Question: “But Laban said to him, “If I have found favor in your eyes, please stay. I have learned by divination that the Lord has blessed me because of you.”” Genesis 30:27 NIV Is there a clear answer on the divination meaning here? I have been reading Genesis and was wondering how to understand this […]
Question: Why did David write in Psalm 51:5, “Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me.”? Answer: We need to recognize first the genre of literature of the Psalms. These are poems. These are people talking to God, rather than God talking to people. For this reason, we should […]
Question: Do you any advice on how I can know when to tell when a prophet jumps from talking about fleshly to spiritual Israel, or when they go from literal to symbolic or figurative language? Prophecies can be tricky for me, because it has been said they mix immediate historical events with foreshadowing of ultimate […]
Question: I need your help. I wanna know your responds to some statements by a quite popular Jewish influencer on Instagram. She is an ex Christian who converted to Judaism. So she said that many of Paul’s teachings are contradicted to what Jesus taught and the core belief or Christianity is actually Paul’s teaching and […]
Question: Scholars say that the concept of hell in the Bible developed throughout time . Hell as a place of eternal suffering didn’t exist in the Old Testament, only the New Testament, which has led scholars to draw the conclusion that early Christians took the idea of hell being a place of eternal suffering from […]
Question: I understand many believe that Jesus is speaking metaphorically in John 6 about eating his flesh and drinking his blood. There are two different verbs used in John 6: “phagein”: the common verb “to eat” (used broadly in Greek), and “trōgō”: a more graphic verb, meaning “to gnaw, chew, munch, crunch.” Early in the chapter, Jesus […]
Question: Is this evidence for infant baptism being practiced in the early church? Hyppolytus: “Baptize first the children, and if they can speak for themselves let them do so. Otherwise, let their parents or other relatives speak for them” (The Apostolic Tradition 21:16 [A.D. 215]). Origen: “The Church received from the apostles the tradition of […]
Question: In a post on original sin, you claim that the Roman Catholic Church teaches that we inherit sin that God must judge us for (I will leave the link of the article below for context.) however, it is my understanding that this is false. It seems to me that the Catholic Church teaches that […]
Question: Would you use the Talmud to support the notion that Isaiah 53 is talking about a human being (not a nation)? Answer: This is a great question. So many Jewish commentators today deny that it is a reference to the Messiah, for the rather obvious reason that it IS about the Messiah, and this […]
Question: Is Ezekiel 37:21 a reference to the modern state of Israel? Answer: No, it is not. It is a reference, either to the restoration of the Southern Kingdom of Israel when Persia conquered Babylon, as recorded in Ezra and elsewhere, or it is a reference to the spiritual restoration of Israel in the church. […]
Questions: Dr. John, I would love to hear your insights on the following questions: 1. How could Jesus die for the future sins of people who hadn’t even been born at the time of His crucifixion? We can easily understand the ransom being paid for all the past and present sins. But how could we […]
Question: Is water baptism (immersion) essential for salvation ? Answer: Yes, it certainly is. Biblically, baptism is WHEN one is forgiven of sins and receives the gift of the Holy Spirit. (Acts 2:38-41). Acts 22:16 provides further evidence, as Paul is told, “And now, what are you waiting for? Get up and be baptized, and […]
Question: In Isaiah 42:11 God is clearly saying that He will send the people of Kedar (i.e., the Arabs) a Prophet and they should “rejoice” and “raise their voices” in happiness. Also, “Let the desert and its towns raise their voices;” is clearly referring to Arabia, since Arabia is known to be made of mostly […]
Question: Concerning the exegesis of Zechariah 12:10, I read that the word translated “pierced” or “killed” theoretically could go either way, but how about the structure of the sentence? Jews seem to see it as not referring back to “ME” in the sentence where as the Christian interpretation is it does. Answer: I am not an […]
Question: It’s is common knowledge that the early church held to what is called baptismal regeneration. We can find this through quotes and epistles from the fathers. What about quotes on infant baptism? I’m sure you’ve read a few that can supported infant baptism. What is your response to these quotes? Also, if we are […]
Question: I have a Catholic vs. Orthodox Church-based question… Does the Holy Spirit proceed from the Father or the Son and the Father? Where in scripture can we find an answer and what are your thoughts on this? Answer: It is not my job, or even my desire, to clear up a controversy between these […]
Question: I’ve come across this interesting question that Catholics love to argue for… if we all interpret the Bible a specific way and we can even agree or disagree with certain church fathers, who’s interpretation is correct? Holding to “sola scriptura” seems like it comes down to someone’s word vs someone else’s word at the […]
