II SOME QUESTIONS

I’m Writing this on Sunday Am I Breaking the Sabbath?

"Observe the Sabbath day by keeping it holy, as the LORD your God has commanded you. Six days you shall labor and do all your work.  Deuteronomy 5:12-13

Some conversation came up about how we should behave on Sunday. Is it all right to go out to eat in a restaurant or shop at the mall? Should anyone even be working in a restaurant or a mall on Sunday? If we engage in Sunday activities outside worship will we be so much like everyone else we will be a stumbling block between the unsaved coming to Christ?

Here are my personal views about this question. This is my opinion. We must each reach our own.

The Ten Commandants definitely say to observe the Sabbath and keep it Holy. The Commandment goes on to say we must not do any work on that day and no one we are associated with should work on that day. The Laws of Moses go even further in explaining the restrictions of the Sabbath and the religious leaders of those times added further rules.

The penalty for breaking the Sabbath was pretty emphatic -- death. (Take a look at Numbers 15:32-36. That guy was just gathering some firewood to keep warm or perhaps cook a meal on the Sabbath and what happened? Look it up.)

I will be leaving for Sunday School and Church shortly. I will get home around 11:30 AM, just about lunchtime. I didn't prepare a sandwich yesterday, so can I make myself one for lunch? Not under the Law, if I am observing today as the Sabbath. I am forebade from preparing any meals on the Sabbath.

I am a Philadelphia Eagles fan. They are on Sunday Night Football. I will be getting home from this evening's Bible Study at church just in time to watch the game. Am I breaking the Sabbath by doing so? 

Well, perhaps not. Technically a day, in the pattern of Creation, is an evening and a morning, a day. The Sabbath begins at sundown and runs until the next sundown, so tonight's game is being played on Monday - technically - according to Biblical rules.

Do I break it when I watch them play in the afternoon between church services?

Again, technically no, because the Sabbath is the seventh day of the week, again set in the pattern of Creation. Sunday is the first day of the week, the day God began his Creating. Friday sundown until Saturday sundown is the Sabbath. I went to the store yesterday. My wife and I were out to dinner last evening (well that was after sundown, so we may be safe there). We did work about the house. My son was at work. My daughters were both working yesterday and will today. (They both work at Animal Shelters and sheltered animals need care seven days a week, not just six.  Jesus said:  "You hypocrites! Doesn't each of you on the Sabbath untie his ox or donkey from the stall and lead it out to give it water? Luke 13:15

"If any of you has a sheep and it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will you not take hold of it and lift it out? How much more valuable is a man than a sheep! Therefore it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath." Matthew 10:11-12.

So it is probably fine they are taking care of animals in need.)

But what about the rest of we Christians who ate out, did shopping, took a ride, took a walk, raked leaves, cleaned the house, had the car serviced, went to work, got a haircut, cooked a meal, etc. yesterday and/or today?

Shall we pick up some stones and begin throwing them at each other?

And again, at which time do we break the Sabbath? Sundown Friday to sundown Saturday? Sundown Saturday to sundown Sunday? All day Saturday? All day Sunday? Is Sunday really the New Testament Sabbath at all?

Here is the Fourth Commandment as stated in Deuteronomy 5:12-15:

Observe the Sabbath day by keeping it holy, as the LORD your God has commanded you. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your ox, your donkey or any of your animals, nor the alien within your gates, so that your manservant and maidservant may rest, as you do. Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and that the LORD your God brought you out of there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore the LORD your God has commanded you to observe the Sabbath day.

Is Sunday the New Sabbath?

So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness. See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ.  Colossians 2:6-8

I do not believe Sunday is the Christian Sabbath or a new Sabbath. This is strictly my opinion. It is not come to lightly. You need to form your own opinion through your own prayer and study.  Anyway, here is my understanding.

The Jews lived under the Law until the coming of Christ. After Christ came the Church, the Body of Christ made up by His believers. The Body of Christ is under Grace. God will deal with the Church for a period of time, but He is not finished dealing with the Jews. God has in a sense set the Jews aside for the moment, but He has made promises to them yet unfulfilled. Eventually, God will remove his Church and again deal with the Jews. But it will not be under the Law, but under Grace.

