Joining us on a new podcast called The Sword Drill,
and I'm your host, Pastor Shelley.
We're gonna be answering all manner of questions
in this podcast.
The goal is to spend about an hour
going through all kinds of different questions
that people may have.
And we've compiled a list of several questions
that I think a lot of people want answered.
But also, if you can put into the live chat
questions that you have, we would love to answer them.
We'll answer questions that are related to practical life,
Bible questions, just really anything that can be answered.
We're gonna use, of course though, the Bible
as our source for those answers,
which is the sword of the spirit,
hence the sword drill podcast name.
And the first question I want to answer today
is what Bible should I use?
I think this is a really important question
to start off the podcast with
because since we're gonna be using the Bible itself
to answer all of these questions,
it makes sense that we would use this question
to answer which Bible are we gonna use,
which sword are we going to use?
Now, for those of you that know me,
I am King James only.
That means that I only use a King James Bible for my study.
It is my final authority.
Now, there's nothing wrong
with using a Bible in a foreign language,
but for the sake of this question,
I'm focusing in on an English perspective.
For those who speak English, which Bible should they use?
And that should be the King James Bible.
And there's a lot of reasons
why you should use a King James Bible,
but I'm gonna explain just a few quick verses
and why I do.
But Psalm 12, six and seven
is a really great passage of scripture
to explain this particular position.
And I'm gonna turn there in my Bible with you,
but in Psalms chapter number 12,
the Bible is talking about this struggle
between the evil and the wicked and God and his word.
And it gives us some really encouraging verses here.
In verse six, the Bible says,
"The words of the Lord are pure words
"as silver tried in a furnace of earth purified seven times.
"Thou shalt keep them, O Lord.
"Thou shalt preserve them from this generation forever."
So according to the Bible,
God is going to preserve his words
from this generation forever.
And I believe that Psalms 12 is also talking about
how God is gonna preserve the humble,
he's gonna preserve the poor,
he's gonna preserve those that are putting faith in him
and trusting in him.
That's mostly what this section of Psalms is even about.
But at the same time, he uses another example,
he uses a picture here of something
that's going to be preserved for every generation,
such as the word of God to illustrate
how he's also gonna preserve the poor and mankind.
And God often uses earthly examples
or uses other spiritual examples to illustrate for us
what he means or have a better understanding
or he is really just efficient in the sense
that he can describe how he's gonna preserve both of them
from every generation.
Now, when it comes to which Bible to use,
this really is a big subject with a lot of information.
And I've already put a lot of information together.
You can go to GodResource.com/KJV,
as in King James Version,
just go to GodResource.com/KJV.
And I have all kinds of different information on here.
Now, I would love to update this page in the future
and add even more information.
We've even put together a documentary film.
Pure Words Baptist Church put a film together
called The Preserved Bible.
And you can go to PreservedBible.com
or ThePreservedBible.com, goes to the same place,
and you can watch the film for free.
I highly encourage you, if you've never seen this film,
you should watch it to get a better understanding of history,
where the King James Bible came from,
and really just where the Bible came from in general.
Now, when you go to our site,
it has all kinds of different information,
history, it talks about the manuscripts,
it talks about the doctrine of preservation,
and there's a lot of other verses in the Bible
that are really fundamental into believing
why you should use a King James Bible.
Of course, this is the Sword Drill podcast,
so we wanna base all of our reasoning
on the scripture itself.
But here's some other verses to think about.
The Bible says in Psalms 11.3,
if the foundations be destroyed,
what can the righteous do?
Meaning, if you don't have a foundation to stand upon,
if you don't have something that you can base your faith
or base your Christianity on,
then really you have no opportunity to stand to do any work.
It's similar to a house.
If your foundation were sand, as the Bible illustrates,
then essentially whenever a storm comes or water,
your entire house could just wash away.
And so the same comes with Christianity.
It comes with the Bible.
When you don't have a solid foundation,
when the storms of life or anything come against it,
it can just knock down your Christianity.
In fact, that's what we see in the world today.
We see all kinds of churches crumbling to social pressure.
They're crumbling to social issues
because they don't have a foundation
of the King James Bible.
They don't have a foundation of salvation by faith.
And so when they get pressured,
they just quickly crumble or just pander
to whatever the social issue is of the day.
I wanna go to another verse, Proverbs 30.
Excuse me.
Proverbs 30 verse five says every word of God is pure.
He is a shield unto them that put their trust in him.
Add thou not unto his words lest he reprove thee
and thou be found a liar.
So according to the Bible, the word of God, excuse me,
the word of God is pure and we need to put our trust in God.
Plus he's telling us very clearly not to add unto his words.
Now, if you didn't have the word of God,
how could you even add to it?
You know, that would be absurd.
So the only way to be able to add to something
is to already have it.
That's why I believe the King James Bible
is the word of God and we already have it.
It stood the test of time.
It was translated in 1611.
And since that time to now, there has been no difference.
There has been only updates or additions
which modified spelling, printing errors,
or just minor inconsistencies with the printing additions.
But the text itself is the same.
The text itself, it's not changed in essence,
it's not changed in meaning, and it's not changed in words.
In fact, even though the spellings may have changed,
the word sounds the exact same.
And so the King James Bible stood the test of time.
It's been the most greatly used Bible.
It's also solid when it comes to a doctrinal position.
