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Results from: Answered Bible Questions, Answers, Unanswered Bible Questions, Notes Ordered by Verse | ||||||
Results | Verse | Author | ID# | |||
1 | Okay to question faith and the Bible? | 2 Tim 3:16 | pmcdonough | 200113 | ||
A friend was told that the Bible and the message of the Bible must be accepted with unquestioning faith, and that it is wrong to question it. Does anyone have any biblical references that will help an unbeliever to understand this issue? This individual is asking questions to attempt to understand and decide whether he can believe the Bible and the message of Christ. He is being told that he is wrong to ask questions. How would you advise this man? | ||||||
2 | Okay to question faith and the Bible? | 2 Tim 3:16 | azurelaw | 200114 | ||
Dear pmcdonough, Scriptures: 2 Tim 3:16-17 (Bible is the inerrant Word of God) Rom 10:9-21 John 20:24-29 (Jesus commented those who did not see and yet believed) Mat 4:19-20, 21-22 (see how the disciples re-act with a simple faith) Luke 18:15-17 Hebrew 11:6, 4:2 Rom 9:14-20 If your friend SINCERELY wants to learn more about God's Word, nothing wrong about asking questions. However, please understand that it is solely God's will to open the unbeliever's eyes for understanding and God's decision to give him faith to believe the gospel. Unbelievers are spiritually dead...so how could a dead man re-act or decide to believe if it were not of God's grace and mercy to grant him the faith. Pray that your friend be enlightened by the true Light (John 1:9) in that he may know Jesus as his saviour and believe. Hope the above helpful. Shalom Azure |
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3 | Okay to question faith and the Bible? | 2 Tim 3:16 | parpar | 200123 | ||
Hi Azure. Thank you for your post, in which you said. "However, please understand that it is solely God's will to open the unbeliever's eyes for understanding and God's decision to give him faith to believe the gospel. Unbelievers are spiritually dead...so how could a dead man re-act or decide to believe if it were not of God's grace and mercy to grant him the faith". You are of course correct, as is indicated at 1 Cor 2:14, however, what follows might be of interest to you. Every blessing. parpar. As a lawyer, Frank Morison set out to write an exposé on how impossible the trial and resurrection was but, after an exhausting study, the book he actually wrote was the opposite Who moved the stone, by Frank Morison. Who Was Jesus? But was this man truly the Messiah long foretold by Jewish prophets (specially Isaiah)? Did he really perform the miracles attributed to him; did he die on the cross; and was he resurrected three days later? If he was resurrected, then the other questions become superfluous because his resurrection was the final proof of his claim to be the "Son of God" (part of the Trinity – according to the 4th Century Nicene Creed: "begotten from the Father before all ages, light from light, true God from True God, begotten not made, of one substance with the Father."). If the New Testament account of the trial, crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus was a fictional story, then independent analysis of the events, specially through the work of men like Frank Morison (who wrote the book "Who Moved The Stone?") would not stand up to detailed examination. Holes would appear and critics would be able to use those holes to prove that the story was simply a made up myth. There are no holes! Events happened as outlined, within the timeframe mentioned in the Bible, because nothing else fits the known facts! If you doubt this statement, take the time to read Morison's excellent book which details the four days of the capture, trial, crucifixion and resurrection in miniscule detail, examining the events, both stated and assumed, minute by minute. As a lawyer, Frank Morison set out to write an exposé on how impossible the trial and resurrection was but, after an exhausting study, the book he actually wrote was the opposite. As one book reviewer said: "Just like Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes – Mr. Morison showed logically and diligently that after all the facts have been weighed, the solution that is supported by those facts – however unlikely it may sound or look – would have to be the truth." |
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4 | Okay to question faith and the Bible? | 2 Tim 3:16 | azurelaw | 200133 | ||
Dear parpar, Thanks for the quote. In return, may I echo with my favourite author C.S. Lewis' "The Screwtape Letters" "My dear Wormwood,...Your man has been accustomed, ever since he was a boy, to have a dozen imcompatible philosophies dancing about together inside his head. He doesn't think of doctrines as primarily 'true' or 'false', but as 'academic' or 'pratical', 'outworn' or 'contemporary', 'conventional' or 'ruthless'. Jargon, not argument, is your best ally in keeping him from the Church... The trouble about arguments is that it moves the whole struggle on the Enemy's own ground. He can argue too; whereas in really practical propaganda of the kind I am suggesting He has been shown for centuries to be greatly the inferior of Our Father Below. By the very act of arguing, you awake the patient's reason; and once it is awake, who can foresee the result? Even if a particular train of thought can be twisted so as to end in our favour, you will find that you have been strenghtening in your patient the fatal habit of attending to universal issues and withdrawing his attention from the stream of immediate sense expreiences. Your business is to fix his attention on the stream. Teach him to call it 'real life' and don't let him ask what he means by 'real'." - C.S. Lewis If it is His will, even the most rebellious man or the wisest skeptic on earth will finally kneel before His Throne for conversion and submission. Rom 9:11-18 Rom 11:33-35 Shalom Azure |
