting Jesus and letting Him do what He wants to do in your life, okay?
SPEAKER 01 :
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SPEAKER 02 :
Let’s go to Phoenix, Arizona again, listening on the internet. John, you’re on the air.
SPEAKER 03 :
Hi, how are you?
SPEAKER 02 :
Pretty good, John.
SPEAKER 03 :
Appreciate your ministry.
SPEAKER 02 :
Thank you.
SPEAKER 03 :
I had a question about, well, actually, there’s this girl I’m seeing, and we’ve been going out a few times, and she had been sharing with me some of the frustrations she’s had in past relationships with other Christian men that, well, they’ve been using the verse in Ephesians talking about wives being submissive to their husbands, and I think these men in her relationships, they were, you know, I don’t know exactly the circumstances, but they were being somewhat stern with that verse, and I just kind of wanted to get your impression of that passage and what it implies that the husband’s supposed to, you know, not necessarily be a dictator, but just, you know, how would you respond to somebody that’s maybe concerned about, you know, the husband’s role in the relationship?
SPEAKER 02 :
Well, again, John, you have to look at the context in the book of Ephesians. And first of all, it says submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. So that’s the first mindset and that’s the first attitude that I’m going to live with an attitude of submission to Christ and also of submission one to another. Now, what does that mean? Well, that means that we would be, if we’re listening, if you’re listening to Christ and your wife is submitted to Christ, why then Christ is speaking to both of us. And if Christ is speaking to both of us, then we should be in submission to what is being said. And if there is a problem taking place there, we’re going to consider each other’s feelings. We’re going to consider each other’s thoughts. But in the final analysis, if a decision has to be made, why? Then it’s the husband’s responsibility to make that in the context of the family. Now, this isn’t a different as an example, John, than working for a corporation or say working for a ministry. I am certainly going to consider the thoughts and the opinions of people that are working in this ministry. I’d be an idiot not to do that. There are many people who are far more talented in certain aspects of the function of the ministry than I am. And so I’m going to listen to what they have to say, and I’m going to gather the information what they have to say, and then I’m going to make a decision. That’s my responsibility. The president of the United States, everybody’s worried about how smart someone is or it’s going to be. The smartest man alive is the one who surrounds himself by intelligent people, hopefully more so than him. And he’s got sense enough to listen to their advice and then to make a decision predicated on the character of the one giving the advice. That’s his job. And the buck stops right there. So that’s the way it should be with a family. The buck ought to stop right with the husband. He’s got to make the decision.
SPEAKER 03 :
Would you say that there’s some areas where the wife might… make certain decisions and the husband might make others?
SPEAKER 02 :
No, absolutely not. In other words, if a woman is going to enter into a marriage, someone’s got to be the leader. Now, unfortunately, you see people where the woman could care less what the man’s opinion is. She’s going to take over control and run things like a bulldozer. And I know women like that, and I know families like that. And again, then they become Christians, and then they start talking about, I want my husband to be a leader. Well, what about you being a follower? Why would you want your husband to be a leader if you’re not willing to be a follower? So you can’t have two presidents. You can’t have two heads of a company. You can’t have two husbands. You need one husband and you need a wife. And God has said that the final decision in a matter of that type is it comes to the husband. To consider one another, submit to each other. Now, what does that mean? Sometimes you’re going to say, you know, you’re right. Let me give you an example of that. When our kids were growing up, who knew more about our kids, me or Amy?
SPEAKER 03 :
You probably both knew the same, I would say.
SPEAKER 02 :
Well, no. I’m gone 8, 9, 10 hours a day. How could I be as acquainted with the kids as Amy is, who’s around the children 8 to 10 hours a day, and I’m not there. I’m at work. Sure. So she knew the children, and she had the greatest… If I was going to seek an opinion, that’s who I’m going to go to. And if Amy says, this is what I think we ought to do with the children, I’m going to say, you’re right. And that’s what we’re going to do. Now, what is that? I’m submitting to her because I know she knows more about that subject than I do. And she’s submitting to me when I am intelligent enough to make the same decision that she said she wanted to make. And so that’s submitting to one another. And I’m still fulfilling my role. And quite frankly, the buck is still going to stop with me in the event that decision is wrong. Sure. Okay. It should not be a problem for a wife any more than it should be for a husband. I mean, if you were a husband saying, I don’t want that responsibility. You know, I want my wife to run everything. Well, you’re going to be a wimp. And then your wife’s not going to respect you at all. Whenever you’ve got a wimpy husband in the house, you got a man that a wife does not respect. It’s that simple. She tries to gain control. And if she can, she doesn’t respect the man that she’s gained control over. And so a man has to learn to take a leadership role in his home. That’s his responsibility before God is to be the spiritual leader in his home. And again, unfortunately, many times, John, we just don’t see that, especially in Christian homes. We don’t see that today. We see an awful lot of women who the husbands are out working. They’re sitting in Bible studies, getting extremely spiritual and then come and lambast the man because he’s not the spiritual leader in the family. And again, they’re not willing to be the follower at all, but they want a leader. And what they really want is somebody who, who will go to church, don’t get too deeply involved, but will go to church and show up and look good and all that type of thing. Don’t want to mean to sound sarcastic on that, but that’s just the way I’ve observed a lot of people are, and that’s unfortunate. Wherever you see a man who is strong in his family and is a leader of the family, you’re going to see a woman who respects him, and you’re going to see a home that is run not by a dictator, but run by mutual respect for each other, but again with the final understanding that the buck stops here.
