Bible Archives

August 26, 2021August 25, 2021

Singing is Good for Your Health

A Finnish study has found that singing is good for your health. In addition, it showed better verbal fluency in elderly singers compared to non-singers. The study says that these findings make sense because singing requires regulation of attention, versatile information processing, linguistic output, learning, and memorization.

Several New Testament passages talk about singing, including Ephesians 5:19, Colossians 3:16, Romans 15:9, and 1 Corinthians 14:15. The New Testament presents singing as part of worship, and everyone should participate in worship. Merely being entertained by someone who is blessed with great musical talent is not participating in worship.

In our day of four-part harmony, it is easy for everyone to learn to sing in their comfort range. In the Old Testament, the Psalms were songs. Music for worship in Jesus’ day mainly consisted of chants that everyone could join.

A person can be tone-deaf and still participate in singing in Christian worship. Although many religions use singing as a part of their worship activities, group participation is unique to the worship system of Christians.

Singing is not what takes place in the meetings of atheists. When I was an atheist, the only songs I remember were songs that carried a pornographic or comedic message. Music was not something we all participated in, but it was a vehicle of entertainment.

“Making melody in your heart” (Ephesians 5:19) is a proven way to improve your mental health. Furthermore, like everything God tells us to do, it has a purpose and benefits our well-being. Therefore, singing is good for your health, both physical and spiritual health.

Reference: Readers Digest. September 2021, page 58.

August 23, 2021August 21, 2021

Bible Horror Stories

We sometimes get mail from skeptics referring to “Bible horror stories.” That indicates the writer does not understand the biblical message. For example, a recent letter referred to the “horror story of a guy cutting up a woman and mailing her body parts to people all over the world.” This is a classic example of an atheist lashing out at the Bible without thinking or understanding the biblical account.

We need to remember that the Bible reports history as well as giving God’s instructions. The fact that your local newspaper reports a murder does not mean that the newspaper did the killing or endorsed it.

The passage that the skeptic referred to is Judges 19-20. This is a horrible story of a woman companion of an unnamed Levite who is raped and murdered by a group of men. The Levite cuts up her corpse and sends it to the 12 tribes of Israel to motivate them to retaliate against the murderers. This mutilation was not something the Levite did as a command of God.

At the time of this Bible horror story, there was no justice system in place. The book of Judges ends with the statement, “In those days there was no king in Israel: every man did that which was right in his own eyes” (Judges 21:25). There was a code of conduct but no legal system to enforce it.

Colossians 2:12-23 tells us that Jesus Christ did away with the legalistic rules that no one could follow completely. The teachings of Christ in Matthew 5–7 are in stark contrast to the violence and power struggles in the Old Testament. The Bible horror stories are accurate records of evil actions. We learn from history, so we don’t repeat the mistakes. The New Testament is NEW!! There is no horror in the gospels except what evil men did to Christ.

August 15, 2021August 12, 2021

Tolstoy and Stupefacients

One of the most famous authors on the world literary scene was Leo Tolstoy. He is probably best known for War and Peace but is well respected for his other novels. In 1890 Tolstoy wrote an essay titled, “Why Do Men Stupefy Themselves?” For Tolstoy, “stupefacients” were anything that interfered with the rigorous application of a person’s conscience, and he believed they caused most human problems. Tolstoy’s list of stupefacients included wine, beer, spirits, narcotics, and tobacco.

The Bible agrees with Tolstoy. Numerous Old Testament passages tell of trouble coming from the use of alcohol. (For example, see Genesis 9:20-24, Leviticus 10:9, Deuteronomy 29:6, and Judges 13:4-7.) The condemnation of alcohol use in passages like Proverbs 20:1 and 23:21 make it clear this is not God’s will for us to stupefy ourselves with alcohol. There is no product of humanity that has caused more misery, ill health, disruption, and violence than alcohol.

So here we are in 2021, legalizing another stupefacient. We already see the ill effects of the use of marijuana, and yet 70% of all Americans support the legalization of recreational pot. Nearly 80% of people in the 18-29 age category support it. Celebrities like Willie Nelson, Cheech and Chong, Woody Harrelson, and Bill Maher have promoted marijuana as a way to find peace in a confusing world.

