# Best of BAM: Was Israel Commanded to Commit Genocide? with Matthew Flannagan, and Q&A

An episode of [Bible Answer Man Podcast with Hank Hanegraaff](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/569236334), 17 Oct 2026, 28 min.

Audio: https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/api.spreaker.com/download/episode/75830224/bambof20261017.mp3

On today’s Bible Answer Man broadcast, Hank interviews Matthew Flannagan, co-author of the article “Was Israel Commanded to Commit Genocide?” in the Christian Research Journal. Hank also answers the following questions: My daughter died in a car accident. I know she believed in Jesus, but I don’t know if she prayed the sinner’s prayer. Will she go to heaven? Sandy - VA (15:10) How did Moses write Genesis since he lived long after the events it chronicles? Robin - TX (17:22) Did people actually live over 900 years in Genesis? Robin - TX (19:37) Please explain Jesus’ teachings on worshipping in spirit and truth? George - Tampa, FL (21:02) Can you explain the doctrine of election? Stephanie - Nashville, TN (22:34)

## Transcript

[0:07] Speaker 1: From the Christian Research Institute in Charlotte, North Carolina, you're
[0:11] Speaker 1: listening to the best of the Bible Answer Man broadcast
[0:14] Speaker 1: with Hank Hanegraaff. We're on the air because life and
[0:18] Speaker 1: truth matter. The mission of the Christian Research Institute is
[0:22] Speaker 1: to equip believers to answer life's essential questions soundly and persuasively,
[0:28] Speaker 1: and to give the reason for the hope that you
[0:30] Speaker 1: have with gentleness and respect. For more information, go online
[0:34] Speaker 1: to equip.org. The following program was pre-recorded. And now, here's
[0:41] Speaker 1: Bible Answer Man host, Hank Hanegraaff.
[0:44] Speaker 2: We'll be going to our questions in just a little bit,
[0:47] Speaker 2: but I want to spend just a few moments talking
[0:50] Speaker 2: to a very important author of an article within the
[0:54] Speaker 2: Christian Research Journal titled, Was Israel Commanded to Commit Genocide? Dr.
[1:00] Speaker 2: Matthew Flanagan. And the reason I've asked Dr. Matthew Flanagan
[1:04] Speaker 2: to join me on the broadcast today is this is
[1:06] Speaker 2: a canard that is brought up over and over again.
[1:10] Speaker 2: If God instructs his people to commit genocide, then God
[1:16] Speaker 2: cannot be worthy of worship. Either that or the Bible
[1:20] Speaker 2: is not the infallible repository of redemptive revelation. And yet,
[1:24] Speaker 2: this is precisely what we read in the Bible. In
[1:28] Speaker 2: the cities of these people, the people that your Lord
[1:31] Speaker 2: has So not only is Joshua instructed to kill all
[1:33] Speaker 2: the Canaanites, but the instruction comes directly from God. And
[1:37] Speaker 2: if that's true, why in the world could we as
[1:39] Speaker 2: Christians hold.
[2:00] Speaker 2: That the Bible is something sacred, that we ought to
[2:04] Speaker 2: obey the rules of the Bible, because the God of
[2:07] Speaker 2: the Bible obviously doesn't seem worthy of worship. Well, Dr.
[2:11] Speaker 2: Matthew Flanagan joins me. It's good to have you on
[2:14] Speaker 2: the broadcast.
[2:15] Speaker 3: It's great to be here, Hank. Thank you.
[2:17] Speaker 2: This is a canard that comes up over and over again,
[2:21] Speaker 2: that the God of Abram, Isaac, and Jacob is a
[2:24] Speaker 2: God who instructs his people to commit genocide and And
[2:29] Speaker 2: your response in the article is that we need to
[2:31] Speaker 2: know the difference between reading the Bible literally and literarily.
