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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 am currently researching the question if the Kingdom of Heaven and the Church are one and the same. Most Commentaries I read say so. Somehow this does not gel with me.

Reading Daniel 2:43-44 it appears to me that the things revealed to him are incredibly precise up to the first coming of Christ. Then the vision appears to leap to the time of the end. “And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom…”

Could it be that the terrible beast, the fourth empire, encompasses all the time and empires from Rome on until today, peaking in the ‘Anti-Christ’s’ empire. If so, then the Kingdom of Heaven would be set up when Christ comes to destroy this last chapter of the great and terrible beast.

If this scenario has any validity then the Church can not be the Kingdom, for the Kingdom of Heaven has not as yet arrived on earth, and the ‘kingdom’ parables in Matthew 13 do not address the Church directly, although some of the lessons learned from them apply also to the Church. Can you please shed light on this?

I have a question about the church at Pergamos. I have been working through your Bible study on the book of Revelation, and I am puzzled by something.

Could you please explain to me a little bit more about the parable of the Mustard Seed, and how this ties in with the church at Pergamos? I do not quite understand it, and I thought that perhaps you might be able to explain it to me. I would appreciate further insights into this passage of scripture and how it fits with Rev. 2:12-17.

I also want to tell you how much I appreciate your studies! They are wonderful, and I have learned so much through them.

I was listening to your mp3 bible study in Mark about the parable of the sower. I was saved (I believe) when I was 14 years old, I had no support system as I was the only family member that believed, and all my friends were non-believers also. I have been living as a defeated Christian for years, I have always longed for Jesus’ return yet I have never until recently read the bible or even heard of OSAS. Is it possible that I was the seed that fell on rocky ground? I have lost interest in many of the things I used to enjoy, all I do now is study the bible and your bible study mp3’s.

I’ve read many postings on your site and appreciate them greatly. But I’m surprised at your interpretation of the Mustard Seed Parable. There are different “birds” mentioned in the various passages of the Bible; the little birds is akin to sparrows–you will find that God uses the sparrows to indicate His care for us both in the NT and in Psalms. David writes of them finding “rest” in the courts of the temple–as he refers to the godly finding rest in the Lords Temple. I’m surprised that this common interpretation is quickly accepted, without folks discriminating between the various types of birds: little birds and predators.

A popular Bible teacher teaches that there is some prophetic significance in the Kingdom Parables i.e. the mustard tree is only normally 4 ft. high and for it to hold the birds of the air was a prophecy of the church falling into Roman Catholicism and getting abnormally large and harboring pagan practices. Can you explain this teaching with a little more detail? I didn’t quite follow it for all of the parables. Thanks so much for your patience.

Thank you for this blessed site. It has greatly enriched my knowledge of the Bible. My question or rather a query is that can a woman baptize anyone? I recently came across a friend who said that a woman she knew baptized another woman. I find this Biblically incorrect for I have not come across this anywhere in Scripture. Can you answer this query for me?

I was wondering if you could help me on a dilemma I am having. Since the bible already tells us the fate of Israel and its people, how do we word our prayers to God when we pray? Every night I say a prayer but I never quite know what to pray for. I always include Israel when I pray because I am so worried about the evil that is closing in on them. Any help you could give me on this would be greatly appreciated.

I have some confusion about Romans 7:9 where Paul talks about the age of accountability. It would seem to imply that no one died spiritually before the law was given. That would give a free pass to everyone before Moses and maybe those in countries who have never heard what the scriptures say about the Law. Can that be right?

I have a friend who has not gone to church for years. She says she is a Christian but can’t seem to find a church that suits her and does not believe Christians have to go to church anyway. I think if you really are a Christian you will thirst for God’s word and want to go. What do you think?

Why did the apostles choose to suffer a martyrs death? If Christ died once and for all for our sins, and bore all the suffering of mankind, why did they feel the need to be martyred? They were the closest to Christ, so shouldn’t they have best understood Christ’s message of “it is finished”? I don’t understand why they didn’t preach in hiding like what takes place in Muslim and communist countries today. It sounds like they believed in redemptive suffering- a Catholic concept.

I enjoy reading your extensive bible studies and use them as a study tool. Because I am human, some areas I have pause, but in areas of doctrine I believe, using the Bible as the only true measure, that our views parallel. Therefore I am very interested in how you view the reading of Jeremiah 30:6. Just this morning it struck me that this passage seems to be describing someone suffering from poison, esp poison gas, like sarin.

Why did Paul use the word “Gentiles” in Romans 11:25 when it is the Church he was referring to that would come into “fullness”? Shouldn’t it be “fullness of believers” since the Church consists of both Jews and Gentiles?

A Bible Study by Jack Kelley

Even in the midst of our very worst rebellion, we can’t stop being our Father’s children.

Prodigal means “given to extravagant expenditure.” The word never appears in the parable of Luke 15, or anywhere else in the Bible for that matter.

Re: The description of the temple in the book of Ezekiel. Is that for the future, or was that just for the returning Israelites who had been in captivity in Babylon?

If believing Christians are forced in some way to deny Jesus and take the mark of the beast during the tribulation, will they still be forgiven and saved?

Your website ministry is incredible! My question – will the saints who are already in heaven be eyewitnesses of the rapture or simply have knowledge of its occurrence?

I know China and the kings of the east are not under his authority for they gather an army of 200 million men to attack the anti-Christ. Does God use them for his purpose to destroy the Anti Christ, or will God also eliminate this Army?

Can you please explain in depth what Pharmakeia means? Is it really the use of medicine? What was Pharmakeia in Biblical times, what is Pharmakeia in modern times?

You have stated that the opening of the 2nd Seal will be characterized by major wars breaking out in various places. If these wars are associated with the 2nd seal, that would mean they will occur after Ezk. 38. So who do you think they will involve, where might they be fought, and what might be the reasons for these conflicts? Do you think they will involve only Israel? With the Rapture having already occurred causing a considerable weakening of America’s defenses, wouldn’t you think this would be a time when Russia might launch an attack on us? Especially with our recent worsening relationship with them?

Re: Romans 3:30. ” Seeing it is one God, which shall justify the circumcision by faith, and uncircumcision through faith.” It is obviously differentiated between “by faith” and “through faith” as if the former is for the Jews, and the latter is for us. Can you shed some light upon this?

A friend, referring to Deut. 28:63, said that the God she knows would not rejoice over anyone to destroy and bring them to nothing. I said that she was forgetting that God’s ways are not our ways and we can’t figure His ways out with our feeble minds. Can you give me a better answer for her?

Great work. I could not function in my studies without your web site. Concerning Gen 49:10 Is this a Messianic reference? In my searches I have not found a clear rendering of the meaning of the phrase “till Shiloh comes”.

My question concerns 2 Timothy 3:1-5. It explains the last days and the behavior of those in the world, but I don’t understand verse 5, “having the form of godliness, but denying the power thereof”. To whom does this refer, Christians perhaps, that are not living by the word of God?