 Welcome to Hard Questions where we gather pastors together to take on your tough questions and answer them right from the scriptures. I'm Tom Hollis, the moderator, and today our panelists include... Dr. William R. Glaze, Bethany Baptist Church in Pittsburgh. Tim Bergen, pastor of the Christian Center in Ross River Township. Pete Giacolini, pastor of South Hills Assembly Guy Church, Bethel Park, PA. J. Anthony Gilbert, pastor of Another Level in Mount Washington. These pastors are raring to go to answer your questions that I can hardly keep them under control here on the panel, but it's great, guys, to have you here. I love this time. I love when we get to answer these questions. The first one is from Matt. He called in to ask, how can I be sure that Jesus is the true God? Dr. Bill. Amen. Amen. I love this question right here. And the fact is, is that Jesus claimed to be God. In John chapter 10 in verse 30, he said, I and the Father are one. In John 8.57, Jesus said that I am, which we know he was referring back to Exodus 3.14, where God said I am. But somebody will say, well, you know what? It's easy to make that claim. It's easy to say it. Let me just speak to Matt for a second. Not only did Jesus say it, but he backed it up. Jesus lived a sinless life. No other leader of an organization or movement lived a sinless life. Jesus performed miracles to back it up. He healed the sick. He fed the hungry. But probably the greatest thing that Jesus did to back up his claim as God is that when they put him to death, he rose from the dead. And that's the greatest claim to support, the greatest act to support the claim that Jesus made, that he was God when he rose from the dead. So I would say those three things and probably more will be said by the other pastors, but the fact that he lived a sinless life, that he performed miracles and that he rose from the dead, not only showed that he was God, but backed up his claim to be God. That is really good. Pete, Pete, your Bible is falling apart here, I notice. So you're one I really want to hear from here. Theology 101. Seriously, doctors gave a perfect explanation of why we believe, what we believe. Only one person could live up to that and that was Jesus Christ. But you know, we also believe that this entire, please don't buy me a Bible. There's a few chapters missing in here probably. We also believe that the entire word is inspired from beginning to end. And along with what you said, Doc, there are 44 portions of scripture of the Old Testament that prophesied Jesus would be the Messiah, the true Son of God. And they're seen in the New Testament. So it's not an argument with us. It's fact. Jesus is Lord. Well, let me turn to this side of the table and kind of change the question up a little bit. I don't want to mess up your answers that you prepared, but I want to know, like, so the Bible clearly says, and if we use the Bible, we understand, what is he saying here? Is he saying that how do we say that Jesus is God even apart from the Bible? I don't know, Tim, where do you go with this? That's where I would go. I mean, it's one thing to say to someone, this is what the Bible says, and you should believe it because of that. I mean, there's historical evidence from scripture that 500 people saw Jesus alive and they didn't refute that or things like that. But for me, my own personal journey was one of, I was raised a Christian, but I wanted to make sure that what I believed was really the truth. And so I went on a journey, I have a degree in religious studies, and so I went on a journey and studied the world's religions. And it comes down to this from a very logical standpoint, what's his name, Matt? Matt, it comes down to this from a very logical standpoint. According to all the world's religions, if I live my life as a Christian the way that Christ outlines it, I'm going to make it to a place of perfect nothingness, to heaven, to, you know, even Allah can will that I get to heaven because I've been such a good person. In all the world's religions, if I live as a Christian, just logically, taking faith out, taking the Bible out, then I will make it to, if these other religions are correct, I will make it to this place of heaven or perfection or whatever. But if Jesus, what Jesus said is true, and I live like any other faith, then I'm going directly to hell. There's no option for me. So from a logical standpoint, Matt, just taking scripture out of it from a logical standpoint, Christianity is the only way to go. It's the only way, the only truth, the only life. In Christianity, Christ is the only, it's the only religion that celebrates the death and resurrection solely of its founder. Jesus not only came, he died, resurrected himself. You know, there's no other religion. It's documented and proven. Another thing, how do I know that Jesus is true, God? Jesus said he's the Word. If you study your scripture, you can see the Bible unfolding before your very own eyes in this hour. So I would encourage you, Matt, to study current events and study the Bible. You'll see that what was prophesied 4,000 years ago is starting to happen now in this world that we live in today. That's really good. You know, when I was a young man in college, I read Evidence of the Man's Verdict by Josh McDowell, which really helped solidify my faith. And you can get another book called More Than a Carpenter by him that's kind of a distillation of those things that kind of gives you this foundation of, yes, there is solid reasons to believe, not just to say I'm taking my parents' religion here, but solid reasons to believe yourself. I think it's important, before we leave, Tom, I think it's important that people understand there are historical records that can point us to Jesus as well, that prove what the Bible has to