I want to begin with a few comments about the Bible verses quoted in the question.

First, “Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths” isn’t the entire verse. In fact, Paul shows us that his statement isn’t culturally specific, but is rooted in being transformed by faith in Christ. For he writes…

You must let no unwholesome word come out of your mouth, but only what is beneficial for the building up of the one in need, that it may give grace to those who hear. (Ephesians 4:29 NET)

In no culture is it appropriate to allow unwholesome words to come out of your mouth. And, in all cultures, it is wholesome to speak words that build up others.

Second, “neither…the effeminate… shall inherit the kingdom of God” is from the King James Version (KJV). If you don’t know, the KJV uses English from centuries ago, which can make it challenging to interpret as we impose modern English definitions on a non-modern translation.

Here are some modern English translations of the entire passage being quoted (1 Corinthians 6:9-11).

Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, 10 nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. 11 And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. – ESV

Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived! The sexually immoral, idolaters, adulterers, passive homosexual partners, practicing homosexuals, 10 thieves, the greedy, drunkards, the verbally abusive, and swindlers will not inherit the kingdom of God. 11 Some of you once lived this way. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. – NET

These modern translations shift our focus from masculinity or femininity (which is what comes to mind with the KJV’s use of “effeminate”) and show us that the verse is focused on sexually immoral behavior. And the morality or immorality of sexual behavior is not dependent upon the culture in which we live, but is based on the authority of God’s Word.

Finally, regarding what the Bible does say about men, women, and what they wear, I’d suggest considering Deuteronomy 22:5 (though carefully, as it’s easy to become legalistic in defining which clothes are men’s and which are women’s).

Regarding the topics of transgenderism and transvestitism, two different issues by the way, the primary biblical categories to consider are God as Creator and that of lying (especially as it pertains to the ninth commandment).

As Christians, we believe that God is the Creator of everyone and everything. Just as he had Adam name all of the creatures in the Garden, God has an even greater authority over all of his creation. Those he creates as men are men. Those he creates as women are women. God, not us, has the final say on who we are sexually (and gender, for those who separate sex and gender).

Regarding lying and the ninth commandment, the Westminster Larger Catechism question 144 asks, “What does the ninth commandment require?” It’s answer…

The ninth commandment requires that we maintain and promote truthfulness in our dealings with each other, and the good reputation of others as well as ourselves. We must come forward and stand up for the truth, speaking the truth and nothing but the truth from our hearts, sincerely, freely, clearly, and without equivocation, not only in all matters relating to the law and justice but in any and every circumstance whatsoever. We must have a charitable regard for others, loving, desiring, and rejoicing in their good reputation as well as regretting and putting the best light on their failings. We must freely acknowledge their talents and gifts, defending their innocence, readily receiving a good report about them and reluctantly admitting a bad one. We should discourage gossips, flatterers, and slanderers; we should love and protect our own good reputation and defend it when necessary; we should keep every lawful promise we make no matter what; and finally we should do the best we can to focus our lives and thoughts on things that are true, noble, lovely, and admirable.

Question 145 asks, “What particular sins does the ninth commandment forbid?” It’s answer…

The ninth commandment forbids everything detrimental to the truth and the good reputation of others as well as our own, with special reference to legal matters in the courts. We must not give untrue evidence, suborn perjury, knowingly appear and plead on behalf of an evil cause, or engage in overbearing and boastful exaggeration. We should never participate in passing an unjust sentence, call evil good or good evil, or reward the wicked in a way appropriate to the righteous or the righteous in a way appropriate to the wicked. Forgery is forbidden, as is concealing the truth, remaining silent in a just cause, and not taking it on ourselves to reprove or complain to others about some wrong. We must not speak the truth at an inappropriate time, or maliciously to promote a wrong purpose, nor pervert it into a wrong meaning, into ambiguous equivocations, or in such ways as to undermine truth and justice. Also forbidden are: saying anything untrue, as well as lying, slandering, backbiting, belittling, gossiping, whispering, ridiculing, reviling, and expressing any kind of judgmental opinion that is rash, harsh, or prejudiced; misconstruing intentions, words, and actions; flattery and ostentatious boasting; thinking or speaking too highly or too poorly of ourselves or others; denying the gifts of God or the effects of his grace on us; exaggerating the significance of trivial faults; concealing, excusing, or rationalizing our sinful behavior when we are called to confess it voluntarily; gratuitously revealing the problems and failings of others; spreading false rumors, receiving and approving evil reports, and refusing to listen to a just defense; harboring evil suspicions; being envious of or grieved by the deserved honors others receive, trying to discredit those honors, and rejoicing at someone else’s disgrace or evil reputation; scornful contempt and foolish admiration; breaking our lawful promises; and, finally, failing to promote everyone’s good name, and doing, not avoiding, or not hindering in others, as we can, those things that give people a bad name.