It doesn't hold contradictions, it doesn't say silly things.
A lot of the modern versions say silly things,
they take verses out.
And really, if you understand the doctrine of preservation
that God says he's gonna preserve his word,
that he's telling us not to add into it,
then you'd have to believe that we have it somewhere today.
And I believe that God did preserve his word,
not just in the King James Bible,
but also in the Greek and the Hebrew,
which is what the King James Bible's based on.
Whereas other English versions,
virtually all other English versions
are not coming from the preserved Greek and Hebrew,
but rather they're coming from a philosophy
that is trying to reconstruct the text
by digging up older and what they claim better manuscripts.
But I personally don't believe they're better,
even if they are older and even if that is true,
that doesn't prove its integrity or why we should use it.
God said that he would preserve
the word of God into every generation.
So I don't need a Bible from several generations back.
I should be able to have a Bible in this generation.
Whereas those who use a modern version
are simply believing that the word of God
was not had in every generation,
but that we have to continually rediscover it now
so as to actually finally get the word of God.
Yet, many of these critical text proponents,
they don't even have a Bible.
But simply put,
you either believe the Bible's preserved or you don't.
If you believe the Bible's preserved,
your only option is the King James Bible.
If you use other versions,
you're gonna notice that they contradict each other.
You're gonna notice they take verses out.
You're gonna notice that they say weird things.
They say things that aren't even scriptural.
In fact, in some cases, they'll make Jesus a liar.
In some cases, they'll swap Jesus and Lucifer's names in the Bible.
In some cases, they'll take out doctrines that are important on baptism or on the Trinity
or the deity of Jesus Christ.
And so, these other Bibles cannot be trusted the way that the King James Bible can be trusted.
Of course, there is gonna be sections of any English Bible that say the same thing as the
King James, and of course, I don't have a problem with Bibles saying the same thing.
But what I do have a problem with is when they say different things.
And the King James Bible is what I place my faith in.
It makes me think of another place in scripture I wanted to go, in Proverbs chapter number
3.
And this really kind of just gets at the heart of the issue of which Bible you're gonna
use because at the end of the day, we have to decide what the authority is gonna be in
our life.
And the Bible tells us in Proverbs 3 verse 5, "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart
and lean not under thine own understanding and all thy ways acknowledge him and he shall
direct thy paths."
So according to the Bible, we need to be willing to submit ourselves to the Lord and to trust
in the Lord.
And notice what it says in the text, "All thine heart."
So we don't wanna hold anything back from the Lord.
We want him to direct our paths.
We don't wanna lean on our own understanding.
And at the end of the day, those who don't have the King James Bible as their final authority
are ultimately, they're trusting in their own understanding.
Well, I don't think that's what the Bible says or I think this version says it better
or I believe that if you look it up in a lexicon, you know, this lexicon will give us a greater
meaning which most people that go back to the Greek or try to tell you what the Greek
actually says. They don't speak Greek at all. In fact, what they're doing is they're simply
going to a lexicon and what a lexicon does is it'll give you underlying Greek words
for a particular portion of scripture and then they'll explain it in their own words
and their own English vernacular. But number one, the lexicon isn't even necessarily
based on the same manuscripts as the King James Bible and number two, you're ultimately
putting your final authority in a lexicon or the author of the lexicon as opposed to
what God has given us and what the word of God actually says. You know, I don't trust
a dictionary over the Bible and so why would I want to trust a foreign dictionary, a lexicon
over the Bible as well or to try and go to a mystical, magical language? There is no
such thing. The word of God can be translated into any language. God spoke in many different
languages as he gave us the word of God in Hebrew, he gave it to us in Greek. The Holy
Ghost in Acts chapter 2 is speaking through the early disciples in all kinds of different
languages, Parthian, Mead and so it's not limited to a particular language but I do
believe the English language is special in the sense that it's the lingua franca of
today and God has been using it to reach a lot of people to get saved and of course the
fruit of the King James Bible is undeniable. Therefore, I put all of my trust and authority
here in the word of God. Whatever this says is right. I could be wrong but the Bible is
always right and I want you to make sure that you put your trust and your faith in the King
James Bible not in your own understanding. That's the whole point of this podcast. It's
the sword drill podcast. Why? Because the sword, the word of God is what's going to
give us the assurance of our faith. It's going to give us the answers to every question that
we could ever ask ourselves or be asked. And I believe that the Bible is sufficient to
answer every single question. So, you know, bring the questions on. That's the whole point
of the podcast. I'm looking now, we already have several people watching the show live
and they've been pouring in some questions. And so, you know, I might not be able to get
to everybody's question today. But the goal is to stack up a lot of these questions and
to continually answer them and go through them. Also, this is our pilot podcast. So,
I wanted people that follow us on the Baptist bias or on other programs to be on the lookout
for the sword drill that's going to be coming soon. But this is just going to be kind of
our test run. We're also going to be in the future taking phone calls. So, you want to
check it live. It's going to be Tuesdays at 12 p.m. and we're going to do about an hour
show and hopefully we'll start doing it every week in the near future. But I want to at
least just get the first show going and so that people can get a taste of what's going
to be happening. Also, there's a lot of sites online like GotQuestions and other resources
out there that try to answer a lot of different Bible questions. And I've noticed that GotQuestions
is very Calvinist. I don't even believe they have the right gospel. And so, a lot of their
answers are very tainted, very compromised, not coming from the word of God at all. And
they're certainly not King James only. And so, I believe it's best if we can put the
answers out to a lot of these questions and put resources out there. And, you know, Godwilling
through GodResource.com and other platforms and things that we build out, we can put these
questions out there so that people can listen to them, read them, share them. And of course,
you know, what I notice as a pastor is that a lot of people ask me the same questions.
