How to get the most out of your Bible, Part 2

Posted on August 3, 2013 by Jerry

In Part 1, I suggested (1) read your Bible. (2) Explore further using cross references.

Spiritual starvation results from not reading your Bible. If you are not reading and studying your Bible, you are suffering from spiritual starvation!

Lack of time for reading is no excuse. As a practical matter, everyone is blessed with 24 hours each day. As a further practical matter, you can start with small doses of Bible reading. I suggest 20 minutes a day to start. You don’t have to read for 20 minutes straight. You can break up your reading into shorter segments of time. You can even spend less than 20 minutes in a day, but as you get into Bible reading you will find you enjoy it enough that you will want to take more time.

How to enjoy a spiritual meal

1) Choose a meal. For beginners, I suggest starting with the Gospel of Mark. That is the second book in the New Testament, so it is easy to find. For those who prefer to start in the Old Testament, a good short book to start with would be the book of Ruth. It has just 4 chapters. Another place to start reading in the Old Testament is the book of Proverbs. Read one chapter a day in Proverbs in sequence and you can read the book in a month.

2) Now dig in and enjoy the entrée. While reading, keep a mental note of which verses in the chapter strike you as most interesting. You can mark those in a hard copy Bible, or highlight them in an I-phone application.

3) Next, choose your dessert. Take a further look at the verse that most impressed you as you read. Some verses are so good that it becomes worthwhile to memorize them. Take time to meditate on God’s Word. Almost every verse can be opened further by asking what the verse says about my responsibility, what does it say about God’s responsibility. Is there a command to obey? Does a verse provide needed guidance, or does it provide comfort? Does it suggest something to pray about? Is the verse an encouragement to prayer? Does the verse contain a promise from God?

4) Share the recipe. Once you have enjoyed a number of gourmet spiritual meals you’ve prepared for yourself, you may be motivated to share the recipe with another person. If we could rid the world of spiritual starvation, it surely would be a better place!

If you don’t feed on God’s Word found in the Bible, you will starve to death spiritually. And for that, there is no excuse!

Posted in How to Study the Bible | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Travon Martin/George Zimmerman and the Bible

Posted on July 15, 2013 by Jerry

I do not usually post much on Facebook. But today I encountered posts by two dear genuinely Christian friends who made comments about the Travon Martin/George Zimmerman trial and the events that led up to it. I disagree with their point of view. Both posters placed blame upon Mr. George Zimmerman for what happened.

I saved what I wrote on their Facebook pages and decided this would make for good discussion here.

Rather than placing blame on either Travon Martin or George Zimmerman, we really ought to be focusing upon solutions to the problems that led to the situation in the first place.

The Bible literally tells us to turn the light on to dispel the darkness in Ephesians 5:11. That light is the light of God’s Word.

Here is my first Facebook response:

I’ve followed this case carefully, reading from multiple news sources. The blame falls squarely on the parents of Trayvon Martin. They did not train up a child in the way he should go. (See Proverbs 22:6).

The blame also falls squarely on the school. Had Trayvon spent time in my classroom, he might have turned out a different person entirely. I wrote my own teaching materials to close the reading achievement gap. I used proverbs and quotations and associated writing assignments to have students “deep process” the message of those quotations, some from the Bible.

I told my students they must be where they belong, doing what they were supposed to be doing. Travon violated that rule. I enforced my rule with my students at all times, even when they were not in my classroom during other periods of the day. They respected me for that, and in turn they protected their favorite teacher from being bothered by low-life thugs who were not my students.

I taught in the inner city of Detroit at the high school level. When I got them, I’m sure my students were no better than Trayvon. After being in my class my students knew where they were going and how they were going to get there.

Mr. Zimmerman had every right to do what he did and to be where he was. He lived in that neighborhood. He served as a neighborhood watch person. The neighbors, including and especially his black neighbors, appreciated that. Mr. Zimmerman tutored black young people in his home. When he observed a black person, I think disabled, mistreated by the son of the police chief, Zimmerman stood up for what was right and that police officer lost his job. Zimmerman passed out flyers to black churches in the area to alert the people to the issues involved. His standing up for the helpless black man certainly shows there was no racism in Mr. Zimmerman.

When the police dispatcher suggested to Zimmerman he need not further follow Trayvon, Zimmerman did as asked; but he also walked about far enough to learn what the physical address of the area or house he was near was so police would know where to come. It was Travon who was within perhaps 200 feet of the home where he should have gone, but instead decided to waylay Mr. Zimmerman, jumping him, hitting him in the face, breaking his nose according to some reports, and most surely knocking Zimmerman down and mounting him, pummeling his face, banging his head into the cement of the sidewalk. It was Zimmerman who was screaming for help, not Trayvon. Trayvon had told Zimmerman “one of us is going to die,” and he was right.

The mainstream media coverage of this event was totally biased. They used the picture of Trayvon when he was 12, not the picture of when he was 17. Even the court system was biased and fired their IT specialist who had the moral backbone and honesty to report that the Defense was not provided all the evidence they should have been provided which was taken off Trayvon’s cell phone. The judge in the case was beyond obnoxious in violating Zimmerman’s rights at the end of the trial when she tried to coax or coerce Mr. Zimmerman to testify in his own behalf, refusing to accede to the objections of Zimmerman’s defense attorney.

In eternity, heads will roll. But some of those heads need to roll now, including President Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder for interfering with the justice system in Florida, for interjecting their own bias in a very public way (“If I had a son…”), for sending secret DOJ forces to rile up the black community against Mr. Zimmerman.

The Black community needs to take responsibility for the upbringing of their young people if things are to change for the better, and quit shifting responsibility by hiding behind race. My experience with the Black community is that they are often solid Christians, but they are not being taught the Word of God and how to study and apply it.