If, as Christians, we believe that God created everyone and everything and that his words are true, just as he is Truth, then, when it comes to human sexuality, God’s truth of who we are must influence our view of transgenderism and transvestitism. Especially if we want to obey the ninth commandment.

Date: 9/15/2021

Questions

1. We received some questions on the topic of divorce, which we’ll answer as we go through this episode.
2. For this episode, we’ll be using the EPC’s position paper on Divorce and Remarriage — available at epc.org (resources tab)
   1. We’re going to use it but discuss it in three big sections: 1) Bible/Theology, 2) Practical Application, 3) Pastoral thoughts

3. Bible/Theology
   1. Definition of marriage: Marriage is a solemn covenant between a man and a woman, entered into before God, whereby he (God) joins them in a life-long companionship of love for and commitment to each other.
   2. Book of Worship (5-4): It is the divine intention that persons entering the marriage covenant become inseparably united, thus allowing for no dissolution save that caused by the death of either husband or wife. 
   3. Even though God intends for the marriage covenant to never be broken, that doesn’t mean the covenant is unbreakable. Death does break the covenant.
   4. Some key passages on marriage and divorce:
      1. Genesis 2:18-24 ESV – Then the Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.” 19 Now out of the ground the Lord God had formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. And whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name. 20 The man gave names to all livestock and to the birds of the heavens and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper fit for him. 21 So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. 22 And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. 23 Then the man said, “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.” 24 Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.
      2. Ephesians 5:22-33 ESV – Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. 23 For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. 24 Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands. 25 Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, 26 that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, 27 so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. 28 In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. 29 For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, 30 because we are members of his body. 31 “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” 32 This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church. 33 However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.
      3. Malachi 2:14-16 NLT – You cry out, “Why doesn’t the Lord accept my worship?” I’ll tell you why! Because the Lord witnessed the vows you and your wife made when you were young. But you have been unfaithful to her, though she remained your faithful partner, the wife of your marriage vows. 15 Didn’t the Lord make you one with your wife? In body and spirit you are his. And what does he want? Godly children from your union. So guard your heart; remain loyal to the wife of your youth. 16 “For I hate divorce!” says the Lord, the God of Israel. “To divorce your wife is to overwhelm her with cruelty,” says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies. “So guard your heart; do not be unfaithful to your wife.”
      4. ESV – But you say, “Why does he not?” Because the Lord was witness between you and the wife of your youth, to whom you have been faithless, though she is your companion and your wife by covenant. 15 Did he not make them one, with a portion of the Spirit in their union? And what was the one God seeking? Godly offspring. So guard yourselves in your spirit, and let none of you be faithless to the wife of your youth. 16 “For the man who does not love his wife but divorces her, says the Lord, the God of Israel, covers his garment with violence, says the Lord of hosts. So guard yourselves in your spirit, and do not be faithless.”
         1. Difficult Hebrew passage to interpret. The “I hate divorce” interpretation is based on the KJV tradition. It’s such a familiar wording that modern translators have a difficult time not keeping the well-known interpretation even if it’s not the best translation (see ESV footnote for more info).
      5. There are OT passages where divorce is tolerated — though divorce wasn’t divinely approved (see Deuteronomy 24:1-4).
      6. OT passages that assume the practice of divorce (Leviticus 21:7, 14; 22:13; Numbers 30:9; Deuteronomy 22:19, 29).
      7. OT examples of divorce being required of the people of God who had married foreign wives (Ezra 9-11; Nehemiah 9:2).
      8. Matthew 5:31-32 ESV – Jesus speaking ““It was also said, ‘Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce.’ 32 But I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife, except on the ground of sexual immorality, makes her commit adultery, and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.”
      9. Matthew 19:3-9 ESV – And Pharisees came up to him and tested him by asking, “Is it lawful to divorce one’s wife for any cause?” 4 He answered, “Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, 5 and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? 6 So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.” 7 They said to him, “Why then did Moses command one to give a certificate of divorce and to send her away?” 8 He said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so. 9 And I say to you: whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another, commits adultery.”
      10. 1 Corinthians 7:10-16 ESV – To the married I give this charge (not I, but the Lord): the wife should not separate from her husband 11 (but if she does, she should remain unmarried or else be reconciled to her husband), and the husband should not divorce his wife. 12 To the rest I say (I, not the Lord) that if any brother has a wife who is an unbeliever, and she consents to live with him, he should not divorce her. 13 If any woman has a husband who is an unbeliever, and he consents to live with her, she should not divorce him. 14 For the unbelieving husband is made holy because of his wife, and the unbelieving wife is made holy because of her husband. Otherwise your children would be unclean, but as it is, they are holy. 15 But if the unbelieving partner separates, let it be so. In such cases the brother or sister is not enslaved. God has called you to peace. 16 For how do you know, wife, whether you will save your husband? Or how do you know, husband, whether you will save your wife?
          1. Now we have a second permissible reason for divorce. An unbelieving spouse refuses to stay married. The believer doesn’t seek the divorce; the unbeliever does.

