Death in the Kingdom?

When Jesus establishes the 1000 year kingdom on earth, will the people here also live 1000 years or will there be death and shorter life expectancy? Will He bring beings back with Him to live in that period?

Yes - death will occur, but there will be longer life expectancy, according to Isaiah 65:20: No more shall there be in it an infant who lives but a few days, or an old man who does not fill out his days, for the young man shall die a hundred years old, and the sinner a hundred years old shall be accursed.

The context of the passage is the millennial kingdom, and a straightforward reading indicates that yes, there will be death. Death itself is finally eliminated at the END of the 1000 year kingdom of Christ, according to Revelation 20: And when the thousand years are ended… Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. (verse 7 and 14)

Where Do Catholic Beliefs Come From?

If modern-day Catholics have so much information available to show them that many of their beliefs are not in the Bible, why don’t they change their traditions?

This topic boils down to one issue: source of authority. We ALL have a “source of authority”, that is, we all have something from which we draw our beliefs. It can be a book (Bible, Book of Mormon, Koran), church teaching, or even your opinion. The question is: is your source of authority reliable? For example, those who draw their source of authority from their own opinion, I have to ask, “Has your opinion ever been wrong?”

For the Catholic Church, they draw their source of authority from two things: the Bible and church tradition (the latter includes councils, pope decrees, etc). Both hold the weight of authority. And unfortunately, if the church tradition seems to contradict the Bible, the tradition trumps God’s Word. I have discussed such matters with Catholic priests, and the response is simply, “That is what the Catholic church believes.”

Who Should Have My Ear?

What pastors/teachers are most in-line with what we believe @ Harvest? Who should we be studying/listening to?

James MacDonald! :) 

That's the short answer. Here's a longer one:

We live in a day where information is EVERYWHERE. Think about it - if you have a “smart phone”, you hold in your hands access to more information than you can cover in 10 lifetimes. And even with Bible teaching, you can get email devotionals, podcasts, and web access to just about every thing every Bible teacher speaks. Spurgeon, Piper, Luther, Calvin, Chan, Driscoll, the guy down the street that has church in the coffee shop… All of them have volumes of information available online (many of whom left the earth generations before ever the smart phone. I know: GASP!). And they aren’t all teaching the Bible. So how do you know who is worth listening to?

Listen to any pastor, even me, with discernment. You should have the Bible open, following along, asking one question: “Is that what the Bible says?” Does the preacher’s message line up with the straightforward message of God’s Word? That’s the question. That’s the issue. Is the preacher echoing the message of the passage in its context?

I like to remind people I am just a megaphone. I don’t make up the message, I am just an instrument to broadcast it. By God’s grace, may I only ever strive to broadcast what He has proclaimed in His Word!

p.s. - has a smart-mouthed phone

What does it mean that Jesus is "the son of God"?

Is Jesus the actual son of God? Or was he an avatar of God so God could see through the eyes of man?

What does the phrase “Son of God” mean? It’s not “son” as we usually think: Owen is my son, my offspring, a different personality than me. The phrase meant divinity. Many leaders throughout history have claimed to be “a son of the gods”. The phrase means “I am God in human form”. For more information, listen to this sermon on John 1:1-14. The Bible is clear that Jesus is literally God - taking on flesh and blood.