And so, this would be a great resource to point to people. Here is an answer to your
question and I don't have to necessarily answer the same question over and over. That's
the beauty of technology and the internet. So, I want to go ahead and get to another
question here. We have several just kind of lined up. But my second question is, is hell
separation from God? And this is an interesting question because a lot of pastors, a lot of
teachers, in fact, even on social media or videos, a lot of the people that have a Christian
podcast or show, they always try to soften hell by saying it's just separation from God.
Now, of course, anything that's being repeated this often and used by so many people, a
lot of times has an element of truth to it.
And here's the truth is that hell does have a separation from God factor.
And I want to go to some verses here.
Let's go to Ephesians chapter number four in the Bible.
And of course, if you have other questions that you would like to ask us, you can put
them in the chat.
Hopefully, we'll get to some chat questions here in a minute.
But Ephesians chapter number four, verse 18, I want to show you a verse because people
say hell is separation from God, but look what the Bible says in Ephesians four, 18.
The Bible says having the understanding darkened, now this is talking about Gentiles, it's talking
about unsaved people, having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of
God through the ignorance that is in them because of the blindness of their heart.
And why I want to go to this verse is there's already a separation from God that exists
when you're not saved.
Even if you're not even in hell, you're already, according to the scripture, alienated from
the life of God.
So God wants us to be saved and then on top of that have fellowship with him.
And so there's all kinds of degrees of separation when it comes to God himself and how close
you can draw to him.
The Bible instructs us to draw nigh unto the Lord.
And so it's important to understand that when we define certain doctrines, you know, separation
from God, what are we talking about exactly?
Because unsaved people are separated from God and they're not even in hell yet.
And in fact, if they get saved, then they'll no longer have that same level of separation.
Now when it comes to hell itself, when people die and they're not saved, they haven't trusted
in Jesus Christ for salvation, the Bible is crystal clear that they're going to go
to hell.
What do people would say is that complete and total separation from God?
Well I want to go to another verse, let's go to Revelation chapter 14 in the Bible.
And we have to understand that God is a trinity and also the Bible teaches that God is omnipresent
in many different ways.
The Bible talk about if you go up to heaven, he's there.
If you dig down into hell, behold, thou are there.
So it's impossible to escape God's omnipresence.
The Bible says in Revelation chapter 14, look what it says in verse number 10, the same
talking about those who take the mark of the beast, "shall drink of the wine of the wrath
of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation, and he shall
be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence
of the lamb."
So according to the Bible, even if you're in hell, you're still in the presence of
the holy angels and you're in the presence of the lamb.
So technically speaking, there is a presence of the Lord that those who are in hell are
still going to experience.
Now they're experiencing his wrath, they're experiencing his anger, they're experiencing
his judgment, but at the same time they are experiencing a presence of the Lord in the
sense that it's through the lamb here.
But I would say that obviously there is a separation when being in hell, you're separated
from the tree of life, you're separated from the joys of heaven, you're separated from
being in God's presence on earth.
And so there's multiple aspects to the presence of the Lord and so there is going to be an
element of disappointment being in hell by not being with God in heaven and being on
the new earth and the new heaven and new earth.
The Bible talks about how those Jews that did not believe in Jesus Christ are going
to see many come from the east and west and they're going to sit down with Abraham, Isaac
and Jacob, but they themselves are going to be thrust out.
And so an element of hell is the fact that you've been rejected and cast out and you're
not going to be with God.
Makes me think of another verse in Revelation 22 and verse number 14, the Bible says, "Blessed
are they that do as commandments that they may have right to the tree of life and may
enter in through the gates into the city for without are dogs and sorcerers and whoremongers
and murderers and idolaters and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie."
You notice, according to the Bible, there are people that are being separated from.
It says for without, meaning they're on the outsides.
They're not able to come in.
They're not going to be in the gates in the city.
There is that level of separation and it's showing here that those who are sinners, some
people would look at this list and say, "Oh, well, you can't sin then, otherwise you're
going to go to hell."
But the reason why it's painting these people as sinners is because they haven't been redeemed.
Their sins haven't been forgiven.
They haven't been given the new man which cannot sin, so therefore they're still in
their sins.
You know, Jesus said that if you do not believe that I am he, you shall die, they're going
to die in their sins.
And so, let's pull up that verse while I'm thinking about it because I want to get it
quoted exactly right.
But it's in John, John 14 verse 10, "Believest thou not that I am in the Father and the
Father in me, the words I speak unto you, I speak not of myself, but the Father that
dwelleth in me, he doeth the works," is kind of our context that I'm thinking of.
And try to find this verse, yeah, John 8 verse 24, I'm sorry, I was wrong on my context.
Let's get a little bit of context here since we're looking it up, John chapter 8 verse
21, "Then said Jesus again unto them, I go my way and ye shall seek me and shall die
in your sins, whither I go you cannot come.