Here is my second much shorter response:

Dear Elreta, I hate to inform you, but I believe you do not have the facts fully at hand to make the judgment you expressed. Trayvon was within 200 feet of his “home,” and had he run there, instead of deciding to do a sneak attack on Mr. Zimmerman while Mr. Zimmerman was returning to his vehicle, Trayvon might yet be alive, and Mr. Zimmerman would not now and probably for a good while to come be in fear for his life.

Mr. Zimmerman did not attack Trayvon. Trayvon Martin attacked Mr. Zimmerman.

No Christian who is informed about the Bible, and I know very well you are, should support the side of an inveterate evil-doer. Trayvon had been suspended from school for the third time as of the time this unfortunate event happened.

Had the Lord granted Trayvon Martin the chance to be in one of my English classes for his high school career, I would have helped him to improve his reading skills and boost his reading achievement by at least two years in a single semester. Trayvon would have been introduced to a sequence of daily proverbs and quotations, and my writing assignments related to those would have enabled him to deep-process their message. His life would no doubt have been changed very much for the better. See my website at www.readingsteps.com and www.realbiblestudy.com. And if you don’t think I am telling the truth, just check with Pastor Moss. He was one of my students!

Posted in Justice and the Bible | Tagged , , , , , | 3 Comments

How to get the most out of your Bible, Part 1

Posted on July 11, 2013 by Jerry

I read just lately that 88% of the homes in America (that is the United States of America) have a Bible. Many homes have 3 or more.

I think that is very good news.

The Bible is the best resource there is for spiritual growth and getting better and truly acquainted with God.

If everyone who has access to a Bible in their home would actually start reading it on a regular basis, they would be much blessed and encouraged as a result.

The Bible can be read aloud all the way through in about 90 hours. That means a person could read it all the way through in one month if the person read it three hours a day.

But that is not what I am recommending (though if you could and would do just that, you would learn very much about the Bible).

I do recommend you spend time daily reading the Bible. Even twenty minutes a day will bring surprising and rewarding results. And anyone can find a total of 20 minutes a day for something as important as this. Many people today have “smart phones,” I guess they are called. There are some free Bible “Aps” that can be loaded on to these phones. My oldest son when he last visited here downloaded one of these Bible Aps, and it was marvelous. It had several Bible translations that came with it. Even I was able to use it and get around in the Bible. I read the book of 2 Timothy out loud right from the screen on the smart phone to everyone in the living room.

Many people today always have their “smart phone” with them wherever they go. If I had one, I’d use it to take advantage of spare moments to read from the Bible when I was not occupied doing something else.

As a teenager I carried a pocket New Testament to read from. In size that New Testament was about the size of a smart phone today. It totally changed my life after about two and a half months of reading it regularly.

But I personally prefer reading from a hard-copy Bible rather than an electronic or digital device.

The important thing is to just start reading!

The Bible is spiritual food. Just like you carefully make time every day to eat physical food for nourishment and health, so you need to take regular time daily for spiritual food in the Bible.

For many people, if they fed their physical body with the same degree of regularity that they feed themselves spiritually from the Bible, they would be in very sorry physical shape or perhaps even expired!

You can begin reading anywhere in the Bible that interests you. I suggest reading the Gospel of Mark or the Gospel of John for a start. Probably the Gospel of Mark would be the best choice if you are relatively or altogether new to reading the Bible. The Gospel of Mark is the second book in the New Testament, so it is not hard to find.

When reading a Bible chapter, say Mark chapter 1, you may come across a verse that strikes you as very interesting or helpful.

I remember reading Mark chapter 1 and noticing verse 34 and verse 35. I wanted to study more about what those verses said.

Here are the verses:

Mark 1:34 And he healed many that were sick of divers diseases, and cast out many devils; and suffered not the devils to speak, because they knew him.
Mark 1:35 And in the morning, rising up a great while before day, he went out, and departed into a solitary place, and there prayed.

I was most fortunate to learn very early in my Christian life that one of the best ways to get a clearer understanding of the Bible is to let the Bible explain itself. I learned to study the Bible more deeply by looking up the cross references for a verse I wanted to understand better.

Very often, if not always, the Bible tells more about a subject in other places in its pages. Cross references guide you to where those other places are.

Many Bibles, often called reference Bibles, contain cross references. The more cross references you can gain access to, the better for your Bible study. I have now spent a virtual lifetime studying the Bible using cross references, and the Bible gets ever more interesting as I continue these studies.

Probably the best currently available, in-print study resource that contains cross references to almost every verse in the Bible is a volume called Nelson’s Cross Reference Guide to the Bible. Any bookstore can order it for you. You can buy it directly from Amazon.

Here are the cross references for Mark 1:34 as they are given in Nelson’s Cross Reference Guide to the Bible:

healed. Mt +4:23.

suffered not. ver. 25. Mk 3:12. Ps +50:16. Lk 4:41. Ac 16:16-18.

To use this resource, there are some initial “hurdles” to get over. One would be to learn to understand the abbreviations for Bible book names. At the front of the Cross Reference Guide there is a page which explains the abbreviations. In the example I just gave, Mt 4:23 means Matthew, chapter 4, verse 23. ver. 25 means verse 25 in the same chapter, in other words, Mark 1:25. Mk 3:12 means Mark, chapter 3, verse 12. Ps +50:16 means Psalm 50, verse 16. The “+” sign means “find more here!” Lk 4:41 means Luke chapter 4, verse 41. Ac 16:16-18 means Acts chapter 16, verses 16-18, in other words, verses 16, 17, and 18.

