Theology Thursday

* Suicide and the Cross: On today's Theology Thursday, Bob gives a biblical perspective on suicide and answers emails on the subject from two listeners. Those who subscribe to our Monthly Sermons get in the mail their choice of either Bob's sermons on DVDs or the audio on standard audio CDs or on a single MP3 CD. And those who subscribe to the Sermons plus Classics receive the current sermons AND a month's worth of sermons out of Bob's sermon archives.

Today's Resource: Holocaust survivor, messianic rabbi and author Eliezer Urbach describes Bob Enyart's life's work, The Plot, an overview of the Bible, this way: "Take this startling journey into truth. So traditional, at each step, everything appears familiar. Yet, as an expert guide revealing new wonders (Mat. 13:52), Bob Enyart brings the Bible to life with often ignored passages." Aside from that best-selling book, you can also listen to Bob teaching through that same overview of the Bible and to study dozens of books of the Bible with him, all on CD or downloadable MP3s and some on DVDs! And you can subscribe to our monthly Bible Study Albums on DVDs or via audio MP3 CDs. Every month, you get another Bible Study CD or DVD delivered to your door in the U.S. Mail. These subscriptions will help you grow spiritually and intellectually. So many have reported that the biblical knowledge they gain from these resources is so practical that it has helped them improve their marriages, friendships, parenting and grand-parenting, work relations, evangelizing, and so many general life skills! And of course, subscribing to one or more of these resources will not only help you, at the same time you will be helping BEL reach more people!

* Hierarchy of 16 Hermeneutics: Welcome to today's Theology Thursday here at Bob Enyart Live! A hermeneutic is a tool for understanding the Bible. Proper hermeneutics are invaluable. In our hermeneutics seminars (one of which, held in downtown Denver's beautiful and historic Brown Palace), we study and prioritize a list of 16 hermeneutics:
God: existence, eternity, and entity (i.e., the Godhead)
His Story: the plot, or storyline, of the Bible (grasping the Bible's overview is the key to its details)
His Nature: living, personal, relational, good, and loving (includes J.O.N.A.H. & N.O.A.H.)
Christological: Christ-centered, the text is His Word (the work of the righteous, and hatred of the wicked)
Context prioritized: God's Nature; His Story; the dispensation; the book; chapter; paragraph; sentence
Literalness: Scripture presents a literal message, and contains figures of speech, symbols, parables, and poetry
Historical/Grammatical: method emphasizes original languages, cultural and historical setting
Covenantal vs. Dispensational Principle: Paul instructs students to "rightly divide the Word" 2 Tim 2:15
Prophetic: Speaking God's Word; also, predictive prophecy; and non-prophecy (predictive only in hindsight)
Sufficiency Principle: Scripture presents ample revelation on everything vital to our spirituality (accountability)
Spiritually Discerned: God gave His Word to the world to lead men to Christ, but much is written to His own
Typology: people, events, objects, rituals, etc. serve as symbols of Christ, salvation, heaven, etc.
Inerrancy: Not translators and scribes but the original autographs (like DNA) were breathed by the Holy Spirit
Numerology: numbers at times are symbolic: 3 for God, 6 for man, 12 for Israel, 40 for judgment, etc.
First-Mention: knowledge of good and evil leads to death; seed of the woman; justification by faith
Hebrew Parallelisms: poetry; couplets; alternation; inversions; story symmetry

Today's Resource -- Bob Enyart's Hermeneutics Seminar on CD! Just call the BEL studio at 1-800-8Enyart (836-9278) or click on the CD artwork (above) or our store links (below)! It's just like attending the seminar!  Simply click to get and enjoy our full-length Bible seminar and you will also receive, on the CD, the same notes handed out to the attendees. And also, on the CD, you'll see the same slides displayed during this great event! So, we think you will love our Hermeneutics: Tools for Studying the Bible CD! Just click or call the BEL studio at 1-800-8Enyart (836-9278)!

* Archived Announcement:

TONIGHT! Personhood Meeting at Cherry Hills Community Church

Join Bob Enyart Tonight at the Launch of the Colorado 2014 Personhood Fight!

Tonight, Thu., April 4th, at 7 p.m. at
Cherry Hills Community Church
3900 Grace Blvd, Highlands Ranch

Enter off of Grace Blvd. into the main building (not the smaller chapel).
We're meeting in the lobby of the main building.

