Questions and Answers
Surviving in the present age involves many challenges on several levels and God does not want us to get a hunting rifle or a fishing rod and go live in the wilderness, or to live in a monastery, waiting for the return of Christ. Notice the admonition of Christ in John 17:15: “I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one.” We have to live in this world and since one of our responsibilities is to support the Work of preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom of God to the world, which includes warning the world of impending doom because of sin, we need to do our best to survive ourselves under these conditions now and in the near future. We all face different challenges, based on age, marital status, raising a family or being retired or widowed. The physical challenges come with aging and we have to learn to do our best in whatever circumstance we find ourselves. In this Q&A, we will look at our relationship with God, our family, our employers and our neighbors, always with the view to our survival. 1. Our relationship with God We… We live in an age where bullying and teasing are rampant, and we hear all these stories about physical bullying, psychological online bullying, known as cyberbullying, and other intimidation and manipulative techniques. This can happen anywhere, whether it be at school, at work, or through social media, and anyone can be a victim; but in this Q&A we want to concentrate specifically on young people as victims of bullying. How should they respond? We may have been a victim ourselves or we may have even participated in being the bully or involved with teasing, causing hurt to others, which we shouldn’t do, since we are to be good examples. There are attempts in the workforce or at schools where recommendations are made about whom we need to talk to when trying to deal with these problems, as well as reporting the bully to proper authorities, such as administrators, counselors, human resource departments, psychiatrists, therapists, and so on, but they tend to dismiss the most important One who could truly help us. What about God? How can God actually help US in these situations? And what does GOD say about how we should or should not react? When it comes to God’s… In the previous two Q&As, we discussed the fact that children of at least one converted parent are “sanctified” or “holy” in God’s eyes, which means that they can have a special and intimate relationship with God; that they CAN speak to God, expecting to be heard, and that they can experience and obtain an answer from God. We pointed out that they are not cut off from God the Father, but that they must make the decision of wanting to have continuing contact with God, by not neglecting or forsaking the Way of God. We also discussed the blessing of little children and the fact that God assigns guardian angels to them for their protection, so that they can reach their potential of becoming baptized and ultimately born-again members in the God Family. We also showed that it is eventually the decision of the child or teenager or young adult as to how to conduct his or her Way of Life and whether or not to maintain a relationship with God. Still, as we alluded to in the previous two Q&As, the teaching and conduct of parents can have great influence on the decision of the children to either become and stay loyal… In the previous Q&A, we discussed the fact that children of at least one converted parent are “sanctified” or “holy” in God’s eyes, which means that they can have a special and intimate relationship with God; that they CAN speak to God, expecting to be heard, and they can experience and obtain an answer from God. They are not cut off from God the Father, but they must make the decision of wanting to have continuing contact with God, by not neglecting or forsaking the Way of God. We also discussed the blessing of little children and the fact that God assigns guardian angels to them for their protection, so that they can reach their potential of becoming baptized and ultimately born-again members in the God Family. It is true, of course, that the teaching and conduct of parents can have an influence on the decision of the children to either become and stay loyal to God or to reject Him, but, as we will show, it is ultimately the decision of the child or teenager or young adult as to how to conduct his or her Way of Life and whether or not to maintain a relationship with God. For instance, we… 1 Corinthians 7:14 reads, “For the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified by the husband; otherwise your children would be unclean, but now they are holy.” The Ryrie Study Bible gives the following correct explanations of this passage: “The presence of a believer in the home sets the home apart and gives it a Christian influence it would not otherwise have. A believing partner, Even though they are not automatically Christians (as rightly understood, we are only Christians when the Spirit of Christ dwells in us (Romans 8:9)—the Holy Spirit which is given to us upon proper baptism (Acts 2:38)—that does not mean that our children are cut off from access to God. Even during the time of the Old Testament, Christ DID deal and work with humans, including the nations of Israel and Judah. Christ did not deal with them by offering them access to the Holy Spirit and an opportunity for salvation (this will occur later, in the Great White Throne judgment period), but He DID speak to them and… In this final installment of this series, we look at four more descriptions of Jesus and conclude with some more general information which includes seven interesting descriptions in Revelation 2 and 3. Perhaps the most famous verse in the Bible gives testimony to the fact that Jesus gave His life as a ransom for many: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). This is reinforced in 1 Peter 1:18-19: “…knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.” And we read in