Bible

Bible » New Testament

Question:

When Jesus was on the cross, He said, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken Me?” What does that mean?

Answered on 07/26/06:

For a period of time when Jesus was on the cross, the Father had to turn away from Jesus. 2 Corinthians 5:21 says “He who knew no sin was made to be sin for us that we would be made the righteousness of God.” Jesus took all of our sins on the cross. He took your sin; He took my sin. He became sin.

As far as the Father was concerned, He rejected Jesus at that moment because He was rejecting sin. The Father turned away from Jesus so that He could turn toward us. We didn’t deserve to get God’s acceptance, but God had to reject Jesus as a substitute for us. Jesus was in an intimate fellowship with God for eternity, but then on that cross He lost His fellowship with God so that we could have fellowship with God.

Question:

The Book of Romans says that we are justified by our faith. The Book of James says we’re justified by works. Which is right?

Answered on 07/26/06:

It’s both. Paul is saying in Romans that we’re not justified by the works of the law. Obeying the laws of the Old Testament will not justify us; that will not save us. We’re only saved by faith in Jesus Christ and in His blood.

When James says that we’re justified by works, he is not talking about the works of the law. Rather, he’s saying that if you’re really a believer, if you’re really putting your faith in Jesus Christ, there will be corresponding action to validate, to prove, to demonstrate your faith. You’re going to want to serve God; you’re going to want to do the right thing – not by the works of the Old Testament but by the works of love, kindness, serving other people, and honoring God.

Question:

Will you explain what being lukewarm means in regard to Revelations 3:15-18?

Answered on 07/26/06:

That’s a great question. It’s really simple. Jesus said in that verse that he rather you be hot or cold, but if you’re lukewarm He will spew you out of his mouth. What does it mean to be lukewarm? It means that you’re half in, you’re half out, you’re half-hearted. Part of you is serving God and part of you is serving your flesh.

That’s the condition of many Christians. They are not hot for God, not on fire for God, they’re not willing to drop whatever they’re doing. They are willing to let God come and tickle them, but they’re not willing to let God move in. They are willing to let god come and visit them and touch and bless them, but they are not willing to let God move in and bring all his furniture into their lives with Him. God just doesn’t want to come and visit you every so often, he wants to be married to you. He wants to come and abide with you, he wants to come and live with you.

That’s what it means to be lukewarm: when you just want to visit with the Lord but you don’t want to have an all-out relationship with Him; you want to date Him, but you don’t want to marry Him.

Question:

I have a question on Hebrews 6:4-6 where it says that if you taste God and turn away that you cannot be restored. Could you explain those verses a little more please? And what’s the “subjecting him to public disgrace”? What’s that about?

Answered on 07/26/06:

I know there’s a lot of controversy around that scripture. It’s referring to once somebody has tasted of the Heavenly gift and been a partaker of the Holy Spirit, and they fall away, it’s impossible to renew them again to repentance. And what Paul is saying there is it’s impossible for that person to ever need to be saved again.

Have I ever fallen away from the Lord? Yes. Have you ever fallen away from the Lord? Yes. We’ve all fallen away from the Lord at one time or another. To what degree must he be talking about in falling away from the Lord? He doesn’t describe the definition of what “falling away from the Lord” is. I think there have been times where I’ve been away from God in my heart or my heart has grown cold. I think that’s true about every person. I don’t think anybody is ever just always on fire for God. So, if we assume that he’s talking about the typical falling away, the typical blowing it, the typical person who feels like they’re distant from God, which I do believe he’s referring to, then what he’s saying is, it’s impossible to renew them again to repentance, meaning it’s impossible for Jesus to have to come down to this earth again and die on the cross again for our sins. He’s done it once. He will never have to do it again.

He’s died “once for all,” Hebrews chapter 9 talks about. And there’s no more sacrifice that can be made for the person who falls away meaning there’s nothing more Jesus can do for that person. What He’s done is enough. The person whose fallen away can come back to God on the basis of what Jesus already did the first time; he doesn’t need Jesus to do something for him a second time. That’s how I interpret that verse and that’s what it means to me.

Subjecting Jesus to public disgrace meaning to have to put Him to open shame again on the cross. If we fall away, He’s not coming back to the earth to die on the cross again, He’s not going to die for our sins again, He’s not going to be put to open shame or public disgrace again on the cross. He did that once for all and He’s never going to need to do that again. And so, to my brothers and sisters and friends who have fallen away from God, they can come back to God without needing to be saved again. They can come back to God without needing Jesus to die on the cross again for their sins.

