 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 Hollis, the moderator, and today our panelists include Dr. William Margles, Bethany Baptist Church in Pittsburgh, Pastor Joel Guinean, middle school pastor at Cornerstone Ministries in Murraysville, Pete Giacalone, lead pastor, South Hills Assembly guy church Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, J. Anthony Gilbert, pastor for another level ministries in the North Hills areas on McKnight Road. Well, we have got a lot to talk about pastors. Thank you for being with us again today. We love the hotline questions and we've got many today on a wide variety of topics. So let's start with this. Yes, pastors, I have a question. The apostle Paul said that he prayed that your whole body, soul, and spirit be preserved blameless until it comes into the Lord. I want to ask you, has a apostle Paul ever committed one sin? Was he that holy that he was blameless, body, soul, and spirit, that he prayed that we would be that way? Has he ever committed one sin in his life as far as being a Christian? Did he stay holy from the time he got saved to the time he passed away? I'd like to know. And I thank you for your answer. And I wanted to ask you, if a Christian dies in sin, would they get into the kingdom? If they're living in sin and they die in sin, would they still get into the kingdom? Thank you for your answer. Those are good questions. There's actually a couple of questions in there. And we sent out word for the apostle Paul, but he couldn't make it today. So so we're going to start with Pete. All right. First of all, that idea of blameless does not mean never to sin again. The word blameless is to hold account. Because remember, it was Paul who said, oh, wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from this body of flesh? So so Paul is saying, he said, the things I should do, I don't do the things I shouldn't do that I do. And then he refers to himself as a wretched man. So people see that word blameless. And they think that, oh, now that I've given my life to Christ, then I have to hold myself to a standard that I'll never make a mistake. I'll never sin. I'll never say anything wrong. But the idea of that blameless, what I have discovered means literally nothing to take hold of you, that the people of the, remember, we are called to be light in this world. So in other words, that the light that we share of Christ, that that light should be seen of all man and that they will not hold, blame us as far as keeping them from coming to know this light. That's the whole thing in a nutshell. So we're not talking about a sinless, perfected state. No way. On earth here. No way. Because there's some old time, holiness, theology is along those lines. And can you imagine the condemnation that they lived in because as a result? Remember, first John, if we confess our sins, if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have Coyonea, fellowship. And the blood of Christ continually cleanses us. So there's a, we will sin because he goes on to say, if a man says he doesn't sin, he's a liar. Right, right. That's the word blameless as Pete said, with no legitimate ground for accusation, that's, that's what it means. I've heard it explained like this, like if you walk up to a door and, you know, how, how, how are you going to open that door? You know, you have to grab onto the handle and pull it. And so blameless means that when Satan comes up and try, tries to accuse us or blame us, you know, that there's nothing for him to grab onto that, you know, that's, it's again, it's not the idea of perfection, but it's the idea that there's nothing to grab hold to because there's some sin in your life. And, and notice he also said, you know, soul, body and spirit. So when you look at the soul and the spirit, you know, that's internally that you, you are blameless internally, not perfect, not sinless, but you, you know, as far as your conscious is concerned that you are blameless. Yeah, not perfect, but blameless, blameless, right. And then even your body, you know, and that's how you respond to others that you are blameless in the world before others also. Yeah, that's the J. Well, also Paul mentioned, he said, I'm chief of all centers. Yeah. So he put himself in that category. Yeah. He was the chief of all centers. You know, I think this also kind of debunks, in my opinion, the whole once they've always saved too. Because if Paul's praying that you be preserved, I'm going to have to hit it. If he's saying you have to be preserved, that means you can go ruin. So he's praying for something. And if it was already done, he wouldn't pray for it. He would just thank God for it. He wouldn't say, well, let me pray that God preserve you. Well, why do you need to pray for something that's already done? No one prays that, you know, the salvation, it is finished. I pray that Jesus salvation will work. You know, no, it's already been done. You know, so I believe that's part of that there. Are you going to say something? No, well, you saw, you saw it right on the tip of my, well, I want to know about this though. And you guys can both jump in here. What about a Christian who does continue in sin? Then we've known, you know, people that struggle and they have this, and there's some scriptures, you know, John 1st, John 3-6 says no