Tough Questions Answered

What I have heard on tv, from a religous channel is that 46 percent of Christians voted for Obama. And then later heard that 50+ percent of Catholics voted for him. How in the world could something like that happen? Think my figures are close to what I heard.
What is the matter with Christians? Have they taken God completely out of the picture?

Then heard on same channel that Obama prayed in a mosque while in Turkey. When he came home, he gave a speech somewhere and asks that the cross be covered. And next week goes to Notre Dame.

Main question is is it wrong for Christians to not support Obama’s agenda? What are the limitations on what we can do or say? I went to a tea party and wish there was something else I could do. I do pray for his salvation and guidance for leading this country. He wants to remake America and I like it the way it is. It just needs to heal and recover a bit. Thanks. k

what is a pushpin in satanism?

My Question:

Is the first prayer that God hears from a person the prayer of repentance?

Thank You

Pastor,
Thanks for the question. I am not an expert on Satanism. I would suggest googling this term and seeing what you can find. Here is one link I found that mentions push-pins:

http://www.cuttingedge.org/News/n1875d.cfm

Why do we not see miracles like happened in Old Testament or New Testament times? People will say that someone surviving cancer having been given only a ten percent chance is a miracle. I don’t necessarily see that as a miracle (of course, some people will die having received a 90% odds of survival), certainly not on a par with the parting of the Red Sea, turning water into wine or the Transfiguration.

I’ve always believed that man separated himself from God through sin, and God couldn’t just ignore our sin – it needed to be paid for, as He is a just God. It was for this reason that He sent His Son to die on the cross to pay for our sins. I believe strongly that that is a massive declaration of love, and demonstrates how deep he cares for us.

But the more I think about the cross what I struggle with, is how is the cross a just way of accounting for our sins? Sure, a perfect sacrifice is needed to pay for our sins, but letting sinners kill a perfect man surely just adds to their sin. It seems the opposite of justice, so how can God be just? And if God was not just, why couldn’t he simply ignore our sins in the first place?

I know that being a Christian is about celebrating the mystery of God, and being prepared to accept a lot of paradoxes, but I was wondering if you could offer me a clearer perspective on how the cross is just?

Thanks for your quick reply, but I’m afraid I still don’t understand. You state that “[God] justly punishes sin, and he provides a way for mankind to be redeemed.” This works if you treat man and sin as separate entities (so sin means the devil’s actions, and that way God could punish the devil, but redeem mankind)

The danger with that, is that we ignore that sin is something that man does – suppose I murdered someone and stood trial before a Judge, the Judge wouldn’t punish murder – he’d punish me. I’m not sure how you can mean God punishes sin, when sin is a property of man. Surely the just thing is to punish man.

I don’t have any problem with the text on the “Did God Kill His Own Son?” page. Sure, Jesus consensually let himself die for our sins, and I am grateful for his grace in doing that, but I still don’t understand how that is a just solution to the problem of sin.

I’m not sure what you mean by “demonstrating the justice of the men who killed Jesus.” how do the men *have* justice?

Thanks for your time in replying to these. Like most discussions about an infinite God, it seems to bring up more questions than it answers! If this is taking up to much of your blogging time, let me know and I’ll cut down on the questions!

You’re right that I wasn’t correct in saying sin is a property of man – thinking about it, it is indeed an action, not a property. But an action has a cause though, so you can’t punish an action – you must surely punish the cause (ie the person who sins, not the sin itself). God can’t punish anger, right, surely he must punish the angry?

I have heard the judge example used before, and while it is a good demonstration of grace, and such a judge that does that for people is worthy of praise, I fail to see how the judge has acted justly in that situation. You say that the law has been fulfilled, but surely that’s only the letter of the law, and not the deeper meaning behind it, which is that the criminal should be punished for what he has done. What makes it harder to understand, is that in this analogy, the judge _made_ the law. Does that mean God made the law with the knowledge that it would never be fulfilled? In which case why did he make it as a barrier between us and God? Yes, the law shows us where our sin is, but why have a method of fulfilling it that costs us nothing and costs him so dearly? How is that just?

what is the truth about homosexuallity?

Hi Mark,
Please see my post on this topic, which your question inspired. Thanks for asking.

God bless,
Bill

I need to know why I am I so blessed? Why am I blessed with health, a great job, perfect children, a wonderful life all around – when so many people in the world are suffering?

I feel like God has singled me out to be “overly-blessed” in this sinful world. Can you help shed light on this? I don’t understand why I am so BLESSED?!

Mike, I think its wrong to tie Jesus down to one “church” or denomination. Jesus said that the “body” consists of different parts with each his own integral part and function. eg. When kicking a ball, the thumb have got no real function, but try and pick up a pencil without using your thumb. For that moment and action your thumb is a crucial instrument.
So is the “body” of a singular church made up of many different people each with his/her own crucial part to play, (giftings)and so is the collective “body” made up of many churches. Although, its your responsibility to make sure that you don’t worship at places where crucial truths about God the Father, His Son, Jesus Christ and the manifestations and work of the Holy Spirit is depressed, or completely ignored.
Jesus Himself promised us the Holy Spirit to teach us and guide us and to tell us the things we need to know about God, Jesus, sin, death, ressurection life everlasting and Himself. For the sinner these things are foolishness, but for the saved the “bread of life”.
Why the focus on the Holy Spirit? Well it was promised and what was the very first thing what Jesus did for His desciples when He appeared to them the very first time after His ressurection? John 20:22. He gave them the Holy Spirit. Shalom. Hein

Luiza,
Excellent question! There is no easy answer to this question. There are many prophecies in the OT that are referring to events that would happen soon, such as the destructions of Israel and Judah by the Assyrians and Babylonians. There are other prophecies that clearly point to a distant future (e.g., the Messianic Kingdom). Then there are prophecies which refer both to events that would soon occur and events that would occur even further in the future.

One needs to closely study the literary genre of the particular OT passage, its literary structure, and the historical context to figure out what is going on in every case of prophecy. If you don’t have the time or expertise to do that, you go to commentaries or Bible dictionaries, or other references that can help the serious Bible student. I do that all the time.

In the case of Psalm 22, the Psalmist (some consider to be David) is lamenting his close brush with death that he apparently survived. Christian writers (see Heb. 2:12, 17; Matt. 27:35; Matt 27:46; Matt. 27:42-43; Luke 24:39–40; Matt. 27:39, 47) saw the death of Christ reflected in Ps. 22 and thus quoted several verses from the Psalm and applied them to Jesus. They surely did this because when they read Ps. 22 they saw numerous parallels between it and Jesus’ death. Perhaps even Jesus himself pointed out the parallels to them as he taught them after his resurrection.

It’s important to note that Ps. 22 was originally applied to the Psalmist (David, if you like), but then later applied to Jesus by the NT writers. It’s not one or the other, but both. So David was talking about himself, but his writing also would apply to Jesus and his death.

When I read Ps. 22, the parallels seem to be there, and I can see why the NT writers made the connection. I’m not sure that will help your struggles, but I hope I’ve been of some use to you.

God bless,
Bill

Hi Joe,
Old earth creationists generally view the flood as having occurred in the area of ancient Mesopotamia, thus it was a “local” flood in that sense. The flood killed all mankind (all mankind lived in Mesopotamia) except for Noah and his family. With regard to the animals, according to Greg Moore, the ark “only contained certain species of birds and mammals that lived within the reach of the Flood’s devastation and were important to Noah’s short-term survival.” He bases this on the Hebrew words used for the animals – nephesh and basar.

As far as God’s promise, he said, “I establish my covenant with you: Never again will all life be cut off by the waters of a flood; never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth.” Clearly the promise has to do with destroying all human life by flood again, and that indeed has not happened, so God is not a liar.

I hope this helps,
Bill

you think you are so smart. I read you entry about the Book of Mormon. and your explanation for the Testament which you say and you are right means Covenant.
my question for you is to help you get this right? and it seems you are smart. so you’ll figure it out.

If you belief in the New Covenant, out of all those thousands of christian churches that all proclaim to be true and they have the correct doctrine and teachings of Christ. WHICH ONE DO YOU PICK? wouldn’t you agree that one is right for everyone? There is only one Christ and only one Bible. so how come people follow it in different ways? wouldn’t you agree that people twist it there way they want it to be. belief the things they want to belief? anyway, you can think about this.
thanks
God bless

Please see the post on this topic: Once Saved, Always Saved?

First of all, you are not a fool! Change your id to something that God would approve of. ALL of us can make foolish mistakes but can learn from it and be forgiven.
I lived with a man for 18 years who smoked pot everyday and I know how it can affect your children! I smoked it too a few times, didn’t really like it but still did it to be cool. Maybe it was God or God’s wisdom that you prayed for that told you to stop. I understand feeling and hearing things and not understanding if it is God! All I can say is pray for a sound mind and to stop smoking pot. That will mean telling all freinds or family or neighbors that you are not going to do it anymore and to stay away. It will be extremely difficult for you if you are still around people who do smoke!! YOU have to decide if you are worth it and if you make the right choice, God will be there to get you through it. My ex-husbands smoking eventually led him to meth. It took him 20+ years to get there, but that is where it lead him. It will hurt your children eventually. My daughters are 24 and 26 and they are just now understanding and having to deal with things that happened in their past because of their dad! YOU can do it, but only with the LORD. Remove yourself from all evil (this means certain TV shows, certain music, items in your home) and surround yourself with Christians and good things the Lord will approve of and I promise you can quit. When I first became a true Christian I found a Bible study group at church to go to. It was so boring and I was not really into reading about something that happened thousands of years ago! But I prayed that God would not make it boring and that I would find excitment in studying, and believe it or not I love studying the Bible now. I then slowly started removing the bad things out of my life, giving up bad music, movies and hanging with freinds that didn’t want to respect me. It worked and God and Jesus are still working on me!!Remember, you are worthy and you are beautiful in the Lords eyes!! I will pray for your success. God Bless!

1. Why did God allow pologamy in the Old Testament?
2. In the New Testament, God had rules for pastors and deacons. Explain what having one wife means? If a pastor’s first wife is deceased, can he re-marry and still be a pastor if his second wife has not been married? In selecting a pastor for our church about four years ago, many who applied for the pastor’s office had been married before. We did not choose one who was married with having a current wife and a divoroced wife. Is this biblical? The Rev. Charles Stanley has divorced, but not re-married, but is still the pastor of his Atlanta based ministry. Is this scriptural?

Thanks for helping me with these subjects.

Sincerely,
Patsy Hutchinson

Austin,

Great question. Discussing the Trinity with LDS can be very tough. The LDS Church does a great job of mischaracterizing it and therefore, causing their members to never even want to listen to anyone who tries to explain it. Bill has done a few posts that might help out some here.

The one thing that hit me while I was LDS was discovering how clear The Bible is about there being ONE AND ONLY ONE GOD. When I discovered this it rocked my whole paradigm as a Mormon. My suggestion would be to start with a few verses in Isaiah 43-46. Here they are:

43:3, 10-12
44:2, 6, 8
45:5, 6, 18, 21, 22
46:9

The thing to try and show them is that God is very clear when He says there is no God before, after, or besides Him. In LDS teaching Jesus is the one speaking these words in The Old Testament (they say Jesus is The God of The Old Testament). Therefore, when considering these verses in Isaiah, LDS are in a quandry for there was a God before and besides the God who is speaking these words – God the Father who they call by the name Elohim. This violates what Jesus is telling us over and over again in Isaiah. Keep in mind that in LDS teaching Elohim had spirit children with his Heavenly Wife. Jesus was the first born among these spirit children and we are among them as well. Jesus is our older brother. The bottom line to try to get at with them is that in their teaching Jesus is a spirit born son of Elohim and therefore, came into existence as a God AFTER Elohim. This is in serious violation of numerous scriptures including the ones cited above.

Good luck with this. Pray for him, love him, and be patient with him. I was in his shoes several years ago and God brought my family and me out. Miracles can be done. Feel free to shoot me questions here anytime!!

Darrell

I heard a Bible teacher say that the Jewish epistles were not written to Christians. He said they were written to Jews who had never heard Paul’s Gospel of grace but had only heard the Gospel of the Kingdom and who believed JESUS was the prophesied Messiah who would lead them into the soon coming Kingdom of God on earth. I have not mentioned this man’s name because I respect his teachings and he seems to be so correct on so many things. What is your opinion, were the people who received these epistles Christians?

James, I & II Peter, I & II & III John, Jude, Revelation

I don’t wnat to make it sound like I don’t understand the situation you find yourself in, but please believe me, we all have our struggles, one way or the other.
Something that helped me a lot in the beginning was when I truly understood Exodus 1:1. I am a total believer in the New Covenant etc. but by realising that if I do, say, use, think, act in any way, or do anything that takes God and put Him in second place in any area of my life, that I have made an idol out of it. This realisation gave me the strength to resist most apparent “little” sins that I saw many fellow believers struggle with every day, and thereby preventing God’s blessings from flowing in and through your life.
Another double check is to try to pray to God for your family while you do anything you wonder about if its right or wrong. If you get a check from the Holy Spirit within you, you know to stop. And thereby confirming God’s Word that the moment you give your life to Jesus, you are filled with the Holy Spirit.
With this “Helper” you can overcome anything, and thereby allowing God’s favour to flow in and through you.
I bet that you are being prepared for a ministry position, and by learning to overcome this seemingly unsurmountable problem, you will be, one day, be able to teach others with this same problem. It worked for me, and it will be so in your life if you realy want it. Shalom. Hein

Austin,

Sorry for the delay in getting back to you. What helped me? Well, all I can really point to is God. He opened my wife’s eyes and my eyes. There is a spirit about Mormonism which binds people to it. It truly is a spiritual battle. It was a long process for me… years in fact. There were several things that God used to help me. However, the two biggest were:

1) Discovering the unsanitized Mormon Church history. I began to realize that what the Church shares with its members in regards to its history it not very accurate. It shares “faith promoting” white washed history with little regard for historic accuracy.

2) I started reading my Bible without my “Mormon glasses.” I wanted to find out what God had to tell me. Once I did this and discovered how much Mormon doctrine contradicts The Bible I pretty much knew I could never be a believing Mormon again.

Hope that helps. God bless!

Darrell

Hi There, I discovered the following recently and it helped me tremendously. I have forever battled to describe how we “see” everything in the Bible as truth, while others might see it from their own perspective and viewpoint.
I have discovered that if I do a little math with people wondering about God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit, and if they catch on, a lot of trivial questions dissapear,eg; The way the world sees it as 1+1+1=3 but the Bible explains it as such, 1x1x1=1. I hope this helps. Shalom. Hein

Hi Patsy,
God allowed all sorts of sin in the Old Testament, but he did not approve of it. He even allows polygamy today, if by that we mean that some believers of Christ have multiple wives. This is the case in some African or Middle eastern communities where missionaries evangelize people that typically practice polygamy.

Bottom line: God did not approve of it, but he allowed it.

On your second question, I cannot give you a concrete answer, as there is much debate about what Paul meant in 1 Tim. 3:1, 12 and Titus 1:6.

We know that the New Testament permits remarriage, so my opinion is that Paul is stressing that the elder or deacon be completely dedicated to his one wife, if he has one. Also polygamy is obviously forbidden. I have a hard time understanding how a man who has previously been divorced, but is now faithfully married to a woman, should be excluded from being a deacon or elder.

If you have a man that has had multiple marriages and been divorced multiple times, this should be probably be seen as spiritual immaturity and he should be excluded on other grounds. A man’s previous marriage choices should be considered as they are indicative of the kind of man he is, but a complete ban on any man who is married more than once seems unwarranted to me.

Hope this helped,
Bill

Hi Dave,
I’m afraid I won’t be much help on this topic. I am a skeptic of claims that we are able to identify modern entities with prophecies from Scripture. There is a long trail of people in the past 2,000 years who claimed they knew that the nations and circumstances in their time period must be what the prophecies in Revelation predicted, and they have all been wrong. Could the USA be Babylon? Maybe, but we just don’t know.

God bless,
Bill

Thanks Bill.

Hi Bill,
Thank you so much for the answer. I just have one more doubt. You said God gives chance to every human to know Him. I pray for ppl around me and I also try to tell few ppl about our Lord. It’s obvious they don’t accept it without hesitation. In fact no one has so far accept Jesus through me. Sometimes I feel my efforts are going waste. Now the question is, does a person accept Jesus by his own will (self desicion) or should God’s will be present for a person to accept Jesus? Can a person become a Christian just by self decision, or does God choose a person to be His child? I ask this question because I see people taking a lot of time to accept Jesus even after they come to know the truth. Is it because God has His own time or is it because the person is not yet ready to accept the truth? I hope I am making my question clear.

If your speaking of his time on earth, he certainly grew up in a home in Nazareth and lived there until his ministry started, most likely.

When his ministry started, he traveled all through Galilee and Judea and stayed with friends and followers, such as Mary, Martha, and Lazarus. He was an itinerant rabbi, so home was wherever he happened to be staying at the time.

Was there more to this question? I’m afraid the answer I’ve given is fairly simple, so maybe I’m missing something about your question.

I believe that God must first call a person to himself. Each person, then, has the choice to either receive or reject that calling. Thus God and men cooperate in man’s salvation. God unconditionally offers us salvation, but we must accept the offer. Of course, God knows who will choose him and who will reject him, but this does not change the fact that men are free to decide, once God has initiated the relationship. Man will never initiate contact with God unless God has already called him.

Don’t be discouraged about those you witness to. We are all seed planters and we will only know how we affected some people’s salvation when we reach heaven. Many people will thank you one day when you reach heaven and they grab you and say, “Thank you for sharing the gospel with me! You never knew what an impact you had on me.” We are like the farmer in Mark 4:26-29. We sow and some of the seeds grow and some don’t. God will bring those to salvation whom he has chosen. They will respond. Our job is to give them the gospel. Once we tell them the truth and answer their questions, we may move on, knowing God is in control.

You might also want to read some of the posts I’ve written on salvation. They might help.

Our church is studying various views on the rapture. Three of the views I am very familiar with: pre-tribulation, mid-tribulation and post tribulation. There is a fourth position being explored and studied called the Pre-Wrath Rapture. Authors of such views include: Marvin Rosenthal, Robert D. Van Kampen and Lee W. Brainard. Their position dismisses the idea of the pre-tribulation rapture. Is the the pre-wrath teaching is incorrect? If so, could you provide Scriptural truths that rebut this position? Thank you for your time. I am only seeking truth and harmony with God’s Holy Word and am struggling to reconcile the teachings of the pre-trib and pre-wrath rapture positions.

Thank you,

Brian W

Hey Bill,
Talked with a friend of mine who is a Seventh-Day Adventist and we discussed why almost all Evangelical Christians don’t still observe Sabbath day worship and he explained why they do still observe the 4th commandment. I thought it might be a good question to discuss on your blog.

Ronnie Jones
Greensboro, NC

Just a quick thought on this subject. If it only was a local flood, why did’nt God told Noah to move, rather than building an ark and be ridiculed for a hundred of years whilst doing so?

No, it was a flood that covered the world, and God postponed the flood to give the people of that time, time enough to repent of their wicked ways, but allas, only Noah with his family survived.

Secondly, if you take the average population growth and work it backwards, you will get to around the time of Noah, not creation, which was well before Noah’s time.

Lastly, are you aware that all the fossils (or most anyway) that are found, are found to be buried beneath debris and mud and sand. How is it that these monsters that they unearth today got buried under tons of sediment? If all of them just died of natural and unnatural causes without being buried under sediment, don’t your logic tells you that they would have all rot being exposed to the sun and the elements?

Trust the Authoritave Word of God.

Hebrews 11:1 -

Shalom

Great question! I would say that the Holy Spirit works through our conscience, so that it is not either/or. We know that God provides common grace to all mankind and special grace to his adopted children, so the operation of the human conscience can always to be attributed to God, as long as our conscience is prodding us in the same moral direction God would have us go. If our conscience is prodding us to go against God’s nature, then we can safely rule out the Holy Spirit’s role in that case.

The great thing God has provided for us is Scripture. Whenever we have doubts about whether something in our mind or heart is from God, we can always check it against Scripture. If it disagrees, then we know God is not the source of it.

a man and a woman were married in a traditional church with the traditional vows but were not christians. 2 years later, they separated, then divorced. she committed adultry while separated. her ex did not have an affair. the man she had the affair with, she married ( he had never been married). they then became followers of christ. they have been married for forty years. are we committing adultry? we have confessed this sitution to god and have asked for forgiveness. what should we do now? we have not received a definitive answer really from anyone. i guess what i am saying “where do we go from here?

Thank Bill and thanks for those encouraging words. I will keep doing my work faithfully. The rest is upto God and people around me. Thanks again. And good job with the blog. Keep up the good work!

Hi George,
Randomly opening your Bible to to seek an answer to prayer is nothing more than magic, which the Bible forbids. All 66 books of the Bible were written as complete units of literature and each verse only makes sense in the larger context of the chapter and book it is found in. Reading random verses out of context can definitely lead to incorrect interpretations. I don’t mean to offend anyone, but I think this practice may be evidence of a spiritual laziness, an unwillingness to read the Bible as it is meant to be read.

God bless,
Bill

Bill, thank you for your answer. I’m also very much in agreement with Hein’s comment that most of us were never properly shown how to read/use the bible. I came from an Eastern Orthodox background. Much like, I assume, the Catholic church, we depend on our clergy to do the “heavy lifting.” We’re never taught how to use not only the bible, but other resources like concordances. When some of us come out of those churches and get into churches like Church of God, etc., the pastors probably do not understand the lack of basic religious education we lack and need to be taught.

