Ask Pastor Mike Live - September 10, 2026

0:00Hello and welcome to Ask Pastor Mike Live with Pastor and Bible Teacher Mike Fobarez. The live Colleen program answering your questions about the Bible and the Christian life. Call us right now with your questions at 1-877-913-5357. That's 1-877-913-5357. Now here's Pastor Mike. Okay, everybody we're here today as we are every middle of the week. Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursdays answering questions about the Bible, about the Christian life, about theology, doctrine, whatever is on your mind that you think would be helpful to clarify. We would love to do that here on this program. And if you are out there, you want to talk to me and give me a call 1-877-913-5357. That is the number to call and I would love to chat with you.

1:00I'm the voice you hear on focal point radio. We are the broadcast that walks through like a lot of the broadcasts on this station, walks through the Bible, verse by verse, exposing God's Word. And that's what we do. But then we put this on also where we're answering the scriptural questions that come in that people have about what to do, biblically in a situation they're facing or how to think biblically about a doctrine that they have been exposed to or some question they're facing. So whatever it is in your life, if you want to give me a call today's a good day to do that, even if you've never called before or even if you've called many times, give me a call 1-877-913-5357 or go to YouTube or Facebook and search for Ask Pastor Mike Live. That's a good way to get involved and you can just get involved in the chat and ask your question there. It'll pop up on my screen or you can text the word ask, ASK, on your texting app, your

2:01texting app to 90398 on your phone or your tablet or your computer or however you text. And that'll pop up here on my screen and I will tackle it. Whatever you've got and we'll talk about it. So let's do that. 1-877-913-5357. Let's see what we've got coming in. This was from yesterday on YouTube. I didn't get to Sarah's as I went to a church and dress code was not... Well, here's how you start the questions there. What are your thoughts on a dress code? I went to church recently where there's great preaching but a lot of the women there had very short skirts and the bellies were hanging out and their dresses were low-cut tops even on the stage. Well, okay, yeah. That can be a problem and what are your thoughts on dress codes? Well, I think you should have a dress code if you're going to a church and you're noticing that kind of thing, that's a problem. I mean, you've got to culturally have a culturally acceptable standard and that's the problem.

3:05I've preached in various places around the world and the problem is that every place around the world has a different cultural standard as to how to dress and of course, first thing I do when I go somewhere is find out what's the expectation in terms of how to dress and every place is a little different. Now, some places I've been, I'm not going to fully participate in how they dress because they dress completely different in a way that I won't go there. I mean, I've been to jungles and places where they actually accommodate me. I mean, there are topless women in the jungles that go to church that don't even think about putting on a shirt and yet when the American missionaries are there, they throw on a shirt because they know that would be an issue for us. So, you know, I'm just saying you've got to always accommodate and in our case, I would say that's probably not a good example for your situation here. Everyone should say in America, you want to dress with appropriate dignity in hoping that no one's going to walk into your church saying what you said about this church and

4:08that is that there's provocative clothing on the platform. That's for sure. Again, always control what people wear, although if it were so bad, I have no problem with an usher saying, hey, that's not appropriate or put a sweater on or whatever if it's totally out of place and so provocative that it's an issue. So, yeah, dress code, I wouldn't publish it in the bulletin unless it became a problem every week, but I have no problem telling someone, you need to dress differently if it is a stumbling block and clearly one. So I get it and that can be a problem. I've seen it myself. I can think of one church. I went to where that was the case and I thought this place has got a whole different way to approach how they, their standards are very different. Let's put it that way. All right, one, eight, seven, seven, nine, one, three, five, three, five, seven. Let's talk to Darla. Darla, you're on the air, Pastor Mike Fubara is how can I help? Yeah, hi. I was wanting to know, it occurs also the Bible Babylon and I was wanting to know who you

5:15think the mystery Babylon is. It occurs in Revelation, the mystery Babylon. Okay. And I was wanting to know what you thought about that. Well, Babylon, let's start with the historic Babylon. The historic Babylon was the nemesis, the arch enemy of Israel that ended up destroying the temple in 586 BC. So there was something that could never be erased from the history of the Jews in the Old Testament because Nebuchadnezzar with his army destroyed the temple and routed the city and took people like Shadrach Meshach and Abendigo and Daniel as prisoners off to Babylon. So Babylon was never going to be taken out of the psyche and the conscience of the Jews as a group of people that were always going to be understood as a terrible group of people against God's people. So when we get the mystery Babylon in the New Testament and in the book of Revelation, the idea is that we've got a group of people that are against the people of God and at

6:17that point in the book of Revelation, it's the whole world and the whole world is under the control of and the allegiance of the whole world has been given to the man of lawlessness, this anti-Christ. He's against everything that is good and everything that is holy and he's leading this entire world system against the people of God. So we've got a whole group of people that have come to faith in Christ and again the focus is on Israel because it starts in chapter 7 with 144,000 Jewish people, each from the 12 tribes of Israel, not that that's all that's being saved, but a ton of them are being saved from Israel. And so it's appropriate that the word Babylon comes to represent the world system that is pushing back against the conversion of a lot of Jewish people and Gentile people during the tribulational period that is saying, we don't like this, we don't like you, they break the covenants three and a half years into the tribulational period and they're called Babylon, mystery Babylon and they're full of excess, they're full of luxury, they're full

