A. That’s the problem isn’t it?  And the reason false teachers fool so many people is they are convinced they’ve interpreted the word correctly.  Lacking the Holy Spirit they have it all wrong and don’t even realize it.  I think Matt. 7:18 explains the problem pretty well.   A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit.

Which brings to mind when Jesus said “forgive them Father for they know not what they do”. Was He talking about God’s chosen people the Jews and the crucifixion only, since the Church was not in place yet, or was He referring to all mankind in that God sent His Son so that the whole world might be saved? Or is this a plea/prayer from Jesus about all of our “unknowing sins” that we commit?

A. You can usually tell by the context of the passage who the Lord is speaking to or about.  For example the first passage you refer to is 2 Chron. 7:14.  In it God was speaking with Solomon, telling him how to respond when the Lord sent plagues or droughts upon Israel.  It was to be seen as a sign that they had drifted away from Him.  He was making a promise that as soon as they turned back, He would heal their land.  God has never made a promise like that to the Church because the Church has no land to heal.  Our home is not on this Earth. American Christians apply it to America because they’re confusing patriotism with religion.  You don’t see Canadian Christians applying it to Canada, or the Chinese, who probably have more Christians than the USA, to China.  It was a promise made to Israel.

When Jesus said “Father, forgive them for they don’t know what they’re doing,” (Luke 23:34) He was referring to the people who had unknowingly put Him to death.  This would include the crowd that was duped into calling for His death and the soldiers who were carrying out the order, but not to the leaders who should have known from their knowledge of Scripture that they were executing their Messiah.

A. 2 Corinthians 10:3-5 says we have divine weapons with which to demolish strongholds.  A stronghold is a fortress the enemy has built in our mind from which to attack us.  The fortress in this case is constructed from lies we’ve been taught that our behavior is what will determine our eternal destiny.  The enemy uses these lies to make us afraid we won’t measure up in an attempt to steal our joy and destroy our faith.   But we can use our divine weapon, which is God’s Word, to demolish these arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God.  We can take every thought captive and make it obedient to Christ, which means make it comply with the promise of His Word.

The truth is that none of us is worthy, that’s why the Lord made our salvation dependent upon His worthiness instead of ours. The only condition He has ever placed on us is that we believe He purchased our salvation for us and with His death He paid the price in full.  That’s the promise to which every lie and pretension must either be made obedient or be demolished.

I enjoy your site every day, and I know you have a great love and knowledge of God and his word.  My Grandaughter was watching this program with me and asked if we had the whole Bible and was our Bible right?  I told her God had made sure we had all the information we needed to be saved.  The one and major knowledge that Jesus was the son of God sent by god to die for our sins on the cross and that he rose from the dead and went to heaven to be with the father. Was I right?

A. The Gospel of Peter first appeared in the 1800’s and is thought to have been written late in the 2nd Century, about 100 years after Peter died.  The name of the real author is unknown.  Many evangelical scholars believe that the Gospel of Mark is Peter’s account of the events of the Lord’s life.   Two letters written by Peter before his death are also part of the New Testament and complete his written account.  The Gospel of Judas is just like its namesake, a complete betrayal the Lord’s ministry.  It was also written by someone other than Judas long after he died.

Your response to your grand daughter is correct as far as it goes.  I believe our Bible contains everything we need to be saved, to live a life pleasing to the Lord, and to know in advance what lies ahead for the Church and for the world.

A. The Hebrew word netzer means branch, and the Netzari, or Netzarim, are “the people of the branch.”  It’s a term that referred to Christians in the earliest days of the Church because “The Branch” is a Messianic title from the Old Testament (Isaiah 11:1).  Today it’s used by some Jewish people who’ve accepted Jesus as their Savior but still follow the Old Covenant.

Many religious groups claim to be the only true followers of Jesus, but the Bible says that “whosoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16).

As our love for the Lord grows, we’ll have a growing desire to live a life that pleases Him, but the New Testament is clear that putting our focus on keeping the 613 laws of the Torah is missing the point.  By including our own works in the formula for salvation, we’re saying that we don’t believe the Lord’s death was sufficient payment for our sins, and that we have to make up the difference.  This is very dangerous, because it can lead to the belief that we are saving ourselves.  That’s what got the Pharisees into so much trouble with the Lord.  We’re saved because of what we believe, not how we behave.  Behaving in a way that pleases God is how we say thanks for the free gift of salvation.