The Jews today cannot practice all the demands of the Law (nor can the Church). God removed from them the ability to perform the sacrifices required for their atonement and worship when the Temple was destroyed in 70 AD. This God warned he would do and He did. When Christ came, he stated the Old Testament was about Him and he said He had come to fulfill the Law, not to destroy it. Certainly, much of the Law remains to guide us: have no other gods, honor our father and mother, do not murder or steal and so forth. But many things in the Law, once fulfilled in Christ, became unnecessary. 

When the sheet of creatures was lowered to Peter in a vision and Peter was told to take and eat, it was a sign to the Apostles it was all right to preach the Gospel to gentiles. It was also permission from that point for people to eat foods formally banned under the Law.

I believe this is also the case with the Fourth Commandment.

"Observe the Sabbath day by keeping it holy, as the LORD your God has commanded you. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your ox, your donkey or any of your animals, nor the alien within your gates, so that your manservant and maidservant may rest, as you do. Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and that the LORD your God brought you out of there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore the LORD your God has commanded you to observe the Sabbath day. Deuteronomy 5:12-15. 

This Commandment was given with an explanation for its practice, a remembrance "that you were slaves in Egypt and that the Lord your God brought you out..." Who is the 'you'? I am not of Jewish decent. I descended from Japheth, not from Shem.

I believe Jesus gave us a new Commandment of observation in place of this one as Christians. "Take this bread, which is my body...take this wine which is my blood shed for you...do this in remembrance of Me".

But this command is not tied to a certain day. Many churches practice Communion on the first Sunday of the month. Some churches do this every Sunday. The Catholic Church performs Holy Communion daily, some times more than once a day.  But Communion doesn't have to be performed in a church or by a minister or priest. Anywhere a few of us gather, we can perform Communion amongst ourselves. 

Keep in mind, there were other rules around Sabbaths and there were Sabbaths beyond the seventh day. There was even a Sabbath year. 

 " 'Count off seven Sabbaths of years—seven times seven years—so that the seven Sabbaths of years amount to a period of forty-nine years. Then have the trumpet sounded everywhere on the tenth day of the seventh month; on the Day of Atonement sound the trumpet throughout your land. Consecrate the fiftieth year and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you; each one of you is to return to his family property and each to his own clan. The fiftieth year shall be a jubilee for you; do not sow and do not reap what grows of itself or harvest the untended vines. For it is a jubilee and is to be holy for you; eat only what is taken directly from the fields.

 " 'In this Year of Jubilee everyone is to return to his own property.

 " 'If you sell land to one of your countrymen or buy any from him, do not take advantage of each other. You are to buy from your countryman on the basis of the number of years since the Jubilee. And he is to sell to you on the basis of the number of years left for harvesting crops. When the years are many, you are to increase the price, and when the years are few, you are to decrease the price, because what he is really selling you is the number of crops. Do not take advantage of each other, but fear your God. I am the LORD your God. Leviticus 25:8-17

If we are to argue the Sabbath Day applies to us, then shouldn't the Sabbath and Jubilee Years apply as well? But we don't even give them a thought. (I believe the Sabbath Year is a portend of a future event, but I'm not going there right now.)

Just as God predicted He would send the Messiah and that He would tear down the Temple, he predicted the Jews would lose their land and be scattered throughout the world until one day He would bring them back and restore them. He also predicted He would take away their sacrifices, Sabbaths and feasts.

I will stop all her celebrations: her yearly festivals, her New Moons, her Sabbath days—all her appointed feasts. I will ruin her vines and her fig trees, which she said were her pay from her lovers; 
I will make them a thicket, and wild animals will devour them. I will punish her for the days she burned incense to the Baals; she decked herself with rings and jewelry, and went after her lovers, but me she forgot," declares the LORD.

"Therefore I am now going to allure her; I will lead her into the desert 
and speak tenderly to her. There I will give her back her vineyards, 
and will make the Valley of Achor a door of hope. 
There she will sing as in the days of her youth, 
as in the day she came up out of Egypt. "In that day," declares the LORD, 
"you will call me 'my husband'; 
you will no longer call me 'my master. 'I will remove the names of the Baals from her lips; 
no longer will their names be invoked. In that day I will make a covenant for them with the beasts of the field and the birds of the air and the creatures that move along the ground. 
Bow and sword and battle 
I will abolish from the land, 
so that all may lie down in safety. I will betroth you to me forever; 
I will betroth you in righteousness and justice, 
in  love and compassion. I will betroth you in faithfulness, and you will acknowledge the LORD. In that day I will respond," declares the LORD—
"I will respond to the skies, and they will respond to the earth; and the earth will respond to the grain, the new wine and oil, 
and they will respond to Jezreel. I will plant her for myself in the land; I will show my love to the one I called 'Not my loved one. ' I will say to those called 'Not my people,  ' 'You are my people'; 
and they will say, 'You are my God.' " Hosea 2:2-23

God has promised to take away their Sabbaths, I don't think he has promised to bring that practice back. I think the need to remember they were slaves in Egypt will be replaced by the celebration of His freeing them, as us, from the slavery of sin.

