Category: Q & A (page 3 of 17)

Jesus and Baptism

Ruth D – I have a question about John 4:2 . In my KJV Bible verse 2 -“Though Jesus himself baptized not, but his disciples.” Does that mean that Jesus did not baptize his disciples? Do you think they  were baptized by John?

Dave to Ruth – I’ve always assumed that the disciples were baptized by John since it says that Jesus did not baptize (not His role apparently).

Feedback:

Cindi L – When Jesus washed their feet…was that somewhat similar experience? I understand that had even deeper significance of life by example etc…but thought I’d drop in this thought with the discussion.

Dave – I look at the foot washing by Jesus as having a two-fold meaning. One, we need to humble ourselves and serve others. Two, we cannot clean ourselves, we must allow Jesus to do it. When Peter initially refused the washing, Jesus said it was necessary to be part of Him. I always think of C.S. Lewis’ book, “The Voyage of the Dawn Treader” when little brat Eustace could not clean away his ugly dragon scales by himself. Then Aslan (Jesus) said to let Him do it. It hurt, but it worked and Eustace was a changed boy.

Binding Of Satan in Revelation

Mike K – I am enjoying your teachings, which my wife and I receive through her emails. I was wondering what you thought about the possibility for Matthew 12:29 referencing Christ’s locking the gates of Hell (to form a preterist point of view about this prophecy and the corresponding passage in Revelation) but also a prophetic locking of the accuser in future years? If the accuser has been bound for 1000 years I am curious as to how that affects the timeline found in Revelation. I am very interested in knowing what you think on the matter.

Hi Mike – Nice to hear from you and I am glad you and your wife are enjoying my commentaries.

You’ve asked some tough questions. First, Matthew 12:29 most assuredly reveals that Jesus did bind Satan in order to cast out demons from people during His ministry on earth. I think the context is clear on this. Our problem is that we do not know exactly what this means. The imagery in the corresponding verses in Revelation are totally symbolic, i.e., there is no way that a literal metal chain bound up a supernatural, spiritual being like Satan. It does convey the idea that his power suddenly became limited, however. Revelation tells us in what way – so he cannot deceive the nations. This, to me, speaks of the new freedom to spread the Gospel worldwide. If Satan continued to have all his deceptive powers, the Gospel, I think, would not have spread so fast to so many. But the Word is clear that the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. Still, I think there needed to be some limit put on Satan, after all, humans gave over lots of dominion to him at The Fall.

The problem with what I’ve just said stems from a dispensational paradigm which needs shifting. They assert that the millennium is a literal 1,000 years and will occur in the future. I believe they’ve missed something big. I contend that the millennium is a vast time period (the Church Age) when Christ is ruling from heaven’s throne which started at His Ascension. We are seated with Him (Ephesians 2:6) and He rules earth through the true Church changing haters into lovers via the Gospel. Satan does not want believers to realize that this is happening. If all Christians saw this, their faith would boost and they would attempt more for Christ. The futuristic view robs believers of serving the Lord in a greater capacity, I think. Many dispensationalists are serving Christ a great ways and accomplishing nice things, but I think they could do even better believing that Satan is bound now. And another surprise to many is that the End Days began with the coming of Jesus (Heb 1:2 and Acts 2:17).

While Preterism makes some good cases, I cannot totally embrace that interpretive approach. It’s a bit too radical and I do not appreciate some of the attitudes expressed against modern Jews because of their stand. Nero certainly was an anti-Christ, but was he The Anti-Christ? I doubt it. I do like preteristic thought, however, because it respects history more than dispensationalism.

As far as the timeline in Revelation is concerned, it is sometimes difficult to establish it because I think some chapters are a different look at the same historical prophecy. For example, Rev 20:7-10 and Rev 19:11-21 seem to be the same thing with a different perspective. And sometimes chapters may not present themselves in perfect chronological order. If true, we have more “wrenches thrown into the gears.”

A real good and fair book on End-Time Prophecy viewpoints is “Rose Guide to End-Times Prophecy” by Rose Publishing. It gives fair representation to all the different ways to approach this complicated topic. I got mine on Amazon.com at a good price. Another good one is “A Case for Amillennialism” by Kim Riddlebarger. Still another one is “Great Prophecies of the Bible” by Ralph Woodrow. I have emailed Mr. Woodrow and he is a fine gentleman in Christ, although I do not agree with all he says in his other books. You can get these books “used” via amazon.com for a cheap price. Definitely some neat perspectives that most Christians are not exposed to due to the dominance of dispensationalism in our present culture.

I’m not sure if any of my words have answered your questions directly, but at least I’ve given you more food for thought and some good resources. I can tell you’ve given this much thought over the years.

Mike K – Thank you for the quick reply! You did answer my question, yes. These are questions I have been asking dispensationalists for years, usually to the outcome of decrying me an unbeliever. I am usually called a heretic because I am not convinced of a premillennial Rapture. I am much more of an amillennialist.

Preterism has its pros, but also many cons. I tend toward viewing things in terms of both preterism and prophetic yet-to-be’s. I approach the strong man passage similarly. Likewise I view the destruction of the Temple in 70 AD as a partial return of Christ. Yet His return is not complete.

Thanks for sharing! I feel truly blessed to discuss such weighty matters with trust and calm – contrary to how most people discuss them.