The “church” as we know it today is defined as “a specifically Christian religious organization separate from Israel”. That is a post-biblical invention because you won’t find any place in the scriptures where such a thing is mentioned.” Is this person correct, that the word “Church” as translated in the all versions of Scripture is a deliberate attempt to separate Jews and Gentiles by the Catholic Church?

A. This is why I avoid forums.  There are too many people saying things that have no foundation as if they were the truth.  Often they justify their claims by saying the Bible has been corrupted.  The Greek word translated church is ekklesia.  It was first used by Jesus in Matt. 16:18 and appears 118 times in the Bible.  115 of those times it’s translated church.  Thousands of early copies of the New Testament  (pre-dating the Catholic Church) can verify this.  Paul clearly distinguished the church from Israel in 1 Cor. 10:32, and his statement that Israel has been hardened in part until the full number of gentiles has come in (Romans 11:25) is another indication that he viewed them separately.

Some so-called reformed theologians try to deny this separation in an effort to justify their view that the church has replaced Israel in God’s plan, but such a view is inconsistent with God’s promises to Israel.

A. Rastafarian beliefs are afro-centric, although they first emerged in Jamaica in the early 20th Century.  Most Rastafarians hold that Haile Selassie I, the last Emperor of Ethiopia, was the Messiah.  (Some Rastas disagree with this, asserting that Jesus is the only Messiah.)  Ras Tafari is the name by which the Emperor was known to them, and Ethiopia is considered to be the Promised Land of Moses.  Many reject Biblical Christianity as a white religion, but seek to follow the Law of Moses.  There are currently about 1 million Rastafarians in the world. Most scholars would say their beliefs are neither Biblical nor Christian.

A. You’re not talking about magic in the sense of entertaining tricks involving sleight of hand.  This why they’re called dark arts.  Unless God has specifically called you to be involved in the supernatural, the protection the Holy Spirit affords you comes in the form of a warning to stay away from it.  This curiosity could be a prompting from the Lord, but it’s more likely a temptation from the devil.  My advice is to be very cautious and spend a lot of time in prayer before deciding whether to proceed.

A. The name Lilith does not appear in the the Bible.  The Hebrew word  liyliyth, which is translated screech owl in English, can be found in Isaiah 34:14 (KJV).  It is thought by some to be referring to a night demon.  If you’re asking whether there is any Biblical support for the gnostic teaching that Lilith was also Adam’s wife, the answer is no.

One of my current avenues of study is the exploration of the rite of baptism on behalf of those that have passed on without knowing Jesus.   To this end I am using the Bible and the Patrologies (writings of early Church leaders).  Reading the text (of 1 Cor. 15:29) it appears that (Paul) considers the practitioners of proxy baptism actually do believe in the resurrection from the dead and that is the reason they make attempts to save non-Christians that have died, as many have lived and died without even the name of Jesus falling upon their ears.  Have you considered the beliefs and practices of Early Christians regarding their belief in this rite, and, if so, do their beliefs and teachings make any kind of sense to you?

A. Every living person has to choose to be baptized because baptism is only meaningful if it confirms the person’s confession of faith in the Lord’s death as payment for his or her sins.  So how can it be different for dead people?  Who’s to say if they would have chosen to be baptized?   I believe that baptizing a person, living or dead, or being baptized for them, without their consent is an exercise in futility.  As I’ve said before,  Jesus didn’t teach it, the gospels don’t contain it, and the early church didn’t practice it.  You can’t build doctrine on the foundation of one off handed comment in 1 Corinthians 15:29.  That’s why there is no agreement among orthodox scholars approving the practice.  The best possible spin you can put on Paul’s comment is that living believers were being baptized on behalf of believers who had died without being baptized, and even baptisms of that sort can’t be shown to be necessary.

As for those who supposedly died not knowing about Jesus, I don’t believe there are any.  God is just (1 John 1:9).  He saves all who believe and condemns all who reject Him (John 3:18). Hebrews 9:27 says we’re given one lifetime to decide and after that we face judgment.  There’s no mention anywhere in the Bible of a second chance after we die.  Therefore there can’t be any who didn’t get a first one. Otherwise God could not be just.