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Join Dave and Tom as they engage in an in-depth, verse-by-verse examination of the Gospel of John. We hope you will be challenged and convicted as you listen to these insightful, exegetical discussions compiled from nearly four years of Search the Scriptures Daily radio programs. Open your Bible and get ready for an edifying pilgrimage into God's Word.

Gary: Welcome to Search the Scriptures 24/7, a radio ministry of The Berean Call with T.A. McMahon. I’m Gary Carmichael. Thanks for joining us. In today’s program, Tom concludes a two-part series with guests Martin and Deidre Bobgan. Here’s TBC executive director Tom McMahon. Tom: Thanks, Gary. Today’s program - this is a followup, part 2 with Martin and Deidre Bobgan. They are prolific writers; they’ve written more than 20 books, titles, they have papers available, a newsletter…you can download many of their books from their website, which is www.pamweb.org; or you can order the books, the hardcopies, from right here at The Berean Call.  Deidre, Martin, thanks again for being with me on Search the Scriptures 24/7.  Deidre: Thank you. It’s a pleasure and an honor. Martin: Always a joy to speak with you, Tom. Tom: You know, last week, as you know - you were there, I was there, okay - if you missed last week’s programs, folks, we established that psychological counseling is not a scientific endeavor. Martin gave you references in his books and other places that you could go for the documentation of what we’ve been saying, and it’s a myth that continues that Christians who are suffering from mental, emotional, or behavioral difficulties, that they need professional help to solve their problems.

In the early 1980s, my wife and I were challenged to learn how many people groups lacked the Bible in their own language. During missionary training, we both heard a few third-world brethren speak in chapel, and their confidence in and respect for the Word of God was impossible to miss. I remember the example of the man (and his family) who became missionaries and went on to preach the gospel to other cultural groups. During chapel, I was encouraged as I lost track of how many times he proclaimed, “the Bible says.” We pray that many of these people have since grasped the promise of the gospel. Over the next forty years, we rejoiced with every completed Bible translation project, and we continue to pray for those working where the apostle Paul sought to go. Paul wrote of his desire, “To preach the gospel in the regions beyond you, and not to boast in another man’s line of things made ready to our hand” (2 Corinthians 10:16).

REFORMATION DAY is observed annually on October 31. It was on that date in the year 1517 that a 33-year-old Augustinian friar named Martin Luther nailed his Disputation on the Power & Efficacy of Indulgences (also known as The Ninety-Five Theses) on the door of All Saints’ Church in Wittenberg, Germany. Luther did this knowing it would be widely viewed the next day in the heart of the Holy Roman Empire1 on the Roman Catholic holy day of All Saints’ Day. Luther’s letter had its desired effect: it was widely read and eventually led to his excommunication by Pope Leo X on January 3, 1521. Endnotes  1. What is now Germany was in the heart of the (Roman Catholic) Holy Roman Empire, of which Voltaire famously said, “…is neither holy, nor Roman, nor an empire….” 2. The even more famous statement, “Here I stand. I can do no other,” is disputed, but may also have been among his expressed sentiments. 3. Martin Luther, Disputation on the Power & Efficacy of Indulgences Commonly Known as The Ninety-Five Theses (first published 1517; Merchant Books, 2015), Thesis 7. 4. Council of Trent, Session 22 (17 September 1562), “Canons on the Sacrifice of the Mass,” Canon 3, in General Council of Trent: Twenty-Second Session, Papal Encyclicals Online, https://www.papalencyclicals.net/councils/trent/twenty-second-session.htm. 5. Martin Luther, Ninety-Five Theses, Theses 10, 11, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 22, 25, 26, and 29. 6. Luther, Thesis 18. 7. Luther, Thesis 25. 8. Luther, Theses 38, 41, 42, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 64, 69, 70, 71, 73, 75, 77, 78, 81, and 91. 9. Luther, Thesis 71. 10. Luther, Thesis 73. 11. Probably not these exact words, as he was speaking German, and the English rhyme would not be relevant. 12. Luther, Ninety-Five Theses, Thesis 75. 13. Luther, Thesis 77. 14. See Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd Edition (Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 1997), nos. 881–82. 15. Luther’s Works, Vol. 34: Career of the Reformer IV (Concordia Publishing House, 1960), pp. 336–37. 16. Martin Luther, On The Jews and Their Lies (first published 1543; CPA Book Publisher, n.d.), p. 26. [This is the non-scholarly version, omitting long theological dissertations.] 17. Luther, On The Jews, p. 17. 18. Luther, On The Jews,p. 33. 19. Luther, On The Jews, pp. 39-42. 20. Luther, On The Jews, p. 49. 21. Luther, On The Jews, p. 56. 22. Luther, On The Jews, p. 57. 23. Luther, On The Jews, p. 57.

