05.22.11
Posted in Church Issues and Bible Interpretations, God at 12:47 am by Administrator
Well, it’s May 22, 2011, and we’re still here. Surprise, surprise, the world didn’t end. . . In case you don’t know what I’m talking about, check out this link.
Not that I believed it, but it’s just one of those things where I would rather wait before commenting. When I heard that some guy was claiming Judgment Day on May 21, 2011, I didn’t believe it because the Bible tells us that no one will know the day or the hour, Matthew 24:35-36.
“Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away. 36But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only.”
Now having said that, apparently, this guy wasn’t claiming that the world was going to end on May21, but that it was going to be the beginning of Judgment. That’s actually a big difference from the end of the world as the media is presenting it. But even so, so far, I can’t see any “judgment” yet. I’m guessing he was referring to the “bowls of wrath” mentioned in Revelation 16. And it doesn’t look like that’s happened, yet, either. As far as I know, the first bowl involves sores on those who have taken the mark of the Beast. Uh, first there has to be a Beast and people will have taken the mark. I don’t think that’s happened yet. You know, “no one can buy or sell unless they taken the mark of the beast”. So the beast hasn’t presented himself, yet, and thus people haven’t taken his mark because he’s not yet made known for us to take the mark, then the conditions for the first Judgment isn’t ready. I wonder why those people who follow that guy would even believe him. I’m guessing they don’t really read their Bibles, or if so, they don’t really understand what they read. I’m not claiming that I know everything in the Bible, but that one seems pretty clear.
As a Christian, I do believe that Christ will come again, and we are to be ready at any time, anyway. But since the Bible tells us that no one will know the time or the day, then as soon as someone puts a date on it, I figure that’s not the day, ha!
Thanking God for His patience so that more can come to know Him,
Marlakins
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04.16.11
Posted in Church Issues and Bible Interpretations, God, Health-related--Natural Alternative Treatments, History, family stuff at 12:21 pm by Administrator
If I were to describe my mood today, I would say, “a bit sad.” Ordinarily I should be happy. My oldest son is finally “officially” graduating with a BA! The ceremony is to take place in June. Last Wednesday I went with him to his Grad fair and picked up his cap and gown, took his grad pictures and all those extra stuffs associated with graduating. I was very happy for him. We even discussed the possibility of him going off to Korea and teaching English for a year. Course the doting mom that I an would go with him! LOL It’s not the highest paying job, but a nice diversion and experience for a young man. Then the reality of the Fukushima reactor still spewing out radioactivity relatively close by South Korea hit me. . . Radioactivity from Chernobyl traveled hundreds and even thousands of miles leaving elevated radioactivity in places still today such as Germany and Sweden. I’m sure other places, too. Should I let that get in our way? Weighing the possibility of genetic damage and subsequent cancers, deformities in offspring, and other health concerns, should we risk that? I have to use my head and opt to forgo South Korea. At the age of 46, I’ll likely never see South Korea in my lifetime since nuclear radioactivity will last longer than my lifetime. I’m not only sad for myself, but sad for my children, not to mention the millions of people living in those contaminated zones. It’s really tragic.
I think of when I visited Tokyo as a teenager with my dad years ago. It was very nice. I had thought that one day I’d like to take my boys there for a visit. Now we’re not likely to ever go. Such a beautiful place, such a shame that it has been needlessly contaminated.
Am I over reacting? Well, I’ve been trying to educate myself on the matter and have been trying to soak up what everyone is saying and weigh the material. While I don’t want to be paranoid, I also want to be responsible and not be willfully ignorant. I do believe in the consequences of that. I have to do my best and then trust God for the rest. But I do believe God expects us to do what we can to help ourselves first. He has given us all that we need, but we have to reach out to use it. God finds no pleasure in sluggards as the Bible even tells us that, “the slack hand will be put to forced labor.” Proverbs 12:24 “The hand of the diligent shall bear rule: but the slothful shall be under tribute.” There’s a lot about laziness in the Bible. Another example is Proverbs 19:24 “A slothful man hideth his hand in his bosom, and will not so much as bring it to his mouth again.” That seems to indicate that a lazy person won’t even feed himself. No, I don’t believe we just wait for good things to happen to us. We have to strive for good. Thus, do I just walk into a radioactive zone and pray that I’m spared damage? No, I should do my homework. I shouldn’t be lazy and expect God to preserve me. I have to use the good judgment God gave me and act according to good sense.