Then said the Jews, will he kill himself because he saith, whither I go you cannot come.
And he said unto them, you're from beneath, I am from above, you're of this world, I am
not of this world.
I said therefore unto you, that ye shall die in your sins, for if you believe not that
I am he, ye shall die in your sins."
So again, a great quote here talking about how people are going to die in their sins
and this group of people in Revelation 22 are in their sins and so therefore they're
not able to enter in, there is a separation.
So is hell separation from God?
That was the original question.
I would say in a sense, yes.
In a sense, they are cast out of the new heaven and the new earth.
In a sense, yes, they are without the heavenly city.
Yes, they are without the joys and the pleasures of God, but it's also no in the sense that
they're still in the presence of the lamb.
And so, you know, it kind of depends on how people are framing this question.
But I think the reason why people are doing this is because they're trying to get away
from the seriousness of hell because while that is one aspect of suffering, it's much
more than that.
The Bible says that they're going to be tormented in fire and brimstone.
If we go back to Revelation 14, I already read this, but let's pay attention to that
verse again.
In Revelation 14 verse 10, it says, "The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God,
which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation, and he shall be tormented
with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the
Lamb."
So sure, is hell separation from God?
In a sense, sure, but you know what's just absolutely true?
It's being tormented with fire and brimstone.
It's constant torment that never ends.
It leads me into a third question that we had prompted and I want to get to a question
in the chat.
But since we're already on this topic and we're in this verse, I want to see if we
can get to our third question on purgatory itself because some people would ask this
question, "Does purgatory exist?"
Now this is a Catholic doctrine and the reason why I like going to this question right after
is simply because when you read in these verses about how they're going to be tormented with
fire and brimstone, the next verse says very clearly in verse 11, it says, "And the smoke
of their torment has set it up forever and ever and they have no rest day nor night who
worship the beast in his image and who so ever receive the mark of his name."
According to the Bible, hell, there's no rest day or night.
Now if you look up the definition of purgatory, just Google it or something like that, it'll
say a state in which the souls of those who have died in grace must expiate their sins.
And expiate is kind of a strange word, but it's talking about make amends for or to pay
for in kind of a sense.
And so, what their Catholic doctrine is, is that people who die will go to this temporary
state of punishment, and then once they've done their time, they'll eventually get out.
So they kind of have a modern version of jail, where you just go to jail and you get a 20-year
sentence or a 50-year sentence or whatever.
And once you've paid your time, paid your dues, then you eventually get out.
Now you're reformed, now you're better.
But those who know anything about jail, people come out not reformed, number one.
And number two, purgatory is not a word found in the King James Bible.
Purgatory is not a doctrine taught in the King James Bible.
There is no such temporary state of punishment.
The Bible gives us clear scripture that it's a forever punishment.
Not only this, other verses give the same picture, Mark 9 verse 44, "Where there worm
dieth not and the fire is not quenched."
Mark 9, 46, "Where there worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched."
Mark 9 verse 48, "Where there worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched."
Jesus said this three times in a row to really drive in the seriousness of hell, the seriousness
of eternal and everlasting punishment.
The Bible used the phrase everlasting punishment, everlasting destruction because it's something
that is going to be permanent and last forever.
That's probably the worst part of hell is the fact that it's forever, a forever punishment
that never ends.
There's no escape, there's no getting out, there's no bribing your way.
Technically, the only event that will occur is that those are in hell right now will one
day stand before God at a great white throne judgment and they will be judged according
to their works.
Even every idle word that they spoke will be judged and then one last throwing into
the lake of fire where they're going to be permanently destroyed, permanently on fire.
Of course, when the Bible used the word destroyed, some people get this picture of, well, I guess
you eventually are just gone, but according to the scripture, your worm dith not, so whatever
you are, your internal soul body is going to just feel the pain and suffering forever.
The rich man lifted up his eyes in hell and he wanted water on his tongue, so obviously
whatever the soul is, it still seems to have all the different various body parts and that
they're all experiencing suffering at the same time.
I mean, if you're on fire, but yet you're still concerned with your tongue, this tells
me that you are feeling the most excruciating pain in every square inch of your body, which
would motivate me or motivate anyone to want to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
Not only that, but if you are saved, if you've already believed on Jesus and you've accepted
the free gift of eternal life, if you don't love someone enough to give them the gospel,
you know, I really question if you believe in hell because hell is just so bad.
It's so awful.
I think that anybody who noticed a loved one trapped in a house that was on fire would
scream and yell and do everything in their power to rescue that person from physical
fire on this earth and how much more is hell?
How much more is the suffering of eternal punishment and everlasting destruction?
And yet, so many Christians are not preaching the gospel.
They're intimidated.
They're scared.
They compromise.
They use toned down language such as, "Well, it's separation from God."
That's much more than separation from God.
And of course, because hell is so awful, the punishment Catholics invent this idea
of purgatory to try and make people think, "Oh, it's not as big a deal," or, "Well,
I'll do my time."
But there's no getting off, folks.
Your loved ones that have already perished, I'm sorry, but they will not go to heaven
if they didn't believe in Jesus.
They are going to be eternally damned in hell.
The only thing we can do at this point is to save and rescue those who still have a
chance.
And so, it's important that we take this serious.
It's important that we don't believe in strange doctrines or make up doctrines of convenience.