These cross references will work equally well with any version or translation of the Bible you have. The Cross Reference Guide is keyed to the King James Version because it is in the public domain and I don’t need to get someone’s permission to use it. Also it is the recognized standard of literary excellence, and as a former English teacher I am sensitive to that advantage too. Unlike many of the modern English versions, it is not constantly being revised, changed, and updated, so the keywords remain constant. Furthermore, many of the classic Bible study tools available were and are keyed to that version. The King James or Authorized Version is generally better for close study of the Bible because it is a more literal translation with less paraphrasing. A Roman Catholic or even other type of Catholic or Orthodox person may choose to use the Douay version. It is so close to the Authorized Version that most of the time the keywords are exactly the same. I found that my book, Nelson’s Cross Reference Guide to the Bible, is on a list of books recommended and approved for Catholic parish and school and seminary libraries. I happened across that when I “Googled” the title of my book!

Now let me show you just how the cross references work by reproducing below the verses so you can read them:

Starting at Mark 1:34,

Mar 1:34 And he healed many that were sick of divers diseases, and cast out many devils; and suffered not the devils to speak, because they knew him.

healed

Matthew +4:23

Mat 4:23 And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people.

Notice the “+” sign before the reference to Mt +4:23.

Anyone who has need of healing, or who has been healed, will likely have a strong interest in finding out more of what the Bible teaches about healing. You will find many more cross references for the subject of healing in Nelson’s Cross Reference Guide to the Bible if you turn to Matthew 4:23 in that volume (on page 1019), where I have given 24 more cross references to that theme. I also give a reference there to Psalm +103:3 where many more references to healing are given, especially as I know that is the main reference point I used to collect the major references to healing in the Bible. There are about 23 more references to healing given on page 614 at Psalm +103:3, with two more passages given there marked with a “+” where still more references may be found.

suffered not.

In modern English, we would say that Jesus did not allow or permit the demons to continue talking about Him and who He is.

I always wondered why Jesus did that. In the cross references for this verse I found given a cross reference for Psalm +50:16 which I believe gives a clear answer to my question:

Psalm 50:16 But unto the wicked God saith, What hast thou to do to declare my statutes, or that thou shouldest take my covenant in thy mouth? (Authorized or King James Version)

Psa 50:16 But to the wicked God says: “What right have you to recite my statutes or take my covenant on your lips? (ESV, English Standard Version)

Psa 50:16 But to the sinner, God says, What are you doing, talking of my laws, or taking the words of my agreement in your mouth? (Bible in Basic English)

Psa 50:16 But to the wicked I say: “You don’t have the right to mention my laws or claim to keep our agreement! (Contemporary English Version)

Psa 50:16 But to the sinner God hath said: Why dost thou declare my justices, and take my covenant in thy mouth? (Douay Rheims Version)

It would seem that Jesus in His wisdom did not want publicity from discreditable sources!

As you can see from this brief example using just a few cross references from Mark 1:34 there is much of great interest and spiritual benefit to be gained from reading the Bible regularly for spiritual growth and encouragement, and studying the verses that spark your interest by means of reading the cross references available for that verse.

Ezra Pound once said, “Literature is news that stays news.”

I believe that to secure more time out of a busy life, turn off the TV for a while (or even for good!), and read and enjoy your Bible. It will encourage your spiritual life, and strengthen you in times of difficulty, help you get to know God better and the promises He has for you.

Try it. You’ll love it!

Posted in How to Study the Bible | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Atheists don’t understand science or religion

Posted on July 6, 2013 by Jerry

Perhaps I should have titled this “Atheists don’t understand science or the Bible.” Both statements are likely to be equally true.

I was just reading an article at World Net Daily titled “Atheist group wants prof questioning evolution censored.”

LINK:

Atheist group wants prof questioning evolution censored

Which atheist group?

The usual suspects.

The Freedom from Religion Foundation.

In question is an elective course at Ball State University. It is being taught in the science department in conjunction with the field of physics, and has been fully approved by the university’s science department leadership.

But the course is identified as teaching Intelligent Design, which critics claim is the old Creation/Evolution debate with only a new name.

I find the comments by posters given beneath the article to be quite fascinating.

Here is a sample of just one comment:

That isn’t quite what I said, and I do know what ID is. Nothing is copied from other sites, as I really don’t go out of my way to read evolution sites.

Teaching ID as a scientific theory is unacceptable in the modern age. It does nothing to further our understanding of life and the origins of the universe. It can never be proven, tested, argued, and the evidence for it comes from religious beliefs, and not the scientific methods you mention above. That is the biggest problem in my eyes with ID. It can not be tested, it can never be proven, it is because a religious text says it is so. If we had no religion, and no bibles, and nothing but scientific methods, we would not have ID. We can only have ID with religion, and the most prolific exponents of this theory are those people who are religious, and usually Judeo/christian.

Science can be proven, look at some of the scientific laws we have. Newtons laws on gravity for example, I am guessing you do not float…. a theory in science, like in the theory of evolution, has a different connotation to theory in the traditional definition of the term. Many scientific theories are relied upon, and have furthered our abilities to do things, space travel for example.

Thankfully this notion of ID isn’t as popular outside of the United states. You only need look back in history to see how religious beliefs hampered scientific discovery. Scientists, respected today for their thoughts were persecuted by religious institutions, and some even died for their theories. Countries like Italy, England, Spain, etc, where there is state religions believe in the Theory of Evolution, and would never think of teaching ID outside a theology classroom.

Religion should not be part of Science, Science and Theology need to be separate, so that each can be respected for what they are. You cheapen religion by forcing it in to the area of science, and devalue science by bringing religion in to it.

Again, I am a deeply religious person, but see no place for it in science, and would not want science in my religion.

In my judgment, very few atheists or evolutionists know the difference between science and philosophy.