People made similar claims about alcohol when prohibition was the law. The promoters of alcohol won, and the result of the legalization of alcohol brought in tax dollars. At the same time, it has cost far more in alcohol-related accidents, broken homes, and broken lives. The legalization of marijuana is also riding on the claim of increased tax dollars.

Tolstoy was a Russian writing in the late 19th century, and he was unsuccessful in turning Russia away from the use of stupefacients. The Russian Republic was destroyed and replaced with Communism with dictators like Lenin and Stalin. The question is, “Will America survive our 21st-century involvement with stupefacients?”

Data for this came from an article by John M. Crisp titled “We’ll Survive Legal Weed.”

August 8, 2021August 7, 2021

Charity and Faith in God

The Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy conducts research on donations to charity in the United States. Their recently released figures show that charitable giving in the United States declined between 2000 and 2018. This data is before COVID, so the reduction in giving is not due to the pandemic. Instead, there is evidence for a connection between charity and faith in God. The statistics show that as faith in God declines, so does charitable giving.

In the year 2000, 66% of United States households donated to charitable organizations. In 2018 that figure had dropped to 49.6%. However, the total amount of giving in 2018 was greater than in 2000. So even as fewer people were giving, those who were giving gave more. The study shows that the percentage of Americans giving to religious causes has declined along with the percentage of Americans attending worship services. A disturbing trend is that only a third of households headed by someone under the age of 40 gave anything to charity.

My parents were atheists, and I can remember their argument when my father’s employer put pressure on the workers to give to United Way. Of course, my father didn’t want to give anything, but for social reasons, my mother wanted her name on the list of donors that the employer published.

The numbers are somewhat surprising when you realize that campaigns to raise funds for various causes have become more and more aggressive in recent years. Nearly half of the large volume of mail we receive is solicitations from organizations wanting donations. We have also seen a significant increase in phone calls pressuring us to contribute to various causes.

As our society becomes more secular, it has become more materialistic. Rejecting the teaching of Jesus that it is more blessed to give than receive is reflected in the charity data. We also suggest that this trend explains why marriage is becoming less common and why there is an increase in frustration and lack of satisfaction in sexual relationships. Giving is not just a physical action. It is also a shaper of how we think and how we approach relationships.

There is a connection between charity and faith in God. The Christian system of desiring to give and finding joy in giving works. Rejecting God and the biblical way of life brings unfortunate results for all people.

Reference: Associated Press by Haleluya Hadero for July 28, 2021.

August 7, 2021August 6, 2021

Is it True that the Earth Really Orbits the Sun?

Is it true that the Earth really orbits the Sun, or does the Sun orbit the Earth? That may sound like a dumb question to people living in the 21st century, but there are passages in the Bible that say the Earth is fixed and others that say the Sun moves. Consider these examples:

Ecclesiastes 1:5– “The sun rises, and the sun goes down, and hastens to the place where it rises.”
1 Chronicles 16:30 and Psalms 93:1– “…the world is established; it shall never be moved.”
Psalms 104:5– “He set the earth on its foundations so that it should never be moved.”
See also Psalms 19:4-6 and 1 Samuel 2:8. Remember that Joshua told the Sun to stand still, not the Earth.

Thomas Aquinas, John Calvin, Martin Luther, and the Catholic Church all viewed the Bible as saying the Earth was fixed in space. Some of the attacks on Copernicus in 1543 and Galileo in 1632 involved resistance to the idea that the Earth really orbits the Sun.

One of my favorite activities with my high school students was to ask them how they knew the Earth orbits the Sun. While I wasn’t allowed to quote the Bible, I would use the same ideas involved in the above verses. Everyone knows that the Sun rises and sets. If the Earth orbited the Sun, wouldn’t it fly off into outer space? I even used a demonstration using a ball on a string and swinging it around my head. The purpose was to show that massive objects (like a planet) orbiting around a center would obey centrifugal force and fly off. During PTA night, I even had one parent say that he knew the Earth didn’t orbit the Sun.

