Pastor John,

In Jesus Christ, I greet you!
Do you find that BIBLICAL forgiveness means that you don’t bring a continuing sin up to an acquaintance, and only pray that God bless them without accountability?

Maxine G.

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Hi Maxine.

Thank you for this important question.

God’s kind of forgiveness always follows genuine repentance.  God has never forgiven anyone who did not first repent.  Solomon made this point when he said, “He that covers his sins shall not prosper, but he that confesses and forsakes them shall have mercy” (Prov. 28:13).

To forgive sin before the sinner repents is only to encourage him in his sin.  That kind of forgiveness is not of God, and it does more harm than good.

Pastor John

Hi Pastor John.

In Revelation 12, it looks as if the dragon and one third of the stars were cast out of heaven before Jesus’ birth.  Then, it kind of reads as though it was after Jesus’ resurrection.  Is Revelation 12 in the correct sequence, or is it going back and forth?

Thanks,

Billy

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Hi, Billy!

Here is the section in Revelation to which you are referring:

Revelation 12

3. And another sign was seen in heaven, and behold, a great, fiery-red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads.
4. And his tail swept away a third of the stars of heaven and cast them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth so that when she gave birth, he could devour her child.
5. And she bore a male child who is to rule all nations with an iron rod, and her child was caught up to God and to His throne. 

          (par)

7. And there was war in heaven, Michael and his angels warring against the dragon, and the dragon waging war, and his angels.
8. But he did not prevail, neither was there place found for him in heaven any longer.
9. And the great dragon was cast out, the ancient serpent, who is called the Accuser, and Satan, who deceives the whole world.  He was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.

 

In this chapter, it was revealed to John that Satan was cast out of the kingdom of God after the resurrection and ascension of God’s Son, Jesus. The fact that John mentions that event in verse 4, before he speaks of Jesus’ ascension into heaven does not mean that the event took place before the ascension.

Hope that helps.

Pastor John

Hey Pastor John! 

I have a Revelation question.  Sometimes it is hard to hear and catch everything while reading during the meeting because I may be in and out of the room with the kids, so you may have already hashed this out.

I just finished reading through the first four chapters again, and a couple of things struck me and made me confused as to whether it is referring to God or the Son.  In 1:4, your translation shows a capital Him referring to God: “To the seven Assemblies that are in Asia: Grace to you and peace from Him who is, and who was, and who is to come….”

And also, in 1:8, there is a small-caps Lord as being “the alpha and omega”.  I always thought those two phrases were talking about the Son because in 1:17, it seems the Son is saying he is the “first and last”.  Isn’t that what “alpha and omega” means? 

Then in chapter 4:10-11, there are capital “H’s” referring to God, but then small lettered “Lord” saying he created everything.  Is that not the Son? Why are there capitals beforehand? I’d like to get it all straight in my head of who is who and who did what… I thought I knew.  Thanks!

Leah

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Hi Leah.

Thank you for the questions.

(1) The phrase in 1:4, “who is, and who was, and who is to come”, refers only to the Father.

(2) After much discussion, we decided that in 1:8, the Father was speaking through the Son at that moment, saying to these Greek believers the same truth about Himself (in words they would understand) that He once said to Israel (Isa. 41:4, 44:6).  That is why we have it punctuated like this: “I am ‘the Alpha and the Omega’, says the Lord God, the One who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty.”

(3) “The One seated on the throne in heaven” always refers to the Father.  The small-lettered “Lord” was a typo.  I am glad you noticed it, and it has been fixed.

Hope that makes everything clear.

Pastor John

 

Pastor John,

Do you believe that God will accept same sex marriages into heaven?  If so, give me the scriptures where it is found in the Bible.

Willie M.

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Hi Willie.

Thanks for the question.  It is an easy one to answer.

True marriage is an act of God, not of man, and God will never marry a man to a man, or a woman to a woman.  Only wicked people on earth do that, and the fact that such people dress in religious robes and claim to be serving God, and claim that God approves of their perverse wickedness, means nothing.  In God’s eyes, there is no such thing as man married to a man, or a woman married to a woman, and whoever teaches and acts contrary to that truth will be damned in the Final Judgment by the God they falsely claim to serve.

Pastor John

 

What does the Bible really say about homosexuality? Click on the link below to read Pastor John’s gospel tract titled, Homosexuality and the Bible.

http://goingtojesus.com/gtj_tracts.html?tname=tract-070-homosexuality

…and for further study, the gospel tract, Unequally Yoked in Marriage may be of interest to you:

http://goingtojesus.com/gtj_tracts.html?tname=tract-030-unequallyyokedm

Pastor John,

When Jesus comes back he will rule with a rod of iron. So I was thinking on this. If Jesus has to rule with a rod of iron does that means even after the world sees him in the flesh (so to speak) and knows he is God’s Son that they will still want sin? There will still be those that want sin even after every knee shall bow? 

Beth

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Yes, Beth.  There will be rebellion on earth even during the Thousand-Year Reign, especially at the end. 

We will read about this in Revelation, and the prophet Zechariah also speaks of it at the end of the last chapter of his book.  Just because Jesus reigns on earth does not mean that the peoples of the earth at that time will believe he is who he really is.

Pastor John