Speaker 1: Okay, welcome back to the podcast. We have our producer
Speaker 1: with us and man, so I'm back on the show.
Speaker 2: Sometimes I show up, sometimes I don't.
Speaker 1: And you are helpful either way. I did notice something
Speaker 1: as you walked in. I didn't. I didn't mention it,
Speaker 1: but you brought a banana?
Speaker 2: I did.
Speaker 1: Did you know that those are like really scarce these days?
Speaker 1: Are they? Apparently? I read an article this morning that
Speaker 1: bananas are about to go away.
Speaker 2: I'll do I need a ration this.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I think you should cut it up and freeze
Speaker 1: it and eat a little bit every day.
Speaker 2: I wish i'd known that before before I brought it.
Speaker 2: And what you just ate was very pricey.
Speaker 1: Yeah, this whole strike thing going on, evidently bananas are
Speaker 1: going to be really hit by this. Well.
Speaker 2: We saw a lot of what would it be called
Speaker 2: banana orchard, is it?
Speaker 1: Yeah? Okay, yeah, in Israel.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, it's all a lot of those.
Speaker 1: I saw when I've I've been traveling. I can't I
Speaker 1: guess I can't say the country, but it's a it's
Speaker 1: a Latin American country that is in desperate need of
Speaker 1: economy boosting, and they have tons of bananas and they're
Speaker 1: not gonna do anything about it.
Speaker 3: But you know, I send them with the people that
Speaker 3: are coming across the board. That's right, just some of them.
Speaker 3: And by the time people hear this, this all this
Speaker 3: might be resolved. Because we're a couple, we're recording a
Speaker 3: couple of weeks ahead, so this might be over. This
Speaker 3: might be over, or this might actually be like really relevant,
Speaker 3: but that might still be in the freezer.
Speaker 1: This might be the last banana on planet Earth. By
Speaker 1: the time that people see this podcast.
Speaker 2: We have a record last banana.
Speaker 1: So what we do on this podcast is we answer
Speaker 1: your questions. You email podcast at grangersmith dot com and
Speaker 1: a man has collected your questions from that email, and
Speaker 1: we're going to start today. Uh. This first one comes
Speaker 1: from Denver, and it says, Hey, Grainger, this is Denver.
Speaker 1: Let's take a drive.
Speaker 2: Let's start.
Speaker 1: It's a good reference because I usually say it's just
Speaker 1: like you and I sitting in a cab of a
Speaker 1: truck driving down the road. So here we are Denver.
Speaker 1: He says, it's incredibly I'm incredibly encouraged by your weekly
Speaker 1: podcast to hear your biblical viewpoint about all the different
Speaker 1: questions as a born again follower. Of Christ. It's just
Speaker 1: awesome to see you being used to help so many people.
Speaker 1: What is your thoughts based on scripture about voting. It's
Speaker 1: pretty clear to me that as an ambassadors of Christ,
Speaker 1: given the great responsibility to take care of this land,
Speaker 1: to prevent evil, and to care for this country that
Speaker 1: were so graciously given to the best of my ability
Speaker 1: by voting for a president that's not perfect, but policies
Speaker 1: aligned closer to our values as Christians. And then you
Speaker 1: added it works without this, but was part of the
Speaker 1: email rather than a candidate that is advocating murdering babies
Speaker 1: at nine months pregnant. You put that so that maybe
Speaker 1: I wouldn't read that because it's controversial.
Speaker 2: It's the part that it works with or without that.
Speaker 2: I mean, the conversation sticks to I under should we
Speaker 2: vote for the person who most aligns with our values
Speaker 2: as Christians?
Speaker 1: Sure it can in there, and then it says some
Speaker 1: would be convicted that engaging in voting is placing yourself
Speaker 1: in this worldly kingdom instead of being solely part of
Speaker 1: God's kingdom. If you get to this, thanks, I would
Speaker 1: love to hear your thoughts. God bless you all right, Denver. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's great man, And I'm thinking that's a good question,
Speaker 1: and I think a lot of people should be thinking
Speaker 1: about this thing. And I think the basic question is
Speaker 1: should I vote or not? Because if I'm going to
Speaker 1: be part of this world, would that would voting be bad?
Speaker 1: And I think it goes to kind of like when
Speaker 1: the Pharisees tried to trap Jesus into should we pay
Speaker 1: taxes or not? You know, that's the first thing that
Speaker 1: comes to my mind. There's a lot of examples. Jesus says,
Speaker 1: give me a coin. You know whose inscription is on
Speaker 1: this coin? They said Caesar's. He says, we'll give Caesar
Speaker 1: what he's owed and give God what he's owed. And
Speaker 1: I think if we said the same thing here, we're
Speaker 1: living in Caesar's world. We're living in whatever country you're
Speaker 1: listening from. You're living in that country, and you're under
Speaker 1: the jurisdiction of that government. And to be a taxpayer,
Speaker 1: a good law abiding citizen, which we should be as Christians,
Speaker 1: you need to pay taxes. And if you're going to
Speaker 1: pay taxes, then you have a say. And if you're
Speaker 1: in a democracy, you have a say in the people
Speaker 1: that determine where that tax dollar goes to that you
Speaker 1: earned and then you gave because you're a law abiding citizen.
Speaker 1: I think this is just practical stuff. If you're living
Speaker 1: as as a monk in the mountains in a mountain
Speaker 1: cave in Utah and you know, and you you are
Speaker 1: off the grid and you are against government and you
Speaker 1: don't pay taxes, you might have an argument. I'm not
Speaker 1: really interested in that argument, but you might have an argument.
