Results 381 - 400 of 701
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Results from: Answered Bible Questions, Answers, Unanswered Bible Questions, Notes Author: Sir Pent Ordered by Date |
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Results | Verse | Author | ID# | |||
381 | what "spirits in prison"? | 1 Pet 3:19 | Sir Pent | 24418 | ||
Another View ................................. Dear swb, Tim and I have discussed this issue thoroughly, and I hope that you will do a search and read through that thread. Basically I believe that the spirits were of all the people who died before Jesus sacrifice on the cross. I believe that Jesus preached to them so that those who believed could be saved. |
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382 | How do we respond to war as Christians? | Deut 7:2 | Sir Pent | 24367 | ||
Personal Note ................................... Dear Tim, Do you have any thoughts on my recent post regarding killing people to protect our "rights and freedoms"? |
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383 | Lanny, What is your definition of sin? | Rom 6:2 | Sir Pent | 24205 | ||
Attempt at consensus .......................... I suspect we agree more than we disagree here Joe. If we step back from the argument and look at it, it seems to really just be about the definition of the word sin. You seem to be defining "sin" in terms of the attitude of the person. This is a valid perspective most of the time. Jesus often talked of how God looks at the heart when He judges us. From this perspective, it would seem very difficult (if not impossible) to sin accidentally. I am describing "sin" in terms of the actions themselves. This is also a valid perspective most of the time. God has commanded many actions and condemned many other actions in both the Old and New Testaments. Therefore, in general, actions themselves can be classified as either in line with or against the will of God. For instance, prayer to God would be in line with His will, and stealing would be against His will (sin). While both of these perspectives are valid most of the time, they do both have limitations and dangers. The first perspective (that you are supporting) comes dangerously close to relativism at times. When "sin" is defined solely based on a person's attitude (which we can never know completely), it is easy for someone to say, "well that may be wrong for you, but it is not wrong for me". Sometimes this is accurate (ie. meat sacrificed to idols), however, most often this is said by a person trying to rationalize actual sin in their life. The second perspective (that I am supporting) comes dangerously close to legalism at times. When "sin" is defined solely based on a person's actions, it is easy for a person to do the right things with the wrong motivation. Sometimes this is healthy (ie. when we feel like praising God the least is when we need to do it the most). However, if continued for a long period of time, it can lead to pure hypocracy and can rob a person of the joy of true relationship with God. If I had to pick one of these perspectives, I'd choose the second. Better to err on the side caution, and stick to close to the letter of the law, than to err on the side of folly and commit egregious sins. However, the best choice of all is not to pick between these options, but rather to balance them and live by both. That is where we probably agree. I assume that we would both see the value (and danger) in each view independantly, and therefore the wisdom in finding the balance. |
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384 | Lanny, What is your definition of sin? | Rom 6:2 | Sir Pent | 24204 | ||
Contrary View ................................. Dear Joe, In this post, I'll continue the normal pattern of thread debate, that we always seem to use on this forum. I will pick specific things out of your post that I disagree with and try to prove them wrong. However, I will also post a second response seperately that will try a different approach. In that post, I'll try to get to the heart of the issue and deal with it. Let me know which one you think is better. Your last post said that you didn't believe that "God would consider it to be sin of any kind if we unknowingly" did something wrong. However, that happened in the Bible. When Joshua was leading the Israelites in their battles against the Caananites, everything went great against the city of Jericho. But then the next battle was totally different. The Israelites were defeated, and many of them were killed. It turned out that the reason was because one guy in the army had taken some loot from the previous battle against God's command. After that was taken care of, everything went great for the rest of the campaign. The point is that Joshua did not know that the sin had been committed by one of his men. But God still held His people responsible. Many Israelites lost their lives because of a sin they weren't even aware of. Your last post said that "Scripture is absolutely sufficient for all our sanctification by the Spirit of God". I completely agree. However, you also said that "We have no more spiritual resources that make us superior in ability to lead a Christlike life than Augustine". We may or may not have superior personal ability, but we deffinately have superior opportunity. Just because the Bible is "sufficient" for salvation and spiritual growth doesn't mean that it is the only "resource" that can assist in that process. Many people have come