Dive deep into the teachings of Bob George as he addresses fundamental questions about life after death, forgiveness, and how we can align our beliefs with the Scriptures. With insightful discussions, Bob clarifies misconceptions such as purgatory and explains the biblical understanding of being present with the Lord immediately after death. Whether you’re curious about how generational curses play a role in modern faith or seeking clarity regarding the entirety of Christ’s work on the cross, this episode provides practical lessons for every believer.
00:00:01 Introduction to Classic Christianity Radio
00:00:48 Absent from the Body, Present with the Lord
00:05:01 Seeking Forgiveness or Acknowledging Grace
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 :
Bell Gardens, California, listening on K-Bride Israel. You’re on the air.
SPEAKER 05 :
Thank you very much, Bob. I really appreciate your program, and I want to be quick on my question. I want to know what happened to a believer when he dies or to anybody, because I’ve been discussing with some people that they say that we go to like a purgatory, but they’re not Catholic. So I want to see if you have any description that I can rely on.
SPEAKER 02 :
Well, there’s no such thing as purgatory in the scripture, Israel. So what we have to realize is that the Bible says that for us as believers that we’re absent from the body and present with the Lord. And so that takes place immediately. I personally believe that the minute that that takes place, we not only are ejected out of this body of ours, and it’s obvious the life is gone. You look at a corpse, you say they’re gone. The body’s there, the house is there, but the person’s gone. And you say, where did we go? Well, to those who are in Christ… You’re absent from the body and immediately present with the Lord, and I think at that moment you also receive your spiritual body. I don’t think you’ve got a body down here, and when you die, you become homeless. So I think you receive your spiritual body at that moment and go into the presence of God to enjoy the unbroken fellowship and relationship that we have with the Lord Jesus, as it says in the Scripture, seeing him as he is and becoming like him. And that is great news for us to know that, that we’re sown corruptible, but we’re raised incorruptible.
SPEAKER 05 :
Right.
SPEAKER 02 :
And so that’s what happens to us when we die.
SPEAKER 05 :
What part of the Bible is that, Bob?
SPEAKER 02 :
Well, when you’re talking about the resurrection passages, you can go to 1 Corinthians 15 and deal with those. When someone may ask, how’s the dead raised and what kind of a body will they become? and it goes ahead to yeah first corinthians 15 and it begins well i would i think always israel is to sit down and read the whole context and i would read the entire 15th chapter of first corinthians because the whole chapter is dealing with that issue okay so that is substance with the body and present with the lord so there is a nothing that can say that anybody can be baptized by the dead and Oh, no, and that passage where it talks about being baptized by the dead, that’s a passage that is really kind of sarcastic because to the people that they were talking to who were claiming that there’s no such thing as resurrection were the ones who were baptizing people for the dead. And he was saying to them, if there’s no resurrection, how come you people are baptizing people for the dead? I see, I see, yeah, okay. Yeah, so Paul kind of nailed them on that one.
SPEAKER 05 :
Right, right. So he was trying to make, like, final, I mean, not final directly, but trying to tell him, well, you’re doing this thing and you’re saying that there’s no resurrection.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yeah. Here you’re being baptized for the dead and then say there’s no resurrection.
SPEAKER 05 :
Right. Yeah. Okay. So basically this is the only part where I will find this absence with the body and presence with the Lord.
SPEAKER 02 :
Well, 2 Corinthians 5 also deals with that particular issue.
SPEAKER 05 :
2 Corinthians. Yeah, 2 Corinthians 5, yeah. So that’s something totally non-biblical saying that anybody can be baptized by the dead, right?
SPEAKER 02 :
Oh, absolutely. Okay. Oh, absolutely. For sure.
SPEAKER 05 :
Okay. Well, thank you very much.
SPEAKER 02 :
We have one chance down here, Israel, and that is, and he gives us plenty of opportunities to accept the Lord. And if we would reject him here, we’d reject him there.
