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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.

How do you know?

So people look at the Scriptures and see the same problems that you see - and they attempt to analyse and understand. Why do you call that "whitewashing"? Now we may come to different conclusions. Not everyone will be satisfied with the same answer. And unanswered prayer is a big subject; there...

It's a standard construction: "The one who...(believes)" But it's not the same as "Everyone who..." So I take it to imply that any believer can (potentially) do a miracle - it isn't just the apostles or church leaders. But in practice, it won't be everyone. Paul writes in I Corinthians 12 that...

I read an article a few years ago (unfortunately no longer available online) whose author argued persuasively that the "greater works" referred to healings and suchlike, not to the things that evidenced Jesus' deity (such as walking on water and changing water into wine). Well, the church has...

Even in the early church, not every Christian performed wondrous miracles (read Acts, and the letters). The first promise is for the Church collectively, not for every individual Christian. And there's nothing mentioned about frequency. The second promise is to grant the things asked for in...

Context. Paul is talking specifically about building up the church. There are some people who do it badly. They don't lose their salvation, but they will lose out on any reward. They will be 'barely' saved.

My husband and I have been married for 43 and a half years. Still seem to be going strong. On the face of it, we didn't seem to be all that compatible (other than both being Christians). I am a doctor; my husband left school at 16. My background is middle-class (my father was a solicitor); he...