We can truly say with Paul, “I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day” (2 Timothy 1:12). All we who love Christ deeply talk with Him constantly; He is our Lord, dearest friend, and Savior. We have authenticated His Word over and over in its archaeological, historical, internal, external, and prophetic proofs, and in its witness to our conscience. Times without number we have experienced the fulfillment of its promises to us in our daily lives. Nothing could ever justifiably shake our trust in Him. Yet even some Christians are plagued with doubts and in need of encouragement from other believers through God’s Word. There are non-Christians, too, who sincerely seek answers to legitimate questions. They ask us for solid reasons for our faith, and we must be “ready always to give an answer…” (1 Peter 3:15).

BEFORE MAN WAS CREATED, Satan had already rebelled and taken countless angels with him. How many angels and how long before, we don’t know. Tragically, the insurrection spread from heaven to earth. At Satan’s enticement, the first man and woman defied their Maker, bringing destruction and death upon this new race which God had created in His image. This mutiny had not caught God by surprise but was proceeding exactly as He had foreknown. He was still on the throne of the universe. How could man rebel against God’s absolute authority? Clearly, God had sovereignly given man the ability to submit to Him willingly in love. The ability to say yes, however, was meaningless without the equal ability to say no. Thus, the door God opened to loving submission could be slammed shut in willful revolt—as Adam and Eve had done. Some Christians suggest that God willed for Adam and Eve to break His commandment not to eat of the tree of knowledge. Yet sin of any kind is contrary to God’s will. He must therefore have allowed sin to enter this world in order to further His ultimate purpose for mankind, all of whom He loves with an infinite love—the only kind of love that God, who is love, bestows.

The first law of thermodynamics states that energy, the stuff of which the universe is made, can neither be created nor destroyed. Two conclusions follow: 1. The total energy in the universe remains constant, and 2. Energy must be self-existent and eternal—exactly what the Bible says about God. Is science promoting energy as “God”? The second law of thermodynamics states that while total energy remains constant, usable energy and order continually decrease as entropy increases. Common sense tells us that all fires eventually burn out. Neither our sun nor the other stars could have been burning forever. There must have been a time when neither stars nor the energy of which they consist existed. Clearly, the universe had a beginning, as the Bible declares: “In the beginning...” (Genesis 1:1).

Gary: Welcome to Search the Scriptures 24/7, a radio ministry of The Berean Call featuring T.A. McMahon. I’m Gary Carmichael. Thanks for tuning in. In today’s program, Tom launches a two-part series with guests, authors Martin and Deidre Bobgan. Here’s TBC executive director Tom McMahon. Tom: Thanks, Gary. On today’s program and next week, as well, we’ll be discussing what the Scripture has to say about believers ministering to one another, which, sad to say, is foreign to the way most churches with rare exceptions go about counseling, even under the label of “biblical counseling.” My guests to discuss this important subject are Dr. Martin and Deidre Bobgan. They are prolific writers with more than 20 titles to their credit, nearly all addressing the scriptural problems with psychological counseling and Christian psychology, so-called. Many of their books can be downloaded from their website, which is www.pamweb.org, or you can order their books, their hardcopies, from The Berean Call. Deidre, Martin, thanks for being with me again on Search the Scriptures 24/7. Deidre: Well, thank you for inviting us. We always enjoy talking about these issues with you, Tom. Martin: Yeah, thank you, Tom. It’s always a great pleasure to speak with you and interact.

Gary: Welcome to Search the Scriptures 24/7, a radio ministry of The Berean Call featuring T.A. McMahon. I’m Gary Carmichael. It’s great to have you with us! In today’s program, Tom wraps up a two-part series with guest Joe Keim as they address the question: Are the Amish Really Christians? Here’s TBC executive director, Tom McMahon. Tom: Thanks, Gary. Well, this is part 2 of a conversation that I’m having with Joe Keim. The program is about Amish. Joe grew up Amish, as we learned last week, and he’s now a leader in MAP. And MAP is the Mission to the Amish People. Joe, welcome back to Search the Scriptures 24/7. Joe: I appreciate it, Tom. It’s good to be back and to be able to share some of the things that we’ve shared so far.

