For the past year I have been meditating on the finished work of Christ. I have found that it is more “finished” than I thought. Also that God is a very good God. I agree with you that in short we need to simply believe the Gospel. However, this leads me to believe that God had one shot to save mankind, Jesus, that this was a totally complete work, that there is not another “Word” to become flesh & die for our sins, and that all there is left is the Final Coming & the Final Judgment. Therefore I am inclined to be a partial Preterist but I am studying as fast as I can to settle the end times situation in my own mind!

I need help to get into the habit of praying. I personally need help from the Lord to center my life around Him, but I forget to pray for it. When I do pray, I am easily distracted. I forget what I am talking about and ramble foolishly, and never seem to make contact with the Lord. What suggestions can you give me to cure this thing that keeps me away from the closer walk I want and need with God?

I want to show some Catholic members of my family that they can’t be saved by following Catholic dogma. I plan to use Romans 10:9 and Matt. 7:21-23 as my Scriptural support. Putting these together, it seems that unless we confess and believe in the True Jesus, the one clearly defined and presented in Holy Scripture, we could find ourselves standing before Him and being told the He never knew us. The reason being that we confessed a different Jesus from the one presented in His Holy Word, a Jesus of salvation plus works. Am I understanding this correctly?

Someone in my small group said that when Jesus read from the OT in the synagogue that he was reading from the Septuagint. I disagreed because Jesus was within the Holy Land where Hebrew was still spoken. I understand that the main reason the Septuagint was made – so the Jews outside of the Holy Land could still read scripture since they were losing the Hebrew language. So, do you think the Septuagint was read by Jesus in the synagogues?

Our Christian group has been discussing sin. Some say we are born with a sin nature and become sinners when we sin. Others say we are born sinners because we have a sin nature. What say you?

Do you think the rapture happens as the dragon is cast out of heaven? I wouldn’t want to be around when he is cast down and confined and angry. It’s interesting that Jesus comes with the archangel but it doesn’t say with a great host of angels. Perhaps the angels are kicking butt and clearing the rebel angles out and getting things ready for us. When Jesus said He saw Satan fall like a lightening bolt, how does that fit in to the war in heaven when He is confined to earth?

I have a question about something that was thrown into the middle of the conversation between Jesus and the centurion in Matthew chapter 8. In 8:11 and 12, Jesus goes from marveling at the faith of the centurion to telling His followers about people eating with Abraham Isaac and Jacob (the Jewish people) in the Kingdom of Heaven but those that already live there (the children of the Kingdom) will be tossed out. Is this referring to the angelic realm? I’m really confused.

The Bible says, “In my Fathers house are many mansions.” Who lives or will live in those mansions?

I was wondering your thoughts on God testing us. I’ve only heard this taught one time, Deuteronomy 8:2 says that God tests us in order to know what is in our heart, whether or not we will keep his commands. If taken literally, or at least the way I take it, the LORD brings things across my path to see how I will respond… Will I chose to act in faith on his word, or be in fear. Will I choose to obey or not and so on and so forth. Is this correct? If so it would give a different outlook on “problems” we encounter on a day to day basis.

It seems to me that Jesus gave up his divinity when He became a man. He was still God and man but in order to pay the price to redeem us he had to do it as a sinless man. I don’t believe he ever used His divine power to do any of the works that He had done, but that He operated only in faith. Otherwise Satan could have said he (God) was operating illegally in the Earth.