At first glance, it might seem a ridiculous question to ask but there are those who think that when Jesus went back to Heaven, He did so as a physical being.

In our Q&A entitled “How Important is the Correct Understanding About the Immortal Soul? (Part 2),” we quoted a Christian author who wrote:

“A fundamental article of the Christian faith is that the resurrected Christ now dwells in Heaven. We are told that His resurrected body on Earth was physical and that this same, physical Jesus ascended to Heaven, from where He will one day return to Earth. It seems indisputable, then, to say that there is at least one physical body in the present Heaven.”

On the website catholic.com, we read: “In Luke 24:39, the risen Jesus says to the disciples, ‘See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself; handle me, and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have’ (emphasis added). This verse is sufficient to debunk the idea that Jesus did not rise bodily, but John 2:19-22 provides another nail in the coffin. Here Jesus claims, ‘Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.’ Two verses later, it is made clear what Jesus has in mind; ‘he spoke of the temple of his body.’ Thus, Jesus prophesied that his body would rise.”

Continue reading "Is Jesus Christ a Spirit Being Today? (Part 1)"

In previous Q&As, we’ve already looked at false assertions by some Christian writers that “human beings have an immortal soul, that the present Heaven is a temporary lodging place even though the present Heaven is not our final destination place and that that between our earthly lives and our bodily resurrection God may grant us some temporary physical form that will allow us to function as human beings while in that unnatural state ‘between bodies’ awaiting our bodily resurrection.”  We have also reviewed the spirit in man which is not the same as the soul as the Bible shows, in simple terms, that man is a soul, not has a soul.   We showed that each human being has a non-physical component in his brain, called “the spirit in man.”

Continue reading "Could the third Heaven be physical?"

“Pornography” may be difficult to define, and many may not agree on a common definition. When Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart was asked to describe his test for obscenity in 1964, he responded: “I know it when I see it.” In applying this quasi-definition to a motion picture at issue, he concluded that it was not pornographic. This was in 1964. Surely, today’s standards and definitions are even much more liberal.

We will not try to define pornography in this article. Rather, we set forth guidelines which the reader may use to come to conclusions applicable to oneself, based on his or her understanding and conscience.  We use the word pornography (another word might be obscenity) with this introductory precaution in mind.

Continue reading "What are the dangers of pornography?"

There are two interesting additions God made to His Law that did not originally appear in it. These additions were made because questions were asked about particular situations that occurred that the Law, at that time, did not cover. While they were not a part of the oral law, the principle is similar to that mentioned in Deuteronomy 17:8-11. In these cases, the people with the questions went to Moses and Aaron to ask for a decision on the matters. Moses then went to God for the judgement which was then incorporated into the written Law.

The first of these is mentioned in Numbers 9:6-11. “Now there were certain men who were defiled by a human corpse, so that they could not keep the Passover on that day; and they came before Moses and Aaron that day. And those men said to him, ‘We became defiled by a human corpse. Why are we kept from presenting the offering of the LORD at its appointed time among the children of Israel?’ And Moses said to them, ‘Stand still, that I may hear what the LORD will command concerning you.’ Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, ‘Speak to the children of Israel, saying: “If anyone of you or your posterity is unclean because of a corpse, or is far away on a journey, he may still keep the LORD’s Passover. On the fourteenth day of the second month, at twilight, they may keep it. They shall eat it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs.”

Continue reading "What do we know about the Oral Law? (Part 2)"

What is the “Oral Law?” When we read of Jesus’s interactions with the Pharisees, we find that they had many laws and procedures that were not mentioned directly in the Law that God inspired Moses to write down. So, did the Pharisees or their predecessors create these, what could be termed oral law, sometime after the close of the Old Testament period?

Actually, the oral law was first mentioned directly in the book of Deuteronomy, and the necessity for oral law arises in the book of Exodus, and it may well be referred to in the book of Genesis, as will be mentioned later. So, what is the oral law, and why was it necessary, and when were parts of it created? In actual fact, there are three basic categories of oral law, each with a different purpose.

