"What must I do to be saved?"

This question has been asked over and over throughout church history. There are multiple recordings of it in the gospels, it is asked in Acts, and we ask this question still today. There are many different answers to this question in scripture and people will tell you different things if you asked them today.

If someone asked you, "What must I do to be saved?" what would your response be?

P.S. Please continue the discussions in "Christianity Evolution" and "How long should we praise?"

How long should we praise?

Is there a set time on how long we should praise God? I mean, I know what he did a couple thousand years ago is impossible to repay, but couldn't you just do what's right when the situation come up and worship God every day (but not the whole day), and spend the rest of the day doing whatever as long as you stay righteous, or are you supposed to dedicate every minute of every day to Jesus, or is there a certain time we have to spend each day with Him?

Christianity Evolution

Have you ever looked into Christianity from a history book, and noticed how different it is today than it was then? When there was only one form of Christianity, it was very weird, and only now does it seem like we actually follow the bible.

What is your opinion on that?

Demon Posession Today?

My brother recently asked me a good question, which I did not know the answer to. The question is, "Do demons still posses people today?" There are many places in the bible, such as Mark 1:23, where a demon or demons have possessed somebody, and Jesus drove them out of people.

So, do demons still posses people today? Did they posses Hitler or Stalin?

My opinion is that demons still do possess. I say this because I know that they still exist, just like Satan himself, though I have not heard of any recent case of possession, and I have no evidence to back up my guess.

Elijah / John the Baptist

Malachi says, "See, I will send you the prophet Elijah before that great and dreadful day of the LORD comes", and The Gospels say that John the Baptist came to prepare the way for the Lord.

But is Malachi saying that Elijah will come before the day of Judgement, or was John the Baptist Elijah?

Soul? Spirit?

Alright. Here's something I've been wondering about for awhile. I have a few ideas about it, but I really don't know how to express them. I'm just going to ask you guys for help and we can all talk about it:

What is the Soul? And what is the Spirit? Are they different?

Could we really be perfect?

Here's an idea that I've been turning over in my mind and struggling with for the past month of so. Up until this week it's just been an idea. This week I decided to try and put it into practice. I did this because on Sunday our Bible class teacher, Mr. Kent Jeffers (more commonly known as KJ), gave us all a challenge to not sin anymore. So, this idea of not sinning anymore has been turning over in my mind for awhile now.

It seems like the idea that we could be perfect is contrary to most "Christian" teachings today. I've always been taught that because I'm human I sin. That there's nothing I can really do to change the sin inside of me. I've always learned that being human means being sinful and that's the bottom line. And I suppose that can be biblical: "All have sinned and fallen short of God's glory" (Romans 3:23). But, there's just one problem with the idea that being human also means being sinful: Jesus.

It blows my mind to know that Jesus was fully human and he never sinned. How did he do that? If Jesus was human and he was perfect then I guess it means that I, being human, can be perfect too. This also blows my mind. But, as I read the New Testament more and more it seems like all of the letters written to the churches are saying one basic thing: "Stop sinning! Just stop it already!"

There's the famous Romans 6:1 - "Should we keep on sinning so that God can show us more and more of his wonderful grace? Of course not!..."

There's also this ridiculous passage from 1 John 2 - "I am writing this to you so that you will not sin..."

What about all the times Jesus told people, "Go and sin no more." Did he really mean that?

In Galatians 5:24 - "Those who belong to Jesus the Messiah have nailed the passions and desires of their sinful nature to his cross and crucified them there."

Ephesians 4:22 - "...throw off your old sinful nature and your former way of life..."

Romans 12:2 - "Don't copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think."

These are just a few verses that I found out of, I'm sure, many, many more that you could find. So now that I'm done ranting, I'll open it up for discussion. What do you think: could we really be perfect?