Q&A: Christians Responsibility in Legislation, Dietary Laws, and Witnessing to a Mormon

From the Christian Research Institute in Charlotte, North Carolina, you're listening to the Bible Answer Man broadcast with Hank Hanegraaff. We're on the air because life and truth matter. The mission of the Christian Research Institute is to equip believers to always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you, to give the reason for the hope that you have with gentleness and respect. For more information, resources, or to donate to CRI.org, Call 888-7000-CRI or go online to equip.org. The following program was pre-recorded. And now, here's Bible Answer Man host, Hank Hanegraaff.

Thank you very much, Randy. I want to go to the phone lines, talk to Julie. She's listening in Oregon. Hi, Julie.

Hi. Can I make the argument that Christians in America are called to make just laws?

And I.

based on 2 Samuel 23.3, and I may believe that as living in a representative government, we are basically the rulers because we elect our officials and they represent us.

Yeah, I mean, I think that the argument is sometimes made that we can't legislate morality, and I would say in response to that, if you can't legislate morality, pray tell, what can you legislate? So yes, we have to be involved in making just civil laws as Christians. In fact, we should be at the forefront of all that is significant in society, whether it's civil liberties, whether it's ethos or mores, whether it's language or science, whether it's jurisprudence.

We should be at the forefront as Christians. We should do what we do with excellence, and our voice obviously should be heard We ought not to be microcosms of the culture, but we ought to be significant change agents in the culture. And without our impact in the culture, the culture will surely corrode. Now, in saying all of that, I think there's a bedrock issue here, and that is all of us must also recognize that the way you ultimately change a civilization is by changing hearts. Because when hearts are changed, behavior changes as well.

I was told that I couldn't use that Scripture because 2 Samuel was specific to Israel and their leaders.

Well, and there is some wisdom in saying that. It is true to say that none of the Bible was written to us, but you can also say that all of the Bible was written for us, and therefore the principles and paradigms that you find in Scripture are applicable to us today.

Okay, very good.

That's what I needed to hear. I appreciate you. Thank you so much.

You got it. Thank you so much for your call. I want to go back to the phone lines talk next to Josiah listening in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Hi, Josiah.

Hi, Hank.

How are you?

Good, thank you.

Good. I just have a quick question. I was on my way home from work today, and I managed to catch the last of this amazing fax. radio show, and I guess his name was Doug Batchelor. He was talking about clean and unclean meats, this young Christian called, and he was saying that we shouldn't be eating pork, we shouldn't be eating catfish, not that I would, but he said it said in the New Testament and the Old Testament that this is unclean meat, and no Christian should be doing this, and I just couldn't scripturally find anywhere about that other than in the Old Testament, and I just wanted your thoughts.

Well, he's dead wrong. There's a quantum difference between enduring moral principles like the principles regarding same-sex proclivities and temporal ceremonial practices relegated to a particular historical context. So the distinction between clean and unclean animals symbolized the distinction between that which was holy and that which was unholy, but within the context of a theocracy. So the ceremonial symbolism of the law was fulfilled in Christ who makes the unclean clean. And that's why Scripture tells us that we are not to call anything impure that God has made clean.

And that's not an isolated statement. You find that in Acts 10, you find it in Matthew 15, in Mark chapter 7, in 1 Timothy chapter 4. So it is a very clear teaching.

Yeah, and I read that, and he kept saying that, no, it says in the New Testament that God called these things unclean, but he never gave me any scriptures, he just did a very quick radio show, so I just wanted to see what you thought.

Well, and that's why you should test all things, hold fast to that which is good. Remember what Jesus said, don't you see that nothing that enters a man from the outside can make him unclean, for it doesn't go into his heart, but into his stomach and then out of his body? And then Mark actually makes a comment, I think it's in Mark 7, where he says, in saying that, Jesus declared all foods clean. And the point of Christ here is that food is not the source of moral defilement, but rather moral defilement comes from the heart.

And that was, for the disciples, a principle that explains why Gentile Christians did not need to observe traditional Jewish dietary scruples. the symbolism of ceremonial legalities was fulfilled in the substance of their master. In fact, and this is a real clear warning to people who speak like this, to go back to type and shadow when the sacrificial lamb has come is tantamount to trampling upon the sacred blood of Jesus Christ. We dare not go back to symbol when the substance has come.

I've heard that preached from Seventh-day Adventists. I just This guy claimed to be a Christian pastor, and it just kind of took me for a loop, that's all.

