Results 141 - 160 of 6770
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Results from: Answered Bible Questions, Answers, Unanswered Bible Questions, Notes Author: Morant61 Ordered by Verse |
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Results | Verse | Author | ID# | |||
141 | Can anyone recommend a good study book? | Bible general Archive 3 | Morant61 | 172829 | ||
Greetings Doc! Actually, as simply as you could put it would be 'yes' or 'no'. ;-) Either way, it still seems to me that you are saying that someone needs something else in addition to Scripture in order to be able to properly preach Scripture. If this is the case, I would disagree. If not, then I would agree. :-) p.s. - I like the quotes! Your Brother in Christ, Tim Moran |
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142 | Can anyone recommend a good study book? | Bible general Archive 3 | Morant61 | 172848 | ||
Greetings Doc! You wrote: "I will help you though. I will answer an emphatic "No." So you'll get all excited and say, "I got him pinned down... I disagree!"" First of all, I already stated that in my last post. So, what would be the point of repeating it. Secondly, why would it excite me that we disagree??? You also wrote: "The need to reduce everything to simple answers is a strong psychological one. It gives us the illusion we have things under our thumbs." Insults aside, I simply wanted to make sure that I was clear on your stand my friend. A clear answer would have certainly saved us a couple of posts. ;-) It would be interesting to explore this topic further, but given how the tone is rapidly changing, I will allow your 'no' to simply stand as it is my friend. Your Brother in Christ, Tim Moran |
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143 | Why was I banned a day before mom died? | Bible general Archive 3 | Morant61 | 175012 | ||
Greetings Vince! I am sorry to hear about your mother, but I am glad to hear that she was a Christian. Dealing with death is certainly never easy nor pleasant. I lost a 9 month old son to congential heart defects many years ago. It helped to know that he was in a far better place in the presence of a God Who loved us enough to die for us all on the cross. But, it still hurt! We will keep you and your family in our prayers! Your Brother in Christ, Tim Moran |
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144 | marriage with cousins | Bible general Archive 3 | Morant61 | 175785 | ||
Greetings! There is no Scripture that forbids marriage between cousins. However, most states in the US do forbid it. Your Brother in Christ, Tim Moran |
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145 | are there two joseph's in the bible | Bible general Archive 3 | Morant61 | 175893 | ||
Greetings! There are two Josephs in the Bible. There is Joseph, son of Jacob, whose life is described in Gen. 37-51. There is also Joseph, the husband of Mary, whose life is described in the Gospels (Mostly Matthew and Luke). I hope this helps! Your Brother in Christ, Tim Moran |
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146 | chronology of the New Testament | Bible general Archive 3 | Morant61 | 176337 | ||
Greetings Des! If you have a personal question for Mark, you should respond to his post with a note instead of a 'question'. That way, your post will not stay up on the question part of the forum, but Mark will get a notification that you have responded to him. I hope this helps! Your Brother in Christ, Tim Moran |
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147 | Elders not a pastor should lead church | Bible general Archive 3 | Morant61 | 176368 | ||
Greetings Bereaniam! If I might add to Doc's comments, I would point out the following. 1) First of all, 2 Tim. 4:3 does not say that they will accumulate pastors. It says that they will gather around them a great number of teachers. :-) The problem is not the number of teachers, but the quality of teachers. They only teach what the people want to hear. 2) The simple fact is that Scripture does not lay out a precise method or style of organization. No where does Scripture say that a church must have only one pastor, but nowhere does it say that a church cannot either. The focus of Scripture is upon the quality of the people who hold the positions of leadership, not the number. Even the offices that are mentioned in Scripture are never clearly defined. There is a reason for that, I believe. Over time, the structure of the church will evolve depending upon the context of the times. Notice that I said the structure will evolve, not the teachings. :-) So, personally, I don't get to hung up over something that Scripture does not command (i.e. - the number of pastors). :-) Your Brother in Christ, Tim Moran |
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148 | Elders not a pastor should lead church | Bible general Archive 3 | Morant61 | 176384 | ||
