Explore meaningful discussions with Bob George as he delves into the core of Christian faith, addressing the concerns of his listeners with biblical clarity. Join the journey from Detroit to Los Angeles as callers seek answers to pressing questions about anxiety, loss, salvation, and spiritual guidance. Be inspired by stories of personal transformation, the eternal promise of life in Christ, and the profound connection between belief and faith. This episode is a testament to the enduring relevance of spiritual truths in facing modern challenges.
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 05 :
Let’s go to Detroit, Michigan, listening on WRDT. Dan, you’re on the air.
SPEAKER 07 :
Hi, Bob.
SPEAKER 05 :
Hi, Dan. Fine, thanks.
SPEAKER 07 :
Bob, I got two questions, actually, and I’ll make them really brief and short so you can move on with your callers. My first question was, my mother, she passed away about a little over two and a half years ago, coming up on three this April. She committed suicide, and it was due to the mental state of her mind. She was diagnosed back in the late… 1980s, early 90s, with a bipolar disorder which declared her mentally ill. Not permanently, she’d go through phases. And what was wild about her situation is she’d make 100% recovery after her illness and be just as normal as anybody. But my question is, what type of outlook does God have towards that? I know there’s forgiveness for the people that don’t… have the ability to know right from wrong at that time.
SPEAKER 05 :
Well, Dan, there’s forgiveness for everybody. The forgiveness of Christ at the cross. This is where God intervened into this earth, Dan. God came to earth, and there he who knew no sin became sin for all of us so that we could be saved through his resurrected life. So while we were yet enemies, we’re told, we were reconciled to God through the death of his son. There’s not a person on the face of this earth whose sins were not reconciled by Jesus at the cross. Now, if that was, as some people think, they don’t put two and two together, but in essence, if you believe what sounds like you believe, that salvation is getting your sins forgiven, and many times that’s the message from the pulpit, that salvation is getting your sins forgiven, then it’s universal salvation, because Christ died for the sins of the whole world. Not only our sins, but the sins of the whole world. But that’s not salvation. That was preamble to salvation. That’s what Christ had to do to accomplish for us in order to give us eternal resurrected life. So if your mom was in Christ Jesus, she had come to him for life. And so she is in the presence of God today. her problem was going to the psychological profession instead of going to Jesus when she was having problems because I don’t think there’s bipolar in anybody unless you’re a polar bear. I don’t believe in that kind of nonsense or anything in the Bible talking about bipolar and schizophrenic and manic depressive. Right.
SPEAKER 07 :
Well, they’re all what she was diagnosed with.
SPEAKER 05 :
Yeah, absolutely. So, well, how are you going to make a living unless you put names on things?
SPEAKER 07 :
Right.
SPEAKER 05 :
But that’s where she made her mistake. She made her mistake by instead of going to the Lord when she was going through some problems. Everybody goes through problems. If it was unusual, Dan, for a person to be anxious, which anxiety is always a part of those things. Why would the Bible say, don’t be anxious about anything, but instead, in all things, with prayer and supplication, let your requests be known unto God. And then the peace of God, which you’re not having, but the peace of God that passes all understanding, will quieten your heart and mind in Christ Jesus. If it was unusual, why would he say that? Why would he say, if anger…
SPEAKER 01 :
It was unusual.
SPEAKER 05 :
So these psychiatrists, we get into that they act like somebody. There’s somebody out there, this perfect human being that’s never anxious, never gets depressed, never gets angry. I agree with you. And says, so you’re unusual. I’ve got news for you, brother. So are you because most of them are nutty as a fruitcake. Well, it’s about the money.
SPEAKER 07 :
It comes down to money.
SPEAKER 05 :
Well, of course it is. So that was her mistake. But the issue is we can all make mistakes of judgments as Christians. And so the issue is, your question is, if she was in Christ Jesus, she is in the presence of God. And whether she took her own life or whether somebody else took it, in the final analysis, if she was in Christ Jesus, she was absent from the body and present with the Lord.
SPEAKER 07 :
Beautiful. My second question, I’ll make it really short, and it was basically what you brought up. I’m glad you said anxiety. It reminded me. I’m going through my own problems. I’m only 23 years old. I’m young. But right before, within the last four years, I lost my grandmother. I lost my mother that way. I lost an 18-year-old cousin. And I just recently, within the last few weeks, lost who I was really close to, my grandfather. And I’m really going through… You know, just a hard time. And I think it’s anxiety that’s got me. Can you just give me some peace of mind? What’s the best way I could go about relieving some of that myself?