When science deals with the subject of origins, it ventures into philosophy, for it is attempting to explain what cannot be proven by the scientific method, or by experiment.

I noticed the usual claim made by atheists and defenders of evolution: Science can be proven, the Bible cannot be proven.

Shows how much they know about the Bible–virtually nothing at all. The Bible most certainly can be proven, in the sense that its claims can be verified by history and archeology. The commenters have likely never read even so much as a single scholarly defense of the Bible and Christianity.

Some of the atheistic commenters have no accurate knowledge of the history of science.

Why wasn’t science developed long ago in the ancient civilizations of Greece and Rome?

It turns out that science did not develop in the modern sense until it was developed by Christians!

By the way, Newton was a Christian. His science was better than his understanding of theology. If I recall correctly, Newton did not believe in the doctrine of the Trinity. He wrote a commentary on Daniel and the book of Revelation which I have in my library. So I know he was not as well-informed about Bible prophecy either. But I still count him as a Christian. After all my study of the Bible, I have not found any statement in the Bible that suggests we must pass a test in Systematic Theology in order to get to heaven!

And you must have noticed by now that atheists are reluctant to visit this site to have a discussion.

Posted in Apologetics Issues--Atheism | Tagged , , , | 3 Comments

100 Years is Enough

Posted on June 19, 2013 by Jerry

Unfortunately some very nefarious figures in American history made some very poor decisions 100 years ago in 1913.

The Federal Reserve (which is not Federal at all, and has no reserve!) and the Income Tax were established in 1913.

Fraudulently at that.

This evening I am writing off the “top of my head.” I noticed I had not written any new posts here during the month of June. So while I could take many hours to look up the documentation for my assertions, I will not, even though I probably have saved the information right here on my personal computer. I have been very busy studying the Bible. I am currently working on 2 Timothy chapter 3, a most vital and important chapter in the Bible. It contains the most complete discussion of the purpose of the Bible itself, stating what it is for. Among other things, this passage written by Paul tells us that the Scriptures are inspired of God, and are able to make us wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.

Of course, this utterly contradicts what the Roman Catholic Church and its apologists, including Cardinal Newman, would affirm. I searched the Internet last evening to document a quotation I have decided to use from Cardinal Newman himself. The same quotation I have–and no more–is cited repeatedly on Roman Catholic websites arguing against the idea that we must go by the Bible alone. None of the Roman Catholic websites gave any more documentation for the quotation than I already had. I searched for the text itself on Google Books, and Google let me see the page, or a snippet from the page, written by Cardinal Newman. My considered judgment is that Cardinal Newman did not know either how to read the Bible carefully or interpret it accurately. Well, that is another subject I am looking forward to delving into more completely here in a future series on “The Catholic Answer Bible Answered.” I really do not like to step on people’s toes, but sometimes it is necessary in the interests of maintaining the truth of the Bible against heresy and false cults.

But back to the first subject.

I believe there is good evidence to show that the Sixteenth Amendment which established the Income Tax in 1913 was never properly ratified. Therefore, the IRS and the Income Tax are technically frauds imposed upon a sleeping and gullible public, both in 1913 and now in 2013.

The Sixteenth Amendment was never properly ratified because when the individual states ratified the 16th Amendment they modified the wording of the amendment they passed. That is not legal or permissible.

I saved the file from the website of a gentleman who visited every state to verify the documentation for each state’s passage and approval of the 16th amendment. He gives the precise information and where he got it from, and demonstrates that the Sixteenth Amendment was never properly ratified.

I believe it is time to both shut down and totally eliminate the IRS and our Federal Income Tax.

The IRS has lost any reason for credibility. They knowingly violated the law. The IRS has no business whatsoever delving into the content of prayers offered or said by Christians involved in Christian groups which applied for tax-exempt status. The IRS has been telling lies about this whole affair–active suppression of the conservative vote in 2012 to avoid a defeat of President Obama.

There are several groups that have sent me emails in the past week or two asking my signature on petitions to abolish the IRS. I think I managed to sign all of them.

I especially recommend signing the petition at www.aclj.org where J. Sekulow is preparing to sue the IRS in behalf of I think more than a dozen groups, maybe twice that, who were adversely affected by the stalling of the IRS in processing their applications for tax-exempt status, and who were inappropriately asked for information the IRS has no possible legal justification for requiring to be answered.

It is time to put a full stop to the over-reach of our Federal Government. This is the time to do it when so many serious failings have come to light and people are at last dimly aware of what is going on that violates their constitutional rights.

So, I urge you to visit www.aclj.org (American Center for Law and Justice) and let your voice be heard by signing the petition.

And let this be a Civics Lesson we all take to heart.

Next time we have a chance to vote for at least the lesser of two evils, be sure to do so, or we will not have a nation left to fix. If every Christian had voted properly according to the values taught in the Bible this last election, the outcome would surely have been different. We might still have been in a mess, but not as bad as the mess we are now in.

Posted in Politics and the Bible | Tagged , , , , | 4 Comments

Nonsense from the President

Posted on May 31, 2013 by Jerry

No question but what President Obama does not fulfill his promises. Where is the transparency in government he so loudly announced when he ran for the office of President?

Where is the transparency about “Fast and Furious,” a government gun-running operation run amuck? It should not have been done in the first place. Attorney General Eric Holder repeatedly denies knowledge of the operation–which shows he is a liar too.

Where is the transparency about the current multiple IRS scandals of selective harassment of conservative, Evangelical, Bible-believing, Jewish, and Tea-Party groups? This knowingly selective harassment of the potential political opposition without question caused the defeat of Obama’s opposition in the last Presidential Election, and purposely so.

But the latest nonsense from President Obama shows he flunked basic science.