But even so, what about we Christians? Are we bound by the regulations of the Sabbath? I believe Paul has made it clear we are not in Colossians 2:9-23:

For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, and you have been given fullness in Christ, who is the head over every power and authority. In him you were also circumcised, in the putting off of the sinful nature, not with a circumcision done by the hands of men but with the circumcision done by Christ, having been buried with him in baptism and raised with him through your faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead.

When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross. And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.

 Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day. These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ. Do not let anyone who delights in false humility and the worship of angels disqualify you for the prize. Such a person goes into great detail about what he has seen, and his unspiritual mind puffs him up with idle notions. He has lost connection with the Head, from whom the whole body, supported and held together by its ligaments and sinews, grows as God causes it to grow.

 Since you died with Christ to the basic principles of this world, why, as though you still belonged to it, do you submit to its rules: "Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!"? These are all destined to perish with use, because they are based on human commands and teachings. Such regulations indeed have an appearance of wisdom, with their self-imposed worship, their false humility and their harsh treatment of the body, but they lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence.

Now, as to the question of our shopping or going to a restaurant or working on a Sunday being a stumbling block to others; I think if we behave in a righteous, but humble manner, treating others as we would be treated, letting people know of our faith and the Gospel, there is less risk of being a stumbling block to the unbeliever than if we practice overzealous piety.

There is nothing wrong, in my view, if someone wishes to dedicate the whole of Sunday to worship of the Lord, as long as they keep it between the Lord and themselves. There is a risk we may become in this like the Pharisees who prayed loudly in public to be seen by men or those who put on ashes and a sad face to show everyone they were fasting. This could become a greater stumbling block than our obeying our employer (as we are commanded to do) and working on Sunday if ordered, or joining with friends for lunch after church, or enjoining a sports event, as long as we don't put God secondary in our lives.

Personally, my opinion again, I think Sunday, as our day of group worship is tradition, not Scripture. It has some basis in the Sabbath and in early Christian practice, and we certainly should see to it there is a day of rest for one and all, but I don't think we are under the yoke of some Law.

Could God be a Preacher in Your Church?

Divorce and remarriage are topics of debate among some Christians. Is divorce ever acceptable? Is it okay to remarry, especially for the innocent party of a divorce? Does it count if the marriage was to a nonbeliever? Should a minister perform the marriage of a divorced person? Should a divorced person ever be ordained as a minister? Would your church allow a divorced person to preach?

Lots of questions, none of which I am going to address here. 

But here is a question to think about. Would God be allowed to preach in your church?

Well, of course, what a stupid question.

Would he though? After all, God is divorced. And not only did God divorce, he is remarrying.

How could that be? Isn't divorce considered a sin, isn't it forbidden, how could God sin against God?

God can't sin against Himself and divorce isn't totally forbidden.  This is what Jesus said about divorce in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:31-32): "It has been said, 'Anyone who divorces his wife must give her a certificate of divorce. But I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for marital unfaithfulness, causes her to become an adulteress, and anyone who marries the divorced woman commits adultery."

So, Jesus tells us divorce is acceptable if the spouse has been sexually unfaithful ("save for the matter of whoredom" in the literal translation). 

But whom did God divorce? And who says He did?

God says:

Jeremiah 3:6-10: During the reign of King Josiah, the LORD said to me, "Have you seen what faithless Israel has done? She has gone up on every high hill and under every spreading tree and has committed adultery there. I thought that after she had done all this she would return to me but she did not, and her unfaithful sister Judah saw it. I gave faithless Israel her certificate of divorce and sent her away because of all her adulteries. Yet I saw that her unfaithful sister Judah had no fear; she also went out and committed adultery.  Because Israel's immorality mattered so little to her, she defiled the land and committed adultery with stone and wood.  In spite of all this, her unfaithful sister Judah did not return to me with all her heart, but only in pretense," declares the LORD.

God looked upon Israel as his Bride, but she was unfaithful and committed adulteries. God justifiably divorced Israel.

