eBible Fellowship

Question Summary with Starting Times in Audio File

1. 00:07:27 Question #1: Please look at Matthew 24:38-39. Is it possible that the people of Noah’s day were living in that day of judgment and they were just carrying on business as usual, but they were spiritually under judgment? Also, it says they “knew not” until the flood came or until they experienced it. Is this the same way we were telling people that “to know” is to “to experience?” Noah knew spiritually and the people of his day knew physically.

2. 00:16:01 Question #2: I used to listen to Family Radio a lot. I was on Family Radio’s website archives recently and a person asked Mr. Camping, “What can I do to learn more about the Bible?” They said they could not learn much when they read the Bible and they were not coming to truth fast at all. The idea was that maybe “once in a blue moon” they would learn something new. I find myself having the same problem as far as coming to truth in the Bible — it is very slow, but I want to learn as much as I can. My question to you is: What can I do to learn more about the Bible?

3. 00:25:03 Question #3: The last caller on Friday night made a good point that the 1,600 furlongs went to the last day of the Feast of Tabernacles just to show us we are on the right path, rather than to assume that October 7th landing on the Feast of Tabernacles was just another snare?

4. 00:30:50 Question #4: Please look at 1 Kings 19:11-12. I would like to ask two questions. The first question pertains to the wind, earthquake and fire. While they each seem to have the same contextual principle in view, I am curious if there is a reason for their respective distinctions. Could they possibly be speaking of individual historical events?

5. 00:36:55 Question #5: Could you please read Isaiah 42:22-25? It seems to speak to the world today. As you said in your study the morning, the unsaved do not believe in the judgment of God and they do not care. It just seems that we are living in this part of verse 25. Is that correct?

6. 00:43:21 Question #6: Please read John 6:14-15. In verse 15, I looked up the word for “by force” and it is Strong’s #726. It is the same Greek word used in 2 Corinthians 12, verses 2 and 4 and in 1 Thessalonians 4, verse 17, where it is translated as “caught up.” I was just wondering if it means “caught up” here? Could this be the time right around October 7 when we thought we were going to be “caught up” to Jesus, but He departed again? I was wondering what the spiritual meaning is and if this particular verse in John 6 can be related to Matthew 14?

7. 00:47:38 Question #7: In the last part of Isaiah 24:6 where it says, “and few men left,” what do you think God is talking about there?

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Welcome

Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Sunday afternoon Question and Answer Program. During this time we will take a look at the Bible in regard to any questions or comments you may have and everyone is invited to share what is on their mind by giving us a call or contacting us in the ways that were just mentioned. We will be glad to take your question and I will try to respond by going to the Bible, God’s holy Word.

Day in the Word and Upcoming Bible Study Plans - 00:01:12

Before we do that, I would like to make a couple of announcements concerning EBible’s “Day in the Word” and our plan for upcoming Bible studies.

Lord willing, next Sunday (October 25) we will have our “Day in the Word” at the Delco Union Hall in Linwood, Pennsylvania and all are welcome. It appears this will be our last Sunday meeting there because the Union has told us that they are not in compliance with certain things that their township requires and they are no longer able to rent out the hall. It so happens that our lease expires at the end of October, so they are allowing us to meet one more time there. We are interested in continuing to meet once a month (or even once a quarter) and, yet, finding a good place to meet is not easy. We are going to ask people if they know of a place or if someone would like to look for a place for us to meet for our “Day in the Word” once a month in the tristate area of Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware or, possibly, Maryland. If you find a place in this area, please send us an email at ebiblefellowship@juno.com and we will check it out to see if it is something we can do.

The other matter concerns our Bible studies. Lord willing, on Monday, October 26 we will begin our series of studies in the Book of Genesis, starting at Genesis 1, verse 1 and going verse by verse through this Book. All are welcome to join us. There are some very interesting things and many foundational things in that Book for the whole Bible. We should be able to learn a great deal just by being brought to remembrance of things God has given in His Word and we are going to look at any truths the Lord should open up to us. Again, this will begin on October 26 in our nightly Bible studies that start at 9:00 PM Eastern time, Monday through Friday.