Speaker 1: But that's not who you are, Denver, and that's not
Speaker 1: who I am or am in And so I think
Speaker 1: the short answer is, yeah, you should vote.
Speaker 2: Absolutely one hundred percent believe you should vote. And what
Speaker 2: really brought me to this email One was the intro
Speaker 2: let's take a drive, but the other part was about
Speaker 2: voting for policies. We are really consumed right now by
Speaker 2: either Orange Man Bad or Cackle Lady. You know, those
Speaker 2: are the acronyms given to either person and who they are,
Speaker 2: and what they did and what they said and how
Speaker 2: they sneezed and whether they blew their nose. It's just
Speaker 2: silly stuff. What are the actual policies that they're going
Speaker 2: to be enforcing or truly be behind? Once either one
Speaker 2: of them are in office. I probably will never hang
Speaker 2: out with Donald Trump or Kamala Harris ever and sit
Speaker 2: down and have a conversation. I doubt that ever happens. However,
Speaker 2: my influence can be on you said, your policies are this, Now,
Speaker 2: how are you held accountable for it? Because that's what
Speaker 2: I've voted for, and which one most aligns with our beliefs?
Speaker 2: You know, I would say, in your belief in general
Speaker 2: for us as Christians, what most aligns with what the
Speaker 2: Bible says? And how do we get closer? And neither
Speaker 2: one of them are going to be word for word
Speaker 2: out of out of the Bible. They're policies. We see
Speaker 2: that right now. If we ever get to the conversation
Speaker 2: about policies, as most of the time news will not
Speaker 2: take you there. But if you dig in and find
Speaker 2: out what they are, which one looks more like that
Speaker 2: or feels more like this, sounds more like what the
Speaker 2: Word of God says and vote your conscience in that direction.
Speaker 1: Yeah, totally agree with everything you just said. I think
Speaker 1: voting is a is a very beautiful thing and something
Speaker 1: that is a privilege for many people that have that
Speaker 1: it fought for that exact right.
Speaker 2: And I think this goes for Christians and non Christians too.
Speaker 2: If you don't vote, you really can't complain about what happens.
Speaker 2: But especially if you are a Christian and you're worried
Speaker 2: about where things are going and you do nothing, I
Speaker 2: would say that's almost that right. There is unbiblical. Knowing
Speaker 2: what is right and not doing what is right is unbiblical.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I totally agree. We probably don't have to
Speaker 1: get any deeper than that. Honestly, I'm going to give
Speaker 1: the next one to you. Why don't you read the
Speaker 1: next one? Okay?
Speaker 2: It says high Granger. I'm a young adult nineteen and
Speaker 2: I'm a Christian. I was wondering if you can explain
Speaker 2: the Book of Revelation and Timeline all right here on
Speaker 2: this podcast. Right when I read the Bible, I don't
Speaker 2: always understand what it says. I always find myself worrying
Speaker 2: about the future. Social media like TikTok plays a part
Speaker 2: in that, because everyone seems to have an opinion instead
Speaker 2: of getting the facts from the Bible. Some of the
Speaker 2: questions that I have is which comes first, Jesus coming
Speaker 2: back or the Mark of the Beast. Well, Christians still
Speaker 2: be on earth, during the tribulation.
Speaker 1: O Amity, that's your name, So Amity, Aman and I
Speaker 1: we don't prepare. You can't see our table, but we
Speaker 1: don't have a bunch of notes in front of us.
Speaker 1: So everything is a conversation, just like we were driving
Speaker 1: on the road and you just drop this honest and
Speaker 1: you say, hey, got a question about the Book of Revelation,
Speaker 1: and so we're going to answer like you're a friend.
Speaker 1: And so that's what we're gonna do right now. And
Speaker 1: this idea, it has come up several times in this podcast.
Speaker 1: I've either either talked about it or just expressed my
Speaker 1: views about eschatology, which is the study of end times.
Speaker 1: And I believe there are other There are many places
Speaker 1: in the Bible that talk about the end times. But
Speaker 1: I think that's what you're talking about more than just
Speaker 1: the concept concept of the Book of You're talking about, hey,
Speaker 1: how things going to end? And the great tribulation and
Speaker 1: when it's Jesus coming back? Is there or is there
Speaker 1: not a rapture? Those things are not only mentioned in Revelation,
Speaker 1: but other places in the Bible as well. But I
Speaker 1: need to before I go any further, I need to
Speaker 1: say that no one knows exactly what that means any
Speaker 1: of it, and so there is not a clear and
Speaker 1: people could feel free to argue. Let me press pause
Speaker 1: and say if you do want to argue or if
Speaker 1: you want to disagree, Because this is a very hot topic.
Speaker 1: On all of these questions, I've been encouraging lately the
Speaker 1: last few episodes to go to the YouTube version of
Speaker 1: this podcast that releases, So whatever platform you're listening on now,
Speaker 1: after it's finished, go to YouTube and find this podcast
Speaker 1: there and comment below your and then perhaps if there
Speaker 1: are enough questions and thought provooking questions, a man can
Speaker 1: get back on here with me and we'll go to
Speaker 1: that video and take the second level of questions on
Speaker 1: the first question. I think that's really encouraging. So back
Speaker 1: to the subject at hand. No one knows, and it
Speaker 1: is it is highly debated. Will Christians be on earth
Speaker 1: during the tribulation? Will Jesus come back before the market
Speaker 1: of the beast? There are people that believe, yes, there
Speaker 1: are people that believe know, and each of those groups
Speaker 1: of people will argue with the Bible. So there is
Speaker 1: not a group that is saying I'm arguing without the Bible.
