Jayne

The half-brother of Jesus Christ, James, - in his book of the Bible that bears his name lists two Old Testament people that explains what you are asking about. Both Abraham and Rahab he said are examples of FAITH. Old Testament people were made righteous by faith alone. [1] Abraham believed what God said. [2] Rahab believe what was said ABOUT God. Lots of people in the OT were righteous because of their faith, not their works. Works came secondary. This was true of both Jews and Gentiles. [1] Noah, [2] Moses, [3] Pharoah's officials after the 7th plague, [4] Caleb the Kennizite, [5] Ruth the Moabite, [6] David, [7] the people of Nineveh, and a whole lot more. It's faith first and faith demonstrated by actions.

Hell is mentioned about 30 times in the King James Old Testament. It's the Hebrew word, שְׁאוֹל which is pronounced "sheh' ole". Here's the link with the King James [OT] with "hell" and you can read them and decide what you think they are talking about. KJV Search Results for "hell" (blueletterbible.org)

I thank everyone who has responded. Let me clarify a bit. I am 62 years old. Was saved as an older child. Have read the Bible for about 40 years. Been teaching it about 30. To kindergarteners in the summers at VBS, to 6th graders in the few years I was in a Christian school, to my peers at church in Sunday School, and to 75-90 year old women in Sunday School [they are all gone now]. I taught a community Bible study for about five years until Covid shut it all down. And I guest speak at women's groups whenever asked. Do I know it all? NO!!! Do I love Bible study? Oh, yes! It's evident that some of you are not on the same page as me as to where we are on God's time table. And I am alright with that. Truly. This post was not to debate that. I just have something inside me that's relatively NEW and while not depressing, as I said it's causing a sense of urgency. In my Sunday School class, ALL of us have family members who are not saved. In fact, one lady has a drug addict brother who has told her, "Do NOT pray for me anymore!!" Another has an aunt who is a staunch atheist and is militant about it. Another has a son and grandson with families that never go to church and do not care to hear about the Lord. There's more. I can tell they suffer over this. We just made a class-wide list of those we are burdened over and we will use this prayer list in the privacy of our homes. Either time is short or it isn't. As I said, I can't prove either way. There is just something - something in me that's perhaps is just for me. Pray for me that God will make his will for my life apparent.

And that's who we are right now. Two divided sides - each heatedly blaming the other - and I don't see it changing.

Thank you, Ray.... You explained how I feel a whole lot better than me.

You make sense.

Not hateful at all. Just different.

I've been having a lot of crying spells lately. Mainly since the new year. When I pray, when I read the Bible, when a sad TV show comes on, in church [primarily during hymn singing or altar call], and I find it embarrassing. For example, we put a man [a member's son] on the church prayer list who had terminal cancer and we, unfortunately, found out apparently when it was in the last stages. He and I went to school together 45 years ago and I haven't seen him since. At the announcement that he was on the prayer list, I was BURDENED about his eternal soul. I began praying for his healing and his salvation. He may have BEEN saved since the last time I saw him - I don't know. In the next two weeks, our pastor announced at the end of the service that he had passed away and to pray for the family. I burst into tears and so the crying spell started. I said this to say THIS......and if you think me insane, I won't argue. Just don't be hateful. I've spoken to my counselor about this and I have a doctor's app't in May and will talk to her about this these crying spells. However, I have been PARTIALLY convinced that I am burdened because there is not a lot of time left. I know everyone believes differently about end times and that's one reason that I stay AWAY from any end time threads on ANY forum I am on. Everyone just argues and argues and it's a hot mess of confusion. And I am NOT saying that I KNOW when the return of Christ is. I would label my own self as insane if I professed this. It may be today - it may be a long time from now. I just can't stop this feeling of - not doom, not gloom, not apprehension, not dread , those are from the devil - but of a sense of URGENCY that we may or may not see another Easter. Are we saved? Are our loved ones saved? Does anyone give a hoot? I have been praying for the past two days that God would move in the churches that have Godly men behind the pulpit and that he would SAVE people today. At my church, God did! A young 5th grade boy. His dad came with him to the altar call. I know this is just all inside of me and it's mine to bear - and I more than likely should not have said anything. I am burdened for the lost people I know. And the urgency just gets stronger. And yes, I am witnessing as best I can to people. I just don't believe we have a long time left. If I am dead wrong - I'll gladly admit it. But the pull of urgency is very strong in me.

