Results 921 - 940 of 975
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Results from: Answered Bible Questions, Answers, Unanswered Bible Questions, Notes Author: Aixen7z4 Ordered by Date |
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Results | Verse | Author | ID# | |||
921 | if someone died is there spirit on earth | Eccl 12:7 | Aixen7z4 | 93807 | ||
When someone dies? Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it (Ecclesiastes 12:7). |
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922 | Given the chance to repent | Num 4:15 | Aixen7z4 | 93703 | ||
The answer to the one question is Yes; God gives everyone a chance to repent. The answer to the other question is No; God does not practice favouritism. But please be patient and think with me. You seem to know your Bible well. God commands all men everywhere to repent. But repentence is not generally spoken of in light of individual acts of sin. We need to repent of our attitude of rebellion against God. That is what sin is all about. It is that attitude which leads to acts of rebellion. That is what we need to repent of. Can you see it? What would be the good in repenting of murder when the deed is aready done? And how is it possible to repent of suicide? We need to make an overall decision to please God. That is what repentance is all about. As mentioned previously, some people are given space and place for repentance, but they do not take it. King Saul had time to repent, but he never did. Now, you may think it was good of Saul to offer a sacrifice, but God counted it as presumption. I hope you understand. Some people feel they can argue with God, as though God should condider their good ideas or their good intentions. God knows what he wants and he reveals it to us. What if we decide that we will deliberately disobey and prove our point to God later? We know what God did to Uzzah was just. We cannot accuse God. We should understand that the man was acting in a presumptuous manner, knowing that it was not allowed for him to touch the ark. And yet he did. If that is true, then he had a rebellious attitude and he should have repented of that before. In other words, he had had the opprtunity to repent and he had not taken it. I hope you understand and you are not confusing yourself with the thought that the man meant well or that he meant no harm. Nowadays a woman may decide to become a pastor or an elder. (I hope I am not raising an issue for you to disagree with, but God does not allow that). If she knows that, she should repent now. Otherwise we may be discussing why she died while teaching a men's Sunday School class without any chance to repent. But keep it simple. It is like the case of Ananias and Sapphira. This man should have repented long ago of his idea that he can decide what he can do for God. He should have decided to submit himself to God's law. God is just and he gives everyone a chance to repent. Uzzah had had his chance. |
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923 | What about an abusif husband? | Ephesians | Aixen7z4 | 93582 | ||
Interesting that they have already had counseling. Counseling should do more than diagnose the problem and label the person. It should help him to change his behavior. You say the wife has done everything she can think of. Did the counselor have additional ideas for her, and for him? I suppose it is fair to assume that we are speaking about Christian counseling here. It will be found that the scriptures do allow for temporary separation. However, we would be hope that the family will have the opportunity to practice positive replacement behaviors. The Bible contains many of those. |
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924 | What about an abusif husband? | Ephesians | Aixen7z4 | 93580 | ||
Interesting that they have already had counseling. Counseling should do more than diagnose the problem and label the person. It should help him to change his behavior. You say the wife has done everything she can think of. Did the counselor have additional ideas for her, and for him? I suppose it is fair to assume that we are speaking about Christian counseling here. It will be found that the scriptures do allow for temporary separation. However, we would be hope that the family will have the opportunity to practice positive replacement behaviors. he Bible contains many of those. |
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925 | Given the chance to repent | Num 4:15 | Aixen7z4 | 93578 | ||
True. There is no repentance after death. But the same question might be asked of King Saul, and of Ananias, with Sapphira his wife. Time does not seem to be the critical element. The Lord said of one Jezebel "I gave her space to repent ... and she repented not" and of Esau it is said that "he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears". It may not be fair to say that you are questioning God's actions, but it is not wise to do so. There are some things we do not know and may not fully understand. This one thing we can say, that God is the judge of all the earth and he will do right. All his works are righteous altogether. We may also say that there is such a thing as a presumptuous sin. Let us pray, as David did (Ps 19:13) that we will be kept back from it. |
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926 | Abraham....work it boy | Gen 15:6 | Aixen7z4 | 93573 | ||
