“Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world<\/em>” (I John 4:1).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Question: I have just looked over your answers to questions circulating on emails. \u00a0Not knowing the \u201ccorrect\u201d answers myself and you \u201cscholars\u201d giving \u201cyour opinions,\u201d who does the simple layman believe? \u00a0Everyone has their own interpretations.\u00a0 I see the way you don\u2019t totally come out and say \u201ctrue,\u201d you say \u201cprobably true,\u201d etc. \u00a0I believe…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[20],"tags":[127],"class_list":["post-12788","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-about-this-site"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":23752,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/are-we-limiting-god-by-saying-miracles-dont-happen-today\/","url_meta":{"origin":12788,"position":0},"title":"Are we limiting God by saying miracles don’t happen today?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 10, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I have a friend who believes, like many people, that spiritual gifts still exist. He says to believe that they don't is limiting the Holy Spirit. I told him that I see that as the opposite being true. To say that some have the gift of healing today and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":36466,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/i-find-your-answers-are-relevant-to-my-life\/","url_meta":{"origin":12788,"position":1},"title":"I find your answers are relevant to my life","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 15, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I do not have a specific question, but I just wanted to say \"Thank you.\" Thank you, brother Hamilton, for your sacrifice and dedicated service to God. I often visit and revisit this site just for inspiration. I find that your answers to questions asked even several years ago\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":28593,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-can-there-be-a-beginning-if-god-always-existed\/","url_meta":{"origin":12788,"position":2},"title":"How can there be a beginning if God always existed?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 22, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: If someone asked \"where did God come from or how did he get to be\" then the person asked (if a Christian) would probably say \"He has always been there He still is and will always be.\" Right, so if He has always been there and is eternal then\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":33084,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-do-i-feel-like-god-never-answers-our-prayers\/","url_meta":{"origin":12788,"position":3},"title":"Why do I feel like God never answers our prayers?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 3, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: This is probably a stupid question, but anyway I will proceed. Sometimes I feel like God never answers our prayers; thus, why do we pray? How do we know if God answers our prayers? Are there signs that I should be looking for? I just don't understand why we\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":39096,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/you-dont-know-everything-so-you-cant-say-denominations-are-wrong\/","url_meta":{"origin":12788,"position":4},"title":"You don’t know everything, so you can’t say denominations are wrong","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 31, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I am responding to your slander against other churches. It is pretty sad that you talk about things you don't really have all the answers to. Some of the things you talk about I do agree with, but other things you need to get the facts because your facts\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":60302,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/when-was-the-church-established\/","url_meta":{"origin":12788,"position":5},"title":"When was the church established?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 13, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hello, I have a question about what year the church was established. Some are saying AD 30 but when I was converted into the church what I was taught is that the church started in Jerusalem in AD 33. Were we wrong as a church on the AD 33\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12788","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12788"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12788\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12788"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12788"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12788"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}