Gentle Guidance for a Friend in Error: How can I share the Gospel with a friend who lost his mom and believes she’s watching over him? I know it’s necromancy, but he’s hurting and I fear sounding harsh.

Q&A question: Gentle Guidance for a Friend in Error

500 Witnesses: Verifiable?: I’ve got a question regarding the reliability of the 500 Witnesses source. Atheists say that we have no way to verify that the number Paul gives is accurate. How would you answer this?

Q&A question: 500 Witnesses: Verifiable?

When Christians Devalue Scripture: I’ve heard believers say things like, “The Bible isn’t the fourth member of the Trinity.” Phrases like this can feel dismissive of the Bible. How should we take this from well-meaning Christians?

Q&A question: When Christians Devalue Scripture

The Minimum to Be Saved?: What's the minimum one must believe to be saved? Romans 10:9? But anything else? What about polytheists who believe it? Or if someone said, "Yes, Lord Jesus died and rose, but His death wasn't for our sin"?

Q&A question: The Minimum to Be Saved?

Developing Belief as an Analytical Person: How do I develop a belief in Christianity? It feels very difficult as an analytical person. I’ve been looking into apologetics but still can't develop faith and I strongly want to live righteously.

Q&A question: Developing Belief as an Analytical Person

Jesus Given a Higher Name?: New believer here, and my question is, since Jesus is YHWH, why is He given the name above every other name in Philippians 2? What does that mean?

Q&A question: Jesus Given a Higher Name?

Can All Believers Prophesy?: Does 1 Corinthians 14: 31 mean all believers can prophesy? If all can teach in some way without being teachers (i.e., teaching their children), can all prophesy without being prophets?

Q&A question: Can All Believers Prophesy?

Does God Use our Sin?: Do you believe that God uses the consequences/results of a sin for His own purposes, like a one night stand resulting in a child? A reference could be Joseph and his brothers.

Q&A question: Does God Use our Sin?

Evangelism: Relationships Required?: I've been told that you should build a relationship with someone before sharing the Gospel with them. Thoughts?

Q&A question: Evangelism: Relationships Required?

Non-Competitive Evangelism: I do a lot of evangelism, in an older tradition that has not focused on evangelism for a long time. How do I evangelize without it feeling like it’s a competition with newer, trendier churches?

Q&A question: Non-Competitive Evangelism

How to Depend on The Spirit: I know that as believers, we live life through the Holy Spirit and He gives us strength to obey God. But how do we depend on the Holy Spirit's strength? What does that look like lived out?

Q&A question: How to Depend on The Spirit

Finding Meaning & Contentment: I feel spiritually empty despite recent financial blessings. I’m not lacking, yet discontent. What gives life meaning, and would serving or evangelizing help fulfill me?

Q&A question: Finding Meaning & Contentment

Evangelism: Not Afraid of Hell?: What do you say to someone who says they know they're going to Hell, but doesn't even want the way out?

Q&A question: Evangelism: Not Afraid of Hell?

Leaving Family for Military Service: I am a former member of the military and have a desire to go back to an elite unit. However, I feel anxiety leaving my wife and daughter for periods of time. How do I reconcile this?

Q&A question: Leaving Family for Military Service

Believes in Purgatory – Still Saved?: Can a person who trusts Christ for her eventual salvation but thinks she might have to go to purgatory first be saved?

Q&A question: Believes in Purgatory – Still Saved?

Can a Christian Attend a Catholic Mass?: My husband’s family is Catholic, and we are traveling to see them for Easter. They want us to go to mass with them, but I feel uneasy about it now that I am an active Protestant believer. Should we go?

Q&A question: Can a Christian Attend a Catholic Mass?

Converting from Judaism: I’m a 19 year old Jewish believer. I want to get baptized and go to church, but my rabbinic/secular family is against it and some don’t know about my faith yet. How can I wisely share my faith without messing up?

Q&A question: Converting from Judaism

The Cry of Dereliction

<Untitled Chapter 1>

Scripture Alone Is the Final Authority for Christians

What Sola Scriptura Means

When God Speaks Its Authoritative

Galatians Chapter 1 Verses 6 through 9

Galatians 1

The Bodily Assumption Mary

Matthew 23 Matthew 23

The Authority of Peter

The Chair of Moses

Roman Catholicism

2nd Thessalonians 2

It's Not the the Singular Unified Group That Often It Is Portrayed as in Roman Catholicism There Are Various Sects and Groups and Different Different Disagreeing Groups within Roman Catholicism but There's another Problem and that Is Roman Catholicism Never Kicks Heretics out It Just Almost Never Happens You'Ll Have Bishops Who Are Functioning In in Roman Catholicism That Totally Don't Believe Roman Catholicism and Actively Teach against It and There's Still Part of It so that's Not Real Unity That's like a False Kind of Unity That's Going On There So Yeah that's a Lot of Stuff I Think the Bottom Line Is God's Word Is Authoritative and Here's Where the Catholic Agrees with Me I'M Just Saying the Traditions and the Arguments for Bringing Tradition in as an Equal Authority

I Would Say They'Re Playing with Fire because It's if Someone Makes that Claim that the Bible Puts God in a Box and Limits What He Can Do Part of Me Would Say Okay It Does but It's the Box God Put Them In and You Caught What You Call God Being Putting Out in a Box I Call Believing that God Tells the Truth Right So if God Says I Do this I Don't Do that I Will Do this I Won't Do that You Can Call that Me Putting Him in a Box but I'M Just Believing Him that He Will and Won't Do the Things He Says He Will and Won't Do this Phrase of Don't Put God in a Box Is a Modern Phrase That Um Sometimes

