I hear a lot from people with Reformation background that God disciplines you through hardship and suffering. They claim this in the name of their definition of Sovereignty. They claim that God is in control of everything so if you are suffering he actually designed it for you to suffer for his cause. This doesn’t really sit well with me, because I grew up knowing that God is a loving God, so I never associated suffering with him, and as his form of disciplining. I always associate suffering with the sinfulness of this world, not something orchestrated by God to teach some form of a lesson. Can you please share your thoughts on this?

Did Jesus ascend to heaven twice, once to sprinkle His blood on the altar and then again after spending 40 days with the crowds and teaching Paul what we needed to know?

When I read about the pain and suffering endured by past and present martyrs for the faith, especially those in the middle East suffering under ISIS, I wonder how they bear it. While praying I never have to suffer to that degree, I do wonder if the Lord in His great mercy grants some supernatural means to help them to rise above the physical pain. Or is their faith much stronger than that of most of us? Your thoughts, please.

This year our church leaders decided to alter our usual Sunday morning schedule by dropping Sunday School and adding a second Easter service. Between the two services there was an Easter egg hunt in the hope that the activity would draw more of the community’s unchurched who have children. I explained to my Sunday School teacher about the pagan origins of Easter (Ishtar, eggs, rabbits and how the date is determined). In response he quoted Colossians 2:16-17. I told him that was an invalid argument as the previously mentioned items did not fit the definition of Colossians 2:17. Am I off base?

I tend to think the theory that Nephilim were a result of the fallen angels mating with human women makes sense. Yet, I am still confused by the fact that Jesus Himself said that angels do not marry, nor are they given in marriage in Matt 22:30 while Genesis 6:2 explicitly states that the “sons of God” married the daughters of women. And the fact that even if they did possess a human male for this process rather than just manifesting themselves as a human, how could the angelic part of the Union be passed on to offspring if life reproduces after its own kind according to Genesis and yet the Angels don’t reproduce?

In a question on law and grace, you made this statement: “During the dispensation of Law, believers had to give evidence of their faith by keeping the Law. During the Dispensation of Grace, also known as the Church Age, this evidence is not required.”

My question is: that James speaks of our faith as dead without works. To me this means that our faith is also evidenced by our works – not that our works save us, our salvation as in the OT is also based on faith. But in the NT, if we do not have works that evidence our faith as well, then that faith is dead. Not understanding how you can say this based on James teachings.

Re: Interesting Facts About Easter. This was confusing to me. Your answer says it is not related to Passover in the first few sentences, but in the last sentence states it is 3 days after Passover. Which one is it? I always thought it was 3 days after Passover that Jesus was resurrected. Are you simply saying Easter itself is separate from Jesus’s resurrection and is simply the spring equinox?

How does one explain to loved ones that the real Resurrection Sunday falls on the Sunday after Passover, and not on some other day? I tried to tell them that they are celebrating a Babylonian goddess (Ishtar), based on the lunar cycle, but they maintain, that it doesn’t matter what day they observe, as long as they observe it. Why is the church behaving like a bunch of lemmings?

My husband was watching a debate on youtube about God’s existence and he said that in this video it was mentioned that in the old testament (specifically in the book of Deuteronomy) there used to be human sacrifice offered to God but then it was switched to animals. I’ve never heard such thing and I find it hard to believe.

Also, what do you tell people when they start questioning God’s existence, love, compassion and kindness when they ask why would God say to stone to death people for being homosexual, not virgin, etc? I’ve never known how to respond to those questions.

This isn’t the first thing I have read from your Q&A forum, but this one is the most disturbing. Sin is missing the mark, and if our body is the temple of the HS, isn’t smoking, overeating and basic abuse of our own bodies a Sin? Do you smoke? Why or why not? Please elaborate.