A. The arguments over abortion really stem from a disagreement over when life begins.  The pro-abortion side insists that life begins at birth, making abortion a medical procedure similar to removing an unwanted growth of tissue.

Those opposed to abortion are convinced that from God’s point of view life begins at conception and therefore the commandment against murder (Exodus 20:13) applies to  the pre-born.

Some scriptures that support life beginning at conception are Psalm 51:5-6, Psalm 139:13-16, and Jeremiah 1:5.  Taking God at His word leads us to the inescapable conclusion that abortion is the unlawful taking of an innocent life.

A.  First, it’s important to recognize that Jesus was talking about phase one of the Kingdom, which is the Church. When Jesus returns to set up phase 2, His Millennial Kingdom, everyone on Earth will know it has arrived (Matt. 24:30).

That said, most competent study Bibles make note of the fact that the Greek word translated “within” can also be translated “among”.  When you realize who Jesus was talking to (Pharisees) you know He couldn’t have meant the kingdom was within them because they weren’t believers.  Therefore, He must have been pointing out that the kingdom was among them.

This interpretation makes more sense since there were already untold numbers of believers in Jesus in their proximity who couldn’t be distinguished from those who weren’t believers. (This is still true today.)  Also, as it concerned the Pharisees, the personification of the kingdom was standing there among them and even with their careful observation they didn’t recognize Him because He didn’t look like they thought He should.

A.  In the preceding verses John the Baptist’s disciples had asked why the Lord’s disciples didn’t fast the way they did.

Matt. 9:16-17 gives us the heart of the Lord’s response,

“No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment, for the patch will pull away from the garment, making the tear worse. Neither do people pour new wine into old wineskins. If they do, the skins will burst; the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved.”

The idea behind these verses is that Jesus didn’t come to “patch up” their religion, or to add something new to it.  His purpose was to do something no religious observation could do, and that’s to save us from our sins. He was using everyday experiences to show the consequences of mixing new with old. He could have said, “You can’t mix faith and works” (verified in Ephes. 2:8-9), and, “You can’t mix grace and the law” (verified in Romans 3:20-24).  In other words, you can’t mix the New covenant and the Old covenant.  Trying to do so is destructive to both.

A.  Paul’s request for a special offering to help the Church in Jerusalem was an extraordinary circumstance that doesn’t really support your pastor’s opinion.  There’s no Biblical requirement for tithing exclusively to one’s own church, but members of a local congregation should be supportive of their leader’s program and be happy to contribute a major portion of their tithes and offerings to it. If they’re not, maybe they’re in the wrong place.

But if they are happy where they are and the Lord leads them to also give to a particular ministry, that’s between them and Him. We should also remember that we’re not limited on how much we can give.  10% of our income is not the maximum allowable contribution.  In Luke 6:38 the Lord said He would use our generosity  toward others to determine His generosity toward us. And Paul said whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, but whoever sows generously will also reap generously (2 Cor. 9:6).

A.  Neither the Hebrew nor Greek languages used numbers.  Instead, the letters of both alphabets have numerical values and were used in place of numbers.  Rev. 13:17-18 says that 666 is the number of the anti-Christ’s name.   This means the numerical value of the letters in his name add up to 666 (literally six hundred, sixty, and six ).

But the Arabic language  is different.  It’s letters have no numerical value because it has a separate system of numbers.  They’re called Arabic numerals and today most of  western civilization uses them, including all of the English speaking world.  In order to learn the numerical value of the anti-Christ’s name it will have to be translated into Hebrew or Greek  (no one knows which) before its value can be calculated.

A.  As far as I’ve been able to determine, there is no Biblical evidence of John’s resurrection. Theoretically, he could have been among those who came out of their graves at the time of the Lord’s death (Matt. 27:52-53) but none of them were mentioned by name. They were simply referred to as “many holy people”.

The rumor that John had been resurrected apparently originated with Herod, who upon hearing reports about Jesus, speculated that He was John the Baptist risen from the dead (Matt. 14:1-2).  We know that could not be true, since both of them had been  alive at the same time.

A.  Some of this information is not specifically contained in the Gospels, but to me it’s a matter of common sense.  The disciples had been with Jesus for over 3 years. Daniel’s seventy weeks was an important national prophecy and was currently in the final stages of fulfillment. They had watched Him fulfill many Messianic prophecies of their scriptures and were convinced He was their Messiah (Matt. 16:16). A few days earlier they had been there when He fulfilled Daniel 9:25 to the day on what we call Palm Sunday.

They didn’t understand His talk of death and resurrection yet, but they knew He was the one God had promised. This is why they were so surprised when He told them the Temple would soon be destroyed.  Without the Temple the remaining 7 years of the 70 weeks prophecy could not be fulfilled. This had to have been what caused His inner circle to draw Him aside for an explanation.

