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(1a) A few years ago, I received a call from friends at a UMC church I used to pastor. Their son in his late teens was secretly addicted to opioids. Then one night he went reluctantly to a horror movie with friends. The combined effect of created fear and opioids left him vulnerable to spirit...

God forces Jacob to wrestle with Him in a vision and then changes Jacob's name to Israel, which means "one who wrestles with God." Jesus and Paul teach that Jesus' followers represent the True or Spiritual Israel. So, of course, theological debate is an essential aspect of living out our...

(1) THE BIBLICAL INSPIRATION FOR THE USE OF HOLY WATER: The underlying principles for Catholic sprinkling with Holy Water are the various uses of sacred water in God's Word to bless, purify, heal, or establish innocence. The Apostolic Constitutions (c. 400 AD) trace the priestly use of Holy...

I am an evangelical Methodist who grew up Pentecostal. But for 12 years I was a Theology Professor at a Catholic university. I have a positive perspective on Catholic spirituality, despite the fact that I have even won a lawsuit against Catholics! Despite this, I believe there is no Christian...

(11) Lesson 5 from the Guideposts article posted by Holy Fool refers to I heard Bruce Van Natta testify about his NDE and his miraculous healing from the destruction of his intestines when the jack of a large truck collapsed on his chest. I asked him questions afterwards. His testimony is all...

Don't pontificate when unliike myself, you don't know the original languages Aramaic and Greek). In Aramaic the pun is "Cephas"/ Cepha"). The evangelical scholarly consensus rightly recognizes Peter as the foundational "rock." Jesus is the builder. Builer on what? On the missionary efforts...

LOL, you just gave the best reason not to nickname Peter "the rock!" What you don't get is this: the issue is how Jesus refers to Himself in the Gospels. He refers to Himself as "the cornerstone" (Mark 12:10) and reserves the "Rock" designation for Peter. "Rock" (Aramaic "kepha") mnever means...

The various meanings of "rock" elsewhere are irrelevant to its meaning in Matthew 16, that Peter, not Jesus, is Jesus' rock.

(1) Fundamentalists here overlook the most decisive phrase proving that Peter is the Rock on which Christ will build His church: "You are Peter (= "Rock")..." Jesus would not have used this phrase to set up His announcement about the Rock, if He meant that He Himself was the foundational rock...

(10) Our small city’s former school superintendent shared with me this ADC involving his niece Tami. Tami died at age 19 from an unspecified illness while a student at Washington State U. Then she often appeared in full-bodied ADCs to her Mom until one day she appeared only from the waist up...

The Holy Spirit can be "grieved" and the flame of the Spirit can be "extinguished" (Eph. 4:40; 1 Thess. 5:19). And the line between honest doubt and sinful irritation and disillusionment with God can be elusive. Consider Jesus' question about counterfeit spirituality: "Are grapes gathered from...

(9) NDEs Supporting Claims that the Dead Monitor the Living: I had just performed a wedding at my church in Buffalo, NY, and was now attending the reception at a country club. I happened to sit next to Phyllis, a rather aloof but attractive blonde doctor and medical researcher. She shared her 2...

WHERE WAS THE HOLY SPIRIT IN RAVI'S LIFE? This important question gains sharper focus with the story of Nick, the greatest saint I ever knew. Nick was a bachelor and a chemist. I recall the day our pastor introduced him as a new member. He was the most passionate seeker of God's face and...

You evidently delight in creating a simple-minded strawman caricature that trivializes the power of Spirit-anointed witnessing. When I was 19, I witnessed door-to-door and in the streets in cities across Canada. I was fortunate enough to be paired with a godly man, Ken K (age 35). At first I...

Our task as Christians is not to communicate the truth, but to find the way of communicating the truth that makes the decisive difference. To judge by the inept replies of your respondents, I'd wager that none of them has personally led anyone to the Lord.

(8) My next NDE is so unique that it is surely one of the most faith-inspiring. It seems to involve divine control of a tractor. Pastor Dave replaced me after I retired. He shares the testimony of a farmer who lived in the Colfax, WA region. The farmer was ploughing one of his fields, when he...

Auntie Jane overlooks the "hina" purpose clause in 11:32 which imples that God's purpose of "imprisoning" us ALL in disobedience is to save us ALL through mercy and grace. More seriously, she ducks 11:36, which clearly implies that God's purpose will ultimately be realized: For from Him and...

Here is just one of Paul's many universalist texts in which both "alls" are parallel and therefore universal: "God has imprisoned ALL in disobedience, in order that He might be merciful to ALL (Romans 11:32)." "imprisoned" implies a lack of freedom to choose otherwise and makes God responsible...

Many Fundamentalists whine that modern translations take the Trinity out of the NT. This false claim is giggle-worthy for 2 reasons: (1) Why, then, wouldn't they remove the trinitarian baptismal formula in Matthew 28:19-20? (2) Ancient scribes often tried to improve on the Greek text when...

You just can't read. It is an ancient Greek NT manuscript--not me-- that claims Aristo of Pella forged the bogus ending of Mark! The KJV ending of Mark is missing in key early Greek manuscripts. That's just one of the reasons why the evangelical scholarly consensus recognizes 16:9-20 as a...