In this insightful episode, Bible teacher Dr. J. Vernon McGee tackles pressing questions submitted by listeners, ranging from the interpretation of parables to the curious absence of certain tribes in the Book of Revelation. With his typical wisdom, Dr. McGee sheds light on these subjects, offering clarity and a deep understanding of the Scriptures. For those grappling with the balance between personal experience and divine Word, this episode provides a thoughtful exploration of the relationship between the two.
00:00:00 Introduction and Listener Question from Arizona
00:20:45 Final Question from Lexington, North Carolina
SPEAKER 02 :
The Bible says that Jesus spoke using parables, that is, stories, to teach truths to the people who came to him. One such story was about wise and foolish virgins. Was he teaching that you could lose your salvation with this story? Well, stay with us to find out. This is Steve Schweitz for the Through the Bible Radio Network, welcoming you to another edition of the Question and Answer program with our Bible teacher, Dr. J. Vernon McGee. We hope that you’ll be able to join us for the next 30 minutes as we benefit from the wit and wisdom Dr. McGee brought to answering the many questions of his listeners. Now, our first question today comes from a listener in Arizona who makes a comment that raises the question about the relationship of experience to Scripture. He writes, No one has a monopoly on God. You may have had experiences with God that others have not had. Others have, in turn, had experiences with God that you may not have had yourself. With this in mind, I hope you can understand what I am saying, thus not exposing your spiritual lacking by ridiculing your Christian brothers who have spiritual understanding, compassion, and blessing which you don’t seem to have.
SPEAKER 01 :
May I say to this party, first of all, that I do not want to appear as a know-it-all, because I do not. I recognize my limitations, my shortcomings, and that there actually are many questions that come to us here that I actually do not have the answer for them at all. But I would like to make this statement to you, since you very personally said that I lack knowledge, spiritual understanding, compassion, and blessing that others have it. And you may be accurate in that statement, but it was not very kind of you to do that. A candidate for president found out that He’d made a mistake in making a personal attack upon his opposition, and certainly Christians ought not to use that method. And even if it were true, which it may not be, you should not have made that statement. I’m sure that… You made it in haste and made it when your blood pressure apparently was up because of something that I said to which you did not agree. Now, the key to what you have said is found in one word. And that is experience. You have said that there are others that have had experiences that I have not had. And that is quite true. And you’ve also been willing to grant that I have had experiences that others have not had. And that, may I say, I’m sure is true. But my teaching does not rest upon experience. I base mine upon what the Word of God has to say. And unfortunately, you gave me only one scripture, and it is Jesus Christ, the same yesterday. today and forever. And I would like very much to tell you what that really means. And it doesn’t mean that he’s doing today the same thing that he did yesterday and that he will not be doing the same thing in the future. Now, 1900 years ago, he was walking along the shores of the Sea of Galilee. and later on, why he was in the streets of Jerusalem, and he was arrested outside the walls of Jerusalem, and he was crucified. Now, that’s the way he was yesterday, but he’s not the same today. He is now at God’s right hand, and all power has been given unto him. He’s now at God’s right hand, not the man of Nazareth, not the one that walked along the shores of Galilee. He’s now returned to his position in the Godhead. But in the future, he’s not going to be there. We’re told that he’s going to come with great power to this earth. So when you say that he’s the same yesterday, today, and forever, you’re quoting a scripture that means something altogether different than you think that it means that he’s same in his person, same in his love. the same in his justice, he’s that same God who has not changed at all. But to say that he’s doing the same thing in the same way, you’re entirely inaccurate because it’s quite obvious. that that’s not what that passage of Scripture means. Therefore, I take the liberty, since you only gave me one passage of Scripture, that’s the only one that I can interpret for you. And I trust that you will see the meaning of that Scripture and that you will rest your case and your position on Scripture and not on experience. Now, it doesn’t make any difference whether somebody else has had a different experience than I’ve had and whether I’ve had an experience that someone else hasn’t had. That experience actually hasn’t anything to do with it. What does the Word of God say? And the experience should be interpreted in the light of what the Word of God has to say. I hope that you will see that position because I think it’s very important today in our understanding of the Word of God.