say that are outside of the Bible. Josephus' writings and things like that can prove to us that Jesus was really a person that lived, he really died, and he rose again. Yes, they did. Well, moving on, Jerry called in to ask, why can't I stop looking at porn even though I pray and ask God to help me? Now, this is an epidemic in our society and in the church even, Pete, so could you please tackle this for us? I would love, first of all, everyone is watching, danger, danger, warning, warning, this will destroy you. Pornography will destroy you. I remember Dr. Richard D. Dobbins years ago talked about the, not so much the evils, but the destruction of porn. First of all, we're told that in the signs of the brain, you can't stop, so that's addiction. You want more, loss of time, loss of interest in sex even. They're proving this, that no woman could ever live up to what's being portrayed to you by porn. So in other words, you're lusting after something you will never get, something you'll never have, and I guarantee it will destroy you. And again, there's, I don't know all the facts on this doc, you can help me out here, that there's a pleasure spot in the brain. And once that's released, and if it's watching porn, you will be addicted to that until there comes a complete breaking away of that addiction. So as a pastor, just as a born again believer, I'm begging you, and please, mom and dad, don't get into this, boys will be boys, because that boys will be boys, can destroy your boys, leave it alone. Job said, I will set no wicked thing before my eyes. I'm telling you, it's dangerous, it will destroy your life, it will kill you. I like to follow up on what Pete said about, you know, setting a wicked thing before your eyes. I heard a story, day one, walked down the street, fell in the hole. Day two, walked down the street, fell in the hole. Day three, walked down the street, fell in the hole. Day four, crossed the street and went down the other side. What's that saying? That's saying, you gotta stay away from it. You know, if it's a hole that you're falling into, you know, you gotta stay away from it. And that's what Jesus said when, you know, he said, pluck out your, you know, your right eye, or cut off your hand. He wasn't talking about literally pulling your eye out or cutting off your hand. He's saying, whatever it is that's causing you to stumble, you need to get rid of it. You need to, you know, I mean, I know it's easy, the save for us, you know, because he's struggling with it. But to me, one of the steps is, you know, if it's on, if you're looking at it on your phone, then maybe put your phone down for a while. You know, if you're looking at it on your computer, maybe you don't go to your computer. You know, I mean, find other ways to connect with social media. That's right, you gotta make the right choices based on where your trip points are, right? Without a doubt, and that's where I was gonna go through when he talked about plucking your out and cutting your hand off, he said, it's better for you to go into heaven with one hand. So, he's talking about, it's a war, you know, you gotta be willing to fight. You can't just pray it away, and like you said, keep everything in front of you. There's accountability that you can put in place. There are different technologies you can put on your iPads and iPhones and things on the line. And listen, I don't do this very often, but if you're struggling out there and you want some men to walk you through this, you contact us at another level ministries. We have men that will walk you through that you can live a sober, insane life. You need somebody to walk with you. You're not gonna be able to do it by yourself. You can't keep it quiet and say, God, take this away from me. You need some practical steps, because we are inundated as men with this sin. It's crazy. I like that, I tell people, you know what, you're on this cycle of things happening. You need to throw this monkey wrench into this, a cycle to break that and to stop that. Tim. People just need to understand that this just isn't a normal, it's boys be boys or a normal type of addiction. You know, this has come out where pornography, what it does, it hits the dopamine levels in your brain. Then it kicks those dopamine levels, so each time you need more and more and more of a rush to get there and to see more. And then it becomes abusive and aggressive behavior toward women, toward children, and it devastates and ruins people's lives. Pornography ruins people's lives, and I don't think people take it as seriously as they should and like Jay had mentioned and Doc and Pete both had mentioned. We, this isn't something you can just pray away. Yes, do I believe in deliverance? Do I believe that God can, you know, that there can be demonic forces and things like that? They can be involved, they can type it. Yes, I do, but more often than not, this is an issue of the flesh that we need to deal with, with accountability that we need to deal with, with, you know, blocking your phone, bringing yourself into people, making sure that you are accountable to people and filling yourself just like anything else, any other addiction, you need to fill yourself with something else that will meet that need. And, you know, it just encourages, you know, men are turned on by what they see, bottom line, and so pornography feeds into men more likely because of that. It's so true, I think we're talking about a lot of different things. I think that all of these things are necessary. You need accountability. Really, accountability is humility. It's humility, and humility is an important Christian aspect of your life. You need, you know, in the final analysis, guys, they need to be able to say no. They need to be able to take a stand to say no. They'll just