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God definitely has a plan - but it's flexible. Some details are more important than others. I believe that He doesn't control every single event and circumstance (although He can do if He wishes). He does control the things that are absolutely crucial, but the less important things can be...

Many ancient cities have been on the same site for thousands of years - Jericho, for example. But always there will be ruins of older buildings (and other things) underneath. Dig underneath London and you will find mediaeval cemeteries and Roman streets. I've been to places in Jordan and Israel...

By your standards, there will be millions of different gospels. Every language will have its own distinct gospel. Every different Bible translation will contain a different gospel. Every member of my own church will have as slightly different way of putting it - does this really mean that we...

Has always been, for all believers, Jewish and Gentile. But don't divide the gospel! There's only one!

Really? Picking out bitesize quotes from different people - none of them are an all-encompassing description of the gospel. To me they look like different facets of the same gospel. It's the content that should be the same, not the precise words you convey it with

Now you're using the word 'Gospel' in a different sense. The word 'gospel' in the New Testament is the good news of Jesus as in the message that is preached (i.e. the need for repentance, faith & commitment) The four 'Gospels' are the raw material - the facts about Jesus' life and death, and...

Acts 19:6 But worth noting that both Acts 8 and Acts 19 describe unusual situations, not the standard practice. The passages describe what happened, but don't teach it as normative.

And yet today we continue to preach to unbelievers in the same way that we have preached for centuries - assuming that, like the Jews, they have a background understanding of God and of sin. Whereas we should be preaching as if to pagans, calling out idolatry and emphasising the kingship of...

Surely that would be the gospel for the circumcised and the gospel for the uncircumcised, i.e. two different gospels? Whereas Peter and Paul preached the same gospel (Acts 15:11) - although with different slants, appropriate for different audiences. There's no difference between the gospel in...

If they originate from me then they can be said to be of me. Are you saying, then, that "the gospel of the uncircumcised" came from the uncircumcised (i.e. pagan Gentiles)? Even though Paul says that it came from Jesus Himself, earlier in the letter to the Galatians? (Galatians 1:11,12) Do you...

How does this add to the discussion? Here is the verse in Greek, and the word is the definite article in the genitive case (= "of the"). No argument there. But how do you translate it? It doesn't necessarily mean "of" in English, because our grammar is completely different to Greek grammar...

Well, yes,: "of" makes no sense (although it presumably did 400 years ago)

Mutation isn't the only way in which the genome can evolve. Loss of a "stop" codon, or duplication of codons, can cause a gene to lengthen. Genes can also be duplicated. Viral DNA can become incorporated into the genome - there are lots of ancient viral fragments in human DNA. Humans have fewer...

I tried to explain: "Genesis doesn't tell us; it's left to our imaginations. And some of us imagine mountains, stars and creatures appearing suddenly, as if out of a hat, while others imagine continents colliding, supernovae exploding and creatures evolving."

We could indeed all say truthfully that God spoke everything into existence. But how? Genesis doesn't tell us; it's left to our imaginations. And some of us imagine mountains, stars and creatures appearing suddenly, as if out of a hat, while others imagine continents colliding, supernovae...

Genesis tells us nothing about how God created the world. And the seven days of Genesis 1 are likely to be symbolic. Therefore, evolution isn't necessarily incompatible with divine creation. I believe in both.

Despite the insistence of the KJV-only brigade, there is no doctrinal difference between the various manuscript traditions. Very few churches in the UK still use the KJV or NKJV, but the gospel carries on unchanged. Does the number of English translations indicate doctrinal bias? Well, some of...

We don't have the authority to tell God what to do. He has a veto - and He probably exercises it frequently

The Bible speaks clearly (though sometimes in apparently contradictory ways - see below) Jesus is the Truth personified. We are: sinful, rebellious, (relatively) stupid, self-absorbed. The world is: spiritually dark, sinful, rebellious. It's like living in permanent fog, listening to a message...

That's one explanation that I've come across, but I'm not sure that I buy it - it would be an odd way of saying it.