 Welcome to Hard Questions, where we gather pastors together to take on your tough questions and answer them right from the Bible. I'm Tom Hullis, the moderator, and today our panelists include Dr. Weymar Glaze, Bethany Baptist Church in Pittsburgh, Ray Hypo Providence Presbyterian Church in Robinson Township, Pete Giacalone, South Hills Assembly Guy Church, Bethel Park, PA, J. Anthony Gilbert, pastor of another level ministries in the North Hills area, and we're sitting here in Wall, Pennsylvania, and we're taking on your questions. I wish you could get on and say where you are, but I'm glad you've joined us. We're taking on your questions that deal with everything from generational curses to asking what happens when a prophecy is wrong. That's going to be a really interesting one. Let's start with this. I read in Ezekiel 18 that a man is responsible for his own sin. And now I hear about generational curses. How can there be generational curses if you're responsible for your own sins? I can see generational habits, but not generational curses. You have the ability to change. Great question. Thank you for sending it in. Pastor Glaze. Yeah. I think this question can be answered on two levels, number one on a spiritual level and number two on an environmental level. So I'm going to look at it from the environmental level and say that when you look at generational curses, what I believe is that people are influenced by the environment that they grow up in so that if I grew up in the home of a person that was alcoholic, you know, and I am around that all the time, that is what's presented before me. Now we know that Christ is powerful and he can keep you and save you from going into that. But you know, I think that history proves it out that a lot of people that grew up in those type of homes actually became influenced by that or somebody that grew up in an abusive home, you know, and then they carry that next generation of abuse. So, you know, from an environmental standpoint, you know, I would say that a generational curse is something that is picked up in the environment that you grew up in. Now, I know that there's a spiritual element to it also, so I'm going to let somebody else deal with that. But you know, that's, I think that a lot of what we call generational curses are actually influences from negative influences from environment. Right, right. That certainly. Let's look over to you, Jay. Well, I also think too, to your point. The moment you get saved, no matter what happened in your previous bloodline, the blood of Christ, you become a son or a daughter of God. But the problem is, is that's why Paul said we have to renew our minds going back to your point. So even though my spirit is saved and positionally I'm as saved as if I was already in heaven, my mind still has to be renewed. So I believe generational curse, the Bible says a curse causeless shall not come. So there's got to be a thinking pattern that has to shift along with the spiritual. I think a lot of times people think that a curse is like this hex it gets put on you. It's a spirit that you have no power over. So you're going in and you're like, Father, I break this curse. I break this curse. You can break the power spiritually, but still give way legally based upon how you think. So that's the reality. So you have to change not only your thinking, you have to also plead the blood or receive the blood of Christ the moment that you get saved. So I think it deals with both of those. It's not just, you know, while I'm binding it in the name of Jesus and I curse it now and I send it back to hell. That's great. But if you still got stinking thinking a man or woman can only can only live to the extent of their most dominant thought. So we have to renew the mind along with deal with the spiritual part of it as well. Yeah. Good answer. Right. I think the the verse that we get this from is from Exodus 20, the second commandment, you shall not make for yourself the car of image or anything like that in the heaven above earth beneath water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them nor sow them for I the Lord your God. I'm a jealous God. And here it is visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate me. Let me just say, I think there's a contrast here that we need to notice, but showing mercy to thousands to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandment. So God's contrasting how much more patient and long suffering and and and prone he is to mercy and grace than he is to judgment. But there's a great warning here. And I think I would agree with what Dr. Glaze said and with what Jay said as well, that that what happens is part of God's judgment on my sin, if I don't repent from it, is it's going to be visited on my children. Now that's a judgment on me. Right. But what does that mean? Well, I think in the practical terms, that means that if I am a scoundrel, you know, rotten liar, a deceiver, and I'm showing that to my kids and God's going to allow that. And in many, you know, what you said, environmental, like natural ways, they're going to they're going to subscribe to that. And there's all kinds of studies that show that's the case. You know, like you said, alcoholic abuse, you're going to grow up to be an alcoholic abuser, much more percentage of chance of