Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - Ep 977 | Will All Jewish People Be Saved? | Guest: Dr. Jeremiah Johnston

Episode Date: April 1, 2024

Today, we sit down with Dr. Jeremiah Johnston to discuss the historical evidence of the bodily resurrection of Jesus and what Christians should think about Israel, the Trinity, the inerrancy of Scripture, and more. Johnston is a New Testament scholar, author, pastor of apologetics and cultural engagement at Prestonwood Baptist Church, and dean of spiritual development at Prestonwood Christian Academy. His new Bible study, "Body of Proof," includes four topics and reasons to believe in the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ. --- Timecodes: (01:00) The resurrection / resurrection sites (05:50) Biblical significance of Israel (13:59) “All Israel will be saved” (20:50) Why is the Bible trustworthy? (26:25) Canon of the Bible (31:20) Does the Bible contain errors? (34:52) How to explain the Trinity (39:29) Why do we pray? --- Today's Sponsors: A'Del — go to adelnaturalcosmetics.com and enter promo code "ALLIE" for 25% off your first order! Patriot Mobile — go to PatriotMobile.com/ALLIE or call 972-PATRIOT and use promo code 'ALLIE' for free activation! Focus on the Family — the new podcast, "Practice Makes Parent" brings you real, practical, and biblical advice. Tune in every Wednesday on Apple, Spotify, or your favorite podcasting platform.  --- Relevant Episodes: Ep 784 | Did the Resurrection Really Happen? | Guest: Jeremiah Johnston https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/relatable-with-allie-beth-stuckey/id1359249098?i=1000607756837 Ep 974 | Candace Owens, 'Christ is King' & the True Gospel https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ep-974-candace-owens-christ-is-king-the-true-gospel/id1359249098?i=1000650527935 Ep 905 | What's Really Going on in Israel? | Guest: Josh Hammer https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/relatable-with-allie-beth-stuckey/id1359249098?i=1000634310661 --- Buy Allie's book, You're Not Enough (& That's Okay): Escaping the Toxic Culture of Self-Love: https://alliebethstuckey.com/book Relatable merchandise – use promo code 'ALLIE10' for a discount: https://shop.blazemedia.com/collections/allie-stuckey

Hey, this is Steve Day. If you're listening to Allie, you already understand that the biggest issues facing our country aren't just political. They're moral, spiritual, and rooted in what we believe is true about God, humanity, and reality itself. On the Steve Day show, we take the news of the day and tested against first principles, faith, truth, and objective reality. We don't just chase narratives and we don't offer false comfort. We ask the hard questions and follow the answers wherever they leave, even when it's unpopular. This is a show for people who want honesty over hype and clarity over chaos. If you're looking for commentary grounded in conviction and unwilling to lie to you about where we are or where we're headed, you can watch this

D-Day Show right here on Blaze TV or listen wherever you get podcasts. I hope you'll join us. What should Christians think about Israel? Where do they fit into God's plan of redemption? Why should we pray if God already knows what's going to happen? And how can we trust that the accounts that we read in the Gospels are really trustworthy. Dr. Jeremiah Johnston is a New Testament scholar and he equips Christians to love God with all of our hearts, minds, souls, and strength. He is an expert in apologetics. We are going to be diving into these questions and more on today's episode of Relatable. It's brought to you, of course, by our friends at Good Ranchers. Go to Good Ranchers.com. Use code Allie and check out. That's Good Ranchers.com. Code Allie.

Dr. Jeremiah Johnson, thanks so much for joining us again. I'm a related bro. I'm so excited to be back on your show, Alibah, so thanks for having me. Yes, thank you so much. And last year, we had you here right around Easter to talk about the proof of the resurrection. You wrote a book called Body of Proof, and now we have a Bible study called a study on the resurrection of Jesus. That's right. So tell us, I know that we talked about this last year, but just as a recap, why did you write this? I wrote this because unfortunately, and I've done a lot of work since I was with you last.

And by the way, I love being on your show, Allie Beth, because you asked the best questions. And I think your whole audience would agree. Like, you take us to the deep end of the pool. That's why I'm a related bro. I love to watch. And I like the fact that I'm a better Christian thinker when I'm listening to your program. So thanks for asking the good questions. I don't have to go into autopilot mentally when I'm on your show, which I really enjoy.

The resurrection is understudied. It is under preached. It's undertaught. It's underbelieved. outside of Easter Sunday and funerals, we never hear the resurrection taught. And that is not the faith that we see reflected in the New Testament. Every sermon in the Book of Acts is on the resurrection. 260 chapters in the New Testament, 300 references to the resurrection.

I'm doing a lot of work with different research groups. And unfortunately, only 33% of Gen Z. Huge segment of your audience, you know, both millennials and Gen Z. only 33% of believers agree that Jesus's resurrection believers is a historical fact. So we've got to turn the tide on those numbers. So Lifeway approached me with the way in which God used the original Black Body approved book. And here's another kind of delicious detail. You know, when you have the author on your show, you get the delicious details behind the book.

Lifeway has done Bible studies with authors, I'm sure your community is familiar with. They said, Jeremiah, in our hundred-year history, we've never done a Bible study on the resurrection of Jesus. Wow. So, Ali, they've, you know, they've covered all the squishy, middle evangelical stuff really well, the secondary stuff. But we're talking about the epicenter of Christianity. I said I'll do it under one condition.

We have to go to Jerusalem. And I want to take a film crew with me. And I want to film at the 11 resurrection sites of Jesus. Jesus made 11 resurrection appearances. We went to Jerusalem. We filmed. So when you get the body approved Bible study, there's a code at the back of the Bible study. There's no extra charge.