Greetings Bereaniam! Thanks for the response my friend! Allow me to touch upon some of your points! 1) Pastor or teacher: This is a very important point. We cannot go beyond what Scripture actually says. The verse you cited does not say anything about the number of pastors; therefore, it cannot be used to address the current situation. It may very well be that a pastor teaches, but a teacher is not a pastor. 2) Does Scripture spell out the structure of the church? You list several passage that you say clearly spell out who is to be over the church. Let's look at these passages. a) Acts 20:17 mentions elders, but does not give any info about them or their ministry. b) Acts 20:18 mentions the elders arriving, but nothing is said about their ministry. c) Acts 20:28 does mention that God has made them overseers, but no detail is given concerning what the ministry involves. Interesting, the imagery of a pastor is used in this verse. d) 1 Peter 5:1-3 mentions elders in a similar way as Acts 20:28, but again no detail is given as to how many, or as to what their ministry entails. e) The same thing is true of James 5:14. So, you have established my point my friend. There isn't any Scripture which says: Each church should have such and such number of pastors, and such and such number of elders, and such and such number of bishops, ect..., who will do such and such ministry for such and such a period of time. :-) Do you see what I am saying? Certain offices are mentioned, but no detail is given or limitations on numbers. 3) Qualifications of offices: We agree on this point. The qualifications of certain offices are spelled out, but not the actual duties or numbers. 4) Culture: On this one, I think you missed my point entirely. I specifically said that the teachings of the church do not change according to customs or cultures, but other things can. For instance, we meet in church buildings now, they did not. We drive cars to church, they did not. We play pianos and organs, they did not. These are things that Scripture does not address either way. On these issues, we must not be dogmatic. However, the teachings of the church are timeless. 5) Number of pastors: One this one, you misquoted me my friend. I did not say that I didn't "...care about how many pastors we are suppose to have". What I said was: "So, personally, I don't get to hung up over something that Scripture does not command (i.e. - the number of pastors). :-)" Scripture does not tell us how many pastors a church should have, so I am not concerned about the number. If Scripture did tell us, I would be concerned. 6) Churchs: Are all churches big and rich? Do all pastor's wear 1,000 dollar suits? Are all Christians bibilically illiterate? The answer is of course, no! I pastor a small church. I own one suit (and it didn't cost 1,000 dollars). :-) I earn very little from the church, in fact I give far more back to the church than I am paid (I work a full time job as a tent-making pastor). :-) There are certainly some 'bad' churches and pastors, but there are also many excellent and sound churches as well. 7) I can't resolve your questions for you my friend, but I can tell you not to allow Satan to drive you away from the church over an issue that is not spelled out in Scripture. He likes to create doubt in areas like this. :-( Your Brother in Christ, Tim Moran |
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149 | Elders not a pastor should lead church | Bible general Archive 3 | Morant61 | 176464 | ||
Greetings Margaret! Thanks for the response! I don't have a lot of time right now, so I'll have to be brief in my response. Allow me to address a couple of your points. 1) The number of pastors: As you mentioned, the word 'pastor' is only used once and it is not used a context where it can be determined how many there were in each church. So, our fundamental difference is that you are saying that it is heresy to have more than one even though Scripture never says this and I am saying that the number is not important since Scripture never specifies a set number. 2) Duties: There are certainly a few things that we can pick up about the duties of certain offices based upon narrative passages. My point was simply that there is no passage that says, "A deacon shall...". God doesn't give us an exact job description. 3) Heresy: This is a major concern for me my friend. How can a practice of the church be a heresy when it violates no command of Scripture? Even if your assumption is correct and pastors were always mentioned in the plural, there is still no command regarding this in Scripture. This is where I think that you are allowing Satan to get you hung up over a non-essential point. 4) Oversight: I don't know how it is in your local congregation, but in our's there is much oversight. We have leaders in our congregation that share oversight. We have district level leaders in our denomination that provide oversight as well. We only have one pastor, because we are a small congregation. As we grow, I sure that we will have more in the future. 5) Finally, why should it concern me that the word 'pastor' is only used once? It is used! :-) Well, I have to run my friend. Our congregation has a young couple who has just given birth to a beautiful baby boy. :-) So I am headed to the hospital. Your Brother in Christ, Tim Moran |
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150 | Elders not a pastor should lead church | Bible general Archive 3 | Morant61 | 176481 | ||