Our plan is to do three weeks, or so, of new studies, followed by a fourth week of rebroadcasts of previously aired studies in Genesis. We will do this each month. By rebroadcasting one week each month, it gives us additional time to study and to look into the Word of God without any sort of deadline and we can thoroughly check things out and have sufficient time to dig into certain areas. If we do this every month (and that is the plan for a while) it will give us a good backlog of studies over time and in that manner we are always up to date and we always have sufficient time to study in depth without rushing into anything.

We also hope to do this with the Sunday studies. Starting next Sunday at the “Day in the Word,” we will have a new study for three or four Sundays in a month (depending on the number of Sundays in a particular month) and then we will rebroadcast one study each month and this would be for the same reasons of giving sufficient time for study and for developing a supply of reserved studies that are ready at any time.

These are some of the things we are planning and thinking about at this time.

Questions and Answers

Now we are going to open up our room and the phone line and go to the first person on the phone. Welcome to our Sunday afternoon “Question and Answer Program” and please go ahead with your call.

[Note: Some questions have been condensed for succinctness.]

Question #1 - 00:07:27

Caller’s Question: Please look at Matthew 24:38-39. Is it possible that the people of Noah’s day were living in that day of judgment and they were just carrying on business as usual, but they were spiritually under judgment? Also, it says they “knew not” until the flood came or until they experienced it. Is this the same way we were telling people that “to know” is to “to experience?” Noah knew spiritually and the people of his day knew physically.

Matthew 24:38-39:

For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.

Answer: Noah was a preacher of righteousness and he built the ark in plain view for 120 years. It was not something hidden. You could not hide something like that. Based on the relatively low population (probably just a handful of millions) and based on the fact that the earth had not yet been divided and mankind would have tended to gather together socially, the world of that time knew that there was a man named Noah building an ark. He was building a huge ship on dry land and he was telling everyone why he was building it: God had told him He was going to destroy the world with a flood. Noah would have been infamous. He would have been ridiculed and mocked. People have not changed and it is the same today, except it is more intense in our day because we are so far removed from the outward acts of God in the world. Noah’s generation was only the tenth generation from Adam, so the world of that time would still have had some semblance of understanding of a God, and so forth. Maybe the mocking would not have been as severe, but Noah would have been treated as a fool or as someone that was a lunatic because they had never seen anything like it.

So, yes, the world heard and they had intellectual understanding, but they dismissed it and they wrote it off as something that was not possible. In that sense, they did not “know” it, as it says, “And knew not until the flood came.” The waters started to pour down from heaven and even from the ground beneath. The Bible says that God brought the water from different sources in order to bring the necessary amount of water to flood the entire earth. It was an enormous amount of water. As the waters began to rise, they “knew.” They would have remembered the man Noah and the ark and the warning that was given. Through the experience of the judgment, they “knew.” So that does fit.

As far as being under judgment, whenever a person sins (and this has been the case since the beginning), we come under the wrath of God. The wrath of God abides upon us. The people of that world were under the wrath of God and, yet, the actual judgment of the flood had not been officially experienced until the day when God shut the door of the ark. Once God shut the door, the rain would have begun on that same day, but they were not drowned on day one, for the most part. The rains came for forty days and forty nights. It was probably intense rain on day one and day two, but people would have just sought higher ground and there were probably many people still alive on day three and day four. Other people that lived on higher ground may have been alive for a longer time. I remember a few years back Mr. Camping shared a published incident of the discovery of a cave (I cannot remember the location) that contained some people and it was at a high mountain location, but the manner in which their bodies were found indicated they had died by flood. The question was how they could have died in a high mountain cave by flooding. The dating of the remains was about 7,000 years ago. Of course, one could have gone to the highest possible point to escape the flood if you saw the waters just keep rising. People would have tried to make it up the mountain, with the hope that if they got up high enough they would survive the flood. But God brought the waters 15 cubits above the highest mountain, so, eventually, they all died, whether it was two weeks into the flood or 30 days into the flood. However, at some point the waters rose above the highest mountain and all the people of the earth were under the floods and all died that had the breath of life. The official point of the judgment was when God shut the door. It sealed the fate of every individual upon the earth.