Where can I find in the bible explanation for the dinosaurs?

Hi Josiah. Very interesting question. As an outsider to all of this I have a comment or two, if you allow me this luxury.

Firstly, your opening line said it all for me. “from a cathololic”. Sir, they and the Catholic history is but no example to follow, so rather stay clear of any advice coming from that corner, in fact don’t stay clear, run like nothing else. Unless of coarse you can lead them to the “light”, but thats another story.

Secondly, what more can another twenty/thirty books tell me about the worlds history that will have a profound impact on what we already know from the New Covenant (Testament) and what we need to know about our future with, or without God?

So what if, a group of people a few hundred years ago hadn’t had access to all the books we have now. All we know, is that by studying the Old Covenant (thats whats its all about’, isn’t it?) in depth, we see and have enough info from our current Bible, as it is, to authenticate the New Covenant.

Understanding that is enough, and its the future we need to be concerned about.

Shalom

Hi MJ,
Not that I’m aware of. The gospels are interested primarily in Jesus’ ministry and his fulfillment of OT prophecies in early childhood. It was very unusual, from what I understand, for biographies of the ancient world to attempt sweeping coverage of a person’s entire life. Usually they focused on specific events in the life of the person. There were many alleged accounts of Jesus’ younger years produced in the second century and beyond, but they are almost universally regarded as false and legendary. I’m afraid we don’t know much about that time in his life, and I would be very skeptical of anyone who told you that they do.

God bless,
Bill

Hi. I’ve been reading through some of the posts, specifically the ones regarding the Age of the Earth and Old Earth Creation. I’ve been looking at Old Earth Creation for awhile, been wrestling with YEC, OEC, and even Theistic Evolution. So far, however, OEC looks like it could fit the best so far with both the Bible and natural science.

Just some background. Now for the question.

What are your thoughts regarding The Flood? Noah’s Flood? On some of the Forums I’ve been on I have seen multiple views. In particular, people who are OEC and TE tend to believe that Noah’s Flood was local and not global since, they argue, that there would be significant natural geological evidence to confirm it if it were true. However, they argue, the evidence actually points to the contrary.

Since this area is populated with many inciteful OECs, I was hoping for some thoughts on The Flood and whether or not it was global or local.

Thank you.

hey i think their are things in job that talk about the levothian and something else that pretty much describe dinosaurs.

Hi Joseph,
There are several theories about the flood out there. The most popular OEC theory is that the flood occurred in the middle east and was not global. All of mankind and the animals associated with humans (domesticated mammals, for example) were killed in the flood except for those who went on the ark. The rest of the world was not affected by the flood, at least not directly.

Thanks for the question,
Bill

Dale,
I am not an expert on the Masons, but the John Ankerberg Show has produced some TV shows and resources on the Masons that you would probably find helpful. I have a link to their web page on the main page of our blog site under Blogroll (Ankerberg Theological Institute).

Thanks,
Bill

Hi Mark,
The two views you mention both have biblical support. I have heard the two views called the creation view and the traducian view. As you said, the creation view holds that God individually and directly creates each human soul at the moment of conception or during a later point during gestation of the fetus. The traducian view holds that the soul is created whenever physical conception occurs – so body and soul both begin together. On this view, God is still the ultimate (or efficient) cause of the soul, but the parents are the instrumental (indirect) cause of the soul.

I tend to lean toward the traducian view as it better explains how original sin is passed on to humankind – through our parents. The creation view seems to have God creating new souls with sin in them.

If you are a traducian, then I think a human clone would have a soul, since the soul and body go together and would be passed on from the DNA of the clone parent. Cloning is just a form of asexual reproduction.

If you hold the creation view, then you have to decide whether God would create a soul for someone asexually produced.

Again, both views have their biblical arguments, but I would say the traducian view is stronger biblically.

Hope this helps,
Bill

Hi Kay,
There is a final judgment where all who have died (and those still alive) will go before God. Those who have not placed their faith in Christ will be cast into a “lake of fire” and will be separated from God for all eternity. Those who have placed their faith in Christ will spend eternity with him. Anyone who denies the existence of an eternal hell is just not reading the Bible carefully. There are numerous passages that speak of it in the Bible (see Matt 5:29-30; 10:28; 11:23; 13:40-41, 49-50; 22:13; 23:15, 23; 25:41; Mark 9:43-48; Luke 12:5; 16:19-31, and so forth).

Regarding a Mormon’s salvation, I do not know whether he will be saved, although I would have grave doubts. They clearly do not accept the essential doctrines of Christianity. They deny the oneness of God. They deny that Jesus is eternally God. They do not seem to believe that faith alone grants them eternal life, as they seem to teach a gospel of works. Given all of these false ideas about Jesus and the nature of God, it seems unlikely, but only God makes that decision.

Thanks for the question,
Bill

Hi Joey, If you care to look in the book of Mark, you will notice something interesting about the Trinity.
1) John the Baptist acknowledges Jesus
2) The Holy Spirit descended on Jesus (after His water baptism)
3) God acknowledges Jesus by talking and affirming Jesus in an audible voice.

The Trinity easily explained and seen.
Shalom

Hi Joey,
Thanks for the question. The relationship between you and Jesus is not the same as the relationship between Jesus and the Father. You and Jesus are one inasmuch as you love him, obey him, trust him, and hope in him. But he is God and you are not and never will be. He spoke the creation into existence and you did not.

Jesus and the Father are one in love as well. But the early church came to understand Jesus as divine, and ultimately as sharing the same nature as the Father. Jesus’ divine nature includes omnipotence, omniscience, eternality, omnipresence, and so forth. Jesus has been worshipped as God since the very beginning of Christianity (just read the Gospel of John where John clearly views Jesus as God), although the concept of what “God” meant certainly developed over time until the fourth and fifth century creeds nailed it down. I have written a series of posts on whether Jesus claimed to be God that you may find helpful.

Now, as to whether you are a Christian if you deny the Trinity. I believe this definitely places you outside of Christianity, if we are talking about those people who adhere to the essential doctrines that Christianity teaches. The Trinity is one of the most important doctrines of the Christian religion, so anyone who denies it cannot rightly claim they are a Christian.

But, does this mean you are not saved? That I cannot answer for sure. I do believe that one of the things a person must believe to be saved is that Jesus is God, but I cannot know exactly what your view of Jesus is. I would say that your view is dangerous, if you deny that Jesus and the Father share the same nature, and could represent a denial of who Jesus really is. I would encourage you to look into the traditional Christian teaching of the deity of Jesus more and pray to God for wisdom on this subject.

I pray for your success on this journey.

God bless,
Bill

What is the difference between Johns Baptism and Christian baptism?

In the Old Testament it says that angels saw the woman of earth as beautyful.And they had intercourse with them and produced giants. If angles are created,why would they need reprodutive organs.And why did God allow this to happen,and will it happen again.

Did the New Testament writers use apologetics?

Yes. There are instances of them commanding us to do apologetics and then there are instances of them doing apologetics. With regard to commanding us, check out 1 Pet. 3:15; 2 Cor. 10:5; Jude 3; Titus 1:9; 2 Tim. 2:24-25. Examples of Paul doing apologetics can be found in Acts 14:8-19; 17:16-34; 24:5-21; 26:1-29.

Dear Bill, would you please comment on why the church has rejected the canonization of the Book of Enoch. It’s seems that some of the early church fathers believed that it was inspired. A brother at work is convinced that it should be included in the canon and is enamored with the book. What do you know about this so-called “lost” book?

Sincerely,
David

Although Bill will give you a reply I thought to give you a link to a blog-site where this subject was discussed. I hope this helps. http://letterdash.com/saamprater/criteria-for-books-to-be-included-into-the-collection-of-books-called-the-bible

Thank you so very much for your reply… I truly appreciate it.
God Bless and Thanks again!!!!!
Bella

I’ve been bothered by this for a long time. There are many people who were born into cults. These cults are masters at keeping the truth from its congregations, and often forbids them from mingling with christians or christian churches. Will these people have a last opportunity to learn who Christ is, and what he’s done for them? I was lucky, I was born into a family that weren’t believers but were not in a cult. My Grandmother was a christian, and that’s how I learned. What if I was born into a cult and never learned the truth? I don’t want them to end up in hell because they didn’t learn or understand God’s plan and Jesus’s salvation. I’d appreciate some insight.

how can u continue moving forward when its always tough… i got my test results today and it really hurt because i sppent 2 days studying for that test.. u myt say academics is not my talent but that would mean i dont have any, coz i used to seriously pass, without making that much of an effot, but now, it doesnt happen even when i study like crazy… it seems nowadays NOTHING goes right 4 me, been totally in2 some guy at my school for d past 6 months but he doesnt seem to notice me.. o atleast hz ignoring seeing hw i feel bot him. its painful because i ‘v nvr flt ths way bot any1. i wish God could just take away the feelings coz i NEVER get EXACTLY what i want… its bad.. it feels lyk ma hart z bleeding, nd i cnt do anythng bout it…. PLEASE give me hope… please. thecpain everyday bot everythng z killng ma spirit

Why does God let Satan keep hanging around? Sometimes when I am struggling with negative feelings, people will say Satan is working on me. Does this really happen and if so, why does God allow Satan to have so much power? What is your understanding of Satan?

Why did Paul wish that everyone spoke in toungues as much as he? Are there two kinds of toungues: foreign language and prayer language? Are both from the Holy Spirit? What about glossolalia in other religions? Sorry so many questions.

Barry

Hi Darrell,

We had a conversation last year on the post Do Mormons Worship the Same Jesus as Christians. I would like to ask you a few questions, but can’t seem to find an email address for you. Could you please send me an email so we can converse?

Thanks!

Sir:
Norman Geisler and Frank Turek say in their excellent book (“I Don’t Have Enough Faith to Be an Atheist”)—they say that there are nine manuscript fragments found in the Dead Sea caves, and these fragments (dated from 50 to 70 AD) might be quotes from New Testament books, but scholars dispute this claim.

My question is: how compelling is the evidence that these fragments are from New Testament books and why?

Roger Bennett

I thought I read a very interesting article on this site concerning the dating of the gospels and/or New Testament some time ago and now I can’t find it. The article dealt with the authenticity if it was written within two to three generations from the event. Do you still have it? If not, where can I get it? It really ministered unto me and I would like to read it again. Thanks for all your time!

I’ve confronted the whole logic/non-logical thing recently. My thoughts, and the question:

1. All truth is God’s truth
2. We live in a universe that quite obviously operates within the rules established by
the Creator
3. Adherence to rules of logic are necessary for meaningful dialog to occur.

The question: since logic seems to be so foundational, is it not possible that logic is a part of God’s nature, just like omniscience, omnipotence, perfect love, etc.? If this is the case, it would seem to eliminate discussions like some I’ve recently observed, where people have affirmed that God CHOOSES not to violate logic, rather than be UNABLE to violate it. If, however, logic is a part of His nature, it makes no more sense to make non-logical assessments of God (the whole He could create that great big rock, but he chooses not to) than it does to say that He could violate His holiness, but chooses not to do so.

What are your thoughts?

kyle,

“how do we know that whats in a current version of the bible is accually whats was in the original bible”

the original new testament was written in the koine greek which was the common language where written at the time. similary, i’d expect that god told adam not to eat from the fruit of a certain tree in the language of his time. similary, i’d expect that god gave moses the ten commandments in the language of the time of moses. in 1611, the king james’ translators did an excellent job of translating god’s word into the common language of 1611.

(kjvese) the common language of 1611 is not the common language of today. certainly the kjv translators would frown upon words that are considered foolish for common use.

for our benefit, god himself came as a common man known as jesus.

Can a Born-Again believer convert to Judism? Would it be wrong if someone does it? Can a person lose their salvation? What about a person is Born-Again believer struggles with homosexuality and continue to fall into homeosexualti behavior? Would that person lose his salvation?

Jean,

In my opinion, yes 7th Day Adventists do worship the God of the Bible. While I may not agree with aspects of their doctrine, the 7th Day Adventists do hold to an orthodox view on the nature of God the Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit.

Darrell

I was wondering about my three and five year old daughters and the rapture. I have found nothing in scripture that tells me of their fate. Will they automatically go with with us because of the age of accountability or will they be left behind? Any help on this matter would be greatly appreciated.

how much more should it sound like the living word (john 1: 1, 14, nlt: In the beginning the Word already existed. The Word was with God, and the Word was God. So the Word became human and made his home among us. He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness. And we have seen his glory, the glory of the Father’s one and only Son.) in christian vs. worldly fellowship? do you care that the belief is orthodox that it doesn’t matter?

Ive been having mind battles alot and i was wandering is it possible for satan to put a vail or mask over our hearts and trick us into saying lord satan or make us believe that we are saying it from the heart?

What are your thoughts about the growing number of Evangelicals (my self among them) who are evaluating the annihilationist position with regard to the fate of the lost? Theologians as diverse as Clark Pinnock and John R.W. Stott have become sympathetic to the annihilationist position, and make good points in its favor. I will admit that I have always struggled with the idea that a person, in the extremely limited duration of a human life, could even in the worst cases (i.e. Stalin, Mao, etc.), do anything that would warrant eternal conscious torment.

Bill Pratt, I wrote the hinduism comment as a possible idea for future articles. I did not expect a response that addressed the question. I will be more clear in future.

Bill –

I saw (on the TV show 60 Minutes) that they found the skull and remains of a fossil that is 1.9 million years old. It makes me wonder how that fits into the Bible? I thought God created the world not that long ago? Can you ease the uneasy feeling in my stomach?

Hi,
I have a question that’s been on my mind for 31 years and while I know I shan’t get an answer to that question which will set my mind at 100% ease, it would be nice to hear someones opinion – other than my own which seem to gravitate from one extreme to the other as I play the question over in my head.
First of all some background.
I’m a 40 year old guy from England, as a young boy I was extremely close to my grandfather who passed away after suffering from cancer when I was just 9 years old.
My first memories are of myself as a 3 year old climbing up the 4 steps that lead from the backdoor of his house up onto the big lawn full of daisies and running up the lawn to him as he worked in his garden.
Everything about that period of my life while I was there spending weekends with him was golden and completely joyful.
The last time I ever saw him alive was in August 1979, he had been very ill with cancer and my mother took me and my younger brother to say goodbye to him – I can still remember walking into his bedroom and being absolutely terrified of him, the cancer had cut him down to just skin and bone, by far the most horrible day of my life.
He passed away not long afterward.
Which brings me on to my question.
After he died I used to lay awake thinking (believing) that he would somehow appear beside my bed and tell me everything would be ok.
That never happened.
I never had any images, visions, appearances or dreams that I could associate with my grandad trying to contact me.
Now, when I was small I was taught that when we die our spirits go to heaven and have peace and content for all eternity.
Yet I know that he would have found some way to come to me to let me know that it wasn’t really goodbye and I would be with him again forever at the end.
After all these years I still have not felt his presence in me or near me.
Does that mean:
1. He is unable to contact me.
2. He is unwilling to contact me.
3. There is no heaven and we do not have an eternal life after this one.
I can’t answer this question myself, I’ve looked through the Bible to see what it says but it seems to me that a lot of the Bible can be interpreted in lots of ways.
Some chapters in Ezekiel for instance seem to me to talk about aliens, and again in Genesis – although someone else may interperet those chapters as having to do with angels.
I suppose what I’m asking here is: what is your opinion?
Will I spend eternity with my grandfathers soul/spirit, or will I not.
And why have I not felt his presence at all?
I appreciate this isn’t a question that needs answering immediately, you no doubt have far more serious questions to answer, but when you have the time I’d appreciate your point of view.
Many thanks,
Shaun

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I’m doing some research, and I would ideally like a resource that would give me a list of all modern biblical scholars and exactly what points of the Bible each scholar believes. Do you know of such a resource, or atleast a resource that would just give me a list of modern biblical scholars? (i can’t find it by googling…)

Hi Sam, that is a difficult question in the sense that nowadays you will fins most scholars to be a specialist on one or two subjects of Biblical matters. I have found a free download called e-sword and the commentaries by Henry etc. to be most insightful. They also feature all the ISBE program (International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia) to assist with almost anything you can think of.
Be blessed

Hi Bill,
I want to know which aspects of the “historical Jesus” scholars agree about. Whenever I read any article about the historical Jesus, I see phrases like “most scholars agree that”, or “very few scholars still think”…. what is the basis of these statements? I never see references… how do the authors of these articles know that “most scholars” think this way or that way?

I want to know how many and which scholars think Jesus was baptized by John, which scholars believe Jesus was crucified, which scholars believe his tomb was found empty, etc…

Thanks,

- Sam

I am having trouble knowing if masturbation is bad or not…I know the bible says to have no sexual fantasies but what if you dont do it for the sexual fantasies, is it still a sin or not?

The church treasurer confesses to embezzling several thousand dollars from the treasury. Is it biblically right or wrong to file criminal charges? Also, what about civil suits? I know the bible speaks against suing one another but what about the church and an individual such as in this case? Thank you for your response.

Mark,

I’m sorry, I do not fully understand your question. Would you mind clarifying?

Darrell

how about “is the nature of god as taught with kjvese diametrically opposite of the nature of the god, the living word, of the Bible”? on may 15, 2010 at 5:11 am, i asked “is kjvese a sin, the second-hand smoke of christianity?”

perversion/diametrically opposite – sin/foolish, bad habit;
suppose someone was wise practicing kjvese. then i might well be wrong in calling it a sin or bad habit. enjoy an interview i made with someone who did practice kjvese @ http://bibleversiondiscussionboard.yuku.com/topic/917/t/Ken-Osmond-goes-KJVO.html.

“is the nature of god as taught with kjvese diametrically opposite of the nature of the god, the living word, of the Bible”? isn’t it time to say “hit the road, thou. make room for i am”?

Mark,

By kjvese, are you referring to the King James Translation of the Bible?

If so, what specifically do you believe makes its teachings/doctrines/wording wrong in regards to the nature of God?

Darrell

Mark,

Other than the fact that the language is somewhat antiquated, what is wrong with using words such as “Thou” to translate scripture or in speaking to God in prayer?

Darrell

Shaun,
I can understand your question and I can easily relate to your feelings. I recently lost my cousin and I know how it feels to loose someone you love. Let me get straight to your question. Will you see your grandfather again?

My answer to your question may be a repeat of what you have heard before but still I would like to give you what I have known and heard. I will definitely refer to the Scripture because that is the basis of any argument of a Christian.

You said your good habits outweigh your bad, so maybe you feel you will reach heaven, if heaven existed. But that cannot happen because Bible tells time and again that God is Holy and nothing unholy can enter His presence. So by the above statements, if Heaven existed and if God has His thrown in Heaven and if God is Holy and if we have bad characters + good characeters, then by Scripture, we cannot reach God’s presence with our bad character (although they may be less than the good character).

Now, if by our character if we cannot reach Heaven and if Heaven existed, we need a way to get there. Again, the Scripture answers the question – Jesus is the way, the truth and the life. So Jesus who paid the price for our bad characters gives you a chance to accept his sacrifice and get the license to enter His abode.

Now coming to your grandfather, if your grandfather is in Heaven (assuming he found out the way to Heaven), you too shall enter the place where he lives if you too found the way that your grandfather did.

Why did not grandfather come in contact with you to tell you the way? You say if only my grandfather would contact me, I would believe.
The scripture answers that again in Luke 16:19-31. Focus on the verse 31 -”He said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.’ ” . That means if you cannot believe the accounts of the Bible (written by Moses and other prophets and saints) and the account of so many Christians around the world, neither will you believe your granpa who died so many years ago. It takes faith to believe anything that cannot be proven. Christianity without faith is dead. How are so sure that you will believe if your grandfather visited you in a dream? It would again take faith to believe it was a vision from God.

Do dead people always contact the family members?
The answer as we all know is No. Dead people do not contact the family memebers however, some members of the close family may get visions of the dead. After my cousin’s death, my aunt recieved dreams and visions about my cousin in Heaven. She would see him with Angels and Jesus. Those dreams and visions greatly consoled his mother. We believe that God chose to reveal to her through dreams because she was unconsolably grieving her son’s death. My cousin died at a very young age and his mother couldn’t be consoled after his death. But these dreams and visions have given her great encouragement that her son is in a better place. It was to console her, not to prove to her that Heaven existed.

Contacting dead people is a sin as per the scripture. Even having the intention to contact dead people is something dark and grim. You grandfather is where he is supposed to be. Now you need to figure out where you are headed to. The convictions that you have in your heart about the creation and about life is the Spirit of God within you asking you to try to find the truth. Nobody is able to prove how human conscience came into existence through evolution. Conscience is God given gift to find out the right from the wrong. Find out the truth and don’t rest until you find out the truth. I have found out that Jesus is the truth.

One possible reason for you not getting any visions is maybe you want it as a proof rather than for consolation. You will not get proof of Heaven, no matter how much you search. Science cannot prove Heaven or Hell. But if you seriously want to know where your grandfather is and where you are headed to, humble yourself and turn to the Lord. Ask Him to help you overcome the unbelief. No matter how much you try to find proof for Christ, without faith, all the proofs that you find are a bunch of junk. Faith matters most. If you cannot believe, no amount of proofs will not convince you. It takes courage to believe in Him and have faith.

I pray that you will find the truth and that you will have the courage to believe in GOD. God Bless You Shaun!

Mark,

I can see why one would say the language is antiquated, but I do not follow your leap to calling it foolish and a bad habit. Would you explain your reasoning?