7:21of all kinds of things that God detests and they're going to be put down by Christ himself when he comes back at the end of the tribulational period and is destroyed by Christ. Do you know who that is? Well, mystery Babylon is the whole world system and I don't know who the anti-Christ is but he will be revealed and when you... I mean, not the anti-Christ but I mean do you know who the mystery Babylon would be? Some people say it's Rome and some people say it's something else because it had seven hills or something. I remember reading something about seven hills because it's Rome is built around seven hills that it was the mystery Babylon but I just wanted to ask what you thought about that. Well that certainly is the reference in Revelation 17 about the seven mountains on which the woman is seated and that takes people's minds back to Rome because Rome again in the New Testament times was the oppressor of the Israelites in the first century right from

8:25187 or 167 BC they started to conscript the Romans... I'm sorry, the Romans started to conscript the Jews and excise taxes from them so yeah, I mean all of that I think is symbolically tied together of the people that are against the people that are God's people. So Egypt, Babylon, Rome, all of those things are alluded to but mystery Babylon, mystery Egypt, mystery Assyrians, mystery Rome, all of that are the world system. It's a one-world government under a one-world leader. They all have many names including the one-world leader, the anti-Christ, the man of lawlessness. They have names but it's one thing. The one-world leader, where will his headquarters be? I'm not sure. I don't think just because there's a reference to Rome that it's going to be in Rome. I don't necessarily think that that is what we have to stick with just because there's an illusion to Rome. Rome just reminds us that just like Rome was against Israel in the first century

9:29and Babylon was against Israel in the Old Testament and Egypt was against Israel way back in early Old Testament times that we've got to place them in that geographic location. We just need to remember that the world's system at the end of time is going to be a one-world government against the people of God at the very last period of time before Christ comes back. Okay. I have one more question for you. Sure, go ahead. The Enzekeriah 11, it talks about where to the badge shepherd. Yeah. And it talks about him having an eye put out and a lame arm. And some people think that the anti-Christ after he gets shot or wounded after he gets, you know, whatever happens to him. And I had one preacher say that he thought that was anti-Christ after the attack on him.

10:32So I wondered what you thought. Yeah, I don't know if that's the case. I think the whole chapter in, if you'll start in verse one and you look even back to chapter 10, you see his anger. Like chapter 10, verse three, my anger is hot against the shepherds. I will punish the leaders. You know, it's plural, right? The Lord of hosts, he cares for his flock, the house of Judah. So he's really castigating the entire leadership and talking about the flock and how they're not cared for. So I don't want to go too far into looking at this particular section and saying, well, this must be the anti-Christ. I can't rule it out. And here's the thing about Zachariah. A lot of it is going to be very clear in the rearview mirror as a lot of passages are that are prophetic. And so much of Zachariah is prophetic about the end times. And when it all takes place, we're going to be able to say, oh, yes, this connects with that and that connects with this and this connects with that. We'll see

11:33it clearly. So it may be, but I don't know. And we'll see. And I think when it happens, we will see it clearly. Okay. All right. Thank you. Thank you for your answers. Okay. All right, Darla. Thank you so much for the call. 1-877-913-5357. Let's go to Tom. Tom here and there with Mike Fibaris. How can I help? Hi, Pastor Mike. Hey. First of all, I just wanted to tell you that back in 2012, I was listening to your program and to focal point. And you were the vehicle through which the Holy Spirit murdered me. So I thank you. Eternally, thank you for everything you've done for me. My question is, I have read all your books and I listened to you frequently. And I recently just read a couple of books about John MacArthur, who I know we just lost not too long ago. And I was curious,

12:33as I delve into MacArthur's readings more, if there's any significant differences that you would have with his due points or his theology, it seems to be made on on par with what you would say in most things. But just curious about that. No, yeah. John was a very influential preacher in his generation, obviously, and big loss to Christianity. I think our strengths are very different in terms of our strengths. But he was very kind to me, invited me into his pulpit a couple of times on Sunday mornings. And I taught in his seminary for years. So he was very kind to me. I think we agreed enough on our theology that he would have me teach in his seminary and even forward in one of my books. So I mean, if we have some differences, and I know we have some, their minor in terms of things that I know people would point out from time to time, you disagree on this passage,

13:37you disagree on that, because it's true. I don't like some have kind of a lock step agreement with everything that John MacArthur says. But I think John's background and mine are a lot the same, coming out of a conservative Baptist association upbringing, which he had and I had. He started pastoring in that context and so did I, and then came to leave that denomination, not that it's a bad denomination at all, but association of churches is what they called it. And then, you know, tried to settle into our theology. And I think way back in the day when we first met, we were both in a place of trying to rethink our so theology. I mean, he had done a lot of the things that I was doing and saying I don't like the kind of this free grace movement that's watering down the gospel. So we were at completely the same place when it came to thinking through what the gospel means and

