Question: It has been a subject of some debate as to whether "the earth without form and void" of Genesis 1, actually refers to a pre-existant earth prior to the one we currently inhabit; which was populated but destroyed for whatever reason(s). Is there any sort of proof or, shall we say, "solid spiritual logic" […]

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Question:,I read an article by a Christian scholar who believes the Egyptian god Imhotep to be no one else than Joseph in the Bible, deified and exaggerated to fit Egyptian beliefs. The step pyramid, which was the first pyramid to ever be built in Egypt, is historically credited by the Egyptians to be the work […]

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Question:,Why did Jesus get baptized by John if he had no sin?,Answer:,This is a very good question. Jesus actually answered the question for us, although his answer is a bit enigmatic. To quote Matthew 3:15, “Let it be so now,it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness.” Of course the question […]

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Question:,The Jehovah’s Witness say God did not want us concuming blood in the O.T and that it continue in the N.T . In Acts 21:25 God does not let us use the blood to help other people. Therefore it is wrong to give or receive a blood transfusion. I do not believe this, but where […]

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Question: How then do you explain the LXX & MT versions of Daniel & the story of Bel & the Dragon? Dennis; God used the Jewish teachers/rabbis as the arbiters of what is to be considered an approved text. They said no to the additions to Daniel. I agree with their assessment by looking at […]

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Question: How has Isaiah 11:12 been fulfilled by Jesus? Jews consider this to be a passage about the Moshiach. They specifically say that Jesus did not fulfill this therefore he cannot be the Moshiach. They think that all Jews will return to Israel. How is that passage to be interpreted?Answer: Your Jewish friends are right. […]

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Question: I have quite recently started studying the book of 1 Peter and am currently contemplating what the apostle might have meant by God?s judging each man?s work impartially (1:17). Since Ephesians 2:8-9 teaches that a Christian is saved by God?s grace through his/her faith and not by his/her works, then I have concluded that […]

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Questions:,1. Who is the Mechelsadeck? 2. Can a Christian be a blood donor(give own blood to others)?,Answer:,Melchizedek was the ruler of Salem in Canaan. Salem later became known as Jerusalem. He is a very enigmatic figure in the Bible. He was not a Jew, yet he was a worshipper of Jehovah/God. When Abraham returned from […]

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Question:,Is this world real or maya? Will there be an end? Will there be any hereafter?,Answer,First of all, I deeply apologize for such a delayed response. I have gotten behind with the new semester.,The answer will depend on your world view. If you accept the Hindu or the Buddhist or the Jaina worldview, then you […]

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Question:,As a part of the Mosaic sacrifices, the priests were to ‘wave’ the sacrifice before the Lord. I’ve read through Chapter 6 of ‘From Shadow to Reality’ and was hoping to find some clarification – but didn’t find it mentioned. Can you help us understand the significance of waving the offering before the Lord? (either […]

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Note: There are so many questions here that the question and answers are interspersed. Hopefully, this will make sense.,John Oakes,Eyewitnesses are notoriously unreliable. There’s some elements of psychology that prove that a false memory can be planted in someone’s mind by repeated reinforcement. Police witnesses can produce varying accounts of what happened in certain circumstances […]

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Question: I see what you say about the laws of the old testament having been “fulfilled” and therefore do not have to be followed. However, many Jews still do follow those rules and, it has to be said that in doing so they are following the word of God as that is what is written […]

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Question: I have heard that the accounts of Jesus resurrectioncould be misleading as the dates could be inaccurate. In other words,accounts of Jesus appearing seemingly after he is resurrected could have been written before he had died. Is this true? Answer: If an account of Jesus being resurrected was written before he died that would […]

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Question: 1) Is there anything distinctively Christian about apologetics? Why or why not? Do all religions include apologetics? Why or Why not?;2) How much do you think natural human reason can accomplish in religion? In general?;3) What good does it do to argue for your faith? What harm can it do?;4) How useful are merely […]

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Question: How does the zodiac principle relate to the Bible if they do and was the system of the zodiac developed before the Bible? Also , many people believe that the repetition of specific numbers i.e 7 , 3 , 40 , 12 are related to the zodiac.Who influenced who in this subject? Answer: The […]

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Question: Who were the “sons of God” in Genesis 6:2? Answer: Note, this answer is taken directly from one given to the same question at www.douglasjacoby.com John O. Sons of God 11/21/2003 ?????????????????????????????????????????????? There has been much speculation about who these “sons of God” mentioned in the sixth chapter of Genesis were. Three basic interpretations […]

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Question:,I recently read an article written by a person named Raul in his website ( www.santiagoicc.org) about the Luke 15, and he say that “the lost son” it is not in fact a walk away son of God, but a lost person as any non-Christian is. I would really appreciate your comments of both. ,Answer:,Please […]

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Question: I want to ask about “Education”. Where did education came from? Who started it? What does the Bible or God says about it? How should a disciple of Jesus feel about worldly educational systems? In my mind that education comes from the world, and in our generation in finding a job the standard of […]

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Question: I am a sophomore in high school, and I recently began to engage in dialog with one of my atheist friends about the existence of God. My interest in the subject began last summer while my friend was attending a philosophy camp at Duke. He knew I was a Christian, so he sent me […]

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Question:,Would voting for Hilary Clinton for President be unbiblical, as she is a woman in authority position?,Answer:,Let me answer your question with another question. What passage in the Bible can you use to show that women cannot take a leadership role in a secular job?,OK, now we have that out of the way. There is […]

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Question: It has been argued that one reason for the historicity of Jesus’ resurrection, as opposed to the disciples having stolen the body, was that the idea of a crucified and subsequently risen savior was foreign to first century Jewish thought. If I understand the argument correctly, its strength is in the assumption that the […]