SPEAKER 05 :
Okay. Yes. Well, you really cleared it up for me and I appreciate it. And I praise God for your ministry and all you guys working in the radio giving us delight, you know, like… We really need it, you know, because there’s a lot of confusion. I know that God creates no confusion, but a lot of people who play to be smart, they make the confusion, and then they may get some people, you know, their way of thinking, the way they think, you know.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yeah, absolutely. Well, Israel, God bless you, brother, and you call any time, okay? Thank you very much, Bob. You’re welcome.
SPEAKER 05 :
God bless you, and God bless the other Bob, too.
SPEAKER 02 :
Thank you, Israel.
SPEAKER 05 :
Bye-bye. Bye-bye.
SPEAKER 02 :
We’re going to go to Lake Worth, Florida, listening on WLVJ. Levita, you’re on the air.
SPEAKER 07 :
Thank you, Bob. Hello.
SPEAKER 02 :
Hi, Levita.
SPEAKER 07 :
I have a question. This is regarding 1 John 1.9. Should we constantly ask God for forgiveness, or were we forgiven once and for all via the cross?
SPEAKER 02 :
You know the answer to that, don’t you?
SPEAKER 07 :
I do.
SPEAKER 02 :
Well, then again, 1 John 1.9 doesn’t fit into that, does it? No. No. No, it doesn’t fit at all. As a matter of fact, it’s doing what it talks about in Hebrews, making a mockery of the grace of God and treating as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified us. That verse has been used in Christianity to paralyze Christians from ever walking as a forgiven person. It’s no different than the Catholic going back to the confession booth or the Jew going back to the Day of Atonement. When it talks about in the scripture, your sins and lawless acts, I will remember no more. And where these have not will be forgiven, but where these have been forgiven, there is no longer any sacrifice for sins. And without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness. And there is no more shedding of blood. There’s no more sacrifice. And it goes ahead to say that if we continually keep on sinning, and what it’s talking about there is against the knowledge, that knowledge of truth, that Jesus is it. You keep on, he said, there’s anything you’ve got to look forward to except going to hell. I believe it’s a very serious issue, Levita. I was weaned on that 1 John 1, 9 spiritual breathing concept until it practically drove me crazy. Because I knew it wasn’t truth. In the depths of my soul, as young as I was in Christ, I knew this cannot be to a believer, and it isn’t. And since understanding that truth and going even into the Greek language, it’s very explicit that that verse is not to a believer, but it’s to an unbeliever. It was for the purpose of correcting the Gnostic heresy that was in existence then. It still is, but very, very prevalent back then. And what he is saying, if you’re claiming to be without sin, if we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth isn’t in us. Well, who’s the truth? Jesus. Who isn’t in you? Jesus. Well, how could you be saved if Jesus isn’t in you? So it’s a salvation passage. It has nothing to do with a believer. But we have dragged that over and called it our Christian bar of soap. And we just very smugly sit around and just grin so smugly that I got all my sins confessed. Well, you don’t have anything to do with forgiveness. Forgiveness was Jesus, his death, his burial, his resurrection. And he did it all. So you and I should be thanking God for our forgiveness instead of asking for what in him we already have.
SPEAKER 07 :
I thank him every day, Bob, and I thank you for your answer. And I’ll tell you what happened. One of our church deacons called my husband a heretic in front of a group of people when my husband told the same thing to another man. And basically the same thing that you just said, and once forgiven, always forgiven. And I thank you for your answer, and I think it’s time we probably find a new church.
SPEAKER 02 :
I’ll tell you what, if in our book, Faith That Pleases God, I would recommend you get that. There’s a very detailed explanation. And I would go front. I’m the point today. I’m going to go face to face with these people. I’m not going to sit back anymore and say, well, You know, that’s what you believe. I’m going face to face with them because they are according to the word of God. This is not according to Baptist tradition or Catholic tradition. This is the Bible. It says you’re going to hell if you continually keep on sinning against the knowledge of truth. And the knowledge of truth is there is no more sacrifice for sins. It is finished. That’s what Jesus cried out at the cross, telestai, paid in full, not in part. Well, you know what?
SPEAKER 07 :
I think I’m going to order that book over the Internet.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yeah.
SPEAKER 07 :
The reason being is because actually this is a Grace Bible Church, and they preach salvation by grace.
