What Do You Do When Peers Mock Christianity And Jesus Christ/God Around You?

Question: What do you do when peers mock Christianity and  Jesus Christ/God around you? How do you respond?

Answer:

                 So there are two ways that I want to answer this question.

                                       #1: What do you do when others mock you for your faith, and

                                       #2: How do you respond when others mock your Savior?

                  Beginning with #1 we need to remember that the reason that people mock our faith is because they do not understand our Savior. “If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.” (John 15:18-19) See Also Matthew 5:11. When you are mocked by the world, you should give God the glory, because you are living your life that is evident of following Christ.                                                          

                  Regarding question #2 I would suggest picking your battles carefully. Remember, you are the light of the world (Matt. 5:16) and the salt of the earth (Matt. 5:13). Your role on earth is to be a testimony of the love of Jesus Christ. If you blow up at someone you will ruin that testimony that God has given to you. The Bible tells us that when someone asks us why we believe what we do, we should be ready to give an answer (I Peter 3:15), but it doesn’t tell us to go pick a fight. God does not necessarily need us to stand up for Him in the sense that we end up causing someone to have hatred towards the cause of Christ, etc…

                  But what about those situations where someone might be using the name of God in a vulgar manner or someone might be mocking something that you believe. You may always say, “Please do not mock my Savior.” Yet, in so doing you will most likely have to be ready for ridicule yourself (See #1). Be prepared to give an answer! What might be best though is that you try your very best not to be around those people in those types of situations to begin with. If your friends are going to mock your Savior, they are probably not good friends to be around. If you feel that it is a potential time though, and they ask “Why, can’t I say what I say.” It might also lead into a perfect opportunity to share the gospel. Be discerning, God might be opening a door!

How Did We Get Our Bible Today?

QUESTION:
       How Did We Get Our Bible Today?

ANSWER:
       The Bible or Canon (a collection of separate books), that we hold in our hands today is a translation of the original Greek, Aramaic, and Hebrew languages that the Bible was originally written in. Over the course of some 1,600 years, 40 men penned the words of the scriptures that we hold today.

      The words written were not dictated word for word, but we are told they were "God breathed" or "inspired" by the Holy Spirit (2 Peter 1:21). These men wrote in their own styles, with their own experiences what they saw, or were told by God.

       The Bible comprised of 66 books, are all part of what God wants us to know about Himself, and is given to us to equip us for life (2 Timothy 3:17).

       The Bible we have today is not an exact replica of what was written by the prophets, apostles, or others used by God in the original manuscripts (autographs), but is a compilation of various texts and copies of manuscripts that have been recopied over and over again for decades.

       Many translations we have today are word for word literal translations of the texts that have been interpreted in the English language through these copies of copies. Some Bibles such as the Living Word or the New International Version are paraphrased Bibles and use the ideas of the thoughts behind the texts to be written rather than a word for word based translation.

      Texts such as Tyndale's Bible, Wycliffe's Bible, the Greek New Testament, the Latin Vulgate and Masoretic Texts help translated the original languages into our copies today so that what was said 2,000 years ago is still what God is saying today.
    

Why Did People Before The Flood Live To Be 900 Years Old?

Question:

               Why Did People Before The Flood Live To Be 900 Years Old?

Answer:

         If we had the ability to travel back in time to the sixth day of creation and watch God create Adam and Eve, we would notice something special about them that is not true about us. They were created perfect. No flaws, no disease, nothing wrong. This also tells us that their internal organs genetically were also perfect. They had no cell disintegration, no hereditary diseases or past histories to deal with. As sin entered the world through their action in the garden though, suddenly death also entered the world and that all began to change.

         Science has proven that the farther away something gets away from perfection, the less perfect it is. The bodily make-up of people before the flood, people such as Adam (930), Seth (912), Enosh (905), Cainan (910), Mahalel (830), Jared (962), Enoch (365-translated), Methuselah (969), Lamech (777), and Noah (950) can all be seen in Genesis 6, and were much closer to “perfection” than we are today. After the flood this began to drastically change from living to be approximately 900 to less than 500 and lower, as seen in Genesis 11. This was approximately 5,000-4,500 years ago!

          Today, Psalm 90:10 says, “The days of our lives are seventy years; and if by reason of strength they are eighty years…” The person who wrote this verse was Moses who is also named in Genesis as being in Egypt in the year 1446 BC! So in 1446 BC and that surrounding time people were living just as long as we are today, and it’s been that way for the past 3,500 years.

         *SPECIAL NOTE: Want to know how to extend your life and live longer? Follow the 7^th commandment: “Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. ‘Honor your father and your mother’, which is the first commandment with promise, that it may be well with you and you may live long on the earth.”