Humans Archives

July 26, 2021July 18, 2021

Human Sexuality and God’s Design

Human sexuality has been a concern of people throughout time, and the Bible deals with the subject extensively. When I was in college, I worked under the direction of Mrs. Wardell Pomeroy. Her husband was a co-worker with Alfred Kinsey, founder of the Institute for Sex Research at Indiana University. At that time, I was an atheist, as was Kinsey, so I considered him a hero. One of Mrs. Pomeroy’s sons became a Christian minister, and that precipitated numerous discussions.

Kinsey had no place for God in his research. His view was that since humans are just mammals, we should be able to enjoy sex with any other mammal of our choosing. The Russian author Fyodor Dostoevsky said it well: “If there is no God, all things are permissible.” As belief in God has decreased in western culture, Kinsey’s view of human sexuality has become widely accepted.

The New Testament teaches that the healthiest, most meaningful, most satisfying, and most pleasurable sexual experience is with a single marriage partner. Furthermore, the marriage should be a covenant of love, loyalty, care, and faithfulness. In Matthew 19:5, Jesus said, “A man shall leave his father and mother and cleave to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” The Greek word translated “cleave” in the King James Version is “proskollao,” which means to “glue to” or “adhere to.” It is absolute and total unity, not just a physical union. God created human sexuality as a cleaving apparatus.

So what does the evidence show as working in human sexuality? Does the atheist view expressed by Kinsey and Pomeroy work? Every study on this subject has demonstrated that sexual activity outside of the biblical concept of marriage does not work. Here are some examples:

The National Survey of Counseling Directors – A study of 6500 sexually active adolescent girls found that they are three times more likely to be depressed. As a result, they are nearly three times as likely to attempt suicide as peers who are not sexually active.

The National Health and Social Life Council – Their most recent survey found that sexually active singles have the most sexual problems and get the least pleasure from sex. It also showed that couples in long-term marriages were the most satisfied demographic group.

The prominent scholar J.D. Unwin studied 86 civilizations and found that all 86 demonstrated that sexual fidelity was the most important predictor of a society’s ascendancy and strength. Unwin was not a believer and expressed amazement at his own findings.

Atheists are forced to conclude that sex is an evolutionary product and that human sexuality functions the same as that of any other mammal. The biblical view is that sex in humans is not just to produce offspring. Additionally, Human sexuality is a designed tool to assist and promote human relationships and provide stability in civilization. A great deal of the unrest and conflict in America today is rooted in society’s acceptance of the atheist view of sexuality.

July 20, 2021July 17, 2021

LGBTQ Exemption for Religious Colleges

One of the challenging situations in America today is what to do about the rights of Christian colleges and universities and LGBTQ people. On June 8. 2021, the U.S. Justice Department filed a court statement to defend the LGBTQ exemption for religious colleges from the federal civil rights law. This means that the Justice Department intends to continue allowing Christian colleges who believe that homosexuality is wrong to exclude LGBTQ students from their schools.

Involved in all of this is the fact that the Education Department provides billions of dollars of federal money for scholarships and grants to students attending Christian colleges and universities. The two opposing organizations involved are the Council of Christian Colleges and Universities (CCCU) and the Religious Exemption Accountability Project (REAP). CCCU says they are afraid the Biden administration “may be openly hostile” to their cause. They say they have a First Amendment right to promote traditional religious beliefs about sexuality and gender. REAP maintains that this is anti-LGBTQ hate and causes severe harm to LGBTQ students.

Presently 40 LGBTQ students at conservative religious colleges and universities are suing the Department of Education for its role in the LGBTQ exemption for religious colleges. The case is Hunter versus the U.S. Department of Education, and the outcome will have substantial implications for Christian schools and colleges in the United States. While this dispute is between the LGBTQ community and Christian colleges, the issues will affect other Christian organizations.

This is another case of rendering to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and to God the things that are God’s (Matthew 22:21). When a college or other institution accepts money from the government for anything, directly or indirectly, they are obligated to accept government control and restrictions.

Many years ago, Ohio Valley Christian College used grant money to construct an auditorium. However, when it was completed, they were not allowed to have chapel services in the facility because of the use of federal funds. The school eventually bought out the grants so that they could pray in the building.

Jesus knew that secular governments should have no role in His Church, and Christian organizations need to avoid any political connection.

Reference: Houston Chronicle, June 10, 2021, page A-4, Vol.120 No. 240.

July 14, 2021July 13, 2021

Marijuana Use and Suicide

The National Institute on Drug Abuse and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have released studies on the correlation between marijuana use and suicide. The data drawn from 281,000 people between the ages of 18 and 31 shows a disturbing trend. About a third of severely depressed young people considered suicide between 2009 and 2019. That number rises to 50% among those who used cannabis daily.

