Questions and Comments - Guidelines
Please read the following before continuing:
E-mail Correspondence Guidelines
Q: Do you answer questions and respond to comments?
A: The purpose of our web sites is to provide serious Bible students with quality materials to help them study the word of God for themselves. It is not our purpose to provide a place for argumentative people to quarrel endlessly or engage in endless email debate. We encourage our visitors to read, study and benefit from the materials we provide online. We have literally thousands of visitors to this site every year. We try to respond to serious questions and brief comments about our online materials, but this of itself takes a significant amount of time. Our website is maintained and serviced by volunteer workers with many other important responsibilities, and who do this work in their spare time. Thus, the time to respond to online questions is necessarily limited.
Occasionally we receive emails requesting that we read, study, and/or respond to lengthy statements, frequent questions, published articles, or that we engage in other lengthy exchanges about religious topics. These discussions or materials may or may not be of serious religious value. However, while we have no desire to be unkind to anyone, quite frankly we generally do not have time to respond or to engage in such lengthy discussions or exchanges. We believe the case for what the Bible teaches on a number of signficant doctrinal matters is amply made in the material online. Again, while not wanting to be unkind to anyone or be closed minded, we urge our visitors to read the material on the site carefully.
However, if you would like to receive a response from us, we request that you please do the following:
- If you are responding to something you read in one of our online courses or articles, please read and study the online material carefully and look up the pertinent passages cited before you send us your question or comment. Often the material we have published will answer the questions people have -- that is why we have published it! If your question or comment indicates to us that you have not seen our published materials or have not read them carefully, we will simply respond by referring you to our published material and urging you to read and study it carefully.
- Please send just one or two brief questions and/or comments, and be specific. If you disagree, give specific evidence (especially Bible evidence) to demonstrate where you believe we are mistaken. Broad, general accusations, such as "You don't know what you're talking about," "You are teaching works salvation," or "You're an idiot," are not helpful and will not receive a response!
- Since the purpose of our sites is to examine the text of the Bible itself, please restrict questions and comments to the Bible text, rather than to religious history, quotations from theologians, etc. Sending quotations from Martin Luther or Billy Graham may impress some people - but it doesn't do much for those who are seeking to see what the Bible says, does it?
- Please focus on studying our online materials, rather than on lengthy, ongoing correspondence with us. We try to do a service to our visitors by publishing materials for your benefit. We regret that we simply do not have time for lengthy exchanges and communications and thank you for being understanding.