Tough Questions pt 2

Tough Questions Notes

Why is there only one God but multiple religions?

Satan personally has always attempted to twist the truth. In the garden of Eden it was with the fruit. In our time it often comes in the form of “all religions are the same” or “you cannot possibly know absolute truth.” It is in this climate that we find ourselves, and it is in this climate that the uniqueness of our faith can shine against all false worldviews.

First off we need to separate the truth of Christianity from the untruth of every other religion and that is to put Christ on display.

That means that any other religion that claims to have the way the truth or life is false by the claims of Jesus. So we put Jesus on display. If you are interested in finding out more about the truth of Christ I recommend the book case for Christ by lee strobel. If Jesus is who He said He is then by truth He is the only way to salvation and heaven.

Now to answer the question of other religions. Other religions generally try to answer what they perceive in life that cannot be explained by just every day common understanding. In fact every religion has a bit of truth in it, but it doesn’t quite answer the whole truth compIfletely. So humans have made a way that they feel is right based on what they think they know or understand therefore leading to other or different religious practices and religions.

If you take the Lord’s name in vain can you still be saved?

The answer is yes. The only un-savable thing the scriptures mention is the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit.

The Bible mentions for us to test Spirits. How can I do that?

John is interested in the source of the prophetic message. One should not receive as true every prophetic pronouncement just because the prophets claim to speak with divine authority. Perhaps in their readiness to hear from God John’s readers were unwisely open to what the false prophets had to say. The verb “test” (dokimazete) means “to prove, to examine,” like coins that are being tested for genuineness and proper weight—something that should be done on a continual basis.

Secondly this is supposed to happen with all believers as we see in this verse from John.

So how do we test the spirits?

1) First everything must be aligned with the word of God. God will not speak or move contrary to His word.

2) Don’t grab everything everyone says as a word from God. (Explain the berreans). Ask the question “Does the message encourage God’s people to worship and obey him, or does it lead them into idolatry?”

3) Any number of miraculous signs which may be adduced to support teaching contrary to the Bible cannot be from God, and therefore have no authority for the Christian.1

If God gave me a gift and I don’t use it will I lose it?

There are often multiple misinterpretations with this specific passage, but the biggest one is that this portion is in fact speaking literally on the English word talents, the reek word is talanton which is a sum of money. In fact Jesus is referring to the responsibility of the Kingdom of God in believers lives. Are you going to make disciples and speak the gospel rather than using a specific talent like singing.

Now it is common sense and logical to realize that if you don’t use a talent you are inflicting self damage. I don’t see in scripture that God will take it away, but you are essentially taking it away yourself. If you don’t sing for a long time you will lose your tone and your voice strength. If you don’t play your sport for a long time you will get out of shape.

Now the other question regarding not using gifts and losing them. We are going to talk about spiritual gifts. No where in scripture do I see this occur either.

While there is plenty of Scripture to support the loss of effectiveness and fruitfulness, the Bible does not indicate the actual loss of gifts. Some may use parables like the parable of the talents in to conclude that you can lose your gifts if you don't do anything with them because the master tells them to take the lazy servant's talent away from him. Understand that it would be pure interpretation to say that the talents represent spiritual gifts. Read on to see what happens to the lazy servant's talent. It is not only taken from him but given to the one who had ten. You are going to run into some serious logistical problems with that. Plus, it implies that gifts are merit-based in saying that the faithful are rewarded with the gifts neglected by others. Scripture is clear that gifts are given because of grace () ... nothing earned or merited. One of the main Greek words used for spiritual gifts, 'charisma,' means grace. Perhaps the question of whether we can lose our spiritual gifts must be answered with a deeper question -- whether you can lose the Spirit who bestowed your gift(s) on you at salvation when He indwelt you.

How do you build your Faith?

This one can be answered in how well do you know the one in whom you are putting your Faith in that takes effort on your part. Just like any relationship takes effort to build Faith in a person so will your effort in relationship with God build your Faith in Him and His word and works. So how do we build Faith in the business of life? It stems to us taking an effort to slow down. Pray when we don’t feel like it. Timothy Keller quoted that “duty in prayer will turn to delight in prayer” meaning it may feel like a duty at first, but a duty will turn into a delight when we get to know Him better. You must have a moment in your day that you say this is dedicated to Him and nothing else is going to get in the way of that.

What is the Biblical response to dealing with OCD, depression, anxiety, and the like?

Essentially what we are saying if we have any of the above is that we trust less in God than we do in our ability to see a situation through and essentially we are attacking the character of God and His word. (Explain praise in His presence)

What is Heaven and Hell going to be like?

I don’t know