Now he has a new Bride and new marriage in the Body of Believers.

But wait, even if the divorce was justified, could God be breaking the vows of marriage? Isn't there something about "until death do ye part" in there? Israel hasn't died. It's right there on the map and in the news a lot.

And God didn't die.

Ah, yes, He did, for you and for me, on a cross at Calvary. 

But He overcame death and He awaits his Bride in Heaven. And it is all according to Hoyle. I pray you are among the body of believers and will join in the marriage supper of the Lamb as the Bride.

(The illustration of "The Bride of Christ" appeared on several websites, but I could not find it attributed to any artist.)

What Do We Know; When Did We Know It?

During a group discussion I, as a Christian, disagreed with something said. The person began apologizing. I told them that weren’t necessary. He said he didn't know a lot about Christianity. I said I wasn't being judgmental, I just didn't agree with him.

This led to a brief discussion of Christianity and the Bible. It was said more than once, "I didn't know that", although everyone in the group had been raised in a "Christian" home. Still, with some exceptions, the group has been very critical of religion in general and Christianity especially. 

Another person said he knew little about what was in the Bible, but how could it be accurate when it was basically hearsay; after all, most of what it tells about happened before man knew how to write. 

I didn't know when man first learned to write,  I said, but Moses grew up in ancient Egypt and they probably knew how to write, but I wasn't positive. But you know what I do when something comes into my life I don't know? I look it up.

The Egyptians had papyrus and ink and started the first libraries about 2500 BC. If you have a need for libraries, you probably have been writing books for a while. 

Hammurabi wrote his first legal codes (on the left) for Babylon around 1750 BC.

So when was the Bible written? 

There are 66 books in the Protestant Bible (The Catholic Bible includes 16 additional called the Apocrypha). The books were written by different people over several hundreds of years. The last book, Revelation (or The Apocalypse of St. John the Apostle in the Catholic Bible) was written by John in 95 AD. [It is singular, Revelation, not Revelations as commonly called.]  Obviously mankind knew how to write by 95 AD, but what about the earliest books of the Bible, those in the Old Testament?

Remember, the books of the Bible are not arranged chronologically. Many scholars believe the oldest book of the Bible is Job. No one is exactly sure who wrote this book, some believe Job did, some believe Moses did and some believe it was Solomon or Elihu. Likewise, no one is absolutely certain when Job lived, but most place him in the time of the Patriarchs, between 2000 BC and 1800 BC. This would be 500 or so years after Egypt was constructing libraries, so mankind knew how to read and write.

We generally think of the oldest books of the Bible to be the early histories, the first part of the Jewish Tanakh, the five books attributed to Moses. Moses was born in 1526 BC. At least a thousand years after writing was commonplace in Egypt.

But could Job and Moses write? Just because writing was around didn't mean everyone could do it. Maybe the common man couldn't read in those days. Maybe only people who were Egyptian or Babylonian or Assyrian knew anything about writing.  After all, Chinese literature was just beginning in 1400 BC. Of course, literature implies more than mere writing. If literature is being done, then there was certainly writing before it, lists and legal documents, that sort of thing at least.

But China was far away and Job and Moses were not Chinese or Egyptian for that matter.

However, they were not the common man either. Job, like Abraham (born 2166), was a rich and powerful man. Both of them would have dealt with varied people in life and this would include Egyptians. They probably knew how to write and keep records. They did live when mankind knew how to write.

And Moses had been raised and lived as an Egyptian Prince until the age of 40. He would have been a well-educated man who knew how to read and write.  He was also aware of the treatment of the Hebrew slaves when he discovered he was also a Hebrew.  And what did I say I do when something comes into my life I didn't know? I look it up. I will speculate that Moses began to look up some history on the Hebrews. I would also speculate there were written records of the Patriarchs somewhere. After all, Abraham's great grandson, Joseph, had once been a high official in Egypt and Joseph must have known how to read and write. Joseph may have kept notes.

But it doesn't matter where Moses got all his information. Most of what he wrote about happened during his lifetime. The fact remains that the Bible did come about when mankind knew how to write. As far as what it contains back before writing was invented, I would say the first 11 chapters of Genesis is it. This is only a small percentage of the Bible, about .9%. The other 99.1% happened during the period of writing.

After Chapter 11 of Genesis we begin with the history of Abraham, who was born a few hundred years after mankind began writing. The events occurring before 2500 BC, just before we begin the descriptions of Abraham, were the Flood and the Creation.

