These all came in at tentpegsquestion@yahoo.com in one email so I decided to deal with them all in one blog post! That’s usually not doable, but these can be answered quickly. 1) If I can’t tell if I have the Holy Spirit or not, do I really have it? which would then make me wonder [...]
I got this one from one of the members here at Rochester Church. They emailed me at a different address but I thought it was interesting enough to put it here. Jesus said to the thief on the cross that “you will be with me in paradise.” 1) Is the specific word paradise ever mentioned [...]
Here is a good one! Last July my wife and I began attending the Church of Christ congregation I grew up attending. It is pretty small (33 or so including kids) and the preacher/adult Sunday school teacher is pretty conservative. We’re not one cup or non-institutional, but in class one day he said “People say [...]
Don’t think we’ve had this one before: Acts 21:20-26. looks like Paul was giving in to pressure to follow Jewish customs that weren’t required for Christians. Am I reading that wrong or misunderstanding it? Paul chewed Peter up for imposing Jewish customs on the Gentile Christians, didn’t he? How far should we go in accommodating [...]
We’ll get to the question in a moment. First, we need to address a common reply to one of the last questions. I stated that we do not close our communion but open it to all. A comment (and some emails) came in saying that communion was for believers — or baptized believers — only [...]
I have an hour before my flights back to Detroit. So let’s take care of a few quick questions. I’ve read or heard you comment on communion at Rochester in the past. I think I heard/read that even non-baptized persons are encouraged/allowed to participate. That is so different from what I’ve always been taught. I [...]
This came in a couple of days ago. I was just wondering if you were going to take a swing at the Rob Bell hoopla over his new (and as yet unreleased) book “Love Wins” that may (or may not) espouse universalism. I know you’ve written (and very well I might add) on universalism not that [...]