Colorado RTL invites you to join us to hear Heather Surovik who will speak to us about our 2014 personhood amendment, also known as the Brady Amendment, named for her nine-month old baby boy who was killed in his mother's womb by a drunk driver just hours before his birth. See more...

* Alan Keys Encouragement to Tonight's Personhood Gathering: Ambassador Alan Keyes, who represented America and Ronald Reagan at the United Nations, passed along these comments:

"Like all of us, little Brady Surovik was made by God, in His image and in His likeness, which means that Brady was a person in the most profound sense. This understanding of the pro-life truth, that we are made in God's image, is critical to restore respect, not only for the right to life, but for all of our rights, which today are under assault. Thank you, all of you, for fighting this fight, for Brady, for all unborn children, and really, for all of us. May God bless your work." -Alan Keyes, April 4, 2013

* Time Sensitive Request: Please call or email Colorado RTL to get your Brady Amendment personhood petition for our fourth round battle to get Colorado to uphold the God-given right to life and personhood of every unborn child!

* The Temptation of Jesus, and What it Means: How is it that Jesus Christ was tempted by Satan, and what does the Bible mean when it says that Jesus was tempted in all ways?

* A Wonderful Endorsement of Bob Enyart's Bible Teaching: Holocaust survivor, messianic rabbi and author Eliezer Urbach described Bob Enyart's life's work, The Plot, which is an overview of the Bible, in this way: "Take this startling journey into truth. So traditional, at each step, everything appears familiar. Yet, as an expert guide revealing new wonders (Mat. 13:52), Bob Enyart brings the Bible to life with often ignored passages." (See The Plot's back cover for this and other wonderful endorsements.) "As the KGOV staff, we'd like to echo Rabbi Urbach's comment, and encourage our listeners to enjoy Bob's many wonderful Bible studies!"

March is BEL Telethon Month

We're at $21,350 $22,500 of our $25,000 goal. You guys keep calling in (or giving online) trying to help us reach our goal by midnight, March 31st, (which is Resurrection Sunday)! THANK YOU! And we still need your help! Please consider one or more of our monthly subscriptions that will not only help support BEL, they will also help to better understand the Bible and equip you to be a better witness to those around you.

* To Be Absent from the Body is to be Present with the Lord: Some Christians believe in soul sleep, that is, "the dead know nothing," so that when we die, we go into a kind of suspended animation that endures until the resurrection. Most Christians, rather, believe that, as affirmed by many biblical accounts and Bible passages, that when we die we go to be with the Lord!

* About our Ecclesiastes Study: As mentioned on today's program, check out our verse-by-verse Ecclesiastes study! Without a teacher, Christians struggle to make sense of backslidden Solomon's book of Ecclesiastes, which says that All is vanity. What is crooked cannot be made straight. Man has no advantage over animals for all go to one place. Nothing is better than that a man should rejoice in his own works. So I praised the dead more than the living. Yet, better than both is he who has never existed. One good man among a thousand I have found, but a woman among all these I have not found. A man has nothing better under the sun than to eat, drink, and be merry. Drink your wine with a merry heart; for God has already accepted your works.

* About our Song of Songs Study: Bob Enyart's thoughtful and entertaining verse-by-verse study will help you unravel the Ecclesiastes conundrum. And as a bonus, the study comes with Bob's study of another Bible book, the compelling love story of the Song of Songs (also called, less accurately, the Song of Solomon). Like Ecclesiastes, this book too seems perplexing, until that is, one realizes the theatrical literary device in which the Holy Spirit inspired it to be written. For not unlike the first Bible book written, long before the famous dialogues of Socrates, Scripture presents the history in the book of Job in the form of a drama, complete with the characters' lines demarcated. Further, like Ecclesiastes, the Song of Songs does not put Solomon in a good light (as he had become not only a sex-obsessed fornicator but also an open promoter of idolatry). Not surprisingly then, in Song, the young Shulamite woman spurns Solomon, despising a place among his harem of hundreds of wives and concubines. Instead, she remains faithful to her inaccessible true love, who vanishes inexplicably each time they are about to embrace. For her love, symbolic of the Messiah, appears to her only in dream sequences in the short theatrical dialogue of this amazing Bible book. Song illustrates the believer holding fast to love for God, in spite of the lures of the world, regardless of the fact that God cannot be seen or touched.