Tom: We are continuing with the gospel of John, we are in Chapter 11 and last week we got through verse 25 and we should be starting 26 but I think it’s important to read 25 again, Dave.“Jesus said unto her, (that is, Martha), I am the resurrection, and the life:he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live:And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die, Believest thou this?”Dave, these statements the just ought to, I know they do to me, it just grabs you by the heart, it’s so exciting,—“I am the resurrection and the life, he that believeth in me….”And then it goes on, “And whosoever liveth and believeth in me, shall never die.Believeth thou this?”Boy, the emphasis is on faith, trusting in Christ, putting your hope, your trust in him. Dave: Well, we can’t get away from the fact that though he were dead we are dead in trespasses and in sins, we are under God’s judgment.So, it’s talking about spiritual death here and you believe in Christ you have eternal life as a free gift.“And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die—Believeth thou this?”I mean, we’ve talked about the death penalty, we’ve talked about why doesn’t God allow man to live forever, why should there be any disease, why doesn’t God just heal everybody?Well, this is the healing, this is the solution, this is the cure to the problem of sin and suffering, and death on the earth and it’s because Christ paid the penalty for our sins.“I AM the resurrection”—she says, Oh, I believe he will rise at the resurrection.Jesus says, “I am the resurrection!”Why does he say that?Because there is no resurrection apart from him having paid the penalty for our sins.And, she doesn’t understand that.She is concerned, Martha and Mary are concerned. Tom: Well she has mixed purposes here and she loves her brother and wants to see him raised up. Dave: Right.All they are thinking of is physical death and could you restore him?Well, but even if you restore him, Lord, I guess that’s only going to be temporary, isn’t it?That’s another interesting fact.Jesus did raise a number of people from the dead when he was here.They all died eventually.In other words, he did not give them permanent physical life.He raised them from the dead.That only brought them back into this life of suffering and disease and so forth.We don’t know how much longer Lazarus lived, what he died of. Tom: Right, but he was a witness for Christ, for the Messiah. Dave: Absolutely.He had been dead and he came back to life.And also, we don’t read that, now Lazarus was a special emissary for Christ.And Jesus said, “Well, since you’ve been to the other side, you have died, then be a witness and tell people about this.”I think we talked about it a few weeks ago—Abraham said to the rich man—he wanted Lazarus, the beggar, to go back and tell his brothers.And, Abraham said, “Look, if they don’t believe Moses and the prophets, they will not be convinced even though someone comes back from the dead.”We have people today, especially in charismatic circles, claim they went to heaven, they went to hell, God commissioned them to come back and tell what it was like as a special warning and so forth.Now, we know that Paul went to heaven.He said it was not lawful for him to tell about it.That was up to John, the revelator, the Book of Revelation, or whatever the Bible tells us about it, and to say. Well, I’ve been to hell, now I’m coming back to warn people.It doesn’t work!So, it’s rather interesting that Lazarus was not given that mission. Tom: No, but he was a witness to the power of Christ. Dave: Absolutely.He was a witness in the fact that he had been dead four days and now he is alive and everybody knew it.I mean, they were there when he came out of the grave, bound with grave clothes hand and foot.He was dead, no doubt about it. Tom: Dave, these individuals who claim to have been to heaven, been to hell and so on, they come back with almost theology.In other words, their words are taken to—oh, this is what it was like, this is what I experienced, a very subjective experience that now has developed into a theology.This isn’t the case with Lazarus.His witness—the demonstration of him being raised from death to life really pointed to Christ continually and didn’t add additional theological ideas. Dave: Yeah, and sadly some of them come back with ridiculous stories—Oh, I got close to God and he has feathers—incredible! Tom: Right.Pastor Buck, you remember, a number of years ago? Dave: Incredible!Another one said he got there and he found Peter’s footprints in the gold streets because Peter got there just after the gold had been poured.People are willing to believe just absurd tales that come from these people.Okay, so it’s not biblical.The Bible does not give us anything like that.Lazarus did not come back telling people what it was like.But, he was a demonstration of the power of Christ, that Christ is the resurrection.“I am the resurrection and the life,” Jesus said.Now he is trying to bring them on to something more than the restoration of physical life.He says, “He that liveth and believeth in me, shall never die.”That is the promise of the eternal life.“Believeth thou this?”And we could say that to everyone who is listening right now, do you believe this?Do you believe that God promises eternal life in Christ Jesus because he paid the penalty, and are you willing to receive this?This is the main thing that Jesus is getting at, although he does go ahead and raise Lazarus from the dead as a demonstration that he is who he claims to be. Tom: Now Dave, verse 27, Martha speaking, “She saith unto him, Yea, Lord:I believe that thou art the Christ, the Son of God, which should come into the world.”Now, what was her understanding here? Dave: I don’t know whether she had much understanding of what that really meant. Tom: She says the right things but— Dave: She does, but what did she think of Christ.For example, Jesus asked the Rabbi, “What think ye of Christ, the Messiah, whose Son is he?”And they say, “Well, he’s the son of David,” which is true, and Jesus says, Wait a minute, if he is the son of David, why does David call him, Lord?He’s trying to get them to understand that the Messiah must be God.Now, whether she understands that at this point—thou art the Christ, the Son of God, which should come into the world—I don’t know, but I’m sure that she came to understand this.There was a gradual unfolding of the truth to these people because they did not understand.Now, when she had said that, she went her way, and called Mary her sister secretly, saying, “The Master is come, and calleth for thee.”Apparently Mary was so absorbed in her grief she didn’t know that Jesus had come into town.“As soon as she heard that, she arose quickly, and came unto him.”Jesus hadn’t come into the town (so I was wrong, I said he came into the town, well, he’s next to the town, he’s in the outskirts, he was in the place where Martha met him).The Jews then which were with her in the house, and comforted her, when they saw Mary, that she rose up hastily and went out, followed her, saying, “She goeth unto the grave to weep there.Some of them may have been professional weepers, they didn’t really know that there was a restoration to life, these people were weeping.Some of the Jews specifically denied the resurrection and now we have a very emotional scene which I think we had better defer until our next program, Tom, when Mary comes.And we have this tremendous verse, verse 35, we’ll get to next time, perhaps—Jesus wept.Shows his mercy, his love, his sympathy.He’s not an unsympathetic God.It goes back to our question again, why doesn’t he stop all suffering and sin?He’s concerned, he weeps.But there is only one solution and we have to accept that or there is no solution.

