Question:

I want to ask whether circumcision is a prefigure of baptism?  A passage from the Bible, 1 Peter 3:20-21, seemingly says that the prefigure of baptism were the events in the days of Noah. On the other hand, Colossians 2:11-14 implies that circumcision was a prefigure of baptism. Can it be considered a prefigure of the baptism , as well as the crossing of the Red Sea?  Are all of these events prefigures of baptism?

Question:

An argument that is used by atheists comes from the situation concerning Pilate, Judas and others associated with condemning Jesus to be crucified.  The point that is made is that none of these people had a choice in what they would or would not do. If any of these had changed what they were going to do there would have been no crucifixion or resurrection.  These men had no chance of redemption. God had already decided their fate. How do I respond to statements such as these?

Questions:

I have a couple of general questions below I wanted to ask:

1. How can Jesus be a divine person when He had a literal human body made of flesh. Wouldn't His fleshly body violate His divine nature and status?
   
   
2. Why did Jesus have to be a male in physical terms to begin with? Would this demonstrate that since Jesus was a male, that God in a way is actually of the male gender as well? Does this give off a sense of male superiority over the female gender, especially in the first century?
   
   
3. How does fruit from a tree supply the ability to tell the difference between good and evil to two ancient individuals that existed around 4000 BC?
   
   
4. Do Christians simply worship the Israelite god rather than worshiping just a God in a general sense? Isn't monotheism simply the result of a nomadic tribe that happened to be the ethnic ancestors to the Jews?
   
   
5. Did the Israelites manipulate the concept of a single monotheistic God to enforce their status as a Holy nation. Is God simply an excuse for the destruction of the Canaanites and Midianites used by the Israelites as justification?

Thank you.

Question:

My son asked me a question which I didn’t really know how to answer. Is the Sabbath the day we are to go to church and worship together? Or is the Sabbath the day we rest? One of his co-workers told him that Saturday is the day we are supposed to go to church and not Sunday.  I want to be able to show him with scripture why we go to church on Sunday. Thanks!

Question: 

Is there historical evidence that the apostle Paul was a real person?  Posted on May 12, 2013 by John Oakes wrote in Church History, General, Questions and Answers, Reliability of the Bible.   You gave no evidence for Paul being a real person.  I've searched and have yet to find any historical information outside of the Bible for Paul's existence. The Encyclopedia Britannica, 1997, states that there is none. The debate over which books are attributed to Paul is merely an exercise which presupposes that Paul was real, and then looks at the writings of the different books attributed to him to see which ones have the same grammatical flavor and style of writing. Here's why I am researching this question. Paul, according to the Bible, was taught by Gamaliel who was a leader of the Sanhedrin located in Jerusalem. Paul lived during the the three years of Jesus's mission. He was devout in the traditions of his religion and would surely have at least been in Jerusalem for the feasts. Is it possible for him to have not seen or heard anything about Jesus, who was causing an uproar due to his miracles, confrontation with the money changers in the temple, debating the Jewish elders, etc? This just doesn't seem very likely. So what does this mean? I don't know yet.

Question:

I have a question for hot topics, for John Oakes please.  Why does our church follow the doctrine of the divine right of kings, in this country (USA) ? When the founding fathers established a government based on limited government and a free market economy?  Did the first century church believe in no king but king Jesus ?

[Editor's note: This question included a long list of sources on the topic, but these are below my answer for the sake of readability.]

Question:

In John 3:13 Jesus tells us that "No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven-the Son of Man." My question to what Jesus tells us is what happened to those who came and died before Jesus? Also going further into verse 14-15 where it says "Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life." So echoing further from the last question, if Christ tells us that when those whom believe and hold firmly with their faith in him will have eternal life, what happened to those who never knew of Jesus before his coming and had already passed away, how will they too come to believe in him as their savior if they had never knew of him or his words or his actions.  Thank you.

Question:

I have been guilty of skipping over the Old Testament, but am reading it now with renewed vigor.  I love that I can now search for Jesus in the Old Testament as well.  My problem comes in with Jesus' teaching about the greatest commandment being that we must "love God with all our hearts". I get that God reigns over everything and is infinitely wiser than me, but the more I dig into the Old Testament, the more I come across His character and the less I like what I see. How can an all powerful God create such a messed up world, give people the green light for things like raping and plundering [Deuteronomy 20:10-14, and some more] and expect us to love Him? Am I missing something?   I get Jesus, and want to follow as best I can. How can I start on the path to loving God as well?  Sorry for the heavy topic, but it is something that I am really struggling with at the moment.

Question:

Do DNA tests prove Jesus had two human parents?  Recently, the Shroud of Turin has been re-dated within the range of 300 BC to 300 AD. As a result, the blood found on the Shroud was type AB and had both X and Y chromosomes. Where did the Y chromosome come from? If God is an immaterial being, how could He have randomly created the Y chromosomes and additional 23 chromosomes to constitute the 46 chromosomes needed for an embryo out of nothing? If all things that begin to exist require a cause, surely these 23 chromosome needed to make up all 46 chromosomes require a biological origin. Is there any solution to the virgin birth in light of modern science? Thanks.

Question:

I have a question on God's will.  Romans 12:2 and many other passages suggest that doing God's will can be pleasant, pleasing and perfect, yet It was incredibly hard even for Jesus to do God's will. Also there are many passages that suggest that doing God's will entails suffering and hardship. How do we reconcile the seeming contradictions?