Thank you for sharing.

Question #2 - 00:16:01

Let us go to our next caller. Welcome to our Sunday afternoon “Q & A” Program. Please go ahead with your call.

Caller’s Question: I used to listen to Family Radio a lot. I was on Family Radio’s website archives recently and a person asked Mr. Camping, “What can I do to learn more about the Bible?” They said they could not learn much when they read the Bible and they were not coming to truth fast at all. The idea was that maybe “once in a blue moon” they would learn something new. I find myself having the same problem as far as coming to truth in the Bible — it is very slow, but I want to learn as much as I can. My question to you is: What can I do to learn more about the Bible?

Answer: That is a very good question. It should be the goal of each child of God to learn more from the Bible. We want to learn “new things,” and sometimes we think we are only learning if we learn a “new thing.” But we also have to be careful that we are not stuck in the “something new” mode, like the world always wants some new thing. Remember when the Apostle Paul was on Mars Hill and they gave him an opportunity to speak in Athens. The Biblical account states that they were open to hearing “some new thing.” Let us read how God puts it, in Acts 17:19-21:

And they took him, and brought him unto Areopagus, saying, May we know what this new doctrine, whereof thou speakest,is? For thou bringest certain strange things to our ears: we would know therefore what these things mean. (For all the Athenians and strangers which were there spent their time in nothing else, but either to tell, or to hear some new thing.)

The world wants something “new” and something exciting or dramatic. The child of God wants truth and as we go to the Bible our main goal should be to study and to learn truth. We desire truth. The more we learn truth, the more we learn Christ because Christ is the essence of truth. That should be our goal and when we turn to the Scriptures to study, we should be checking things out and going where the Bible leads us, trying to find out what the truth is concerning a particular verse. What is the truth concerning a doctrine or passage? Then we thank the Lord for any truth we find or any truth that is reinforced. It is a good thing to have the Scriptures brought to our remembrance to reinforce a truth. As we go to the Bible we want to know if there is anything that sheds light upon our understanding or contradicts our understanding. After we review a truth and find it sound, we have confirmed a truth. I think this is a more faithful way of looking to the Bible. It is not to always find something new.

As we study the Bible, especially in our day, we tend to find some new doctrine and understanding. This has been the case over the last several years and we also rejoice in that because we have found truth. Sometimes that new doctrine or understanding corrects us on doctrines we previously held. For example, the doctrine of annihilation corrected the position we had held previously concerning the doctrine of hell. We learned from the Bible that it actually teaches that God’s punishment (for sin) is eternal death. An unsaved person would die an eternal death when they cease to exist. We found truth and it was something new to our understanding, but we mainly are happy and thankful because it was truth and that is always what we want to find. At this time, as we start to study the Book of Genesis, but our goal and mindset is to find truth.

As far as Bible study, a good thing to do is to listen to Mr. Camping’s studies or reading some of his books, like the book The End of the Church Age and After or the The Glorious Garden of Eden. As you read them, check out the Scriptures that are given and follow along. Of course, some of these books were written years ago and it may even have been before God did open up additional information, so you need to be aware that some statements were made before we had a better understanding and make that correction in your mind. That is one way.

Another way to study the Bible is to do your own study. Pick a verse or passage that you are attracted to and go, word by word, and look up each word where it is used in other places. Look at each word in the concordance and check out every place that word is used. Have a notebook nearby and jot down where that word is used elsewhere and jot down that reference and maybe make a little note about the way it is used. Is it a different English word, and so forth? Then go to the next word in that verse. You will find that can be a lot of study on its own and you will probably learn something about that verse.

