 We know that God works all things out for the good of those who love him and are called according to his purpose. Man, what a promise, what a word given by God. What a guarantee that he's stamped, that regardless of what's going on in the world around you and I, that God works everything out for our good when we seek first the kingdom of God, when we follow his will for our lives. Man, I'm so excited, welcome to Hope Today. I'm joined with Anna and Pastor Jay. Pastor Jay, what do we got going on? Well, man, you fired up, man. You get me fired up and you're ready to go. So I'm excited because we've got Pastor Andrew Farley. It's gonna be kind of like a hard questions day. He's got a new book out called 101 Bible Questions. It's gonna be outstanding. Listen, there's ever been a time that we need to understand apologetically the word of God. We need to return back to truth. It is now. We are in a generation and a day and an hour where truth has been lost. But this man of God is gonna show us just the truth of God's word on a lot of difficult questions that a lot of sometimes in the pulpit, Anna, people don't wanna talk about. Yeah, we love difficult questions, hard questions here. And in case you missed it yesterday, our pastors on the hard questions panel answered all of your hard questions about the Israel conflicts. So stay tuned for the end of this program because we're gonna show you what they said. You know, I'm just thinking about, I think in the day and age, there's a lot of questions that are just going on in general, right? And so today, I think it's good for anybody watching at home. Man, be open-minded. I think we can be closed off to maybe what God has in store for each and everyone else because we just wanna say, well, I kinda know best, but maybe there's a reason why, you know, a topic like this has to arise so that we can bring, like you're saying earlier, Jay, the truth, the Bible says it's the truth that sets us free. But I think sometimes the truth, we don't even like to indulge, right? Sometimes we don't like to hear the truth because of how it might feel. But God never said that the truth is gonna make you feel good. It says a truth is gonna set you free. That's right. And you know, a lot of times too, what happens is, you know, we're in a generation where we wanna make everybody happy. And the truth doesn't always make you happy, but it'll make you holy. And that's really what it's all about. And so our next guest is gonna be outstanding. And so I wanna ask you, have you ever found yourself wanting to ask difficult questions about Christianity but we're too afraid to ask? Questions like, are any sins unforgivable? Or is it possible that we can lose our salvation? Our next guest believes it's okay to ask these types of questions and that they can actually strengthen our faith and not hurt it. Pastor Andrew Farley is the lead pastor of the Grace Church in Dallas, Texas. And he's also the founder of BibleQuestions.com, which you need to check out. He has also written a new book called 101 Bible Questions and the surprising answers you may not hear in church. Andrew, it's great to have you back with us on Hope Today. Hey, Jay, great to be with you guys. I'm excited. Well, I am too because, you know, I love setting this up this way that your reasoning behind writing this book is to tackle the stuff that a lot of times people don't wanna talk about in the pulpit. Let me ask you first that question. Why do you think it is that pastors kinda choke on the whistle if you might say and calling out certain things, talking about different things, tackling these hard questions? Yeah, well, I mean, first, you know, we're told that we're supposed to be peacemakers and I think sometimes that translates into being people pleasers and we end up trying to avoid division at any cost and we don't wanna rattle the cages. We don't wanna ruffle anybody's feathers. It's kinda like sitting down at the Thanksgiving dinner table. You know, there's certain topics you just don't bring up. So all the sensitive stuff, the result is a lot of people in the congregation don't have solid answers. Do you think that maybe to some degree the American dream has crept into the church and now we gauge our churches based upon numbers instead of fruit? Absolutely, yeah. I mean, you know, you get a horse on stage, the pastor's doing a wheelie down the center aisle on his Harley and you got the smoke rolling out and everybody's having a good time. But the question is an hour later in the church parking lot, what content did people walk away with? Do they really have the truth that sets them free or have they just been entertained? So I think people are thirsty. I think we're starving for solid answers and that's why I wrote this book. And that's outstanding. And so what prompted you though to do this book? You know, I know you mentioned that, you know, obviously there's a lot of people that don't have the stuff in the pulpit that they need to address. But what in your heart said, I gotta do 101 different questions on these theological insights? Yeah, so I was 19 years old and I was on the floor of my apartment and I was begging God for answers. Jay, I was doing everything they said to do. They said, share your faith. So I was sharing my faith like four and five hours a