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I know that when God made a covenant with Abraham, he was defining his descendants as a people set apart for Himself (the Jews). I believe that it was through the Jews that God would reach the rest of the world, first by using His relationship with them to be a witness of His love, then ultimately through our Beloved Saviour Jesus Christ.

If the law in the form of the commandments had not yet been given, how did the people at that time know what was sin? It is written that faith alone can please God and this is why Abraham is named ‘the father of faith’, but what was the fate of the those who didn’t know God and didn’t have the law to point them in the right direction? Also, were Abraham’s descendants – up to, including and beyond the time of Moses – aware that the only way to Heaven was through the Messiah and was this awareness due to the fact that they knew they were a chosen people?

Thank you in advance – it truly is a blessing to be able to ask you these things!

Question–Eph.5:18, says “Do not get drunk on wine which leads to debauchery” and there are at least 10 or 12 more references on this topic. I was taught that consuming alcohol was a sin. I don’t think there is a reference to directly support this but the Bible does discourage this practice. As a medical practitioner I have witnessed the terrible consequences of drinking to excess, and therefore do not participate in this practice.

I am troubled by the condoning of drinking by many pastors almost to the point of encouraging this practice! They will point to the fact that Jesus must have supported this because he made water into wine! However, there are even some Bible teaching pastors that are alcoholics.

While the prophets were 100% accurate when predicting the Messiah’s first advent and the situations surrounding it, the people of the day were more than likely thinking that the event and the Man and the circumstances were not much like they were described to be by the saints of old. By the same token, why are we to believe that the circumstances surrounding the second advent are going to be anything different?

A quick question: in at least two of your studies you have used the expression “Let’s get mystical”. And in the study about the first miracle of Jesus, you go as far as saying that John (the apostle) was a mystic. Can you clarify this for me? I’ve always been under the impression that I should consider mysticism something wrong in the eyes of God, although I must admit I do not know a great deal about it.

I was surprised to learn your view that John had recorded the “cleansing of the Temple” out of order. There were two cleansings to indicate two points. In the first Jesus said it was His Fathers Temple, at the beginning of His ministry. While in the second cleansing at the end of His ministry, He says “your temple” indicating the departure of the Holy.

In the context of OSAS theory I would like to ask you why Ananias and Sapphira, who were husband and wife, instantly died while speaking lies before the disciples. Were not they within the fold of first century believers? Then, why they were not saved even after speaking lies?

I’ve read different views and commentaries on the Book of Life plus Scripture and some of it sounds kind of “predestinationalist”.

In the Old Testament, people talked about “blotting out of names from the book that God had written. Is this the same as the “Lamb’s Book of Life”?

A passage in Rev. 13:8 NASB refers to those who’s name has not been written from the foundation of the World in the book of life of the Lamb who has been slain. I think it means the book of the Lamb who has been slain from the foundation of the world.

Anyway, would you comment on the “Book of Life”, when the names are there, whose they are, how they get there, do you have to be an overcomer to stay there? etc.

In Matthew 6:3 what did Jesus mean when saying, “do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing” when giving to the needy?

Can you help me understand an apparent discrepancy in the four different accounts of when the Lord had dinner in the house of Simon the Pharisee? I’m not sure if the same event is being recorded all four times because in one case the woman washes the Lord’s feet with her tears and wipes them with her hair. In other accounts she pours the expensive ointment on his head.

Lately, I have been reading comments on Facebook regarding whether or not a soul goes to heaven after the death of the body. They use the fact that there were no commas in the original writing of scriptures. Therefore, when Jesus told the thief on the cross next to him, he would be in Paradise with him it didn’t mean he would be with there with him on that very same day. If you move the comma it says, “I tell you the truth today, you shall be with me in Paradise.” These people use this argument to prove their belief that no one is in heaven yet. Is it possible that the comma was put in the wrong place?