SPEAKER 05 :
Well, Dan, I don’t think anxiety is worried about what tomorrow is going to bring. And what you’re upset over is what has already happened. Anxiety is I’m anxious about tomorrow. I’m anxious, which is God’s country. You don’t belong up there. Right. You’ve had some tough times there. Those are deaths of loved people, and you’re going to go through a certain period of time of remorse. Losing your mom is, sadly enough, losing them through suicide because you always kind of get guilt. Satan puts guilt on you. You should have done more, and all of that kind of nonsense goes on. So, no, it’s a period of time, Dan, that you’re going to have to go through a certain period of remorse, and that’s fine. But here’s how you come out of that. Where is your mom with Jesus? You know, maybe where’s your granddad? Hopefully he was in the Lord with Jesus. Would you want to bring him back? No way would I want to bring him back. So I’m going to see him again someday. Yeah, that’s right. Well, you see, that takes a sting of death away from that.
SPEAKER 07 :
I think that’s my biggest problem. I think I go through states in life where I’m quite concerned with it and afraid of it. And I know they say we’re afraid of the unknown. And I believe in God with all my heart. But I still have that… I guess I’m just not totally, completely, you know, 100% with it all. I mean, I don’t question it because you’re not supposed to question God, but I do fear death for some reason.
SPEAKER 05 :
Well, the thing of it is, Dan, is have you come to the point in your life of knowing Christ personally, of really knowing Christ personally?
SPEAKER 07 :
I can say that I have, but I really honestly don’t think that I have, no.
SPEAKER 05 :
Do you want to?
SPEAKER 07 :
I do, yeah. Okay.
SPEAKER 05 :
Well, Dan, look, let’s just talk this through for a minute. Here, you’ve got to say, number, what God wanted me to do and wants you to do is to, first of all, see your condition that you are in, you were born in. He said your condition is you’re born dead spiritually. And what is death? The absence of life. You were not born with the life of Christ living in you. No baby says out of the mother’s womb, praise Jesus. We’re born lost, dead, and in need of life. And Christ said, I came, Dan, to give you life. That’s what I came to do. I came to give you life. I am the way and the truth and the life. I’m the resurrection and the life. He who has the Son has life. The whole issue of salvation is that you need spiritual life just like you would say to a car that was grunting and groaning trying to move and say, do you have gas in it? No, you need gas in it. Or to a light bulb with electricity. No, it’s not plugged in and it’s grunting and groaning trying to produce light. Are you plugged in? No, plug in and you’ll get light. Life of God living in you and me is indispensable to our true humanity. Now, in order, again, to give us that life eternal, he had to eternally take away what the cause of death is. And the cause of death was sin. And that’s what the meaning of the cross was. I took away eternally the cause of spiritual death so that I can give life to Dan that can never be destroyed. Right. So you’ve seen now two conditions about yourself. You’re a sinner, and secondly, there’s a consequence to sin called death. His provision now is, Dan, I took away your sins at the cross, never to see them again from the eyes of God, and I was raised from the dead to give you life. Now the issue is, are you ready to thank me for the forgiveness that I provided for you and to receive my resurrected life? Are you ready to do that today?
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah, I am ready, yeah.
SPEAKER 05 :
Let’s just do it. In your heart, faith says, I believe you, Lord. I not only believe you, but I’m going to put my faith in that. And what my faith is, is that I’m going to thank you for the rest of my life for what you came to do for me. And so let’s pray together, Dan, and I’ll just say a prayer, and why don’t you repeat it after me. It will be an expression of your heart, but you’re just basically talking to God. Lord Jesus, I need you.
SPEAKER 07 :
Lord Jesus, I need you.
SPEAKER 05 :
I thank you for taking away my sins from the eyes of God.
SPEAKER 07 :
I thank you for taking away the sins from the eyes of God.
SPEAKER 05 :
So that God will never see those sins again.
SPEAKER 07 :
So that God may never see those sins again.
SPEAKER 05 :
And having done that.
SPEAKER 07 :
Having done that.
SPEAKER 05 :
You died in order that you may be raised from the dead.
SPEAKER 07 :
You died in honor that you may be raised from the dead.