that. And so that happens. But that's a judge and that's a deliberate judgment as it were of God on me that my kids are going to repeat that sin. But it's only as they repeat it that there's any curse upon them. And God, this is the way out. As you were saying, Jay, you know, the soul, the soul who sins shall die. And this is what he said from Ezekiel. The son shall not bear the guilt of the father nor the nor the father, the guilt of the son, the righteousness of the righteous shall be on himself. The wickedness of the wicked shall be on himself. It's only as they actually carry that out that they are judged as well. But if they repent, like Jay said, and you can always repent. Amen. God forgives, God restores. And so there is no like, I like this, there's no like, OK, I put a hex on you no matter what you do. Oh, I'm just cursed, you know, I'm always going to be the last man or something. Let's see, there is teaching around the body of Christ, like that. And Pete, maybe you can address this, that, you know, your family line, your bloodline gets cursed, and they say, listen, certainly we all understand influence. But use the alcoholic analogy that people will say, look, this person was adopted, he became an alcoholic, he didn't even know his father, you know, and he was living in a Christian family because there's a cursed bloodline. Is that something that you see? Is it something we need to renounce? What do we do? I believe the Bible says if any man is in Christ, he's what? He's a new creature. What? Old things are passed away, behold, all things have become new. So I'm coming from the perspective of the blood bought redeemed of the Lord. And I truly believe that the blood bought redeemed, how can it be cursed if it's blessed by God? You can't have both living in the same house. I remember David Duplace, I had a time to spend with him one day, and we were talking similar about this specific scripture. And he said, he leaned over to me because he was the type of guy I like to get nose to nose. He leaned over to me, he said, young man, if the blood of a goat in the Old Testament could keep the death angel away from the children of Israel, how much more the blood of Jesus Christ that can keep me as a blood bought of his from demons entering into me. That was talking about specifically demons. I really believe if you're in Christ, old things are passed away, and the old things is the whole bloodline, all of that's passed away, all things have become new. And you have nothing to worry about, regardless of what your mother did, father did, grandma, grandpa did. You're under the blessings of God, not the cursings of God. You know, Tom, but what's your point though, like if I never met my dad and I came from my father, my father's an alcoholic, now familiar spirits will know if daddy had an issue, the son came from the father, there might be a possibility he could go down that same path too. Is it because of physical tendencies? It's just because you came from him, we bear like kind. If my daddy was an alcoholic, that's in me unless I give my life to Jesus. If I don't, but that doesn't mean those same things that took my daddy out can't come at me because I came from him. I look like my dad, talk like my dad. I could have the same proclivities as my father, but in Christ, I now have that power broken, but if my mind doesn't get renewed through the word of God and through the blood of Christ, as a result, I could fall into the same things, even if I never met my dad because I'm still my father's son. Now if this question has nothing to do with the redeemed, then I would lean a whole different way. Again, go ahead. Well, I was just going to say that I do believe, even though it could be environmental, that spirits can attach themselves to that. You know, that I believe we can open ourselves up to demonic spirits becoming, it's just like, you know, somebody's playing like with a Ouija board, you know, we think that that's innocent, but you know, you can actually be attracting evil spirits. So I think that some of these negative things can attract. But that's you yourself. So if your grandmother played with a Ouija board, you're not saying that there's a like a bloodline thing? Not necessarily a bloodline, but I believe that, as Jay said, that the spirits will know and they can, you know, associate with that because it's been drawn in by the person who was practicing, you know, those negative things. Yeah. What I'm against, Tom, and we saw this back in what was in the 70s about inner healing, that a person gets saved and they're living for the Lord. Now all of a sudden they gotta go back to the womb and now they gotta, you know what I mean, they gotta go back to, what sin? I gotta come to the sins of my father, the sins of my grand, man, go forward in the word of God, wash your mind with the word. I guess why that is though is because so many Christians seem to still struggle with things as they progress in Christ and they still have, it is a big question. I'm glad we took some time with that one. Coming up in 60 seconds, we ask, what do we do when a prophecy goes wrong? Stay tuned. Well, we've been having some great discussions already and coming up next is another one and thank you so much for sending your question. So here's one that was sent in to us. What do