The topic of nuclear power and radioactivity is very complicated. There is so much out there that I’ve been trying to learn and understand. While I understand that nuclear energy is very controversial, I’m still amazed that there are those who feel it is safe and clean. I just can’t see how any informed honest person can believe that. But then again I’ve been amazed to find how little some people know about radioactivity at all. I’ve even met someone who didn’t know what Chernobyl was!!! Oh my, no wonder our rights have been so easily trampled. Many of us have been in the dark. I’m still learning a lot and finding so much that I didn’t know. The contamination to our earth is much worse than I had known, and it’s making Revelation 11:18 much more meaningful to me,
“And the nations were angry, and thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead, that they should be judged, and that thou shouldest give reward unto thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, and them that fear thy name, small and great; and shouldest destroy them which destroy the earth.”
I have since learned that there have been many more nuclear accidents that have been hidden from us. Many more parts of our earth have been contaminated and left uninhabitable for generations. It’s likely that all of us have some nuclear contamination already. The video presentation, Chernobyl Heart, is only a glimpse of what so many people have suffered as a result of nuclear energy. So many other people who suffered nuclear exposures have been forgotten like all the military personnel and civilians used in nuclear tests and experiments. People we never hear about, but who have suffered greatly. Not only do we not hear about them, we are lied to that they never existed. Even today, these children in Belarus and the surrounding areas are little known and would be still unknown if not for the kind people who documented Chernobyl Heart.
Part 2
Part 3
It’s maddening to think of how much we spend on the military and this is what we get for it–death, destruction, and contamination. (Nuclear energy was harnessed by and for the military. The main reason it was pushed onto the public sector was to keep the technology alive during “peace time.” Check out the story behind Windscale aka Sellafield.) No wonder the 24 elders in Revelation spoke of “destroying those who destroy the earth.” This reminds me of another parallel concept in the Bible, “Those who live by the sword shall die by the sword.” Matthew 26:52 “52Then said Jesus unto him, Put up again thy sword into his place: for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword.” I think of all these things and I get angry. But mostly and more recently, I’ve been sad.
Marlakins
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06.22.09
Posted in Book Reviews, Church Issues and Bible Interpretations, God, Uncategorized at 1:00 am by Administrator
Okay, so I did another one of my reading-like-an-idiot routines. I just finished reading Frank Schaeffer’s book, Zermatt, and was looking for the 3rd book in this trilogy when I found that I had just read the third part. Apparently, Saving Grandma is the second of the trilogy, not the third, so I read this out of order. Why I got that confused, I don’t know, but anyhoo, I just finished reading Zermatt and found it hilarious, but kind of sad, too. As part three of the Calvin Becker trilogy, Zermatt is a continuation of Calvin Becker’s coming of age story amidst his reformed Protestant missionary family. Normally, coming-of-age stories aren’t my first choice topics to read about, but since Calvin’s coming-of-age is intertwined with being part of a reformed Protestant family, I find the story much more interesting.
The story starts out funny enough because Calvin is part of such a bizarre family. It’s like how the Munsters are so different that the family itself is amusing to watch, and Calvin’s growing interest in females and how that conflicts with his religious upbringing just adds to the comedy. However, what I like about the story is that it goes beyond just the coming-of-age theme and delves into theological issues seen through the eyes of a young man. I also find the interplay between the male and the female characters interesting and reminds me of the book, Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus, especially the one dinner discussion scene where Ralph is telling the women “how men are very different from women.” I think it is widely accepted that men and women are very different and handle life situations differently, however what caught my interest even further was where Ralph’s conversation starts to point out that women want to take over or control situations. Here’s a portion of that conversation.
“‘. . . and I tried,’ Dad was saying when I tuned back in, ‘I really did, kids, but then something began to happen and I started to see how this woman, who had driven me nuts, was going to drive you kids nuts too.
“‘Well, it was already too late for my daughters.’ Dad glanced at my sisters, then looked back up to the window tops. ‘Elsa had you girls wrapped around her little finger. Then I started to watch Calvin. At first I saw Elsa and you girls were only trying to turn him into a pietistic idiot. I figured what the hell. But after that the ‘Talks’ started. And suddenly I realized what Elsa was trying to do was to turn Calvin into a girl!’ Dad looked at Mom and his voice got loud and harsh. ‘Yes! Don’t deny it! You wanted him to be a girl because women are the real leaders of the Protestant churches and have been since that bitch Carry Nation started driving men out of bars with an ax! Oh sure, you let a man preach from the pulpit, but who drags all the men to church every Sunday? Who runs the show? Who does the preacher have to please unless he wants to get kicked out?’”
That portion hit me because I have heard about comments from pastors that women are more godly than men because women tend to go to church more often than men, and it’s the women who generally drag the men to church. What piques my interest in this is the concept in the Bible that men are to be the leaders, not the women. The explanation being that women are more easily deceived than men as evidenced by Eve being deceived by the serpent. That concept coupled with my belief that church meetings should have an atmosphere similar to Paul’s description of church order in 1 Cor 14. The atmosphere should allow for men to have discussions, unlike how our modern-day churches leave no room for group discussions in favor of only one speaker, the pastor, while all the men just sit there passively and do nothing. When I think of it, why do women have to drag men to church? But no woman has to drag a man to a bar. What do men do at bars? Well, one of the things they commonly do is “converse” with each other, sharing news and other events. Men tend to want to know what’s going on, and they will gather together for that purpose “without” being dragged there by women. Maybe this is a more natural setting for men and why early churches were set up so that men could converse about the faith in a similar fashion, rather than just sit there and be “preached at.”
