Results 161 - 180 of 500
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Results from: Answers On or After: Thu 12/31/70 Author: Reformer Joe Ordered by Date |
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Results | Verse | Author | ID# | |||
161 | Sent from where? Is the bible saying tha | Eph 2:8 | Reformer Joe | 55504 | ||
It seems from the context of Romans 10 that the specific preaching referred to here is evangelistic preaching, where the preacher is sent from the household of God (the church) to unreached parts of the earth to extend God's kingdom through proclaiming the good news of Jesus Christ. We see in Titus that preachers/teachers/elders to congregations are selected from among believers but not really "sent" in the same sense. They do not "go out," but rather equip the saints through teaching God's word, the Bible. Evangelists by nature must come from among God's people, and God's people should be involved in sending them to glorify Him where His name is not known. --Joe! |
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162 | and to me if all of us believe the same | Eph 2:8 | Reformer Joe | 55503 | ||
Now that is a good question! First of all, we do not all believe precisely the same thing. While Hank and Tim and Makarios and kalos and cyclist and other posters here are fellow Christians, we do differ on a number of issues. We share a belief in the essentials, the defining points of what makes one a believer in Christ. However, we do disagree on what the Bible says in other areas at the same time that we commonly hold the Bible to be the infallible word of God. In addition, we may prefer different styles of worship while having agreement on the essentials. For example, you will see a much more traditional service where I worship, complete with organ and sometimes an orchestra accompaniment, singing hymns and responsive readings and confessing our sins and our faith in unison, corporately. While I adore the grandeur of God that is conveyed in such a setting, others prefer to give worship to God in a different environment. Cultural and ethnic backgrounds often contribute to preferred settings as well. One day all Christians will be together and worship God in the same way for all eternity. Just remember that all the division we see now does not automatically translate to "disunity." What is essential is finding a church where God's word (and the message of Jesus Christ dying on behalf of sinners and rising again) is proclaimed and cherished as infallible and sufficient to transform God's people into what He wants us to be . Secondly, it must be a church where the ordinances Jesus Christ established (baptism and communion) are practiced. Thirdly, it is a great advantage to attend a church where there is a plurality of people governing the flock, and where church discipline exists to keep God's doctrine and reputation pure. There are many churches fitting this description, and feel free to email me if you could use some help in finding a good place to worship God or investigate more about what Christianity is! --Joe! |
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163 | Should we use the word "alone"? | Eph 2:8 | Reformer Joe | 55502 | ||
Yes. | ||||||
164 | Will the 2nd Coming Ever Occur? | Matt 24:34 | Reformer Joe | 55370 | ||
Welcome back, Treadway. Hope you don't mind me putting my pocket change in! You wrote: 'I have spent much, much time in tracking down this “soon” business, and the conclusion is that the evidence is overwhelming that Jesus will not be coming back.' I am sorry that you have not found anyone to adequately address your concerns. As a point of fact, there are many who believe that much of what Jesus predicts in Matthew 24 and what the apostles mention did indeed occur within the lifetimes of those hearing Jesus' words. In A.D. 70, Jerusalem and the temple were utterly destroyed, and the Jewish people were slaughtered wholesale by the Roman soldiers under the command of General Titus. Many hold that the first half of the chapter is describing this campaign against the Jews as the judgment Christ executes on the Jews for rejecting their Messiah. This view is known as "preterism" and comes in two different forms, which are normally termed "partial preterism" and "full preterism." Partial preterists believe that only some of the prophecies regarding Christ returning to the earth have been fulfilled, while others (such as Philippians 3:20-21 and 1 Corinthians 15 concerning the general resurrection at the end of the age) have yet to come to pass. Full preterists believe that Christ's return has already occurred during the first century, and that we should not expect Him to come back. So both preterist views hold that the "soon" and "within this generation" prophecies did indeed occur during the lifetime of the apostles. I myself cannot bring myself to accept a full preterist view at all, for several reasons. First of all, it results in the need to "symbolize" all of the passages which have not clearly happened yet, such as the ones I cited above. Also, if the resurrection of Christians has already taken place, what about believers now? Secondly, 2 Peter 3 makes it clear that God is patient, holding back the destruction until all have come to repentance. Since there are people that are repenting as I type this somewhere in the world (to the praise and glory of our great God), obviously that "all" hasn't been reached yet. Thirdly, there seems to be a "period of Gentiles" (Luke 21:24 and Romans 11) which will be followed by a resugence of Jewish people embracing their Messiah. We still have not seen such a thing yet. Lastly, the earliest church, even to the generation that succeeded the apostles, were anticipating the return of Jesus Christ. If A.D. 70 had been all there was to it, surely the apostles would have tipped the churches off that there was nothing left to wait for. Therefore, God is not slow as some count slowness, but will bring about the culmination of history in His own timing. For an examination of the partial preterist view, which you may or may not find enlightening, considering your questions, I recommend the book _The Last Days According to Jesus_ by R.C. Sproul. If anything, you will find a perspective that does not count "soon" as being 2000-plus years or "this generation" to mean the human race. Hope this gives you some new avenues for exploration! --Joe! |