It unlocks all 11 episodes. we filmed inside the garden tomb. I filmed inside the church of the holy sepulchre, Allie Beth. They stopped a line that looked like it was a Disney rise of the resistance line of people waiting eight to 12 hours and said, you have five minutes

to film inside the edicule, which is the tomb of Jesus. So it's strengthened my faith, but here's the goal. The more I understand about Jesus' resurrection, the more evidence I have for my own future resurrection. I live, John 1419. and Jesus said, because I live, you will live also.

And we need that hope today. That's why I'm thankful you're having me on for this conversation. Yes. Okay, we actually have a clip of you in Israel at one of these sites. Oh, wow. It's sought one. Let's play that. We're in the very spot in Jerusalem, inside the rotunda of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher,

where Mary encountered the resurrected Christ, just over my shoulder. There is a tomb, but this isn't like any other tomb that we've been studying in body of proof because this tomb is venerated with a shrine, an edicule, because it is the place where Jesus physically bodily rose from the grave. Wow, that's pretty amazing. Muslims have the keys to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. Are you aware of that? No. Because of what they call the status quo, Muslims, this certain Muslim family, opens and closes the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, which is the most holy sight in all of Christianity.

By the way, that would never happen in the reverse. I don't see Christians unlocking anything. at Mecca or Medea or the Dome of the Rock, but I digress. So a Muslim man saw the cover of my book, saw I put the Church of the Holy Sepulchre on it, and we had permission. Are you, this is kind of funny, Ali Beth's, well, I shouldn't say funny, but it is to me. I got permission from his beatitude. That's how he goes. The the theophilus, who is the patriarch of the Greek Orthodox Church of Jerusalem, to film somewhere inside the church. But just because I had permission to film inside the church doesn't mean I can film in the resurrection tomb. And to be like, if I came

over to your house, you're not going to necessarily let me film in your bedroom. Well, the Muslim guy saw the cover of my book. And he's the one that stopped the line and said, you guys can go film inside. And outside of Nat Geo that did an archaeology, um, uh, video documentary series, I know of no Christian resource that has footage inside the tomb like body of proof. I got to preach John 20. And I preached three sermons. it was the greatest ministry experience in my life and it was on a Sunday. I bet. Let's talk a little bit more about Israel. I haven't visited Israel. Man, I've wanted to come with me on my next tour. I know. We need to. Let's go. I know. Let's bring the related bros with us to Israel.

And the related gals, related bros, related gals doing Israel trip. That would be amazing. Not every Christian understands the significance of Israel. And obviously, that's been in the news, probably more than ever in recent history, at least. So talk to us a little bit more about the biblical significance of Israel, why Christians need to care about it. We care about Israel because our savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, is still a Jewish man. We follow a Jewish savior. And so if we care about Jesus, we should care about Jews. We should care about Israel.

That's going to be controversial for some people. I've actually had some conversations with people recently who want to even contest. the fact that Jesus ever was a Jewish man, believe it or not. Yeah, and that's just fake news. Jesus is a Jewish man. He is born in the line of Judah. This is one of the best established facts of the ancient world. I would say it this way, Ali Beth, if we can't believe Jesus as a Jew, don't bother believing anything from history at all. Jesus' death by Roman crucifixion, his life, his burial is death. We can build these facts, which we have about 60 to 65 facts historically within 100 years of the life of Jesus before I ever opened my Bible. So I'm not just waving my Bible around on your program. I'm appealing

to Roman historians like Tacitus, Suetonius, Lucian, other artifactual remains. Here's a cool one. Did you know that Jesus's name is known to have power in his lifetime? Of course, we see this in the Gospels because remember his disciples come to him? And I love this, Allie Beth, because you're constantly quoting scripture unlike the other shows. You actually quote scripture on your show. You remember Jesus' disciples said, Master, you know, people are casting out demons in your name. Should we stop them? And Jesus said, no, let him use my name. And we just, because of our historical distance, cannot over-emphasize and even understand how important it is, they're using Jesus' name for miracles and for exorcisms while Jesus is alive.

Yeah. Wow. So if he's not a Jew, then why are Jewish exorcists using his name? And why do we have artifacts, even curses that they might not know the gospel, but they knew there was power with this name Jesus. Mm-hmm. I mean, we read the genealogy of Jesus in the book of Matthew. We know that he's from the line of David. Which are historical documents.

Right. And so, I don't know, there's probably something a little sinister behind any motivations to deny. Well, there's anti-Semitism, and it's been around sadly for a long time. You actually have a coin that I gave to you, if you don't mind holding up the bronze coin, which is the larger, one. Ali Beth, I want to just make sure our audience knows. Palestine is a word that Hadrian, the Roman emperor in the second century, renamed the land of Israel as. I never use the word Palestine when I talk about the land of Israel. After the third, which was a bloody Jewish revolt under Simon Barcocca, that's 132 to 135 AD if you're following along with us, Hadrian lost so many in the Roman

legions at the hands of the Jews, he renames Jerusalem to Alia capitalina, which is called essentially the capital of Jupiter. And that bronze coin, which is very rare, was in circulation in the second century. We didn't have social media in the second century. So if you wanted to know what was going on, you looked at your coins, who won the battle, who was in charge. And we know from that coin that Hadrian renames the city, so it's no longer Jerusalem, and he renames the region, Palestine. So that is a pejority. term. I never refer to Israel as Palestine or the Palestinian territories. Right. And you said that when you were flying there, you noticed that, and I think we have a picture of it, that they don't even, the airlines don't even put Israel. The anti-Semitism on some of American Airlines' one-world partners is something I want to call out.

It concerns me. I love American Airlines. I'm an executive platinum. I've ride the American Airlines systems to speak. I'm on Qatarie Airlines, a one-world partner. And you know how you're sitting, you're bored out of your mind, and all you can do is sit and look at the map in front of you? Right. And I kind of like jostled. I said, wait a minute. It says we're flying over the Palestinian territories. And if you look at this image, it doesn't even say the land of Israel, as if Israel doesn't even exist.