* This Week on Denver's 7News: Bob Enyart said on 7News to Colorado's ABC audience that Christians who say that the death penalty is immoral are unwittingly accusing God the Father of being unjust, for He required a payment of death to pay for the sin of the world. We thank God for the opportunity to promote the principles of the Gospel on the nightly news! Please also see AmericanRTL.org/death-penalty.

* A Wonderful Endorsement of Bob Enyart's Bible Teaching: Holocaust survivor, messianic rabbi and author Eliezer Urbach described Bob Enyart's life's work, The Plot, which is an overview of the Bible, in this way: "Take this startling journey into truth. So traditional, at each step, everything appears familiar. Yet, as an expert guide revealing new wonders (Mat. 13:52), Bob Enyart brings the Bible to life with often ignored passages." (See The Plot's back cover for this and other wonderful endorsements.) "As the KGOV staff, we'd like to echo Rabbi Urbach's comment, and encourage our listeners to enjoy Bob's many wonderful Bible studies!"

* Which of the Following Verses Teach that All Sins are NOT Equal? While answering that question, also answer this question: Who spoke most of the Bible verses which most clearly teach that not all sins are equal?

See this as a quiz
in Bob's Writings at kgov.com/all-sins

- Jesus answered Pilate: "the one who delivered Me to you has the greater sin." John 19:11

 - You who judged your sisters, bear your own shame also, because the sins which you committed were more abominable than theirs..." Ezekiel 16:51-52

- "But whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to sin, it would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were drowned in the depth of the sea." –Jesus, Mat. 18:6  [That is, it would be worse for that one than for the little one whom he tempted to sin.]

- "[Some] shall be beaten with many stripes.  But [some] shall be beaten with few…  For everyone to whom much is given, from him much will be required... I came to send fire [judgment] on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled!" -Jesus, Luke 12:47, 49

- "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you devour widows' houses, and for a pretense make long prayers. Therefore you will receive greater condemnation." -Jesus, Mat. 23:14

- "Woe to you, scribes… you will receive greater condemnation." -Jesus, Mat. 23:14

- "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you pay tithe [but] have neglected the weightier matters of the law…" -Jesus, Mat. 23:23

- "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel land and sea to win one proselyte, and when he is won, you make him twice as much a son of hell as yourselves." -Jesus, Mat. 23:15

- "And why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me remove the speck from your eye’; and look, a plank is in your own eye? Hypocrite! First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye." -Jesus, Mat. 7:3-5

- "Bethsaida… it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in the day of judgment than for you.  And you, Capernaum… it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment than for you." -Jesus, Mat. 11:21-24

- "In the measure that she glorified herself and lived luxuriously, in the same measure give her torment and sorrow…" Revelation 18:7

- "teachers… shall receive a stricter judgment." James 3:1

* The Bible Gets Easier to Understand: This book is Bob Enyart's life's work. Apparent contradictions plague many Bible students. In The Plot, Enyart set out to demonstrate how hundreds of such contradictions disappear when the reader applies the big picture of the Bible to its details. Tunnel vision focuses so narrowly on a problem that the solution often lies just out of view. As the pastor of Denver Bible Church, Bob Enyart teaches Christians how to use the whole counsel of God to understand the plot of the Bible and solve biblical mysteries. As with all of our BEL resources, The Plot comes with a 30-day money-back guarantee. And as we become proficient in the big picture, that is, the overview of the story of the Bible, then countless details, including as one small example, about the cities of refuge, become increasingly clear!

* The Plot on Audio: Far better than an audio book, for those who prefer to listen (while they walk, job, drive, or work) rather than reading, you can listen to Bob Enyart teach through the fascinating topics in his book in this Plot Audio Set.

* The Plot Boys: For kids ages eleven and up (and their parents :), check out The Plot Boys! Bob Enyart recorded these wonderful programs with two young Bible students, Josh and Stephen, ages 11 and 12, both of whom are being used of God to promote a Christian, biblical worldview! (There's enough material in The Plot Boys for a home-school family to listen to these studies for an entire year's Bible course.

* God's Authority: On today's Theology Thursday program, Bob continues his look at the Scriptures to see how God designed authority to work and to see how He delegates authority.

* The Bible Gets Easier to Understand: This book is Bob Enyart's life's work. Apparent contradictions plague many Bible students. In The Plot, Enyart set out to demonstrate how hundreds of such contradictions disappear when the reader applies the big picture of the Bible to its details. Tunnel vision focuses so narrowly on a problem that the solution often lies just out of view. As the pastor of Denver Bible Church, Bob Enyart teaches Christians how to use the whole counsel of God to understand the plot of the Bible and solve biblical mysteries. As with all of our BEL resources, The Plot comes with a 30-day money-back guarantee. And as we become proficient in the big picture, that is, the overview of the story of the Bible, then countless details, including as one small example, about the cities of refuge, become increasingly clear!

* The Plot on Audio: Far better than an audio book, for those who prefer to listen (while they walk, job, drive, or work) rather than reading, you can listen to Bob Enyart teach through the fascinating topics in his book in this Plot Audio Set.

* The Plot Boys: For kids ages eleven and up (and their parents :), check out The Plot Boys! Bob Enyart recorded these wonderful programs with two young Bible students, Josh and Stephen, ages 11 and 12, both of whom are being used of God to promote a Christian, biblical worldview! (There's enough material in The Plot Boys for a home-school family to listen to these studies for an entire year's Bible course.

* God's Authority: On today's Theology Thursday program, Bob looks at the Scriptures to see how God designed authority to work and to see how He delegates authority.

* The Bible Gets Easier to Understand: This book is Bob Enyart's life's work. Apparent contradictions plague many Bible students. In The Plot, Enyart set out to demonstrate how hundreds of such contradictions disappear when the reader applies the big picture of the Bible to its details. Tunnel vision focuses so narrowly on a problem that the solution often lies just out of view. As the pastor of Denver Bible Church, Bob Enyart teaches Christians how to use the whole counsel of God to understand the plot of the Bible and solve biblical mysteries. As with all of our BEL resources, The Plot comes with a 30-day money-back guarantee. And as we become proficient in the big picture, that is, the overview of the story of the Bible, then countless details, including as one small example, about the cities of refuge, become increasingly clear!

* The Plot on Audio: Far better than an audio book, for those who prefer to listen (while they walk, job, drive, or work) rather than reading, you can listen to Bob Enyart teach through the fascinating topics in his book in this Plot Audio Set.

* The Plot Boys: For kids ages eleven and up (and their parents :), check out The Plot Boys! Bob Enyart recorded these wonderful programs with two young Bible students, Josh and Stephen, ages 11 and 12, both of whom are being used of God to promote a Christian, biblical worldview! (There's enough material in The Plot Boys for a home-school family to listen to these studies for an entire year's Bible course.

* The Unsolicited -- What of those Who've Never Heard: After 30 years of knowing he was not ready to teach a Bible study on the book of Romans, the day finally came when Bob Enyart, believing that with God's help and blessing, he would be able to present a valuable verse by verse study of the world's greatest theological treatise: The Book of Romans. In chapter two, Paul addresses one of the most fascinating topics in evangelism: How does God treat those who have never heard the Gospel of Jesus Christ?

* Part I: Last week's Theology Thursday program presented the beginning of this Romans chapter two study.

* God Holds Us Accountable for What We Know: But does God hold people accountable for what they do not know? Jesus said, "that servant who knew his master’s will, and did not... do according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes. But he who did not know, yet committed things deserving of stripes, shall be beaten with few. For everyone to whom much is given, from him much will be required..." (Luke 12:47-48). For of course, "there is no partiality with God" (Rom. 2:11).

* The Unsolicited -- What of those Who've Never Heard: After 30 years of knowing he was not ready to teach a Bible study on the book of Romans, the day finally came when Bob Enyart, believing that with God's help and blessing, he would be able to present a valuable verse by verse study of the world's greatest theological treatise: The Book of Romans. In chapter two, Paul addresses one of the most fascinating topics in evangelism: How does God treat those who have never heard the Gospel of Jesus Christ?

* Tune in Next Week: on Theology Thursday here at KGOV.com for the conclusion of this Romans chapter two study.

* Join Bob to Hear Pastor Gino Geraci on Friday Night: You'll love the fellowship and education you'll get at this month's Rocky Mountain Creation Fellowship hearing from the Calvary South Denver pastor Gino. Info...

* God Holds Us Accountable for What We Know: But does God hold people accountable for what they do not know? Jesus said, "that servant who knew his master’s will, and did not... do according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes. But he who did not know, yet committed things deserving of stripes, shall be beaten with few. For everyone to whom much is given, from him much will be required..." (Luke 12:47-48). For of course, "there is no partiality with God" (Rom. 2:11).