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.

A. The reason you couldn’t see the writer’s position in those references is that it’s not there.  1 Cor. 15:22 says that Adam’s sin brought death to us all but the Lord’s death brought us life, and Rev. 20:5 says that unbelievers who die will be brought back to life at the end of the millennium to face their judgment.  This is explained in greater detail in Rev. 20:11-15.

As you say, 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.

A. Think about it.   In Luke 16:27-31 when the rich man asked Abraham to send Lazarus back to warn his family of the agony of Hell, Abraham refused.  In effect, he said that the Bible already contained sufficient warnings.

That being the case, why would Jesus now take people on tours of Hell?  (She’s not the only one who claims to have visited.)  We have even more Biblical knowledge than was available in the Lord’s time.

The Bible also tells us that the anti-Christ is the major cause of the so-called WW3, not one who emerges out of it.

A. The Phrases “soaking prayer”  and “healing rooms” describe practices that are controversial in Christianity, but for different reasons.

Practitioners of soaking prayer attempt to seek out the presence of God through mystical exercises.  In this sense it’s very similar to contemplative prayer and contemplative spirituality, both of which find their origins in Eastern Mysticism and came into Christianity through the New Age.

Healing rooms were developed out of the ministry of John G. Lake, a powerful evangelist and healer in the early 20th Century.  Many of his followers today are of the Pentecostal persuasion, and there are hundreds of Healing Room ministries in several countries.

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 ?

A. The gift of discernment is mentioned in 1 Cor. 12:10 where the Greek language literally means distinguishing between spirits.  Many people don’t realize that false teaching is often not just an innocent misunderstanding.  It can also be something introduced by the enemy to sow deception or confusion.  In these times it’s more important than ever for believers to exercise their discernment.  After all it was given to protect the body from false teaching.

In your own case, exercising your discernment may not change the place you’re in now, but you can use it to find a church where sound doctrine is taught and encourage others to attend there.

A. The G12 model was designed to work this way:

A pastor trains 12 people to be cell leaders. These cell leaders are each responsible for discipling 12 others in a cell group, usually with a minimum number coming from the community and not from within the church they attend. After a specified time, and after certain strict requirements are met, these cell members then become leaders themselves, and start their own cells. Thus, the membership of the church is multiplied, and the message of the Gospel is taken into the community.

There’s nothing inherently wrong with the G12 structure.  Jesus taught 12 and then sent them out to teach others.  Paul also taught some who then went out and taught others.  It’s how G12 is implemented and what’s being taught that causes some to question it.  They believe the founders of the G12 model adhere to some unsound doctrinal principles and the fear is that these are being passed along to others. Be a Berean.  Search the Scriptures to see if these things be true (Acts 17:11).

I’d like to know what you believe can keep a person from actually having been saved.  I didn’t know about the Trinity. I fully believe it now as I learned it years ago. But what about Mormons who love the Lord and dedicated their lives to Him and then were taught by their church that there is no trinity?  I’m fully aware that Mormon or Jehovah Witness or even Catholic theology is wrong, but where does the line get drawn? They are being taught wrong doctrine and yet many of them claim to have fallen in love with the Lord the same way I did.

A. The Lord gave us the bottom line for salvation in John 3:16 and again in John 6:28-29.  Belief that Jesus died for all of our sins is all God requires of us. He added no other conditions.

Mormon, Jehovah’s Witness and Catholic theology have  two big problems with their official doctrines on salvation.  First, they all add some kind of religious work to to belief, making behavior part of the cause instead of the effect of our salvation.  In so doing, they’re really saying that the Lord’s death alone was not sufficient to save us, we have to apply our own effort to get the job done.

Second, when you peel the onion all the way back, you see that they make Jesus out to be a created being, contrary to the Biblical position that He’s our Creator. Speaking of Jesus, Paul wrote, “For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him” (Colossians 1:16).  No created being is qualified to die for our sins, whether angel or man.

Both these beliefs are in conflict with the Lord’s teaching on salvation and if accepted whole heartedly  can prevent it.

All that said, I’m convinced there are untold numbers of ordinary people from those and other organizations who in their hearts believe that Jesus is Lord and His death was sufficient for their salvation. I base this belief on the Lord’s letters to the Churches in Thyatira (Rev. 2:18-29 and Sardis (Rev. 3:1-6). I believe Thyatira was written to the Catholic Church and Sardis was written to Protestants.  In both leters the Lord hinted that some from among them would be saved while others will not. In both cases those described as overcomers are the ones who reject the false teaching being criticized by the Lord and rely solely on Him for their salvation.

A.  Acts 8:13 says that Simon believed and was baptized. But verse 15 says neither he nor any of the others received the Holy Spirit at that time (Verse 16).  Even after the others received the Holy Spirit, there’s no indication that Simon did.  He was more interested in receiving the power to convey the Spirit than in receiving Him into his heart.  His actions and Peter’s discernment of his bitterness and captivity to sin (Acts 8:20-23) demonstrate that his belief was intellectual, not spiritual, and therefore not sufficient for salvation.  Even his request that Peter pray for him was not out of a spirit of repentance, but an attempt to avoid the punishment Peter had pronounced.

In early Christian literature, Simon was described as an arch heretic who was the father of Gnostic teaching, a false doctrine that infected the early Church and persists to this day in the form of New Age teaching.  The practice of purchasing church office was named Simony after him.