Restraining Evil No More
Published: August 12, 2009Thank you for your encouragement and for your obedience to present the truth of scripture. My spirit is sensing so much darkness in our world today. I don’t know if it is because I am more sensitive to it or if it is really increasing. I wanted to know more about when the bible tells us that the God will no longer restrain evil in the last days. Will this be a gradual measure of allowing evil or will there be a definite line of demarcation when the Holy Spirit no longer restrains the evil of this world?
Is Mary The Only One Who Knew?
Published: August 12, 2009Re: Mark 14: 3,8: And being in Bethany in the house of Simon the leaper, as he sat at meat, there came a woman having an alabaster box of ointment of spikenard very precious: and she brake the box, and poured it on his head.
The Disciples were up set and said it should have been sold and the money used for the poor. But Jesus said,
She hath done what she could: she is come aforehand to anoint my body to the burying.
Question: did this woman know and understand Jesus was about to die and be put in the tomb but his disciples did not?
A Question On John 7:7-8
Published: August 11, 2009I am reading and studying in John. I’ve read John 7 before, but never noticed the inconsistency regarding the word “yet” in verse 8 . I thought maybe it was the translation I was reading, (it doesn’t have the word at all) but when I read a different one, it says that the earliest manuscripts didn’t have the word “yet”.
6Therefore Jesus told them, “The right time for me has not yet come; for you any time is right. 7The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify that what it does is evil. 8You go to the Feast. I am not yet[a] going up to this Feast, because for me the right time has not yet come.” 9Having said this, he stayed in Galilee.
In the next verse, he goes in “secret”
10However, after his brothers had left for the Feast, he went also, not publicly, but in secret.
My question is this: It appears that Jesus lied to his brothers. This can’t be true, so what is the real story?
Salvation And The Mentally Challenged
Published: August 11, 2009We have a 13 year old granddaughter who has been to church with us several times. She has heard of Jesus but yet the concept of sin is not in her realm of understanding. She is very much in the here and now and her concept of time is vague at best. Accountability is also a very vague concept at best.
As she grows older it will be doubtful that she will get beyond where she is now mentally. If I understand accountability and the need for confession and embracing Jesus as savior she will never be able to take that step. I would expect to be with her when we are all called home. Would that be a valid supposition?
OSAS And 1 Cor. 6:9-10
Published: August 11, 2009Your website and the answers have been a blessing. I do have 1 question.
“1Co 6:9 Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, 1Co 6:10 Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God. ”
That verse says that I shall not inherit the kingdom of God if I do any of those things. What happens to OSAS if I steal something and die before I confess?
Exercising Discernment
Published: August 10, 2009I am going to be very bold and say I am gifted with discernment. I know immediately, sometimes I feel I know upon seeing someone, if they are a false teacher. I can also sense spirits who hang on people, either good or bad.
This question concerns false teaching–I have a hard time “going” to church. I feel a problem with most of the messages being preached. And I feel it is a valid concern. I have young children and cannot have them being taught lies, fallacies, deception, whatever. I feel it is my responsibility to “train up a child in the way they should go.” As a result we, as a family, are isolated from the body of Christ.
Do you advise to attend a church anyway, despite the false teaching? Am I supposed to explain to my son that what he was just taught was false, but we go anyway? I am confused.
I trust your teaching and am interested in what you have to say. I know that gifts are meant to be shared, but how can one use discernment in this day and age ?
Does Daniel 2 Describe Concrete And Rebar?
Published: August 9, 2009I was recently leading a study of Daniel Ch. 2 and had a thought on which I would like your input. The statue has very specific patterns in the materials. From the head down, it’s decreasing in value (gold-silver-bronze-iron) while increasing in strength and are identified by their prominent use in the respective empires (Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greek, Roman) until I get to the feet and toes. The feet and toes are iron mixed with clay. It sounds to me like our modern use of concrete.
Concrete has impressive compressive strength but is brittle (no tensile strength) so iron rebar is used. This is how freeways, bridges, modern buildings and their foundations are built. And identifying the base as concrete would be consistent with the increasing strength of the materials and their decreasing value. Thank you for your thoughts on this as well as your service to the Lord.
Advice on Healing
Published: August 9, 2009I am facing some big decisions. My kidneys are failing and I need to go on dialysis and I have peripheral artery disease in my legs. The Dr. says he can help my legs with surgery but I need to start dialysis first. I also have 2 valves in my heart that will need repair sooner or later. I sort of know where you stand on healing and I have been prayed for. My question is, I don’t think I have the faith to stand and claim my healing. I don’t want to offend God but I don’t feel I am strong enough to wait with the possibility of something devastating happening (ie leg amputation). I have enough faith to believe Him for my salvation but I’m not sure about the healing process. I need some spiritual advice.
A Secret Rapture Or Not?
Published: August 8, 2009I have read of a post-Trib believer stating that the idea of a secret Rapture is self-refuting, because the verse widely used to support the idea of the Rapture, 1 Thessalonians 4:16, clearly describes a very loud event– shouts, trumpets, people getting out of graves… and according to the author of this article, this noise will be heard by everyone across the world. So this must be describing the Second Coming of Christ, which is seen by everyone across the world “like lightning from the east of the sky to the west.” Is it possible that the Rapture will be loud?
Seeing The Church in Rev. 4
Published: August 8, 2009I would like to know how you perceive that the rapture as you say quote “And then there’s the Book of Revelation. John shows the Rapture occurring in chapter 4” unquote….where in chapter 4 gives you the indication that the rapture has happened?