Where do I find the verses that tell us that the faith for salvation is a special gift from God? The faith for the rest of our Christian life comes from reading the bible and hearing the word preached.

I do not have understanding on 1 Corinthians 5:5. In my bible the heading for vs. 3-5 is “method of judgement for sin in the local church.” Even while I incorporate the literal, historical, grammatical, contextual method, I still cannot reason the meaning of this verse. How does one go about “turning or delivering” one over to Satan? How does one know when to enact such a seemingly cruel action? It doesn’t sound like grace but more like judgement.

The church that our family attends is a typical Baptist church. We have attended for several years and even teach Sunday school there, but the people of the church are just going through the traditional motions. There is no excitement, no anticipation of Christ’s return, and the children’s ministry consists of coloring pictures and eating snacks. There’s a larger Baptist church down the road. We would love to go there instead because there’s excitement, anticipation, and great teaching for adults and children both. The problem is that we feel an obligation to teach our class (high school & college age), and feel like we’re abandoning them by leaving. How should we handle this?

I was wondering why in the Gospel of Mark, generally characterized by using the word “immediately”, the fig tree cursed by the Lord did not appear to have withered until the following day whereas in Matthew, not necessarily a book of “speed”, the fig tree withered immediately.

I enjoy your answers to many questions as they are word and wisdom based. In Leviticus the Lord gave the Israelites various feasts to observe. There is the first feast which a lamb is offered. Second feast is a wave offering of first fruits,then the feast of Pentecost 40 days later and so on.

What I would like say is I believe Christ has fulfilled some of these feasts exactly and the next feast is to be observed is to be celebrated with the blowing of trumpets,which I think is sometime in September.

We don’t know which September but could I be correct in my theory?

First I want to say I love this site! I am a newer Christian and A friend just sent this site to me to help me answer some of my questions and I check it now all the time. My question is this…I have loved ones that are very close to my heart daily who say and have said they believe in the Lord, I’m not sure if they actually were born again? They don’t live the life to Glorify him in ANY way. Of course I pray for them but I can’t seem to get it off my mind and continue to walk in faith about it. Please help me see this God’s way!

The bible says that we are to confess our sins one-by-one and ask for forgiveness-and God will forgive us. I also understand from the Lord’s Prayer, “forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us” that in both cases we ask God to forgive us. If someone has done wrong to me -why should I forgive them if they don’t ask forgiveness from me-when I have to ask God to forgive me of MY sins. And if I fail to ask forgiveness for an overlooked sin, will I still be permitted to enter eternity with Christ?

I wonder what you might think about the Jubilee. Since the Jubilee year starts on a Day of Atonement and since the Day of Atonement is a fall feast that Jesus will fulfill, it seems logical that Jesus will fulfill the year of Jubilee, too.

In your post about the Fall feasts, you quoted the following statement from Jesus, “And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age,” My question is, what age was being referred to here?

Since we’re living in the End Times, there are times I wonder if the things I’m doing matter at all. I know I should be a good steward of the gifts and blessings God has given me, but sometimes I get discouraged. I’m a 20-year-old college student, and when I think that the rapture is going to happen soon, I sometimes wonder if the things I’m doing for the future even matter at all if they never come to fruition. Honestly, the sooner we go to Heaven, the better it is. But I also feel sad at times when I think that I won’t receive any rewards at the Bema Seat. I haven’t lived life out as long as others nor do I feel like I have done much for God’s Kingdom.