The data from 2019 shows that 45 million Americans used cannabis, and 9.8 million were daily users. Dr. Nora Volkow, the National Institute on Drug Abuse director, says, “Consumption of marijuana increases your risk of suicidal behavior. The increase in suicides in the United States is related to more than one cause, but marijuana is obviously one of those.”

So, there is a connection between marijuana use and suicide. The Bible tells us that we are God’s temple (1 Corinthians 3:16), and every life has a purpose. Knowing that provides a solid deterrent to suicide. As atheism and secularism increase in America and people discard biblical values, we can expect an increase in suicides. It is already happening.

Data from USA TODAY 7/6/21.

July 12, 2021July 11, 2021

What Marriage Is

Cecil May Jr. wrote an article in “Preacher Talk” published by Faulkner University, where he is Dean Emeritus. It deals with what marriage is and what is happening to it in our culture. We thought it was “right on target.” He graciously permitted us to share it with you here:

SECULAR HUMANISM AND THE SEXUAL REVOLUTION

Biblical religionists have lost a major battle to those who oppose any mention of Jesus as Lord, any reference to the Bible, any letting the Bible define conduct as sin, or to the practice of prayer anywhere except in religious services inside church buildings. A Christianity confined to church buildings is like salt that never gets out of the saltbox.

The opinion-makers in the USA-including the mainstream media-has sold the idea that opposing homosexual relations, which the Bible clearly labels sin, is a civil rights issue, equivalent to racial discrimination. The redefinition of marriage from God’s “one man for one woman for life” into two women or two men for each other came in the same package. So did no-fault divorce, unmarried couples living together, and “open marriages,” where other sexual partners are both expected and accepted.

Here is what the Bible says about marriage: “Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled” (Hebrews 13:4). “He who finds a wife finds a good thing and obtains favor from the LORD” (Proverbs 18:22).

Here is what the Bible says about sexual relations outside of marriage: “…but fornicators and adulterers God will judge” (Hebrews 13:4). “Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality … will inherit the kingdom of God” (1 Corinthians 6:9-10).

Marriage is widely discounted as “just a piece of paper.” But it is much more than that. Aside from being a significant legal document, it signifies commitment. More than that, the lack of marriage loudly proclaims the absence of commitment. No commitment of either husband or wife to the other, “for better or worse” or “for as long as we both shall live.” No commitment of a father or mother to whatever children may be born to that non-committed union.

An aged married woman had a severe case of dementia. Her husband finally had to put her in a nursing home. He came to see her every day. He helped feed her, dress her and fix her hair. She often had to ask, “Who was that man?” Someone asked him, “Why do you come every day since she doesn’t even know who you are.?” He replied, “1 know who she is, and I know who I am. She is my wife.”

That is what marriage is, more than “just a piece of paper,” committed love!

July 10, 2021July 7, 2021

LGBTQ Restroom Issues

If you have a transgender male who has decided that they are a female, what restroom do they use? Is a female who has decided they are a male safe in using a male restroom? Unfortunately, LGBTQ restroom issues are difficult to resolve.

On June 28, the Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal from the school board of Gloucester Count, Virginia. That let the decision of a lower federal court stand allowing transgender students the right to use the bathroom of their choice.

The case involves a student born as a girl but who began to identify as a male after completing the freshman year in high school and changing their name to Gavin. Parents of other students protested against Gavin using the boys’ restroom, so the school required the use of a unisex restroom. The American Civil Liberties Union represented Gavin in court. The lower court decided in favor of Gavin based on a federal law that prohibits schools from discriminating against students based on their sex.

As a public high school teacher, I find it hard to believe this whole situation. Policing Grimm’s situation when he is in the bathroom is virtually impossible, and the potential for harm to Gavin is great. Therefore, providing an essentially private restroom seems to be the safest and most logical solution to the situation.

The precedent created by this ruling is going to cause major LGBTQ restroom issues for schools and other public facilities. Accepting the biblical concept of male and female as creations of God would avoid these problems. However, being inflexible when operating outside of God’s creation produces massive problems like the Grimm case.

We suggest that instead of forcing one’s way into existing restrooms, the LGBTQ community needs to be willing to use unisex facilities to avoid potential harm. As Christians, we are concerned about their safety and well-being. We may disagree with their choices, but we want to do everything possible to avoid their abuse.

Reference: USA Today, South Bend Tribune for 6/19/21, page 8A.

July 8, 2021July 7, 2021

Distrust of Science and Where It Comes From

Every day there are stories about people who refuse to be vaccinated for COVID, indicating that they don’t trust science. Where does this distrust of science come from? Furthermore, what can we do about it?

