14 Proofs for Immediate and Continuing Consciousness After Death Part 2

Posted on April 15, 2013 by Jerry

I believe that we can directly discern from Scripture itself that:

(1)  From the case of the penitent thief on the cross and the promise Jesus made that he would be that day with Jesus in Paradise, we can draw the conclusion that there must be immediate or continuing consciousness after death for:

 

a) it would make no sense whatsoever to read this promise as an unconscious meeting or existence in Paradise (which I firmly believe the Bible equates with heaven, or “the third heaven,” as Paul expresses it elsewhere, 2 Corinthians 12:2, compared with 2 Corinthians 12:4, where paradise is clearly equated to the “third heaven” mentioned in verse 2).

 

b) The promise Jesus gave to the thief clearly represents a promise of immediate experience to take place that very day, so this is not a reference to future bodily resurrection, but conscious fellowship and enjoyment of reward to be immediately experienced after they both that day suffered bodily death.

 

c) I personally think, now that I’ve presented an argument I never read or wrote before (though no doubt others have presented it better than I have), this argument in itself is sufficient to prove the case for conscious existence after death. But I won’t stop with this one!

 

(2) There is very good reason to believe that Paul, when he indicated his desire to depart and be with Christ, which he said would be “far better,” indicates he anticipated immediate conscious communion and fellowship with Jesus Christ upon his own physical death (see Philippians 1:23).

“For I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ; which is far better:” (Philippians 1:23)

a) Since Philippians is surely to be dated after 2 Corinthians (this can be proven conclusively by evidence internal to the New Testament itself by means of the undesigned coincidences Paley discusses in his book Horae Paulinae which translated, I understand, means “hours with Paul”), then Paul surely had direct experience of the fact that whatever it is that may be going on in the third heaven, things he said were unlawful for him to utter (2 Corinthians 12:4), yet these things surely gave direct evidence to him that life there is conscious, not unconscious.

 

b) Paul never affirms that the spirits of just men made perfect (Hebrews 12:23) are all there sleeping and unconscious of where they are. Of course, we don’t have any explicit statement of just who spoke those “unspeakable words” Paul heard in Paradise, but somebody was up there with whom he talked.

 

c) Therefore, Paul’s statement in Philippians 1:23 could not have reference to his being in an unconscious state unaware of the passing of time, awaiting the resurrection, for then how could that logically be “far better,” since if so, everyone upon death would have the same experience. I don’t think Paul means for us to believe he had a “death wish,” for if you read about his career in 2 Corinthians 11 he surely went through much tribulation in his ministry for Christ. In the immediate context Paul emphasizes that he knew his ministry to them was more important than his private preference or wish. Paul is stressing that he truly looked forward eagerly for immediate fellowship with Jesus Christ in person. Recall that Scripture records at least one occasion, probably more, where Paul met or was directly confronted by our Lord Jesus Christ in person, the first instance being upon the Damascus Road (Acts 9), so he knew personally Who it was he longed to be with immediately and directly upon death.

 

(3) I think that 2 Corinthians 5:1-8, while surely a difficult and somewhat controversial passage, speaks to this very issue of immediate and continuing consciousness after the death of the body.

Paul speaks of our life in this body as being “our earthly house,” and that when this earthly house is dissolved by physical death, we “have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.” In this body we groan, but we look forward to being “clothed upon with our house which is from heaven,” which I think must be a reference to our glorified resurrection body. But verse 3 speaks of “If so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked.” Is that the state, naked meaning without a physical body, which all who die experience upon death until the resurrection? I have assumed that perhaps we have a temporary body then until we receive our resurrected body. But whether we do or not, that question by no means negates the truth that after death we have continuing consciousness.

a) Nevertheless, Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 5:8, “We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.” Now this cannot be twisted to mean that we experience this immediacy of being present with the Lord upon death because, allegedly unconscious, we are unaware of the passage of time, so we awake, at the resurrection, supposing no time intervened! That would not represent being “present with the Lord” during however long an interim of time that may turn out to be.

b) Once again, I believe this is another case of Paul inadvertently sharing what he personally knew for sure, based on the experience he speaks of in 2 Corinthians 12, and so represents a valid argument supporting immediate and continuing consciousness in heaven for the believer after the physical death of this body.

(4) The statement of Isaiah in Isaiah 63:16 about “though Abraham be ignorant of us” surely must indicate Isaiah by divine inspiration knew that Abraham was still alive, that Abraham was with God, that God was in heaven, and therefore Abraham and Jacob were in heaven, conscious, but unaware of what transpired here upon earth since their physical death. Otherwise, such a statement of Isaiah seems pointless or absurd, which of course, being the very word of God, it cannot be.

(5) Consciousness after death is affirmed emphatically by God’s address to Moses in the Burning Bush.

a) This is confirmed by God Himself when He spoke to Moses at the burning bush, saying, “I am the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob” (Exodus 3:6). This is further confirmed by Jesus when He explained that God speaking to Moses in this manner affirmed that Abraham was still living, stating that God is not the God of the dead, but of the living (see Mark 12:26, 27). Luke gives the fuller statement, “For he is not a God of the dead, but of the living: for all live unto him” (Luke 20:38). It was after this unanswerable and masterful argument against the Sadducees that Luke reports, “And after that they durst not ask him any question at all” (Luke 20:40).

b) The conclusion is clear and absolute: since “all live unto him,” all are conscious, not unconscious, after physical death.