Darrell

In his Answer Book, Rev. Samuel C. Gipp, Th.D., says that it is God’s style to continue to use antiquated words, http://www.chick.com/reading/books/158/158_04.asp?FROM=biblecenter.

However upon an analysis of 1 Samuel 9:11, God is not using archaic words firsthand. This is a report of people doing so. Yesterday and today and forever, God is and practices the living word.  

If we’d be reporters, would we give our Editor a story where someone gave a speech with antiquated words when they didn’t? Is it ever right to report Jesus doing so?

Divorce is so prevalent in today’s world that there are many misconception about it.
In the NT but I am not exact book let alone, chapter & verse; Either Jesus or a disciple came to a town (well) that a woman came to draw from it. IN the following conversation (exchange) the statement was made that she had many husbands. My first perception of this exchange was that there was an implication of her having loose moral character in having sexual relations. Lately, I was reminded of this verse but this time I focused on his words that he had not stated (implied) prostitution nor adultery on her part but in stating she had married many times or had many husbands was or held a certain amount of validation of her marital status?

Want to say before asking,I had been listening to a radio program called the wonderfulworldtommorow and thought that it was ok,but till I got one of their books that I ordered and without seeing it for sure before getting it,that it was done by Herber Armstrong,so red lights went up about that name,a name that I had not heard since maybe the 70s perhaps but anyhow,I find now that this is that person that is a cult,and I will not no longer be listening to that station and will toss the booklet that they sent in the trash.I guess this is simply more of a statement than a question but I am sure that you agree with what I am going to do.I know that John Ankerberg and the team as you are have good resources,and are reliable.I searched it on your site and sure enough there it was.Thanks for having a blessed resource place to go to recheck,or reaffirm or even to answer questions that people may have concerning cults and etc.Be Blessed of God!

“I can see why one would say the language is antiquated, but I do not follow your leap to calling it foolish and a bad habit. Would you explain your reasoning?”

so if someone goes around speaking like shakespeare today, you’d say that they are wise and have a good habit? for the lord god’s glory, should we be on fire with the living or the antiquated word? is either way wise or is one foolish?

Is God of Christianity is the same God of Buddhism?

Hi Sir,
Vietnamese Buddhists do believe that there is a God who create the universe but do not agree that that God is ours.
We do not know how to prove that that God is ours!
Thanks,

Thien

is rev. gipp correct? In his Answer Book, Rev. Samuel C. Gipp, Th.D., says that it is God’s style to use antiquated words, http://www.chick.com/reading/books/158/158_04.asp?FROM=biblecenter.

just noticed my 30/30 dvd that came yesterday and thought about my question from yesterday. should we ever be disciples of what is even too foolish for the most ridiculous worldly publications? why or why not?

derek/darrell,

seems to me that besides being omniscient, he’d have to be god in that he planned everything, predestined all, yet with our having free will. that’s too much thinking for a mere mortal. at least for me anywho. 8^)

Hi Bill

I have commented on a recent post of yours recently – If you do not read all the comments (which is understandable) I would just like to say THANK YOU!!! for this wonderful website and amazing topics and explanations.

questions I would really appreciate if you could look into and answer as more and more people – Including Oprah are following the author called Eckhart Tolle – And explain in detail, using logic and reason, why his religion is flawed because from what I have read, underneath the surface he is directing people away from Christ and A LOT!!

Also What is your perspective and understanding on the quote from the ancient Vedas “There are as many ways to find God, as there are rivers, both straight and crooked, that lead to the sea.” ? Can we really claim to have the truth? or are there many truths? How do we prove it?

The more people I speak to the more people are just looking to get rid of religion and have a set of laws that are set in place for the good of all of mankind, with the outcome being the greatest happiness and peace possible, I of course argue that this is impossible without Christianity and denies some very and much needed points as you dig deeper into Christianity, but what would you say/how would you argue? They seem to think that religions “have caused nothing but trouble and half of them are irrational and unreasonable” which I can agree to for some, but not Christianity – they feel we need the whole world must just give up this religion thing, they do not deny God’s existence, but they want a set of laws that all people, from all religious backgrounds can and must follow, that all nations must become one, that the unionisation of Europe is good and that the world must forget about religion!?

Here’s a quote from a discussion I was having with a person
“While you seem to assert that bringing religion to an end is impossible, you need to realize that much of the developed world has nearly accomplished it. Norway, Iceland, Australia, Canada, Sweden, Denmark and the United Kingdom are among the least religious societies on earth. According the the United Nations’ human development report (2005) they are also the most successful in other areas including life expectancy, adult literacy, per capita income, educational attainment, gender equality, homicide rate, and infant mortality. Also, the crime problem that is prevelant in western europe is attributed to immigration. 70% of the inmates in France’s jails, for instance, are Muslim. Conversely the 50 nations now ranked lowest in terms of the United Nations human development index are unwaveringly religious. The united states is the exception, but it is predominantly a nation of Faith, however it boasts uniquely high rates of homicide, abortion, teen pregnancy, sexually transmitted disease and infant mortality. ”

Any advice and comments are very much appreciated!

Hi Bill

Read your posts on inerrancy, quick question – if inerrancy is true then which creation story of Genesis is correct? How do you explain that there are two different creation stories? Only one can be correct?

Another question, I understand the gospel writers were writing for different audiences and wanted to emphasis different points, one has more parables about riches, the other is much simpler etc. When Jesus said his last words on the cross and we know John was the only at the cross during Jesus’ death, then why does Jesus say different things on the cross in every Gospel? Why couldn’t they just ask John and say “what did he say?” John tells them and they all write the same thing?

I have heard some Christians try to use what Jesus said on the cross to help depict Jesus as the Messiah, here is an example – What Jesus said on the cross was said in Aramaic which was the spoken language of the time and the 5th line ” Eli Eli lama sabachthani” which was the only line Jesus repeated in Hebrew? Why because the high priests where the only people who knew Hebrew at that time – so when they heard that they became shocked as the remembered the psalm 21 or 22 and went over it mentally and realised that exactly what David had prophesised over 1000 years ago had actually come true in front of their very eyes?

Is it logical to use that reasoning if we know John was the only one present at the cross? Why didn’t they all just write what John told them (If he did tell them, I don’t know) Jesus actually said?

Have a great day!
Thomas

is the biblical jesus, always, or only when we feel like it, the living word? are thou and i am the same? is one the christ and the other antichrist?

are versions out-of-context that use kjvese out-of-context? would i be correct in defining that an in-context version would have words that are not foolish to practice by 50 in the entire universe. is 50 too much to ask? how about that an in-context version would have words that are not foolish to practice by 5 less than 50 in the entire universe. how about 5 less?

Patricia, Bill and Darrell, the guys who do a very good job running this blog, are presently at a conference. I feel pretty sure that one of them will want to speak to your question when they return.

In the meantime, just between ourselves, I would like to explore that question just a bit. I find it extremely fascinating, with implications that run deeply into our lives today.
First, just so I am not sailing under false pretenses, I have no special expertise or training in theses maters. I am a pretty ordinary pew-sitting Christian, who, like you it seems, sometimes wrestle with these kind of questions, as I believe God intends for us to do.

Now that the disclaimers are out of the way –
why indeed was there an object of temptation in the middle of the perfect, as yet unspoiled Garden?
At least that is my angle on your question. I think there are more layers, but that is the part that catches my attention.

We often think of temptation as a result of sin, or at the least, we are tempted because of our fallen and sinful nature. And yet here, where sin had not yet entered where God had declared everything “Good” and “Very Good”, there exists a source of temptation!

(You may be thinking of “why is it particularly ‘The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and evil.’ That is also a very interesting question, but I had to pick only one –my wife says I’m too wordy as it is!)

I think it relates to God giving to us the power to choose. Rocks do not obey “the Law of Gravity” out of any desire to glorify God, or to love Him by laying down their will to His, it’s just what they do. Geese obey the will of God by flying south for the winter, but not because they read in the Geesely Ten Commandments that “Thou shalt fly south for the winter, that thy days may be long upon the earth.” It’s just what Geese do, and all creation glorifies God in this way. However…

I think God intends something far greater for this one creation of his, you and me; Love is a choice, and where their can be no choice (rocks and geese have no choice) there can be no true and full mutual love. My understanding would be that God gave us a choice by placing something in the Garden that we would find so enticing (and without something very good indeed, it is hard to imagine how a sinless person would fall for it) that real choice was necessary from, and possible for us. Either my will, or God’s word. In all that perfect garden, what would I have to offer God other than my obedience in this one point? How could I be a true partner in love, without having something to give my beloved; in this case, my choice to lay down this good thing, the tree, simply because God said He wanted me to forbear ? In what other way could I choose to love Him? Without the Prohibition, everything would be doing exactly that which pleased me to do. What is especially loving about that?

As an aside, I have though much about this point as it relates to marriage. Particularly to the idea that men (and perhaps women, I can’t very well speak for you ladies) are not naturally monogamous. We naturally find women, not our spouses, to be very beautiful, and even sexually attractive. I have heard it said that this is in itself a mark of sin, and the depravity that dwells within us guys. It may be so.

But even if so, what God has done with that sin is to make faithfulness a choice. If at marriage, other women ceased to have any allure for me, then my faithfulness to my wife would be simply choosing what I myself wanted to do. It would make monogamy simply another word for doing exactly what pleases me to do. As it is, God has allowed me to honor my wife by choosing her every day of her life. Beauty is a good thing, beautiful and good women are especially good ‘things.’ which God has created. And through that good creation, God gives me the opportunity of rejecting all others in favor of my wife, even if it is somehow not “natural”. It is a gift which I can give her. How could I give her (or God) a gift that costs me nothing?

Eventually (and I’ve been married a long time, and twice –to the same good and beautiful woman ) the idea of cheating on my wife becomes unthinkable. I still see the beauty and attractiveness of other women, but the thought of sexually pursuing one of them in violation of my wife’s trust becomes a thought which my mind simply won’t form. Before, I was a sinner, then made able through grace to resist temptation. Now I find myself to be beyond that temptation, and not able to sin, even though I would still have the freedom to do so. I think this transition is a lot of what we understand by “glorification” –We still have the freedom to sin, indeed, we will have more freedom than we ever thought about in this life, but the idea of using that freedom to violate our lover and our beloved will be simple unthinkable. We will “not be able to sin” not because we have lost some degree of freedom, but because, having by the grace of God made a choice, God will have made it possible for us to live into that choice. We are totally free, but the choice is in the past, and we will have no wish to go there again. It is finished.
Praise God!

Blessings!
-R. Eric Sawyer

i am confused about the role of satan. why would he want to torture and torment souls that go to hell? he should embrase them and flaunt them and their anti-god activities in defiance of god. if he torments and tortures these condemned souls, he is just an instrument of god, punishing souls that are condemned by god. in this respect he is not an enemy of god, but rather a servant of god in charge of torturing condemned souls.

thank you very much for your comment on my comment. everyone’s opinion on my comments helps me to understand. i have so many questions that hinder my belief in a caring and loving god. one question that is top on my list is: when god sent the angel of death to slay the first born in the families of the egyptians, many innocent individuals were slain, including babies and young children and adults as well. to me that makes god the greatest mass murderer of innocent people in the history of the universe. to me that is not the action of a caring and loving god. i have asked this question of so many people and have always gotten the same answer–you shouldn’t question the actions of god. why shouldn’t i?

if i can’t experience something with one of my 5 senses, then i can’t believe in it. so how can i bellieve in god? i was brought up in a religious home. i was required to go to church every sunday for 22 years. but religion never sunk in. if god exists and he loves his human creations so much, then why doesn’t he appear to each individual person and communicate with them, letting them know that he does indeed exist and that he loves them. personally i don’t think that that is too much to ask of a higher being. it would certainly clear my doubts of his existence.

james,

do you believe that george washington existed? the history of god providing for his chosen people of israel, a country which currently exists, has been accurately (well, god is always the living word, john 1: 1,14/hebrews 13:8, so versions with the kjvese deny god still get alot right) recorded for us in the bible.

from death he did rise and will come again.
move on with him now to be ready for then.
mark

mark and mj,

would like your comments on my comment on the angel of death sent by god.

Hi Bill,
I just found your page and I’ve been reading some of your interesting publications. I must apologize for my “not very good english” (I’m from México). Nevertheless, I keep on doing my best to understand what you write about certain topics.

Now, I see that you are a prepared man and may be you can answer my question: wasn’t Muhammad announced by Jesus? For example, in John 16:7-14 ?

If you can,of course, look at this page and you’ll have an idea of what I mean about it:

http://www.answeringchristianity.net/prediction.htm

A friend asked me this but I don’t know how to answer it…

Well, thanks for your help.
God bless you,

Ivan

This is a question
of God being all good. In the story of King Saul when he is fighting the
Amalekites, God commands Saul to kill and destroy all men, women,
infants and property of the Amalekites. My question is, how can God
order the destruction of infants which are the opidomy of innocence and
…frailty, and still be considered a good God?

bill,
i wasn’t judging the size of the building at all. i was speaking of the ornateness of the building such as the tremendous expense of stained glass windows, elaborate furnishings, expensive building materials such as marble, granite, etc. inexpensive simplicity should be adequate regardless of the size. .

any orante is too ornate when when adequacy should be the rule of thumb. all the extra money spent on ornate should go to christian causes. i had just soon worship in a tent as an ornate church. but, of course, many people would not be caught dead shopping in walmart. had rather waste their money on the essentially same item in a much more expensive store. same as with churches..

i agree with you on one point. “christians” in a weathy community would not be caught dead erecting and worshipping in a cement block church. so are those people really christians? what are they worshipping, god or their affluence?

IF Paul is the Apostle to the Gentile and his letters were the first to be written, THEN how should we apply, to our present Christian lives, the teachings of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John—a ministry to Israel? Also, how are we to apply the writings (teachings) of Peter (Apostle to the circumcision) along with James, John, and Jude to our present Christian “walk”? Peter offered the forgiveness of sins for repentance and baptism (Acts 2:38). Paul said we are justified (found NOT GUILTY concerning sin) and justification is not associated with anything but FAITH. Justification is a better deal than forgiveness, yet people continue to ask for forgiveness. If we are justified what is there to forgive? John Piper would have us believe that we must restore fellowship with God. Why? if the slate is clean by justifcation and God has begun His process of sanctification? For 10 years I have taught BASIC Gospel to men in jail. You have no idea what frustration is when you are in front of a multi denominational audience mixed with reformed and arminian thinking. RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED

Hello

Briefly. Please I am a Christian and fighting pornography addiction. Recently I have started using a tool EFT – emocional freedom technique from Christian Arden see his page please http://wholesomelives.wordpress.com/about-dr-arden-compton/
I just want to know if I am not play with some new age technique. I want to be free through Jesus anyway and this technique promise to correct my mistakenly programmed subconscious..
Thank you for answer indeed.

I go to a big church, and sometimes people have tragic things happen to them – like one little 10 year old girl has a cancerous growth on her brain and another woman collapsed while at work from a brain aneurysm. And then the pastor asks everyone in the congregation to “pray for” these people to get healed and get through certain operations ok and etc. etc..

This just always confuses me – what is the purpose of praying to God for the physical ailment to be healed? God caused the physical ailment right? I understand praying to God to help us cope with whatever circumstances we have to face, but as far as praying for a little girl to get through a cancer-removing operation, I don’t see the point? God loves that little girl far more than I do – and he gave her that cancer, so what is the point of me praying for the cancer to be removed?

Would you have any problem calling Allah, Baal, etc., a false god? Identified as the living word (John 1:1,14), why would you have a problem identifying Thou as a false god in the true Lord God’s holy Bible?

If KJVese were living in 50 neighborhoods IN THE UNIVERSE today, Thou may well qualify to be called the living word. If there were 5 less neighborhoods, Thou may well qualify to be called the living word. Even if there were 5 less neighborhoods, Thou may well qualify to be called the living word.

Mr. Sawyer,

Thanks for your attention. You say “your wisdom has become foolishness”. For 2010, words of KJVese are what are foolish to be practiced. The living word is wise.

In WAS BORN IN A MANGER, http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=78598293746&v=app_2392950137#!/video/video.php?v=1369782414912&oid=78598293746, I sing the lyrics “Unreal is lord Jesus who talketh this way.” You’re saying that unreal is fine as long as it is understandable?

Jesus being ONLY the living word is idolatry? If so, I plead guilty. If you disagree, when is Jesus correctly represented as not being the living word? When is a Bible showing Jesus talking as the Shakespeare of his day a version to be accepted?

Hi Bill,

I think that the exact physical mechanism of how the girl acquired cancer is irrelevant – whatever happened, God allowed it to happen. God is the ultimate supervisor – no natural occurence happens apart from his will… the formation of the cancer on this girl’s brain was considered by God probably long before she even existed, and God approved it. God could have stepped in anywhere – made a genetic tweak while she was in the womb, or made the cancer simply disappear while it was forming. But he chose not to interfere anywhere. That, in my eyes, is causing it to happen by inaction.

I understand we live in world of disease, and even that there is some mysterious purpose for this cancer. But I ask why should we pray for the cancer to heal? I think the only appropriate prayer is “God help us cope with whatever happens in this situation, if our daughter dies give us strength to deal with it, if she lives we thank you”
Whatever is going to happen physically has already been determined by God, and I don’t see how any amount of prayer affects that? I just don’t see God saying “Only 249 people in the congregation prayed for the little girl, and my cutoff was set at 250, so the little girl dies”

Eric,”who ever said ‘Thou’ was the, or a. name of God?, The God of the whole Bible, or of any other presumed deity?  ’Thou’ is a pronoun, not a name! ”

What I am trying to say when I say things like “Hit the road, Thou. Make room for I AM.” appears to have been too abreviated.

Pat Robertson once said “The Ancient of Days is younger than me..” “Thou” represents a god who’d be more interested in practicing ways of the dead than those of the living, not being wise, but (supply your own adjective. Possible choices: foolish, silly, goofy, strange, or …)

Mark, my overall opinion has not changed, but perhaps there are mitigating circumstances I had not considered. I don’t know much of your part of Pennsylvania, but I do know a little of western PA. I may be criticizing your position based on the fact that the foe you are resisting rarely appears in my part of the world. That foe is the KJV idolater. The sort of people who firmly believe that when one reads “Authorized Version,” it means “authorized by the Holy Spirit;” That if the KJV was “good enough for Jesus, it’s good enough for me.”

Here in the edge of the Bible Belt, such were once fairly common, but have almost disappeared, except to be laughed about, as in the examples above. There error is profound, but it is no longer a threat. Indeed, the threat is more often from the opposite flank, there are now so many versions, translations and editions that it is much harder for folks to hear “thus sayeth the Lord” (excuse me, “God’s Word says this…”) with any authority. There are special editions for students, women, athletes, soldiers, plumbers, bakers and candlestick makers. There are so many “study Bibles” with commentators notes so bound up with the scriptures that the words of John McArthur, R. C. Sproul, or whoever get treated as inspired holy writ if only by association and being bound up in the same volume. Nothing against these commenters and teachers, I’m quite fond of the two I mentioned, but they are not the Word of God, written.

Oddly enough, just a week or so ago, I was much more on your side of this argument on another (private) web group. The people who radically defend the KJV (only) make arguments that sound extraordinarily like the arguments of thus who opposed translation into the vernacular at and before the time of the reformation. I don’t know but that the same arguments were made when the first translations were made INTO Latin, and away from Greek. I do know they still resonate about the translation of the Hebrew scriptures into Greek in the Septuagint.

Further, there are many who prefer KJV because it is the Bible of their spiritual youth, and as such is comfortable and familiar (for me, that role was filled by the NASV).They rightly appreciate its beauty. I think they are not wrong, but those can be code-words for a subtle idolizing of the form of the letters, rather than the eternal Word behind them. Unless I still miss my guess, your position is that this error is very much common, or even universal among these folks.

If such an error is common in your area, I can understand your fervor in combating it. But I still think that one of the more successful tactics of our common enemy is that of getting us to focus on subordinate issues, rather than the Gospel itself. By focusing on, not the Word of God, written (which is authoritative), but on which particular version is authoritative (none are), our attention is drawn, not to the light, but to an equal and opposite darkness in the idolatry of the present.

You are of course right that God is the God of now. But He is also the God of yesterday, today and tomorrow, in whom all moments are present, not just the one WE call the present! We can’t avoid condemn a golden calf by proclaiming the virtue of a golden lamb.

Anyway, thanks for the response. I still think there are grave dangers in your approach, but that it is not as unreasonable as I first thought.

-res

Again, the danger is two-fold:
1) confusing the Living Word with any particular language system of this or any other time period. It is the Word that is Living, not the language. That of course is not to say that some pretty, “formal” language is better than the language of “the street” that people actually understand. It is not. It is usually far worse.

But the Word of God is not to be found by properly arranging the contents of any dictionary, ancient or modern. That is a heresy of the same generation as those who could not Jesus as both the Second person of the Eternal Trinity, and as a man walking the hills of Israel.

2) and I think far more damaging in the short term – it rejects one idolatry by offering to replace it with another.

3) for the “Baker’s Dozen” reason, this worship of the now (as contrasted with “in” the now) threatens to cut the church off from wisdom of Christians in other ages, whether in Music, preacing or teaching. St. Augustine, Luther or C. Spurgeon didin’t write like I talk, and they can be hard on my ears. But your understanding, even if it doesnot outright reject these men because of their archaic language, still sets a presumed second, third and fourth class, depending on the distance between their language and our own. That is a profound risk for the church.

