What unanswered questions arise as you read the Bible?

All answers from God are found in the bible. We are not going to hear a voice ( like a human voice coming down from the sky, roaring to give us answers.)
The bible was only completed in our times and thus the complete word of God is available to all today.

God is perfect and all of God's answers are perfect. And just right for his children.
When we cannot hear him, God does not have a problem hearing us. We, it is that have a problem in asking.

Jas 1:26 If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man's religion is vain.

Jas 4:3 Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts.
Jas 4:4 Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.

You spoke about chastisement and hope you are willing to allow God's word to chastise you, else you are none on his.

A Christian or a servant of God is not defined by what he does or does not do.

Christianity is all about - who you are.

Now who you are determines what you do or what you do not do.

Christians are heirs to the kingdom of God and do righteousness in the sight of God. God's righteousness is not man's righteousness as God looks at the heart to tell if you are righteous or not.

Moses killed a Egyptian who was abusing an Israelite. Paul caused the death of many Christian converts in the 1st century.
Yet the Jewish Pharisees who were leaders of the Jewish sect and who held all of God's oracles were condemned by Jesus as children of the Devil.

1. If Jesus was not good then you are still in your sins because his sacrafice on the cross was useless.

"
Is Jesus here rebuking the man for calling Him good and thereby denying His deity? No. Rather, He is using a penetrating question to push the man to think through the implications of his own words, to understand the concept of Jesus’ goodness and, most especially, the man’s lack of goodness. The young ruler "went away sad" (Mark 10:22) because he realized that although he had devoted himself to keeping the commandments, he had failed to keep the first and greatest of the commandments—love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength (Matthew 22:37-38). The man’s riches were of more worth to him than God, and thus he was not "good" in the eyes of God.

Jesus’ fundamental lesson here is that goodness flows not from a man’s deeds, but rather from God Himself. Jesus invites the man to follow Him, the only means of doing good by God’s ultimate standard. Jesus describes to the young ruler what it means to follow Him—to be willing to give up everything, thus putting God first. When one considers that Jesus is drawing a distinction between man’s standard of goodness and God’s standard, it becomes clear that following Jesus is good. The command to follow Christ is the definitive proclamation of Christ’s goodness. Thus, by the very standard Jesus is exhorting the young ruler to adopt, Jesus is good. And it necessarily follows that if Jesus is indeed good by this standard, Jesus is implicitly declaring His deity.

Thus, Jesus’ question to the man is designed not to deny His deity, but rather to draw the man to recognize Christ’s divine identity. Such an interpretation is substantiated by passages such as John 10:11 wherein Jesus declares Himself to be “the good shepherd.” Similarly in John 8:46, Jesus asks, “Can any of you prove me guilty of sin?” Of course the answer is "no." Jesus was “without sin” (Hebrews 4:15), holy and undefiled (Hebrews 7:26), the only One who “knew no sin” (2 Corinthians 5:21).

The logic can thus be summarized as follows:
1: Jesus claims only God is good.
2: Jesus claims to be good.
3: Therefore, Jesus claims to be God.

Such a claim makes perfect sense in light of the flow of Mark’s narrative with regards to the unfolding revelation of Jesus’ real identity. It is only before the high priest in Mark 14:62 that the question of Jesus’ identity is explicitly clarified. The story of the rich young ruler is one in a sequence of stories designed to point readers toward Jesus as the eternal, divine, incarnate Son of God. "
https://www.gotquestions.org/good-God-alone.html

Jesus Blesses Little Children
(Matthew 19.13-15; Luke 18.15-17)
13 Some people brought their children to Jesus so he could bless them by placing his hands on them. But his disciples told the people to stop bothering him.

14 When Jesus saw this, he became angry and said, “Let the children come to me! Don't try to stop them. People who are like these little children belong to the kingdom of God. 15 I promise you that you cannot get into God's kingdom, unless you accept it the way a child does.” 16 Then Jesus took the children in his arms and blessed them by placing his hands on them.

A Rich Man
(Matthew 19.16-30; Luke 18.18-30)
17 As Jesus was walking down a road, a man ran up to him. He knelt down, and asked, “Good teacher, what can I do to have eternal life?”

