Bible Discussion Replies PAGE 268

Not approximately 2,000 yrs ago..it was exactly 2023, going on 2024 yrs ago. His resurrection IS the beginning of our new time line..hence 2023 years ago Christ resurrected for ALL our sins should we choose to believe *He is the ONLY way truth & life being the bridge to see heaven (God) not spending eternity in the lake of fire. (Hell). For without Jesus we will not get there. Therefore we are to now live by faith thru God's grace, Rightly divide the word of truth. Old testament is prophecy, history & Peter speaking to the Jews. New testament is Jesus birth, life, teachings of new ways (not 613 laws), & Paul teaching to gentiles, or ANY one who repents & believes, that He is the ONLY way to heaven. *Love God w/All your being (commandments 1-4) & neighbor as yourself (5-10). God knows if the world did this, we wouldn't have wars, arguing, hate or sin. Pray for our enemies. God will provide the rest.! Plus, Hebrew, Greek & other languages it was originally written in, have totally different meanings then English meanings so, as God said, we are to read His word daily, study it ourself..not merely believing others & continue to grow in His strength & wisdom to be more like Jesus. Those that stupidity chose to change even a single word are the ones that confused the true meaning God intended. I have several books dating back to 16-1800s. You'd be amazed how the wording is different even in last 200 yrs. (Compared to any translations even kjv) therefore..*=key objectives of life & nothing else matters.! Let go & Let God..do His job. :) Amen

Trudy,

Would you mind sharing your view on the rapture, please?

Thank you!

Thank you, Jema

Hi Trudy,

You can check what Jesus said in Matt. 24, Mark, 13, and Luke 21.

You can check what Paul said in 2 Thess. 2 to see the sequence of events he gives that is the same that Jesus gave.

From what I have read, I have not found one verse that states explicitly that there will be a pre-trib rapture, but the sequences given by Jesus and Paul are explicitly stated and do not mention such an event as the pre-trib rapture.

Jema,

You are surely welcome. What a good thing it is to pray for one another.

One other thing Trudy Jordan,

Matthew 24 and Mark 13 speak about the Great Tribulation, Christ's return, and the Rapture of True Believers. It can be shown, I believe, that we are currently living in the period of God's plan for this world that He calls the Great Tribulation spoken about in these chapters.

There is only ONE Rapture of believers and it occurs, as we read in Matthew 24:29, "IMMEDIATELY after the tribulation of those days". And that is referred to in the Bible as "the Last Day".

Jema,

You will be in my Prayers.

God Bless.

Hi Jema,

The C word is always unnerving, my prayers are with you. I am one who don't always post my prayers so I am sure others out there are praying for you.

The Lord will be with you through this.

God bless

RLW

Amen to you .

Thankyou , I appreciate you and anyone who is kind enough to pray for me .

Thanks so much .

Hi Jema.

We certainly will be praying for you.

God bless you.

Great question Trudy Jordan,

The Bible is clear that the Resurrection and Rapture of all True Believers that God has saved throughout the history of the world will occur at the Last Day. ( John 6:39,40,44,54). This is when Christ will return to complete the salvation of all whom He has saved by giving them their resurrected Spiritual Bodies in which they will live with Christ eternally in the new heavens and new earth, which He will create as He destroys this sin cursed earth. This is also when God's Final Judgement will occur on all of the unsaved. The Rapture is described in 1 Thessalonians 4:14-17. Read also Matthew 24, Mark 13, and Luke 21.

Pierre1939,

Not exactly sure what you are saying in this post but you seem to be making a grave error if you believe the Bible, the written Word of God, is somehow not for us today. And that God had some different "Salvation" for Old Testament true believers than for New Testament true believers.

Before the Bible was completed, God spoke directly to individuals and actually appeared in various forms to them. Once the Bible was completed with the book of Revelation, God very clearly states in Rev 22:18,19 that we are neither to add nor take away anything from the Bible and there are very serious penalties for doing so. This means that we are never to look for any communication from God in the form of a dream or a vision or a tongue, etc. The Lord Jesus Christ, Eternal God Himself, identifies Himself with the Bible very directly in John 1:1-5 He states:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.