Join Dave and Tom as they engage in an in-depth, verse-by-verse examination of the Gospel of John. We hope you will be challenged and convicted as you listen to these insightful, exegetical discussions compiled from nearly four years of Search the Scriptures Daily radio programs. Open your Bible and get ready for an edifying pilgrimage into God's Word.

Join Dave and Tom as they engage in an in-depth, verse-by-verse examination of the Gospel of John. We hope you will be challenged and convicted as you listen to these insightful, exegetical discussions compiled from nearly four years of Search the Scriptures Daily radio programs. Open your Bible and get ready for an edifying pilgrimage into God's Word.

Join Dave and Tom as they engage in an in-depth, verse-by-verse examination of the Gospel of John. We hope you will be challenged and convicted as you listen to these insightful, exegetical discussions compiled from nearly four years of Search the Scriptures Daily radio programs. Open your Bible and get ready for an edifying pilgrimage into God's Word.

Join Dave and Tom as they engage in an in-depth, verse-by-verse examination of the Gospel of John. We hope you will be challenged and convicted as you listen to these insightful, exegetical discussions compiled from nearly four years of Search the Scriptures Daily radio programs. Open your Bible and get ready for an edifying pilgrimage into God's Word.

HEBREWS 10:34-35 For ye had compassion of me in my bonds, and took joyfully the spoiling of your goods, knowing in yourselves that ye have in heaven a better and an enduring substance. Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompense of reward.HEBREWS 12:2 Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.HEBREWS 13:2 Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.HEBREWS 13:3 Remember them that are in bonds, as bound with them; and them which suffer adversity, as being yourselves also in the body.JAMES 5:19-20 Brethren, if any of you do err from the truth, and one convert him; Let him know, that he which converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins.1 PETER 1:22 Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently:1 PETER 2:16-17 As free, and not using your liberty for a cloke of maliciousness, but as the servants of God. Honour all men. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honour the king.1 PETER 3:8-9 Finally, be ye all of one mind, having compassion one of another, love as brethren, be pitiful, be courteous: Not rendering evil for evil, or railing for railing: but contrariwise blessing; knowing that ye are thereunto called, that ye should inherit a blessing.