18 Jesus replied, “Why do you call me good? Only God is good. 19 You know the commandments. ‘Do not murder. Be faithful in marriage. Do not steal. Do not tell lies about others. Do not cheat. Respect your father and mother.’ ”

20 The man answered, “Teacher, I have obeyed all these commandments since I was a young man.”

21 Jesus looked closely at the man. He liked him and said, “There's one thing you still need to do. Go sell everything you own. Give the money to the poor, and you will have riches in heaven. Then come with me.”

22 When the man heard Jesus say this, he went away gloomy and sad because he was very rich.

23 Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “It's hard for rich people to get into God's kingdom!” 24 The disciples were shocked to hear this. So Jesus told them again, “It's terribly hard[c] to get into God's kingdom! 25 In fact, it's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to get into God's kingdom.”

26 Jesus' disciples were even more amazed. They asked each other, “How can anyone ever be saved?”

27 Jesus looked at them and said, “There are some things that people cannot do, but God can do anything.”

28 Peter replied, “Remember, we left everything to be your followers!”

29 Jesus told him:

You can be sure that anyone who gives up home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or land for me and for the good news 30 will be rewarded. In this world they will be given 100 times as many houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and pieces of land, though they will also be mistreated. And in the world to come, they will have eternal life. 31 But many who are now first will be last, and many who are now last will be first.

Jesus Again Tells about His Death
(Matthew 20.17-19; Luke 18.31-34)
32 The disciples were confused as Jesus led them toward Jerusalem, and his other followers were afraid. Once again, Jesus took the twelve disciples aside and told them what was going to happen to him. He said:

33 We are now on our way to Jerusalem where the Son of Man will be handed over to the chief priests and the teachers of the Law of Moses. They will sentence him to death and hand him over to foreigners,[d] 34 who will make fun of him and spit on him. They will beat him and kill him. But three days later he will rise to life.

The Request of James and John
(Matthew 20.20-28)
35 James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came up to Jesus and asked, “Teacher, will you do us a favor?”

36 Jesus asked them what they wanted, 37 and they answered, “When you come into your glory, please let one of us sit at your right side and the other at your left.”[e]

38 Jesus told them, “You don't really know what you're asking! Are you able to drink from the cup[f] that I must soon drink from or be baptized as I must be baptized?”[g]

39 “Yes, we are!” James and John answered.

Then Jesus replied, “You certainly will drink from the cup from which I must drink. And you will be baptized just as I must! 40 But it isn't for me to say who will sit at my right side and at my left. This is for God to decide.”

41 When the ten other disciples heard this, they were angry with James and John. 42 But Jesus called the disciples together and said:

You know that those foreigners who call themselves kings like to order their people around. And their great leaders have full power over the people they rule. 43 But don't act like them. If you want to be great, you must be the servant of all the others. 44 And if you want to be first, you must be everyone's slave. 45 The Son of Man did not come to be a slave master, but a slave who will give his life to rescue[h] many people.

Jesus Heals Blind Bartimaeus
(Matthew 20.29-34; Luke 18.35-43)
46 Jesus and his disciples went to Jericho. And as they were leaving, they were followed by a large crowd. A blind beggar by the name of Bartimaeus son of Timaeus was sitting beside the road. 47 When he heard that it was Jesus from Nazareth, he shouted, “Jesus, Son of David, have pity on me!” 48 Many people told the man to stop, but he shouted even louder, “Son of David, have pity on me!”

49 Jesus stopped and said, “Call him over!”

They called out to the blind man and said, “Don't be afraid! Come on! He is calling for you.” 50 The man threw off his coat as he jumped up and ran to Jesus.

51 Jesus asked, “What do you want me to do for you?”

The blind man answered, “Master,[j] I want to see!”

52 Jesus told him, “You may go. Your eyes are healed because of your faith.”

At once the man could see, and he went down the road with Jesus.

Footnotes
10.12 A woman who divorces her husband: Roman law let a woman divorce her husband, but Jewish law did not let a woman do this.
10.14 People who are like these little children belong to the kingdom of God: Or “The kingdom of God belongs to people who are like these little children.”
10.24 hard: Some manuscripts add “for people who trust in their wealth.” Others add “for the rich.”
10.33 foreigners: The Romans who ruled Judea at this time.
10.37 right side … left: The most powerful people in a kingdom sat at the right and left side of the king.
10.38 drink from the cup: In the Scriptures a “cup” is sometimes used as a symbol of suffering. To “drink from the cup” would be to suffer.
10.38 as I must be baptized: Baptism is used with the same meaning that “cup” has in this verse.
10.45 rescue: The Greek word often, though not always, means the payment of a price to free a slave or a prisoner.
10.47 Son of David: The Jewish people expected the Messiah to be from the family of King David, and for this reason the Messiah was often called the “Son of David.”
10.51 Master: A Hebrew word that may also mean “Teacher.”