14:41what it doesn't mean. And that I think was one of the reasons we were kind of hit it off initially. Now, again, he was on a whole different national stage. I was just a small town preacher in Arizona at that particular time, but ended up being that he was kind to me and we share the same basic theological stances on most things. But he's much more, you know, his style is very different than mine. I think as anyone can tell by listening to me and listening to him, but it doesn't mean our theology is all that different. So I guess I'll leave it at that, Tom. Does that help? Yes. I have one more question if you have a moment. Okay, sure. There's a church in my town that I was thinking of checking out. And when I look at their website, it says that they are a conversion church. Can you tell me is that an offshoot of the Baptist or what you said? Yeah, the conversion church. You know, that terminology, I'm going to

15:42need to refresh my memory on it. And I know I should know that. I'm looking it up right now even as you speak here. Yeah, it seems to be, yeah, let me get on that. And I'll have to instead of shooting from the hip on this, I'll have to do a little bit of homework on that and make sure I'm right about it and not just looking at my first website that comes up here. But, yeah, I've been, I've run into that before and I just don't, don't feel confident enough to speak to it. And, but I can, what is it? The Thursday today, I can on Tuesday morning. I know that's after the weekend, this weekend. But, yeah, let me do that. And if you listen on Tuesday morning, I will address that on Tuesday. First thing on the on the program. Okay. All right. Very good. I want to be

16:42careful with what I say and make sure I rushers and everything properly. 1 877 91353557. That's the number to call. And I would love to talk to you about whatever's on your mind. And hopefully, I'll have it on the front of my mind and not have to do extra research. All right. Let's look what's going on online. YouTube JDF. I'm being angry, frustrated, worried, etc. When confronted with a difficult situation. Taking my wife to the hospital, getting two flat tires. How can I react? And then I'm well, number one, welcome to the human race. JD. Yeah. And it really is reflexive of your personality and your humanity. And I think of the sons of Thunder, James and John, there's a proclivity that certain personalities have to be like that. And I know this just by raising children. And I know every child has a different bent toward how they're going to be quick to be angry or frustrated or worried or whatever it is. And so don't beat yourself up by

17:49seeing yourself having more of a bent toward those things and getting there more quickly than your friends who seem to be so much more mellow when these things confront them. So I would just say, yeah, you've got a challenge. But the challenge is to say, okay, the fruit of the spirit has to, I got to work harder on some of these. And I got to say, God, please help me to get my flesh under control, but know that the passion and the fire that you have is going to be bridled in ways, I think, JD, that are going to be so helpful, so helpful to you in what God calls you to do. Whatever it is that your vocation is, wherever your work is, and certainly wherever your ministry is in your church, I think that's a great thing when I have someone who's got that fire and that passion, when something isn't the way it ought to be, which is, by the way, a good definition of sin and you start to correct those things. It really is, JD, usually, once someone can get that passion under control, it is something that helps people be leaders because they can see what's

18:54wrong. It needs to get fixed and they're not, they're not okay with it being wrong. It's like a pebble in their shoe and they can't let it go. People that are so copacetic and laid back, sometimes they don't make for good leaders because they don't, they can just blow everything off. And they can't prioritize the fix or if they do, it's only a few things that they see that are problematic and they don't get the whole thing turned around with the kind of excellence that a good leader would with having a concern for the whole thing. In other words, you're frustrated and worried and angry, I know those are bad words, but you see that you're not going to be content until you get the whole thing turned around, whatever it is, the project, the institution, the thing that you're working on. So I don't think this is a bad thing. Eating two flat tires should frustrate anyone, but clearly if you say, okay, this is going to be part of my constitution. I think the older you get, the better you'll get at controlling all this, but you

19:56need to accelerate that control by praying for God to control your anger. Outburst of anger certainly is an expression of the flesh and you want self control as a fruit of the spirit and you need to pray for that and you need to ask God to give you patience and endurance and the ability to be long-suffering. All of that's true, 100%. But just see that sometimes our penchant, our bent, our proclivity can be something that we can channel into a positive that can be useful, that other people don't have and therefore they're not going to drive their minds to fix something or lead something or push something in a direction that you could. And I think that's a good thing. I love to work with people who are not going to be satisfied till everything is done just the way it ought to be. I mean that's kind of manager I want or supervisor I want. All right, well, JD, I get it and I would kind of say I'm that kind of person. And I would tell you this, you know,

21:02I saw myself, I mean, a wife could testify to this too, I suppose, you know, was angry, frustrated, and worried easily when I was younger and hopefully got better at putting that all under control by God's grace, but still not satisfied with anything, an organizational leadership that, you know, I wasn't happy about, you know, a situation or a project till it was done done right. And I just think that's part of something God can use in great ways. All right, 1-877-913-5357. Let's talk to Deborah. Deborah, you're on the earth. Pastor Mike, how can I help? Hi, Pastor Mike. I just heard you, hi, I just heard you mentioned to a caller that you and John McArthur share some of the same theology. Yeah. And my question is I'm just wondering with you, with him, be the same on the Calvinist view on the five points of the two. Yeah, well, here's the thing I would, again, I