Today, Christ, the living Word, speaks to us ONLY through His written Word, the Bible, as God, the Holy Spirit would lead us into Truth as we search the scriptures. Romans 10:17 So then faith cometh by HEARING and HEARING by the WORD OF GOD.

The Bible alone and in its entirety is the Word of God.

Rev 22:18,19

For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book:

And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and from the things which are written in this book.

What does The Bible say about? What does the bible say about wearing cross necklaces

Joel 2:12-14

Therefore also now, saith the LORD, turn ye even to me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning: And rend your heart, and not your garments, and turn unto the LORD your God: for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repenteth him of the evil. Who knoweth if he will return and repent, and leave a blessing behind him; even a meat offering and a drink offering unto the LORD your God?

Jonah 3:4-10

Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown. So the people of Nineveh believed God, and proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least of them. For the word came unto the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, and he laid his robe from him, and covered him with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. And he caused it to be proclaimed and published through Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying, Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste any thing: let them not feed, nor drink water: But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily unto God: yea, let them turn every one from his evil way, and from the violence that is in their hands. Who can tell if God will turn and repent, and turn away from his fierce anger, that we perish not? And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil, that he had said that he would do unto them; and he did it not.

Ezekiel 36:24-31

For I will take you from among the heathen, and gather you out of all countries, and will bring you into your own land. Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes

Hi folks , hope you are all happy and healthy and strong in the love of the LORD. May I request prayers for myself ? I'm just beginning on my journey to find out if I have a skin cancer and if so , wether or not it has spread . I've already had cancer over ten years ago so I'm praying that I don't have it again , if I do I know I can face it with Jesus by my side , I worry more for my husband . He doesn't even know about this yet , not gonna tell him until I have something to tell him if you get my drift , so any prayers for my good health would be greatly appreciated , thankyou in advance and God bless you all .

Hello Chris,

Thanks for helping out on this request from John.

When we have dark times it can be hard to see the light of the truth of Jesus who is our "all in all", being completely self-sufficient within himself, we can trust Him to be all-sufficient for us in each and every need, fear, doubt, hardship, pain and sufferings. He will never leave us nor forsake us. So good to know that we will never be completely forsaken! How comforting to know that our Father is truly good and willing to give good gifts to those who ask. When all else and everyone else fails us, God will not fail us. he looks after us with tenderness, mercy, and lovingkindness for we are Hi children by His choice.

It is such a good thing to extol God in all of His perfections. We serve the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace, and the Eternal Living God who does not sleep or slumber. Praise be to Him from the bottom of our hearts!

Is there a pre tribulation rapture mentioned in the bible

Amen GiGi. Just saw this, your very explicit pertinent comment, with that great verse in John 6:68 after posting mine to John. That is so true, we can have no one or nowhere to run to that can give us any assurance of help & deliverance. When we're really trusting & resting in the Lord, we can expect Him to stand by us & help us. It may not always be the sort of help we're expecting, but nevertheless its His Presence with us & in us that will give us the strength, comfort & joy through trials. So James could write, "My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations" ( James 1:2), knowing God has good reason for allowing them & will help us bear through it, not allowing them to overcome us. 'Faith not only is our victory to overcome the world' but much more so when we can apply it to overcome personal trials & temptations each day. And you dear Sister have been through many physical trials in recent times, where the exercise of your faith & endurance were certainly put to the test. Fully resting in an all-Powerful God & His all-Encompassing Love will surely carry us through the hardships of this life.

