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Cornelius did 'good works' before he became a Christian - and God took note of them (Acts 10:1-4).

All Christ's churches have imperfections and flaws. These vary from church to church. Some are bigger than others. Maybe intensely persecuted churches tend to be 'purer'. The failures of the churches are corporate failures, so I'm not sure how personal the application can be. But we should all...

The very first (and therefore the most important thing?) that we are told about the 144,000 is that they have been sealed. What is God's seal of ownership? The Holy Spirit (II Corinthians 1:22; Ephesians 1:13), given to all genuine Christians. So the 144,000 are Christians - nothing more...

It's good that your husband likes you as you are. But perhaps you should ask your doctor if you need to lose weight for health reasons. Nice things like wine and chocolate are great in moderation - but how much of them are you eating?

It's the human being who is the prophet. But behind the prophet is a spirit of some kind. We are told to 'test' or 'weigh' prophecies (I Corinthians 14:29), but this can also be described as 'testing the spirits' (I John 4:1) . One individual prophet can sometimes speak the truth and sometimes...

It's more complicated than just whether or not a prophecy 'comes true'. God often sent prophets to warn the people of what would happen if they didn't repent. Usually they ignored the prophet, and the threatened disaster did happen. But if they did repent (as Nineveh did), then it wouldn't...

We may be inhabiting different 'cultures' as well. I'm thankful that my introduction to the charismatic movement was very 'low-key'. It was in a small group meeting, and there was no pressure for anyone to say or do anything unless they were very sure that it was from the Holy Spirit...

If that's your mental picture of 'prophecy' then I sympathise with your position. I agree with your verdict of 'terrible abuse'. It doesn't sound like the prophecies I hear in my own church, nor like anything we read about in the New Testament, and it's the kind of thing that gives ammunition to...

A teacher deals in general principles; a prophet is speaking into a specific situation. An evangelist preaches the message of salvation to unbelievers; a prophet may speak to either believers or unbelievers, and on any subject. Any one of us can (hopefully) explain the gospel to an unbeliever...

Hi Josho, I missed this when you first posted it. When I became a Christian 40-ish years ago there was a lot of discussion (and controversy) about baptism in the Spirit and speaking in tongues. I really wanted to be filled with the Spirit but nothing ever happened when I asked God to do it...

Psalm 139 was written by David, who was also called by God to fulfil a great purpose for the history of Israel. Does God have similar individual eternal plans for us 'ordinary' people? I'm not sure. God does know us before we are born because He is in eternity, where there is no 'before' or...

The NT definition is in I Corinthians 14:3 - "The one who prophesies speaks to people for their strengthening, encouraging and comfort." I am going by what the NT has to say about prophecy - especially Paul's instructions to the church in Corinth. (In Ephesians 2:20, he's referring to OT prophets)

Ah well... if we can't agree on the definition of a prophet, we're not likely to agree on the rest, are we! We may not have very much information about NT prophets, but what we do have doesn't fit your definition comfortably. Unlike you, I do see a difference between prophets in the OT and the...

With all respect, that doesn't describe the church at Corinth. Paul had spent eighteen months there, and the church contained many members of Jewish background (including two former synagogue leaders, Crispus and Sosthenes) who were very familiar with the Jewish Scriptures, even if they didn't...

The Apocrypha was what all literate first-century Jews were reading, alongside the Scriptures. Paul almost certainly knew it well - so it would be very surprising if nothing found its way from the Apocrypha into his writings. Just because Protestants don't consider it authoritative, doesn't mean...

That's a debatable interpretation. WE all know what Hebrews 9:22 says - but Cain and Abel didn't. Nothing had been said to them about the necessity of a blood sacrifice. And when God remonstrated with Cain, why didn't He say "Bring an animal" if that was the problem? Hebrew has different words...

How do you arrive at this? The only NT prophets that I can think of don't fit this description. Agabus prophesied to the church in Antioch (Acts 11:27-30) and to Paul (Acts 21:10,11). And Paul encouraged the use of prophecy in the regular church gatherings (I Corinthians 14:29-31)! Agabus...

I agree that prophets in the sense of people declaring prophecies of universal validity (i.e. Scripture) are no more. But they were never the only type of prophets. The 'schools of the prophets' associated with Elijah and Elisha seem to have been men dedicated to serving God in a time of...

Why does he finish the quote at verse 11? Paul's train of thought continues to verse 13, where he quotes Joel 2:32 to support his assertion that "if you declare with your mouth 'Jesus is Lord'... you will be saved." "For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved" (Romans 10:13...

From what you write, it sounds as though all your knowledge about Christianity has been got from forums and Youtube. This is a very bad idea. These places contain a very high proportion of people with extreme or odd beliefs, and unless you already know the Bible quite well, you can't evaluate...