Lion's Den Q&A 5/24

When Looking for a spouse, is it ok to disagree on tertiary doctrines?

objective answer

Is it morally wrong, no.

Practical answer

is it ok...meaning things will work? It depends...

Did God create Angels? If so, why make one that would fall like Satan?

Yes, God made angels.

Angels are created, spiritual beings with moral judgement and high intelligence, but without physical bodies.

All angels were created during the six days of creation.

Genesis 2:1; Exodus 20:11

Before the fall, some angels sinned and rebelled against God (2 Peter 2:4; Jude 6).

The same question could be asked as to why did God create human beings if he knew that they would sin?

“Why did God give the angels this choice, when He knew what the results would be? God knew that one-third of the angels would rebel and therefore be cursed to the eternal fire. God also knew that Satan would further his rebellion by tempting humanity into sin. So, why did God allow it? The Bible does not explicitly give the answer to this question. The same can be asked of almost any evil action. Why does God allow it? Ultimately, it comes back to God’s sovereignty over His creation. The Psalmist tells us, “As for God, His way is perfect” (Psalm 18:30). If God’s ways are “perfect,” then we can trust that whatever He does—and whatever He allows—is also perfect. So the perfect plan from our perfect God was to allow sin. Our minds are not God’s mind, nor are our ways His ways, as He reminds us in Isaiah 55:8–9.”

Got Questions Ministries, Got Questions? Bible Questions Answered (Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software, 2002–2013).

Do people who believe in different things from other churches and denominations (Church of Christ, Catholics, Methodists) still go to heaven?

This question relates to the subject of what is known as a “theological triage.”

First, what does the Bible say is required for someone to be saved and forgiven of their sin?

What did the thief on the cross have to know to be saved?

This would be known as a doctrine that is essential to the gospel itself (primary doctrine)

The other levels are:

second-rank doctrines that are urgent for the health and practice of the church such that they frequently cause Christians to separate at the level of local church, denomination, and/or ministry.

Baptist, Church polity, egalitarianism.

Third-rank doctrines are important to Christian theology, but not enough to justify separation or division among Christians.

Calvinism vs. Arminianism, eschatology, etc.

Fourth-rank doctrines are unimportant to our gospel witness and ministry collaboration.

How a church does music.

We must distinguish what must be affirmed and what must not be denied.

There is a difference between ignorance/lack of understanding and a willful denial.

Essential Doctrines of the faith that all Church Fathers agreed upon (Rule of Faith):

There is one God, the creator of heaven and earth.

This same God spoke through the prophets of the Old Testament regarding the coming Messiah.

Jesus is the Son of God, born from the seed of David, through the virgin Mary.

Jesus is the creator of all things, who came into the world, God in the flesh.

Jesus came to bring salvation and redemption for those who believe in him.

Jesus physically suffered and was crucified under Pontius Pilate, raised bodily from the dead, and exalted to the right hand of God the Father.

Jesus will return again to judge the world.

“Rather than insisting on a positive articulation of every first-rank doctrine for salvation, a more careful statement would be that if someone knowingly and persistently denies a first-rank tenet, we can have no confidence of that person’s salvation. But it would probably be better to restrict our focus to whether we would allow such a person into the membership of our church than to speculate about the state of his or her soul. It is God’s business to regulate entry into heaven, and ours to regulate entry into the church.” -Gavin Ortlund

How do I overcome feelings of loneliness even at church? How can I become more vulnerable at sharing things I am struggling with in my small group?

What are the biggest differences between Christianity and Mormonism?

See Secret Church PDF pages 39-44.

If someone in the army kills someone during combat is it considered murder and a sin?

First, what does the sixth commandment say?

You shall not murder (Ex. 20:13).

Murder can be defined as the wrongful taking of human life.

Murder is wrong because it destroys the image of God.

However, there is a difference between murder and killing an individual.

Two different Hebrew words describe murder (ratsakh) and kill (especially when God commands someone to take another’s life- muth).

