A. Jesus had to be a biological descendant of King David’s in order to have a legal claim to David’s Throne (Luke 1:32).  Since He had no earthly father, His mother had to provide this link. Mary was of the tribe of Judah and the family of David, being descended from David through his son Nathan (Luke 3:31).  An obscure reference in Exodus 20:5 seems to indicate that the sin nature passes from the father only.  This explains how Jesus could be fully man but with no sin nature.

A.  1 John was written to believers.  In 1 John 1:9 John advised them and us to confess our sins in order to be purified from all unrighteousness.  This has nothing to do with our eternal salvation, but rather with our earthly relationship with God.   Unconfessed sin can cause interruptions in that relationship, depriving us of its benefits until we admit that we’ve sinned.  Whether you ask Him to forgive you or thank Him for already having done so is not as important as acknowledging the sin and expressing remorse.

Think of Adam and how different things might have been if he had simply confessed instead of trying to blame somebody else.  God already knew he had sinned and never intended to disown him.  But their relationship was certainly different after it happened.  I find it interesting that the Bible doesn’t mention whether Adam ever confessed.

A. Obviously God would not guide someone to do something He speaks against in His Word.  James 1:13-14 says,

For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; but each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed.

When we do something the Bible describes as sin we’re following our own desires, not God’s leading.  When we finally realize we’ve sinned and ask God to forgive us, He will immediately do so.  He is able to do this because He already knows every sin of our life and sent His Son to die for all of them. When we agree to let His death pay for our sins, He wipes the entire slate clean (Colossians 1:13-15).

A. There are plenty of verses that tell us what life is like because of sin, but as far as I know there’s only one passage that tells us what life will be like without it. Rev. 21:3-4 says, And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”

Think of a life where nothing would ever make you sad, you wouldn’t ever mourn the loss of anything. You’d never experience the pain of separation, there would never be any sickness or injury, and no one would ever die. By extension I could say that whatever work you did would be by choice and would bring only a sense of fulfillment, with no stress, no fear, no drudgery.  You would never feel discouraged or frustrated.  There would never be any financial pressure.  Your heart would never be broken, you’d feel no envy or jealousy.  You’d be close friends with everyone, and they would always be concerned for your best interests, as you would be for theirs.   Your days would be without number, but you’d never feel bored or restless.  Each one would bring a new excitement for life, a new thirst for adventure.  And here’s the best part.  After the Rapture, your life will be just like this, forever.

A. I think the Lord had prepared Himself to endure the physical pain involved in His crucifixion.  What He wasn’t prepared for was the spiritual loss He suffered when for the first time in eternity He experienced separation from His Father.  We’ve always been separated from God so we can’t imagine what it would feel like to be one with Him.  He had always had union with the Father and wasn’t prepared for the pain that being separated would bring.

Personally, I think that in ways we can’t begin to understand the Trinity was changed at that moment, torn apart by our sins.   Jesus, trapped in the body of a man, took all the sin of mankind upon Himself, literally becoming sin for us (2 Cor. 5:21).  God could not bear the sight of it and had to turn His back, taking the light from the world in the process.  For the first time in eternity, Jesus was left completely alone, at the mercy of His tormentors.  It was too much, even for Him, and for the first and only time in the entire ordeal cried out in anguish,  “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

A. Before the Great Flood there was no hostile weather.  It’s one of the effects of sin entering into the world.  Therefore the destruction and death these weather related disasters cause should be charged to Satan’s account.  For the time being, he is the god of this world (2 Cor. 4:4).  As long as there’s sin in the world there will be consequences of this sort.  And even though God is all-powerful His righteousness will not allow Him to relieve the world of them.  This will change at the 2nd Coming when the Lord becomes King of the whole Earth. (Zech. 14:9)  In the meantime adult believers and all children who die in these disasters are taken directly to the Throne to begin their eternity with God.

A. I think you’ve got it.  Natural man cannot/will not live without rebelling against God.  But I’m not convinced that everyone already knows that, so God will provide one more chance for man to prove himself worthy.

Remember, in the Millennium 3 things are different  than ever before.  1) It begins with only believers who have actually lived through the worst of God’s wrath.  2) Satan will be bound for the entire time.  And 3) Jesus will reign over them in person.

Even so, natural man will eventually rebel. Man’s sin nature makes it impossible for us to live in a manner pleasing to God, even in such an ideal environment as the millennium will provide, until we’ve been perfected in the resurrection/rapture.

A. The Lord hasn’t  explained all the details of His plan to us, and it’s His right to keep some things to Himself.  Colossians 1:16 says all things were created by Him and for Him.  Satan is a created being (Ezek. 28:13), so that tells us he must serve some ongoing purpose in God’s plan. Since the Bible doesn’t explain how God can tolerate having Satan in His presence, any explanation I could offer would be pure speculation.

A. I don’t know of any true believer who thinks it’s OK to sin.  While we all do it, and none of us can stop doing it, we all have the Holy Spirit with in us who convicts us of our sins, making us feel bad about it.  His intention is to draw us to God in confession so we can be forgiven and feel better.  Out of pride or fear, we may resist for a while and when we do we wind up carrying enormous burdens of guilt instead. Our friends and family often don’t see the effects of our internal struggles, but sooner or later all of us feel bad enough about our sins to ask the Lord to forgive us.  And as soon as we do, He takes all of our guilt away and everything’s fine again.  He can do this because He already knew about all of our sins and paid the penalty for every one of them.

A. The answer to your question is not given in the Bible, but don’t get the idea that without Satan in the world we’d be living in a kind of heaven on Earth.  Man has clearly demonstrated his propensity for sin in the past, and remember Satan will be bound through out the 1000 years of the Millennium.  Yet natural man will still sin, requiring daily sin offerings in the Millennial Temple (Ezek. 46:13), and as soon as Satan is released will rebel again. (Rev. 20:7-10) So much for man being good when Satan’s not around.

Rev. 20:15 says that anyone whose name is not found written in the Book of Life will be thrown into the Lake of Fire.