Q. I know that through the death of our Lord we are made acceptable to God, but how were people in the Old Testament acceptable?I know there are many great figures in the bible that quite often made some dreadful mistakes - David, Samson etc and it has always been encouraging to me that God looked with favor upon these people who got things so terribly wrong; however I find it difficult to reconcile the idea that as a righteous God, these people could not have been acceptable in His eyes.

I know it can’t be connected with them obeying the ‘law’ because, as sinners, they would never have been able to achieve it. David for instance, repented and was forgiven - how was this possible? Was it their faith that made them righteous? Was it possible for them to remain in sin and still be acceptable to God through faith?

A. In effect Hebrews 10:12-14 says that although Jesus offered Himself only once on a specific day in history, His death applied across the entire span of time to all who accepted it in faith, from Adam in the past to the last human to be born in the future, and made them perfect forever in God’s sight.

Romans 4:3 says that Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness. And in Romans 4: 6-8 Paul quoted from Psalm 32:1-2 to show that David believed the same thing. From beginning to end the Bible makes it clear that salvation is by grace through faith in the substitutionary death of the Messiah.

Q. The destruction of the northern invasion’s troops and allies with obvious supernatural intervention is said to show the Lord’s greatness and make Him known among nations (Ezek. 38:23), but apparently, this is not the same as the kind of acknowledgment that Zech. 12:10 speaks of (after Armageddon), with Israel turning to Jesus as Messiah as a nation?I don’t understand how Israel could proceed to follow the anti-Christ if they had turned back to the Lord after the Ezek. battle. Ezek. 39:22 says: “The house of Israel shall know that I am the Lord their God, from that day forward”.

How can they know that and then proceed to follow the anti-Christ? Is Jesus as Messiah still out of their minds until the second coming and instead, Israel thinks that the anti-Christ is the messiah until then, and they are following Yahweh without Jesus by building the temple? The timing doesn’t fit the whole picture otherwise.

A. I think you understand it pretty well. At the beginning Israel, and indeed the whole world will be astounded by the things the anti-Christ will be able to accomplish. (Rev. 13:3-4)

And since the Jews have always believed that the Messiah will be just a man like King David was, they won’t see the problem with him until the middle of the 70th week when he proclaims himself to be God. Then many of them will have the same issue with the anti-Christ as their ancestors had with Jesus. This is why he turns on them during the Great Tribulation.

Then at the end, those who’ve survived and haven’t already recognized that Jesus has been their Messiah all along will have their eyes opened just before the 2nd Coming as Zechariah 12:10 says.

Q. I know the Bible says that any man that calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. But why does Jesus say in Matt 7:14 Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it. Is it pertaining to faith?

A. While it is true that anyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved, relatively few will when compared to the 12 billion people who have lived since Adam.

In addition to those who reject the Gospel outright, many will be distracted and misled onto the wrong road by false religions, false teachers and false doctrine that change the simple but narrow intent of Scripture.

For example, just within Christianity, some of these doctrines teach that Jesus is not the only way to salvation, or that Jesus wasn’t really God in the flesh, or that you don’t really need to be born again, or that his death didn’t cover all of your sins so you have to work to finish the job yourself. The list of things man has done to distort the Gospel message is nearly endless.

The straight and narrow way is clearly laid out in John 6:29. “The work of God is this. Believe in the one He has sent.”

Q. It’s written in Hebrews that the Lord Jesus was crucified OUTSIDE the city but Jews say that the lamb is killed IN the temple. How can these be related?

A. According to the Scriptures, the head of each household killed the lamb for his family, not the priest. (Exodus 12:21) 2 Chronicles 30:17 tells of the first time that Levites slaughtered the Passover Lambs for people who were ceremonially unclean, so that they could eat the Passover. Apparently the Pharisees continued this tradition into the time of Jesus, which is why we hear that the Passover lamb was killed in the Temple.

Hebrews 13:11-14 says, The high priest carries the blood of animals into the Most Holy Place as a sin offering, but the bodies are burned outside the camp. And so Jesus also suffered outside the city gate to make the people holy through his own blood. Let us, then, go to him outside the camp, bearing the disgrace he bore. For here we do not have an enduring city, but we are looking for the city that is to come.

Remember that Hebrews was written to Jewish believers who were being tempted back into Judaism. The writer is using “the camp” to symbolize Judaism as a whole, not just Jerusalem. It’s a complicated argument, the gist of which is to truly apprehend Jesus, they had to go outside of Judaism. He said that Jerusalem, the heart of Judaism and the city outside of which the Lord was crucified, was no longer important to them. They were to be looking toward the New Jerusalem, the one that’s coming.

Some feel that by being executed outside the city, Jesus was also fulfilling the prophetic implications of the sacrifice of the red heifer, also killed outside the camp. The ashes of the red heifer, when mixed with water, cleansed the people from sin and purified them after they had touched something dead. The mixture was called the water of purification because washing in it purified the people from their sins and uncleanliness, just as symbolically washing in the Lord’s shed blood has purified us from ours.

Q. Does it say anywhere in the Bible if souls are created at conception or if there exists a finite number of souls that were created at the beginning of time?

A. The way I read Psalm 139 every part of us came to be at the moment of our conception. Although God was aware of every day of our existence before time began, and knows exactly how many of us there’ll eventually be and which of us will choose Him, it’s because He’s outside of time and knows the end from the beginning. To say that any part of our being existed prior to our conception is to flirt with the idea of a pre-existence, a concept from Eastern Mysticism that can’t be supported Biblically.

Q. RE: 1 John 5:7-8. For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one. And there are three that bear witness in earth, the Spirit, and the water, and the blood: and these three agree in one. What do the three (spirit, water, and blood) represent?

A. John was refuting the gnostic claim that Jesus was a mere man therefore couldn’t be our Savior. The three that testify to support John’s view that Jesus was the Son of God are the Holy Spirit Who descended upon Him, the water of His baptism, a ceremonial cleansing to begin His ministry, and His shed blood by which mankind is redeemed.

At His death, water and blood issued forth from His wounded side and the Holy Spirit was given as a deposit to all who believe. Some see in this the idea that each believer is washed in the blood, baptized by water and sealed with the Holy Spirit, but the context of John’s letter is really a rebuttal against the already growing gnostic error, and these two verses clearly refer to Jesus, not us.

Hear my cry, O God; listen to my prayer. From the ends of the earth I call to you, I call as my heart grows faint; lead me to the rock that is higher than I. For you have been my refuge, a strong tower against the foe. I long to dwell in your tent forever and take refuge in the shelter of your wings.

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Whenever it seems like the whole world is about to explode into violence and destruction, I find that a moment or two spent dreaming about the world to come helps restore a sense of peace and hope. Now is such a time. Let’s take a trip into eternity.

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With regards to Jesus emptying himself of His “God-ness” when He came to earth (Philippians 2:7), is Jesus still “emptied-out”? Or did he “refill” when he ascended to Heaven to sit at the right-hand of God?

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I am teaching Sunday school ages 5-11. I am going to teach the story of Cain and Abel but, I’m not having a good understanding of it myself or I may be thinking too deep into the story. I don’t want them to get more confused. What offering was God initially looking for from Cain?

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