What do angels, a compass, the four gospels, the 12 tribes, three animals and a man have to do with each other? Is there some hidden spiritual connection between them? Is there a biblical pattern to these things?
This is a very important question! I can tell you whether you’ll make it to Heaven. Seriously. It’s not that difficult.
Every now and then someone asks me whether I think God “calls” people into ministry… that is, whether God speaks to certain individuals and tells them to make ministry their full-time work.
When I was a teen, I went to a church in a Seattle suburb. Another church down the street had a split over doctrine. They were Seventh-Day Adventists.
The beatitudes is the name given to a portion of Jesus’ teaching that talks about being blessed. They are a section of the Sermon on the Mount, considered by many – both religious people and non-religious alike – to be some of the most profound words in history.
Matthew asked: Is God happy with his people having Christmas trees and celebrating Christmas? I suppose the answer to your question is, like so many other answers, "it depends." I don't think God cares one way or another about trees being used for such things.
There are a lot of Bible verses about love. Some tell us what God is like: God is love. Some tell us what to do: love your enemies. There's a verse about love that's very precious to me, and I'd like to spend a few minutes on it:
In another article I outline the questions that God asked Job. In response, M Johnson wanted to know how many questions Job asked God. Well...not nearly as many. Here's the much-shorter list.
The Bible talks a lot about names. In the NIV, the Hebrew and Greek words for "name" appear 944 times. That's a bunch! I get a lot of questions about Bible names. Many people are confused about how "name" is used in the Bible. It's used in more than one way, so some explanation would be helpful. The simplest way the Bible uses "name" is like this:
We have very little information about Paradise. We only find the word paradeisos in three passages in the Bible:
At first glance, God in the Old Testament seems harsh, and perhaps callous. God in the New Testament seems loving, and gentle. With respect, this is a simple misunderstanding. It's also not new...this has been a common misunderstanding since at least the turn of the first century AD.
Many skeptics of Christianity believe that Jesus never claimed to be God. Some claim that nobody believed He was God until long, long after His death. Others argue that Jesus' own words show that He believed Himself to be simply a man, or only the Son of God and not God Himself. Still others claim that Jesus' divinity was created by the apostle Paul, and that his teaching and Jesus' teaching are in conflict. From Jehovah's Witnesses to Muslims to atheists, a whole bunch of people deny that Jesus is God.