one who abides in him sins. So what do we do with that? Let me take over. I think looking at Hebrews, it says, therefore we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders in the sin that so easily entangles. So if you do have, well, I mean, we all have, you know, the sin and temptation that we face every day, we all fail and make mistakes, but we have to be careful that we don't get entangled in it, that every temptation Satan throws at us is, is to try to trap us and draw us in so that we do what Paul warns Timothy about. And that is, he said, he warns about those who have suffered shipwreck with regard to their faith. Speaking to what you were saying about somebody who was in faith, but who has suffered a shipwreck, that they are drowning because of their sin. And so we have to be really careful, but also remember that there's no condemnation for those who are in Christ. So when you do fail, when you do make mistakes, know that there's grace, that you were bought by the blood, we should confess our sins to one another so that we can be healed. All right, confess our sins to Christ so we can be saved, confess our sins to one another so we can be guarded, so we can be uplifted, so we could be held accountable, and then know that we should throw off any sin that's hindering and entangling us. And it so easily entangles us. Absolutely. So easily we can get entangled. So you have some, you look like you wanna say something. To your scripture that you mentioned about, he that, if you say- No way he'll abides in him sins. And that word there, it doesn't mean you never sin, it means habitually living a sinful lifestyle. You said there are people that struggle. The question is, is it a struggle? Some people call in a struggle saying, I'm just kinda just laying in my bed and hopefully the Lord will forgive me. And there's some people that, they're fighting to try to overcome something and they're doing what they can, they're being accountable, they're doing the things to try to work through their salvation, to work out their salvation. That scripture does not apply to them. It applied to those that if you can sin and live in sin, you're shacking up, living with somebody, sleeping together, you're not married, and you can just rest in that. Something's not right with your salvation. There should be something within you that feels like I gotta get this right. So I think the struggle needs to be real. Needs to be the struggle. It needs to be a struggle. I mean there's a battle, I mean there's a, there's this thing that seems to go on all the time in our life. I'm gonna go to Pastor Glaze here first. What do you say about that live in a holy life? We wanna live that holy life. We find ourselves entangled quite often. Right, and to me, I think Paul hid it in Philippians where he said that I pressed toward the mark for the prize of the high calling. So, you know, it's like throwing a dart at a dartboard. You know, you might not hit the bullseye every time, but you should be aiming for it. And if you have no desire, if you don't wanna aim, then that, as Jay said, there's something wrong with your salvation there. You know, that as a Christian with the Holy Spirit, with the Word of God, you know, I should constantly be trying to strive and hit that bullseye. Am I gonna hit it every time? No, you know, there's times that I'm gonna miss, there's times I'm gonna come up short. Well, even, you know, Paul said that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. What is he saying? All have sinned and missed the mark. So, we do miss the mark, but, you know, we gotta be able to get that dart back in our hand and continue to throw for that bullseye. I feel like about that. It's hopeful that people should, somebody watching right now saying, hey, that's me. They should be hopeful, Pete, that they can have that blameless place. Here we go. Colossians 1, 21 through 23. And you who are once alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now he has reconciled in body of the flesh through death to present you. There you go. He will present you holy and blameless and above reproach in sight. Now then again, doesn't end there. If indeed you continue in the faith, grounded steadfast and not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which you heard, which was preached to every creature under heaven, of which I, Paul, became a minister. So he presents us blameless. So again, if we go to that idea that we are gonna make ourselves blameless, we're gonna blow a gasket. I love it that he's the one who does this. If you are out there and you're one that says, hey, you guys sound like you're talking about me, you guys are Jay, you sound like he was talking about me. Are you battling? Listen, the victory is in Christ. The victory is final in Christ. Trust him for your salvation and don't give up in your battle against sin. Well, great discussion. I really enjoyed that. Well, coming up in 60 seconds, we ask our women supposed to be silent in the church. Wow. We'll be right back. Welcome back to Hard Questions. We have great discussions right in the break time here. We just keep it going here, but we'll let you in on what's coming up next here. So let's go to our next question. Yes, I have often wondered, and I don't know if this question has already been asked, but in case