we do when a prophecy goes wrong? Now, I just wanna lay a little groundwork here. We had a whole lot of prophetic people in the body of Christ and the charismatic way of the body of Christ predicting that Donald Trump would win. That was the big one would win and he didn't and why did that go wrong? And why did so many prophets say that? And there's been so many different theories and explanations. Pastor Jay, you gotta get us through it. I gotta say something about that. That's funny, because I had a friend of mine, I had lunch with him not too long ago, right after Trump lost, right? And so it was like, maybe about a year after, he's like, yeah, still prophesied. He's gonna be in office by the end of 24. That prophecy is not coming to pass, ladies and gentlemen. He may be in court in 24, but he ain't gonna be back in office right now. There were some of them that prophesied, you know, Joe Biden will not spend one day in office. Now these are good and godly people generally speaking that just what happens when there's prophecies meaning personal or prophecy today when it goes wrong? Yeah, when things go wrong, I mean, the reality is they were wrong. I mean, that's just it. I mean, you know, in the Old Testament, they were to be stoned and killed. Now, if we had that type of thing going on nowadays, people might be a little less, be more hesitant rather to prophecy, but you know, I think this is the reality. In those days, you didn't have the ability to judge those like we do now. Every prophecy in the New Testament, we are always, I say this to people all the time, prophecy is never meant to be information, but confirmation always meant to be confirmation. And if it doesn't confirm, you take it and you throw it out. You know, you are responsible. You cannot put the responsibility of hearing from God on somebody else. The Bible says in Hebrews that now Jesus speaks in our hearts, who at former times spoke by the mouth of the prophets, but now he speaks in every one of us. So if you have a relationship with God, there should never be an issue about, well, man, this person told me that this was the Lord. You are responsible for hearing from God for yourself, and you have to judge every single prophecy that comes into your life. Amen, I appreciate that answer, Pete. Well, we have exactly the situation in Acts, chapter 21 verses 18 through 14. Let me paraphrase it a little bit. There's a prayer meeting going on, and they're at Philip's house and Agibus comes along, and he sees this girdle, this belt, and he says whoever owns this belt is gonna suffer in Jerusalem, gonna suffer greatly. And all of a sudden Paul goes, oh, that's my belt. That's my girdle, that's my belt. And then they say, then, so the prophecy has been given, what's gonna take place here? And like you said, Jay, I believe that there's confirmation of what God ought to reveal to Paul, because Paul says, hey, because they're saying, okay, now let's alter this prophecy. So now they're gonna play with the prophecy. This is an actual prophecy that did take place. So let's alter it, and they're forbidding him to go to Jerusalem. Paul says, wait a minute. I'm not only willing to go to Jerusalem, I'm willing to go and die at Jerusalem. So in this case, a true, pure word was given. And then the people- Paul didn't listen to Paul, Paul didn't take it as the stop, and he stopped going, he still was willing to go. But the prophecy didn't tell him not to go. The prophecy just affirmed what Paul already knew in his heart, what was gonna take place in his life. Paul, at the very beginning, God spoke, he said, I'm gonna show Paul the things that he's gonna have to suffer for me. And again, that's not part of our language. We hate the word suffer. Yeah. Many are the afflictions of the righteous. Yeah, absolutely. We hate that word. That's a good example. Right. Honestly, it's the easy one for me. It never happens. Prophecy never goes wrong because prophecy is from the Lord. So I don't question anybody's heart. I'm not condemning anybody. I know there are people who call themselves prophets and give prophecies. And Deuteronomy 1821 would be my verse, 1821 and 22. If you should say in your heart, how shall we know the word which the Lord has not spoken? God is talking there. I'm gonna raise up a prophet. What if he comes? How do we know which prophet is a real prophet? Verse 22, when a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if the thing does not happen or come to pass, that is the thing which the Lord has not spoken. The prophet has spoken it presumptuously. You shall not be afraid of him. So if anybody ever says anything and it doesn't happen, it's not a prophecy. It's something that they said that maybe they thought God was saying to them, but they're mistaken because prophecy never fails. It's the word of God. Just so we have our cards out on the table, you believe that the prophetic gift is no longer functioning in the church? Is that what you were saying? I do. I think that prophecy ended with all the giving of scripture and that there were prophets in the New Testament period through the life of the apostles, but after the apostles and those who they laid hands on went on, there's no more confirmation because there's no more new scripture given. And so, we've not added to this book in 2000 