4. Practical application
   1. What is sexual immorality? Sexual immorality (Gk porneia) means fornication. Fornication means two people acting as if they’re married when they’re not. And I think the opposite is also true, two people who are married acting as if they’re not.
      1. I think the Greek word makes it obvious that the definition includes pornography, but we’re talking about anything that destroys the relational intimacy between a husband and wife. In fact, the English translation of “sexual immorality” is us using two words to describe what the one Greek word (porneia) means. And I think we get too caught up in “sexual” when overall it’s an all inclusive word of how a husband and wife are to treat one another.
      2. So this is where things like non-sexual forms of abuse would come into play. We received two questions along these lines. Question #1 — “Divorce is permissible in cases of adultery, but what about cases of abuse (either to the spouse or to the children)?  What should be done in cases like this?” Question #2 — “Some have defined the sexual immorality exception for divorce in terms other than just sexual sin, such as abandonment and abuse.  The  words “sexual immorality” seem to suggest a breach in intimacy, so can there be other types of the breach of intimacy that this exception would mean, other than just physical sexual sins without allowing for any reason to be a reason for divorce.”
         1. To both I’d say that divorce, according to Jesus, is permissible, but again, permissible doesn’t mean necessary. If the abusing spouse is unrepentant — for the sake of the abused — separation is the option to be chosen. Maybe divorce doesn’t happen right away. Maybe we leave some space for repentance. But, yes, the safety of the abused must always be a priority.
         2. I would caution, as this is a common misunderstanding, of interpreting “sexual immorality” as “adultery.” In the Matthew passages above, Jesus uses two different words. One specific word for sexual immorality and a completely different word for adultery. The two, though similar and having some overlap, are not identical words.
         3. EPC paper — Only in cases of extreme unfaithfulness (physical or spiritual)— unfaithfulness for which there is no repentance and which is beyond remedy — should separation or divorce be considered.
            1. Ongoing physical abuse.
            2. Attempted murder.
            3. Etc…are examples of violations of the one-flesh marriage covenant principle.
      3. I want to say this again, sexual immorality doesn’t have to necessitate divorce — though it makes divorce permissible. There must always be room for repentance, forgiveness, and reconciliation in all situations.
   2. Sessions (church elders) should exhort couples considering such a step to actively pursue reconciliation. Divorce, under any circumstance, should not prevent continued attempts to reconcile. 
   3. The Church—in keeping with the redemptive gospel of Christ—may sanction the remarriage of divorced persons when sufficient penitence for sin and failure is evident, and a firm purpose of and endeavor after Christian marriage is manifested.
      1. This relates to a question sent in: What about those of us remarried? My husband was never married before but I was. I have always struggled with the sin of divorce and tried to justify it with the fact that he and I have now been married 25 years. I can’t help but feel that I am just trying to make God fit my need to feel better. I feel bad enough that I have sinned and can’t really repent for that sin, but feel even worse that I have caused my husband to sin. I never really thought of this, but in essence, our love caused sin. How can that be made right with God?
         1. If this is your situation — you were married, got divorced, and there wasn’t a biblical reason for your divorce, and are now remarried — are you destined to live in sin for the rest of your life? No! The question that matters is “have you repented of your unbiblical divorce?” Once we’ve repented, we’ve been forgiven and are not to carry around guilt and shame any longer. To those in this situation, the question is whether you’ve repented of your sin to God. If you have, just like all other sins we repent of, you are forgiven. So rejoice!
         2. A word of caution though — and this is for those who are married and thinking about divorce and know there are not biblical grounds for it. As Paul says in Romans, “Are we to sin more so that grace increases?” His answer is “No!” So don’t abuse God’s forgiveness with a “I’ll sin now and ask forgiveness later.” 
   4. Back to the EPC paper — When one of the spouses, in a former marriage, remarries, the former marriage relationship has been permanently broken, thus the other spouse is free to remarry.
      1. This relates to a question you sent in: I got divorced for bad reasons. But my spouse has since remarried. What is my obligation at this point?
         1. To repent because you’re admitting to getting a divorce for bad reasons — which I assume means “unbiblical reasons.”
         2. That’s your only obligation.
   5. EPC paper — However, divorced persons should give prayerful thought to discover if God’s vocation for them is to remain unmarried.
   6. Divorce is not the unforgivable sin. It’s also not a permanent disqualification from serving in leadership roles in the church. But we must also remember that serving in church leadership is a privilege, not a right.

