Thank you for the information on teenage boys’ mood swings

Question: I Googled “testosterone anger teenager boy,” and your site was one of several I found. I liked yours the best 🙂 I’m trying to help my twelve-year-old understand why he sometimes feels angry without a specific reason. Being a woman, I can’t relate to what he’s going through, but I had a feeling it…

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I want to attend a different church than my parents. What do I do?

Question: I have a question and it is very important to me. I’m eleven years old and I have accepted Jesus into my heart, so I am a Christian. But, here’s the problem. I really don’t like my church. We visited one, and we went there for about six weeks, but then we went back…

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Do historians and the Bible disagree?

Question: Do you think there is a conflict between the Bible and historians regarding when man first existed on this earth? An article in our paper stated aboriginal people were in Australia at least 60,000 years ago. Could this statement be in line with the Bible in regards to time? Answer: Of course, the commonly stated…

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Did Jesse have seven or eight sons?

Question: A visiting preacher referred to I Chronicles 2:13-15 to show that Eliab was the eldest.  In that section, it shows that Jesse had seven sons and that David was the seventh.  But I Samuel 17:13 says that Jesse had 8 sons.   The reason it caught my attention is that I had just worked up…

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Why Sex Without Being Married is a Sin

https://www.lavistachurchofchrist.org/cms/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/WhySexWithoutBeingMarriedIsASin.mp3 by Jeffrey W. Hamilton Text: II Corinthians 12:19-21 I.         I received the following note: “Hi! I’m a 21 year old girl from Iceland, and I found this site by accident as I was looking for answers on the Internet about … contraception. I found the answer here and want to thank you for a good…

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Can a church support a saint who doesn’t believe as you do?

Question: Since you do not believe that the church, out of the church treasury, can help non-saints, do you believe the church can help a saint that does not believe in some of these matters as you do? Answer: The church is restricted to helping members of the church because that is the only example…

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What do you think about reading books by denominational authors?

Question: What do you believe about reading books on Christian topics by authors that have a Calvinistic background? What does the Bible say? Can we take their word for their particular subjects that they discuss? For example, Josh McDowell has a book on Christian apologetics, yet he works with Campus Crusade for Christ and I…

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Is there a second chance of salvation after death?

Question: Is there a second chance of salvation after death? Answer: “And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment” (Hebrews 9:27). The writer is clear that this life is our chance to do God’s will. After this life is over, what comes next is our Judgment. “For we…

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Can a person live a completely sinless life and enter Heaven without Jesus?

Question: Can a person live a completely sinless life and enter Heaven without Jesus? Answer: The question is pure speculation since God has said, “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). One point of Jesus’ coming to earth was to prove that a sinless life was not completely impossible.…

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How can I convert my wife who is a Jehovah’s Witness?

Question: My wife is a Jehovah’s Witnesses member and I wanted to ask what I need to do to convert her. She is not yet open for discussion, though she is not yet baptized in their congregation. It seems to me that she’s insisting on defending her religion even though I cite her many passages to…

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Is Jesus the wisdom of God?

Question: I have read that Jesus is called the “wisdom of God” in I Corinthians.  Is he also the wisdom in Proverbs 8? If not, please do show me what or who the wisdom is in Proverbs 8. Thank you, sir. Answer: “For Jews request a sign, and Greeks seek after wisdom; but we preach…

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How many Roman soldiers came to the garden to arrest Jesus?

Question: How many Roman soldiers came to the garden to arrest Jesus? Answer: The Scriptures do not say. “And while He was still speaking, behold, Judas, one of the twelve, with a great multitude with swords and clubs, came from the chief priests and elders of the people” (Matthew 26:47). “And immediately, while He was still speaking,…

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Does Buddhism prove Jesus to be a myth?

Question: I recently stumbled onto a web site where the author talks about how Christianity borrowed from other religions and that Jesus was a mythical figure. She tries to make similarities between Jesus and Buddha, Horus, etc. One example from her web site claims that Buddha had 12 disciples just like Jesus, that Buddha was…

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Why did God extend Hezekiah’s life?

Question: Why did God extend Hezekiah’s life? Answer: “In those days Hezekiah was sick and near death. And Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz, went to him and said to him, “Thus says the LORD: ‘Set your house in order, for you shall die, and not live.'” Then he turned his face toward the…

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Who is God to decide my life?