Greetings Bereaniam! You asked for a word study, so here goes! ;-) The words (in order of fewest number of occurances to greatest) are Pastor(1), Overseer(5), Deacon(29), and Elder(66). Here are my findings. Pastor is never used in connection with any of the other words, so it is difficult to say if it is synonymous with any of the other words or not. Later, I will make a case for it being synonymous with one of the other words. Overseer and Deacon are clearly not synonymous. They are used together in Phil. 1:1 of two distinct groups. Further, 1 Tim. 3 lists them as two distinct offices. It could be argued that Elder is synonymous with Overseer, but the case is very weak. Acts 20 speaks of of Paul calling the elders of Ephesus, then v. 28 speaks of them as being overseers. However, it could be that v. 28 is not using the word in the sense of a title since in Titus 1, overseer and elder seem to be listed as two seperate offices. So, any attempt to make these terms synonymous is at best weak. If I were to make any connection, I could see an argument for pastor and overseer being synonymous, but even that case is weak. Here are my conclusions. 1) Pastor (overseer) - Pastor is only used once, and overseer is only used 5 times (once in reference to Christ) (Acts 20:28, Phil. 1:1, 1 Tim. 3:2, Titus 1:7, and 1 Pet. 2:25). Though the qualifications of an overseer are spelled out, the ministry of one is only described in terms of shepherding (Acts 20:28). Nothing is said about how many there should be in a church, or even about how they are selected. 2) Elders: The word occurs 66 times in the NT, but it appears to be used of a church officer only 17 times (Acts 11:30, 14:23, 15:2, 4, 6, 22, 23, 16:4, 20:17, 21:18, 1 Tim 4:14, 5:17, 19, Tit. 1:5, 6, James 5:14, and 1 Peter 5:1. They are specifically said to be appointed by the apostles and their fellow laborers. They are also specifically tied to preaching, teaching, decision making, and prayer. 3) Deacons: The word itself occurs 29 times in the NT, but only 4 of these seem to refer to a church officer (Rom. 16:1, Phil. 1:1, 1 Tim. 3:8, and 1 Tim. 3:12). Nothing is said about how they are appointed, or what they do. If one goes by the meaning of the word, and the example of the seven in Acts 6, they would seem to be primarily involved in physical ministries. Nothing in any of this study would indicate any of the following: · That there is a set structure that every church is commanded to follow. · That there is a set number of leaders that every church is commanded to have. I hope this study helps! Your Brother in Christ, Tim Moran |
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151 | Elders not a pastor should lead church | Bible general Archive 3 | Morant61 | 176498 | ||
Greetings Bereaniam! Thanks for the reply my friend! Allow me to touch upon a couple of your points, and then I must get to bed. :) 1) Which translation? My word study was based on the Greek text, not an English text. So, it didn't really matter what words the English translations used. 2) Different group: I didn't mean to imply that Paul was addressing a different group in Acts 20:28. I meant to say that it is not certain that Paul is using the term 'overseer' in the sense of an office or simply as a description of the ministry of the elders. If he is using it as an 'offical' term, then elders and overseers would be synonymous. However, it would then be unclear why he lists them as seperate offices in Titus 1. So, I would argue that Paul is probably not using 'overseer' as a title in Acts 20:28, but as a description of what an elder is supposed to do. 3) Number of occurances: Again, my word study was based on the actual Greek words. Therefore, the count is accurate, even though some translations may differ occasionally. 4) Call of God: The call of God comes in a variety of ways. An individual senses God's call, but also others must recognize God's call. Someone once said that a person can't be a leader unless someone else follows. :-) My point has simply been that God does not mandate one set method of Church structure. That is why there is no specific commands to do such and such. That is also why there is no specific commands as to how many pastor's there should be. Why can't simply make an assumption, and then treat that assumption as a command of God. 5) Laodicean Church: Again, I have a problem with lumping every congregation under this broad condemnation. There are certainly dead and dying congregations in the U.S. But, there are also many who are alive and rich in the love of Christ. We can always use revival, but let's not condemn the many congregations who are serving God faithfully. 6) Finally, the commands of God: 1 Cor. 14:37 specifically refer to the commands that Paul had been writing to the church at Cornith in 1 Corinthians. Paul did not mean that everything he had ever written was to be taken as a command. For instance, 1 Cor. 16:19 says, "The churches in the province of Asia send you greetings. Aquila and Priscilla greet you warmly in the Lord, and so does the church that meets at their house. " This is not a command. It is a greeting. :-) It is important that we only treat as commands those things that actually are commands. Well, I have to run! Your Brother in Christ, Tim Moran |
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152 | Go to heaven or hell? | Bible general Archive 3 | Morant61 | 176592 | ||
Greetings Ardmore! Are the Scriptures you cited really contradictory? There are currently 6.5 billion people alive on the planet. If only 1 percent of these people would accept Christ, there would be 65 million Christians alive today. 1 percent is few, but 1 percent of 6.5 billion is a lot of people. :-) Finally, you wrote: "Of course I disagree with that God wants all men to be saved." Yet, 1 Tim. 2:3-7 says, "This is good, and pleases God our Savior, 4 who wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. 5 For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, 6 who gave himself as a ransom for all men—the testimony given in its proper time." Your Brother in Christ, Tim Moran |
