He's allowed people to just suffer and kill each other?
Well, you know, God could potentially have killed you or me before we ever heard the
gospel or before we heard a clear presentation of the gospel, but I'm glad that he gave me
opportunity to sin many times and then still get to hear the gospel later and get saved.
So that's really the answer to the question, is that God's just allowing you to live a
life that's in rebellion to him or not believing in him long enough to still have opportunity
to get saved.
He could make it where there's no suffering and everyone's...
He will make it that way.
Deep in the heart of Fort Worth, Texas is Texas Christian University, TCU, and we decided
to go to the campus to talk to different students about Christian topics.
Since they go to a Christian university, you would think these students know a lot about
the Bible or that they're saved.
But we went there to put them to the test to see what the students had to say and see
if any of them could prove me wrong.
Hey, my name's Pastor Shelley.
I'm sitting here with Daniel.
You are here at TCU.
Are you a student?
Yeah.
How long have you been a student here?
Four years.
Or three years.
So are you a senior?
Yeah.
Okay, cool.
So we have a sign here.
It says, salvation is by faith alone.
What do you think about that?
Not sure what it means.
Okay.
What do you...
Are you Christian at all?
Do you go to a church or anything?
On Easter sometimes.
What kind of church?
I don't remember.
It's...
Yeah.
Okay.
So the Bible talks about salvation.
That's the idea of going to heaven, not going to hell.
Do you believe in heaven and hell?
It really gave too much thought to it, honestly.
What about the Bible itself?
Do you think the Bible is the word of God?
What?
Do you think the Bible is God's word?
I'm not really too sure.
I've never really thought too much about that.
Isn't that what it is, though?
Well, it definitely claims to be the word of God.
So the Bible does say that there's only one thing you have to do to be saved.
It says it's just by faith.
So I just want to show you a few verses from the Bible.
Is that okay?
Alright, yeah.
Yeah.
I'm not a huge fan of reading, but, you know.
Well, I can read for you, alright?
How about that?
So the Bible says in Romans chapter 3, verse 23, it says, for all of sin it comes short
of the glory of God.
So according to the Bible, we're all sinners.
That just means we've all broken at least one of God's commandments.
Would you agree with that?
Not too sure what the commandments are, but yeah, actually I know those.
You can't steal from your neighbor and stuff.
Exactly.
So there's a lot of commandments in the Bible.
Some are famously known as the Ten Commandments, like lying, stealing, committing adultery,
things like that.
Yeah, yeah.
Would you agree that everybody's at least broken one of God's commandments?
Well, I mean, like stealing from like a neighbor or whatever, right?
Uh, yeah, I mean, you know.
How about just lying?
I've just snagged a couple of Tide Pods from, you know, neighbors' laundry room.
So yeah, I guess, uh, yeah.
Or lying, yeah.
Sure.
If I said I've never lied before, would you believe me?
Uh, probably not, no, because it's like a white lie, you know.
So according to the Bible there's a punishment.
And according to the Bible we've all sinned.
That punishment's in Romans 6 23, it says, for the wages of sin is death.
That means everyone's going to die one day.
That's a dream for a Tide Pod, huh?
It's pretty crazy.
Well, do you think everybody is going to die one day?
Well, yeah.
Okay.
So the Bible does say there's a punishment for hell, or a punishment for sin, it's hell.
Die for stealing a Tide Pod, really?
Well, we're all going to die, and it's the result of sin.
And according to the Bible, it doesn't matter how big or small the sin is, all sin is worthy
of death.
So even if we took it to, like, a minor sin, like telling a lie, the Bible even says that
that would be a punishment, the punishment would still be going to hell.
And I'll show you in Revelation 21 verse 8, the Bible says, but the fearful and unbelieving
and the abominable and murderers and whoremongers and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars.
What's a sorcerer?
Yep.
What's a sorcerer?
A sorcerer is someone who practices witchcraft, magic, spells, yeah, similar.
Is this, is this real?
Yes.
People do do that.
Well, the Bible does say that all liars shall have their part in the lake which burneth
a fire brimstone, which is the second death.
So if that's every liar, wouldn't that be me, because I said, you know, you told me
I already lied, right?
Well, if it's a white lie, it seems like burning in a brimstone fire of death is a little extreme,
you know what I mean?
Well, I'll agree that hell is an extreme punishment, but that is what the Bible says, and God cannot
allow or tolerate any sin.
So his punishment is hell.
Now, that being an extreme punishment, I mean, the Bible says it's fire, it's brimstone,
it's outer darkness, there's no rest day nor night, and it lasts forever.
I wouldn't want anyone to go there.