And there's over a hundred airlines. That's what the, that's what the Palestinian activists say. From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free. They won't stop until that happens. And it's even, so we see that anti-Semitism creeping in. And this is why back to your. original question, every believer in Jesus Christ should support Israel. Does that mean I agree with everything in the modern state of Israel? Absolutely not. I don't agree with everything in the modern

United States government, do we? We certainly don't. But I do support the Jewish right to exist. The Christian worldview, and again, you teach us out of a Christian worldview, would stand against any kind of systematic oppression or genocide. Ali Beth, I wrote a book on Islam a few years back. Do you remember when ISIS was killing all the Yazidis? Do you remember that back when ISIS was really, really doing their bloody murders? They were killing this group called the Uzidis. And even in that time, I stood up and said, this is wrong. We don't agree with any worldview that exterminates other people groups.

So I'm not being inconsistent. I'm being consistent. And so God loves Israel. Our Savior is Jewish. The Bible says in Romans 9 through 11, eventually all Israel will be saved. Now, that doesn't mean they get saved in a way that we, in a different way than we get saved, anyone who gets saved has to repent of their sins and place their faith in Yeshua, Messiah, Jesus. Now, in my Jewish evangelism, I've actually been taught by some messianic rabbis.

I should always say Yeshua Jesus, Jesus, the Messiah. Faith in Yeshua, Jesus is the only way for Jews to be saved. And so I'm not talking about a different path or way or mechanization. of salvation. But when we study Romans 9 through 11 seriously, we cannot be anti-Semitic. We would never come to the conclusion that the church has replaced Israel, that somehow God has turned his back on Israel. The promises of God in Romans 9 through 11 are irrevocable. I love that passage. He literally says the gifts and the promises of God are without repentance. God doesn't forget. He doesn't turn his back on his word. And this is why Paul said, look, if all Israel, but it's a mystery.

Paul said, if all Israel could be saved, I myself would be a cursed if they could. There's always going to be a remnant. And so Romans 9 through 11 is Paul's theology of salvation for the nations with the Jew first. There'll be a hardening and then a return to Christ. Hey, this is Steve Day. If you're listening to Allie, you already understand that the biggest issues facing our country aren't just political. They're moral, spiritual, and rooted in what we believe is true about God, humanity, and reality itself. On the Steve Day show, we take the news of the day and test.

against first principles, faith, truth, and objective reality. We don't just chase narratives and we don't offer false comfort. We ask the hard questions and follow the answers wherever they leave, even when it's unpopular. This is a show for people who want honesty over hype and clarity over chaos. If you're looking for commentary grounded in conviction and unwilling to lie to you about where we are or where we're headed, you can watch this D-Day show right here on Blaze TV or listen wherever you get podcasts. I hope you'll join us. So I have some questions about that. I was just, I mentioned Romans 9 through 11 just the other day when we were talking about the whole crisis king controversy. Right. That was a great show, by the way. Thank you. And what God

thinks of Israel. And certainly Romans 9 through 11, they're not for the faint of heart. There is so much there. I mean, you could spend your entire life studying these passages and understanding what they mean. And so I have questions. I have questions about that. So Paul says that not all Israel is Israel, but it has always been by faith that salvation has come to the Jews, that salvation has come to anyone. And so when you say all Israel is going to be saved versus Paul saying that there is going to be a remnant that is going to be saved by grace through faith, what exactly does that mean? Is there a difference? Is there a difference there all Israel versus the remnant of Israel?

Right. And that is such a great question. And again, thank you for asking the really good questions. I answer it that way. I don't know the answer. When Paul says, and by the way, Jeremiah didn't say it St. Paul did, all Israel will be saved. It's in that wonderful book of Romans. It's almost as if Paul saying, for God so love the nations. Remember, this is a great hermeneutical method.

When I do exegesis, Ali Beth, it's so important that I never lift a passage or two out of its context. I read it within its context. To be a heretic, and I like that you call out the heretics, all I need is the Bible in no context or Jesus in no context and then I become a heretic. Unfortunately, it happens every Sunday in a lot of churches. When people do free fall Bible study, let me tell you what it feels and means to me. But when you read it in context, and again, this is a whole show we need to do at some point to unpack, but the spiritual hardening that Paul is in a quandary about and that he is living in that tension is both partial and temperates. It's almost, he says, it's almost like Paul saying,

for God so love the nations that he chose Israel to be his instrument that both Jew and Gentile might come to the knowledge of his son. And he points out that the current hardening of Israel is partial. So there's still a believing remnant and it's temporary. Someday in the future, Paul believes all Israel will be saved through faith in the Messiah. And that's Romans 1126. And in this way, all Israel will be saved. As it is written, the deliverer will come from Zion. He will banish the ungodliness from Jacob. People can read the entire chapter to see that context, but that's what you are referencing. Okay, I so appreciate you explaining that distinction because I could see how someone like me would read those chapters and say, okay, well, I'm a little confused about the remnant versus all

of Israel. So that makes a lot of sense. And talk a little bit more about this, what people refer to as replacement theology versus what you've said that the church does not replace Israel, because again, I could see just by reading these few chapters how it almost seems like Paul is saying two different things. On the one hand, he says, look, we've got these original branches that have been cut off, and then you've got new branches grafted on. But then it also seems like he's saying, well, both Israel and these Gentiles are going to be saved through Christ. And so, yeah, I don't know, parse that out for me. Help me understand. And we're doing this fast. First, the lostness of the Jews is the same. It's a universal condition. That's Romans 323. Second, God is always restricted

as mercy, Ali Beth, and his compassion to those whom he chooses. God chooses whom he chooses. That's Romans 9, 6 through 29. Third, they are culpable, for though they heard and understood the good news, they've rejected God's righteousness, which comes by faith, and they've sought their own righteousness instead. This is what Paul says, which is based upon performance. If you're following it home, that's Romans 9, verses 30 to 33, chapter 10, verse 3. The fourth and final reason for Israel's unbelief is the spiritual blindness and hardness that Paul mentions in Romans 918, which he deals with more fully, as you say in Romans 11, 7 through 10, in the midst of all of this unbelief, God still stands with outstretched arms, longing for the day that all Israel will return to him. That's the book of