Hello John. I respond to your question here bearing in mind the details of your other request. I can think of a couple of Scriptures that could speak a little on this. The first one is in Mark 9:17-27 (the account of the man who had a son with an evil spirit & the man's helplessness before Jesus). In verses 23 & 24 ("Jesus said unto him, If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth. And straightway the father of the child cried out, and said with tears, Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief"). Here we see a father who seems to have tried everything to help his son & was desperate for Jesus' Help. And Jesus said, 'just have faith - just trust Me'. In great anguish, the father said he believed but that Jesus help him if he fell short of sufficient faith. Jesus doesn't give him extra faith - why? The father displayed faith in Jesus to do the healing - not in a doctor or another helper/disciple who might have previously failed him, but in this One called the Son of God Who had the Power to bring deliverance to his son. Jesus was not only this man's last hope, but his only hope & he trusted Him fully for complete healing.

The other passage is in 1 Corinthians 10:13: "There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it." There were many temptations, trials, & sufferings that the Corinthian Christians faced, not only because they were Christians, but that they lived in a very pagan corrupt society. The apostle here is assuring them that their trials & temptations in life were not uncommon, but to His children, God will give them 'a way of escape'. It's true that God can remove the temptation or point us in a different direction to escape, but God's Spirit also gives us power to endure & bear up. Here too, we must exercise implicit faith for God to do as He Wills.

Hello, we have John on here today who is experiencing concern for lowing faith. There have been others on here in recent months who have spoken about this same thing. I think of Joleen for one. There are others.

I was wondering if anyone on this forum has dealt with this same thing and ask that you share how God helped you to overcome this feeling of being tempted to give in to faithlessness and hopelessness.

For me it comes down to what Peter said in John 6:68 "To whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life."

This tells us that when we are at the edge of turning from God we can realize that there is no other hope but Him and His saving work and words. This realization helped me to pt my trust in God, hoping against hope that He is all that He revealed Himslef to be and alone can save and satisfy.

Luke 12:3 and Matthew 12:36 are eye opening; as we are to give account for everything said and nothing is secret to God.

I would like to say that I don't do any grumbling or complaining; but alas then I would be lying. Thankfully anything but blasphemy against the Spirit can be forgiven. As Jesus pointed out to the self-righteous Pharisees; these bad fruits come from within. And 2 Peter 2:21 makes it clear that it is better not to have known the truth than to become reprobate. The blood of Christ is our only hope as Jeremiah 17:9 shows how sick the heart is.

There are Post Millennialists who dispute this; but I don't believe anyone from the church age who is a believer will be at the Great White Throne Judgment. I DO have the opinion that since the verse indicates that those who aren't in the Book of Life are going to the lake of fire; there is room for those who physically survive the Millennial period to go through that as saved people and hence be translated into heaven without dying.

In any event; 1 Corinthians 3:15 indicates that one can make it into heaven and suffer loss. That would be analogous to losing rewards as Revelation 3:11 warns. Paul indicates how we run for the prize. Only a few gain great rewards; as would be indicated by those making 100 fold as opposed to 30 fold returns or others ( Mark 4:20). We should not be confined to just the saved and lost divisions when scripture gives us admonitions for certain crowns that those who persevere; are martyred or are pastors as well as other situations are given for faithfulness.

Matthew 6:19-21 shows us that our treasure is to be in heaven. And that means that He must trust us with earthly riches as well ( Luke 16:10-12) as a test; a prerequisite for heavenly riches. Our brothers in Christ that we support in the ministry will be able to enjoy the harvest with us (see John 4:37). That and personal witnessing are components of fulfilling the Great Commission to finish well.

Amen Richard!

Well spoken and God bless you and all you do brother.

Thank you for continuing to pray for Shelly Bailey she saved she's the ones living in a nursing home there's also nursing homes all over the country too I'll never forget about Jesus Christ he leaves me bread crumbs just to let me know that he's there thank you

David0921 Thank you for your comment. I completely agree with you the KJB translators believed the Hebrew and Greek manuscripts they were using were the very Word of God. Yes that was the Word of God.

You said "The original Hebrew and Greek CANNOT be questioned. But a translation, no matter how faithful, can be checked out against the original Hebrew and Greek".

David how many modern version bibles are in such alignment with the original Hebrew and Greek languages?

The answer to that would be zero!

All modern versions have changed their words to remove that option.

Would the Inspired Word of God be faithful, and checkable as you say against the original Hebrew and Greek?