Dr. Robert Jastrow explained a good indication of the source of the problem in his book God and the Astronomers. Jastrow said this about scientists: “Their reactions provide an interesting demonstration of the response of the scientific mind – supposedly a very objective mind – when evidence uncovered by science itself leads to a conflict with the articles of faith in our professions. It turns out that the scientist behaves the way the rest of us do when our beliefs are in conflict with the evidence. We become irritated, we pretend the conflict does not exist, or we paper it over with meaningless phrases.”

The most famous example of this was Albert Einstein, whose work showed there had to be a beginning to the creation. Einstein was an agnostic at that time and didn’t want to believe the cosmos had a beginning. So despite the evidence, he introduced a constant into his equations to allow his work to support his religious belief that the universe was eternal. In 1919 cosmologist Arthur Eddington pointed out the error, thus indicating that there was a beginning to the cosmos. Later, Einstein called it the “greatest blunder of my life.”

The problem is that not all scientists have the integrity that Einstein demonstrated. Many Nobel prize winners have made false claims in spite of clear evidence to the contrary. The bottom line is that doctors and scientists are humans, and they make mistakes and run into things they can’t explain, just like the rest of us. Sometimes even good science causes bad reactions. I know a family whose child had a severe reaction to a measles vaccination that left her in a vegetative state. Most of us know someone who has had an adverse reaction to a medication. These things combine to cause a distrust of science.

Paul told Timothy in 1 Timothy 6:20 to “avoid profane and vain babblings, and oppositions of science falsely so called.” Science is knowledge, and Paul isn’t telling Timothy to avoid knowledge. Instead, Paul is telling him to avoid “babblings.” The Greek word used there means “empty sounds.” Scientists may express their beliefs or feelings, but that is not science. Television has brought scientists into talk shows where they voice opinions on things outside of their field of training. Unfortunately, our news people are almost all biased in what they report and how they report it. For example, some channels are so aligned with a political party that 100% of their news reporting promotes that party.

We can read scientific reports and know, for example, the risks of a COVID vaccination. But, we can also consider the benefits are to us, our loved ones, and our community as well. If we are going to be good stewards of our lives and health, we must spend some time determining what is good and true and what is a dangerous scam. Distrust of science by rejecting a medical tool proven to preserve health and well-being because someone in the media makes a false claim is foolish. It only serves the agenda of those who oppose the Truth.

July 2, 2021February 15, 2022

Water for Living and Living Water

We all know that getting dehydrated is not good for our health. What we may not realize is how much water is designed to be part of our human makeup. Even the sound of water has a positive effect on our emotions and health. More important than that, our bodies depend on water. We need both water for living and living water.

Yesterday, we talked about our ability to cool our bodies through sweating. Eccrine glands work inside our cells to produce sweat, and humans have more of those glands than any other animal. When we lose significant amounts of water by sweating, a complex network of hormones and the electrical system that controls our kidneys work together to concentrate our urine.

The necessity of water for living means that we must constantly add water to our bodies, and to do this, we have great flexibility in our diets. In the United States, about 20% of the water we take into our bodies comes from the food we eat. In Japan, that number is around 50%. People get water by eating fruits and drinking milk, which is 87% water.

Humans are more locked into water than we may realize. We all travel by using water as the marker for where we stop. In our culture, it is often rest areas along the highway. In others, it may be desert springs or finding jungle plants that hold water. We spend large amounts of money on the construction of devices to bring water to us. Two thousand years ago, the Romans built a series of aqueducts to move water 16 kilometers to supply 50,000 people in the city of Caesarea. In today’s world, we build enormous pipelines to supply water to places where there are shortages.

When Jesus began to teach, He referred to His message as “living water” (John 4:10). In reality, the only thing more important than the water that sustains our physical lives is the living water that takes us to eternity. Revelation 22 pictures heaven with “..a pure river of the water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the lamb.”

Reference: Scientific American, July 2021, pages 40-44.

July 1, 2021February 15, 2022

Human Cooling System Design

We are in a season of extreme heat in much of the United States. One of the reasons we can survive this heat is because of the human cooling system. The heat release system design built into our bodies is extraordinarily efficient and superior to other forms of life.

Our body’s internal temperature depends on the climate, what our clothing consists of, and how active we are. The human cooling system to prevent overheating begins with receptors in our skin that sense when a person begins to overheat. When those receptors send a warning signal to the brain, the brain’s hypothalamus signals eccrine glands in the skin to release sweat.

