Question:

What is the difference between Islam and Christianity?

Answer:

There are many differences.  The most important ones are these: (1) Islam’s God is not the Trinity that Christians worship; God the Son and God the Holy Spirit are not a part of the God of Islam; therefore Islam’s God is not the same as the God of the Christians.  (2) According to Islam, salvation is accomplished by faithfulness to various religious works and rituals, whereas salvation for the Christian has been purchased for us by the blood of Christ on the cross.  (3) According to Islam, Jesus was not crucified but rather caught up to heaven prior to the crucifixion; someone else with an appearance like that of Jesus was crucified.

Question:

Is our conscience to be our guide for practical everyday living when we, as young people, may not know the Bible well enough to be guided by the Scriptures?

Answer:

The proverb, “Let your conscience be your guide,” is not found in Scripture.  The Bible speaks of people with consciences that are “weak” (1 Corinthians 8:7,10,12), “defiled” (Titus 1:15), “evil” (Hebrews 10:22), and “seared with a hot iron” (1 Timothy 4:2).   Instead, we need to exercise ourselves (Acts 24:16) through study of God’s Word and prayer to have consciences that are “good” (Acts 23:1; 1 Timothy 1:19; Hebrews 13:18; 1 Peter 3:16,21), “pure” (1 Timothy 3:9; 2 Timothy 1:3), and “void of offense toward God, and toward men” (Acts 24:16).  If we don’t know what the Bible says about a certain type of behavior or activity, we should seek the counsel of other, older Christians.

Question:

Are there signs for Jesus’ coming?  If so, what are they?

Answer:

The apostle Paul writes to the Thessalonian believers (around 51 A.D.): “Ye turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, even Jesus” (1 Thessalonians 1:9,10).  Less than 20 years after Jesus told His disciples, “I will come again, and receive you unto Myself” (John 14:3), Christians were already looking for His coming, and they have continued in this expectancy for nearly 2,000 years.  Scripture gives us no signs or events that need to be fulfilled before the rapture—the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ for His saints.  There are things that happen in our world—such as the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948 or the tragic events of September 11, 2001—that cause us to exclaim, “The Lord’s coming must be very near!”  The characteristics of mankind in the last days given in 2 Timothy 3:2-4 also make us believe that the rapture cannot be far off.  However, there is nothing in the Bible that says that these or any other events must happen before the Lord comes back for His own.  “Even so, come, Lord Jesus!” (Revelation 22:20).

Question:

In this morning’s lecture we discussed the commandment, “Thou shalt not kill.”  Is it appropriate for a Christian to serve in the armed forces with the possibility of killing enemy troops?

Answer:

On the one hand, Cornelius who was converted to Christ (Acts 10) was a Roman soldier; we do not read of him being asked to turn in his uniform.  Also, the New Testament Scriptures uphold the necessity of local police forces: “Rulers are not a terror to good works but to the evil…. For he is the minister of God to thee for good.  But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid; for he beareth not the sword in vain: for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil” (Romans 13:3,4).  On the other hand, Jesus instructs His disciples, “Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth: 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 (Matthew 5:38,39).  It would seem to be much more worthy of Christ to be engaged in the occupation of rescuing lives and helping people than in taking lives.  In times of war during the 20th century, many Christians who were drafted for military service served as conscientious objectors; these were permitted to serve as typists or drivers or medics and not forced to bear arms.

Question:

Why does the body feel weak when the Holy Spirit moves in a place (especially in an altar call)?

Here is what the Bible says happens when the Holy Spirit is moving: “And when they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were assembled together; and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they spake the word of God with boldness” (Acts 4:31).  “When they heard these things [spoken by Stephen], they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed on him with their teeth.  But he, being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up steadfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God, and said, Behold I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God” (Acts 7:54-56).  These are portraits of strength, not of weakness.  The behavior or reaction of being “slain in the spirit” to which this question may be referring is nowhere described in Scripture.

Question:

The fourth commandment has to do with keeping the Sabbath, and now we know that we are to observe Sunday, the first day of the week, as the Lord’s Day.  But so many things seem to crowd into my life.  I often put the Lord first, but am I doing wrong by doing other things on the Lord’s Day at times?