Purgatory is not a real doctrine and God is not someone to be messed with.
This is our opportunity to be saved.
This is our one chance in life and we need to redeem the time because the days are evil.
Let's go to a question in our chat and this is a question that says, "Can you talk about
Romans 16, 7?"
A lot of people are trying to use this verse to defend female preachers saying Junia was
a woman apostle.
So, I wasn't prepped for this question but it is something I've actually thought about
before as well in Romans chapter 16.
Let's just read the verse for our listeners so they can get an idea of what we're talking
about but in Romans 16 and just to give you context, the apostle Paul is signing off in
his letter and he's giving a verbal thanks to all kinds of different people.
He's naming just, he's just name dropping all kinds of different individuals that have
helped him and it says in verse 7, "Salute Antonychus and Junia, my kinsmen and my fellow
prisoners who are of note among the apostles who also were in Christ before me."
So in just the simple reading of this verse, notice a couple different wordings here, "my
kinsmen."
That doesn't give me any kind of indication that these individuals that are mentioned
here are women whatsoever.
Notice another fact, it says, "who are of note among the apostles who also were in
Christ before me."
So it stands the reason that they themselves are apostles, if so, they would be men.
So I personally believe that Jania could certainly be a man, that there's no indication from
just reading the text that that's actually a woman's name.
Several names in our current culture go both ways.
Even names that seem a little bit feminine, here's an example for me is a name like Stacey.
Whenever I hear the name Stacey, I typically think of a woman.
That would be my initial reaction.
But there's a lot of men named Stacey.
There's a lot of men with all kinds of different names and so just because Junia may or may
not even be a feminine name in our current culture, personally I don't even know because
I've never even heard someone with this name.
I don't see any indication that this individual is actually a woman.
That's my personal interpretation of this verse is that Junia is a man.
But let's just for sake of the argument, let's just say Junia was a woman.
Number one, how does this verse by itself say anything about Junia preaching or being
a pastor?
It doesn't, number one.
Number two, there was plenty of women in the Bible who preached the gospel and I have
nothing against women who preach the gospel.
Of course, if you look at verse three, it says, "Greet Priscilla and Achilla, my helpers
in Christ Jesus."
Now, this is a husband and wife combination who went out and preached the gospel to all
kinds of different people.
Also, in verse one, "I commend unto you Phoebe, our sister, which is a servant of the church,
which is in Gentria."
There's no question that Phoebe is a female and it says that you receive her and the Lord
has become a saint and that you assist her in whatsoever business she hath in need of
you, for she hath been a sucker of many and of myself also.
So, in this particular passage, we actually have clear females.
We don't even have to wonder if they're a female or not, yet neither of these passages
illustrate for me them being a pastor or being what we would consider the preacher of the
pulpit.
You know, why would I go to a passage that certainly doesn't even bring, it's not talking
about pastors, it's not talking about who should be preaching behind a pulpit.
It's simply saying these are just great Christians.
And in fact, you know, Phoebe was a wonderful Christian that the Apostle Paul is wanting
people to help her and her work to the Lord.
So there's nothing wrong with a woman being in the ministry in a sense, in the sense that
she's serving people, helping people, loving on people.
Of course, many women ministered under the Lord Jesus Christ during His earthly ministry.
But you know, what we don't have is that great sermon preached by Mary Magdalene.
You know, we don't have that great sermon preached by one of the female disciples of
the Lord Jesus Christ.
They were there to minister and of course, they spoke.
Of course, Mary Magdalene was the first person that Jesus Christ is showing Himself unto
and wanting her to go out and tell the whole world about the gospel.
But you know, we don't see Mary Magdalene being the pastor of a church and what's clear,
there's clear verses in the Bible.
If you go to 1 Corinthians chapter number 14, it's actually going to settle this dispute
instantly for us.
We don't even have to wonder whether or not women should be the pastor or the main preacher
of a church.
It says in verse 33, "For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace as in all
churches of the saints, let your women keep silence in the churches for it is not permitted
unto them to speak.
But they are commanded to be under obedience as also saith the law.
And if they will learn anything, let them ask their husbands at home for it is a shame
for women to speak in the church."
Honestly, I don't believe you could get any clearer.
This is as clear as you could possibly have of a passage to say when the whole assembly
is gathered together and we're there to be edified by the word of God, it is a man's
job to get up and be the one who preaches the Bible.
The Bible makes it clear in 1 Timothy chapter 3 and Titus chapter 1 that the qualifications
of a pastor is the husband of one wife.
It does not provide any provision for a woman to be the pastor.
We see no women pastors in the Bible.
We see no women deacons in the Bible.
We see no women evangelists in the Bible.
We see no ordained positions of authority for women in the Bible because they're just
not ordained positions for women.
Now, when it comes to them being ministers, yes, everybody's supposed to be a minister.
When it comes to them evangelizing, yes, women should go out and evangelize.
When it comes to preaching the word of God, hey, let women preach the word of God to people
that are lost and need to hear the gospel.
Let women preach the word of God to their children.
Let women study and meditate on the word of God.
Let it be dwelling in them richly.
When a woman opens her mouth, let her open her mouth with wisdom of the scripture.
I'm all for women speaking the Bible and preaching the Bible to those who are under her authority,
but the Bible does not provide a situation in which women are to be in any kind of authority
position in the church, especially not over men.