A few other questions you sent in. We’ll treat these like lightning round questions.

I’m a single woman who has never been married, but would like to be. The majority of Christian men I meet who are looking for a relationship are divorced. Up to this point, I have not considered dating anyone who is divorced because of Jesus’s teachings on the topic. Some people see me as narrow-minded or judgmental for taking this position. Considering Jesus’s teaching about divorce and remarriage, what do you see as the application for those of us who have never been married but desire marriage? Are there circumstances in which we should be open to a relationship with someone who is divorced? Is it wrong for me not to consider divorced men as a possibility for dating?

1. Are there circumstances you should be open to? Yes! If there were biblical grounds for their divorce.
2. Is it wrong to not consider dating a divorced man? Really depends on your motives. If you’re going with what Jesus has said, he’s given a reason why someone may be divorced and it not be due to a specific sin on their part. I’d just caution you about whether your position is held as some sort of judgment over those who are divorced. Many faithful, loving, godly men and women are divorced because of a choice of their previous spouse. 

I got divorced a few years ago…probably not “justified”….but I want to get married again…would you do my wedding?

1. Have you repented?
2. Are you and your potential spouse both Christians and actively involved in a local church, growing in your faith, etc…?
3. There are many factors that go into a “will we or won’t we” perform a wedding. It’s not as simple as “here’s my past — I got a divorce. Will you do my wedding?”

I am not divorced, but my spouse left…divorce might take a long time. When can I start dating?

1. At least wait until your divorce is finalized. 
2. And wisdom would suggest that the timing of things, like dating, should be based on more than just your marriage officially coming to an end. Have you gone to counseling to work through the mental, emotional, spiritual, and physical heartaches due to your marriage coming to an end? Have you grieved? Are your reasons for wanting to begin dating again godly and God glorifying? And so on.