Another part that stood out to me was earlier in the same discussion where Ralph was pointing out the sexual nature of men. He calls to mind certain men of the Bible.
“‘But I ask you girls: Who was the man after God’s own heart?’ Dad waited. No one spoke. ‘I’m talking to you, Elsa,’ snapped Dad, and he stopped smiling.
“‘King David,’ whispered Mom.
“‘Ha! And was he some kind of eunuch? Did he talk about his ‘Little Thing’ and his ‘Precious Seeds’? No! Damn your stupid euphemisms! He charged, dick out straight into the Philistine throng, then speared himself everything in a skirt that moved! They were still bringing him virgins to warm his bed when that horny old bastard was a wrinkled geezer and lay dying! And Solomon was just like the old man. What did he have, Elsa, a thousand wives and concubines? Don’t forget the concubines, Elsa! We’re not talking about chopped liver!’”
This part brings to my mind people who think that just covering up women’s bodies makes much of a difference to men’s sexual desires. Sure I understand that men are visual and will look at female bodies especially when exposed, but who are we kidding? Even when women are covered from head to toe, men will still think about women’s bodies and wonder “what’s under all the cloth? Calvin’s character is a perfect example of that. The more the women tried to “hide” their womanly things, the more Calvin was curious about what they were hiding! Regardless of whether he was exposed to outright nudity or not, his mind was consumed with the thoughts of women and their body parts. It’s my impression that when we start to go overboard with all this modesty stuff then we’ll probably end up like the Muslim women wrapped up from head to foot with only holes for eyes. And knowing that our bodies need sunlight to be healthy it seems a contradiction that God would make our bodies require sunlight for health then turn around and require that we cover up so much that no sunlight could hit our skin. We know that one of the best sources of Vit D is sunlight to the skin. Now this is not to say that I think we should not have some discernment about what we expose ourselves to, especially our children. But I do think it says something about moderation in all things.
The part I thought was sad in the book was when Ralph thinks he’s the cause of Calvin’s “sin” and punishes himself. The poor guy is already miserable and trying to “free” himself, but ends up back where he was trying to get away from, and then living with guilt to boot. But in actuality, I would say, “Doesn’t God say to confess our sins and He is faithful to forgive us?” Then why must he flog himself? And along this thread of the story, it sure makes Elsa look horrible. What an evil and conniving women she turns out to be! Yikes! Doesn’t put a good light on Protestant women. . . yeeesh.
And finally, while there could be a few more things to discuss, I’ll just comment on one more aspect of the book–the idea that there is no truth or reality, but just words we use to describe our experiences. I will argue from the biblical standpoint that there is truth. There are actually quite a few references to truth in the Bible, but I’ll just pick out a couple.
John 8:31
Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; 32 And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.
God’s Word is truth, but we can be mislead as Satan is constantly trying to mislead us. And what better trick is there than to have us believe that there is no truth? This world is too complicated to have formed by itself from nothing. So if something out there formed this world, then He has the truth.
2 Timothy 2:15
Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.
How do I rate Zermatt? Hmm, not a book I would have children read. . . But, I did find it entertaining and even theologically engaging. I would recommend it to any mature person who is willing to honestly look at and evaluate his/her own religious beliefs.
Marlakins
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06.06.09
Posted in Book Reviews, Church Issues and Bible Interpretations, God, Uncategorized at 10:06 am by Administrator
We’ve had kind of weird weather here in Los Angeles for the past few days. Normally June is quite sunny, but the past few days it has been gloomy and even rained a bit. A couple days ago it started to drizzel, and then yesterday morning I woke up to the sound of rain. It was actually coming down pretty good, too, which was a surprise. Waz up wit dat? Fortunately, this morning was “almost” back to normal. At least it wasn’t so gloomy in the morning.
Anyway, strange weather days like this tends to get me a bit off schedule. Kind of like day light savings. I keep thinking it’s still early in the morning, and then I find out that I’m late everywhere, ha! Today I managed to get some errands done, then I finished reading Portofino by Frank Schaeffer. I was knitting just a few moments ago, but since I’ve somehow been knitting like an idiot (you know, knit a few rounds, find out it’s not going right, rip it out, knit it up again, find out it’s still wrong, rip it out, knit it up again, decide I don’t like the pattern, rip it out again, find a new pattern, knit it up, realize I must have missed some stitches somewhere, rip it out again. . . aka knitting like an idiot. . .), I thought I would give it a rest and blog.