SPEAKER 02 :
Our next question comes to us from a listener in Whittier, California. She says, Why are Ephraim and Dan omitted from the list of tribes in Revelation chapter 7?
SPEAKER 01 :
And I’d like to turn to that seventh chapter and say to you, first of all, that Ephraim is not missing there. You will notice that Joseph had two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh. Now, Manasseh is mentioned in verse 6, and Joseph is mentioned in verse 8. And that, of course, is Ephraim. And Dan is omitted. And if you read the story of Dan… And this is the sealing of those that were to witness for God. Then, because of the great sin that they committed, they were forbidden to be a witness for God. And that one that was the very favorite, you see, of old Jacob, well, now, because of sin, is not permitted to witness. But when you come to the listing of the 12 tribes of Israel that are going to be in the millennium, you’d have to go back into the last part of Ezekiel to get that. And I’ll not turn to it because you say you’re reading the Scripture rather carefully. And this is something for you to do. And you go back there and you find the millennium. Dan is there. So Dan made it through to the millennium. But during the Great Tribulation, they apparently were not permitted to witness. Therefore, they were not sealed for that purpose at all.
SPEAKER 02 :
We move on to this question from a listener in Spring Lake, Michigan. Would you please discuss the issue of not associating with non-Christian relatives in order to fulfill the scriptural command to not have an appearance of evil?
SPEAKER 01 :
And I do not think that you could make a rule and say, you should associate with unsaved relatives. Or make a rule and say, you should not associate with unsaved relatives. And I don’t think that you can pull in and say that we have no association at all with evil and use that. Because after all, the chances are that you’re in a world today, just as I’m in, in which every day I go to lunch, unsaved are sitting all around me, and I rub shoulders with them all the time in the marketplace of the world today, so that you’d have to withdraw yourself into a monastery if you’re going to get away from all associations with evil. And I don’t think that that’s quite what the Scripture is saying. It’s a question of being involved. Now, I personally can’t see how associating with unsaved relatives is putting a pressure upon you. My opinion would be that if you take some sort of a stand for the Lord in the presence of those relatives, that you may find out they will not want to associate with you. Now, that has been my experience. I used to have good relations with my relatives until I got saved and started to study for the ministry. And you would have thought at that time that I took leprosy, because to begin with, I was a poor boy, and I think some of the relatives were afraid I was going to ask them for money or help to get through school, because they knew I’d need it. Well, I never got any help from any relative of mine. And the unsaved dropped me like a hot potato. I’ll be honest with you, they didn’t care to have me around. Because as a young Christian, I was in the habit of preaching, you know. And I remember one time, all the relatives came over to my aunt’s for Christmas. I was then in seminary, and one of the relatives made the mistake of asking me how seminary was. Well, I told them. And believe me, I told them what they had to do to be saved. And you know that I never got back to another one of those Christmas meetings after that. Somehow or another, they didn’t include me. So I don’t see why you’ve got pressure on you. I would say you ought to welcome that. You’re a Christian, Fran. Sure, you object to their drinking. You object to their cussing. You object to all of that. But we’re to be salt in the world. And I tell you, when salt gets on raw flesh, it burns. And believe me, when you touch the old flesh that’s in mankind today with the salt, you’re going to get a reaction. And I’m of the opinion that you ought to become salt. and become very salty. And I don’t think you then have to worry about associating with relatives. That was my experience, and I found that we’re on the positive side, the aggressive side, and therefore I think that you need to stand on your two feet and get rid of that pressure and take a stand. That is the thing that you need, and it may be the Lord has put you in that kind of position for that very reason.
SPEAKER 02 :
An Altoona, Pennsylvania listener asks this question, Are all the turmoil and problems in so many churches a sign of the day we are living in, or the coldness and lack of Christian love in the hearts of believers?