day. I would go to bed at night and recall my lack of service and then get up and go to the 24 hour grocery store. I was trying to share Christ enough to feel good about me and really what I was lacking was a deep understanding of God's grace. And so, you know, decades later, it wasn't an instant lightning bolt out of heaven for me. It was more like decades of really coming to understand the depths of God's grace. What does it mean to live under grace? What does it mean to be inspired by God's grace all day long? I mean, really that's what this book is all about. And you cover a lot of different things in this book. I mean, from can you lose your salvation? You deal with sexuality. You deal with a lot of different things. What was the most difficult one that you found challenging to have to tackle and present to people? Well, I think some of the ones around gender, you know, you got homosexuality. You've got people dividing over women in church and whether they could play roles in leadership or not. What about marriage and divorce? I mean, some people think, oh, I've had a divorce. I'm never allowed to get remarried again. If I do, then I'm like a second-class citizen in God's family or something. So just all the touchy subjects around marriage, divorce, gender, all of that stuff, I think, for me was the most challenging. Yeah, I so appreciated that you focus on those topics because I have experience in my life, even people on different sides of that having gone through a divorce and looking to remarry someday. So I wanna ask you some of these hard questions before we get into that. How does somebody start digging into scripture to do their own research to see what does God truly say about whatever hard question is in their mind today? Yeah, well, you'll notice a common thread in a lot of my answers and that is that we gotta bring the cross front and center. We gotta bring the finished work of Christ right down into the middle of everything and showcase it. A lot of people don't know the difference between Old Testament living and New Testament living. They don't understand that the cross has made a radical difference in the way that we relate to God. And so I would say that's where we start. We filter everything through Jesus. We don't filter it through Bible-belt moralism or self-improvement or clean living. I mean, any religion of the world can offer those things, but there's actually a lot of things in the Bible that the Bible-belt is not talking about. And so I would just encourage people, trust the Holy Spirit living in you and look for the cross and resurrection to kinda be your filter for everything that you look at in scripture. Yeah, that's good direction. So what is one of the big hard questions that you hear most often and can you go into answer that today? Yeah, so did I mess this up, Lord? People will ask, did I go too far? Did I really ruin my salvation? Did I somehow end up on the wrong side of all this and God is disgusted with me and he's frustrated with me and all of that. So this can I lose my salvation thing? It really needs to be addressed from three directions. The first one is, my goodness, look at your forgiveness. Your forgiveness is off the charts. You are forgiven once for all. Hebrews 10, 14 says by one sacrifice, you've been made perfect forever. So you're a totally forgiven person. Nobody is partially forgiven. There's nobody out there listening today that's 82% forgiven or 71. I mean, the cross worked. Past, present and future, your sins are gone. Number two, look at the kind of life that you have. You have eternal life. You don't have temporary life, you have eternal life. That's what Jesus called it. He said it would last forever. So if you can lose it, it wouldn't be everlasting. And then lastly, maybe most importantly, the promises of Jesus. I mean, we just gotta say, is Jesus a liar when he says, I'll never leave you. I'll never forsake you. Nobody can snatch you out of my hand. Even when you are faithless, I remain faithful and nothing separates you from the love of Christ. So it's a beautiful thing to be able to encourage Christians that, hey, you haven't messed this up. You haven't gone too far. God is with you and in you and there's no condemnation for you. That's good pastor Andrew. I gotta read a segment out of your book here because as I was going through this about dealing with divorce and obviously over 50% of most church people have had a divorce and it's been such a controversial thing. I wanted to read this to ask you if you can expound a little bit more about this. That in 1 Corinthians, I'm sorry, additionally the word for divorce in 1 Corinthians 7 actually refers to abandoning a spouse without a certificate of divorce which would not allow them to remarry. Here Paul is not disallowing divorce for Christians but rather instructing them to only divorce in a legal manner so that their spouse is respected in society and free to remarry. Can you expound upon that and how that frees somebody up in order to get remarried? Oh yeah, I'm so glad you asked that. I mean look, a large percentage of people have been through a painful divorce. Some of them have decided they're allowed to remarry. Some of them are still sort of thinking they're doomed to a life of isolation even when they wish to remarry. But