# Being A Culturally Savvy Christian, and Q&A

An episode of [Bible Answer Man Podcast with Hank Hanegraaff](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/569236334), 20 Apr 2026, 28 min.

Audio: https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/api.spreaker.com/download/episode/71492484/bam20260420.mp3

On today’s Bible Answer Man broadcast (04/20/26), Hank shares on Dick Staub’s book, The Culturally Savvy Christian, and how you can be an effective ambassador for Christ. Hank also answers the following questions: Is it okay for Christians to get tattoos? Danny - Modesto, CA (4:36) Why was man forbidden to eat from the Tree of Knowledge? Jason - Graham, NC (6:10) What are the 7 angels, 2 witnesses, 42 weeks, and 3 1/2 years in the Book of Revelation? Mike - OK (15:41) What is the meaning of Matthew 7:6, where it says, “Do not give dogs what is sacred; do not throw your pearls to pigs”? Jeanie - KS (20:29) What is a good way to go through the Book of Zechariah, since it contains so much symbolism? Jeanie - KS (21:40)

## Transcript

[0:07] Speaker 1: From Charlotte, North Carolina. You're listening to the Bible answer
[0:11] Speaker 1: Man broadcast with Hank Hanagraph, president of the Christian Research Institute.
[0:16] Speaker 1: The reason the Bible answer Man is on the air
[0:18] Speaker 1: is to defend the Christian faith, proclaim the gospel of
[0:22] Speaker 1: our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, and to teach discipleship
[0:26] Speaker 1: to his followers because life and truth matter. For more
[0:30] Speaker 1: information or to order equipping resources, call eight eight eight
[0:34] Speaker 1: seven thousand CRII, which translates to eight eight eight seven
[0:39] Speaker 1: thousand two seven four, or go online to equip dot org.
[0:44] Speaker 1: That's equip dot org. The following program was pre recorded
[0:50] Speaker 1: and now here's your host, Hank Anagraph.
[0:53] Speaker 2: Thank you very much. Randy. In a couple of words
[0:55] Speaker 2: before we go to our callers about a book titled
[0:59] Speaker 2: The Culturally Savvy Christian. It's a manifesto for deepening faith
[1:04] Speaker 2: and enriching popular culture in an age of Christianity Light.
[1:09] Speaker 2: It's by my friend Dick Stob. It is available through
[1:12] Speaker 2: the Ministry of the Christian Research Institute when you log
[1:15] Speaker 2: into the webbit equipped DoD or Gore. When you talk
[1:18] Speaker 2: to our resource consultants at Triple eight seven thousand cri.
[1:23] Speaker 2: Remember that the moment you accepted Jesus Christ, you gained
[1:27] Speaker 2: a number of new titles. Child of the King, Heir
[1:34] Speaker 2: of the Eternal Kingdom, or here's one christ ambassador. It's
[1:41] Speaker 2: a dangerous assignment. Ambassadors to warn torn countries oftentimes become casualties.
[1:51] Speaker 2: And we're nothing if not spiritually at war with the
[1:55] Speaker 2: Prince of this world. Of course, it's safer to stay
[1:59] Speaker 2: at home, to stay within our own little Christian world.
[2:04] Speaker 2: Preaching to the choir, we can read only Christian books
[2:09] Speaker 2: and watch only Christian media, and of course make only
[2:15] Speaker 2: Christian friends, and then betray the one who touched lepers
[2:21] Speaker 2: eight with tax collectors and call it all of us
[2:26] Speaker 2: to follow in his footsteps. Where we can equip ourselves
[2:31] Speaker 2: to be in the world while refusing to be of
[2:35] Speaker 2: the world. We can steep ourselves in God's world so
[2:39] Speaker 2: that everywhere we look we discern the lives of our
[2:44] Speaker 2: culture against a backdrop of truth. And then we can
[2:49] Speaker 2: use what we know to speak to a lost world
[2:56] Speaker 2: in a language that a lost world will understand. I
[3:01] Speaker 2: pray constantly that every resource the Christian Research Institute produces
[3:06] Speaker 2: from the Bible answer ban broadcast to the Christian Research
[3:09] Speaker 2: Journal will equip people just like you to be ambassadors,
[3:14] Speaker 2: to let your light shine before others so that they
[3:18] Speaker 2: may see your good deeds and give glory to your
[3:21] Speaker 2: Father who is in heaven. And of course I'm deeply
[3:25] Speaker 2: grateful for your continued partnership to produce those resources. So
[3:31] Speaker 2: to thank you for your gift, I want to send
[3:33] Speaker 2: you one of the best books about discernment I've read
[3:36] Speaker 2: in recent history. It's Dick Stobbs The Culturally Savvy Christian.
