Bible Archives

April 16, 2025April 14, 2025

Wealth and Religious Movements

Many times, rich people have an incomplete feeling when being rich is all they have accomplished in life. Rodney Stark, in his book The Triumph of Christianity, gives a picture of wealth and religious movements:

Buddhism – Buddha was a prince, and 55 of his converts were from nobility.

Zoroastrianism – Zoroaster converted a king, queen, and court of a nearby kingdom.

Taoism and Confucianism – Both began among Chinese elites.

Orphism and Pythagoreanism in ancient Greece – According to Plato, they were based on the upper classes.

Even Moses was an Egyptian prince, but he gave up his position. Compare that to Jesus Christ, who was born to very poor parents in a very simple and poor place. He never owned property or a house. As far as we know, He never traveled by a wheeled vehicle or animal until He came to Jerusalem on a donkey near the end of His ministry, not on a horse as the rich would have.

The twelve apostles and other followers of Jesus did not show the same poverty level as Christ. Fishermen could be considered wealthy in Jesus’ day. Peter (Simon) and Andrew were partners of James and John, who owned a boat and left it with their father Zebedee and his hired servants (Mark 1:20). Peter apparently owned two houses, one in Bethsaida and another in Capernaum. Mark’s mother owned a house in Jerusalem (Acts 12:12). Matthew was a wealthy tax collector, and so was Zacchaeus (Luke 19:1-10). Joseph of Arimathea was very rich (Matthew 27:57), and Joanna and Susanna were wealthy women who supported Jesus and His disciples (Luke 8:3).

What is the connection between wealth and religious movements? Why are wealthy people the founders of various religions except Christianity, where Jesus stands out as an exception? Being rich doesn’t seem to bring the security and satisfaction people desire. In America, many of the wealthiest people have failed marriages and troubled children, with many overdosing or committing suicide. A strong argument for Christianity is the words of Jesus: “Therefore by their fruits you shall know them” (Matthew 7:20).

Reference: Rodney Stark, in his book The Triumph of Christianity: How the Jesus Movement Became the World’s Largest Religion, page 100

April 15, 2025April 14, 2025

“Not Religious” Young People

In 1990, 8% of people aged 18-29 said they were “not religious.” In 2020, 42% of the same age group claimed their religion as “none.” Dr Ken Woodward retired after 38 years as a religion editor for Newsweek. He has reviewed a new book by Dr. Christian Smith titled Why Religion Went Obsolete. Woodward points out that other identities have superseded the claim that I am Catholic or Jewish or any other religious identification, including “Christian.” It is my experience that even those who attend a church service will not identify to their peers that they are Christians. Now, our population uses new identity titles such as “I’m female,” “I’m Democrat,” “I’m MAGA,” or “I’m LGBTQ.”

One of the great tragedies of “not religious” young people is the enormous collateral damage in terms of morality. In 1955, when you said something, no one would believe you were lying. Today, lying is common at all levels. For the “not religious,” sex has become a drug of choice, especially among those who don’t use chemical substances. The notion that a man and woman would not have sexual relations until they were married is considered archaic. For many, marriage is a financial arrangement open to being dissolved at any time by either party.

Proverbs 14:34 says, “Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a disgrace to any people.” The history of ancient Israel given in the Old Testament shows us loud and clear that when people forget God and His teaching, the nation collapses. There is enormous documentation of what brought about the collapse of the Roman empire, and the question for America today is whether we will profit from or repeat the lessons of ancient history.

One bright spot is that books like Christian Smith’s new book, which is subtitled The Demise of Traditional Faith in America, are getting some attention from modern readers. Christian Smith is a scholar, a sociology professor, and the principal investigator for the Global Religion Research Initiative at Notre Dame University.

We would add our small voice to the outcry of real scholars in America, begging our countrymen to wake up before our “not religious” children and grandchildren lose the freedom that made America great.

Reference: “Out of Practice” in Notre Dame Magazine for Spring 2025, pages 19-25.

April 14, 2025April 13, 2025

Holy Week and Tax Time

Many Christians observe this week, April 13-20, 2025, as Holy Week. For Americans, it is also tax time. As we think about the teaching and sacrifice of Jesus, Christian values and paying taxes become an issue. Some suggest that since the government uses our tax money to support immoral activities, they should not pay taxes. It is true that much of our tax money goes to things that oppose the teachings of Jesus Christ. Others seem to believe they can obtain salvation by observing Holy Week. This human tradition is not commanded in the Bible, but paying taxes is, so it is interesting that Holy Week and tax time fall in the same week this year.

The Bible makes it clear that Christians are to pay taxes. Jesus said, “Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and to God the things that are God’s” (Matthew 22:21). Romans 13 presents civil government as having a good function. In Romans 13:6-7, we read, “It is right for you to pay taxes for civil authorities are God’s official servants faithfully devoting themselves to this very end. Pay them all that is due them. Pay your taxes and import duties gladly – respect where respect is due, and honor where honor is due.”