Then You Should Be Unclear about It That's the Safest Thing To Do if You Feel like the Scripture Doesn't Speak Clearly on an Issue Then You Can Just Be Unclear about It or You Can Be Willing To Entertain Various Views As Long as those Views Don't Violate Scripture in some Other Way but What You Don't Want To Say Is the Bible Doesn't Say Anything about this So I'M Just GonNa You Know Believe What I Like I Still Won't Have Reasons for My Beliefs Deven Nicely Says What Are the Essential Elements of the Gospel One Must Believe for Salvation as Opposed to Secondary I Hear Different Things and It Makes Me Wonder if I'M Saved Sometimes and Kind Of Scares Me Let

And When You Feel Your Discernment Run Out this Is a Wisdom Thing Maybe Someone Won't Understand It but When You When You'Re Looking at a Situation or a Person and Here's the Things You Know about Them but Then You Start Realizing There's a Lot of Things I Don't Know and that's Where Your Discernment Running Out So Just Don't Go beyond What You Actually Know and that's One Thing another Thing Is this Is Here's the Phrase I Learned for Myself Years Ago Which Is Discernment without Wisdom Is Destructive I'Ve Learned that through Experience Right Maybe I Have Discernment Maybe I'M Told Right but I Didn't Have the Wisdom on What To Do with that Discernment so My Rule Now if I Keep It Is To Wait Wait after Discernment Wait on Wisdom Okay I See that Clearly but What's the Wisdom on How I Should Handle It and I Pray and I Wait on Wisdom

Response of Unbelief

The Disciples Refused To Believe the Report of Jesus Being Risen

Is Cornelius in Acts 10

Do the Signs Follow every Believer

What Are Your Most Important Beliefs

condemn sinners vs critique religious people

Jesus on religious people

The presence of women as the primary witnesses to the empty tomb was an embarrassment to the early church in first-century culture, where women's testimony was widely discredited. What was a liability then is actually strong evidence for historical reliability now — people don't fabricate stories that hurt their own credibility.

The criterion of embarrassment and the women witnesses; Celsius's criticism

Richard Bauckham's thesis in "Jesus and the Eyewitnesses" is that names appearing in Mark's gospel identify living witnesses known to the community receiving the text. When Mark names Simon of Cyrene "the father of Alexander and Rufus," and Paul greets a "Rufus" in Rome (Rom. 16:13), this likely connects to the same family — confirming these are not invented characters but real people vouching for the account.

Named eyewitnesses in Mark as evidence of historical reliability; Bauckham's thesis

The claim that Jesus was never buried in a known tomb (made by scholars like Bart Ehrman) is a minority position that, if true, would undercut the empty tomb argument for the resurrection. Winger's goal is to show the burial is historically well-supported and that Ehrman's case relies on selective use of sources.

Why the burial of Jesus matters for the resurrection argument; Ehrman's challenge introduced

Deuteronomy 21:22-23 required that anyone executed by hanging be buried the same day so as not to defile the land. According to Dr. Craig Evans, the Sanhedrin was specifically tasked with ensuring proper burial of executed persons in Jerusalem to maintain ritual purity — meaning even the enemies of Jesus had religious motivation to bury him promptly.

Jewish law and Sanhedrin practice as evidence for burial; Deut. 21:22-23 and the purity argument

Jehovah's Witnesses teach that Jesus is Michael the Archangel — a created being, not eternal God. They deny both his full deity and his bodily resurrection, teaching instead that his body dissolved in the tomb and he rose as a "spirit body." Hebrews 1 and Colossians 1 directly refute the created-being view by saying everything was made through Jesus, which means he cannot himself be a created thing.

Core JW theology on Jesus: created being, Michael the Archangel, no bodily resurrection

JW salvation requires four things: (1) taking in the "knowledge" of God and Jesus as defined by the organization, (2) obeying God's laws (works-based), (3) belonging to the Jehovah's Witnesses organization, and (4) demonstrating loyalty through door-to-door witnessing. Their own source says "the ransom given by Jesus does not give or guarantee everlasting life" — grace through Christ alone is explicitly denied.

JW soteriology: four requirements for salvation; works-based, organization-dependent

The real authority in JW life is not the Bible but the governing body — eight men in New York City who "formulate doctrine" and whose instructions, according to Watchtower, determine your "spiritual health and relationship with God." The NWT Bible is a doctrinally distorted translation that changes key texts about Christ's deity, and members are discouraged from researching outside Watchtower sources.

JW authority structure: governing body over Scripture; the NWT as a distorted translation

The JW claim that Jesus returned invisibly in 1914 — after failed predictions of a visible return — directly contradicts Matthew 24:27 where Jesus explicitly warns that if anyone says the Christ has returned in a secret room, don't believe it, because every eye will see his return. Scripture anticipated and pre-refuted this JW doctrine.

The invisible 1914 return of Christ: JW teaching and its direct refutation by Matthew 24

Effective outreach to JWs requires using their own sources (the Kingdom Interlinear, JW Library app, Watchtower literature) to demonstrate problems — since they are trained to dismiss all outside sources as apostate. The goal is to create goodwill first, then focus on one issue at a time without allowing subject changes, showing genuine love rather than hostility.

Practical strategies for engaging Jehovah's Witnesses with the gospel