22:07talk about the styles of our approach. I'm not big on the titles. Okay. I'm not big on leading on, you know, here's my banner that I fall under and I know sometimes that's helpful for people that are out there on the conference circuit. You know, I'm not a big national figure, so I don't go out there usually and banner my views, but I'll tell you what, when I get into a passage, like Romans chapter 11, and I'm going to deal with issues about God's sovereign work, or I'm in Ephesians chapter 2, and I'm talking about the problem of sin. You know, yeah, I'm going to deal with those probably the way a lot of people are and who are going to say, here's the problem. Sin is such a bad problem. It's going to take God to fix it. And really, tulip, if you really look at the problem of tulip, the real problem is only one problem, and that is how bad is the problem of sin. And if the problem of sin is so bad that it takes God to fix it, I mean, really fix it, then all the other parts of this fall into place. And I think the problem is there's a lot of

23:12friction and heat that comes up over this whole discussion that is unnecessary. And I would love people to sit down around the table and have a discussion about it instead of us just putting people into jerseys in our mind and then throwing them into, you know, the cold storage locker room and saying, well, you don't fit here or you fit there. Because I've had that happen to me or I've had it happen to other people that is just not fair because we're all doing the same thing. We're all working toward the same goal. And a lot of people are assuming things about someone because they say, oh, if that's your theology, then you don't believe in evangelism or you don't believe in, you know, compelling evangelism or you don't believe in calling people to make decisions for Christ and see all of those things aren't true. So that's why I avoid the labels as much as I possibly can. I don't even like to answer questions about tulip. I would avoid it, you know, even in my lobby at church, I don't like to talk about it because I don't think people, usually when they lead with those kinds of questions, I don't think it's going to be profitable. In nine times out of 10, it's not a profitable discussion. What I would rather say is,

24:17what is the real concern? If I answered one way or another, let's talk about that secondary question, and then we can have a conversation and usually all the concern goes away. All right. All right. Well, thank you for answering that. Okay, Deborah. Thanks for the call. 1-877-913-535-57. That's the number to call. Let's see here, Kirk says, have you ever been involved in casting out demons from some one of your Catholic priests performing exorcisms? What are your thoughts on that? Is this real? Or are they claiming to just cast out demons? Yeah. I have not been through the rigour of what you might see a Catholic priest doing in the work of an exorcist in the Catholic church, which of course there is a whole process in which you have in the Catholic church of people doing exorcisms. And of course, they've been made popular by the movies that you see in exorcisms. But I certainly have dealt with

25:17people that have certainly a problem with demonization. And I have prayed many times that God would free people from the problem of their demonization, but not with all the ceremony and no incantations and no spells and no juring as you see in Scripture. Yeah. When all of that's taking place, and ultimately that's the role. It's just like Michael with Satan in the book of Jude, I just want to pray. The Lord rebuke you, this is about praying to God. My power is only in asking God to do what God can do. I'm not going to have an incantation or spell as they had in the second temple period in the inter-testamental period where they put whole books together filled with incantations that Jews were supposed to recite to help demons come out of people. I don't think that is what we

26:19should be doing. I think Christ, of course, can do that. I think as apostles, we're able to do that. But I don't think that's my calling. I don't think that's what God has asked us to do. I think the church is built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets. And I don't think it's my job. My job is to pray that God would take care of the demonic problem in people. And I prayed for that many times and seen many people relieved from that problem. But for me, to directly adjure them, which is the biblical word that is used as though it's my jurisdiction, in my name, or my jurisdiction, I'm not going to do that. And I'm not going to do anything other than to ask God or ask Christ to do what I'm asking Christ to do, which is what I do all the time. When someone's dealing with something that certainly I have no power to fix, I'm praying to God. And that sounds a whole lot less exciting to people than what they're seeing on the silver screen. It's I'm praying for people. I pray for people. And I think you and I should pray for people that are having things that are

27:24overcoming them and oppressing them. And we should always do that. 1-877-913-535-57. That's the number to call. All right, on Facebook, Cindy says, of a person thinks they only need to be repentant to God. And I know an apology won't come from them. How can I confront that? They aren't really dealing with hard attitude and the wedge that's still there. Wow. That sounds like a sermon I just preached. I don't know Cindy if you go to our church, but I just preached a sermon this weekend about the problem of us trying to fix our sins just by praying upward to God and not dealing with it in our relationships with people. Yeah, sin damages relationships with people often, not not every last sin, but many of them do. And because of that, an apology to God and a repentant prayer of confession to God is not enough, right? We need to do that, of course. And God is a forgiving God, but then God would have us go and reconcile and make it right with people.