No, the answer to idolatry (Overt or lukewarm) must not lie in that path. It can only lie in the path that says that Good mirrors are better than bad mirrors. But in the end, the mirror does not matter one little bit. What matters is the Eternal Word which the mirror is trying to show us.

That alone leads ot useing the language as God intends, trying to find better ways to reflect what He has said, and to sing His song. But fighting instead over which mirror is acceptable is a trap of the enemy

“fighting instead over which mirror is acceptable is a trap of the enemy”

Yesterday, and today, and forever, in whatever language, my “mirror” shines that Jesus is ALWAYS the living word, and not words (KJVese) that are too foolish to practice in worship/fellowship/work/home/school. What reason can you possibly have to defend the foolishness of 21st century KJVese?

Mark, I’ve presented my case. You may reject it as just the sort of thing you are fighting against, but this is the point where the arguement starts to go round and round.

For good or ill, I’ve said what I have to say about your points.

Blessings, and may God always illumin your and my paths with the Light of His Word!

Isn’t it sinful to give God less respect than we give the world?
Unreal is Lord Jesus who talketh this way,
Not like those that live, but died yesterday.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1542279709&v=app_2392950137#!/video/video.php?v=1369782414912

Matthew 22:32, NLT: ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’ So he is the God of the living, not the dead.”

Am I correct that you interpret this verse to exclude words (of all languages) of the living?

If God not the God of dead words (which is my interpretation), God would not be a God of KJVese (An aquaintance once wondered if I could give a Spanish Bible for someone to use. The friend who I gave it to told me that it was in KJV Spanish, but she took it saying that when she’d use it she’d update the words. A Japanese acquaintance told me of such Bibles being in Japan, also. English is not unique to this bad habit.)

Am I correct that you accept versions of dead words (KJV/unrevised NASB, etc.) as being the word of the living God?

Thanks for your attention, Eric.

” I would not say things this strong except that you hold yourself out as being engaged in Christian ministry a(n)d teaching. Paul does say that there is a higher standard involved for those so engaged.”

“I knew someone just like you, but you can’t be him because he died.” She was talking about me, but like Jesus, I am still alive.

It was the 1970s. It was not the 1670s. Prior, I was very active in the Christian faith, where I accepted Jesus as my Savior. I’d occasionally hear how meaningful that a personal relationship was to have with Jesus. KJVese was just not personal to my life, yet seemed to be okay with Jesus. Not wanting a Lord Who played Shakespeare, I avoided Christian fellowship at college. The partying crowd was ready for me to fellowship with them.

Maybe from bad habits from the partying crowd, or maybe from just going around a bend too fast, I became comatose for over 2 weeks after my car collided with a tree just weeks after my college graduation.

As when I left for college, I still take pride in being a follower of the word not foolish to practice. I chose to follow the word that is wise, yesterday and today and forever. Is this consistent or contrary to the God of the Bible?

I’m glad to hear in your salvation testemony of your return to our Lord. that does not mean that you have not turned onto a side track. There is no scriptural defense that individuals will not so err, indeed, even on earth that defense is only claimed for one man, the bishop of Rome, and I don’t think it is warranted even there.

Your testemony does not support a defence from my charge of idolatry.

I am particualrly sad to note the pride (as I suspected) you take in using modern English. Pride in anything but our Lord is a mighty driving force towards the cliff.

Again, you have made an identity between the eternal Word with the temporal words. This identity has no warrent in scripture, reason or tradition; the voice of the Holy Spirit no of the fellowship of the saints, spread out through all generations.

As to you question about “Are you on fire or barely lukewarm, hypocritical even, with KJVese in your blogs,”
paraphrasing the words of the Revelation of Jesus to St. John does not make them applicable. By using those words, you are trying to make your argument sound “Bible-Based” and Holy via the word choice alone. This is EXACTLY what the KJVonly-ers do. You condemn yourself by your own rhetoric.
I could barely care less, as long as the Word is in a language acesable to the people. Greek is good to those comfortable with it. “Good news for Modern Man” is fine, if that is the language one can use.

Again, to protest on more than the basis of accuracy, in either direction, is to make of the text an idol.

I am not interested in hearing continuing redundant protestations., and will not respond to them. If you should unexpectedly have something new and honest to add, well, that may be a foolish thing for me to say….

Mark, the following was written in MODERN Englsh: it is the language I commonly hear, to speak otherwise would, by your assertion, be false. And yet you seem to misunderstand it. I will repost the sentence with some emphasis you may have not understood.

There is NO SCRIPTURAL DEFENSE that individuals will not so err, indeed, even on earth that defense is only claimed for one man, the bishop of Rome, and I DON’T THINK IT (the claim of infallibility) IS WARRANTED even here.

You obviously read the scripture accurately, (although I theing there is an important difference between falling short of the NLT’s “God’s glorious standard” v. ” of the Glory of God”

You are either embarrased by your incorrect accusation of me, or you are not.
That difference says more than anything I could post.

Let’s give it a rest, and let other people deal with more profitable issues, OK?

I am probably further from Rome than you are, given the simlarity of your errors to theirs.
As I would expect you to be able to understand, I confirmed the existance of the pontif’s claim, while asserting by disbelief in it.

My point -which seems to have blown by you completely, is that your experience with God in your conversion by no means suggests that you are on the right track here, or that you have not fallen into serious error.

For preaching or teaching, I would never use anything close to KJV (unless in historical context), not because it is somehow evil, but because it is usually unhelpful.
As far as what is an appropriate language for being “personal with Jesus” don’t you find it at least a little presumptuous on your part to say what language is acceptabe?! I should think that this is between Jesus and His particular sheep who knows His voice, whether KJV, modern “street slang” “toungues of men or of angels” or “groanings to deep for utterance ”

Again, you are seriously off-track, to the point of idolatry. I do not use this term lightly, or as a general term of disfavor. I mean it as a seriously specific statement from one Christian to another, who is in significant danger of becoming something else.

other than this point, I see no value in continuing this chain. I drop it now. If you have any desire for something more reasonable, I’m not hard to find.

“defind” unintentionally shows my imperfection.

“defind” unintentionally shows my imperfection

LOL I would be the last to complain about some one elses typos!
especially given the state of my own typing, and even more shameful, my spelling.
(More ironic in the question at hand!)

I often give up the security of spell-check, and I should never.

“although I theing there is an important difference between falling short of the NLT’s ‘God’s glorious standard’” v. ‘of the Glory of God’”

and that “important difference” is? I don’t see how God’s standard is any different, more or less, than God’s glory.

Could you please diagram the two phrases for me to show the “finer points” of difference? How significant are these points? Will someone be destined for Hades w/o the recognition?

When is it correct to testify that Jesus would speak with words that we’d find too foolish to practice ourselves? Would it be a sin to show Jesus in this context?

DOES THE SPECIFIC ORDER OF THE TEN PLAGUES SUGGEST A STATEMENT IN HEBREW LANGUAGE /CUSTOM?

1.BLOOD – goêl – The blood avenger is here for his kinsman
2.FROGS- tsephardea /tsaphar- to depart
3.LICE- kên- to set upright, to establish
4.FLIES – z ͤbûb- to baalzebub the producer of flies, ruler of the demons
5.PESTILENCE – deder/dadar- and answer, declare, subdue, destroy
6.BOILS- sh ͤchīyn- to burn
7.HAIL- bārād- and bring devine vengeance upon kingdoms and nations
8.LOCUSTS- ar-beh /rabeh/geb – to exalt, to increase myself
9.DARKNESS- hōshek- separating them from their god Ra, in ignorance
10.DEATH- maveth- leaving them in ruin.

James, In Disassociative Disorder (multiple personalities) the idea as the one personality fragments. The whole is the real person.
Sometimes the internal perpose of that fragmentation is to allow the afflicted person to “judge” certain aspects of his personality, by assigning them to a seperate “person”
The remainder is then, in some way, not responsible for those dark elements. They are in the same body, but not realy “me”

The truth is that *Sybil* was all 16 of those personalities.
Mental health folks talk about being well “integrated.” Sybil was an example of of the opposite.
But there is an underlying persona. Christians would say that this underlying person is the real Sybil, and that God knows who she is, that He is ready to reconcile and forgive her as a whole, even if she can’t.

what about death bed confessions and repentance? why isn’t everyone given this chance?

many people have said that they can feel that they have a soul, that they can feel the presence of god. i have never experienced either. i have never experienced anything spiritual. could it be that i have no soul. i was brought up in a christian home and went to church every sunday but never had a spiritual experience. could it be that i was condemned from the beginning of my life.

Hi James,
I can feel the pain in your cry and you are right at one point… its not yet your time to die. James, I know how you feel… I think you feel like God has turned off His light on you. You feel like you are condemned for life and that your soul can never ever reach God. Hang in there brother, I can share all that I know. Maybe it will help you a little bit. And James, trust me, right now I am praying for you.

I’ll answer your question about has God abandoned me?
The answer is a sure no. “I will never leave you nor forsake you” says the Lord.

Is your soul condemned forever?
Definite no again. The Bible says in 2 Peter 3:9:
“The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone(including James Langley) to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. ”

and again in Ezekiel 33:11
Say to them, ‘As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign LORD, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that they turn from their ways and live. Turn! Turn from your evil ways! Why will you die, people of Israel/JAMES?’

That shows that God does not want anyone (including Osama Bin Laden) to perish. Its true.

Could it be that you do not have soul?
Definite no again. God gives soul to everyone… although there aren’t any direct scriptures that I can think of about each person having a soul, there are many indirect refereces. Mark 8:36 says “What good is it for someone/anyone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? ”

James, can you please tell me what kind of supernatural experience you are expecting. Let me tell you my story of how I found God and maybe it will help you. I was born in a Christian family just as you were. I was taught about the God of the Bible right from my childhood. I have never had any supernatural encounter with God (no thunderbolts, no bright lights, no angels, no voice of God, no touch sensation from God). As a child I always thought that God was far away and yet I had to be good to keep Him happy. When I was kid I went through all sorts of problems. I had one health issue after the other. I have knocked at deaths door and have been back. I once told one of the man of God that God doesn’t love me and that He doesn’t care about me. I said that if He loved, He would have helped me(with my health and other issues that I went through as a child). I don’t see God’s face. I think God is angry with me or He has abandoned me. The man of God with a huge smile said, “He has you in His lap and that’s why you do not see His face. He’s got your back. He knows that no matter what, you will come back to Him.” James, I am telling you the same thing. You are super special in God’s eyes. Your soul is already saved. I want to give you this Scripture as a promise for your salvation. I got the Scripture just as I was typing this long message to you.

It’s a long Scripture passage. Please read it patiently. If possible replace Jeshua with your name and read it out loud.
Zechariah 3:1-6

Then the angel showed me Jeshua[a] the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord. The Accuser, Satan,[b] was there at the angel’s right hand, making accusations against Jeshua. 2 And the Lord said to Satan, “I, the Lord, reject your accusations, Satan. Yes, the Lord, who has chosen Jerusalem, rebukes you. This man is like a burning stick that has been snatched from the fire.”
3 Jeshua’s clothing was filthy as he stood there before the angel. 4 So the angel said to the others standing there, “Take off his filthy clothes.” And turning to Jeshua he said, “See, I have taken away your sins, and now I am giving you these fine new clothes.”

5 Then I said, “They should also place a clean turban on his head.” So they put a clean priestly turban on his head and dressed him in new clothes while the angel of the Lord stood by.

6 Then the angel of the Lord spoke very solemnly to Jeshua and said, 7 “This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies says: If you follow my ways and carefully serve me, then you will be given authority over my Temple and its courtyards. I will let you walk among these others standing here.

James, you are already saved by the saving grace of Jesus Christ. You are searching for truth and Jesus is the truth. Trust in Him. He will never let you down. You’ve got to take a step of faith. I took it and I live today. Its your day today.

Revelations 3:20
“Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone(including James Langley) hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me. ”

You have to just humble yourself and take a step of faith. Don’t worry that you will fall. You won’t. He has you in His palms. The moment you accept Jesus, you may not feel spiritual (you may not hear the thunders rumbling or God voice or angelic choir), but remember, He has gotten you saved. That’s the starting point of the journey. After you accept the salvation that God is offering you, you need to draw closer to God. Remember the Scripture in James 4:8 “Come close to God, and God will come close to you”. You need to take the first step James. Start reading the Bible. Honestly tell all your feelings to God. You told your wretchedness to people in this forum. God is your father and so have courage to tell Him how bad you feel. Its okay to tell exactly how you feel. I sometimes fight with God and ask Him questions that keep nagging. God understands our fear and weakness. Open your heart out to God. Pour out your tears. Then let God do the rest. The devil may keep telling that you do not have a soul and you do not have eternal life. IT IS A LIE. You are a child of God and no one (except you) can change that. Decision is your’s James. I am praying for you and I am going to ask my prayer group girls to pray for you. James, we are backing you up. DO NOT give in to the suicidal thought. That’s the devil’s attack… flee from it. Let us us know if you need any help. We are here to help each other out.

Take care James.
MJ

I have been in serious doubt about my faith and the exsistance of God. The Old Testament clearly shows God in a very immoral way. Stoning children , killing women and children (even babies), etc. I have been going to a very conservative church and they also think it was immoral to vote for Obama ? You are no better than al qaeda and everything I read from Hitchens , Dawkins, and Sam Harris is true. I was indoctrinated with a belive in a “God” without my consent. I wish I could sue, it has done nothing but brought harm to me.
Belive in the fairy tale if you like, it’s your choice. I will not be controlled by religion again.

The Sabbath
14 “‘Observe the Sabbath, because it is holy to you. Anyone who desecrates it is to be put to death; those who do any work on that day must be cut off from their people. 15 For six days work is to be done, but the seventh day is a day of sabbath rest, holy to the LORD. Whoever does any work on the Sabbath day is to be put to death.

and this sounds like a ” All Loving God” ??? Dosn’t matter to me what “covenant” you justifiy this with, it is morally wrong. How could one possibly feel this is the word of “GOD” ?

Darrell,
How about God of the Bible , if you continue reading Exodus , God then gave Mosses the
tablets –
When the LORD finished speaking to Moses on Mount Sinai, he gave him the two tablets of the covenant law, the tablets of stone inscribed by the finger of God.
One of the Commandments was – Thou shall not Kill ( or murder , depending on the interpolation).
The standard I now use is the human intelligent standard- Murder or Killing someone because they worked on the Sabbath is morally wrong.
So Darrell , if you thought God was commanding you to kill me because I worked on Sunday (which I have too at times) would you Kill me?

The Christian ideas has changed from 800 BC, 100 AD, 1000 AD, too today. In the churches I have attended over the years I have seen a lot of changes. Also, between the thousands of forms of Christianity , there are large differences in morality. I know many Christians that use contraceptives for example, but the Pope has condemned it use.
Our moral values “being transcendent to all?” can and will be derived from open discussion, research , and our own ability to reason. I might also add , without guilt and shame that is taught by religion.
Sweden , a large atheist nation has lower crime rates that the highly evangelical United States. How can this be so ?

Edward,

Given the fact that you do not adhere to the idea of a transcendental source for morality, your claim that the God of the Old Testament is immoral is without foundation. How can He be immoral if there is no such thing as a moral code which transcends all? You may say that His actions violate what you yourself consider moral, but given the fact that your morality is only your opinion and holds no authority over others, you are truly without foundation to make the claim that He was being truly immoral.

I find it interesting that when this discussion comes up, agnostics/atheists will often appeal to “Christian morals” in an effort to discredit the God of the Old Testament. However, in the midst of their attempt to “pick up the club of Christian morals” to beat Christians up they lack one thing… a true understanding of Christianity. If you are going to criticize the God of the Old Testament using Christian morals, you have to argue from a Christian perspective/worldview. Otherwise you are being disingenious and inconsistent in your argument. However, this is where the atheist/agnostic argument fails, for from a Christian perspective, the God of the Old Testament was not being immoral. To say that He was displays a profound lack of understanding of the Christian worldview. In addition, from an atheistic/agnostic worldview, He was not being immoral either, for no such thing as transcendent morality exists.

To answer your question: No, I would not try to kill you should you break the Sabbath. From a Christian worldview, the purpose of the Mosaic Law, of which the commandement you speak is a part, has served its purpose. Therefore, God would not command me to kill you for breaking it.

God Bless!

Darrell

How dare you say I can’t perceive a moral perspective without the use of your God and Bible?

I didn’t. I said that because your worldview does not allow for a transcendent moral law, your attempt to judge the God of the Old Testament by your personal moral viewpoint is without foundation and inconsistent to your worldview.

I find it amusing remembering how Christians hold the 10 commandments , the teaching in the books like deuteronomy, psalms , proverbs , etc as valid , but invoke the mosaic law when questioned about other laws.

Yes, I can see how you might find it interesting and frustrating when Christians understand their faith well enough to counter a misinformed criticism against it. Personally, I find it refreshing.

I choose my right from wrong.

Yes, God does allow us to choose. That way, at the last day, we can’t accuse Him of forcing our ultimate destiny upon us, for we chose it.

I am not on a crusade,

Your critique of Christianity on this blog seems to testify otherwise.

God Bless!

Darrell

Edward,

1 Corinthians 15:14 (New Living Translation): And if Christ has not been raised, then all our preaching is useless, and your faith is useless.

Yes, Jesus lives today!

Ed,

The fact is, Jesus lives today!

If the sun is darkened, do you really expect that there will be light coming from the moon?

HI BIll/Darrell – could one of you please provide me with an answer to this question?

“1. If God exists, then he is perfect.
2. If God exists, then he is the creator of the universe.
3. A perfect being can have no needs or wants.
4. If any being created the universe, then he must have had some need or want.
5. Therefore, it is impossible for a perfect being to be the creator of the universe (from 3 and 4).
6. Hence, it is impossible for God to exist (from 1, 2, and 5).

Premise 3 might be challenged on the grounds that a perfect being, full of love, could desire to share his love with others. Thus, a perfect being could have a want, which would make premise 3 false. I suppose the only problem with this is that if a being wants something that he does not have, then he cannot be perfect, for he would be in a certain way incomplete. Whether or not this adequately defends premise 3 is hard to say. There is a certain unclarity, and perhaps subjectivity, in the idea of “perfection” which poses an obstacle to any sort of rigorous reasoning about the concept.”

Thanks

If sins that are forgiven are thrown into the deepest ocean what is there to judge on Judgement Day?

in an earlier post i stated that i was on the verge of suicide and was in obvious need of support. fortunately my statement was untrue, but it was a test for you so-called christians. except for one sincere response, you all failed miserably. you are all so caught up in your own rhetoric and self-indulgence that you ingorned an obvious cry for help from a fellow human being. i suppose that i have been living under the misconception that compasioin and support were a big part of being a christian.

well, if god was proven to exist by his appearance in some form to each individual, then it would take a fool to believe that he did not exist. and fools don’t count.

i choose answer #2: if every person knew with certainty that god exists, then they would believe that god exists. if they didn’t believe it, then they would not know with certainty that he did exist.

it is evident to me that you don’t have the intelligence to understand simplicity. you have to soar off into meaningless tangents that have nothing to do with the simplicity of the matter, thus making mountains out of mole hills. i have nothing more to say to you on this matter for you wouldn’t understand and only try to turn my comments into meaningles arguments. “flair your pen” on someone else and don’t waste my time.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZeqnzKzme4&feature=uploademail

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NiJKYZpCP_w&feature=related

Bill Pratt & Darrell , Open your mind !

Edward, have you demonstrated a necessary link between all religions? The fact that you’re quoting Hitchens leads one to believe you aren’t familiar with the relevant literature.

By John Blake, CNN

first heard of the biblical scholar John Dominic Crossan through a head-turning quote. He said the body of Jesus wasn’t physically raised on Easter morning but was probably taken down from the cross and eaten by stray dogs.

LOL seems like the Bible Scholars can’t get there stories straight.

Randy , I don’t claim to be a scholar , just a free thinker. Then one can see link between all religions. I have also read CS Lewis and Ravi Zacharias to name a few.
I see science as the free inquiry to the natural world that explains the past like the making of the universe, our solar system, earth, etc. Also, evolution is the way we and all of the plants and animals came to be. I am also amused by may religious scholars that now except evolution. These scholars “pray” to your god , and apparently are getting different answers.
Once you free your mind you can see why and how all religions developed. One can also see why they are loosing ground but still remain all over the world today. Religion is the easist way to control the masses.
I am very thankfuf for the many scientiest that have solved and cured many disase’s that was once thought to be sent by a god. I am also very thankful for the current reasearch that is taking place. I am very thankful for the atheist movement that has freed my mind and has allowed me to think rationally. It is trully refreshing.
Take Care and , as always, I wish nothing but the best to everyone. Ed

Hello, wanted to know if you knew any infrmation about a group that calls themselves Nuwabians. They oppose the beliefs of Christianity. Also the history of the letter J. Many people feel that the name of Jesus is a pagan name. Wanted to know if you could shed some insight in this topic please. Thank you and God Bless!

Hi James,
I don’t know if you will be reading this.I am the same person who wrote that huge reply believing your false cry for help. I felt a little bad that you were just testing people here. Anyway, I also felt bad that none of them came to help you. So yes, lack of compassion is wrong. I am with you on that. The Bible is clear that love for God and love for fellow humans is key to being a Christian. All this apologetics and proof giving doesn’t really matter in the end. If we do not have love, we have failed miserably.

But James, I want you to consider this. Why is it people always judge God’s love based on human love. I was genuinely concerned when you said you were in the verge of suicide… and trust me, I got my friends pray for you and they did pray for you. But I am 100% sure that my compassion and the compassion of my friends for you was nothing when compared to that of God’s compassion.