Speaker 1: I'm just arguing by intuition or what everyone will have
Speaker 1: a they'll have biblical proof. And so to that, I say,
Speaker 1: to each their own. Everyone has an opinion about eschatology,
Speaker 1: but I believe with all of my heart it is
Speaker 1: a distraction, all of it from the enemy. Agree And
Speaker 1: this is the argument I like to make on this podcast,
Speaker 1: is that when we get too involved and we start
Speaker 1: worrying about the Book of Revelation, which is the book
Speaker 1: that John the Apostle. John wrote in his exile on
Speaker 1: the island Patmos, and he's there and he has a
Speaker 1: vision from God about things that would be to come
Speaker 1: and also things that he needs to rebuke the current
Speaker 1: churches with John, and he's in the presence of God
Speaker 1: and he's he sees it's its apocalyptic language, is how
Speaker 1: the Book of Revelation is written. We have to understand
Speaker 1: in ancient writing, there's there are different styles of writing.
Speaker 1: There's poetry, there's historical narrative, there are letters personal letters,
Speaker 1: and then there's apocalyptic language. That's what John is speaking with.
Speaker 1: So what we could agree on is that as John
Speaker 1: is writing these this apocalyptic vision, he's not trying to
Speaker 1: be never was to be literal about what he's saying.
Speaker 1: He's seeing a vision and so.
Speaker 2: So many things that no one has ever seen.
Speaker 1: And so when he talks about the dragon, for instance,
Speaker 1: scholars will all agree he's not talking about a physical dragon.
Speaker 1: This is this is his the way of writing in
Speaker 1: the apocalyptic language of the dragon and the woman and
Speaker 1: the beast, and he's using language of the enemy and Christ,
Speaker 1: and he's he's he's making this comparison. This is uh,
Speaker 1: this is this is would be the difference in someone
Speaker 1: taking a fundamentalist approach to the Bible and saying, what
Speaker 1: every word that it says is exactly what it means,
Speaker 1: as opposed to someone saying, I believe that the Bible
Speaker 1: is absolutely true in the inspired word of God, but
Speaker 1: you wouldn't take word for word and say this is
Speaker 1: what it means. Sometimes it's an impression of what It's
Speaker 1: always true, it's always a word of God. But sometimes
Speaker 1: it's an impression of what the author is trying to
Speaker 1: say through his poetry or through his vision. Does that
Speaker 1: make sense? There are many examples of this, and we
Speaker 1: could go down that list. In fact, if you want
Speaker 1: to comment on YouTube, and we can go deeper on
Speaker 1: what it means for something to say something in the
Speaker 1: Bible that is true but might not be that word
Speaker 1: like you think it means. Okay.
Speaker 2: A good way, too, is to think about describing something
Speaker 2: to someone who's blind and has never seen before. In
Speaker 2: this room, I wouldn't say, over here, on this wall
Speaker 2: there's a guitar. I don't if you're blind, never have
Speaker 2: seen you don't know what a guitar is. Okay, it's
Speaker 2: a block of wood that's been hollowed out that has
Speaker 2: strings stretched across. Okay, if you've never seen one and
Speaker 2: you have someone explaining it to you, it's very elaborate,
Speaker 2: very detailed, and expact, exasperated, you know, exaggerated. And that's
Speaker 2: a lot of what he's doing there as well. Yeah,
Speaker 2: and things that no one's ever seen before. You've never
Speaker 2: seen it. So I've got to tell you best time things.
Speaker 1: God gave John a vision and he saw these things
Speaker 1: and he wrote them down to us, and so he
Speaker 1: let me go back to my point, though, I believe
Speaker 1: the enemy uses these these kind of things in this
Speaker 1: very conversation we're having as a distraction to distract us
Speaker 1: from what the gospel really says and what Jesus came
Speaker 1: to do. And all of the things that happened in
Speaker 1: the end times are are irrelevant. Really, they're neat and
Speaker 1: they're fun, and they should warn us that the end
Speaker 1: is coming and that we should be ready. But that's Jesus' messages.
Speaker 2: Be ready.
Speaker 1: No one knows the end, what's going to happen, but
Speaker 1: be ready. So so put your faith in trust in him.
Speaker 1: That he has died for sin, that he was resurrected
Speaker 1: by God, and he has been given the power to
Speaker 1: forgive sinners like me and you, and through that forgiveness,
Speaker 1: and as we repent from our sin and turn to
Speaker 1: him and put our trust in him and have faith
Speaker 1: in him, we will be saved. And whatever happens in
Speaker 1: the end of time, we will be covered.
Speaker 2: There's been in the time that we're recording this, there's
Speaker 2: just been rockets being fired over Israel and defense going
Speaker 2: up and stuff like that, and people are taking that
Speaker 2: opportunity to go see, look, the end is happening right now.
Speaker 2: But listen. If it encourages you to share the Gospel
Speaker 2: with others, great, But like you said, if it's a
Speaker 2: distraction to like, well, what's going to happen, when's this
Speaker 2: going to go, well, you're not thinking about telling others
Speaker 2: about the gospel.
Speaker 1: I'm triing about that.
Speaker 2: You're worried about you, and that is a If you're
Speaker 2: worried about you, there's a bigger issue.