Continue reading "What do we know about the Oral Law? (Part 1)"

In part 1 of this Q&A, we discussed the fact that many religions believe that each person has an immortal soul.   Orthodox Christianity, in general, has the same understanding.   But is it true? 

In our booklet “The Theory of Evolution – A Fairy Tale for Adults,” the Spirit in Man is discussed and below are a few selected highlights taken from pages 19-26.   This shows that the Spirit in Man is not the soul.  

“Herbert W. Armstrong… published his findings in a book entitled, ‘The Incredible Human Potential.’ This is what he wrote on pages 74 and 75, ‘Animals are equipped with brain and instinct. But they do not have power to understand and choose moral and spiritual values or to develop perfect spiritual character. Animals have brain, but no intellect—instinct, but no ability to develop holy and Godly character. And that pictures the transcendental DIFFERENCE BETWEEN ANIMAL BRAIN AND HUMAN MIND.

Continue reading "How Important is the correct understanding about the “Immortal Soul”? (Part 2)"

On the Britannica website we read the following:

“Human beings seem always to have had some notion of a shadowy double that survives the death of the body. But the idea of the soul as a mental entity, with intellectual and moral qualities, interacting with a physical organism but capable of continuing after its dissolution, derives in Western thought from Plato and entered into Judaism during approximately the last century before the Common Era and thence into Christianity. In Jewish and Christian thinking it has existed in tension with the idea of the resurrection of the person conceived as an indissoluble psychophysical unity. Christian thought gradually settled into a pattern that required both of these apparently divergent ideas. At death the soul is separated from the body and exists in a conscious or unconscious disembodied state. But on the future Day of Judgement souls will be re-embodied (whether in their former but now transfigured earthly bodies or in new resurrection bodies) and will live eternally in the heavenly kingdom.”

Continue reading "How important is the correct understanding about the “Immortal Soul”? (Part 1)"

It is a good question to ask.

Why do we keep this particular celebration?   Mainstream Christianity doesn’t even keep the weekly Sabbath or annual Holy Days which we do, and this particular celebration would also be rather strange to them.

We read in Exodus 12:40-42:

^“Now the sojourn of the children of Israel who lived in Egypt was four hundred and thirty years.  And it came to pass at the end of the four hundred and thirty years—on that very same day—it came to pass that all the armies of the LORD went out from the land of Egypt. It is a night of solemn observance to the LORD for bringing them out of the land of Egypt. This is that night of the LORD, a solemn observance for all the children of Israel throughout their generations.”

Continue reading "And why do you keep the Night to Be Much Observed?"

As true Christians, we know that people cannot self-select to become a follower of Jesus Christ. Some may church-hop and browse the services to see if it fits their lifestyle. However, as we read in John 6:44: “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day.” God the Father initiates the spark that draws a person to His Son. It is as wondrously simple and as complex as that. The 71 verses that comprise John 6 are packed with fundamental elements of our faith in Jesus Christ as our Savior and coming King. Once I began my study of this particular chapter, I realized that I wanted to devote this entire Q&A to an examination of John 6 and the context of two questions shared in a conversation between Jesus and His apostle, Peter.

Continue reading "“Lord, to whom shall we go?”"

This is an age-old question, and to say it right from the start—the answer is difficult for us to comprehend and accept. Still, the Bible does give us numerous hints, leads towards and proofs for the correct understanding.

When someone were to ask where the Bible talks about the beginning of creation, many who know Scripture would turn to Genesis 1:1, where it says, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” This statement identifies God as the Creator, and “God” describes more than one Person—the Hebrew word “Elohim” is a plural word, followed here by a singular verb, revealing the fact that God is a Family, consisting of the Father and the Son. We read that God the Father created everything through Jesus Christ.

Continue reading "Where does God come from?"