First Timothy 2 makes that clear too, but if someone doesn't agree with what I just
showed you now, usually they're not going to be persuaded by the Bible.
They need to get my first question, which is about your authority.
Who are you trusting, your own understanding or the word of God and the Bible?
And we adhere to the King James Bible as our final authority and the King James Bible is
clear that men are the only preachers.
Hey, that was a great question.
I think we have another one from the chat I want to get to.
I have a daughter who is non-verbal due to autism.
Well, I'm very sorry to hear that.
It says, "I've tried witnessing the gospel to her, but there's no way for me to know
or for her to confess if she believes.
How can I approach this?"
Now, this is definitely a unique question.
There's going to be circumstances where this is true, not just for your particular situation
or someone's situation of only autism.
There is going to be people that are maybe elderly or very sick.
There's going to be situations where people might have been born with some kind of mental
deficiency.
They could have other problems.
What if we talk about Helen Keller who was blind and mute?
That would be a very difficult person to communicate with.
It even took Helen Keller a very long time to learn how to sign and to communicate with
individuals.
The person's question posed to me doesn't necessarily give me an age.
I don't know how old your child is.
I don't know.
Sometimes with people that have a severe disability, they tend to mature slower.
Their mental capacity might take a lot longer in development process.
Number one, I personally believe and I think the scripture teaches that those who die prematurely,
whether that be infants or babies and they don't really have an opportunity to hear the
gospel or they don't understand what sin is, that when they die they're going to go to
heaven.
You see, I believe it's 2 Samuel chapter 12 that actually has King David and he had a child
that the Lord ended up taking from him.
But David was very sad while the child was sick and he prayed and fasted for it.
But then once it died, he ended up not being sad anymore.
And I want to read a verse here.
It says in verse 18, 2 Samuel chapter 12 verse 18, "And it came to pass on the seventh day
that the child died and the servants of David feared to tell him that the child was dead.
For they said, 'Behold, while the child was yet alive, we spake unto him and he would
not hearken unto our voice.'"
How will he then vex himself if we tell him that the child is dead?
So the servants were afraid to tell David that his child was dead, but eventually finds
out verse 20, "Then David arose from the earth and was annoyed himself and changed his apparel
and came into the house of the Lord and worshiped.
Then he came to his own house and when he required, they set bread before him and he
needed to eat."
Verse 21, "Then said his servants unto him, What thing is this that thou hast done?
Thou didst fast and weep for the child while it was alive.
But when the child was dead, thou didst rise and eat bread.
And he said, While the child was yet alive, I fasted and wept, for I said, Who can tell
whether God will be gracious to me that the child may live?
But now he is dead.
Wherefore should I fast?
Can I bring him back again?
I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me.
So the reason why I bring up this passage is first of all, if your child is very young,
you know, we're talking about babies and infants and toddlers and they unfortunately
pass away, I do believe that they go to heaven.
And so, you know, for someone that's very young, this would be the case.
But I also think that, you know, there's other people that might fit into this kind
of similar category where if they have such a severe mental disability and even though
their body may have aged to a point where they're 4, 5, 10, 15, even an adult but their
mind or their understanding has stayed at an age of 2, 3, 4 or something similar, then
I believe that they too would probably fall in the same category where essentially God's
not going to hold them responsible for something that they're incapable of understanding.
So again, in answering your question, it's a little bit difficult for me to know your
exact situation but I think that's one answer to your question.
Another answer to your question is if, you know, you're having trouble confirming with
someone their level of understanding, you know, you preaching the gospel to them and
praying for them and trying to show them clearly from the scripture is really all that you
can do.
You know, at some point we have to just trust the Lord that what we do is going to work.
You know, there's been cases where preaching the gospel to someone that's very old or
non-verbal, you give them the gospel but you can't necessarily check to make sure they
believe that or they understand that as well and you do the best that you can but you know,
I don't know that there's necessarily a special method to test someone's understanding.
Whenever I talk to a child, I try to get them to understand, you know, the few basics or
sinners and what a sin is that is breaking God's rules and that those sins would lead
us to hell if we don't believe in Jesus and that Jesus did die on the cross, he was buried,
he rose again, he paid for all of our sins, that salvation is only by believing, it's
not faith and works.
And I typically ask children, I say do you have to believe in Jesus to be saved or you
also have to be a good person to kind of test and see how they feel, I ask them questions
like if you do not believe in Jesus, where will you go and so that they can kind of understand
those basic elements.
But the beauty of the gospel is that it's simple and the beauty of the gospel is that
even a very young mind can understand the simple elements of the fact that we're sinners,
that we would go to hell if we don't trust in Jesus, that Jesus took our punishment that
we deserve and that by placing faith in him and asking him to save you and not trusting
in yourself, that you will be saved and that there's nothing you could do to lose that.
You know, I believe that I was saved at age five by trusting a simple gospel presentation
and I believe there's many people that are saved at very young ages, not having a lot
of doctrine, not necessarily having a lot of information.
And so as your child continues to develop or becomes older, I hope that maybe more of
this will sink in.
Maybe there's a new method by which you can communicate with them.
You know, you could try some alternative communication techniques such as writing, sign language.
I know that a lot of people practice sign language with very young children and it actually
is effective.