“One can conclude, at the very least, that while God expressly prohibits the wrongful taking of innocent life (i.e., murder, ratsakh), there is no absolute prohibition against the taking of human life (i.e., killing, muth).” -Liederbach

Other things to consider with this question about killing and war:

“The Old Testament is full of examples of God directing Israel to go to war against certain groups. Those were special occasions, but even long before Israel’s war campaigns, God specifically gave Noah and future governments the right to shed man’s blood (Gn 9:5–6) as punishment for murder. In New Testament times, the apostle Paul wrote that government has a God-ordained right and responsibility to protect its people and to punish evildoers (Rm 13:1–5). The examples of Noah and Paul relate primarily to keeping the peace within a nation, but may have application for war between nations.”

“Christians should not blindly support their nation’s causes in war. Our kingdom is not of this world. When military action contradicts biblical commands or morals, the Christian should refuse to support war no matter the consequences. Conversely, when the government is in the right to wage war, as when it protects itself against aggressors or when it seeks to protect other nations from aggressors, Christians should support it. And in all cases, Christians should take the lead in seeking peaceful resolution to conflict between nations.”

“Jesus taught that we should turn the other cheek on personal matters. Now suppose that the United States had an official policy to always turn its cheek to evil and oppressive governments. A government that allowed its people to be persecuted and killed by invaders would be irresponsible and immoral.”

“It is arguably the case that a strong, ready defense is the best peacekeeper, for would-be aggressors think twice before starting hostilities against battle-ready nations. A parallel is found in a father’s responsibility to protect his family. If an intruder comes into his home, he is justified in using violence in order to protect his wife and children. If it is known that this father is armed and willing to defend his family, odds are decreased that his home will be invaded.”

“The overall message of the New Testament is one of peace. Even when war is justified, it should be fought in a just manner with a goal of achieving peace as well as making minimal impact on human life and the environment. When the nations of the world learn that another nation is suffering under a cruel, murderous dictator, world leaders must decide how best to stop the evil aggressions. Christians should encourage their leaders to seek peaceful solutions first, but in the event that such solutions are not available, it seems biblically permissible to support a war whose aim is to halt evil.”

Kent Keller and Ken Fentress, “Joshua,” in The Apologetics Study Bible for Students, ed. Sean McDowell (Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers, 2017), 257.

Based on Job 1:6, how did Satan come before God?

Not sure what this question is implying or what you are trying to ask?

If God knows our hearts and needs and everything we will ask before we pray, then why do we need to pray?

Prayer gives us the privilege of communicating and spending time with God. It gives us an opportunity to praise him and thank him for who he is and what he has done in our lives.

Prayer is commanded by Jesus (Matthew 6:5-6).

Prayer is modeled by the saints in the Old and New Testament.

Prayer is a means for us to show that we “love the Lord your God, walk in all his ways, keep his commands, by loyal to him, and serve him with all your heart and all your soul.” (Jos 22:5).

Prayer humbles us and molds our character.

By praying, we demonstrate that we need the Lord for everything and cannot serve him in our own strength.

Deut. 8:3 “And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.”

Since God has ordained prayer as a means of accomplishing his purposes through us, even though God is sovereign, our prayers do matter and can change things.

See “does prayer change God’s mind”

God always answers our prayers by giving us one of three answers:

Yes, I will do it.

No! There is a reason why this is not best for you. You may not see or understand the reason now, but you may discover it in time.

Wait! Now is not the right time. Be patient, keep praying, and wait to see what I am going to do in your life.

Notes from Marla Alupoaicei

Why is it so hard to not act like the world?

We have three enemies: Our flesh, the world, and Satan.

We have a fallen sinful nature

Ephesians 2:1-3 “And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.”

Jeremiah 17:9 “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?”

We live in a fallen world.

Genesis 3:17-19 “And to Adam he said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.””

Romans 8:20-21 “For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.”

John 15:18-19 ““If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.”

