Fourth Year Ministries

Q: If our sins are forgiven, what are we going to stand judgment for? A: Part of the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ is that "... there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus " (Romans 8:1). This is great news indeed! How amazing that the Holy and Righteous Judge and Creator of the world has made a way for rebellious and wicked sinners to be reconciled to Him. Jesus the Christ, the one who became accursed by God so that all who believe in Him could be justly forgiven, and who rose from the dead and who is exalted at the right hand of God, has secured a victory over sin, death and the devil both now and forever. On the foundation of this completed work of Christ, believers can have assurance that they will be able to stand on the Day of Judgment. This is why it is good and right to sing the praises of Him who has overcome! Because of what Jesus has done, the Bible teaches very clearly that our salvation is not on the basis of deeds, but on

Q: Why did God create evil? He is all knowing and knew that Satan would do what he did…so why did God allow it? And, if everything comes from God, then Satan does too…right? So why did God create Satan? This is a very interesting and somewhat complicated question. A question concerning the actions or intent of the mind of the infinite God that I will try to answer through my finite and limited human mind.   What is the origin of evil? Is evil something that God created, or does it exist because God created beings with the ability to choose what is “opposite” or in “opposition” to Him? God is Omniscient (all knowing) and knew that Satan would choose to “oppose” Him…so why did God create Satan and allow him to choose? Since God is the One and Only Creator--and all that exists, exists because of and through His deliberate act of creation (Colossians 1:16)--why did He create Satan?  Why did He create me? After all, He created me with the ability to choose to obey Him or to oppose Him

*For the first part of this Question, please see the previous post. Q: If you think heaven is a physical place, do you think it includes the new Jerusalem? In the previous post, we discussed that Scripture does seem to indicate that both the present Heaven and Hell are physical places . There are popular ideas that abound that suggest that Heaven and Hell are on Earth or are states of mind (among other ideas), but the Bible speaks of a place that is separate from Earth and is more than a simple state of mind . These places are genuine, external realities -- just like Brighton, MI is a real place that real people can go to, so are Heaven and Hell (although you don't book these trips through a travel agent!). Although these places exist in the present, the question above is a great one because the Scriptures describe the final destination of the saved as the "new" Jerusalem ... so is this "new" Jerusalem a part of the present heaven? Upon an initial read

Q: Do you think that the current heaven/hell is a physical place? A: When this question was first asked, I immediately thought I had the answer: nope! As it turns out, I think my immediate answer was off the mark. Consider the following Scriptures: Enoch walked with God; and he was not, for God took him. (Genesis 5:24, NASB) If you believe that Genesis is a literal history of the human race (which I do), then Enoch was a physical person who did not die but was translated (a fancy theological term--you could also say that Enoch was assumed as in "the assumption of Enoch"--which simply means was taken up to heaven by God) to heaven, in his present physical body. A similar phenomenon happened to the prophet Elijah. As they were going along and talking, behold, there appeared a chariot of fire and horses of fire which separated the two of them. And Elijah went up by a whirlwind to heaven. Elisha saw it and cried out, "My father, my father, the chariots of Is