Ephesians 1:7 further confirmation of this: “In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace.” We read further in 1 Timothy 2:5-6: “For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time…” There are many other references to this in the Bible which are worth reviewing. It is true that Christ gave Himself a “ransom for all,”… We continue our journey to review more descriptions in the Bible about Jesus. There are a number of Scriptures that reveal that Jesus Christ is the Savior of mankind. In Luke 2:11, we read: “For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.” Right from the very beginning of His human life, it was revealed to a few people, His parents, the shepherds and later the wise men, that Jesus Christ was the Savior–the Lord. Remember that we explained in part 2 of this series that “Jesus” means “the Lord is salvation” or “the Lord saves,” while Christ means the “anointed one” or the “chosen one.” The wording, “a Savior” instead of “the Savior” in Luke 2:11 is interesting. We know that there is no salvation in any other than Jesus Christ, and we read in Isaiah 45:21 that Jesus Christ, the God of the Old Testament, is the only Savior for mankind. Still, we need to understand that God the Father is also called our Savior (1 Timothy 1:1), in that it was He who gave His only begotten Son and the Savior for mankind, and God’s born-again children are also referred to as… After reviewing seven descriptions of Jesus in the previous two installments, we continue on our journey of looking at more of these. We saw in the previous section above, that Jesus asked His disciples, “Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?” (Matthew 16:13). This is a Name that He used to refer to Himself. In our Q&A entitled: “Why did Jesus call Himself ‘The Son of Man?’” we quote Wikipedia as follows: “The expression ‘the Son of man’ occurs 81 times in the Greek text of the four Canonical gospels, and is used only in the sayings of Jesus. The singular Hebrew expression ‘son of man’ (ben-‘adam) also appears in the Hebrew Bible over a hundred times.” We go on to say that one commentator on the internet made these observations: “In the gospels, there are more than 80 places where Jesus refers to himself in the third person as the ‘Son of Man’. In most of those places, he is associating it with one of two prophecies concerning himself; either that the Son of Man will suffer and be killed (Matthew 17:12, Mark 8:31, 9:12, Luke 9:22) or that the Son of Man will come… In the first installment, we learned that it has been said that there are some 200 names and titles of Christ found in the Bible, and we started reviewing some of these. We now continue with some more descriptions of Jesus. We understand that Jesus was the God of the Old Testament. In Exodus 3:13, we read: “Then Moses said to God, ‘Indeed, when I come to the children of Israel and say to them, “The God of your fathers has sent me to you,” and they say to me, “What is His name?” what shall I say to them?’” In verse 14 is a telling piece of information: “And God said to Moses, ‘I AM WHO I AM.’ And He said, ‘Thus you shall say to the children of Israel, “I AM has sent me to you.”’” In the New Testament, in John 8:58-59, we read: “Jesus said to them, ‘Most assuredly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM.’ Then they took up stones to throw at Him; but Jesus hid Himself and went out of the temple, going through the midst of them, and so passed by.” In our booklet, “Do You Know the Jesus of the Bible?,” we read the following on page 5: “When… The answer is, probably more than most of us would have thought. As we will see, when reviewed thoroughly, there are very many names, descriptions, attributes, functions and references that apply to Jesus Christ. With this question, the first thing that may come to mind is the debate about what and how to call Jesus. There are those who insist that it must be Yeshua. Many others disagree: On the website: https://biblescienceforum.com/ we read about the transliteration of Yeshua into the name Jesus. Hebrew/Aramaic Yeshua Greek Ie-s-ous Latin Ie-s-us English Jesus We might also add the following: German Jesus French Jésus Spanish Jesús Italian Gesù In a Newsweek article from December 2018, we read the following: “Jesus Christ is celebrated as the reason for the season for many Christians–but is that his actual name? Due to the numerous translations the Bible has undergone, ‘Jesus’ is the modern term for the Son of God. “His original Hebrew name is Yeshua, which is short for yehōshu’a. It can be translated to ‘Joshua,’ according to Dr. Michael L. Brown.” “Though his name may actually be Joshua, the name ‘Jesus’ wasn’t born out of creativity but also translation. When Yeshua is translated into Greek, which the New Testament is derived from, it becomes Iēsous, which in English spelling is ‘Jesus.’ “While some religious groups, like…How to Survive in This Day and Age!
How should especially young people handle bullying and teasing, and what does the Bible have to say about it?
How do you understand Paul’s statement that our children are holy? And what are the practical consequences? (Part 3)
How do you understand Paul’s statement that our children are holy? And what are the practical consequences? (Part 2)
How do you understand Paul’s statement that our children are holy? And what are the practical consequences? (Part 1)
therefore, should stay with the unbeliever. However, this does not mean that children born into such a home are automatically Christians. They
are holy in the sense of being set apart by the presence of one believing parent.”How many different descriptions of Jesus are there in the Bible? (Part 5)
How many different descriptions of Jesus are there in the Bible? (Part 4)
How many different descriptions of Jesus are in the Bible? (Part 3)
How many different descriptions of Jesus are there in the Bible? (Part 2)
How many different descriptions of Jesus are there in the bible? (Part 1)