Answer:

As Christians we are not legally bound (as under the Law of Moses) to engage in only Christ-centered activities on the Lord’s Day.  However, I believe that the Lord is well pleased if we can schedule our life activities in such a way as to keep the Lord’s Day as free as possible to spend attending all of the meetings of the local assembly, doing evangelistic outreach, studying the Bible, or enjoying fellowship with other Christians.  For example, make it a habit to keep up-to-date on your school homework; don’t leave your science project or book report or term paper for the last minute, which usually means the Lord’s Day.  Don’t sign up for athletic teams that regularly practice or play on the Lord’s Day.  If you have a choice between accepting a job in which you are free on Lord’s Day and one that pays a little more but requires working on some Lord’s Days, take the first one.  Order your spending habits so that you are not required to work on Lord’s Days in order to pay your bills.

Question:

Why don’t people go to church on the Sabbath or Saturday, rather than Sunday?

Answer:

“And upon the first day of the week [that is, Sunday or the Lord’s Day], when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul preached unto them” (Acts 20:7).  Jesus was in the tomb on the entire Sabbath day.  He rose again on the first day of the week.  He appeared to His assembled disciples as well as to the two who were walking to Emmaus that same first day of the week.  How appropriate it is for Christians to begin their week focusing on their Lord and Saviour, and then living the rest of the week in the joy and power of Christ!

Question:

How are we supposed to tell a friend about drugs and smoking when the Bible says nothing about it?  Suppose they say, “Prove it to me in the Bible”?

Answer:

It depends whether your friend is saved or not.  Your unsaved friends need to receive Christ as Saviour and Lord before they will have any desire or power to kick the drug and smoking habit.  If you have saved friends who smoke or on drugs, here are some helpful verses: “Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?  For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s” (1 Corinthians 6:19,20).  “All things are lawful unto me, but all things are not expedient” (1 Corinthians 6:12).  “All things are lawful for me, but all things edify not” (1 Corinthians 10:23).  “None of us liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself…. Let…no man put a stumbling block or an occasion to fall in his brother’s way” (Romans 14:7,13).  The professing Christian who smokes or uses drugs may be hindering unbelievers (who perhaps don’t smoke and don’t use drugs) from coming to Christ.

Question:

How do you talk to a sibling who is caught up in the world and himself?

Answer:

Show him by your life that you can find joy, happiness, and fulfillment in living for the Lord.  Pray much for him.  Find ways of showing love to him.  Try to find non-sinful ways of spending time with him.  Be alert to opportunities the Lord may open up to you to talk to him about his way of life.  Be alert to occasions when self and the world betray him and let him down, when you can gently suggest better, more Scriptural ways of living and behaving.

If your sibling claims to be a true, born-again believer in Christ, then either you or another Christian who knows how he is behaving have a responsibility to go to him and seek to recover him from his backsliding ways.  “Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such a one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted” (Galatians 6:1).

Question:

In this morning’s lecture we had the verse, “Whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire” (Matthew 5:22).  If you call your brother a fool, will you end up going to hell?

Answer:

As noted in the answer to one of the earlier questions, our salvation does not depend on our works—what we say or do, or what we refrain from saying or doing; rather it is based on our recognizing our lost, sinful condition, our deserving hell fire for eternity, and placing our faith and trust in the finished work of Christ on the cross for our salvation.  Jesus shows us in the verse quoted in the question that calling someone a fool is in the same category of committing murder.  Thus, it is a very serious sin and we Christians need to be on guard against name-calling of any kind.

Jesus’ primary intent with those words, I believe, were to move the religious Jews of His day off of their complacent attitude that they were “okay” because they hadn’t committed murder, adultery, etc.  Who of them could say they had never called someone “fool” or “dummy”?  Much of the Sermon on the Mount serves to challenge professing Christians as to the reality of their relationship with Christ.  Years ago, after taking up the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5-7 in a Bible study at work, a co-worker said to me, “Before we started this study I thought I was a Christian; now I realize that I am not.”  The study had achieved its desired effect for her.

Question:

Is it right to lie for fun if you are only joking?

Answer:

No.  “Neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting, which are not convenient” (Ephesians 5:4).  Often the person who is lied to doesn’t think it is funny and this kind of behavior tends to hurt friendships.  Let us try to avoid behaviors that we end up excusing by saying, “Just kidding.”

Question:

Is it okay to tell a little white lie if it is for something good?