Yes. The question of the comingling of works and faith is an old one, as you probably know. Have you never seen it answered to your satisfaction? Paul says that we are saved by faith without works (Ro 3:28,Ga 2:16, etc.). James says faith is accompanied by works (Jas 2:17). There is no contradiction here. A person believes in his heart and is saved. His faith causes him to act in obedience to God's directives. You may clarify the issue in your own mind by substituting the word "action" for "works". A person is not saved by trying to be good, by trying to keep the law, for example. A person is saved by believing on the Lord Jesus Christ (Acts 16:31, Eph 2:8, etc.). However, his faith is shown in the fact that he calls on the name of the Lord (Ro 10:13) gets baptized (1Pe 3:21), etc. The fact that Paul asks the believers to do works is precisely because they are believers and not in order to become believers. His letters are addressed to saints. Becaue they are saved they are encouraged to live up to their profession. So, works do not earn salvation. They follow |
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927 | Were Eve's desires sinful? | Gen 3:6 | Aixen7z4 | 92927 | ||
Here is a long and careful answer. For clarity, please read it the same way. Bear with some repetition if it serves the cause of clarity. It is my understanding that the section in the book of Hebrews in view (Chapter 4) is talking about maintaining their faith; holding onto the truths they had been taught and not going back to the Mosaic system. Faith is tested, as in 1Peter 1:7. Genuine faith, like genuine gold, comes out shining. The Galatians had failed the test (Galatians 1:6). Christ had not been formed in them (Galatians 4:19). Thus they had allowed themselves to be removed from him that had called them into the grace of Christ unto another gospel. The writer to the Hebrews was strengthening them against a similar "falling away" or being tossed about, as in Ephesians 4:14. This I say in order to put the passage into context and to give a proper perspective. Now, for your questions. 1. What does it mean, Jesus was tempted? In that Jesus was tempted, he was tried, he was tested. The purpose was not to get him to do something immoral, but to turn him away from the plan and program of God. The result was that Jesus showed his true nature. He had come to do the Father's will. He was perfectly in accord with the Father and Satan tried to divert him, but he failed. Nothing could turn him away from the father's will. But Satan had persuaded some of the angels to take his side, and he would try it with Jesus. He failed. Jesus was not tempted. What I mean is, he was not interested in worshipping or serving Satan. Sometimes a comparison helps, so think if this. I once was a chemist and developed products. They had specifications. When they were manufactured they had to be tested in a quality control environment to see if they met the specs. They were put through tests. If they had been manufactured properly they passed the tests. This is what Jesus went through, and the results showed that he was the genuine article. He was God. There was no weakness in him. He passed the tests. If we can think of Jesus' "temptation" as a "test", then I think we have the right idea. 2. What does it mean to be tempted? a. You and I can be enticed to do wrong. We can be allured, drawn away. Our resolve can be broken down and we can give in to sin. All of that happens if we fail to resist the devil. But Jesus did not need to go through that. He is God and he is not tempted with evil. Evil has no attraction for him. b. We can also be tested. As mentioned above, our faith is tested. We pass the test and prove to ourselves that our faith is genuine. I studied to be a psychologist. I had to pass the tests and the license exams. I was tested and tried and certified. So was Jesus. Hebrews 2:18 He suffered being tempted. The tests included hunger, thirst, privation, shame, scorn, nails, death. He passed them all and showed himself the victor. 3. What was Jesus tempted by Satan to do? The devil tried to get him to turn away from the plan and purposes of God. He tried to get him to follow his (Satan's) plans. Look at the temptations themselves: a. Make bread when I say so. b. Tempt the Lord thy God. c. Worship me and serve me. The anticipated consequences? i. Your hunger satisfied, my way. ii. God's sovereignty questioned. iii. Power and riches with the loss of your soul. Jesus was not tempted by those. He did not want them. 4. Was Satan only trying to tempt Jesus? He was placing him in positions where a fake would crack. He was allowing his to show his true qualities. He was putting him through the tests. But gold is not bothered by fire and Jesus was not bothered by the machinations of the Devil. If Satan was trying to appeal to evil desires in Jesus then we may say he was trying. In that he did not have a chance, we may say he was only testing him. But there is no chance of you failing a test to tell your name and address, and Satan did not stand a chance with Jesus. His tests were well within the Savior's capabilities. 5. Does Hebrews (chapter 4) mean that Jesus was not tempted? It means tested, not tempted to do evil. Jesus was and is God. God cannot be tempted by evil (James 1:13). 5b. Is that how you interpret the Hebrews passage? I prefer the word "understand" to "interpret". Again, the context of the book and the section suggests that the topic is not resisting evil but maintaining faith. Yet, whatever is not of faith is sin and Jesus was without sin. Jesus was without sin, not because he had resisted temptation to sin but because that was his nature. He was not just innocent, like Adam, but he was holy. There was no sin in him. He was holy, holy, holy. He was God. Think of it this way. All sin is against God. Jesus is God and God does not go against God. When he is tested, when he is tried, He says, "Thy will be done". Tested? Yes. Tempted to sin? No. |
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928 | When did Adam become a sinner? | Gen 3:6 | Aixen7z4 | 92800 | ||