I wouldn't want you to go there.
Yeah, so according to the Bible, we can be saved, and the salvation that God offers us
is in Romans.
It says in Romans, chapter number five, verse eight.
But God committed his love toward us, and that while we were at sinners, Christ died
for us.
According to the Bible, Jesus Christ is God's son who is sent to the earth to take the penalty
and punishment for our sins for us.
Have you ever heard that before?
Yeah, I've heard about Jesus.
Okay.
According to the Bible, Jesus is the son of God.
Is that something you believe?
Well, that's what everyone says, right?
Okay.
According to the Bible, the Bible teaches that God is a trinity, so there's the Father,
Son, and Holy Spirit, three persons, but they've always existed as one God, and the Father
sent his son to the earth to take the penalty and punishment that we deserve.
So according to the Bible, God was willing to sacrifice his own son who did nothing wrong
so that we could get off or away from the punishment for our sins.
Jesus Christ performed miracles on the earth.
He was here around 2,000 years ago, and he had a famous death.
Do you know how Jesus died?
Yeah, on the cross.
Exactly.
Now, when he died on the cross, according to the Bible, do you think he died for his
sin or our sin?
I'm not sure.
I'm not too familiar with that.
According to the Bible, he didn't have any sin, so he never lied, stole, did anything
wrong, and that was so that he could take our punishment, and so the Bible teaches that
he died for our sin.
It even says in 1 John 1, verse 7, the blood of Jesus Christ, his son cleansed with us
from all sin.
So Jesus Christ died on the cross for all sin, and he was buried physically.
That means his body was put in a tomb.
Do you know where his soul went?
Wasn't it in Jerusalem or whatever?
Right?
Well, a lot of people think that his soul either went to heaven or hell.
What do you think?
Do you think Jesus' soul went to heaven or hell after he died?
You know, I couldn't tell you.
I'm not too sure.
Okay.
Well, he didn't do anything wrong, though.
I thought they said that everyone did something wrong.
Yeah.
Every person's done something wrong, but God's son didn't because he's special, he's unique
in the sense that he's God in the flesh, and so he was without sin so that he could bear
our sins on the cross.
Now the Bible says because our punishment is going to hell, he also went to hell for
you.
So the Bible says in Acts 2 31, talking about this, he's saying this before the spake of
the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was not left in hell, neither his flesh should
see corruption.
So before his body could rot in the tomb, after three days and three nights, he rose
again from the dead.
And you told me you sometimes went to church on Easter.
What is Easter about?
That's when he came back, right?
Yeah, it's the way we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus.
So that means he came back from the dead, out of the tomb, bodily and spiritually, and
he showed the disciples his hands from the cross and his side from being stabbed or pierced.
And then he showed himself to the disciples, he talked with them for 40 days, and after
that, he ascended back into heaven, and he's seated at the right hand of God the Father.
So that's what the word gospel means.
You've probably heard the word gospel before, right?
Yeah.
When you heard the word gospel, what did you think before, what did that mean?
The group of kids that sing in the church, and they all sing.
Like a gospel choir or something, probably?
Yeah, well, according to the Bible, the gospel is the death, burial, and resurrection of
Jesus.
That's what that means.
Okay.
That's really off on that one, huh?
Well, a lot of people use that word pretty loosely, so probably those kids were singing
about Jesus and the gospel itself, so that's why they're called a gospel choir.
Maybe that's what they were singing about.
But the Bible does say in Acts chapter 16, in verse number 30, it says, it asks the question
of what you have to do to be saved, and this is kind of why we're here.
It said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved?
And they said, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.
So according to this verse, what do you have to do to be saved?
Believe on, well, it says right there, right?
Yeah.
What does it say?
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.
So according to this verse, what does it sound like salvation, the requirement for salvation
is?
To what it says right there, you have to believe in him.
Does it say go to church?
No.
Does it say follow the commandments?
No, no, really.
Does it say get baptized?
Don't you think?
It's meant to be like that.
Well, the Bible's actually, it's actually clear that it's one thing, that it's just
believe.
What does it say over here?
Oh, gouge the Jews?
Wait.
Oh, synagogue.
synagogue.
Okay.
Yeah.
No, no, no.
Yeah.
You need to edit that line a little better.
Well, according to the Bible, it makes it really clear.
It says gouge the, okay, sorry.
No, you're good.
Do you want, what do you think about, do you like the Jews?
Whoa.
Do I like the, yeah, I mean, everyone's good.
You know, they're all people.
Okay.
So according to the Bible, the Bible says that all you have to do is believe.
That's what I showed you right here, right?
Yeah.
Okay.