Question: How was it that Jewish scholars can ignore the prophecies of Daniel chapter 9:24-26 about when the Messiah would come? This prophecy clearly points to Jesus. Answer: I do not think it is fair to say that Jewish scholars simply ignore Daniel 9:24-28. In fact, a number of Jewish authors have commented on this […]
Question: Some Apostolic-Pentecostal Christians claim that being baptized “in the name of Jesus Christ” (Acts 2:38) is the correct form of baptism, and disregard baptism in the name of the Trinity (Matt. 28:18-20). They claim that there is a great importance concerning what you are baptized into. My question is this: are these baptisms the […]
Question: The Jewish expectations of the Messiah as described in Micah 5 were not met by Jesus since, although “being the Messiah”, he lacked the traits of a “ruler.” Christians now absurdly believe that Jesus’ kingdom was spiritual, yet this prophecy actually refers to the earthly kingdom. The same is true of Zechariah 9:9–10, which […]
Question: I read your post on original sin and have several issues/questions on the matter. No offense but I don’t believe that your interpretation of original sin is accurate. It seems to me that original sin is more of a human nature issue. Adam sinned, we all have the desire to sin, or we all have […]
Question: Hello Dr. John! I’m young in my faith (it’s been only 4 and around 1/2 months since I got baptized) and I read the a lot of the Bible. Now I’m restarting the book of Genesis. I just wanted to ask a question of the order of Creation. I find it quite difficult to […]
Question: What does Haggai 2:6-9 mean? Answer: I believe that Haggai 2:6-9 is a prophecy about the coming of the kingdom of God, most likely being a reference to the ministry of Christ and the establishment of the church. Evidence for this interpretation is found, particularly, in 2:9, “And in this place I will grant peace.” […]
Question: I have some Bible questions for you that I’ve been trying to figure out from Revelation 13 as it appears those events are now happening. I’m sure you’re familiar with “One of the heads of the beast seemed to have had a fatal wound, but the fatal wound had been healed.” from Revelation 13. […]
Question: Are you a believer in Christian Universalism (restoration of ALL) Apocatastasis rather than Unitarian Universalism? I believe the Bible in the original writings support this. You mention in some of your writings you believe in heaven but don’t mention hell. Hell–meaning eternal, conscious torment for all who don’t believe in Christ. To me that […]
Questions: There are scriptures that seem to indicate that before we become Christians, it really doesn’t matter how much we sin–whether we sin much or little, we die spiritually, and become lost. For example: – Adam and Eve sinned only once and they died – Paul says in Eph 2:5 that “we were dead in […]
Question: What would be your response to a JW who uses Proverbs 8 to justify claiming that Jesus as a created being? Answer: First of all, I believe that this is one example of many in which Jehovah Witnesses do eisegesis–which means reading a meaning into the text, rather than from the text. This is […]
Question: How long were the Israelites in Egypt? 430 or 215 years (Septuagint)? If they were in Egypt for 430 years, how do we reconcile this with Galatians 3:16-18? Answer: It is worth bearing in mind that the Near Eastern way of thinking about lengths of time and numbers in general is not as precise […]
Question: I have an interesting question. What are your thoughts about the Bible Code? For example the Ivan Panin story: Ivan Panin, a Russian mathematician and linguist, noticed complex mathematical structures in the Bible, especially those based on the number 7. He believed that the biblical text contains a hidden, divine numerical code that confirms […]
Question; I have two questions that are troubling me. It concerns the passage from Deuteronomy 32:8-9. Please, answer if you can. 1. The ‘sons of God’—who are they in this passage? Are they divine beings, or are they Israelites? 2. Some critics say that this passage indicates that God El (the Most High in this […]
Question: NT writers contradicted the teachings of the Law & Prophets, and they have the nerve to say that they believe in Moses & Prophets. For e.g. NT directly contradicts with Deut. 24:16 and Ezekiel 18:20. If Jesus’ sacrifice was pre-destined, then why did God say this before? Was God double-minded or did the NT […]
Question: What is your take on Saturday being the Christian Sabbath, as taught by some Christian churches? Answer: Two things are true, which is that Saturday (actually, Friday sundown until Saturday sundown) is the Jewish Sabbath. The command for its celebration is found as one of the ten commandments (Deuteronomy 5:12). It is also true […]
Question: if Jesus is fully God and fully man at the same time right now in 2024 , do you mean for example that Jesus knows and does not know at the same time right now ? God knows everything but man does not know everything. If Jesus is fully God and fully human, do […]
Question: What is it called when someone believes that God manifested himself in the Father, the Son and the Spirit, but that they are not separate persons? Answer: The most common technical name for this theology is Modalism, or the more technical name, which is Monarchical Modalism. It is called this because the teaching is […]
