Q: Who exactly was Paul referring to as “the lawless one” in 2 Thessalonians 2:8? A: Here is the relevant passage in 2 Thessalonians 2:1-12: “Now regarding the arrival of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered to be with him, we ask you, brothers and sisters, not to be easily shaken from your […]
Question: My husband and I are planning a Passover meal for our Bible group. Do you have an outline of the Passover meal and the coorelations between it and Jesus’ life? Answer: I have a friend who is an expert on this. He is Phillip Lester. His e-mail is PPLester@aol.com. He did a Passover seder […]
Question: I was wondering what philosophical/theological argument could be mustered in favour of the proposition that people should not commit suicide. A bit of background to the question might help. From a secularist perspective, surely we are ultimately going to die anyway. Our lives will necessarily end with a certain degree of pain and suffering […]
Question: There is evidence of proto-Israelite settlement in Canaan around 1400BC. The Iron Age in Canaan is dated to 1150BC at the earliest. How then can Moses be the author of Leviticus when he reports God as speaking of iron in 26;19 when it was not to be discovered until 200 years after his death […]
Question: What is your take on the strange passage Exodus 4:24-27 in which God almost kills Moses? Answer: I found a web site which presents a range of responses from a Judaic Christian perspective, which I think might be the best. Bottom line, we are not sure why God wanted to kill Moses, but we […]
Question: What is your explanation for the apparent contradiction between Gen 1:11-13 and Gen 1:26-31 with Gen 2:5-7 ? Answer: I can see why one might ask this perfectly reasonable question. I believe that Genesis 2 is the story, not of creation as a whole, but of the creation of “man.” It is not a […]
Question: What is your explanation for the translation “dome” in Genesis 1:6. Doesn’t this show a Hebrew false concept that the heavens are like a dome? Editor’s note: this quote is from the New Revised Standard Version Answer: I looked up the Hebrew word in a Hebrew dictionary. They do not use the word dome […]
Question: What is your explanation for the translation “dome” in Genesis 1:6. Doesn’t this show a Hebrew false concept that the heavens are like a dome? Editor’s note: this quote is from the New Revised Standard Version Answer: I looked up the Hebrew word in a Hebrew dictionary. They do not use the word dome […]
Question: What do you say about near death experiences? I’ve heard of certain people having experiences where they are supposedly almost dead and see heavenly places. I’ve even heard some say that people of different religions have NDE’s where they see their own religion’s heaven. It makes me a bit confused, but I think it […]
Question: I was looking at your website and I thought that you had an interesting point to make about Intelligent Design not being falsifiable. Isn’t the same true for macro-evolution? There is no experiment or data that evolution proponents can even conceive of that they will accept to disprove evolution. In that sense, macro-evolution is […]
Question: I have just finished reading a book that has caused me to mistrust the truth I find in the Bible. The book “Misquoting Jesus – The Story Behind Who Changed the Bible and Why” by scholar/author Bart D. Ehrman has raised innumerable questions in my mind as to the validity of what Jesus actually […]
Question: I just want to get your opinion on the ten ossuaries that were found in Israel, apparently belonging to the family of Jesus of Nasareth. I watched part of the Discovery Channel program, and I am certainly intrigued. Answer: It is my opinion that the ten ossuaries, or bone boxes, found in Israel have […]
Question: Sorry if this question is always asked or if you have already answered it. I noticed in one of your articles you said that evolution is not absolute fact and you commend brave people such as Behe for trying to push the idea of Intelligent Design. I myself am a Christian, but most Christians […]
Genocide and the Old Testament There is one question which comes up repeatedly, both as I travel and teach for Christian groups and at the web site. The question takes different forms, but in general it goes something like this: If God is such a loving God, how can we explain the fact that […]
Question: I want to know about the Holy Spirit and how it did so many miracles in the 1st century through the apostles and other disciples like speaking in tongues, prophecy, healing by laying on of hands etc. Does that stil happen today, if it does is it by God’s Spirit? Answer: Here is what […]
Question: What does Hebrews 6:1 mean? Answer: Hebrews 6:1 means that there are certain very basic Christian teachings. For obvious reasons, most of these deal with salvation issues, such as baptism, faith and repentance (See Acts 2:36-39). However, in order for a Christian to grow and to remain faithful throughout their lives to God, they […]