28:27So yeah, how do you confront it? I would just ask them, hey, let's make this right. I'm really happy that you've repented to God and I'm gracious or I'm grateful, rather, that God is gracious because I've many times come to God and done what you've done and asked for his forgiveness and he's faithful and righteous to forgive our sins and to cleanse us from all on righteousness. I'm grateful for that. But I'd like to make sure we're on the same page. I'd like to be reconciled with you. And so yeah, I wouldn't even use word confront. I would just appeal to your sister or your brother in Christ and say, let's fix our relationship, right? Because as you put it, there's a wedge that's still here. I want to be to where there is no wedge between us, right? That's what I want. So, and if you weren't here, if you're not a part of the church, I preach at, please listen to last this last weekend sermon. I preach it three times in our pulpit and it's all about making sure and you're on the end of, you're on the receiving end of wanting someone to do what I preached. But

29:32we need to make sure all of us, when we sin, that we go out and make sure we reconcile with the people we sin against. But you'll certainly hear my pitch that all of us, according to God's word, should be fixing, reconciling, making restitution, whatever it is, we've got to do to fix our relationships when we sin. That's critical. All right, Facebook. Is it wrong to attend two churches for a season when you don't know where to plug into? Well, it better be a very short season and you better be just looking and, you know, and by a season, I don't know what a season is, a season out of be shorter than the season of the year. I would want it to be for like three or four weeks at the most because you're deciding which church you're going to settle into. It shouldn't take long to figure that out, right? I'd say a month at the most where you're going to two or three churches to figure out what's the church I'm going to be a part of. And I say the most. I mean, I can't set a date on it. But yeah, a season fine. It could be six weeks. It could be three weeks. But let's look at these churches on their websites. Let's get their doctrinal statements. Let's find out

30:35where the pastors went to school. Let's see if they're orthodox. Let's just hear their preaching. You can hear sermons online that they preached. Then you go and you experience it in person and then you make a decision. Are they within reasonable driving distance? Do they have good programs for people in my family? Right? Well, great. Well, then you plug in. And I would plug in. And maybe if you find out something in week three that you didn't know and it's a deal breaker, then you're going to have to leave. But just do what you got to do to plug in and be fully into that church. I wouldn't attend two churches for very long at all. It's just you can't be an effective member of two churches. You just can't. You got to pick one. And so yeah, and I'm going to say you say is it wrong? I don't think it's wrong, but I wouldn't do it for very long. It's not wise. That's for sure. 1877 913-535-357. That's the number to call. Give me a call. 1877-913-535-7.

31:35All right. Ruth writes in. She texted the word ask to 90398. She said, if any of the church that believes in the gifts of the Holy Spirit that they all continue for today. But I began questioning the gift of prophecy. People prophesied to me. They speak to me in the first person as though God were speaking himself to me, which makes me feel uncomfortable, is this biblical and my concerns. And could my concerns indicate that this gift is not actually for today? Well, yeah, my concern with that one in particular is, yeah, you hear a lot of people saying, we are going to exercise this gift, but we know that as we allow this to be exercised in our church, we know it could be wrong. This is what we call the the fallible gift of prophecy. And I do think there are some books out there that address this that those some theologians like to say, it's okay that we can have fallible prophets. I don't think that's, I don't agree with that. I don't think you should have fallible prophets. And so if someone comes to you in the lobby and says,

32:36you're going to have a kid and your kid's going to become, you know, a missionary and going to reach a whole group of lost people in Iri and Jaya, you know, and that doesn't come to pass. I think well, then certainly wasn't God himself speaking to you because God is is infallible. And, yeah, I just in other words, it's wrong. So yes, I don't, I think prophecy in scripture is is what it is. Profitase or the Old Testament in a B, the Hebrew word means God is a mouthpiece. He's speaking through a human being. And when he speaks, he speaks truthfully. And he doesn't speak in a way that is false. And he doesn't get it wrong. So yeah, Ruth, I'm with you on that. I don't, I wouldn't let someone speak to me as though he's speaking what God says. I don't, I don't, I think we have God's word. And if I want to hear audible words from God as it's been tongue in cheek said, I just will read it out loud. Read the Bible out loud. So yeah, there you go.

33:37All right, one eight seven seven nine one three five three five seven. Allu says the reformation led to the schism led to the schism from the Catholic church. Could you could the reform have been carried out within the church without the schism? We're witnessing the same issues in the present day Protestant movement. Can we do what can we do with the lesson learned from the 16th century? Okay, well, we're using words number one that we need to clarify and not overlap. You start using the word schism in church history. You're going back to the middle of the 11th century because anyone who knows church history is going to say the schism took place when you have the western church and the eastern church splitting in two different directions. And we got the orthodox church and the Roman Catholic church going two different directions. That's the schism. They call the great schism of the church. And then you have the reformation, which also was a schism, but we don't call it a schism. But of course it was a schism and I get it. It's wrongly named because it wasn't a reform. Although that was what it was set out to do is to reform the church