Question:

My question comes from I Peter 1:20. I’m just trying to get some understanding on that where it states that he was chosen and foreordained and brought out to public view.

Answered on 07/26/06:

You’re talking about I Peter 1:20 that says, “Who was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifested in these last times for you.” Well, you've got to go back to the earlier verse where it says in verse 18, “You were not redeemed with perishable, corruptible things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers, but you were redeemed or you were purchased with precious blood as of the Lamb, unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ. For He was foreknown before the foundation of the world, but has appeared in these last times for the sake of you.”

What God is saying there is that God knew before the world ever began, before He created anything, He knew that Jesus would need to come to this earth and die on the cross for our sins. He knew that. That’s what it means when He said, “He foreordained.” He knew that Adam and Eve were going to sin. He knew that sin was going to come into the world. He already had a plan. That’s what it means when He said He foreordained it. He already had made up his mind that if Adam and Eve do, in fact, sin, He was going to send Jesus to the earth. And there’s a difference between God having it in His mind that He was going to do it and then when Jesus actually appearing 2,000 ago to actually die for our sins.

God knew the timing that He wanted to do it in. He picked the perfect timing. He did it for you and me. And the precious blood of Jesus has purchased us. And now we are, to God, as valuable as Jesus Himself is. That’s what He means in these verses. That you weren’t purchased with silver and gold. You were purchased with something much more precious than that. And that is the blood of Jesus Christ.

Question:

About the descent of Jesus, when he was up on the cross and He descended for the three days, was it into hell? And what was He doing down there?

Answered on 07/26/06:

Well, Revelation chapter 1 says that He has the keys of hell and death. Now the only way that Jesus could get the keys of death was to die. So to get the keys of hell and death, you can only come to the assumption, because there’s no Scripture that actually says, “Jesus went to hell.” However, it does say that He descended under the earth, and there He led captivity captive.

So, the fact is the Scriptures for that are Ephesians 4, where He says He descended and He led captivity captive. So the assumption that can be made is that He did in fact, go to hell. And the Bible says in Colossians 2, He stripped—now hell couldn’t have any power over Him because He was sinless, so the fire of hell could not control him or could not affect Him because He was sinless, but the fact is that the Bible says that He displayed openly, made a public display of them, in Colossians 2, the principalities and the powers of darkness. So He must have made a public display of them in hell, during that time that He was dead.

Now again, I wouldn’t build a theology around it, but I also wouldn’t try to prove that people that preach that Jesus went to hell are wrong. I think it’s very clear that He conquered Satan, conquered sin, defeated death, took the keys of hell and death from Satan, and He holds those keys now, and our faith needs to be that He holds those keys. How He got them, He had to die, He had to suffer, He had to be buried, on the third day He rose again. So He had to suffer. It wasn’t just suffering on the cross, it was suffering death, and the punishment of death, and that punishment is hell.

So I would imagine He did go there, based on Ephesians 4 and Colossians 2. But study those chapters out yourself, and meditate on Ephesians 4, Colossians 2.

Question:

In 2 Corinthians 5:20, Paul says that “we are ambassadors for Christ.” Is he talking about himself or is he talking about us as well?

Answered on 07/26/06:

That verse is for us today as well. We are called to reconcile people to the Lord Jesus Christ; that is why we are here on this earth. Whether or not we are preachers, we are still called to be ambassadors. We represent the Lord Jesus Christ to our families, neighbors, and friends. You represent Him to the people you work with and the people you come in contact with every day, and you should be an ambassador to them both in your behavior and in your words. Of course, you have to use wisdom. Sometimes God wants you to say something to somebody, but sometimes He just wants you to be silent and pray for that person; be a great example to that person.

Question:

When Jesus said, “If anyone desires to be My disciple, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me,” what did He mean when He said “take up his cross”?

Answered on 07/26/06:

The cross is the place of decision. And the cross is the place where your will and God’s will are crossed. Jesus had that moment. Jesus didn’t take up His cross when He died on the cross; He first took up His cross in the Garden of Gethsemane. He was tempted to give it up and said, “I don’t know if I want to go through with this. Father, not My will, but Thy will be done.” So to take up your cross means that you will surrender to His will. That is why you need to take up your cross daily; there are daily life situations where your will wants to go one way and God’s will demands that you go another way. You have to follow Him instead of following your will.

Question:

Throughout the gospels, Jesus performed different healings and told those healed people that they shouldn’t go out and tell others what had happened. At the same time, it seems that His kingdom was furthered when people saw these acts of healing. Can you speculate on what Jesus was thinking and saying and how we can apply that teaching to our lives?