But Obama then suggested he’d draw the line at “climate change” deniers. “If I’ve got somebody who has a different approach to dealing with climate change — I don’t have much patience for people who deny climate change, but if you’ve got creative approaches, market-based approaches, tell me about them. If you think I’m doing it the wrong way, let me know. I’m happy to work with you,” said Obama.

President Obama and many others have fallen short in their Bible reading and Bible study. As for climate change, here is a verse to start from:

Gen 8:22 While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.

Now that global warming has fallen into disrepute, the same knuckleheads that promoted that falsehood have changed the label to “climate change.” “Climate change” is an oxymoron. It is a contradiction in terms. Weather may change, climate does not. There are variations in weather patterns, but they fall within a range for the given geographical region of the planet or climate zone.

Politicians and others with avaricious interests want to promote theft of wealth by establishing a “carbon tax,” and other money-garnering taxes to promote their mistaken agendas.

To suppose that carbon dioxide is a pollutant is utter nonsense. Perhaps promoters of “climate change” and “global warming” went to schools that so dumbed down the curriculum that they have no understanding of genuine science.

No wonder President Obama at great expense keeps everything about his academic background a secret.

Pro_24:21 My son, fear thou the LORD and the king: and meddle not with them that are given to change:

The common mantra of the liberal mindset is “change.” I’ve witnessed this first-hand in the field of education. It is present in current politics. It is even present in the field of theology. Agenda-driven change is a disaster when the wrong agenda is being promoted.

I saw in the news today that one supposed leader that thinks he is in the Evangelical movement, claims friendship with Rick Warren, and I think has some connection with the SBC or Southern Baptist Church, is advocating that we soften our opposition to Islam. That fits the theological change department.

I saw in the news yesterday where some legislators in Michigan want to promote merit pay for teachers based on student improvement in test scores. What a can of worms that opens! Even though I wrote a letter to my own state senator on this subject, I’m sure it was not heeded. Even Republican senators DO NOT KNOW HOW TO READ.

Rating teachers based on how their students do is a wrong-headed notion. Teachers have no control over who is assigned to their classes. Teachers favored by the school administration will be assigned the better students so the teacher will look good. Less favored teachers can be assigned classes full of troublemakers.

They tried that on me. I have studied education as well as my own teaching fields far more than any of my administrators have–even those with Phd’s. And they know it, or soon find out. Turns out the worst students came to like me very much because they discovered I was not like any of their other teachers. I genuinely helped each of my students succeed in all of their classes. When any administrator tried to remove a student from my class, usually all hell broke loose. Not only did the student let it be known he or she would not leave my class under any circumstances, the parent came and fought hard to keep his or her child in my class. Generally, the student and parent won. Furthermore, when I was able to teach from my own materials, my students excelled. My classes had more students on the honor roll, even though I was not teaching honors students, and of course I had no direct impact on how other teachers were grading my students in their classes.

Beyond all this, my students had better attendance to my class than other students in the school. My school, typical of inner city urban schools, had a dropout rate of about 70%. I get that figure from the fact that the entering ninth grade class numbered about 1000 students. Four years later the graduating senior class numbered about 300 students. Once I taught two classes for all four years of their high school experience, and had just one student drop out at the mid-term grading period of her final semester. One student dropout out of 70 students is quite remarkable over a period of four years, and my administrators and supervisors were well aware of this fact at the time.

Yet I was never named “teacher of the year.” My own students grumbled about that, saying that they felt I should get that bit of recognition. The students made up for that by nominating me as the teacher who most helped them prepare for college.

Nevertheless, I doubt that I would receive any “merit pay” under any proposed system offered by the state legislature. This fits the educational change department.

We do need some change in the political department. Start electing honest politicians who will stay honest even after they get into office. Currently there is a severe shortage of moral backbone in all our elected officials.

But here is the change we really need:

“No revival is more to be desired than that of systematic, personal Bible study!”

If people who claim to be followers of our Lord Jesus Christ obeyed His command to “Search the Scriptures,” we could indeed see genuine revival. More people would be won to Christ. And has happened in the past, even society at large would be greatly influenced for good, not ill.

Posted in Politics and the Bible | Tagged , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Nonsense in the News–Again

Posted on May 10, 2013 by Jerry

The Freedom From Religion Foundation is at it again.

They are nothing but schoolyard bullies. They pick on small school districts, districts that have neither the time nor resources to defend their position.

I have challenged the Freedom from Religion Foundation on this site to come have a debate with me. They won’t do it. Why? Probably because they cannot win an argument with an informed and experienced Bible believing Christian debater, author, and Bible scholar. But they are most certainly encouraged to visit here and raise a fuss.

Their attorney is Patrick Elliott. I’ve debated attorneys before–and won. So I invite Attorney Patrick Elliott to participate here in an open no-holds-barred discussion by submitting his comments defending his wrongful action against the Muldrow, Oklahoma school district in the comments section below.

The article states in part:

From an Internet Fox news article titled “Students Fight Back to Save Ten Commandments”:

The controversy surrounds Ten Commandment plaques are that are posted in a number of classrooms at Muldrow High School. It’s unclear when the plaques were installed.

Ron Flanagan, the superintendent of the local school district, told Fox News they had received a complaint about the Ten Commandments from the Freedom From Religion Foundation – an organization that has a long history of targeting displays of the Christian faith in public schools.

The complaint was allegedly filed by an “anonymous” member of the community.

“If the facts are as presented to us, and the Ten Commandments are on display throughout Muldrow Public Schools, the displays must be removed immediately,” wrote FFRF attorney Patrick Elliott, in a letter to the school district.

The FFRF said the displays are a “flagrant violation of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. “Any student will view a Ten Commandments display in school as being endorsed by the school,” Elliott wrote. “Muldrow Public Schools promotion of the Judeo-Christian Bible and religion over non-religion impermissibly turns any non-Christian or non-believing student, parent or staff member into an outsider.”