Yes, Hank, but I think that explains when the sin occurred. How did he acquire the sinful nature? That is another way of framing the original question. (I suppose you would say it is not our sinning that makes us sinners, but rather it is our sinful nature which causes us tp sin). Seems he acquired the sinful nature when he experienced sin and developed a taste for it. As you say, it happened in his heart before the physical act was committed. | ||||||
929 | Why were Adam and Eve unable to resist? | Gen 3:6 | Aixen7z4 | 92799 | ||
I wonder if you meant to ask, "Why did Adam and Eve not resist that temptation?" Do you think they were utterly unable to say no to Satan? God says we should resist the devil (James 4:7). That suggests to me that we are able to do that, and they were able to do that, for God would not ask us to do something we are unable to do. If they had resisted, he would have fled. It seems that they chose not to resist. | ||||||
930 | Were Eve's desires sinful? | Gen 3:6 | Aixen7z4 | 92797 | ||
Questions remain, I think. It seems to me that beauty, wisdom and nourishment do not exist in vacuums and are not meaningful in and of themselves. The question concerns the legitimate sources of these qualities. The lemon tree is very pretty, and the lemon flower is sweet, but the fruit of the poor lemon is impossible to eat. Does that make a point? Some beautiful fruits are actually poisonous and it would not be wise to eat them. In any case one should deny oneseslf the pleasure of desiring a thing, beautiful or not, if the Lord has put it on the forbidden list. Many women are beautiful, but a man is not to desire the beauty of another man's wife. Also on that list are his house, his manservant, his maidservant, his ox, his ass, and any thing else that belongs to that other man. Secondly, can you explain what Jesus meant when he said that a man has committed adultery if he looks at a woman with lustful eyes? I hope that you are not going outside these words to say that adultery occurs only when the physical act is consummated. Jesus says that man is not to be desiring that woman. While he is lusting, Jesus says he is not only being tempted, he is sinning. She is his not his wife and he should not be desiring her. Likewise a man should not be desiring the wisdom that does not come from above because it is earthly, sensual, devilish (James 3:15). He should be aware of evil, enough to be able to recognize it and avoid it. God does not want us to know evil through the experience of engaging in it. Again, "Be wise concerning that which is good, but simple (You don't have to know a whole lot) concerning evil" (Romans 16:9). You say that Adam and Eve were already like God, so you assume they already knew good and evil. Don't you find it strange then that God says, "Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil? (Gen 3:22). Surely, he had not just become what he already was. Surely you do not think that to be made in God's image means to be like him in every way. Omnipotent? Omnipresent? Omniscient? Adam was not any of those things. In spite of Benny Hinn, I would say that Adam could not even fly. He was like God in some ways, but not in every way. He only acquired the knowledge of evil when he had eaten of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Gen 3:7). The above matters may not be clear or of prime practical importance. However, I think it should be clear, and important to understand, that Jesus was not tempted to sin. He is God. He is not tempted with evil (James 1:13). He was tempted by the devil. This refers to the activities of the devil, and not to any internal drives or desires within our Lord. He knew no sin. He could do no sin. He is perfect. Much as the heat shows the qualities of pure gold, the testing showed us what Jesus was made of. He loved righteousness and hated iniquity. He was not tempted to sin. Tested and tried, yes, and he came forth as gold. Lastly, I trust that no one reading these posts will think that it is good to know evil. Know of its existence, yes. Know how to recognize it, yes. (I think that 'Emmaus' makes the point well, and we should look again at his post, above). But not to know it intimately, in detail, or by experience, no. A client told me she needs to learn from experience, not from simply listening. I asked her, in the presence of her fiancé if she planned to learn about adultery in that way. That seemed to settle the question for her. I hope it settles it for us all. |
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931 | TO KNOW JESUS IS TO LOVE JESUS | John 3:16 | Aixen7z4 | 92544 | ||
No. I don't think so. Jesus is not changing the world. Jesus is saving people, taking them out of this world system, and he's coming back to take them out of this world. Then he's going to destroy this world. This world is not getting better. It is getting worse. But Jesus is saving people, one at a time. |
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932 | Were Eve's desires sinful? | Gen 3:6 | Aixen7z4 | 92520 | ||
Strange that you consider her desires legitimate when they consisted of things forbidden by God. Please explain. Eating from that tree had been forbidden (v.3). Eve had understood that they were not to even touch that tree. The penalty of death reinforced that idea and should have been a disincentive. Satan directly contradicted God with his version of the consequences of the act. Did Eve not see that she was choosing to believe the devil and to disbelieve God? What was her legitimate desire? Was it to have food? She could get food from any other tree. Was it to please her eyes? All the other trees were pleasant. Was it to be wise? That sounds legitimate. But it was not wise to want to be as wise as gods, for that meant she would know both good and evil. Better not to know evil, I say. What do you say? Get wisdom, get understanding (Pr 4:5); yet I would have you wise unto that which is good, and simple concerning evil (Rom 16:19). |