Speaking of knitting like an idiot, I somehow managed to read like an idiot, too. I recently checked out Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad. I started reading the book, and thought, gee, this isn’t what I thought the story was going to be like. Then I looked at the back of the book and read the review. It mentioned “two” books. I flipped the book over and looked at the front. It read, Heart of Darkness and The Secret Sharer. Then I realized that the book had “two” stories in it. The first one was The Secret Sharer (although the cover had Heart of Darkness first), which I was reading. Oye! Well, I only had about four pages left to finish the story, so went ahead and finished it up. So that’s what I call “reading like an idiot,” yikes! Strange story. . . , but, okay, so now I’m ready to start reading Heart of Darkness. . . better be good. . .
Now, back to the book that I did mean to read and did finish, Portofino by Frank Schaeffer. Ha! Well, it was pretty entertaining. The story turned out to be a coming of age story of a young boy growing up in a Reformed Christian family. The story focuses on two of their annual 10-day family vacations at Portofino. While I admit that I had to laugh out loud in “several” places in the book, I also have to concede that it was a bit disrespectful to his family and the Reformed Christian Church. If Frank’s family was really like that in real life (I got the impression from Crazy for God that Portofino was in fact a very thinly veiled story of his actual family life), then I can understand why he might have some “attitude” problems. I’d be scarred for life, too!
I do have some mixed feelings of the book because I hated to think that Francis Schaeffer was like that. I don’t know how close he was in real life to the character, Ralph, but he was VERY moody and very easily angered. His behavior was not at all anything like what I’ve been exposed to while growing up, so I would have been shocked to live in his family. I also wonder how close Edith Schaeffer was to the character, Elsa. While I can appreciate her ferver in witnessing to unbelievers, her aggressiveness and display of her faith was a bit much for me. According to Frank’s book, Crazy for God, he expresses that his mother really did have very long prayers like 45 minutes to say grace before eating at each meal. I can’t imagine having to do that before each meal even in public! All the food would go cold at each meal and who knows how many flies would have already landed all over it, yikes! That would be enough to drive me nuts, too. The reasoning given in the story is that Elsa claimed that we should not be ashamed of God (i.e. if you deny me, I will deny you in front of the Father), and that we should not hide His light under a bushel. Thus the long open prayers before everyone no matter where and attempts to “save” the lost even while on vacation. I’ve gone out with some people who have prayed out loud in restaurants, and I admit that it has made me uncomfortable especially in light of the passage in the Bible, Matthew 6:6 which states that when we pray it should be in secret.
“6But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.”
This did make me rethink what the Bible tells us about church conduct such as in 1 Corinthians 14:26. It tells us that when we gather each one of us has a psalm, a teaching, a revelation, etc., but it does not mention prayer. I thought that interesting given that it’s common for all Christian churches to pray at each gathering before and after each meeting. Makes me think maybe I should study this more. Are we “always” to pray in secret? Hmmm.
The book did have a lot of sarcasm regarding the “lost,” “pagan” Roman Catholics and other non-reformed Christians from Calvin’s perception of his reformed parents. However, I think the most sarcasm pertaining to religion was actually directed towards the Calvinists. Particularly the concept of the “elect.” On page 217-219, Calvin is describing a tract his family handed out as part of their ministry by the Great News Publishers. They wanted him to hand them out, but he didn’t want to. Here’s his description:
The front of the tract had a picture of a man’s face on it. He had his hand under his chin to show he was thinking. There was a big question mark over his head and over that was written, “Which Way? Life or Eternal Death?” Behind the man was a door with a staircase leading from it with arrows by the staircase. One arrow pointed up and was marked “Eternal Life’ and the other arrow pointed down and was marked “The Unbelievers’ Judgment.”
Mom had once read this tract to us at family prayers. It was about a man who had been raised in a godly home but who had never made a personal profession of faith in Jesus. When he grew up he had strayed far from the Lord and was filling up his empty life with the pleasures of the world: drinking, dancing, smoking, and even worse things the tract called “The fleeting pleasure of the flesh.” Then he had a serious accident. After the accident a godly nurse told him he should trust Jesus for his recovery, physical and spiritual. Then the story sort of split into two parts. Like two answers you could choose between to solve a problem on a test. In one the man got bitter because of his accident and turned his face away from the godly nurse who was sharing a Scripture with him about “He whom the Lord loveth He chastiseth.” The man finally got well without the Lord’s help even though Jesus was standing knocking at his unregenerate vile heart. A year later he was drunk and he stepped in front of a freight train. He had had his chance with the godly nurse but it was too late now and he went weeping before the Awesome Judgment Seat of the Lord in a state of Original Sin and Total Depravity. He was judged to be a goat–a Vessel of Wrath–predestined to damnation, not an Elect sheep, and got sent to the Left Hand of the Lord, where there was gnashing of teeth. He wished he had listened to the godly nurse and invited Jesus into his heart when he had had the chance. His last thought in the tract before he went into the Lake of Fire was “If only. . . ” saying or thinking to himself in the Lake of Fire even though he had plenty of time to say a lot because he was there for all eternity.