(6) In 1 Thessalonians 4:14 Paul tells us “For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.”

a) Somehow, I don’t envision this as Jesus coming with a Santa Claus sack or sleigh-full of unconscious spirits on the ready to join their physical bodies in resurrection on the spot just prior to the rapture and transformation of living believers into their glorified bodies.

b) Rather, those who accompany our Lord Jesus Christ upon His return to this earth for those believers who are then living on the earth most certainly (since they have been with Christ all the while) must also be conscious beings.

Robinson Crusoe had the advantage of no exterior human sources of how to interpret the Bible according to a certain denominational tradition, though Crusoe in the actual story by Daniel Defoe takes a few well-placed swipes at Calvinism’s rude doctrine of predestination. I recall all that since I just recently re-read the whole story for myself.

Crusoe, after rescuing or salvaging what he could from the abandoned sailor chests washed up on shore, or at least accessible not far from shore from the shipwreck, ended up with a total of “three good Bibles.” Apparently they were all plain-text Bibles, which fits the requirement precisely.

I don’t object, as you know, if on that island we have access to cross reference sources, grammars and lexicons, and concordances.

(7) Paul, when he visited heaven or paradise, as recorded in 2 Corinthians 12, was uncertain whether he was in the body or out of the body (2 Corinthians 12:2).

This clearly suggests that Paul’s experience demonstrates that he could not tell the difference, so consciousness continues when one is “out of the body,” which of course represents the experience of physical death, and Robinson Crusoe, having avidly read his Bible faithfully for an hour or two each morning before commencing his day’s tasks of keeping his garden, recalled that Paul was “left for dead” at Iconium, and experienced a remarkable and possibly miraculous resuscitation (Acts 14:19). Or was Paul just playing “‘possum”? Robinson was quite puzzled over this matter, because he had no commentaries or study Bibles with fallible human notes and doctrines to help him find the answer. Robinson did notice, though, that in several other places Paul makes use of the imagery of experiencing death in behalf of his service for Jesus Christ, as in 2 Corinthians 4:7-11. He saw that Paul leads right into an immediately following passage which directly addresses the certainty that “to be absent from the body” is “to be present with the Lord” (2 Corinthians 5:8) and one could hardly consider oneself to be “present” with Jesus Christ Himself if one were totally unconscious. That kind of cleared up Robinson’s question, and he found the answer without consulting a commentary or manual of church doctrine from any religious organization!

Robinson thought he recalled another allusion, or maybe direct mention, of the experience Paul had at Iconium, so he kept reading the next few mornings and found the spot in 2 Corinthians 11:23-25. Robinson thought to himself, “This is all beginning to take on a consistent contextual pattern. Look what I read clearly in the following chapter, 2 Corinthians 12.” So, as often happens in our own daily conversations, or even private thoughts (for quite a while Robinson had no one to talk to but himself), one thought leads to another related one. And so in part, we see this feature in the arrangement of what Paul wrote about in 2 Corinthians. Surely, 2 Corinthians 12 furnishes as much proof as one could desire to determine from the plain reading of Scripture that there is consciousness after death.

(8) Robinson Crusoe did some further reading in his three good plain-text Bibles and came to Luke 24:36-40.

Luke 24:36 And as they thus spake, Jesus himself stood in the midst of them, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you.
Luke 24:37 But they were terrified and affrighted, and supposed that they had seen a spirit.
Luke 24:38 And he said unto them, Why are ye troubled? and why do thoughts arise in your hearts?
Luke 24:39 Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself: handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have.
Luke 24:40 And when he had thus spoken, he shewed them his hands and his feet.

Robinson Crusoe, meditating carefully about the passage, noted how emphatically Jesus affirmed that they were seeing Jesus himself, not merely a disembodied spirit or a spirit being taking on a temporary physical form. He remembered the similar emphatic statement from where he had been reading in Acts 1:11 and especially Acts 2:32, 36. Robinson was really getting to appreciate the benefit of his enforced solitude, for now he was able to take the time to really find out for himself what the Bible actually said about things.

Jesus, therefore, Robinson concluded, arose in the very same body in which he was crucified, but in its eternal or glorified form. Since Jesus emphasized that they were seeing Jesus himself, this was the same, not a recreated person, that died, proving the continuity of the person, and thus the continuing conscious existence of the man Christ Jesus even after the death upon the Cross until His resurrection three days later, for the Bible, Robinson knew, clearly tells us Jesus is still a man (1 Timothy 2:5).

(9)Belief in both spirit and angel on the part of both Paul and the Pharisees, not to mention Luke who records the incident reflected in Acts 23:8, proves the continuing consciousness of the person after the death of the body.

Mulling all this over in his mind, and seeing ever so many connections with other things he had been reading in his Bible, Robinson recalled that in Acts 23:8 “spirit” is mentioned in the same sense but distinguished from angels, so Robinson concluded that as angels are conscious beings, though they are spirits, so “spirits” must be conscious beings, being persons that sustain their existence after the death of the physical body. Robinson Crusoe thought, “Just one more piece of evidence that immediately after death we will enjoy a conscious experience of being instantly with Jesus Christ in fellowship with him in heaven.”

Robinson decided it was time for him to get back to work on his garden, and then get some lunch, and come back to these thoughts when he got more of his work done. He looked forward to the next opportunity to read further in his Bible.

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Luke 23:43 Revisited + 14 Proofs of Consciousness After Death Part 1

Posted on April 15, 2013 by Jerry

False doctrine abounds and needs to be refuted. Jude tells us to “contend for the faith once given to the saints.”