SPEAKER 01 :
Well, let me put it this way, that the coldness you have discovered in the hearts of many believers today is actually a sign of the day in which we live. Now, actually, there were no signs given to the church. But the church was told that in the last days of the church, a great apostasy would arise in the church. 1 Timothy, the fourth chapter, I read this, “…now the Spirit speaketh expressly.” that in the latter times, that is, in the latter times of the church, some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of demons, speaking lies and hypocrisy, having their conscience seared, with a hot iron, forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth. You see that that type of thing has happened. There is a definite departure from the faith in the organized church today. And actually, in many of our so-called conservative churches, coldness has come in. And these people actually have their conscience seared with a hot iron. And this is an example of it. I have another letter here from a party in which a relative has a daughter. that is very promiscuous, and she apparently sleeps with every man that comes along. And the family, of course, naturally disturbed about it, attempted to talk to the girl. But very frankly, the girl said, well, you don’t need to talk to me. I’m born again, and my life is my own business. Well, may I say to you, that girl has her conscience seared with a hot iron. That’s all. And I do not believe that she’s a Christian in any sense of the world. She’s speaking lies and hypocrisy. Now, there’s a great deal of that taking place today. There is a great deal of social drinking going on in the church. And to tell the truth, we Americans are never teetotalers in anything if we go into it. Anything, we go whole hog or nothing. And as a result, this drinking in the church is an alarming sort of thing in some churches at the present time. And again, they say, well, I’m a Christian. I can do these things. You’re speaking lies and hypocrisy, and you know you are. So you ought not to be alarmed at what’s happening. It just happens to be following the pattern that the Lord said it would. And so I think that today we are seeing the thing happen that he said would happen and the church would become this kind of a church.
SPEAKER 02 :
Now this listener would like to know about the predestination of Judas’ betrayal of Jesus. She writes, If God is all-knowing, would he not know that Judas, of his own free will, would be the one who would be the betrayer? Thus would Judas be predestined in God’s word to betray Christ?
SPEAKER 01 :
No, I think you’re entirely wrong in that assumption because you need to use the word predestination the way that it’s used in the Bible. Nowhere is it ever said that anyone is predestined to be lost. And to say that Judas was predestined to betray Christ is to be very unscriptural. Predestination is a word that’s used in Scripture to apply to the saved. And it means that when you trust Christ… Why, he’s going to see you through. He’s able to save you to the uttermost. In other words, the picture that he gave, the parable he gave, was the sheep that got lost. He went out and got it. He started out with 100 sheep, and one sheep got lost, and he had only 99 that was in the fold. But he went out and got the other one, because when he starts out with 100 sheep, He comes through with 100 sheep. Why? Because they’re predestined, and it only refers to them. So don’t use the word predestined in the case of Judas at all, because that would be entirely unscriptural. And then may I say to you that today there’s a great deal of talk about predestination and election time. and chosen in him before the foundation of the world. And a great many folk apparently bumped up against this for the first time, and it causes them to come up with all kinds of explanations. Now, I know the feeling because I remember when I went to seminary, it came in the first year because the first year in theology, you talk about theology proper, and that’s about God. And you talk about the attributes of God. And I tell you, that’s where you begin. But I’m of the opinion that that probably ought to be the last year in theology. But I know that I really got upset. And I came up with an explanation. In fact, I had worked out how election really worked. And I went in, I was so bold as to go in and explain it to the teacher of theology. And he was Dr. Chafer. And I never shall forget, he listened to me rather patiently. Imagine a first-year student who knew nothing to tell the truth. And I knew nothing about theology, but I explained it to him. And I never shall forget, he tapped me on the knee and he says, Thank you, Vernon. And I thought, man, I’ve made a contribution to this man. And I walked out. And I would tell you what that was if I could think of it. But whatever it was, somehow or another slipped from my memory. And it wasn’t maybe as great as I thought it was. so that many people today come up with explanations like you’ve come up with, and it may be that you’ve been thinking about this a long time. But let’s remember that God has told us, He says, “…my thoughts are not your thoughts, and my ways are not your ways.” So that, remember that all of us are just little hip squeaks down here. We really don’t know very much. And let’s don’t try to assume that God works this way and that way unless it’s told us in the Scripture. And when you’re talking about what God is thinking and what God is doing, remember that all we can possibly know is what He’s revealed in His Scripture. And to tell the truth, He never said that Judas was predestined to be lost. And don’t say that. Then we need to be very careful how we speak. And I do not say that to rebuke you. I say that to you because today so many things are being said And all of us need to be very careful that we don’t go beyond revelation. Because we can’t. We don’t know anything beyond it.