But in the other story, the man chose the right way and listened to the godly nurse and the”Good News was like refreshing waters on a parched land’ to him. He prayed the Sinner’s Prayer right there in his hospital bed and got better and gave his life to the Lord, gave up his career as a nightclub singer and started to work in a mission for alcoholics. And the desire for alcohol, tobacco, singing worldly songs and swearing left him entirely, “for he was filled with something far, far better!” He didn’t get hit by anything so you didn’t get to see what happened when he stood before the Lord but it was pretty clear he was an Elect sheep and would get to go in at the Right Hand and hear the blessed words, “Well done my good and faithful servant. Come into the joy of the Lord,” or something like that.
But I figured he still had problems because of the fact that if he wasn’t one of the Elect, “predestined before the foundation of the world” to be saved from Utter Total Depravity, then he might live his whole life like he should, maybe even marry the godly nurse and go to be missionaries with her in Liberia and hold Negro babies while she vaccinated them against polio, but it still might not work out. The Lord might say, “I never knew you,” and the man would say, “But I invited you into my heart,” and the Lord would say, “Maybe, but I never came in, see. You are a goat. Once a goat, always a goat. You were never one of the Elect.” Then the man would get mad and say, “What the hell are you talking about! Nurse Jane here never said anything about this!” Then the Lord would say, “Too bad she didn’t study Calvin’s Institutes more, then she would have known.” And the man would shout, “Known what?!” Then the Lord would say, “About Reformed theology, that’s what, pal!”
Then in my head the story got weird because I imagined the Lord saying, “But you’ll be able to study all about it now,” and the man said, “Where?” And the Lord said, “In the Lake of Fire of course.” And the man said real sarcastically, “How’s that?” And the Lord said, “Because Calvin’s there too.” Then the man said, “I thought he was a great and godly man and explained everything about God and all to everybody so we could be real Christians instead of Eastern Orthodox, Roman Catholics or Baptists!” The the Lord said, “Yeah, but he’s not one of the Elect, his mind was unregenerated, he is the original Vessel of Wrath.”
“Calvin,” Mom said, “what are you daydreaming about, darling?”
“Calvin and Jesus.”
Then Mom and Dad exchanged pleased looks like they had just won a prize. And I could see that Dad thought my correction had been timely and was helping me a lot.
The illustration Frank gives above regarding a “problem” with Calvin’s theology is valid. I think the concept of the “pre-ordained elect” is contrary to 1 John 5:13:
These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God.
According to John, we can “know” that we have eternal life. It appears that we don’t have to “wait” until after we die to find out whether we have endured or not or are one of the elect as Calvin’s theology suggests. The idea of the elect also goes against “free-will.” If we are all chosen before hand, then we don’t really “choose” to believe in God or follow Him. If we don’t choose, then where is our free will? Phil 2:10-11 states, “That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth, And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” The Bible tells us in John 3:16 that those who believes in Jesus will be saved. If Phil 2:10-11 says that “every tongue should confess the Jesus is Lord,” doesn’t that mean that everyone will then eventually believe and be saved, not just a certain number of elect?
I know that there are quite a few arguments for Calvinism such as Christ died for “many,” not all. But saying that Christ died for many doesn’t necessarily mean that he didn’t die for all. I mean if we are talking about all people, then that IS many. And then I can imagine that some might say that every tongue “should” confess might mean that we should confess, but some don’t, and thus not everyone will be saved. That does make sense, but when I looked it up in the Greek, interestingly there was no “should” in the Greek. Hmmm. And that should could mean both should or another tense of shall.
Well, anyway, I do find the arguments interesting, so try to keep up with it when I can. Course it seems to go on and on. . . Personally, I lean more towards the perspective Zane Hodges seemed to have. That is, anyone who believed what Christ said in John 11:25 obtains eternal life:
25Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live:
Hodges claimed that it was as simple as that. In one message he gave he made me laugh because he spoke of a conversation he had with a guy who had asked him, “What if a person believes in Christ that He can give eternal life, BUT he doesn’t want to believe?” Hodges replied, “Too late.” Ha ha ha! I loved that. I’m sure many will claim that to be “easy believism.” But you know what? Christ told us in Matthew 11:28 that His burden was light:
Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light
It seems to me that men tend to want to make things burdensome and heavy. But that doesn’t seem to be Christ’s way.