Thank you for calling and sharing and shall we go to our next caller?

Question #3 - 00:25:03

Welcome to our “Question and Answer Program” and go ahead with your call.

Caller’s Question: The last caller on Friday night made a good point that the 1,600 furlongs went to the last day of the Feast of Tabernacles just to show us we are on the right path, rather than to assume that October 7th landing on the Feast of Tabernacles was just another snare?

Answer: Right now I (and many of us) are keeping in mind that this (October 7) could be another sort of “guidepost,” like we have seen in the past. For example, September 7, 1994 was originally thought to be a possible date for the end of the world, but it turned out to be a date of transition from the first part of the Great Tribulation to the second part of the Great Tribulation and also the date that God began to pour out the Latter Rain. Also, we passed the date of May 21, 2011 and many people wrote it off as a “failed date,” but further study indicated that it was a spiritual judgment that was taking place.

So, yes, it would be foolish for us to dismiss it (October 7, 2015) and say, “It was nothing.” But it does have to be set aside while we continue to study, keeping it in mind as we study Genesis 8 or Revelation 9 or other places. We look at all the available information as we continue to study and then maybe it will tie in somehow, but we can say (and we are saying) that we were incorrect about that date being the end of the world. We were wrong. I was wrong. It was not the end of the world and that is obvious and we can frankly state that we were wrong about that.

However, when a date is put forth (and a date is a doctrine, like any other doctrine) the good thing about a date passing is that we can now go back to the Bible with knowledge that we were wrong about it being the end of the world. Right away that is a big part of correction because we are not holding onto our teaching that it was the end of the world, but what was it? Now we are open to other possibilities and further study in that area.

Now compare that to many doctrines that the churches teach and some of the doctrines that some people outside of the churches continue to hold and, yet, they are erroneous. Sometimes churches have held onto doctrines that are flat-our wrong for hundreds of years. They are “etched in stone” in particular denominations. They hang onto what a certain Reformer said or what some pope said and these doctrines are held for hundreds of years, but they are as false as anything can be. However, the churches do not have the benefit of having the occasion like a “passed date” to prove their doctrine is in error in a way that all can understand. Since it is the Bible that proves their doctrines are wrong, they just do not listen or they do not care, as they continue to maintain their false doctrines or teachings.

So something like this (a passed date) is a benefit because we can return to the Bible with fresh eyes and we can begin to look at all the Biblical information without thinking that this previous understanding must be held in an absolute way. That is not the case.

Thank you for calling and sharing and let us go to our next caller.

Question #4 - 00:30:50

Welcome to our Sunday “Question and Answer Program.” Please go ahead with your call.

Caller: Please look at 1Kings 19:11-12:

And he said, Go forth, and stand upon the mount before JEHOVAH. And, behold, JEHOVAH passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks before JEHOVAH; but JEHOVAH was not in the wind: and after the wind an earthquake; but the LORD was not in the earthquake: And after the earthquake a fire; but JEHOVAH was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice.

Caller’s Question: I would like to ask two questions. The first question pertains to the wind, earthquake and fire. While they each seem to have the same contextual principle in view, I am curious if there is a reason for their respective distinctions. Could they possibly be speaking of individual historical events?

Answer: Well, some people have theorized that the reference to the “wind” and “earthquake” and “fire” ties into various dates in the timeline of the end that we have gone through, such as September 1994 and May 21, 2011, but I do not see any proof for that. It is an interesting thing to think about, but I do not see how we could prove it.

