Please comment on the controversy of the Local versus Universal Church.
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).
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?
What is the correlation/connection between water baptism and church membership? I see where Acts 2:41 references both baptism and adding to the church in the same context, but have not found where baptism is clearly required for church membership.
We (Christians) have consistently been told that all children who die before they reach an age where they can understand about personal salvation (an age of accountability to God) that they go to heaven. I have prayerfully searched the scripture, all references, for anything regarding children, infants, family, brother, sisters, mothers, fathers, salvation, etc. Nothing could I find to support the argument, even though it does refer to passages where the whole family was saved (I believe in two places) and Christ Himself says to His disciples not to stop children coming to Him. Though nowhere can I find these ideas where accountability and instant infant/child salvation have any relationships, though salvation tied to the family maybe classed as having some scriptural basis.