I have no problem with the truth of these early events, because I believe in God and that he preserves His Word. After all, if God could reveal to Daniel and John events that will happen in the future, it should have been a piece of cake to show Moses the past.

But even on a secular basis I would think the beliefs of this people would have come down to the Biblical writers pretty much in tact. Why? Because if we had no means of recording things, other than passing it word of mouth from one generation to another, we would be very, very careful in doing so. We would tell our story to the next generation over and over; constantly checking they had it memorized it exactly. It wouldn't be a careless presentation like the game of "Whispering down the lane". We can see this even later when writing was known. The scribes were very careful in copying older manuscripts exactly, catching every jot and tittle. The existing fragments of the oldest Bible books agree. Certainly there was some transcribing error, but there was very little, because these things were too important. We can find some minor discrepancies, usually in measures of something, where it was easy to mistake a quantity, but not in important issues of substance.

But what do we know; when did we know it? I have given dates for certain occurrences in this post from sources I trust. There are other sources, which may give different dates.  There is little we can find where all agree. This is why I say everything anyone believes is based on faith.

My wife is one-quarter Native American. Her paternal grandmother was a full-blooded Native American. Let me ask a question. When and how did the first Native Americans get here? 

One source says Native Americans immigrated to North America from North Asia in 2000 BC. Another source says they came between 15,000 and 30,000 BCE. *** Another source is more precise. It says the Native Americans came in 14,300 and something BCE.  Other sources make their own guesses. Some Native American Tribes claim they didn't come from anywhere, they were always here. They would be the only Native Americans then. Those we insist on calling Native Americans are really Asian Americans who have been around here a long time.

And how did they get here, assuming those true Native Americans are wrong about always being here.  What I was taught in school was Asians crossed the land bridge between North Asia and Alaska.  But others say they crossed an ice bridge in generally the same region. Others say they island hopped across the Pacific, going from island to island and finally to America. Others believe they sailed here on rafts. Some even say they were put here by space ships.

My point is, nobody knows. Pick your time and your method and put your faith in it being correct. All is in the end faith. I have faith that the Bible is the Word of God.

All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. 2 Timothy 3:16-17.

*** (Note how subtly our world has moved to remove the word Christ from everything. It is no longer BC, before Christ. It is now BCE, before the current era. Boy, before the current era, that certainly pinpoints the time for you, doesn't it? Just what event determines the current era? Is it 1500 AD? When I had History in college that was the demarcation for "modern civilization"? Or is BCE still tagged to the birth of Christ? I really don't know. I guess I'll have to look it up.)  

III MORE QUESTIONS

What is God’s Sex

God is sometimes portrayed (as in this Michelangelo detail) as the compassionate dad reaching out to his children or as the angry father about to reach out for his belt to blister somebody's behind, but always as a man. (Usually as an old man as well, although God is eternal and therefore ageless, neither old or young.)

There have been some Bible's using alternative pronouns in passages and others using a neutral non-gender word to replace all male references to God. These are focused on cultural agendas, not on spiritual ones. So is God's sex really male?


God is a spirit. God is neither male nor female and God is both male and female. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. Genesis 1:27

God created man in God's own image, male and female. I take the "man" and "him" here in the general sense of human, but even if someone wants to point to passages in First Corinthians about man being the glory of God and woman the glory of man, I contend that both female and male were created in the image of God. (The Corinthians had their own problems, which were being dealt with.) Remember, the woman is the counterpart of the man and together they are complete and then they are the complete image of God's attributes. Is God ever referred to in the feminine in the Bible?

Blessed is the man who finds wisdom,

the man who gains understanding,

for she is more profitable than silver

and yields better returns than gold.

She is more precious than rubies;

nothing you desire can compare with her.

Long life is in her right hand;

in her left hand are riches and honor.

Her ways are pleasant ways,

and all her paths are peace.

She is a tree of life to those who embrace her;

those who lay hold of her will be blessed.

By wisdom the LORD laid the earth's foundations,

by understanding he set the heavens in place;

by his knowledge the deeps were divided,

and the clouds let drop the dew. Proverbs 3:13-20

This is a portion of a longer passage concerning Wisdom found in Proverbs. Wisdom is personified as She, a woman. But the verbiage suggests Wisdom and the Word are synonymous and also says by Wisdom the Lord laid the earth's foundations. The Gospel of John tells us in the beginning the Word (Christ) was with God, and the Word was God and it was through God-Word all things were made. (Also note that Wisdom is the Tree of Life to those who embrace her, and Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me". John 14:6)

God is a spirit and is sexless. Christ came to our world as a male. Jesus was born into a culture and time when women were not particularly respected, in fact, had few rights or position in society. Perhaps if women had been the powers-that-be at the time Jesus came, Christ would have come as a female.