The Bible says this over and over.
So this is not one verse that teaches this.
There's a multiplicity of verses.
Probably the most famous verse in the Bible is John 3 16.
Do you think you've ever heard John 3 16?
I think I've seen it a couple of Instagram bios, yeah.
So the Bible has it right here and it says very clearly, for God so loved the world that
he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have
everlasting life.
So the Bible says all you have to do is believe in Jesus to be saved.
Is that something you've heard before?
Well, you just showed me on the last page.
Yeah, I've heard that.
Okay, great.
So I've showed you at least two places.
Let me show you another one, right?
That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.
The Bible says he that believeth on him is not condemned.
The Bible says he that believeth on the son hath everlasting life.
So over and over the Bible says believe, believe, believe.
But did you know that most churches teach that it's not by believing that you're saved,
but it's rather following the commandments, going to church, being good.
Have you ever heard something like that?
Well, didn't you say everyone has to be like without sin or something, didn't you say something
like that?
No, we're all sinners.
So according to the Bible, the only person that was without sin was Jesus.
Jesus Christ, he's the one that was able to save us from hell by taking all of our
sin.
What about God?
Is he without sin too?
Yes.
Jesus is God.
Okay.
I thought he was his son.
He is.
So the Bible teaches, like I said kind of earlier, about the Trinity.
So the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, they're all God.
And because God is perfect, holy, and righteous, he can't sin.
And God's Son, Jesus Christ, was sent here to bear our sins so that we could go to heaven.
Because God's just, so he can't allow people to get away with sin.
He can't let people just commit sin and then not have any punishment.
And that punishment's hell.
So it's kind of like if you had to go to jail for some crime, but someone took your place
in jail for you.
Okay.
So in the same way, Jesus took your place by dying and going to hell for you.
So you wouldn't have to go there.
Does that kind of make sense to you?
That's for like all the people at the time, or that still goes forward to today?
Okay.
So that's why I showed you the verse earlier that said about how he tied for all sin.
So it's actually all past, present, and future sin.
So every sin you've committed—
Exactly.
So he died for the sins of the whole world, okay?
And the Bible makes it clear that the only thing necessary for salvation itself is by
believing on Jesus Christ.
Now if you do that, the Bible says here, but as many as received him, to them gave you
power to become the sons of God, even them that believe on his name.
So according to the Bible, you could become born again spiritually, and it's by believing
in Jesus.
How many times were you born physically?
I mean, one.
It was a one-time event, right?
Yeah, I would hope so, yeah.
So according to the Bible, the same is with salvation.
It's a one-time event.
You believe in Jesus Christ, and you're born again.
You become his son.
Now once you're a son of your parents, how long are you their son?
For their whole life, I guess, yeah.
Even past death, right?
My mom's dead, but is she still my mom?
Yeah, of course.
So I can't change the fact that my mom is.
Well, no, not really.
Now if I lived with my mom, and she was still alive, it would be important for me to follow
her rules, just so that we could have a good relationship.
Is that true?
I mean, to an extent, yeah.
But if I broke all of her rules, and I was really mean to her, would I still be her son?
Yeah, probably.
So according to the Bible- She disowned you, but that wouldn't be very
good.
Yeah, I mean, she could kick me out of the house, she could punish me, but it wouldn't
really change the fact that I was her son, would it?
I guess no, not really.
So according to the Bible, this is how salvation works.
If you believe in Jesus, you would become God's son, and no matter what you do, you
would always be his son, meaning that once you're saved, you're always saved.
So according to the Bible, salvation's simply faith alone that can never be lost, because
once you've trusted in Jesus, you've been born again.
What about all the people that are in these remote places and stuff?
What happens if it's a little kid, and he's trying to save his brother or something, and
then he falls out of a tree?
What happens then?
He doesn't even know about this stuff.
Does this say anything about that?
So again, what I'm showing you is that the Bible does clearly teach salvation by faith
alone in Jesus, and anybody who does not believe would go to hell.
But the Bible does explain some situations, like maybe a baby that dies or a young toddler
or someone that doesn't even know right from wrong, right?
And the Bible always indicates that they went to heaven, so I believe that if you kind of
study Scripture, people that have no mental capacity of understanding sin, if they die,
they would go to heaven.
So this would be someone that's maybe mentally handicapped or a young child.
But there comes an age when every child eventually realizes the difference between right and
wrong, and they would be responsible to believe in Jesus Christ at that point to be saved.
But what if they never read this book?
Well, the thing is, the Bible didn't say you had to read the book to be saved.
The Bible says faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God.
So all you'd have to do is be presented with the Gospel.
