Is the oneness of Father, Son and Holy Spirit visible in the O.T?

Full Question:

Is the oneness of Father, Son and Holy Spirit stated in the Old Testament? Can you please give an answer based on the bible?

Answer :

The oneness of Father, Son and Holy Spirit was not begun from the time of New Testament. It was not also begun by the birth of Jesus Christ in this earth. The Father, Son and Holy Spirit were one from the very beginning and it was also just the same in the Old Testament.

We can just look through some parts of the Old Testament which will help you to clearly understand the oneness between Father, Son and Holy Spirit. In these parts we can clearly see God as three persons and with different personalities with a oneness among them.

Zechariah 2:8 "For this is what the LORD Almighty says: "After he has honored me and has sent me against the nations that have plundered you--for whoever touches you touches the apple of his eye."

In the above verse we can see Lord Almighty (God) is saying that, 'after He has honored me and has sent me'. This verse is saying that God has honored God and has sent God. Here first person and second person is God. This is because even if the first person and second person is God, it represents two personalities in one God. Here the one person is Father God and Son Jesus Christ.

It can be confirmed by Zechariah 2:11, in which we can see God saying I will live among you and you will know that the Lord Almighty has sent me to you.

Zechariah 2:11 "Many nations will be joined with the LORD in that day and will become my people. I will live among you and you will know that the LORD Almighty has sent me to you.

In Isaiah 48 also we can similarly see the three personalities of God or three God as three persons.

Isaiah 48:12-16 12 “Listen to Me, O Jacob, And Israel, My called: I am He, I am the First, I am also the Last. 13 Indeed My hand has laid the foundation of the earth, And My right hand has stretched out the heavens; When I call to them, They stand up together. 14 “All of you, assemble yourselves, and hear! Who among them has declared these things? The LORD loves him; He shall do His pleasure on Babylon, and His arm shall be against the Chaldeans. 15 I, even I, have spoken; Yes, I have called him, I have brought him, and his way will prosper. 16 “Come near to Me, hear this: I have not spoken in secret from the beginning; From the time that it was, I was there. And now the Lord GOD and His Spirit Have sent Me.” 17 Thus says the LORD, your Redeemer, The Holy One of Israel:

Here also God is the first person and we can see there are two second persons. It can be viewed clearly in the verse 16 in which God is speaking about sending Himself and talking about His Spirit. I think this is the only part in Old Testament where we can clearly see the oneness of Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

We can also see the oneness of Father and Son again in Psalms 110:1. Here God is speaking to God, which is actually Father God speaking to Son God. They are two persons and two personality, but one.

Psalms 110:1 "The LORD says to my Lord: "Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet."

I hope you got your answer clearly through my answer. May God bless you.

Why the church is not growing?

Full Question:

I'm a pastor of a church and we all are praying for a revival for last seven years, in our area. We are in need of a growth in our church. Now there are only 29 members in our church, including kids. Can you please tell me why our church is not growing. Please also mention an effective way to achieve many members to Christ and thus to the church?

Answer:

Even if I'm not a pastor, I can understand your situation of not much members in church. To provide a good answer for your question, I need to know more about the current functioning of your church and its members. Due to the lack of such points in your question, I will try my best to provide an effective method or solution for your problem, based on the basic problems that prevent the growth of your church.

I do believe that the first and most important problem that prevent the growth of your church is the false belief that a church will grow only through prayer. I also know about the testimonies and teaching which make us believe that church will grow only through prayer. It is not a bible based method for the growth of a church. In my opinion this false teaching occurred when certain churches received a revival with no special reasons and they assumed that it was all happened due to their prayers and so on. If any church witnessed a revival after many years of prayer, the fact is that they had wasted all those years and a far better revival.

Bible do not show us even a single revival that occurred only due to the prayer of a church. The most important revival in the bible gives an effective way for the growth of a church. It is the revival in the first century and the first century church growth. Here we can see the apostles and the other disciples of Jesus after receiving Holy Spirit went out and preached the gospel of God Jesus Christ, by performing visible miracles, healing and so on. This is the only reason behind the growth of first century church. It is not only the prayer of apostles that increased the number of members in first century church, but it is also their acts. Even the book of acts is named as 'the acts of apostles', and not as the prayers of apostles. 

