Queries And Answers
Bro. Turner:
Do you believe people have "feelings" or "religious experiences"? My neighbor is peeved with me because I tell her she doesn't have such. NIA
Reply :
I can almost hear her say, "How do you know what I feel?" Maybe she has some right to be "peeved."
Actually, the "feeling" is not the issue, but the interpretation people place upon their "feelings". One man feels "all warm inside" and thinks this means his sins are forgiven. God has never promised him such evidence of forgiveness. For all he knows, the feeling could prove he had more sins.
The only way we can be assured our sins are forgiven -- that we are saved -- is to believe and do what the Lord commands. (See Acts 2:38) Christ is the savior of all them that obey Him. Heb. 5:9)
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Dear Sir:
If Adam and Eve were the first people, and Cain was their son, who was Cain's wife? (Gen. 4:17)
Reply:
The woman he married.
Seriously, this age-old question comes from an unwarranted assumption, viz., that the children named up to this point in Bible history, were the only children born to Adam and Eve.
Adam lived 930 years, "and begat sons and daughters". Gen. 5:3-5 The Genesis record makes no claim to be a complete account of history.
Darwin calculated that in 750 yrs. one pair of elephants (slowest of all breeders) could be responsible for nearly 19,000,000 elephants --- alive at the same time.
I do not have to have such calculations in order to believe the Bible is God's word; but the doubter should not under-estimate his task.
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Dear Sir:
When visiting services of' the Church of Christ I sometimes hear saved people pray, "finally, save us". If already saved, why pray to be saved in the future?
Reply:
Apparently the querist is victim of the "once saved, always saved" fallacy. But the N.T. uses "saved" in two senses: (1) from past sins, and (2) in heaven.
Mk. 16:16 refers to salvation from past sins (Acts 22:16); but one thus saved, as was Timothy, must be faithful in service in order to be finally saved in heaven. (1 Tim. 4:12-16) Read carefully, Heb. 10:36-39 2 Pet. 2:20-f.
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