SPEAKER 05 :
So that that life that raised you from the dead. So that life that raised you from the dead. Can raise me from the dead. Can raise me from the dead. I now ask you to come into my heart. I now ask you to come into my heart. To be my Lord and my Savior.
SPEAKER 07 :
To be my Lord and my Savior.
SPEAKER 05 :
And my very, very best friend.
SPEAKER 07 :
And my very, very best friend.
SPEAKER 05 :
In Jesus’ name.
SPEAKER 07 :
In Jesus’ name. Amen. I really appreciate your help today. But I just flukely tuned in and heard you and found it interesting, so.
SPEAKER 05 :
Well, that’s just God, Dan. That was your time for today. It says in the scripture, to as many as received him, to them he gave the right to become a child of God. So you just received him, didn’t you?
SPEAKER 07 :
Yes, I did. Thank you so much.
SPEAKER 05 :
And so you became a child of God. I’m a child of God, so you and I are brothers. You’ve got a whole family of brothers and sisters in Christ out there, and it says all the angels in heaven are rejoicing over one person that converts. And so you’ve got a lot of people all over the universe rejoicing with you today. Now, Dan, what I want to do, I want to send you a New Believers package. Do you have a Bible?
SPEAKER 07 :
You know what, I do have a Bible, but it’s not… Not in the best shape, actually.
SPEAKER 05 :
Okay. Why don’t you go to the bookstore and pick up a New International Version?
SPEAKER 07 :
That’s what it’s called, New International?
SPEAKER 05 :
Yeah, NIV, New International Version. And in the meantime, we’re going to get the information from you and send you a new believer’s packet where you’ll be able to look up those passages that we want you to look up, and that will solidify out of the Word of God in your own heart what’s taken place in your life today.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah, I really appreciate that.
SPEAKER 05 :
Yeah, and then I would start in the Gospel of John and just really grasp the extent of the love of God that he has for you, Dan. And then go back and read the rest of the Gospels and then just start through the New Testament and saturate yourself in the New Testament for a period of time.
SPEAKER 07 :
Okay, thank you so much.
SPEAKER 05 :
All right, and you have any questions along the way, Dan, just pick up any time. That’s what we’re there for. Okay, thank you so much. Okay, God bless you, Dan. God bless you, too. And you call again. Okay, Pat. Thank you. Bye, Dan. Let’s go to Los Angeles, California, listening on KBRIGHT. Jose, you’re on the air.
SPEAKER 06 :
Yes, brothers, thank you for taking my call. I heard that the Lord has revealed you that… So baptism in water is not required for salvation. Somehow most of Christianity teaches that it’s in obedience to obedience. So how can you help me on that to whether it’s in obedience and how with the Bible, how can we justify that?
SPEAKER 05 :
Jose, if anybody would read the Bible, you’d know the answer to that. Remember what it said? John said, I baptize with water, but the one coming after me, whose sandals I’m not worthy of untying, will baptize you with the Holy Spirit. And a few passages later was the day of Pentecost when we were baptized with the Holy Spirit. It talks about the baptism it saves is not being baptized in water. It’s the baptism of the Holy Spirit that replaced water baptism. And so, you know, the water is symbolic, it says, of the baptism that saves you. And so a symbol does not save you. It’s a symbolic of the baptism that does save you. The baptism that saves us is when we have been placed into the body of Christ Jesus. And that’s through new birth by faith and faith alone. Again, when you see what the scriptures teach about what salvation is, it’s death, burial, and resurrection. It’s not death, burial, and resurrection and baptism. It’s not death, burial, and resurrection and tongues. It’s not death, burial, and resurrection and church attendance. It’s death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. You don’t have a darn thing to do with this, Jose. You are out of the equation. It’s merely accepting it by faith. So the people that want to go beyond that, Let them go beyond it, but they are going beyond what the Scripture teaches, and there is no validity to what’s being taught in that realm, that you and I are to walk by faith. Faith is the only thing that pleases God, and faith is not saying that I’m going to do something and God’s going to be pleased. Faith says you did it all, and I’m going to enter into it by faith.
SPEAKER 06 :
All right. Thank you, Bob. Thank you very much.