There are some churches which know acting is the reason behind a revival, but they don't to how to act. Acts means to work out. The most important thing to work out is to witness Jesus Christ and to share the gospel of Jesus Christ. Along with acts a good order in the church and behavior of its members is necessary to bring new members and to keep members in the church.

Sharing Gospel: Now a days, many churches think that sharing gospel means only to conduct public meeting with someone preaching from some part of the word of God. These meetings are all just an act of Karma, without any intention to gain people for God. It is like doing something just for Jesus commanded to share gospel. Christians and church which need a growth should change this attitude.

You should teach the members of the church what is gospel and also teach them how to share it to others. There are certain necessary points you should mention while teaching them sharing gospel. Teach them not to criticize others gods and their faith. Teach them not to speak from their life or other's life, for the reason that they are imperfect. Teach them to always concentrate in sharing the core things which include the love of God father, the submission of Jesus, the love of Jesus and the Holy Spirit and not to take any importance in sharing other useless matter by spoiling their time and interest. Teach them also to share the birth, life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ in simple ways. Teach them to concentrate on personal evangelism (sharing gospel to a person alone) rather than to focus on crusades. If they are ignorant, also teach them how to make opportunities to build new relationships and to share gospel to others.

Faith: Help them to increase faith of your church members in God so that they may believe that God will surely hear their prayer. Teach them to pray for others shortly with simple words and with interesting points relating to the word of God. Give them the courage and confidence to pray for their sickness, financial crisis, problems and so on. Teach them to keep the things they shared secretly without sharing it to others.

Many Christians now a days believe and satisfy with verses like John 6:44 which says, "No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day." You should teach them to remove these kind of concepts and teach them "Father can draws no one to Jesus unless you share the gospel to them." Also teach them to apply John 6:44 to satisfy at times when they really performed their best to achieve a person by sharing gospel and by praying for them. And teach them also to use John 6:44 to give glory to God when a person is saved, for the fact is it is not only our labor, but God is the one who drew that person to him.

Prayer: Teach the members of your church to pray for the people whom they shared gospel, from their heart. Teach them not to make long prayers in front of them, but to pray privately to all of them one by one, submitting all their problems. Teach them to pray for themselves also for receiving the power of Holy Spirit to share the word of God with much boldness. Tell them to pray to God to use them more and to be an available tool in the hand of God.

Expectation: Teach them not to expect the repentance of all people whom they shared gospel. Because, if they make such great expectations and when they saw it not working, they may lose their faith and get tired quickly. According to me, a good calculation is to expect only one person, if you shared gospel and prayed seriously for ten persons. I said it because in bible we can see Jesus Christ is satisfied by the return of the one person from the ten leprosy patients he cured.

Care: Teach them also to take care of the people whom they shared gospel. Tell them to show their love and care for them. Teach them to share necessary things to them like food, finance, job and so on, if they lack it. But also tell them to take care not to change their focus from Jesus Christ to the material things which they share. Teach them to be a good friend of them and also a friend in need to be with them especially on situations which they cannot handle. By all these caring, teach them to change their primary focus to Jesus Christ and to depend him for their needs.

Welcome: Teach the members to invite the people they shared gospel to the church. Tell them to do their best to bring at least one new soul to the church on each Sunday. Don't reject or depress those who fail to bring one, but exhort them and give them faith and hope to continue sharing gospel. Also care not to impose the believers to do so.

Your part: There are also many essential things which you need to do along with teaching them these things. You should not behave like a preacher of this world after teaching them all these things. It is because preachers of this world preach great things and perform nothing in action. So you should not only teach them these things. You should also study the things I mentioned and you should also start sharing gospel and try your best to bring at least one person to church each Sunday, by your own labor. You and your family should become a role model for all the things which I mentioned above and do not take any exceptions for you are the pastor of the church.

You should always remember that new believers coming to your church are the result of the grace of God and also due to the labor of the members of your church. If you don't treat all new believers with all care and love, the members of your church won't tolerate it, for those members are the result of their hard work. For that you should make all the activities in the church interesting. You should share interesting messages from Bible, conduct good worship service and all. Don't continue doing things, if you found people bored on your words. Don't give same messages repeatedly even if it is about basic things. Share to cover points like repentance, water baptism, Holy Spirit and its importance one by one on every Sunday and cover it by one month and repeat it every month.