SPEAKER 08 :
Yeah.
SPEAKER 07 :
But then again, they come up with this. 1 John 1, 9 all the time, you know, that you’ve got to change your ways and you’ve got to do this and you’ve got to do that. And I’m thinking, that’s not what you’re saying.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yeah, exactly. It’s double talk.
SPEAKER 07 :
It is double talk.
SPEAKER 02 :
Well, it would be a blessing to them if it’s pointed out. I’d get the book and put it in their hands or even more importantly, put some of the information in their hands and say, then we’re going to have a discussion about it. I would bring it right out into the open because if a person is truly born again, Levita, I am an absolute believer in this. If you have the spirit of truth living in you, you cannot continue rebelling against the spirit of truth. If you really have it. So, again, it’s the fact they have not been taught or they’re worshiping at the feet of their traditions rather than what the word of God says. But they have not thought it through. So maybe you could be the stimulus there to turn a whole church around of getting them to walk by faith instead of this presumption that they’re walking in today.
SPEAKER 07 :
Well, I sure hope I can. And I definitely will get on the Internet today and order that book.
SPEAKER 02 :
Okay, LaVita. God bless. Keep us posted, will you?
SPEAKER 07 :
Thank you very much. Bye-bye.
SPEAKER 02 :
We’re going to go down to, let me see, Atlanta, Georgia, to your old stomping grounds, Rob, and listening on WGUN. John, you’re on the air.
SPEAKER 04 :
Thank you, Bob, for taking my call. My question is more of an explanation, I guess, I need from you. The reason I’m asking for it, it seems that There are times that the whole world is on my shoulder, and I don’t quite know how to get it off. And then I hear someone about the sins of the Father and the generational curse, and I feel like that applies to me alone. Would you please explain the generational curse and where I fit in there, where mankind fit into that? And if it can be broken, please offer me an explanation for that, please.
SPEAKER 02 :
Well, John, it says in the Bible that anyone who’s under the law is under a curse. And it was accursed as anyone who hung on a tree. And that was, of course, the curse of spiritual death as a result of the law, as a result of our sins. Paul said that it’s through the law that I died to the law. The law killed him. And when it killed him, he died to what killed him. And that’s the law so that he could be raised to walk in the newness of life. And that is in by the spirit of Christ Jesus living in us. So when you’re talking about generational curses or this type of thing, we all basically have a generational curse upon us, and that is that the wages of sin is death. It was death in my father. It became death in me when I was born. It became death in my children when they were born. And so it isn’t some kind of a curse that is on you alone. We’re all under the curse of the wages of sin being that of death. And that is only broken. by life in Christ Jesus. And so that’s why, John, it is so important that we give out the fullness of the gospel. The gospel is not just that Christ died for your sins. Death is not cured by bidding forgiveness. Death is cured by receiving of life. And that’s the meaning of the resurrection of Christ Jesus. We know the meaning of the cross. That’s where he took away the cause of spiritual death. but the meaning of the resurrection is a cure to spiritual death, a cure of the curse, and that is life in Christ Jesus. And so, yes, that curse of the wages of sin being death is broken only when we come to Christ Jesus for his resurrected life, and that’s what true salvation is.
SPEAKER 04 :
Well, thank you very much. I think that answers a lot of questions for me. I’ve heard it a number of different ways, but I appreciate your explanation. Sounds very clear to me.
SPEAKER 02 :
Well, I hope that helps, John, and God bless you, brother. John, realize the fact that when you came to Christ so many times, I think the reason we have poor discipleship is because we have pitiful evangelism, that we teach people and teach people and teach people. Come to Jesus and get your sins forgiven. Come to Jesus and get your sins forgiven. Your sins are already forgiven. You’re born with your sins forgiven. God was in Christ reconciling the whole world unto himself, not counting sin. their sins against us. And he not only died for our sins, but the sins of the whole world. Is that salvation? No, it’s the preamble to salvation. It’s what God had to do to clear the deck in order to give us salvation. What is salvation being saved from the curse or the wages of sin, which is death by the gift of God, which is resurrected life in Christ Jesus. And that’s precisely why the apostle Paul was able to say without the resurrection, we’re to be pitied of all people, and are still in our sins, knowing full well that a cross had occurred, but also knowing full well that what was provided for us then can only be received in the resurrected life of Christ Jesus. And so when we come to Christ for the fullness of the gospel, come to Christ for him, not just to get my sins forgiven, I come to him to get Jesus. And when I hit Jesus, I have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. And so that’s the… That is the solution to the generational curse.