Dave – Great, glad I helped. It is interesting that they label and judge you with such unfair fierceness because their founder, John Darby, did the same thing when guys like Spurgeon opposed his views. I’ve seen a similar thing rise up out of a good friend of mine, but I have gone out of my way to keep our brotherly love in tact, thank God. Unfortunately, men such a Cyrus Scofield, who was not known for high moral character, embraced Darby’s views so much that he translated the Bible with that bias and actually changed verses to fit his beliefs. Not good. The most prominent one was Revelation 7:14 when he added the word “the” in front of “great tribulation.” In truth, the Bible speaks only of tribulations and great tribulation that some believers experience. “The great tribulation” is a manufactured idea from Darby and Scofield.

Feedback:

Cindi L – I had to look up all these words preterist, amillennialism, dispensationalism just to get a handle on what you guys were saying! I know I’ve been exposed to a lot of this information but I didn’t know the names…whew. Dave – you are an ever increasing resource for me. I appreciate the vastness of your knowledge and energy of research. You have a great spirit because you allow God to be God in your life and others. Thanks for your humble and loving approach, you know how to keep before the Lord and I love how God really cares more about how we love (and TRULY LIKE) one another with differing views – especially on deep and somewhat veiled, mysterious topics. It is wonderful to think on these things and I love the amount of resources you always share for anyone to search out. Love you.

Alona R – I thank you for sending in Mike’s question answered and discussed with those references.

Jude’s Author

Ruth D – Is the book of JUDE written by Jesus brother?

Dave – Yes, Jude was the brother of James the Just who was the son of Mary and Joseph. James was martyred in 62 AD (or maybe 69 AD).

Ruth D – When did Jesus get supernatural powers? I believe Jesus knew he had supernatural powers right from the beginning, he is God. He wanted to fulfill the Scripture, when it was his time. I believe he was tempted so many times, but being a perfect human he was able to resist, even as a child. When he was just 12 years old he said,”I am about my father business.” I betcha he was praying as soon as he started talking. His first word was probably “ABBA’.

Dave to Ruth – When did Jesus get His supernatural powers? There have been silly fables passed down over the years about Jesus doing miracles as a little boy. One was that He made some birds out of clay, then clapped His hands and they came alive and flew away. Another had Him sliding down a beam of light when coming down off a rooftop. Uh…I don’t think so. What does make sense is that He received the power just after He was baptized by John the Baptist in the River Jordan. Why?

  1. The is no Scriptural (authoritative, reliable) source stating He had them before.
  2. The nature of these 3 sudden temptations, which explains why the Holy Spirit led Jesus out into the wilderness and had Him fasting immediately after His baptism. The Spirit knew something big was coming and He had to prepare Jesus to face it.
  3. Put yourself in Jesus’ shoes. If you got His powers suddenly, don’t you think you would hear thoughts just like the 3 temptations? “Hey, man, you don’t have to work for food anymore, you can just snap your fingers and there it will be!” “Hey Messiah, make a circus show of yourself by falling down 100 feet and survive without a scratch – you’ll be the toast of the town!” (Eat your heart out David Blaine and David Copperfield). “You can have the whole world paying you homage, just do it my way (worship me).” Therefore, the very nature of the temptations seems to reveal not only what powers were given to Jesus, but also when. If Jesus had these powers earlier in life, I am sure the devil would have come to Him then. One does not possess powers like Jesus for years and not be tempted to use them wrongly.

Ruth D – After making this statement, I began to really think about this. I think Jesus knew he was God right from the get go, but he did not receive his powers until the Holy Spirit descended upon him, when he was baptized. This brings up another question, were the disciples baptized? We know Jesus gave them the power to heal, and cast out demons.

Dave – Although the Bible does not speak of the Apostles being water baptized, I think it is safe to assume that they were.

Regarding Jesus’ knowledge of who He was, it is difficult to say to what extent. At age 12, He certainly must have been aware that He was someone very special because when His parents were looking for Him, He said to them, “Didn’t you know that I would about My Father’s business” and He was astonishing grown men with His questions and answers (I always wanted to know what He was saying then). I tend to think He had a gradual revelation about being the Savior of the world, mostly because, as a real human being, He had to gradually learn His language of the day. In other words, how could He know things about himself without knowing any words yet? So perhaps by age 12 He had full knowledge. The knowledge of how He would save souls is another issue. Perhaps the knowledge of the Cross gradually came to Him growing up as well, or perhaps at His baptism. In the end, all this is not very important, but folks like you and me do really wonder about things like this. 🙂

Feedback:

Gary R – Brother Dave, Nice work very enlightening. I appreciate all the hard work you do on our behalf.

Cindi L – This was very good dialog. I have often wondered this myself – gradual awareness seems likely – just on pure cognitive development alone (to me).

When He was tempted in the wilderness, angels did minister to him after – I do think that solidified any speculation after this point. He clearly knew the Plan from that point onward as he tried to tell the disciples prophetically how he would die, etc.

I also agree that I tend to believe he received his powers after Baptism as we don’t hear of explicit miracles until the wedding…as a young person expounding on Scriptures He obviously had gifts of wisdom and discernment (and He spoke with authority) and operated with these (natural or supernatural could be argued, I guess). Thanks for bringing it up, Ruth D.

 

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