Our son-in-law who attends a Baptist Church said his Sunday School teacher is going to talk about the “gifts.” He believes that they were given to the early church but are not for use today.

What is a good way to respond to this teaching?

Thanks for your help and consistently excellent articles.

I know that the declaration of some animals as unclean by God was to prevent disease. Is it also possible that certain animals were listed an abomination because Satan broke laws, unknown to us, when forming these creatures? Or maybe after the Flood, he continued his genetics program and the unclean animals lost their perfect assimilation of genes and therefore were declared unclean. Why do you feel certain animals were listed as unclean, or even worse, an abomination?

Recently, our pastor gave a message on the Holy Spirit regarding the Greek words ‘en’ and ‘epi’ (the Holy Spirit being ‘in’ a Christian and ‘upon’ a Christian) and said there was a difference. He explained that ‘en’ happened at the time of salvation, which I already knew, of course, but the ‘epi’ , I had not heard of before happened when a Christian had a deeper relationship with Christ and then would receive miracles and blessings. I know blessings happen when we are in fellowship with Christ. I didn’t know about the Holy Spirit being upon us as different from being in us. I would like your thoughts on this and did I understand him correctly?

I have a question about the Bema Seat Judgment, when we are judged for our works during our lifetime. I’ve listened to a evangelist who states when we get to this judgment Jesus will ask each one of us what work we did for Him in our lifetime, and some of us will feel remorse in that we didn’t do anything to earn a crown. He then went on to say how badly we will feel to have nothing to give back to the Lord when many others are casting their crowns at the Lord’s feet. I’ve been quite upset since hearing this man talk. Is this really how it will be?

My Bible study on Sunday night the question came up about King Saul’s salvation. One lady thought there was a verse in the Psalms that said he was saved. The leader of the study thought he was not saved. I could not find the verse. Can you shed any light on this?

My husband and I have been legally married for 2 1/2 years, however our marriage has not been consummated yet due to the fact that he is in prison. We are both baptized, believing Christians and were at the time of our marriage. We were married in the prison by an ordained minister and took Christian vows before God. I’ve had it in my mind for a long time that we are not truly Biblically married until we “come together as one flesh” and that we are only legally married as far as our State is concerned. I fear that God doesn’t recognize our relationship as a true marriage yet. We both took a vow before God to commit ourselves to one another forever, but does that overrule the “joining together?” Can you have one without the other? Your thoughts on this are appreciated.

My question is the meaning of verse 7 in context of the prophetic chapter 45 of Isaiah. It appears God is relaying a message to Cyrus, king of Persia to convince him who He is. Your insight is always appreciated.

When reading the Bible, how can one claim a verse of scripture for themselves? For example, Jeremiah 29:11. I have heard so many claim this verse as their own, believing that God intended this for them and their current situation. But as you read this chapter, it is specific to Israel and God releasing them from Babylonian captivity. As I write to you on this, my heart is pounding. I want to claim or pray a verse for my situation, but I am thinking that it is just futile worthless hope. How can I apply verses of God’s word to my situation today when they are part of a bigger issue and theme. Do you understand what I am saying?

My question is in relation to the Exodus. There is talk that the Bible translators mistranslated Red Sea and it should read the Reed Sea. Is this true, and if so why was that? Why didn’t the translators say Reed Sea? I know of course that the translation (or mistranslation) does not change the fact that God’s hand was at work and that through that miracle his glory was shown to all.

Do you believe there could have been a pre-Adamite civilization and if you don’t would you say why false teachers cling to this? I found some sites that give compelling reasons for its existence, but I have also found sites that come down hard on this teaching. Could you please share your thoughts?