Romans. That's theology in a nutshell from Romans 9 through 11. So obviously any attitude of the Christian of like arrogance towards Jews or hatred towards Jews, I mean, it really is just completely incongruent with what we see in God's word. Our attitude should really be. really be more like Paul's, just eagerness, earnestness for them to know Christ, right? Yes, and to preach the gospel to them, to share the gospel of Messiah Jesus. When you're in a Jewish community, pray in the name of Yeshua Jesus. I've really learned this. I've been doing so much ministry since I returned from filming Body of Proof in Jerusalem around

the modern state of Israel, around God's plan for Israel, and I've learned so much. And I've been heartened by the fact that there is still a remnant of believing Jews. and they're strong in the Lord. They're strong in the faith. And so never forget, Jesus is a Jew. He's still a Jew. He didn't cease becoming a Jew. In the resurrection, we follow a Jewish Savior who is both fully God and fully man.

So you better believe I'm going to love the Jewish people. Yes. Yes and amen. I think some people also make the mistake on the other end of it to read something like Romans 1126 that says all Israel will be saved and think, well, I don't need to share the gospel of them. God's got that. They're fine. But that's not the means through which God has ordained, or that while sharing the gospel is the means through which God has ordained that people come to know him. That's exactly right. And that's why Jesus even had to preach the gospel when he did his descent into hell. We see the gospel is always being preached. It is always through faith in the Messiah that we are saved. The mode of salvation has never changed from Genesis 3 to now. And I think that's a very important point.

that we need to herald as careful Christian thinkers, and we need to take the opportunity to be conversant on these issues. We need to make sure we read the Bible. We don't let other, you know, learn from everyone, but don't let anyone think for you. Be a good Bible-based Christian. Form your worldview from what the scripture actually says. Yes, and amen. All right. Let's talk about the scriptures and the reliability of the scriptures, because I got some questions from my relatable audience on Instagram, and a lot of them were very fundamental questions, great questions, though, questions that I think a lot of people, even those who grew up in the church, really didn't get answers. It was just because we said so, because this is what your parents believe,

this is what you were taught at Sunday school, which might work for a period of time when you're young, but as you grow up, you graduate from the milk and you need spiritual meat, you need the answers to these questions. So let's go to the beginning. kind of, at least when it comes to the scriptures that we rely on. Can you tell us why we should rely on these 66 books of the Bible? Why not the other books, like the Book of Thomas or the Apocrypha? Why do we have this canon and why should we trust it? Now, you may not be aware, but I have a PhD, so that means I know a lot about a little. In my area of specialty, Ali Beth, that I know a lot about the Little Inn is the second century, what some kind of call apocryphal, what I call the extra

canonical gospel. So my area of specialty is actually all those books that didn't make it into the canon. I spent three years of my life reading them. So here's a couple of answers for you. You have a lot of Catholic friends both in the room and who listened to this. So I'm excited about this. And I want to make a distinction. There's the Catholic Apocrypha, which is depending on how you count them, 11, 12, maybe 13 books that are in intertestamental books. These books are excellent books. You should read them. You heard it right. You should read them. They're excellent books. Jerome included them in the Latin Vulgate. You know, Jerome put together what became the Bible of a thousand years, the Latin Vulgate. He did it in the grotto of the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem. He had a benefactor by the name of Paula who literally wrote the checks for his ministry so he could continue to do his work. When Jerome includes the Intertestamental Apocrypha, which is different from the Jewish pseudipigrapha and even more different from the New Testament Apocrypha. Okay, so this is why these distinctions are important. He includes these books. He says they're helpful but not sacred. It's likely that Jesus would have read all of the, what we call the Catholic Apocrypha. These are books like First Maccabees, Second Maccabees. Alliebeth, these are super inspirational text if you're a Jew in late Second Temple Judaism with the Roman occupiers at hand.

Inspirational, but not inspired. So they were included. This might turn some people's heads around if you're a KJV only kind of Christian. The Apostle. is actually included in the original King James Bible. Let's transition now to the second century Gospels like Thomas. You just asked about the gospel of Peter. These texts, the first thing I share with my students, and always pastorally, but have you actually read them before you ask me why they're not included in the library called the Bible? That's what the Bible is. The Bible is a library of 66 books. Have you actually read any of the quote unquote gospels? And I say that with a little G, lowercase G. Have you actually read them? Because the Gospel of Peter, which is late second century, it's written in Greek. We only have one copy of it. It's been lost. It's called P. Cairo 10759.

