Q: Is hypnosis bad?

A:  Hypnosis poses some problems for Christians.  Let me explain:

(a)  Self Control - one of the fruits of the Spirit is self-control.  Under hypnosis, you do not have full self control of self and are at the manipulation of others.  We follow the lead of the Holy Spirit and under such influence, are incapable of doing so.

(b)  We are to yield to God - Romans 6:12-13 says this, “Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness.”  Therefore, we are to give ourselves to God and not human beings (as in the case of hypnosis).

(c) Hypnosis is altering our consciousness - When we are unconscious, we are susceptible to other forms of control.  We should be weary of this as Satan is lurking around the corner, also willing for us to do his will.  We shouldn't allow any opportunity for this.


All in all, I would stay away from such form of mind alteration.  It may seem innocent and fun at first, but the concept is dangerous.  We are told to control our minds and bodies for a reason, and when we give it over to someone other than God, it opens the doors for exterior influences.

For more information, please read the article HERE. 


[answered by Pastor KJT]

Q: I was reading Revelations and I passed by a passage that I didn't really understand. Revelations 2:4 says, "You have forsaken your first love." What does this mean?

A:  At this point in the Book of Revelation, the author is addressing different churches.  Revelation 2:1-7 is talking about the Church of Ephesus. 

¹"To the angel of the church in Ephesus write:
      These are the words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand and walks among the seven golden lampstands: ²I know your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance. I know that you cannot tolerate wicked men, that you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them false. ³You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name, and have not grown weary. ⁴Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love. ⁵Remember the height from which you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place. ⁶But you have this in your favor: You hate the practices of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. ⁷He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.

Verse 2-3 shows that what this church is doing is clearly good and worth praising.  Even in the face of persecution they have not grown weary and in the midst of false teachers and teachings, they have stayed true to the Truth and not allowed outside influences to tear down the walls of righteousness.

However, when we look at verse 4, the Church in Ephesus is being rebuked for forgetting why they are doing ministry.  This church must have been doing ministry well, but they have lost sight as to why they are doing it.  The reason why the church exists is none other but to show the love of God.  That "first love" is in reference to the commitment to help and serve others and the Church of Ephesus is doing ministry without being rooted in Christ's love. 

In conclusion, this passage is rebuking the Ephesians attitudes and reminding them that what they are doing in the name of God, must be done in love. 

[answered by Pastor KJT]

Q: During one of the sermons, the pastor said that Jesus understands all the problems we have since He had gone through them Himself. Had He really been through all our issues? What about bad marks, crushes, etc? Had Jesus been through them too?

A:  I believe the sermon that you are referring to is the May 16th 2010 one on John 11.  It can be found here. 

In the Bible, it tells us that Jesus is the Son of God, but came down in the form of a human being to die for us and give us new life.  The Bible tells us also that Jesus was treated like a human being;  He was tempted for 40 days (Mark 1:12-13), He was scorn by the people and was also mistreated.

In Hebrews 4:14-16, it says this:

¹⁴Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. ¹⁵For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin. ¹⁶Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.

 This passage gives us the reassurance that whatever we are going through, Jesus understands.  Your question about bad marks may not be applicable for Jesus, but has He gone through stress? Yes.  Has He experienced disappointments?  Yes!

Jesus lived in a time that is very different than the times we live in.  And although He may not have gone through exactly the same things that we are doing through, Hebrews tells us that He can sympathize with our emotions.  He knows what it feels like to be betrayed, He knows what it feels like to fail, He knows what it feels like to lose a loved one. 


[answered by Pastor KJT]

Q: Is miscarriage in the case of abortion a sin?

A miscarriage is the unintended death of an unborn baby, also referred to as a spontaneous abortion.

I don’t believe a miscarriage is a sin (though it is a consequence of living in a sinful, fallen world). It is not a procured abortion. There is no intent on the part of the mother to terminate her pregnancy. She wants to have the baby but for whatever reason her body is unable to carry the child.

Miscarriage is suffering, not sin.

[Answered by Dr. Stephen Tu, Trinity Pacific Church, Vancouver, Canada]

Q: What happens to our relationships in heaven?

Will we know the people we know on earth in heaven? Will our relationships remain in heaven? Will we recognize others? Also, we've heard that you can look down at hell- which means we'll see our peers that didn't follow Christ. Wouldn't we feel sad to see our friends in hell? Isn't heaven supposed to be full of happiness and no sorrow? To summarize all the questions, ''What happens to our relationships in heaven and our emotions?''

Great questionS! Let me try to answer them briefly.

Will we know the people we know on earth in heaven? Will we recognize others? Yes. But only those who have faith in Jesus. John 20:16 tells us that though Jesus had a physical, glorified and new body, the disciples still recognized him and 1 Corinthians 15:49; 53 tell us that we will bear the likeness of Jesus' glorified body in heaven. Therefore, we will be able to recognize, interact with and be relationship with each other. That gives Christians great hope! It also gives us great motivation to evangelize our unsaved loved ones.

