 Hello, and welcome to Hard Questions. This is where we gather pastors together to take on your tough questions and answer them right from the Bible. I'm Tom Hollis, the moderator, and today our panelists include... Dr. Weimar Glaze, Bethany Baptist Church in Pittsburgh. Pastor Joel Guinean, middle school pastor at Cornerstone Ministries, Murraysville. Pete Giacalone, South Hills Assembly Guide Church, Bethel Park, Pennsylvania. Janneth and Gilbert pastor of another level in Bicknight Road. Thank you so much for being with us. And Joel, good to have you back. Good to be back. Glad to be with you guys. I miss you guys. Glad to get your perspective on things today. So today on Hard Questions, we're gonna do something that we love to do. We're gonna dive into your hard questions from our Hard Questions hotline. So let's start with this one. Good afternoon. I was wondering, in the book of Genesis, as I've read the book several times over, nowhere in the book of Genesis do I see where it says God expressing, I love you as a verbal expressing I love you to anyone in Genesis. It's not until Exodus that he makes mention of keeping mercy to those that love me. I was wondering why that is if you have an answer. I know that God certainly loved Adam and Eve where he would have squashed them, so to speak, when they sinned. But I just wondered why there's no, I love you therefore I'm sending a redeemer type of thing. Thank you. Well, that's a good question. I'm glad God didn't squash Adam and Eve either. But I'm glad for that question, Pete, because that is this whole thing of where does God say he loves us? Okay. Right in the very beginning, in the beginning God. And let me read this portion of scriptures. It says chapter one verses 27 through 28. So it's just two verses. So God created man in his image and the image of God he created and male and female he created them. Then God blessed them. And ma'am that word blessed means that God came and the word Barak means to come on bended knee to present with a gift. So we've got this all knowing, all powerful God coming to his creation and he is blessing them. And that is what that's the very beginning of God's expression of his love towards mankind. Not only does he bless Adam and Eve but he blesses all of creation. So just in chapter one, I see an amazing display of God's character. I mean, here is God. There's none greater, none wiser. He has no equal and yet he's humbling himself. Then right after man sins, it's God who comes along and covers mankind and it's God who comes along and gives them hope of a redeemer. The seed of the woman shall. So we see that. There's a lot in there. Just in Genesis, the first two chapters. I like that bless though. That's a good, yeah, that's great. Pastor Glace. Well, you know, there's a word in the Old Testament and the word is Hesed. And a lot of times it's translated mercy. But that's the meaning of Hesed is God's steadfast love. And we see in Genesis 39 and verse 21, but the Lord was with Joseph and showed him Hesed. So, you know, again, you know, God is showing Hesed to Joseph. That's his steadfast love. So it might not be expressed verbally but God is demonstrating his love. And again, it says of Abraham, Oh Lord, God of my master Abraham, please grant him success today and show him Hesed mercy. So we might not see the word love and God love, but that word Hesed can be translated God's steadfast love. I love this Hebrew being brought out. That's great, Joel. Well, when you look at God, when he tells Abraham to go take his son Isaac and sacrifice him and then God shows up there and rescues Isaac and then says, He shows Abraham what it would have cost him, a price that he would never ask of him, but something that all the false gods, you know, all these evil deities were asking for. But God says, no, I'm going to make this sacrifice. I'm going to pay the price, one so weighty. And that is, you see, as you guys have both said, God's love being displayed by his actions, not necessarily just by words. Right, that's really good. Well, first let me say this is a phenomenal question because I've been out here for a couple of years now and I've never heard this question asked. And I never even thought about that question. So whoever sent that in, that's a phenomenal question to ask. And you know, one of the things that came to my mind was, are we looking at the different dispensations we're into? What was the focus of the old covenant? The focus of the old covenant wasn't the love of God. It was, I mean, of course, we know God loves us, we understand all that, but that wasn't the focus. In the New Testament, that's all you see. God loved, loved, loved, loved, because the price had been paid. And if you look at the New Testament, talk about how we were enemies. So a lot of the focus was more along the covenant of the old covenant and what it took to pay for the price and for our sins and the judgment and to bring the law. It was all focused on those, not focused on love. So it wasn't as much of an emphasis on love. And the only people that