Most Muslims know this verse.

Mark 10:18: “And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone.” Based on this verse, Muslims come to the conclusion that Jesus is saying He is not God.

But that is not what Jesus is saying, is He? The verse does not say, “I am not God.” Jesus is simply ASKING a question, ‘WHY do YOU call Me good?’

He also never said, “I am NOT good.” We know that Jesus is good, of course. In fact, He did say that, “I am the GOOD shepherd.” A thousand years earlier, David had written, “The LORD (Yahweh) is my shepherd.” Looking at these verses, we can actually say that Jesus is saying He is good and He is the LORD (Yahweh).

Let’s come back to Mark 10:18. In fact, let’s read the whole passage to understand the context of what Jesus meant when He said. “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone.” You can start from Mark 10, verses 17-29.

You will realize, first of all, Jesus was not speaking to a crowd or even His disciples. He was speaking to ONE individual, who is described as a “rich young man”. So we need to understand this passage in that context alone. A conversation with someone and not apply it to anything other than the context it was spoken in. OK, so Jesus was speaking to one individual but He did say these words! Why?

Something you need to know about Jesus. He knows men’s heart and didn’t entrust Himself to anyone’s influence. “He didn’t need anyone to tell him what people were like, because he himself knew what was in every person.” (John 2:24-25)

The rich young man had come to Jesus with a hidden agenda. And Jesus knew it. The man wanted to manipulate Jesus to favor him because of his wealth and status. You know, some rich people, think money can buy them everything. This rich young man tried to buy Jesus’ favor by first praising Him as “good”. In fact, that was how they addressed their teachers/rabbis in those days

Jesus saw right through his insincerity. And stopped him in his tracks with this question that must have thrown him off-guard. “WHY do you call me good?” It was like Jesus was saying, “Do you sincerely believe I am good? Or are you giving me lip-service? Or is it because you want something from me? And if you really believe I am good, then do you also believe that I am God, since only God is good?”

Why was Jesus giving him such a hard time over a seemingly innocent comment?

Jesus never questioned anyone else in this manner before, when others had addressed Him with even greater titles like “Lord and God” “Son of God”, etc. Neither did He at any time question or correct or rebuke them.

It was only on this specific occasion that Jesus spoke this way. Why?

Here is what some people miss in this episode. Jesus wanted to teach His disciples (and us) something. I’ll tell you what that lesson is in a minute.

Let’s get back to the man….

Jesus next question to the man, showed that man up as a hypocrite because he said he had kept all of God’s commandments! But see Jesus’ response in verse 21 was even more amazing. Instead of pointing out that the man was lying “Jesus looked at Him and loved him.” What compassion towards a sinner who thought his wealth could win Jesus over.

In the end, Jesus said something that finally exposed to the man himself, his true motives. Jesus asked him if he would be willing to give away all his wealth to the poor and follow Him.

Verse 22: “At this, the man’s face fell. He went away sad.”

So you see, this verse Mark 10:18 was in the context of a conversation that Jesus had with one particular man! And Jesus engaged him in such a way, by asking pointed questions, that would be clear to him that his wealth was taking the place of God in his life! Jesus had shown him in a very compassionate way that he valued his money more than God!

This is the message in this whole incident. Everything Jesus said in that private conversation as to make a point and teach His followers a tough lesson.

Verse 23 describes it as: “Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God.” Meaning that many (not all) rich people trust in their wealth more than they trust in God!
(Do you notice in this verse that it is only now that Jesus addresses His disciples to clarify the point he was making. Before this, the entire conversation was only with that rich man alone.

Jesus was not making any declarations that “he was not good.’ There was a specific purpose for Jesus to say what He said to the rich young man. In the end, the man understood the lesson. And so did his disciples. Do we?

The disciples understood the lesson clearly because you can read their response in verse 26-29. They spoke to Jesus about how they themselves had sacrificed their own properties, home & what they owned to follow Jesus, something the rich young man could not do.

None of the disciples said to Jesus, “But wait! What was that you said about You not being a “good teacher?” Because it was irrelevant to the true lesson Jesus was teaching them. They understood Jesus was making a point to the rich young man.