Hello - I've got several - about a dozen. I just developed and wrote a two-Sunday lesson for Sunday School on the mercies of God. Well, the Lord instructed me, I should say. The scriptures are quite moving and I'll post them later today.

Here's the actual truth. The International Transgender Day of Visibility is and HAS BEEN March 31 since 2009! No, I don't like it but...... ......President Biden has made this useless proclamation for March 31 every year that he has been president. I say useless, because proclamations from political leaders, are for naught. I know, I've gotten proclamations for Constitution Week a few times from my mayor. It is coincidental that this year, 2024, it falls on Easter. It's not an attack on Easter, folks. For the past 15 years, Easter and the Transgender Day of Visibiity have occurred on the same day only in 2013 and 2024. It's not a conspiracy, folks. Worthy really need to be careful how they report stuff. President Biden has NOT "turned" Easter Sunday into Transgender Day.

It is what it is. Or was what it was. All of that is and was God's business. Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed utterly and completely. NOTHING and NO ONE left. God saved many of the people in the land of Canaan. LIke Rahab. Like the Gibeonites. And more. He couldn't do that if he destroyed them like Sodom and Gomorrah.

I watched it twice. I can't see any bombs.

ALL of the "Egyptian plagues" did not destroy Egypt or "banish" Egypt or their peoples. The Egyptian plagues were for convincing Egypt to let Israel go. Egypt is still here to this very day. The plagues did not destroy them. And the plagues of Egypt would not have banished the people of the land of Canaan. Besides, it wasn't about "banishing" them. They had 600 years to repent, most did not, but some did and it was time for the wrath of God to consume them. Brother, if all you see of God is that he is violent, full of wrath, and hostile, you have MISSED the whole point of these stories. The problem, and God spelled it out many times, was that after 600 years of giving them time to repent, these people were SO ungodly and their "religious" practices were so gross and creepy and of the devil, that God did not want them influencing HIS people. And he explained that to the people of Israel. More than once. God EXPLAINED that they must be destroyed to stop the evil idolatry. Unfortunately, Israel did not destroy them all and evil practices DID come into the lives of God's people. God did not use plagues as the people of Israel would not have paid attention to that. He asked THEM to destroy them and that way attention was drawn to the idolatry of these people and Israel could understand that. It was about

It was an accident.

In my opinion, this is HIGHLY improbable! Using the skin cell of one man and the sperm of another to create a "fake" egg cell? Their chromosomes would be YY! There is no YY. There is only: [1] XX - female. [2] XY - male. [3] And XYY - a mutation, causing a syndrome in boys, but male. I read the original article and it claimed that this was only a THEORY.

You are not exactly telling that story correctly. Here's the truth of the Bible. [1] God called Abraham to be the father of a new nation. Genesis 12. [2] He told Abraham in Genesis 15:12-16 that his descendants would one day be imprisoned for 400 years by a strange country that they don't know [Egyptians]. [3] God said this would it take this long because THE SINS OF THOSE PEOPLE WAS NOT FULL YET. [4] From the time God said this to Abraham to the time his descendants were enslaved and 400 years passed, it totaled about 600 years. God GAVE those people who took over a land that God had given to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob SIX HUNDRED years to repent. And some did. The first person God rescued from those people before the Israelites crossed over was a whore named Rahab. God is MERCIFUL. He waited until the sins of those people had reached the point of no return. He spared, however, countless people INCLUDING some of those Egyptians and people of other nations who escaped WITH God's people. God did not just go in willy-nilly and just start slaughtering people. He gave them time to change. Those that did became his people. Those that did not were destroyed. And in those that were destroyed, those too young to understand personal sin will be with us in heaven. I could cite you time after time after time in the Old Testament that God was merciful to people.

@R. Hartono Brother, you've done something odd here. You only quoted PART of the verse and put a period in the MIDDLE of the verse and left out the WHOLE verse. Here it is in its entirety. Jeremiah 17:5 = "Thus says the LORD: 'Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart turns away from the LORD.'" The key of the "curse" is turning a heart away from the LORD. You left that out. God can and does most definitely use people to spread the gospel. He gives us assignments and gifts and commands to do that according to his instructions and Holy Spirit guidance. WE aren't saving people. GOD is. But God uses us sometimes for his will. We DON'T put out faith in humanity to save us. We DO put our trust in God to save us. You, in only citing part of the verse, and out of context - made it say something that God did not intend.