[3:42] Speaker 2: Dick skillfully exposes the shallowness of contemporary pop culture and
[3:46] Speaker 2: how millions of Christians have been led astray. But it
[3:50] Speaker 2: goes beyond diagnosis to healing prescription to laying out practical
[3:56] Speaker 2: guidelines you and I can use to safely engage our
[3:59] Speaker 2: culture each and every day. He urges us, as good
[4:03] Speaker 2: ambassadors to understand the world we live in and to
[4:07] Speaker 2: transform that world, just as Jesus Christ transformed his. So
[4:11] Speaker 2: please send in your gift today to request your copy
[4:16] Speaker 2: of The Culturally Savvy Christian to help you become the
[4:20] Speaker 2: best ambassador for Jesus Christ that you can be again.
[4:24] Speaker 2: Check it out on the web at equipped dot org,
[4:26] Speaker 2: or just talk to our resource consultants at Triple eight
[4:29] Speaker 2: seven thousand, and the letters cur a lot of you
[4:33] Speaker 2: hanging on. We'll go right to our phone callers. First
[4:36] Speaker 2: up as Danny listening on the web in Modesta, California. Hi, Danny, Hi,
[4:40] Speaker 2: how are.
[4:41] Speaker 3: You doing heny.
[4:41] Speaker 4: I'm well, thank you, pleasure to talk to you.
[4:45] Speaker 5: And you just had a quick question regarding tattooing and
[4:51] Speaker 5: whether or not Christians should be engaged in that type
[4:54] Speaker 5: of activity after they are saved.
[4:57] Speaker 2: Yeah, interesting question. Remember that tattoos are mentioned only once
[5:02] Speaker 2: to my knowledge in the Bible, that's Leviticus chapter nineteen.
[5:06] Speaker 2: And if you read the context of that passage, you
[5:09] Speaker 2: see that God forbids the Israelites from wearing tattoos because
[5:14] Speaker 2: they were called to be separated from the practices of
[5:17] Speaker 2: the pagan cultures around them. So just like they didn't
[5:21] Speaker 2: need pork, they didn't have tattoos. Now you understand what
[5:26] Speaker 2: happened with respect to pork. Jesus said, it's not what
[5:29] Speaker 2: goes into a man's mouth and out through his body
[5:31] Speaker 2: that defiles him. It's that which proceeds from the heart.
[5:35] Speaker 2: And I think the same thing could be said with
[5:37] Speaker 2: respect to tattoos. If a tattoo is an identification with
[5:42] Speaker 2: pagan culture, it's a bad thing. If a tattoo is
[5:45] Speaker 2: a way of witnessing for Christ, it's a good thing.
[5:48] Speaker 2: So I think in any case, if you're going to
[5:51] Speaker 2: have a tattoo, which is in most cases fairly permanent,
[5:56] Speaker 2: I mean, they can be erased, but it's a difficult
[5:58] Speaker 2: process that you carefully examined the motives for having one.
[6:03] Speaker 5: Okay, well, thank you so much.
[6:07] Speaker 2: Hey, you got it, man, appreciate your call. I want
[6:09] Speaker 2: to go back to the phone lines now we'll talk
[6:12] Speaker 2: to Jason listening on the web in Graham, North Carolina.
[6:15] Speaker 2: Hi Jason, Hi Hank, thank you for taking my call. Pleasure.