it hasn't, why does it say in 1 Corinthians 14, as in all congregations of the saints, women should remain silent in the church as they are not allowed to speak? And if they have any questions, they should ask their own husband's at home. Well, what if you're not married like me? And you know, that doesn't make too much sense to me. And also in my church, there are several women pastors. So I would like to know why it says this. Thank you. Well, this is a good question that does come up from time to time. And I've had some discussions and there's some differences of opinion, but I love that we can dive into this. Pastor Glaze, could you start us off here? Yeah, I'll kickstart this thing. You know, I had to wrestle with this in our church because I came from a church that didn't believe in women preachers, women pastors. And so, you know, women started coming forward. And so I had to wrestle through this whole thing. And this was one of the key passages that I looked at. And there's actually four different interpretations of this particular passage. You got a guy like John MacArthur and he'll say that this means that women should not teach or speak or do anything in the church. Then you have somebody will say, well, the context is tongues, and it means that women should not speak in tongues. And then somebody else will say, well, it's just referring to wives and that they should be submissive to their husbands. This is what I believe. You know, back in this culture where you had men who only could be, you know, the ones that could study and the ones who were up on the Torah and the law. And so, you know, women weren't really encouraged to study. And so what happened in the church when things translated over into the church, you had the men on one side and the women on the other side. And, you know, the pastor or the preacher might say something and the wife was asked her husband. You know, what does that mean? You know, what does he, and so a lot of people say what Paul is saying here is, you know, let the women be silent. You know, don't ask questions, you know, in the assembly, but wait till you get home to ask your husband. And this was not the type of thing where they were putting women down, but it was a type of thing that the men were educated and the women weren't back during this time. But praise God to this lady's, you know, question that, you know, we live in a day when men and women have access to education, theological, so, you know, again, you know, I think that this scripture was contextual and it was related specifically to this time where today women can educate themselves in the Word of God, theologically. And so, you know, they don't, they don't have to depend on anybody else to tell them anything. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Well, let me read the verse because I agree exactly what Doc said. First Corinthians 14, it says this, if they want to learn something, meaning again, what you were saying, Doc, let them ask their husbands at home. So it's right within the text that they were disrupting the teachings of... So this is a cultural thing that we don't really understand today. Right, right. And then it says, for it's a shameful thing and as Dr. Glace said, it's the idea that the men were educated and ladies, we didn't write this, we're not declaring it. The men were educated and the ladies weren't. It was the cultural thing, but they sure have come a long way. And I tell you what, I had some great Bible teachers at Bible school that were females and they could really out preach a lot of the male preachers. Well, that brings us to this whole other thing. And so I want to kind of dive into this about women pastors because we still have denominations that strongly, and I liked your four points over there, Dr. Glace, about different, four different interpretations. But well, just take us through that whole situation. Yeah, I think one of the things too, I think what I like that, that passage still preserves is the hierarchy of the home that the man's still the head of the home. That's really what you can take out of that. No matter what's going on in the church, how the context of the church shifts, how the culture is happening, it's still the women and the man, the man is still the head of the home. And I think that is a very important part that needs to be taught on more if I'd say that. But going to the women's pastors, I personally, I do not have an issue with it, but I have seen so many lady pastors that struggle in that position. That's just from my observation. I'm not saying about right or wrong, but it seemed like whenever I've seen a woman as a lead senior, a lot of them struggle. Some that I've known, I'm not saying that's every single person, I'm not saying it's a rule of thumb, but I have noticed there's a struggle with them. There's always some other issues that are going on in there. That's just something that I've pulled. Now, as far as a woman in a associate pastor role, the thing that I haven't seen yet as much or teaching, I have no issue. And I don't have an issue with a woman being, but I just noticed it just doesn't always seem to flow right. There's always some issues that always seem to break out in there and there's always issues that go on. So I've always wondered if that's not God's best way, but I