Question: Recently, someone asked me how if God is such a loving God could he tell the Israelites to go and totally wipe out entire nations of people (even the innocent people). He also said that God showed favoritism toward the Israelites in doing so which is something even Christians are not supposed to do. […]
Question: In 1996/97 I read Barbara Thiering’s Jesus the Man – I have been re-reading it now as someone who thinks they understand and have read more of the Bible – specifically the New Testament in the 10 years since. However, as a “lay man” , one with not a lot of knowledge on research […]
Question: The main thing that bothers me is the view of amorality. What do you say to someone that doesn’t believe (sometimes due to apparent “lack of evidence”) in such things as “good” and “evil” hanging around out there anywhere? Sure they will admit that things happen that are both helpful and detrimental to a […]
Question: Is college partying sinful according to biblical principles? I am a college student myself and I have avoided parties mainly because of all the sinful activities I hear about parties such as drunkenness, sex, drugs, etc. But what I don’t understand is if it is ok for Christians to attend college parties and even […]
Question: If the miracle stories and the resurection are myths started years after the crucifiction wouldn’t there be alternate stories of Christ that would be written down? I don’t know of any stories of a non-miracle working Jesus so isn’t this very strong evidence that the stories are not myths? Why don’t I ever here […]
Question: How or when do you consider someone drifted away or wondered away? And what is the retoration process? Answer: The Bible makes a distinction between a person who has wandered away and someone who has fallen away. Hebrews 6:4-8 describes a person who has become completely unfaithful, who has turned his or her back […]
Question: Were Adam and Eve neanderthals or modern humans? Answer: Adam and Eve were humans. Whether or not neanderthal are humans is debatable, but Adam and Eve were humans. Anthropoligists have failed to prove Neanderthals were not humans. They had different physical features, but we have every reason to believe they were humans and no […]
The Miracles Jesus Did Not Do Note: This is a chapter in an upcoming book by David Eastman and John Oakes on Miracles, to be published by Illumination Publishers, International in late 2007 or early 2008. It is a truism that you learn almost as much about a person by what they do […]
Question: What is the Christian response to having political affiliations such as being a conservative, liberal, or independent? Does the bible say anything about participating in a political life such as voting, protesting, being a politician, etc? The reason I’m asking is because there are churches that seem to be strongly conservative and then there […]
Question: What does “the evil spirit from LORD” means as stated in 1 Samuel 19:9? Answer: It is a truism that everything which happens is either caused by God or allowed by God. In the case of evil, God allows bad things to happen because such things fall under the free will God has given […]
Question: In the OT, when the Israelites went to war with their enemies, I read numerous times where God told them to put the women and children to the sword after killing their enemies. Don’t you think this is a very cruel act in killing helpless and defenseless beings? Even in modern warfare, armies don’t […]
Question: The Bible never mentions Muhammad, but in the Qur’an it talks about Jesus. Why is that? Answer: The answer is quite simple. Muhammad began his ministry in the year AD 612. This was over five hundred years after the New Testament was completed. There is no reason to expect the Bible to talk about […]
Question: I heard you say at an event that life used to exist on Mars. I thought life only existed on earth. I am reading a book about how unique the earth is and it has been faith building – so that is why I was curious about the comment. Why do you think life […]
Question; I have been following the work of Hugh Ross and his team on reasonstobelieve.org. A claim made on that web-site is that we can show using y-chromosomal and mitochondrial DNA that the population of mankind can be traced back to a mitochondrial Eve and a y-chromosomal Adam. Furthermore the dating of Eve at an […]
Click below to open or download a power point presentation which is pictures from the mission/teaching trips of John Oakes
QUESTION: How does one conclude that morality exists and is given directly by the Christian God? I am a Christian, and have been raised in a very conservative Christian home, but I’m afraid I’m growing weaker all the time. It’s getting especially harder for me to understand the whole morality issue. It seems that many […]