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Question:,How do one defend to a postmodern generaton the fact that Christianity is the only means of salvation?,Answer:,First of all, I am sorry for being so slow about a response. We moved this month and besides I got caught up a bit in all the Christmas stuff.,This is a very good question. I am afraid […]

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Question: Jesus is a human form. Should we worship him? I ask this because in Deutronomy 5:7 God said do not make a an idol in any form. Jesus is inthe flesh.but when Jesus? disciples worshiped him he acceptedit. It appears to be a kind of contradiction. Answer: First comment is that it is worth […]

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Question: I read an article that on Joshua, claiming that archaeological evidence suggests the cities of Ai and Jerichowere destroyed roughly 1,000 years before the Biblical account of the Israelites’ arrival. Can you comment on this? Answer: The article you referred to is not written by a careful scholarly person, you can be assured of […]

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Question: Where can I find balanced information on historical/theological reading of the Word? As a born again, Bible-following Christian for 22 years, I’m always excitied to read of some archaeological development that sheds light on people, times and/or places of the Bible. But I’ve also I’ve read enough about what archaeology has not been able […]

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Question: I read the explanation of Daniel chapter 9 prophecy in your book “From Shadow to Reality”. You were really quite explicit on that. What I am unable to understand is verse no 27 which predicts the putting to an end of sacrifice and offering. I think the prophecy refers to the crucifixion which took […]

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Question: I am reading one of your book titled “Reason for Belief”. I must say it is really impactful. However, I have a question on one area there. You mentioned about the base of our faith. If we want to grow deep, we must explore the basis of our faith, could you expand on each […]

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Question:,How can Matthew 24:36 (only the Father knows the day and hour, not even the Son) be true if Jesus was God and omniscient ?,Answer:,To be honest, I do not know exactly how this worked. Jesus lowered himself in ways which I do not throroughly comprehend when he came to earth and took on a […]

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Editor’s note; The answer belos is a response to a very long and involved question which comes down to this. What is the definition of work in the Old Testament and how were people to know what constituted or did not constitute work? For the entire question, go to the bottom of my answer. Answer. […]

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Question: What are some of your thoughts of global warming and 2 Peter 3: 10-13? Answer: My thoughts are that there is absolutely no connection whatsoever between global warming and 2 Peter 3:10-13. This passage is certainly not talking about some sort of extremely slow process of raising the temperature of the earth a few […]

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Question: What are some of your thoughts of global warming and 2 Peter 3: 10-13? Answer: My thoughts are that there is absolutely no connection whatsoever between global warming and 2 Peter 3:10-13. This passage is certainly not talking about some sort of extremely slow process of raising the temperature of the earth a few […]

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Question: I have heard and seen articles so many times about the Catholic faith hiding evidence of other gospels and possibly a gospel from Jesus himself? This concerns me since I used to be Catholic (now a non-denomintated Christian) and still have many Catholic friends that may be oblivious of this information and frankly get […]

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Question: Mark 16: 17-18 of the NIV translation reads: “And these signs will accompany those who believe: In my name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their […]

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Question:,One of my sons asked me a Bible question tonight and after doing a little study I am still baffled, so I wondered if you had any insight into it. The question is: how do we reconcile Matthew 16:27 and Matthew 16:28? I read your response to a questioner who asked about Matthew 16:28 and […]

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Question:,Our preteens went to a Planetarium and asked ” What is the number of stars approximately?”,Answer,The answer is that there are approximately one hundred billion stars in an average galaxy and there are approximately one hundred billion galaxies in the universe, which means that there are 1.0×10^11 x 1.0×10^11 stars or 1 x 10^22 stars […]

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Question:,Can you help me about dinosours. It was said that they live here on earth millions of years ago and there were fosils of dinosaurs that were found. How can you explain this?,Answer:,Yes, dinosaurs lived a very long time ago. They appeared on the earth somewhere a little more than two hundred million years ago. […]

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Question:,I’ve read somewhere that the Lord’s Sabbath is on a Saturday. Yet I am attending Sunday services. Am I violating the Lord’s Sabbath? The article I read also states that worshipping on Sunday is a false Sabbath and is actually the doing of the devil, so am I doing anything wrong?,Answer,Actually, from the Christian perspective, […]

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Question:,Why does God allow birth in all kinds of races, cultures, remote places where people will not get a worthy opportunity to hear, believe or accept the good news in Christ through discipleship? How is He going to justify them — is it act on your conscious scale for them? ,Answer:,About God allowing people to […]

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Question:,There have been all these findings of skeletal remains scientists claim to have been prehistioric ancestors, like Lucy, the Neanderthals, etc. In truth, from the looks of these remains, I can’t say I believe it. I wanted to know, have any of these findings ever been proven wrong?,Answer:,I am not sure what you mean when […]

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Question: How can we know the date of an event or writing from thousands of years ago if the date was not recorded at that time? For example, someone may say, “this was written around 58 AD”. How can we know that for sure? Or even when someone says, “the book of ____ was written […]

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Question:,I recently went to the Museum of Science in Boston, and was fascinated to find how closely their presentation of how the earth was created matched that in Genesis. My one question is, the biblical account explains that the stars and the moon were created after the earth. I can see the moon being created […]

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Question: ,I’d like to hear your opinion on the following question I heard… In the first narrative of the Ten Commandments, the verses regarding sabbath observance read as follows: Ex.20:8-11 “Remember the Sabbath day to sanctify it. Six days shall you work and accomplish all your work,but the seventh day… you shall not do any […]

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Question:,In the Bible it says heaven and earth will pass away but his word will live forever…. What does it mean by heaven will pass away? I thought heaven would last forever…,Answer:,I am not sure exactly what this fairly enigmatic passage means. To some extent, all I can do is quote the scripture and say […]

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