We fight against temptations of the Devil who wants us to sin and wants to destroy us.

John 10:10 “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.”

1 Pt 5:8 “Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.”

Even in Christ, we will still struggle and fight against sin until our life on earth is done.

Rom. 7:14-25 “For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin. For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God th…”

The way we can not act like the world.

Walk in the Spirit and not in the flesh.

Submit to God

James 4:7 “Submit yourselves therefore to God...

Resist the Devil

James 4:7 “.....Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.”

Draw near to God

James 4:8 “Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you...”

Run from sin

“Flee sexual immorality” (1 Cor. 6:18).

Joseph and Potiphar’s wife from Genesis 39.

Don’t go at it alone! We need the church!

Heb. 3:12-14 “Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end.”

What do degrees of sin look like? Is All sin the same before God?

First, are all sins the same before God? Yes and No...

All sin is the same in that it shares the same twisted root.

The sin of pride and autonomy, stemming from Adam and Eve’s first sin in the garden.

Autonomy: auto means “self” and nomos means “law.”

We are a law to ourselves.

Some sins have more disastrous and immediate effects than others, but all sprout from the same autonomous root of pride.

All sin is the same in that it shares in the same final fruit.

Because all sin stems from autonomy and us wanting to be god, any sin we commit makes us guilty before God and deserving of judgement and death.

This means every sin deserves death and hell and makes us guilty before God. From the “white lies” and “acceptable sins” of our culture to murder and adultery.

How are some sins worse?

All sins have the same final fruit but some intermediate fruits are worse than others.

Even though anger or lust in your heart makes you guilty with those who physically murder or commit adultery, it is worse to commit these sins in our bodies than our hearts.

Jesus agreed that some sins are more serious than others.

Some amount to splinters while others comprise a whole beam of wood.

Matthew 7:3 “Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?”

Some amount to gnats while others are as large as camels.

Matthew 23:24 “You blind guides, straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel!”

Jesus saved his fiercest rebukes for religious hypocrisy that destroyed the faith of children.

Matthew 18:6 “but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea.”

Jesus agreed that knowledge that you are willfully sinning increases culpability.

Parable in which the servant who did not know his master’s will received a lighter beating than one who flagrantly disobeyed. Luke 12:47-48.

Matthew 11:20-24 “Then he began to denounce the cities where most of his mighty works had been done, because they did not repent. “Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. But I tell you, it will be more bearable on the day of judgment for Tyre and Sidon than for you. And you, Capernaum, will you be exalted to heaven? You will be brought down to Hades. For if the mighty works done in you had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day. But I tell you that it will be more tolerable on the day of judgment for the land of Sodom than for you.””

“The one who handed me over to you has the greater sin.” (John 19:11)

The Mosaic law agreed that intent matters.

Anyone who purposefully struck and killed another must be put to death, yet if someone, “pushes a person without hostility or throws any object at him without malicious intent or without looking drops a stone that could kill a person and he dies,” this person must be allowed to flee to a city of refuge (Num. 35:22-25).

All sin is the same in that it shares the same root and fruit; some sin is worse because its roots are more selfish and its fruit is more damaging to others.

“All sin is the same, so we must never look down on others who struggle with temptations we do not face. “Thank God I’m not a tax collector or a racist or a child molester” has no place in our church. Some sins make us shake our heads. I know that “there but for the grace of God, go I” is true, yet some sins are hard to imagine doing. Doesn’t matter. All of us sinners are in the same sinking boat. We need the same sacrifice of Jesus for our sin.”

“Some sins are worse. God hates all sexual immorality, yet he adds that homosexual acts are particularly unnatural (Rom 1:24–27). They are “detestable” (Lev 18:22; 20:13). Parents sin when they fail to teach God’s commands to their children (Deut 6:4–7); they outrageously offend when they sacrifice their children to Baal. Some sins are so heinous they surprise even God (Jer 19:5).”

