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The Muslim may have assumed that the Bible was created in the same way that they believe the Qur'an was - by direct dictation from God. If you believe that, then the exact wording becomes crucial because any deviation is a deviation from God's word. (Incidentally, they also believe that the...

Never heard that idea before, and it makes God the Creator of a sinful institution. Don't you think that those wicked humans would have invented slavery themselves, long before the Flood? Just as they invented murder and other sins?

Zoe is the noun - "life". Zao is the verb - "I live". The words aren't the same grammatically but the concept is. If you live, then you have life. Life is the act of living. This appears to be a circular argument. If you have previously decided that Jesus is talking about "life in the body"...

The Dead Sea Scrolls prove the point that older manuscripts can be discovered at any time and cause us to revise the text of our Bibles. But they only contain the Hebrew Scriptures - our Old Testament! So they have nothing to do with the arguments over the NT manuscripts.

I would argue (1) that the modern translations are more reliable because they are based on earlier manuscripts and (2) that actually nothing of importance has changed. What difference does John 5:4 actually make? It just adds some useful background information. The Muslims maintain that the...

Every edition of the NIV that I've ever owned has had the "missing" text in a footnote. And so I have read it - many times. I really don't see why there should be a problem over it. The "concerned student" needs to learn something about ancient manuscripts and why they don't always agree.

In the New Testament, the apostles didn't do "altar calls" - they did baptisms! Altar calls seem to be an American thing. In the UK, I've only ever come across them at evangelistic events. But often, at the end of a service, ministers will invite people to come up and speak to them afterwards...

I think it's typical of Christians in the UK. Can't speak for Americans. And the Christians you meet on forums are probably not typical of Christians anywhere offline.

The only "past" resurrection is the resurrection of Jesus. It's a documented historical event. But Jesus also refers to a present resurrection: "Very truly I tell you, whoever hears My word and believes Him who sent Me has eternal life and will not be judged but has crossed over from death to...

Trust in Jesus, and start following Him (if you don't already). Since genuine faith invariably leads to deeds of love and generosity, we then shouldn't have too much difficulty accumulating evidence that we are "sheep". Refrain from assigning whole categories of people (e.g. Muslims, people who...

Hell is rarely talked about in UK churches these days. (The only time I've heard Hell mentioned in a sermon in the last 30 years or so was when I was preaching...) Yet people still choose to follow Jesus, and keep on following Jesus. I wouldn't "threaten someone with Hell' when trying to...

All the New Testament teaching on the final judgement has ambiguities. How does this parable line up with the teaching elsewhere that in order to be saved our names must be written in the book of life? And that it's necessary for our good works to be inspired by our faith? Is Jesus judging all...

The word "historical' isn't in the Bible. What did He actually say?

Genesis 1 doesn't read like a "historical" account. It's too formulaic, and the material is arranged conceptually instead of chronologically. At the beginning, the earth is "formless" and "empty". God spends three "days" forming it (with two distinct creative acts on the third day) and then...

Human nature hasn't changed for millennia, and God doesn't change at all. So no - the Bible isn't outdated. But the way in which we apply it may well be.

I'm afraid I don't know if there was a pattern, because that data wasn't presented to us.

For some reason, we feel the need to invite people to "church" before they become Christians. That's not generally how it happened in New Testament times. I became a Christian first - it was only after that, that a church service made any sense. Then of course there are people who have had bad...

Last weekend I met someone who has just done a PhD on healings in South Wales. She had collected 600 testimonies of healings that had happened in the last 5 years. Most of them had happened outside church services, and many of those healed were unbelievers at the time, but came to faith as a...

St Paul would say - no point and no value at all, because Christians have such a bad time in this life (I Corinthians 15:30-32). As far as I know, God makes no distinctions on the basis of what your reason was for believing. He wants all of us to be saved, He's not going to be disqualifying...

1) "Should" is too strong a word - and not many unbelieving parents these days would send their children to church on a Sunday morning because there's so much else on for children to do (sport, especially). 2) If they're young, you can't leave them at home on their own, can you? If you go, they...