Spiritually, each one of these words represent something in the Bible and we have to look up the words. We know that “earthquake” is a word God uses to associate with His judgment. If we read Revelation, chapters 6 or 16, God pictures Judgment Day and He uses an earthquake to describe it. He also uses the word “fire” in conjunction with His judgment. The “wind” can identify with prophesy, as we read in Ezekiel, chapter 37 where Ezekiel was commanded to prophesy to the wind in the valley of dry bones, but the Word of God is also involved with the judgment of God. So these things appear to relate to God’s judgment, but the statements that say He is “not in the wind” or “not in the earthquake” or “not in the fire” are interesting, but I am not sure how we can understand it at this point. We can see, however, something on a sort of natural level that says God is not a God that is trying to be dramatic. He is the Almighty and the everlasting God and He could perform mighty miracles and bring great attention to Himself and His Word. He has done things like that in history, but once the Bible was completed, He stopped working supernaturally in performing miracles, except for the miracle of salvation during the day of salvation. Ever since the Bible was completed in the 1st century AD, God has spoken through His Book, the Bible, and that appears to be in view here. God is indicating not to look for anything spectacular as far as communication or encounters with God, like Naaman the Syrian who wanted something outstanding; he wanted to be given some great task in order to be cleansed from his leprosy, but all the prophet told him was to go and dip himself seven times in the River Jordan and Naaman was very upset because he was looking for something greater. Those that are seeking to know God, we should not look for physical signs and wonders, falling over backwards, speaking in tongues or other manifestations of the Person of God. Rather, we should pick up the Bible in a very quiet environment (the more quiet our environment, the better) and start reading. What do we hear? We hear a “still small voice” as God speaks to the individual reader through His Book. These various things are in view. I think there is more here, but I am not sure what it is, but thank you for calling and sharing.

Let us go to our next caller today.

Question #5 - 00:36:55

Welcome to our Sunday afternoon “Question and Answer Program.” Please go ahead with your call.

Caller’s Question: Could you please read Isaiah 42:22-25? It seems to speak to the world today. As you said in your study the morning, the unsaved do not believe in the judgment of God and they do not care. It just seems that we are living in this part of verse 25. Is that correct?

But this is a people robbed and spoiled; they are all of them snared in holes, and they are hid in prison houses: they are for a prey, and none delivereth; for a spoil, and none saith, Restore. Who among you will give ear to this? who will hearken and hear for the time to come? Who gave Jacob for a spoil, and Israel to the robbers? did not JEHOVAH, he against whom we have sinned? for they would not walk in his ways, neither were they obedient unto his law. Therefore he hath poured upon him the fury of his anger, and the strength of battle: and it hath set him on fire round about, yet he knew not; and it burned him, yet he laid it not to heart.

Answer: Yes, especially as it says that God “hath poured upon him the fury of his anger, and the strength of battle: and it hath set him on fire round about, yet he knew not.” Intellectually, there is an ignorance that we could say started in the churches. God says this very thing in Jeremiah 8:7:

Yea, the stork in the heaven knoweth her appointed times; and the turtle and the crane and the swallow observe the time of their coming; but my people know not the judgment of JEHOVAH.

The picture here is pretty vivid. Obviously, if it were a physical thing and someone was “set on fire round about,” they would be aware and they would have full knowledge that there were flames. When we see that the fire is spiritual, it reminds us of what God said in Isaiah 30:33:

… the pile thereof is fire and much wood; the breath of JEHOVAH, like a stream of brimstone, doth kindle it.

The “breath of JEHOVAH” is the Scripture. All Scripture is God-breathed and given by the inspiration of God, so that means when the Bible pronounces a judgment like He did on the churches, it is as a spiritual fire coming forth from the Bible that is burning up the object of His wrath, the corporate church and its inhabitants like fire burns wood. It is as though God is breathing this stream of fire and brimstone upon all the members of the congregations and they are burning. That is what is in view in the verse you brought up in Isaiah, chapter 42. Yet, while the churches did burn for the 23 years of the Great Tribulation and then into the Day of Judgment, they are sitting comfortably in their pews with their Bibles open, listening to their pastor preach. Then they listen to the announcements and upcoming events and the plans for Thanksgiving and Christmas and, yet, they are completely ignorant and unaware of the fact that God’s wrath is upon them. And it is the same thing with the people of the world. It is as if (unsaved) mankind is walking around “burning” under the wrath of God’s furious anger. We should be surprised because the Bible says that the wrath of God abides upon mankind and this has been the situation throughout time – whenever a person sins the wrath of God comes upon them.

