Re: Why The Mystery?. Concerning Israel’s acceptance of the Messiah, I’m trying to understand what their acceptance really means. My initial thought was that if they hadn’t killed Him, then that would have been their acceptance of Jesus as the Messiah. But after reading the Q&A, Why the Mystery, it reminded me that He had to die, to fulfill the Scriptures. In it, you said, “Had they accepted the Lord’s death as the final sacrifice for their sins there would have been no Church” So, what would have constituted their acceptance?

Revelation 3:21 says to him that overcomes will I grant to sit with me on my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne. Does this mean that there will be some that will go in the rapture out of the Laodicean church? I have mostly thought that none of the apostate church would receive his request, to hear his voice and open the door. Every other church was given the option to overcome.

I’ve been a Christian for nearing 45 years. There’s one thing that I can’t wrap my head around. We’re to come to God with our needs. We’re to praise Him, thank Him and worship Him. It’s my understanding that we’re also to “bless Him.” He blesses us all of the time. I see it in my life all the time. He is everything that is good. He’s able to bless us. What I don’t understand is how we’re supposed to “bless” Him! How do we do that?

In Matt. 24 Jesus is talking about the taking up of the Church. I have no problem with any of it, but this one verse, 28, has me scratching my proverbial head. Why does He say, “For wheresoever the carcass is, there will the eagles be gathered together” (KJV). Is that a mention of the Judgement gathering, or is He simply referring to the dead rising first and the angels going to and fro bringing us out? I thought, too, he might simply be parablizing verse 27. What is your take on this?

As important as The Church/Body of Christ is, it seems puzzling to me why Jesus left talking about “this mystery” almost entirely up to Paul, with him having to convince the other apostles of this teaching given him by The Lord Jesus Himself.

My question today is from Hebrews 2:9: “But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels….” How can that be and what does this mean? God bless you.

If Eve had not been deceived, nor given the fruit to Adam–if they had obeyed God–would one of their children or grandchildren have been deceived? If God’s plan was to prove Himself just and loving, then someone had to sin and need redemption, right?

How much should we be standing up as Christians today and are we going to be held accountable?

God tells both Adam and Eve (Genesis 1:28) and Noah (Genesis 9:1) to “Be fruitful and multiply and replenish the Earth. Does the word replenish have the same meaning for both? Did Adam and Eve replenish or fill the earth?

In your study on the Book of Ezekiel you said,

“Although God had known from the beginning of time that Israel would reject the Messiah’s offer of the Kingdom, it was a bona fide offer just the same, and had they accepted it, the prophecies from Ezekiel 36 would have been fulfilled at that time. But they didn’t and the door was opened to the Gentiles, in part to make them envious.”

So, if Israel had accepted Jesus as their Messiah and the Kingdom age (the Millennium) would have begun then, it sounds like Jesus’ death on the cross would not have been necessary. How then would the sins of mankind have been atoned for? “for without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sins”