Koko’s Message for Us

 

People have questioned the exact nature of animal intelligence. Some wonder if their beloved pets have souls and will be in Heaven with them. While many have very firm opinions on the matter, the hard answer is that no one knows for sure. The Bible does not speak on the issue in any clear way.

Modern science asserts that animals have some sort of intelligence and personal identities. The level of intelligence varies depending on the type of animal, but some animals clearly exhibit emotions, social structures, teamwork, wars, use of simple tools, recognize themselves in mirrors or photographs, long-term memory, play video games, food preferences, manipulative behaviors, favorite toys, and the choosing of a favorite person.

Koko was a lowland gorilla who lived at The Gorilla Foundation in California (USA). Obviously, it is anatomically impossible for gorillas to speak in a human manner, but an attempt was made to teach Koko some simple manual sign language. She learned over 2000 signs and was able to carry on what appear to have been intelligent conversations with people.

https://www.google.com/search?q=koko+the+gorilla&rlz=1C1CHBF_enUS864US864&oq=koko+&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUqCggCEAAYsQMYgAQyBggAEEUYOTIGCAEQRRg7MgoIAhAAGLEDGIAEMgoIAxAuGLEDGIAEMgoIBBAuGLEDGIAEMg0IBRAuGIMBGLEDGIAEMgcIBhAAGIAEMhMIBxAuGIMBGK8BGMcBGLEDGIAEMhAICBAAGIMBGLEDGIAEGIoFMgoICRAuGLEDGIAE0gEJMTAxOTlqMGo3qAIAsAIA&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

Koko had a pet cat which she named All-Ball and she babied and pampered it as if it were her child. When the cat died, Koko went through a grieving period.

Koko’s daily routines included watching television. Her favorite program was Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood. When Fred Rogers came to visit her, she was delighted and, after she hugged him, she took off his sweater and shoes, just as he did in every episode of his program.

https://www.koko.org/research-care/796/kokos-farewell-to-mister-rogers/

Another of her television favorites was the comedian, Robin Williams. When Williams came to visit, the pair hugged and laughed repeatedly. They played Tickles.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I9I_QvEXDv0

Listen to what Koko said to us at the age of 44. She died at the age of 46.:

“I am nature. I am flower, animals. I am nature. Man Koko love. Earth Koko love. But Man stupid. Koko sorry. Koko cry. Time hurry. Fix Earth. Help Earth. Hurry. Nature see you. Thank you.”

https://au.news.yahoo.com/gorilla-uses-sign-language-voice-035805465.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAIvldsBZX40yfisATqjYKZzeG7_iCd1n-_DDWeMVkzuXHtHAxFZ6C-EgXiKbtMnI9KcnSHRYfCGkND3T_IBQrNKhaXzgGCGnDPEwXhW6FBdj4tLsNDC0RVcyUlNZw3dE1saGbR1Xg_WIerPKhvgFI7q6retmf_7UHbs2a-GG54Xg

and

https://www.the-independent.com/climate-change/news/koko-gorilla-cop21-environment-message-noe-video-a6800761.html#:~:text=The%20Gorilla%20Foundation%2C%20which%20looks,'%20and%20fix%20the%20problem.%22

Isaiah was of Royal Descent

 

When King Amaziah died , his son, Uzziah/Azariah became king of Judah. The prophet Isaiah was the son of Amoz, who was possibly a brother of King Amaziah, so, Isaiah was of royal descent. 2 Kings 14: 19-22; 2 Chronicles 25-27.

Modern Names of Places Mentioned in the Bible

 

Caphtor                      Amos 9:7; Jeremiah 47:9               Greece

Cushan                       Habakkuk 3:7                                Jordan

Gomer                        Ezekiel 38:6                                   Possibly Ukraine

Moab                          Numbers 22-24                              Jordan

Persia                          Numerous mentions                      Iran

Phoenicia                    Numerous mentions                      Lebanon

Sidon                          Genesis 10:15                                Lebanon

Tadmor                      2 Chronicles 8:4                            Palmyra, Syria

Tyre                            Isaiah 23:2,12                                Lebanon

Uz                               Job 1:1                                           Jordan and Lebanon

Book Comment: The 50 Most Important Teachings of the Bible

 

In his book, The 50 Most Important Teachings of the Bible, Jim George presents a Conservative Protestant Evangelical interpretation of fifty of the important doctrines of Christianity. When I first read it, I wrote on the title page: “The whole book quivers with the evangelistic impulse.”

As with most books such as this, what you get from the book depends on what you bring with you. You may not agree with everything George says. His stated purpose: “My goal for this book about what the Bible teaches is to help give you a better understanding of the key teachings that are critical for your growth as a Christian.”

Some of the topics discussed in this book:

God is both three, and one.

Satan is not as powerful as you think, but you ignore him at your own risk.

Look at Jesus to see what God is like.

How much water is enough?

Angels are not just something you put on the top of your Christmas tree.

You cannot surprise God

Information you will need to search for this book: George, Jim, The 50 Most Important Teachings of the Bible. What They Mean for You (Eugene, Oregon: Harvest House Publishers, 2015)

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A general caution: books may give you wonderful new insights and explanations of subjects, but you should never base your Christian beliefs on any one book or the teachings of one person, no matter who they are. All teachings must be consistent with scripture. Read as the Bereans did, with discernment. “… for they received the word with great eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see whether these things were so.” Acts 17:11 NASB

Any doctrines must be consistent with the historical full body of Christian thought. Doctrines or teachings inconsistent with scripture in any way must be rejected. You would not eat cheese which had a fuzzy fungus growing on it.