Marlakins
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04.12.09
Posted in Church Issues and Bible Interpretations, God, History, Uncategorized at 9:41 am by Administrator
Today is more commonly known as “Easter,” however as Christians, my family and I refer to this day as Resurrection Sunday. Like Christmas, the holiday commonly called Easter is a fusion of beliefs and ideas. For instance, people often associate Christmas with St. Nicholas and Christmas trees along with Jesus’s birth, when in fact, St. Nick, Christmas trees, and the birth of Jesus are not commemorating the same thing. As such, “Easter” and the famed “Easter bunny,” have separate origins from what we celebrate as Resurrection Sunday. Easter, from what I understand, originated from a pagan celebration of a fertility goddess, Eoster. Rabbits and eggs symbolized fertility. I believe the Jews celebrate passover around this time, also. But on this day, we celebrate the resurrection of Christ, not the goddess of Easter, or the symbols of fertility (eggs and rabbits).
Some Christians believe that Resurrection Sunday should be a bigger holiday than Christmas because while it’s true that Jesus had to be born a man, if he were not risen, then his earthly birth would not have mattered much. The Bible explains this to us in 1 Corinthians 15:12-19.
” Now if Christ be preached that he rose from the dead, how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead? 13 But if there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen: 14 And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain. 15 Yea, and we are found false witnesses of God; because we have testified of God that he raised up Christ: whom he raised not up, if so be that the dead rise not. 16 For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised: 17 And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins. 18 Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished. 19 If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.”
Paul pretty much summed it up for the Corinthians (and us) that our hope as Christians hinge upon the fact that Jesus died and rose from the dead. If Jesus “didn’t” rise from the dead, then all our beliefs and hopes for the next life are false or useless because without the resurrection of Jesus, we would still be in our sins (Jesus died for our sins), AND if Jesus wasn’t raised, then once the dead died, they remained dead. This is literal, not figurative as we believe the Bible tells us Jesus rose “physically.” So this day, Resurrection Sunday, marks a “huge” event for us Christians, which sadly gets mixed up with rabbits and eggs, which has nothing to do with Jesus’s resurrection or our future hope in eternal life with God.
So, I’m off to enjoy this day! Happy Resurrection Sunday!
Marlakins
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04.10.09
Posted in Church Issues and Bible Interpretations, God, Uncategorized at 9:43 am by Administrator
In light of Good Friday, I thought it might be appropriate to share a video series I watched not long ago of a presentation by the late Zane Hodges at the GES Conference in 2008 called, The Upper Room Discourse. The upper room discourse is what is commonly known by some Christians as the final hours Jesus spent with His disciples.
Upper Room Discourse Part 1
Upper Room Discourse Part 2
Upper Room Discourse Part 3
Upper Room Discourse Part 4
Upper Room Discourse Part 5 (Q&A)
I really appreciated Hodge’s insight to the Gospel of John. I hope others find it edifying as well. I was really saddened to hear of Zane’s passing late 2008, but greatly appreciate that we do have some of his writings, videos, and audios left behind to continue his dedication to explaining the Gospel, particularly his efforts to share the gift of eternal life through belief in Jesus as the Messiah in clear and simple terms.
Marlakins
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08.06.08
Posted in God, Uncategorized at 12:35 pm by Administrator
The discussion I read the other day on the 60 Minutes segment on Plumpy’nut has reminded me of a previous topic I have been wanting to blog about. Namely, the topic on love. I kind of put the topic on the back burner because I wasn’t sure from which angle I wanted to continue since there seem to be several aspects of love to explore. Thus I didn’t feel moved to write about it. But after reading many of the comments in reaction to the starving children in Africa, I was reminded that we really need to learn how to love one another. Overall, I think that many people do have good intentions, but even with good intentions, it appears that we just don’t really know how to love one another as evidenced by the comments and answers that I read on the discussion forum about the starving children and families of the world. It is true that actions speak louder than words and that the Bible calls us to action, so we must do more than just hope for the best and pray, however the motives behind the actions is also important so that our decisions and actions are appropriate. Love should be the underlying motive for our actions, particularly “Godly” love.
For a brief recap, a while ago I thought it would be nice to do a study on love, particularly what the Bible seems to show about love. I started my thoughts off in my post called, “Love Letter From God.” I chose that title because my overall feeling is that the Bible is like a love letter from God to us. It’s a detailed explanation of who we are, how God is involved in our lives, and how we can reunite with Him, etc. He explains everything from beginning to end all because He wants us to understand and because He loves us and would like us to come back to Him. I think that that basic message often gets lost or pushed back into the background. I think that’s unfortunate because so much about the Bible is about love and for a good reason, to teach us how to love.