SPEAKER 03 :
Okay. Well, I appreciate you sharing that and enlightening on the subject.
SPEAKER 02 :
Does that help, brother?
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, very much.
SPEAKER 02 :
Okay. Well, best of luck to you. Thank you very much. Okay. Bye-bye now. In Upland, California, let’s go on Kay Bright. Sandy, you’re on the air.
SPEAKER 06 :
Hi, Bob.
SPEAKER 02 :
Hi, Sandy.
SPEAKER 06 :
I’m happy that you took this call. It’s very important to me. Um, I wanted to ask you, my daughter, she’s a young Christian. She’s been a Christian for two years. She’s walking in the faith and believing in Christ and trusting. Her husband was raised a Jehovah Witness, so his mother is always calling and asking him if he’s read the latest. He’s not a practicing witness. but last Friday she called him and she was really emotional, his mother, and she was talking about their prophets or their elders or some people from the 144,000 that they got together and they said that already one of the end prophecies have come true, which just set everything between them in turmoil. And I just wanted to know if you had any information on what they go by or how they even think they’re from the 144,000.
SPEAKER 02 :
Well, that was the original until their membership exceeded 144,000. Then they had to come up and spin that into something else.
SPEAKER 05 :
Oh, is that how they did it?
SPEAKER 02 :
Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. They’ll only be 144, and they’ll all be Jehovah’s Witness. And then their membership hit 146, and it was going to have to change that. Sandy, it’s a cult. And to me, I have no use at all for the doctrines of Jehovah’s Witnesses. I believe they’re Antichrist, what the Bible calls Antichrist. Okay. People that spend their lives going up and down the streets trying to convince people that Jesus isn’t God is Antichrist.
SPEAKER 06 :
Right.
SPEAKER 02 :
And so in dealing with them, I can’t deal with them on any other basis except who is Jesus. Who do you say that I am? And they say that he’s a prophet. They do not believe that he’s a god. He thinks he’s the son of God, not realizing that’s one of the same. And there’s no way that any of them are saved. No way in the world you can’t be saved by believing that. And so you’re dealing with lost, deceiving antichrists.
SPEAKER 06 :
Okay.
SPEAKER 02 :
That’s who your daughter’s married to.
SPEAKER 06 :
Yes. We know that. And you know that we pray for this young man so much. And, you know, the Bible tells us that, you know, that a believing wife can change a believing. And she’s so faithful in that way that she loves him. And like I say, he’s not… Since he’s gotten together with my daughter, because they’ve been together for like 10 years, he has not attended one of their meetings. Right. His parents call all the time to bring literature to their house. My daughter says, throw that propaganda out. Yeah. And she continues to maintain her faith in Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER 02 :
Right. Well, that’s good.
SPEAKER 06 :
And, you know, she’s just… And I, you know, we just pray that by her example, you know, he can look at her, because he’s questioning… where they have all this information. Now that he’s, he’s like wondering what’s going on there. You know, he doesn’t have a full on faith in what they believe. And yet when she talks to her about Jesus, she’s like, I don’t know about him either, you know.
SPEAKER 02 :
Well, Sandy, again, you know, I say to people, look, if you want to get somebody out of that, do the same thing that they do. Get them in a Bible study. I don’t know why Christians are so afraid of home Bible studies. I started teaching a home Bible study when I was two weeks old in the Lord. I didn’t know one end from the other, but I had a book.
SPEAKER 06 :
You know what? We have our Bible study, but it’s at our church. That’s what it is.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yeah, get it in a home. So get it in a place where your daughter and your husband can come, not bogged down by a denomination. It’s in denomination. It’s a home Bible study. And let them start teaching truth.
SPEAKER 06 :
Yeah, absolutely.
SPEAKER 02 :
Because the Jehovah’s Witnesses don’t plan on just one little deal. They have Bible studies. Right. And, of course, their Bible studies are totally off, but they have studies, and that’s how they capture people. Yes, absolutely. Do the same thing. Try to get a home Bible study going. It’s not in the church, in a home. In a home. And start going through these. We have an entire nine books of Bible study that builds the foundation for Christian life. Yes. Start teaching through it. That’s where he’ll come to understand truth. And when he gets truth, he’ll see that he’s been taught error.
SPEAKER 06 :
Okay.
SPEAKER 02 :
So you don’t have to talk about the error he’s got. Just let it be replaced by truth.
SPEAKER 06 :
Okay.
SPEAKER 02 :
Okay.
SPEAKER 06 :
Thank you, Bob.
SPEAKER 01 :
All right, Sandy. God bless you.
SPEAKER 06 :
Thank you so much. God bless you, too. Bye-bye.
SPEAKER 01 :
Until next time, walk in faith, be good to one another, and praise the Lord. Amen.
SPEAKER 05 :
Put Jesus first in your life and turn your life around.