years. If God was still speaking, we would need to do that. All right. I would basically agree with what Ray said and I would go a step further to say, that's why we should seek God. If we're truly seeking God, he's gonna confirm or reject the prophecy that's being made. I go back to the book of Jeremiah, when the Jews went into captivity, there was a prophet named Hananiah and he said that, man, you guys are just gonna be there for a couple of months and then you're coming back. And Jeremiah rebuked him. He said, that's not what God said. God said, you're gonna be there 70 years. And so, you look at Jeremiah and Jeremiah's heart was right with God. He was seeking God and God revealed in Jeremiah the truth. So I think that any prophecy that we hear that it's coming from man, but we need to seek God and we need to hear from God so that, as I like what Jay said, not for information, but for confirmation. Yeah, really good, good answers and good discussion on that. And actually, our next question kind of rolls right into that thing of hearing God. And Ray, I'm gonna ask you to answer this one. What was the practice of casting lots? Exactly what it was. I think there's debate on that. We think about rolling the dice or having your drawing straws or something like that, but it was a way in which one could determine God's will in doubtful matters that would remove all human bias. So there's several examples. Proverbs 18, 18, casting lots causes contentions to cease and keeps the mighty apart. Why? Because we know if we cast lots, it's not like you're favoring that person and giving him the better portion. We're casting lots, it's pure chance. And so it helps that to happen. Another place. We know in the ceremonial law, Aaron shall cast lots for the two goats on the day of atonement. And so again, he couldn't pick the one that he wanted. It had to be by a lot so that it wouldn't be a human bias or choice. So I think that's part of it. When they were choosing the gatekeepers, who would get which gate they would cast the lots. So when Joshua was determining which plot of land each tribe's gonna get, they cast lots so that I couldn't give my buddy over here, Caleb in Judah gets the better portion. No, it's the lot. The Lord, in other words, the Lord chooses because it's by chance as we see it. But Proverbs 16, 33, the lot is cast into the lap but it's every decision is from the Lord. So what we see as chance is determined by God. I mean, God, and we could do that. We could understand every possible molecule in the air. I could flip a quarter and predict it right every time because it really isn't chance. It really isn't. It's the amount of force I give it and what's going on in the air right now and the kind of molecules and the consistency and the humidity. And if you could figure all of that out, you literally could predict the quarter every time. Well, God is holding everything in existence. I mean, the lot itself doesn't move, doesn't continue to exist except by God's will keeping the natural laws going. So the lot is not chance to God. And I think that's the point of it. It is not something we do now. I don't think so. The last time we see it is Acts 126 when they cast lots to replace Judas to be the 12th apostle. But even there, they do it with prayer, Acts 124. And they prayed and they said, oh Lord, you know the hearts of all. Show which of these two, the congregation was to choose two. Show which of these two you have chosen to take part in this ministry and the apostles ship by which Judas by his transgression fell that he might go to his own place. And they cast lots, the lot fell on Matthias. He was numbered with the disciples. That's the last time that they ever did it. Even that, would you say that that might have not been the way they should have did it? Because there's debate on that. A lot of scholars say they're wrong to do that. Yeah, because actually Paul, you don't even hear anything about him after that. Yeah, yeah. And Paul becomes a predominant apostle. Yeah, Paul's the apostle. So whether or not that was even right at that point, I think that's a good point, Dr. Glaze. But it is the last time that we do it. And I mean, I think it can be appropriate. Like if, you know, we're in a game and we don't know who's going to, I'm in a pool league, we shoot pool. Who's going to break first? We flip a coin, you know? Who's going to tee off for us? You throw the tee, right? That's right, shoot and pull the line. Oh my God. The things that come out and are confessed on the show. It's unbelievable. To settle an argument, right? But we don't determine God's will that way anymore. All right, all right. But you know, it's a good question because, you know, it's mentioned. I've discovered 70 times in the Old Testament. 