It was lost in the Cairo Museum. Some believe this was the first gospel, Ali Beth. And here's some of the features. Jesus is a giant. So he's like a member of the Avengers team. He's like the Hulk when he comes out of the tomb. The cross follows him out of the tomb. The cross talks. there's polymorphic Christology and polymorphic angelology. What does that mean? That's kind of a weird, big word. It means Christ gets bigger and bigger, and he's even taller than the clouds. You actually have Jews that are spending the night in a cemetery waiting to see what happens at the resurrection tomb. You can see immediately this was a very unsophisticated author who knows nothing of the land of Israel, knows nothing of Jewish customs. And yet the liberals, the skeptical scholars, these are groups that come out of Helmet Kester School at Harvard, Trinity College. I wouldn't send my dog to go to school there. I'm sorry to say that on your show, but I'm not sorry, not sorry. They think these reveal something of the historical Jesus. They don't. They are wonderful windows into second, third, fourth, fifth century Christian communities. But just because they say the gospel of Thomas, they're not written by Thomas or the gospel of

Peter, they're not written by Peter. So have you actually read them? Why do we have the gospels in the Bible, the Big G G G G G G G. G. Matthew, Luke and John. Because they exhibit what's called Verisimilitude, that's a really cool word. I want your audience to get to know. Veritas Latin, you've said that word on your show, similitude. It's very similar. How do we know what truth is? Truth corresponds to reality. So when I open up Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, everything I read about it from the geographical nature, the names, the places, it's all accurate. Here's a cool thing, Allie, Beth. I would summarize it this way. When you go to the land of Israel. There's about a hundred archaeological digs. These digs only happen twice a year because

you recruit college students who come at their own expense to volunteer. These are very expensive digs, okay? Like, you got to make sure you're digging in the right spot. And so there I am at one of these digs. And most of the digs are sponsored by secular organizations. So there's no Christian bias. In fact, there's a bias to not believe in the Bible. And yet I began to notice that the archaeologists who are Jewish agnostic leaning towards atheists, they use six books to make sure they're digging in the right spot. You may have heard of some of these six books. Are you ready for these? Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, the Book of Acts, and Flavius Josephus. So if they're not reliable, why in the world are Jewish atheist archaeologists using them to make sure that they're digging in the right spot?

because they exhibit verisimilitude with Jesus and Judaica. In other words, they are reliable historical sources. Wow. And as for the canon, can you tell us a little bit about the history? I promise I'll answer shorter from now, and I know you got a lot of questions. I do have a lot of questions. That's okay. That's okay.

As long as it takes to answer it thoroughly, that's fine. But the 66 books of the Bible, can you tell us a little bit about the process of how those and why not just the Gospels, but the New Testament was decided to be inspired by God? Constantine did not choose the books of the Bible. Let's be very clear about that. People later didn't say Jesus was God. Again, I'm a historian. So right now, Alie Beth and I are not getting in some kind of religious trance, as far as I know. We're just doing history. We're talking like two clear thinking people. We're not doing this based on emotion or feeling. If I want to know something of history, I want early eyewitness tradition.

I want to get as close to the event as I can. And I want to find artifactual remains. Ali, I used to live in Franklin, Tennessee. Battle of Franklin takes place in Tennessee. Five Confederate generals, it's the bloodiest five hours of the Civil War. And guess what we have? We have artifacts all over it. We have musket balls.

We have letters. We have uniforms. We have all kinds of artifacts that help us understand about the Battle of Franklin. What do we have when we open up the gospel? the very same thing. Within 50 years, we have letters that are circulating. Remember, the letters of Paul antedate. They predate the Gospels. We have Thessalonians. It's probably the first book written in the New Testament, probably in the 40s. I read a peer-reviewed article this week, the time that we're recording, Holy Week, that Mark might be dated as early as the 40s or 50s. I'm not saying I agree with that,

but can you believe that? One of the most authoritative World War II books that's ever been written was published in the 90s by an eyewitness, that's 50 years after World War II, right? Why do we second-guess the books of the Bible? Because we have this hyper-scepticism towards them. And so when you study the 5,800 Greek fragments of the New Testament, as I have, you can go to Mount Athos, by the way. There's a thousand Greek fragments there. You'll see that the Gospels began traveling together at the earliest stages. You mean we have fragments, Jeremiah, the Chester Beattie papyrus that are in Dublin, Ireland. You can go see it. Second century, these books are already traveling together. By the way, that's long before Constantine. So again, if I just, as my

grandpa taught me, bother to learn these things, we see that we have an embarrassment of riches when we look at the historicity of Jesus. And I often say this and I say it. That's why I hope you'll encourage people to get my body-approved Bible study, because I really want people to know this. If I can't believe in Jesus of Nazareth from the historical documents that we call the Bible, I shouldn't believe in the Roman Empire. I shouldn't believe in Alexander the Great. Here's a great comparison. Alexander the Great's two primary sources. He's never questioned over here at our state universities. Aryan and Plutarch. Ali Beth, they're writing 400 years later after the fact. What do we have with the witnesses who write about Jesus? We have a hostile witness, Paul,

who is killing Christians until the resurrection. And he writes the earliest letters within a few decades. There are a lot of resources out there, too, just talking about like the early church and Polycarp and Ignatius and all of the church councils and the process that they went through to decide upon through the power of the Holy Spirit on these 66 books. They were eyewitnesses. They were authoritative. They had the gospel.

It's very clear. And this is why we need to know this. And I can't talk to you if you don't accept the Bible as a historical document because that means you don't know how to do history. We do history of the Bible the same way we do history of any other subject. I don't do Christian history. I do normal history. And is it true? Would you agree that the Bible does not contain any discrepancies or any errors? Because sometimes people will say, well, it's infallible but not an error. or it's an errant but not infallible yeah they're equivocators i know i'm going to a liberal church that i need

to leave if my pastor stands up and says the following i believe the bible contains the word of god but it's not all the word of god that's a catchphrase which hey i'm a woke progressive and that's your cue to get out of that church make sure make no mistake the bible is true it is not only infallible it is anerrant so i agree with the chicago statement of inerrancy please go that if you want to know what inerrancy means. It means it's inerrant without error. Now, let me give you a footnote to that answer. Every manuscript that we have before Gutenberg, you can get on a plane right now, if you want, it'll be fun to do this, and go to go to Frankfurt, Germany. And right near the Frankfurt Airport is the little German town of Mainz, Germany, where the Gutenberg Press is

located. Now, Audrey and I made the mistake of going to the German tour. We don't speak German, So that was my bad. But they do have English tours. And we were picking up a little bit because I know some theological German. Until the invention of the printing press, and let me use an example here, until books came out, we have a nice copy book. Coffee book here. We have my book. Until books were printed, no two manuscripts were exactly the same.