34:42and the reform took place 500 years ago. Right, and then that that's what they were trying to do is to reform the church. If you go back to the schism and the eastern church and the western church, it was all about the authority of the church. The eastern church was trying to say that the western church didn't have the authority to rule them. And the Protestant reformation was more about the doctrine and the doctrine was wrong that they were complaining about. You can't sell indulgences and you're saying about the gospel is wrong. And so the reformation was a theological debate and a theological debate that would not be settled. They couldn't settle. They wouldn't settle it. The Roman Catholics said we're not going to settle it. And they had, you know, within 400 years, they put together a whole counter-reformation that was so strong that they anathematized or damned the reformers. They're going along before that, but they put it all in a formal council called the Council of Trent and said, you're all damned to hell. So when you say,

35:48could the reform been carried out within the church without the schism? Well, I wouldn't use the word schism, as I said, because that confuses the schism of the mid-11th century. But no, we couldn't have because the reformers tried to fix the doctrine of salvation and the Catholic church said we're not fixing it because we're not wrong. So what do you do? Well, all you can do is what the Roman, I'm sorry, what the reformers did. And that is, okay, well, we're going to preach the gospel. And they were banned and they were persecuted and just read John Fox's book of martyrs. And you'll read all about the first chapters where the Roman Catholics were killing, you know, it starts way back in the book of Acts. But read the early chapters of Fox's book of martyrs. John Fox talks so much about how the Catholics went after the reformers and they paid with their blood to preach the gospel. So it's the Roman Catholics fault that that they wouldn't be reformed and the council of Trent that made it impossible for the church to

36:49be reformed. So it's on the Catholic church that they were they failed to reform. So they're called the reformers out of respect for the fact that it was the intention of the reformers to reform the church, but they wouldn't be reformed. Are we witnessing issues in the present day you ask in the Protestant movement? What can we what lessons? Okay, well, that's nice, but you know, it happens because people are not willing to change their views. It would be great if everyone were going to bend to do what is right, right? But think about it. If someone is going to say, I'm not going to do what the Bible says, you know, we talk about things on this program all the time about what the Bible clearly teaches and people don't want to do it. And if they don't want to do it, right, then then they're they're going to do whatever they want to do. And therefore, you're going to have to say, well, we're going to break fellowship over this because it's such a central feature, whatever it is, right? We demand this to be saved. Even the Bible says we're saved by by grace alone, faith alone, and Christ alone, right? And they say, well, yeah, but but you got to do

37:51this too. And well, we're going to have to go our separate ways. And that unfortunately, I can't say, well, let's learn the lesson from the schism of the 11th century or the Roman Reformation of the 16th century. I can't learn lessons from those schisms or those breaks in the church if everyone's going to continue to keep saying, hey, I I'm not going to change. And that's what we we we we we you've got to submit yourself to God's word and do what it says. And everyone, it would be great if we could do that. Ula, but that that's not what's happening. All right. One eight seven seven nine one three five three five seven. Give me a call. If you want one eight seven seven nine one three five three five seven. Go to YouTube, go to Facebook. And let's talk. Okay. Let's see what Sarah is talking about here. Isaiah 47 verse five. Let me get this passage up here.

38:55And then you say John chapter 10 verse 10. I came across these almost seeming contradictions. What are some ways I can trust God in the truth of his word. Okay. Great. All right. Let me read these passages. I form light to create darkness. I make well being I create calamity. I'm the Lord who does all these things. Nothing wrong with that. Okay. And then John 10, 10, which we know, right. But let me read that for you. Let me pull that passage up. John 10, 10. I think what bothers you, thief comes to steal, kill him, destroy. I came that may have life and have it abundantly. Well, all that's true. I could give you a long laundry list of passages that are going to affirm Isaiah 45 verse seven. Right. I mean, look at Job. Right. Job goes through the worst possible things. Right. You know the book of Job. Right. Sarah. Terrible

40:01things happen. He's scraping pus off of his skin in great pain with broken pottery and his wife telling him to die and his kids are all dead. And all of his stuff has been stolen. So he's at the low, low, low point. How did that happen? Well, he was taken to the bottom because Satan was saying, hey, he only worships you because you give him all these things. And God says, okay, go ahead. Take his stuff. And then he goes, yeah, well, you know, if you touch his body, then then he'll curse you. Okay, fine. Touch his body, but don't kill him. So God is giving permission for all of this. So when it says, I make well being I create calamity. Right. I am the Lord who does all these things. Of course, God is going to ultimately be blamed as Job rightly does by the fourth chapter. He blames God for it all. Right. So that's true. Right. All of that is true. You can draw a line of connection to this. Right. I get it. So there's no problem in addressing this, this connection here.