You are repeating exactly what I said. I said salvation comes first and then moral behavior due to obedience to God comes second. I assure you that I am not ignorant. You will not go to heaven if all you do is help old ladies across the street, don't look at porn, and don't kill people. You MUST be saved. THEN comes obedience.

I say this in kindness to your entire post, but especially this last part. Nope! Nope! Nope! A person becomes a "citizen of the kingdom of God" by being covered by the blood of Christ - NOT by following all your rules here. The "balance and credit" to a person's soul does NOT come from their behavior. If so, why did Jesus die? Being "moral" is something that a lot of lost people can do. FIRST come salvation. God saves through Jesus Christ. Then comes obedience to him. You have left out Jesus Christ completely.

I stated that I believe God's Word. I KNOW it stands true. I simply asked what does submission mean? [1] blind obedience to ALL "commands"? [2] a fearful obedience of him as her straw boss? [3] a respectful and loving support of her husband and a desire to make his life good? No one has ever told me in my 62 years what it means! And I have asked for decades.

Brother, forgive me, but it is not obvious to me. I BELIEVE all of God's Word - even submission of the wife. I just have a hard time dealing with how many interpret this. What does it MEAN?!? I heard a pastor on television that I had never heard of several years ago who said that in terms of wifely submission, it begins when she opens her eyes in the morning. She is to give him sex or coffee - in which ever ordet he prefers it. I reject that as submission. Let me give an example with my own VERY GODLY parents who loved each other like mad and were the epitome of Biblical marriage partners. Once, when I was about 12 years old, my dad came home from work. At the time, he was having a very hard time with his incompetent boss for whom he was having to do his own and his boss's jobs. His job was federal and getting things done correctly was paramount! His nerves and anger level were at the breaking point. We all knew he was having a hard time and it took a toll on him. My mother had cooked hamburgers, french fries, and green beans for supper. Not her best meal, but good and sufficient. He came in the door in a huff! He saw what was on the table and barked at her, "I'm not eating this junk! Get up and fix me something else!" That was IMMENSELY uncharacterisitc for my father to speak to my mother that way. It was almost like it was another man. My mother, helping my disabled brother with his plate, spoke with grace, quietness, and great love and understanding.... ...."there is some chicken in the freezer and some sides in the pantry you can put together. Feel free to fix whatever you'd like to eat. We are eating this. I'm sorry it wasn't what you wanted." He huffed off to his room. He came back, having changed clothes, and fixed his plate with what she had made. She kissed him and he kissed her. And we had a fairly decent meal and a good time eating it. Was she in sin by not obeying his command?

Thank you, I understand you now.

Forgive me for persisting in people to explain themselves, but what do you mean that the wife has no responsibiity for the spiritual status of her marriage and household? She gets a free pass?

So ..... .... if her husband tells her to steal money from her elderly mother and give it to him so he can buy drugs, she has to do it or else she is in disobedience to God? I don't have a problem with scripture. I have a HUGE problem with how people interpret it. I have heard things about wives come out of the mouths of Christians that would make you sick. What exactly do you mean by your last statement?

I hold the same belief that Jesus is God. Jesus is not the Father nor the Spirit, but he is the Son. All three have unique tasks and some same tasks, but all three, together in a way that we cannot understand, are God. They are one. I got this from the Bible. Romans 9:5 = "To them [Jews] belong the patriarchs, and from their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ, who is God over all, blessed forever. Amen." John 1:1 = "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." John 20:28 = Thomas answered and said to Him, “My Lord and my God!” 2 Peter 1:1 = "Simon Peter, a bond-servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who have received a faith of the same kind as ours, by the righteousness of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ." There's more, but I will stop here. Yes, Jesus is Lord. He is also the Lamb, the Lion, the Way, the Truth, the Life, the Creator, and so much more. And the Bible states by various authors that he is God. He is not the Father, nor the Spirit, he is the Son. They are ONE - God.