SPEAKER 01 :
You’re welcome, Jose. God bless, my friend. Classic Christianity Radio is a listener-funded program, and because of your generous donations, we are able to be on the air. Go to BobGeorge.net to order the life-changing audio CD series, The New Covenant, Law and Grace, and How to Have a Proper Self-Image. These series are essential to understanding our inheritance in Christ, what it means to experience freedom and the abundant life in Christ, living under grace, not under the law, and to see ourselves as God sees us, as a completely forgiven person, loved perfectly and righteous in His sight. Please visit bobgeorge.net for additional information on how you can join us financially and help support the radio ministry. With your prayers and support, we can continue to share the good news of Jesus Christ. Let’s continue now with our classic Christianity radio program.
SPEAKER 05 :
We’re going to go to Denver, Colorado, listening on KLT. David, you’re on the air.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, just the age-old question of can someone lose their salvation if they’ve truly been saved at one time?
SPEAKER 05 :
David, there is no way to lose a gift. I’ve said to people many times that people who believe that you can lose your salvation don’t know what salvation is. Because salvation is life, isn’t it? Just what we were talking to Rick about. What is salvation? What are you saved from? Well, you’re saved from the wages of sin. How are you saved from the wages of sin? By the gift of God, which is life. Now, forgiveness does not provide life. Forgiveness provided forgiveness, but it doesn’t provide life. Resurrection provided life. So at the cross is where Jesus took away what caused death. And death is separation from God. So losing salvation would be that God’s life departed from you, wouldn’t it? Well, you weren’t born with his life. No man was. And so once you have come alive in Christ, then the only thing that could cause salvation or life to depart from you would be if sin could cause that. Now before the cross, sin did cause that. After the cross, sin can’t cause that. And the reason it can’t is because of where he took away the sins of the world. So the sin issue has been dealt with, never to be dealt with again. And because there on that cross, he who knew no sin became sin for you, so that in him, in his resurrected life, you could become the righteousness of God. His life and his righteousness has already been imputed to you. And there’s nothing that can cause that life to depart from you again. Because the only thing that could cause it is sin, and sins have all been placed on Christ at the cross. That’s why you have eternal life, and that’s why you cannot lose eternal life.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, I was just going by the part that says if you believed, you’d be saved. Say if a guy believed, but then later on say he was deceived and quit believing.
SPEAKER 05 :
He never believed the first place. In other words, there’s the difference, David, between believing and faith. You see, I can believe in two contradictory things at the same time, but I can only put faith in one of them. So that’s why it says in the Bible that they went out from among us because they were never a part of us. There were many people who believed in Jesus, but had never placed faith in Jesus. It’s just like, why didn’t they go into the promised land? Because they didn’t combine what they knew with faith. And so faith says, faith is what, it’s for by grace you’re saved through faith, not through belief, but through faith. I have to believe something before I can put faith in it, but I can believe something without putting faith in it. So once I come to understand what Jesus did, I can say I believe what he did. Are you going to exercise faith in the fact that he did that for you? And then enter into that by faith. And so you say, can a person be a follower or a professor of Christ and not be a possessor? Absolutely. There are millions of them. I would say that the church is full of them, of people who sit in pews every Sunday who are professors but not possessors.
SPEAKER 04 :
Makes you wonder if they think that they believe, maybe.
SPEAKER 05 :
Well, again, we don’t know because we can’t deal with a man’s heart. The only one that we can deal with is our own. And that’s why the scripture says for us to check our faith to see are we playing games or have we really exercised faith in Christ Jesus? Do we know that Christ lives in us and that we live in him? And the answer to that is, yeah, I know that. I put my faith in him. 30 years ago, and I haven’t changed my mind. And if I did change my mind, it would be evidence that I never did put my faith in him.
SPEAKER 04 :
I guess the person couldn’t lose their assurance of it then. I’ve heard people say that, their assurance.
SPEAKER 05 :
Well, again, what happens, I don’t think you, again, I don’t think salvation, when you really have salvation, if you understand it, that’s due to a lack of understanding. But if you really understand salvation, I don’t care what the circumstances are, you’re not going to be believing you’ve lost salvation. You’ve lost the joy of your salvation. You’ve started walking in the flesh, and depending on the things of the flesh rather than the things of the spirit, And you can talk about a lot of those things, but not doubting your salvation. Jesus is with you forever. He’s never going to leave me and forsake me. If I was him, I’d have left me a long time ago, but he’s not going to do that. There you go. Okay, brother? Hey, I appreciate that. All right, David. God bless you, pal. Bye-bye. Let’s go to Annadale, Virginia, listening on KFAX. Amy, you’re on the air.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yeah, hi, Pastor. I listen to the Bible on audio, trying to… Find out if they talk about IVF, if somebody has a problem conceiving naturally. What does the Bible say about it?