SPEAKER 04 :
Well, thank you very much for the explanation. I do enjoy your show, and please keep it up for all of us.
SPEAKER 02 :
Thank you so much, John. God bless you, pal. Thank you very much. Bye-bye now. Let’s go to Texas. Listen on KJAC. Josephine, you’re on the air.
SPEAKER 08 :
Well, hello, Bob. I’m so glad. I’ve been waiting here for a while.
SPEAKER 02 :
Well, God wants to give you patience, Josephine.
SPEAKER 08 :
Oh, yes. Yes, that’s very true. And my husband sent for a faith that pleases God. Uh-huh. And it is great. I mean, you just hit it right on the nail. It’s to the T. Well, thank you. Everything is true and a fact in this book.
SPEAKER 02 :
Well, Josephine, I think that that’s one of the things that people that read our materials and come to our conferences find out that it’s absolutely laced with Scripture. And from one end to a book to the other is what the Bible has to say about truth. And it’s a little hard to argue with what the Bible says the truth is. But it’s what changes your life for sure.
SPEAKER 08 :
Yeah, and we also have all the other materials, the 10-pack. And we’ve got all of that. But it’s been a while, and my husband and I, he would come every day. You ought to listen to Bob George. You ought to listen to Bob George. And he’s true. You ought to listen. And finally I did, and, oh, boy, that was true. And we’ve been listening ever since.
SPEAKER 02 :
Well, that’s phenomenal.
SPEAKER 08 :
But this faith that pleases God, it’s got all of those books wrapped into this one.
SPEAKER 02 :
Mm-hmm. Well, I appreciate your encouragement on that, Josephine, because, again, I don’t know whether we don’t talk about it or not, or maybe our publisher hasn’t promoted the book enough, but it, to me, is one of our, if it isn’t the best book, it is right next to it. Right up there at the top, for sure.
SPEAKER 08 :
Well, see, the classic Christianity was good, but this one is great. And this caller before me?
SPEAKER 07 :
Uh-huh.
SPEAKER 08 :
I think that as we were growing up in the church, we were misinformed. We were misinformed.
SPEAKER 02 :
Could be, or just not informed as to the completeness of the gospel. I think that’s what happens is we stop. It’s like a lot of things, Josephine. We stop. You know, it’s kind of like I’m going to a ball game, and I stop at the front door. I’m inside, but I’m not in the auditorium.
SPEAKER 08 :
Right.
SPEAKER 02 :
And so I stand outside saying, where’s the game? Well, you’ve got to go on through the other door.
SPEAKER 08 :
That’s right.
SPEAKER 02 :
And what we’re doing is stopping at the outer door, and we’re missing the game. Right. And we have to go into the inner core of salvation, and that’s the life of Christ.
SPEAKER 08 :
And then you say, well, I had the ticket in my hand.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yeah, right.
SPEAKER 08 :
You had the ticket in your hand, but you never did go in.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yeah, never gave it to anybody. That’s right.
SPEAKER 08 :
Yeah.
SPEAKER 02 :
Well, Josephine, we appreciate your call very, very much. It’s encouraging, and we appreciate your endorsement of the book. And we’re just going to encourage our listeners to pick up a copy of that book.
SPEAKER 08 :
I guarantee anybody that reads this faith that pleases God, oh, that will clarify.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yeah. Well, we appreciate that, Josephine. And you and your husband have a great day, and I thank you so much for your encouragement.
SPEAKER 08 :
Bye-bye. Thank you. God bless you. We love you.
SPEAKER 02 :
Love you, too. Bye-bye. Bye-bye.