Relatives of Jesus

 

9 December 598 BC/BCE: Death of Jehoiakim/Eliakim (608-598 BC/BCE), ascension of his son, Jehoiachin/Jeconiah (ruled 597 BC/BCE), as King of Judah (for a three-month and ten-day reign). Jehoiachin is held captive in Babylon for 37 years. The Sheshbazzar, “prince of Judah,” mentioned in Ezra is believed to have been Shenazzar, a son of Jehoiakin. This man would have been the uncle of  Zerubbabel, an ancestor of Jesus.  Ezra 1:8ff, 5:1-2,14, 2:63; 1 Chronicles 3:18; 2 Kings 23: 1-24:16.

Book Comment: The New Testament Documents: Are They Reliable?

 

Almost everyone acknowledges that the original text documents of the New Testament have been lost. The originals were written on perishable materials and were hand copied onto other perishable materials to be distributed among the churches. Constant use, environmental factors, and sheer age led to the degradation of the documents which had to be recopied repeatedly. What we now have has been reconstructed from thousands of early textual fragments and the earliest known full copies of the books.

In the 120 pages of his book, The New Testament Documents: Are They Reliable?, F.F. Bruce presents a detailed but highly readable statement about the proofs that the modern New Testament as it stands represents as much as a 99.9 percent recovery of the original documents. Through the comparison of numerous copies, scribal errors and intentional editing can be detected and rejected. The oldest copies and those with the hardest to accept meaning (and therefore most likely to be "corrected" by the scribe) are favored.

Comparing the extant New Testament documents to those of secular antiquity, Bruce shows that the texts of the Christian scriptures are actually far better attested than those of universally accepted secular books.

                            ______________________________

F.F. Bruce, who died in 1990, was a highly influential British conservative evangelical biblical scholar and university professor. He wrote numerous books and articles.  https://www.eerdmans.com/9780802867230/f-f-bruce/

Information you will need to search for this book: Bruce, F.F., The New Testament Documents: Are They Reliable? (Downer’s Grove, Ill: Inter-Varsity Press, 5^th ed., 1960).

A similar book with a very apologetic bent is:

Sala, Harold J., Why You Can Have Confidence in the Bible (Eugene, OR: Harvest House Publishers, 2008).  (This is an apologetics book comparing the extant biblical documentation to that of classical documents from antiquity.)

___________________________________________________________________

A general caution: books may give you wonderful new insights and explanations of subjects, but you should never base your Christian beliefs on any one book or the teachings of one person, no matter who they are. All teachings must be consistent with scripture. Read as the Bereans did, with discernment. “… for they received the word with great eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see whether these things were so.” Acts 17:11 NASB

Any doctrines must be consistent with the historical full body of Christian thought. Doctrines or teachings inconsistent with scripture in any way must be rejected. You would not eat cheese which had a fuzzy fungus growing on it.

Not the Real Thing

 

Free over the air television in the United States is advertiser supported.

During the United States NCAA National Basketball Tournament (we call it “March Madness”), the television viewership numbers are enormous. As a result, companies pay large sums of money to run 30 second commercials for their products during the broadcasts. The link below is one of the commercials: for AT&T, American Telephone and Telegraph.

At every game during the tournament, vendors gather to sell memorabilia relating to the participating college teams: hats, caps, shirts, jerseys, sweatsuits, flags, banners, magazines, figurines, toys, and other doodads. Doodads, that is a good slang word meaning little ephemeral items that your children will insist that they must have but which they will discard, break, or lose as soon as they get home. In the South, we also call them doohickeys or whatchamacallits. Merriam-Webster https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/doodad defines doodad as “an often small article whose common name is unknown or forgotten: gadget.”

In the commercial in the link below, the vendor is obviously trying to avoid the cost of paying royalty licensing fees to the universities. He is selling counterfeit items. His main problem is that his counterfeits are glaringly obvious. The university names are spelled incorrectly, or the colors on the items are not the colors associated with the university. His counterfeits include: Unsee instead of UNC (The University of North Carolina), Gonzaza instead of Gonzaga University, Markett instead of Marquette University, Oregano instead of The University of Oregon, and Dook instead of Duke University.   

Not all counterfeits are as obvious as these and, sadly, they also occur in spiritual matters. There are spiritual counterfeits which have arisen from well-intentioned ignorance and stupidity, or from peculiar mis-readings of the biblical texts, or from secular concerns being forced into the scriptural interpretation (eisegesis).

            Eisegesis is reading a pre-held belief or agenda into the scriptural text rather than determining doctrine from the text outwards (exegesis). Theologically orthodox and conservative theologians reject this since it imposes ideas on the scriptures, rather than seeking to understand their original meaning. Eisegesis is usually well-intentioned.

            There are also more sinister counterfeits, sometimes resulting in enormous profits for the perpetrators. Some want to tap in to the eager Christian market without any actual personal input, no real study, no real discipline, no real cost to themselves. This is a form of the sin of simony. The results can be very doctrinally suspect and doctrine does matter.

            https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=usN32eMIc6k

            or, https://www.ispot.tv/ad/TGQy/at-and-t-inc-march-madness-jersey