Speaker 1: Yeah, for people. If you want to look up when
Speaker 1: I'm talking about there is pre millennial pre millennialism, there's
Speaker 1: ah millennialism, and there's post millennialism, and you could look
Speaker 1: these are groups that I believe that in different timeframes
Speaker 1: of the end times. And it's it's interesting to think
Speaker 1: too that in evangelical churches, they they will in their
Speaker 1: statement of faith, your your church, my church, they will
Speaker 1: say that we are okay with all of these different
Speaker 1: views of the end times. There's there shouldn't be and
Speaker 1: there isn't a good evangelical church that says, you must
Speaker 1: believe in this interpretation of the end of times, but
Speaker 1: you must be pre mill you must be a mail
Speaker 1: you must be post mill. Instead, they say, hey, we
Speaker 1: understand that this is a point of disagreement, and it's
Speaker 1: just not it's not something that should cause division at all.
Speaker 2: Agree.
Speaker 1: Yeah, nobody knows, and I think it's a good it's
Speaker 1: a it's a good topic. Amity and I'm glad you
Speaker 1: asked it, and and we could go on for an
Speaker 1: hour on our views of that. But just remember this
Speaker 1: is apocalyptic language in the Book of Revelation, and Jesus's
Speaker 1: message to all of it is be ready repent and
Speaker 1: believe the next one. I like when you read Okay.
Speaker 2: Yeah, to say, Granger, I've been listening to you for
Speaker 2: about three months now. I've heard you say a lot
Speaker 2: of times that if you're going through a divorce, make
Speaker 2: sure you do it with a group of believers. I
Speaker 2: understand you there. What I'm wondering is Jesus says in
Speaker 2: the Bible that you can't remarry except for adultery. I
Speaker 2: believe abuse would also be a reason for divorce. I'm
Speaker 2: a born again Christian and have a friend that is
Speaker 2: a believer and his wife is filing for divorce. When
Speaker 2: he told me that, he's saying she has no biblical
Speaker 2: reason for divorce. He hasn't done anything wrong. I can't
Speaker 2: explain everything because it will take too long. But he
Speaker 2: is a recovering alcoholic. He's never abused her physically or emotionally,
Speaker 2: or cheated on her. I don't know really what to
Speaker 2: tell him to be honest a kind of question if
Speaker 2: he is maybe a cultural Christian. He's a friend that
Speaker 2: I haven't talked to in around ten years, and we
Speaker 2: just reconnected Friday night on the phone. We live about
Speaker 2: five hours away from each other. He also he's also
Speaker 2: He also keeps asking me if he can remarry. I
Speaker 2: don't know what to really tell him. I just told
Speaker 2: him I would be praying for them and he should
Speaker 2: be talking to his pastor. Is there anything you could
Speaker 2: tell me to tell him? Thanks? Love everything you do?
Speaker 2: And that is Tim, Tim.
Speaker 1: I think you, first of all, you have a really
Speaker 1: good answer to him that you're going to be praying
Speaker 1: for him, and then he should talk to his pastor.
Speaker 1: Because whenever I say that, you're right, you've been listening
Speaker 1: for three months and you say that I talk about
Speaker 1: whenever I talk about divorce, that you should do it
Speaker 1: with a group of believers. But furthermore, you should be
Speaker 1: doing it with your pastors or elders in at your church,
Speaker 1: not just random believers. That's good, it should be you
Speaker 1: should talk with wise counsel, but you should be able
Speaker 1: to sit down with the pastors at the church that
Speaker 1: you trust and walk through in the reason I say
Speaker 1: it that way is because these men have been equipped
Speaker 1: to handle these situations to give you wise counsel, not
Speaker 1: just your your next door neighbor who's also a Christian.
Speaker 1: That's great, But the further step for your buddy is that,
Speaker 1: like you said, he should be talking with his pastor,
Speaker 1: and preferably pastors, multiple pastors, not just one guy that's
Speaker 1: going to give him one piece of advice. But it
Speaker 1: should be done in a council. And I think you're
Speaker 1: right on everything you said. There's there's there's there's only
Speaker 1: so much you could do. Being five hours away calling
Speaker 1: him out, you could say things. You could say things like, brother,
Speaker 1: I would encourage you to really dig in to what
Speaker 1: it to what is a biblical divorce and what is
Speaker 1: an unbiblical divorce? And I want to encourage you to
Speaker 1: dig in, uh to what it means to remarry after
Speaker 1: an unbiblical divorce or to remarry after a biblical divorce.
Speaker 1: And and maybe we could find some books this is
Speaker 1: you talking to him, that we could read through together.
Speaker 1: But before you do anything, I wouldn't make any big
Speaker 1: decisions until you research these and you talk to your
Speaker 1: pastor and tim the truth is most likely. Unfortunately, he's
Speaker 1: just gonna do what he's gonna do. He is more
Speaker 1: than likely you And.
Speaker 2: It's a very weird I mean, and I've spoke here
Speaker 2: before that I've gone through a divorce and that period
Speaker 2: of time, looking back on it now with hindsight twenty twenty, right,
Speaker 2: Wanta did not have anyone It involved people at the church,
Speaker 2: and so I did not have the church that I
Speaker 2: went to have any support whatsoever. And looking back, it
Speaker 2: was a lot of decisions that I made that were
Speaker 2: wrong because of there was nobody with a sane mind
Speaker 2: and that wasn't thinking and making decisions emotionally helping guide me.