Answer:

The Bible never makes a distinction between “little white lies” and “big black lies.”  One of the most outstanding features of Christ’s holy and sinless life was that “neither was guile [or deceit or lying] found in His mouth” (1 Peter 2:22).  It is true that Rahab told a lie when she hid the spies.  She is never rebuked for lying and she ends up in the genealogy of Christ as King David’s great-great-grandmother.  But this does not condone her lying.  God has shown us many different ways He uses to protect His people from their enemies.  For example, He destroyed the pursuing army of the Egyptians (Exodus 14:27,28), He blinded the eyes of enemies of His people (Genesis 19:11; 2 Kings 6:18; Acts 13:11), and His Son, the Man Jesus Christ, was able to pass through crowds of His enemies unnoticed (John 8:59; 10:39).  So God does not put us in situations where we are obligated to lie in order to help other people (such as hiding the Jews from the Nazis during World War II).

Question:

How does one find out the will of God if you have asked Him already for guidance and still don’t know what to do?

Answer:

There are many factors that go into learning the will of God.  Of course, God’s will is revealed primarily through the Scriptures.  The entire Bible is filled with the revelation of God’s will for His people.  But what about those decisions that we have to make for which Scripture has no specific advice (such as what kind of car to buy, how much money to spend on a car or house, whom to marry, whether to go to college, etc.)?  First of all, it is clear from Scripture that God wants us to “be filled with the [full] knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding” (Colossians 1:9; also Romans 12:2; Ephesians 5:17; Colossians 4:12; Hebrews 13:21).  It is also clear that God has a specific will for each of His children (Genesis 24:14-27; Joshua 6:3-5; 7:3,4; 2 Samuel 5:17-25; Matthew 4:1-4; John 11:3-7; Acts 8:26-38; 16:6-10).  The Bible gives us criteria for knowing God’s will, such as not being conformed to the world (Romans 12:2), walking circumspectly (Ephesians 5:15-18), not allowing sin in our lives (Psalm 66:18), fearing the Lord (Proverbs 9:10), being emptied of our will and wanting to know His will (Psalm 40:8; Matthew 6:22; Luke 22:42; John 5:30; James 1:5-8), and faithful in carrying out that which God has already revealed in His Word to be His will (John 7:17).

Sometimes it can be helpful to ask the counsel of others.  “Where no counsel is, the people fall: but in the multitude of counselors there is safety” (Proverbs 11:14).  A wise counselor may discern that you are asking God the wrong question.  Maybe you are trying to decide between purchasing a new SUV or a new pickup truck, whereas God’s will is that you buy a relatively inexpensive, used subcompact and save your money for making a down payment on a house once you are married.

If you are not making much headway in discerning God’s will for your life, it may be that you are not faithfully doing what you already know to be His will for you.  Or maybe you are not making a habit of seeking God’s will for you on a daily basis.  Do you seek to know God’s will before turning on the TV or watching a video or surfing the Internet?  Do you seek to know God’s will before deciding you are too tired or have too much homework to go to prayer meeting and Bible study tonight?

If you think you have satisfied all of the criteria given above, then just keep praying, turn off the music, quiet your soul and spirit before the Lord, commune with the Lord, be patient, and He will in one way or another show you His will and way.  “If thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light” (Matthew 6:22).

Question:

I know Jesus died for my sins but I don’t feel saved; I feel something is missing.

Answer:

Many new believers, myself included, have gone through a period of time wondering whether we were really saved.  Maybe we were expecting to have some special feeling or to be immediately delivered from sinful desires.  Those in such a state simply need to take God at His word.  Jesus said, “Him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out” (John 6:37).

Sometimes Satan puts doubts and questions in our minds in order to make us question whether we are really saved.  God has given the believer armor to protect us from attacks of Satan like these.  Included in this armor are “the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked” and “the helmet of salvation” (Ephesians 6:16,17).

Question:
Once you are saved, do you have eternal security, or can you lose your salvation?

Answer:

If you are truly trusting in the finished work of Christ alone for your soul’s salvation, you can be assured that you will never lose that salvation.  “Whosoever believeth…[has] everlasting life” (John 3:16).  It is not everlasting if one can lose it.  “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow me; and I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of My hand.  My Father, which gave them Me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of My Father’s hand” (John 10:27-29).  “These things have I written unto you…that ye may know that ye have eternal life [who] believe on the name of the Son of God” (1 John 5:13).