Organize some special meetings for the church members and share small messages to them. Hear what they experienced on sharing gospel and praying for others. Teach them to be leaders of the people, they gained. Don't compel any person to get into ministry if they are working or something, but teach them to share gospel and to bring his co-workers or co-students to Jesus Christ and to the church.

Don't take all your life to teach your church members these things. A one month is appropriate according to my opinion. Within a month, teach them these things and start sharing gospel in your area. May God bless you and its members, with this answer to achieve more people to your church. And let your church be a model for other churches too.

What should be the qualifications of a pastor?

Full Question:

What should be the role of a good pastor, youth pastor, women pastor, in the church of God? What are the qualifications to be a pastor?

Answer:

Bible clearly says about the role and qualifications required by a pastor of the church. It is written and mentioned in the epistles written by Apostle Paul to Timothy and Titus.

1 Timothy 3:1-7 "¹Here is a trustworthy saying: If anyone sets his heart on being an overseer, he desires a noble task.²Now the overseer must be above reproach, the husband of but one wife, temperate, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, ³not given to drunkenness, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money. ⁴He must manage his own family well and see that his children obey him with proper respect. ⁵(If anyone does not know how to manage his own family, how can he take care of God's church?)⁶He must not be a recent convert, or he may become conceited and fall under the same judgment as the devil. ⁷He must also have a good reputation with outsiders, so that he will not fall into disgrace and into the devil's trap."

Titus 1: 5-9 "⁵ For this reason I left you in Crete, that you should set in order the things that are lacking, and appoint elders in every city as I commanded you— ⁶ if a man is blameless, the husband of one wife, having faithful children not accused of dissipation or insubordination. ⁷ For a bishop must be blameless, as a steward of God, not self-willed, not quick-tempered, not given to wine, not violent, not greedy for money, ⁸ but hospitable, a lover of what is good, sober-minded, just, holy, self-controlled, ⁹ holding fast the faithful word as he has been taught, that he may be able, by sound doctrine, both to exhort and convict those who contradict."

It would like to write it one by one so that it will be very easy to notice and understand each point.

He should be  a person who is in desire for a task in the church.

He should be a person without reproach.

He should be married and  a husband of one wife.

He should be temperate / vigilant.

He should be sober-minded / self controlled.

He should be respectable / orderly.

He should be given to hospitality.

He should be able to teach.

He should not be given to drunkenness.

He should not be violent.

He should be gentle.

He should not be quarrelsome.

He should not be a lover of money.

He should have a household and he should manage it well.

He should have children and should keep his children submissive with all dignity.

He should have faithful children.

He should not be a recent convert / new believer.

He should have good reputation with the outsiders / people outside the church.

He should be a lover of God.

He should be just / upright.

He should be Holy.

He should be disciplined.

He should hold fast the faithful word as he has been taught.

Almost all the points about a the eligibility of a pastor is very clear in the verses mentioned above.  You can discern anyone with these points to realize that if a person is a real pastor based on the bible. A biblical pastor should be qualified in all the points mentioned above.

And now a days, may be by the influence of the world or so, many variety of pastors are available in the church. Youth pastor, women pastor, kids pastor, babies pastor are all few of them. Whatever it may be Bible do not support these things at all. Bible clearly says that a church is a group of people who got saved. It includes people of different categories. If we classify them, there may be youth, kids, women, rich, poor, educated, uneducated, professionals and so on. According to me it is not good to assign pastors for each category. It is because church is a fellowship between members of all these categories.

Beyond these, bible speak only about a pastor with the qualifications which I mentioned above. Thus it do not allows a women or a youth or a kid to be a pastor. And if some church want separate pastors for their women, youth and kids, at any cost, let them assign pastors with the qualification mentioned in the bible.

Many people are confused about the relation between elders and pastors. A good incident from bible which help us to understand this relation clearly is from Acts 20: 17. Here we can see that Apostle Paul sent message to the elders of the church at Ephesus and bring them to him. After sharing many things that happened in the past and in his journey to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ, He appointed those elders of the pastors, to shepherd the flocks in the church of God.