believe it can be a permissive way. We're gonna, Joel, I'm gonna have to hold you up there because we gotta jump into the next question here, but good question. Let's go to our next one. Yes, I am calling to ask, is it biblical to plead the blood of Jesus? Is it biblical to plead the blood of Jesus? Thank you. All right, we're gonna jump back to you, Pastor Jay, to start off with us. Mike Perkey, that's saying the song, I Plead the Blood. I don't know if it was ever, I mean, I remember Mike Perkey, but he was like a kind of a Southern gospel singer back in the day, but I don't think necessarily it's a biblical piece. There's no place in the Bible that's gonna talk about pleading the blood, but I believe that we have adopted that in a way of understanding the power of the blood and we've just formulated that, almost like a sinner's prayer. There's no place, it's kind of been a cultural type thing. We said, okay, we understand what the blood does. So Satan, the blood be against you. And so we're just, it's a way of enforcing the authority. So I think it's not just a superstitious way of saying it, like, well, I plead the blood and the devil's got to run. It's your understanding and revelation and application, might I add, of the blood? Because one of the things I think is so important that people miss is that you can't plead the blood of Jesus, but not apply it to your life. What does that mean? So when they took the blood over the doorpost, he said there were some certain instructions they had to follow and then they put the blood up. So a lot of people want to claim the blood and the power of the blood, but they don't exercise what's needed to walk it out. I love that because so often we get into these formulas and these slogans and things, Joel. I think a big thing is we can't use terms like that in a superstitious type of way of, if I use these particular words, then I've got God's arm twisted. He has to bend to my will because I said some sort of magic words. To me, that's paganism, a pagan way of approaching God. But I think pleading the blood when we do is more of a reminder for us than it is for God. There's things that we can remind ourselves of what the blood of Christ does. The blood of Christ saves me. He gives me my salvation. He takes away my guilt. The blood of Christ takes away my shame, my regret. Even takes away my doubt. When I'm feeling doubtful, I remember exactly what Jesus did, what he poured out on the cross so that I could be saved. Yeah, that's good, that's good. Just a little bit of time here in this segment. You know, rather than plead the blood, I plead the name of Jesus. You know, that's the authority. You know, the name of Jesus has the authority. And we're, and Jay kind of hit it a little bit that nowhere are we commanded to plead the blood, but we are commanded to, you know, in the name of Jesus. So I would rather do that than plead the blood. Tom, real quick, I know we got, I have a dear friend of mine with the Bible school with he was walking by a fortune teller's place with his grandfather when he was a young boy and his grandfather said, just plead the blood, plead the blood. And his fortune teller came running out, grabbed them both and said, all's I see is blood. All's I see is blood. So they were coming against the spirit round by pleading the blood. So there's power in the blood. Right, but I agree with what both guys said. It can't be superstitious. Yeah, absolutely. I think that's good. An interesting thing about that prayer formula, I was spent 10 years as a supervisor of the prayer line here and you would be surprised. People want you to pray a certain formula. And I'd always kind of resist that. So let's not be superstitious in how we pray, but let's be biblical in how we do it. Well, great question, great answers. And coming up after the break, we asked, should a Christian attend a gay wedding? Stay tuned. All right, let's go to our next audio question. Should a Christian attend a gay wedding? Thank you. Short and sweet to the point. I think there's gonna be a lot of discussion on this. Pastor Joel. Yeah, well, not being around the bush with the question, right? Just going right to it. I think what's so tough about this is remembering that every time somebody's asking this question, it means that they're invited to that wedding because they have a relationship with that person. And so this question comes from, comes from, you know, hurt. It comes from concern. And so I wanna approach it with that. I think the first thing to say is, the most important thing is how we, or not the most important thing, what really important thing is how we accept or decline that invitation is vitally important, the how. And so for me, it's a no. I can't go because my approach to attending a wedding is that it's an endorsement of that marriage. And I don't think that is God's best for that person's life. I think I love that person that gave me that invite. I want what's best for them, but I love them so much. I want God's best for them. And so I think if there is that relationship, then I should have had an opportunity already before this or even continued opportunity. You know, I wanna maintain a seat at that table where I have a continued opportunity to speak love and grace and truth to this person. Yeah. Yeah, that's a really good point. And