The Bible tells us that God can look into the future and knows what will happen. What are the methods He uses, and can we understand them?

Actually, the Bible clearly states at least two methods that God uses to know the future—one that we can understand quite readily, and one that we, as humans, can only vaguely understand.

In our lives, we often say what we intend to do at variable times in our future. Things like arranging an education for a preferred vocation. Financial planning for future events. Even preparing to attend God’s Feast days. Things like arranging accommodation and transport to get there.

Of course, there are warnings about not being overly confident in our abilities to carry out what we say. James 4:13-16 is a warning for us: “Come now, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit’; whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. Instead you ought to say, ‘If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that.’ But now you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil.”

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In the first two parts, we saw that Christ was called a stumbling block and that He indeed offended people, and He was still without fault or sin. We explained that giving offense has to be seen in the context of sinning.

However, some teach or suggest that Paul told us to refrain from doing what we have learned to be right if someone with a weak conscience thinks it is wrong. In making this claim and support their idea, they are referring to several Scriptures.

One of those passages is Romans 14:1-20:

“Receive one who is weak in the faith, but not to disputes over doubtful things. For one believes he may eat all things, but he who is weak eats only vegetables. Let not him who eats despise him who does not eat, and let not him who does not eat judge him who eats; for God has received him. Who are you to judge another’s servant? To his own master he stands or falls. Indeed, he will be made to stand, for God is able to make him stand.

Continue reading "Would you please explain the concept of not giving offense to others? (Part 3)"

In the first part, we saw that Christ was called a stumbling block and that He indeed offended people, and He was still without fault or sin.

On the other hand, as we will show, the Bible tells us that we are not to cause offense. How is this to be understood in light of the fact that Jesus Himself did offend people?

We read in Luke 17:1-2:

“Then He said to the disciples, ‘It is impossible that no offenses (Greek skandalon, which means stumbling block) should come, but woe to him through whom they do come! It would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were thrown into the sea, than that he should offend (Greek skandalizo, which means, cause to stumble) one of these little ones.”

The following words by Jesus are added in Matthew 18:6-7:

“But whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to sin (Greek: skandalizo), it would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were drowned in the depth of the sea. Woe to the world because of offenses (Greek: scandalon)! For offenses must come, but woe to that man by whom the offense comes!”

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We need to carefully examine this misunderstood question. We will start with statements about Christ and His conduct; show what giving offense really means; and we will examine what Paul wanted to convey when talking about not offending our weak conscience or that of another person.

Let us first notice that Jesus Christ was called a stumbling stone and a rock of offense.

Isaiah 8:14 states this about Christ:

“He will be as a sanctuary, But a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense To both the houses of Israel, As a trap and a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem.”

Romans 9:30-33 adds:

“What shall we say then? That Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness of faith; but Israel, pursuing the law of righteousness, has not attained to the law of righteousness. Why? Because they did not seek it by faith, but as it were, by the works of the law. For they stumbled at that stumbling stone [Greek: proskommatos]. As it is written: ‘Behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling stone [Greek: proskommatos] and rock of offense [Greek: skandalon; literally, stumbling block], And whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame.’”

Continue reading "Would you please explain the concept of not giving offense to others? (Part 1)"

You are referring to 2 Timothy 2:15 which reads: “Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.”

In our Q&A “How Does the Church of the Eternal God and its International Affiliates Differ from Other Christian Churches? (Part 1) we state the following:

“In charging Timothy with ‘rightly dividing the word of truth,’ Paul brings out the fact that God’s Word must be read and studied, ‘here a little and there a little’ (Isaiah 28:9-10). All Scriptures to a given concept must be consulted, to avoid reaching a wrong conclusion. The Word of Truth must be taught honestly, while nothing is to be added or deleted. In dividing or ‘cutting straight’ God’s Word, error and false interpretations are being cut off. As Paul admonished Timothy to preach God’s Word ‘in season and out of season’ (compare again 2 Timothy 4:2), and not to be ‘ashamed of the testimony of our Lord’ and the gospel (2 Timothy 1:8), so Paul also did not shun ‘to declare… the whole counsel of God’ (Acts 20:27).”