Speaker 2: And looking back like, absolutely you have to have that,
Speaker 2: not somebody who eyes into everything that you do. But
Speaker 2: if you were, if you're deciding to well, one, get divorced,
Speaker 2: move job things, there's a lot of emotions in all
Speaker 2: of that, and then on top of that a divorce
Speaker 2: that you're splitting your entire life apart. There's so many
Speaker 2: things that you were going to do wrong. And I
Speaker 2: only made it by the grace of God. His hand
Speaker 2: was over me and had he had a plan sovereign
Speaker 2: it's great, and then really living it and then having
Speaker 2: that conversation and realizing that how true it is afterwards.
Speaker 2: But if you if any advice is deliberate but loving,
Speaker 2: and because everything is sensitive, the wrong meal at a
Speaker 2: at a at a restaurant can set you off. You know,
Speaker 2: something that messed up on your meal. Everything's on edge
Speaker 2: all the way around you. The little things that you
Speaker 2: didn't even think were a problem become big, giant issues
Speaker 2: in times like this.
Speaker 1: That's great, ay man, I think I think you're equipped
Speaker 1: him to pray and tell them to see council from
Speaker 1: his pastor a quick reminder here if you don't already know,
Speaker 1: If you want to get a hold of me and
Speaker 1: you want me to make you a video message, it's
Speaker 1: super easy. Go to cameo dot com slash granger Smith
Speaker 1: Cameo cam eo dot com slash granger Smith and you
Speaker 1: make a request for me, like a birthday announcement or
Speaker 1: anniversary or congratulations or maybe an uplifting encouraging word, any
Speaker 1: of those things. Just fill out what you want. I'll
Speaker 1: get my phone, I turn the video on, and I
Speaker 1: send you a video message to whoever you want me
Speaker 1: to send it to. It's especially cool coming up in
Speaker 1: the holidays when you have someone you just don't know
Speaker 1: what kind of gift to get them, go to cameo
Speaker 1: dot com slash grangersmith today. So it's before we get
Speaker 1: into the next question, which, by the way, if you
Speaker 1: want to email us podcast at grangersmith dot com is
Speaker 1: the email. Before we get to the next one, we
Speaker 1: have to recognize that we're moving towards the end of
Speaker 1: the month of October, and if you're listening real time
Speaker 1: and around this time, Halloween's coming up. This is the
Speaker 1: time that we should be thinking, all of us Christians,
Speaker 1: non Christians, we should be thinking about what does it
Speaker 1: mean when we're celebrating spirits, ghosts and are and are
Speaker 1: we buying into that? And how are we buying into that?
Speaker 1: And so let's separate Halloween completely and just make it
Speaker 1: universal for any month of the year and say what
Speaker 1: does it mean? Because you and I had this conversation
Speaker 1: just the other day about people and I get this
Speaker 1: all the time, people saying that they've been contacted by
Speaker 1: a dead relative, and it's it's what's interesting about it
Speaker 1: is people that are not religious at all, that have
Speaker 1: that have no God, will will easily want to talk
Speaker 1: about this. This these things and get really excited about
Speaker 1: it in fact, but kind of tell me a little
Speaker 1: bit out of conversation. You don't have to say any names, but.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I had a friend who was telling me that
Speaker 2: they were they and they were almost excited about about this.
Speaker 2: And they're a believer, but they they're almost excited about
Speaker 2: this because it reminded them of someone who has passed away,
Speaker 2: and that they were they had they had heard on
Speaker 2: one of their cameras a familiar voice that said some
Speaker 2: things of that was very familiar of a dead relative.
Speaker 2: And as they're telling me, I my clearly my face
Speaker 2: changed because they were like what And I said, that's
Speaker 2: a demon. That's not the relative that they think it is.
Speaker 2: And of course they're facing like are you serious, and yeah,
Speaker 2: there's there's that's not I'm gonna go a good thing.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna go to that text conversation you and.
Speaker 2: Know, okay, it's it is not a good thing. I
Speaker 2: think it was voice, So I don't know if there
Speaker 2: was a much text in there.
Speaker 1: I think I think I wrote because there was an
Speaker 1: interesting conversation.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And the first thing I thought was, Okay, how
Speaker 2: do I navigate this? Because I don't know all the scriptures.
Speaker 2: It was voice, yeah, right, and I think it is
Speaker 2: and on both sides, I think it was like some
Speaker 2: of our longest ones because of telling you the whole story.
Speaker 2: But my first thought was like, I don't know, and
Speaker 2: this is about this is I want to sidetrack for
Speaker 2: a second about being prepared. You don't need to prepare,
Speaker 2: like you can't be prepared for everything all the time.
Speaker 2: But this is why it's important to always have God's
Speaker 2: word in your heart, because he will bring it up
Speaker 2: now that I have these any conversation that I have again,
Speaker 2: I'm like, I know either where I've written him down,
Speaker 2: how I've looked at them before, and I do now
Speaker 2: I'll pull it up. I have my notes of a
Speaker 2: conversation about this. What what does the Bible say about
Speaker 2: being contacted or hearing voices or people who have passed on?
Speaker 2: And it's like that is not one, it's not your relative.
Speaker 2: Two your relative is in one or two places, because
Speaker 2: it says that when the Bible says in Hebrews that
Speaker 2: just as each person is destined to die once and
Speaker 2: after that comes judgment. Die judgment, not hang around and
Speaker 2: talk on your webcams or whatever that's not included.
Speaker 1: In lost souls that looking to reconcile something and they're
Speaker 1: lunging out.
