Tag: Questions

A Tenebrae is a special service for Holy Week, that can be conducted on Wednesday in Holy Week, Maundy Thursday, or Good Friday. You can read a description of a Tenebrae service elsewhere in my web site. The purpose of this page is to help you design one. “Tenebrae” is Latin for “shadows,” so this i...

In James 1:5 we read, "If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all men generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him." Mormons often appeal to this verse in asking people to pray about the Book of Mormon to see if it's true. The Mormon interpretation jerks this ve...

No. Science depends upon observation and replication. Miracles, such as the Incarnation and the Resurrection, are by their very nature unprecedented events. No one can replicate these events in a laboratory. Hence, science simply cannot be the judge and jury as to whether or not these events occurre...

The commandment in Exodus 20:8-11 states that the seventh day of the week, Saturday, is the day which the Lord selected as the day of rest and worship. However, in the New Testament the Christian church began to worship and rest on the first day of the week, Sunday. Are Christians violating the Sabb...

If you are a lay person, use this page only to satisfy your curiosity. The instructions on this page are for clergy who have an occasion to baptize by immersion, but don’t customarily do it that way. Special Cautions You can cause serious problems if you attempt to immerse infants or people who are ...

The backdrop to understanding this title is the Book of Isaiah. In Isaiah 44:6 God Almighty affirms: "I am the first and I am the last; apart from me there is no God." Again, in Isaiah 48:12, God said: "I am he; I am the first and I am the last," and God said this right after His pronouncement that ...

In Mark 6:4-5 Jesus affirmed that a prophet is without honor in his home town, and in view of that reality, He could not perform any miracles in Nazareth except for healing a few sick people. The people of Nazareth were apparently plagued by unbelief and paid little attention to the claims of Jesus....

Matthew 27:5 tells us that Judas died by hanging himself. Acts 1:18 tells us that Judas fell onto some rocks and his body burst open. Is there a contradiction here? No. Both accounts are true. Apparently Judas first hanged himself. Then, at some point, the rope either broke or loosened so that his b...

In Jesus' instructions about prayer, He taught His followers: "And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words" (Matthew 6:7). These words of Jesus were aimed straight at the Pharisees. These individuals always made a public show ...

In ancient times, Christians used to make pilgrimages to Jerusalem for Holy Week. One popular activity while they were there was to walk the route from Pilate’s house to Calvary, stopping for devotionals to commemorate various events that took place along the way. Of course most people didn’t do thi...

The purpose of this rite is to remind people of their mortality and thus the necessity for repentance. Acquiring the Ashes Traditionally, the ashes for the Ash Wednesday service are created by burning the palms from the previous year’s Palm Sunday service, but most churches nowadays just purchase th...

In 2 Corinthians 5:21 we read, "God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God." Yet other verses tell us that Jesus was "without sin" (Hebrews 4:15; 1 Peter 3:18). How do we reconcile such verses? To begin, let me emphasize that Christ as God i...