[2:37] Speaker 3: Yeah, correct. I mean, at least as we use the
[2:39] Speaker 3: words in modern English, we kind of have the idea,
[2:41] Speaker 3: if I said to you, you know, it's raining cats
[2:44] Speaker 3: and dogs outside, if I were to interpret that literally,
[2:46] Speaker 3: I would mean that there were cats and dogs falling
[2:48] Speaker 3: from the sky and hitting the ground. Now, obviously, that
[2:51] Speaker 3: would be a silly way of interpreting that phrase. We
[2:53] Speaker 3: understand that in English. We have idioms. We have figures
[2:56] Speaker 3: of speech. We have metaphors. We also have context where
[2:59] Speaker 3: we speak loosely. We have context where we exaggerate or
[3:02] Speaker 3: use hyperbole. So, for example, I might say to someone,
[3:06] Speaker 3: I might say to my kids, look, I've told you
[3:07] Speaker 3: a thousand times, clean the lounge up. No, I haven't
[3:09] Speaker 3: actually told them a thousand times. I mean, I've told
[3:11] Speaker 3: them a lot. So in context, literature and language can
[3:15] Speaker 3: take on different sort of meanings or nuances depending on
[3:18] Speaker 3: the context and where you're uttering that language. And so
[3:21] Speaker 3: the point with the Bible is we shouldn't approach it
[3:23] Speaker 3: assuming that that every single phrase in it is meant
[3:27] Speaker 3: to be taken literally in the way I just elaborated it.
[3:30] Speaker 3: You have to say, okay, what kind of literature is this?
[3:33] Speaker 3: What is the author of this text doing with that
[3:36] Speaker 3: language in this context? And we don't in normal communication
[3:39] Speaker 3: do that. We don't in normal communication assume that everything
[3:42] Speaker 3: somebody says to us is 100% literal. I mean, I
[3:45] Speaker 3: just gave some examples before. You know, we don't do
[3:48] Speaker 3: that when we read a text. We don't normally assume
[3:50] Speaker 3: that there's absolutely everything in here is 100%. precisely literal,
[3:54] Speaker 3: there's no loose language, there's no exaggeration, there's no hyperbole,
[3:57] Speaker 3: there's no figures of speech. In fact, people who write
[4:00] Speaker 3: that way are dead boring. So the point is that
[4:02] Speaker 3: the Bible is a piece of literature and you have
[4:04] Speaker 3: to read what a passage says and what it's articulating
[4:08] Speaker 3: and what have you in that kind of context in
[4:11] Speaker 3: which it comes and understand that it's a piece of
[4:14] Speaker 3: literature and you have to take into account the kind
[4:16] Speaker 3: of context and the type of literature you're dealing with
[4:18] Speaker 3: and deal with it that way.
[4:20] Speaker 2: So genre is very important, but you're also pointing out
[4:23] Speaker 2: in your piece in the Christian Research Journal that some
[4:26] Speaker 2: of these things ought to be obvious. I mean, a
[4:28] Speaker 2: lot of people call in and they say, well, how
[4:31] Speaker 2: am I supposed to know what to take literally and
[4:33] Speaker 2: what not to take literally? But you're saying, particularly with
[4:36] Speaker 2: this issue of genocide of nations, you're saying the contrast
[4:41] Speaker 2: between utter destruction and leaving ample survivors is fairly obvious.
[4:46] Speaker 2: So the context itself lets you know that There is
[4:50] Speaker 2: hyperbole at work here.
[4:52] Speaker 4: Right, yeah.
[4:52] Speaker 3: I mean, probably the best place to look at this
[4:54] Speaker 3: is in the book of Joshua. One of the problems
[4:56] Speaker 3: is we read the book of Joshua today as a
[4:59] Speaker 3: series of verses broken up by chapters. But, of course,
[5:02] Speaker 3: the original book wasn't written that way. And, of course,
[5:05] Speaker 3: it also comes as part of what theologians call the canon.