if we go back to the Old Testament law we actually see provisions in the law for divorce. They're right there in the Old Testament if a woman is not being provided for, if there's no food, if there's no shelter, if there's no love, then those are grounds for divorce. Even under the law, which shows you then now, look at us today, we're under God's grace. So people flip over to 1 Corinthians 7 and they think well Paul is forbidding divorce for everybody and that's not really the case. The word there is to put away and Paul is talking in his Jewish mind about putting away someone without a proper certificate of divorce then that woman would be in a no man's land. She could never marry again. And you know 2,000 years ago the woman really needed to be married to sustain herself. So it was a cruel move. I mean there were people that were letting their wives go out into the street because they looked at them the wrong way, they burnt the toast in the morning and so Paul is really saying, hey, let's walk in love here and if the marriage is gonna end in divorce, let's at least do it legally and treat each other with respect. I wanna go a little bit deeper into that too because I know you're well studied so I know I can throw this little curve ball at you. You know when Jesus talked about how except for adultery or for fornication a person can't have a divorce and if they go out and they remarry, then they're causing that other person to commit adultery as well. What do you say about that and how we should interpret it in a 21st century context? Yeah, so we have to look at his audience and he's talking to Pharisees who are really trying to quiz him. They're trying to catch him. I mean there's these two schools of thought, there's Shami and Hillel and basically Jesus is saying, hey Pharisees, hey scholars, if you wanna know my view, I'm a Shami guy under the law. Now you should only get a divorce in the case of infidelity. If you're asking me about these two schools, who's right? Well look, you've got a hardness of heart and so there were some provisions under the law. So the bottom line is Jesus is answering their question and he is siding with the stricter view on divorce under the law. But now let's fast forward. Look at you and me. We're not under the law. We're dead to the law, free from the law. Christ is the end of the law for all those who believe. So it would be really foolish Bible study tactics for us to go fishing through Leviticus for example, to find out what God wants for us today. Why don't we look to the New Testament where we're not getting our identity or our righteousness from our marital status. We're getting it from the death and resurrection of Christ. Andrew, you know, we have a couple minutes with you here and you may have heard this churchy term where it says to not have a questioning spirit. You know, I know your book is all about questions. Maybe you've heard that before, maybe you haven't, but maybe you can help our viewers discern what's it to be having a questioning spirit versus just being curious about biblical views or doctrine? Yeah, well that phrase sounds like a control tactic to me. I mean, it's not biblical and I think it sounds like something a leader might say to, hey, follow me blindly and don't question anything I'm doing or saying. I think at the end of the day, look, we should feel free to poke and prod at what someone is preaching and teaching and sharing and if there's something funny going on, then call it out and talk it through. So I think asking questions is really, really healthy. Obviously we don't wanna be cruel or hurtful or try to embarrass or humiliate someone, but asking questions about the scripture, I mean, to me, that's part of being in Jesus Christ and having this new life in him. Pastor Andrew, where can we get your book? I think this is such an outstanding book, 101 Bible Questions. Of course, we'll have it on our webpage, but where can people go right now to pick up this book to be put into their library? Yeah, a couple of things. First, you can go to amazon.com. You can go to wherever books are sold you can get a copy of 101 Bible Questions. I hope you do, I think it'll be a big encouragement. I think also people may be surprised by some of the answers as we've heard so many things in church that maybe sometimes at least don't stack up to the word of God. And the second thing I wanted to tell you is we have this new website, it's incredible, this tool. It's called BibleQuestions.com and you can literally get any answer to any Bible question in 10 seconds or less. We spent a couple of years programming this. It's so amazing, it's better than a Google search. So we encourage people, go to BibleQuestions.com. That's so awesome. Ladies and gentlemen, 101 Bible Questions, go get it. It'll be a blessing to you. I've read through quite a bit of it. There's so much in there. It will definitely speak to you. Thanks, Pastor Andrew, for all that you're doing and keep up the great work. Thank you guys, great to be with you. Well, ladies and gentlemen, stay with us because when we return in 60 seconds, we have a special hard question segment about the conflict that's going on in Israel that you're not going to want to miss. We'll be right back. Cornerstone Television exists because of the faithful