say no thing, but you have to have a lot around you, a lot of tools in your arsenal to fight with. So, a very important question. I'm glad that you asked it. So, let's go on to take a break and we'll be back with more hard questions. Welcome back to Hard Questions. We have a question now from Jenny who wants to know, am I allowed to marry outside of my race if God said, don't intermarry? All right, so let's take this one on. Pastor Jay. Well, if that's the case, then I'm the product of sin because my dad was black, my mom was white, and when he's talking about intermarry, he's talking about people outside of the belief of Christianity, or if you're looking in the Old Testament, the Jewish law and things like that, because he said, they will seduce you away. They'll pull you away. You know, it's funny how a lot of times people get into relationships with somebody and they think they're going to proselytize them, but it's funny, God warns the opposite. He's like pretty much saying, you don't have that power to pull them because even Jesus said, except I'm drawing them, he goes, they can't come. So, you don't know that heart and they'll more likely seduce you away from your God than you're going to pull them from theirs to yours. And that's just the way that it is, especially if you're in a marriage with somebody. But there's nothing in Scripture that supports only this race can be together. I mean, take a look at Moses marrying an Ethiopian woman. You can go on and on and on of places in Scripture where it shows us that God doesn't forbid to marry within race, but in regards to our belief structure as Christians, we need to be aware of intermarrying then. That's good. And I would just add this caveat to it because I'm a part of intermarrying. My wife is Pueblo Indian. And I know that early on, we received criticism and we received opposition. You mean your wife did? Oh, yeah. I mean, we'd be sitting in a restaurant and people just make comments. So that was something that we had to deal with as a part of being married in between two different cultures. But again, I would go back to what Jay said. There's nothing in the Bible that says that you can't do it. As a matter of fact, Acts 17, 26 says that every human being has one blood. So no matter who we are, we all have the same blood running through us. It may manifest itself different in our hair, our skin color, whatever, but we got the same blood running through us. So I see some things to support it more than things against it. I agree with what both guys said. And my granddaughter is black and white. And I tell you, she's absolutely gorgeous. And I love her. So to say that it's a sin, you're reading from the wrong Bible. Because my Bible doesn't even touch that as far as declaring it to be a sin. Well, my question is that, who would I marry? Because if you're a product of a mixed marriage, who do you pick then? I mean, if you had a Chinese and a black person, that means you're stuck. You can't marry nobody but them. You have to stay single. You have to stay single. You have to stay single. That's what I was saying. I loved one day, a Veldicang was in the green room here, and we were having a discussion. And she said, how can you marry outside of your race? There's only one race, the human race. It's funny the way we as human beings do things. When I pastored one church, where there was a racial divide between the English and the Germans. So we look for things to divide. We look for ways to create division in church, in the world, in whatever way we can. And I think we need to begin. The only hope for America, the only hope for the world, is for the church to be the church and to start acting like the church in every way. My wife, I'm English. My wife's Scottish. I told her one time, hey, our relatives were fighting each other 300 years ago across that. Some things never change, I guess. But it is, I think you hit on it, Tim. We try to separate ourselves. We look for something to separate. Good question, guys. Lizzie called in to ask, why doesn't God heal my mom from cancer if I prayed in Jesus' name? This is an important question. It's one I think we've all asked, one I think we all know people who have asked. Pastor Tim. Well, we know that God does heal. I mean, we know that He does do that. And without knowing the particular situation that Lizzie's mom was going through, I used my own life as an example. We had, Paige had gotten breast cancer. And I've traveled the world praying for people and literally seeing blind eyes open, deaf ears open, people get healed, cancers fall off of people, all kinds of miraculous things. And I come home and my wife has breast cancer and I'm praying and I'm praying and praying in Him. And we're fully expecting God to heal. But He didn't heal her that way. But what He did do was He used us to minister to so many other. And there was a woman from Croatia that was getting chemotherapy at the same time that Paige was. And I would meet with her and her husband and I would pray for them all the time. And I prayed and she got healed. And my wife, who has, you know, has breast cancer as well, did not get healed. But when we look at things from God's bigger picture of God, what is it that you want to do here? I don't understand always why you heal some and why you don't heal others. I understand what your word says about praying in the name of Jesus and it will be done. You ask anything and I get that and I understand that. But there's also the understanding that God, I want your will to be done more than my will. And I realized that this life is just transient. This 100 years or 120 years or 70 years that I have is just a short period of time. And the impact that I have on people's lives is what's most important. Yeah, that's good. And you know, Catherine