70 times we see this. We need to talk sometime about hearing God's voice in New Testament era too. So coming up, we're hearing from a special group of people. Stay tuned. Well, welcome back. We're taking our call of the week from the hard question hotline. Now, if you would like to leave us your question, we encourage you to call 412-349-4326. We would love to answer your question on the air. So we have a very great question. Let's listen to this one. Here's our question from our Bible study. The senior citizen, the oldest lady is 93. When we die as Christians, to be after from the body is to be present from the Lord, that's an audience thing. But where do we go? I know Christian Catholics say that we go somewhere, I forget the word. But our question is, where do we go? Where will we rise from to meet the Lord in the air? Okay, I hope that makes sense. Okay, thanks so much. Bye. We are so excited to hear from you. Bye. Hey, that is great. We're excited to hear from you and we're excited to answer this. And thank you so much. I'm glad that you were all studying the Bible together and Pastor Glaze, could you start us off with this? Well, where do we go? First of all, our bodies go into the ground. That's clear. So if you're concerned about where your body goes when you die, and if you're cremated, it's turned to ashes. More and more people turn to cremation these days. So the body, that part of it is taken care of. Now, as far as you, your person, the soul, I like to read from 2 Corinthians chapter 12 where Paul says, I knew a man above 14 years ago, whether in the body I can tell or whether out of the body I cannot tell. God knows such a one was caught up to the third heaven. And then he goes on to say, he was caught up into paradise and heard unspeakable words, which is not awful, lawful for a man to utter. So Paul says that he was caught up into the third heaven. I've always been taught that there are three heavens. The first heaven is where the atmosphere where the birds fly. The second heaven is the planets. And then the third heaven is actually the throne room of God with a very presence of God. So Paul said he was caught up into the presence of God, but he also likened it to paradise. And so when you think about paradise and what Adam had on this earth, the beautiful environment that he was a part of here. And then we know that heaven is a perfect place. So I believe that when we die as Christians, you know, we go to be with the Lord and we go to paradise, the third heaven. Now, you know, for people that don't know Christ, there's another place for them, but I don't think she was necessarily talking about that. She wasn't talking about that. That's our hope. Our hope is paradise. Remember what Jesus said to the thief on the cross. He said, this day you will be with me in paradise. So as long as we're with the Lord, we're in great place. No, that's gonna be a good place to be. I think the confusion lies in the fact when it says we'll be caught up. So we're thinking like, well, where are we going then? But it's speaking of the physical body for those that have already died. Those, to Dr. Glazer's point, the inner part of us, our soul, our spirit will be with the Lord in paradise, but the body has not yet been redeemed. That body will be redeemed as well. So when he comes back, their bodies will be redeemed and caught up with them in that place. So that's where I believe that's where a lot of people get it confused because they're saying, well, where are we gonna go? We're just gonna be in the grave until that? No, your spirit and soul will go, but that body will be caught up and be redeemed as well. In the scriptures that she referred to, I think the first one is actually in Corinthians, 2 Corinthians 5, 6. So we are always confident knowing that while we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord. We are confident, yes, rather well pleased to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord. So when, you know, and that's what you were talking about, Dr. Glaze, when your body and soul are separated, that's what happens at death and the body is buried or cremated or whatever, the soul goes to be with the Lord immediately. And, you know, to talk about maybe where that is, I think it's, you know, I've said this before here that it's a dimension that we can't access. It's not, I don't think, well, it's beyond Saturn or it's, you know, I mean, I like what you said, the third heaven, this is the atmosphere space. And then that third heaven is a spiritual reality that I think, you know, God could break open the sky and we could see it right in front of us. It's not like it's in a distant place, but that's where we are. We're with the Lord. And the other verse, and Jay, you alluded to this, you know, coming out of the ground and that's actually 1 Thessalonians 4, 17, then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds. So I think, you know, on the one hand it's talking about the rapture, those who are alive are gonna meet the Lord as he's coming down, but then you have the fact that our bodies, those new bodies are somehow gonna be our old bodies too and they will rise up from the ground. And when that happens, your soul will be rejoined to your body. But when you die, you're with Jesus and it's better than being here on earth. Good question, question. Just kind of wrap all that up. I don't think any of us sees a biblical purgatory or anything like that, the ministry or there, anything like that. Well, we always like to end the program with the scripture. And today we go to 1 Samuel where it says, only fear the Lord and serve him in truth with all your heart for consider what great things he has done for you. That's 1 Samuel 12, 24. Well, we're so glad that you joined us. Thank you for joining us. Continue to study the word of God. When you find the word, you will find God.