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165 | If we are saved by grace alone through f | Eph 2:8 | Reformer Joe | 55350 | ||
The gospel IS the message of God's grace alone through faith alone through Christ alone. It is through the communication of this "good news" that His Spirit renews the will and enlightens the mind, causing His people to embrace this message. --Joe! |
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166 | Explain 14:6 if Jesus and God is the sam | John 14:6 | Reformer Joe | 55142 | ||
Because Jesus is not the Father. --Joe! |
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167 | IS JESUS AND GOD THE SAME PERSON? | John 1:1 | Reformer Joe | 55119 | ||
Jesus and the Father are one Being (God), but Jesus and the Father are distinct persons. Jesus, having both a divine nature and a human one, is our mediator (or "go-between") between us and the Father. The book of Hebrews, particularly in chapter 7, describes this role as one of a priest. Jesus is our Great High Priest, who by the one sacrifice He made of Himself on the cross, the just for the unjust, has provided the only possible way for sinful people (and that's all of us) to approach and have peace with an infinitely holy and just God (Romans 5:1). Babies are born sinners by nature as a result of Adam's first sin (Genesis 3). He did not only mess things up for himself, but for all of his descendents (Romans 5:19). Therefore, we are all born spiritually dead, and it takes a second birth (John 3) initiated by God to give us new life and cause us to embrace Christ as the necessary mediator that He is. When one trusts in the sufficiency of Christ's self-sacrifice on the Cross as complete payment for one's sin, the Bible says that such faith is credited as righteousness (Romans 3:23-24; Romans 4:5). One's sins are forgiven by God's kindness through one's trust in Christ's death alone as a suitable sacrifice to pay for one's sins. Hope that answers your questions! If not, feel free to follow up! --Joe! |
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168 | Second Adam? | 1 Cor 15:45 | Reformer Joe | 55110 | ||
Well, if it eases you a little, I hold Him to be the Second and Last Adam. :) I do see your point, however. --Joe! |
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169 | Jesus, all God/all Man | John 9:24 | Reformer Joe | 55109 | ||
Rextar: You wrote: "Oops! I said one question, I guess I meant three!" Happens to me all the time... :) God the Son has always been God (John 1:1-3), but then He BECAME flesh (John 1:14). Therefore, before the conception of Mary, Christ had one nature, the divine one. This divine nature has all the attributes of God and is uncreated. Christ's human nature before His resurrection was everything that ours is, with the exception of sin (Hebrews 4:15). His human nature was created, suffered, hungered, thirsted, got tired. In short, Jesus experienced in His innocence everything that we do. Therefore, the church has held that Jesus Christ took on a second nature at a specific point in history. These two natures exist together in one person, but are not mixed in any way. You can read the classical Protestant understanding of the Incarnation and the two natures of Christ in Articles 18 and 19 of the Belgic Confession. It is really a beautiful and adoring profession of what the Bible teaches about our Redeemer: http://www.reformed.org/documents/BelgicConfession.html#Article 18 --Joe! |
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170 | confused | Rom 4:5 | Reformer Joe | 54801 | ||
I have heard of it, but disagree with it. Between 150 and 175 years ago, this idea sprang up within the church, thanks to a man by the name of John Nelson Darby and his successors. The basic idea is that there have been seven periods of "testing" for human beings, and that God has dealt with them in different ways regarding salvation and other matters. The Bible clearly communicates, however, that everyone in human history who has been saved has received this salvation through God's grace through faith in God's redemption, which was shown in the first century to be His own Son, Jesus Christ. While this theology, known as dispensationalism, is quite widespread among the evangelical churches today, it is not something that has been held by the church throughout the majority of its history (and therefore it is not "Original"), nor does it really stand up to scrutiny from the Scriptures. Now I am sure, in true Reformer Joe fashion, that this post will bring about a flurry of response, so you will get the other point of view before too long as well! In the meantime, you can read about it on this site which holds the same historic view that I do regarding these "periods": http://www.pbministries.org/books/pink/Dispensationalism/dispensationalism.htm --Joe! |
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171 | Why have kids when... | Gen 1:22 | Reformer Joe | 54539 | ||