to a relationship with God through such unispired "resources" as The Jesus Film, C.S. Lewis' Mere Christianity, Sheldon's In His Steps, Bunyon's Pilgrim's Progress, etc. And the myriads of commentaries that have been written throughout the ages enable us to quickly learn many different truths from passages of scripture that probably took the writers years to learn on their own. Your last post said that because I believe that Christians could potentially fullfill the Biblical command to be perfect after the example of our Heavenly Father, that I have "a completely deficient grasp of the utter holiness of the conduct of God the Son". I will admit that I do not fully grasp the holiness of God or of Jesus, however, I doubt that you would claim to totally grasp it either. I would also disagree that the limited grasp that I do have of God's holiness is "completely deficient", or even much more incomplete than your grasp is. However, the Bible has lots of instruction on what God requries of us (ie. do justly, love mercy, walk humbly, ten commandments, love God, love our neighbor etc.), and I know people who have not broken any of these requirements recently (to my knowledge). |
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385 | Why does everything happen in thirds? | Bible general Archive 1 | Sir Pent | 24171 | ||
Personal Note ................................... Dear Ray, I wish I could help you more, but I too am limited in my mathematical knowledge. I haven't taken a math class since way back in High School. However, I'll tell you what I know. As for the "father of math", I guess in one sense the answer would be God. He deffinately created a universe which contains many mathematical properties. As for the first human being that I am aware of that did much work with math, it would be Pythagoras (c.575 - c.500 BC) "Pythagoras was a Greek philosopher and mathematician, best known for working out the 'Pythagorean Theorem' stating that the square of the hypotenuse of a right-angled triangle is equal to the sum of the squares of the other two sides. Pythagoras was born on the island of Samos, migrated to southern Italy, and established a school at Croton. Pythagoras taught that the order of the world was to be discovered with the aid of mathematics, physics, acoustics and astronomy. His famed saying was 'all is number' meaning that all existing things can be ultimately reduced to number relationships. His mystical teaching accepted the migration of souls." (info from hyperhistory.com) |
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386 | Gen.3:15 | Gen 3:15 | Sir Pent | 24170 | ||
Personal Note ................................... Dear Casiv, I would just like to tell you that I believe this is the best post that you have contributed to this forum thus far. The point you are making is very understandable. It is supported by referrences in both the Old and New Testaments. And it is a cool thought that I had not previously discovered. I really like your idea that it is the very same thing which the serpent injured (the heel) that will completely destroy it (crush the head). You are correct that it is a good picture of Christ, who Satan injured (on the cross), but who eventually defeated Satan once and for all. Once again, great post. I hope to see more posts like this one in the future. |
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387 | Lanny, What is your definition of sin? | Rom 6:2 | Sir Pent | 24109 | ||
Clarification .................................... Dear Joe, It seems to me that your reasoning is circular. You say that there is no sin that is unintentional because sin is disobedience and there is no disobedience that is unitentional. If you're going to define the words in that way then that's fine, but it isn't how they are normally defined. Disobedience is defined by the dictionary to mean: refusal or neglect to obey. I would agree that "refusal" requires intent. However, neglect does not. A person who speeds due to an inaccurate spedometer neglected to obey the law, but was unaware of it. This would still be classified as disobedience. However, that is just a argument of semantics. I think that a more important issue with your post was your implication that it is impossible for a Christian today (who is not famous) to be a closer follower of Christ's example than a famous Christian of yesteryear (Paul, Luther, Calvin, etc.) This just doesn't make sense. We would all agree that there has been a progressive revelation of God throughout time. We would all assume that Elijah had a better picture of Christ to follow than Adam, and that the apostle John had a better picture of Christ to follow than Elijah. It is also true that Christians today have resources and materials to complete their picture of Christ that were not available in Augustine's day. And Luther may have been close in His relationship to God, but so are people today. Calvin may have been smart, but not smarter than all the Christians alive today. My point is that we have everything that they had, and more. Therefore, it is not impossible that an 85 year old saint that quitely follows God in her local community could actually lead a more Christ-like life than one of the famous "church fathers". |
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388 | How do we respond to war as Christians? | Deut 7:2 | Sir Pent | 24101 | ||
