Question
“Accordance with John
13:1-17, should christians practice feet washing when taking the Lord’s
supper?, and was it done later according to John 18:28.”
Answer
Thanks for the good question. John 18:28 isn’t about foot washing but the Jewish conviction they would be defiled if they entered the house of a Gentile.
Question
As Sri Lankan Catholics, most of the times we have adapted to worship to idols when we are praying. It feel us more closer to His son, Jesus Christ and easy to imagine he is in front of us. Why is there no spiritual reality behind this kind of venerate?
Answer
Thanks for this excellent question. The inspired apostle Paul plainly affirms there is no reality behind idols.
Continue reading“Therefore concerning the eating of things offered to idols, we know that an idol is nothing in the world, and that there is no other God but one. For even if there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth (as there are many gods and many lords), yet for us there is one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we for Him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and through whom we live” (1 Corinthians 8:4-6).
by Keith Sharp
The wildly popular Harry Potter series of books and movies has reintroduced the subject of sorcery into the mainstream of popular culture. Vine’s dictionary gives a good summation of sorcery (“witchcraft,” King James Version). The term is a translation of the Greek word “pharmakia … (Eng., ‘pharmacy,’…). It “primarily signified ‘the use of medicine, drugs, spells’; then, ‘poisoning’; then, ‘sorcery….”
Continue reading“In ‘sorcery,’ the use of drugs, whether simple or potent, was generally accompanied by incantations and appeals to occult powers, with the provision of various charms, amulets, etc., professedly designed to keep the applicant or patient from the attention and power of demons, but actually to impress the applicant with the mysterious resources and powers of the sorcerer” (587).
Questions
Is there a difference to be made so far as social interaction with:
Question
Did not God create Lucifer (also known as Satan) with the angels? When Lucifer rebelled, Isaiah 14:12-16 states he was cast out of heaven. Luke 10:18 in the N.T. seems to confirm that Satan is a fallen angel.
Answer
In Isaiah chapter fourteen the prophet specifically states the object of his “proverb” (“taunt” – New American Standard Bible, English Standard Version) is “the king of Babylon,” whom he identifies with “the golden city” (verse 4). He states, “… The maggot is spread under you, And worms cover you” (verse 11), hardly a description of a fallen angel, a spirit being (Hebrews 1:14), who does not have flesh (Luke 24:39). He is a “man” (verse 16). He was “Thrust through with a sword” (Verse 19). Isaiah again declares, “‘For I will rise up against them,’ says the LORD of hosts, ‘And cut off from Babylon the name and remnant, And offspring and posterity, says the LORD” (verse 22). “Lucifer” is the king of Babylon.
by Keith Sharp
“Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry” (1 Corinthians 10:14).
The Scriptures tell us whom to worship and how to worship Him, but they never just command us to worship. Man, with a spirit derived from God and in the image of God, naturally worships something. Those who turn away from the worship of the one true and living God turn naturally to idolatry, sorcery, or both (Galatians 5:20). The Gentiles, who refused to know God, turned to idols (Romans 1:20-23).
Continue reading“Idolatry originally meant the worship of idols, or the worship of false gods by means of idols, but came to mean among the Old Testament Hebrews any worship of false gods, whether by images or otherwise, and finally the worship of Yahweh (the LORD – KS) through visible symbols” (ISBE; cf. Hosea 8:5-6).
by Keith Sharp
Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father (Philippians 2:9-11).
Perhaps you have joined with Christians in singing this beautiful hymn:
I’m not ashamed to own my Lord,
Nor to defend His cause;
Maintain the honor of His Word,
The glory of His cross (Isaac Watts).
But if you are unwilling to confess Jesus as your Lord, you cannot honestly repeat these brave words. Surely then you need to know what God’s Word teaches about confession. What does the New Testament teach about confession for those who are not Christians?
Continue readingQuestions
by Keith Sharp
It was the plea of God’s prophets who boldly proclaimed the sins of the apostate Israelites. It was spoken by the ‘voice of one crying in the wilderness.’ It was the message of Jesus from the time he began to preach until he dictated the letters to the churches of Asia to the aged apostle John. It was a part of the news heralded by the first-century ambassadors of Christ. It is still God’s command to a modern world of rebels. ‘Repent!’ The cry of the ages.” (Steve Cawthon, “Westvue Messenger”)
The truth of these observations should impress vividly upon our minds the extreme importance of repentance. Indeed, the Lord’s command toward us is, “Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord” (Acts 3:19). What then, does the New Testament teach about repentance?
Continue readingby Keith Sharp
On my initial trip to Africa, I was shocked as we got to the church building where I was to first preach. Across the dirt street was a shallow pool with a concrete bottom, enclosed by concrete blocks, and sheltered by a tin roof held up by four poles. An open, dirt drainage ditch supplied its water. People waded in the pool to fill buckets for domestic water use. No wonder deadly diseases are endemic! But there is a kind of uncleanness far worse that affects many of us who would cringe from using such filthy water.
The apostle Paul exhorted the Ephesian Christians:
Continue readingThis I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their mind, having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart; who, being past feeling, have given themselves over to lewdness, to work all uncleanness with greediness (Ephesians 4:17-19).