Now it is just the case that it is the “official” wrath in the official Day of Judgment that has changed. For the typical unsaved individuals, they do not notice anything. They are “dead” to spiritual things and this is a spiritual judgment that is taking place in the spiritual realm and, therefore, they do no perceive it.

Thank you for sharing that verse and let us go the last caller this afternoon.

Question #6 - 00:43:21

Welcome to our “Question and Answer Program.” Please go ahead with your call.

Caller: Please read John 6:14-15:

Then those men, when they had seen the miracle that Jesus did, said, This is of a truth that prophet that should come into the world. When Jesus therefore perceived that they would come and take him by force, to make him a king, he departed again into a mountain himself alone.

Caller’s Question: In verse 15, I looked up the word for “by force” and it is Strong’s #726. It is the same Greek word used in 2 Corinthians 12, verses 2 and 4 and in 1 Thessalonians 4, verse 17, where it is translated as “caught up.” I was just wondering if it means “caught up” here? Could this be the time right around October 7 when we thought we were going to be “caught up” to Jesus, but He departed again? I was wondering what the spiritual meaning is and if this particular verse in John 6 can be related to Matthew 14?

Answer: The men mentioned here that had seen the miracle that He did were the ones that Jesus perceived would come and take Him by force to make Him a king. These men are not necessarily true believers at all and, actually, it was the Jews that wanted to make Jesus a king after seeing some of His miracles. They were responding to outward, visible things they saw, so I would not try to apply this to true believers looking to be caught up with Christ. It is interesting that this word is used here, but it is used in several places and it would be better to do a more detailed study on how that word is used and related to this context.

Thank you for calling and sharing. We do have one more caller on the phone, so we will take this call and then end our program.

Question #7 - 00:47:38

Welcome to our “Question and Answer Program” and please go ahead with your call.

Caller’s Question: My verse is Isaiah 24:6: The last part of the verse says, “and few men left,” so what do you think God is talking about there?

Therefore hath the curse devoured the earth, and they that dwell therein are desolate: therefore the inhabitants of the earth are burned, and few men left.

Answer: This is something that we have noticed in several verses. This verse does not stand alone. Isaiah 24 describes Judgment Day. It describes God pouring out His wrath upon the earth. The word “earth” is used a minimum of 15 times, or more, and it is not speaking of the judgment upon the churches in any way, so when we read, “the inhabitants of the earth are burned,” and we read in the first part of the verse that “the curse devoured the earth,” these statement fit perfectly with Judgment Day and what God is doing with all those that are guilty before Him. He will “burn” them, but what does not seem to fit is the phrase “and few men left.” We would have had no understanding of that phrase until we came through the Great Tribulation which concluded on May 21, 2011 and God’s elect have been living on the earth in the Day of Judgment ever since. God said, “For many are called, but few are chosen,” and this word “few” points to the elect of God that remain on the earth. It ties into Zechariah 13, verses 8 and 9. God puts the fire to the earth and two thirds are cut off and the “third part” remains or are left and that means the people of God endure through Judgment Day – they are not burned up or consumed by the fire of God’s wrath because Christ has paid for their sins. They are not guilty, as the rest of mankind are guilty and, therefore, they will endure to the end. At this point, of course, we do not know exactly how long that is going to be, but we do know the elect will endure the fire to the end and then endure through the final destruction of all things and live for evermore.

Closing

Thank you for calling and sharing and I would like to thank everyone for joining us today.