God had chosen to reveal himself to at that time was Israel. And I think you're hitting on something that I thought of when I saw this question is that you sort of, you got to take the Bible as a whole, you know, the Bible as a whole. And there's so much about God's love in the whole scriptures that I never thought about what did he say in Genesis because God knew the whole book was gonna be there too, the whole story, but I love what you all brought out about the Hebrew. Just real quick, I know we're moving on. Even his name, Jehovah Jireh, the God that provides, the God that protects, the God that heals, all of that you will see that in Genesis. So it's an exact expression of his love towards his very own. Well, we're gonna dive into an interesting corner of Genesis right now. I'm calling in regard to Genesis chapter six, verse number four, I really want some clarity on exactly who the Nephilim were and possibly are. Because in verse four, it says there were Nephilim on the earth in those days and also afterward, when the sons of God lived with the daughters of men and they gave birth to their children. Now, the sons of God reference, is that the fallen angels? That's my biggest question. And also, I've seen documentaries and read a lot of accounts where the Nephilim are actually the UFO creatures that we're seeing now in the end time. So if you could clarify that, that would be awesome. This is a question I've heard a whole life, people ask this. And it's a good question. Who were the Nephilim? Let's start off, Pastor Glaze. Well, you know, first of all, I want to agree with what she said that it seems like today, we're hearing a lot about UFOs in the Nephilim. I know there's a couple, you know, I watch about four prophecy programs and on two of the prophecy programs, they are very strong into the Nephilim being UFOs. And so when we look at traditionally, there have been different views. Some people say that it's the godly line of Seth and the ungodly line of Cain. Somebody else says, well, it's dynastic rulers who marry peasants and that the offspring were, you know, peasant children. Personally, and I know that there might not be a consensus among the scholars here, but, you know, I believe that what happened is that the fallen angels, you know, they couldn't actually cohabitate in their state with women. So I believe that they possessed the bodies of human beings and that when they possessed the bodies and then they had relationships. Let me hold you up for one second because I think this is an important point because some people have said that it's, you know, it's demons having sex with women, but that's a problem in the realms that it's a spirit being, not a physical being. Yeah, and I would agree with that 100%. And so, you know, I believe that, you know, these fallen angels took possession of men and then cohabitated with women. And as a result of that, they produced a race of Nephilim or giants. So that's, you know, that's my viewpoint. And again, I know that there will be diversity of opinion among the scholars. Let's go, Jay, and get some other opinion. Actually, I'm in agreement with you. I believe that, and I believe that we're coming into a time, again, where we're going to see the Nephilim return. I don't have time to go into all that, but in chapter, what's on Jude five. But I want to remind you, though you once knew this, that the Lord having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, after we destroyed those who did not believe and the angels who did not keep their proper domain but left their abode. He has reserved an everlasting change under darkness for the judgment of the great day of Sodom and Gomorrah to the cities around them in similar manner to these, having given themselves over to sexual morality. So he goes through and explains the sexual morality, how these angels had left their abode. I believe that these are the angels that are also in chains that will be let loose in Revelation, that will come back. And I'm wondering if also those angels are going to create another form of the Nephilim, because remember it was right before Noah and the Ark. So we're coming to the end times again, kind of like with Noah and their times. And so they're going to create another breed of Nephilim that is also going to be a part of the end time wars that are going to be breaking out. It's interesting because I've heard people say, again, there's so many comments on this that that's why God brought the flood was because of the Nephilim, but there's Nephilim later too. There's a, right before the Judgment Act come later. Joel, you got anything on this? Oh, I'm just in full agreement with you on, you know, looking at Jude for some context to this. That's why I kind of stand that while these may be spirit beings, they had the ability to take on some type of physical form, maybe through possession, maybe not. Because even when you see in Jude one, it says that they had given themselves over to sexual immorality and gone after strange flesh, you know, flesh that was of a different nature