So what does that mean? If I wrote a letter and I wanted to keep a copy of the letter, I might shorthand a little bit of it to you if I was writing. you a love letter. I'm going to keep a copy of that. In other words, there's more than one copy of the book of Romans. There's not just one copy of the book of Romans. Paul didn't write the greatest document ever written, give it to Phoebe to bring to the Church of Rome, and then just, like, not have his own copy, okay? Now, they would be very, very similar, but they might have a few shorthand differences. A difference in a handwritten manuscript is not automatically an error. Allie Beth, if I tell you right now, you're a very smart person, praise God or praise the Lord.

Am I making an error if I said God the first time and Lord the second time? If I pray here in a minute in Jesus' name, but then you said, well, he prayed in Christ's name. Is there a question of whose name I'm praying in? No. So when you have over 400, when you have over 5,800 handwritten copies, pretend this is the Bible, you're going to have some differences in those manuscripts. None of them affect any Bible doctrine. Does that make sense what I'm trying to say?

Yeah, totally. Not until the invention of the printing press, do you have camera-ready copy, as it were, with pages that don't have differences in them. I have a Torah scroll. I'd encourage you check out my social media because I love having artifacts. I have a Torah scroll that's 1,000 years old.

It reflects an 800 to 1,000-year scribal hand, and it was smuggled out of a rack the pogroms of Saddam Hussein and a military tire has a very interesting provenance. But there's even an error, I say this, a typo in the, my man, the scribe does four lines of numbers 30 to 33. At the very end, he forgets to write of the land. And so he literally corrects it on the top of the land, which would be right to left if you're reading Hebrew. So does that make sense? Does that help people? Yeah. Distinction without a difference. There's going to be those things when you are copying a text by hand before there was copy and paste.

Exactly. Before you could do the things that you could do after the printing press and, of course, today. Okay, let's move on to a different kind of question. Someone asked how to explain the Trinity to someone who thinks that that means that Christianity is a polytheistic religion with three gods. Absolutely so important. We have to be careful with this. And again, thank you for pointing this out.

The Trinity is a fascinating subject. God reveals himself as one what and three hooves, one God, one God in essence, who has revealed himself in the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We believe in inseparability of operations of the Trinity. My good friend Adonis V-D-U has done a phenomenal book on the Trinity, if you just want to geek out on this, on the inseparability of operations. Because as I was growing in the Lord, Ali Beth, I would have really sincere questions. Like, if Jesus does something, does that mean God, the Father and the Holy Spirit, did it too? Right. If I pray to Jesus, am I also praying to God, the Father, and the Holy Spirit at the same time? And the answer is yes. What the one does the other two do automatically. So the Trinity,

that's pericorosis, the one and dwells the other. We see this from John's Gospel very clearly. John 17, I and you, you and me, and then us in Christ. And so the Trinity is a fascinating subject. I think the more you study it, the more wonderful it becomes. If I could explain it to you, though, in five minutes on this show, it would be impossible to do. So I would just encourage you to, so one, one what, three whews is a great place to start. All analogies eventually break down. Some people use ice, water, different modes of moisture, but they're all the same thing at the same time as well. And just watch out for modalism, watch out for false teachers out there that say, well, he was.

Was God the Father in the Old Testament? Then he was Jesus, and now he's just the Holy Spirit. There's some very famous preachers who ascribe to that. Watch out as well for the Jesus-only cult movements. Oneness Pentecostal, they believe that God is just Jesus right now. Like, there's nothing else. Again, I allow the Bible to inform my theology. I don't inform the Bible with my theology.

And so scripture constantly refers to one what, that is God, three who's, the Father, son and the Holy Spirit. They're not divided. They never act indifference with one another, one mind. And listen, that's how God should be. God is, we only know what he's revealed about himself. And that's how it should be. Yeah, it is, of course, can be confusing. But if you go back to something that you said, if we keep this in mind, that scripture has to interpret scripture. So we can't read any verse in isolation. When we read when Jesus says, you know, it's better for you that I go, because the Holy Spirit's going to come, he's going to be your helper. That might seem like, okay, these are two different people doing two different things.

Jesus is going there. The Holy Spirit is going there. It is confusing by itself. But you read that in light of John 1. You read that in light of the rest of the New Testament, how in the beginning was the word, the word was God. And then the word came down and dwelt among us. Okay, right there, we at least get some sense of the Trinity.

And yes, the Bible doesn't say the word, the Trinity. That is the name of the concept, though, that we read. Turtolian said the name Trinity. Yes, that we read it. And there's a lot of things and a lot of terms that we might not read in Scripture, but we see the definition of that in Scripture. So, yeah, that was very helpful. But it's okay.

If you don't fully understand the Trinity. You're going to struggle with it. It's all right, yeah. No one really fully understands. We can fully understand how to explain it, but we're finite. God is infinite. We're doing the best that we can. Yeah.

And again, I can't emphasize enough, too, that when you pray, never pray alone. This is a great application of what we're saying. Read Romans 8. The searcher of hearts is who we're praying to. When I pray, the Holy Spirit prays on my behalf with groanings which cannot be that. That's Romans 8. Hebrews tells us that when I pray Jesus is praying as well. And so isn't it great, no matter what I'm going through right now, Ali Beth, no matter what I'm facing, when I pray, I don't pray alone because Jesus prays with me and for me when I pray. The Holy Spirit prays with me and for me when I pray. and God is called the searcher of our hearts. And so when it comes to the Trinity, pay attention to the terms through which God reveals

himself in Scripture. He's not just called God or Lord. He is called Lord 6,000 times in the Bible, but he's also called the searcher of our hearts. Call on the searcher of your heart. Use those same names that appear in Scripture that help us have a better understanding of who God is. Yes. Okay.