Well, he is a Seventh-day Adventist.

I appreciate your call, though, or my call.

You got it. Appreciate your call. I want to go back to the phone lines and talk to Robbie next, listening, Alberta, Canada. Hi, Robbie.

How's it going, Hank?

Good, thank you.

Thanks for taking my call again. I have a question this time about, I'm debating vigorously with a friend over, over evolutionary theory, and a bunch of things. He's an atheist, and he's pretty sworn by it. And we're kind of at a standstill in our discussion over issues of sources, where I read one thing and he reads another, and they're completely contradictory. I was wondering if you could comment on that.

Well, I think the issue here is, can he support his atheism? Can he support the notion that there is no such thing as God? There are a couple of problems. Once you take that position, you are thrust into the untenable position of having to argue that nothing created everything, which, as I said, is untenable because we live in an age of scientific enlightenment. We know that nothing comes from nothing, nothing ever could. So there's no real warrant for supposing that nothing creates everything, that life comes from non-life, and that the life that comes from non-life produces morals. This is simply... a position that an obscurantist holds, not someone who is looking at the facts before them in an

age of scientific enlightenment.

Okay, we've even come to this point where we can, he can even suppose that, okay, perhaps something greater than us did create us, but not in any fashion that we would actually have a relationship with it.

Well, and here's how I would argue this. First of all, you're on a very important topic. How one views their origins eventually will determine how they live their life. If you think you're a function of random chance, you're going to live your life by a different standard than if you know you're creating an image of God and accountable to him. So this is a very significant issue. So we say, yes, we can, in an age of scientific enlightenment, demonstrate that there has to be an uncaused first cause to account for the universe in which we live. Every effect has to have a cause equal to or greater than itself. But in a Christian worldview, we also make the argument that the God who created the universe is

not only transcendent. He condescended to cloak himself in human flesh, and he had the ability to lay down his life and take it up again, thus demonstrating that he's God. And you don't believe that through blind faith, but you believe that through faith and evidence. In other words, you can create a cumulative case by which to demonstrate that Jesus did what no other earthly leader could do. He died, but after he died, the tomb was empty. He appeared and gave convincing proofs that he was alive, and his disciples were utterly transformed as a result of that. So your belief in the resurrection, which demonstrates that Jesus Christ is God, is based on looking at the evidence. And then finally, Jesus has also given us a revelation. He's

not only the word made flesh, but he's given us the word. And we can demonstrate that the Bible is divine as opposed to merely human in origin. In fact, in my book, Has God Spoken?, I give memorable proofs to do just that. So that's how I'd argue this issue. And it's an important issue. I went through this whole process in becoming a Christian myself. The book is available.

You can check it out on the web at equip.org. Let's go back to the phone lines. We'll talk next to Heather. She's listening in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Hi, Heather.

Hi, Hank. I was wondering if you could tell me what you know about Joseph Prince. I was given his name by a counselor and I had listened to him on YouTube and I kind of thought he might be word of faith. Is that correct?

Yeah, he's a classic prosperity peddler has a big church in singapore and has a television program that's beamed all around the world not a reliable preacher someone that i would avoid and i have written in principle about the kind of prosperity peddling that he does in my book christianity in crisis 21st century.

Oh really okay well i wasn't sure i just that you know this guy said oh he's right on and I thought when I listened to him, I thought, he sounds like he's word of faith.

But I wasn't positive.

It sounds like you have good discernment skills.

Well, I hope so. But I wanted to check with you because I thought, well, maybe I'm just imagining it.

Nope. You're absolutely right in your discernment. We'll be right back with more answers.

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That's 888-7000-CRI or visit our website at equip.org. Stay with us. Hank Hanegraaff will return in a few moments. Has God spoken? Are the words of Scripture merely human in origin, or are they in fact the very words of God Himself? Three years in the making, and based on two decades of research and reflection, Hank Hanegraaff's monumental book, Has God Spoken?

answers what is surely the most important question facing our world. In Has God Spoken? Memorable Proofs of the Bible's Divine Inspiration, Hank counters the contentions of the Bible attackers and clearly shows that belief in the Holy Scriptures is not a guess or wishful thinking. It is the only logical conclusion after an honest examination of overwhelming evidence. Order Has God Spoken from the Christian Research Institute by calling 888-7000-CRI or go online to equip.org, equip.org. Bertrand Russell famously said, Most people would rather die than think, and many of them do.