SPEAKER 02 :
Today’s final question comes from a listener in Lexington, North Carolina. After providing a lengthy discussion on the parable of the wise and foolish virgins in Matthew 25, he says, Is this parable saying that one can lose their salvation?
SPEAKER 01 :
It might be wise for me to turn and read that parable. It’s not that long. That is the part that I’ll be reading, and that will get it before us. Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten virgins which took their lamps and went forth to meet the bridegroom. And five of them were wise and five were foolish. They that were foolish took their lamps and took no oil with them. But the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps. While the bridegroom carried, they all slumbered and slept. And at midnight there was a cry made, Behold, the bridegroom cometh, go ye out to meet him. Then all those virgins arose and trimmed their lamps, and the foolish said unto the wise, Give us of your oil, for our lamps are gone out. Well, let me say first of all that the ten virgins here, we believe, represent the nation Israel and those of the Gentiles that will be expecting the Lord Jesus to come to the earth to establish his kingdom here on this earth. Now, the ten virgins here, I think, specifically represent the nation Israel. Now, they’re divided into wise and foolish virgins. And you make the statement, they have oil and others have none. Now, the oil is a type of the Holy Spirit, and you’re right by that. Now, will you notice verse 3, “…they that were foolish took their lamps and took no oil with them.” You see, they never did have oil. They were putting up, and the lamps, by the way, is a testimony. You’re the light in the world. That’s given to us today. You’re lights in the world. And there are a lot of phony lights in the world today. I think you’ll agree with that. And they have an outward testimony, but they actually do not have the Holy Spirit. They are not really born again. And so here, we’re definitely told that the foolish, they didn’t have any oil. So what kind of a light were they given? They were given a false light. They were phonies. And the test came when the bridegroom came. When the test then was, you better have oil because you will have to have a genuine light. And the foolish couldn’t come in because that phony light they had is not going to get them in. I think that you need to look at it that way. The second thing I’d like to say is don’t try to press every detail of a parable. A parable is generally given to teach one specific truth. And when you’ve got that, then don’t try to work in all the details. It was given to me years ago and I found it helpful. It’s like a problem in geometry that a circle only touches a straight line at one point. And a parable only touches truth at one point. That is, that’s one specific thing that’s being taught. And the specific thing, of course, is that it was essential to be a person with the Holy Spirit in order to go into the marriage supper of the Lamb. And some just didn’t have it. They never did have it. And all they had was phony.
SPEAKER 02 :
And with that question and answer, we need to bring today’s program to a close. If you’d like more information on any of today’s topics or any other issue of interest, you may want to contact us for our current resource catalog. Now as a suggestion, you might also want to consider the newly revised and expanded Questions and Answers paperback book. In it, Dr. McGee provided biblical answers to your questions about faith and life. Now, don’t forget to join us this week during the Through the Bible program heard each Monday through Friday on this station. No matter when you join us, the Bible bus is always ready to take you on a wonderful journey through the pages of Scripture. Notes and outlines are available for these studies when you ask to be on the mailing list for our monthly newsletter, or you can download them online for free. To ask for the catalog, purchase the Questions and Answers book, or to be placed on the mailing list, call 1-800-65-BIBLE Monday through Thursday from 6 a.m. to 3 p.m. Pacific Time. We can also be reached by email when you visit our website at ttb.org. Or you can write to Questions and Answers in the U.S. Box 7100, Pasadena, California, 91109. For those in Canada, Box 25325, London, Ontario, N6C 6B1. Now until this same time next week, we pray that God will answer all of your questions and solve all your problems.
SPEAKER 03 :
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