Question 1 – If God is all knowing that would mean that he knows when anyone is born and how he or she would turn out and whether he or she would go to heaven or hell. My question is this, if he knows that someone would eventually go to heaven or hell why would […]
Question: Did God took rest on the seventh day of creation, if so then he can get tired & weary. Also who does the work during the rest time? I want to know the correct interpretation. Answer: In answer to your question, God does not get tired, Isaiah 41:28 gives us some insight into this, […]
Question: Do you believe that God uses Satan’s evil to bring us closer to following Christ? Answer: I believe that everything which happens is either caused by God or allowed by God. God does not use evil. God does not do evil. God is willing that the evil done by those who do not love […]
Question: I heard in a recent lesson you gave that even in quantum theory and relativity God has left his finger prints. Can you elaborate and illuminate on this? Answer: Quantum mechanics tells us that the simple mechanical view of the universe of Newton and LaPlace is not correct. Quantum mechanics tells us that light […]
Question: I am a Christian in the UK. There are a couple of best selling books in the UK at the moment that deny the existence of God and the truth of Christianity. On is “The God Delusion” by Richard Dawkins and the other is “Tricks of the Mind” by Derren Brown. The latter is […]
Question: It is taught that by some that only 144,000 people will receive eternal life in heaven with Jesus Christ as co-rulers over the earth. Witnesses believe that in the war of Armageddon, which they believe to be imminent, the wicked will be destroyed. The survivors of this event, along with individuals deemed worthy of […]
Question: What’s this about a Gospel of Barnabas? Who wrote it and why? Was Barnabas an apostle or not? Answer: The New Testament speaks of a 1st Century Jew named Joseph, a Levitical priest from the Mediterranean island of Cyprus, who became a follower of Jesus. He “was a good man, and full of the […]
Question: What about the Gospel of Barnabus? Who write it? For what? Was Barnabus is apostle or not? Answer: My answer will depend on whether you mean the Epistle of Barnabas or the Gospel of Barnabas. Of the two, the more well known is the Epistle (letter) of Barnabas. The question of whether Barnabas was […]
Question: I came across a book about what happen to you after you die by Dr.Douglas Jacoby. I was thinking about getting this book but I was just thinking that based on what is already written, is there more information on this subject .Answer: Thanks for your question regarding a long neglected teaching! In addition […]
Question: I Am just reading your book “From Shadow to Reality” about all the types for salvation through baptism (which I also believe to be true). What I have always wondered though, is whether people can be “accidentally” saved by participating in a baptism they believe to be symbolic, as in the baptist church, where […]
The Ultimate Miracle [Note: this is a chapter on the resurrection taken from the book Reasons for Belief by John M. Oakes Illumination Publishers, International www.ipibooks.com] In the previous chapter we looked at the miracles that Jesus performed, examined evidence that Jesus really did work these miracles and considered what they imply about the miracle-worker […]
The Resurrection of Jesus An Outline Q: Is it logical to believe that Jesus was raided from the dead? Q: Why is this important? 1. If Jesus was in fact raised from the dead, this validates all his claims. If not?.. 2. It explains a lot The changed […]
? Knowing the Mind and the Heart (and Knowing the Future) [Note: this article is a chapter from a book by John Oakes and Dave Eastman on miracles to be published in 2007] The miracles we have looked at thus far involve Jesus violating physical laws of nature. We will now consider a […]
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Hi J.Oakes, Thanks for the email. We were touched by your concern and "tears" for our welfare and that of our children as ministry staff. We cannot forget that. Thanks for the inspirational classes as well. Hope you will make Lagosthis year either during AFRICAN LEADERSHIP CONFERENCE or later in the year. Titi, Philip […]
Note: This is part three in a series on the problem of pain and suffering. The others are available at the site. Part III Suffering: A Human Problem. Human pain and suffering raises an apologetic problem. How can the idea of a loving and powerful God be consistent with the existence of evil, […]
Question: According to Jer 43 Egypt would be conquered by Babylon, but secularhistorians attribute this conquest to the Persians. Do you have any infoon this? Answer: Your information is correct. The Persians/Medes did conquer Egypt under Cambysses, the son of Cyrus in 525 BC. However, the Persians were not the first to conquer Egypt. The […]
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