You said I want proof for God’s existence. You said you want solid proof that will help you get rid of all the confusion. But the reality is, every relationship begins with faith. The first step is faith. The second is building trust. So you first take the step of faith. That is true in any relationship. How do you make friends? Do you first ask for a proof for friendship and then become a friend? No. You first believe that the other person can become a good friend to you and then you start working on the relationship and then when trust builds, you are convinced that you have made the best choice. We never ask for proof when it comes to other relationships but when it comes to relationship with God, we ask for proof. Don’t you think that is unfair in a relationship.

James, I don’t know the intentions of all the other people in this blog. I have just one intention. I know how it feels to be close to God because I have been there. I have felt Him, heard Him speak. You may call me crazy or say that I am hallucinating (I am not worried about that) but I just can’t see people missing out on the best relationship one can ever have… the relationship with God. I don’t have proof to show you James and I guess God never entertains a relationship that demands proof… I mean, how will you feel if your son came to you and asked you for a DNA match report? That isn’t healthy in any relationship, is it? But once you take the step of faith, God comes closer to you and He is more than happy to mingle with us humans. He is not a distant God trying to shoo everyone away. He loves to come closer to anyone who genuinely wants to be near Him. A straight heart is what God expects, a heart that doesn’t seek God just as a proof of existence but for genuine relationship with Him.

One last thing James, I really did pray for you and I believe that God will catch you someday. I don’t think I will ever forget your name… if I can’t forget, how much will God remember it. I know He will reveal Himself to you. Blessings!!

James, I clicked on your name in case there was a link for me to message you on, but it wouldn’t let me open it.

One more thing…i feel so sad because i asked God to make me feel his love but i never feel it…I also asked Jesus to talk to me but i dont feel like he’s talking to me….i always fear that i make things up and then say that God told me so through the Bible or through a friend….i always have doubts that God really loves me and talks to me…i have doubts i am from the “elect”:((

Sara, I’m going to leave most of your questions to Bill, as he will probably answer better; best that I don’t muddy what he will try to clear. But one thing you said draws a strong response from me, when you speak your doubts about your election.

It sounds like you know a good bit about the faith, and so I assume you know something about the doctrine of “election,’ and maybe something of the different opinions Christians have held about it. The branch of Christian thought which takes the most definite view about election tends to be the “Calvinist” or “reformed” tradition. Although my personal views are a little more relaxed than theirs, I think it is a noble and Godly tradition, so that’s where I’ll frame my response.

I have heard R. C. Sproul (whom you may know of as a prominent reformed theologian and teacher) speak to exactly this problem. First, you know, I assume, that God’s love for you, and His calling, does not rest one degree upon your feeling, but on His word, and on His work in Jesus. I mention this because it was my big hurdle to get over some 35+ years ago, and God has been working that issue with me ever since.

“But there should be SOMETHING inside me!” is the cry I hear. So I would ask “do you love Jesus with a all your heart?” I would have to answer, no. “Do you love Him as much as you ought?” again, my answer is a firm no. “Do you love Him, Do you have any affection for Him at all?” and the answer is a decided, definite “YES! and may God give me grace to love Him more!”. Sara, that love, as puny as it may be, is a work of the Holy Spirit, and an earnest, a down payment, a seal, toward that which He delights to give you, and which He intends to bring to completion.

I, too, often do not “feel” His love, and rarely “hear” messages. But I have. And the less I long for His assurance, the more I feel His love. I went for years to a church where the tendency was to evaluate the service by how close to God it made one feel. That was wrong. It was about God, not about me. Since then, I have started almost every worship service with a prayer that God grant it to me to worship Him as He deserves, because He is worthy of my worship. I have found that as I am consistent with that, I very often experience the presence of God in great richness; not always, but more often now that it is an “extra bonus” than I did when I sought to feel that presence, as a sign of His favor with me.

You are right that God created many beautiful things, along with many I do not find so beautiful, and note that He was the very first to call creation “very good.” I will not argue with Him. Enjoyment of these good gifts is not wrong, but it does work as we were taught about gifts from our Grandmother… for me to play with them without expressing gratitude to my Grandmother, WAS wrong –it made the gift the main thing, not my Grandmother’s love. It was a beginning, miniature version of idolatry, and that is what 1 John is warning us against. He says it so strongly because the tendency to idols is very strong in us. Write thank you notes!

Remember always that your desire for God is an early result of God’s desire for you. And ultimately, that is what makes the difference. I would advise you to ask less to feel God’s love for you, and instead that you be able to love Him more completely; that you give yourself to as much of the Voice as you discern, and ask for more clarity to follow more accurately.

As for me, I want the fireworks that come from God doing BIG THINGS in me, that I can tell the world (or convince myself) of His love. In my 37 years as a Christian, I almost never get that! I have learned, that at least for me, that this is an idol, and that I find Him best when I look for what He would have me do, rather than looking directly for Him. I think there are others, natural “do-ers” whose experience is exactly opposite from mine. That is why you should take my recommendations with a bit of caution! But God knows, and it is His intent and good pleasure to bring you home.

-Blessings!
R. Eric Sawyer

Sara,
There is nothing wrong about enjoying the things God created but as Eric rightly pointed out, making an idol out of it is sin. I have always been reminded by God that loving God more than anything else, seeking His Kingdom first is most important and all the other things will be ad-ons. So don’t feel guilty about enjoying your food or music. Spend time with good friends, take time for yourself, pursue your hobbies but in all this, remember they all will pass away but God never does.

Just when I was typing this, I remembered this, maybe it will help you put things in perspective. I was recently on a tour to London and I wanted to see Buckingham palace. But before I started to see the palace, I said to the Lord, “Lord I want you in every area of my life, including my recreation. I want to visit all the beautiful places here, but I want You to come along”. Then when I was there in the Buckingham palace, standing before this magnificent gate, I was amazed at its beauty. I kept inspecting the gate when suddenly I heard the still small voice of the Lord, “If you are amazed at this gate, how much more will you be amazed when you see the gates in Heaven.” Right there I felt the presence of the Lord and I knew that He was right there, participating in my recreation. So, God does want you to enjoy life and given a chance, He is willing to be part of your recreation and fun. The Bible says “Rejoice in the Lord always” so being happy is something God expects us to be. Christians should be the happiest people on the earth because they have God here and they know where they are headed to so don’t feel bad about being happy and enjoying the things around you.

On the other question you brought up, “I doubt if God really loves me?” I bet He does, if not He wouldn’t have chosen to die for you. The question should be “Do I really love God?” I know you do but you have this nagging doubt. God is faithful Sara, I can bet my life on that. He has never once let anyone down. He reaches out to everyone till the very last breath that each of us breathe. But we are never convinced that He loves us. We expect signs and proofs for His love. We want to feel His love. Love is not a feeling, love is a choice. God chose to love you, and you need to choose to reciprocate His love. You are already a part of His Kingdom. Have faith and don’t be hard on yourself.

To be honest sometimes i get doubts if the bible really is the word of God and if Jesus is really God…it breaks my heart to say that:(((( i just want to have real faith, but i never can:(

Andrew, for me alot of things fall out of place when i wonder if there was really no God…i believe God is real and his existence is not something i need scientific proof for…its a matter of faith!

“How can God judge or condemn the outback aborigine or the African tribesman who not only doesn’t know there’s only one God”

You’d better hope not – or you might end up being judged by the Gods of the Aborigine people!

Sara,
Do you want to see Jesus/feel Jesus as a proof of His existence or is it because you desire to see Him, as a gift. Is it a search for proof or is it search for intimate relatioship. If you clarified on that, may be I can try and answer your question. You said you are doubting the very existence of Jesus, so assume you are asking a proof by wanting to see Him. Please correct me if I am wrong.

Sara,
I get it now. You believe in Jesus and you know that He is the only way. Good. So I don’t have to tell you about salvation. You said you don’t have 100% faith. Well, that is okay because, all of us have some fear and doubt and it is ok to have doubts. So not having 100% faith is acceptable to God. So if that is something that is bothering you, then relax, God understands your weakness. Faith as small as a mustard seed is what is required. And I see you have tremendous faith (although you don’t seem to realize). You said you require it as a gift. Gift is something God gives as He chooses. To each one He gives a different gift. Why? Because if all had the same gift, then there wont be any difference and all of us would be doing the same thing. How would the world be if all of us were just doctors or all were just carpenters? So don’t compare yourself with others because they have a different calling. I also understand that you desire to be close to God, a very noble desire. In fact all of us should desire that.

I will share with you what I have learnt about being close to God. I am not an expert and I am also in the initial stages of being in His presence and hearing Him. I will share what I have learnt so far. Maybe it will help.

1) Read the Word of God when you do not feel His presence. Instead of reading Christian books or articles or forums, read the Bible. Read it till you either become tired or become satisfied. We sometimes think God speaks through people or through a cloud or through a light. That happened a lot before Christ and still happens very rarely. But the reason it doesn’t happen more frequently is that God’s Words are always with us, through the Bible. So read it. To me, He speaks mostly through Scriptures. I remember that you mentioned somewhere in your previous posts “i always fear that i make things up and then say that God told me so through the Bible or through a friend”. Have faith Sara. Initially, when I learnt to hear God, I used to be so unsure. But then one of my Christian friends (who hears God speak) said unless you have faith, you can never hear of feel God. I could not blindly trust the Scripture I used to get, so I used to wait till I got two or three confirmations. You can do that as well. Tell God you are waiting for another confirmation. By all means, read the Bible and never negate the importace of the Bible. He speaks to you through it.
2) Try to find a place where you do not have any distractions. When I am busy or doing something else, I don’t hear God or feel His presence. Last one month I have been super busy, and I have rarely felt God’s presence. Take time alone, and wait on the Lord, don’t be in a hurry to get in and out of His presence. Best, fix a time that you are most comfortable with and give that time to God.
3) You don’t have to beg to God for Him to come closer to you. You are a child of God and You can approach to Him as you would approach your dad. Everytime I try to emotionally blackmail God through begging and self piting, I get a strict warning from God that He isn’t pleased. It is one thing to be humble and approaching Him with reverance and another thing to come to Him with loads of self pity. Go to Him in confidence.
4) Believe that God has the best interest in His mind. You may think seeing God is the ultimate good that can happen to you. But we never know. If I see God, given the person I am, the possibilities are that I wouldn’t handle it properly. I could become proud, I could become self satisfied and I will definitely slow down and lose focus. Remember that God always thinks of the eternal goodness than the immediate goodness.

One last thing, I have always wondered why God never showed up to me… but more than once God reminded me that “Blessed are those who believe without seeing me”. God sees your faith as something bigger than the faith of Thomas the apostle. That’s big isn’t it?

This is something a dear friend of mine has emailed me. I would really appreciate some help on this issue. Here it is:
So, I mentioned that one of the various reasons that I don’t share your religous views is that the abrahamic deity is guilty of genocide. I don’t want to just claim this without backing it up.

This is the blog post that originally spurred me into thinking about the subject. It is a right-wing, Christian defense of the genocide of the Canaanites and other various groups (it’s from the same people that my mom gets magazines from, so I assume that it doesn’t fall under the category of too fundamentalist or anything like that. It’s a major Christian organization). I presume that they would not take this out of context, and I presume that if there were a defense of the Israelite’s actions, that the author of this post would have found such a defense and written about it. However, the author is reduced to trying to redefine genocide to account for the abrahamic deity’s actions. This is a relevant quote that I believe points to the problem:

“If God was not behind the conquest of Canaan, then the Israelites were no different than the Nazis and the Hutus.”

The author is correct, albeit not in a way that he thinks. What the Israelites did was no different than what the Nazis and the Hutus did. All three of them committed genocide, and both the Nazis and the Israelites claimed that the deity of abraham was on their side (see here for info on Nazis/religion). The moral system that can justify the the wiping out of an entire people simply because their deity told them to (even “every city, men, women, and children”!) is not a moral system that I judge to be worthy of consideration.

One thing the article tries to use to rationalize the genocide is that the Canaanites were sinning. That, I believe, is a example of very lackadaisical thought. The all-powerful, all-knowing deity is unable to help his creation once they wander off from what he wants? The all-wise God of Everything cannot simply lead the Israelites to show by example how wonderful their deity is so that the Canaanites can return to the straight and narrow? The deity that is defined to have every possible option available to him apparently must choose to punish his creation by wiping out everything that breathes, and sending them to eternal damnation? Personally, I find that argument to, if anything, provide evidence against the abrahamic deity being good or perfect. A quote that I read once sums up the situation as I see it nicely: “If there is any kind of supreme being, I told myself, it is up to all of us to become his moral superior.”

As an aside, one might try to argue that that was the old testament, but when jesus came, he changed everything. This argument also fails to live up to expectations in my eyes. Does this mean that the abrahamic deity has changing moral standards? Then he is not perfect (and arguing that he is perfect is a circular argument regardless, but i digress).

Of course, it is entirely possible that I am wrong on some aspect of this. If I have erred, or missed something that would illuminate this subject further, I am of course open to being shown wrong on this. Let me know what you think. If you want, I would be perfectly willing to defend this view at bible study against whoever is there.

Boz said: “an idea for a post – “If Yahweh lied, how would we know?””

Bill Pratt said: “If God lied, he would not be God, so the question would self-destruct. Under the Christian view of God, He is truth and therefore incapable of lying, so your question is nonsensical to a Christian.”

—-

You said (paraphrased) that a christian believes that Yahweh is incapable of lying.

Firstly, a person’s belief/opinion does not limit another entity’s actions. A belief that my boyfriend cannot lie does not restrict my boyfriend’s actions.

Secondly, this contradicts omnipotence (under the popular definition of “able to do anything that is logically possible.”, which you have used previously).

—-

I don’t know what you mean by the question self-destructing. Under the hypothetical scenario of a deity existing, and telling a lie, the question would still exist. ?????

comments on pron viewing there is no comments. many are addidicted to this sinfull act.
self also having problme.

would be gratefull the see coment son the same.

My roommate wants to know if it is okay for his girlfriend to spend the night and sleep on the sofa. Thoughts?

Bill Pratt said: “Your final comment was strange, because you seem to be saying that my saying God cannot lie is just a Christian opinion about God. But I thought that is what you wanted! I am telling you the Christian view of God, but you are giving me a hard time about doing that. What view of God would you have me give?”

If I asked: “Is psychaitry effective in treating clinical depression”, and the response was: “the view of the Church of Scientology is that psychiatry is a barbaric and corrupt profession, is ineffective and extremely dangrous”, this does not answer the question. This just tells me what someone else thinks the answer is. However, this opinion has no bearing on whether psychiatry is effective or ineffective.

Similarly with my question about Yahweh lying.

An actual answer would be: psychaitry is (in)effective because evidence A, B and C, demonstrate that it is (in)effective.

I’ve been a believer all my life but have recently begun to have doubts. Why does God lay all these temptations in front of me? If he loves me, why does he do it. It’s like me telling my grandson he can’t have a chocolate bar but then putting one right in front of him. It’s cruel and unreasonable. So, why does God do it?

Also, it has recently occured to me that the world is random and there doesn’t seem to be much order, only chaos. If God is the author of peace and love, why throw his children into this cauldron of hate, temptation, intolerance, injustice and uncertainty.

I don’t believe a loving God would deliberately cause us so much pain. It makes no sense and I’ve begun to doubt his existence.

Mika,
You said you have been a christian all your life so I believe this should be easy for you to understand. The temptations that come your way (I don’t know what) need not be from God. Infact, read James 1: 13-15,
“When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; 14 but each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed. 15 Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death. ”

God does not tempt anyone and when someone is tempted God provides a way to escape. It is up to us to make choices.

Why is the world such a chaos… well as a Christian you must be familiar with the story in the Garden of Eden… when Eve and Adam gave into temptation, evil entered the world and the world we currently live is not the perfect world because judgement was pronounced for disobedience… the natural consequence of sin.

By the way, sometimes God does put you to test, as in the case of Job. God permitted the enemy to tempt job, it was a test that Job had to pass. Likewise with Abraham, God tested Abraham asking him to sacrifice his only son. What was the purpose?
Bible says in Psalms 66:10 “For you, O God, tested us; you refined us like silver.” God tests us to bring out our true character. He is not testing us to criticize our faith… instead He tests us to build our faith so that we can shine like silver.

Hope that helped atleast a little in clarifying your doubts. Don’t give up your faith. You know the truth and you cannot stray away from it. God bless!!

I stumbled on your website today while looking for a direct queestion. I noticed that the question was not asked, but it led me to a similar question. I have a two part question. 1.) I am an aspiring Christian Apologist seeking to “equip” myself to defend the hope inside me. I am planning on going to seminary school, however right now I am at a community college and far from graduating.(atleast another 8 months) What can I learn right now that will equip me. I seem to be naturally inclined towards Phiosophical Apologetics. Anything I can study right now to build the foundation? 2.) My fiinal question is regarding GOD, and communication. Can Christians talk directly to GOD? As to say is prophecy still being given directly to his children? I believe that his Holy Spirit does lead us, clarify, exposit, and convict us of the truth. However some take that to mean that they hear prophecy directly from GOD. I have a hard time believing that. Thanks for your time and your website. GOD bless

Felice

Felice, to your second point, I believe the answer is yes. The reason being God loves to talk if we are willing to listen. Most of the times it is through a still voice. But some people do hear God loud and clear. Besides, it is upto God to decide how He wishes to talk. Why do you have tough time believing it? If God is the same yesterday today and forever, the same God who spoke to His prophets in Biblical times can speak even today. Besides, in the Bible we see God speaking to men both in OT and NT. I don’t see a reason why God cannot directly talk to us humans. It is not only possibe but is also Biblical.

Kathie and MJ, here’s a simple way to look at it. Imagine you die and find yourself at the pearly gates, and you’re told you cannot come in because the REAL God is actually the God of the Hindus or Muslims of whatever.

Would you see that as just? If not, then you have your answer.

It’s basically like saying that everyone on earth has to read a long complicated whodunnit crime novel, and when they’ve finished reading it they have to say who they think the murderer is. And if they get it wrong, they go to hell.

There’s lots of different religions. To work out the ‘right’ one, you have to weigh up lots of competing evidence. If you get it wrong, why should that be seen as sinful? No-one’s perfect, perhaps you just failed to weigh it all up properly. You thought you had the right answer, you try to live a good life, you worship the God you believe to be the right one, you keep to His rules. But then you die and find you made a mistake… why should this mean you go to hell? It makes no sense. It is not compatible with a belief in a just God.

It says in Hebrews that if you abandon your faith, you cannot be brought to repent again. So if I abandoned my faith, (which I don’t know if I did or not) I can never be a christian again?

I have always been pro-life, but a few weeks ago while reading through one of the Gospels I came across the passage that the “road to destruction” is wide but the “path to life” is narrow and “only a few” find it.

Typical Evangelical belief teaches that babies have not yet had the opportunity to sin. Therefore, most of us believe that if a baby dies, it “goes to Heaven.”

Since MOST babies will end up in hell if they are born – why are we so upset by abortion? The kid is MOST LIKELY (according to Jesus) better off – since “only a few” find salvation. An aborted baby has 100% chance of Heaven!

I still think abortion is wrong, and I would never recommend personally for a friend to have one, but after realizing that, it doesn’t bother me like it did. I know this seems kind of nuts. But, that’s where I’m at. Abortion guarantees Heaven.

Being born, growing up – most of the time, that person will end up in Hell. Is that not what Jesus said?

Tim & Andrew,
You seem to be stuck in the same religion concept although I am not talking about religion at all. Andrew, I do agree one point you made “No-one’s perfect” and from that same point I would like to show how fair it is to claim that Jesus is the only way to heaven (if you believe there is heaven).

I come from a country where Hindu’s form 80% of the population, Muslims are next (I do not know the exact percentage) and Christians are the minority with approximate 2.5%. I have more Hindu friends than Christian friends and I do have a couple of Muslim friends. I love my friends and I wouldn’t want them to perish no matter what. I also know about each of these religions and I have carefully weighed each religion holds. I was born in a Christian family but never forced to read the Bible or pray (although I was taught to do all this). I out of my own interest have read and understood many religions including Christianity so it would not be fair to say that I am blindly rejecting other religions. Having said that, I feel I can talk more about what Hindu’s preach or what muslims preach and I have more compassion for my hindu and muslim brothers and sister than you could possibly have.

Now coming to the fairness of Christians reason, first lets look into the fairness of the religion itself. According to Hinduism, you out to be perfect to achieve mukti. Or else you get stuck in the wheel of Karma and you end up living in multiple cycles of birth and rebirth. Perfection can be achieved through multiple ways through practice and one ought to devote once whole life to achieve this perfection. If you fail, you are stuck in the wheel of life and you move on to next life of lower esteem and you need to try to achieve perfection once again. No one can break the what fate has sealed. Not even the gods can help when your fate is sealed. But perfection is mandatory to achieve mukti.

What does Islam teach? There is one God and no one else but that one God. He is holy and expects perfection. You have a list of DOs and list of DON’Ts. And you enter heaven depending on how many rules you followed. The objective is to achieve perfection. One of my muslim friend says, “I have two angels, one sits on my right shoulder and the other sits on my left shoulder. The one on the right records the right things I do. The one on the left, records the bad things I do. When I die, the list is compared and the size of the good list determines whether or not I enter heaven. I do not know if I will enter heaven or not so I try to be perfect as much as possible. I pray 5 times a day, I fast during Ramadan and I try to be nice to people. Allah will determine if I will reach heaven or not and I cannot know the verdict till I die”.