The Bible pointedly and clearly teaches that there is immediate consciousness after the death of our body. That is to say, our consciousness continues unbroken, uninterrupted.

(1). The case of the penitent thief on the cross and the promise Jesus made that the thief would be that day with Jesus in Paradise constitutes proof One for consciousness after death.

Luke 23:43 contains the promise of our Lord Jesus Christ to the Thief on the Cross:

Luk 23:43 And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, To day shalt thou be with me in paradise.

For those few readers here who might be able to read the Greek text, here it is:

Luk 23:43 και ειπεν αυτω ο ιησους αμην λεγω σοι σημερον μετ εμου εση εν τω παραδεισω

Now, don’t faint, run away scared, or mad. I intend to explain this in a way that everyone can understand.

A very literal word-for-word English translation of the above Greek text would correctly read:

And said to-him [the] Jesus, Verily I-say to-thee, Today with me thou-shalt-be in Paradise.

I used square brackets “[…]” to indicate the presence of a Greek word which I translated which is not required in English, in this case involving the word “the.”

I joined English words with a hyphen when more than one word is used in English to translate a single Greek word.

The grammatical and idiomatic issue involves the placement of the word “Today.” For the text to properly mean “I say to thee today” the Greek word for “today” would have been placed before the verb I say, which then in a word-for-word literal English translation would in that case have read “Verily today I-say to-thee,” but no manuscript evidence for the Gospel of Luke in the sources I have here suggests any question about the placement or order of the word “Today” (Greek, σημερον). Just now, I am looking at the Greek text edited by Tregelles, page 366, the right hand lower column, which gives all the significant manuscript variations for this text.

Alford’s Greek text, volume 1, page 661, in its Greek apparatus immediately below the Greek text furnishes no readings which affect the word order under discussion.

Alford has this to say in his exegetical comments below, right hand column:

It is remarkable how, in three following sayings, the Lord appears as Prophet, Priest, and King: as Prophet, to the daughters of Jerusalem; –as Priest, interceding for forgiveness; –as King, acknowledged by the penitent thief, and answering his prayer.

43. αμην λεγω σοι…. The Lord surpasses his prayer in the answer; the αμην λεγω σοι σημερον, is the reply to the uncertain οταν [“when,” Luke 23:42] of the thief.

σημερον this day: before the close of this natural day. The attempt to join it with λεγω σοι, considering that it not only violates common sense, but destroys the force of our Lord’s promise, is surely something worse than silly: see below.

μετ εμου εση can bear no other meaning than thou shalt be with Me, in the ordinary sense of the words, ‘I shall be in Paradise, and thou with Me.’

Checking Wordsworth’s Greek Testament, on page 251, Wordsworth states: “The penitent thief prayed to be remembered at that future time, however distant, when Christ should come in His kingdom. Christ rewarded his faith and good confession by a promise of immediate happiness. “To-day thou shalt be (i.e. thy human soul shall be with My human soul) in Paradise” (page 251, left column, top paragraph).

Tischendorf’s great eighth edition of his Novum Testamentum Graece, volume 1, pages 714, 715 contains a textual apparatus for this verse which occupies nearly a full page of fine print, but I see no reference to New Testament manuscript evidence to support a change in the word order involving “Today” that could support the view that it properly means “I say to you today, ….”

As Alford remarked, such a rendering is silly, and I would add, a trifling with the Word of God. Obviously Jesus was speaking to the thief on the cross that very day in which he spoke to him. It is clearly not the intention of the expression “today” to affirm when Jesus was speaking, but when the thief would be with Jesus himself in Paradise.

No further textual evidence beyond what I’ve already given is furnished by the Roman Catholic Joseph M. Bover S. J.’s Novi Testamenti Biblia Graeca et Latina on page 263, or the eighth edition of Augustinus Merk S. J.’s Novum Testamentum Graece et Latine, page 298; both sources give no variant readings from the Greek that pertain to the question under discussion pertaining to the meaning or placement of “Today.”

F. W. Grant comments on this passage that “…the Lord is answering a prayer in which a time wherein the thief sought to be remembered was expressed. He had said, ‘Lord, remember me when Thou comest in Thy kingdom.’ The Lord says virtually, ‘You shall not wait for that: today you shall be with Me.’ This is the simple, intelligible reason for the specification of time: ‘Today,’ not when I come merely, ‘shalt thou be with me in Paradise'” (F. W. Grant, Facts and Theories as to a Future State, page 148).

As for Paradise, A. T. Robertson, the great American Greek scholar, states “This Persian word was used for an enclosed park or pleasure ground (so Xenophon). The word occurs in two other passages in the N.T. (2 Corinthians 12:4; Revelation 2:7), in both of which the reference is plainly to heaven” (Robertson, Word Pictures, vol. 2, page 287).

I trust the scholarship I have cited and the plain statement of the text in Greek and English will put to rest once and for all the mistaken notion that there is a mistake in the punctuation of our standard English translations, the argument I’ve recently read in Seventh Day Adventist literature which discusses this verse. Those who argue for “I say to thee today, thou shalt be with me in Paradise” clearly do so for doctrinal reasons that are not supportable from the original Greek text’s meaning, idiom, and grammar.

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How long will Jesus reign on this earth?

Posted on April 11, 2013 by Jerry

Most of the preachers I hear on the radio or in the pulpit teach that Jesus will reign for 1000 years, a time called the Millennium.

If that is what you believe, you are flat-out wrong!

Books on Bible prophecy, and other works about the Bible, repeat this error.