[5:08] Speaker 3: It comes as part of a series of books which
[5:11] Speaker 3: spell out Israel's history right from the exodus up to
[5:13] Speaker 3: the exile and restoration. So it's a segment. It's one
[5:17] Speaker 3: book and a segment of other books. and in itself
[5:19] Speaker 3: is a whole book. Now, if you read right through
[5:23] Speaker 3: that book, even a surface reading, but it's just a
[5:26] Speaker 3: careful reading, you'll note that in the first few chapters,
[5:29] Speaker 3: chapter 6 to 11, it emphasizes repeatedly various places which
[5:33] Speaker 3: Joshua went in, and it says, he put to death
[5:36] Speaker 3: all the inhabitants of the sword. He slew every single
[5:38] Speaker 3: one of them. He left no survivors. He conquered the
[5:40] Speaker 3: whole land. you know, as God had commanded him, you know,
[5:43] Speaker 3: it says God, and this little language, and it says,
[5:46] Speaker 3: and it repeats over and over again, there were none
[5:48] Speaker 3: left to breathe, all of them were killed, and so
[5:49] Speaker 3: on and so on. And then a chapter later, and
[5:52] Speaker 3: then it says he did this, he conquered the entire land,
[5:54] Speaker 3: and he gave the land to the Israelites. And then
[5:56] Speaker 3: the rest of the book spells out Joshua giving the
[5:59] Speaker 3: land to those people, and he starts off by saying,
[6:01] Speaker 3: there's still plenty of land to conquer, and he gives
[6:04] Speaker 3: it to this tribe, and that tribe find that their
[6:06] Speaker 3: land is full of Canaanites, and they they struggle to
[6:08] Speaker 3: drive it out. And this tribe here finds that the
[6:11] Speaker 3: area they've been given is full of Canaanites, and they
[6:13] Speaker 3: struggle to drive it out. And this is then the
[6:15] Speaker 3: constant repetition of the second half of the book. And
[6:18] Speaker 3: then when you get into Judges, which is in the
[6:20] Speaker 3: first chapter, you see the same thing again. The land
[6:22] Speaker 3: is full of Canaanites, and they're trying to drive them out,
[6:24] Speaker 3: and they can't. So if you were just to look
[6:27] Speaker 3: at the central themes, you find the central themes of
[6:30] Speaker 3: the book, the first half and the second half, if
[6:32] Speaker 3: you take them both literally, simply don't compete with one another,
[6:36] Speaker 3: By the time you get to chapter 11, if you've
[6:38] Speaker 3: read that literally, Joshua's conquered the entire land and there's
[6:40] Speaker 3: nobody left. And then he gives that land to the Israelites.
[6:43] Speaker 3: But then the second half says that land that he's
[6:45] Speaker 3: given to the Israelites is full of people. But even
[6:47] Speaker 3: if you read the battles carefully themselves, the Battle of
[6:49] Speaker 3: Ai is a good example. The Battle of Ai talks
[6:52] Speaker 3: about how every single man from Bethel and Ai were
[6:56] Speaker 3: sent in pursuit when Joshua claimed his retreat. And then
[6:59] Speaker 3: it says that Joshua's turned around and they got caught
[7:02] Speaker 3: between the soldiers and none escaped. And then immediately after that,
[7:06] Speaker 3: it says, and those who escaped, they went out, caught
[7:09] Speaker 3: them all, and none survived. And then immediately after that,
[7:12] Speaker 3: it says, and then they went into the city of
[7:13] Speaker 3: Ai and killed all the men that were in there.
[7:16] Speaker 3: You know, in the middle of Joshua 10, you have
[7:19] Speaker 3: this kind of language of wiping everyone out. And then
[7:21] Speaker 3: it has one part where it says, they went and
[7:23] Speaker 3: killed them all, and then the survivors escaped to the city.
[7:26] Speaker 3: You know, and at the start of the book of Judges,
[7:28] Speaker 3: you see the same thing. There's the... city of Jerusalem
[7:31] Speaker 3: or the Jezebelites, and it talked twice in that chapter,
[7:34] Speaker 3: that city is attacked. The first time it says it's attacked,
[7:36] Speaker 3: everyone is killed. And then a few verses later, it's
[7:38] Speaker 3: talking about how many people are in there and they
[7:40] Speaker 3: have to take it over again. So if you just
[7:43] Speaker 3: read the text, you know, without sort of any sort
[7:46] Speaker 3: of knowledge of ancient Near Eastern background or literary tropes
[7:49] Speaker 3: or whatever from that particular culture, immediate questions arise as
[7:53] Speaker 3: to what is going on here. Now, this author has
[7:56] Speaker 3: put stark contrasts into this text into the same book,
[8:01] Speaker 3: right next to one another in the canon. And that
[8:03] Speaker 3: should lead us to ask the question, well, what's really
[8:05] Speaker 3: going on here? And to sort of approach it and
[8:08] Speaker 3: just sort of literally, it's almost to sort of say, well,
[8:10] Speaker 3: we're going to side with this passage, these ones here
[8:12] Speaker 3: that are literal, and we're going to ignore the rest.