The gospels are all summary statements of the Lord’s time on Earth.  During that time He and His disciples had spent countless hours on the road together and had sat around evening campfires hundreds of times.  Most of their discussions were not recorded, but I find it impossible to believe the topic of Israel’s most important national prophecies had not been discussed.

I think confirmation that the seventy weeks prophecy had been discussed can be found in Acts 1:6.  They now understood how His death and resurrection had fulfilled the 6 objectives of Daniel 9:24 and assumed the Kingdom could be restored.

A.  You’ve touched on several critical misunderstandings of Scripture, so let’s take them one at a time.

First, James 2:19 says, “You believe there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that, and shudder.”  Satan and his demons believe  Jesus exists because they’ve seen Him. But neither this verse nor any other ever hints that they believe in him. And besides, Jesus became a man to save mankind.  There’s no Scripture to support the idea of angels or demons being saved. If by saying she believes in Jesus, your friend means she believes Jesus died for her sins and rose again, then according to 1 Cor. 15:1-4 she is saved.

Second, Jesus did not include the general commandment to  “sin no more” in all His healing miracles.  He said it once in connection with a specific healing (John 5:14) and once in connection with forgiveness of the sin of adultery (John 8:11).  If ceasing all sinful behavior was a condition of salvation, none us would be saved.

Third, the Greek word translated repentance in the New Testament means “to change one’s mind”.  The reason it’s a big part of salvation is in order to be saved we first have to change our mind and accept the fact that we’re sinners.  Then we have to change our mind and believe that Jesus died for our sins and rose again.  Therefore, someone who is born again has already repented.

Behavioral changes happen after we’re saved as the Holy Spirit teaches us about living a life pleasing to God. But according to Romans 7:14-25 as long as we have a sin nature we will never completely stop sinning.

Finally, John 3:16 is only one among numerous verses that make belief a condition for salvation, but there are none that make salvation conditional upon behavior.

A.  First, Remember that even though the promise God made to Abraham was unconditional, the Old Covenant was based on obedience. Israel’s relationship with God is eternal, but in order to enjoy the benefits of the relationship they had to obey His commandments. In Deut 7:12 the Hebrew word translated “if” literally means “as a consequence of” or “because”.  (Deut. 7:12 is the only time in the entire Old Testament that it’s translated “if”.)  It means the benefits of the relationship would come as a consequence of their obedience to His commandments.

When we get to the New Testament, we’re dealing with a different language, Greek, and a different covenant, the New Covenant.  Our covenant is based on faith.  The Greek language has several different words that can be translated “if”.  In 2 Tim. 2:11-12 the Greek word translated “if” is “ei” and is conditional because the passage speaks of requirements for salvation.  “If we die with Him we will also live with Him” means “if we let His death substitute for ours we can be born again”.  But if we don’t we can’t.

The posting of mine that you’re thinking of has to do with Colossians 1:22-23.  There the word translated “if” is “eige”. It’s a different word and means “inasmuch as” or “since”.  So in Col. 1:22-23 Paul was saying that God has reconciled Himself to us through the death of His Son since our faith is established and firm.

But in all this, we’re violating a primary rule of interpretation, which is to let clear verses help us understand those that aren’t so clear. Ephesians 1:13-14 and 2 Cor. 1:21-22 are two of the clearest examples that show our salvation is guaranteed from the moment we believe.  Since Paul also wrote those verses, and since he wrote everything under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, he couldn’t have contradicted himself by saying something different somewhere else.

Going to the original language can be a good way for us to get the full meaning of a passage.  But to do so in an attempt to negate the clear promises of God can cause unnecessary confusion.  And we know who the author of confusion is.

A.  Comparing Genesis 1:1 with Exodus 20:11 we see that Genesis 1:1 says God created heaven and Earth, whereas Exodus 20:11 says He made heaven and earth.  In both cases the Hebrew words for heaven and earth are the same, but created (Genesis 1:1) and made (Exodus 20:11) are two unrelated words that don’t mean the same thing.

The Hebrew word for created in Genesis 1:1 is “bara” and it’s followed by an untranslated word that according to some scholars signifies it was a miraculous work, as in creating something out of nothing. This combination of Hebrew words is only used in Genesis 1:1.

The Hebrew word for made In Exodus 20:11 is “asah”, which means to make something, as a jeweler makes a ring from gold. This word is used ten times in the Old Testament to describe God’s 6 day work of creation, and implies He was making something out of something else, as would be the case if He was making an uninhabitable ruin into something habitable. This fits with the literal meaning of Genesis 1:2 which says the Earth became an uninhabitable ruin following its creation.

This gives weight to the view that Exodus 20:11 describes God’s 6 day work of creation beginning in Genesis 1:3 and there’s no contradiction.