What does Christianity teach? All humans are imperfect. God is perfect and He expects perfection from all of us. He knows being perfect is not possible by human effort and so decided to help humans by the sacrifice of Jesus. He decided that if Jesus could pay the penality of sins for the whole of mankind (including muslims and hindus and buddhists and Christians and jains and aethists), he can accept the sinful humans despite their imperfection. He reached out to mankind to help him.

Tell me which of the 3 listed above is fair? God reached out to everyone through Jesus Christ but He is bound by His righteousness that expects us to respond back. If we say we do not want to reach back to His helping hands, then we are on our own. And because the God expects perfection, and because we cannot be perfect, we end up losing out on Heaven. It is just as simple as that. I don’t think religion plays any role in all this. All that matters is to be perfect as the Creator God is perfect and in our own efforts, as Andrew also agreed, we cannot be perfect and are badly in need of God’s help.

Why does God require Martyrs?

Instead of feeling joy when my brother and sister Christians are sent to their heavenly rewards at the hands of their persecutors, I am not filled with joy but anger. From the third world to Collumbine, from Iran to China, why does it seem that the God of life has such cause to rejoice at the blood of his children, not sinners, unjustly spilt? I do not have a problem with the idea of hell, nor a problem with the circumstances of the Garden of Eden and man’s choice to reject God in some form. But rather as Joab said to David,

“You love those who hate you and hate those who love you… I see that you would be pleased if Absalom (a sinner and traitor) were alive today and all of us were dead.”

In many ways, the vengeful, law centered God of the Old Testament (an eye for an eye is justice afterall) makes more sense to me than Christ’s message of gleefully surrendering to indignity and death at the hands of our murderers. How is that justice? How does that show love to me? The Bible says even an evil man will not give his son a snake if he asks for bread. So why should I feel guilty for not being thrilled at the prospect of insults, murder and torture for the sake of my loving father?

It is difficult for me to accept the idea of joyfully suffering for a just God. Was the sacrifice of Jesus insufficent? Is a life spent in peaceful service to God, while rejecting sin not enough? Why must so much of the Bible be focused on what we sacrifice for God instead of what we build for him? It is not enough to shake my belief in a loving, all powerful God, but it bothers me all the same. Any scriptures or advice on this issue would be most appretiated.

Sincerely,

This one should be quick and I would be curious as how an engineer like yourself would answer it.

How will the Christian community respond to scientific community inventing artificial intelligence whenever it happens?

I know this is very general but it is a curiosity of mine and it would be nice to hear from an engineer like yourself what you believe will happen.

How does one actually love God? I can explain my love for my wife and family, but find it difficult to explain love for God. Respect, gratuity, praise, yes. Love for what Christ has done, yes.

If we belief that this earth is a punishing ground for all the living beings . It meant that all the living creatures are sinners.We are punished by the ALL Mighty because of our (karma) activities then a new born child a fresh mind who does not know nothing but he/she emitted the bad activities from the elder ones , so in the future he/she will be punish.Here my question is Do GOD need to punish the child who was initially a pure mind or the elders who guide him or her ?

what is gods punishments for teenagers violent rage against parents and parents?what is gods rules for cursing at everyone? what are gods rules for teenager who will not tet her family have one single day of piece?

Andrew,
Since you don’t believe in God and you don’t take the Bible at all seriously, I find your answer bewildering. Maybe you’d like to quote other holy books that you also don’t respect?

Sin is generally thought of as moral evil. A sin is an act that goes against God’s perfect moral nature. Some people also refer to physical evil, such as earthquakes or hurricanes that kill or injure people. That sense of evil has nothing directly to do with sin.

I could equally say that since you’re not an atheist, why make so many blog posts discussing ‘atheist thought’, or summing up what you believe are atheists’ positions on different subjects?

“How Does One Atheist Support the Existence of Human Rationality?”

Would you think it a good response if I posted under the above blog:
“Bill, since you’re not an atheist and you don’t take atheist thought at all seriously, I find your answer bewildering”?

I didn’t post that, because I understand that one can challenge a viewpoint on its own terms. There’s another blog here challenging Mormanism. No-one says it is ‘bewildering’ for a non-Morman to do that.

In the process of visiting churches in belgium, we came across a church which said on their website… “WE BELIEVE… The Initial Physical Evidence of the Baptism in the Holy Spirit is ‘Speaking in Tongues,’ as experienced on the Day of Pentecost and referenced throughout Acts and the Epistles.”

What are your thoughts on this statement?

i live with my partner ( un married ) i feel a great pull towards the church, if i should accept Christ in my life will i have to give up my relationship with my partner?

I don’t have any question but I just wanted to find a place to uplift you guys. This blog site is so incredibly important and useful. You may already know that but I wanted to say it to you from a outside source. I thank God for open sites like this one and I will be praying to God to give you more strength and more wisdom. Which you clearly already have, but we always need more in such a hostile world against our fellow brothers and sisters. Especially our leaders in this spiritual battle. Praise God for you and may God bless you richly. Ariadne

Oneil66, you wouldn’t necessarily have to give up your relationship entirely but certain aspects of it would have to change if you chose to follow Jesus. You could always just get married. But you should only marry if you are sure that is what would be best. I wanted to write to you because I had to give up a 7 year relationship when I chose Christ. I asked my partner to marry me and was given a refusal. In that case you can do one of two things, stop having sex and sleep separately and continue in a pure boyfriend/girlfriend relationship in hopes that in the future your partner will change their mind. Who knows, it’s even possible that with fervent prayer God will call them to him too. Or as last resort, you separate from them entirely. My partner chose to separate from me when I asked for marriage and I also refused to have sex unless we were. It was tragic and very hard at first but over time I became more and more aware of how great it was to follow Jesus. I’m more free than ever before and God has been healing my heart and it’s turning out much stronger.

Ariadne,
Thank you so much for your kind and encouraging words. Believe me when I say that they are much appreciated and cherished.

God bless,
Bill

if there is a god, please explain this. all the time you see on television about some minister molesting kids or raping someone. today i saw where a minister had raped three women. and don’t get me started on the catholic history of molestation. why would god let someone of such character represent him?

finally someone with some common sense when it comes to god.

Is it necessary for Christians to fast? And if so, what is the procedure for fasting?

No, he is not. In order to answer this question, you need to understand how Christians view Jesus. Jesus is understood to have 2 natures: human and divine. As a human, he was conceived in a woman (Mary) by a supernatural act of the Holy Spirit (one of the three persons in the Christian godhead, the other two being the Son and the Father). So Jesus, the human, did not have a human father, but a human mother. Jesus, in his divine nature, has always existed, and therefore has no father in that sense either.

Maybe you are confused by the Trinity? The doctrine of the Trinity says that there is one God who consists in three persons: Father, Son, Holy Spirit. Each person is fully God. The names they have signify their relationships to each other, but are not meant to be taken literally. The Son is not literally the biological offspring of the Father.

Most Christianity sees scripture teaching eternal life after physical death in Heaven, with Jesus being enthroned there. The “rapture” seems to teach Christians being physically removed from earth to “meet The Lord in the air”. The return of Christ teaches Jesus physically dropping down to Mount Olivet and destroying almost all the entire gentile nations. Christ’s 1000 year reign scriptures seem to teach Christ on the earth with humanity (jew and gentaile) in the physical world reigning from a New Jerusalem which drops down from Heaven. Can anyone piece this together for me? Are we all going to be in heaven for eternity, or are we going to be on the earth for 1000 years – or eternity? Are special people going to be in the earth for Christ’s reign, or all the saved? Holy Mackerel, this is a BIG subject!
thanks RickNPhx

God created reason and logic, and has blessed us with this faculty, so we should use it.

I am not Christian. But I know Christians to be respectable. Forget what the priest says: what would God say? Would he prefer you staying in an environment in which you children are in harms way, and you yourself are suffering? If your husband/wife is abusing you call the police. I don’t know of any reasonable religion that says that you must stay in an abusive relation.

God tests us. We don’t need to put tests upon ourselves.

What is your answer?

Hallo there.

Please provide some help, I am a christian, but not learned in theology. I sometimes do not even question certain things, I just accept in my heart of hearts that God does exist, that Jesus walked the earth, died and was ressurected.

I recently started looking around to try and answer a friend who, how did he put it, “I do not like to label or be labeled, but if you have to, call me a cosmic pantheist.”

In my research the essential belief seems to be that we are all particles of God and that collectively we all make up God, that humans do not have souls and that there is no life after death, we are simply just recycled back into earth, and that any form of worship then is self worship.

The ultimate question he has though is “what can create such an awesome universe that spans so far beyond any understanding, that we cannot even explain the magnitude thereof?”

I know it is God, I know the nature of God, but somehow have difficulty in expressing what he needs to hear.

Elkain,
I can’t speak to the details of your situation, but obviously supporting your mother and father is commanded by Scripture. It’s important enough that it made it into the Ten Commandments in the number five spot! What you are doing is noble and Christ-like. Your parents are fortunate to have a son who takes care of them.

May God bless you,
Bill

Thank you both for your kind assurance. I apologize as my question may not have been worded well. Is there a way to know what I should do if I have to choose between paying my tithe or helping my parents when there is not enough money to do both? Mat 15:5

Elkain

I live in a small community with a lg college known as a leader in the engineering field. I hold a BS and have applied for over 50 jobs, interviewing for at least 15-20 over the years. I pray before going to any interviews, getting God’s yah first. Why would He have me striving to get on there and then not provide the open door?

Solving a mathematical open problem takes a lot of effort by various human beings. Why God has not performed a miracle in this context -
GIVING A SOLUTION WHICH HUMAN BEINGS HAVE NO WAY TO KNOW
WITH THEIR PERSENT KNOWLEDGE?
The truth and eternal aspects of mathematical theorems are very challenging; Why God seems to be indifferent to it?

I would also like to know why preachers, teachers, etc., are teaching that we are to go by Mankinds time and Calendar when Yahuah made it clear that we were NOT to do anything that pertained to what mankind created. Even circes are doing christ= christos, christmas, easter..etc., I just want to know why it is preachers are in with the adversary? Because they are not Teaching that Yahuah did NOT name the yoms (aka days) of the week, nor the months? I am just wanting answers here on why preachers are gaining souls for the adversary?

My wife of 33 years died back in August after battling cancer for 16 years. In the 33 years we were married, I watched her entire family, 6 members, a father, a mother, and four daughters, all die, one member after the other, mostly from cancer, until only my wife remained. Left behind were widowed husbands and grieving children. This was a good family made up of good people, all with dreams, hopes, ambitions, and all held to a faith and belief in God, my wife especially. Right now, I am still grieving her loss. My question is why would a loving God allow such unimaginable tragedy to happen to an entire family, and what good, if any, could come from something like this?

What are the facts on Scientology?

I believe god helped in evoultion is it a sin?

Patti,
I’m writing a blog post to answer this question. Stay tuned…

Thanks Bill. I think part of the problem is how this passage is translated. In many translations verse 8 does not have “yet”. To an unbeliever this would certainly seem to be a “lie”. I started using the ESV about a year ago and was initially surprised by the translation of this passage.

hi!
just have a question, what do you guys think about this: http://skepticsannotatedbible.com/contra/11_or_12.html
i’m a chritian but i just don’t know how to defend my faith regarding this topic.

This is consuming me.
I was online setting up an account on a movie website and it was asking you to agree to the terms and after it was “I surrender my soul”. I took this as a joke because of the tone of the webpage, but now I am almost in a panic. Did I surrender my soul by checking this box? I have always believed my soul belonged to God and I always try to please Him, but am I eternally damned now? Could I have taken this as a “joke” and been tricked into surrendering my soul?

Ideas for new posts:

“Arguments in favour of Christianity that I think fail”

even better:

“Arguments in favour of [some other religion, or non-religion] that I think succeed”

PLEASE consider the following very carefully.

Going forward – you advance the argument that once an individual Believer is initially saved they will ALWAYS be saved…hence, Eternally Secure.

Thus, this provokes the preponderance of the germane theological notion and question as defined below.

Are the ‘potentially’ FUTURE UNCONFESSED/UNFORGIVEN Sins of 1 Jn. 1:9 and Matt 6:15, 18:35, et. al., 100% (absolutely) FORGIVEN as part of the INITIAL Justification (New Birth) package, of which you suggest to be PERPETUAL/Eternal Justification as a consequence of ALL Past/Present/FUTURE Sins being FORGIVEN by God, and therefore that FORGIVENESS automatically IMPUTED to the Believer to include 100% FORGIVENESS for absolute ALL Future Sins as well?

PLEASE take careful note of Jesus’ and John’s CONDITIONAL “IF”(greek ‘ean’ 1437) stated in each of these below cited Passages.

1 John 1:9 (KJV)
9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
Matthew 6:15 (KJV)
15 But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.
Matthew 18:35 (KJV)
35 So likewise shall my heavenly Father do also unto you, if ye from your hearts forgive not every one his brother their trespasses.
Likewise, PLEASE take careful note that these above cited potentially UNCONFESSED and UNFORGIVEN Sins of the said Believer, subsequent to their Initial Justification are NOT NEW Sins at all, but the SAME IDENTICAL SINS that you suggest are allegedly already FORGIVEN as part of the INITIAL Eternal Justification package (Past/Present/Future) at the New Birth (FUTURE Sins) – and they are just now coming into reality and being committed by the Believer as Sin.

Therefore, does God then indeed FORGIVE the SAME IDENTICAL “Future” Sin “TWICE” or PARTIALLY FORGIVE a Sin – once at INITIAL Justification and once AGAIN at Post Justification when the said Sin is actually and literally committed?

Is not SIN just that SIN and it does not matter what heading we choose to categorize or define it under – i.e. Positional, Judicial, Fellowship, Experiential, etc.

Do you suggest then that a stubborn rebellious subsequent NEW BIRTH Believer who willfully REFUSES to CONFESS his/her Sin(s) before God, will actually be FORGIVEN an CLEANSED of that particular Sin in accordance with the above cited Passages…especially 1Jn. 1:9?

Where then is the 100% ABSOLUTE FORGIVENESS of ALL “Future” Sins at INITIAL Justification – which Eternal Security/OSAS theologically mandates? PLEASE do the math…

Returning then to my earlier cited theme of Sin ‘classification’ I submit the following to the attention of your Biblical wisdom for your intuitive clarification.

If we suggest a DUAL Position for a given Sin respective of 1 Jn. 1:9 and Matt 6:15, 18:35, et. al., then this would be implying that EACE INDIVIDUAL Sin has ‘TWO’ aspects – Positional and Experiential/Fellowship, etc., and that ONE singular Sin would have then TWO ‘required’ FORGIVENESSES before it could be deemed as COMPLETELY FORGIVEN.

For example, if I declare that I am going to build ONE SINGULAR House with ‘TWO’ distinctive rooms (aspects/parts/A&B). Then, upon the actual completion of ONLY ONE of the TWO required rooms, can I legitimately declare the ONE SINGULAR House ‘absolutely’ COMPLETE/FINISHED?

Going forward, the potential UNFORGIVEN Sins of 1 Jn. 1:9 are the very SAME IDENTICAL ‘Future’ Sins that is suggested by the theology of Eternal Justification to have been absolutely FORGIVEN as part of the INITIAL Justification package, which as stated INCLUED ALL (absolute) FUTURE Sins.

Nonetheless, it does not matter under what heading or category we place these potentially UNFORGIVEN Sins – they are nonetheless still potentially UNFORGIVEN Sins…Sin is just that SIN.

Therefore, to classify a singular Sin as having TWO ‘aspects/parts/features’ of FORGIVENESS would be as defined below:

1a. – the POSITIONAL FORGIVENESS aspect…accomplished at INITIAL Justification having a PAST/PRESENT/FUTURE determinate (PERMANENT).

2b. – the EXPERIENTIAL/Fellowship FORGIVENESS aspect…accomplished at the Believers CONFESSION ‘POST’ Initial Justification.

However, by default this suggested ‘aspect’ classification of the SAME said Sin, then exists in TWO parts A and B and unavoidably mandated as ‘mutually exclusive’ – cannot occur at the same time…One aspect/part (A) occurs at INITIAL Justification and the other aspect/part (B) at POST Justification.

Nonetheless, BOTH ‘aspects/parts/features’ of the said singular Sin must be cumulatively FORGIVEN before the Sin itself can be considered/qualified as COMPLETELY FORGIVEN?

It is IMPOSSIBE then for a SIN with two mutually exclusive (cannot occur at the same time) aspects/parts/A&B to then be COMPLETELY FORGIVEN at Initial Justification – BOTH aspects would have to occur together (SIMULTANIOUSLY), but by default ONLY aspect/part A is FORGIVEN, because as stated the aspects are mutually exclusive, the POST Initial Justification aspect part B of this SAME IDENTICAL FUTURE Sin has never come into fruition, and has literally never been CONFESSED by the Believer who has committed it, and subsequently FORGIVEN as Scripturally required by 1Jn. 1:9, for ALL SUBSEQUENT New Birth Sins.

There is NO WAY possible of making the math work.

This is what I originally asked, If we declare that 100% of ALL FUTURE Sins have ALREADY been FORGIVEN at INITIAL Justification…Why are the ‘post’ Justification POTENTIAL UNFORGIVEN Sins of 1 Jn. 1:9 NOT included as part of the INITIAL Justification package that is suggested to FORGIVE ALL FUTURE Sins as well?

barney

Dear Davidswife,
We all have sinned and made mistakes, but God has provided a way out from the grasp of the devil through his son, Jesus Christ:

Romans 3:23: “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”

Romans 3:10: “As it is written: There is no one righteous, not even one.” [Our "good work" alone cannot cancel out sin. ]

Romans 5:8: “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” [God sent His only son, Jesus to die on the cross for our death. With this act He conquered death paid the penalty of sin for us. ]

Romans 6:23: “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” [Like any "gift" someone paid the price and we must accept it.]

Romans 10:9-10: “That if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your hear that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.” ["escape clause" from spending time in hell with the devil. ]

Romans 10:13: “For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” [It's not complicated.Jesus paid the price of our sin for us. Our response is to accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior. If we do, we will be saved from eternal death in Hell to eternal life in Heaven. ]

You can pray to God right now and claim the promises of His word as your own.

•Admit that you have sinned against God and ask Him for forgiveness.
•Believe that the Lord Jesus Christ is the Son of God Who died for you on the cross, rose from the dead, and is Lord.
•Call upon Jesus Christ to be your Lord and Savior.

Then read your bible and ask God to lead you to a good BIBLE BELIEVING church.

I have a question. What happened to the “How do we investigate whether a resurrection occurred post”?

Hey Guys,

I’ve been investigating Christianity for sometime. I have a question about the beliefs of life after death in ancient world. I know that the Greeks and Romans didn’t think it happened and Jews thought it would happen at the end of time. Although in Mark 6 verse 16 it says, ” But when Herod heard this, he said, John, the man I beheaded, has been raised from the dead!” So, it looks like to me that Herod believed that someone could be raised from the dead. So doesn’t this pose a problem for people who use the argument that people in the ancient world just didn’t believe in resurrection?

Troy, what exactly is the problem? What information in this video has you questioning your faith? Keep in mind that there are numerous YouTube videos made every day attacking Christianity, and it is impossible for me to watch every one. So, a more productive approach is for you to tell me what is so troubling.

Troy,
What evidence is offered to prove that Christianity started as a polytheistic religion? You mention that verses were changed. What evidence exists that verses were changed to make Christianity appear monotheistic instead of polytheistic?

Troy,
I was trying to get you to think through the arguments from the video, as I think they are weak and highly disputable, but it seems you don’t want to do that, so…..below are links to several articles that take on various issues that are raised in the video:

Is the Bible polytheistic?

What would an inscription about a consort of Yahweh really prove?

Was Yahweh a member of the Phoenician pantheon??

Was YHWH just a pagan solar deity IAO?

Subject: Ancient Israelite Polytheism?

A brief note about the Documentary Hypothesis

Was the Pentateuch “adulterated” by later additions?

Sorry meant to end that with a question, relating to the last youtube article someone forwarded on to me, why would the leader of the Christian church misrepresent the faith of nearly 2 billion people ?

Put simply, your friend is grossly distorting what the Bible actually teaches. We have written on this subject a few times on the blog, and there are also some good links to other sites that discuss this issue.

Here are the links on our blog: What About Genocide in the Old Testament?, Who Did Joshua Kill in Jericho?, Does God Take People’s Lives?.

Here are a few links to other sites that address this issue: How could a God of Love order the massacre/annihilation of the Canaanites?, What about God’s cruelty against the Midianites?, The “Slaughter” of the Canaanites Re-visited.

I hope these links will help you.

God bless,
Bill

Do Mormons and Jehovah Witnesses fall in the same category when compared to Christianity?

Judges 3:24 Surely he covereth his feet in his summer chamber.
What does this mean in that day!

Carol,

Mormon theology teaches that *all* humans are spirit brothers and sisters. They believe in a pre-mortal life in which all of us where spirit born to God the Father. Jesus Christ was the first born of these children and Lucifer was the second born. We all then came after them. So, the short answer to your question is yes, they do believe that Jesus and Lucifer are spirit brothers to each other. In fact, Jesus, in their view, is all of our’s eldest spirit brother.

Hope that makes sense.

Darrell

What is your feeling on Free Masonry?