Do people need to be taugh how to love? Sounds funny doesn’t it? One might think that having to learn how to love is ridiculous and that love comes naturally. People just fall in love, don’t they? It just happens. There’s nothing to it. But interestingly, God’s first and foremost commandment according to Mark 12:29-31 says this:
“29And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord:
30And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment.
31And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these.”
If love comes so naturally, then Why do we need to be told to love? First we are told to love God, and then in the second commandment we are told to love our neighbour as ourselves. If love comes so naturally, then isn’t everyone following God’s commandments and there’s no need to tell us that? My feeling is that we are told to love because people need to be taught how to really love, and the Bible is the true source of what love really is. All the laws laid down in the Old Testament were tutors to us, preparing us for the coming of Jesus who teaches us about real love and actually “shows” us through His examples. Before Jesus’s coming in the New Testament God, through Moses, laid out what “not” to do such as don’t kill, don’t steal, don’t commit adultery, don’t bear false witness against your neighbor, don’t covet, etc. People had to be told those things because it seems that those were the natural tendencies of man–to seek out self satisfaction. And since our natural tendency is for selfish and unloving things and ways, the current belief of searching in ourselves for truth and to first satisfy ourselves, as in many other philosophies teach, can be very harmful to us as Christians. Looking into ourselves first for truth often leads to hedonism, selfishness, and all of the things that the laws of Moses commanded us not to do. Love involves more than just a feeling, but also requires action and not just separating and alienating ourselves from the suffering of others as many of us want to do. I personally even know of people who don’t want to even hear about the injustices in our world, let alone do anything to try to help. James 2:14-17 tells us:
“14What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? can faith save him?
15If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food,
16And one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled; notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body; what doth it profit?
17Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone.”
And this is why I believe it is so important to look into the Bible to learn about love. It seems that even many of us Christians don’t really know Godly love. We’re so busy telling others that they need to believe in God to be saved, but what does that really mean? What does that mean to believe in God and be saved? From what? And what does God want of us? God teaches us about love. When asked, His first commandment is to know that He is the only God and to love Him with all our being. His second commandment is similar and that is to love our neighbors as ourselves. God teaches us with both words and examples. And this is why I think Christians need to focus more on the teachings of love. It is the first command to us. The Bible tells us in the end times of how love will grow cold. Either that means there will be less Christians in the end times, or that Christians will eventually not know how to love. Without studying love in the Bible, we will not know Godly love.
Marlakins
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07.11.08
Posted in Church Issues and Bible Interpretations, God, Uncategorized at 6:24 pm by Administrator
When we hear the words, “The Bible,” I think many preconceived ideas jump out in our minds. Oftentimes, those ideas are wrapped up in strong feelings whether it be a great love for the Bible or a disdain for it. People today, and in generations past, have risked their lives for what’s written in the Bible. Others have gone through wars and died for their beliefs documented in the Bible. And yet others have been martyred.
When I hear the words, “The Bible,” I think of a love letter. A very long and involved love letter from God to us. A love letter that He wrote to us with all the things He wanted us to know that we would not be able to know had He not revealed it to us. He shares with us our beginnings, who our forefathers were, what happened to them, much of history and how it can affect our lives today, how that history will affect our future, and even many other practical things such as how to live peaceably, what the attitudes of man are like, even a bit about what God Himself is like, and many other things. Apparently He had much to tell us as that “love letter” was not a mere few pages, but rather filled many, many pages which are known today to be a compilation of 66 books written by 40 different authors and spanning over about 6,000 years. In short that love letter is known today as The Bible.
One may wonder why I think of the Bible as a love letter? Well, it’s because of its overall message. In the Bible God tells us how it was His pleasure to create us, but we fell away from Him. But because of His love for us, He devised a way that we could be reconciled again to Him. In the meantime, He has given us directions on how to live so that things will go well with us until we are reconciled again with Him. Because He cares for us. Basically, the Bible tells us how much God loves us and how we can get back together with Him. It’s like a wonderfully detailed love letter where the ultimate goal is for reunion. There are even reference to the Bride and the Bridegroom–the church and Christ. So until we meet again, think of Him always and know that he is also thinking of us, so have heart and take care.
Being a love letter, it’s not surprising that “love” is the underlying theme in the whole Bible. In 1 John 4:19, he writes, “We love Him, because He first loved us.” Can we love like God loves? Is all love the same? There are many references to love in the Bible, to which I would like to comment. Certainly I would like to also receive comments if there are any other insights regarding love in the Bible. I’m not sure where I want to begin, so will pick a spot and continue later when I have more time.
Happy Friday!