41:07But when you see in Scripture that God is a God who is intending to bring like in John 10, 10 life and to bring it abundantly, that is his goal. Even as the end of the book of Job's shows and proves. I mean, he is fighting the enemy even by showing the enemy that that's not why people love him. They don't love him for the gifts that he gives him. They love him because God is good. And in the end, he's going to show that even through the pain that the Job goes through. And then in James chapter five, look at the endurance of Job, you need to endure whatever you're going to endure. And we're going to enjoy eternity with God, right. All to quote Psalm 23, surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life. And I'll dwell in the house of the Lord forever. There's something great about the last two chapters of the Bible and the first two chapters of the Bible. All of the intervening chapters of sin will be behind us. And we will have this great experience in the end having all the that the grace and mercy of God being seen against the backdrop of sin and all the pain and the

42:12suffering in between. And somehow God will be glorified in his merciful grace to sinners like us. And we will say, OK, this is God's master plan in forming light and creating darkness and making well-being and calamity. What did he come to do though? Right. He came to bring life and to bring it abundantly. And it will be most abundant as we are given as Ephesians 1, as we're given this status to be to the praise of his glorious grace. And that will be something we could not have had were it not for this season of evil, this moral evil that has been decreed by God. It's not that he has any pleasure in the death of the wicked as the Bible clearly says. Right. He has no pleasure in the death of the wicked. Right. He doesn't willingly bring evil. Right. This is all something that starts with the agents he creates starting with Satan, Isaiah 14, Ezekiel 28. All of this is something that God is allowing in his master plan that he brings in

43:17to show his good. Right. That ultimately is in a redemptive act of showing mercy and grace to sinners. So against the backdrop of his judgment, which many theologians have written on lately, we see God being glorified even through the evil in his plan. So yeah, this is this is helpful in us understanding the greatness of God and the sovereignty of God over the disaster that's coming in Isaiah and the good purpose and intention of God's redemptive work that is reaching its apex in John chapter 10. So yeah, this is good stuff right here, even though it seems like a hardship or a seeming contradiction, it's not a contradiction because God is not a masochistic puppeteer trying to somehow cause pain in a way that finds its purpose that finds its ultimate purpose in the pain itself. That's not the point.

44:22Pain is going to be something that is parlayed into the glory of bringing grace and relief, which even the book itself of Job does clearly. All right. Yeah, that's a short theodicy. By the way, that's where we need to read Sarah theodicy. Theodicy is how we justify all the suffering and evil. I wrote a book on this called Lifelines for Tough Times, backdrop of my daughter who was born with serious congenital defects and all of us have to deal with that. We live in a world where things don't go the way that you want it to go. Right? It's the world is broken. Our lives are broken, our bodies are broken. People we love have broken bodies and things go wrong. How do we deal with that? All right. Okay, okay, let's look at what else is going on here. Dave says, is there a place for reconciliation? He texted in this one. Text your questions to 9-0-398. Is there a biblical place for a reconciliation

45:28ministry in the local church where leaders impartially help members work through conflict, forgiveness, reconciliation rather than allowing gossip and division? If so, how would you biblically support and establish such a ministry? I wouldn't, Dave. I would push people from the pulpit in biblical counseling, in small groups and in sub congregations just to go and do what I preached on this weekend, which is go and fix your problems. If you know your brother has something against you as you're coming to church, you go and you fix it. Biblically counseling is a place where you're going to find a lot of biblical reconciliation takes place. So, I mean, it's not that you're not doing this, but a ministry itself, I think it's so varied, it's so different. It's going to be different every week. It could be family members, it could be teams of people, it could be siblings, it could be neighbors, it could be so many different contexts that in my

46:32mind, to sit around and try and construct a ministry that's going to do all that, I would much rather do what we're doing here at my church, our church, and that is to train biblical counselors to take on whatever the situation is, and it's always going to be first fix things vertically with God, and then get to work in fixing things horizontally with people, whatever the issues are, reconciliation, restoration, and make sure that you fix whatever it is that's been broken by the sin that you've committed. All right, Joan, does repentance require disclosure of sexually immoral things in your past, to your future partner? If immoral encounter was with someone your future partner new, would that be needlessly harmful? Yeah, certainly would, I think the passages in scripture that might help us with this, thinking of a couple, let me get to my passages here that I think will help.

47:38Here's the thing about so many passages that deal with our mouth, right? I'm looking at Proverbs 29, that's not the passage I'm looking for, but a full gives full vent to his spirit. The wise man quietly holds back that certainly true. Proverbs 179 is a little closer to where I was headed, whoever covers an offense seeks love, whoever repeats a matter separates close friends, there's a principle there that certainly helps us understand that some things that are repeated that are set over, they do damage in friendships, but covering an offense, right? This is a sin, this is a wrong thing, right? Sometimes we're seeking love in that, we're trying to fix something, yeah, bringing shame, Proverbs 25 verses 9 and 10, revealing a secret, bringing shame upon you. Yeah, love goes on. There's just a lot of passages in the Proverbs that deal with,

48:43are these going to be edifying? I think of Ephesians chapter 4 verse 29, right? Are you building up is this giving grace to those who hear and to say, hey, I'm going to tell you, you know, hear the exploits of my past and by the way, you know, it was your friend that you're in a small group with now, it does not helpful. So yeah, Joan there is a time I would think not to engage in full disclosure there, Joan. All right, all right, all right. Anthony, I have a question regarding James chapter 1, this is on Facebook, 18779135357, got a few minutes left, you want to call me. But Anthony is on Facebook says, I have a question regarding James 1, 2 through 4, testing your faith, how does one test their faith? I realize scripture is referring to tests and trials, but also, but I also know in Philippians 212, also says, workout yourself,