With their mental capabilities though, however, never get to a point where they can't even
simply answer simple questions of yes or no or hold any real understanding.
Again, I believe God will give that individual grace.
So I hope that I did answer your question.
You know, if you have more specific questions related, you can always email us, steadfastbaptistkjv@gmail.com
and I'd love to help you or assist you with that and to pray with you that your child
would be saved.
I'm very blessed to know that people care that much about their children and you know,
take that zeal that you have for your child and apply it to other children because while
we all want our own children to be saved, we should want every child to be saved and
we want to put a lot of effort, energy into getting as many people saved as possible.
And so I'd encourage you to put a lot of efforts into going out and reaching everyone
with the gospel and not just your loved ones as well.
Here's another question from our chat.
It says, "What are the qualifications for a pastor and what does it take to start a
church?"
Well, this is definitely a pretty big question.
First of all, I kind of mentioned earlier, 1st Timothy chapter 3 and Titus chapter 1
give biblical qualifications.
And I would say that just on the surface, number one, you should meet all of the requirements
that's found in scripture, 1st Timothy chapter 3 and Titus chapter 1.
Beyond that, I also believe that you should be ordained by a pastor that's already scripturally
qualified and meets the clear qualifications of the scripture.
And by being ordained by a particular pastor, you would also then need to submit to and
or meet the criterion that he has for someone to be a pastor because I also believe that
you know, when Jesus gave the keys to Peter of the church and he told him that whatsoever
thou, you know, loose on earth shall be loose in heaven and whatsoever that shall bind on
earth shall also be bound in heaven, applies to the fact that church has some level of
authority to make decisions, to make determinations and that pastors can make determinations as
far as what their criterion is for a pastor and that that individual should meet the criterion
of that ordained minister that it's not simply, well, here's a checklist I found in the Bible
and I think I meet it, so I think I should be ordained.
You know, that's not following the pattern shown in scripture.
I think that that violates a lot of clear scripture.
To give you at least one verse, 1 Timothy chapter 4 says in verse 14, "neglect not
the gift that is in thee which was given thee by prophecy with the laying on of the hands
of the presbytery."
So I believe that Timothy was a pastor and he was given that gift from the apostles and
other elders of the church when they laid their hands on them and very clearly it said
here in verse 14 that he was given a gift and that gift was given to him specifically
because there was a laying on of hands and it was done by the presbytery which is a word
that's simply only found in the Bible once but it means kind of an elder leaders of the
church.
And so, you know, without having this formal process of a leader laying hands on someone
of, you know, sending them out, I don't believe that it's a scriptural ordination.
Just to give you a sample, 1 Timothy chapter 3, this is some of the qualifications found
in scripture.
It says, "This is a true saying, if a man desire the office of a bishop, he desireth
a good work.
A bishop then must be blameless of the husband of one wife, vigilant, sober of good behavior,
given to hospitality, apt to teach, not given to wine, no striker, not greedy of filthy
lucre, but patient, not a brawler, not covetous.
One that rules well his own house, having his children in subjection with all gravity.
For if a man knoweth not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the church
of God?
Not a novice, lest being lifted up with pride, he fall into the condemnation of the devil.
Moreover, he must have a good report of them which are without, lest he fall into reproach
in the snare of the devil."
So we have seven verses here found in first of the chapter number three that give us some
of the qualifications of a bishop.
I believe also Titus chapter one should be cross-referenced.
I also believe that the instructions given to the deacon found here get a little more
specific and they would also pertain to the pastor himself.
And so there's a lot on this list.
And to me, what people have to understand is that even though this list is given, this
is not like a special list for pastors.
This is actually what every single man should do.
Every single man, especially one that desires marriage, should get married, have children,
should be someone who's sober and faithful and trustworthy and ruling his house well
and ruling his children well.
Essentially, the list is just saying here is a standard of a good Christian.
And from those who are good Christians, those are the people that are eligible to become
a pastor.
It does not make sense to put someone in the position of a pastor who's not a good Christian
or who is inexperienced at being a good Christian because some people can be a good Christian
for a week.
Some people can be a good Christian for a month.
Some people can be a good Christian for a year or two.
But then eventually, they wear away, they waste away, they get offended, they quit,
they just simply backslide.
And so, someone needs to be a good Christian for a very long period of time to show that
they're dedicated, show that they're committed, to show that they're willing to weather storms
in their life.
Because being a pastor is a very important job.
I personally believe it's the most important job that a man could have is being used by
God to be a servant.
And of course, being a pastor is not some lofty title of importance.
It's more a position of servitude.
It's one who's supposed to minister and to help others and to lay down his life and to
be a shepherd, of course, under the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And being a minister, being a pastor, I think a lot of people underestimate the toll that
it takes on a person's life, that it's very difficult, it can be very frustrating,
it can be lonely, it can really challenge you in every possible way.
It's going to challenge your marriage, it's going to challenge your finances, it's going
to challenge your physicality, it's going to challenge your mentality, it's going to
challenge your feelings, it's going to challenge every area of life and so it's not for the
faint of heart.
Some people think that their life would be easier if they were a pastor but nothing could
be further from the truth.