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The Bible teaches that the first resurrection is a resurrection to eternal, immortal life—to an existence in the spirit realm, when converted men and women become born-again members in the Kingdom and Family of God. We are told that flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God (1 Corinthians 15:50), and that in the first resurrection, we will have incorruptible spiritual bodies, when we are “raised in glory” (verses 42-44).

We will be like Christ, bearing His very image (1 Corinthians 15:49), and Christ is the exact image of God the Father (2 Corinthians 4:4). We will be glorified God beings, as the Father and Jesus Christ are glorified. We will in that sense look like Christ.

We can find a description of the resurrected Christ in His glorified state in numerous passages of the Bible, and none of them implies that He has a physical body. For instance, we read in Revelation 1:14-16: “His head and hair were white like wool, as white as snow, and His eyes like a flame of fire; His feet were like fine brass, as if refined in a furnace, and His voice the sound of many waters… and His countenance was like the sun shining in its strength…” (Compare also Revelation 2:18). A similar description of Christ, as He appeared in glory prior to His temporary existence as a human being, can be found in Ezekiel 1:26-28. This describes also His glorified state today, as the Father glorified Christ in His resurrection with the glory which He had with the Father before the world was (John 17:5).

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When Christ returns to establish the Kingdom of God on this earth, will everyone experience immediately all the millennial blessings as described in the Bible?

Surprising as it may sound, the answer is no. Part of the reason for this answer is that those who have survived the terrible times of the Great Tribulation and the Day of the Lord and who will still be alive, as human beings, when the Millennium begins, will have to be taught God’s Way of Life and they will have to accept it.

Some, if not many, will not follow God’s Way of Life right away, and in refusing to do so, they will have to suffer the consequences.

In addition, the world will be in a devastating condition, with destroyed cities and polluted landscapes, which will have to be restored and purified. All of this will take some time. It has been proposed that it may take up to two or three generations until mankind will experience the full effect of Christ’s rule on earth.

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The prophet Jeremiah was told by God, “Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you; before you were born I sanctified you; I ordained you a prophet to the nations” (Jeremiah 1:5). We are told here that God the Father and Jesus Christ knew Jeremiah BEFORE he was formed in his mother’s womb, though we are not told how long before his birth God knew him. Several questions need to be answered: HOW LONG before his birth did God know and sanctify Jeremiah, and what is meant with the phrase that God “formed” him in his mother’s womb?

To answer the first question, we say the following in our free booklet, “Are You Predestined to Be Saved?”, when we explain Revelation 17:8, stating, “[Those] who dwell on the earth will marvel, whose names are NOT written in the Book of Life from the foundation of the world”:

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Most people have encountered disappointments in their lives at one time or another; quite a few become discouraged; others begin to suffer from a mild or even deep depression; and then there are those who entertain the thoughts of suicide and might even go through with it. Great biblical heroes were not immune from falling into depression and even from entertaining suicidal ideas.

In our recent Q&A, we stated the following:

“What circumstances would give rise to such a thought? Perhaps someone has an incurable disease (by man’s reckoning) and is in such severe pain that it seems to be the only way out of a terrible situation? Or someone doesn’t think him- or herself worthy of God’s calling and cannot reconcile the fact that he or she is a sinner who doesn’t seem to be making any progress in his or her life, perhaps even going backwards? What about someone who experiences demonic activity in his or her life which presses that individual to take such action as a way out of this misery? Drug or alcohol addiction, mental illness, depression, family issues, bullying and marital and financial problems can also be reasons why suicide might seem to be the answer, but it never is…

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We see many examples in this world of mankind using animals for heinous purposes, be it gambling on cockfighting or dogfighting or the culturally renowned bullfights in Spain.  Some animals are harvested for valuable parts used for show or pagan remedies.  Even in modern medicine, animals are used inhumanely in clinical drug trials.

Man was given dominion over the newly created world by God. “Then God blessed them, and God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth’” (Genesis 1:28). And God expected man to take care of it, “The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it” (Genesis 2:15 NIV). God even fashioned clothing for Adam and Eve using animals, “Also for Adam and his wife the LORD God made tunics of skin, and clothed them” (Genesis 3:21)

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