Speaking of prayer, this is another question that we received. Why do we pray? if God is totally sovereign, he already knows what's going to happen. What's the point of us praying? Absolutely. That's a great question. I want to thank the person who asked this unrelatable. With the point of prayer is to have a relationship with God. Could you imagine being married to your husband and never speaking to him? I couldn't imagine being married to my wife, Audrey, and never talking to her. I want to talk to her all the time. She gets tired of how much I want to talk to her all the time because I love her so much. prayer is not about me getting things from God, Ali Beth. Prayer is about me communing with God relationally. I'm praying right now while I'm talking to you. I'm asking the Holy Spirit to use me

and to let me not forget things, even as I'm talking to you right now. Isn't that the beauty of prayer? Prayer is not about getting things from God. And yes, God is sovereign. Yes, he designed the world in such a way. He knew the things we would ask him prayer before we even asked him. That's what Jesus said. don't pray like those pagan jabberers. Don't keep saying the same word over and over again. I just preached at Prestonwood Baptist Church not long ago. And I said, would you please stop praying long prayers? Because there's no long prayers in the Bible.

Did you know the longest prayer in the Bible takes about three minutes? Most prayers in the Bible are short and to the point. They don't say Father God 50 times. They get to the point. I want to pray short prayers. I want to pray Bible prayers. And I want to pray like that public in God, merciful to me a sinner. Jesus said your father knows what you need even before you ask him.

So don't feel like you need to pray something over and over again. This doesn't mean that we don't intercede for healing. You know, since I was on your show last year, my dad has been healed of terminal cancer. I was with my dad in a cancer ward where he was given a death sentence. So I believe in the power of collective prayer. But I can tell you a lot of those prayers in the critical cancer ward where, God, I need you now. God, I don't even know what to say. Help. Help. Did you know that's a prayer? So I pray because I love Jesus Christ. I want to be close to him. He already knows what I'm going to ask. And I think that is just all the more assuring to pray. We shouldn't think about God like we're trying to hail a cab. I know no one does that anymore because of the rideshare apps. But a lot of us feel like we need to call down God like we're trying to signal a taxi to listen to us. God is more eager to hear your prayers than you are to pray. And that's a great assurance to me in prayer today when I pray. He's more eager to hear me than I'm even eager to talk to him.

He never tires of my voice. He never tires of my requests. But let's pray like the Bible. And here's a little thing. I don't like to say amen when I pray during the day because I'm just in a constant conversation with the Lord. And we are to pray without ceasing. That's right.

And I do think it's cool that God has ordained prayer to be, just like evangelism, a means by which he works, because we do read in the same. the book of James that the prayer of a righteous person, which of course all Christians are made righteous because of Christ's righteousness has much power as it is working, which I just love. So prayer actually does something. And maybe we don't ever fully understand how God, who is in the eternal now, so he's not suspended by time the way that we are, and who knows everything that we need before we ask it. And the Holy Spirit is interceding for us. We might not ever understand exactly how that is working itself out.

All I know, all I can trust is that, yes, God knows everyone who's going to be saved. Yes, God knows everything that's going to happen, and he's totally sovereign, and yet he has commanded me to pray. He's commanded me to share the gospel. And so in some method that I don't fully understand, God has ordained before the beginning of time, that those would be two means by which he accomplishes his will. Yes. And it's not really my responsibility to understand exactly why or how that works. Yes. But just to trust that just like we see throughout Scripture, there are a lot of things that God could have done automatically.

Like, why did they have to circle seven times before the walls of Jericho fell? God didn't need them to do that. It's not like he was waiting on that to happen before his power could work. Like you said, it's not handling a cab. It's not rubbing a genie and a bum. And yet I think sometimes he implements those processes for our sanctification because obedience is good for us. And it glorifies him.

And I don't know exactly why they had to circle seven times. I don't know why Noah had to follow all of those rules to build this great big arc when God could have plopped it out of the sky, except for that our faith and faithfulness does something for us in us. and also to bring God glory. And that, I think, sometimes just has to be enough for us as an answer, too. And that's huge. And it's obedience, isn't it?

Like, why did Nehem and the Syrian have to go dip in the water that many times? He didn't want to do it at first. Prayer is an act of obedience as well. It's an act of humility. It's an act of surrender. And if you don't mind, could I share a personal story? Yes, please. So I've been in prayer for my kids.

And I'm a dad of five. And as I mentioned a year ago, I still haven't slept. My triplets are seven years old now, so I haven't slept. in seven years, ladies and gentlemen. They are nonstop 24-7, eight days a week. But they've been asking my wife, Audrey, so many questions about the spiritual life lately. And I want to just share this with you. Audrey and I talk about God in our home, like other people talk about golf and football. God is the harmonizing factor of our life. We talk about Jesus like he's in the room all the time. We talk about him naturally. We don't get into holy mode when we talk about God. And Monday night,

just this past Monday, we were having a wonderful salmon dinner. My wife made. I was starving, kind of not really there, just starving, eating, you know, the whole I don't really need to say much when you have seven people eating dinner every night at your dinner table. And all of a sudden, Abel, who is one of our triplets, said, Dad, we want to get saved. And then writer said, I do too, dad. And then Jackson said, yes, I do too. That's so sweet. And then leave it to my theologian son, Justin. He's like, well, you're not saved. You have to accept Jesus into your heart to be saved for the forgiveness of your sins. You have to believe he rose from the dead for you. Abel goes, I believe that, Justin. Yeah. And I thought,