[8:14] Speaker 2: Of the text.
[8:15] Speaker 3: Well, you know, if you're going to be selective, why
[8:17] Speaker 3: select that way? It's almost like the person is choosing
[8:20] Speaker 3: to read those passages as the sort of dominant ones,
[8:23] Speaker 3: the important ones, and discounting all the qualifications in which
[8:26] Speaker 3: those statements come.
[8:28] Speaker 2: And it is therefore critically important that Christians in particular
[8:32] Speaker 2: not only learn how to take the kinds of invective
[8:38] Speaker 2: leveled against the Bible and use it as an opportunity
[8:40] Speaker 2: to share the truth and love and grace that the
[8:42] Speaker 2: God of the Bible really extends to people, but it's
[8:45] Speaker 2: a matter of learning as believers to read the Bible
[8:49] Speaker 2: for all its worth, to mine the Bible for all
[8:52] Speaker 2: its wealth. I mean, God unequivocally commanded Israel to treat
[8:56] Speaker 2: the aliens living among them with respect and equality, and
[9:00] Speaker 2: foreigners living among the Israelites were allowed to celebrate Passover.
[9:04] Speaker 2: They benefited from an agrarian system of welfare, and they
[9:08] Speaker 2: enjoyed full legal protection. And so we know in context
[9:14] Speaker 2: that this is not the obliteration of the wicked as
[9:18] Speaker 2: much as the obliteration of wickedness that's going on.
[9:22] Speaker 3: Sure. And I mean, even the passage you read at
[9:24] Speaker 3: the start of the show, Hank, I mean, it said
[9:27] Speaker 3: there at the very start, in the cities, in the
[9:29] Speaker 3: land I am giving you. Now, the previous passage has
[9:32] Speaker 3: just spelled out, don't do this in the cities outside
[9:34] Speaker 3: of you. You know, so even when people like Christopher
[9:37] Speaker 3: Hitchens or whatever say, oh, the Bible teaches us to
[9:39] Speaker 3: commit genocide, even if you were to take those passages literally,
[9:43] Speaker 3: it's not a command. to all people everywhere in every
[9:46] Speaker 3: military situation, go out and kill everyone. You know, even
[9:49] Speaker 3: taken literally to a very qualified statement that's saying, in
[9:52] Speaker 3: this particular battle, I want you to do this. Now,
[9:55] Speaker 3: the irony coming from Christopher Hitchens here is that Christopher
[9:58] Speaker 3: Hitchens has, you know, written articles defending, you know, Churchill's
[10:03] Speaker 3: aerial bombing of German cities in World War II. I mean,
[10:05] Speaker 3: I found an article the other day where he was
[10:07] Speaker 3: criticizing something Pat Buchanan wrote, and he was talking about how,
[10:10] Speaker 3: you know, we know, given how evil the Nazis were,
[10:13] Speaker 3: that it was, we needed to do this aerial bombing,
[10:15] Speaker 3: which killed lots of civilians, you know. Now, Does that
[10:19] Speaker 3: mean that Christopher Hitchens supports genociding every single person in
[10:23] Speaker 3: the world? That he hates all German people and foreigners?
[10:26] Speaker 5: No.
[10:26] Speaker 3: What he's arguing there is he's saying in a particular
[10:28] Speaker 3: military context, I think this was necessary. Now, we can
[10:31] Speaker 3: agree or disagree with him on that, but it would
[10:34] Speaker 3: be really uncharitable to sort of take that statement and
[10:37] Speaker 3: then say that it wasn't qualified in the context that
[10:40] Speaker 3: it was. Even if you take the passage literally... You're
[10:43] Speaker 3: quite right. It would at most say, in this particular
[10:46] Speaker 3: military context, and then you'd have all these other passages
[10:48] Speaker 3: around it which say, in general, when you're dealing with foreigners,
[10:51] Speaker 3: treat them this way. In general, when you're dealing with
[10:53] Speaker 3: other people, treat them this way. So again, it's about
[10:56] Speaker 3: reading these things in their context and not letting people
[10:58] Speaker 3: exaggerate or pull passages out of their context and sort
[11:02] Speaker 3: of run off with urban legends about what they say.