My further comments:

The students plan to wear T-shirts with the Ten Commandments emblazoned to school each day. One student from the school
remarked in a comment posted below the article that the Ten Commandment Plaques in the classrooms at the school are very small and unobtrusive and surely need not bother anyone.

As others commented, you can choose to read them or not.

The Freedom from Religion Foundation has it all wrong. The First Amendment does not provide any right for anyone to be free from religion. That was NOT the intention of the Founding Fathers. If the FFRF thinks otherwise, they have not done their homework in reading and learning American history. I have. I taught American history and early American literature for much of my nearly 40-year career as a public school teacher at the high school level.

Posting the Ten Commandments anywhere is NOT an Establishment of Religion, as the Freedom from Religion Foundation ignorantly claims. The Supreme Court building itself has the Ten Commandments engraved upon its walls. Clearly the people who founded this country did not see that as being a violation of the Constitution or Bill of Rights. That the Supreme Court may have ruled that posting the Ten Commandments is an “establishment of religion” does not make it so. Sometimes those Nine Men in black robes can be very mistaken, and sometimes quite ignorant indeed. The meaning of “an Establishment of Religion” is that the Federal government may not support a national Established Church, such as was and is done in England and some other European countries. The Founding Fathers did not want public money used to support a particular official national Christian denomination, such as the Anglican Church.

And just which “religion” is being “established” by posting the Ten Commandments? Or, more specifically, just which denomination is being established? The Baptist? Methodist? Anglican? Lutheran? The answer is, “none of the above.”

The First Amendment has been wildly misinterpreted by the humanists, atheists, and agnostics who do not appreciate the moral law being made known, since they favor a society that flaunts the moral law.

But they work very hard to force their immoral worldview upon our children in public school, to the point where Sodomy is given protected legal status.

It is the Humanists who have made sure that Darwinian Evolution is taught in public schools. Disagree? Read their journal, and study the Humanist Manifesto. Humanism and atheism are themselves religions, and I recall that even the Supreme Court in a decision affirmed this to be so. Once in a while the Supreme Court gets something right, though not too often. Those who believe in evolution believe that everything there is originally came from nothing. Evolution (when the term is not confused with mere “change,” a handy logical ploy and fallacy called equivocation) is not science, but philosophy. And most atheists and scientists and science teachers do not know the difference. Neither do the courts at any level or the justices of the Supreme Court.

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Fight terrorism with REAL terror

Posted on May 2, 2013 by Jerry

The Bible furnishes the only real answer to terrorism. Whether the terrorism be Islamic or Muslim terrorism, or terrorism of any other kind, such as that promoted by those who support the so-called “gay” agenda, the Bible gives the only real and ultimate answer that works.

Our government as a whole, and every branch in it, is not the solution to the problem, it is the problem. It is the problem because government no longer represents the people. It no longer follows the law, particularly the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.

The Orwellian-named “Department of Homeland Security,” like the so-called “Patriot Act,” does nothing and can do nothing to provide security. They are designed to create dependency on government. They are designed to foster more big government. Protecting freedom and individual rights named in the Bill of Rights are the furthest thing from their minds.

The Apostle Paul said the following:

2 Corinthians 5:11 Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men; but we are made manifest unto God; and I trust also are made manifest in your consciences.

Atheists have launched a full attack upon Christians in the military who share their faith with others:

In an interview with Fox News, Weinstein said the military needs to begin prosecuting Christians who share their faith.

“Someone needs to be punished for this,” he said. “Until the Air Force or Army or Navy or Marine Corps punishes a member of the military for unconstitutional religious proselytizing and oppression, we will never have the ability to stop this horrible, horrendous, dehumanizing behavior.”

Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2013/05/atheist-accuses-christians-of-treason-over-beliefs/#KoxguD3GMx1ukFyz.99

Mr. Mikey Weinstein, representing the atheist group, the Military Religious Freedom organization, called the sharing of one’s religious faith with others a species of spiritual rape as serious an affront as physical sexual rape. Mr. Weinstein is apparently a Pentagon consultant for religious freedom. Mr. Weinstein condemns Dr. James Dobson but supports the Southern Poverty Law Center. I think Mr. Weinstein has disqualified himself as a consultant worthy of any credence at all by his outrageous charges against people of faith.

But back to the terrorism we really need.

This country is in the spiritual mess that it is in because too few Christians are sharing their faith with others.

The “world” is scared stiff of genuine, Biblical Christianity. Yes, old-fashioned Biblical Fundamentalism. But that is the only true Christianity there is.

Old fashioned Biblical Fundamentalism believes the Bible is the verbally inspired written Word of God. It believes Jesus Christ was born of a virgin. It believes we got here by direct Divine Creation by the act of God. It believes that Jesus is the only way to God because Jesus said so in John 14:6. It believes in interpreting the Bible literally (and otherwise in accordance with the 23 Rules of Interpretation I’ve placed in the October 2010 archives here). It believes we are saved by faith alone through grace alone. It believes Jesus Christ is God the Son. It believes Jesus Christ will literally return bodily to this earth first to receive His own, then to set up His eternal kingdom on this earth which will last forever. It believes that Jesus commanded us to preach and teach the Gospel to every creature. It believes the Gospel message is to be found only in the Bible’s sixty-six books, nowhere else. It believes Jesus Christ literally rose bodily from the dead the third day, and that this constitutes full proof that God approves what Jesus taught, and that Jesus is who He claimed to be, and Who the Bible says He is. It believes that true faith in Jesus Christ produces regenerative change in the life and character of everyone who truly believes in Him, and that this regenerative change produces holiness of life and the fruit of the Spirit in confirmation of that change through the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit of God. It believes unflinchingly and uncompromisingly that all who die without faith in Christ shall suffer the penalty of eternal, never ending, everlasting punishment (Matthew 25:46).