well, we'll do that in a minute. And then Abel said, no, Dad, we want to do it right now. That's sweet. In the course of our dinner conversation, we began to pray. And I led all three of my boys at the same moment, Abel, Ryder and Jackson, to Jesus Christ. And I don't mind saying the date, March 24, 2024. And they wrote it in their Bibles. And I want to tell you, that's the power of prayer. That's the power of talking to God. And you can do that in your own home. You can talk about God like you talk about your golf game. He's the constant reality. He's everything we need in every moment. And so this isn't just an academic exercise that we're doing right now, Ali Beth. This is real. And it makes a difference. And now we're on the road to sanctification. The Johnston triplets now need

to learn sanctification. We knew that immediately. They got saved. Now it's time to be a little more sanctified. Right. Right. Right. Yes. That's amazing. You know, I saw Kanye West recently. He was in some doing some interview and he said something along the lines of, I have my issues with Jesus because I have asked him to do some things. I've asked him to show up sometimes and he doesn't. And, you know, I'm like, yeah, you're in pretty good company, Kanye, in that, there have been plenty of times where we have all prayed for something, expected something, even out of good desires. We wanted something good, and we wanted God to do this for us, and we believed that he could, and he did it. He showed up in a different way, or maybe at the time we felt like he wasn't showing up

at all, or he answered no. And that can rock people's faith. It's like, okay, I asked for this good thing, and you didn't do it. You didn't heal my dad. You didn't provide a husband. You didn't allow us to get pregnant. You didn't help me, you know, save my job, whatever it is. So walk us through that. Like, why would God not answer even good prayers? I have a word for Kanye West. You need to listen to more country music, Kanye, because this guy named Garth Brooks wrote an awesome song once, and he sang it, and it was the top of the billboard chart. It was called Thank God for Unanswered Prayers. And some of us need a little Garth Brooks theology right now. I thank God he doesn't answer all my prayers because I wouldn't be married to the Redhead for 20 years. Thank God he didn't answer my prayers before I met Audrey.

Thank God I married the right person. Thank God that he said no to some of my prayers. Thank God he said wait to some of my prayers. My word is God knows better. And thank God he doesn't answer all our prayers because sometimes we just don't know. In week four, my body-approved Bible study, Ali Beth, I point out the dejection of Cleopis and we know his wife's name Mary from John's Gospel. They're walking seven miles from Jerusalem to Amas. And I know this is Easter Monday. We're thinking about this. It's been in our mind. And they felt like they had had an unanswered prayer as well. Their Messiah had just been massacred on the cross. And in Luke 2421, Cleopis says to this stranger who's walking the road to Amas, we had hoped he was the Messiah, but he wasn't. He was just killed. Haven't you heard what's

gone on in Israel? Now, by the way, we filmed at the very spot with two drones and four cameras, had to take a hummer there. I got car sick, like literally off-roading to the road to Amas. And they're talking to Jesus. They're praying. They don't even know it. They thought that he didn't answer their prayers. They invite Jesus into their home. This is the 13th meal scene in the Gospel of Luke. I can't wait to meet Luke. The guy loved to eat dinner with people. That gives me hope. This is the final meal scene in the Gospel of Luke. And it's only when Jesus takes the bread and he breaks it. And he gives thanks for it. And here's that power verse. Luke 2432, they realized he had answered their prayer when they thought he hadn't. We're not our hearts

burning within us when he opened the scriptures to us. And so here's the application. If I feel like God's not answering my prayer, just go back to the Bible, go back to the scriptures, pray the scriptures, and then just keep praying the scriptures, and then trust the Lord. Yes, amen. Man, well, we've got about 100 other questions that we could ask you, that we don't have time, that we don't have time to answer. Is there any last? word that you want to give everyone? The last word that I want to give you is the promise of hope. Hope is a power word. And the reason that I'm a regular watcher of Ali Beth Stucky is because you give me hope when I watch you, Ali Beth. Legacy media, one thing I learned going through COVID was I wanted to

just get into a depression watching legacy media because they learned that body counts meant greater ratings. And so I had to turn that off. That was part of my personal peace plan. And And I had to start turning into thinkers like you regularly, tuning into thinkers like you, because you speak truth and truth gives me hope. I have no hope without truth. Everything outside of truth is a lie. So I want to encourage more people to watch your show because you give us hope. I want to encourage people to share this broadcast because we've covered so much ground.

But I also want to encourage you to go through the Body of Proved Bible study for one reason and one reason only. It will give you hope. The Bible promises us a living hope. 1-Peter 1-3, not because I feel like being hopeful today. I've been trying to memorize this verse. I don't have it perfectly, but let me try. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has brought us into a living hope because of the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. It's something like that. That's about 90% accuracy. The point is we have a living hope because Jesus rose from the grave. Yes. And so I can have a living hope. Romans says, we've been in Romans this

whole time. The book of Romans says we have a hope that never disappoints. The book of Hebrew says we have a better hope. Hope is mentioned 100 times in the New Testament, and it's always tied to the resurrection of Jesus. So have hope today. He's alive. Yes, and amen. Thank you so much.

I appreciate it. Thank you for having me. Hey, this is Steve Day. If you're listening to Allie, you already understand that the biggest issues facing our country aren't just political. They're moral, spiritual, and rooted in what we believe is true about God, humanity, and reality itself. On the Steve Day show, we take the news of the day and tested against first principles,

faith, truth, and objective reality. We don't just chase narratives and we don't offer false comfort. We ask the hard questions and follow the answers wherever they leave, even when it's unpopular. This is a show for people who want honesty over hype and clarity over chaos. If you're looking for commentary grounded in conviction and unwilling to lie to you about where we are or where we're headed, you can watch this D-Day show right here on Blaze TV or listen wherever you get podcasts. I hope you'll join us.