I recently read an interpretation of Ephesians 2:8-9 that said, "faith there is not the gift - salvation (the subject of the entire passage) is the gift of God. Faith is a feminine noun, while the demonstrative pronoun that ("it is" is not in the Greek) is neuter and could not refer to faith. The Greek will not permit "faith" to be the gift." How do you interpret this passage?
The way I understand this passage is that the Lord heard Cornelius' prayers. I don't know if He answered them, but I am in a quandary about the Lord hearing the prayers of unbelievers. I do not take from this passage that Cornelius was saved - it just states that he was a devout man that feared God. Can you shed some light on the subject for me?
Since the word "doctrine" means teaching, I always thought that the doctrine of Christ is the whole Bible. I've recently been told that the doctrine of Christ is to love God and love your neighbor. I admit this is very hard to do and am familiar with the verse that tells us these are the greatest commandments. However, I constantly hear that Jesus is the issue and doctrine is not important. How can one love Jesus and not be at all interested in His teachings. My Bible says that Jesus hates the false doctrine of the Nicolaitans. How, then, can one know false doctrine if one is not interested in knowing the doctrine of Christ. (The Bible).
Recently, I have been discussing man being made in the image of God. Some say that God's essence is spirit and, therefore, that image is mind, will, and emotions (or similar variations) and cannot include anything physical like a body.Some put forth that the image is spirit, soul, and body. But even most of those admit that the body is looking forward to Jesus as God in the flesh. My question for you is, why couldn't the Word have had a spiritual/physical body before the incarnation and, thus, man being made in God's image would be body, soul, and spirit?
Can you tell me what is meant by 1 John 5:6 "water and blood"? What is water? What does "He came by water and blood" mean?