This is the only incident mentioned in the bible, in which we can see the appointment of pastors. Here it is clear that Apostle Paul appointed the elders of the church as pastors. If it is so, one should be an elder before he become a pastor. The eligibility to become an elder is clearly mentioned in the Titus 1: 5-9.

Most churches today do not have pastors that satisfy the biblical qualifications of a pastor. They do not preach these kind of things in the church for they lack it. They preach Jesus Christ as the one who is build churches and they believe all their actions are God's divine leading. They teach the members that all leaders are appointed by God and not to question authorities. They want everyone to be submissive, or simply, to be silent watching all these things inside the church which they called as the church of God. Finally they says that that the grace will cover all these things.

May God bless all of you with this answer to discern people who are called pastors.

What should be the qualifications of a good leader?

There are plenty of books and essays available in the market specifying the qualities which a leader should posses. Still I would like to share some thoughts about it from my point of view.

According to me, a leader is simply a person who lead others. Thus there are many leaders all over the world. Most of all people are leaders for they are leading someone. To realize a good leader from these leaders is really important and I'll help you to discern a leader.

Leading: There are so many ways to lead others. It is possible to lead then with force and imposing. Hitler is a good example for this. Likewise it is possible to be a leader with the influence of material things like finance, assignment, position, power, education, age and so on. Rather than these things, a good leader should be a person who influence others with his wisdom and to get others to willingly follow him. Such a person should gain followers with his wisdom. Jesus Christ and Solomon are good examples for these.

Goal: A leader is to lead. This leading should never be a kind of leading without an aim. If a leader is not consistent in their aim, gradually the followers will loose their trust and hope in him. Most leaders are leading their followers with no aim and purpose. A good leader should be able to guide others with a clear vision to a fixed aim with purpose. There should be a primary vision and secondary vision which are also small visions to get to the primary vision.

Followers: A good leader should be a able to understand his followers. He should also be a good follower too, follower of his aim itself. He should realize that his followers are following him with some needs and he should be able to take necessary actions to help them for their need. He should never misuse his followers, but he should be a person who only use his followers.

Deeds: All leaders in this world are very good in words. But deeds are the mark of a successful leader. A good leader should be strong in both his words and deeds. Leaders only good in words will never achieve success in their life. They will surely fail to achieve their aim.

Listen: A good leader should be also be a very good listener. He should be a person who give value to the words and suggestions of his followers. He should have the ability to listen and to make decisions. But most of all times, leaders are only good in giving commands. Such leaders will surely lose their followers sooner or later.

Knowledge: It may be impossible for a leader to acquire a vast knowledge about everything. But a good leader should at least have some good knowledge regarding their vision. His basic knowledge about the vision to achieve the vision should be good. Otherwise he will not be able to understand his followers problems and to guide them properly.

Dedication: A good should be a person who dedicated his life, time and necessary things for his followers and vision to achieve the vision. He should be able to make his followers dedicated not by imposing, but by the influence of his dedication. Most leaders are good dedicators only in their oaths and not in deeds. Their followers will also eventually become people with no dedication towards achieving the aim.

Exhorting: A good leader should also be a good encourager. He should be a person who correct his followers through encouraging them by preferring new ideas to them. Bad leaders only found only find enjoyment in criticizing and finding the mistakes of his followers and others. Such a person should lose the commitment of his followers.

Creativity: A good leader should be creative to make some ideas and plans of his own, at least with the goal to achieve the vision. Most leaders today lack this quality for they are copying and following the ideas and thoughts of somebody else to be a leader. The major aftereffect of this is utter failure in situations of crisis and problems where nobodies idea is their to copy.

Beyond these qualities, a leader should also be honest, confident, intelligent, able, listening and so on. All these are qualities of a good leader, but not all exceptions are bad leaders also. Nobody is perfect and no leader is also perfect, expect the leader Jesus Christ. Those who gain Jesus Christ as their leader should surely find success in their life for they are following a good leader with good and fixed vision. This leader is the only leader in this world who is equally good in both words and deeds. So do you have Jesus as your leader? If you want Him as you leader, Click here.