But what if they never were?
Well, that's a hypothetical question that people will bring up.
But the reality is, everyone in this world has heard of Jesus, whether you want to admit
that or not.
There's missionaries on every single continent.
There's churches on every single continent.
And the Bible does say in Romans, chapter number 1, a little bit further in like verse
number 8, verse 20, for the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are
clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power in Godhead,
so they are without excuse.
So according to the Bible, no one has an excuse.
We're all going to be held responsible for the clear evidence that God exists and seeking
Him to be saved.
So I do not believe that anyone gets off the hook that has the knowledge of sin and the
consequence of that sin, which would be death.
But even if, even if that were true, you're not that person because you've been confronted
with the Gospel today, right?
So, so could you say that you've never heard of Jesus?
No, of course I've heard of Jesus, but I don't like live in like the random, what about really
deep in the Amazon?
Yeah.
And you know, the thing is, it's crazy about that.
There's lots of missionaries that have stories of even going to all these places, talking
to all these people, but honestly there is more missionaries in Africa than virtually
any continent out there.
Even Muslims, they know who Jesus is, and there's lots of different places that know
who Christ is.
So, I don't believe that that's a...
Do you think everybody on the whole planet has heard of this?
Yeah, to some degree, more or less.
Obviously some people have heard more than others, right?
Not everybody's had the same amount of information given to them, and, but at the same time we're
all responsible for the, we can see creation, we can experience creation, we know that God
exists, and so we're obligated to seek out who that God is, and the Bible teaches that
it's very easy to find out who the God of the Bible is if you want to.
But yes, there's some people that just don't want to, they don't want to know who God is,
they hate God, they don't desire to seek out salvation whatsoever.
The Bible says if you seek, you shall find, and I believe every person that wants to be
saved will be saved, because of the easy access to it, and the fact that the creation evidences
the God of the Bible.
But you can't go to a country where there isn't a Bible, where there isn't someone that's
willing to give the Gospel, and here's the thing, if people are dying going to hell,
it compels me to want to go out there and reach them, and give them as many opportunities
to hear about Jesus and the truth so that they could be saved.
Does that kind of make sense?
That definitely makes sense.
So based on what I'm showing you, the Bible makes it clear there's one thing you have
to do to be saved.
What was that, do you remember?
The thing about believing.
Now to believe in someone means to trust them.
Okay, so I want to explain this just a little bit further.
You've been on a plane before?
Yeah.
Now did you trust that pilot to take you where you're flying, or did you fly the plane?
Well I have flown a plane, but I've been on it also with the pilot, and they do it.
So in a similar analogy, Jesus Christ is asking us to put all of our trust in him to take
us to heaven.
We're not going to fly the plane, proverbially speaking.
All we do is trust what he did already, his death-run resurrection to save us, and not
what we do.
So if I told you I'm going to heaven because I'm a good guy, I go to church and I read
the Bible, does that sound like I'm believing in Jesus or myself?
Sure sounds like you're believing.
And who?
Wherever you're going, right?
Well if I say I'm going to heaven because I read the Bible and I go to church and I
pray, does that sound like I'm trusting what Jesus did for me or I'm trusting myself?
Uh, both.
It's kind of both, but ultimately it's proving that I'm trusting myself, because I'm saying
I go to church, I read the Bible, I do good, and really my faith is not in Jesus, my faith
is in me being good, me following the commandments, me doing right.
So that would mean I'm not saved.
The Bible teaches that salvation is not a combination of my good efforts and good works,
and what Jesus did, it's only what Jesus did.
Does that kind of make sense to you?
Yeah, so what you're saying is you can like kind of do whatever you want as long as you
admit that he's your savior, right?
Yep, so...
What's the extent of that?
Can you like, you know, do like a bunch of terrible, horrible things and then you get
into heaven because on your deathbed you say, I agree with, I believe in Jesus?
Sure, I'll explain this.
So let's say someone believes in Jesus today, but then tomorrow they commit some of the
worst sins.
Maybe they rob a bank, they even kill someone, okay?
What do you think, based on what I showed you so far, what do you think that person
would go, heaven or hell?
Well, I mean, I'd like to say hell, but doesn't this say that they'd go to heaven?
You're right, it actually says that they would go to heaven.
Now here's how this makes sense, in the same way that if I went out and I killed someone,
if I went out and I killed someone, would that change who my mom is?
No.
You're right, so here's the thing, the same way as I would still be God's son, but my
mom would be upset with me, my mom would be disappointed that I committed such a sin,
and it may even cause a rift in our relationship, but I'd still be your son.