Contrary View .................................... It is a rare occasion that I disagree with Tim Moran, however, this is one of those times. I believe that Christians should not directly support wars. For an extensive background on why, I would recommend doing a search for "killing OT good NT bad". Without going into all that here, let me just make one point about this whole defending rights and freedoms idea. I don't find much of a biblical mandate to kill people in order to keep our rights and freedoms. In fact, our example, Christ, gave up his rights and freedoms to come to Earth for us. He also taught such ideas as walking an extra mile (when they had a right to stop at one), turning the other cheek (when they had a right to strike back), and not casting stones (when they had the freedom to). The Bible seems to consistently say that we should trust God to take care of us and not depend on ourselves to protect our rights all the time. And as for freedom, Paul talked about how excersizing his freedoms wasn't even worth causing a brother to stumble in his faith. Do we honestly think that Paul would support it being worth killing someone to be able to excersize our freedom? Throughout history Christians killing people (crusades, inquisition, etc.) has been a huge stumbling block to the rest of the world. I just don't think that the response we are doing is the response that Jesus would do, or support, or want His followers to support. |
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389 | Is iT possible to live without sin? | Rom 6:2 | Sir Pent | 24097 | ||
Clarification ................................... Dear Joe, I would like to respond to several of your points. As for Lanny's true meaning, I'll leave that to him to clear up. As for Christ being the only person who lived a completely sinless life, I completely agree with you. Just because I believe that a person can stop sinning does not at all mean that I think that they never sinned before that. All have sinned at some point in their life, and therefore all need Christ's forgiveness. As for our ability to stop sinning cheapening Christs sinless life, I disagree with the statement and the implication. I disagree with the statement because once again Christ is the only person to live His ENTIRE life without sin, and that can't be cheapened by anything. I disagree with the implication that we can't start living lives without sin because Christ is so different than us. We have the same Spirit in us that was in Christ Jesus, and Jesus said that we would do greater things than Him. Finally, as for "no such thing as unknown sins", what would you call the examples that I gave? The person is definately committing an act that is against the known will of God, however, they are not doing it intentionally. What do you call that? |
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390 | Is iT possible to live without sin? | Rom 6:2 | Sir Pent | 24092 | ||
Personal Note .................................... Dear Tim, Thanks, my Thanksgiving vacation was one of the best ever. I hope that yours was also blessed! As for whether it is possible to sin "non-willfully", please see my "examples of accidental disobedience" post. The basic idea is that it is possible to do something that displeases God, or fail to do something that God requires, without planning to do it. |
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391 | Is iT possible to live without sin? | Rom 6:2 | Sir Pent | 24090 | ||
Clarification ................................... Dear Joe, It appears that there is a confusion here that needs to be cleared up to begin with. I don't believe that Lanny (or anyone else that is supporting the idea of a sinless life) is equating that state with basic Christianity. It is obvious that there are many Christians (including myself) who continue to sin at times (some Christians even have habitual sins). What we are trying to say is that it is possible for Christians to reach the point where they stop sinning. As for whether I know anyone who has done this, I'm not sure. I don't follow anyone around constantly, and I can't read their thoughts. And anyone who would be in this category would obviously not go around bragging about it. But there are several people at my church who I suspect have reached this point, and do not know of any sins that they have committed in word or deed in the last several years. These are older saints who have spent a lifetime of walking with the Lord, and who have completely committed their life to Him. |
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392 | Lanny, What is your definition of sin? | Rom 6:2 | Sir Pent | 24088 | ||
Examples of accidental disobedience ............. One of the commandments is to not steal. If you buy something at a store, and then clerk gives you a ten dollar bill in change instead of a one, and you walk a way without realizing it then you stole nine dollars from that store. But you didn't know it so it was accidental. I believe that when you discover what happened that you should take the money back, however, I don't believe that God holds you responsible for that action unless you did it on purpose. Other examples would include taking home the wrong purse or coat from a place because it looked like yours, or driveing 10 miles over the speed limit because your spedometer is broken, etc. |
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393 | Lanny, What is your definition of sin? | Rom 6:2 | Sir Pent | 24078 | ||
Personal Note .................................... Dear Joe, Lanny already gave his definition of sin. It is different than yours, but I don't think it is accurate to call it "weaker". |