[11:05] Speaker 2: Dr. Matthew Flanagan, thank you so much for your contribution
[11:08] Speaker 2: to the broadcast today and to the Christian Research Journal.
[11:12] Speaker 2: God bless you. We'll be right back.
[11:14] Speaker 1: To find out more about the materials mentioned on the show,
[11:17] Speaker 1: call a CRI resource consultant toll-free at 888-7000-CRI. That's 888-7000-CRI.
[11:28] Speaker 1: Our website is also an excellent reference destination to help you.
[11:32] Speaker 1: Just go to equip.org and find articles by Hank, books, CDs,
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[11:47] Speaker 1: North Carolina, ZIP 28271. The Bible Answer Man will continue
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[12:16] Speaker 1: Lord warned that while the gate to hell is wide,
[12:19] Speaker 1: the road to it broad, and those who enter through
[12:22] Speaker 1: it are many, the gate is narrow and the way
[12:25] Speaker 1: is hard that leads to life, and those who find
[12:27] Speaker 1: it are few. Your generous support lets Hank Hanegraaff and
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[13:01] Speaker 1: Anyone who's been paying attention knows there's a war going on,
[13:04] Speaker 1: not just on traditional morality, civility, and decency, but even
[13:09] Speaker 1: more fundamentally on historic notions of truth. And the enemy
[13:12] Speaker 1: isn't just the onslaught of fake news facilitated by a
[13:16] Speaker 1: post-truth culture and turbocharged by growing legions of ideological spin doctors. No,
[13:21] Speaker 1: the real enemies of truth range from post-modernist convictions that
[13:25] Speaker 1: there is no objective truth, to militant scientism that claims
[13:29] Speaker 1: that only science can determine truth and religion is little
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[13:53] Speaker 1: simply visit equip.org. The Complete Bible Answer Book Collector's Edition
[14:03] Speaker 1: is the comprehensive collection of the most often asked questions
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[15:07] Speaker 1: And now, here's Hank Hanegraaff.
[15:09] Speaker 2: Thank you very much, Randy. And we'll go from Randy
[15:11] Speaker 2: to Sandy, listening in Virginia. Hi, Sandy.
[15:14] Speaker 4: Hi.
[15:15] Speaker 6: I have a question that I don't think I'm unusual having.
[15:19] Speaker 6: My daughter was killed two years ago. A semi-truck driver
[15:24] Speaker 6: took his eyes off the road for a little bit.
[15:27] Speaker 6: And I know she believed in the Lord, and I
[15:29] Speaker 6: know she believed in Jesus Christ, but I don't know
[15:32] Speaker 6: if she prayed the full prayer. And my question is,
[15:38] Speaker 6: if that didn't happen, is she barred from helping?
[15:42] Speaker 2: Well, remember, Sandy, that God is not looking for technicalities
[15:46] Speaker 2: to keep people out of his presence. He did all
[15:50] Speaker 2: that could possibly be done so that we might be
[15:55] Speaker 2: reconciled to him for time and for eternity. The only
[16:00] Speaker 2: people who will be kept out of his presence are
[16:03] Speaker 2: those who do not want to relationship with him. And
[16:08] Speaker 2: I think it's important to recognize that it's not the
[16:10] Speaker 2: absence of knowledge that damns, it's the despising of knowledge
[16:15] Speaker 2: that damns. So I don't think it is incumbent upon
[16:19] Speaker 2: someone to have an absolute pristine formula, and you have
[16:23] Speaker 2: to be able to parrot that formula in a certain
[16:25] Speaker 2: way in order to be saved. I think that you
[16:28] Speaker 2: have to respond to the light that you've been given.
[16:31] Speaker 2: And the light that we are given is communicated by
[16:34] Speaker 2: Paul in Romans, the light of creation, an outer light,
[16:37] Speaker 2: the light of conscience, an inner light. And if we
[16:40] Speaker 2: respond to the light of creation from without and conscience
[16:44] Speaker 2: from within, then we will also receive the light of
[16:48] Speaker 2: Jesus Christ as Paul delineates in Romans chapter 3. So
[16:54] Speaker 2: I think that you, based on what you communicated in
[16:57] Speaker 2: the prologue to your question, can be certain that your daughter...