[6:18] Speaker 6: Real quick, before I give you my question, I wanted
[6:20] Speaker 6: to let you know that most of my life I
[6:22] Speaker 6: was raised as Christian, considered myself a Christian as most
[6:25] Speaker 6: of my family does. It wasn't until last year that
[6:27] Speaker 6: I was a revolutionized by CRI and it's just completely
[6:31] Speaker 6: opened up and changed my world. Before then, I studied
[6:34] Speaker 6: the Bible topically and had never Honestly, I'm a shamed
[6:37] Speaker 6: to say, in three seven years I never read the
[6:39] Speaker 6: Bible straight through. So last year I finished the New
[6:42] Speaker 6: Testament and started the Old Testament, which is probably my question.
[6:45] Speaker 6: I'm just been blown away by what actually reading it
[6:47] Speaker 6: from front to end has done in my life.
[6:49] Speaker 2: Wow. Music to Jason.
[6:53] Speaker 6: I've been reading in Genesis and I got to the
[6:55] Speaker 6: end of chapter three in Genesis, and there's the first
[6:58] Speaker 6: year that I didn't really understand, And it's where it's
[7:01] Speaker 6: written that Adam and eating had chemists the knowledge of
[7:04] Speaker 6: good and evil, and so it says we can no
[7:06] Speaker 6: longer allow him to eat from the tree of life
[7:09] Speaker 6: because he's lived forever. I just didn't understand that whole
[7:11] Speaker 6: kind of three or four verse piece.
[7:14] Speaker 2: Yeah, well, what's going on in Genesis here is the
[7:18] Speaker 2: story of humankind deciding that they're going to be the
[7:23] Speaker 2: arbiters of that which is good and evil, which is
[7:27] Speaker 2: the prerogative of God alone. God says objectively what is
[7:32] Speaker 2: right and what is wrong. Man now takes on the
[7:37] Speaker 2: presumption of being able to determine good and evil for themselves,
[7:42] Speaker 2: and as a result of that choice, they fall into
[7:46] Speaker 2: lives or perpetual sin terminated by death. Why because they
[7:52] Speaker 2: violated the righteousness of an altogether holy God, and the
[7:58] Speaker 2: only way that they can eat from the Tree of
[8:02] Speaker 2: Life is not by themselves plucking the fruit and eating
[8:08] Speaker 2: and partaking of it, but rather through another righteousness, a
[8:13] Speaker 2: righteousness through whom alone we can be reconciled to a
[8:18] Speaker 2: holy God. And that is a righteousness that is offered
[8:22] Speaker 2: to us by Jesus Christ himself. That's why you see
[8:27] Speaker 2: the tree of life appearing again. In Revelation twenty two,
[8:32] Speaker 2: the Angel shows John the river of the Water of Life,
[8:35] Speaker 2: as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God
[8:38] Speaker 2: and of the Lamb. Down the middle of the great
[8:40] Speaker 2: street of the city. On each side of the river
[8:43] Speaker 2: stood the Tree of Life, bearing twelve crops of fruit,
[8:47] Speaker 2: yielding its fruit every month, and the leaves of the
[8:50] Speaker 2: tree are for the healing of the nations. The Tree
[8:53] Speaker 2: of Life again now becomes a perpetual reminder of the
[8:58] Speaker 2: fact that we were once alienated, but now reconciled to
[9:02] Speaker 2: God through the righteousness of Jesus Christ, who saves us
[9:07] Speaker 2: from alienation and reconciles us to a holy God through
[9:11] Speaker 2: his righteousness.
[9:13] Speaker 6: Thank you. And one last piece of that, would you
[9:16] Speaker 6: would we consider that parks. It seems very literal. I mean,
[9:19] Speaker 6: God's talking about two cherubs and a flaming sword, and
[9:23] Speaker 6: is that representative of something maybe I don't understand it,
[9:26] Speaker 6: or would we consider that literal for that time.
[9:28] Speaker 2: Well, you have to remember that you have a historical
[9:32] Speaker 2: narrative in Genesis, but the historical narrative is interlaced with
[9:38] Speaker 2: Hebrew poetry. So you have a lot of things which
[9:42] Speaker 2: you can take in a literal sense, but other things
[9:46] Speaker 2: that if you took in a literal sense you'd have
[9:49] Speaker 2: sheer nonsense. For example, did Jesus Christ defeat Satan by
[9:54] Speaker 2: stepping on the head of a snake? Or did he
[9:58] Speaker 2: defeat Satan by his passion on the cross? So the
[10:01] Speaker 2: serpent becomes not what Satan looks like, but rather what
[10:05] Speaker 2: Satan is like. Moses is writing a long time after
[10:10] Speaker 2: the Genesis event, and he is now using the very
[10:15] Speaker 2: imagery that his hearers would be familiar with to communicate
[10:20] Speaker 2: the wiles and the deceptiveness of our adversary, the Devil.
[10:26] Speaker 2: So again I think you have to recognize that though
[10:30] Speaker 2: you have a historical narrative, there's always a heavenly condescendsion
[10:34] Speaker 2: to human beings, where God is condescending to speak in
[10:37] Speaker 2: language that we can relate to. So, for example, if
[10:42] Speaker 2: God says where are you? Is that an indication that
[10:44] Speaker 2: God doesn't know anything? Of course not, so you have
[10:47] Speaker 2: to take that into account as you read the Genesis account.
[10:50] Speaker 6: Thank you so much, appreciative.
[10:52] Speaker 2: Hey, you got it. Thank you so much for your call.
[10:55] Speaker 2: And I've written about these principles in a book called
[10:57] Speaker 2: The Apocalypse Code at the End the End of the Day.
[11:00] Speaker 2: It is a book that teaches you to read the
[11:02] Speaker 2: Bible for all it's worth, or, as I like to say,
[11:05] Speaker 2: to mine the Bible for all its wealth. It is
[11:08] Speaker 2: available through the Ministry of the Christian Research Institute. You
[11:10] Speaker 2: can order online at equip dot org.
[11:12] Speaker 1: Be right back to find out more about the materials
[11:15] Speaker 1: mentioned on the show, call a CRII resource consultant toll
[11:20] Speaker 1: free at eight eight eight seven thousand cri that's eight
[11:25] Speaker 1: eight eight seven thousand CRII. Our website is also an
[11:29] Speaker 1: excellent reference destination to help you. Just go to equip
[11:33] Speaker 1: dot org and find articles by Hank, books, CDs and DVDs. Again,
[11:40] Speaker 1: that's equip DOTRG. Or write Cripobox eighty five hundred, Charlotte,
[11:47] Speaker 1: North Carolina, ZIP two eight two seven one. The Bible
[11:51] Speaker 1: answer Man will continue in just a moment breaking the code.
[12:04] Speaker 1: If the Book of Revelation has become an international obsession,
[12:07] Speaker 1: the result has been rampant misreading of scripture, bad theology,
[12:11] Speaker 1: and even bad politics and foreign policy. In The Apocalypse Code,
[12:16] Speaker 1: find out what the Bible really says about the end
[12:18] Speaker 1: times and why it matters today. Hank Canagraph argues that
[12:22] Speaker 1: the key to understanding the Last Book of the Bible
[12:25] Speaker 1: is the other sixty five books of the Bible, not
[12:28] Speaker 1: current events or recent history. The Apocalypse Code offers sane
[12:32] Speaker 1: answers to some very controversial questions, such as what does
[12:36] Speaker 1: it mean to take the Book of Revelation literally, who
[12:39] Speaker 1: are the Antichrist and the Great Horror of Babylon? And
[12:42] Speaker 1: what is the real meaning of six hundred and sixty six?
[12:45] Speaker 1: Order The Apocalypse Code by Hank Cantigraph today, available in softcover,
[12:50] Speaker 1: MP three, CD or MP three download from equip dot
[12:54] Speaker 1: org or call eight eight eight seven thousand CRII. The
[13:00] Speaker 1: Complete Bible answer Book Collector's Edition is the comprehensive collection
[13:05] Speaker 1: of the most often asked questions Hank Hannigraph has received
[13:08] Speaker 1: throughout his four decades as host of the Bible answer
[13:12] Speaker 1: Man broadcast with more than half a million copies already
[13:15] Speaker 1: in print. This newly revised and expanded Collector's Edition helped
[13:20] Speaker 1: seekers and skeptics alike sort through the truth on topics
[13:23] Speaker 1: such as reliability of the Bible, religions and cults, the
[13:28] Speaker 1: resurrection and afterlife, and many more issues vital to a
[13:31] Speaker 1: better understanding of God in Christ and our relationship to Him.
[13:36] Speaker 1: To receive your copy of the Complete Bible answer Book
[13:39] Speaker 1: Collector's Edition Revised and Expanded, call eight eight eight seven
[13:44] Speaker 1: thousand CROI and make a gift to support the Christian
[13:48] Speaker 1: Research Institute's life changing outreaches eight eight eight seven thousand
[13:53] Speaker 1: CROI or visit us at equip dot org. Anyone who's
[14:01] Speaker 1: been paying attention knows there's a war going on, not
[14:05] Speaker 1: just on traditional morality, civility, and decency, but even more
[14:09] Speaker 1: fundamentally on historic notions of truth. And the enemy isn't
[14:13] Speaker 1: just the onslaught of fake news, facilitated by a post
[14:16] Speaker 1: truth culture and turbocharged by growing legions of ideological spinductors.
[14:21] Speaker 1: Note the real enemies of truth range from postmodernist convictions
[14:25] Speaker 1: that there is no objective truth to militant scientism that
[14:29] Speaker 1: claims that only science can determine truth, and religion is
[14:33] Speaker 1: little more than primitive superstitions. But CRI Support Team members
[14:37] Speaker 1: are not waving a white flag of surrender. They're holding
[14:40] Speaker 1: the fort by undergirding everyone of Christian Research Institute's mind
[14:45] Speaker 1: shaping and life changing outreaches twenty four to seven. To
[14:48] Speaker 1: learn how you can make a difference and enjoy all
[14:51] Speaker 1: the benefits of Support Team membership, simply visit equip dot org.
[15:07] Speaker 1: Now back to the Bible answer Man broadcast and your
[15:10] Speaker 1: host and canagraph.
[15:12] Speaker 2: And a quick thank you to many of you who
[15:14] Speaker 2: are joining the Support team. If you haven't done so yet,
[15:18] Speaker 2: consider becoming a support team member. All you have to
[15:22] Speaker 2: do is go to the webit equipped dot org slash
[15:25] Speaker 2: donate select Support Team and then fill out the online
[15:30] Speaker 2: form and join our support team. And as a member,
[15:35] Speaker 2: you are making a difference, touching lives for time and
[15:39] Speaker 2: for eternity. Back to the phone lines. We'll talk next
[15:42] Speaker 2: to Mike listening in Oklahoma.
[15:44] Speaker 3: Hi, Mike, I thank the pleasure to talk to you.
[15:48] Speaker 3: I'm really honored. God bless you so much for your ministry.
[15:52] Speaker 2: Thank you, my friend Phil.
[15:54] Speaker 3: I have learned so much in the last few weeks
[16:00] Speaker 3: read the apoploats code yet, but I'll plan on getting it.
[16:03] Speaker 3: So all the all the Revelation questions over the last
[16:06] Speaker 3: couple of weeks. So I was reading in the Revelation
[16:11] Speaker 3: and I'm always I've just always wondered, even as I read.
[16:16] Speaker 3: Now knowing what you've explained, what are the seven angels?
[16:22] Speaker 3: I mean, I know this is a big question, but
[16:25] Speaker 3: seven angels, two witnesses in the fourth two weeks and
[16:29] Speaker 3: then the three and a half years. Yeah, I'm in
[16:33] Speaker 3: a truck. I'll just hang out. Let you what you
[16:36] Speaker 3: can so you don't get road noise.
[16:38] Speaker 2: Okay, Yeah, interesting question. But the seven angels, they're the
[16:42] Speaker 2: messengers to the seven churches, says John. As far as
[16:45] Speaker 2: the two witnesses are concerned, that gets a little more complicated.
[16:50] Speaker 2: So if you want to read about the seven stars,
[16:54] Speaker 2: John tells you they are the angels of the seven churches,
[16:57] Speaker 2: and the seven lamp stands are the seven churches. Again,
[17:01] Speaker 2: when you get to the two Witnesses, you have to
[17:04] Speaker 2: have the background music of the Old Testament coursing through
[17:08] Speaker 2: your mind, because what you have here is a metaphorical
[17:13] Speaker 2: reference to Moses in Elijah. The Old Testament system of
[17:19] Speaker 2: jurisprudence always mandated at least two witnesses to convict of
[17:25] Speaker 2: a crime, and in this case, the two witnesses accuse
[17:29] Speaker 2: Israel of apostasy. The imagery, of course, again rooted deeply
[17:36] Speaker 2: in the Old Testament. Like Moses, these witnesses have power
[17:42] Speaker 2: to turn water into blood, and like Elijah, they have
[17:46] Speaker 2: the power to call down fire from heaven, to consume
[17:50] Speaker 2: their enemies, and to shut up the sky so that
[17:54] Speaker 2: it will not rain for three and a half years.
[17:57] Speaker 2: So the three and a half year question check it out.
[18:00] Speaker 2: In First King seventeen and Look four, the mission of
[18:04] Speaker 2: the two witnesses is identified with the person and work
[18:09] Speaker 2: of Jesus Christ, because like Christ, they are sacrificial lambs.
[18:14] Speaker 2: Thus their corpses unceremoniously litter the streets of Jerusalem, the
[18:19] Speaker 2: very city in which their lord was crucified. In light
[18:25] Speaker 2: of the biblical imagery, the two witnesses are revealed not
[18:29] Speaker 2: as too literal people, such as a future reincarnation of
[18:35] Speaker 2: Moses or Elijah, but rather as literary characters in John's
[18:39] Speaker 2: apocalyptic narrative, and they represent as such the entire line
[18:44] Speaker 2: of Hebrew prophets in testifying against Israel and warning of
[18:50] Speaker 2: the soon coming judgment that is to come on Jerusalem.
[18:55] Speaker 2: So you have to understand the whole narrative. What's going on.
[18:59] Speaker 2: In the Book of Revelation. You have letters to the
[19:02] Speaker 2: seven Churches and the Province of Asia. They are in
[19:06] Speaker 2: the epicenter of a Caesar cult. They're about to face
[19:11] Speaker 2: the full fury of a beast and a woman that
[19:15] Speaker 2: rides the beast. And you have two witnesses in this
[19:18] Speaker 2: milieu who are prophesying against apostate Israel, who has aligned
[19:24] Speaker 2: herself not with the Church of Christ, but rather with
[19:28] Speaker 2: the Church of Caesar, who are no longer saying Christ
[19:33] Speaker 2: is Lord, but rather are saying Caesar is Lord, some
[19:39] Speaker 2: of whom, of course, have lost their first love. So
[19:42] Speaker 2: this is a very powerful imagery. But the imagery, again
[19:48] Speaker 2: is rooted in the Old Testament. So, like the rest
[19:52] Speaker 2: of the Book of Revelation, if you are not reading
[19:56] Speaker 2: Revelation with the Old Testament in mind, you are resigned
[20:02] Speaker 2: to going off on fantastical flights of fantasy as opposed
[20:07] Speaker 2: to being tethered to the text descripture. I've written about
[20:10] Speaker 2: this in a couple of places. One is the Apocalypse Code.
[20:14] Speaker 2: The other is the Complete Bible answer Book Collector's Edition.
[20:17] Speaker 2: I have an entry on who are the two Witnesses?
[20:21] Speaker 2: So a lot more information available right there in the
[20:24] Speaker 2: Complete Bible answer Book Collector's Edition as well. I want
[20:28] Speaker 2: to go back to the phone lines talc Tic Jennie
[20:30] Speaker 2: listening on Kansas.
[20:31] Speaker 4: Hi, Jennie, Yes, thanks thanks for taking my call. I
[20:36] Speaker 4: really appreciate it. And what I wondered about is I
[20:40] Speaker 4: was reading in chapter seven of Matthew about judge us
[20:44] Speaker 4: to be judge, and I understand that, but I've always
[20:47] Speaker 4: gone mixed up on verse six. It says, do not
[20:51] Speaker 4: give what is holy to dogs, and do not throw
[20:54] Speaker 4: your pearls before swine, let's say, trample them under their
[20:58] Speaker 4: feet and turn into you to pieces.
[21:01] Speaker 2: What is he referring to there, Yeah, well, a couple
[21:05] Speaker 2: of things I think that are very interesting. One is
[21:08] Speaker 2: the fact that he's pointing to unclean animals, pigs who
[21:14] Speaker 2: ate vile food, and dogs who were scavengers who would
[21:18] Speaker 2: bite the hand that fed them. And I think that
[21:22] Speaker 2: what you have implicit in all of this is that
[21:25] Speaker 2: you can't talk anyone into the kingdom, so we should
[21:29] Speaker 2: preach to those whose hearts are prepared by the spirit
[21:32] Speaker 2: of God, because we have never been called by God
[21:36] Speaker 2: to harvest green fruit.
[21:39] Speaker 4: Okay, And then I also want to ask you in Zachariah,
[21:46] Speaker 4: what is a good way to go through that because
[21:49] Speaker 4: there's so much symbolism in it and I just kind
[21:53] Speaker 4: of when I came to that book and went through it,
[21:55] Speaker 4: I just didn't understand much of it, especially up to
[21:59] Speaker 4: chapter six.
[22:00] Speaker 2: Yeah. Well, I think you have to do what I
[22:03] Speaker 2: point out in my legacy reading plan, And if you
[22:06] Speaker 2: don't have a legacy reading plan, it'll probably be good
[22:10] Speaker 2: for you to check it out. It'll teach you to
[22:12] Speaker 2: read through books just like you read through other books.
[22:16] Speaker 2: You're not going to read them a bit here and
[22:18] Speaker 2: a bit there, but read through and get the full
[22:21] Speaker 2: essence of what the author is communicating. Because Zachariah is
[22:25] Speaker 2: reminding post exilic Jews of the importance of their relationship
[22:30] Speaker 2: to God, and he is exhorting them to finish building
[22:35] Speaker 2: the temple. The Book of Zachariah is characterized by vivid
[22:40] Speaker 2: apocalyptic imagery, which you allude to, but the imagery contains
[22:46] Speaker 2: messianic overtones, so much of the imagery is echoed by John.
[22:51] Speaker 2: In the Book of Revelation, which I was talking about earlier,
[22:54] Speaker 2: for example, Zachariah sees two olive trees on the right
[22:58] Speaker 2: and the left of a lamp stand, and the olive
[23:01] Speaker 2: trees symbolize the two anointed ones who stand beside the
[23:07] Speaker 2: Lord of heaven and Earth. The two witnesses are identified
[23:11] Speaker 2: as Rubbable. He was the governor of Judah who had
[23:15] Speaker 2: returned to Jerusalem to lay the foundations of a second temple,
[23:19] Speaker 2: and of course Joshua, the high priest, who was commissioned
[23:23] Speaker 2: to preside over the altar. And in Revelation, what happens
[23:28] Speaker 2: is this imagery is of two witnesses who preside over
[23:33] Speaker 2: the judgment and destruction of Jerusalem and the Second Temple. So,
[23:37] Speaker 2: as I was saying to the previous caller, like Moses,
[23:40] Speaker 2: they have power to turn water into blood and call
[23:43] Speaker 2: down fire from heaven to consume their enemies. And like Elijah,
[23:48] Speaker 2: they have the power to shut up the sky so
[23:50] Speaker 2: it won't reign for three and a half years. So
[23:53] Speaker 2: the two witnesses are symbolic of the whole panoply of
[23:57] Speaker 2: Hebrew prophets who renounced judgment on Israel for her idolatry
[24:03] Speaker 2: and on the enemies of the true children of God
[24:06] Speaker 2: for their wickedness. But to get kind of an idea
[24:10] Speaker 2: of what's going on, it's important to understand, Okay, what
[24:13] Speaker 2: is the location that Zachariah is writing from, and what
[24:18] Speaker 2: is the essence of his message, and what is the
[24:21] Speaker 2: genre that he is using? What form is he using
[24:24] Speaker 2: in terms of writing. In this case, he's using Hebrew prophecy,
[24:28] Speaker 2: consisting of collected spoken prophetic oracles focused primarily on the
[24:36] Speaker 2: prophet's for future, but with implications for the far future
[24:39] Speaker 2: as well as the final future. And he's using vivid
[24:43] Speaker 2: apocalyptic imagery, as I mentioned, the imagery being deeply rooted
[24:49] Speaker 2: in the wellspring of the Old Testament. And then you
[24:53] Speaker 2: have to understand the context in what she is writing.