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933 | When did Adam become a sinner? | Gen 3:6 | Aixen7z4 | 92517 | ||
I am gathering that Adam was created with innocence. He did not become a sinner until he disobeyed God. That is when he got a taste of evil (Gen 3:22) and developed an appetite for sin. He was not able to get rid of it and he has passed it on to his children. Has it been by nature or by nurture that the trait was passed on? It was, and is, probably always both. But thank God for the antidote, which is the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. So, then, it does not matter, the fact that we have inherited sin, since there is a cure for it. I judge that this question, and the answers so aptly given, are important. God did not create sin, and he did not make Adam a sinner. He created him with innocence and with free will, and Adam became a sinner by choosing to disobey. Thank God for the second Adam who knew no sin and who chose the path of obedience. For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous (Romans 5:19). |
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934 | Did he have a sinful nature before that? | Gen 3:6 | Aixen7z4 | 92481 | ||
Did he have a sinful nature before that? | ||||||
935 | When did Adam become a sinner? | Not Specified | Aixen7z4 | 92474 | ||
When did Adam become a sinner? | ||||||
936 | When did Adam become a sinner? | Gen 3:6 | Aixen7z4 | 92476 | ||
When did Adam become a sinner? | ||||||
937 | release and faith | NT general Archive 1 | Aixen7z4 | 91313 | ||
The key is this: Faith starts with God speaking. Faith comes by hearing; hearing the word of God. Abraham had faith because he believed God, and it is the same for you and me. Has God told you to say unto a certain mountian, "Remove hence to yonder place"? If God has not said that, then there is no such thing as believing God for that. O, My Friend, if God said, "It shall remove" then it shall remove. But we must first hear God speak. As for "releasing your faith", I think you know that that phrase was invented recently, and is not found in scripture. Not the words only, the concept is also absent. The word of god does not encourage us to put our faith into action, but Jesus did say, "Have faith in God". Listen to what God says. Repent. Believe. Love. Serve. Wait. Endure hardness. Have faith, my friend, in God. |
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938 | How was the identity known by Peter? | Deut 29:29 | Aixen7z4 | 91221 | ||
I looked up "Priciples of Bible Interpretation", and read many interesting things. I pray the Lord will yet help those of us who are simple and uneducated to understand what he is saying to us in the Bible. It is a good idea to "be silent where the Bible is silent". It is another matter, I think, to act as though the Lord had the writers of Scripture to record everything he or they had in mind. I will reveal now that I had begun the last paragraph with the words "I think". I decided to leave it out because I tend to use that phrase too much, I think, and because I assume you understand that I think before I write. While we are not to add to God's word, I think that we must think as we read. Sometimes a writer records the very words of a conversation, quoting the people. At other times he gives the topic of conversation or a summary of it. We do know, though, that in every case the people talking used words which could have been quoted. My point is that we are seem to be creating an unnecessary difficulty for ourselves by imagining that three people talked to each other with no one ever referring to the others by their names. "We don't know" is often a good response. I suggest that we should be careful not to overuse it lest we give the impression that God is withholding so much information from us. The Bible is meant to reveal God, so we can know him, and his will, so that we can do it. |
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939 | Unantural Relationships | Rom 1:22 | Aixen7z4 | 91056 | ||
In referring to "love, the blending of two souls, the sharing of a life, the celebration of this by becoming one in flesh, how can this be wrong?" you could almost be describing the God-ordained institution of marriage. That is good. Hebrews 13:4 says, "Marriage is honourable in all, and the bed undefiled". The wrong of homosexuality is that you would defile that bed. The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked. But, Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God. Whoremongers and adulterers (and other defilers of the wonderful estate of marriage) God will judge. |
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940 | How was the identity known by Peter? | Deut 29:29 | Aixen7z4 | 91034 | ||
It is true that we should avoid speculation. Also, we should not add to the word of God. On the other hand, some things are apparent from the text that the Lord may not have spelled out. The passage says, (Mt 17:3) "And, behold, there appeared unto them Moses and Elias talking with him". Matthew does not tell us what they were saying, but Luke tells us that they (Lu 9:31) "spake of his decease which he should accomplish at Jerusalem". None of then records Jesus as saying, "Thank you, Moses. Thank you, Elias". And we should not add that. But is it fair to assume that names were never used in the conversation? The question suggests that God used some mysterious way to reveal the identities. But the life of Jesus himself shows that God used his words, and his works, to reveal who he was. |
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