Question:

How far should we go in “not resisting evil?” For example, if someone should try to assault or kidnap us?

Answer:

How far should we go in “not resisting evil?”

I assume this refers to Matthew 5:39 where the Lord says: “But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also.”

I think the best answer is to ponder this question: “How far should we go with the Lord in not resisting evil?”

Question:
If you are fighting with someone who is trying to kill you and you kill them, is it a sin?

Answer:
Although the laws of our country may consider someone “not guilty” who kills someone in self-defense, the fact remains that a person was killed. Therefore, the commandment in Exodus 20:13 was violated and a sin was committed.

Question:

If someone tried to commit suicide, but is stopped or lives, is it considered a sin?

Answer:

We know from Exodus 20:13 that if someone commits suicide they have sinned since they have killed themselves and killing is a sin. “Thou shalt not kill” is one of the Ten Commandments that the children of Israel were required to follow since they were under God’s law. We are not under law today (Romans 6:14), but since we, as believers on the Lord Jesus Christ, have the Holy Spirit inside us to strengthen us not to sin, the Lord sets an even higher standard of behavior for us than for the children of Israel. For example, 1 John 3:15 says that, “Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer.” Hating someone requires only thought, whereas attempting suicide requires some action. Considering such high standards the Lord has established for us to follow with His strength, I conclude that attempting suicide would be considered a sin by God.

Many people believe that if a person commits suicide that God will not forgive that sin and the person will go to hell. However, 1 John 1:7 assures us that “the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from ALL sin.” Therefore, even though we know that attempting or committing suicide saddens and displeases the Lord very much, the blood of Jesus is able to wash away those sins like all others. There are a multitude of good reasons to choose to remain living until the Lord decides to take us home to Himself, so let’s enjoy the abundant life He has given us and serve Him gladly each day we have on this earth.

Question:

If someone is brain-dead, has their soul left their body?

Answer:

There has been much debate and disagreement in the medical community between physicians concerning the time at which death occurs, resulting in the soul and spirit leaving the body. We know from Psalm 16:10 and Luke 16:23 that each human, whether saved or unsaved, experiences a separation of his/her soul and spirit from his/her physical body at the time of physical death. This separation is known as the condition of “hades” in the Bible. It is easy to realize the truth of this condition when we attend the reviewal or viewing of a person’s body at a funeral home and see a physical body that obviously lacks the soul and spirit that once gave it life.

Concerning the case of the brain-dead person, there are physicians who read this publication who most likely could provide a good answer concerning whether or not the person’s soul has left his/her body before all other bodily functions (heart, lung, liver, etc.) cease. However, even if physicians are not certain about the exact time of a person’s death we can be assured that, our heavenly Father “knows all things” (1 John 3:20).

Question:
Weren’t there other books of the Bible not put in the King James Version? What were they?

Answer:
In the year 1546, the Council of Trent—convened by the Roman Catholic pope—declared the following 14 books to be part of Scripture: Tobit, Judith, Wisdom, Sirach or Ecclesiasticus, Baruch, 1 and 2 Esdras, additional chapters of Esther, additional chapters of Daniel (including The Song of the Three Children, The Story of Susanna, and Bel and the Dragon), the Prayer of Manassas, and 1 and 2 Maccabees. These 14 books (known as “The Apocrypha”) first appeared in a Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Testament sometime between 300 and 400 A.D., and then were included in the translation into Latin, known as the “Vulgate.”

The Jews never accepted these books as part of Scripture, and to this day the Hebrew Old Testament contains only the 39 books with which we are familiar. Ever since the fourth century A.D. there has been agreement by Christian Bible scholars that the 66 books of the Bible as we know them today are inspired by God.

Whether the 14 books of the Apocrypha should also be considered part of the Word of God was a subject of debate by theologians for many centuries. Since 1546, the Roman Catholic Church has considered these books to be part of Scripture while Martin Luther and the Protestant Reformers never accepted them as Scripture. The King James Version of 1611 contained the Apocrypha as an appendix, but from 1640 on the Bibles used by Protestants increasingly omitted the Apocrypha entirely. The main reasons for rejecting the books of the Apocrypha are: (1) the early Church fathers, who wrote in the second to fourth centuries A.D., either did not mention those books in their writings on Scripture or did not regard them to be inspired by God; and (2) they contain teaching that contradict doctrines found in the 66 books of the Bible.
Sidney Collett, in his book, “All About the Bible” (some editions have the title, “The Scripture of Truth”), has a helpful section on the Apocrypha. He notes that “although there are in the New Testament about 263 direct quotations from, and about 370 allusions to, passages in the Old Testament, yet among all these there is not a single reference, either by Christ or His apostles, to the apocryphal writings.”

Question:
If you are fighting with someone who is trying to kill you and you kill them, is it a sin?

Answer:
Although the laws of our country may consider someone “not guilty” who kills someone in self-defense, the fact remains that a person was killed. Therefore, the commandment in Exodus 20:13: “Thou shalt not kill,” was violated and a sin was committed.