Some questions for everyone

[kdowd771]

Thses are some questions I had when I was first saved. I went to a New believers class at the church I attended. Basically it was Christian 101. Was just wanting to see what everyone else came up with for answers here.


1. Is true victory over sin when you recognize you have sinned and make the effort not to do it again? I question this because how can you have true victory over it if you continue to sin in some way in the future.

2. Why are words from Jesus in New Testament in red? But words from God in Old Testament are not? Aren’t God and Jesus one?

3. How did the Baptist faith originate?

4. Why so many Christian denominations?

5. Why so many interpretations of the Bible?

6. Has true meaning and intention of God been lost in the translations and different interpretations?

7. In Mark 3:29 what does blasphemes against the Holy Spirit mean?

8. If Jesus can forgive any sin why is this called an eternal sin?

9. What are blasphemes?

10. Why do Catholics receive Communion and Baptists do not?

11. Can you pray wrong?

12. Are we selfish if we are praying for change within us?

13. Since we should live our lives as Jesus did is it a sin if we do not forgive someone?

14. It seems in the past God was active here on earth. Why has He stepped back?

15. Though prophets were not “common” they were not “un-common” how come we don’t hear about prophets today?

16. Are those that predict the return of Jesus false prophets? Since only the Father knows when Jesus will come back.

17. Are our thoughts a sin?

18. Is it a sin if we do not even realize consciously or unconsciously what we have said or done?

19. If someone was never exposed to the teaching of Jesus and they die they are not saved. Do they go to hell?

[Boesman]

1. Is true victory over sin when you recognize you have sinned and make the effort not to do it again? I question this because how can you have true victory over it if you continue to sin in some way in the future.

I believe the victory over sin was achieved by Christ when He died for our sins on the cross. We are sinners. Victory over sins lies in Christ, not in anything we do.


12. Are we selfish if we are praying for change within us?

No, not at all! In fact, do it daily.


13. Since we should live our lives as Jesus did is it a sin if we do not forgive someone?

MT 7:1&2 Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.

MT 6:14&15 For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.

Doesn't coma any clearer than that.


14. It seems in the past God was active here on earth. Why has He stepped back?

In the 400 years before the the birth of Jesus there was no prophets. The world went through a communication blackout with God. So even in the old times there were quite periods.

I also believe that it is more an issue of humans being unreceptive to the voice of God than God not speaking!


17. Are our thoughts a sin?

If they unpure thoughts, yes.

MT 5:27&28 "You have heard that it was said, `Do not commit adultery.' 28 But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

19. If someone was never exposed to the teaching of Jesus and they die they are not saved. Do they go to hell?

Let God be the Judge. Focus on those things you can do something about and leave the rest to God. When you die, you can join me in the queue to ask God some questions. :)

[joint heir]

1. Is true victory over sin when you recognize you have sinned and make the effort not to do it again? I question this because how can you have true victory over it if you continue to sin in some way in the future.

I would define true victory when you recognize sin and you give that sin over to God for Him to change you...recognizing that you can not do it yourself...but that this is Christ's work in you..



5.Why so many interpretations of the Bible?

error resulting from the sin of pride....there is only one right interpretations...and as we mature the Holy Spirit leads us to that truth


11.Can you pray wrong?

you an pray ineffectively....our prayers should be in line with God's will ..or we will get a no...but prayer is communication and the more we pray the closer we get to the Lord in relationship..so even ineffective prayer brings us closer to the point that we can have more powerful productive prayer..it never returns void..