The skin can release up to three pounds (1360 grams) of sweat in an hour. As the sweat evaporates, it removes 540 calories per gram of water evaporated (778 BTUs per pound of water) from the body. Meanwhile, blood vessels dilate, sending more blood to the capillaries in the skin, taking heat away from the body’s core and radiating it away from the skin’s surface. Finally, the person’s breath carries away whatever excess heat is left.

One of the main reasons humans can exist everywhere on the planet is the design of our bodies and the human cooling system that enables us to handle heat and cold. This design reminds us of the words of the psalmist, “I praise you, God, because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well” (Psalms 139:14).

Reference: National Geographic July 2021, page 60.

June 29, 2021June 20, 2021

Creation of the First Humans

Over the last two days, we have looked at some Hebrew words used in the Genesis creation account. The two most important words are “bara” and “asah.” They describe two different processes God used. Yesterday, we said that “asah” refers to making something from materials that have already been created. “Bara” refers to something only God can do in creating something that did not exist before. The Bible uses that word in describing the creation of the first humans.

Genesis 1:1 uses “bara” to refer to God creating the universe and planet Earth out of nothing. The same word is used in Genesis 1:20 for the creation of the first life when only non-living matter existed before. Then it is used in Genesis 1:27 for the creation of the first humans in the image of God. Genesis 1:27 says, “So God created man in His own image, in the image of God created He him, male and female created He them.” This view of what a human is, values every human. All human lives matter because all lives, all races, all ethnic groups, and both sexes are created in the image of God.

All attempts to get animals to exhibit characteristics unique to humans, such as artistic creation, musical synthesis, worship, and being able to be taught to think, have been a failure. There are horror stories of animals raised in human homes as humans and how they eventually reverted to their instinctive drives. One of them was a chimpanzee raised as part of a family. It savagely attacked and wounded a female visitor whom the chimp considered an invader in his territory.

The Bible is very clear in its teaching about the unique nature of humans and their equality with one another. In John 4:1-42, Jesus interacts with a Samaritan woman. Verse 9 points out that Jews at that time didn’t even talk to Samaritans, much less a Samaritan woman. Verse 27 tells us that the disciples marveled that Jesus spoke with her. Galatians 3:26-29 states the Christian view of the equality of all humans in no uncertain terms.

Skeptics have attempted to say the Bible denigrates some humans as second-class citizens by pointing out the conflict between Jews and Gentiles. That conflict had nothing to do with race but was over religious matters. Others have suggested that Genesis 6:1-8 denigrates some groups by calling them “nephilim.” The word “nephilim” doesn’t mean a giant or an alien or a half-human. The word’s literal meaning is “fallen ones,” and the passage’s context is clear that it describes people who have rejected God and His will. The word for giant in Hebrew is “gibbor” (Job 16:14) or “rapha” (Deuteronomy 2:11, 20 and 2 Samuel 21:16, 18, 20, 22).

The Biblical concept of humans is not only that all races and nationalities are equal, but that humans as a whole are unique and special because they are created in God’s image. The lineage of all people on Earth today goes back to the creation of the first humans. No other faith but Christianity has given the instructions to treat one another–even our enemies–with love, respect, and care (Matthew 5:38-48). That is because we are all created in God’s image.

June 28, 2021June 20, 2021

The Bible Description of Humans

Yesterday we asked the question, “What is a human?” Evolutionists say that humans are the product of millions of years of evolution. That belief says that survival of the fittest and chance evolutionary processes made you who you are. Also, it has logically led to slavery, racial prejudice, ethnic cleansing, and abortion. But is that true, or should we accept the Bible description of humans?

Genesis 2:3 uses two different Hebrew words to describe the creation process. The passage says, “God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it because that in it He rested from all His work which God created (bara in Hebrew) and made (asah in Hebrew).” Some translations don’t distinguish between them, but the words refer to two different processes.

“Asah” refers to making something from materials that have already been created. In contrast to “asah,” the word “bara” refers to something only God can do in creating something that did not exist before. Those two words describe two different processes, and the distinction is essential.

There are two other significant Hebrew words used in the Genesis creation account. One of them is “yatshur.” It describes artistic work in the creative process. It means to form or shape as a sculptor would do. Genesis 2:7 tells us that “God formed (yatshur) man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living being.” The reference to the living being uses the Hebrew word “nephesh,” which refers to a breathing creature. It is also used to refer to animals.

The similarity between “asah” and “yatshur” is that they both refer to the shaping of something from materials already created (bara). Genesis uses the word “asah” when referring to God making animals. Psalms 94:9 uses “yatshur” to describe the formation of the human eye. Jeremiah 1:5 uses it to refer to the formation of the fetus in the womb.

The word “bara” is connected to the Bible description of humans. Tomorrow we will take a closer look at that.