how you do it is so important. Yeah, I'm with you, Pastor Joel. I would definitely say, no, first of all, it's not a wedding. That's the first thing. I think we need to be very clear on, so should we attend a gay wedding? No, because a wedding is a union between a man and a woman, period. That's the way it's always been. It doesn't matter what culture and society teaches. This is still it. And I think one of the things too, I mean, all of us have probably performed a ceremony at one point or another. They always have a witness, somebody that was there that witnessed it, that endorses it. You are becoming an endorser of this union, that so-called union. And so to go there, how do you go to something that God considers an abomination and celebrate? What do you, I mean, go up to him and say congratulations. No, I mean, I can't do that. I can't be excited for you. I can't rejoice with you. I can't celebrate this. I can't get on in the dance floor with you. So you can't even go. I mean, obviously you're a pastor, so that's a higher level of endorsement, so to speak. Let's go to Pete here. Real quick, I agree with what both guys said. Joe and Jay, the fact is, it's the time of celebration. And what did he say? He said, for this reason, a man shall leave his mother and father and cleave to his wife, and they both shall become one flesh. So if we're looking at it truly biblically, I agree with both guys saying, you can't condone it. You can't celebrate it. You can't be part of it. I know people will look down on that, but. Okay, I'll say this and this panel has helped me because I know that we've dealt with this question a couple of times. I think the last time, Jay really helped me out because I kind of looked at it from the standpoint of if you let the person know upfront that you don't agree with it, that you're against it, but I'm going not to support the marriage, but I'm going to support you. And that was kind of my philosophy, but praise God, you guys just listening to you to see that it's something that's unnatural and how can God bless something that's unnatural? So I would say, for me, I've kind of shifted my position and I would answer no to that question based on the fact that how can God bless something that's unnatural in the book of Romans? I gotta lay this out because we're all kind of taking the same point here. I'm probably a little bit more like you were is that how, okay, say it's my kid, say it's somebody I'm really close to, how do I maintain the openness of that relationship, the love of that relationship while still maintaining in my integrity as a believer in the gospel? How do I do that? Tom, can I just break one thing? I don't think any of us have this view because we're pastors. I think we have this view because we're Christians. I don't take this view as a pastor. I did this view because it's worth, I'm sorry. No, no, I think if we can go and attend, then why can't we perform it? So if I can go and celebrate, then I should also perform them too. Because if I can go with you and say, hey, I'm here to support you, then why can't I perform the ceremony as well? Because both of them are an endorsement. So that's the way that I kind of look at it. Like if I can go there and be like, hey, good job, man, you know, here's your gift and all of that, then I might as well, because if I'm not gonna tell you, I don't know, now if you go to your daughter or sons and they're having a gay wedding, you go and say, we don't agree with you and you're sitting down in the front row like, you know, you might as well not even be there. You're already a testimony against them. So I don't think it's a matter of opening up and saying, well, let's go ahead and make sure that they're okay and maintain the love. I think it's a matter of siding with the scriptures and letting that be a testimony against them. You know, I go back to the scripture with Jesus said, he said, I came to put father against mother, or father against son and mother against daughter. And I mean, so when you look at that, he meant it. Yeah, well, let me, I just have a minute. I'm gonna give you like 15 seconds. You're the youngest one here. You're the one probably facing this more than anybody. Oh yeah, I mean, it's all around us. And I think what you just have to communicate is my, the lack of my attendance has nothing to do with my love for you. I love you so deeply and I love you so much that I want what's best for you. We always tell people wrestling on any issues that you're in disagreement with God on something that's always ask yourself, does God love me? Does he want what's best for me? And does he know better than I do? And that's for every single person that as they're entering into any relationship, any marriage, you gotta ask, does God love me? Does God endorse this relationship, this marriage? And does he want what's best for me? And so when you know that, you pursue God's best. Boy, that is good. And you know, it's such a tough thing and it's a thing we are gonna face more and more. Hopefully God turns us around. Well, we like to end the program with the scripture and today we go to Jeremiah where it says, thus says the Lord, let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord who practices steadfast love, justice and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight.