Questions & Answers 3074

Guest (Male): In some places, interracial marriages are still a hotbed of debate. So what does God have to say about this issue? Well, find out from His word as you stay with us. We want to welcome you to another session of the question and answer program with our Bible teacher, Dr. J. Vernon McGee. This is a ministry of the Thru the Bible Radio Network. Our first question comes to us from a listener in San Diego who writes, "Could you please explain how one can be absolutely sure of eternal salvation in Christ?"
Dr. J. Vernon McGee: If you are looking subjectively to your own life and if you expect perfection from yourself, you are on a futile trail and you are going to be frustrated because you are not going to attain to perfection unless you deceive yourself. John says that if we say we are without sin, we deceive ourselves. Some people deceive themselves. As long as you are in the flesh and have the old nature, which we all have, you are going to find things wrong in your life. Thank God that our salvation does not depend on our imperfection. It depends upon the perfect redemption that Christ wrought for us on the cross when He died for our sins, rose again to make over to us His righteousness—not ours, His. And we are complete in Christ. In Him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and you are complete in Christ. You are not complete in yourself. Now begin to believe what God says: "He that hath the Son hath life; he that hath not the Son shall not see life." In fact, the wrath of God dwelleth in him. Do you believe God? Are you trusting Christ? What do you have? He says you have eternal life. Do you believe Him? You say you might lose it. Then you didn't have eternal life. You can't lose what you don't have. If you have eternal life, then it's eternal life. And if you lose it next week, you didn't have the real article. If you trust Christ and believe Him, you have eternal life.
Guest (Male): Our next question comes to us from a listener in Tampa, Florida. He writes, "I have a different interpretation of Revelation 13. Instead of seeing the two beasts as being the Antichrist, could it be that the first beast is the Antichrist and the second beast is an imitation of the Holy Spirit pointing to the first beast?"
Dr. J. Vernon McGee: I don't think that we have a difference of opinion at all if you'll notice what is said about the second beast in Revelation 13. I'm going to begin reading at verse 11: "And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spoke as a dragon." In my comment, I make this statement: this wild beast is easier to identify than the first. The first beast comes out of the sea, which is symbolic of the nations and peoples of the world. The earth from which this second beast arises is symbolic of Israel. It is naturally assumed that the second beast comes from Israel. And he had two horns like a lamb suggests that he is an imitation of Christ, the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world. This pseudo-lamb does not subtract sin but adds and multiplies it. We are told here in verse 12: "And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him, and causeth the earth and them that dwell therein to worship the first beast whose deadly wound was healed." And he exerciseth all the authority of the first wild beast in his presence, and he maketh the earth and the dwellers therein to worship the first wild beast whose wound of death was healed. And therefore, he does cause the world to worship the first beast. From that position, I hold that the purpose of the second beast is to cause the world to worship the first beast. You make a comparison between the second beast and the Holy Spirit, which by the way I want to say is not far-fetched at all, but I think that it's not wise to compare this second beast to the Holy Spirit anymore than we should compare the first beast to Christ. We need to be very careful to say it's Antichrist—that is one opposed to Christ. This second beast, I'd rather not say that he represents the Holy Spirit, but I do think that you're very accurate in saying that he is to take the first beast and manifest him and cause the world to worship the first beast. And I feel that in that you're very much all right.
Guest (Male): We now take up a question from a listener in Evansville, Indiana who writes, "What is the answer to interracial marriages according to God's word? Is there any scripture about two Christians getting married but different in race?"
Dr. J. Vernon McGee: As I've examined this, I very candidly do not believe it was a loaded question. As you can well understand, this could be sent to me as a loaded question to try to draw me out, but I'm perfectly willing to deal with it as this party has suggested. What is the answer according to God's word? Now I wish that we could get off of this kick today about the racial aspect of marriage because very candidly that is not the problem today in marriage. As we'll attempt to point out, it could be a problem, but the fact of the matter is marriage is made on a different basis than that altogether. Now what is the thing that the Word of God makes it very clear that two people should not get married? And that is not on a racial basis. It's on the basis of a believer and a non-believer. There is one thing from the very beginning all through the Word of God, and that is that God forbade His people to intermarry with unbelievers. And that is actually the reason that no Israelite was to marry outside. The reason he was not to marry outside was because of the fact of a person being an unbeliever. Now when they were a believer, that did not seem to be the problem at all. And you have I think the case of Ruth and Boaz. Boaz was an Israelite, Ruth was a Moabite. And it was specific in instructions that an Israelite and a Moabite should not intermarry. That was very clearly set forth in the Word of God. A Moabite or an Ammonite shall not enter into the congregation of the Lord. And God made it very clear. And yet Ruth becomes a believer, and when she became a believer and she and Boaz fell in love, there was a marriage. And that was the basis on which it was made. And you find out that that is the thing that brought the greatest judgment upon the human family—this matter of marriage: the sons of God looked upon the daughters of men. I know there are those that think that the sons of God are angels, but believe me, if that had been true then you'd have monstrosities as offspring. And then I don't think that the sons of God, if they're good angels, would do what is said here. And if they were disobedient angels, they couldn't be called sons of God. So I can't see how it can be the sons of God could be angels. I don't see any reason to work in a miracle where one's not needed at all. The sons of God were this line that were in the line of Adam, now His name is Seth. That's the godly line. But there's another line, and that's the line of Cain. And the daughters of that line were very beautiful girls. And the fact of the matter is they were unbelievers. That Cainite line had gone out from the presence of the Lord. Now we find this intermarriage produced a race—tremendous people, beautiful people—but we're told that their wickedness was great in the earth and that every imagination of the thoughts of the heart was only evil continually. And it was the marriage of believers and unbelievers, the godly line with the ungodly line. That started at the very beginning. And after all, you find that Moses married a Midianite. Now the problem there was not that she was of another race, the problem seems to have been that she certainly was not a believer and she was certainly not in harmony with Moses. Moses had forgotten the rite of circumcision that was to be for his people, and his wife really reacted to that. And I think she reacted as an unbeliever, not that she was of a different race. And my feeling is that the tragedy of marriage is believers and unbelievers. You see the interesting thing about the unbeliever is that he demands a little bit more than he's willing to give. Every Christian ought to recognize that when they marry an unbeliever. And that's one thing that is in the Word of God. I think that the scripture is very clear in this connection. You remember Paul, and he includes marriage in this you can be sure of that, and he says, "Wherefore come out from among them and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing and I will receive you." The whole thing is that this was unbelievers and believers that were joined together, and joined together I believe in the marriage relationship because Paul in 1 Corinthians had a great deal to say about the believer and the unbeliever joined together. And when a marriage is made, it has to be made by two people who are in agreement. In fact, they ought to be in agreement on every major issue—on their relationship to God, their relationship to each other, relationship to the family, relationship to everything. Now when I was a pastor and I used to counsel young people, I never put them through a series of counseling, but I explained to them that marriage was made on three levels: the physical level, and the psychological or mental level, and the spiritual level. And you have those three levels; there should be agreement on those three levels. Scripture says a threefold cord is not easily broken. And if a marriage is made with all of those ties, it'll stick together. Now first of all, let me say it's made on the physical level. And we've had just an overdose of this business of sex being taught today relative to marriage. You'd come to the conclusion that's all marriage is from some that are given by Christian psychologists and some pastors. That's only part, it's only one-third. It's important—I don't mean to play it down—but actually it's not made really on that level. The next level up is the mental level. And my feeling is that a man and a woman should have the same interests. They should be interested in the same things. If you want to make your marriage go, the wife should be interested in the business of her husband. And that is the level that I think is important—very important. And I think they ought to be on that kind of a level. Then there is the third level: the spiritual level. Now if one is a believer and a non-believer, I never would marry them. I would talk to the unbeliever and try to get him or her to accept Christ, and if they didn't, I would not perform the marriage ceremony. And I'm confident though that in time that I did marry a believer and an unbeliever. I think it worked out that way, but at the time it didn't look that way. I had one like this: a young lady attended our church, she was a daughter of very wealthy parents. Her father was an oil man. The young lady was very wealthy. Well, in a bank she'd met a young man that was a bank clerk. Well, I used to be a bank clerk and I had sympathy with that young man. And he was a good-looking young fellow. He'd fallen in love with her and she'd fallen in love with him, and they wanted to get married. Here he is on an economic level that I happen to know is a pretty low one, and she's on a high level. And I very frankly talked to them about that and I talked to him separately about it. I said, "I happen to know from past experience myself that I found out that that would not work. That if you marry a wealthy girl and you're a very poor boy, there is an economic separation there. Her interests and her background are so different from yours." And I want to say to you both of them were beautiful people. They had everything going for them. He agreed to accept Christ. My, he would have accepted anything; he was panting like a hunting dog. My, he wanted to get married. And unfortunately the girl did too. I told her, I said, "Don't you think maybe you ought to have a period of getting a little better acquainted?" And "Oh no, no." She knew her mind, she thought. Well, they got married. And it was I suppose less than two years that she came into my study one day crying. It had fallen apart. I could not patch it up. It was too late then. I made my mistake in marrying them. I honestly should have said probably, "You two are so far apart in a mental—and also he's just accepted Christ, let's wait and see." Well the fact of the matter is he didn't accept Christ, he accepted her and wanted her and not Christ at all. Therefore the marriage fell apart and they got a divorce. It was tragic. It had nothing to do with race, but it had everything to do with a believer and a non-believer. Now there are these three levels. A Christian ought to marry a Christian and it's tragedy generally when they don't. And these other three levels should be there. Now that should be taken into account especially when they are of different races. I think very much so. There are other considerations that could come in and separate them. Now let me give you an instance of that. There's a young man that heard our ministry and he accepted Christ. And when I used to go to a certain area, he was always there. He's a black young fellow and very attractive. And I'll say this, he's a very intelligent young man, sharp as he can be and had charisma. I liked him very much. Well, I guess I missed two years going to his area and then did, and there he was and he came down and introduced me to his wife. She was white. And I'll be very frank with you, I talked to him about it because he said he wanted to talk to me about it. They were already encountering certain problems. And he wanted to study for the ministry, and he went away to a certain school. And I have a letter from him and the problem has come. He says, "Every time we go into a public meeting," he says, "you'd think we were in a zoo or something. Everybody turns and stares at us." And he says, "We're encountering problem after problem." And he said, "What in the world do you recommend that I do?" And he says, "Do you think this is right, this is just?" I wrote and told him I thought it was terrible. But the point is you're not going to change people overnight at least. And I told him, I said, "I recommend you get away from that school as quickly as you can to save your marriage." I says, "That's the thing that you want to save is your marriage." I said, "You're going to find out it can be torn asunder because today everything is tearing at marriage. And anything that can break up a marriage today is being used to break up marriage. Therefore these three cords ought to be tied tight at the very beginning." Now if this young man had talked to me about getting married, I think I would have advised him to wait—not only to wait, but that we sit down and talk it over and find out whether the three cords were there. Now I think they'll weather it if they really love each other, but I already detect that there is that which is slipping in which should not slip in, which I think is wrong. But the point is it's not the racial problem. Now in the Word of God it's quite evident, not only was that true of Moses and he had a problem by marrying an unbeliever, not marrying a Midianite, Joseph married obviously an Egyptian. Wasn't anybody else around for him to marry because he was separated from his family and from his people. He's down in Egypt. He married an Egyptian, and apparently it was a very worthwhile marriage. He had two fine boys that even old Jacob could bless them you see, and they seem to have turned out well. So the problem there was not racial, the problem was apparently no problem at all because of that. They were believers and I would assume that his wife was a believer. And certainly in Ruth and Boaz you have one of the finest examples that is imaginable. And I've given you these two examples today to illustrate the fact that it's not racial, it is religious. It is whether they are believers or not. And Paul had something to say about that because in Corinth, when he preached there, sometimes a wife would get saved, sometimes a husband would get saved. And what would happen to a marriage like that? Paul says this: well, they're two unbelievers married and suppose a husband gets saved and suppose the unbeliever says, "I don't want to live with a Christian," and what happens? She moves out. Verse 11 of 1 Corinthians 7 says, "But and if she depart, let her remain unmarried or be reconciled to her husband: and let not the husband put away his wife. But to the rest speak I, not the Lord: If any brother hath a wife that believeth not, and she be pleased to dwell with him, let him not put her away." If you're already married to an unbeliever—and I don't care what your backgrounds been—if you find yourself married to an unbeliever today, you are not to leave that unbeliever just because you're a Christian. It sure would have to be on a different ground than that altogether. If you take the Word of God, you will find that the thing that ruins a marriage is a believer and unbeliever because the spiritual cord is not tied. But I have discovered this: that when there is a spiritual cord, that sometimes the physical cord is torn asunder and sometimes the mental cord is torn asunder, but if the spiritual cord is there, that marriage is going to hold. And I've seen that happen time and time again. I know couples living together today that actually the thing that holds them together—the only thing—is that they both know and love and serve the Lord Jesus Christ. There's nothing else there to hold them at all, but that is there. I do know couples that there was no spiritual tie at all to begin with, but there was actually a physical tie and a mental tie. Their interests were the same. But that physical tie got untied, and it does. And the mental tie then broke very easily since there was no spiritual; there was nothing to hold them together. And therefore it broke loose. And that's the reason there's such an epidemic of divorces today. It's because that there's not that spiritual tie. And I don't think that we as Christians should be disturbed about that when two unbelievers get a divorce. That does not disturb me. It does disturb me when a believer and unbeliever gets a divorce. And now to see that many Christians are getting divorces—that, my friend, is alarming today. But may I say to you, let's move the racial question out. If a man and a woman fall in love with each other and they are both believers in the Lord Jesus Christ and they have the same interests, they meet on the same plane, their lifestyle is the same, then I want to say to you that I can see no reason why they should not get married. But you better be sure that all of those cords are tied, my friend, and that doesn't make any difference about the color at all. It does make a lot of difference whether the three cords are there. And unfortunately today interracial marriages present problems. I recognize that; I'd be very blind if I did not recognize that. So I think marriage ought to be made on the basis of love, and let's get away from all this legalism today and ritual and routines that are being given and get down for believers today. Make sure that you're marrying a believer if you are a believer. That's very important. And make sure you love the guy or you love the gal.
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