[17:00] Speaker 2: is absent from the body, present with the Lord, and
[17:03] Speaker 2: awaiting the greatest of all eventualities, that is, the time
[17:07] Speaker 2: that Jesus appears a second time and puts all things
[17:11] Speaker 2: to right. Then there'll be no more death or mourning
[17:15] Speaker 2: or crying or pain, for the older things will have
[17:18] Speaker 2: passed away. Behold, all things have become new. I want
[17:21] Speaker 2: to go back to the phone lines, talk to Robin
[17:24] Speaker 2: in Texas, listening on the web. Hi, Robin.
[17:27] Speaker 7: How are you doing, Hank? Thanks for taking my call.
[17:28] Speaker 2: Pleasure.
[17:30] Speaker 7: My question is, I guess I have two questions. The
[17:34] Speaker 7: first one is, I know, like, Moses is the one
[17:38] Speaker 7: that's supposed to have written Genesis, but he, like, he
[17:41] Speaker 7: lived so far after it. I was wondering how they know, like,
[17:45] Speaker 7: if the Bible mentions anywhere, if there's, like, some kind
[17:48] Speaker 7: of history anywhere on, was it revolution, or was it
[17:51] Speaker 7: passed down through to tradition, or just how did he
[17:55] Speaker 7: know so much of that history to write Genesis?
[17:58] Speaker 2: Yeah, well, it was a cultivated oral tradition. I mean, post-Gutenberg,
[18:03] Speaker 2: we're primarily people of the printed page. As the offspring
[18:07] Speaker 2: of Johannes Gutenberg and more recently Steve Jobs and Bill Gates,
[18:11] Speaker 2: we associate sound education with the capacity for reading and
[18:15] Speaker 2: writing rather than memorizing and reciting. But that's not the
[18:19] Speaker 2: way it was with the ancients. In a predominantly oral culture,
[18:24] Speaker 2: people practiced the principles of memory. and learning was virtually
[18:29] Speaker 2: synonymous with memorization. Therefore, although the ancients did have written records,
[18:37] Speaker 2: the right emphasis was not on manuscript repositories, but rather
[18:42] Speaker 2: mental recall. And so I think we can safely say
[18:46] Speaker 2: that Moses spoke about a lot of things he knew
[18:49] Speaker 2: of firsthand. He was an eyewitness to the Exodus, for example,
[18:53] Speaker 2: but he also was able to under the guidance of
[18:58] Speaker 2: the Holy Spirit, the Bible was written by men as
[19:00] Speaker 2: they were carried along by the Holy Spirit, he was
[19:03] Speaker 2: able to communicate a cultivated oral tradition which had been
[19:07] Speaker 2: passed down to him as well. It was quite possible
[19:11] Speaker 2: that Moses also drew from, as I said, written sources.
[19:16] Speaker 2: And therefore, when you read Genesis, you find that Moses
[19:21] Speaker 2: employs the language of this is the account of. and
[19:25] Speaker 2: that's why I also underscore the fact that there were
[19:29] Speaker 2: manuscript repositories as well as mental recall upon which Moses
[19:34] Speaker 2: would have relied.
[19:36] Speaker 7: Okay, that's good, and I guess my second question is,
[19:39] Speaker 7: I think I've heard you talk about this before, but
[19:42] Speaker 7: I don't remember what the answer was. But do you
[19:47] Speaker 7: believe that the ages of those people, the people who
[19:52] Speaker 7: live 900 plus years, is that literal, 900 plus years?
[19:56] Speaker 7: Or is that like, I don't know. I mean, I
[19:58] Speaker 7: don't know if there's any other way to take it, but.
[20:01] Speaker 2: Yeah, I think that certainly prior to the flood, you
[20:05] Speaker 2: have the ancients living a long period of time. But also,
[20:09] Speaker 2: there are changes in the length that people live, and
[20:14] Speaker 2: those changes are notated in the Bible in a pretty
[20:17] Speaker 2: direct way, that because of our sin, because of our
[20:23] Speaker 2: separation from God, because of the accumulated imperfections that grow
[20:28] Speaker 2: up over time genetically, the Bible states that the life
[20:33] Speaker 2: of man will be three score and ten years, or
[20:37] Speaker 2: if by reason of strength, four score years, which is
[20:40] Speaker 2: 70 or 80 years. But again, the Bible just gives
[20:43] Speaker 2: that as an average. And there are a lot of
[20:46] Speaker 2: explanations that have been given as to why that occurs,
[20:51] Speaker 2: including some of the explanations I just gave in the
[20:53] Speaker 2: prologue to the answer, but there are many other explanations
[20:56] Speaker 2: that are given for it as well.
