Search results

Most Christians have a distorted understanding of Jesus' parables (1) because they don't know the cultural background and (3) because they don't recognize the difference between parable and allegory, and (3) because they don't recognize Jesus' characteristic use of shock tactics to grab...

Barney or another poster will surely explain how 2 contradictions between Luke and the other Gospels can be removed or at least reduced to paradoxes: (1) "When they [the women] did not see His body there [at the tomb], they came back to us and told us that they had seen a vision of angels who...

Thanks for your replies. Yes marks, the Catholic belief in healing through relics, the bones of saints, is traceable to 2 Kings 13:20-21 (Elisha's bones). Please read this short article that documents how God has used relics (the bones of saints and martyrs, especially of Stephen. the first...

Most evangelicals are blissfully ignorant of how informed Catholics find biblical support for Catholic distinctives in Scripture: e. g. praying to saints. Purgatory, baptism, the presence of Christ in the Eucharistic elements, the use of holy water, the biblical authority of priests to forgive...

ANOTHER GUARDIAN ANGEL EXPERIENCE: (14) Roger B. is a retired top federal executive at HUD (Housing and Urban Development). We became friendly through our interactions on a New Age website and I eventually visited him from Buffalo, NY at his summer cottage along Lake Ontario. Roger shared...

A parent who disciplines a child does so to correct and reform the child's behavior so that the child can develop a commendable character and succeed in life. It is ludicrous for you to liken that to a a loving heavenly Father who consigns his child to eternal conscious torment with no...

(13) Today I had lunch with my friend Mike, a retired Boeing engineer. He shared this testimony experienced by a leader in his church. This man was driving in the country with 2 other people when he lost control of his large car and it overturned on its side. Thankfully, none of the 3 was...

Well, at least you are the first OSAS advocate to actually challenge my point by point exegesis of Revelation and Hebrews. Unfortunately, all the academic commentaries disagree with you! The 7 letters address the entire church of each city. The church of Smyrna in general is addressed as a...

Here is a better and more provocative question: If God is pure unconditional love, how does He continue to love the damned in Hell, unless they can theoretically still repent, be transformed, and join the elect in Heaven? As evangelical writer C. S. Lewis famously put this issue: "The gates of...

Before this thread was birthed, I was contemplating starting my own thread on the biblical principles of effective prayer. I hesitated because (1) even prayer principles diligently followed often don't work if they are mechanically applied and (2) because hard experience has taught me that some...

Christophany, Taken, Eternally Grateful, justbyfaith, and Enoch are all denizens of an uneducated Fundamentalist Ghetto that outlaws academic commentaries on specific NT books (e. g. on Revelation and Hebrews), all of which support my anti-OSAS stance. Notice carefully that they all duck my...

Critics of tongues on this site have no answer when confronted with these 5 unchallenged points: (1) Paul's command to "pray in the Spirit" is fulfilled by striving to speak in tongues. 2 points establish this teaching...

Paul would dismiss your pontification as "foolish" on the grounds that signs and wonders are a normative aspect of life in the Spirit: "Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now ending with the flesh? Did you experience so much for nothing?...Well then, did God supply you...

I know by direct experience that nothing "builds up the body" as effectively as sign gifts! You just need to get out more.

Now I understand why you don't watch in depth videos. Your reading comprehension is appalling. As academic commentaries on John point out, Jesus is implying that He is really present in the Eucharist; and for that for very reason He comes to abide in the believer through Holy Communion. That...

Enoch: "I do not watch videos." So you despise the in depth learning that videos facilitate? Enoch: "Jesus said that unless one eats His flesh and drinks His blood, one cannot have eternal life. And the Jews took this literally to mean cannibalism. Hence they were offended, and said "This is...

"Christophany: "I have gifts from the Holy Spirit, just not the tongues and babbling type. the ones that edify the body, not self." In defiance of Paul's earnest desire for every believer! "I want you all to speak in tongues...I thank God that I speak in tongues more than you all (1 Corinthians...

(2) OSAS advocates have frozen like Bambi in the headlights at the case against OSAS in the Letters to the 7 Churches. So let's move on to Hebrews. A few introductory comments are helpful to the discussion: (a) No academic commentary on Hebrews supports Paul's authorship of this epistle. (b)...

THE NATURE OF LIFE ON "THE NEW EARTH" I'm not ordinarily interested in millenarian speculation (pre-, post-, or amillennialism), but atheist Howard Storm's revelation about life in the millennium really got my attention for various reasons: (1) Apparently unknown to him, his NDE vision of the...

This thread is needed because eternal security advocates tend to ignore relevant biblical contexts and verse clusters. The thread will initially focus on the 2nd half of the first century (Revelation and then Hebrews) and then shift to Paul and finally to Jesus. In the process, it will be...