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    Where Is Heaven?

    dreadnaught: "So how do you find it [the kingdom]?" Are you asking for GPS coordinates? If so, the closest I can come to directions is to say that you'll find it when you're tall enough to reach Heaven when you're on your knees. Your question reminds me of my pastor's reaction to the Soviet...
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    Did the eternal Word of God die at the cross?

    The risen Christ is not the same as the preincarnate Son or "Logos." As applied to Christ in John 1:1-2, the Logos (= literally, too vaguely "Word") designates "the rational Self-expression of God as opposed to God in His unknowability. In other words, prior to His incarnation, God the Son...
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    Eternal Security - Is the Gospel

    (3) In Revelation, the letter to the Church of Sardis also refutes the doctrine of eternal security. The church of Sardis was once very alive spiritually, but have gradually become spiritually "dead." Christ warns them of their need to "wake up" and "strengthen" their backslidden spirituality...
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    Are Sacrifices Still Necessary?

    Tree of Life: Jesus' atoning death is the sacrifice to end all sacrifices (Hebrews 10:8-12). The Jewish system of sacrifice "can never take away sin (10:11)" because Jewish sacrifices are a prophetic type of Christ's ultimate sacrifice. Apart from that, God has "never desired or taken...
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    I am Confused.

    Aspie, I am a retired Theology professor and UMC pastor. This is your first thread I've encountered and nothing would bring me greater pleasure than to see you through to a life-changing encounter with Christ. Think of yourself as a patient seeking out the right physician for your soul. It...
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    Eternal Security - Is the Gospel

    Doug Melven: [In Galatians] "Paul is not talking about salvation, he is talking about the benefits Christ gives believers.Like the fruit of the Spirit." On the contrary, apart from Romans, it is Galatians where Paul presents his most sustained focus on justification by faith. Your reference to...
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    Eternal Security - Is the Gospel

    Let's begin to consider the first of a blizzard of NT texts that refute the grace-cheapening heresy of eternal security: (1) Galatians Paul addresses believers who have received the Holy Spirit, but some of whom have drifted into legalism and other sins. (a) In Galatians 5, Paul addresses...
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    Eternal Security - Is the Gospel

    This site addresses many serious heresies--e.g. Momonism, Jehovah's Witnesses, and eternal security. I consider it particularly urgent to refute the eternal security heresy because of its status as the Gospel of cheap grace and because of the way it unintentionally condones backsliding. Let me...
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    Freedom from religion.

    The Bible is universally recognized as a book of religion. The fact that W2L and Doug Melven repudiate religion means that that don't take the Bible seriously and rather are here to troll and put on a pious display. I'm grateful that they are at least honest about their true views.
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    Confusion regarding Philippians 2

    Before there were Gospels, there were Paul's letter's, and before these letters, there were pre-Pauline hymns that express the earliest and original Christology. That observation prepares the way for the following observations: The OP should be commended for drawing attention to an...
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    What does the Son of God mean?

    Your question, if persued, will lead you to one of the great dividing lines between churchy understanding of messianic titles and seminary scholarly understandings (both conservative and liberal). In the Palestine of Jesus' day, "son of man" is actually a higher messianic title than "Son of...
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    Confusion regarding Philippians 2

    Micah: "Christ did not present Himself as God...but generally called Himself "the Son of Man", and was always subject to the Father's will. Even so the Jews would have known that Son of Man also meant "Son of God", and "Son of God" also meant God." Actually the Jews knew that "Son of Man" as a...
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    Confusion regarding Philippians 2

    The key question is this: "Emptied Himself" of what? There are 2 obvious choices: emptied Himself of His divinity or emptied Himself of all His divine prerogatives. Emptied "Himself of His divinity" would mean that Jesus is what God would be like if God were merely human and not divine. It...
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    Penal Substitutionary Atonement

    From thE cross Jesus cries, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" The doctrine of penal substitutionary atonement wrongly teaches that at the moment God has literally abandoned Jesus as an expression of His wrath against Jesus, our sin-bearer. But in fact this complaint of abandonment is...
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    Is the concept of "back-slidding" biblical?

    OSAS is refuted by a blizzard of Bible texts. But I will just focus in 3 points on one type of refutation of this heresy: (1) Possession of the Holy Spirit is a necessary condition for being saved: "He that does not have the Spirit does not belong to Him (Romans 8)." (2) Willful sin can...
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    Joyful noise or noisy gong?

    One common phenomenom in NDEs is listening to the music of Paradise. If one ilstens at an unearthly waterfall or in front of beautiful flowers, both the waterfall and the flowers emit beautiful harmonies. Yet one has a choice: one can listen to each individual harmony or the collective...
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    John 3:16 - How is this claim justified?

    Modern NT scholars would being their reply by pointing that John makes no use of a sayings collection like the use of Q in Matthew and Luke. Rather John constructs "revelation dialogues" based on his own theology, dialogues only occasionally interspersed with sayings of Jesus from oral...
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    Examples of Sacred Tradition

    Liberals quote Exodus 21:22-25 in support of abortion: http://www.equip.org/article/exodus-2122-25-biblical-support-for-abortion/ They gain leverage for this dubious application of Exodus 21 from the fact that the Bible nowhere explicitly condemns abortion. But Didache 4:2 reads: "Thou shalt...
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    Are works (words, deeds, actions) a reflection of what is in your heart,...?

    A negative answer to your question is explained in great detail by Pastor Bill Hybel's little book, "Who You Are when No One's Looking." Jesus says, "By your fruits you will know them." But the Bible does not allow us to pronounce a final verdict on someone's character based on their fruits...
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    I'm sick and tired of dealing with overly proud and arrogant people...

    The easy way out is to shove the self-absorbed out of your life. But if you also have the right kind of friends, then you would likely have the energy to minister to them. For example, I attend a small weekly prayer group and visit a few shut-ins on a weekly basis. I talk to others about how...