I read that the antichrist will be given power over the saints to slay them who are belivers of Christ. Then I also read in Rev. 3:10 that I f we perseverethat the lord will keep us from the hour of trial that will come upon the earth. Iam confuse about rather we as Christian are going to go through the tribulation ‘ and be slain or will we be spared and raptured up. So if we are spared who are the saints that are slain?

Hi there.
I’m a fairly recent convert to Mormonism. I’ll spare you the conversion story for now, suffice to say that my entry was more to do with study than prayer. I sometimes find myself in discussions/debates with Christians from my old church, who sometimes decide they want to save me.

Anyway, I’ve got this argument for the truth of the Book of Mormon that I personally find persuasive, and those who I discus with find themselves completely at a loss to refute it. That’s why I’m here. there are plenty of argument ‘I’e seen other Mormons give which I don’t think are very persuasive and are sometimes downright silly. I’m perfectly happy to change my mind about the persuasiveness of this argument, if someone can explain to me why its wrong, but so far nobody I’ve met seems to be willing to and most of the anti-Mormon sites don’t seem to want to touch it.

So would anyone here who really believes that Mormonism is false, who is unafraid of seeing arguments against their point of view and who has a bit of spare time on their hands please go to

http://mi.byu.edu/publications/jbms/?vol=3&num=1&id=46

And explain why they think its wrong (in particular I’m looking at the if and conjuncts section).

Anonymous,

Thanks for the link.

One of the issues with Skousen’s argument is that it assumes the BOM it a literal word for word translation from ancient Hebrew. Unfortunately, this is not even what Smith himself or the LDS Church today claim. It is supposed to be translated from Reformed Egyptian. I don’t see how attempting to prove a Hebrew basis for the translation really helps the case.

God bless!

Darrell

Dear Bill Pratt,

I am writing a text book and would like to use one of your photos. Pleaswe email me privately. I do now wish to post my email address, and am hoping your computer site program will capture it.

I have not found a contact email for you.

Jeanetta

Ed H,
These questions have been asked by many people. I have studied about it and each one brings forth a theory of what could have happened. Even evolution theories are theories, not facts. What do we have then, a mix of what could or could not have happened. One very interesting theory (I tried finding that for you but couldn’t find the website) was that carbon dating can be goofed up if a major catastrophe happened. The author believes that the major flood during Noah’s time led to the goof up carbon dating. He scientifically explained of how the dinosaurs could have been extinct and how the varies layers of the earth could have been formed. It was very convincing and I believe that is what happened. Now, can we prove it? I guess not. Can evolutionists prove that we came from Monkey? I guess not. What are we left with, a question of how the world was formed and how we came into existence. Now that we exist, the more pertinent question that the world needs to ask is what next? I gave up a long time back on questions that are trivial and are always up for debate. I have now started focusing on things that matter most. Love, Salvation, Helping people, trusting God.

… and yes there is a mention of dinosaur like creature and dragon like creature in the Bible. Of course they are not called dinosaurs or dragons because these are terms coined by the English/American? Refer Job 40:15-44 for something similar to dinosaur and Job 41:12-34 something scary like a dragon or some monster.

Carl G, I am not sure if you will read this, as it seems to have been unattended for a long time. But in the hope of someone will find it useful, I am replying.

Why does God allow such unimaginable tragedy happen to an entire family? I believe there are more than 1 reasons that you may want to consider. It could be one or all of them together. I am not a prophet so I do not want to conclude on what happened to your family but these are general principles you can apply to any death (series of deaths) that happen:

1) God does not tempt but He does test. The devil tempts, kills, lies and destroys. God builds up, gives life, and what is meant for destruction by the devil is turned around for good by God. Tragedies can be the devil’s work. Job was a righteous man but he incurred severe loss and tragedy. God permitted it to test Job but Satan wanted to destroy Job.
2) Some tragedies are linked to generational curses. I have heard that said by many powerful godly people and apparently that does exist. SO if a particular family is going through loss after loss, it would be good to pray, fast and seek God’s protection on every individual. It doesn’t mean you have to live in fear. All curses are gone in the name of Jesus Christ and you just need faith to claim the freedom from the curse. This may sound ridiculous, but get help from powerful men of God to pray with the family. Some people anoint houses and family members with oil and pray (anointing oil and praying is very Biblical so don’t be afraid).
3) Sin may lead to destruction. I have heard families destroyed due to some sin from the past which the family had held on to. Find the area that needs to change and decide as a family to change. Repent and turn to God.
4) Death is inevitable and everyone dies. It could be that these are just natural deaths and has nothing supernatural about it. Every person has a predetermined time to live and God calls His children to Himself when it is time. Death isn’t tragic, it is an entry in to the next happy world. I am not trying to put down your pain and sorrow. I completely understand how it feels to lose someone you love but sometimes, we have to understand that death is ultimate release from the pain of this world.
5) Sometimes, you may not get an answer to your whys. I am telling that based on my personal experience. I lost my dear cousin and I haven’t been able to understand why he died so young. But I do know one thing, God had it and has it in control. He can turn around the tragedy to good. We may not see it now. We may not understand it, even if a good came out of it. But that doesn’t mean no good can come out of it.

Hi Venkatesan,
I can see you are just making fun here. But still, just curious to know what you aim to do by solving the unsolved mathematical problem. I mean, what benefit from it, to people around you, to the world, etc? Maybe that will answer your funny question.

Ralph,
I read a related article recently and hope to share this with you (I am not sure if you will read this as it seems to be a old question).

Offering praise and worship is a sacrifice. Scripture defines it as the sacrifice of praise. That means, it is not easy to worship and praise. It requires sacrificing time. Second, God doesn’t need your worship. Third, God is worthy of worship. You worship not because God craves for worship. You worship because He is all powerful, wonderful, awesome and mighty to save. You worship Him because He is the only one worthy of it. Worship is humbly surrendering to God and trusting in His mercy. It is giving control to Him. That pleases Him because He sees you as His child trusting Him. What father wouldn’t be pleased when a completely and absolutely trusts and believes in Him. Worship is all about honouring God and I do not see how it can be called conceit.

Anonymous,

I understand what you are getting at, but, for many reasons, to me it is unconvincing reasoning. Smith specifically said and the BOM itself proports that the language was Reformed Egyptian. Neither he nor it said anything about it being “Egyptian script of Hebrew language”. Therefore, IMO, it is pointless to try to demonstrate Hebraisms. In reality, I see this as just another in the long line of examples that demonstrate the fraudulant nature of Smith’s prophetic claim.
He himself SAID it was reformed Egyptian. Now, when it benefits them, the LDS Church claims a Hebrew underpinning for the language. If Smith truly was a Prophet of God, why didn’t he come out and specifically SAY the language had a Hebrew basis? Why did it take nearly 200 years for this to come to light?

Perhaps it might help for me to explain something. I don’t necessarily think Smith faked the vision. I believe there is a strong possibility that he did in fact have an encounter. I even believe that it is possible that this encounter did lead him to discovering a “book” that he translated. However, where you and I part ways is in the fact that I don’t think there is even a remote possibility that this vision, the book, or the religion that came from it are what they claim to be. I have a mulitude of reasons for believing this, and, if you care to discuss them, I would be happy to do so. Because I believe the vision itself was not front God, showing me that there are possible Hebraisms in the BOM is uncovincing. It is like telling me that “An engineer designed the building we are in in order to convince me that it is a solid structure when it is in the middle of collapsing under our feet”. I just don’t buy it. There is too much evidence to the contrary. Not all visions are from God and spiritual powers can be very powerful.

Please don’t take any of this offensively. I realize that you believe strongly in the LDS Church, and I respect your right to do so. I did at one time myself.

God bless!

Darrell

I know this is no evidence… but to me testing a person’s intention is more important than whether or not his prophecies came true. If a person claims himself as better than Jesus and says he is the best and equates himself with Jesus, then no matter how many prophecies come true and no matter how many great words he writes… he is fallen. I am not sure if Mormons consider Christ as ultimate saviour, if you don’t then maybe there is no point even mentioning this here.

Joseph Smith said, “I have more to boast of than ever any man had. I am the only man that has ever been able to keep a whole church together since the days of Adam. A large majority of the whole have stood by me. Neither Paul, John, Peter, nor Jesus(emphasis) ever did it. I boast that no man ever did such a work as I” (History of the Church, Vol. 6, pp. 408-09).

Just my two cents…

“Smith specifically said and the BOM itself proports that the language was Reformed Egyptian. Neither he nor it said anything about it being “Egyptian script of Hebrew language”.”

I’ve actually given evidence for my view on what Smith and the BoM say , whereas you are just making assertions. I have no doubt you can find instances of smith saying the BoM was written in reformed Egyptian, but can you show me were he said it was necessarily both the script and the language?

“If Smith truly was a Prophet of God, why didn’t he come out and specifically SAY the language had a Hebrew basis? Why did it take nearly 200 years for this to come to light?”

Let’s suppose he didn’t, and that he even thought it was Egyptian language on Egyptian Script. The idea that Smith didn’t know about the Hebrew language doesn’t bother me much. Prophets are not supposed to be complete sources of all knowledge about everything. They only know what God decides to tell them. He saw Egyptian on the BoM plates, so he said it was Egyptian. Mormons are told God reveals thing “line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little, there a little”. We don’t have sealed revelation and the idea of learning knew things we didn’t know before (even if we are learning them via scholars instead of prophets) is hardly an issue. Why should it be a flaw in my argument if Smith didn’t know about it? If anything, I should think that if Smith didn’t know about it it would strengthen my case even more- If he didn’t know there were Hebraisms in the text then there is no way he could have deliberately manufactured them.

“Perhaps it might help for me to explain something. I don’t necessarily think Smith faked the vision. I believe there is a strong possibility that he did in fact have an encounter … Not all visions are from God and spiritual powers can be very powerful.”
Are you proposing that all this evidence was just constructed by Satan? Critics of Mormonism normally have to get pretty desperate to explain away the evidence before they will turn there. It’s not that Satan isn’t able to construct false doctrine and false miracles and lead people away from the truth, but he is not some omnipotent super being capable of a) knowing more about ancient Hebrew than any man alive at the time b) knowing the contents of not yet translated or even discovered ancient records or c) knowing the future, and he would have had to do all those to for you to explain all of the evidence away.

When the apostles preached in the New Testament, they would use their miracles, both the ones they were doing and those they testified had been done, their evidence of fulfilled prophecies, and the sheer experience of the Holy spirit to convert people to Christianity. Some people would hear there testimony and believe, some would not. But not once in the New Testament do we ever see somebody assign the testimony and miracles to the devil and dismiss it on that basis. If that had been a convincing intellectual option for those interacting with the apostles, surely some would have taken it.

If Satan were powerful enough to fake all the miraculous evidence I am proposing for Mormonism, then he would also have been powerful enough to do it for all the miracles the apostles gave. The entire line of evidence the apostles gave for the Gospel would have been completely compromised. But instead of seeing those being preached to always saying ‘so what, Satan can fake that’ they believed and were saved. The apostles wouldn’t give evidence that wasn’t intellectually persuasive, but they gave their miracles and converted people with it. So apparently the Apostles didn’t think of Satan as being as powerful as you are making him out to be. Absent working naturalistic explanations the evidence I am giving for the BoM is at least as good as that the apostles gave for the NT. Frankly I think you’re trying to use one standard in judging the NT’s claims and another higher one in Judging the BoM’s

In summary:
1. The original BoM contains if-and conjuncts such as Helaman 12:13 “yea and if he sayeth unto the earth move and it is moved” which could be the result of a) accident b) naturalistic forgery c) supernatural forgery d) Genuine translation of ancient Hebrew.
2. At no stage in the English language has and been used where then should go. Any English speaker would instantly know not to do that. If Joseph smith had been faking the BoM he would have know not to do this. Therefore it is not the result of accident
3. if-and conjuncts do not appear in the KJV Bible (it’s not that literal), which is the only Hebrew translated document Joseph could have plausibly had access to forge the Book of Mormon. Therefore it is not the result of naturalistic forgery
4.1 If Satan were capable of supernaturally faking Godly visitations, plates, visions in seer stones and detailed Hebrew-English translation information then he is also capable of faking the NT miracles
4.2 if Satan were capable of faking the NT miracles then the miracles would not have made convincing evidence for the Gospel, in which case the apostles wouldn’t have used it because it would be ineffective evidence and intellectually dishonest.
4.3 The apostles did use miracles and their testimony of prior miracles as evidence for the gospel, and they convinced many
4 Therefore the if-and conjuncts are not a supernatural forgery
5. Therefore the if-and conjuncts and the BoM could only come from one possible source, a genuine literalistic translation of an ancient text.

Hello Wayne,
I am not sure if this material is suitable for 11 and 13 year olds but it does discuss about scientists who ask pertinent questions about a Designer, a Supreme Being, Creator behind the the universe and various other scientific things.

http://www.y-origins.com/

The footnotes in each article gives you a list of books from where the quotes were picked so it maybe worth giving it a read. Read this yourself before you share it with the kids. Your daughter in law may benefit from this if not your grand children.

I recently read this statement and have a question.
Death per se is a condition of separation. According to the Bible, there are only two kinds of death. First, there is physical death, which involves the temporary separation of the spirit from the body. In the resurrection, the body is later rejoined with the human spirit. Second, there is spiritual death or the separation of the human body and spirit from God. This condition has no remedy.
My question pertains to the latter death; or possibly a third condition. Is it possible for a man to have a separation from God’s Spirit and remain physically alive? And if so, would there be a remedy to this condition? For example Jesus made an example of a man being twice dead also white washed tomes, and inside like dead man’s bones. Yet in each case they were at that point still physically alive. David also cried out to God to not take his Holy Spirit from him.

… and here are some quotes from astronomers, mathematicians, scientists, physicist,etc – indicating their belief that a supreme being is responsible for the origins.
http://www.y-origins.com/index.php?p=quotes

Yes, when Jesus told the truth, people did flee. Anybody can keep a church together by tickling their ears with lies. I don’t think Smith had much to brag about.

Claiming to be better than God…. hmmmm… not a good thing to do. Anonymous, I’m really surprised at you. You are actually *defending* your “Prophet” saying this and, worse than that, you are actually saying IT’S TRUE…. Time to hide under the bed. . . Scary.

Ah, Campus Crusade Bill Bright. That would explain the execretable quote mining.

Anonymous,
You don’t seem to understand the parallelism being drawn. It is one thing to draw parallelism and another to prove it. Now… according to point 7, Joseph S prophesied he would be a martyr. So did Jesus. Infact, Joseph borrowed Jesus’ words. But did Joseph really die like a silent lamb? Point 9 says he was Mormans claim he shot in self defence and Joseph Smith possed a gun. I dont see how that is dying like a silent lamb and I don’t see how you can apply that to Jesus.

My point… a prophet is not a prophet if he fails even one prophecy and acts against the nature of God. This isn’t something I am telling. This is what God told. Read Deuteronomy 18:20-22

But a prophet who presumes to speak in my name anything I have not commanded, or a prophet who speaks in the name of other gods, is to be put to death.”
21 You may say to yourselves, “How can we know when a message has not been spoken by the LORD?” 22 If what a prophet proclaims in the name of the LORD does not take place or come true, that is a message the LORD has not spoken. That prophet has spoken presumptuously, so do not be alarmed.

And you yourself agreed points 5 and 9 are not likely to happen with every other cult/religious leader. I 100% agree. But what about Joseph Smith. He seemed to have practised polygamy and seems to have involved in a gun battle. Both of these were a no no from Jesus. What do you have to say for that?

Tildeb, Ah! great sarcasm!

tildeb what we use to equip children is something you wouldn’t have to worry I believe. Anyway, just as you don’t believe in POOFism, we don’t believe in BANGism. Your scientists themselves agree they are unable to understand the mystery of DNA. If the quotes in the site are wrong (they could be which is why I had mentioned in my comment to verify the books before sharing with the kids), why don’t you share the correct quotes from the books. Simply jumping at every opportunity isn’t very rational, is it? Anyway, my intention here is not argue baseless jumping. I have shared a link that a fellow visitor asked for. I believe he has enough understanding of what should and should not be shared with his grandchildren. If you have any material to help him, please do share.

Was anyone talking about who preferred what? If that is your preference, great, but doesn’t mean everyone should prefer what you prefer? If you think it is foolishness, it is entirely your opinion. You haven’t given any facts to prove the quotes were wrong or foolish. Without you telling us as to why the it has been misquoted, this argument is baseless. I believe that just jumping around at every opportunity, without reasons or proper facts is foolishness too… but that is just my opinion. We all have the right to our opinion but they necessarily do not become facts.

Tildeb, I don’t see a reason for apologizing as much as you do not see a reason for apologizing. If you think your views are the only right views, then that is your problem to sort out. Now, you have not given any refute for the scientists who are struggling to find an answer to the DNA mystery. You like it or not, that is the truth. These are quotes spoken by people who worked hard. I do know, and in most cases the y-origin does say that the scientist have gone back to their materialistic thinking. Scientists aren’t becoming Christians but are they shuffling around? Yes, they are. Are they able to give a reasonable answer? Maybe they will in the future. But as we speak, we do not have an answer. We have the quotes from famous scientists themselves, suspecting a finger print of God. Are these quotes all made up? Maybe yes, maybe not. If you say they are made up, as per my previous requests, please do provide proof that these quotes are made up. Till such time, I feel your argument is baseless… and I don’t have anything further to discuss.

My argument, Worduncensored, is that you are promoting a web site that intentionally misrepresents real people about what they honestly think. That you are okay with this recommendation – even though I’ve shown it is dishonest – means your moral compass seems to me to be a bit out of whack.

Why not tell advise the grandparents to be honest with the grandkids… perhaps even tell them truthfully that over 95% of biologists and about nine out of every ten highly respected scientists do not believe in a personal god? Isn’t that curious? Doesn’t it make you want to know why? Wouldn’t the grandkids be better served finding out these answers than being told to visit web sites that misrepresent people and distort their quotes to serve a very specific religious agenda?

If they are out of context, then they are bad, but I am still not getting your proof to show it is out of context. Anyway, I feel like we are just beating around the bush with mere personal opinions. By the way, talking about using out of context text… I wish the same principle would be used while using Bible… more and more people use it out of context God goofy and foolish… not that either of you did it… just mentioning it here since we are talking about “out of context” now. Thanks AR and Tildeb…

i’m comfused with the book of Job 1:6-12.
I don’t understand how comes the devil (satan) joined in heavenly gathering with God and Angels!!
What happened there? According to the little knowledge i have is that, satan was an angel and refused to obey God as a results he was thrown away from God’s kingdom.
Please i need your help.

Sometimes I have problems reconciling the personalities of God the Father and God the Son. Jesus said that they are one in the same. I know that there are differences in the Old and New Testaments, and that we are living in period of grace, not under the law. I think of how merciful Christ was towards sinners, “Let he who is without sin cast the first stone”, etc. I think about Him scolding the Pharisees in Mark 2, telling them that “the sabbath was made for man, not man for the sabbath.” But then I look back in Numbers 15:32-36 when God tells Moses to stone a man to death because he was picking up sticks on the sabbath. Can you shed some light on this for me? Thanks.

Sounds like you nailed it, Artie. When you look at the Greek word for “Fornication” it is ‘porneia’ and is a broad term that means any kind of sexual activity outside of the marital covenant. See also God’s standard of perfection for sexuality as shown in the Mosaic law (Lev. 21:9; 19:29; Deut. 22:20, 21, 23-29; 23:18; Ex. 22:16).

Marc A, i agree with you. I know it is impossible to totally understand God this side of Heaven. If I could, he would not be God. It is impossible to explain the supernatural in natural terms. And far too many people dismiss God when they cannot shrink Him down to their size. Thanks for your words.

What happens to a soul after the body dies and can a person go straight to heaven or hell even before judgement day?

Revelation 20:12 speaks of books being opened and the dead being judged “out of those things that were written in the books.” Usually I have heard people interpret these books as records of the deeds of the dead. Where did that view come from? Isn’t it more accurate to think that these are books of the Law to which the deeds of the dead are compared? For example, when Ezra read and explained the Law and the people repented? Or as in a modern court system where statutes are “on the books” and people are tried for infractions of them?

I have a question that I can’t find an answer for online. Is there any historical evidence that the 3,000 people baptized on Pentecost went home and planted churches? Of course the Bible tells us that there were Christians in Rome before Paul ever arrived there, but are there any extra-biblical sources that confirm that there were believers in locations around the Roman empire as a result of Pentecost? I am hoping to use this in conversation with Muslim friends online to show them that 10 days after the Messiah ascended to heaven, Parthians and Medes and Elamites and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabians heard that the Messiah died on a cross for sins and rose again. They then returned to their own “countries” with this message, long before the books of the NT were written. The cat was already out of the bag. The Pentecost message came from the apostles before anyone had the opportunity to corrupt the message, as Islam teaches. Perhaps you could connect me with someone who could help me find such evidence of churches planted around the Roman Empire before the apostles ever arrived there? Thanks for any consideration given to this request.

Hi Roland,
Check out this article from the Christian Thinktank. I hope this helps.

God bless,
Bill

Hi Brian,
I am now aware of any extra-biblical evidence directly linking Pentecost to evangelism around the Roman Empire. That doesn’t mean it’s not out there; I just wouldn’t know where to send you to find it.

Good luck in your search,
Bill

How is it possible for those who are ignorant about Christianity to achieve salvation?