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5 | Okay to question faith and the Bible? | 2 Tim 3:16 | parpar | 200291 | ||
Dear Azure, Thank you for your post, the contents of which are much appreciated, your referrence to, "Rom 9:11-18, and Rom 11:33-35", causes me to think of a not unrelated subject which came to my attention, details of this subject are given below. I would value having your comments thereon. Thank you. parpar. Reconciling free will with predestination. Have a look at the three verses bellow, and tell me do you think that Enoch, Noah, and Job were demonstrating free will, or not? Gen 5:24 And Enoch walked with God; and he was not, for God took him Gen 6:9 This is the genealogy of Noah. Noah was a just man, perfect in his generations. Noah walked with God. Job 1:8 Then the LORD said to Satan, "Have you considered My servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, one who fears God and shuns evil?" And what about the following seven verses. Why do you think that the word, "choose", is used if man is incapable of making a choice which is acceptable to the Lord, if as some say, man does not have a free will? Deu 30:19 I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, [that] I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live; Jos 24:15 And if it seems evil to you to serve the LORD, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that [were] on the other side of the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD." Pro 1:29 Because they hated knowledge And did not choose the fear of the LORD, Pro 3:31 Do not envy the oppressor, And choose none of his ways; Pro 12:26 The righteous should choose his friends carefully, For the way of the wicked leads them astray. Isa 7:15 Curds and honey He shall eat, that He may know to refuse the evil and choose the good. Isa 56:4 For thus says the LORD: "To the eunuchs who keep My Sabbaths, And choose what pleases Me, And hold fast My covenant, Oh, and by the way, why does our Lord Jesus say. Mat 11:28 "Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Jhn 3:36 "He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him." Jhn 3:14 "And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, Jhn 3:15 "that whoever believes in Him should not perish but[fn2] have eternal life. 3:15 NU-Text omits not perish but. If as some say, man does not have a free will? Free will, yes, but now the other side of the coin. Our Lord Jesus also said. Jhn 6:44 "No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; Jhn 6:65 And He said, "Therefore I have said to you that no one can come to Me unless it has been granted to him by My Father." Mat 16:16 Simon Peter answered and said, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." Mat 16:17 Jesus answered and said to him, "Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. Mat 19:25 When His disciples heard it, they were greatly astonished, saying, "Who then can be saved?" Mat 19:26 But Jesus looked at them and said to them, "With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible." Jhn 3:27 John answered and said, "A man can receive nothing unless it has been given to him from heaven. Allow me to suggest a possible solution to the problem of reconciling, "Free will, with Predestination". I believe Scripture shows, as I have attempted to indicate in my post above, that man not only has a free will, but is also able to exercise it in a correct way from a divine point of view, and that the Lord our God knows that such persons would, if exposed to the Gospel respond positively. For his reason therefore, He predestines them to hear the good news, and thereby get saved. |
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6 | Okay to question faith and the Bible? | 2 Tim 3:16 | azurelaw | 200294 | ||
Dear parpar, Thank you for your response and providing scriptures in balancing the discussion. In regards with "free will", how would you consider or understand "slave" as described in Rom 6:16-18? You don't have to answer me. By the way, pardon me that I prefer to shy away from the discussion which has been proven to be highly controversial among those forefathers and yet unsolved; and has also been discussed a lot in the past long before I join the forum. My further input is just redundancy (Prov 17:28). I believe you should know where I stand from my posts. There are a number of good (even hot perhaps) posts in past discussion on the forum. Just do a word search with : free will, predestination, Calvinism, Arminianism, etc. for your own further reading. Shalom Azure |
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7 | Okay to question faith and the Bible? | 2 Tim 3:16 | parpar | 200309 | ||
Hi again Azure. You ask. "how would you consider or understand "slave" as described in Rom 6:16-18? You don't have to answer me." I have no problem in comprehending, and wholeheartedly agreeing with what is said in the verses to which you refer. What follows is what someone else has said, which you might find helpful. What was the position of a slave in Paul’s day? Well, we must admit, a slave had no position. He had nothing. He had no rights whatsoever. He had no possessions that were his. His very life wasn’t his. He belonged, we can say, body and soul to his master. His master could do anything to him, and that is the status of a slave. You also say. "My further input is just redundancy (Prov 17:28). I believe you should know where I stand from my posts." Your modesty is most refreshing. I have found it this verse most helpful when talking about verse 1 of Psalm's 14, and 53. Shalom parpar. |
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