than they were. And so I think that they really did have relations with these women. And I think that the number one goal of of these fallen angels was to cause confusion. And I think the fact that, you know, we still talk about them today, shows the work of that spirit of those fallen angels was to cause confusion. But they also, these giants that they created, I think became those things that were being worshipped in these foreign nations. When you see, you see the, was it the analogites or analogites? You see these different, you see even Goliath, you know, being worshipped as this ruler, this leader for this army. You know, you have this worship of these beings. And I think that these are the ones that became the false gods that were being worshipped by the foreign nations. Oh, so are you both maintaining that this fallen angels themselves? I am, absolutely. Okay, all right. Which is probably different than everybody else at the table, but. Well, no, I don't think so. Well, I think the scripture says they left their abode. So they had the ability to go into something, like to his point. Maybe it was a possession of another human, another man, or somehow they had the ability to more because it's amazing out of all the demonic spirits. These are the ones that are in chains now to this day that will be let loose again in Revelation. So there was something different about them than other angels that are fallen angels rather that God put them in judgment for us. Well, bring us home, bring us home. I'm sorry, because for that to be true, then they have to have DNA. And so now if they have DNA, then that means they can be redeemed, right? Who can be redeemed? Those who are blood-bought, right? So if they have DNA, then that means they have blood. And if they have blood. Animals have DNA. Well, I'm talking about DNA as far as human being. Human being DNA, and I'm talking about X, Y, chromosomes, because again, what are they reproducing? Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. So if they're reproducing another human being, then they have to have the DNA of a human being, and they have to have the X, Y chromosomes. But that's why possession makes sense. Yeah, that could work too, yeah. So there has to be, we gotta get a human body here somewhere with DNA in it, and that's the Son of God, the Sons of God. So yeah, we're all coming to this kind of, we don't know place. Well, I think of all the idols. I think all these idols that people worshiping were these nephilim that we're coming about. And I think that they may have had some sort of spiritual powers that cause people to worship him. I think about all this false gods back in the day. Yeah, yeah. I think those were real people. And it's interesting that even in classic mythology, there's this story of like Zeus coming down and having sex with a woman, and Hercules pops out of there. And what do you think the scripture there talks about that where angels are not given in marriage? I think I keep going back to those and maybe you could speak to us a little more better than me, says they left their abode. So what did that mean to where they left something? That's why I can kind of lean with you, but I also see your point as well. And that's where I kind of get like here, it says, okay, they left their abode as angels. So they did something to where- I guess I always thought that was heaven, that they were left heaven. So that means that angels were able to reproduce? Why were they left captive and not the others? We gotta get on this. Why were they chained? Why were they chained? A blood test here, somewhere. Why were they chained like other ones? All right, well, we're gonna draw. We're gonna put a bow on this one right here. Put a bow on this one. Actually, I think we don't know for sure, but we're trying to answer the best of our abilities. That's one of those things I don't think we'll completely know until we have the opportunity and eternity to ask the Lord. But coming up in 60 seconds, we ask who wrote Genesis? Stay tuned. Well, today on Hard Questions, we're taking on some hotline questions. We love it when you leave these. So let's listen to the next one. Reading and setting the Bible. I was wondering, you actually wrote the book of Genesis. I know it is from God and God breathed, but you actually started and wrote a written account. I was wondering if it was Adam or if he knew. Well, it's a good question. I like that you mentioned that it's inspired. It's God breathed. We know it is from the throne of God. We know it is God's word, but God uses human beings to write. And so Pastor Jay, you want to tackle this one? Yeah, I think when Moses went up, he didn't just get the 10 commandments. That was where a lot of people believed that he actually received the five books, which are known as the book of Moses, the books of Moses. So the penitent, the first five, Genesis to Deuteronomy. And Jesus refers to them and makes a lot of correlation about how he called them the book of Moses. So that's how we get that. I'm going to leave it kind of short