Just out of curiosity, what was the Calvinist's answer to your "biting question"? My answer comes from covenant theology, something with which Reformed Baptists will disagree. While Reformation theology does hold that God passes over some that already chosen in our own fallen natures to go to hell (that would be all of us, since there is no default state of "neutral"), it also believes other promises that God makes to those belonging to His covenant people: "For the promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off, as many as the Lord our God will call to Himself." --Acts 2:39 Our children are included in the covenant promises of God, in such a way that if we do train up a child in the way he should go, as the book of Proverbs tells us to, God will ordinarily bring those covenant children to saving faith in Christ through the ministry of the parents and the church. Just out of curiosity, why would an Arminian give birth to a depraved child, knowing that the child may never trust in Jesus and go to hell? If it is up to ourselves to choose, then that is quite a gamble! --Joe! |
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172 | Can a Pastor makes friend with sheeps? | John 15:15 | Reformer Joe | 54503 | ||
All Christians are called to be counselors (galatians 6:2), while some are specially gifted by God to make them more comptetent to counsel. One of the biggest problems in the so-called "Christian counseling" movement of the day is that they take their cues from secular psychology than the Bible. We see Paul was intimately involved in the day-to-day lives of his flock, rejoicing with them, weeping with them, and rebuking them when necessary. There is no indication in the slightest that Paul maintained a "professional distance" from those to whom he ministered. Now, that having been said, it would be wise for pastors (who by that very title are counselors) to "avoid every appearance of evil." That would certainly involve discerning appropriately when and under what circumstances the counseling should take place. Also, it is the pastor's job (and to those whom he goes for accountability) to discern correctly between biblically-based soul care and romantic intimacy. Therefore, the wise will erect the proper moral/ethical barriers without setting oneself apart as a "emotionally distant professional." "Joe the Book Man" recommends three good books on the subject: _The Sufficiency of Scripture_ by John MacArthur_. _Comptetent to Counsel_ by Jay Adams and _How Christian is Christian Counseling?_ by Gary Almy. All of these do quite a good job of addressing this issue. --Joe! |
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173 | More Righteousness? | Rom 8:34 | Reformer Joe | 54255 | ||
Simple...it is not more righteousness to get us into heaven. Christ's righteousness is sufficient and efficient for that. However, God then works in our lives to make us more like Christ. The evidence of the faith by which we are justified are the works that result from the Spirit's transforming work in our life. Justification by faith is immediate and eternal. I am bound for heaven because of what Christ has done for me. Sanctification begins at justification and continues throughout the believer's life. That is why we read in the New Testamant that our destinies are sure, and yet we are still to press on and strive and work out that salvation. That labor that Paul writes is the cooperative work we engange in with the Spirit in our sanctification. Again, this is not earning heaven, but rather the evidence that we are His (1 John, 2 Peter 1, James 2, Romans 8) and a process which the Spirit will complete when we are indeed made perfect in all our thoughts and behavior in glory. --Joe! |
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174 | Can we become more righteous in state? | Rom 8:34 | Reformer Joe | 54252 | ||
No, we will not become more justified or less justified. We do become more righteous as the Holy Spirit conforms us to the image of Christ. --Joe! |
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175 | Can we lose our righteousness? | Rom 8:34 | Reformer Joe | 54243 | ||
You are asking two different questions here. We are in a continuous judicial state of righteous before him because of Christ's righteousness on our records. We are declared righteous and a truce exists between us and God at the moment we possess saving faith in Christ (Romans 5:1). Can we lose our justification? Nope. See Romans 8:34. Our salvation is preserved by God. However, our lives can show us to have been never truly justified in the first place. --Joe! |
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176 | Are the declared righteous righteous? | Matt 7:24 | Reformer Joe | 54235 | ||
You answer is in the question...justification is a JUDICIAL declaration. A judge declaring me not guilty does not change my nature. All other things being equal, I walk out of the courtroom identical in nature to the way I was when I went in. Now God does give us a new nature, but that is not the same as his judgment based on Christ's righteousness on our behalf. I would like you to address something that I brought up before. Does Romans 4:5 apply to us or not? --Joe! |
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177 | Does God have a spiritual body? | Eph 5:25 | Reformer Joe | 54206 | ||