The Bible plainly says, in words which cannot be mistaken, that Jesus Christ will reign forever on this earth.

Here is the plain Bible proof for the correct view:

(1) Luke 1:32, 33

Luke 1:32 He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David:
Luke 1:33 And he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end.

Some argue that the word “forever” is sometimes used in a limited sense. That is true, but not here. It cannot be used in its limited sense because (1) the reference is to the future age, the age to come, not this age; (2) the term “for ever” is backed up by an explanatory clause, “and of his kingdom there shall be no end.”

Jesus, therefore, will reign upon (not over!) this earth. We know that this reign must be upon this earth because it is in fulfillment of the Davidic Covenant. How do I know that? The text plainly says that Jesus will reign upon the throne of David. The throne of David is on this earth, not in heaven.

This little item of needful correction changes many things that we thought we knew when it comes to understanding Bible prophecy, or even the Bible at large.

The 1000 years of the Millennium does not mark the length of the reign of our Lord Jesus Christ upon this earth. It marks (1) the length of time Satan is bound; and (2) the time between the First Resurrection and the Second Resurrection.

The reign of our Lord Jesus Christ continues on this earth for ever, not just 1000 years. It is utterly wrong to speak of “the 1000 year reign of Jesus Christ.” That is NOT what the Bible teaches.

It is about time ordinary Bible reading Christians, pastors, Bible teachers, and Christian writers got this straight!

Think I am wrong on this? I dare you to prove me wrong. On this point, it is virtually certain you cannot prove me wrong, but you are most welcome to try.

You know, if you’ve read much on this site, that I can be persuaded to change my mind in the light of better or more accurate evidence.

Are you able to change your mind on the basis of the very plain and incontrovertible evidence I just presented?

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Time to Address the Real Political Problem

Posted on April 8, 2013 by Jerry

Evidently the leadership in Washington, D.C. have their heads buried in the sand.

They did not learn fifth grade arithmetic.

They don’t know how to apply the “rule of 72,” and may not even know what it is.

Currently, President Obama is going to propose a budget plan that will propose a cut to Social Security benefits for seniors, veterans, and people with disabilities.

The President’s budget proposal would also require middle-class seniors–people who make $47,000 a year and more–to pay higher Medicare premiums.

No cuts in benefits to Social Security are acceptable. Those of us who are getting Social Security paid for it all our working lives.

Furthermore, Social Security retirement benefits should be reserved only for American citizens, not Mexican citizens, not illegal aliens who came across our borders illegally.

Here is where the problem lies:

The whole Federal Government would be solvent if we corrected the immoral and improper special privileges given to the medical industry:  they enjoy monopoly status and protection that is against the law for every other business endeavor.

That is what makes medical costs so high–they can charge what they want, and they are not subject to normal free market forces which would force prices down to what is proper. Why should the medical industry be able to jack up prices to an unreasonable degree (such as charging $30,000 for a medicine that can be purchased over-the-counter from the source in another country for $100)? Why should it be forbidden to buy prescription medicine with a valid prescription from another country at much lower cost just to keep up the medical industry’s obscene profits here? If the hospital costs to have a baby in 1963 had grown only at the rate of our general inflation, it would cost about $1000 or so today for this procedure which is done millions of times a year; at reasonable costs, most medical procedures could be paid for out-of-pocket by most citizens without the extra expense of insurance, which ought to be reserved to cover rare catastrophic expenses.

This monopoly must be stopped now to avoid bankrupting the entire country.

I trust our politicians and representatives and senators understand the mathematics of the “rule of 72.” At annual increases of 9%, the cost of Medicare and Medicaid doubles every 8 years. And these costs have been doubling every eight years since the early 1980s. We CANNOT afford even one more such doubling–it would use up every dollar the Federal Government gets with nothing left over for anything else in the budget. Quit being blockheaded and absurd and ADDRESS THIS PROBLEM NOW.

It is very clear to me that we have very evil leadership in this country–leadership that has been criminally and immorally been bought off by the medical industry’s lobbyists with substantial gifts to re-election campaigns of our senators and representatives–who thereby are paid to represent the medical industry and not the constituents who elected them.

The Bible says much about evil leaders and leadership in the book of Proverbs.

It also warns against those who constantly promote “change” for just “change’s sake” to advance their nefarious political and social agendas.

The President’s mantra, “Change you can believe in,” is a diabolical oxymoron. Check out this Bible verse:

“My son, fear thou the Lord and the king:  and meddle not with them that are given to change” (Proverbs 21:24)

We have an utter lack of moral backbone and moral leadership in Washington in all three branches of government and both political parties, and there are NO exceptions, because none of those in Washington are speaking out and sounding the alarm about this most serious issue of impending financial collapse that confronts us right now.

I remember Dr. Bob Jones, Senior speaking of those “dirty compromisers” many years ago. That is just what we have not only in Washington, but likely in many other places too. They are even present in our churches, even our so-called Evangelical churches, if the polls are correct. I heard just this past week or so that 60% of Evangelical believers and Evangelical pastors do not believe that Jesus Christ is God. If that is the case, they need to drop the label of Evangelical or Bible-believing Christian, because they aren’t! They are what Dr. Bob called “dirty compromisers,” and no Christian has any business giving any kind of support to such leadership in the church.