[24:56] Speaker 2: It's five eighty six BC. Babbel Laon had destroyed Jerusalem
[25:03] Speaker 2: and Solomon's temple carried off into captivity. The Judeans and
[25:08] Speaker 2: many exiles returned to Jerusalem from Babylon. In five point
[25:12] Speaker 2: thirty nine, remember the decree of Cyrus, king of Persia,
[25:16] Speaker 2: who had recently defeated Babylon, and with the Babylonian exile
[25:20] Speaker 2: in the past and a newly returned group of Jews
[25:24] Speaker 2: back in the land, the work of rebuilding the temple begins. However,
[25:29] Speaker 2: here's the problem. After more than a dozen years, the
[25:32] Speaker 2: task had only been half completed. So Zachariah and the
[25:36] Speaker 2: prophet Hagai are commissioned by God to encourage the people
[25:40] Speaker 2: in their unfinished responsibilities. So you got to get the location,
[25:45] Speaker 2: the essence, the genre, the author, the context, and the years,
[25:49] Speaker 2: and that gives you a comprehensive picture of what's going
[25:52] Speaker 2: on in the prophecy. Unfortunately, the music is signaling the
[25:56] Speaker 2: end of yet another Bible answer Man broadcast. It's an
[26:00] Speaker 2: credible privilege. I think those who support the ministry prayerfully
[26:03] Speaker 2: and financially. Without you, I wouldn't be able to do this.
[26:06] Speaker 2: We'll see you right here, Lord willing tomorrow with more
[26:09] Speaker 2: of the viplincemen broadcast.
[26:11] Speaker 1: We appreciate you tuning in to the Bible answer Man broadcast.
[26:15] Speaker 1: If you've been blessed by the broadcast and want more
[26:18] Speaker 1: information to help you grow in the grace and knowledge
[26:21] Speaker 1: of God, go to our website at equip dot org.
[26:24] Speaker 1: That's equip dot org. To contact a resource consultant, call
[26:30] Speaker 1: eight eight eight seven thousand CRII again that's eight eight
[26:34] Speaker 1: eight seven thousand, two seven four, or you can write
[26:38] Speaker 1: to us at Post Office Box eighty five hundred, Charlotte,
[26:42] Speaker 1: North Carolina, zip code two eight two seven one. The
[26:46] Speaker 1: Bible answer Man Broadcast is supported by listeners like you.
[26:50] Speaker 1: We're on the air because life and truth matter. Breaking
[27:03] Speaker 1: the Code. If the Book of Revelation has become an
[27:06] Speaker 1: international obsession, the result has been rampant misreading of scripture,
[27:10] Speaker 1: bad theology, and even bad politics and foreign policy. In
[27:14] Speaker 1: the Apocalypse Code, find out what the Bible really says
[27:18] Speaker 1: about the end times and why it matters today. Hank
[27:20] Speaker 1: Canagraph argues that the key to understanding the Last Book
[27:24] Speaker 1: of the Bible is the other sixty five books of
[27:27] Speaker 1: the Bible, not current events or recent history. The Apocalypse
[27:31] Speaker 1: Code offers sane answers to some very controversial questions, such
[27:35] Speaker 1: as what does it mean to take the Book of
[27:37] Speaker 1: Revelation literally, who are the Antichrist and the Great Horror
[27:41] Speaker 1: of Babylon? And what is the real meaning of six
[27:44] Speaker 1: hundred and sixty six. Order The Apocalypse Code by Hank
[27:47] Speaker 1: Cantigraph Today, available in softcover, MP three CD or MP
[27:52] Speaker 1: three download from equip dot org or call eight eight
[27:55] Speaker 1: eight seven thousand CRI

Shows are listed from Apple Podcasts' charts and directory, and Podcast Index where it is used. Every show and episode belongs to its publisher and plays from the publisher's own feed; this site hosts none of them.