I have learned a great deal from your website over the last few months. Thank you for the job you are doing! My question pertains to the Lord’s Supper. At the church I currently attend, non-members of the local church are denied participation. Is there any scriptural reason for this? I have prayed for guidance and searched the Word and have found no concrete reasoning behind this concept. There are a small group of us in our local body who believe that the Church includes all believers and that it is the Lord’s job to judge those who are partaking, and the Holy Spirit’s job to convict someone of not partaking based on the condition of their heart, not a fallible man/denomination who base their reasoning on whether that person has his/her name on the roll sheet of the local church body. Can you help prove either position based on scripture?

You have written that ‘Like Jesus, Adam is called the son of God (Luke 3:38)’. I know you are not saying that Adam is God but why can Adam even be called the son of God? Adam was a created being and John 3:16 says that God gave his one and only son. Jesus is not a created being but God himself. If Adam can be called the son of God and Jesus IS the son of God then what exactly does the title son of God mean when given to Adam and what does it mean when given to Jesus?

In your response entitled OSAS and Galatians 5:16-21 you state that “people who live like this are living evidence that they are not saved and therefore won’t inherit the Kingdom.” I received Christ as my Savior trusting his death and resurrection to pay the penalty for my sins before I went to college. But once I went to college I began drinking excessively and partying. I would try to compartmentalize my behavior and live a” Christian” life except for my drinking, but that as you know that is impossible. My question is then, since my life was “characterized” by this behavior and this was occurring nearly every weekend where do I stand as far as Galatians and your comment about it? I have confessed my sin since I left college. It took awhile to break free from excessive drinking but I have recommitted myself to Christ since then, however sometimes I still have doubts about my forgiveness and my standing before the Lord.

There is a TV preacher who teaches that believers who practice the acts of the sinful nature will not inherit the Kingdom based on Galatians 5:16-21. Does that mean any believer who does those things will have his or her salvation revoked? Doesn’t that conflict with OSAS?

In Revelation 10:3-4 the 7 thunders are talked about. Are these anywhere else in the Bible or is there any explanation for this?

I believed the pre-trib position for years but I changed my view when I preached through 1 Thessalonians. There is nothing in 1 Thess. 4:13-18 about a pretribulation rapture. When Paul said, “we who are alive and remain until the coming (parousia) of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep,” he uses the word parousia meaning “coming,” “arrival,” or “presence.” There is no reason why they would not be thinking that this is the second coming in glory after the tribulation.

Why is Jesus called the Lamb of God? John 1:29 “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world” Rev 5:6 ” Then I saw a Lamb, looking as if it had been slain, standing in the center of the throne.”

And why is He called the Lion of Judah? Revelation 5: 5 Then one of the elders said to me “Do not weep! See, the LION of the tribe of Judah, the root of David, has triumphed. He is able to open the scroll and its seven seals”.

I have asked The Lord everyday to come into my heart and forgive me me of all my sins, but I’m a drunk. I cry out and ask for his forgiveness as my guilt has a tight grip on me but can’t stop drinking. I let him down all the time I am so scared that He will leave me like this. Jesus help me please.

Thank you for your willingness to discuss anything in scripture in a reasonable and logical way, without contention. I have a question about those who are saved as described in Matt. 25, the Sheep and Goats judgment at the end of the Great Tribulation. The last verse, 46, says about the sheep: “…but the righteous into eternal life”. Since these survived the Tribulation in their normal body form, how is it that they merit eternal life by their works to the brothers of Jesus, the Jews?

In James 2:14-26 he questions whether someone can be saved without works, that faith is best displayed by works, twice that faith without works is dead and useless, that a man is justified by works and not faith alone, that Abraham was justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac at the altar.

Personally I have always believed in Ephesians 2:8,9 “that we are save by grace through faith and that not of ourselves, it’s the gift of God not of works lest any man should boast.” And as you have said in the past (correct me if I am wrong) that it is what we believe and not how we behave that saves us. Is that right?