Things I have learned from studying the Bible

When we look at the world it sometimes seems that evil is in control of the world. Many countries have rulers that oppress Christians and Christianity. Others practice aggression against weaker counties around them. Large corporations are concerned only with making profits and don’t care how many people they hurt in the process. Lawbreakers seem to operate with impunity and those who have good lawyers seldom suffer the consequences of their actions. Even individuals who appear to be living decent, moral lives devote their lives to advancement in this world and give little or no thought to how God wants them to live. This state of affairs will not go on forever. And the multitude of all the nations that fight against Ariel,     all that fight against her and her stronghold and distress her,     shall be like a dream, a vision of the night. As when a hungry man dreams, and behold, he is eating,     and awakes with his hunger not satisfied, or as when a thirsty man dreams, and behold, he

The Lord’s Prayer: My Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done,     on earth as it is in heaven. Give me this day my daily bread, and forgive me my debts,     as I also have forgiven my debtors. And lead me not into temptation,     but deliver me from evil. Does this sound familiar? It shouldn’t. All the first person pronouns in the Lord’s Prayer are plural. It is addressed to  our  Father and asks that God give  us  daily bread, forgiveness, and deliverance from evil. So who is included in the word  we ? According to 1 Corinthians 12: 12-26 all Christians are one body and our personal welfare is linked to that of the whole body. Verse 26 says, “   If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together.” When we pray we are asking for God’s blessings not only for ourselves but also for the rest of the body. This doesn’t mean that we should never ask for something solely for ourselves. For example, look at Peter’s

Daniel 9:24-27 contains a prophecy of seventy weeks of years, 490 years, that was given to Daniel to show what lay ahead for his people the Jews and for the city of Jerusalem. “ Seventy weeks are decreed about your people and your holy city, to finish the transgression, to put an end to sin, and to atone for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal both vision and prophet, and to anoint a most holy place.  Know therefore and understand that from the going out of the word to restore and build Jerusalem to the coming of an anointed one, a prince, there shall be seven weeks. Then for sixty-two weeks it shall be built again with squares and moat, but in a troubled time. And after the sixty-two weeks, an anointed one shall be cut off and shall have nothing. And the people of the prince who is to come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. Its end shall come with a flood, and to the end there shall be war. Desolations are decreed.  And he shall make a strong covenant with

The 13th chapter of Leviticus gives instructions about leprosy. If someone had an unusual spot or swelling on his body he was to go to a priest who would examine the spot to determine if it was a sign of leprosy. If the person did have leprosy he had to live apart from other people and wherever he went he had to call out “Unclean, unclean” to warn others not to come near him. (There is a disease called Hansen’s disease which is called leprosy. It is not the same as biblical leprosy. It can cause physical impairment or disfigurement. There is no indication that leprosy in the Bible did that. Leprosy wasn’t a disease; it was a skin condition that made a person ceremonially unclean. In Matthew 10:8 Jesus commanded his disciples, “ Heal  the sick, raise the dead,  cleanse  lepers, cast out demons.”) There is one statement that has puzzled me. Verses 12 and 13 say, “And if the leprous disease breaks out in the skin, so that the leprous disease covers all the skin of the diseased person from

In addition to creating humans, God has created angels and other beings who are like them. Students of the Bible generally teach that there are at least four classes of such beings: angels, archangels, cherubim, and seraphim. Angels are mentioned many times. Cherubim are first mentioned in Genesis 3:24, “   He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life. “ Seraphim are mentioned in Isaiah 6:2, “ Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. “ But the word “archangels” is never found in the Bible. The singular, “archangel”, appears only twice. The first appearance is in 1 Thessalonians 4:16.  For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of  the  archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.  It says  the  arc

After the flood God gave Noah a new command. “ Whoever sheds the blood of man,     by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in his own image .” (Genesis 9:6) Despite the fact that capital punishment was commanded by God many Christians believe it should be abolished. One argument they use is that killing a person closes the door to any hope that he will repent of his sins and be saved. Yet the Bible tells of a case where capital punishment opened the door to salvation for one man. When Jesus was crucified two others were crucified with him. “ Then two robbers were crucified with him, one on the right and one on the left. And those who passed by derided him, wagging their heads and saying, “You who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save yourself! If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross.” So also the chief priests, with the scribes and elders, mocked him, saying, “He saved others; he cannot save himself. He is the King of Israel; let him come down

If you read many political discussions you may have read the terms DINO and RINO. They stand for Democrat in Name Only and Republican in Name Only. They describe those who are members of a political party but who don’t really promote the things that party stands for. In the long run it doesn’t really matter whether you are a Democrat, a Republican, a DINO, or a RINO. One day Jesus Christ will return and set up his kingdom and rule the entire world. All of our present governments and political parties will be eliminated. But it will make a big difference whether or not you are a CINO. CINO stands for Christian in Name Only. We are all sinners and deserve nothing but eternal condemnation in Hell. Jesus Christ died and rose from the dead to atone for our sins. For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures.  (1 Cori

