Please explain Mathew 25:31-46.

Sincerely,
Context Combing

Dear Context Combing,

Matt 25:31-46 is a description of what will happen on the Day of Judgment.  All mankind will be gathered before Jesus, the King of Kings, and judged for the choices they have made in this life.  Those who have lived wickedly and have not served Christ (the goats) will be cast into eternal punishment (Matt 25:41), and all those who have faithfully served Christ will enter into eternal life (Matt 31:46).  At the end of time, God will righteously separate the good from the bad, and there will be no mistakes.

     What is truth?  Please explain John 8:31-33.

Sincerely,
Define It

Dear Define It,

Jesus says that if we live our lives in the truth, we will be free.  In Jhn 17:17, Jesus says that God’s Word, the Bible, is truth.  The truth that will set us free is the truth that can only be found in the Bible.  Rom 1:16 says that the Bible is God’s power to save mankind.  When we use the Bible as our instruction manual for life, we will be saved.  If you would like to know what the Bible says you must do to be saved, please read our post, “Five Steps To Salvation”.  The Bible is God’s roadmap for our lives.

     How do I get into the Bible and how do I read the Bible?

Sincerely,
Starting To Study

Dear Starting To Study,

The key to any kind of worship or Bible study is to make it a regular habit. Daniel had a habit of praying (Dan 6:10). Make a decision to put Bible study into your day first (Matt 6:33) and schedule other things around it. Most people fail to study their Bibles because it isn’t a part of their regular life. Make it a part of your morning routine, your lunch break, or bedtime ritual. Somehow schedule it into your life and make it a habit.

After you do that, it is just a matter of what you want to learn first. Many people read a Psalm a day, a chapter of Proverbs each week, or use a ‘read the Bible in a year program’, or you grab one of those five things you want to look at and read away. Any of these is a perfectly acceptable system. In fact, you can buy Bibles that are organized, so that you read a little of the Old Testament and a little of the New Testament every day. For new Bible students, I often recommend reading the gospel of Matthew or the gospel of John first, so that you become acquainted with Christ’s life; then follow that up with the book of Acts and familiarize yourself with the first century church.

The goal is to study your Bible, not just read it. God tells us to study to show ourselves approved (2 Tim 2:15) and to meditate upon God’s Word (Ps 119:15). You could read through an entire book of the Bible in an hour or so but fail to appreciate any of it. Read your Bible with a notepad beside you and a pen or highlighter in hand. Write down your questions and get them answered. Highlight meaningful verses. If you don’t understand something, don’t move on until you do. It is more important that you understand than that you read a large portion of text. And lastly, enjoy your Bible reading time; you are reading the most influential and meaningful book on the planet!

     Today’s Bible reading took me to Obadiah 18. That verse reads, “So that there will be no survivor of the house of Esau, for the Lord has spoken.”  Reading the footnote, I go to Amos 9:12 and Acts 15:17.  Those verses refer to the remnant of Edom (Esau) that is absorbed into the church.  Can you suggest how to reconcile the inconsistency?  If there are no survivors, how do they who don’t exist become part of the New Testament church?

Sincerely,
Tracing Trees

Dear Tracing Trees,

Obad 1:18 is dealing with the physical destruction of the nation of Edom, Amos 9:12 is discussing the enfolding of people with Edomite ancestry into the church, and Acts 15:17 doesn’t mention Edom at all – the word used there is just ‘gentile’, a generic term for all non-Jews.
In Obadiah, the prophecy is that Esau’s people, the nation of Edom, would be destroyed by the house of Jacob (Israel).  Historically, Edom’s destruction began with the Chaldean invasion under Nebuchadnezzar and was completed by the Jews in the second century BC.  The Edomites, as a nation, ceased to exist and were forced to accept circumcision and the Jewish religion.  By the time Jesus walked this earth, the Edomites had lost all national identity and had been completely absorbed into other nations and cultures.  However, their bloodline continued even when their nation didn’t.  Ironically, the most famous people of Edomite lineage were the Herods.
On the other hand, Amos 9:12 addresses the spiritual enfolding of the people of Edom into the family of David (Amos 9:11).  How did this happen?  When people with Edom’s bloodline converted to Christianity, they became a part of David’s family because they became followers of Jesus.  Jesus was a descendant of David.

     When God returns for the seven-year trial on Earth from Revelation, and they say that in order to eat, you have to get the devil’s signature… if you do that to feed your kids, do you go to hell for getting the signature, or do you still go to heaven?

Sincerely,
For The Children

Dear For The Children,

The tribulation taught by many denominations is based off of a misinterpretation of Matthew chapter twenty-four.  Matt 24 is dealing with the fall of Jerusalem and destruction of the Jewish temple that would happen in 70 AD.  If we carefully pay attention to the context, Jesus is talking about the Jewish temple’s destruction, not a worldwide trial thousands of years in the future (Matt 24:1-2).  Jesus specifically said that the tribulation would occur within that generation’s lifetime (Matt 24:34).

There will be a day when all the faithful are caught up to meet Christ in the heavens.  The day He returns (Acts 1:11), all mankind will be judged at the same time (Jhn 5:28-29).  In that great day (Jude 1:6), the whole world will be burned up with fire (2 Pet 3:10-12).  There will be no post-tribulation, pre-tribulation, semi-tribulation, etc.; there will only be the great Day of Judgment (2 Pet 3:7, 1 Jn 4:17).  If you would like a more in-depth look at the book of Revelation, we have a series of classes on the book that can be found at sermons.mvchurchofchrist.org.

     2 Timothy 3:6 says, “For of this sort are they which creep into houses, and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts.”  What does the word ‘divers’ mean?

Sincerely,
Scuba Steve

Dear Scuba Steve,

‘Divers’ is the old English way of spelling ‘diverse’, and it has nothing to do with aquatic spelunking.  The Greek word in 2 Tim 3:6 literally means ‘of various sorts, a variety’.  Paul is telling Timothy that there is a type of person that leads people astray in a variety of different ways, and they follow a myriad of different lusts.