I got divorced. My ex and I are still unmarried. We did not have Biblical grounds for divorce. Do we have to only date each other?

1. Nope. You don’t even have to date anyone! 
2. Again, with this scenario, we’re not even told if both people are Christians or not. Do they live in the same area or are they living geographically far from one another (making an actual relationship unrealistic), etc…
3. Why isn’t celibacy and singlehood a potential option? Have you even asked God about whether or not he’s calling you to singleness?

I am not married. Been with the same person for a long time. We have kids. But I became a Christian, they are not. Do I have to marry them?

1. No. But it sounds like you’ve already been acting like you’re married (assuming you’re living together, having kids, sex, etc…). This would need to come to an end, which means, in essence, you’ll have a “we’re divorced” kind of relationship.
2. All that to say, the solution shouldn’t be “We’ll live as if we’re married, but not have a document from the state making it legit.” 

Someone in my life is getting a divorce (parents, kids, friends) and it is totally not justified. What is my responsibility/obligation?

1. Not knowing the situation of the people getting a divorce or not (are they Christians?), the only obligation I can suggest is to love them knowing that loving them will be messy. Too many unknowns in this question to be more specific in the answer.

Pastoral thoughts

1. Please seek godly counsel before you get married. We offer premarital counseling here at Gateway that I’d encourage all who are wanting to marry to sign up for.
2. Please seek godly counsel before you break your marriage vows. Those who often are the most strong-willed in being against marital counseling are those who need it the most.
3. Don’t justify your sin by changing your view of God, your theology, or what you believe.
4. EPC paper — As with all other transgressions, the blood of Christ covers these as well, and members may be restored to fellowship when guilt is acknowledged and true repentance for sin is expressed. 
5. Few experiences in life are more agonizing than the dissolution of a marriage. 
6. Finally, in light of Scripture’s clear teaching on the sanctity of marriage and God’s strong opposition to and restrictions on divorce, surely Christians cannot condone the easy accessibility to divorce in our contemporary society. 

Final Thought: Josh 

• If you’re thinking about marriage, sign up for premarital counseling. 
• If you’re married, consider marital counseling. 
• If you’re considering divorce, press the pause button. Talk to a pastor or your shepherding elder. Before we’re quick to end a marriage, like our culture, let’s consider God’s Word and submit ourselves to his authority in our marriages.
• Let’s all be gracious with and to one another. Never forget that few experiences in life are more agonizing than divorce. The church should be a community where healing — not more guilt and shame — but healing is experienced.

Date: 9/27/2022

Questions

What are your thoughts on what is going on in Gen 6:1-4 when the “sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful and they married”? I’ve read a few explanations but am curious to know what you think. Can you explain the Nephilim? Giants?  Fallen angels? 1/2 angels?

• I thought we’d begin with an underwhelming answer to our listeners’ questions. 
• I have no idea what the Nephilim are. I’ve read similar explanations that the questioner mentions and still don’t have a real opinion on which explanation is best.
• But a mystery like this — or an unanswerable question — shouldn’t cause us to doubt our faith or God’s Word. This is a historical narrative being recorded — not a theological truth that’s essential to our faith. What we can understand is the big picture of what’s happening at this point in history (lots and lots of sin) and God’s judgment of wickedness.

Can you explain the wedding parable that is found in Mathew 22:1-14?  It seems to me that because the man was invited to the banquet, he was chosen. But due to his surprise at the kings’ reaction to him being there, it almost seems as if he believed in Jesus but was being rejected. If this is the case, then how can anyone have confidence in their salvation? If we cannot have confidence, then doesn’t that contradict all the verses that say we can be confident in our faith (such as Philippians 1:6).  Is it possible to genuinely believe you are saved (hungry for a relationship with God) and be blindsided when your time has come and you’re destined for hell?  That seems to contradict John 3:16. I am so confused by this man being turned out from the wedding he was invited to in this parable.

