JOSHHANSON.ORG

EPISODE 59:  Q&A

Date: 01/20/2021

Questions

  1. On recent podcast episodes, we’ve heard from Gateway staff who had initially begun careers in the business world before coming to Gateway. Pastor Josh has talked in brief snippets of his time in the military. Could you share this story of how you went from serving in the military to pastoring a church?
    1. Grew up in a Christian home.
    2. Saved in my early teens at a youth camp.
    3. Felt the call to the ministry then, but didn’t want to do it.
    4. Studied jazz, joined the Army, taught music in an elementary school.
    5. First Baptist Temple Terrace 
    6. Into ministry.
  1. I really enjoyed the sermons on handling disagreement and appreciate the timeliness of those messages. I completely understand that we must have agreement on the foundations of our faith and there is room for disagreement on issues that aren’t related to salvation. I have been thinking about the issue of abortion and wondering if that is an area where disagreement is allowable. I am passionately pro-life, and I have seen many Christian friends over the last few years/ months claim to be pro choice. I don’t understand how abortion is an area where there can be room allowed for disagreement in the church. Should this be the case? And how could I go about sharing with my Christian friends who don’t see eye to eye with me on this, about the importance of legislation on abortion in our current political climate without idolizing one political party? To be clear – I definitely don’t think the government is any type of savior. I think abortion, like all other injustices plaguing our society right now is a sin issue, and the gospel is the primary answer. But abortion is one injustice that is actually legal right now and I do believe that is worth fighting.
    1. I think my sermon on being “for life” made it clear that believers in Christ must be against abortion. 
    2. Where things get sticky, I think, is when someone says, “If you’re pro-life you can’t ever vote for someone’s who’s a Democrat or who’s pro-choice.”
      1. At the local government level, abortion decisions aren’t being made. Our mayor isn’t making decisions on abortion. So I think we have to take in the authority or power of the position we’re voting for instead of making dogmatic sweeping statements.
      2. Additionally — at higher levels of government — I think there’s more room than some want to give when it comes to voting. For example, voting for a Republican candidate doesn’t mean you agree with everything the person has said, or how they’ll vote, etc…I know many of our local and state level Republicans showed support for legalizing gambling on sports. My point isn’t whether or not gambling compares to abortion. The point is that you may disagree on their position on gambling and yet still vote for them.
      3. The issue of abortion is both simple and complex.
        1. Simple = Christians are against abortion.
        2. Complex = Having a Republican president, house, senate, and conservative SCOTUS does not mean that abortion will be overturned.
          1. This was the situation for both Trump and George W. Bush.
        3. So, given all of this, might someone look at a pro-life and pro-choice candidate — and though they are pro-life — they don’t believe anything will be accomplished during the term of the candidate in regards to abortion? I think that’s possible. So might they then ask, “What’s the next important issue or issues that I want to consider as I vote” and vote for a candidate — maybe from a different party — because that candidate has a better plan in regards to the issues that now matter most and have a likelihood of being changed? Again, I think we have to make room for someone voting this way even though we may not use the same filter as them.  
  1. I notice that some authors capitalize pronouns that refer to God and other authors don’t. Why is this and is there a reason to capitalize or not?
    1. Someone asked me this question and I thought it’d be a good one for the podcast. This is about capitalizing you/your/he when the words refer to God.
    2. Here are the reasons why I don’t capitalize pronouns that refer to God.
      1. The original languages don’t capitalize them. The tradition of capitalizing pronouns for God in English began in the 19th century. So it’s a manmade tradition; not a biblical deal.
      2. A few English Bible translations do capitalize pronouns (NASB; NKJV; HCSB), but many don’t. 
      3. Which means you can end up with inconsistency if you capitalize pronouns in your sermon, blog post, other writings and then quote from a Bible translation that doesn’t. It can be confusing to the reader. (Images and Idols has this issue; they capitalize pronouns but use a Bible translation that doesn’t.)
      4. Also, you have verses in the Bible where someone — who didn’t believe that Jesus was God — is talking to him. If you capitalize all pronouns referring to God, you have to capitalize their pronouns even though it goes against what the speaker was meaning to communicate.
      5. Finally, I often find mistakes (typos?) when authors capitalize pronouns for God. Inevitably they miss a pronoun or (worse?) they capitalize a pronoun that isn’t referring to God.
    3. Two articles to check out for more on this subject:
      1. Why We Should Stop Capitalizing Pronouns Referring to God
      2. Should All Pronouns Referring to God be Capitalized?
  1. I’ve been asked a couple times now about the end times around COVID quarantining/government overreach and some variation of the vaccine being the mark of the beast or desensitizing us to get it when it comes. If I’ve had to answer those questions a few times now, perhaps others in our congregation have wondered the same. “Could you please speak to the COVID vaccine and any connection it might have with the mark of the beast?  What is the balance between trusting God to take care of us in the future vs. using God-given wisdom to prepare for the difficult days of the end times scripture speaks of?”
    1. Two blog articles I’d recommend and are the basis for my reply
      1. COVID-19 and the Mark of the Beast
      2. THe COVID Vaccine has 666 Written All Over It…And Why that Doesn’t Matter According to Revelation
    2. First, things NOT to do:
      1. Amen and a-woman from last week.
      2. “Mask” is only one letter away from “mark”. Stop playing around with English words to find fulfillments of Revelation. At least use Koine Greek! And “mask” in the Greek (really there’s not a word for a physical “mask” — the word means hypocrite in Greek — but “veil” is close enough) but the Greek words for “veil” and “mark” are not similar in their spelling. Especially not “one letter away from” each other.
      3. Pointing to this or that thing or person as being the fulfillment of 666. C-O-R-O-N-A (3+15+18+15+14+1 = 6 66)
      4. Tidbit of Christian history. Some Christians thought that Ronald Reagan was the antiChrist. Why? Because his middle name is Wilson and Ronald Wilson Reagan — each of his names — have six letters. 666 equaled Reagan! 
      5. When I was overseas, a Christian from the country I was in, was telling me about the mark of the beast that’s already being used here in the US. He was telling me that we Americans have all had computer chips embedded under our skin. Thus we’ve all taken the mark of the beast. I tried to convince him that what he was saying wasn’t true. But I couldn’t convince him. He’d read something online about this all starting in the state of Texas — Texas of all places! — and that we’re all blind to our worship and allegiance to the beast. 
    3. Revelation 13:16-18 (NLT) — He required everyone — small and great, rich and poor, free and slave — to be given a mark on the right hand or on the forehead. 17 And no one could buy or sell anything without that mark, which was either the name of the beast or the number representing his name. 18 Wisdom is needed here. Let the one with understanding solve the meaning of the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man. His number is 666.
      1. According to these verses, the “mark” is either the name of the beast or a number representing his name. I don’t know how believing the mark is a vaccine fits with what Scripture is telling us.
      2. Additionally, there’s another type of “mark” in Revelation. The mark of the seal of God upon his people (Revelation 7:1-4; 14:1). If the mark of the beast is the COVID-19 vaccine, then what’s the “mark of the seal of God” upon his people? Another vaccine? I don’t know the justification in interpreting one mark as a vaccine and not interpreting the other mark as a vaccine. To interpret them differently is to be inconsistent.
    4. The second article, mentioned earlier, will help you understand the context in which Revelation was written. And, particularly, the connection to Caesar that John may have had in mind when writing his letter to the seven churches.