Let us first of all explain the Roman Catholic or Greek (Eastern) Orthodox teaching of the “Assumption of Mary.”

Quoting from christianity.about.com, we are told the following:

“The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary commemorates the death of Mary and her BODILY assumption into Heaven, before her body could begin to decay–a foretaste of our own bodily resurrection at the end of time…

“The Feast of the Assumption is a very old feast of the Church, celebrated universally by the sixth century. The feast was originally celebrated in the East, where it is known as the Feast of the Dormition, a word which means ‘the falling asleep.’ The earliest printed reference to the belief that Mary’s body was assumed into Heaven dates from the fourth century, in a document entitled ‘The Falling Asleep of the Holy Mother of God’…

First of all, we must understand that it is GOD who heals us, and He does so because of Christ’s supreme Sacrifice.

In our free booklet, “Sickness and Healing–What the Bible Tells Us,” we point out the following in this regard, beginning on page 44:

“The Bible teaches that the sacrifice of Jesus Christ clearly includes physical healing… He was beaten and tortured before He died… We already touched upon the pivotal Scripture of Isaiah 53:3–5… ‘A Man of sorrows [margin, pains] and acquainted with grief [margin, sickness]… Surely, He has borne our griefs [margin, sicknesses], And carried our sorrows [margin, pains]… He was wounded [margin, pierced through] for our transgressions, He was bruised [margin, crushed] for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes [margin, blows that cut in] we are healed.’

When the Holy Spirit first came upon the house of Cornelius, those in attendance were amazed. “While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit fell upon all those who heard the word. And those of the circumcision who believed were astonished, as many as came with Peter, because the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out on the Gentiles also” (Acts 10:44-45). Why were “those of the circumcision” amazed? What made this event astonishing? As it turns out, the inclusion of the Gentiles in the calling of God is something that many in the early New Testament times did not believe would happen. However, as we will find out, it has always been God’s plan to offer the gift of the Holy Spirit and salvation to all men, Jews and Gentiles alike.

The Bible teaches that those who die and have qualified as “first fruits” will be raised in the first resurrection (1 Corinthians 15:20-26; Revelation 20:4-6). Many false concepts exist as to the nature of the first resurrection. 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).

Jesus Christ was the very first who was raised in the first resurrection (Acts 26:23)—being the firstborn among many brethren (Romans 8:29). His followers will be resurrected in the same way as He was, at the time of His return (1 Thessalonians 4:14-17).

There is so much confusion about the definition of a family today where secular society, governments and politicians have made up their own definitions, and so this question is not quite as simple as it might at first seem.

Marriage and the family have been generally accepted for a long time that they are the building blocks on which a stable society is founded.   However, attitudes have changed; the liberal society with its permissiveness has invaded every nook and cranny of society and, instead of looking for inspiration and direction from the Word of God, most countries now find themselves overtaken by secularism.   God is generally excluded from any discussions about right and wrong, with man making up his own definitions.

One UK politician said that a family was any group of people who lived together.   That was something that he thought up without consulting the Holy Bible.   That means that he (and others) would consider that homosexuals living together would be a family, as would be two lesbians. Co-habiting would also fall, erroneously, into that same category.   Any group, however made up, would be a family!   And politicians who make such ridiculous assertions are those who frame our laws!

We find that at the very beginning of the Millennium (Christ’s 1,000-year rule on earth), even though Satan will be imprisoned, Asiatic hordes (referred to as “Gog and Magog”) will try to invade the Promised Land, but God will intervene and destroy those rebels (Ezekiel 38).

We also explained in a recent Q&A that at the very end of the Millennium, before the Second Resurrection, Satan will be released from his prison for a short time. He will deceive the nations so that they will try, once again, to invade the Promised Land. However, God will intervene and destroy those nations, as He did at the beginning of the Millennium. Many of those who die in these two rebellions will be resurrected in the Second Resurrection, but some might have committed the unpardonable sin during these rebellions. They will be resurrected in the Third Resurrection to be burned up in the lake of fire. They will cease to exist forever.

In a recent Q&A on human nature and the wrong concept of “original sin” of babies, we stated the following about Jesus Christ’s conception and birth as a human being:

“… all are born with HUMAN NATURE or, as the Bible puts it, with SINFUL FLESH. Christ never sinned, but He came into sinful flesh (Romans 8:3). He had human nature passed on to Him through His mother Mary, and He needed God’s help to overcome sin in the flesh. He had the fullness of God’s Spirit within Him without measure, and that from conception (John 3:34, Authorized Version), which enabled Him to stay sinless…

“Christ was not in any way guilty or sinful because of an ‘original sin’ which had been passed on genetically to Him when He was conceived in Mary’s womb, but Christ was conceived with human nature… Romans 8:3 tells us that Christ came ‘in the likeness of sinful flesh’ to overcome and condemn sin in the flesh.”

This is a hotly disputed issue with so many opinions on this subject.   One of the reasons is that the word “hypnosis” or “hypnotism” is not mentioned once in the Word of God.  However, for a Christian, the Bible is the yardstick by which any matter should be judged, and we should look for principles that apply in this case.

The Free Dictionary online gives this definition of hypnosis:

“The induction of a state of consciousness in which a person apparently loses the power of voluntary action and is highly responsive to suggestion or direction. Its use in therapy, typically to recover suppressed memories or to allow modification of behaviour, has been revived but is still controversial.”

Another online definition, from http://www.compellingtruth.org/Christian-hypnosis.html, is as follows:

Many believe that the Shroud of Turin pictures Jesus Christ at the time of His death and burial. Apart from the fact that John 19:40 shows that Christ was wound in linen CLOTHES and that John 11:44 describes the custom of Jewish burials in using several CLOTHES and binding them about the dead body, in addition to the dead person’s face being wrapped with or in a cloth (a head swath), there are numerous additional problems with the idea that the one-piece shroud may be an authentic depiction of Jesus Christ.

On April 17, 2015, the Wall Street Journal reported:

“When the Shroud of Turin goes on display Sunday [April 19, 2015] for the first time in five years [while being on display until June 24, 2015], it will revive a long-running debate as to whether it is a medieval fabrication or—as Catholic devotees have believed for centuries—the burial cloth of Jesus Christ… The 14½-foot-long piece of linen, which bears a front-and-back image of a dead man’s body, is owned by the pope but safeguarded by the archdiocese of Turin.

In our previous Q&A, we pointed out that babies are conceived and born with human nature. We referred to David’s saying in Psalm 51:5: “Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, And in sin my mother conceived me.” We explained that this was not a reference to any illicit acts of David in his mother’s womb, nor of his mother and his father; rather, that David described here HIS human nature with which he was conceived and born.

We also stated, however, that this must not be “confused with the WRONG concept of the ‘original sin,’ which holds that Adam and Eve’s sin was ‘imputed’ to all of mankind, and that because of the sin of Adam and Eve, everybody is guilty. This negates personal and individual responsibility and accountability. But it IS true that due to Adam and Eve’s sin, access to the Tree of Life and God’s Holy Spirit was disallowed, leading to the kind of world under Satan’s influence which we experience today (Romans 5:12)—a world cut off from God and being held captive by Satan. The point is that even an unborn baby has human NATURE, which would have led to sinful CONDUCT following birth (compare Job 13:26; 14:1-4; 25:4; Psalm 25:7).”