I have a question about 1 Samuel 15. If God is omniscient, why would he regret appointing Saul as a king for Israel? thanks

Hi Chris,
Discussions between liberal Christians and traditional Christians have more to do with theology than with apologetics. At my seminary (SES), all students seeking Master’s degrees in apologetics are required to take classes on systematic theology, biblical theology, and historical theology. The rationale is the following: you can’t defend Christian teachings if you don’t know what Christian teachings are.

My guess is that very few liberal Christians are interested in apologetics because they hold their beliefs so loosely. Why defend something that you’re not too sure about?

If you are looking for resources, I highly recommend Norman Geisler’s four volume systematic theology collection. Not only does Geisler thoroughly articulate traditional Christian theology, he also works apologetics arguments into almost every chapter. I find myself consulting this collection frequently, even after taking the classes several years ago.

God bless,
Bill

Jesus’s teachings are recorded throughout the New Testament documents by his followers, but as far as we know, Jesus never left us any of his writings.

Thanks for the reply. Since the apostles could write (in their own writing form)& we know Jesus could write, you would think that in all these many years no one has ever found any of Jesus’ writings. Maybe it was deemed a relic, like the shroud of Turin and locked away in a vault some place. Jesus was a great teacher, Rabbi and it’s just so hard to believe that none of Jesus’ notes have been found. I’m very dismayed to learn this. Has any of Jesus’ notes, etc ever been searched for? Bernadette

Bill, you had said: “The rationale is the following: you can’t defend Christian teachings if you don’t know what Christian teachings are.”

When I converse with liberal Christians this seems to be exactly the point that they are making…that Christian teachings have never been a standard, unified, consistent set of teachings from the beginning that we can point to and say, “here they are.” Even the fundamentalists that tried to reduce Christianity to a bullet-pointed core set of teachings couldn’t do it, because there is nowhere in the bible or church history that we can go to say “Here is the defined laundry list of Christian teaching that is non-negotiable for the faith.”

It might sound like I’m arguing for the liberal side of theology, I’m not. It’s just that they do seem to be more reserved and cautious (they would say humble) about making theological proclamations than are most conservatives.

Although liberal Christianity mostly appears to be on the wane, I think it has the potential to be a bigger threat than atheism.

Chris,
I think that there are essential teachings of Christianity that most orthodox Christians have always agreed upon, at least since the fifth or sixth century after the early church had time to work through these doctrines. I wrote a blog post about this a couple years ago that is worth reading. I have Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox friends that would agree with that post, so to say that there are no agreed upon central teachings of Christianity is false.

When Jesus was baptized, was he baptized in the Christian faith or Jewish faith? Why, in the Bible, was John the Baptist called that, was he a Baptist? If not, then why didn’t they call him John the Baptizer?

Is the fact that what has to be done to actually repopulate the earth, between a man and woman (sex) the very sin that God warned Adam & Eve about? What I’m asking is that if sin is why everyone dies, then is the act of procreation itself the sin that makes us all die? I was just thinking that the grave sin that everyone commits is probably the sin that sealed our fate. What do you think of this? Even though God made us all human, maybe He wanted to see if any of us could use self control for the good of our souls and respect for God Almighty.

What about the people outside of Israel? The laws were harsh against them. Like the scary one if a man rapped a slave girl he was not put to death. He had to take care of her. Maybe there is a societal gap, but how could that be good for the girl?

can some body answer my question

I was wondering, is the fine-tuning argument close to useless if we can’t provide a mechanism for it? I’ve read that there are no mechanisms for fine-tuning. Should I find a new favorite argument?

The maxim I live by is, “In essentials unity, in non-essentials liberty.” In other words, it is OK to divide over essential doctrines, but it is not OK to divide over non-essential doctrines or opinions.

OK. I think I understand a little better. Asking for a mechanism that changes the fundamental constants of physics is an interesting question, but does nothing to defeat the argument.

I can know that something happened without knowing how something happened. In fact, this is a standard response you will get from Darwinists when you ask them to explain the exact mechanism that caused some macro-evolutionary change. They will tell you that the fossil record and molecular evidence are evidence that one animal species evolved from another, but they can never tell you exactly how it happened. There are always major gaps in their mechanistic explanations, but they will still maintain that the aforementioned example of evolution did occur.

Likewise, we know that constants of the laws of physics are certain values, and that these values are finely tuned to allow for human life. We do not need to come up with an explanation of the mechanism that God or some other force employed to make these constants the values they are. Multiverse proponents also agree that these constants can change in other universes, thus completely altering the laws of physics in those other universes.

This reminds me of the child who, every time you explain something to them, asks, “How?” At some point, we run out of answers to “how” because we are finite creatures with limited knowledge. If we are required to answer “how” ad infinitum before we can have knowledge, then we can never have knowledge of anything.

The more science advances the more evidence there is for God and I suspect God planned for science to reveal His presence.
Yes, there is fine tuning of the universe but the fine tuning of cosmological constants for planet Earth is simply mind boggling.
The amazing conditions that have been put in place by God to allow for a beautiful planet inhabited by intelligent beings.
The discovery of these incredible conditions necessary for life on Earth have forced atheists like Steven Hawking into looking for a desperate way out – multi universes. And I suspect Hawking himself knows this theory is rubbish but desperate people do desperate things.
Let science advance … every Christian should rejoice as every new discovery validates the master creator that God really is.

Hi Bill: You’ve answered a lot of questions on here so I thought I would ask that if our loved one is taken away suddenly and young,is it because we as a family are cursed by the “dying young” curse that is placed on families? Is it something handed down like a generational curse? I know that I’ve heard in the past a lot of my friends say “They’re cursed” when someone in that person’s family die young. Now, I guess they’re saying that about me & my family. Just thought I’d see what you would think of this. Bernadette

My position is that if a person once, knowingly places his trust in Jesus’s death and resurrection, that person will go to eternal life (heaven). However, the Bible speaks far more about what heaven will be like for believers based on their faithfulness to Christ after they have trusted him. Those who live a righteous life, a life obedient to God, after placing their trust in Christ, will receive greater rewards and responsibilities in heaven than those who do not.

Thanks for the answer, Bill. Also, can you tell me why people keep talking about our free will? When, obviously, we didn’t have a say in our birth, nor death, nor pain, or when someone we love is suddenly removed from our life because of death. Where does this free will come in?

I am a long term Christian struggling to understand what God does. I just ask him what he wants me to do, and do that (typically that just involves regular stuff, and is not very complicated). The Bible says people should use the Bible to defend themselves. Being polite and kind to other people isn’t that difficult. The “world” behaves quite predictably and I have been dealing with things by praying constantly to clear my thoughts and to continue to behave like Jesus/as Jesus teaches, etc. For over 10 years, I have been concentrating on thinking, as the Bible says, only of “whatever is good, whatever is lovely, and whatever is beautiful.” The first verse I thought of for “defense” is Jesus telling people they “should rip out their own eyes and chop off their own hands.” I’m curious if you have a view on why he might have said that in the first place?

Jesus was teaching the seriousness of sin; not that we should maim ourselves. If He actually meant it literally, we’d all be without eyes and hands and feet.

Maybe you should ask the catholic church if you can get married outside of it, and let its response answer your question.

What you mention is before the fall.

None of these are challenges to Christianity.

1. “God was unable to create or develop other systems of punishment/reward that were less harmful to human life and the high value he himself attached to it.”

God gave human beings the ultimate gift, free will. He cannot force humans to love him without violating their free will. I have never yet met a single person who would be willing to give up their free will, so God’s punishment of people who reject him exhibits the highest value you can put on a human – it respects their free choice.

2. “God was bound to a higher standard of morality if he was unable to forgive sin without the blood sacrifice of animals or other divine beings.”

The atonement of Christ was a voluntary sacrifice whereby the innocent Son of God freely gave his life to ransom a sinful mankind. There is no greater love that could be exhibited by God than this.

3. “God cannot be omnipotent and “wish that none would perish” while declaring that some will perish.”

God’s omnipotence cannot accomplish a logical contradiction. It would be a contradiction for God to force a free person to love him. Love cannot be forced; it must be freely given.

4. “God is a liar if he says he wishes all to be saved yet devises an intricate sorting system that is the cause of those who will perish.”

The cause of those who perish is their own free choices. To say that God caused people to freely reject him is nonsensical.

5. “God cannot be Omnibenevolent if he creates people when as an Omniscient being he foreknows that they will end up in Hell.”

That assumes that a person’s non-existence is better than their existence in hell. But you cannot compare existence to non-existence. That is like comparing something to nothing. It is nonsensical.

and i would rather God strip me of my free will and cast me to hell then having free will and ending up in heaven, for it is a burden i cannot bare!

God judges us on the knowledge and understanding we individually have. In addition, God is constantly convicting us of our sin, and calling us to him. if we decide to fight against that call, that decision is ours, and we are held accountable for it.

You are using your free will to complain that God gave you free will. That is irrational.

no its not, its so dangerous because according to conservaticve christian docterine most people will end up in hell….

Will you trust Jesus or not? That is a decision that even a child can make. The fact that you are pretending that it is a difficult decision says more about your will than your intellect. I suspect you simply don’t want to make the decision and are just throwing all these silly questions at me in order to avoid making a decision.

This objection is especially pertinent given the number of religions that make similar claims on the individual’s soul

I am seeking for God’s word in this problem I am facing. I need to know what I can do as a child of God.

I am working for one of the big four international professional firms in the world as a Manager.

In my department, the head of the department is very tough and he discriminates and harrases people alot. He was okay with me until I got married and now he is harassing me. He scolds me making up stories and he tells everyone bad about me and scolds me with juniors to me. Also, he is trying to break down all my contacts with the firm partners and give them a bad impression about me. This activity of his is very normal as to he does this to people as soon as they get married or qualified. No one has ever spoken out to him and neither have I. The reason that no one has out spoken is that this is a third world country and most of the staff members are not financially strong and coming from poor and weak family backgrounds.

He has cornered me in office and takes over all my responsibilities. Even to take a leave he does not allow. He does not even allow me to come to his room. He does not speak over the phone if I answer and slams the phone to make me feel more harassed. You might think he is acting like this because I have faults in me. But the reality is that there is another lady manager who he is harassing the same way and severe than mine. There are so much information I could say, but which I don’t want to put here to make it too long.

The bosses above him does not know the situation going on here and I dont think that they will take an action as well. There are two firm partners who I report to. I can speak to them about the situation but I dont wanna make it as a complaint. Also, there is a global ethics hotline whihc is done by a third party and we can write or speak to them about this.

This is a serious situation. Two lady managers are kept idle at work paying big salary. Will you believe if Ia say that the other lady manager is kept idle at work for ONE FULL YEAR? Being harassed for what we should not get harassed for. If we have done anything professionally wrong, he can take professional action against us. But it is understandable why he is not taking such action because he does not have anything to act against. I have spoken with my close friends and family and all are amazed and wowed for his actions and thinks this is an illness of my boss. Mental illness.

Please help me to get over this and take necessary action.

That verse does not necessarily mean that most people will end up in hell, but this is a red herring. Even if the verse did mean that most people will end up in hell, what does that have to do with you and your decision?

I was just breaking down the words Cristes maesse, which means Christ’s Mass/death. Which is Christmas. Then why do we say Merry Christmas? Are we saying Happy Christ’s Death? I should really stay off this computer. Bernadette

As much as I admire Richard Dawkins greatly, I do think that he skips answering the actual question of ‘If there is no god, why be good?’. From what I have read, he has just said that it would be a sad world, if one couldn’t be ‘good’ without a god. This isn’t a satisfying answer, in my opinion. It seems to ironically be an answer that you might expect to come out of a theist’s mouth, suggesting that we should be good without a god because that would be more comforting.
Am I missing something, and what do you think on the matter?

20121030.0015
Did you know that Jesus Christ was born on May 23, 33 BC and not on December 25, 1 BC? A holy spirit revealed to listeners that Jesus Christ was born on May 23. I first heard this from old listeners in 1983 . I checked whether there is any ring of truth in it or not in 2004. After two years, I have proven that May 23 is true and correct. The year was 33 BC. You may check the results of my study at http://aristean.org/birthmay23.htm .

Could someone answer this question, “Was King James who commissioned the translation of the KJV Bible gay?

This reply is specific to the number of religions questions you asked. I am appalled when people say all the religions are one and lead to one destination. If you study each of the religions carefully, Christianity stands in stark contrast to every other religion in the world. That should mean something. The problem is people usually skim the subject of every religion and come to a non sensical decision that all religions are one and the same. If a person says he is a hindu, a muslim and christian, it is 100% sure that the person doesn’t understand any of the religions completely.

If you understand all the religions fully well, then you wouldn’t be posting this question about eternal life through following Jesus alone. While you say that God is mean for asking you to follow Jesus for eternal life… think about the meanness other religions offer.

Islam claims faithfulness to Allah alone… and you need to fulfill your religious tenets faithfully every single day of your life. That includes praying at set times during the day, penance, fasting at set times of the year, pilgrimage and other religious laws. Despite doing all that, you are not gauranteed to enter heaven. My friend, a muslim says that her good deeds will be measured against the bad deeds and if Allah wills, she will enter heaven.

Let’s see what Hinduism, jainism, buddhism and sikkism offer. You are stuck in a wheel of birth and rebirth depending on your karma(actions). Till your karma is completely good which can achieved by various religious tenets, you will continue in the cycle of births and rebirths. Basically it says that, unless you are completely pure of any sin, you will continue in a maze of life, death and rebirth, unknown to what the future holds for you. Apparently, some believe that even God himself cannot help you from your Karma and this wheel of births and rebirths. It is upto you to become good and attain Mocsha (heaven).

Now tell me, how is Christianity mean when compared to others, when God says I will help you by sending Jesus to dye for your sins and giving you the way to reach out to me. How much love must Jesus have had to die like a criminal on the cross so that a sinner like me can live. I do not see any other religion giving me a loving God who would have died, even if I was the only person in the world.

One verse of the top of my head – Jesus said “In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you.”

its worse because first of all God man you fall in the first place, and he is saving you from a pickle he created and second of all their are forms of Buddhism and Islam that believe in faith alone so to say, and third of all god is soley judging you on your faith not actions, that is no different than anytime a bigot kills someone because they believed in different things

and love can be forced, for lesser beings sometimes dont know what is for their own good, so it must be forced

what are you talking about? How does free will and hating your looks have anything to do with each other?

Prominent atheists like Richard Dawkins and Stephen Hawking side-step this issue by believing in the multiverse theory.

Side-step? What a funny way to describe very serious considerations of the fine tuning observation and various explanations by Dawkins and Hawking (who actually wrote a book about this very subject).

Methinks you like to make broad brush strokes to dismiss that with which you fundamentally disagree as a matter of principle without doing much (remember that we do have access to the internet where a short search reveals the paucity of your assertion) to inform your technique.

Sounds like Father’s house = Heaven, is that your understanding?

Sorry I didn’t make that clearer: the article is from Hawking’s book The Grand Design.

Why couldn’t Jesus tell them what he was praying about afterward? That seems like a pretty straightforward answer to the question.

I would like your comments on the following I received today please:

God Remembers Your Sins No More

Hebrews 10:17 “Their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.”

I don’t know about you, but I would say that Hebrews 10:17 is good news. God sees all our sins — past, present and future — and says, “Your sins I remember no more!” The words “no more” are a strong double negative in the original Greek text. In other words, God is saying, “Your sins I will by no means ever remember!” Has God lowered His standards? No, He is still perfectly holy. He did remember all our sins — 2,000 years ago at the cross. Every sin which we have committed or will commit has been punished to the full in the body of Jesus Christ at the cross. That is why today, God remembers our sins no more. We should, therefore, not be sin-conscious.

Each time we fall into sin, God wants us to remember the cross and say, “Lord Jesus, you were sentenced for this sin I committed. You bore the judgment, so God will not judge me for this sin. You were condemned for this sin, so God will not condemn me for it.” If you don’t look to the cross, you will become sin-conscious and you will walk around with a certain expectation of judgment. And that expectation of judgment will give the devil a chance to get you thinking that God has something against you because of your sin. You
must come to the place where you know and believe that all your sins are forgiven, that there is no sin that will ever disqualify you from God’s blessings, that there is no sin that will ever send you to hell, because you are forgiven and saved eternally.

Hebrews 10:12, 14 says, “But this Man [Jesus], after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God… For by one offering He has perfected forever…”

You and I are perfected forever because of Jesus’ perfect work on the cross. We are perfected by God’s full acceptance and perfect delight in His Son’s work that has so glorified His holiness. Beloved, hear God say to you, “I will be merciful. Your sins and lawless deeds I will remember no more.”

Thank you for your time and comments.

1 Corinthians 14:34 ( http://bible.cc/1_corinthians/14-34.htm )
begs the question: why there are 13 million more adult women in US churches than men? Maybe one of those women will buy that passage about dinosaurs that someone said can be found in Job. (what a stretch).

In the Bible referring to Job, why did Jesus tell Satan to “Look to Job, he is the best person on earth, etc. then allowed Satan to bring ruin upon him?” Also, why would Jesus talk to Satan anyway?” Is this part of the Bible true?

Great is our God Amen

Hi Shane,

Please check out the following blog posts to see if they don’t help you:

http://www.toughquestionsanswered.org/2009/12/30/does-god-send-people-to-hell/

http://www.toughquestionsanswered.org/2009/03/09/who-or-what-is-the-cause-of-moral-evil/

http://www.toughquestionsanswered.org/2009/03/05/did-god-create-evil/

http://www.toughquestionsanswered.org/2011/12/19/a-few-questions-about-hell/

Can you explain how this is compatible with a good god?

Of the 32,000 virgins that were kept alive as “booty” for God’s warriors, 32 young captives were handed to the priest. The bible brutally sanctifies war crimes against girls and women that continue to this day. Who could possibly respect a dictator who behaves like this?

“And the booty, being the rest of the prey which the men of war had caught, was 675,000 sheep, And 72,000 beeves, And 61,000 asses, And 32,000 persons in all, of women that had not known man by lying with him . . . of which the Lord’s tribute was 32 persons. And Moses gave the tribute, which was the Lord’s heave offering, unto Eleazar the priest, as the Lord commanded Moses.” (Numbers 31:32-41)

I’ve come across so many people who claim to believe in ‘Jesus’ but refuse to accept the bible as divinely inspired.Is this even possible?
Normally the response is that the bible has been corrupt.

Since the Bible contains all of the primary eyewitness information we have about Jesus, I’m not sure how a person could say the Bible is corrupted but still believe in Jesus. This seems nonsensical to me. I would ask your friends who Jesus is and how they they know anything about him.

My name is Chris. I am a Christian and convinced of my salvation through the sacrifice of Christ. However I have two concerns for which I have never found convincing answers in the traditional teachnigs. First, I do believe that people come to God through faith alone and not by their works. So my question is what happens to people who couldn’t possibly hear of Christ or who couldn’t possibly cross the path of messengers of the Gospel? I live in Africa and I think of my ancestors who lived before missionaries came in.

My second question is: when the problem of sin will be definitely solved? We have always been taught that Christ came to remove the sin of the world. Yet, since his death and resurrection we still have issues with sin, albeit differently depending on wether one is a christian or not. We read also in the Bible (Revelation 20,7) that after the millenium ,Satan will be released, that he will seduce the nations and that they will wage war against Jesus. This means that even after Christ’s second coming the possibility of falling into Satan’s traps of temptation still exists! I find it very unsettling. Hence my question: how Christ’s death resolved the problem of sin and when sin will totally disappear from the Universe.

Tyler,
There is more than enough room on earth for far more people than currently inhabit it. If not, then God could always make a bigger planet. This just doesn’t seem like a problem.

With regard to incest and genetic diseases, Christians believe Adam and Eve were genetically pure, and so genetic diseases were non-existent. It was only after many, many generations of humans were born that genetic diseases became a real problem, and so the prohibition against incest was introduced later on in human history.

Deacon,
I have attended RC baptisms out of respect for my family even though I do not believe there is anything salvific about the sacrament. As long as they know your stance, I don’t think you are compromising your beliefs by attending the baptism. Since your relationship is good with your daughter, I think your refusing to attend the baptism would be counterproductive and only serve to anger and sadden them.

We all attend events where we don’t agree with everything being said. There is no way to avoid that, so my advice would be to go to the baptism and possibly use the baptism as a springboard for further conversation afterward. Since you attended the event, they will be more willing to listen to you.

DO YOU HAVE TO BE BAPTISED IN THE NAME OF JESUS OR IN THE NAME OF THE FATHER, THE SON ,AND THE HOLEY SPIRIT

The flood. Did it affect the whole world, or possibly just the Israeli area for which the OT was written?

If Peter Kreeft said something like this, then I’m quite certain he would have nuanced what he meant. In some senses, the God of Islam and the biblical God are the same, and in some senses they are different. They share some of the same attributes, but they differ in other important attributes (e.g., Islam denies the Triunity of God).

Please read this blog post:

http://www.toughquestionsanswered.org/2010/06/14/what-about-those-who-never-hear-the-gospel/

Hello Sir,
Love the things I’ve read from you, you have helped me in discussions many times.
Can you give me your opinion why atheists stand up to the death for Buddhism and try so hard to convince that it is not a religion. I believe it totally is.
We have the usual ten or so extremely loud and hateful atheists here on our local newspaper letters to the editor that stand up for Buddhism almost as much as they trash Christianity.
What’s up with that?
Thank you for your time

Donna,
I’m not a counselor and I don’t have enough information to know what to tell you even if I was a counselor. I’m sorry I can’t be any help.

I am trying to locate one verse somewhere in the Bible where God made a man a leper as punishment for his covetousness. Please help. Thank you. Please reply @ langfordge@yahoo.com