Q and A with Irvin Baxter – 02/01/13

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1 Peter 3:18-22

Vickie-KS:

I have a question regarding 1 Peter 3:18-22. It’s a difficult passage and I a friend told me that his minister said that it means we have a second chance when sinners go to hell because that scripture shows that Jesus went to hell saying, “Through whom also we went and preached to the spirits in prison who preached long ago.” I am real troubled by it and I wanted to know your interpretation because I have never heard that before.

Irvin:

Like you said, it’s a difficult passage,

“For Christ also once hath once suffered for sins the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit: By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison; Which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water” (1 Peter 3:18-20)

Now, there are a lot of people that put all kinds of twists and turns and interpretations on this. My opinion is he’s quickened by the spirit and by the spirit he preached to the spirits in prison. I believe that was through Noah, back in the Old Testament and then it goes on to say, whereas eight souls were saved by water. And then verse twenty-one, “The like figure whereunto even baptism doth now save us…” It’s almost like the flood; there were eight souls that were saved in spite of the flood through the water. It says, “Baptism doth now save us by the resurrection of Jesus Christ.” So it’s my opinion that he’s talking about in the spirit, through Noah, he preached to the people in Noah’s day and the one’s that rejected him were destroyed and eight souls were saved. But like you say, it’s a debatable passage that a lot of people have thought a lot of things about it. Many believe that Jesus went down and preached to the lost, but once a person is lost, why preach to them? They can’t get saved, so you’re wasting your time. I do believe that in this particular passage, it was talking about how that the Spirit of God preached to the people of Noah’s day through Noah and gave them a chance for salvation.

 

The Seven Thunders

Glenn – OH:

In the book of Revelation, there is an alluding to seven thunders. And in Psalm 29 there is a kind of seven thunders. They’re not as predominant of course as the vials, the trumpets, and the seals. But I just wanted to get your opinion on this.

Irvin:

I definitely believe the seven thunders are important and I believe God will probably open up our understanding to them before it’s over because even though He told John, do not write that, He did allow him to mention it. Why did He tantalize us with this? We know there are seven seals, seven trumpets, seven thunders, and seven vials. The seven thunders are mentioned in the first few verses of chapter 10. I believe the seventh thunder will probably be the second coming, because the seventh seal, the seventh trumpet, and the seventh vial are all the second coming. I’m convinced the same thing will be true about the seventh thunder. It’s the other six thunders that I don’t know about yet. I believe God is going to reveal that to someone, possibly He will reveal that to us here. However, I don’t claim to know what the thunders are right now. I do believe that before it’s over, God’s probably going to open our understanding to this.

 

Mark of the Beast

Nelson – AR:

My question is relative to the Mark of the Beast. Several years ago, I got a social security card. It was supposed to mean nothing, as a matter of fact; it was for no identification at all at that time. We now know that it can be used to facilitate the mark of the beast or at least the registration for the people for the New World Order. Now we are coming across this Real ID Act, which has failed several times as you know, but it’s going to come up again. So what really constitutes the absolute receiving of the Mark? As you know, you can’t border if you don’t have the mark. But if you do the Real ID Act, if you go ahead and do that whenever the government gets around to it, do you think you will have accepted the Mark of the Beast, or is there something further? What will be the actual catalyst that puts you over the line that we all don’t want to go over?

Irvin:

Well, what does the Bible say? Revelation 13 states that He will cause all both small and great, rich and poor, bond or free to worship the Beast, which probably means to pledge allegiance to or in some way, worship the Beast. It’s not technology that’s going to be evil, but it’s going to be a spiritual thing and they’re going to require you to pledge allegiance or you cannot get your number validated that will enable you to buy or sell. So it’s a form of economic coercion. But the economic coercion is going to be tied to pledging allegiance to the One-World Government and the anti-Christ. I will never pledge allegiance to any man. I will never pledge allegiance to One-World Government. And if they take ‘Under God’ out of our pledge of allegiance, I will not say that. Because God has to be our highest form of allegiance and anything that tries to move between us and that, we would have to refuse because that would really constitute refusing God Himself. There are over hundreds of nations who have had national ID’s for a long time now, have all those people taken the Mark of the Beast? No.

 

Cashless Society

James – TX:

Bill Gates commented about a cashless society, how he hates cash and how it leads to corruption and how much better the world will be when we get off cash and go electronic. I know this is another step towards World Government and the Mark of the Beast. I would like to hear your comments on that.

Irvin:

There is no doubt about it, we’ve got more and more used to living without cash. And Bill Gates said that cash is meaningless to me. And so consequently, that synonym is rising; it’s rising in China, Sweden… in Sweden, about 60-80% of all banks no longer take cash from you nor give cash to you. So we are definitely riding a wave straight into the cashless society and of course, if we lived in a totally cashless society, it would be so easy to implement the Mark of the Beast. You just couldn’t buy or sell and if you’re number is invalidated and they say sorry, well what can you do? You either cooperate or else you will not be able to buy or sell. That’s going to drive you into the underground economy. Will there be an underground economy during the Mark of the Beast? Well of course, there has always been an underground economy. There are always human beings out there attempting to get around the tyranny of big government and it will continue to happen.

 

The First Resurrection

Windall – MO:

I always thought that the resurrection was where the dead were raised and the rapture was where the living were caught up. But when Jesus was crucified, it talks about the temple being rent from the top to the bottom and then the dead rising out of their graves. Wouldn’t that be the first resurrection?

Irvin:

First of all, you have to read that carefully because at first it appears that they rose when Jesus was crucified, but if you’ll read it carefully, they rose when Jesus rose. And Jesus was the first fruits of the resurrection but those people who rose with him died again like Lazarus did. Now as far as the rapture not being the resurrection, 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 says that the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout with the voice of the archangel, the trump of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first, then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them to meet the Lord in the air. So the rapture and the resurrection happen simultaneously because it teaches that the dead rise, then we go up with them to meet the Lord in the air. So rapture and resurrection does occur at the same time.

 

Pope Benedict’s Butler

Keith – KY:

I’m calling about Pope Benedict’s butler being jailed on charges of corruption I believe. He said he was being obedient to the Holy Spirit and that he wanted to purge the Catholic Church of corruption. I was wondering if you thought that was true.

Irvin:

No, what actually happened was the butler took a lot of the Pope’s confidential papers and released them to a man who then wrote a book because the butler felt like there was a lot of corruption surrounding Pope Benedict and so consequently he was caught and they did put him on trial, found him guilty, put him in jail. However, about two weeks ago, the pope visited his butler and pardoned him and he is now released from jail.