12.Are we selfish if we are praying for change within us?

no we should be praying for this...that we change into what God wants for us..this is how we can participate in our sanctification

13. Since we should live our lives as Jesus did is it a sin if we do not forgive someone?

yes

14. It seems in the past God was active here on earth. Why has He stepped back?

He is active with us in a different form....through the working of the Holy Spirit...this is a blessing to us...we have the Spirit of God inside us...you can't get closer than that;)


17. Are our thoughts a sin?

sinful thoughts are sin.....but temptation is not...it is a fine line

18. Is it a sin if we do not even realize consciously or unconsciously what we have said or done?

yes...but this sin is covered by Christ's blood....as we mature deeper layers of sin are revealed to us and we are expected to deal with them

19. If someone was never exposed to the teaching of Jesus and they die they are not saved. Do they go to hell?

yes none will have an excuse...see Romans


hope that helps some

[glorydays]

kdowd771,

What do I get if I answer all your questions? :lol

1) Victory over sin is primarily eternal life through being saved by the death of Christ. We can also have may victories in our lives by being saved by the life of Christ. (See Rom 5:9-10) See, one saves from hell in the hereafter -- the other from hell in the here and now! Live the Spirit-filled Christ-life and you will have many victories now.

2) Excellent question - I don't know except it's a convention.

3) My understanding is that it developed among those who denied that baptism would save. The RCC and Reformers began the tradition that babies were baptized from original sin and that evolved into church membership which became salvation. The "Anabaptists" decided that a decision to receive salvation was required in order to be saved and that baptism was afterward (infant baptism for salvation was keeping lots of people from receiving Christ for salvation).

4) So many denominations because God works through imperfect man who variously like to stress different elements of scripture and not the whole counsel. I believe God also uses it to show which ones are true by the sinful lives lived by those that are not.

5) Most interpretations are attempts to understand the word better but, as you may have noticed, they too are men's work. Attempts were made to have groups of men agree as they wrote these interpretations but often the result reflected the biases of the group -- RCC, JW, etc.

6) No, God's meaning is seen in every interpretation I am aware of -- they haven't edited out the basic gospel of Christ yet!

7) Blaspheming the Spirit is attributing the work of God to Satan and works of Satan to God. The thing that makes blasphemy of the Holy Spirit such a sin is that it is only by the Spirit that one can come to salvation! If one says the Spirit's testimony is from Satan, one can never come to saving truth and is thus damned.

8) Blaspeming the Spirit is damning when one dies without Christ which can never be forgiven.

9) Basically calling black white and white black. Also, a believer can grieve or quench the Spirit in them - grieve by doing something you ought not and quench by not doing something you ought to.

10) Baptists receive communion but it is not part of salvation to them as it is to the works-based salvation of the RCC.

11) If you pray in the Spirit, you can never pray wrong. And the more Spirit you are led by, the better you will pray. See, our prayers are like groanings to God but the Spirit interprets them to God. There is wrong praying though -- don't just recite chants like hail Mary's or even the Lord's prayer. The latter was offered as a pattern for prayer and not as a prayer to be endlessly repeated.

12) No.

13) Yes, you may need God's help but if you are a believer you can forgive even as He forgave you.

14) In the OT, God was revealing Himself more openly because there was no written word. This also goes to your question about prophets -- Christ was the word. He said He came to bring a sword which is the wrod of God. Now we have all that God wants us to know and, as you can see, it has taken us many years to get to the truth of it!

16) Date setting is sin because it adds to scripture what God has not given there. It is always a sin to add or detract from scripture. Many who have predicted a date say they used scripture -- they were really trying to find something they thought God revealed but it's just not there cause God said it wasn't (that would be lack of obedience, right?).

17) LSD - lust, sin death. If your thoughts are of beauty and not of self-gratification, they are pure.

18) No, but if we ask God, He will reveal to us our sins. Often we would only discover them when something went wrong in our lives and we tried to see why - failure and frustration are often the consequences of sin. That's why God sent Adam put of Eden. so he could distinguish evil when things went wrong rather than right as they always had in the Garden of Eden.

19) Not necessarily. This is an issue I have examined at some length and it appears that one could be "just" (an infant for example) despite never knowing Christ. The just are resurrected, not in the rapture but to the earth after the tribulation to see Christ for themselves and be -- like we are -- saved (that is justified AND sanctified by the Spirit).