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There are disputable matters of different interpretations and applications of the Scriptures for which there may be different sets of supporting Bible passages on which Christian need to agree to disagree. I believe that such is the case with infant versus adult baptism. Romans 14 has several...

Yes, our goal among others is to become perfect, but since we are saddled with that old, sinful nature until we die, we won't free of it until then. Once God has enabled me to overcome the outward sins of my life, he gives me the huge challenge of overcoming the inward sins (for example...

Yes, but gradually over the rest of their lifetimes. There's a bit of a mystery to what the "image and likeness of God" in Genesis 1:27 ("So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.) But the Apostle Paul tells us about believers'...

Yes, Adam was, but he and all of us messed that image of God in us with self-centeredness (sin) and tarnished it. Jesus came to restore it by dying and rising again and continues to restore it as believers go to church, read the Bible, live for him, and pray!

Which chapter is that in 1 Timothy?

Let me clue you in. I'm 82 years old and continue to sin. I mean that I still sometimes get frustrated and impatient and fail to pray when I should. We are all sinners, but the difference is that God motivates believers to want to avoid sinful emotions, decisions, and actions and to become more...

During our 56 years of marriage, we had four children. One of them was very strong-willed; the others were compliant. Parents must show both tender and tough love toward their children. I mean that they must set and enforce limits for their children's actions when transgressing those limits...

Gen_18:25 Far be it from you to do such a thing, to put the righteous to death with the wicked, so that the righteous fare as the wicked! Far be that from you! Shall not the Judge of all the earth do what is just?” 1Sa_2:10 The adversaries of the LORD shall be broken to pieces; against them he...

Apparently, you don't believe that God is a just God who must punish human sinfulness and that God satisfied his own justice through Jesus' death. Do you believe those truths?

You would never be "born again" to become anyone that violates God's clear will, "You shall not murder."

I completely agree!

God's peace doesn't mean inactivity; it does mean acceptance of God's plan and will for our lives. Enjoying our glory seems to come from Romans 8:28 and 29 as well as 2 Corinthians 3:18, which both seem to say that when we come to believe, God puts a spark of his glory in us. I can really enjoy...

You're welcome, Pearl. May God bless you in your loss!

So, what's your point? No matter how it came about, it still is the authoritative Word of God, as 2 Timothy 3:16 and 17 as well as 2 Peter 1 attest to.

Accusing God of sadism is a very serious thing. You might rethink your judgment of him. He is a loving God but also a just God. The Bible is clear on both of those qualities. The whole context of those two verses shows that believers have received God's justification and unbelievers, his...

Until I was 16 years old, I was a pragmatist and the son of an unbelieving pragmatist. That is, I believed in my own experience, just like my dad's faith, to guide my life. Many people have faith in their reason, experience, or emotions to guide their lives. When my believing mother dragged me...

My sympathy to you, Pearl. Four years ago this coming November, my wife died suddenly after 56 years of our marriage. You are on my prayer list.

We Reformed people believe that the Bible is clear about our ultimate destination being the new earth of Revelation 21:1, to which the new Jerusalem descends in that chapter. Our theology is far from Jehovah's Witnesses, since they don't have the same God. We believe in the 3-in-1 God of the...

(1) If someone in authority over you commands to you to avoid doing something and you do it, you are in essence replacing that person's authority with your own. That's what rebellion is. (2) When Adam fell into sin, all of us fell with him. That's the truth Paul presented. Those who never knew...

Basically, I would go with the plain meaning of Scripture without parodies or imagination added. After all, as Paul and Peter both say, it's God's Word to us. I don't want to mess around with it. Why do you have to add to Scripture things that aren't there? The "transgression' was in wanting to...