Mr. and Mrs. Brown were faithful members of their church and the taught their sons, Harry and Tom, to be faithful too. When the sons grew up Harry rejected his parents’ teaching and stopped attending church. Tom continued to be active in church. The time came when Harry was about to die. He realized that he was not ready and finally repented of his sins and put his faith in Jesus Christ. His life had been wasted because he had lived for his own pleasure but in the end he was saved. Tom also reached the end of his life. Looking back he realized that he had tried to live a Christian life but in fact he was not a Christian because he had not repented and believed in Christ. Near the end of his life he finally took this step. His life had been wasted because he had trusted in his church and his service to it rather than in Christ but in the end he was saved. When we think of deathbed salvation we generally think of someone like Harry rather then Tom. The Bible gives us an example of such s

The last two chapters of the Bible describe the creation of a new heaven and a new earth which will be the home of all whose sins have been forgiven through their faith in Jesus Christ. There will be no more sin or temptation to sin. All that is evil will have been removed. Some people think of this time as being like retirement. We have finished our work and now we are able to begin living a life of leisure. Nothing can be further from the truth. This is not the end of our service to God but its true beginning. When God created Adam and Eve he had great plans for their future. We don’t know what those plans were because they ate the fruit that God had forbidden and so brought sin and death into the world. All that has happened since then is God’s efforts to remove these two invaders and restore the creation to what he intended it to be. Once that has been accomplished he will begin to carry out the real purpose for which he created us. The Last Battle , the last book of the  Chronicle

The Israelites were often tempted to worship the gods of the Canaanites and the surrounding nations.  One of those gods was called Molech or Moloch.  He required that his worshipers sacrifice their children to him.  Here is what Wikipedia says about him. Rabbinical  tradition depicted Moloch as a bronze statue heated with fire into which the victims were thrown. This has been associated with reports by Greco-Roman authors on the child sacrifices in  Carthage  to  Baal Hammon , especially since archaeological excavations since the 1920s have produced evidence for child sacrifice in Carthage as well as inscriptions including the term MLK, either a theonym or a technical term associated with sacrifice. In  interpretatio graeca , the Phoenician god was identified with  Cronus , due to the parallel mytheme of Cronus devouring his children. Moloch It seems inconceivable that anyone would be willing to kill their own children.  Perhaps it makes more sense when we understand the power behind i

There will be a final judgment just before God creates the new heaven and the new earth. Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. From his presence earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them.   And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done.   And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one of them, according to what they had done.   Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire.   And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.   (Revelation 20:11-15) Books containing a record of what the dead had done will be opened and the dead will be judged by what is written in them.  Another bo

It is a popular belief that in the past everyone thought the world is flat.  I have heard it said that Christopher Columbus proved the world was round when he discovered America.  The peasants might have thought the world was flat but the educated people knew it’s true shape.  They didn’t think Columbus would sail off the edge of the world.  They thought it was impossible to reach Asia by sailing west because the distance was too great.  If the American continents didn’t exist they would have been right. Columbus believed the world was smaller than it actually is and that Asia was larger.  That is why he thought the land he discovered was in the East Indies.  That is also why the aboriginal Americans are still called Indians. There is also a widespread misconception that the Bible teaches that the world is flat.  I haven’t studied much of what the Bible says on this subject but there is one thing I know for sure.  Jesus knew that the world is round.  Here is what he said about his retu

Everyone knows that human life begins at conception.  A new person comes into existence, created in Gods image, with his unique DNA, with a God given plan for his life.  The new human isn’t yet able to survive on his own so he must spend the first nine months of existence in his mother’s womb. Actually the first sentence isn’t accurate.  What I should have said is, “Everyone knows that human life begins at conception,  except those who believe a woman has the right to abort her baby .”  All of us believe that murdering a human is wrong so abortion can only be justified by claiming that the unborn child is something less than human.  Some “Christians” even quote a verse of the Bible to prove this point. The  LORD  God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.   (Genesis 2:7) They say this proves that life begins when the baby takes its first breath and so there is no sin in aborting it before then.  Th

Answers in Genesis   is an organization founded and led by  Ken Ham   that is dedicated to proving that the Bible’s account of creation recorded in Genesis is true and can be supported scientifically.  It has aroused a great deal of controversy.  It is strongly supported by many Bible believers.  It is disliked by unbelievers who accept the popular idea that life evolved over millions of years and even by some Christians who also accept this belief.  (For a long time I was in this group.  I was a Christian but I also believed that the theory of evolution had been scientifically proven.  If I had known of Answers in Genesis I would probably have believed that what it was teaching was false.  In the last few years I have come to realized that in fact there is no evidence supporting evolution.) Recently a thought occurred to me.  What is Charles Darwin’s opinion of  Answers in Genesis ?  Darwin died in 1882, but his soul still exists.  How have his views changed since his death? In his ea

Great is the  LORD  and greatly to be praised in the city of our God! His holy mountain,   beautiful in elevation, is the joy of all the earth, Mount Zion, in the far north , the city of the great King. Within her citadels God has made himself known as a fortress.   (Psalm 48:1-3) This Psalm speaks of Mount Zion, which is another name for Jerusalem, as being in the far north.  Jerusalem was near the center of Israel.  After the kingdom split in two it was near the northern border of Judea but there is no way it could be considered to be in the far north. It seems obvious that this doesn’t speak of the present city of Jerusalem but of a new Jerusalem which will exist in the future.  Someday God will destroy the present earth and create a new heaven and a new earth.  This new earth is described in chapters 21 and 22 of Revelation.  He will create a new Jerusalem which will be the capital of the new earth.  (Perhaps he has already created it and it is waiting in heaven for the time it wil