Paul said, “Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men.”

Now that is what terrorizes some of those who are lost.

They want the truth suppressed.

Bible truth does not sit well with their chosen lifestyle.

But if everyone who believes the Bible and truly knows Christ as Savior would obey God and be ready to provide an answer with gentleness and respect to everyone who asks of their faith, this would unleash once again the greatest campaign of real Biblical terror since the Apostolic Church, when the Apostles were said by their enemies to be the ones who have “turned the world upside down.” They did that without the printing press, without modern technology, electricity, or transportation. We need to unleash the power of the Gospel by sharing it with those who are willing to listen just like they did. Christians who win souls according to the directions given in the Bible do not force themselves on others, but they do share the truth about Jesus Christ and Who He is with others.

Romans 1:16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.

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National Day of Prayer

Posted on May 2, 2013 by Jerry

I received an email today from Andrea Lafferty of the Traditional Values Coalition which contained in part the following:

Today marks the 62nd National Day of Prayer.  America needs it more than ever.

 

Today — or perhaps tonight with your family — take a moment to pray for our country.

 

Pray for national healing.

Pray for spiritual revival,  for a sense of renewal and encouragement.

Pray that America might turn its face back to God. 

Pray that God will continue to protect America.

Pray for those who keep America safe.

Pray for our children and grandchildren, that we might leave an America worthy of inheritance.

Pray for our elected officials, that God may grant them wisdom.

Pray for those who are lost.

Pray for those who are searching.

Pray for those who are tempted.

Pray for the faithful, that they may remain strong in their faith.

Pray for an America that once again can be proud of its faith, its institutions, and its leaders.

 

It is not easy to be a Christian in today’s America.  It is all the more reason why we have a responsibility — and a unique privilege — to stand tall for American values today.

 

There is much in the Bible to guide us in our prayer life. God still answers prayer, and is delighted when His children speak to Him by means of prayer, and listen to Him by means of reading His written word in the Bible.

There are many Bible promises pertaining to prayer. I have always found Luke 11:9 to be an encouragement to prayer, ever since I was in elementary school. That must have been one of the first verses I noticed in my own reading of the Bible as a child. One could certainly be blessed and encouraged by reading the cross references for this verse as given in The New Treasury of Scripture Knowledge or Nelson’s Cross Reference Guide to the Bible.

I believe the indexes in The New Treasury of Scripture Knowledge provide the most complete resource for studying prayer in the Bible to be found anywhere.

Luke 11:9 And I say unto you, Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.
Luk 11:10   For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened

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14 Proofs for Continuing Consciousness After Death Part 3

Posted on April 15, 2013 by Jerry

(10) Robinson was reading in the Bible the other morning and in Numbers 27:16 he found a most interesting expression that proves conscious existence after death:

Numbers 27:15 And Moses spake unto the LORD, saying,
Numbers 27:16 Let the LORD, the God of the spirits of all flesh, set a man over the congregation,

He thought he read something just like that a few chapters back, and after a bit of a search, found Numbers 16:22,

Numbers 16:22 And they fell upon their faces, and said, O God, the God of the spirits of all flesh, shall one man sin, and wilt thou be wroth with all the congregation?

He reasoned that “spirits” must represent an immaterial entity within man, not identified as part of his physical body, but a separate conscious entity.

(11) The expressions used in Zechariah 12:1 prove conscious existence after death.

That seemed to be certain from what he read in Zechariah 12:1,

Zechariah 12:1 The burden of the word of the LORD for Israel, saith the LORD, which stretcheth forth the heavens, and layeth the foundation of the earth, and formeth the spirit of man within him.

Robinson took note of the fact that the Bible is a self-interpreting book, and he really didn’t feel all that lonely since he had God by his side, and three good Bibles to read, and plenty of undisturbed time to read them. The more he read, the more he understood, and the more he saw how it all fit together into a unified, noncontradictory whole, surely an evidence of the divine inspiration of the Bible.

Robinson realized that laying the foundations of the earth, stretching forth the heavens, and forming the spirit of man within him are all equally creative acts of God Himself. The spirit, therefore, is not merely breath or wind, which if so would demean the comparison, but the spirit is a conscious entity in man which survives the dissolution of the body.

The mistaken notion of some that Adam did not have a soul but is a soul, and that the soul is equivalent to the body, is therefore false. Those who believe that the soul and body are equivalent, teach that when the body dies, the soul dies too.

This is an error because those who teach that the soul can die fail to distinguish the kinds of death spoken of in Scripture. All is lumped into a single category: physical death.

This is an error because the Bible also speaks of spiritual death, which is not the annihilation or dissolution of the spirit (or the immaterial soul), but the condition of permanent separation from God after death of the body, or the condition in this life of not having a personal relationship with God based upon a saving knowledge and relationship to our Lord Jesus Christ.

This is an error because the penalty threatened by God for Adam’s disobedience was not physical death, though that may well have been an ultimate consequence, but spiritual death.

We know this because the emphasis present in the Hebrew text, also perceivable in English translation, by the presence of a common emphatic figure of speech, requires that in the very same day that Adam sinned, he would be subject to the penalty. There is nothing in the entire text of the book of Genesis to warrant considering “day” as a period of 1000 years. The immediate context forbids it.

That Adam and Eve suffered immediate consequences for their disobedience is evident because immediately they attempted to (1) hide from God and (2) cover their nakedness. This obvious conscious change or “break” in their relationship with God marks their immediate spiritual death or estrangement.