1. First, verse 14 makes it clear that the man was not chosen. “For many are called, but few are chosen” is the punchline of this section of Scripture.
2. Second, the man’s response is that of being speechless. The Hebrew has no leaning towards him being surprised, though. He’s just silent in response to the question. All that to say, be careful not to read into his response our assumptions (like he was surprised by the question).
3. Which leads us to the most important question being asked: How can anyone have confidence in their salvation?
   1. The gospel call goes out as the Good News is proclaimed.
   2. The Spirit of God uses the proclamation of the gospel as the means by which an inward call takes place in the hearts of those who are chosen by God.
   3. This results in their new birth, conversion, justification, sanctification, and so on. What we call their salvation. This is all God’s doing — he’s saving us — we’re not saving ourselves.
   4. Which results in the one saved being part of the people of God — the church. Yet the visible church is a mixture of both believers and unbelievers. The call (gospel preaching) happens to all people in the church, but only the believers are the chosen. 
   5. To press this truth on people’s hearts — that all are called, but few are chosen —  we’re told to work out our faith in fear and trembling. To work out our salvation. We’re given tests throughout Scripture that we’re to use to examine, probe, and investigate our faith — to see if it’s genuine. 
   6. If we’re doing this, then there’s no surprise — no being blindsided — regardless if we’re chosen or not because the difference between believing in Jesus and not believing in him is drastic! We’ve forgotten this in recent history. We’ve confused good, moral behavior as the same as being a Christian. If you vote right, talk right, dress right, watch the right shows, listen to the right music, and so on…then you’re a Christian, right? Not at all! 
   7. But if we turn to Scripture and allow it to test our faith — we’ll find that the heart change expected of those who believe, which always results in God-honoring behavior — can’t be faked. We just don’t have it in ourselves to fake being a biblical Christian for very long.
   8. And the promise to us is that we can know if we believe if we use Scripture to test our hearts. We’ll be looking at this next year as we journey the First John together. With the whole point of John’s letter being, “That you may know that you have eternal life.”

I recently did a Bible study on Galatians. The author said the sex between Abraham and Haggar which resulted in Ishmael was not consensual. So rape was implied. What is your opinion on that encounter between Abraham, Sarah and the maid servant?

1. Without knowing the Bible study material or the author, it’s hard to respond to what they’re saying as I don’t know how they defend their position.
2. Here’s what I do know. The Bible — and the Old Testament — in particular does know how to describe rape. In fact, the same book — where the stories of Abraham and Haggar are found — Genesis — has other stories that include rape (Genesis 19; Genesis 34) and describe what happens as rape. 
3. For example, the Hebrew words describing the abusive sexual acts in these other stories in Genesis is not the same as what we find in Abraham and Haggar’s story. Showing that the author of Genesis could have used the same language to describe Abraham and Hagar if he had wanted to, but he didn’t use rape language in their story.
4. Now — by our standards today — was their relationship consensual or abusive? I’m not sure that’s the right question. The better lesson for us is that the entire narrative of their relationship indicates a moment when Abraham and Sarah did not trust God to fulfill his promise to them — that they’d have a son. They trusted their own means to make the promise happen. That — ultimately — is the most atrocious sin in their story: they fail to trust God. Which also leads to the ultimate ridiculous act of grace in their story. God fulfills his promise to them anyway, forgives them of this momentary lapse of trust, and even has written of Abraham, “Against hope Abraham believed in hope with the result that he became the father of many nations according to the pronouncement, “so will your descendants be.” 19 Without being weak in faith, he considered his own body as dead (because he was about one hundred years old) and the deadness of Sarah’s womb. 20 He did not waver in unbelief about the promise of God but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God. 21 He was fully convinced that what God promised he was also able to do. 22 So indeed it was credited to Abraham as righteousness.” (Romans 4:18-22 NET)
5. That’s a reputation that Abraham didn’t deserve nor did he earn. But God — being gracious like he is — graces Abraham with this reputation.

Psalm 11:5 says the wicked are those who love violence. In verse 7 it says the lord is righteous and he loves justice. Justice can at times include violence. How does God distinguish these two?