I love practical Christianity, because theology is immensely practical. Here are some practical suggestions: 1. Pray with her and for her. 2. Help her minister using her spiritual gifts. 3. Perform various acts of self-sacrifice for her (like doing her "chores" once in a while). 4. Give her encouraging words. 5. Correct her GENTLY when needed. 6. Do special things for her without seeking some kind of "payoff" on your part. These are a few ways we can love our wives. I would suggest that you take Momma's advice and ask her yourself what you can do to love her as Christ loved the church. A good read through Philippians 2:6-11 is a great refresher course in what Christ actually did. The point I was trying to make is one that Howard Hendricks of Dallas Theological Seminary makes. In Scripture one makes thousands of observations, together leading us to one correct interpretation, and it is that correct understanding of Scripture and its broad principles that lead to a multitude of everyday applications, depending on your individual circumstances. One cannot make good, practical application of Scripture without first grasping its message, and that is theology. --Joe! |
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178 | Why pray? | Luke 11:43 | Reformer Joe | 54201 | ||
Two main reasons that come to my mind immediately: 1. God has decreed things as answers to prayer. In other words, our omniscient God, knowing from eternity past when and what we are going to sincerely pray, has sovereignly ordained that some of the things that will come to pass in time and space will be answers to those prayers. In other words, in some amazing way, God has worked the sincere prayers of his people into His plan for human history. 2. Prayer demonstrates our utter and continuous dependence on God. Our "going through the motions" of praying itself is a means by which we rely completely and consciously on God as the giver of all good things, the One in whom we live and move and have our being. That is why we are told to pray without ceasing (1 Thess 5:17). The more we pray, the more we demonstrate that we can only do all things through Him who gives us strength (Phil 4:13). A parable about persistent prayer can be found in Luke 11:5-13. The point of the parable is that even an unfriendly man will respond to the persistent begging of a neighbor. If that is the case, how much more will our loving Father delight in responding to our persistent praying? God does not need our prayers any more than He needs anything else from us. Prayer is a gift from God to us, a means of grace by which we can present our requests before the Father on account of what Christ has done for us. What a blessed gift it is that God has condescended to let His creation communicate with Him, to confess our need for Him and to have the Holy Spirit perfectly praying alongside us as we pray! (Romans 8:26) Hope this helps a little! --Joe! |
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179 | what is the reason his talking about | Eph 3:14 | Reformer Joe | 54078 | ||
"For this reason" refers mainly to the first two chapters, that God has chosen the Gentiles for salvation, made one new people for Himself from among both Jews and Gentiles, and appointed Paul as a minister and apostle chiefly to the Gentiles. For this reason he bows before God and prays for the sanctification and blessing of the Ephesians. --Joe! |
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180 | What is perfected for all time? | Matt 7:24 | Reformer Joe | 54077 | ||
You wrote: "f we have not been made perfect yet, then why does the writer say that we have been (past tense) for ALL time?" There are a number of ways that Hebrews 10:14 could be interpreted in light of the rest of Scripture. First of all, you mention this as past tense, which undoubtedly it is. The question is when this perfection actually takes effect in the life of the believer. If we look at the verse carefully, it is Christ's sacrifice that has made His saints perfect. Christ's sacrificed secured that. But was I perfect from the moment that Christ's sacrifice was made? Was I perfect almost 2000 years before I was born? Was I born in a state of perfection? Note that our faith is not mentioned here as perfecting us, but Christ's sacrifice. Secondly, it is obvious to us that we are not yet perfect. Not only do we still sin, but there still remains for all of God's people the final aspect of our salvation: our glorification at the end of the age, when Christ returns and we become in nature everything that Christ is in His human nature. We will be unable to sin and possess a glorified body in conformity with Christ's own. If we are already, really and truly "perfect," then we couldn't really say that there is any improvement that is coming, because it is possible by definition to improve on something that is already "perfect." So we could very well conclude that the past tense is used here to show that Christ's sacrificed has once for all secured the perfection of God's people. Christ's sacrifice has accomplished the task, but it is still a future application to us. This is seen in other passages of Scripture, such as when Paul states in Romans 8:30 that God "glorified" us. Taking that verse in isolation, we could conclude that we are already glorified (which would be a pretty sad state of affairs if this is the best it is going to get!). However, in the same chapter Paul writes: "The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him." --Romans 8:16-17 Here glorification is presented as a future reality hinging upon our suffering with Christ. In the same chapter he writes that "we may be glorified" and that "those whom He justified He also glorified." Is our glorification a future event or a past one? The best understanding of this, and the one that conforms to the rest of Scripture, is that glorification is a future event, guaranteed in eternity past, according to God's foreknowledge and on the grounds of the atonement of Jesus Christ. And I hold that our glorification is what is being referred to in Hebrews 10:14. It is grounded in Christ's sacrifice 2000 years ago (the past), but awaiting its full realization at the end of the age (future). --Joe! |
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