Did God leave them in that state of spiritual death?

Clearly not. He provided them with clothing made from the skins of animals, which required the shedding of blood of innocent life, a picture or type of the ultimate sacrifice which would be given for all mankind by Jesus Christ as the Lamb of God, Who shed His blood on the Cross for our sins. This, of course, was in fulfillment of Bible prophecy and type, and the very first prophecy of this is given in Genesis 3:15, a promise given directly to Adam and Eve.

When we say Adam “was a soul,” this usage is only correct if we apply the category of lexical meaning for nephesh to this context that means “person,” a meaning frequently found in conjunction with nephesh.

One of the central principles of accurate Bible interpretation is that we must consider all that the Bible teaches about a subject before we draw our conclusions. Otherwise, our conclusions may be mistaken.

Another central principle of accurate Bible interpretation is that we must not over-generalize from a given text, or over-simplify from a given word. A word must be understood by taking into account all its occurrences and all its contexts, which requires a complete induction of the word prior to drawing conclusions about what it means or how it is used in general or specifically in a single passage.

To suggest “Adam did not have a soul” is unscriptural, a denial of the Biblical truth found in the New Testament asserted by Christ that the soul is an entity separate from the physical body:

Matthew 10:28 And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.

Notice carefully what Jesus said:

(1) It is possible for man to kill the body;
(2) It is NOT possible for man to kill the soul;

Conclusion: the soul is not the same entity as the body

(3) Jesus affirmed that the body can be killed;
(4) Jesus did NOT affirm that the soul can be killed;

Conclusion: the soul is immortal and survives the death of the body as a conscious entity

(5) Saying the body can be killed is not the same as saying the body can be destroyed;
(6) Jesus does NOT affirm that the soul will be killed–a different word is used;
(7) Jesus affirms that God can destroy the soul;

Affirming that the soul can be destroyed by God does not affirm that God will kill the soul

(8) The original language word for “kill” is never confused in Scripture with the term for “destroy”;
(9) While the original term for “destroy” can be used for “kill” with reference to this life, the term “kill” NEVER is used with reference to the state of existence or non-existence after the death of this physical life;

(12) Therefore, it is utterly false teaching to affirm that conscious life ceases with the death of the physical body. Jesus said so, and that is enough to satisfy Robinson Crusoe on the desert island where, thankfully, at least he is uninfluenced by the teaching of mistaken man-made religions, for he has only the plain Bible (well, three good Bibles) before him.

(13) Luke 20:35-36 teaches the conscious existence of spirit or soul.

If “death is the last enemy,” as expressed by Scripture (1 Corinthians 15:26), what kind of death is referenced?

Clearly, the reference is to physical death that pertains only to the body, for it is only the body that will experience resurrection.

The immaterial and conscious soul or spirit of man cannot experience physical death, only mortal creatures possessing physical bodies experience physical death.

The Biblical proof is seen in what Jesus said as recorded in Luke 20:35, 36,

Luke 20:35 But they which shall be accounted worthy to obtain that world, and the resurrection from the dead, neither marry, nor are given in marriage:
Luke 20:36 Neither can they die any more: for they are equal unto the angels; and are the children of God, being the children of the resurrection.

Once the body has been resurrected and is thus in its glorified state (Philippians 3:21), it is no longer subject to physical death. Therefore, it cannot die any more.

In such a state, the resurrected saints are like the angels, Jesus said, which we know from other Scripture are spirits (Hebrews 1:7, 14), who are not subject to physical death.

But since we each have a spirit and soul which continues in consciousness after the physical death of the body (in the light of the 12 prior strands of evidence or proof given above), the spirit of man is likewise deathless and not subject to physical death, and conscious, just as the angels as spirits are (Luke 20:25, 36).

I would also call attention to the fact that this statement of Jesus from Luke 20:35, 36 is recorded as part of His refutation of the Sadducees, who did not believe in spirit (Acts 23:8) or resurrection, or consciousness after death. Jesus told them plainly that they were greatly in error, not knowing the Scriptures, neither the power of God (Mark 12:24). Clearly, anyone who agrees with the Sadducees disagrees with our Lord Jesus Christ. I surely would not wish to be siding with the position of those who were the enemies of Jesus Christ.

I would hasten to add that many holding to materialist theology today say they believe in the future resurrection of the body, unlike the Sadducees in the days of Jesus. Yet even they are in actual denial of genuine resurrection, for they deny the continuity of the person in consciousness after death, believing, therefore, in a newly created copy of the original person at the resurrection, not the continuation and bodily resurrection of the original person.

(14) Recall also that Paul affirmed that to be “absent from the body” is to be present with the Lord (2 Corinthians 5:8). Now how can one be said to be absent from the body unless one still consciously exists while not being in the body? Paul is taking for granted that when we die, our spirit returns to God who gave it and is in the blessed and conscious presence of Christ.

Remember, bodies sleep, souls and spirits do not!

Returning to the opening text of this three-part series, Luke 23:43, I would have every reader here carefully observe that all who properly followed Christ believed in conscious existence after death, and Jesus affirmed it unmistakably for all time when he promised the penitent thief on the cross that the thief would be with Jesus in paradise, which the NT strictly equates with heaven, on that very day.

Come on–for any who believe otherwise–if you did not have an annihilationist axe to grind, you would see this and admit it in a minute once the truth was brought to your attention. Talk about who refuses to relinquish their hold upon proven false doctrines!

The promise to the thief on the cross becomes totally meaningless if one must believe he was that very day with Christ in an unconscious state! The poor penitent thief would never know even yet whether Jesus proffered a false promise or a true one, because he would not be alive or sensible to experience it! Such a position is obviously a monstrous lie, and a dishonoring denial of the promise Jesus gave.

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