Did you forget this verse is in the Bible?–

“Shouldest thou help the ungodly, and love them that hate the Lord? therefore is wrath upon thee from before the Lord” (2 Chronicles 19:2)

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Religious Extremism–According to the Southern Poverty Law Center

Posted on April 5, 2013 by Jerry

 

At the top of their list:

(1) Evangelical Christianity (U.S./Christian)

(2) Muslim Brotherhood (Egypt/Islam)

(3) Ultra-Orthodox (Israel/Judaism)

(4) Christian Identity (U.S./Christian)

(5) Al Quaeda (Transnational/Islam)

(6) Hamas (Palestinian/Islamist)

(7) Abu Sayyah (Philippines/Islam)

(8) Ku Klux Klan (U.S./Christian)

(9) SRI Ram Sene (India/Hinduism)

(10) Catholicism (U.S./Christian)

(11) Kahane Movement (Israel/Jewish)

(12) Army of God (U.S./Christian)

(13) Sunni Muslims (Iraq/Islam)

(14) Nation of Islam (U.S./Islam)

(15) Jewish Defence League (U.S./Judaism)

(16) Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (U.S./Mormon)

(17) Hutaree (U.S./Christian)

 

Well, so much for the list put out by the SPLC (Southern Poverty Law Center).

The Southern Poverty Law Center might be Southern, but it does not seem to be about either “poverty” or “law.”

The SPLC has appointed itself an expert about religion, apparently. They surely know nothing about the Bible.

The Federal Government, state and local police agencies, and the U.S. Military take what the SPLC says about those it identifies as “hate groups” as Gospel Truth, for they use the SPLC materials in their training.

See the article at World Net Daily:

http://mobile.wnd.com/2013/04/military-warned-evangelicals-no-1-threat/

If the U.S. Government is dumb enough to depend on such a group for guidance, it ought to be dismantled and replaced with a conservative and Constitutional government that follows the Bill of Rights and the Bible (the source of “natural law”) as intended and recommended by our Founding Fathers.

 

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We Know Them by Their Fruits

Posted on April 2, 2013 by Jerry

In the news tonight, I read that Saudi Arabia has declared there are to be no churches in its land, or in the Arabian peninsula.

The leading Islamic cleric in Saudi Arabia declared churches should be burned.

There is NO religious freedom in fully Islamic countries.

That must be because the Devil, or Satan, does not want any competition. After all, he is the “father of lies” (John 8:44).

Satan is also the author of false religions. False religions can be readily identified:  they contradict the Bible, which is the only genuine written Word of God.

Islam is a false religion because it contradicts the Bible when it teaches that God has no son.

Even the Old Testament declares God has a son in the Second Psalm:

Psa 2:7

 

  I will declare the decree: the LORD hath said unto me, Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee.

Psa 2:12

 

  Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all they that put their trust in him.

Pro 30:4

 

  Who hath ascended up into heaven, or descended? who hath gathered the wind in his fists? who hath bound the waters in a garment? who hath established all the ends of the earth? what is his name, and what is his son’s name, if thou canst tell?

 

The New Testament very clearly teaches the same truth:

Mat 3:16

 

  And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water: and, lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him:

 

Mat 3:17

 

  And lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.

Joh 3:16

 

  For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

Perhaps the most famous verse in the Bible, John 3:16, clearly declares that God has a Son.

Now let it be very clear:  any religion that teaches contrary to what the Bible states is a false religion.

Islam denies God has a son.

Therefore, since Islam teaches contrary to what the Bible teaches, Islam must be a totally false religion.

The attitude those of the Islamic faith have to those of other faiths demonstrates that their faith is not true to what God’s Word teaches should be our attitude towards others.

The religion of Islam does not permit its followers to learn the truth from the Bible and believe in our Lord Jesus Christ. Muslims who convert to Christianity face the death penalty in Islamic countries.

So much for freedom of religion. Islamic nations do not believe in such basic human rights and freedoms.

On Judgment Day those who follow Islam, no matter how sincere, will learn the awful truth that they have followed the broad road that leads to destruction, not the narrow road that leads to life.

No wonder Jesus taught that there are few who are on the right road, the narrow road, for he said of eternal life, “few there be that find it.”

If you have not been reading and studying the Bible, chances are good that you too are on the wrong road.

The solution to that is obvious–start reading, studying, and believing the Bible.

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To HHS: Please protect religious liberty!

Posted on March 28, 2013 by Jerry

[I just received the following “Action Item” in an email from Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council asking me to “Click here to provide public comment on HHS Contraceptive Mandate Rule and New Proposed Accounting Gimmicks.” My message was deemed too long so it was not accepted, and no attempt on my part to shorten it made it acceptable, so I gave up sending it through them. But I thought I would post it here for all to see, followed by my own rant describing how to solve these issues God’s way.]

The original email:

They’re at it again, and we need your help to ensure liberty remains.

We know that religious freedom does not stop inside a church door — not in America! The First Amendment — our First Freedom — protects both individuals and groups; for-profit groups like Hobby Lobby, and non-profits like Wheaton College.

However, yet another “proposed regulation” by the Obama Administration issued in February does nothing to protect religious freedom in implementing the Department of Health and Human Services abortion drug and contraception mandate. The original HHS mandate issued in August, 2011 included an exemption for employers who hired and served people of the same faith, and had as its primary purpose the “inculcation of religion.” This meant only churches were exempt.

There is no exemption or even supposed “accommodation” for businesses. For religious non-profits, the administration proposed in 2012 a religious “accommodation.” However, it turns out that the proposals merely force religious non-profits to provide free abortifacients and contraceptives in their insurance plans with the cost being shifted to the insurer. The administration’s new proposed omits the embarrassingly restrictive prong about “inculcating religion,” but the exemption in practice still only applies to churches and their auxiliaries.