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us at equip.org. Now back to the Bible Answer Man broadcast and your host, Hank Hanegraaff.

Thank you very much, Randy, and we'll go right back to our phone callers. Next up is Andrew. He's listening in Nashville, Tennessee. Hi, Andrew.

Hi, Hank. How are you?

Good.

How are you?

I'm doing good. I have a question for you about Mormonism. I really appreciate all that you've talked about, and it's... opened up a lot for me. And I've grown up Baptist, uh, paying for Baptist. And when my parents got divorced, my dad remarried and joined the Mormon church. And I've been to a couple of the church services and I've sat in on the Sunday school and they've gone over the new Testament. And I've really enjoyed that. And then after listening to you, it's kind of opened up my eyes, and I'm wanting to know how I can go about talking to my dad, and if you have a book that would be best, and how I could address that to him and his family.

Well, there's a couple of things I recommend to you. One is Memorable Keys to the Mormon Mirage, and it's a little flip chart. And what it does is, in a memorable format, it gives you the problems with Mormonism. Mormonism has a complex completely different notion of who God is. In Mormonism, God was once a man, just as we are, and he became God. And in their view, as God once was, we now are, but as he now is, we can become. So we can become what he is.

They also believe that Jesus Christ is the spirit brother of of Lucifer, and therefore our elder brother as well. Because Father God and Heavenly Mother, they had all kinds of heavenly offspring, and Lucifer was one of them, and so was Jesus Christ. And we also, in the spirit world, are offspring of Heavenly Father and Heavenly Mother, and of course we come to earth to get our bodies in their view. Their whole view of redemption is completely different.

They have three levels of heavens. a telestial, terrestrial, and celestial kingdom, and then three further levels of the celestial kingdom. And if you get to the third level, the celestial kingdom, of course you have to be a temple Mormon to do that, you get to have your own planet, and you get to be a god with your many goddess wives on your own planet. So it's a completely foreign religion to Christianity based on authority, which they call is the most correct of any book on earth and the keystone to their religion, which is the Book of Mormon.

The Book of Mormon... unfortunately for Mormons, has been completely disproven as a result of archaeology and anthropology. So the people, places, and particulars that you find in the Book of Mormon are rooted in fantasy, not in reality.

Okay, so would that be something for me, or would that be something that I could give him? Because I know you have Has God Spoken, and I would like to get a hold of that, but I know if just handing him that book would you help him or well.

I think the memorable keys to the mormon mirage would be very helpful also the little booklet that i did that's a companion booklet called the mormon mirage so if you hang on we can get those into your.

Hands okay that'd be great i appreciate it hank.

Thank you hey you got it thank you so much for your call and for your concern for your father back to the phone lines want to talk next to paul listening on vancouver british columbia canada hi paul.

Hi, Hank. Thanks a lot for being there and taking my call. Pleasure. I'm calling because I was reading the Apocalypse Code. I got a copy of it at your suggestion when I called a couple times before. And I have questions concerning two scriptures, especially Revelation 12, 17 and 14, 12, in which they both end with those who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus or keep the testimony of Jesus.

Yeah.

Now, the dispensationalists and those who say that the land of Israel is important would stipulate that those who keep the commandments of God are the Jewish believers who keep the commandments of God, and those who have the testimony of Jesus are the believers who are part of the assembly life or the remnant of the assembly life. So my question is, how would you divide or do you divide between those who keep the commandments of God and those who have the testimony of Jesus?

Well, I mean, we're starting with a false premise here. I think that's the first thing that I'd point out. We have to note that Revelation, and I point this out in the Apocalypse Code, it's identified as a letter sent from John to seven churches in the province of Asia. And unless you recognize that truth, you are going to be resigned to misreading Revelation as pertaining to the present.

But that is not what is going on. So only when you grasp the reality that Revelation is addressed to seven historical churches located in the epicenter of a Caesar cult will you appreciate that the Great Tribulation that you find in its pages are... issues that have to do with respect to the first century. So what do you have?

You have the unveiling of a bride, and therefore a wedding covenant from beginning to end. You have seven letters to a persecuted bride, true Israel, and then you have the noxious vision of a prostituted bride, apostate Israel, and then what you have is the use of graphic Old Testament pictures. The judgment of God written on a seven-sealed scroll, announced by seven angels, with seven trumpets, depicted through seven plagues.