Unfortunately, many today in the 21st century misunderstand this ancient lesson, misquote the context and try and read into this verse something that it does not even say.

https://www.faithbrowser.com/no-one-is-good-except-god/

read to here

I am sorry as I only read the first line of your response before starting to answer this post. I am only human and a very deficient one at that and therefore I can only do one thing at a time. Hopefully I will get around to reading the rest of your post.

You are not only calling Jesus Christ a liar but you are saying that the bible is full of deceptions and lies when you refuted Jesus's statement that God is the only one good.

I not sure what to say to you as this makes discussion impossible as we are on two different planets.

It is very possible that the foundation of your belief is based on falsehood and thus it has led you to being as far away from God as the heavens are from the earth.

Again if you cannot accept the words of Jesus who told Pilate that he did nothing in secret and said nothing in secret but that everything he did and said is public knowledge for all to see, then you must be like the Pharisees who saw only what they wanted to see and thus they were considered blind and under the control of their father the Devil.

You are my human brother and thus I cannot condemn you but can only advocate that you take another look at the bible's fundamental concepts to see where you might have gone wrong.

Jesus on the cross said to God, " Why has thou forsaken me" , Jesus on this earth had acquired the sins of everyone whose names are in the book of life"

We do not know the full story of Satan pre-the garden of Eden fall of man (fully attributable to Satan)

But we do know that Satan is irredeemable and is the opposite of God. God is all good and Satan is all evil.

Therefore as it is enticing to come up with a theory about Satan and his fall etc. etc. etc. - It is ungodly to do so, because the bible did not go into any details whatsoever about Satan, God is the personification of good and Satan is the personification of evil.

Choose ye this day who you will serve. God ? or Satan ?

God is perfect and he kept out of the bible the things that our limited brains or mind could not comprehend. He only made absolute statements about them and did not go into details.

If we would try to figure out details of Satan, then most likely we would have to try to figure out details of God, who is from everlasting to everlasting. ( He always was and always will be) If your brain can figure that one out then let me know. In fact I am sure you have never seen a Spirit. That means you do not even know the fundamentals of God.

But God has given us his ways and do not intend for us to decipher them and come up with some equation or formula, but expects us to be 100% obedient to his word, for He is God and without him, there is nothing. Anything that is essential to us that we truly know comes directly from him.

James 1:17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.

Lack of faith (the inability to believe) is going to be the downfall of most of us.

There are no invalid questions when it comes to the Bible. You could just try to answer the question, or not, rather than make judgements against me for asking a question about what the Bible says.

So do you have a direct answer?

The "Rabbinic" version is that Adam WAS "Adam and Eve" in the beginning, and God took from Adam the "Essence" of Eve, and created his "Better half" with it. no "Ribs" were involved.

First, I should say that I cannot judge you, as it is the word of God that judges. Often people are convicted just by hearing the words of God.

I do not live unto myself. I do not have freewill in my life to express my opinions but only to speak the word of God. (In reality none of us have free will); Anything that I say must come from God according to his word, else I will be a liar.

And of course you do know where all liars are going to go. The definition of Satan is that he was a liar and murderer from the very beginning.

Rev_21:8 But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.

The Pharisees tempted Jesus many times for him to say something that could cause them to stone him to death. Of course he knew their minds and many times did not answer them, but asked them a question in return (for example Why was he (Jesus) called the son of David?); he many times left them more perplexed than when they first approached him.

The child (or servant) of God must both be wise as a serpent and as harmless as a dove. Very challenging indeed.

Jesus never excluded Himself.. Read the passage again.. He asked the young man why he called Him good when only God was good.. If the young man was inspired by the Holy Spirit he would have answered something like You and the Father are One or you are my Lord and My God.. Of course the young man did not know the true nature of Jesus.. The young man had got into the habit ( one we still see to this day ) of calling other faulty human beings good..

But there is no need to worry about the lack of free will, because God is sure to provide the best for us even beyond our expectations, and we will be more than happy to obey His Word. It won't do any harm.There is no bad result in obeying God's Word.

I'm humble, but my slogan is, I'm the best under heaven. __________________ Just kidding

Ok, I realize the question I asked isn't exactly the kind of tame question one may expect to hear in Sunday school. So let me subdue it a bit if that helps.

The war in heaven. Did it already happen or is it a future event?

I believe we do have free will; either that or there is a strong illusion of such. If we don't have free will then I'm done playing the game.

