They were astonished out of measure, saying among themselves, "Who then can be saved?"
And Jesus looking upon them saith, "With man it is impossible, but not with God, for with
God all things are possible."
Now some people will try to take a really weird interpretation of this passage, and
they'll say, "Well, actually, Pastor Anderson, if you would actually study," and when they
say study, they don't mean study the Bible.
They mean study a bunch of nonsense, a bunch of fables, a bunch of man-made theology books
and Bible seminaries, hermeneutics, homiletics, you know, just all this seminary garbage.
And you'll talk to people who know so much theology, but then, you know, they don't know
the Bible, though.
So you know, basically, do I have my Dr. Spurgel glasses?
Here we go.
So basically, you know, this is what they'll say, "Pastor Anderson, if you were to actually
study the history and the culture that the Bible was written in, you would understand
that, you know, when the Bible talks about a camel going through the eye of a needle,
it's not really talking about the eye of a needle.
What it's really talking about is there was this gate at Jerusalem known as the eye of
the needle.
And it was a gate of Jerusalem that was a very low gate.
In order to get the camel through the gate, you'd have to fully unload the camel.
And if you fully unloaded the camel, then you would get the camel to get on its knees.
And the camel would have to crawl through the gate on its knees, totally unloaded.
And what Jesus is really trying to say here is that in order to be saved, you have to
unload everything spiritually, and you have to get on your knees.
But here's the thing about that.
Here's what's so silly about that.
And by the way, I looked in this book, this Zonder van Bible Dictionary, and they had
a picture of, you know, this gate is the needle's eye, and it's this tiny little gate.
And then right next to it, there's just this massive giant gate.
So I'm thinking, here's an idea.
Let's walk through the big gate.
You know, it reminded me of when you're in a warehouse, and you'll have those big warehouse
doors, and then you'll have those little man doors right next to it.
That's what it looked like.
It was like a little tiny man gate that was clearly for a human to walk through.
And then there's a big giant gate for bigger loads to go through, and they're saying, "Oh,
I mean, what kind of a city says, 'Oh, thank you for coming to our city.
We're so glad you're here to do business.
Let's unload your camel.
Let's shove your camel through a tiny opening on its knees, and then we'll reload it on
the other side.'"
I mean, these people have to be insane!
They're nuts!
"Oh, but, Pastor, you're just making fun of it, Pastor.
Just 'cause you just don't understand it.
You just don't get it."
You know, that the eye of a needle is not really the eye of a needle.
But here's the thing.
Is it possible for a camel to go through that eye of a needle gate that they're talking
about?
That fate gate?
Yeah, it just has to get on its knees and be shoved through on its knees with no load
on the back.
You know, hopefully it doesn't have a big hump on the back that's gonna get stuck on
the way in.
But Jesus said it's impossible.
See, Jesus said it's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, and what was
their response to him?
"Oh, I get it.
We have to unload the camel."
No.
Their response was, "It's impossible.
I mean look down at your Bible."
So the answer, the proof is right here that this Zonder van Bible dictionary and that
all these seminaries, and if I had a nickel for every time somebody tried to tell me that
the needle's eye is actually a gate at Jerusalem, then I would be a very wealthy man because
people have told me over and over again, "Oh, did you know that it's not really the eye
of a needle even though it says that in the Bible?"
But these guys want to get you to think that you have to rely on them to learn the Bible
and that you can't just read on your own, just take it for what it says.
But if you look at the story, it says in verse 26, "They were astonished out of measure."
Why would they be astonished out of measure if he's just talking about a camel going through
a small gate where it had to be unloaded?
Why would that just shock and astonish them?
Why would they say, "Who then can be saved?"
Now look, if you say a camel going through an eye of a needle, that's pretty shocking
and astonishing.
And then he says, "With men, it is impossible.
It's impossible for a rich man to be saved."
That's what he meant when he said the eye cameled through the eye of a needle.
But he says with God, all things are possible.