1. Not sure if the Bible translation being used is the NIV, NLT or some other translation. But it’s definitely one with a translation philosophy of conveying the idea of the language rather than a more literal word for word translation. Often, Bible translations that are conveying the idea of the original text (and not word for word) don’t like repetition, so they’ll use different English words to translate the Hebrew, which loves repetition. 
2. I say that because the ESV — a more literal translation — doesn’t have the word “justice” but instead has “righteous deeds.” So the word “righteous” — found in verses 5 and 7 — is married to  “righteous deeds” in verse 7.
3. So here’s what the psalmist is saying. “The Lord tests the righteous” (those who are right with God). “The Lord is righteous” (God only does what is right). And “the Lord loves righteous deeds” (God loves actions that are right). 
4. Now the question becomes “can doing the right action” include “violence”? And the answer must be no if we allow the Hebrew to define our terms (and not our modern definitions). The Hebrew word, translated as “violence” means “malicious wrongdoing”. So it’s not necessarily the act itself but the intent of the act that’s wrong. Someone, as the psalmist says, “whose heart loves malicious wrongdoing.” Someone who is righteous has a heart that loves God. Thus — even though an act may be similar, the intent and reason for doing it is not the same. 
5. Thus God can command the Israelites to do things we’d define as violence, but the act is being done for a reason other than “being malicious.” The reason may be to “purge sin from among you” or “to defend yourself” or “to honor God’s name.” 
6. A helpful reminder — and I say this not because I want folks to distrust their English Bibles, but because the translation process from one language to another is never as clean as we’d like it to be — when you find yourself asking a good question like the one this listener has sent in, a good first step is to think, “I wonder how a few other English Bible translations have translated this verse.” Especially if you don’t know the original languages or aren’t familiar with how to use language tools. A few good English Bible translations will usually point you in the right direction.
   1. Bible translations I always look at: ESV, NASB, NET, NIV, NLT, and MSG. 
   2. These cover a few that are word for word all the way across the translation spectrum to paraphrase type translations. 

Currently reading through the book of John and in Chapter 7 verse 5 it says that even Jesus’ brothers didn’t believe in him. Why do you think that might be? Did Mary not tell them Jesus’ birth story to try to protect the family?

1. Belief includes knowledge, but true belief in Christ does not happen solely because of knowing the right things.
2. So Jesus’ brothers may have known everything about his birth — miracles and all. But without their own “new birth” (them first being given a new heart that believes) they could not believe that he was God.
3. But once some of his siblings did experience the new birth, we know that some did in fact believe. And even became authors of Scripture (James and Jude).

Date: 3/3/2024

Guest – Jennifer Feeney

Questions

Introducing the speak Jennifer Feeney – Empowering Kids (1:45) Mama Bear – Guide to Sexuality  Mama Bear – Empowering Your Kids to Challenge Cultural Lies

How can I teach my kids God’s design for sex when I have so much sexual sin in my past? (4:32)

Are elements of pornography snuck into today’s media as a way to normalize it? Or as like a gateway into it? example: sex scenes in R-rated movies. (6:45)

Is “sexting” an ok thing to do within marriage – just between a husband and wife? (13:58)

Does using the word “partner” in place of spouse/ husband/ wife feed into the ideas of homosexuality and transgenderism? (15:47)

Should a Christian use someone’s preferred pronouns? Is this different for adults and kids? For instance, does this change for an adult speaking to another adult who is living transgender? What about an adult to a child who just decided to change their name/pronouns/ how they present? What should we tell our kids to do if they meet a peer who wants to be called by different pronouns? (17:42)

Should a Christian put their preferred pronouns on things, like an online profile, even if it matches their biological gender? (31:55)

What do we do with the proposed policy by the Biden administration that could force foster parents to sign a contract agreeing to promote gender ideology in their homes? (33:30)  (This question is referring to this  policy )

How do we work with students with alternative lifestyles (transitioning genders) who come to our church? Youth group? (39:40)

How do we love and empower kids with the truth that aren’t our own, like kids in the schools? (51:55)

How can the church respond to and reach the LGBTQ+ community while upholding the biblical worldview? Does Gateway have a plan to address this? (53:35)