So the same is with God in the sense that if I believe in Jesus Christ, I've already
had all my sins paid for, and I'm a child of God.
Now that does not mean there wouldn't be a consequence for my sin.
Just like my parents punished me when I was a kid, and I might have discipline for my
bad behavior, God will still give me consequences on earth.
I can go to jail, get the death penalty, I could even be killed as a result of my bad
behavior, but I would still be his son, therefore I would still go to heaven.
Does that kind of make sense what I'm saying to you?
Okay, but why doesn't, like, okay yeah that makes sense, but what if someone's about to
do something really bad, you know like, I don't know, kill a bunch of people or something,
you know?
Why doesn't he God or stop it?
Well I do believe God does intervene in the world on a regular basis, but at the same
time he gives us free will, and so he doesn't want to completely override our free will,
he wants us to actually be able to make choices, whether they be good or bad, and then he
can reward us accordingly.
The Bible does say that God sometimes allows bad people on the earth for certain reasons,
such as to tempt us or try us or to test us, also for people to exercise faith.
So you have bad people like Pharaoh, you may have heard of Pharaoh and Moses and Egypt.
Pharaoh was set up by God on purpose to test the children of Israel and to test Moses that
they would continue to have faith in the Lord and he delivered them out of Egypt by a great
hand so that he could prove that he's the God of the earth.
So sometimes God allows bad people to exist just for his purposes.
Also God will allow some people to be bad for a long time because later in life they
might get saved, and instead of just intervening and sending them to hell right away, he gives
them a long life and a lot of opportunities to believe in Jesus so that maybe later in
life they could choose to accept his mercy and to get saved.
If we got what we deserved immediately, no one would survive into adulthood because we've
all sinned.
So God gives us grace and he's long suffering, allowing us to commit sins for a long portion
of our life, giving us many opportunities to be saved.
So essentially, if there was no free will, then there wouldn't be sin.
So you can't have one without the other.
I get what you're saying, but the thing with the Jews and the Exodus in Egypt and stuff,
he intervened there, right?
Yes.
So he told Moses to tell Pharaoh to let my people go, and Pharaoh was hardening his heart.
He was unwilling to obey God's command, and so as a result God sent 10 plagues in an effort
to change Pharaoh's mind so that he would let the children of Israel go.
But it took a great sign.
He had to kill his firstborn child for Pharaoh to finally relent and allow the children of
Israel to go.
However, his heart was still so hardened that he followed after the children of Israel afterwards,
called them into the Red Sea, and God closed in the Red Sea upon Pharaoh and killed all
of them.
So your question of, would God intervene and kill someone that was a murderous person,
yes.
He killed Pharaoh and his army, but he did it in a magnificent way that gave him the
glory and allowed his children of Israel to be rescued out of that.
That doesn't mean that some people aren't killed.
Cain killed Abel, one of the first people to die in human history, and unfortunately
we're all going to die.
So sometimes God allows people to die, to be a martyr, or for his purposes.
But at the end of the day, sometimes we just die as a consequence of our sin.
Someone gets drunk, or drives and is reckless, or someone does drugs, or someone is living
a risky lifestyle, they could die as a result, as a punishment for having made bad choices
or bad decisions.
Does that kind of make sense to you?
I mean, it does, but I can think of so many awful things, like the Holocaust or something,
right?
Why didn't he intervene there?
What happens if a drunk driver hits a family's car?
How does that, if he can stop it, like he does with the Pharaoh, why doesn't he stop
things like that from happening?
I get the whole free will thing, but what if this guy's not willingly making a choice?
What if it just falls on him or something, you know?
Well, first of all, we don't know how innocent people are that are killed.
Sometimes God may be intervening by killing a wicked person by another wicked person's
means.
Sure, I think that there is people that are very innocent, they don't deserve to die whatsoever,
but they're kind of a victim, they're a casualty to evil, right?
And of course, you would say like, why does God allow that to happen?
But there can be a lot of reasons.
One reason actually happens in the Bible, God allows a lot of children to die, and it's
because of the fact that in the future, that country is going to go through a horrible
famine where people are going to literally be destroyed in the worst ways possible.
And so God allowed many of the children to die mercifully in that way as opposed to dying
through horrible suffering.
So, you know, there's a lot of different reasons why God allows things to happen, but again,
if he never let anything evil ever happen, he's not really allowing free will to run
its course.
He's allowing people to do horrible things, and that's just because he's genuinely giving
people free will.
That's not because he wants that to happen.
God doesn't desire evil.
He doesn't wish for evil.
He's not trying to get people to do evil.
He just simply is allowing people to sin.
Now again, it's God's discretion at what layer, what level he's going to stop that, right?