Realize that these statements were made during the reign of one of the most violent and immoral governments the world has ever known. The Roman government was morally corrupt, sanctioning prostitution and throwing unwanted babies into the street to die. In spite of that, Christians were instructed to pay taxes. We might compare ancient Rome to America today, but that doesn’t change the fact that law and order are because of the civil government.

On the other hand, there is no biblical command to observe Holy Week. Events like “Ash Wednesday” are not commanded in the Bible nor practiced by the apostles and the early Church. The Bible makes it clear that we are not saved by any works or observance of special days. We are saved by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ and His death-conquering resurrection. We should remember that every day, especially every first day of the week, not just once a year.

Remember during this Holy Week and tax time that we are not saved by keeping special days, paying taxes, or doing anything else. We are saved only by the blood of Jesus Christ, but Jesus made it very clear in Matthew 25:31-46 that His followers would show they are saved by what they do for others. Serving the needs of others is the best way to serve the Lord and win the lost. Christians must remember that our true allegiance is to God and God’s kingdom, and no matter what happens in this life, we have something better ahead.

April 7, 2025April 6, 2025

Life Isn’t Fair

I am sure you have noticed that life isn’t fair. When my daughter was young, she felt it was unfair for her friends to have so much in the way of clothes, cars, money, and food when we had so little. She was especially bitter when I plowed up our front yard so that we could raise enough food to make it through the winter. While her friends went to fancy restaurants, we ate at McDonald’s only on special occasions. We made applesauce with the Lodi apples from a tree we had planted in our yard and sweetened it with saccharine because my wife was diabetic. My daughter would say, “My friends buy applesauce at the grocery store, and we have to make our own. It isn’t fair!”

When my daughter was in high school, she saw her non-Christian friends driving expensive cars to school when she had to ride the school bus. The disparity in wealth has not changed, as the rich continue to get richer, often at the expense of the poor. Jesus Christ said, “In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world” (John 16:13).

My daughter attended a Christian college in Texas, where she had professors who knew her by name and often invited her to their homes. Her friends attended private universities where they sat in classes with several hundred other students and had no personal relationship with their professors. They dealt with graduate students who were required to work with them as part of their stipends. Many of the friends who had money, cars, and fancy houses have had enormous problems with drugs, alcohol, broken marriages, and mental illness. Her friends find it incredible that our marriage lasted 49 years and only ended when my wife died.

In the “Sermon on the Mount,” Jesus instructed His disciples not to worry about food, water, or clothing (Matthew 6:25-34) because God would provide for them. He began this discussion by saying, “You cannot serve God and money,” because holding to one means despising the other (Verse 24). Life isn’t fair, but God meets our basic needs. The reward for Christians is the fact that after this life, we will have an existence so wonderful that it will surpass anything on Earth.

Those who reject God have nothing when this life is over. In Luke 16:19-31, Jesus tells the story of the rich man and a beggar named Lazarus. When the rich man dies, he has nothing but suffering, and Lazarus is in Abraham’s bosom. The rich man wants Lazarus to help him, but he is told that life isn’t fair. He had good things in life, while Lazarus had evil things. Now Lazarus is comforted, and the rich man is in pain. The bottom line is that life isn’t fair, but Christians have the ultimate reward in eternity.

April 4, 2025April 2, 2025

The Difference Between Meekness and Weakness

What do you understand “meek” to mean? For many in our culture, being meek means being a nerd or pushover, standing for nothing. The Bible shows the difference between meekness and weakness. The Greek word translated as “meek” is “prajos,” meaning power under control, as in a soothing medicine or a gentle breeze. Nelson’s Bible Dictionary defines “meekness” as “an attitude of humility toward God and gentleness toward man, springing from a recognition that God is in control. It is strength and courage under control coupled with kindness.”

The fact is that modern-day males are too weak to have anything to do with meekness. Most church congregations have a surplus of women and children and too few males. Any weakling can live selfishly, but it takes real strength to feed the hungry, bring water to the thirsty, give clothing to people who don’t have enough, provide medicine to the sick, or visit those in prison.

Galatians 5:22-26 tells us what meekness is about: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. The same chapter describes the behavior of the weak in verses 19-21: adultery, fornication (pornography), uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envying, murderers, drunkenness, and reveling.

The biblical record tells us of men who had the strength to do what was right (meekness). They include Abraham, Joseph, Daniel, and Jesus. There are also weak men, including Saul, Lot, Felix, Pilate, Agrippa, and Herod. Being a Christian involves knowing the difference between meekness and weakness. Because many men are weak, women dominate modern Christianity, doing the work of Matthew 25:31-40. Dying congregations and the growth of “Nones” in our society provide evidence of that.

