Substantial elements within scholarship and orthodox Christianity are dealing with the issue of universal salvation of all mankind through Christ (and Christ alone) because more and more people are accepting this biblical teaching. That issue is increasingly being recognized as true by more and more theologians, some as a true doctrine, and others as a threat to orthodoxy. I want to bring you up to date on some of the current discussions in scholarly circles on these matters.

Are you a Christian in name only? Do you profess to be a Christian but your heart and soul and being are not really involved? Is your belief in God and Christ merely a convenient emotional crutch to help you get through life? If you were suddenly seized by the authorities and accused of being a Chris¬tian under dire threat of punishment, could you even be con¬victed? Would there be sufficient evidence of you being a Christian? Would there be any evidence? Or are you a Christian in name only?

The best place to start is Genesis chapter 1 because there, at the beginning, God explains who we humans are. We are made, according to the Word of God, in the very image of and likeness of God. We are in His image. We are in His likeness. We resemble what God looks like. Conversely, God resembles us. Genesis chapter 1 sets the scene for this matter of “Does God Have Feelings?” We are all children of our parents and most are parents. The purpose of these experiences is so we can understand God as a parent and His feelings as a parent. Through Jesus Christ's fleshly life God also experiences an obedient child.

What may appear to be a simple and unimportant subject can give excellent principles of teaching to show how some traditions may be essential factors in biblical understanding. Two different sections of Scripture give two different locations for Rachel's Tomb. This articles clarifies this issue.

Why is it that we humans often know what is right, yet we do not perform it? Regarding another matter, why are people prone to stay within the portals of various religious organizations even when they know the institutions are basically wrong, even when the organizations are in error with their principal philosophies? There are reasons why such weaknesses are dominant in the mental makeup of humans, and this article will explain why these things are so.

It is normally believed that God is fastidious about detail in religious and social matters. Indeed, this appears to be true when one surveys the intricacies involved in the administration of things in the Old Testa ment, particularly things dealing with the priesthood or the ancient Temple in Jerusalem. Anyone reading the Old Testament can see just how intricate and how detailed matters are. The ritualistic complexities and precise functions associated with animal sacrifices, the purification rites, and things like that, all seem to show how interested God is in the perpetuation of very close details

Some denominations insist that Abraham, and all the patriarchs, kept the 7th day Sabbath. Their main reasoning centers on two sections of Scripture. For one, we are told that God rested on the 7th day of the week of creation and sanctified that day (Genesis 2:1–3). Coupled with this is a verse which says that Abraham “obeyed my voice, and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws” (Genesis 26:5). The combining of these two sections of Scripture has given confidence to some that Abraham must have kept the 7th day Sabbath because he was an obedient man who kept all of God’s commandments.