So if he is going to allow people to sin, there had to be a stopping point.
We may argue and think like, oh, I think you should have stopped it sooner, but that's
kind of being in judgment of God.
I don't know what the purposes are for everything, but here's the thing, with the Holocaust,
wouldn't you say America came in and helped with the British and they literally did stop
Hitler and did stop the war machine of the Germans?
Well, I mean, they did, yeah, but...
So is that potentially not God intervening in a way?
I mean, I guess you could make that argument, but I don't know, I mean, that's a little...
I mean, they still killed like, you know, millions of them.
You know, that's pretty...
You know, I think they would want to stop that a little earlier.
Sure.
Well, and here's the thing, we're never going to understand everything about God because
he's God, right?
If he's above us and he created all of us, he's going to have more wisdom and more understanding
than us.
But to be saved, I don't have to understand everything in the Bible.
I don't have to understand how everything works, but I do have to understand that there's
a heaven and a hell, that God created me, that I've sinned, that I would deserve hell
for the sins that I've committed.
And the only way for me to be saved from that hell is to believe in what Jesus did for me.
If I truly believe in him, the Bible says that he gives me eternal life in that moment
and I'm his son forever, and no matter how I live the rest of my life, I will go to heaven
because salvation was that one time trusting in Christ that saved me.
Of course, because he saved me, I should be motivated to then love him, serve him and
do right, and that's what I believe in.
But I don't believe I have to do that to be saved.
I believe salvation is a one time free gift.
Does that kind of make sense to you?
So you can do it, like you can believe in him, do your salvation, like if you're in
like elementary school or something, right?
And then for the rest of your life, you're just good?
You would be saved.
That does not mean you wouldn't suffer consequences for your actions.
What would those consequences be?
So the Bible...
The only consequence is going to hell.
No, the Bible has lots of chapters on this.
You could go to Deuteronomy 28.
The Bible talks about all the punishments God can give somebody.
He can take away their house, money, family, food.
He can give them all kinds of sicknesses, illnesses, diseases.
He can cause you to become foolish.
You could lose your tooth.
You could lose your arm.
You could lose...
He can do any...
He can do all manner of things to you as a punishment for sinning.
So it's not that there isn't consequence to sin.
It's that the consequence of going to hell has been paid for by Jesus, so you no longer
have to go to hell as a result.
So it's not that he resolved you of all consequences of your sin.
It's that he resolved you of the ultimate consequence, which was hell, and he took your
place in hell so you wouldn't have to go there.
You could go to heaven.
Does that kind of make sense what I'm saying?
Yeah, I guess.
It makes sense, yeah.
So I just want to make sure you understand what I showed you.
The Bible says we're all sinners.
Do you agree with that?
Yeah, probably.
I mean, if lying and, you know, if a white lie is a sin, then I think almost everybody,
yeah.
According to the Bible, where would sinners go for their sins?
Heaven or hell?
Hell.
But what did God do so people could be saved?
Killed his son or sent his son to die for everyone else, right?
Yep.
Sacrificed his son on the cross, and the Jews killed Jesus through the hands of the Romans.
He didn't stay dead, though.
What happened?
Well, he came back.
So that's what we celebrate in Easter's Resurrection.
According to the Bible, there's one thing we have to do to be saved.
What was that?
Believe in him.
Someone believes in him.
He gives them the gift of eternal life.
How long does someone have eternal life?
Well, it would be eternal.
Wait, hold on.
I have a question, though.
What does this say?
So wait, the Jews, if the whole thing, wait, hold on.
The Jews killed, does this say the Jews killed Jesus through the Romans or whatever?
Yes.
So, but why did he save the Jews then?
Well, I don't know what timeline you're thinking of, but the Jews were God's people for the
Old Testament, and then after killing Jesus Christ, he ended up replacing them with a
spiritual Jew, with a spiritual nation, which is believers.
So the New Testament is written to Gentile churches.
You've maybe heard of books like Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 1 and
2 Thessalonians.
These are not Jewish churches.
These are Gentile churches.
So according to the Bible, the Jews did kill Jesus.
I'm going to show you that just so you don't just hear me say that.
They did.
So I'm just saying the Jews killed him through the hands of the Romans.
But look who it's attributed to.
Yeah, in 1 Thessalonians, chapter 2, for ye brethren became followers of the churches
of God, which in Judea are in Christ Jesus.
For ye have also suffered like things of your own countrymen, even as they have the Jews,
who both killed the Lord Jesus and their own prophets, and have persecuted us, and they
please not God, and are contrary to all men.
So according to the...
This doesn't like the Jews, then.