and quick with that, but that's the short end version. There's a lot of other places that mentioned it, but Jesus was the main one that also referred in his teachings to the book of Moses. Okay, I got two little things and you guys can dive in here on this. He records his death at the end, Deuteronomy 34, and he also says that Moses was the most humble person upon the face of the earth, which is kind of contradiction in terms, if you're right, you got everything. I've heard of teachings on that. And so, which means he must have been super humble for him to write about himself to be humble. But let me just throw out two references. It's found in Mark 10, 3, where Jesus refers, as you said, Jay, what did Moses command you? And then it's found again in Luke 24, 27. And at the beginning of Moses and all the prophets he expounded them, all the scriptures. So without a doubt, Moses did write the penitent. To answer your question, Tom, actually there was probably somebody that came afterwards. Moses did write it, but there's somebody that came afterwards and did some editing. And recorded the death and all that. Right, yeah, because Moses, he didn't write about his own death. And then even when you look at, where did he, he wasn't there when Adam and Eve were around. How did he know all that? Well, we could say that the Holy Spirit gave it to him. Like Jason. But when Adam and Eve, don't you think that they passed that down to their sons and their children? They said, look, look, right, yeah. So a lot, and it just kept being passed down. So Moses probably wrote from oral tradition too, but it was Moses that wrote it. Yeah, I like that Joel, any thoughts on this? Yeah, well, you see even Joshua, the guy who's following up, taking the mantle after Moses, it refers back as he's quoting, he's saying, be very strong and courageous, be careful to obey all the law of my servant, Moses gave you. So he's quoting, as they read Deuteronomy, they read the law as they get right head into the Promised Land. And he's quoting that as this charge, but he would have known better than anybody. And I think that's probably who put on those finishing touches, maybe that Moses was the most humble man that Moses' death. I think Joshua would have wrote those things down. Exactly, yeah, very good. Good answers. Well, we're gonna take a quick break here. And after this break, we're gonna come back with a question I think a lot of people ask, and it's what happens to babies when they die? Stay tuned. Well, we're having a good time answering these questions and really looking into the scriptures. And here's one that I think is very important to ask. Let's go there now. My question is, what happens to the soul when we die? Especially if the person is a very young person, like an eight month old baby, who has not been baptized or anything, what happens to their soul when they pass away naturally? Thank you. Great question. It's really two parts. And Joel, we'll go to you first. The one is just what happens when we die, but also what happens to a baby when it dies. Well, I wanna start with that second part and just say my heart breaks for anybody who suffered a tragic loss like that. I know you guys do a lot of work rescuing babies, which is absolutely incredible. But for anybody who's lost that child, I just wanna speak directly to you and say, if you're suffering that loss, number one, know that God deeply loves your child and that God deeply wants your child and has a relationship with him and that that child is in heaven with the Lord right now. And so I first wanna speak to that. I know Charles Spurgeon once said, he said, I rejoice to know that the souls of all infants, as soon as they die, speed their way to paradise. I think what a multitude there has been of them. So this idea that this great theologian, Charles Spurgeon, saying they are instantly traveling, transported to the arms and comfort of their Lord. My curiosity is, does that eight month old, remain an eight month old? Or are they moved to some different age, some prime age that we'd all wish we were 25 or something like that? That I don't know. But I think first off, knowing that that baby is with the Lord, I believe in an age of accountability. I know a lot of people place that around age 13, you know, for young children. What's the age of accountability? Yeah, so a time at which God says, you know what, you've had enough time to take what you've learned of me, whether as Paul says in Romans 120, since the creation of the world, God's invisible qualities have been made known to us that we can respond to those. I think we have an opportunity to respond to our judge according to our response to what's been revealed to us. And so I'd say, you know, a lot of scholars will put that around 13. They base that off of Jewish custom that a child becomes an adult at 13 becomes responsible for themselves. So we know what to do. We need to respond at that point. Yeah, absolutely. All right, those are good. Jay, I want to just springboard off that real quickly. I think it's also a point