SPEAKER 05 :
It doesn’t?
SPEAKER 02 :
I mean, I didn’t hear it anywhere on the Bible. Maybe I missed it, so I just want to know if there is something mentioned about it.
SPEAKER 05 :
No, there isn’t anything about artificial insemination or anything else in the Bible. No, it talks about it. It talks about that when you are married that you have the privilege of bearing children, having children, but there’s nothing talked about artificial insemination. There probably wasn’t such a thing back in biblical times.
SPEAKER 02 :
It’s what I thought, but do you think that it would be like something that is against God’s will? if nobody can do it.
SPEAKER 05 :
Well, again, you have to decide that between you and God, Amy. To me, it wouldn’t be against God’s will, but it might be in somebody’s mind, and it says it’s for you, it’s sin, it’s sin. So you’ve got to, those kind of questions have to be answered. They’re really not something for me to answer for you or for anyone else. It’s an individual decision that a person needs to make between them and God and to be very happy. if God leads you to be happy with that leading and not with someone else has to say about it because it is not there in the Bible.
SPEAKER 04 :
Okay.
SPEAKER 05 :
All right, Amy. Good to talk to you. Bye-bye. Let’s go to Fullerton, California, listening on KBRI. Dan, you’re on the air.
SPEAKER 03 :
Hi, Bob. Hi, Dan. Hello. I have a small question. Of course, it’s a legalistic question. Springing off that last one. I was, in fact, raised in a very legalistic church. And then I got out of that as an adult by rebelling, thinking I was rebelling completely against God. Found out it was basically I was rebelling against what I was raised with.
SPEAKER 05 :
So you found out you were a good rebel.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah. But speaking of that thing, I was reading in 1 Corinthians, and in chapter 10 I’m reading where it says Paul’s saying, Everything’s permissible, but not everything is beneficial, and everything is permissible, but not everything is constructive. And then I get over to chapter 11, and he’s saying women better not pray with their heads uncovered and things like that. And I’m a little confused about why he was really so strict on that.
SPEAKER 05 :
Well, he wasn’t. What he’s dealing with there is everything that you see in the book of Corinthians is admonishment. It is correction. It is discipline. Because the Corinthians, you could just say they did nothing right. Everything they did was messed up from the word go. They were the very opposite of a person like yourself who grew up with legalism. They grew up with sheer well-taught heathenism. But on the other hand, in Corinth was a Jewish contingency. And as a matter of fact, if you go into Corinth today, right in the midst of where you would have seen that unbelievable heathenism being practiced, you’ll see that has been excavated, a Star of David. So that testimony was there. So there were people who were hanging on to that law and tradition. So he’s saying, and they were always after the authority of Paul’s discipleship. So he says, I praise you for remembering me and holding on to the teaching just as I passed on to you. But I want you to realize that the head of every man is Christ, and the head of a woman is man, and the head of Christ is God. Now, the alternate translation down here is exactly what he’s talking about. I don’t know why they even put the other one in. But in the NIV, it’s every man who prays or prophesies with long hair dishonors his head. And every woman who prays or prophesies with no covering of hair on her head dishonors her head. And she’s just like one of the shorn women. Well, you see, that’s the context is the temple prostitution that was in abundance in Corinth. The prostitutes would shave their heads. And so what he is saying here is if you’re coming in as a born-again Christian with a shaved head, you’re looking like a prostitute. So let your hair grow. And so that you’re not associated coming out of the temple or wherever it might be and saying, look at all the prostitutes in there. Change your life.
SPEAKER 04 :
Okay.
SPEAKER 05 :
If a woman has no covering, let her be for now with short hair. But since it’s a disgrace for a woman to have her hair shorn or shaved, she should grow it again. And a man not ought to have long hair. That is the whole essence is don’t be a stumbling block by your appearance.
SPEAKER 01 :
Oh, okay. Okay, Dan? All right. Thanks a lot, Bob. You’re welcome, brother. God bless you, pal. Okay. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. Until next time, walk in faith, be good to one another, and praise the Lord. Amen.
SPEAKER 06 :
Put Jesus first in your life and turn your life around.