[20:57] Speaker 7: All right. Well, thank you very much, then.
[21:00] Speaker 2: You got it. Thank you so much for your call.
[21:02] Speaker 2: Back to the phone lines. We'll talk next to George
[21:07] Speaker 2: listening in Tampa, Florida on the World Wide Web. Hi, George.
[21:11] Speaker 3: Hi, sir.
[21:11] Speaker 5: How are you doing today?
[21:12] Speaker 1: Good.
[21:13] Speaker 2: How are you?
[21:14] Speaker 5: I'm doing good. My question stems from the passage where
[21:20] Speaker 5: Jesus is talking to the woman at the well, and
[21:23] Speaker 5: he talks about worshiping in spirit and in truth. And
[21:27] Speaker 5: as I was reading that the question comes to mind,
[21:31] Speaker 5: what is the definition of spirit, and what does it
[21:35] Speaker 5: mean to worship in spirit?
[21:38] Speaker 2: Well, remember, we have not received the spirit of the world,
[21:42] Speaker 2: but we have received the spirit who is from God,
[21:45] Speaker 2: so that we might, as Paul puts it, understand what
[21:49] Speaker 2: God has freely given to us. And this is the
[21:55] Speaker 2: essence of what it means to be one who walks
[21:58] Speaker 2: in in spirit, and in truth. And that can be
[22:02] Speaker 2: taken a lot of different ways, because truth is that
[22:05] Speaker 2: which corresponds to reality on the one hand, but the
[22:08] Speaker 2: Word of God is communicated as truth, and Jesus Christ
[22:12] Speaker 2: recognized himself not only as the way, but as the
[22:17] Speaker 2: very personification of truth. So to walk in spirit and
[22:22] Speaker 2: in truth is to walk in the power and knowledge
[22:26] Speaker 2: of of the one who spoke and the universe leapt
[22:28] Speaker 2: into existence.
[22:30] Speaker 1: Okay. All right.
[22:32] Speaker 3: Thank you.
[22:33] Speaker 2: You got it. Want to go back to the phone lines?
[22:34] Speaker 2: Let's talk to Stephanie listening in Nashville, Tennessee. Hi, Stephanie.
[22:39] Speaker 1: Hi, Hank.
[22:41] Speaker 2: How are you?
[22:42] Speaker 4: I'm doing well, thanks. I had a question regarding the
[22:46] Speaker 4: doctrine of election. I guess I'm kind of on the
[22:52] Speaker 4: fence as far as If I'm interpreting it correctly, just
[22:58] Speaker 4: I'm assuming it means that there are a select friar
[23:04] Speaker 4: that God has already chosen. So I'm guessing like if
[23:09] Speaker 4: anyone ever, you know, quote unquote says, I came to Christ,
[23:12] Speaker 4: they were already elected to come to Christ. It wasn't
[23:14] Speaker 4: anything that someone has said or done or ministered to us.
[23:18] Speaker 2: Well, that's not really how I hold to the doctrine
[23:21] Speaker 2: of election. I hold to Christocentric election, which is to
[23:24] Speaker 2: say that Christ is the elect one, and we are
[23:26] Speaker 2: elect by being in Christ. So if you think about
[23:30] Speaker 2: it this way, Abraham, according to the Bible, only had
[23:33] Speaker 2: one seed, and that seed is Jesus Christ. So he
[23:37] Speaker 2: is the elect one. He is the one chosen before
[23:40] Speaker 2: the foundations of the world. But if you read Galatians
[23:44] Speaker 2: chapter 3 and its context, you realize that If you
[23:48] Speaker 2: are in Christ, then you are the seed of Abraham
[23:50] Speaker 2: and an heir according to the promise, whether you're Jew
[23:52] Speaker 2: or whether you're Greek, whether you're male or whether you're female,
[23:55] Speaker 2: whether you're slave or whether you're free. So it doesn't
[23:58] Speaker 2: matter about your station in life or whether you're a
[24:01] Speaker 2: male or a female, your gender or your nationality. If
[24:06] Speaker 2: you are in Christ, then you are true Israel. You
[24:09] Speaker 2: are the seed of Abraham and an heir according to
[24:13] Speaker 2: the promises of God. So the elect are all those
[24:17] Speaker 2: who embrace Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord of their life.