The answer to that would be Yes!

I have said being able to go back to the original languages for the True meaning of the words in Hebrew and Greek is like a second witness in the languages. You get the True meaning of the words.

All modern version bibles take that away.

Can anybody see taking that option away as being a good thing?

God breathed Scripture would be connected to the original Languages so much more than it would not be!

The Word of God is Alive!

Very good points David.

God Bless you.

I'm confident, Jimbob, that the King James Version translators believed the Hebrew and Greek manuscripts they were using were the very Word of God, which indeed they were. This is why the KJV is superior to any English translation we have today and is exceptionally faithful to the original languages.

The original Hebrew and Greek CANNOT be questioned. But a translation, no matter how faithful, can be checked out against the original Hebrew and Greek. Anyone that claims to be a Theologian or Bible Teacher should be doing just that as they compare scripture with scripture using the rules for Bible interpretation that God has set forth in His Word, praying that God might open their understanding.

God has graciously provided tools to do that in the form of concordances and interlinears for the KJV.

We should all be earnestly desirous of never declaring "Thus saith the Lord" when the Lord has not said.

Fearful signs and great sights ( Luke 21:11).

Today; a brother from my church discussed what He said was a time the Lord told him not to fear; and today it seems like confirmation as I was admonishing him in much the same way. Specifically; it was related to the nearness of His coming as well as several things related to what appears to be the imminent demise of our country as judgment draws nigh.

The Lord has held back the day of the Lord with His great patience to this point but it will come suddenly ( Habakkuk 2:3 and many other N.T. verses). Jesus also states that people will be buying; selling; giving in marriage etc. much like the time of Noah when He returns ( Luke 17:27 also referring to the days of Lot.)

I remembered how 40 years ago many were talking about giving up everything and standing on a mountain as they were convinced Christ would arrive by 1988. Clearly that didn't happen. We also discussed the timing of when the last generation actually begins; the Antichrist and other issues. What I would say characterizes both of us is a hunger and thirst to preach on the end times which for me is something I feel I have put on a shelf for most of my adulthood since the early 80's.

These days spiritual warfare is harder than ever; again something which we seemed to have gone through. We cannot afford to leave any sin unforgiven; as the enemy is ready to pounce on us with any weak links in the chain; and also the fear of death needs to be overcome through trusting Christ. That can't; of course be done without total surrender to Christ and having good fellowship is a key especially as we see the Day of the Lord coming ( Heb. 10:25).

I would venture to say that there are very few left who are living out a totally surrendured life to Christ as charactarized by the Laodicean church. We should test ourselves to see if we are in the faith now ( 2 Cor. 13:5); if anything to flee the Tribulation as well as assure that we are saved from hell.

Dear "John ray" There is so much that I would have comforted you with, we pray faithfully to the Lord every day. We pray for Shelly and Bayly and John, and many many more ppl. We bear each other's burdens too. Keep your heart, forth all things, and trust in God in the holy name of Jesus Christ, that He will deliver you and make peace between you all. It's easy and miss understand. Juveniles are juveniles, they can be capricious.

I want to thank u for the witness you are John. And always remember that you are His child and He cares for you. I love u in Christ.

1 Corintihans 13 chapter.

Thank you Jesse,

God is faithful and gave us a great trip. Saw so much we both didn't know was there to take in. We did not have a hard and fast plan, sort of a general one of where we would go and stay each night. But each day brought us knew opportunities to take in experiences with what He has created int his state. I am hoping my husband and I can go there again in a few weeks when he retires. He wants to go on a long rode trip riding his motorcycle with me following in our car. (This is how was normall do such trips to increase safety in case something comes up, we have back up transportation, etc.)

He is not quite on board yet to decide because he is preoccupied with getting all things squared away for his departure from his job. He supervises many people and is training the person who will replace him. So, that is on his mind right now. We have time to decide yet. We won't leave any day of the Memorial Day Weekend. Too much traffic at that time.

I so appreciate your prayers and well wishes. Thanks so much.