Jesus came to our world as a male and established his Church. Christians are the Church and referred to as the body of Christ. But the Church is also spoken of in feminine terms. We, who are Christian, whether man or woman, are female to Christ's male, and as man and woman are incomplete apart, we are also incomplete apart from Christ.

Don't let Satan get you all upset about whether God is a man or woman. God is all and God should be your focus. Besides Jesus tells us there is no sex in Heaven.

So I suppose we should deal with another passage.

 When men began to increase in number on the earth and daughters were born to them, the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful, and they married any of them they chose. Genesis 6: 1-3

There are some who believe Angels, most likely the fallen ones, had sex with human beings. I doubt it. When Jesus tells us there is no sex, or marriage, in Heaven, he explains we will be like the Angels. It is implied the Angels, as spiritual beings, do not engage in sexual things. I believe this passage in Genesis refers to the Godly and sinful lines from Adam, the sons of Seth's line and the daughters of Cain's line.

The two images of God at the top of the posts are details from the works of Michelangelo.

The third image is a detail from "Pieta" by the author, 1965

What is the Purpose of Life

Want to tackle the big one? What is the purpose of life?

I am not going to consider the purpose of God. God has no obligation to explain God to me. Job tried that and what did God say:

"Who is this that darkens my counsel with words without knowledge? Brace yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer me. Where were you when I laid the earth's foundation?" Job 38: 2-4

"Will the one who contends with the Almighty correct him? Let him who accuses God answer him!" Job 40:2

But this is my view of the purpose of our lives: to gain perfect love.

And what is perfect love?

Is this the picture of perfect love?

No, Perfect Love is first of all to love God and after that loving others and our selves equally. I think Christ gave our purpose in life to us when he said:

"'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments." Matt 22:37-40

Now, it is "love your neighbor as yourself" not more than yourself. You can't love anything if you hate yourself. How am I going to do that? Even if I make a show of loving someone, they are going to suffer because of the hurts I do to myself because I hate me. I can hate some things I do, maybe a lot of things I do, but if I hate myself I can never strive to not do those things, for I will feel I deserve the punishments they bring. I must love myself enough to want to do those things, which will not bring me harm or make me feel guilt.

People who hate themselves will begin to hate those who love them because those who love them amplify their hatred of themselves by comparison. No, you cannot love others if you hate yourself. You can only bring grief to others.

You can love yourself without loving others. That is the self-centered person who sticks a bumper sticker on their forehead reading, Me First, I Look Out for #1. And they don't mean they look out for God. They think they are god.

You can't stop hating yourself and you can't get over yourself, until you recognize there is a greater power than yourself.

Loving God supersedes all else. Our purpose in life is to love God as much as God loves us. If we love God that way, then we will also love our neighbor and love our selves.

How do we love God? By obeying Him. And if we obey, the rewards are magnificent, Heaven and all that. It shouldn't be difficult; after all, there are only Ten Commandments.

Adam and Eve only had one commandment and they couldn't even obey it. And there aren't just ten commandments there are 613.

Adam and Eve had it made toward having perfect love and blew it. Then they felt so ashamed they tried to cover themselves with leaves. They were inadequate to this task as well. God had to perform the first sacrifice to provide the cover for the first sin. We cannot obey the law of God without God doing it for us.

We cannot reach perfect love in this life, yet gaining perfect love is the purpose of this life. We can only gain perfect love and perfect obedience by putting our faith in God and accepting perfect love from him as a gift. If we do not, then we really have no purpose in life, for we may gain the world, we may even do loving things for others, but we will lose our soul.

Things I Hear About My Ilk: Which Bible?

Another characteristic I often hear leveled at we “evangelicals” is we are didactic on which Bible must be used. Well, there are some who are, but then don’t they fail their own testing of the Word? The Bible most ascribed with undeserved ultra-holiness is the King James Version. There is nothing wrong with using the King James Version if thou liketh. Truly, truly, it is very poetic with beautiful phrasing of language. But it was written for people to read in the 17th Century, very beneficial for those, yea, thee and thou spaketh that way in yore.