when God visits them. If you take a look at Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, he visited every one of them. He visited Abraham, then he visited Isaac, and he said, I'm the God of Abraham. Then he visited Jacob, I'm the God of Abraham, and Isaac. And then he shows up. There's a time when he appears to that person. And I believe it could be 13, it could be 17. I think it could be a myriad of different ages. When does God appear to that person to make himself known? So just wanted to throw that out there real quick. I thought that was really interesting. One of the things I want to mention though in this, I'm gonna take another part of it. She had mentioned a person has not been baptized. Whether you're baptized or not, I think it's important to mention that that doesn't get you into heaven. So I think that's an important thing to mention. And I'll kind of hit on that point because basically once we receive Christ as our Savior, we are converted. I always tell people it's never by works, it's by nature. So it's the fact that you are born again. The moment that you are born again, you are for sure in heaven as if you were already there. Yeah. And then again, we know there are denominations out there that say that you're born again at water baptism, which is, it's not biblical. You're not, because if we say that the water cleanses you, that the water saves you, then there's no need for the cross. There's no need for what's coming up real soon. I've heard that called dehydrated salvation. You just have water, right? Yeah, just that way. Yeah. Seriously though, no. I was taught that, I was taught that. And I remember we would, as kids, we'd give all the change we had in our pockets. So they were called pagan babies. So that these pagan babies in third world countries could be water baptized. And as long as they were water baptized, they were immediately going to heaven. Wow, interesting. Hashtag glaze. Well, you know, there's no specific scripture that says when a child dies, that a child goes to heaven. So, you know, we have to appeal to other scriptures. Yes. You know, and one scripture, a 2nd Peter 3.9, where it says that God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. So if a child has not come to that age of accountability, you know, I believe that God has made a way for that child to enter into the glory of his presence. And then even, you know, when you look at the fact that the blood of Christ, you know, I somehow believe, and you know, I can't explain this, but I believe that in this dispensation, that that child has availed himself of the blood of Christ. That somehow the blood of Christ washes away that child's sin because God doesn't want that child to perish. Because, I mean, again, in this dispensation, you can't get in unless you've come, you know, what's that song? Some through the fire, some through the flood, some through the water, but all must come through the blood. So even that child has to come through the blood. And so I believe somehow God avails the blood of Christ for that child and that child's sins have been taken away through the blood of Christ. That's a really good point. You had something just about David, too, with his. He lost the baby. He said, I will not come back to me, but I will go to him. And obviously we know where David went. We know where David was serving. So that's the only alternative that I would say. I looked that up in some other translations. They translate, I will eventually go to him. In other words, in the afterlife, I will come to him. So there's this indication, then, that a baby, again, even though we're born with a sin nature, I think John McCurth are called an instant heaven when you pass. I think half bad. Yeah, that's not bad. That's not bad. It actually brings comfort, I think, in many cases. Well, gentlemen, I want to get your thoughts real quick on verse. We have a verse in Hebrews 4.16. Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. I read this in my quiet time today. Joel, give me some thoughts on that. Yeah, well, I think this idea of coming boldly, thinking about before the veil was torn, only the high priest could come to Lord. Jesus ripped it wide open so that we could come running straight to his throne, running straight to his arms for comfort, for peace, and to be made whole. Yeah, give me 10 seconds. I'm paying attention. Okay, rip, 10 seconds. And it's not to come in there and to demand God what to do. Sometimes people think that boldly means that we are going to command God what to do, but it is to obtain mercy and grace. Yeah, in time of need. In time of need. Whatever the need is. Yes, amen. Yeah, well, that's great. We hope that you enjoyed today's program. I've really enjoyed the discussion today and I enjoyed, I always enjoy it and I enjoy your questions. So you can email us your questions, the hard questions at ctvn.org or there's an even easier way. Call into our hotline at 412-349-4326. Thank you so much for being with us today. And again, remember, God loves you and he wants to be with you.