Well, it's not talking about a racial or ethnic group.
It's talking about people who practice Judaism or practice a false religion, where they're
classified as the synagogue of Satan, meaning that they hate Jesus, and they despise the
God of the Bible, and they worship the devil literally.
Okay?
Oh, that's what this says about the Jews?
Yeah, it does say that, actually.
It says that in Revelation, chapter number 2.
What does it say to Jews, though?
Um, yes.
So it's not every person that's ethnically Jewish.
It's people that practice a religion.
So it's people who practice Judaism?
Yes.
So if you look at Revelation, chapter number 2...
It really says that in the Bible?
I did not know that.
That's pretty...
Yeah, most people don't know what the Bible says on these issues.
I did not know that.
That's pretty nuts.
I'm not expecting that.
So there's people that claim that they're Jews, and what that means is they're claiming
that they're God's people, but the Bible teaches that they're not.
They're really just the synagogue of Satan, meaning that they worship the devil.
The Bible even says in Romans, chapter number 2...
Do Jews worship the devil?
It says, for he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly, neither is that circumcision which
is outward in the flesh, but he is a Jew which is one inwardly, and circumcision is that
of the heart or in the spirit, and not in the letter, whose praise is not of men but
of God.
So according to the Bible, being a true Jew would be one who believed in Jesus, and that
makes you a spiritual person, a spiritual Jew.
The physical Jews are not God's people by their birth or by their ethnicity or by being
a member of the nation of Israel.
It's just by having trust in Christ.
Now some people at the time of Christ were physically Jews, and they believed in Jesus,
so they became spiritual Jews.
And then there's also the major group of people that were physically Jews, but they didn't
believe in Jesus, and they practice a false religion, and they're the synagogue of Satan.
So what does it say about modern day Jews?
They're the synagogue of Satan.
Do you believe that?
Yeah, what I'm saying, again, I'm not talking about just anybody that lives in Israel or
someone that's ethnically Jewish.
I'm saying someone who practices the religion of Judaism, yes.
Now the Judaism, they have a separate book called the Talmud, and in their Talmud they
say that Jesus Christ was a devil, that he is burning in hell, that he's a false prophet.
They don't believe in the Jesus of the Bible.
So they say the same thing about you guys.
Yeah, they would say that we're false prophets, and we say they are, so you have to pick what
version of the facts about Jesus are you going to interpret.
Is Jesus who he claimed he was?
Is he the son of God?
Or was he a liar and an infiltrator?
And so that's kind of the juxtaposition between Judaism and Christianity.
Some people say Judeo-Christian values.
Yeah, throughout history, for sure, there was the Jews constantly persecuted Christians,
constantly being martyred, killed.
If you read the book of Acts, Paul was constantly hunted down by Jews, and they tried to kill
him on a regular basis.
And so we see that's a similarity today that practicers of Judaism really are enemies of
Christians in many ways and try to attack them and try to persecute them.
But again, this doesn't have anything to do with being saved.
I just want to make sure you understand.
Well, no, I know.
I get the whole thing, but that kind of, wouldn't God want to step in and be like, hey, stop
fighting and then like clarify it?
Well, he does in many places in here explain how Apostle Paul's trying to get Jews saved,
trying to convert them over and to believe in Jesus and to be saved, and Paul's himself
one of those.
Paul persecuted Christians initially and didn't believe in Jesus and then had a conversion
experience where he ended up changing his mind and became an apostle of Jesus Christ
later.
So there is an effort and an energy of many people, they have zeal to get Jews saved when
we're talking about ethnically speaking, but obviously some people are not interested in
believing in Jesus.
Okay, so you're saying he can't, like if he wanted to, he has the power to like come
down and tell a prophet or come down himself and be like, hey, just to clarify, he was
my son and stop all this fighting and religious battles and all that stuff.
Can he do that?
Obviously God can do whatever he wants to some degree in the sense that he can't sin,
so he's incapable of sinning because he's perfect, he's true, he's holy, he's righteous.
But at the same time, God's ordained it that he wants to save people by faith, and faith
is not sight.
So if he wanted to just show up and force everyone to believe in him, he could.
Or he could even show up and people then would just be obligated to believe because it's
just reality, right?
It's their present physical reality.
But at the same time, that wouldn't really give people the choice to have free will and
to believe in him by faith.
And he's ordained that he wants to choose people to believe in him by faith.
Are you married?
No.
Would you prefer to marry a woman that's forced to marry you or would you like for her to
choose to marry you?
Well, yeah, I'd like for her to choose.
Okay.
