Why is so much of the Bible hard to understand? Not impossible but hard! I’ve come to the conclusion was that it was meant to be that way. If the Bible read like a long list of rules or a concise way to live your life from A to Z where would be the passion that comes from studying the word? Would people dedicate their entire lives to learning scripture? What do you think?

Your website is a blessing to me. I listen to your mp3’s nearly all night while I’m working. Someone I know questioned me about John 8:31. This verse speaks of “the Jews who believed in him (Jesus) and then in the next few verses Jesus calls them children of the devil that wanted to kill him. If they believed in him I don’t understand how this could be.

I was reading your answer to a question regarding the saved that arrive in Heaven after the Rapture but before the great tribulation begins. You used Rev. 7:9-17. Am I correct in assuming that by your answer, they will all arrive at one time? To me that sounds like a second rapture event.

The pastor of my church asked the congregation to enter into a 21-day “Daniel fast” as in Daniel 10:2-3. We were to consecrate ourselves, seek the Lord’s will and then His guidance to fulfill that will. The end result was to be an action plan for the coming year regarding our family, finances, whatever we wished. Knowing our God knows better than I, I left the door open to His direction from the get-go. I asked for nothing in particular … only that he would lead me in paths of righteousness.

No children are mentioned in Daniel’s 70th Week or Rev 6-19. Is that because all children are raptured? Children are innocent; sinners of course, but not of age to even understand sin or commit their lives to Jesus. Will those living at the time of the rapture be caught up even though they are not part of the Church?

I was taught that the verses in the Bible that referenced the Jews are now meant for the Church, since they rejected Jesus Christ. We are the spiritual Jews, the chosen people. If that isn’t so and verses like Jeremiah 29:11 have no application to me personally, why read them? When I need verses to hold onto in times of trouble, verses to commit to memory to comfort me in the dark hours of the night, I want the ones that apply to the Church. Why hasn’t there been a Bible written with just verses that apply to the Church?

My Husband and I have a question regarding 1 Timothy 4:16. What does it mean when Paul tells Timothy to persevere, because if he does, he would save himself? Timothy would already have been saved. The notes in my Bible explain that although we are saved at the time of conversion, salvation is a process. Could you please explain this verse?

Over the last few years, I’ve become increasingly sensitive to deviations from the True Gospel Message. For reasons I don’t quite fully understand, our family has found it quite difficult to find a local congregation that hasn’t been affected by the emerging church, or seeker-friendly trends that promote a social gospel. As the head of our household, I am very concerned about the spiritual welfare of my family. It almost seems to me as though the true Church is being driven underground. From your experience, is this becoming more normal as we approach the end of this age?

I was recently told that there was never a man named Jesus who walked the earth and that Christians are getting it wrong if we continue to believe that there was. That we should be worshiping the Father and our Lord by their Hebrew names and I did look it up and it is true the English transliteration is rendered Jesus but there is not a J sounding letter in the Greek or Hebrew alphabet. I am not moved one bit by this claim and believe wholeheartedly in the name of Jesus but please help me to understand where this person is coming from and how do I counter this with truth?

I just finished listening to a pastor talking about Luke 7 – the story of Jesus raising the widows son. Farther along in his message, he related an experience about praying for his deceased wife, for the Lord to bless her, and used 2 Timothy 4:19 in conjunction with 2 Timothy 1:17,18 to say that Onesiphorus had died and that verse 18 was a prayer for him. Therefore, praying for the dead has precedent in the Bible. I don’t know exactly what the original language actually states – was Onesiphorus dead? Or is this just an extrapolation from the use of past tense words?