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    The Biblical Basis of 10 Catholic Distinctves

    I am an evangelical Methodist who grew up Pentecostal. But for 12 years I was a Theology Professor at a Catholic university. I have a positive perspective on Catholic spirituality, despite the fact that I have even won a lawsuit against Catholics! Despite this, I believe there is no Christian...
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    An Intimate Personal Relationship with Christ

    An evangelical friend complained, "I know I'm saved by grace through faith in Christ's atonement. But I have never experienced a persona An evangelical friend pointed out that the phrase "personal relationship with Christ" is not found in Scripture. He has not experienced such a relationship...
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    The Problem of Jesus' Prayer Promises and Our Limited Prayer Success

    If you read my "Life Journey" thread, you might get the impression that my prayer life is a life of continuous miracles in answer to prayer. That impression would be false because that thread shares the highlights of my life in the Spirit. In truth, it seems like most of my prayers go...
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    My Life Journey through the Lens of My Charismatic Experiences

    This thread is intended to complement my other thread on speaking in tongues by focusing on some of the key charismatic and paranormal experiences that shaped my faith and thought throughout my life. These experiences will eventually illustrate what it can mean to grow up Pentecostal and how...
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    10 Basic Questions about Speaking in Tongues

    The debate on the modern legitimacy of speaking in tongues generally focuses on these 10 questions. For the sake of coherent discussion, I hope to lead the discussion sequentially through each of these questions. Please refrain from commenting on an issue until it is brought up in this...
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    The Biblical Grounds for Catholic Confession and Absolution

    "Confess your sins (Greek: "hamartia") to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed (James 5:16)." "Hamartia" is the standard term for sinning against God, not just against your fellow believer. The primary focus is on physical healing, but the context makes it clear that...
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    The Happiest Day of your Life

    Describe the happiest day of your life. If several days come to mind that are hard to distinguish on the happiness meter, don't respond. Be careful to distinguish the most important day from your happiest day and the day on which you actually were the happiest from the day on which you SHOULD...
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    Babbling Against Speaking in Tongues

    Critics of tongues on this site have frozen like Bambi in the headlights 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...
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    The Biblical Foundations of Purgatory

    This thread will focus successively on how Jesus, Paul, Peter, and John the Seer lay the foundation for the later Catholic doctrine of Purgatory. [1] THE GEHENNA CONCEPT SHARED BY BOTH JESUS AND CONTEMPORARY RABBIS: The Feast of Hanukkah celebrates Judas Maccabaeus' victories during the...
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    How do you know the Holy Spirit dwells within you?

    Many evangelicals just claim the biblical texts that create the expectation that if they have repented, believed the Gospel, and made a faith commitment, then they automatically have the Holy Spirit. But is this a dangerous assumption challenged by Paul's epistles? PAUL'S EXPERIENTIAL CRITERIA...
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    The Biblical Basis for Catholic Distinctives

    Much of the fundamentalist screed directed against Catholics here consists of mindless unbiblical generalizations. These fundamentalists lack the integrity to actually study the biblical basis for Catholic doctrinal distinctives and practices. Informed Catholics might justifiably issue this...
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    How to Authentically Speak in Tongues

    A future post will explain why most initiations into speaking in tongues just produce babble that is of the flesh. But my OP will identify 3 proven principles for genuine glossolalia. Admittedly, the Holy Spirit cannot be limited to a specific operation formula. For example, when I was...
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    My Life Journey through the Lens of Paranormal Experiences

    I am deeply grateful for my Pentecostal upbringing, despite its excesses and some of its false teaching. Without the profound experiences in the Spirit, I doubt that a natural skeptic like me would even be a Christian today. This thread will focus on the many paranormal highlights of my...
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    The Apologetic Value of ADCs and NDEs

    Let me begin with this disclaimer: I am an evangelical Christian for whom Christ's atoning death and resurrection are the anchor of my faith. But at their best, the verifications inherent in ADCs (=After-Death Contacts) and NDEs (near-death experiences) seem more evidentially probative even than...
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    The Greatest 20th Century Revivals

    The Azusa Street Revival that began in 1906 led to 600 million Pentecostal and Charismatic converts globally and makes its instigator, William Seymour, the most spiritually influential Black man who ever lived. This excellent documentary tells the story with the aid of abundant eyewitness...
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    The Spirituality of Christian Guards at the Vulnerable City Wall

    THE SPIRITUALITY OF THE IMAGE OF BELIEVERS AT THE PROTECTIVE CITY WALL: (1) The Role of the Righteous Standing in the Gap Made in the Wall by Enemies: "And I sought for anyone who would repair the wall and stand in the breach before Me on behalf of the land, so that I would not destroy it; but...
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    Catholic Distinctives: Prelimary Questions

    As a lifelong evangelical, I note that we evangelicals typically ignore the ensuing set of questions that should precede discussion of Catholic doctrinal distinctives: I. QUESTIONS PRELIMARY TO A DISCUSSION OF CATHOLIC CONFESSION OF TO PRIESTS: (1) Why do evangelicals spend so little time...
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    A Neglected Tool for Praise and Worship: Lifting Up Hands

    Why do so many Christians ignore an oft repeated biblical command for worship--lifting up our hands? Many Christians get angry when pastors ask then to lift their hands and praise the Lord, arguing that doing so feels showy and unnatural to them and they don't like being manipulated. Paul...
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    Normative Christian Experience: the Missing Basic

    In the NT normative Christian experience is limited neither to mere confession of sins and repentance nor to a lived faith based on salvation by grace through faith, but primarily consists of a living intimate personal relationship with Jesus Christ. In a recent study 3 of 4 Christian young...
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    Does the Bible teach the need for an initimate personal relationship with Christ?

    Mike is a devout evangelical friend with congestive heart failure. He is a lifelong believer, attends church regularly, leads a weekly Bible study, and visits shut-ins. Mike's pastor recently preached a sermon in which he claimed, "If you don't have a "personal relationship with Jesus Christ,"...