“All sin is the same and some sins are worse. This tension calls for discernment and humility. We need discernment to appropriately discipline and repent of sin. We should fire a pastor who cheats on his wife. We do not fire him for taking a third slice of peach pie at the church potluck, though we may hold an intervention. Some sins, such as embezzlement and abuse, require long periods of mourning. Other sins, such as a curt comment in a hurried moment, require only a quick apology and then move on with your life. We need humility to understand our sins are not better than another’s. Better implies good, and no sin is good. How can anything be good that required the crucifixion of the Son of God?”

“Go ahead and rank sin. List them in order. Then draw a red cross through them all.”

Michael Wittmer, Urban Legends of Theology: 40 Common Misconceptions (Brentwood, TN: B&H Academic, 2023), 110–111.

Is a four leaf clover a good example of the Trinity?

You mean a three-leaf clover?

If so, no, it is not a good example.

While each person of the Trinity is made up of the same divine essence, Each person of the Trinity is also a distinct person.

In contrast, even though the three leaves of a clover are made up of the same essence (the clover), each leaf of a clover is not a separate clover but only part of a clover.

This is the heresy of partialism.

How Do I engage with my LGBTQ friends and others as we approach Pride month in June?

*From Greg Stier at Dare2Share Ministries*

Choose love, not hate as your posture.

1 John 4:8 “Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.”

Romans 5:8 “but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

Choose the Bible, not the culture for your authority.

2 Timothy 3:16-17 “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.”

Everything is the Lord’s.

Psalm 24:1-2 “The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein, for he has founded it upon the seas and established it upon the rivers.”

He is the one who sets the rules and standards because he created all things. That includes Sex, Gender, and Identity.

The Bible and Human Identity

Genesis 1:26-27 “Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.”

The Bible and Gender Identity

Genesis 1:27 “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.”

Our gender was not chance but uniquely designed by God.

Psalm 139:14 “I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well.”

Jeremiah 1:5 ““Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations.””

Our bodies are a unique part of who we are:

1 Corinthians 6:18-20 “Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.”

God cannot make mistakes, which means he has not messed up in the specific gender he has given us.

Deuteronomy 32:4 ““The Rock, his work is perfect, for all his ways are justice. A God of faithfulness and without iniquity, just and upright is he.”

The Bible and Sexual Orientation

Genesis 2 sets the standard of God’s design for sex:

Genesis 2:18-25 “Then the Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.” Now out of the ground the Lord God had formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. And whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name. The man gave names to all livestock and to the birds of the heavens and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper fit for him. So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. Then the man said, “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.” Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. And the man and his wife were naked and unashamed.”

Jesus reiterated God’s design for sex in the New Testament:

Matthew 19:4-6 “He answered, “Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.”

Clearly God designed sex for one man and one woman and same sex erotic relationships do not fall into that category.

From the Old Testament to the New Testament, the Bible is clear on this issue.

Leviticus 18:22 “You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination.”

Romans 1:26-27 “For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.”

1 Corinthians 6:9-10 “Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.”

The Bible never speaks of same-sex relationships in a positive light.

Hold to the truth that the Bible says homosexual activity is sinful but remember these four things:

Temptation (of any kind) is not sin.

All sexual immorality is sin.

All sin, including every kind of sexual sin, is forgiven when we trust in Christ and his sacrifice as payment for our sin.

Truth is love.

love is not accepting everything someone believes or does.

Would it be loving to accept someone’s anorexia and affirm them? What about if they were addicted to a drug?

Choose the Gospel, not sin management for solutions.

Ephesians 2:1-5 “And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—”

“There are a thousand hacking at the leaves of evil to one who is striking at the root.” It’s not the reparative therapy, moral education, or a change of environment that transforms-it’s the Gospel!

Choose Engagement, not detachment.

The power of friendship.

Can you rap another song? Havn’t heard one in a while!

We want some Old Testament! We want to see how it connects to us today.

Can you please put the notes and Scripture on the TV?

How are babies made?

Can we get an all night ride?