Key Life with Steve Brown - “Did Mary have other children?”

0:00Did Mary have other children? The answer to that and other questions on Key Life. This is Key Life dedicated to the message that the only people who get any better are those who know that if they don't get any better, that will still love them anyway. That teaching raises a lot of questions, so here's author and seminary professor Steve Brown, along with Pete Owlinson from Forge Truth, what answers from the Bible that will make you free. Thank you Matthew, I Pete. Hey, I can't wait for you to answer that. You're going to cross the nomination. Why do you think you're here? You're here to answer the question. I'm here and this is your show, man. No, you done it so long we share the show. And the guilt. That's Pete Owlinson and I've told you before and you never listen.

1:07Go to ForgeTruth.com. It might be a life changing experience. Lots of good stuff there and a dynamite podcast. As you know, Pete comes in on Fridays and we spend the whole broadcast dealing with your questions, which we love, by the way. Any question, the only dumb ones the one you don't ask. We take you and your questions seriously. You can ask your question by going to 1-800 Key Life. That's 1-800-539-543. Follow instructions. Ask your question and perhaps you'll be on the air as we turn to our phone lines. Or you can send your question to Key Life Network, post office box 5,000,

2:08Dylan Florida, 3-2794. In Canada, it's Key Life Canada, post office box 2-80-60 Waterloo, Ontario. Or you can send your question to Steve at Key Life.org. And if you can help us financially, please do. This is an expensive ministry and I promise. That will be as faithful with your gift as you were in giving it. And if you can't, we understand, do say a prayer for us. That couldn't hurt. Pete, why don't you lead us in prayer and we'll turn to some of these questions. You got it. Let's pray together. Oh, great God. What a joy. And what a joy at the end of this week to be able right now just to pause for a minute and come into your presence. Our holy God, the God of all creation, father, son and Holy Spirit.

3:11We honor you. We praise you. The triumphant God. We worship you. We lift up your name for your good. You are kind and merciful. You know all and you see all about us and yet you love us anyway. We've provided a way for our redemption to be brought close. Lord, even now, through these questions that we deal with, we pray that you would take us one step closer to you, not only knowing about you, but knowing you and experiencing you and enjoying being your deeply beloved children. And so now we do come and we ask, Lord, be with us this weekend. Be with our pastors and priests and teachers and leaders and worship directors. Father, all those that just take care of our kids as well in the nursery and in our children's ministry. Lord, be with them. Be with our churches. Make your church pure. Bring us to the point where we love you and serve you and stand together.

4:12Now we commit this time of Q&A to you as we pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Pete, let's go to our phone lines first. I was wondering if Mary, she had any more children beside Jesus. Because every time they say the prayer ever virgin, well, I know she's a blessed mother. But after Joseph had relation with her, I don't think she became virgin anymore. And I know she's the blessed mother of our born savior, Jesus. God bless you. And I love to listen to Steve Brown, even with his little joking comments. Thank you for that. And listen, that's a good question. And you're right. The basic thing to know is exactly what you do know. That Jesus died for your sins and you're forgiven. You're going to live forever. But there are places of disagreement. For instance, I Roman Catholic friends believe and teach that Mary was a perpetual virgin.

5:17And that the brothers and sisters that you're especially brothers that are referred to are cousins in Scripture. And it's true in a general sense that that word, the Greek word, could refer to cousins. But mostly it doesn't. And Peter and I are prospheterians and we believe that those were actual brothers. And we wouldn't make a big deal out of Mary's perpetual virginity. Yeah. It would be highly unlikely in that culture at that time for her not to have other children. I know. And it's interesting. It does say in the gospels that Joseph kept her a virgin until after, until after the birth of Jesus, which is leaves the implication that they then had relations and had children.

6:19And that's a good thing. It's a good thing. It's a great thing. It's in marriage. That's where it's supposed to take place. And we need kids. So our Roman Catholic friends, you do it your way and we'll do it God's way. I'm sorry that's a joke. When we get home, we'll know. That was one of the jokes that that man referred to. And he's right. You know, if your heart be as my heart, give me your hand. And we have so many Roman Catholic brothers and sisters that as long as that is clear, then the others, okay, we can disagree. That's right. That's right. This is an email, Pete. What do you think about the requirement of a merchant for church membership? You know, that's interesting. There's no other information there. But what I think this might be referring to is that some of our Baptist brothers, when you move from one church to another to actually join that other Baptist church, you have to be immersed again.

7:33And my father-in-law, that was the case with him when he moved from one Baptist church. He was a deacon, but to join another church, he had to be re-emerced. And so I've heard of that and I don't think that's necessary. And there's also the anabaptism movement. I had baptism. If you've received it, it's an anathema to most reform people to do it twice. Right. But we won't go into all of those particular details. But going back to the question, churches have a right to decide who and who isn't a member of their church. Of their local church. And they can decide who to accept if they come from another church or another denomination. Like if you were baptized as an infant and that particular local church doesn't accept that, they may require immersion. Yeah, that's right. And I, you know, I'm so strong on believing and covenant baptism that I probably couldn't join a Baptist church.

8:40And they are so sure on their views they probably couldn't join my church either. Right. Listen, where you put your name is and important, where you put your heart is. And I'm pro church membership, but that's not a requirement for salvation. Yeah, we would agree that that's not. It's not a requirement and probably, but at any rate. So think that through and read scripture. I would say and see what conviction you come to on that issue. Good. And on other areas of baptism, there's an old book that is published by Interverse, a decalable water that divides. Yeah. And it deals with some of the controversial issues back and forth with people that hold those issues. That's right. And the Old Testament, what if any, is the biblical difference between the Jewish race and the Jewish faith?

9:46Ah, interesting. Well, how do you want to, I think today it is a lot clear. If you're living under a theocracy, it's hard to draw a line because like everybody has both. Or it's assumed that everybody has both not only the faith, but also the national clarity of being Jewish today. However, that's not true. You have a lot of Jews and who are not theist even. That's right. And you have a lot of Jews who are, that's, and that's true of goyem too. You know, Gentiles are like that too. So there's a difference than the difference is God and your belief and your covenant with that God.

10:46Not your racial or your sociological or whatever. Well, I had to do that. No, that's good. That's good. I think in the Old Testament time, we could say there was a one-to-one correspondence between the Jewish race and the Jewish faith. If you had the Jewish ethnicity, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and you had that DNA in your system, then you were Jewish by ethnicity. And then of course, at Mount Sinai, they got the Jewish faith, right? So they were one and the same. And clearly, that is not the case today. Pure Jewish ethnicity is really difficult to determine today. Yeah, it really is. It's a hard thing. It's a good question. Yeah, it's a very, very thoughtful. And I think we would say about our Jewish friends that there are several denominations.

11:46And with varying shades of belief in the Old Testament, you know, the traditional, the orthodox, the reform, the conservative. The Pharisees. Yeah. You know? The Sadducees. In the New Testament time, they existed then. That's right. And that's true of us too. Yeah, I mean, there are a bunch of different kinds of us. That's right. Ethnicity doesn't play or shouldn't play a part in who we are. That's right. That's right. All right. This. We got 30 seconds to see if you want to sing. No, I'm going to give you a very quick question. Okay. Answer it quickly. Okay. What's dispensational? It's a view of the Bible that says there are two people of God and God's going to deal with Israel again. And they're different dispensations. That's right. Different. Seven. There used to be seven.

12:46Now, they are teaching three. Neo-dispensations. He lives as a listener, supported, productive of key life network.