The proposed rule lays out more specifics on the “accounting gimmick” that all religious charities, health care providers and universities will be required to implement in offering free contraception and abortifacient coverage in their employee health plans. As proposed, the rule would still require religious non-profit employers to purchase health plans. If the employer objects to including abortifacients and contraceptives, the insurance company then is required to “automatically” and “simultaneously” provide the free coverage of objectionable services to the employees. The Administration claims this “simultaneous” coverage offered by the insurer is separate enough from the employer’s plan to “accommodate” their religious objections. However, the employer’s plan is still under this gimmick the legal trigger for free contraceptives and abortifacients to the employees. This doesn’t protect conscience, it guts it.

We need you to provide public “comment” to HHS opposing the proposed regulation. Follow this link to submit your comment to HHS, so they will know that those on the side of religious freedom care about this issue (don’t worry, we’ll provide you with some sample text). Our religious freedoms are essential to our democracy, and we urge you to please act now – the open comment period ends April 8.

Click Here to Provide Public ‘Comment’ on HHS Contraceptive Mandate Rule and New Proposed Accounting Gimmicks

Sincerely,

Tony Perkins
President

[To HHS:  Please protect religious liberty]–

Please rescind the “contraceptive mandate” in private health insurance with no co-pay to patients. The proposed accounting schemes in the “Proposed Rules” would do nothing to protect religious freedom for businesses or religious non-profits. The exemption only applies to churches, and I believe a full exemption should be offered to any employer who has moral and religious objections to covering contraceptives and drugs they believe function like abortion drugs. Non-profits and for-profit businesses should not be forced to pay for health insurance only to be the legal gateway for their insurer to provide objectionable benefits and services to their employees. Such drugs and services are often covered already and widely available. Forcing religious charities, universities and health care providers and other non-profit employers to directly provide access to such services is a violation of their First Amendment rights.

 

I am opposed to the contraception mandate, because I believe some of these drugs can cause an abortion (such as “ella” and “Plan B”), and the conscience of religious people who oppose these drugs should be protected, not violated. No accounting scheme alleviates the fact that religious employers will still be forced to pay for health coverage that includes free contraceptives, abortifacients and sterilization services whether the cost of the drugs and services is free or not. If the mandate with this proposed scheme does not violate religious freedom, why exempt churches? If churches deserve an exemption, why does HHS believe the same exemption doesn’t apply to other groups?

 

I strongly oppose the proposed rule and request HHS to provide a full exemption of the HHS mandate to all employers who object to certain coverage benefits.

[My added comments to the FRC-provided message above:]

For those who are Bible-believing Christians, it is absolutely reprehensible to our faith and contrary to what the Bible explicitly teaches at 2 Chronicles 19:2 for any Christian individual, group, or business to support activities or actions which are against the Bible, for such support is ABSOLUTELY WRONG and FORBIDDEN.  “Shouldest thou help the ungodly, and love them that hate the Lord?”

 

It is ABSOLUTELY WRONG for the Federal Government or the State Governments together or individually to require even remotely the support of Bible-believing Christians, financially or otherwise, for ungodly causes. Abortion is an ungodly cause in any context in terms of what the Bible teaches.

 

Officials in this current administration must wake up to the fact that God has issued very plain warnings against nations and individuals who insist on doing what is wrong. Psalm 9:17 is just one of very many such warnings:  “The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God.”

My further rant:

Of course, I know full well that HHS or even Homeland Security or any other government agency will never find this site. Even if they found it, they would not read it!

One of their major problems is that they do not know how to read, so if they did find this site they could not read it anyway.

Funny how those who argue so strenuously about “separation of church and state” are so bent on regulating what “church” can or cannot say or do and where.

The reason our nation has fallen so far morally and economically is exactly because our nation as a nation, as a government, has dishonored God and His written Word in the Bible. Promoting Sodomy and attempting to tamper with God’s definition of marriage are just two of the latest outrages.

But the solution is not to be found in government, particularly more government. The solution that God has provided is very simple, and most effective.

Every person who claims to be a Christian needs to actually become a genuine Bible-believing Christian who spends time every day reading and studying the Bible for themselves.

Then, every genuine Bible-believing Christian needs to win one person to Christ and teach them to read the Bible, study the Bible, and in the coming year reach just one additional person for Christ through genuine conversion and the New Birth accomplished by the Holy Spirit through His Written Word.

If this happened, then, like in Apostolic  days, all these genuine Bible-believing Christians would (by living a life obedient to the Commands of Christ) “turn the world upside down.”

The reason this is not happening is because (1) no one is seriously reading and studying the Bible;  (2) no one is winning others to Christ by sharing the written Word of God in the Bible with them, especially outside the doors of a church.

Don’t kid yourself. God is not dead. The Bible is still true. The Holy Spirit still works through the written Word of God in the Bible to produce the New Birth in everyone who believes.

Posted in Politics and the Bible | Tagged , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Bible Reading and Bible Study

Posted on March 9, 2013 by Jerry

I have noticed many churches and individuals are forging ahead with Bible reading and Bible reading plans and challenges this year.

That is a very good thing.

I have seen some rather daunting challenges. One involves the use of ten bookmarks placed as indicated throughout the Bible. To follow the plan, read a chapter each day for each of the bookmarks as designated by Bible book on the bookmark. If followed faithfully over a period of years, the combination of Bible readings is ever new. The author of the system, a Professor, claims one gets ever more insights from this kind of Bible reading because as different chapters from each of the ten portions of the Bible are read, one sees new connections never noticed before because they are never read in the same combination.