So the same is with God in the sense that he doesn't want people to go to heaven that
are obligated, but rather he wants them to choose to believe in Jesus Christ and accept
his free gift of mercy by faith and to humble themselves.
So that's kind of the crux of the gospel.
I get what you're saying, but if I had to marry someone to save six million people,
I'd do it.
You know?
I feel like if he can stop all the violence, because isn't violence a sin?
Killing people and all that?
Violence is, I believe in context of the Bible, is when you hurt, injure, or kill someone
that's not innocent.
So killing someone is a sin, but there's certain exceptions is what you're saying?
Well, if you were to put someone to death or defend yourself from an attacker, I do
believe that you're potentially hurting an individual.
It's not really violence because you're simply just protecting yourself.
Some definitions of violence are just any harm and injury.
I'm talking about all the horrible stuff, like genocides and that sort of thing.
If he can stop that and set this whole thing straight, I just don't understand.
I get the whole free will thing, but I mean, he's just allowing that to happen.
How is that, you know?
So I don't know.
Again, that's just the argument about free will, sure.
The Bible says that he's good and he's going to allow people to have free will, and he
intervenes when necessary, but at the same time, the Bible teaches that the vast majority
of humans are just not good.
And so instead of just simply wiping all of us out and killing us like he did in the flood,
he allows a lot of evil people to exist so that some of the good people, and I use that
in kind of context, but in the sense that some people that want to believe will get
saved.
If God just wiped out every single person that deserves to be wiped out today, then
we wouldn't really be able to survive.
All of our infrastructure would crumble.
We wouldn't have the vast majority of people today.
So he's kind of allowing a lot of bad things to happen so that some good people will still
get saved, some people will still get to hear the gospel, and he's kind of tolerating that.
But there is going to come a point when it gets too bad, he brings in the antichrist
and he brings in his wrath and he's going to destroy all of those who have rejected
him and do not believe in him, and he's going to create a new heaven and a new earth where
there is no sin.
So you talk about this idea of like, well why is he allowing sin?
He's not going to do that forever.
There is coming a day when there will be a new heaven and a new earth and we will live
with God on heaven and earth where there is no more sin, no more evil, nothing bad ever
happens ever again.
The Bible says there's no more pain, there's no more sorrow, there's no more tears.
Well again, like I said, he's allowing this to happen so that people can get saved.
He's allowing people to just suffer and kill each other.
Well, you know, God could potentially have killed you or me before we ever heard the
gospel or before we heard a clear presentation of the gospel, but I'm glad that he gave me
opportunity to sin many times and then still get to hear the gospel later and get saved.
So that's really the answer to the question, is that God's just allowing you to live a
life that's in rebellion to him or not believing in him long enough to still have opportunity
to get saved.
He could make it where there's no suffering and everyone's...
He will make it that way.
So he's just waiting on...
He's waiting to get as many people saved as possible.
Oh, okay.
Alright.
Now, based on what I showed you, would you say that you agree with what I showed you
today?
Do you actually believe that Jesus is the son of God?
Agree with everything or just that Jesus is the son of God part?
Just that question.
I mean, I don't know.
Still not sure?
But what about the gospel I showed you today that Jesus died, buried, was rose again, and
salvation's only by believing in him?
Is that something that you believe today?
Well, I'm pretty sure he was real.
Didn't they find his shawl and DNA and stuff?
I don't really put a lot of trust in the archaeological discoveries.
Perhaps they are.
Perhaps they're not.
I've heard that they try to sell parts of his cross and there's enough wood to build
Noah's Ark from it.
So I don't think that it's necessarily all those things are legitimate.
I believe the Bible by faith, and so that's what I'm asking you today.
Based on what I showed you, would you say you believe what I showed you today, or are
you still not quite sure?
I don't know.
There's a lot of stuff in there that I didn't realize was in there.
You know, all the stuff about Jesus being demon worshipers and him allowing suffering.
I don't know.
I think some of it makes sense, but some of it just doesn't.
I understand that there's some difficulties in the Bible, but the only thing that matters
about salvation is if you believe Jesus' death, burial, and resurrection.
And so, you know, I would encourage you to consider that and consider, you know, changing
your mind, deciding to put all of your faith in Jesus.
It's a one-time decision.
It's not something that you...
Well, you just got to believe in him and then you're clear to go, right?
You're saved forever, yes.
So if that's something you want to do, you know the Bible says all you have to do is
call upon the name of the Lord in faith and you'd be saved.
So I, you know, I don't know that our conversation is going to go much further today, but I would
love for you to at least consider that again.
We have a card that we can give you or you can watch a similar video or some other information
based on what I showed you.
Thanks for talking with me today.
All right, yeah.