Besides, whose name is on the cover sheet of the Holy Bible Authorized King James Version? Do you accept King James as the final arbitrator of the Word of God? Can you find in Isaiah the verse prophesying the coming of the King James Bible as the eleventh commandment? Perhaps it is declared in Habakkuk?

The Word of God declares itself the Word of God and commands us to read the Word. We are to read only what God inspired, adding nothing to it or taking anything away from it. It is important we understand when we read the Word, so why burden us with arcane grammar and vocabulary from a long-past era?

There is only one reason to cling to some single version of the true Holy Scripture – tradition. Tradition has its place, but we should not be enslaved to it.

To take to task a Christian for their choice of Bible Translation (as long as it is a honest translation) is no different than when the Pharisees took Jesus to task for breaking traditions.

The Pharisees and some of the teachers of the law who had come from Jerusalem gathered around Jesus and saw some of his disciples eating food with hands that were "unclean," that is, unwashed. (The Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they give their hands a ceremonial washing, holding to the tradition of the elders. When they come from the marketplace they do not eat unless they wash. And they observe many other traditions, such as the washing of cups, pitchers and kettles.) Mark 7:1-4 New International Version

 [Now we are not talking here about sanitary practices. If my hands are dirty, I’m certainly going to wash them before eating. This was a ceremonial washing that gave strict rules on how much water to use, how the hands were to be attended to, how long and how many dunks, that sort of thing.]

At that season Jesus went on the sabbath day through the grainfields; and his disciples were hungry and began to pluck ears and to eat. But the Pharisees, when they saw it, said unto him, Behold, thy disciples do that which it is not lawful to do upon the sabbath. Matt 12:1-2 American Standard Version

[God had commanded the Sabbath be kept Holy and you should not work. However, men had built up tradition after tradition about what was and was not permissible on the Sabbath. By tradition, Jesus and his followers were guilty by just being in the field. By tradition you could only walk a very short distance on the Sabbath. Also note I capitalized Sabbath in my aside. That is modern convention. In the passage quoted, Sabbath is not capitalized. Do you think the use of the lower case has destroyed the message of the passage by breaking a language tradition?]

"I can't, sir," the sick man said, "for I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred up. While I am trying to get there, someone else always gets in ahead of me." Jesus told him, "Stand up, pick up your sleeping mat, and walk!" Instantly, the man was healed! He rolled up the mat and began walking! But this miracle happened on the Sabbath day. So the Jewish leaders objected. They said to the man who was cured, "You can't work on the Sabbath! It's illegal to carry that sleeping mat!" John 5:7-10 New Living Translation

[Do I even have to comment on this?]

In most of my postings when I quote the Bible, I use the New International Version (NIV). My former church often used the New American Standard Bible. But neither my church nor I shy away from other versions. I use the NIV for its use of modern, plain English. I don’t use different versions to give quotes because I think one version right and another wrong, but for consistency. Even though another version says the same thing in a slightly different sentence structure or choice of a word doesn’t negate it for use. However, if I used a different version for quote one and another for quote two and so on (as I did in the examples quoted as samples of tradition] some would think I am picking and choosing what suits my view rather than what God inspired. But let me be redundant in quoting Mark: 7: 13-15, repeating the passage from different versions so you see the truth of what I am talking about.

Thus you nullify the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And you do many things like that." Again Jesus called the crowd to him and said, "Listen to me, everyone, and understand this. Nothing outside a man can make him 'unclean' by going into him. Rather, it is what comes out of a man that makes him 'unclean.'" New International Version

Making the word of God of none effect through your tradition, which ye have delivered: and many such like things do ye. And when he had called all the people unto him, he said unto them, Hearken unto me every one of you, and understand: There is nothing from without a man, that entering into him can defile him: but the things which come out of him, those are they that defile the man. If any man have ears to hear, let him hear. King James Version

…making the word of God of no effect through your tradition which you have handed down. And many such things you do." When He had called all the multitude to Himself, He said to them, "Hear Me, everyone, and understand:There is nothing that enters a man from outside which can defile him; but the things which come out of him, those are the things that defile a man.If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear!" New King James Version

…making void the word of God by your tradition, which Ye have delivered: and many such like things Ye do. And he called to him the multitude again, and said unto them, Hear me all of you, and understand: there is nothing from without the man, that going into him can defile him; but the things which proceed out of the man are those that defile the man. (If any man hath ears to hear, let him hear.) American Standard Version