Answered on 07/26/06:

When Jesus healed people, He didn’t always say that they shouldn’t go and tell. What He did say, on a number of occasions, was that people shouldn’t proclaim what they had seen; instead they were to go and tell those at home. There are two applications that we can take for our lives. First, we shouldn’t try to go to the world for the Lord Jesus until we first have it working in our own lives and our own homes. The first place we need to carry out our Christianity is at home and that is where Jesus directed those people to go.Second, we see throughout Scripture that many times Jesus was prohibited from fully carrying out His ministry because the crowds had swelled so greatly. There was already such a demand on Him that if they kept proclaiming His works in certain areas, He would not have been able to minister effectively.

Question:

Answered on 07/26/06

Excellent question. The real answer to that is we don’t know. We assume that he died because we don’t see him mentioned. And we know that he was a good man. We know he was a godly man. But we know that God will share his glory with no man. God is the only father that we are to know that Jesus had and that’s why He phased Joseph out of the picture. He had to have died because there would be no way that there would be no mention of him if he was still alive.

Question:

There’s a New Testament Scripture that says, “And by doing this, you will heap burning coals upon his head.” Can you explain that?

Answered on 07/26/06:

That’s in Romans chapter 12. Paul the Apostle is saying, “Vengeance is the Lord’s and He will repay. Overcome evil with good and do good even to your enemies for when you do good even to those that hurt you and even to your enemies, you are heaping burning coals upon their heads.

So, He’s saying this: “Do good to those who are either enemies or to those who are unkind to you or those that mistreat you because when you do, you’re heaping burning coals upon their head.

And what does he mean by that? Back when the Bible was written, the way to heat your home was to have burning coals. So you would go to where the coal was burning and you would put it on a metal sheet on top of your head and you would carry those coals. They would carry things on top of their head.

And you see this in the Middle East, people still do this; people still carry things on their head for transportation purposes from one location to another. And what He was saying was that you are going to be a blessing to your enemies when you do good to them. When somebody has mistreated you, when you treat them well, you are really going to be a blessing to them as if they were carrying burning coals to heat their home. You are going to warm their life. And you’re going to bless their life when you return evil for good back to those that have done evil to you.

Bible » Old Testament

Question:

Are we all descendents of Noah from Noah’s ark?

Answered on 07/26/06:

Well, physically, we are. We are indeed descendents of Noah and we’re descendents of Abraham. Of course, that’s our physical genetics from them. And we’re spiritual descendents of Jesus Christ. We’re of His seed. We’re born again. Remember the Bible says, “If any man is in Christ, he’s a new creature and the old things are passed away.”

So, physically, we are of Noah’s descendents. But spiritually, we’re of a new bloodline. We’re a new species of being and that is as we put our faith in Jesus Christ, we are a part of a new race. One translation in 2 Corinthians 5:17 says, “We are a part of a new species of being or a new race or a new generation.” So, physically, we are descendents of Noah, but spiritually descendents of Jesus Christ.

It’s a great question and it leads to so many things. The question is will the problems that were in Noah’s life and the problems that were in our other descendents’ lives, do those have to be passed down to us? And the answer is No, because we’re born again. And because we’re new creatures and we put our faith in Jesus Christ, we don’t have to be a part of the curse that is passed down from generation to generation. The curse of Noah’s sins and of his sons’ sins do not get passed down to us because Jesus intercepts all those curses, nails them to the cross and we are redeemed from those curses as we put our faith in Jesus Christ so we can truly live victoriously here on this earth.

Question:

In the book of Deuteronomy 31:9-13, it says, “And Moses wrote the law and delivered it to the priests of the Levi and bore the ark of the covenant and Moses commanded them, saying, ‘at the end of seven years, the year of release, when all of Israel comes to appear, you shall read the law in the presence of Israel and gather them together and observe the law. And the children which have not known anything may hear and learn to fear the Lord as long as they live in the land.’” My question is what’s the meaning of that seven years. Why every seven years or at the end of seven years? Is there some meaning as to that?

Answered on 07/26/06:

I think that things happen in cycles. Eight in the Bible represents the number of new beginnings. Eight is always a new beginning. You know, doctors say in seven years your skin changes and you have new cells and all of that. Things change over seven year periods of time. We find that in physical science and we find that in the Bible as well.

