What do I say to a believer who doesn’t believe that God speaks to men today?

Can you please elaborate the terminology of the Father, Son relationship as indicated in Hebrews 1 verse 5. “You are my son; today I have become your Father.” As I understand it the Trinity always existed.

Last Sunday at my church, our pastor talked about the refiners fire’s process and he said that God wants us to suffer so he can cleanse us. He used 1 Peter 1:6-7 to support his position. Is this true?

The Bible refers to Jesus as the Son of God and the Son of Man. Would you tell me why both terms are used, and is there a reason one term is used in a particular verse instead of the other?

I read in Matthew 24:36 that not even the son knows the day that he will return. Only god the father knows. If Jesus is God how can this be? Also when Jesus went off to pray who was he praying to if he is God?

A friend of mine wants to know ‘why can’t a prophecy today be considered scripture, if it is all inspired by the Holy Spirit?’

I was watching a fairly well known Bible teacher on television and at one point he said, ” Why do you think the Lord condoned slavery?” His answer was that the slaves who had benevolent masters were actually much better off then if they had been on their own as they were illiterate. I can only assume he was referring to slaves of the South before the Civil War, who were often grossly mistreated. I was totally stunned to hear a Christian say such a thing much less a teacher of God’s Word! I would very much like to know what your opinion is about this.

In Joshua 1:5 God said to Joshua, “As I was with Moses, so will I be with you; I will not fail you, nor forsake you.” In Hebrews 13:5 the writer said, “Let your conduct be without covetousness; and be content with the things that you have: for he hath said, I will never leave you, nor forsake you” quoting the promise to Joshua. How did he get from a specific promise made to an Old Testament individual, to a general promise for all New Testament believers? Was he applying a spiritual principle or describing a characteristic of God?

I wanted to see what your thoughts were on the 13 letters penned by Paul. I have read in some research that scholars only are sure that 7 were penned by Paul, maybe another 2 are 50-50, and the rest are likely not penned by Paul (the pastoral epistles). Personally, I think Paul did pen them but have no proof of this other than faith. Since early church fathers did not question Paul’s letters as part of the New Testament canon, I would believe we should not either.

By faith, I am a believer as you know. There is a guy who frequently posts on a forum I belong to that history says the Gospels were not written by the authors listed (Mathew, Mark, etc) and continues to bash me and others who discuss Biblical research and facts, claiming that “real world” history proves otherwise. I was hoping you could point me in a direction outside the apologetics world for facts to dispute his claims, knowing you have far more knowledge on this than I do. Any help you could provide would be greatly appreciated.