Coleman, Tim used to say the same thing. She used to cry, I mean, literally weep over it. She said that was the first question she was going to ask God, why are not all healed? But we do believe in healing. Like you, I believe healing is prevalent for today. And again, one of those mysteries. But in the end, he is trustworthy. You know, one thing, and my people accuse me of having all kinds of stories, but let me just tell a quick story. A guy was on a desert island. You know, he had a fire and the fire was keeping him warm. It was cooking his food. And he was on there, you know, nobody knew he was there. He wanted to get rescued. One day a wind came, blew his fire out. And he said that the only thing I had to keep me warm and cook my food, God, why did you take it from me? Shook his hand at God. The next day he was rescued. And somebody said, he said, well, how did you know I was here? They said, we saw your smoke signals yesterday. And so when you think about it, you know, we might not know why God does not heal. But one thing we do know is that when the smoke goes up, he's working everything for good, you know? He's doing everything, you know, for good. Things that we can't see, because I'm like you, I do believe that God heals. You know, I prayed for people and they didn't get healed. But that hasn't taken my faith away from God's ability to heal. But I do know this, that whatever you're going through, he's working all things together for his good. That's good. And the part that we leave out is the last part of that scripture, though, that are called according to his purpose. So if we don't understand his purpose, then we can take that scripture out of context, you know? And you think about Hezekiah, who wanted to be healed, and who wanted to live longer, actually, rather. And he said, well, I'm going to give you what's the 15 more years. And next thing you know, he turned out terrible because of that. So many times we don't understand the end from the beginning. We don't see the big picture. And I went through the same thing you did with my mother. My mother, you know, I'm preaching. I saw a kid that was autistic, never spoke words. We prayed for him, started speaking in sentences, seeing all these things happening. And I started getting bitter towards God. Because I'm like, I'm serving you, I'm living right. I was single, I wasn't having sex. And I'm like, that's a big sacrifice in your 20s. You know, and I'm like, I'm doing it the right way. I'm not being a playboy. I'm doing all these things you asked me to do. And my mother's still sick, what's the problem? And he gave me a message, always think praise. And I'll never forget that. And it brought me through that time. And I started realizing, even though my mother, I wish she was still here today, how do I know what the future held for us or for her that God said, trust me, I saved you. And when we know it better by and by, we'll be thankful for him being a doctor. If I could just add one quick thing. What the Lord walked us through and what he instituted in me was something very simple as he walked us through that whole situation. And I watched my dad die of Alzheimer's basically. And I see my mother's got the same thing. But what he instilled is three very simple things. God is always good. He is always faithful. And he always loves us. And when we get that. That's an anchor to him. When I feel the same way. When we're going through those, walking through those things, have an anchor that God is good. He's righteous all together, you know? It's a great question though, Lizzie. And we're glad to be able to ask it. We'll be back right after this. Well, we always end the program with a scripture. And today we go to Psalm 103 where it says this, The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in mercy. He will not always strive with us, nor will he keep his anger forever. He has not dealt with us according to our sins, nor punished us according to our iniquities. Just reactions, Pastor, I love that. I mean, I love hearing all that. Pastor Glaze. I'm glad that he has not rewarded me according to my iniquities, that I've experienced his grace and forgiveness, and that when I stand before him, I'll stand dressed in the righteousness of Jesus Christ. I love that. I owed a debt. I could not pay. He paid a debt. How'd it go? I did not. It did not. Amen. His great love. Thanks to you. I'm so thankful for God's mercy, you know? And the Bible says that we need to give mercy because, you know, I've learned, if I deal with people mercifully. When I'm fallen short, God will deal with me mercifully as well. And what's good to note too is that if we keep striving for, we're not striving against Him. It doesn't mean failing. But if we keep striving and working towards that perfection line, God will always stay with us as mercy will be new every morning. Scripture just reminds me of how God believes in me more than I believe in myself. More grace, more mercy, and is always looking to enable me to become the man that he's called me to be. And so that's what's important. And his anger, it's for a moment, you know, it says. But his mercies, they're new every morning. I just love that, that he abounds in a loving kindness. He abounds in his willingness to forgive and to strengthen. You know, again, my father just passed away. He was one that would run to rescue me if I was struggling. And that is God for you. He is running for you. He's running towards you, picking you up and bringing you to Himself and bringing you to understand His forgiveness. You know, God does get angry at times, but his anger is for a moment and his grace is for a lifetime. It's for eternity. We hope you enjoyed today's program and we want to hear from you. You can email your questions to us at ctvn.org.