Want Some Answers ???

Dear Phil,

  Thanks for your letter 7th June and posting the lessons. You mentioned you “would be happy to discuss…further” the content of the lessons. That’s really kind of you, very much appreciated.

  I wrote on Review Paper 5,  I was “not sure” with all the content of the lessons that “the whole truth is presented”.

Eg, lesson 20. It says the Holy Spirit is powerful, creates, knows everything, helps people, inspires them, and does exactly what God does [which sounds like a person]. And Jesus refers to 'it' as a person. So I began to think, why couldn’t it be a powerful person? Logically referred to with a masculine pronoun in John 14.16-17 ?

"And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counsellor to be with you forever--  the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. [also. 16:13]

This makes sense. This verse doesn’t read like 'picturesque language' as the lesson claims. John uses masculine language to indicate Jesus was referring to a person, not a thing. The masculine also is used in Acts 28:25 Hebrews 3:7 10:15 [NIV]. Anyway, it seems to me that the Holy Spirit does the same things that a person does. The Greeks used their word for ‘Counsellor’ in the legal arena. It refers to a person who takes the position of defending and advocating counsel. The word never means an impersonal thing.  If the Holy Spirit is part of God, how can part of God be an “it” ?

And then in lesson 22 part 1. The emphasis on death as extinction.  The Bible is true, dead bodies can’t ‘praise God’. But we also read, “Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul”. This is not covered in the lesson. But it quotes Ez.18.4,20.

 "For every living soul belongs to me, the father as well as the son--both alike belong to me. The soul who sins is the one who will die."

 I don’t think Jesus contradicts God. God is not saying man’s soul becomes extinct at death. No. It’s the person who sins, they are the one who will die for their sin, that’s the meaning. Read verses 1-20.  I will be surprised if you can’t see the meaning from a proper reading. I found similar problems with other verses mentioned. And stumbled across Moses and someone on the Mount talking with Jesus. Moses was dead a thousand years, yet he's very much alive and talking. Wow ! It’s little things like that, which really made me think.

Also lesson 22 part 2. The emphasis that there is no hell. This failed to prove it, simply because the whole argument falls apart when it quotes Mark 6.43 on the last page. Have a look. It says, “we know the dead are unconscious” [if unconscious then they’re not extinct], but then goes on to quote Marks verse that says its “better to enter life maimed than into HELL, into the fire” that will “never be quenched”. If that’s “the grave”, then someone’s hiding something from me, what do you think? It appears to me that some of the lessons are the interpretations of a religious group that read the Bible in a particular way. I have been reading the Bible for sometime and found the lessons introduce contradictions between verses. Have you ever noticed this? Have you done the course? Are they based on an eastern religion?

 Perhaps it might be better to receive the lessons one at a time, rather than 3-4 altogether. Which means I might not have unanswered questions set-aside. I hope I haven’t offended you in writing. I know some people just believe what they believe because they just accept it. You may have mentioned it before, but how many parts or lessons are there?  I look forward to the next, thanks for hearing me.

Kind Regards,

Mark Purchase