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153 | Emergent Church question | Bible general Archive 3 | Morant61 | 177248 | ||
Greetings Hank! Excellent articles my friend! I appreciated the balance displayed by the author. It is certainly true that our knowledge is impaced by many aspects of our lives, but words do have meaning. We simply cannot ignore the words of Scripture because someone finds their 'absoluteness' uncomfortable. :-) Your Brother in Christ, Tim Moran |
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154 | posting | Bible general Archive 3 | Morant61 | 177419 | ||
Greetings Sincere non-believer! You may be sincere my friend, but you are also mistaken concerning the facts of your statements. For instance, you claim that the New Testament books were written hundreds of years after the life of Christ. This is a factually inaccurate statement. There are many manuscripts from the New Testament dating to the 1st century. For instance, one fragment of John (P52) has been consistenly dated at 125 a.d. If the fragment is this early, than the original was even earlier. And, John has historically been considered the last gospel written. There are many quotes from the New Testament made by Church fathers in the 1st century. How could they quote books that supposedly had not been written for another couple of hundred years? :-) You also claim that Scripture is misleading or contradictory. Would you care to back up that claim with some examples? Your Brother in Christ, Tim Moran |
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155 | posting | Bible general Archive 3 | Morant61 | 177424 | ||
Greetings SNB2! Barred you my friend? I simply asked you to deal with the factually inaccurate statements that you made. Over the years, I have noted that when someone can't deal with the evidence, they will try to continually change the topic. You seem to be engaging in this tactic. Would you care to deal with the statement that I challenged you on my friend? How old are the New Testament books? Were they really written hundreds of years after the life of Christ? Your Brother in Christ, Tim Moran |
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156 | posting | Bible general Archive 3 | Morant61 | 177425 | ||
Greetings SNB2! You wrote: "I'm not arrogant enough to argue the Bible is invalid. Just that its from another time, written by people of that time, and should be seen as such. Not as literal, historical fact." Are you arguing that anything written by a people of a different time cannot be historically factual or literal? Your Brother in Christ, Tim Moran |
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157 | Christ centered faith ? | Bible general Archive 3 | Morant61 | 177575 | ||
Greetings SBN! Jesus was born in Bethlehem, so He was Jewish. The experts are undecided on the language, but He probably spoke Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek. He certainly wasn't an American. :-) By the way, you still have responded to my questioning of the factual errors in your post. Would you care to address those yet? Facts are much better than opinions. Your Brother in Christ, Tim Moran |
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158 | At counseling my pastor told me "referen | Bible general Archive 3 | Morant61 | 178984 | ||
Greetings Philipps413! I understand your question, but this is not the place for counseling. Having said that, there is nothing in the Bible that states anything about black clouds over marriages. I would ask your pastor to explain what he means, or seek the advice of another pastor. Your Brother in Christ, Tim Moran |
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159 | nature of the holy spirit of god | Bible general Archive 3 | Morant61 | 179804 | ||
Greetings gdh1127! You are correct that in the Greek, a pronoun must always agree with it's antecedent in person, gender, and number. The word 'spirit' is neuter in gender. Therefore, the adjective 'holy' is also neuter when modifying the word 'spirit'. And, a neuter pronoun is used when referring to the "Holy Spirit". There are at least two instances where this rule is broken in Scripture. I think this is done so that we will be clear that the Holy Spirit is a person. The two instances are: 1) John 16:13-14: Here, John specifically uses a masculine pronoun to describe the Spirit of Truth, even though 'spirit' is neuter. 2) Eph. 1:14: Here also, a masculine pronoun is used in reference to the Holy Spirit. I hope this helps! Your Brother in Christ, Tim Moran |
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160 | nature of the holy spirit of god | Bible general Archive 3 | Morant61 | 179810 | ||
Greetings Doc! Strictly speaking, 'it' would be the most literal translation. There are a couple of exceptions that I mentioned previously. But, the form of a word is more a matter of rules rather than reality. What I mean is that since the word 'spirit' is neuter, any pronoun referencing the Holy Spirit must be neuter as well even though the Holy Spirit is not neuter. :-) p.s. - Did anyone notice that the forum has added a spell checker? :-) Your Brother in Christ, Tim Moran |
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