The lesson here (as we have mentioned before) is failing to take the Bible literally. When you read the Bible, you have to look at who wrote it, to whom they were writing, why they wrote it, and how the people to whom it was written would have understood it. You have to realize what Jesus means when He says in John 6:48, “I am the bread of life,” or John 10:9, where He says He is “the door.” Obviously, that question is answered if we look at the context of the statement.

Saying the Sun rises is very similar, and we do it all the time. The frame of reference is the observer, and the Bible passage is not explaining astronomy. The evidence is clear that the Earth is moving, but it wasn’t until 1725 that accepted evidence proved it. The Earth really orbits the Sun.

Those who use the Bible to justify their denominational belief that the Earth is 6,000 years old are not taking the Bible literally. Ignoring evidence or failing to use common sense is not taking it literally. The Earth isn’t fixed in space, and it is not 6,000 years old.

August 6, 2021August 5, 2021

America’s Christian Heritage

America’s Christian heritage is being forgotten. It is a brutal truth that if you visit a foreign country today, you will be expected to observe their holidays and respect their heritage. When you are in Japan, for example, you are expected to wear a particular robe and remove your shoes when you visit a temple or meet with a Japanese political figure.

When I visited a Native American leader in Arizona many years ago, I was expected to allow my hand to be cut and my blood mixed with his to bring oneness. So doesn’t it seem a bit strange that you can be arrested for publicly maintaining biblical standards in the United States today? Consider the following facts about the heritage of this nation:

1) The Declaration of Independence declares God as Creator and Supreme Judge, and the signers pledged their reliance on divine providence.
2) Of the 50 state constitutions, 45 of them refer to God.
3) In God We Trust, the national motto is printed on all money and engraved above the Speaker’s rostrum in the House Chamber.
4) The Supreme Court declared the U.S. a Christian nation in 1892 and reaffirmed it in 1931.
5) The words of Leviticus 25:10 are inscribed on the Liberty Bell.
6) References to God, the Bible, and Christianity abound on the Lincoln Memorial, Jefferson Memorial, and Washington Monument.

If I visit Japan, I would not loudly condemn their culture and history because I don’t share their belief system. So why is it that in America today, remembering America’s Christian heritage and expressing the faith of our forefathers can result in being fined or put in prison?

Reference: Joey Peacher in Camp Manatawny Summer 2021 Newsletter.

August 2, 2021August 2, 2021

Mandatory Immodesty at the Tokyo Olympics

The Tokyo Olympic Games are in progress, and the dress code for the women’s beach volleyball reminds us of a recent incident with the Norwegian beach handball team. The Norwegian team was playing in the Euro 2021 tournament in July when they protested the required bikini bottoms in sanctioned matches. The team was fined $1700 for refusing to wear the mandated dress for competition. Instead, they wore thigh-length elastic shorts. The women on the Norwegian team were not comfortable with the mandatory immodesty, which the Norwegian Handball Federation president called “embarrassing.”

The mandatory immodesty requirement has nothing to do with the performance of the team or with handball per se. The male players are allowed to wear tank tops and shorts four inches above the knee. The decisions by the young ladies were not religiously based. Instead, it indicates that the world will adopt a particular dress code and discipline anyone who does not conform to it, whatever their reasons might be.

I can remember when girls in my high school were required to wear skirts that covered the knees, and the bottom hem had to be a certain distance from the floor. The stated reason for showing less leg was to promote modesty. It had virtually nothing to do with education. Unfortunately, it appears the world has now swung in the opposite direction requiring mandatory immodesty in girls’ clothing.

Christian women face a difficult situation in this subject area. In 1 Timothy 2:9, Paul encourages women to “adorn themselves in modest apparel … not with …costly array.” Unfortunately, that is becoming a significant challenge in our godless culture today.