[24:22] Speaker 2: So I don't hold to the notion of compatibilistic freedom
[24:27] Speaker 2: or circumstantial freedom or the attendant notion that you have
[24:32] Speaker 2: to be regenerated and only the elect are regenerated before
[24:37] Speaker 2: you can exercise faith. I believe that if, in fact,
[24:41] Speaker 2: you will, you can respond faithfully to the wooing of
[24:46] Speaker 2: the Holy Spirit and receive Jesus Christ as Savior and
[24:49] Speaker 2: Lord of your life.
[24:51] Speaker 5: Okay, thank you.
[24:53] Speaker 4: That answered my question.
[24:54] Speaker 2: You got it. Thank you so much for your call, Stephanie.
[24:56] Speaker 2: We are unfortunately out of time for this edition of
[24:59] Speaker 2: the Bible Answer Man broadcast, except to say that this
[25:02] Speaker 2: is a ministry that needs your support. We ask people
[25:07] Speaker 2: who can to stand with this ministry prayerfully and financially
[25:10] Speaker 2: because they love the ring of truth. If you join
[25:13] Speaker 2: the support team, I'll send you a personalized copy of
[25:16] Speaker 2: the complete Bible Answer Book Collector's Edition. You can check
[25:19] Speaker 2: it out on the web at equip.org, but we need
[25:21] Speaker 2: many of you to join the support team, join a
[25:26] Speaker 2: team of people making a difference, not just for time,
[25:29] Speaker 2: but also for eternity. We thank you for your prayers,
[25:34] Speaker 2: for your commitment to Jesus Christ, and for working with
[25:38] Speaker 2: us to make a difference.
[25:40] Speaker 1: Thank you for joining us for the Bible Answer Man broadcast.
[25:44] Speaker 1: In today's post-truth culture of confusion, the Christian Research Institute
[25:49] Speaker 1: exists to equip listeners like you with answers to communicate
[25:53] Speaker 1: the gospel of hope to a world in desperate need
[25:56] Speaker 1: of life and truth, because life and truth matter. In
[26:02] Speaker 1: addition to truth, we want to equip you with life,
[26:05] Speaker 1: not simply to know about God, but truly to know Him.
[26:10] Speaker 1: Experiencing union with Christ enables us to live life not
[26:14] Speaker 1: merely by our own energy, but with the energy of
[26:17] Speaker 1: the Lord Jesus working powerfully through us. For more information,
[26:22] Speaker 1: call 888-7000-CRI. That's 888-7000-CRI. You can also write CRI at
[26:24] Speaker 1: Post Office Box 8500, Charlotte, North Carolina, 28271. or just
[26:39] Speaker 1: visit us online at equip.org. That's equip.org. The Bible Answer
[26:47] Speaker 1: Man broadcast is funded by listeners like you. We're on
[26:50] Speaker 1: the air because life and truth matter. Dr. Evan Alexander's
[27:05] Speaker 1: wildly popular near-death experience book, Proof of Heaven, assures us
[27:09] Speaker 1: that no matter what we do in this life, only
[27:12] Speaker 1: unconditional love and joy await us in the world to come.
[27:16] Speaker 1: But our Lord warned that while the gate to hell
[27:18] Speaker 1: is wide, the road to it broad, and those who
[27:21] Speaker 1: enter through it are many, the gate is narrow and
[27:24] Speaker 1: the way is hard that leads to life, and those
[27:27] Speaker 1: who find it are few. Your generous support lets Hank
[27:30] Speaker 1: Hanegraaff and CRI speak out against the lies that lead
[27:34] Speaker 1: to hell. In appreciation for your gift today, we'll rush
[27:38] Speaker 1: you Hank's book, Afterlife, what you need to know about heaven,
[27:41] Speaker 1: the hereafter, and near-death experiences, filled with answers to your
[27:46] Speaker 1: questions about life after death. Call 888-7000-CRI or visit equip.org now. Again,
[27:54] Speaker 1: that's equip.org.

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