SPEAKER 01 :
Amy George’s book, Goodbye Is Not Forever, is a wonderful story about her life in the Ukraine during World War II. This book will inspire you as you read about the struggles and hardships of wartime and the faithfulness of God throughout it all. Get your copy of Goodbye Is Not Forever today at BobGeorge.net.
SPEAKER 02 :
We’re going to go to New Orleans, Louisiana. Let’s go on WLNO. John, you’re on the air.
SPEAKER 03 :
How you doing, Bob?
SPEAKER 02 :
Pretty good, John.
SPEAKER 03 :
Thank you for taking my call. I just want to explain something. I was in a profession for about 20 years, and, you know, I had done this job for about 20 years, and I didn’t really like this job. I just did it, you know, because of, you know, circumstances that, you know, I had to do it. And the thing was I didn’t really like it, and I saved my money for a long time to go to school to get, you know, to go to school and do something that I wanted to do. So now, okay, now the thing is that, you know, I went to school and I got my education and everything for what I wanted to do, and now the thing is I’ve been, you know, looking for employment and everything, and I’ve been getting, you know, doors slammed in my face, you know, left and right. And, you know, I know you’ve had experience with this, you know, you being in business and everything for a long time, and, you know… You know, I don’t know. My faith is starting to waver because of this a little bit. You know, I know He’s going to work out everything for my good and everything. And, you know, Jesus said in this world you’re going to have tribulation. And, you know, I have a pretty good grasp on the Word of God and everything. But, you know, I’ve got my faith, but, you know, my body temple, you know, sometimes I get a little hungry sometimes. You know, I don’t have, you know, really, you know, the resources to… really have a good meal, you know what I’m saying? So, I don’t know. What do you think I should do about this, Bob? I don’t know.
SPEAKER 02 :
Well, again, John, you know, I get confused with people that when they run into trials and tribulations of life that they begin to say that they lose their faith because it doesn’t have anything to do with it. You just quoted in this world you’re going to have tribulation. Sometimes the apostles probably went for long periods of time without food and without drink and everything else. So, The issue is that shouldn’t have anything to do with your faith. You should be thanking God for what you do have and trusting him to bring things to you. There certainly are organizations out there in this country in which we live where you can pick up meals. I think that where your income level is such that you can get up – I’m trying to think what you can get, coupons or this type of thing, food coupons. Yeah, food stamps and things. So, again, a lot of times people have to swallow their pride to order to do that. But if you’re in that kind of a situation, avail yourself of those things. They’re there provided so that you can help people. Don’t let that injure your faith.
SPEAKER 03 :
It’s not. Look, Bob, the thing is I really don’t like to ask anybody for anything. It’s like when my father was alive, you know, he had plenty of money. And it was, you know, back in the days when, you know, when I used to smoke back, you know, almost 30 years ago. And, you know, I didn’t even ask. I moved out of his house and, you know, started living, you know, with some other people. And I didn’t even ask him for $10 in 30 years. I never asked my father for $10. I hate to ask people.
SPEAKER 02 :
Well, the issue is, John, that that’s pride, because if you’re going to be a giver, why not learn to be a receiver? Because if you don’t learn to receive, you’re not really going to be much of a giver either. So that’s pride. And you sometimes maybe that’s what God wants to heal in you is that pride to realize and be able. There’s nothing wrong with saying I’ve fallen upon hard times. And I don’t have the resources to do what I used to be able to do. And I need some help. There’s nothing wrong with that. What if we sat here on the radio and our pride was such that I don’t want to ask anybody for help. We’d go broke. This whole ministry would go down the tubes. We had to learn. I had to learn. And our staff members had to learn to be willing to ask for help. Because if we don’t get help, we’re not going to be doing the work that we’re doing. Right. Put that aside, and I understand that. You know, I grew up in that realm too, but the issue is it’s kind of a dumb realm. If you need help, ask for help and bless people. I remember I was in Australia one time with some people, and they went in, and they wanted to buy this sweater for me. It was a beautiful sweater, and it was kind of relatively expensive. And I was, oh, no, no, no. And a guy looked at me and said, what are you trying to do, rob me of blessing you? And I thought, well, you know, that’s really true. If you want to bless me, well, I’ll be blessed. And so just kind of get your attitude changed on that. And if you need some help, go for it, brother. Okay. Yeah, don’t sit there and starve yourself over those issues.