Speaker 2: In between, but there's no in between, guys.
Speaker 1: Yeah, there's not like that movie sixth Sense, Yes exactly.
Speaker 1: You know, like there's a couple more things you need
Speaker 1: to accomplish as a ghost before you get to the afterlife,
Speaker 1: and so they're kind of haunting trying to bring stuff together.
Speaker 1: It's that movie Ghost as well. Yeah, yeah, you're trying
Speaker 1: to bring some kind of reconciliation together. Yeah, so let's
Speaker 1: look at the Bible. I found the notes too from
Speaker 1: that same conversation where you just mentioned Hebrews nine twenty seven.
Speaker 1: Ecclesiastes nine five and six says this, for the living
Speaker 1: know that they will die, but the dead know nothing.
Speaker 1: They have no further reward, and even their name is forgotten.
Speaker 1: Their love, their hate, and their jealousy of long since vanished,
Speaker 1: and never again will they have any part of things
Speaker 1: that happen under the sun. So dead people are their
Speaker 1: bodies are dead. They're not coming back out as skeletons
Speaker 1: and speaking tough baby monitors.
Speaker 2: If you need that last part in any clear, NLT
Speaker 2: says they no longer play a part in anything here
Speaker 2: on earth. That doesn't get more clear.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so then let's look at Deuteronomy, which means the law.
Speaker 1: The law again, let no one be found among you
Speaker 1: who sacrifices their son or daughter in the fire. That's scary. Anyway,
Speaker 1: who practices divination or sorcery, interprets omens, engages in witchcraft
Speaker 1: or cast spells, or who is a medium or a spiritist,
Speaker 1: or who consults the dead. Anyone does these things is
Speaker 1: detestable to the Lord. That's terrifying. And then kind of
Speaker 1: to your point Sawo Corinthians eleven fourteen, and no wonder
Speaker 1: for Satan self, Paul writes masquerades as an angel of light.
Speaker 2: Well, and I think about one. If things like this
Speaker 2: happen to people, does it draw you to the Bible
Speaker 2: to go, look, hey, I heard something on my Did
Speaker 2: it go hey, I need to go see that. But
Speaker 2: or did it go, oh my gosh, my dead relative
Speaker 2: is talking to me. And your mind moves away from
Speaker 2: your relationship with Christ and into another part. That is
Speaker 2: I think that's where the majority of it goes.
Speaker 1: It's these ideas that all these religions kind of combining,
Speaker 1: like reincarnation. Look, my mom's coming back in the form
Speaker 1: of a cardinal sitting in the window, so speaking to me,
Speaker 1: that's not your mom.
Speaker 2: Well, and I mean you've also seen some of the
Speaker 2: stuff that Amber is posted with butterflies that she is acknowledged.
Speaker 2: I know that's not right, that's not River. Yes, but
Speaker 2: it does remind me of him.
Speaker 1: She calls it a godwink.
Speaker 2: There you go, There you go. That's completely different than
Speaker 2: what I'm talking about. Yeah, like having conversations with somebody
Speaker 2: who's not there.
Speaker 1: Yeah, God comforting as people versus a dead relative trying
Speaker 1: to come and speak to you to tell you everything's
Speaker 1: going to be okay. Even that people say all the time,
Speaker 1: like speaking of the dead, they say they're looking down
Speaker 1: smiling right now. They're not looking at you. They're looking
Speaker 1: at Christ. That's what the Bible says. Christians that die
Speaker 1: are looking at Christ. They're not looking down on you,
Speaker 1: smiling and trying to comfort you. Are saying everything's going
Speaker 1: to be okay. Or they're proud of you. People say
Speaker 1: you're Grandeur. Your dad's in heaven right now, so proud
Speaker 1: of you. I'm like, well, thanks, I know you're trying
Speaker 1: to uplift me. But Dad doesn't have anything to do
Speaker 1: with me right now. He's got better things to do.
Speaker 1: Praise God. One Timothy four to seven. The spirit clearly
Speaker 1: says that in later times some will abandon the faith
Speaker 1: and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons. That's terrifying.
Speaker 2: Yes, yep.
Speaker 1: So the Bible is very clear that if you're hearing
Speaker 1: from a dead relative, is convincing as it might be.
Speaker 1: Paul says that the devil masquerades as an angel of light,
Speaker 1: it is only one of two things. If you're seeing
Speaker 1: a spirit, it is only an angel or a demon,
Speaker 1: And if it's pretending to be your dead relative, it's
Speaker 1: not an angel.
Speaker 2: Well, and angels come to bring messages from God to you,
Speaker 2: Mary Joseph on down the line. Yes, yeah, that's what
Speaker 2: they're here, that's what they can. And the first thing
Speaker 2: they say is fear or not. And whether this is
Speaker 2: true or not. I love this explanation that there's not
Speaker 2: an actual real translation from Hebrew or of that, and
Speaker 2: that if it was literal, it would say, please stop screaming.
Speaker 2: Then an angel comes in wakes you up, please stop screaming.
Speaker 2: I got a message from God would be more accurate
Speaker 2: I've heard.
Speaker 1: But so to wrap up this idea, your dead relative
Speaker 1: is not talking to you, and I could say that
Speaker 1: with full conviction from the Bible.
Speaker 2: Don't be playing with Wiji boards on Halloween.
Speaker 1: No, don't do that. Don't do that. All right? You
Speaker 1: want to get to the Josh's question, Josh.