Do you remember what Jesus said? I'm not following my own will, I'm following my father's will.
When God's will became ours will, that is also free will.
If you love God with all your heart ,mind and soul.

The problem here is one of definition; I have not looked up the word "only" but if "only" does not mean "only" in the sense of exclusion of everything or everyone else, then maybe I possibly could be called "good" also in the sight of God. If there is one exception, there could be thousands of exceptions, if God made just a tiny weeny bit of a mistake in the bible, he possibly could have made other mistakes too.

Not so !!! Who are you to confront and challenge God based upon you teeney weeny mind comparable to ant, or even less than an ant, because an ant does by instinct what God has made him to do. Man is the only creature that rebels against God.

I have to be insistent here. God is perfect, the bible is perfect and when God says something, he is not trying to mislead us or confuse us.

Ok, possibly you do not know God. Also you possibly think the the bible is not perfect and has some flaws in communication, just because you do not understand it. Now I can understand why you possibly think that Jesus had some ulterior motive in saying what he said.

But that statement in the bible is not needed to prove that God is the only one good. In fact if you really know God and if you really understand the bible, then the entire bible proves that God is the only one good. I guess I could give you some clues. But I won't. You should go searching again for the truth in the bible, if you really care about the truth and also with your relationship with God.

The funny thing is that usually everyone is wrong and God is right. The reason is that everyone is corrupt and like birds of a feather then stick together. Noah was the only righteous man when God destroyed the rest of the world. Yes. I would appeal to you not to follow the crowd.

I still think you are using man's logic which is opposite to God's logic and which often leads people astray. All of your statements are beautifully said and possibly could be given an award by man's system of appraisal.

But they are not of God, and could only possibly lead you astray from the pathway of truth.
A man must say what he means and means what he says. Everything comes from the heart.

You may say or ask, who am I to judge. I judge not to condemn, but rather to save. This life is the only place to be saved. After this life is the judgment and it the word of God that will come back to judge us.

I hope you go back to the word of God and read this verse Proverbs 16: 9 and find the truth that could set you free.

belief in the bible is a decision.

I am not aware of any war in heaven. God has never laid any such thing on my mind. It actually could be a distraction to put that event center-stage in one's life probably for the objective of a bit of excitement and intrigue and for building a story on it to fit a certain narrative.

Revelation may have suggested such an event between Lucifer and his angels and God and his angels.

But that event has no bearing whatsoever on our hope of salvation, as the bible states that Satan is right here on this earth, present and accounted for and like a roaring lion is seeking to devour all who would disobey the word of God.

I am not saying that what you are saying never happened, but you have to be careful, as the bible contains many, many stumbling blocks that could draw us away from the truth. I was listening to a so-called Christian program on TV this morning called the Camping show, where you have to sow a seed in order to receive God's blessing in your life.

I observed the faces of the people on the choir and also those in the audience. There were apparently every type of person represented there, the pretty, the ugly, the well dressed, the not too well-dressed, and I guess the wealthy, the poor etc etc.

The teacher was adept and a master of proving from the bible that God wanted your money, a seed that you plant in order to receive his earthly and heavenly blessing.

I lamented the plight of those who refuse to read the bible, and instead seek the professional advice of false prophets. Yes all that he preached what in the bible, but it was twisted and deceived all the people in his audience.

We have to be careful when studying God's word.

Again Paul in 1st Corinthians 13 says that love trumps knowledge. When we have the love of God, then God provides the appropriate knowledge to go along with his love. knowledge in and of itself is puffed up and leads us to hell.

In these last days man is going to become more and more bewildered and many will fall away as God puts us all through his fire. Yes, today is the day of salvation, tomorrow may be too late.

I too, am a person who thinks too much.

But it is not my thinking that gives me pride, but my being led by God that is most fulfilling to me.

You are either being led of God or you are being led of the devil.

I came to the conclusion the other day that I was being led of (by) God in my teens, even though I never knew it, until 50 years later when I decided that God was all that I needed. It is God who made everything and who provides everything.

That sounds like a hard pill to swallow when we all have been so doing well by ourselves, self-sufficient. Maybe that is the reason why Jesus said he came to call the insufficient, the sick, those who needed help.

A man has to deny himself, in order to come to know the One True God. (As Acts 17 says it is by God that we move and breathe and live on this earth.) To recognize that fact is to draw closer to God and to the truth that will come to judge us at the end of time.