A man that really wants to serve God and is going to follow the biblical model is only
going to have a harder life ahead of him than the life he previously had and so therefore
it's important that someone's already successful in every area of life before becoming a pastor
because once becoming a pastor all those areas of your life are going to be tested and we're
going to see how good are you at managing your finances, how good are you at managing
your wife, how good are you at managing your children, how good are you are continuing
to serve the Lord and read the Bible and have a walk with God and to not be self-indulgent.
And a lot of these verses are talking about self-indulgence, you know, not being someone
that just is a glutton and someone that is consumed with covetousness, but it's really
someone that's very selfless.
And so, you know, a pastor is a high calling and we should have high standards, don't
want just anyone to be a pastor, whereas we see a lot of bad churches today because they
don't have a high standard for pastors.
They simply just let any yahoo, they even, there's a lot of nepotism in Christianity
today where people are just ordaining their sons and often time the son is not the father.
I personally am against fathers ordaining their children unless it was absolutely necessary.
I don't think that that means that someone has to be bad.
If someone was ordained by their dad, I'm not saying they're a bad pastor necessarily,
but I think that we should avoid that practice since we have an abundance of pastors.
If there were a situation where we're destitute and there was no option, then of course we
wouldn't want to hold someone back based on that reason alone.
But when given other options, it makes sense that the next generation of pastors should
be ordained by people that have no reason to ordain them except for they meet the criterion.
Myself included, my children, if my sons ever decide they want to be a pastor, of course
I'll train them and teach them and I'll give them everything that I have here.
But I'll want them to go to another church to serve with a completely different pastor
and to meet all of his criterion if they truly want to become a pastor someday.
And if they never do, I'm going to love them the same as I would if they did because just
because being a pastor is a really important job doesn't mean that there isn't other
very important jobs.
We need every job.
Every job is super important.
Even being a mother is arguably the most important job but at the same time, we need to have
high standards for being pastors and starting a church really it doesn't even matter because
if you're not going to be a pastor, you don't really need to know that number one and really
you need to just worry about being a godly Christian.
For those that want to be a pastor or start a church someday, they need to stop worrying
about what it takes to be a pastor or start a church and worry about being a godly Christian.
They need to worry about studying the Bible and showing themselves approved unto God.
They need to worry about being a good soul winner.
They need to worry about being selfless.
They need to worry about loving their wife.
They need to worry about their wife loving God.
They need to worry about their wife being someone who preaches the gospel faithfully.
They need to worry about their wife doing the things that she does because she believes
them not because her husband's telling her to do that.
And that was a big deal for me is, you know, I wanted my wife to genuinely want to preach
the gospel, to genuinely dress godly, to genuinely use a King James Bible for her to sincerely
and through in the deep parts of her heart want to serve God because I knew when becoming
a pastor that the pressure was going to come from family members, from friends, from the
world and that if my wife didn't sincerely believe these things or sincerely want to
do them, she would struggle hard, she would struggle with that and she would not want
to do those things.
And so it was important for me to lead her and to guide her and to help her to believe
those things sincerely.
And for me personally, if she never got there, I wanted to have the integrity to say, well,
I shouldn't be a pastor.
I don't want to pastor because I can't even convince my wife.
And here's the thing, if I can't even convince my own wife to love God, to have a fervent
zeal for the Lord, how could I expect to give that to other men who have nothing to do with
me?
Or if I can't teach and train my children, if I can't guide my children, if I can't
discipline my children, how could I then church discipline men and church discipline other
people and other families?
So really, if a person wants to be a pastor, what they really should do is focus on being
the best Christian they can be, focus on being the best servant they can in their church,
help their pastor in every way they can ever think of, do things that they're not even
asked to do, try to be the best person they can be.
And of course, you know, you can let your pastor know you have that desire but really
you should just take your hands off the steering wheel at that point and let God put you in
the position that you should be in.
I personally believe every man of God I know that if they have a guy going to their church
that meets all the criterion of a pastor and is a great Christian and is serving in the
church and doing everything right that pastor is not going to hold him back from great positions
to serve the Lord.
They are going to put him into the ministry and so you know people need to stop worrying
about if I am going to be a pastor or not and just start worrying about being a good
Christian and then you know pray and ask God to use you greatly.
You know I have prayed a lot of prayers in my life about God giving me wisdom and being
used by God and that is what I want to do.
If I end up not being a pastor one day for whatever reason you know I hope that I still
serve God to the best of my ability and no matter what you can always be a soul winner
and let's be honest that's the most important work is just getting people saved because
at the end of the day all this is going away.
I'm not going to be a pastor forever.
We're all going to just be in heaven and those are winning souls to Christ is going
to be what really matters.
So I hope that you know these questions were you know help to you a blessing.
The answers that I was able to you know impart from the scripture and of course the Bible
is our final authority.
It's the sword drill podcast.
We're using the Bible and the sword to cut through all the lies and the deception that's
out there.
Please check in with us on Tuesdays from 12 to 1.
We'll be starting our new podcast series and season very soon and so I hope that you'll
continue to check in.
You can find us on Rumble at Steadfast Baptist Church and we'll also be putting the podcast
out on some different platforms.
But the best place to find us is going to be the Steadfast Baptist Rumble.
Please go out there and subscribe, create an account, subscribe, sign up, put questions
out there.
Also, I'm going to be putting on godresource.com in the future.
So those are going to be your two resources for this podcast.
Well, God bless you guys.
I hope you have a great day and continue to be steadfast by using your sword.