support of our partners. Thanks to you, we get to proclaim the good news of Jesus, both locally and around the world. All this month is our way of saying thanks. We are offering this beautiful and inspirational 16 month calendar for your best gift to CTVN. This special Israel calendar 75th anniversary edition celebrates 75 years of modern Israel as a nation. Each month, you'll enjoy a new and beautiful feature of the Holy Land. You'll be blessed to see places in the Bible come alive. This 16 month calendar runs from September 2023 to December 2024 and has plenty of space for writing your daily activities. Request the special Israel calendar 75th anniversary edition as our thank you gift when you give to CTVN today. To give, call 888-665-4483 or go to ctvn.org slash donate. Hope happens here. Well, we've got our hard questions pastors with us today. And pastors, I wanted to ask you, what is your perspective on what's going on in the war between Israel and Hamas? Pastor Glazier, start us off. You know, as you look at the scripture, it seems like Israel is always going to be in the minority and be persecuted. And I think that's what we're seeing right now because, you know, many of the nations around them are anti-Israel. And it just broke my heart when I saw the news of, you know, the Hamas entering into Israel. I mean, and one of the things that just kind of tore me apart to see that they beheaded babies. And, you know, and to me, there's no way that you can justify that. And, you know, you go to the book of Revelation and it says that many of the saints, you know, were killed and you know how they were killed? They were beheaded. And so, you know, I think that this is prophetic and I'm praying for God's intervention. And we know that, you know, there are Christians in Palestine, you know. So when you look at, you know, Israel retaliating, you know, you understand that, that hopefully they're being sensitive to the fact that, you know, there are good people in Palestine too. That's right, yeah. And also, I'd like to share with our folks who are watching that, remember, the enemy's tactic is to strike fear into your heart. So therefore, I want to make it real to our believers and to remember that God has not given us the spirit of fear, but of power, love and the sound mind. So this is broadcast, this is presented to you to strike, to actually terrorize you. And greater is he that is in us than he that is in the world. So we want to speak into you, don't allow this terrorizing spirit of fear to enter into your mind, into your life, into your heart. Keep your eyes on the Lord. That's what we, so how can we make this applicable to you? Keep your eyes, he will see you through your situations. And also, I have nothing wrong and I need to boldly declare this with Israel defending herself. She has every right to defend herself in this case. We have to be careful that we don't throw everyone in the same tub. Hamas is a terror group, demon-possessed, killing people. They're coming against Israel as Hezbollah, as the prophetic word, as it unfolds. It's interesting that name in the Hebrew means terror. It means to strike terror or fear in the hearts of people in destruction. But in the same word, Hamas in the Arabic, literally means celebration or joy in death. So what they're doing is they're trying to wipe out the Jewish race. And it's interesting that people misinterpret this in America, the media's just, oh, you know, Israel's bad because they're defending themselves. And now we have people in New York City, people in every city saying, man, Israel's having a genocide in Gaza. God has always had a remnant. I just came back from the Arabic world and we've seen hundreds and thousands of Muslims get saved. We spoke to 250 million on three TV networks. The Muslims are coming to Jesus. The Arabs are coming to Jesus. Guess what? We're praying for Gaza. We're praying for those Palestinians. But don't forget, this is a 5,000-year age-old war. It's nothing new under the sun. They want to wipe Israel off the map. These little guys that are where the Philistines were in Gaza, don't forget, they're taught every day a seven-year-old said, you say, what do you want to do with your life? He said, I want to wipe Jews off the face of the earth. I want to run them over. I want to stab them to death. I want to behead them. They're taught that. So that's a demonic thing. What we have to realize in America is this is an exciting time because I believe in the midst of this, you're getting ready to see mass salvation for the Jewish people. That we actually, they were the first ones to receive salvation, but they missed their time of visitation. God's grafted us into the vine, so God's going to move in the Jewish people, and we got to stand for Israel like never before as Christians in the church, because there's a work that God's doing today, and it's going to end up in the remnant Arabs, the remnant Libyans, God wants them all to be saved. Jesus said before he comes back, it would be like the days of Noah. If you read Genesis 6, 11, Bob says, the earth was corrupt and violence was in the earth. The word violence is the word Hamas, and that means there's something that's happening. That got released into the earth because of that. Now, one thing I want to say real quickly, to