Marlakins
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07.15.07
Posted in Anything goes, God, Uncategorized at 9:18 pm by Administrator
The other night, Brian and I watched the DVD rental, Pan’s Labyrinth. Despite what the cover looks like, it is *not* a kids’ movie. Actually, it was quite sad and a bit disturbing. The leading character is a little girl living during WWII. She has vivid imaginations, which heavily mixes up her fantasies with reality. This gets her into a lot of trouble. I won’t reveal what happens at the end for anyone who hasn’t seen it yet and is planning to. That would be a spoiler. But suffice it to say that what was in her mind was very different from what was happening in reality.
This reminds me of another story I read years ago. Not quite the same as Pan’s Labyrinth, but the story, Kiss of the Spider Woman also had a similar ending and illustrates the complexities of fantasies vs reality. While the lead character in Kiss of the Spider Woman, didn’t fantasize, per say, he struggled within himself between his values and his desires. One of the lead characters is a rebel who fights against the rich and what they stand for. Yet, secretly he has a rich girlfriend who he sneaks to meet. While in prison, he dreams of how much he enjoys the lifestyle he shares with his rich girlfriend. It’s actually a very different story from Pan’s Labyrinth, but interestingly, their ends are very similar.
I am reminded that this duality of wills is not new or unique to a few movie characters. Many times we live our lives with many contradictions. We say one thing, yet we do or want another. We want one thing, but we also want the opposite. It’s the old, “We want our cake and eat too.” Is it a problem? I see that living with duality or conflicting values may hold us down because James told us that, “A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways.” I wonder if this is the type of person who has trouble making up his mind? I would classify being unstable a problem. We should not be double-minded. The Bible teaches us that, “God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love, and a sound mind.” Doesn’t seem like God has given us an unstable mind. We are also taught that, “a double-minded man wavers like the waves of the sea, driven with the wind and tossed.” A double-minded man runs with the current fad, changes his mind from day to day because he can’t make up his mind. He is unstable.
Now, I’m not saying that it’s bad to have fantasies and dreams. Often times dreams or goals is what gives us direction. But it does appear that dreams and goals have to be applied appropriately in order for them to be helpful to us. Maybe it’s the idea that so many people live their lives in contradiction that I find interesting. Why do we do that? Or is it just unavoidable? It seems that it does matter what we think and how we think. We should strive to keep our minds in the right direction because if we stray too far off, we can get lost, like the lead character in Pan’s Labyrinth.
Marlakins
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05.31.07
Posted in Anything goes, God, Historical Trivia, Uncategorized at 8:56 pm by Administrator
Well, the opening of the Creation Museum has come and gone. Several news articles have been written on the event, so I won’t rehash that too much. Basically, it has been reported that over 4,000 people attended the opening. Judging from the car license plates, it is estimated that people came from about 20 different states to get there. I have no idea how many people normally visit museums on any given day, but from the pictures provided on Ken Ham’s blog, it looked like a good turn out. The pictures can be viewed here. The reactions from those who attended appear to be varied since both creationists and non-creationists attended.
For those who aren’t familiar with Ken Ham, he used to be affiliated with the Institute for Creation Research (ICR). They run another creation museum in the San Diego area, which has been there for over 20 years now, I believe. I’ve been to that one twice since it’s within driving distance to me here. The materials from that institute is where I first learned of the problems with the “model” of evolution. As a child, I always had “questions” of how “they” “knew” certain things like what the dinosaurs looked like if all they found were bones, or if we came from apes, then why are there still apes, or how can they tell that something is “billions” of year old, or if they only find one bone here and another bone there, how do they know which belongs to which and how to put them back in their original positions if the species is no longer in existence to use as a model, etc. So when I first was exposed to material from ICR explaining that those ideas were only “ideas,” then all of a sudden things started to fall into place for me. At first my reaction was, “Oh! So ‘They’ don’t really know? That makes a lot of sense!” Then my next reaction was anger because then I realized that I had been lied to all these years or made to believe something that was not concrete fact. Instead of teaching me that they “suspected” evolution took place like such and such, they taught it to me as if it were a “fact.” Not only did I learn that evolution is only a “model” of how the beginning of our world began, creation is also only a “model” of how our world began. ICR and AIG do an excellent job of clarifying that both evolutionists and creationists have the same artifacts by which to study, and it’s the interpretations of those artifacts where the descripencies arise. Naturally, the field is very complex and involving, so I can’t possibly discuss it all here. However, I have found that there are now free online videos which deal with the creation vs. evolution models. Such videos can be viewed from here and here.
One other thing I thought I’d mention is that ICR and the new Creation Museum in Kentucky aren’t the only creation museums. There are others such as Creation Evidence Museum in Glen Rose, Texas and Big Valley Creation Science Museum in Alberta, Canada as well as others that can be found at this link.
It appears that Ken Ham continues to do interviews and has reported on his blog that for the most part, the media has been doing a pretty good job of reporting their statements accurately. That’s nice to hear.
Marlakins
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