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394 | Is iT possible to live without sin? | Rom 6:2 | Sir Pent | 24077 | ||
Contrary View .................................. Dear Joe, I agree that humans are responsible for their own sins, and cannot blaim the devil for "putting us in sin". I disagree that the passages in the Bible that instruct certain groups of believers to do or refrain from doing certain things means that all of them were guilty of that. It is quite likely that while a large number of them were guilty (thus the instruction), that there were some who did not participate in those sins. As for whether a person could live a life free from sin (after salvation), some of the reasoning behind this is dependant upon a "free will" perspective. Since you do not have this perspective, it is not reasonable to try to convince you otherwise. I commend your consistency while disagreeing with your conclusions. |
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395 | Why does everything happen in thirds? | Bible general Archive 1 | Sir Pent | 24076 | ||
Personal Note .................................... This is actually less of a coincidence than it at first appears. All numbers whose digits add to a multiple of three are evenly divisible by three. (ie. 45's digits add to 9 and 45 is evenly divisible (3 X 15)). Because of this, all of the numbers you tried (111, 222, 333, 444, etc.) must also be divisible by three. This is simply because they are all three digit numbers where all digits are the same. Thus when the digits are added together they are all multiples of 3 (times whatever digit it is). |
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396 | Is iT possible to live without sin? | Rom 6:2 | Sir Pent | 24069 | ||
Support .......................................... Dear Tim, If I understand your post correctly, you are saying that Christians have the ability to choose to sin. However, as new creations, they also have the ability to choose NOT to sin. Therefore, it is possible for a Christian to live without willfull sin in their life. I completely agree with that :) |
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397 | Forgiveness of What? | Acts 13:38 | Sir Pent | 24068 | ||
Anwer to Question (I think) ................... Dear Lisa, I must admit that I had a somewhat difficult time understanding your last post. I think that you meant to ask if I had ever had an experience where I obeyed God and received a blessing as a result. I think that this happens all the time (even when we don't recognize the blessing right away). However, one time that comes to mind is the verse in the Bible that commands believers to "not stop meeting together". I interpret this verse to be God's way of telling us that, as Christians, we need each other's fellowship. This is why I feel that it is so important to regularly attend church and to not just sit in a service once a week, but to truly participate in worship and fellowship there with other Christians. So I have obiediently gone to church for many years now, and not just the morning service, but the evening service as well. So where does the blessing come in this obedience? Well it just so happens that at one of these evening services at my church, I met my future wife. And she has been the biggest blessing (besides salvation) that God has ever given me :) |
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398 | Forgiveness of What? | Acts 13:38 | Sir Pent | 24067 | ||
Clarification ............................... Dear Nolan and other forumites, The general idea seems to be that our actions towards a person after they have been forgiven should depend on how reformed that individual person was. The problem that I see with that is that it is very subjective. It also is based on the idea that we as humans can accurately determine the heart of another person. Brian G. brought up a good point that unlike God (with Saul/Paul's conversion), we can't really know how changed another person is. Due to this limitation, wouldn't it be better to have objective guidelines for these situations. For instance, if a person has been a child molester then even though they are forgiven of that sin, and have eternal life, there remains an earthly consequence. They could serve God in many ways with adults, but would be prohibited from being a Boy Scout Leader for instance. Or a former drug addict could work at a automobile company, but not at a pharmacy. Does this sound reasonable, or is it too harsh, cold, and legalistic? |
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399 | Let us offer Thanksgiving to God :) | Bible general Archive 1 | Sir Pent | 23576 | ||
I'm thankful for ............................... God's Word, that He has written and preserved for us to learn FROM, and the people that God has put in our lives for us to learn WITH (like on this forum). |
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400 | Let us offer Thanksgiving to God :) | Bible general Archive 1 | Sir Pent | 23575 | ||
Personal Note ................................... Dear Nolan, I too will have to leave shortly, and will not be able to post again after that, until next week. I hope you have a terriffic Thanksgiving, my good friend. I also would like to wish a Happy Thanksgiving to all my other distinguished Forum colleagues. Take time to thank the Lord for all the blessings that He has generously given us. |
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