I think that God is saying that we need to do a "heart check" every seven years. It’s important. Like you tune up a car. You should always make sure that you have oil and gas in your car, but every 3000 miles, you need to change the oil. Every 20,000 miles, you need to do this or you need to do that. I think that we need to do that with our bodies. We need to go to the doctor and have a checkup every so often. We need to do that with the raising of our children. We need to check on our children. We need to check on our marriage. Even though you live day to day, you need to have a checkup, a mid-point checkup, a seven year checkup. And address the things that need to be addressed in your life, in your marriage.

So this symbolism or the meaning of the seven years is that’s the way God set it up then. But it speaks to me to mean that we really need to make sure that we address the issues of our life and that we are able to sit back. Seven is also the day of rest. The seventh day. The seventh year, you’re supposed to let the ground lie fallow when you’re farming so that the ground is given rest so it can produce the minerals and the nutrients that are necessary when you do plant the seeds. So, I think that you need to take the time and evaluate your life. That’s what He’s telling us. Evaluate things and make sure you’re on the right track and make sure you’re going in the right direction. It’s a good practice for all of us.

Question:

Genesis chapter 32. Did Jacob really wrestle against God himself or an angel? If it was God, then God could have just wiped him off like, 1-2-3. Then why does the Bible say that Jacob wrestled with God?

Answered on 07/26/06:

The Bible says that it was the angel of the Lord. Now, I believe that was a form of Jesus Christ in the Old Testament, showing up as the angel of the Lord. There are angels, and then there is the "Angel of the Lord" in the Old Testament. The Angel of the Lord was Jesus, I believe.

Yes, I believe Jacob wrestled with Him. But yet, Jesus or God or whoever it was he wrestled with restrained himself from destroying. It wasn’t a fight to the death. It was that Jacob would not let go of God until He blessed him. It wasn’t that they wrestled in the sense of "Winner takes all. Whoever loses is going to die." But it was an attitude and a fight for "God, you have to touch me. You have to bless me. You have to give me this."

And that speaks to me that there are times that we need to wrestle with God in a sense where we need to keep praying, we need to persevere. The Bible says to be persistent, to keep asking, keep knocking, keep seeking and you shall find. And there has to be a persistence with us. We have to go to God and say, "Lord, I’m not giving up on this until you show me your way. Until you give me an answer." And I think that most Christians are too passive to do that. And Jacob shows us how active we need to be in our relationship with God and how aggressive we need to be in getting answers from God when we need them from God.

Question:

I read in the Bible where “if the eye offends you, pluck it out.” But what I can’t find is where it says “an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.” Is that in the Bible or is that just heresay?

Answered on 07/26/06:

It is in the Bible in the Old Testament, “an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.” You can look in Exodus 21:23-24, Leviticus 24:19-20 and Deuteronomy 19:21 and find that reference. That’s a system of justice that is found in the Old Testament. And Jesus said, "Instead, forgive. Don’t retaliate." But our government and our justice system still does need to offer the “justice.” We need to have a justice system. If somebody takes somebody’s life, they need to be held accountable for that by being put in prison or, in some cases, with capital punishment. But, yes it is in the Bible in the Old Testament and it is a principle that God created to protect the innocent people, not to necessarily just to punish the guilty, but to protect the innocent.

Question:

We were raised Catholic, but my brother is kind of new as far as Christian faith. How do I explain to him how so many people got on earth when we just started with Adam and Eve?

Answered on 07/26/06:

Well, the fact is that Adam and Eve lived like nine hundred years. How many kids could you have in nine hundred years? I’m having my fifth now and it’s only been sixteen years. So I think in nine hundred years I could probably have a thousand kids. I mean, one a year, I guess, right? So you need to explain to him that back then people lived longer and that’s how they were able to populate the earth so quickly. You need to encourage him that he should read the Bible himself, and find out that Adam had a ton of sons, and the sons had sons. And you know, there was no such thing as incest at that time, because they had to populate the earth. And so obviously they had a lot of children, and the sons must have had relations with the daughters at some point because I don’t know where else they were going to find a wife. There wasn’t anybody. So Adam and Eve had the responsibility to be fruitful and multiply to fill the earth. It was their responsibility, given to them by God. There is no place for incest now, obviously, in the earth.

Question:

So what was the exact sin Adam and Eve committed in the Garden?

Answered on 07/26/06:

The exact sin Adam and Eve committed was they stopped believing what God said and they started believing a lie the devil perpetrated, “you will not die.” God said the day you eat from this tree you will die. The devil said, “you will not die.” That’s what the sin was. The eating from that tree was the consequence of the sin, the fruit of the sin. But, the root of the sin was they stopped believing what God said and started believing what the devil said. That is the root to every sin in our lives as well.