leave everybody with a positive note, every time Israel has been attacked in history, there's always been a spiritual awakening or breakout. In 1948, that marked the beginning of the healing voice movement that took place when they became a nation after they came out through the genocide of the Holocaust. In 1967, when they had the Six Day War, that's when the Duquesne Weekend happened in February 18th, and that was the time also that there was a major breakout in just the Prince of God, the Catholic Charismatic Renewal. In 1973, that marked in May 28th of 1973, when they were in the middle of a war again, that's when TBN came on the scene, and there was a breakout of Christian television. So now 50 years and one day later, we're back here again. What is God getting ready to do? Even though it is sad for Israel at this time, God is getting ready to do something new in the earth, and we're getting ready to see a revival of the loss and the souls coming in. It's gonna be an outfiring of the Holy Spirit. You know something you said about that's powerful because I just preached in the city of October 6th, from the 1973 war, and it was interesting that this happened 50 years. One day. 50 years exactly. The rabbi just texted me a couple of days ago and said it was 50 years exactly to the date when they invaded Israel, again, on the most holy day, and all these likenesses, the end of the holy day. So there's a lot to this. There's a lot going on. Well, that's at least part of the perspective that we can have. So I hope that you will continue in prayer for Israel. You know, maybe you're watching that and I know we're on this topic of questions and maybe there's questions that are just running through your mind, what's going on in our world and can I just start off with this? We have to remember, we fight not against flesh and blood but against the principalities and the rulers over this world but here's the hope that you and I have today. Greater is he who is in me than he who is in the world. As believers in Christ, God fights your battles for you but here's the thing, don't get so wrapped up in like they're talking about. The fear, first off of not understanding but the fear of maybe what you see with your eyes. We walk by faith and not by sight but real quick pastor Jay, maybe we can just give a refresher of like, what's happening in Israel today? Why is this important? And why should we pray about what's happening? We definitely need to be praying because it's God's chosen people and he said in Genesis 12, I'll bless those that bless Israel and curse those that curse Israel but there are some nations you need to keep an eye on. In January of 22, we see Russia invading Ukraine. So you see what's happening there and so we, if you read in Ezekiel chapter 38 and 39 we may be gearing up for the battle of Gog of Magog which is all these nations. So as you're watching all the stuff on the news make sure you see it through a spiritual lens. Read your Bible and understand, keep an eye on China, keep an eye on North Korea, Iran, Russia and everything, remember everything revolves around Israel and Jerusalem. When the Antichrist comes in, he will not come to Washington DC, he won't go to Moscow. He's not gonna go into place. He's going to battle for Jerusalem. When Jesus sets up everything in the millennial reign he will rule this planet from Jerusalem. So you're seeing all this attention come in there because as you said, we don't battle against flesh and blood. So we're like, what's the big deal about little Israel? That is the heart of the earth. That is the center of the earth and that's why it's so important that we keep our eyes on those. Read Ezekiel 38 and 39 because that might help you gear up where Persia and all of those types of places which is present day Iran, they're all gearing up for this big battle and this might be what's getting ready to happen. Yeah, and as we are, our hearts might be full of fear or that heaviness. The best place that we can go with those emotions is into the presence of God. When we bring these heart concerns to the Lord because guess what? It is his heart concern too. So we're gonna take some time to pray for Israel right now and so there with everybody watching there are thousands of us praying right now. So join us, stretch your hands out towards your television set and we just pray, God, you tell us in your word that you are God Almighty. You are Lord over all. You hold all things in your hand, every person in this world. And so God, this conflict in Israel is no surprise to you. You are the first and the last, the beginning and the end and you stand victorious at the end of this. And so God, we hold on with faith, with bold faith, no fear, but solid faith that you are in control and that you will rescue your people. You will protect them. You will come in as the commander of angels armies like a flood God and we cannot wait to see the display of your glory and what you will do in this dark time. We pray this in Jesus' name, amen. Amen, amen, amen. Ooh, yeah, so important for us to continue in that posture of prayer to be in the Lord's presence because he is the one who holds the victory. He is over it all. So we're so glad that you have been with us today on Hope Today with Jesus Christ. There is always hope.