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In Ephesians 1:5 Paul writes, “Having predestined us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will.” Now I understand that every time we see predestined in the scriptures, it is talking about foreknowing. So, this means God knew us before we were born and knew how we would respond to His plan of salvation. I understand that God did not create us to accept, nor did He create some not to accept, He just knew who would accept. My question is, knowing who would accept and who wouldn’t, why did he create those that He knew wouldn’t?

Through my studies in soteriology I have reached some confusion regarding the atonement of Christ. When the Bible says to believe in Christ, does that include understanding/believing the significance of Jesus’ blood; what about the exact happenings of Jesus sacrifice onward, like if it was on a cross, and if He went to heaven to sprinkle blood on the mercy seat in Heaven, etc. It seems like there are so many add-ons and technicalities to ‘believe in Jesus.’ The way to salvation is something that we just can’t afford to get wrong- and yet, it seems so easy to make some kind of mistake that could end up sending one to Hell.

4 yrs ago I lost my wife. We served and loved the Lord for many years together. I led her to Him and know with all my heart she was saved and now is with Him. But since this happened I have slid so far from God. I have withdrawn from any organized church teachings, for I was led to believe that with prayer and faith my wife wouldn’t die. I was told that just by speaking it in faith and standing on his word she would be healed. I did all that and when my wife was called home I lost my faith in Him. Now I have this deep yearning to get back. But how do I ask Him to forgive me for the bitterness I have had and really expect to be forgiven?

I’m terrified that I’m a waste of Christ’s blood, and when I die I won’t get any rewards. I can’t help be scared. I was a dud Christian that didn’t even deposit the one talent I was given to get interest. Is it wrong for me to think this way?

I’ve had a great problem with lusting after women and really being a womanizer. I was unfaithful to my wife and our marriage was headed for divorce. At that time I got on my knees and cried out for mercy from God. He answered swiftly and restored my marriage (absolute miracle) and gave me another chance. I took a step in faith and confessed to my wife what I had been doing and she forgave me. But recently I’ve been fighting off thoughts that I have not been forgiven because I haven’t told my wife every single detail of what I’ve done. Your advice would be appreciated.

The Pastor on Sunday was teaching on Discipleship and how we can be better disciples for Christ, He was drawing from (an apparently popular book) I have never read or even heard of. The Pastor said that we needed to Love God with all of our Hearts, Minds and Souls, and that this is a commandment, which I agreed with. He went on to say in order to show God that we loved him we needed to follow and obey all of Jesus’ Commandments in the New Testament and he listed about 44 of them. He then said that if we do not follow these then we don’t love God and we aren’t saved. He even said that our salvation is based on a lot more than a little prayer we said when we accepted Christ.

A patient and I were discussing the plight of a little girl I’m also treating who recently had major surgery and then 10 days later was rushed back to the hospital for an emergency appendectomy. His response was this.

“That poor girl…I’ll never understand what God has in mind with all the pain and suffering the young have to endure. Who could ignore the cries of a child? It seems like we’ve been forgotten and he’s moved on to another project.”

I know he’s not a believer. How can I respond to this in a way that could perhaps change that?

Is there anything in Scripture with regards to being a disciple and being in debt? With debt being a master of sorts, is it possible that Jesus would “give the go ahead” for someone to be a disciple while in debt? I know it’s been done and is still being done but is it right?

This is a salvation question. When we look at salvation in both the Old Testament and New Testament, a person is saved by faith: In the OT a person’s faith was based on the promised coming redeemer. In the NT, it is also based on faith in the person and work of Jesus Christ. Yet in your response to a question on “The Backslidden Believer“, you responded with “The Old Covenant was a conditional relationship based on obedience and a person who became disobedient was said to have turned away from the Lord.” Are you saying that those saved in the OT was based on works and not faith – somewhat confused – can you please clarify?

I was looking on the web for the beatitudes when I stumbled upon them in the Catholic Encyclopedia. I was shocked when I read there that they have substituted the word “righteousness” with “justice.” To me these are very different things. When we speak of justice we usually mean redress in a legal sense. If you commit a crime against me I desire justice, for example. But when I think of righteousness I think of a divine attribute that can only be gained via relationship and bestowal from God through Christ. (Rom 3:10 & 2 Cor 5:21.) So it seems to me that the Catholic Encyclopedia is substituting a man-to-man relationship for a man-to-God necessity. What are your thoughts on this?