Reference: NBC News

August 1, 2021July 31, 2021

Trusting God in Difficult Times

For the past two days, we have looked at one of the struggles everyone faces– trusting God in difficult times. Of course, the atheist will claim that a loving, caring, just God would not allow innocent people to suffer terrible disasters in their lives. However, most of us have had a “why me?” experience where a problem afflicts us that we feel is unfair and which we beg God to remove – and frequently, He doesn’t.

Life often presents situations that require trusting God in difficult times. I am not suggesting that I know all the answers, but I see three reasons why we sometimes fail to trust God. First, we looked at how faulty thinking and reasoning can erode our trust in God. Secondly, we saw that not having a reason to live and thus seeing no value in the problems we face contributes to our lack of trust in God. We want to look at a third reason today:

REASON # 3 – We fail to trust God because we think that everything must have an answer that we can understand. Someone said, “If I can understand the thinking of God, then God isn’t God.” My experience in dealing with people who are immersed in a problem indicates that they don’t want a theological or philosophical answer to their problem. What they want is to be free of the problem. After many years of dealing with this issue, I have learned that the best thing I can say is, “I don’t know the reason, but I care.”

Deuteronomy 29:29 says, “The secret things belong to the Lord our God..” In the book of Job, God never reveals to Job the answer to why his problems exist. It is evident that there is a war going on between good and evil in this world. I don’t understand all that is involved, but just looking around, we can see the struggle. I can give theological answers to questions about this war, but you don’t care about theology or philosophy if you are hurting. You want to have a solution to your pain.

After God speaks, Job concludes, “I have heard of you by the hearing of my ear, but now my eye sees you” (Job 42:5). Job came to realize that he is not smart enough or powerful enough to understand it all. Neither are we.

Trusting God in difficult times is our choice to make or not. However, learning to trust God fills our lives with purpose and direction. The promise of Acts 2:38 and John 14:26-27 is enough to make my life worth living, even with its pain and frustrations.

July 30, 2021July 29, 2021

Why Bad Things Happen to Good People

We all struggle with the question of why bad things happen to good people. Atheists claim that a loving, caring, just God would not allow innocent people to suffer huge disasters in their lives.

Most of us have had a “why me?” experience where a problem afflicts us that we feel is unfair. We beg God to remove the problem, and He frequently doesn’t. The Bible is not ignorant of this issue. The whole book of Job is dedicated to why a “perfect and upright man who feared God and eschewed evil” should suffer massive loss and pain.

As one who has faced a problem in trusting God, I am not suggesting that I have it completely solved. In my early days of cynicism and ignorance, I actually said that I had quit praying for God to solve a major issue. It seemed that every time I prayed that something bad wouldn’t happen, it happened. I think there are three fundamental reasons why we don’t trust God or lose faith in God when confronted with the reality of life’s problems.

REASON # 1 – The first reason is faulty reasoning and thinking. We don’t reason very far when we think that everything should be fair. Psalms 73:2-3 talks about believing that prosperity would equate to fairness. Several years ago, singer Peggy Lee sang a song titled “Is That All There Is?” In the song, she spoke about wanting something badly, and then when she got it thinking, “Is that all there is?” We have all bought something we really wanted and then when we got it, we found that we were not enamored with it.

Is it fair that Bill Gates has a lot of money and I don’t? What would I demand in exchange for my wonderful marriage, which apparently Bill Gates didn’t have? Is it fair that I have a disease that you don’t have? Human greed, selfishness, ignorance, and carelessness cause most of our illnesses. Would it be fair for me to ruthlessly contaminate the environment with the result that someone in the future would not have the resources I enjoy?

If all a person would have to do was go to Church to become free of their problems, what would be the result? We would have churches full of people with a temporary, short-term faith that wouldn’t benefit anyone. When we question why bad things happen to good people, ask yourself, “Was it fair for Jesus to die on the cross?” In the heat of a crisis, it is easy to lash out at God. However, if we could look at life unemotionally, unselfishly, and logically, we would see that our anger at God is misplaced.

Faulty reasoning and thinking is the first reason for not trusting God. Tomorrow we will look at reason # 2.

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.