SPEAKER 03 :
Okay, I got one more. Can I ask you one more question?
SPEAKER 02 :
Yeah, very quickly. It’ll be very quick. We have a real full bank.
SPEAKER 03 :
All right, okay. Obviously, we don’t know, you know, what Jesus looked like. You know, in Isaiah it says, Thou will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stated on thee. Now, you know, I just want to know, like, You know, Jesus was, you know, the living word, you know, the word, you know, made manifest, you know, it says in the Gospel of John. Now, if we, you know, keep our mind on the word, that’s… that’s keeping our mind on him.
SPEAKER 02 :
Absolutely. It’s keeping, keeping your mind on, on Christ provision. Okay. No, that’s just like, you know, like there’s no, yeah, there’s no face to keep your mind on people.
SPEAKER 03 :
I know, but like we just keep it, keeping our mind on the word of God, on the word of God that tells us about the things of Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yeah, absolutely.
SPEAKER 03 :
Okay.
SPEAKER 02 :
All right.
SPEAKER 03 :
Thanks a lot. Thanks a lot for your encouragement.
SPEAKER 02 :
You’re sure. Welcome brother.
SPEAKER 03 :
You have a good evening.
SPEAKER 02 :
All right, pal. Bye bye now. We’re going to go to Denver, Colorado. Let’s go on KLTT. Uh, What is it, Leanna?
SPEAKER 06 :
Leela.
SPEAKER 02 :
Leela, okay. Leela, you’re on the air.
SPEAKER 06 :
Thank you for taking my call, and I appreciate your enlightening ministry.
SPEAKER 02 :
Well, thank you, Leela.
SPEAKER 06 :
And I would like to ask Bob a question. I have a husband who’s so-called apostolic, and you know that the doctrine that they teach that you have to be baptized to be saved and speak in tongues, they also don’t believe in the Trinity. And my husband wants to have a Bible study in my home, our home. And I’m just wondering how I could really deal with that as a person who don’t believe those doctrines.
SPEAKER 02 :
Well, Lela, I think that there are some things that, as a man and wife, that you have to be together on. And obviously… you’re not together, and thank God you’re not together in that kind of heretical teaching, because it is heretical. And again, your home is sacred. You certainly wouldn’t bring somebody into your home to commit adultery in your home. You wouldn’t bring somebody in your home to steal things. And so you say, why would I want to bring people into my home to have them teach things to to keep them in hell. And the other side of that coin is that both of you are co-owners of that home. You know, it’s 50-50 property. So you should be able to say, I do not feel comfortable with your doing this. I would assume that if people like that or your husband thinks that he’s an apostle of some kind, why, he’s probably going to beat you down like a piece of liver.
SPEAKER 06 :
Well, he has.
SPEAKER 02 :
But the issue is that someplace down the line, if you feel that that is contrary to what God would have you do, I think there comes a time where you stand up and say, we’re not going to do that.
SPEAKER 06 :
Yes, because I really don’t want him harming other people.
SPEAKER 02 :
Right. Now, you’re not going to stop him from harming other people because if he doesn’t teach it there, he’ll just go teach it someplace else.
SPEAKER 06 :
Yes, but I mean in my home.
SPEAKER 02 :
But in your home, and I think you have a right as a co-owner and a person that is co-existent in that marriage relationship to say, you know, I know what you want to do. I just do not feel comfortable with this. And in light of the scripture that says to submit to one another out of your appreciation of Christ Jesus, I’m going to ask you not to force me to do something like that.
SPEAKER 06 :
All right. I appreciate your input with that.
SPEAKER 02 :
Okay, Layla. You let us know you come out, okay?
SPEAKER 06 :
Okay. Thanks very much.
SPEAKER 02 :
God bless you. Bye-bye.
SPEAKER 01 :
Until next time, walk in faith, be good to one another, and praise the Lord. Amen.