Why do we lie? Because we don’t believe the truth makes us free. We believe that by telling this lie that it will set us free somehow or telling this lie will get us out of problems or get us out of trouble. The Bible says the truth makes us free. So, when we believe something other than God’s word, it will lead us to sinful behavior because we have sinful thinking and that is anything that is contrary to God’s word.

Question:

Noah and his family were the only ones who survived the flood. How did we get all of our races and nationalities that we have today?

Answered on 07/26/06:

I think that can be traced back to Genesis 11, which was after the flood. There were the people that were building the Tower of Babel. And God came down and confused their language and all of a sudden they had a series of different languages that everybody had to learn. They basically had to scatter and learn life all over again.

I think that’s when they went to different locations, different regions geographically, and that’s when they had to start their own languages individually to multiply again, to reproduce themselves again. Different people landed and ended up in different locations.

That’s really how I think we got different nationalities. God is a creative God. He doesn’t make two of any kind. Everyone is individual. So, when your genes connect with somebody else’s genes, you might look similar to each other, but your child will look a little different and that child will look a little different from another child. After hundreds and thousands of years, then you will get a ton of different nationalities, different dialects. It all started in Genesis 11.

Question:

I am taking a Bible study in Genesis and this is the first time this has ever come up as a real question in my head about taking the Bible in Genesis 3 symbolically or literally. I’ve always taken the Bible historically as fact and when I was reading in my Genesis notes here, it says true believers differ as to whether Genesis 2 to 3 are to be taken as real history, symbolically told or to be received in its full literal sense. We were talking about the fall of Adam and Eve in chapters 2 and 3. Now, I was witnessing before I was taking this course to a neighbor because I am a believer in Christ and she told me that she’s a believer also, but that she doesn’t believe that Adam and Eve were real people, that they were just symbolic and I’m totally confused.

Answered on 07/26/06:

The fact is the Bible is to be taken literally except for the places where it says not to take it literally. Everything in the Bible is to be taken literally unless God’s Word says, “And Jesus spoke to them a parable, saying…” A parable is where He’s saying, “this is not an actual story that took place, but this is a parable to compare, to give illustration, and to let you know that the principle of it is true, but the actual story is made up. That’s why it’s called a parable. “There was a parable of man who had two sons,” Jesus would say. Okay, these are the only places in scripture where God is talking symbolically.

Or when He says, “Jesus is the bright and morning star.” Well, we know that Jesus is not a star. He’s God and He’s man all at the same time, but there are words that are used symbolically to describe Jesus. He calls Him the Prince of Peace. Well, peace is not a king, but Jesus is the Prince of that peace. That’s symbolic that He’s the Prince of Peace. But the fact is the Bible is to be taken literally unless it is saying and communicating very clearly that it is a parable.

And so, the story of Adam and Eve is absolutely true. It’s absolutely to be taken literally. And be careful of people that try to reduce the Bible to symbols and to meanings other than what God is actually saying. Adam and Eve truly lived. They truly died. Adam and Eve are no more a symbol than you and I are. If they’re a symbol, then we’re a symbol because we’re all made in the image of God and you’ve got to be careful of Bible teachers that try to reduce the Bible down to symbolism.

When Satan appeared to Eve as a serpent, I believe that he both was a snake and he talked through the snake. He talked through him and he was that snake at the time in Genesis chapter 3. But the more important point is in Luke 10:19 where Jesus said, “Behold, I give you all authority to trample upon serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy and nothing shall by any means injure you.” I think the better point that needs to be made in your question is when the devil came to Adam and Eve, they had the responsibility, whether he came as a serpent, as a snake, if he’d have come in the form of a bird, it doesn’t matter. The fact is that they had the responsibility to drive Satan out of their lives and to drive Satan out of their garden. And that’s exactly what Jesus did in Matthew chapter 4 when the devil came to Him to tempt Him. He said, “It is written… It is written… It is written.” He spoke the word of God over Satan and when we speak the Word of God, we have the authority over Satan as well.

Question:

It’s clear in the New Testament that God considers adultery and fornication to be sin. Even though there seems to have been serious consequences for some of the great Old Testament patriarchs, why does the Old or New Testament not address the multiple wives and concubines that great men such as Moses, David and Solomon had?