As such, you break the law of God in order to protect your own tradition. And this is only one example. There are many, many others." Then Jesus called to the crowd to come and hear. "All of you listen," he said, "and try to understand. You are not defiled by what you eat; you are defiled by what you say and do!" New Living Translation

…setting aside the word of God for your tradition that ye delivered; and many such like things ye do.' And having called near all the multitude, he said to them, `Hearken to me, ye all, and understand; there is nothing from without the man entering into him that is able to defile him, but the things coming out from him, those are the things defiling the man. If any hath ears to hear -- let him hear.' Young’s Literal Translation

What if you do not speak English? Should you only be allowed to read the King James Version because that is the only proper tradition? There was a time when only Latin versions were allowed. Would you prefer to have only a Latin version of the Bible? No, you can have the language you speak, such as Spanish.

…invalidando la palabra de Dios con vuestra tradición que habéis transmitido. Y muchas cosas hacéis semejantes a estas. Y llamando a sí a toda la multitud, les dijo: Oídme todos, y entended: Nada hay fuera del hombre que entre en él, que le pueda contaminar; pero lo que sale de él, eso es lo que contamina al hombre. Reina-Valera Revisada © 1960 Sociedades Biblicas en América Latina.

Chicken or the Egg?

But you remove God from it all and the mystery remains and everything in the end comes down to faith. If the Big Bang created the universe, where did the Big Bang come from? Where does nothing end and something begin? How could nothing become something? Don't dwell too long thinking about it or it will drive you crazy, because something from nothing is impossible and there being nothing without something is impossible and there being something without end is impossible.

Ronald Tipton asked me, "Which came first, the chicken or the egg". (He has had birds much on his mind lately, Bluebirds and Sparrow and chickens in trucks.) I, of course, replied, "no, not at all".

I have reconsidered my answer. I had in mind the first sentence. Obviously, because of my belief the "chicken or egg" analogy wouldn't apply to that statement. If one wishes to accept the Big Bang Theory that the universe came suddenly into being from a singularity, then God came first and then the creation. If you wish not to believe in God, then the singularity whatever it could possibly be still came first and then the creation; in either case, no "chicken or egg" quandary.

But the last half of the paragraph is probably what my friend had in mind. It does seem to ask which came first, nothing or something. I don't think it's as straightforward as whether the chicken or egg came first. The chicken lays eggs and eggs become chickens. Oak trees produce acorns and oaks grow from acorns. Peoples have babies and babies become people. Obviously the chicken came first.***

Either way when you deal with the chicken or the egg you are dealing with something coming from something; when dealing with something coming from nothing you are in a cosmic (pun intended) paradox. This is an area if you are obsessive you do not want to enter. There are scientists who argue over this matter (or lack thereof of matter). Some physicists claim there was no space before there was the universe. Others have other ideas. They do not have agreement on an answer. Even if they would agree on an answer it would be theoretical, unobservable and not provable. Just as my belief in a creator God is, which is why whether you accept God in the equation or avow there is no God are acts of faith.

I will say this, but don't linger over it, the universe is finite; it has an end. What is at its end? And where is the end of that what? Ah, but perhaps the “what” doesn't have an end, yet how could that be? You see the conundrum here? Every possibility is impossible. Therefore, why is it any less creditable to believe in God?

***Why I say the chicken came first. My worldview is God centered. I accept the Bible as his word. How does the Bible describe the creation of birds and animals and man?

And God said, "Let the water teem with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the sky." So God created the great creatures of the sea and every living and moving thing with which the water teems, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. God blessed them and said, "Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the water in the seas, and let the birds increase on the earth." And there was evening, and there was morning--the fifth day.

And God said, "Let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds: livestock, creatures that move along the ground, and wild animals, each according to its kind." And it was so. God made the wild animals according to their kinds, the livestock according to their kinds, and all the creatures that move along the ground according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good. Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground."

So God created man in his own image,in the image of God he created him;male and female he created them. --Genesis 1:20-27

God took the dust of the earth and formed a man and breathed life into the man. Man did not begin as a baby that had to grow to adulthood, but as a man. From the descriptions it seems God created the birds, fish and beasts as fully grown species of their kind, not as tadpoles and eggs. Thus the chicken came before the egg.

(The photo at the top of this post is a self-portrait taken by Ronald Tipton standing on the Rehoboth Beach.)