Will our relationships remain in heaven? Matthew 22:30 says, "At the resurrection people will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven” - which indicates that the nature of our relationships will be different. In fact, they will be better. We will be surrounded by great numbers of believers (Revelation 7:9), and all our needs will be met, including the need for companionship.

Wouldn't we feel sad to see our friends in hell? Isn't heaven supposed to be full of happiness and no sorrow? This is a difficult one to answer. If you read Revelation 21-22, you find that heaven is a perfect place with no suffering, tears or sadness. Additionally, we will in be in complete agreement with God (1 John 3:2). What does this mean for our loved ones in Heaven? We will agree with God that they do not belong there because they are refused to accept God's offer of salvation. As hard as it is to comprehend this: We will not be saddened by their lack of presence. For more information, please read this previous post.

Summarily, heaven is a place of exploration, fun, community and worship. The best life you can imagine on this planet cannot even compare to heaven. This gives Christians great hope but also a great burden to evangelize as many people as we can.

[Answered by Pastor HM]

Q: Different skin colors? Salvation before Jesus' time?

I don't get how people have different skin colors. What happened to people in Asia, and Africa during Jesus' time? How would they ever have the chance to hear about the Word?

It seems you have a few questions here. I'll break it down.

1. How did people have different skin colors? There is no biblical, clear-cut answer, but GotQuestions has done their best to answer your question. Read their answer HERE.

2. What happened to people in Asia, and Africa during Jesus' time? How would they ever have the chance to hear about the Word?

First, it's important to understand that all people - no matter when/where they were born - are accountable to God whether or not they have heard the gospel. God has clearly revealed Himself in nature (Romans 1:20), in the conscience (Romans 2:15) and in the hearts of people (Ecclesiastes 3:11), so men are “without excuses” (Romans 1:20). A person does not end up eternally separated from God because of what they have not heard; he gets there because of his failure to respond properly to what God has revealed to Him. Deuteronomy 4:29 tell us that if a person genuinely seeks after God, He will make himself known. It is, therefore, the responsibility of a Christian to evangelize as many people as we can. We are not called to speculate who is saved, but to bring the good news to the nations (Matthew 28:19-20; Acts 1:8; Romans 10:15).

That being said, in Jesus' day (and even before his time), God did provide a way for people to be saved. It was through faith in God. Genesis 15:6 tells us Abraham believed God and that was sufficient for God to credit it to him for righteousness (see Romans 4:3-8). Listen to what GotQuestions writes:

What has changed through the ages is the content of a believer's faith. God's requirement of what must be believed is based on the amount of revelation He has given mankind up to that time. This is called progressive revelation. Adam believed the promise God gave in Genesis 3:15 that the Seed of the woman would conquer Satan. Adam believed Him, demonstrated by the name he gave Eve (v. 20) and the Lord indicated His acceptance immediately by covering them with coats of skin (v. 21). At that point that is all Adam knew, but he believed it.

Abraham believed God according to the promises and new revelation God gave him in Genesis 12 and 15. Prior to Moses, no Scripture was written, but mankind was responsible for what God had revealed. Throughout the Old Testament, believers came to salvation because they believed that God would someday take care of their sin problem. Today, we look back, believing that He has already taken care of our sins on the cross (John 3:16; Hebrews 9:28).

Summarily, those in Jesus' day - including inhabitants of Asia & Africa - were saved if they believed in God (and not in themselves or a false idol to save them from the sins). Today, God has revealed Jesus Christ to us, and it is through him alone that salvation is granted. Thus, it is our responsibility and calling - as Christ-followers - to tell people who have never of him the good news of his salvation!

[Answered by Pastor HM]

Q: Is the rapture a reasonable possibility?

Yes. According to Scripture, there will be a time before Jesus returns which is known as "the tribulation" (Matthew 24:21). This is a time of great distress, where there will be:

- Persecution (Matthew 24:9)

- Apostasy or the "abandonment of faith" (Matthew 24:10)

- False prophets (Matthew 24:11)

- Love turned cold (Matthew 24:12)

- Gospel preached in the whole world (Mattthew 24:14)

- Signs in the heavens (Matthew24:29)

- The coming of the Man of Sin and the Rebellion (2 Thessalonians 2:1-10)

Following this Jesus will appear to take away those who are His.  This is known as "the rapture."  The rapture means “caught up” where Jesus gathers all believers (those who have died or those who are still living) to be with him. 

For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever (1 Thessalonians 4:15-17)

At this time Christ will return visibly and judge the nations and establish his kingdom.

At that time the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and all the nations of the earth will mourn. They will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky, with power and great glory. And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other (Matthew 24:30-31)

Look he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, event those who pierced him; and the peoples of the earth will mourn because of him (Revelation 1:7)

 

[Answered by Pastor HM]