49:43you're just trying to connect the dots for myself to better understand. Well, yeah, you're going to workout your salvation, which is for you just to get to work in doing what you're called to do and trust me if you work at doing what you're called to do in a fallen world, you're going to hit these trials and problems as the book of 1 Peter says, so many of them that are going to then test your faith. I mean, you are going to run into the issues that are going to have you crying out for the wisdom that James says, all of us are going to need to cry out for and you are going to have your faith tested. So I don't think you need to go looking for the test of faith, you just need to get serious about working out your salvation. So you're right in that Anthony, put your head down and say, how can I do what God would have me do to be good? And here's a passage I was just quoting to my own congregation this weekend, Titus chapter 3 verse 8, this saying is trustworthy. I want you

50:44to insist on these things that those who have believed in God that you Anthony may be careful to devote themselves to good works. These things are excellent and profitable for people. So if you do that, if you are careful today to devote yourself to good works, knowing this is an excellent and profitable thing for you to do, you are going to run into several things that are going to make it a challenge for you. You will. It will test your faith. You will be right to where you are asking about in James chapter 1. You don't have to go looking for the trials of various kinds and the testing of your faith. You're going to have plenty of things that are going to do that that are going to get you to verse 5 asking for wisdom. Got any wisdom in this. And he then is challenging you to ask without doubting. And you will be living out the first section here of James chapter 1. But it starts with you committing yourself to doing what's right. And the other book I would have in your hand with a bookmark in it is First Peter, right, and just read through the first three

51:45or four chapters, read the whole book obviously. But the first three or four chapters, you're just going to deal with all those issues of challenges in trying to do what's right in a sinful world. You are going to struggle to do it in a way that is going to be Christ like. Christ is opposed. And you are called to the same opposition in doing the right thing. So there's no possible way, as John 15 says, that you're going to stand up for what's right in a fallen world and not have to push back the Jesus God. So do it. And then you're there. You're living in James chapter 1, Anthony, you're just going to be living in James chapter 1. So it will test your faith. And then you're going to have to double down and say, God, nope, my faith is going to be real. And I'm not going to back down. And then you'll come through this all as you should, right? And it's going to be you'll be steadfast under trial. And you'll receive the crown of life. I mean, that's where it goes in in James chapter 1. Yeah, it's a great text. It's a it's a great passage. All right. Yeah,

52:52hope that helps. Okay, Amanda, she writes in, texted in this question, my unbelieving father at a secret affair divorced my mother after 25 years of marriage is now married to the other woman and planning to move overseas with her. Wow, terrible. Sorry. I'm deeply hurt, obviously, by his deception and his decision to leave my brother and me behind. How do I honor and forgive my father while navigating my relationship with him now? Okay, let me change the story a little bit and ask the question. Okay, let's just say it's more than that. Let's just say your unbelieving father had a secret affair divorced your mother killed your brother and then went on a rampage and burned half your city down and then murdered half the people in your state and then set all the forests on fire in half of the United States. I could go on and on. I'm being ridiculous, obviously. And then you ask the question, how do I honor and forgive my father while navigating my relationship

53:56with him now? Well, he's not asking for forgiveness and he's doing super dishonorable things. And I'm thinking how can you have a relationship with someone like that? You're going to have a hard time having a relationship with someone like that and you're going to have a hard time honoring someone like that. You're going to have a hard time forgiving someone like that even though you must forgive in the sense that you hand this person over to God. Okay, you cannot have the kind of relationship you had before. And that's a grieving process, I understand. Your dad has turned his back on everything that he should have maintained. Right? He checked out on everything he should have been faithful to. So you understand that you have a dishonorable dad and you're not going to be able to walk as you did before with the kind of sense of intact family you had before. So you forgive him, but you can't reconcile with him unless he's willing to divorce this gal and make this right. And he's not

54:56willing to do that. He's moving away or he moved away, planning to move overseas, as you said. So yeah, he's done something egregious and he's dishonorable. So navigating a relationship, I don't know how much of a relationship you're going to be able to have with him. I've got plenty of people I can think of even that I know that have the same situation you have. All they can do is keep a civil relationship as best they can with their dad or their mom. And you know, be civil and be kind and just you know, you're going to have to be Mr. Mr. sometimes, we even with your own father, you have to grieve the loss of something you could have had if he were a better dad. And hopefully you've got some older men in your church that can be a dad to you and and you know, stand in grandpa to your kids and just you know, trust God to provide for your family. All right Amanda, sorry about all that. All right, Mike Fubara is signing off for today.

55:58Talk to you next week Lord willing. Bye bye. You're listening to Ask Pastor Mike Live with Pastor and Bible Teacher Mike Fubara's. For more straightforward Bible teaching from Pastor Mike, listen to our focal point broadcast on this station. And you can look up our full broadcast schedule on PastorMike.com. This is Steve Druey for focal point ministries. Hoping you'll join us next time for more Ask Pastor Mike Live.