If a couple have been married for over 50 years, and have been faithful and loving toward each other, but the husband is not a believer (although he has said he ‘would like to believe, as everything would make sense then’) and the wife is a believer, are they to be separated at death, and one go to heaven while the other goes to hell?

How could God do that? Surely what he has joined together should not be ‘put asunder’? How could the wife ever be happy in heaven knowing that her husband with whom she shared her whole life and who she loved with all their heart has gone to hell simply because he could not believe?

These people are my dear parents. I am a born-again Christian living in the same house with them. I pray frequently for them. Surely, surely, God in all his love and mercy could not, would not separate them for all eternity after death…….????

Your thoughts on this would be most welcome, as it is causing me great concern.

My mother was raised as a Catholic and feels that it is the one true church and is upset that we (her children) have turned to Bible based churches. My biggest concern is her praying to Mary and her siblings veneration of Mary. They travel to Lourdes every year to pray and bring home holy water She has started reading the bible, but interprets it as she feels the Catholic church believes. She is afraid that if the Catholic Church is wrong then her parents and family may not be saved…so I believe that fear is keeping her prisoner to these beliefs. I would love for her to have peace and unconditional love in her life Do you have any suggestions?

I was on a website you recommended and read an article by E.W. Bullinger on The Rich Man and Lazarus. An Intermediate state? He says that when we die our body goes into the grave and our spirit falls into a sleep mode and won’t be awakened until the Rapture when it will be rejoined with our body.

I have always understood that when we die our spirit goes immediately into the presence of the Lord. Jesus told the thief on the cross that today you will be with me in Paradise. Like wise 2nd Corinthians states that to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.

What do you think happens to our spirit when we die? If it goes to be with the lord do we have a temporary body and what do we do There while here on earth the church is waiting for the rapture.

This week, I watched a report about the Stigmata, where certain pious Catholics exhibit wounds in the palms of their hands and feet, mimicking Christ’s wounds while He was being crucified. I can’t find any scriptural evidence on this. I am skeptical of these “signs and wonders”. Please share your thoughts on this.

I’ve been wondering about this for a while now – is there a difference between directly lying to someone and tricking them? There must be, because didn’t God essentially trick Satan when Jesus was crucified? Perhaps I’m misinterpreting the situation.

On a similar note, would “covering up evidence” be a form of lying, as well? For example, deleting one’s history on an internet browser.

What verses in the Bible state that a man and woman (involved in a relationship) should not live together before they are married? While it would obviously be sinful if they were sexually involved with each other, what if they weren’t?

I remember reading about a verse that admonished such a thing, but in reading some of your answers regarding cohabitation, it seems as though you defined it as sinful when the partners were active with each other.

Comparing James 5: 1-3 with Ezekiel 7: 19 , It seems the world money system will crash, with people throwing their silver in the streets. This is linked to God’s wrath in Ezekiel. Do you think that the ultimate economic crash will then be reserved for the tribulation period ?

About the Mark of the Beast; why the forehand or forehead? Why is it either of those two places, does the Bible indicate the reasoning behind the two locations?

A very bright professional woman who is very dear to me is an agnostic, bordering on atheism. She seems angry with God (or maybe it is fear, or a combination — God knows) and actively runs from all mention of Him because He allows the innocent to suffer, and because He will condemn the Hottentots and the Hitlers to the same eternal fire and brimstone.

I’m at a total loss of what to say to her. She was raised a Lutheran and learned not just to “fear” God, but to be terrified of him. She knows the Plan of Salvation but appears to reject the entire “God package.” God is not a loving Father but, if He is to be believed in at all, He is an angry, hostile, punishing being who is just waiting to get His hands on you and who will impose hideous punishment on all, even believers, in this life and the next.

I have to believe somehow that, although nonbelievers will suffer eternal separation from God, there must be places where the just God mitigates the kinds of “punishment” a nonbeliever will get. Or else, maybe He simply “snuffs them out.”

So what about the person whose entire social and cultural existence, the entire cognitive framework in which his personality develops, and by which he interprets all his perceptions, including what God reveals to him, and lives a “righteous” life, although he worships an “unknown god?”

How can I explain to my agnostic friend that a good, just, and merciful God will condemn such a person to have the “smoke of his burning rise up forever and ever.” I know that God takes no pleasure in this, so is our God so absolutist in his condemnation of all nonbelievers? I’m not writing of those who know God (as we think we do), and actively rebel and reject Him. I mean those who are unable to know God as we think we do.

Is it not likely that we attribute qualities to God that are not really His thinking and ways at all? After all, his thoughts and ways are far different from ours. We are able to know of him only the tiny part he has chosen to reveal.

What can I say to this dear woman? Is there any scripture (which is not really seen by her as a valid source) that can help? Yes, I pray for her.

Hi, I have a question about the judgment seat of Christ. I understand that believers will be rewarded for the good deeds and suffer loss for the bad deeds. Someone told me that the ones that suffer loss will not reign in the 1000 year millennium. Is this true and if it is where will they be? Thanks for your answer.