Answered on 07/26/06:

Well, that’s a question for the ages. I think people have been asking that ever since the New Testament was written. Why was David able to have so many wives and Solomon was able to have so many wives and concubines and why is there no addressing of that issue? And yet, in the New Testament, there actually is. The New Testament clearly shows that a man of God, a man that is truly after God’s heart in the New Testament, should be the husband of one wife.

That doesn’t mean that he’s never been married before for, perhaps, somebody who’s been through a divorce and they had a rough background and they got saved and they started to serve God. You can’t think that just because you’ve had a divorce in the past that you can’t be married again in the future. But the point is that he needs to be the husband of one wife. That means one wife at a time. And why is that? Because it’s hard enough to be married to one person and learn how to live an unselfish life and learn how to give. And marriage is to give, it’s not to take. And in those Old Testament men’s lives, they weren’t treating marriage as an institution to give; they were treating it as something for them to take. And they were Old Testament men meaning they weren’t born again people, they weren’t saved, they didn’t have a new spirit. There was no way that they could be restrained in their bodies from multiple partners.

But in the New Testament, when we’re born again as new creatures in Christ, we do have the ability to restrain ourselves. I’m living proof. I’m a Middle Eastern man, a hot-blooded Middle Eastern man who has every reason to, if I was not saved, to have the same desires that Middle Eastern David and Middle Eastern Solomon had to have multiple spouses and multiple concubines. But I’m living proof that as a born-again Christian, I’ve been with one woman and one woman only and that woman is sitting across the table from me right now and she has been satisfying to me. Apparently, they didn’t read Proverbs chapter 5… Well, one of them did, because one of them wrote it. And I think Solomon later understood the heartache from so many relationships and that’s why he said that you should enjoy the wife of your youth. You should be a one-woman man. And her body should satisfy you at all times. And that’s even what Solomon wrote.

So the Bible does address it. I Timothy chapter 3, chapter 4. 2 Timothy as well. And Jesus said from the beginning that a man should leave his father and mother and cleave to his wife – singular. Not cleave to his “wives.” So it’s clear. They were in sin. Yes, it may have been considered marriage at that time, but it’s not God’s will any more. It wasn’t God’s will then, but God tolerated it I believe. But it’s not God’s will for us to have more than one wife according to I Timothy and according to Jesus.

Question:

Does God send bad things to happen to teach us a lesson? Is that what He did with Job?

Answered on 07/26/06:

God does not send bad things to teach us a lesson because God is a good God. James 1:17 says, “Every good and perfect gift comes from above, from the Father of Lights.” Because He is good, He can only send good things.

If you read Job 1 and 2, you’ll find it wasn’t God who smote Job with sickness and disease; it was Satan. Did God permit that to happen? Absolutely. God permits what we permit. Job got into pride and fear and he got to a place where he was self-righteous. He said, “Why do you let these things happen to me? I’ve done this for you. I’ve done that for you.”

So God doesn’t send bad things; He permits them because we permit them. If I permit my marriage to go down the drain and end up getting a divorce, that wouldn’t be God sending that divorce, it would be me allowing that divorce. God gives us free will. He allows us to hand our lives over to the devil if we want to. He allows us to do drugs, commit wrong behavior if we choose to. Job had free will. You have a free will. That’s why Scripture teaches that we have to surrender our will to the will of God. That’s when life is lived joyfully and joyously. Will God protect us when heinous crimes are plotted against us? Yes. If we ask Him and trust Him and believe in the power of the blood of Jesus, He will send protection for us. He’s given us His Word to teach us, according to 2 Timothy 3. He’s given us the Holy Spirit to teach us, in John 16. And He’s given us apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers to teach us, according to Ephesians 4:11. Then why would He need bad things to teach us?

No, God does not send bad things to happen to us. God does allow some things to happen to us because we reap what we sow; we sow the seed, we get the harvest. If I went out in my backyard and sowed marijuana seeds and then I got a bunch of marijuana and the police came over, I can’t blame God and say God why did you allow this to happen. God would say, I allowed it because you allowed it. It was that I allowed it; therefore, God had to allow what I allowed. I have a free will.

Question:

I don’t know if this sounds strange but were Adam and Eve married?

Answered on 07/26/06:

They were. The Bible says in Genesis chapter 1 and Genesis chapter 2 that the two became one flesh. The Bible tells us that Adam knew his wife biblically and of course it says that God took Eve out of Adam’s side, so that was God’s pick for him. It was God that put those two together. It wasn’t like he was roaming around looking for a woman and then he said, “Hey, you look pretty cute. Let’s live together.” No, this was God that brought Eve to Adam so God ordained that marriage. So, yes, they were married.