Question One: What about the Gnostics? From 953-3151
Answer: Gnosticism was the most influential heresy faced by the early Church. The Gnostics did not agree how the New Testament described God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit, so they offered their own writings as inspired scriptures. Some of the most well know are: The Gospel of Thomas, The Gospel of Peter, The Gospel of Philip, and The Gospel of Judas. In essence, Gnosticism is about acquiring knowledge, and is based on matter being evil and spirit being good. The Gnostics prior to Christianity taught that man is composed of body, soul, and spirit. The body and the soul are man's earthly existence, and were considered evil. Enclosed in man’s soul, is the spirit, a divine substance of man. This “spirit” was asleep and ignorant and needed to be awakened. It could only be liberated by this special knowledge.
Question Two: I heard the Catholic Church decided what would end up in the Bible. Is this true? From 481-7312
Answer: No. This is not true. The books in the Bible were chosen over time. The Old Testament books were chosen by Jewish leaders about 200 years before Jesus was born. Jesus validated these choices by calling the Old Testament scripture and inspired. It took about three hundred years for the final New Testament books to be “canonized”, but the ones in the New Testament that were accepted, were widely accepted as inspired right after they were written in the First Century AD. Hundreds of years later, the Catholic Church changed the Ten Commandments and added books, called the Apocrypha, to the Protestant Bible.
Question Three: You said some of the authors were pagan. Who were they and how were they inspired by God? From 508-9876
Answer: My point was that not all the material in the bible came from Christian writers or God followers. One example is Nebuchadnezzar, Daniel 4. Others examples are writers from which biblical writers took material from: Paul quoted from Greek poets, the Edict of Cyrus in Ezra, the poetry of the Psalms, etc...
Question Four: After changing the bible into different translations don’t you think the meaning of God’s Word would have changed and led to the meaning of sentences or even paragraphs changing too? From: 569-6727
Answer: That’s what made the finding of the Dead Sea Scrolls so important. Here, they found documents dating back thousands of years, and when they compared them with the current bible translations, they discovered the bible was still 99.9% accurate.
Question Five: Scripture states God won’t give you more than you can handle. Then, why does he put you in situations you can’t get out of? All it does is break your heart in two.
From 480-3042
Answer: First, this saying is actually not in the Bible. It is a misrepresentation of 1 Corinthians 10:13, which says, “God will not let you be TEMPTED beyond your ability…” Second, God never tempts anyone (James 1:13), he is allowing the results of living in a sinful world to run its course. And, third, we will never be TEMPTED beyond our ability to say “No”, but only if we have him by our side.
Question Six: What are the Dead Sea Scrolls? From: 615-977-5974
Answer: They refer to a group of manuscripts discovered in 1947 near the Dead Sea in Israel. About 900 scrolls were found that help establish that the Old Testament we have today is essentially the same as the one 2000 years ago.
Question Seven: How does Ellen White compare to scripture. Some say she is outdated. What do you think? From 694-5885
Answer: There is much to be gained from reading Ellen White. Unfortunately, she is often misused, often placed above scripture by some. She herself said she was “a lesser light pointing to a greater light,” meaning she was not to be placed above the authority of scripture. She stated that ONLY scripture should be used to prove any theological point.
Question Eight: What do you believe happened to the Ark of the Covenant? Has God ever spoken to you? From 326-6565
Answer: Many believe the Ark of the Covenant to be buried in or near Jerusalem. Many believe it will be found before Jesus comes again. My guess is that it was lost long ago. As for second question, the answer is “yes”. But, God speaks to us in many ways. If you are asking if he has spoken to me out loud, the answer is “No”, although sometimes the voice I hear is almost audible.=)
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