April 2, 2025April 1, 2025

Science Without God Is Nil

Is science without God possible? John C. Lennox is an Emeritus Professor of Mathematics at the University of Oxford and an Emeritus Fellow in Mathematics and the Philosophy of Science at Green Templeton College. In his book “God and Stephen Hawking,” Lennox says, “The more I understand science, the more I believe in God, because of my wonder at the breadth, sophistication, and integrity of His creation.”

Interestingly, science’s growth in the 16th and 17th centuries happened because men like Galileo, Kepler, and Newton believed the universe was built with an understandable, rational, and intelligent design. They didn’t think of science without God, believing the universe was understandable because it was created with purpose, design, and a discernible order.

An atheist must believe that everything that happened in the past and continues today is pure accident. Famous atheists, such as Stephen Hawking and Francis Crick, expressed this belief. Hawking maintained that humans are “mere collections of fundamental particles of nature.” Francis Crick had what he called an “Astonishing Hypothesis.” That is, “You, your joys and your sorrows, your memories and ambitions, your sense of personal identity and free will, are no more than the behavior of a vast assembly of nerve cells and their associated molecules.”

Hawking and Crick possessed great talents in their chosen fields but seemed to lack any reason to trust their minds. Hawking’s “fundamental particles” and Crick’s “associated molecules” cannot be trusted to have any purpose or truth, so how can they contribute to the overall understanding of the cosmos? Science without God becomes an empty shell. We are talking about believing in a creator God who designed the cosmos and us with purpose.

The Psalmist said it well: “I praise you, God, because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well… How precious to me are your thoughts, God! How vast is the sum of them.” (Psalms 139:14 and 17).

March 28, 2025March 27, 2025

Who Created God?

One of our most frequently asked questions from believers and non-believers is, “If God created the cosmos, who created God?” Atheists claim that God is something humans invented to explain what they didn’t understand. It is true that ancient civilizations invented gods or goddesses to explain phenomena such as volcanoes, ocean storms, weather, lightning, and animal behaviors. The biblical concept is that God created everything we see in the cosmos and around us on planet Earth. Asking “Who created God?” reflects a failure to understand WHAT God is.

If your concept of God is that He is an old man in the sky or some variation of that idea, you will be unable to answer the question of who created God. God is a spiritual being, not a physical one. John 4:24 tells us, “God is spirit, and His worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth.” The Bible tells us that God does not experience time as we do. Acts 1:7 says, “It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father has put in His own power.”

Genesis 1:1 begins with the Hebrew word “reshith,” translated as “in the beginning.” According to the Hebrew dictionary, the meaning of that word is “absolute beginning point.” The message is that time began when God created it at that point. The verse continues by saying that God created “the heavens and the earth.” God is outside of time, space, and matter/energy. Science can propose theories about the beginning of time down to 10-43 seconds, but it cannot go any further. Quantum mechanics supports the concept of the beginning of time.

The bottom line is that nothing created God. God is outside of time and space and is the creator of all things. Colossians 1:16-17 says it well: “For by Him were all things created whether spiritual or material, seen or unseen – the spirit world with its kings and kingdoms, its rulers and authorities. The whole universe has been created through and for Him, so He existed before all things, and in Him all things hold together.”

Second Peter 3:8 tells us that “one day is with the Lord as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day.” Verse 9 says that God is allowing humans time to respond to His invitation before the cosmos is dissolved (verse 12). Our doesgodexist.org website has some pamphlets, including “A Help In Understanding What God Is” and “Who Created God?” You can find them at THIS LINK. We all need to deepen our understanding of these issues and strive to study and learn together. Join us!

Reference: The New Bible Dictionary Eerdmans Publishing Co. ISBN 0-8028-2282-7

March 27, 2025March 26, 2025

What It Means to Be Human

One way to trace the history of humans, apes, and monkeys is by studying the footprints they left in various earth materials. Footprints can be preserved if an animal walks across mud or volcanic ash and that material hardens. Some denominational creationists have claimed to see footprints in granite or limestone. Granite is formed deep underground and is only exposed when the overburden is eroded away. Limestone is a chemically precipitated rock that is never soft enough for an animal to sink into, leaving footprints. Sometimes, natural erosion can leave a shape that resembles a human footprint. However, a knowledge of petrology (the study of rocks) is required to determine animal footprints, and what it means to be human is more than footprints.

Researchers found Homo erectus (“erect man”) and Paranthropus boisei, a species of australopithecine hominid. The word “australopithecine” is a combination of the Latin “australis,” meaning “south,” and “pithekos,” a Greek word meaning “ape.” In other words, Paranthropus was an ape from the south. The evidence is that Paranthropus boisei was a plant eater, and Homo erectus was a hunter-gatherer. The tracks are in mud in a lakeshore deposit, so both of them would have been walking along the lake but looking for different things.