Speaker 2: Yeah, says hey Granger. I've recently started attending a discipleship
Speaker 2: class at my Southern Baptist church. That's really cool. I
Speaker 2: love that. Early on in the course about a month ago,
Speaker 2: when we were discussing what it means to be a
Speaker 2: disciple and our calls as Christians to go forth and
Speaker 2: make new disciple new disciples, I was hit with a
Speaker 2: very loud thought that I should go to seminary. At
Speaker 2: the time, I tempered the thoughts a little bit, thinking
Speaker 2: I might have just been getting caught up in the moment.
Speaker 2: I prayed that God give me some wisdom and direction
Speaker 2: regarding it, and it's remained on my mind ever since.
Speaker 2: Fast forward to this morning at church we had several
Speaker 2: new deacons ordained. That thought rang through my head again
Speaker 2: very strongly. I know that I want to do this,
Speaker 2: and those closest to me, are very supportive, but I
Speaker 2: have no idea how to pull it off. I'm not
Speaker 2: sure how I would afford it, how to balance it
Speaker 2: with my current career, or what any part of the
Speaker 2: process really looks like. If you have any advice or
Speaker 2: know any resources I can check out, I greatly appreciate it.
Speaker 2: Thanks for doing what you do. Your show is a
Speaker 2: great encouragement at the start of each week, praying for y'all.
Speaker 1: Josh, what a great email.
Speaker 2: That is great. I love that you gave me a
Speaker 2: book on not a deacon but an elder, And like,
Speaker 2: the first thing that it says about you becoming an
Speaker 2: elder in your church is that you will have a
Speaker 2: desire to become an elder in your church. Yeah, that's
Speaker 2: the first thing I think of the miss Oh, you
Speaker 2: already have a desire. Yeah, Step one is done.
Speaker 1: I wonder where he lives. Yeah, that's an interesting thought.
Speaker 1: But he is Southern Baptist. Josh, you could join me
Speaker 1: at Southern, which is the Southern Baptist seminary. There are
Speaker 1: a few others, Midwestern, Southwestern, Southeastern. Southern is definitely the best. Yeah,
Speaker 1: a little biased, little bias. Sorry. So here's the thing,
Speaker 1: let's first of all and I both say, we're so encouraged.
Speaker 1: I think this is encouraging for several reasons. One because
Speaker 1: it sounds like you're being responsible with this call. If
Speaker 1: it would be different if you said, I'm sitting there
Speaker 1: and I'm in this discipleship class and suddenly it hit
Speaker 1: me I should be a pastor. Well, there's and I
Speaker 1: need to start a church right now. It's a little
Speaker 1: different than what you're essentially saying, is it suddenly it
Speaker 1: hit me, I need to be further equipped. That's cool, man,
Speaker 1: and I could relate exactly to this. And I remember
Speaker 1: two years ago, a little over two years ago, when
Speaker 1: it hit me in the same way that you described
Speaker 1: that I should go to seminary. And for so long
Speaker 1: I thought to myself, I don't need to go to seminary.
Speaker 1: I don't need I don't need to be equipped in
Speaker 1: that way. I have other things that God has planned
Speaker 1: for me. And then all of a sudden it hit me.
Speaker 1: God had plans for me to go to seminary, and
Speaker 1: I knew it to the core of my being. In fact,
Speaker 1: in one particular day more than others, and I kind
Speaker 1: of wrapped everything up. I called Chad, who's on this
Speaker 1: podcast I'm called talk to Bernie. This is before I
Speaker 1: met Marshall, and everything was clear to me that in
Speaker 1: that moment, I need to go to not only seminary,
Speaker 1: but I need I need to go to Southern which
Speaker 1: offers a full online MDiv So let's dive into the
Speaker 1: meat of this email, though, because that is your fear,
Speaker 1: your fear and your your worry, and I understand that.
Speaker 1: You say, I pray that God will give me some
Speaker 1: wisdom and direction regarding it, and it has remained on
Speaker 1: my mind ever since. Okay, so here we are talking, uh,
Speaker 1: in a in a way that God is going to say, Hey,
Speaker 1: here's some wisdom from a guy that has been in
Speaker 1: your shoes. You say, fast forward to the church this morning,
Speaker 1: you see this, you feel strongly about this, and then
Speaker 1: you go into your fear. I have no idea how
Speaker 1: to pull it off, you say, I I'm not sure
Speaker 1: how I'm going to afford it, or how to balance
Speaker 1: it with my current career, or what any part of
Speaker 1: the process really looks like. So let's just take that
Speaker 1: little section and let's dive into that, because that's a
Speaker 1: good microcosm for anybody that's going through a change or
Speaker 1: fills a new career, or a relationship or a school.
Speaker 1: We could answer it all the same. The only way,
Speaker 1: the only step for you, the only answer for you
Speaker 1: right now is to make the next step, take the
Speaker 1: next step. We're not asking you, and you're not asking
Speaker 1: yourself to start your first class tomorrow. So and I
Speaker 1: remember me doing this the same thing you're going through.
Speaker 1: I'm thinking, can I balance that? Can I afford that?
Speaker 1: What does that process look like? All three questions? And
Speaker 1: so the next step is I'm going to go to
Speaker 1: the website of the seminary that I desire to go
Speaker 1: to and maybe have a few of them lined up,
Speaker 1: and go to the website and look at the enrollment process?
