| XXFREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS |
1. Two of the best books on the subject are The Holy Spirit by Billy Graham and The Helper by Catherine Marshall.
first promised by Jesus, (JN 14-16) and then fulfilled following his resurrection. |
Father gives life. The Son is the agent of eternal life. And the Holy Spirit provides eternal life." But it is still God. 4. Another way of thinking about it: The Law was God's ideal. Jesus was fulfillment of that ideal. The Holy Spirit helps us do the same. Perhaps even Jesus knew that humanity would need more than just his example of love and grace; that they would need the power, wisdom, strength, and the indwelling of God through the Spirit. But it is still God. |
the human form -- to God the Father? |
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can, but it is the spirit that creates awareness that we need to in the first place, that we need more than just an example (Jesus) we need power within. I like this quote, "what Jesus did FOR Man the Holy Spirit does IN Man." |
team needs. A superstar coach is a great gift, (Jesus), someone who illustrates the playbook to perfection. But if the players (you and me) don't have the passion, desire, drive, burn within (Holy Spirit) to execute the playbook on game day, there is very little the coach and owner can do in that moment. Only by the power of the Holy Spirit can we take the example of Jesus and mesh it with all God has given us. History has proven this - the Israelites had the Law of God - not enough. The disciples had the example of perfection - not enough. Only when the Apostles received Jesus' promise of God's power within (Holy Spirit) were they able to fulfill God's call in their lives. |
that we all make choices between being born and dying. The question is really if one person makes all good choices and someone else makes a really bad choice, why is it that the one who makes the good choice is the one that dies or suffers and the one who makes the bad choice gets away scott free? |
the book, When Bad Things Happen to Good People, by Rabbi Kushner. I a nutshell, his theology believes that perhaps god is not ALL powerful; and that perhaps there are things outside the realm of God. He believes that God has set everything into motion but perhaps is either unable or unwilling to change the course of nature. |
humanity. In that light, I see only the end as being predestined; but the journey to that place is made up of decisions, pain, sorrow, joy, confusion, and wisdom. I don't necessarily believe that God has a plan for our lives outside of his ultimate plan of reconciliation. We have free will and the ability to change course, make decisions, rebel, obey, or simply say yes or no. In that light, I am not a proponent of saying, "that everything happens for a reason." I understand it may be a play on words, but my theology seeks reasoning (wisdom, humility, grace, forgiveness, courage, etc.) in every happening. |
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Here are some questions that have been asked of Pastor Mark. If you would
like to submit a question by email, just click this link. Please be sure to write
FAQ as the subject. Thank you.
like to submit a question by email, just click this link. Please be sure to write
FAQ as the subject. Thank you.
appoint God as the source. We pray for the starving, yet there is enough food to feed the world. We ask God, "why" when someone's senseless behavior causes harm, knowing the nature of cause and effect. Rabbi Kushner proposes that the better question than "why did this happen" would be "what will I do with this?" That answer may very well embrace anger, resentment, hostility, and denial, but eventually move toward wisdom, forgiveness, and grace. |
justice. As you have already defined, human and divine justice is seldom defined to our liking. A drunk driver kills or severely injures someone while they walk away unscathed, is certainly open to the scrutiny of justice. However, justice many times does not take the form that we wish it would. Justice is often not black or white, but many shades of gray. We also need to embrace that justice is often not exercised and for that we should be thankful. Even in our lives, we need to understand that forgiveness, humility, patience, understanding, wisdom, or peace often takes the place of justice. If I received everything that justice deemed I deserved, I would be in a far different place in life. |
died? |
Answer: The Eastern church’s do not use the term Good Friday but rather “Holy” Black” or even “Great Friday”. In Germany they call it “Mourning Friday”. Only Western churches refer to it as “Good Friday”. A possible explanation is that the word “God” was so sacred a word that it could not even be uttered by the lower class of society so rather than “God” they inserted it with the word “Good”. For example it can be said, “God be with you” or “Good By.” The word “good” also has a secondary meaning of “holy” “separate from everything else. Theologically it is a paradox where out of the greatest bad, the greatest good has emerged. Out of death comes life. (Less is more, Find life by loosing your life; you will have enough when you learn to give away what you have). |
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Answer: This term is found in what is called the Apostles Creed pg. 881 in UM hymnal. This is the earliest of our creeds (390AD) which does not address the divinity of Jesus or the Holy Spirit so later creeds, such as the Nicene Creed, pg. 880, assimilate that concept. These creeds were the attempt of the early Church to form a theology, an understanding of who God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit were. It is clearly a Trinitarian formula which also embraces the function and role of the church. The communion of Saints refers to the “spiritual communion of all Christians”, those living, dead and in purgatory but not the condemned. The idea of “saints” appears 50 times in the NT and this communion of saints embraces the theology that in God’s time all saints will share a single mystical body, where Christ is the head and they will work for the good of all creation. |
to be saved? |
Answer: Angels are “messengers of God” that were first understood in Judaism. The Talmud and Kabblah mystics are the first to reference the idea of angels. In post biblical Judaism we see Abraham, Jacob and Lot all engaging with angels. Later in Christian understanding the angels had names and even a hierarchy in which they lived within the heavenly court and by the 5th century they were depicted in art and literature. The New Testament includes a number of interactions and conversations between angels and humans. For instance, three separate cases of angelic interaction deal with the births of John the Baptist and Jesus Christ. In Luke 1:11, an angel appears to Zechariah to inform him that he will have a child despite his old age, thus proclaiming the birth of John the Baptist[15] And in Luke 1:26 the archangel Gabriel visits the Virgin Mary in the Annunciation to foretell the birth of Jesus Christ. [16] Angels then proclaim the birth of Jesus in the Adoration of the shepherds in Luke 2:10.[17] Angels also appear later in the New Testament. In Luke 22:43 an angel comforts Jesus Christ during the Agony in the Garden.[18] In Matthew 28:5 an angel speaks at the empty tomb, following the Resurrection of Jesus and the rolling back of the stone by angels.[19] Hebrews 13:2 reminds the reader that they may "entertain angels unaware".[20] The angels are represented throughout the Christian Bible as a body of spiritual beings intermediate between God and men: "You have made him (man) a little less than the angels..." (Psalms 8:4,5) In most Christian denominations, a fallen angel is an angel who has been exiled or banished from Heaven. Often such banishment is a punishment for disobeying or rebelling against God. The best- known fallen angel is Lucifer. Lucifer is a name frequently given to Satan in Christian belief. This usage stems from a particular interpretation, as a reference to a fallen angel, of a passage in the Bible (Isaiah 14:3-20) that speaks of someone who is given the name of "Day Star" or "Morning Star" (in Latin, Lucifer) as fallen from heaven. According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, angels were all created good but some turned bad on their own.[4] Angels don't need faith as they are already have the knowledge of celestial things, so their rebellion against God constituted unforgivable sin. With this understanding angels live “salvation” being eternally linked with God. Since they have never sinned they will never need to be redeemed. |