As I recall reading from the professor’s website, he suggests always doing the reading from the same Bible so you remember where material you have read is on the page.

I suspect that program works well for those who can put the time into such a program of reading.

For those new to Bible reading, I have suggested here starting your Bible reading in a small way so you can be successful and not fall behind an artificially imposed schedule, such as trying to read through the Bible in a year.

I suggest starting with a minimum of 20 minutes of reading every day. One of my sons showed me an “ap” that he downloaded free for his cell phone that gives him access to quite a few Bible translations. It keeps your place where you last left off. That would be an ideal device to use for reading the Bible in those spare moments when one must wait for service, or traffic, or whatever else requires our patient waiting. The device featured very clear black print on a white background, so it was easy to read from. If you have such a device, that is a good use for it.

I used to carry a small pocket New Testament, or even a pocket Bible. No need to recharge an electronic device with those. But they are meant for younger eyes. But that is how I did much of my original regular Bible reading.

After you have read straight through the New Testament from its start in Matthew to the last book, the book of Revelation, you will want to read the Old Testament too.

If you are a good reader and love to read, you can probably read straight through from Genesis to Malachi. If you need some brushing up to improve your reading skills, you can make your Bible reading easier by using one of the modern English translations.

For lighter reading that is more readily understandable, I like using the English Standard Version. Easier still for me is the New Living Translation. If I am looking for greater accuracy, I find the NET Bible to be a good choice.

In any case, find an English translation you can enjoy, and keep reading!

After you have read through the whole Bible in sequence from Genesis to Revelation, I suggest reading the Bible through in a Chronological Bible. I have several different Chronological Bibles myself, but have not had time to spare for reading them since I started my major project to create a more complete Bible study tool for cross reference Bible study. Chronological Bibles come in several different English translations. The advantage of reading from a Chronological Bible, especially a Chronological Study Bible, is that you will read the material in the Bible according to when it happened. Without doing this kind of reading, it is rather hard to have a grasp of what goes with what in terms of Bible history since our usual Bibles are not arranged that way.

Some time each week ought to be devoted to more than just Bible reading. Do some actual Bible study.

I have found that the easiest kind of actual Bible study to engage in is cross reference Bible study. When reading a Bible chapter, you may come upon a very striking verse, one that you would like to study further in terms of what the rest of the Bible has to say about the subjects mentioned in that verse.

To study by means of cross references, you must have a source of cross references. For starters, you might first see if any of your own Bibles contain cross references. If you have a reference Bible, make use of the cross references it supplies. The MacArthur Study Bible, the English Standard Version Study Bible, The New American Standard Study Bible, and the NIV Study Bible all contain quite a few cross references. Try out and get used to using the cross references given in your own Bible, if you have a Bible with cross references.

Then, for greater help in cross reference Bible study, I strongly suggest you obtain The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, or The New Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (if you can find one–it is out of print and only available second-hand), or Nelson’s Cross Reference Guide to the Bible. Nelson’s Cross Reference Guide to the Bible is currently available, and is a very complete source of cross references. This is a Bible study tool that will last you a lifetime of Bible study, and will grow to be your favorite Bible study tool the more you use it. It will always be found to be more complete for cross reference Bible study than any other Bible study tool available. It works well to supplement other Bible study helps.

Besides studying the Bible using cross references, it is helpful to study the Bible using chain references. The best study Bible for this kind of study is the Thompson Chain Reference Bible. I find that using the Thompson Chain Reference Bible in conjunction with the cross references in Nelson’s Cross Reference Guide to the Bible really provides a very complete method of studying a verse or a Bible subject or topic.

 

Posted in How to Study the Bible | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

On the Right Track?

Posted on February 13, 2013 by Jerry

“As President, sometimes I have to search for the words to console the  inconsolable,” he said. “Sometimes I search Scripture to determine how best to  balance life as a President and as a husband and as a father. I often search for  Scripture to figure out how I can be a better man as well as a better  President.”

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/obama-urges-humility-national-prayer-breakfast-article-1.1257904#ixzz2Knq3lcxY

Another source gives President Obama’s words as

I Often Search Scripture to Figure Out How I Can Be a Better Man as Well as Better President

 

I am very excited and pleased to learn that President Obama revealed that he often searches Scripture to find out how he can be a better man as well as a better President.

That is good news.

Now if only someone would clue him in on how to search the Scripture, that would help the process along, and really put him on the right track.

For his benefit, and yours, may I kindly pass along some suggestions on how to search Scripture effectively.

(1) If using hard-copy Bibles, which is best, use two of them. Keep one open to the passage being studied. Use the other one to turn to other places or verses that shed light on the subject or topic you want to study.

(2) Make use of a concordance. Most hard copy Bibles have a concordance at the back of the Bible. I find the concordances at the back of the Bible to be very frustrating because they are so incomplete. But for starters, such concordances will work. If using Bible software, use the search feature in the software, and it will bring up where the word you are searching for is found almost instantaneously. So, for example, to learn what the Bible says about prayer, search for forms of that word, like “pray,” “prayer,” “prayed,” “prays,” “praying,” and you will find many but by no means all of the verses that relate to that subject.

But the Bible often speaks of a subject using different words than the ones you might think of. There are steps you can easily take to find those too.