Question: So who is God to decide and what mechanism do I have to protest that He is wrong? Being male is not enough to suggest He is all-knowing. Why put me on this earth with an overwhelming sense that I don’t belong here. Why keep dragging me back to now when He knows I…

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How do I talk to my Buddhist grandmother about Christ?

Question: My grandma has been a Buddhist for a long time, if not all her life. I see her follow her traditions once in a while. Recently I have been scared about her salvation and I want her to know about Jesus before her time comes. She speaks in my native language, which makes it…

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What do you think about this divorce situation I ran into in Chile?

Question: I got an interesting question: In Chile divorce was illegal until a year ago or so. Well, divorce was allowed in Chile, but you had to have two witnesses say they saw the person in adultery. There’s a couple in the church who, about 20 years back, each cheated on respective spouses with their…

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Surviving the Financial Crisis

by Kent Heaton A financial crisis occurs when the crisis of a man’s soul is dependent upon the financial condition of his heart. Samuel Johnson said, “The love of money has been in all ages, one of the passions that have given great disturbances to the tranquility of the world” (Rambler, October 6, 1750). How…

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The Story of Jesus

Edited, original author unknown via Forest Hills Faith Builder, February 10, 2008 Let’s face it, Jesus was a trouble­maker. He caused such an uproar when He was born, that King Herod slaughtered a lot of innocent chil­dren trying to kill Him. King Herod’s ram­page caused His parents so much stress that they fled to Egypt…

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Still Smoking?

by Dan S. Shipley As a former smoker, I know how easy it is to ignore messages from the news media and the pulpit that discourage smoking. It is difficult for most of us to be objective in considering that which condemns what we want to practice. As someone as well noted, “Affection is a…

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Stay on Message

by Sam Stinson “What is my strength, that I should wait? And what is my end, that I should be patient? Is my strength the strength of stones, or is my flesh bronze? Have I any help in me, when resource is driven from me?” (Job 6:11-13, ESV) A certain evangelist once said when he…

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How was John’s baptism different from Jesus’ baptism?

Question: I have some questions about John’s baptism. I’ve read about how it was a fulfillment of prophecy to prepare the way, but I’m really confused about what that really means and what the point of John’s baptism was. I am curious about a few things: What does “preparing the way” mean for John the…

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The Soul of Obedience

Robert Turner via Gospel Power, Vol. 14, No. 14, April 8, 2007. Remember the old story about the man who was going on a journey, and asked his son to lay out the farm according to his instructions?  Corn was to be planted in this field, beans in that, the garden here, a shed built…

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The Songs and Hymns of Robert Lowery

by Wayne S. Walker Robert Lowry was born in Philadelphia, PA, on Mar. 12, 1826, and educated at Bucknell University where he graduated with high scholastic honors in 1854.  Afterward, he served as a Baptist minister, first at West Chester, PA, near Philadelphia, from 1854 to 1858, then in New York City, NY, from 1859…

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The Solution to Episcopalian Church Problems

by Steve Klein via The Bulletin of the Church of Christ at New Georgia, October 7, 2007 For those unfamiliar with it, the Episcopalian Church in America is a denomination that has its roots in the Church of England. These churches, along with Episcopalian denominations in other nations, are collectively referred to as Anglican churches.…

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Sola Scriptura or Sola Papa?

by Chuck Durham via Biblical Insights, Vol. 7, No. 9, Sept. 2007. Pope Benedict XVI released a Vatican document on July 10, 2007, that reasserted the primacy of the Roman Catholic Church as providing the only true path to salvation. The document claims that the Roman Catholic Church is the only true church on earth having…

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How do I tell someone they are sinning?

Question: I have a slight problem that I don’t think I know how to fix, and this is concerning one of my family members.  He has been having sex with his girlfriend for a while now, and one day I stumble on to it (don’t ask me how and they don’t know I know). Well,…

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How do I get motivated?

Question: I am wondering how I can gain motivation to do things in life. I don’t think I am depressed, but I often find myself not having the desire to do certain things such as setting time for prayer or Bible study (though I read the Bible every morning), or serving at certain events such…

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What is God’s view pertaining to cremation?

Question: What is God’s view pertaining to cremation? Answer: When a person dies, his spirit leaves his body. In speaking of his death, Peter said, “knowing that shortly I must put off my tent, just as our Lord Jesus Christ showed me” (II Peter 1:14). Peter saw his body as a tent in which his…

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