Question: Jewish Christianity was the actual Christianity because Jesus was thoroughly Jewish, kept the Torah, and never disciplined [editor: discipled?] the Gentiles. The earliest Christians were all Torah observant Jews and saw Jesus as their Messiah, nothing else. Jewish Christianity, which emphasized keeping the Torah (among other ideas), came into conflict with Greek and Latin […]
Question: If Jesus was God’s son in a metaphorical sense, then Jews also called themselves God’s children. Israel was called God’s firstborn, and David was called God’s son. Thus, the reason of Jesus’ crucifixion depicted in the NT gospels seems baseless. And if Jesus was God’s literal son through spirit, then Adam also had no […]
Editor’s Note: This is a follow-up to a question in which the person said that Christians have stolen Jesus out of the Old Testament, and taken him completely out of context. I asked for specifics so that I could respond, and this is what came in. Question: Christians specifically misinterpreted Isaiah 53 and Zechariah 12 […]
Question: Does Deuteronomy 12:30 forbid Christian apologetics toward other religions since we can’t inform ourselves about them? Does the verse apply for learning about other religious practices as a whole or simply forbid taking part in the practices of other religions? Answer: This passage appears to be a command to not even learn about other […]
Question: The NT authors thought that Isaiah was describing the crucifixion of Jesus for the sins of the world in Isaiah 53, but the fact is Isaiah is not predicting that someone will suffer in the future for other people’s sins at all. Many readers fail to consider the verb tenses in these passages. They […]
Question: What does Matthew 6:22-23 mean? Answer: By coincidence, I just preached on this passage two weeks ago. If we look at the context of the passage, both before and after the verse, the subject is the kingdom of God. Before the passage we are told that we must put our treasures in heaven. After […]
Question: Muslims say that the prophets preached the oneness of God only. They never predicted God’s son to be born. Christians don’t worship God instead they worship Jesus. They pray to Jesus instead of God. What’s your response? Response: If this is what Muslims say then they are just plain wrong. They are mistaken. In […]
Question: Hello Dr. Oakes. Hopefully all is well! My question today is regarding the entire Old Testament. Just as a disclaimer I absolutely believe that there are no contradictions in the Bible and believe that anyone who disagrees is simply being intellectually dishonest with Scripture and its context or simply is unaware of the context. In […]
Question: I just read your refutation of Jesus being plagiarized off of previous Mediterranean deities and I must say you cannot believe your own drivel. To argue that it couldn’t be plagiarized because only portions of the stories are similar is beyond ridiculous. I have several questions for you: 1) Was Jesus the first deity born […]
Question: Why did Hosea (1:2), Isaiah (32:11), Micah (1:8), and Ezekiel (23:21) possess disreputable characters and use unholy language to their listeners? Answer: Neither Hosea, nor Isaiah, nor Micah or Ezekiel ever had “disreputable characters.” Nor did they ever use unholy language!!! This is an absolutely unjustified charge, and anyone saying this either is being […]
Question: What are your best biblical and historical arguments against the Roman Catholic doctrine of Purgatory? I am interested in hearing both sides and I would like to hear some insight from yourself as I do not believe you believe in Purgatory. Thank you for all you do and God bless. Answer: Honestly, you should […]
Question: In Genesis 18:21 towards the ending of the verse, God says “if not, I will know” when concerning the people of Sodom’s sin. Also, in Genesis 18:21 “I will go down to see whether they have done altogether according to the outcry that has come to me. And if not, I will know.” Does […]
Question: I really enjoy the articles on the website. I was reading an article on Daniel at the website, and wanted to bring up a question about it regarding general Titus fulfilling v. 29 of Daniel chapter 9. If indeed it is more likely that it speaks about him, and the information we gather leads […]
Question: According to 1 Samuel 15:22, “Samuel said, Does the Lord take pleasure in whole-burnt-offerings and sacrifices, as in hearing the words of the Lord? behold, obedience better than a good sacrifice.” Therefore, the whole story of Jesus’ crucifixion is bogus and God didn’t order Jesus to do it. Your response? Answer: This statement is riddles […]
Question: What are your thoughts on the tower of Babel; particularly on its historical reality? And also on the topic of the different languages? How should we interpret this? Answer: I believe that the Tower of Babel story is semi-historical. What I mean by this is that I believe that there was an actual city, […]
Question: I have a question regarding a man who was baptized in my local church for the forgiveness of his sins. We found out later that this man did not know about the passage in Romans 6:1-7 when he was baptized. How does this lack of knowledge of Romans 6:1-7 affect his baptism? Should this […]
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