If you have been a Christian for any length of time, you will probably have heard the saying, ‘God hates the sin but loves the sinner’. You might even have said these words yourself.
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Problem: How do Galatians 6 verses two and five harmonize? According to the apostle Paul, Christians are to “[b]ear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ” (Galatians 6:2). However, only three verses later, he writes: “For every man shall bear his own burden” (6:5). Skeptic Steve Wells, author of the popular Skeptic’s Annotated Bible, categorizes Galatians 6:2 and 6:5 as contradictory verses (see Wells, 2015). Bible critic Dennis McKinsey comments on these verses, saying, “Gal. 6:2 says that we should bear one another’s burdens to fulfill the law of Christ, while three verses later we are told that everyone should bear his own burden. So who is to bear our burdens?… One can’t help but ask why people would be obligated to aid the poor if every man is supposed to bear his own burden” (1995, pp. 86, 430). So are Christians to “bear one another’s burdens,” or is the child of God to “bear his own burden”?
If one was going to consider the primary points about the ”Antichrist” as they are stated in the Bible, one could only conclude that the Antichrist is not a human being but the widespread disbelief in God.
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Problem: There are some who teach that those who have heard the gospel and do not get saved prior to the Rapture have no hope of being saved after the Rapture. This view is based upon a misunderstanding of 2 Thessalonians 2:10-12: “And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. (11) And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: (12) That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.” They understand this passage to mean that if a person rejects the truth prior to the Rapture, he will be deluded and unable to believe following the Rapture. Who then will be saved during the Tribulation? They teach that those saved during the Tribulation will be only those who never heard the Gospel prior to the Rapture.
“So Jesus said to them, “Assuredly I say to you, that in the regeneration, when the Son of Man sits on the throne of His glory, you who have followed Me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands, for My name’s sake, shall receive a hundredfold, and inherit eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and the last first.” (Matthew 19:28-30)
Problem: While this verse says God alone does great wonders, and Matthew 28:18 says all power belongs to Christ, verses like 2 Thess. 2:9 say Satan will be able to do them and other verses talk about others doing wonders (John 14:12). But what Psalm 136:4 (and Matt. 28:18) means is that all power ultimately lies with God and so only He can do great wonders while others can do signs and wonders only through the permission of God.
He first showed up in Genesis chapter 14. There had been a war between the king of Sodom (where Lot had chosen to live) and his alliance, and a stronger four king alliance. The stronger alliance, of course, won, and carried the people and goods of Sodom away. Abraham (then called Abram), would not have been concerned except for the fact that they had taken captive his nephew, Lot, and his family. He organized the men of his own household along with some men from Aner, Eshcol, and Mamre. Long story short, they conquered the stronger alliance of kings and got all the people and goods back.
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Problem: The Bible’s teaching on the reality of eternal punishment for unbelievers has perhaps “made” more atheists than any other teaching of Scripture. After expressing that he did not “believe one can grant either superlative wisdom or the superlative goodness of Christ as depicted in the Gospels,” popular early-20th-century agnostic Bertrand Russell indicated that he was not concerned about what other people said about Christ, but “with Christ as He appears in the Gospels.”1 How so? In his widely distributed pamphlet “Why I Am Not a Christian,” Russell argued, “There is one very serious defect in Christ’s moral character, and that is that He believed in hell. I do not myself feel that any person who is really profoundly humane can believe in everlasting punishment. Christ certainly as depicted in the Gospel did believe in everlasting punishment.”2
Notice how God creates reality through faith. In Genesis he performed a miracle for Abraham. He made a statement that was humanly impossible but God made it so.
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Is the term “rapture” found in the Bible?
Yes and no. It is not found in the English translation of the Bible (KJV), but it is derived from a Latin verb (rapere, to snatch, seize) which was used in the Latin Bible to translate the Greek verb “caught up” (harpaz) in 1 Thessalonians 4:17– “Then we who are alive and remain shall be CAUGHT UP [raptured] together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord.” It is very interesting to see how this verb “caught up” is used in the New Testament. Study the following verses: Acts 8:39 (“caught away”), 2 Corinthians 12:2,4 (“caught up”), Revelation 12:5 (“caught up”); John 10:28-29 (“pluck out of”), etc.
The message of the cross confronts every human instinct.
Problem: Near the close of his first letter to the church at Thessalonica, the apostle Paul addressed the subject of Christ’s Second Coming. He indicated that “the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God” (4:16). The Christians in Thessalonica were not to be concerned with what would happen to Christians who had passed from this life prior to Jesus’ return. Departed Christians were not going to miss the Second Coming; God would take care of them. Paul noted that those “who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep” (vs. 15). “[T]he dead in Christ will rise first” (vs. 16). Some have asked, however, if 1 Thessalonians 4:16 contradicts what Paul wrote just two verses previously where he indicated that “God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus” (vs. 14). How can those who will be the first to rise also be brought with Jesus? Did Paul make a blunder?
These lessons are designed to be easily used for personal Bible Study or as a guide for group Bible Studies. Each of the lessons will include a set of discussion questions at the end of the lesson, which can be used either privately for introspection or in a group setting as provocative discussion builders.
Paul and Luke contradict one another in their account of Timothy coming to Athens.
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This is a hard article for me to write, mainly because I’m afraid people will think that my opinions would have to be prejudiced by the fact that I am involved in (what has come to be known as) “contemporary Christian music.” As you might guess, the title of this article is no new question to me. Since I myself have been somewhat “guilty” of using the medium of rock, I have heard just about every opinion about it – and have received no limit of warning, exhortation, and outright rebuke from many a well-meaning soul. Since I take my negative mail very seriously – always reading each negative and corrective letter as a possible word or warning from God – I have had to listen closely to each argument – praying and thinking the whole thing through with eternal values in mind.
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