I just wanted to ask, in such places as Joshua 5:15 where one must remove footwear for being on Holy Ground, what is the significance? I guess shoes are a covering …. is there something that relates to only relying upon God as our covering? Why would it evidently have been wrong to remain shod in the Presence of God?

Thank you for taking time to answer my question. I am gentile searching my Jewish roots. Recently I have attended a Messianic congregation with mainly gentiles.

At one of the Shabbats the subject of life after death came up. I was shocked to find that the majority believed the spirit stays in the grave. Any scripture I quoted they had an answer for it. The answer that shocked me most was that of Yeshua’s reply to the thief on the cross. Here are some of their replies as follows:” 1. There is no punctuation in Greek of the NT. The comma was placed by translators according to a source book and changed the meaning of “today you will be with me in paradise”. 2. Yeshua went to the grave and stayed three days and nights and that paradise didn’t mean heaven, but garden.3. The word for paradise was in the future.

Needless to say I was left reeling for it seems there was a response for all of the theology I was taught about life after death as related to the spirit. I honestly don’t know if this is a Messianic belief. I still believe the spirit goes somewhere to heaven or hell. Please help me get some understanding. I will greatly appreciate your response.

As a somewhat baby Christian there is something I do not understand. I have read many examples of persons who have spent years in Bible study over a particular topic, and believe they have been led by the Holy Spirit to discern the meaning of the passage. Yet, another person studies the same passage but their discernment has led them to the opposite conclusion! How can this be? How can we have this one magnificent book, yet no one can seem to agree on what it says ? Is God a God of confusion ? How can a young Christian have faith in their own ability to search out the scriptures and their meanings when there are so many different opinions as to what is being said?

How can I prove the sheep & goat judgment occurs at the 2nd coming and is not the same as the great white throne judgment?

I have a question related to the Transfiguration of Jesus. Why did He only take three apostles to witness it instead of taking all twelve?

You say that as long as we submit to God’s will, all our needs will be met. How do we live this out in practice? Does it mean we are to give up on our dreams and ambitions? For example, recent financial hardship means that I need to look for work. Do I get out there and look for any job I can find or do I pray that God will provide one for me?

I have a question on John 3:5, Jesus was talking about being born of water and of the Spirit. In my Tuesday night Bible study class a question came up asking what this meant. Someone said that Jesus was talking about water baptism but I don’t see that here. Am I way off? What was Jesus really saying in John 3:5?

Regarding the Doers of the Word . When you say the only work that has any merit is work we do at His prompting and in His strength, would that include preparing and serving meals for those in need and things like that? We know He wants us to help those in need but what if we don’t necessarily feel that we were prompted for this specific activity?

Re: 1 Corinthians 6:6-7. Would you please help with these verses? My understanding of them is telling me that we should not take others to a court of law. That we should just take what is being dished out and leave the rest up to God.

In a forum I frequent, someone posted the following about the book of Revelation and I don’t know how to counter it.

‘Revelations is metaphor. It’s the Christian Maccabees. John wasn’t writing about the end of the world: he was telling his fellow Christians that no matter their hardships now, they would triumph in the end. The imagery he used throughout the book would have been fairly commonly understood by his contemporaries. All of the mystic mumbo-jumbo and Apocalypse ballyhooing you hear about today relating to Revelations is nothing more than willful ignorance from people who find history and literature inconvenient to their chosen beliefs.’