hello,im a believer and i m recently having this doubt.As believers when we die we go to heaven directly right,then why should there be a resurrection of our body when our God returns so that our earthly body might be forever changed to a heavenly body while your soul is already there in the heaven?is […]

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Question: Is baptism a mandatory step for getting salvation and only through it a person gets the Holy Spirit and the forgiveness of sins?  Or is it an important step but it is for declaring that you are a follower of Jesus Christ? Answer: Biblically, there is no question at all about this. In the New Testament, […]

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Comment: The Historia Augusta is an astonishing piece of bogus history. It is perhaps showing us a Roman sense of humour, but I think scholars are generally unaware of why it was done. There are 130 fake documents and they even invent sources that disagree with them. Sounds a bit like Christianity to me. The Flavians […]

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Question: I was wondering if you have any thoughts or might recommend a book(s) on the topic discussed in http://www.twopassovers.com/  There are some convincing arguments there on why we should observe the Lord’s Supper, during supper time of day one of the sabbaton, which is closer to the resurrection moment of Jesus…  Answer:  I spent […]

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Question: Last time you had responded to my question when i forwarded the excerpt from Professor Vic Stenberg on his critic of D’Souza’s book: "Life after Death: The Evidence". I haven’t yet immerged myself into the Near Death experience and out of body experience, I wonder if you would say that he is correct that there is […]

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Question: I am currently taking a Philosophy class and I am reading different arguments for the existence of God. For example, so far we covered Aquinas, Descartes,and Spinoza. Are the arguments by these philosophers useful for Christians arguing for the existence of God? Granted that Spinoza did not believe in the Judeo-Christian God, he did […]

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Question: I have been researching the historical reliability of the New Testament because I started having doubts about the Gospels. Fortunately I have found an abundant amount of evidence on the Gospels, and the historical evidence behind them. Some of the books that I have been reading are, "The Historical Reliability of the Gospels" by Craig […]

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See below for a full report on the missionary teaching trip by John Oakes. some videos from the trip:  (pain and suffering, Jesus in the Old Testament) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JRKEv0QeSoE  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNlnkztGJmI http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U86nx5a_UL8  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iBIfPjugKBQ     Missionary Teaching Trip Latvia, Estonia, Russia, Ukraine June 30-July 19, 2011 Riga, Latvia June 30-July 3 Riga is a very charming city of 1.1 […]

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Question: I’m sending you this question in hopes that you can help me or at the least shed some light on these issues. In looking at what natural sciences (Astronomy, evolution, etc.) have seemed to reveal to us about the age of the universe and the development of life, it appears that the subsequent response […]

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Question: I want to know why this scholar Sandra, said this in this site: http:/indiagestão.blogspot.com/2009/09/hinduismo-e-cristianismo.html  partir do século II, os lideres cristãos resolveram enterrar a influencia hindu e São Gregorio destruiu publicamente deuses hindus, que passaram a ser considerados então, deuses pagãos.  Lembrando sempre que o Hinduismo possui 7 mil anos e o cristianismo possui somente […]

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Question: I want to know why some scholars say that the Cristians in the second century, erase the evidences of the Hinduism in the church.  A scholar named Greggorio says they destroyed all Hindu gods in the church, and say that Krishna is like Jesus.  for example, he had a: virgin birth  life without a sin,  died […]

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Question:  I am a fairly new Christian and am just curious if being non demoniational is a sign of confusion. I was wondering of you could explain the difference between the Baptists, Pentecostals , Methodists, and Catholics. Answer: You are asking a lot here!!! The term non-deniminational is really not a very useful term because it […]

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Question: My father says he does not believe in organized religion because most churchs seem only to care for themselves and not other people. He also says that the bible is biased because it was written by man and that whomever put the bible together left out some of the texts because they didnt want […]

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Comment:  (a rather long comment, followed by a response from John Oakes) You give a poor answer to the question: If you place so much faith on the reliability of the synoptic Gospels and refuse to accept that they are not plain eyewitness statements, how do you account for the blatant contradiction between John 19:17 […]

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Question: After taking an Anthropology course (which is preceded by my philosophy course) I have to wonder what reasons are there for God creating Bonobo’s with such striking similarities to humans? Viewing footage of Jane Goodall’s work and other anthropological studies I saw, although through a biased lense, that bonobo’s and other species of primates […]

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Question: Where can I find (if exists) a philosophically based break-down of the Christian world veiw? Having read Plato, Sartre, Macmurray, etc. Im interested in comparing directly these philosophies and world views with something other than my own convictions, which are more intimate and less universal. Answer:  By coincidence, I just taught a lesson on […]

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Question: Is there really a God? Are the proverbs, histories, and all spiritual teachings in the Bible (either Old or New Testament or both) recycled from preceding spiritual teachings of the day (outside of that of the Jews, hence, originated in man) Why can’t we see God or "prove" His existence? How can we experience […]

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As of Wed May 25 we are now accepting registration for Saturday Only for the 2011 ICEC conference Christianity and the Paranormal.  See below for more information on the conference.  The cost for the Saturday-only event is $80 ($60 for students).  You cannot register for Saturday-only by calling the Queen Mary.  This must be done […]

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Question: I have looked at your Power Point Presentation entitled: “Genesis and the Christian World View”. What exactly do you mean by Genesis 1 being a “true myth”? Would you please elaborate on the relationship between Genesis chapters 1-3 and the view that the earth is several billions of years old? Did the things described […]

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Question: Is understanding that baptism is a participation in the death burial and resurrection of Jesus necessary or is knowing the Gospel sufficient? If one knows the Gospel, repents, confesses, and is baptized; but doesn’t understand that he is participating in the death burial and resurrection of Jesus is he just getting wet, or is […]

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Editor’s note:  The question below is answered by ARS board member Brian Colon.  Unfortunately, this person has a fairly critical attitude, but hopefully the interaction will be helpful.  J. O. Comment: I just ran across another article put out by you [John Oakes] about Bart Ehrman. The Memoir of the Apostles mentioned by Justin Martyr is […]

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Question: What do you make of the multiple systems of equations that people have supposedly devised based on Bible study? What about the claim of the rapture on May 21st? With such a large book and the doctoring of scriptures over the years in translations from other languages do you see a valid mathematical principle […]

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Note:  The question is quite long, including some quotes from scientific journals.  I have moved much of these quotes to after my answer so that the reader will not get distracted by too long a question. Question: I would love some help in one area, because I feel like I don’t know enough to tackle […]

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