And those plagues befall a prostitute that's in bed with a beast. And that prostitute is Israel, who was called to be a light to the nations and instead prostituted herself with the nations. They were called to be a light, but they became a microcosm. And if you read the Old Testament, you see graphic pictures of Israel as that prostituted bride. But the concluding of Revelation is the unveiling of a purified bride, true Israel, and she's carried by the bridegroom, Jesus Christ, over the threshold of Jordan into a new Jerusalem that comes down out of heaven, prepared as a bride, beautifully adorned for her husband. That's the picture we have in the book of Revelation. And again, We must realize that this was not written to us.

It was written for us, and all of it is efficacious for us. But these are letters to first century churches that are undergoing horrendous persecution, not only by the beast, but by the woman who rides the beast. And the letters are telling the church, be faithful, be fruitful. You are going to suffer for a short time. Your vindication is going to be an eternal vindication. All of this, again, in my book, The Apocalypse Code, which is available through the Ministry of the Christian Research Institute. Back to the phone lines. We'll talk next to James in Valdosta, Georgia. Hi, James.

Hey, Hank.

Appreciate your taking my call. My question was, we know that Jesus is known as the King of the Jews, was known as the King of the Jews, and also that he is a direct lineal descendant of kings of the kingdom of Judah. And my question is, has the kingdom of Judah never collapsed? Would Jesus have been in line to have been the king of Judah like his ancestors, Manasseh, Ammon, Josiah, Hezekiah, etc.?

In other words, what was the methodology for choosing these successor kings, and would Jesus have been in line?

Well, remember the one principle, yes, on the one hand, but we have to recognize that Jesus Christ had a kingdom that is not of this world. That's what Jesus Christ said before Pilate. My kingdom is not of this world. In fact, if you look at the prophecies as given in Daniel... you have a stone cut out of the mountain.

A stone not cut out by human hands, but by almighty hands. And that stone becomes a stone that fills the earth. And it is emblematic of the fact that the kingdom that would crush all earthly kingdoms would be the kingdom of Jesus Christ. So Jesus Christ never came to Israel to set up a theocracy or to be king of theocracy. Jesus Christ came and pointed us to an eternal kingdom. And therefore, the kingdoms of this world will ultimately be the kingdoms of our Lord, and he will reign forever and ever. But in the fullness of time, Jesus Christ came. He came as the fulfillment of the Old Testament prophecies. So we see that his ancestry was marked ahead of time. You can't fake your ancestry. His birthplace was predicted. And it was not just in a

general sense, it was in a very specific sense. In other words, it had to be Bethlehem. If he was born in any other hamlet or town, he would have been disqualified as Messiah. And it had to be not just any Bethlehem, but Bethlehem Ephrata. And then the circumstances surrounding his death are predicted in minute detail. The date of his visitation within historically narrow time parameters. And then the fact that he would be an extraordinary worker of miracles and he'd fulfill the law and the prophets and it wouldn't be enough for him to be a light to his own people. He would be a light to the Gentiles as well so the gospel could go out throughout all the earth. And again, all of that points to the reality that Jesus Christ is the only one

who could have walked through what was prophesied in terms of a doorway to into New Testament reality and ultimately becomes the king, not of this earth, but the king of another place. This universe restored, paradise lost, paradise restored. And there he rules as king of kings and Lord of lords. Look forward to seeing you right back here tomorrow with more answers to your questions.

Thank you for joining us today. Our mission at the Christian Research Institute is to defend the faith, answer Bible questions, and encourage Christians to watch their life and doctrine closely. To find resources to help equip you, go to equip.org. That's equip.org. Or call us at 888-7000-CRI. You can also write CRI at Post Office Box 8500, Charlotte, North Carolina, 28271.

The Bible Answer Man broadcast is supported by listeners like you. We're on the air because life and truth matter. Has God spoken? Are the words of scripture merely human in origin or are they in fact the very words of God himself? Three years in the making and based on two decades of research and reflection, Hank Hanegraaff's monumental book, Has God Spoken?, answers what is surely the most important question facing our world. In Has God Spoken? Memorable Proofs of the Bible's Divine Inspiration, Hank counters the contentions of the Bible attackers and clearly shows that belief in the Holy Scriptures is not a guess or wishful thinking. It is the only logical conclusion after an honest examination of

overwhelming evidence. Order Has God Spoken from the Christian Research Institute by calling 888-7000-CRI

Q&A: Christians Responsibility in Legislation, Dietary Laws, and Witnessing to a Mormon

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