Speaker 1: What does it take to enroll at this school? And
Speaker 1: there it is. At some point in that website, you're
Speaker 1: going to find the application process and it's going to
Speaker 1: go here's what we need. We need an application, We
Speaker 1: need you to fill out this stuff, and we need
Speaker 1: you to mail your college transcript to this and you go, okay,
Speaker 1: and then at that point you send that stuff off,
Speaker 1: still not knowing what the next step is, but you
Speaker 1: do one step at a time, and then you send
Speaker 1: that off and then you wait to hear back, and
Speaker 1: as you do each step, that process starts to be
Speaker 1: revealed more and more with more clarity, and then the
Speaker 1: stuff like can I afford it? Then you actually see
Speaker 1: how many classes you're going to take and exactly what
Speaker 1: it costs plus the price of books, and then you
Speaker 1: look at scholarship opportunities. Yeah, and different kind of grants.
Speaker 1: Those kind of opportunities become more parent as you take
Speaker 1: each step.
Speaker 2: And way more of those than many people even realized too.
Speaker 1: Yeah, here's here's the thing on your second question, how
Speaker 1: to balance it with my current career. I remember thinking
Speaker 1: that had that same question, And at first my first semester,
Speaker 1: I signed up for three classes and I was still touring,
Speaker 1: I was doing after Midnight, I was doing this podcast,
Speaker 1: I'm doing a lot of things, and I found out
Speaker 1: that they were doing a zoom call with all incoming students.
Speaker 1: So I was like, cool, I'll get on this zoom call.
Speaker 1: There's like one hundred people in this waiting room on
Speaker 1: this zoom call, and there was a TA a teaching
Speaker 1: assistant on there, just answering questions, and a couple people
Speaker 1: asked and it got kind of quiet. I was like, well,
Speaker 1: I think i'll ask so you push a button to
Speaker 1: raise your hand, you know, and he says okay. Granger
Speaker 1: turned my mic on and I said, how how much
Speaker 1: work could I expect three classes to be? And he's like, well,
Speaker 1: you should look at it as ten to tend towny
Speaker 1: hours per week per class. And so I was quickly like, oh,
Speaker 1: I just signed up for a full time job, so
Speaker 1: you're sixty hours in right. Yeah. So I was like,
Speaker 1: so I shouldn't take three and he's like, not, if
Speaker 1: you have a job, you shouldn't. I was like, okay, good.
Speaker 1: So I quickly went in and I canceled two classes
Speaker 1: and I just I kept one and I've done one
Speaker 1: at it, one at a time ever since. So my
Speaker 1: point is not that point, Josh, that of the hours.
Speaker 1: But my point is you'll figure these things out the
Speaker 1: deeper you go in, the more steps you take.
Speaker 2: Man, that's it. But this is a really encouraging email.
Speaker 2: You felt the calling, and you you you reached out,
Speaker 2: and you're you're continuing to feel this calling in your life,
Speaker 2: and and you're you you say, do the steps oft
Speaker 2: of school. He's really at the beginning he's already doing steps,
Speaker 2: he's recognizing things, and then he's writing to you to
Speaker 2: see what's next. And you know, you've already started taking steps,
Speaker 2: which I love and I love seeing this. This is
Speaker 2: really encouraging and this.
Speaker 1: Is probably a really fresh email too. Yeah, it just
Speaker 1: got this. Yeah, so this is this is time relevant.
Speaker 1: So Josh excited for you, man. I would recommend Southern
Speaker 1: and uh, Southwestern or Midwestern. I have friends at all
Speaker 1: through those places, have some friends at Southeastern too, and
Speaker 1: it might depend on where you live. There are definitely
Speaker 1: a bunch of seminaries I would not recommend. And Josh,
Speaker 1: if you want to act fact, if you want to
Speaker 1: email back further, email podcast at grangersmith dot com. If
Speaker 1: you have further questions about where to look and what
Speaker 1: seminaries that you would that I would not encourage. Not
Speaker 1: that you have to rely only on my opinion, but
Speaker 1: I'm one of several opinions that that that might be
Speaker 1: helpful for you. So yeah, it's been good. Cool man. Hey, guys,
Speaker 1: go to the YouTube channel and find this podcast and
Speaker 1: comment further. If you agree on there's a couple of
Speaker 1: things you could disagree with. Maybe you're hearing from your
Speaker 1: dead grandma. We've talked about that further, the inherancy of
Speaker 1: the Bible. I think the there could be an hour
Speaker 1: podcast on the Book of Revelation and grad What do
Speaker 1: you mean by there's certain things on apocalyptic literature that
Speaker 1: aren't literal. What do you mean by that? Do you
Speaker 1: believe the Bible is not true? I'm not saying that.
Speaker 1: I'm saying there's a difference fundamentally between this word means this,
Speaker 1: and this was apocalyptic literature versus this word means this,
Speaker 1: and this is Paul's letter to Timothy, and this word
Speaker 1: means this, and this is David's song that he's writing,
Speaker 1: and this word means this, and this is historical narrative,
Speaker 1: and this word means this, and this is a parable
Speaker 1: from Jesus. So this word means this means different things
Speaker 1: depending on the ancient literature that was written at the time.
Speaker 1: We could talk more about that, but I don't want
Speaker 1: anyone to be confused that that's a long conversation, so
Speaker 1: find the YouTube page comment below. We love you, guys,
Speaker 1: Appreciate you brother, appreciate you too. Yeah, see you guys,
Speaker 1: Thanks for joining me on the Grader Smith Podcast. Appreciate
Speaker 1: all of you guys. You could help me out by
Speaker 1: rating this podcast on iTunes. If you're on YouTube, subscribe
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