I have pondered about the idea of a messiah.  It seemed to me that all cultures and religions have a savior.  It seems to me quite possible that God sent His son, or Himself, or the third iteration of Himself (however one interprets the messiah) to all different peoples to lead them around the same time, essentially.  And presently, Satan exploits this to make humans fight each other because we all worship the same god.  So any theism works… that is what I'm trying to say and what I think.

Is Jesus Christ special, or was Isus the Egyptian messiah, or Allah, or Krishnu, or Jehovah just as good?

Sincerely,
Open Minded

Dear Open Minded,

Jesus is special, and He left no room for other gods.  Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life, and no one comes to the Father except through Me” (Jhn 14:6).  Jesus was either the one and only Messiah – or He was a crazy lunatic.  Jesus teaches that we can only have one Master (Matt 23:10) and that serving anyone else is a sin.  Jesus taught that we either confess Him as the Christ, or we will be denied before God (Lk 12:8-9).  Jesus cannot coexist with other gods.  The Bible is clear – there can be only one (Eph 4:4-6).  Isus, Allah, Krishnu, etc. are all false gods.

This is a follow-up question to (Etymological Enlightenment).

Then would it have been fine for me to have had a hundred sexual partners before I decided to settle down with one woman, since it’s not adultery?  It’s like there is no punishment for the sin of premarital sex in our modern society, but if I were to have been with one woman in my life and was married to her, and I then divorce her… the church condemns me for it???  But as I mentioned above, sex with a hundred women is okay so long as I wasn’t married to any of them?  That’s a church (people) being hypocritical I think!

Sincerely,
Sin Should Cost

Dear Sin Should Cost,

The Scriptures condemn both behaviors.  Both are equally wrong.  Divorce is wrong, and premarital sex is wrong.  We are not condemning one behavior more or less than the other.  Don't mistake us, both sins are equally wrong.  All sin is worthy of death (Rom 6:23) and can only be forgiven when we turn, repent, and choose a new life in Christ (Gal 2:20).

I have often wondered: is sex before marriage adultery?

Sincerely,
Term Specific

Dear Term Specific,

Sex before marriage is fornication, but it isn’t adultery.  Adultery is the act of polluting a marriage (Heb 13:4).  All adultery is fornication, but not all fornication is adultery.  It is possible to be sexually immoral (‘fornication’ means ‘sexual immorality’) without being married, but it is impossible to commit adultery without having a spouse.

Hello.  I am young and new to my Christian faith, and I was wondering if you could explain to me exactly how the Godhead of the Father, Son, and Spirit work.  I can grasp Jesus as the Son and Him becoming the Holy Spirit, and I know that Jesus is God, but why does God refer to Jesus as "my Son"?

P.S. This is probably the 5th question I have asked and have always gotten an awesome answer, so thank you!

Sincerely,
New To This

Dear New To This,

The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are three separate and distinct Beings.  The easiest way to see this is to look at the baptism of Jesus.  At Jesus’ baptism, Jesus came out of the water, the Holy Spirit descended like a dove, and the Father spoke from heaven (Lk 3:21-22).  All three of Them are God.  Jesus is described as deity in Jhn 1:1.  The Holy Spirit is described as deity in 1 Cor 2:11 and Gen 1:2.  And last, but not least, the Father is described as deity in Gen 1:1 and numerous other locations.  They are each distinct entities, but They are one in purpose.  We will try and summarize Their responsibilities:

The Father – The Father has total authority to plan and oversee the salvation of mankind.  The Father was the one that sent Jesus at the proper time to die on the cross (Gal 4:4).  The Father answers our prayers (Lk 11:2).  The Father provides for the needs of mankind (Lk 12:30).  He is the great master builder and planner of our salvation.

The Son – Jesus made the Father’s plan happen.  Jesus emptied Himself and became a human (Php 2:4-8).  Jesus is God’s son because He was miraculously born (Matt 1:18).  His blood cleanses us from all sin (1 Jn 1:7).  He is the head of the church and its Savior (Eph 1:22, Col 1:18).  If the Father was the architect of our salvation, Jesus is the carpenter… which is ironic, since He actually was one! (Matt 13:55)

The Holy Spirit – The Holy Spirit is the most misunderstood of all the Godhead.  We have answered many questions on His role.  If you want an in-depth look at the Holy Spirit, read “What The Holy Spirit Does”.  For the sake of brevity, we will simply say that the Holy Spirit’s primary job was to create the Bible and keep it preserved throughout all time.  It is the Holy Spirit that guided the minds of the apostles as they wrote down the words of the Bible (Jhn 14:26, 1 Cor 2:13).  If the Father was the architect, and Jesus was the carpenter, then the Holy Spirit is the realtor.  He made sure that everyone would know what Jesus did and how to be saved through Christ’s blood.

Hopefully, that helps give you a basic idea of how the Godhead works.  We are glad that you’ve been so pleased with the answers we give.  We strive very hard to always give Bible answers to Bible questions… that way you can check the verses for yourself to make sure we are only teaching what God wrote.

In your post this morning, "The Power of Choice", you made two points that interest me:

1. "Anyone can trust God, but very few people are interested in doing so."
2. "Whenever you give people freedom, expect most of us to abuse it."

But given that God created us, why didn't He create us so that more people are interested in choosing Him?  He could have made us in any way He desired.  But He gives us freedom to choose what we want, plus a natural inclination to turn away from Him.  It doesn't make much sense.

Sincerely,
Free To Fail

Dear Free To Fail,

Your question has a built-in contradiction.  You wrote, “Why didn't He create us so that more people are interested in choosing Him?” – if God designs us to choose one thing over another, we aren’t really choosing at all.  It would be like engineering a car that automatically stayed on the road; it would take driver error away, but it would also take driver freedom away.  God didn’t make man with a natural inclination to rebel against Him or choose Him.  God makes every human a blank slate and gives us equal opportunity to decide between righteousness and wickedness.  In the Garden of Eden, God walked with Adam & Eve (Gen 3:8), and the serpent offered deception (Gen 3:1)… both options were available.  Adam & Eve had equal freedom to choose to do the right thing or the wrong thing – perfect freewill.  God sets before us life and death (Deu 30:15), and we have the total freedom to choose either option.  God hasn’t stacked the deck one way or the other.  The entire world is full of sinful temptation, but none of those temptations are beyond our capacity to resist (1 Cor 10:13).  There are false prophets who proclaim false gods (1 Jn 4:1), and yet the entire creation screams of God’s existence, so that we are without excuse (Rom 1:20).  The evidence is there; the choice is ours to freely make.