Some people interpret the Bible’s account of man’s creation as suggesting that God instantaneously zapped him into an image that looked like modern Western humans. They have used that concept to justify slavery by maintaining that people of a different race were not created in God’s image. Some atheists claimed that their race was superior to others and that survival of the fittest was the rule, meaning that superior ones could exploit inferior races. That is not what it means to be human.

The biblical definition of humans is “those beings created in the image of God” (Genesis 1:26). Since God is a spiritual being, that image cannot be physical. Genesis 2:7 tells us that God “formed man out of the dust of the ground.” It doesn’t say how long that took or what method God used to form the human physical body. The Hebrew word “formed” is “yatsar,” and in other passages, it required a long period of time. In chapter 44, Isaiah uses this word to describe events that occurred over time. (See verses 2, 10, 21, and 24.)

The creation of the human spiritual makeup is unique, giving us the capacity to create art and music or to worship and think beyond death. The fossil record of human history confirms that God formed our bodies from the dust of the Earth (Genesis 2:7). The Bible also tells us that our bodies will return to the dust from which they came (Genesis 3:19). The part of humans that is created in God’s image will live on, being united with Him in eternity. That is what it means to be human.

March 26, 2025March 25, 2025

Christians Using Contraceptives

A conflict among various denominations and the Catholic Church involves Christians using contraceptives. The objection to contraceptives is that by preventing a child from being born, humans are playing God. We are not talking about abortion, in which the embryo has its own DNA and is not an extension of the mother’s body. The root of the pro-abortion/pro-life debate is the question of what a human embryo is. In the question of birth control, we are dealing with what we can do with our own bodies. So, what does the Bible teach about conception?

There is no Bible passage condemning contraception. Some have referred to Genesis 38:8-10 in which a man named Onan “spilled it on the ground.” If you read the context of that incident, it was not because he was practicing contraception, but because he was refusing to do what the Levitical rules required to continue his dead brother’s legacy.

In Luke 14:28-32, Jesus makes it clear that God intends for Christians to consider the cost of their actions. Counting the cost of having a child should certainly be essential. In 1969, Elvis Presley recorded a song titled “In the Ghetto,” written by Mac Davis. The song was a major hit for Presley and begins with a classic demonstration of the problem:

As the snow flies

On a cold and gray Chicago mornin’

A poor little baby child is born

In the ghetto

(In the ghetto)

And his mama cries

’Cause if there’s one thing that she don’t need

It is another hungry mouth to feed

In the ghetto

(In the ghetto)

Those of us involved with the education of the general population must not give bad information or withhold information about contraception. Having a baby should not be an accident but a conscious thought and decision of a married husband and wife. Where the Bible is silent, we should be silent, and an area where the Bible is silent is Christians using contraceptives.

March 25, 2025March 24, 2025

Alzheimer’s Disease in America

A major health issue in America today is dementia, including Alzheimer’s disease. Alzheimer’s kills more Americans than breast cancer and prostate cancer combined. One in three seniors dies from Alzheimer’s or another form of dementia. Of the total U.S. population age 65 or older, about one in nine is living with Alzheimer’s. A total of seven million Americans have Alzheimer’s, and two-thirds are women.

Your author is 87 years old, and Alzheimer’s has touched my family in several ways. I have several friends and business partners battling with Alzheimer’s. One of the tragedies that I have seen is people who chose to end their lives prematurely when they learned they were facing Alzheimer’s disease. In 1998, an American pathologist named Jack Kevorkian was arrested for participating in 130 physician-assisted suicides. His arrest came when he assisted in the voluntary euthanasia of a man named Thomas Youk, who had ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease). Kevorkian was convicted of second-degree manslaughter and served 8 years in prison. Kevorkian’s records show that many of the 130 suicides were people who found out they had Alzheimer’s and didn’t want to be a burden on their families.

First Corinthians 3:16 tells us, “Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit has His home in you? If any man desecrates the Temple of God, God shall ruin him, for the Temple of God is sacred, and so are you.” Nothing in that description says that a person’s mental capacity affects the fact that God’s Spirit is in His temple. My son was born blind and mentally challenged, with cerebral palsy, muscular dystrophy, and schizophrenia. Was God’s Spirit in him? He brought a doctor and several nurses to Christ and was a significant force in the sheltered workshop he attended.

As Christians, we serve God by how we deal with people, no matter their mental state. Alzheimer’s disease can be challenging, but so was raising a young man who didn’t die until he was 50 years old as a victim of COVID. Treat someone who has Alzheimer’s with love and compassion. That is a ministry that will bring its own reward.

Reference: Alzheimer’s Association for February 2025