(3) Study the Bible, or search the Bible, not by word, but by topic. Some better Bibles contain an index to topics in the Bible. Zondervan’s New Encyclopedic Reference Edition has in the front a “Biblical Cyclopedic Index”of topics arranged alphabetically. Many other editions of the Bible contain similar helps. The Thompson Chain Reference Bible is one of the very best Bibles available for topical study of the Bible.

(4) Study the Bible from a Bible which contains what are called cross references in either side or center column format. Some Bibles have far fewer cross references given in the space at the end of a verse or paragraph; these are not complete enough to provide the help you want for cross reference study.

What are cross references, and why should you make use of them? Cross references are links to other passages in the Bible which are on the same subject, or another aspect of the subject, or to the same word, or the same word in the original language as it is used elsewhere. Sometimes cross references let you know where the New Testament quotes the Old Testament, or vise versa. Sometimes cross references mark out Bible prophecy in the Old Testament by showing where the prophecy is fulfilled in the New Testament.

It is necessary to use cross references in Bible study because not all the information about a subject or doctrine is found together at one place. Cross references lead you to where the subject or doctrine is mentioned elsewhere in the Bible. This is absolutely crucial information, because to arrive at what the Bible actually teaches about a subject you must consider all that the Bible says about that subject.

Bibles with cross references abound. One of the best study Bibles for cross reference Bible study is the NIV Study Bible. Bibles in the King James Version which contain excellent cross references include from Collin’s Clear-Type Press the Iona Clear Type Reference Bible; the Oxford University Press Long Primer Bible with Chain References (one of the very best available); The National Bible Press Black Face Type Reference Bible; the Oxford University Press New Emerald Reference Bible. The Holy Bible, Teacher’s Edition, in the American Standard Version has the most complete cross references of any Bible I have in my collection.

(5) For the most complete source of cross references, obtain for your studies The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, The New Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, or Nelson’s Cross Reference Guide to the Bible. The latter two volumes are far more complete than the original Treasury, and have corrected the printing errors of the original source. These Bible study resources are easy to use, and are a far more complete source of cross references than any reference Bible. Both The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (but with all the errors remaining) and The New Treasury of Scripture Knowledge are widely available in software format.

The New Treasury of Scripture Knowledge contains an important note at Psalm 9:10 about two helpful Bible study methods. One of those methods, the cause/effect method, is very pertinent to practical application Bible study of the kind President Obama appears to be doing. The Subject Index of The New Treasury of Scripture Knowledge will provide much additional help under the entries “Christian Graces,” “Priorities,” and “Values.” Further help and direction will also be found in the note to Hebrews 6:9.

If you or the President will make use of the ideas in this post, you will surely be helped to grow spiritually and to develop the character of Christ in your own life, and will find direction from God as He has given it in His Word, the Bible, for any subject of concern to you.

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

What’s Baptism, and What Does the Bible Say?

Posted on February 8, 2013 by Jerry

http://blog.logos.com/2013/02/whats-baptism-and-what-does-the-bible-say/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+LogosBibleSoftwareBlog+%28Logos+Bible+Software+Blog%29

What’s Baptism, and What Does the Bible Say?

The Logos “blog” tells how to study what the Bible teaches about the subject of baptism.

First off, it recommends “Start with a Bible Word Study.”

Using the lexical resources in Logos 5 is how to do a word study about baptism. The blog’s author comments:

“This will bring you definitions from all your Greek dictionaries and show you every place where your Bible mentions this Greek word. You’ll see that the word literally means “to dip” or “immerse,” but obviously there’s more to baptism that being underwater.”

Secondly is the “Next step: the Topic Guide”

With the Topic Guide, a feature of Logos 5, “just enter a topic and hit ‘Go.'”

See more at the link:

http://www.logos.com/topic-guide?utm_source=blog.logos.com&utm_medium=blog&utm_content=textlink&utm_campaign=educationalresourcesq12013

 

The final step mentioned in this Logos article about baptism and how to study it in the Bible is to search using the Logos 5 software using the “morph.” The “morph” is the morphological root, what most of us that are not linguists or Greek scholars would call the “root word.” The software will in a matter of seconds bring up every occurrence of the Greek word root baptō and all of the Greek words related to this root.

I posted the following “Comment” on the Logos blog to further assist users of the Logos 5 software in the study of baptism, calling attention to the Bible study tool The New Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, which is included in the Logos 5 software. Readers of this site know I created The New Treasury of Scripture Knowledge to furnish students of the Bible with a more complete resource of cross references for Bible study.

 

http://blog.logos.com/2013/02/whats-baptism-and-what-does-the-bible-say/#comment-44201

Logos 5 contains some very wonderful resources. One of the resources that will be found most useful, and more complete and balanced in its presentation of the subject of baptism, is The New Treasury of Scripture Knowledge. This resource presents not only cross references more completely than any other resource now in print, but notes which delve deeper into the issue. One major note on baptism is found at Romans 6:4, which presents the strongest arguments available in support of the mode commonly called immersion. Notes elsewhere, linked to Acts 1:5, present further evidence on the Biblical mode of Christian water baptism. The note at Acts 1:5 also distinguishes between real baptism accomplished by the Holy Spirit upon conversion to Christ, and ritual water baptism administered by human agents to another person.

You can learn a whole lot more than you bargained for if you take the time to carefully study a Bible subject using the resources available in Logos 5. Don’t forget to make full use of The New Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, one of the major tools for Bible study in Logos 5.

Posted in Bible Study Tools | Tagged , , , , , , | 5 Comments