Book Comment: The God You Thought You Knew

 

In his book, The God You Thought You Knew, Alex McFarland responds to ten common secular objections to Christianity.

Some of the objections discussed in this book include:

1.     Christianity is judgemental and intolerant.

2.     Evil and suffering exist and a real God would not allow that.

3.     Christianity is totally made up and not based on any facts.

4.     Modern science disproves Christianity.

5.     Religion is not for the educated.

6.     The whole thing is boring and a waste of my time.

7.     Since I do not like it, it cannot be true.

8.     The Bible is full of errors.

9.     Dead people cannot come back to life.

10.  A loving God would not send anyone to Hell.

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 the author says. Luke (see below) advises to think for yourself.

Information you will need to search for this book: McFarland, Alex, The God You Thought You Knew. Exposing the 10 Biggest Myths About Christianity (Minneapolis: Bethany 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.

The First Three Letters of the Bible

 

In Genesis 1:1, the first word of the Bible, in Hebrew, is בְּרֵאשִׁית which is transliterated as bare sit or b'rei-sheeth.  The first letter is ב (bet), the second letter is ר (resh), and the third letter is א (alef). The English-language name of the book is Genesis, from its Greek name, Γένεσις. Its Hebrew name is the same as its first word, Bereshit, “in beginning.”

Some Christian commentators have noticed and commented on this as a statement of the Trinity in the first word of the Bible. Others see it as merely an interesting coincidence.

            בן         Ben (son)

            רִיחַ       Ruach (spirit, breath, wind)

            אֱלֹהִ֑ים    Elohim (God, a name in plural form)

            Religious Jews reject this understanding as heretical, believing that the very essence of their religion is monotheistic; God is one, not plural. They understand the plural name of God, Elohim, as expressing the majesty of God, as in the phrase "holy, holy, holy," with each "holy" adding to the emphasis or strength of the word.

            An objection to the idea of Jesus or the Trinity being mentioned in the Old Testament is seen here:  https://gsgriffin.com/2017/07/29/the-bereshit-jesus-in-genesis-argument-has-no-merit/#:~:text=Both%20assert%20the%20following%20meanings,covenant%2C%20mark%2C%20cross)

by writer Garrett S. Griffin. Griffin is a Democratic Socialist activist and political writer.

Book Comment: You Mean That Isn’t in the Bible?

 

In his book, You Mean That Isn’t in the Bible?, David A. Rich points out ten things you probably think are in the Bible but are not. Rich says, ”… my intention is not necessarily to cause you to agree with everything I write about, but rather to cause you to study for yourself.”

As with most books such as this, the author is not trying to tell you what to think. He specifically says in the quotation above that he does not expect you to agree with everything he says, He is trying to challenge you to read your Bible and to listen to what it says. Do not believe anything just because someone else told to believe it; let the Holy Spirit guide you to the truth.

The ten beliefs Rich mentions include:

There are many roads to Heaven.

When we die, we become angels.

God helps those who help themselves.

God wants you to be rich.

Christians aren’t perfect, just forgiven.

We are God’s co-pilots.

Pray hard and God will answer.

God and Satan are battling it out.

God is not a micromanager.

Everyone has their own free will.

 

Information you will need to search for this book: Rich, David A., You Mean That Isn’t in the Bible? 10 Popular Beliefs That Simply Aren’t True (Eugene, Oregon: Harvest House Publishers, 2008)

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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.

Book Comment: 50 Things You Need to Know About Heaven

 

                In his book, 50 Things You Need to Know About Heaven. John Hart has one especially relevant comment: “Earth is the closest that a non-Christian will ever get to heaven. Earth is the closest a believing Christian will ever get to hell.”

                The book discusses 50 questions about heaven, such as:

                “Who goes to heaven?”

                “Do people in heaven know what is happening on Earth?”

                “Will animals go to heaven?”

                “How can I be sure I’m going to heaven?”

                “Will others in heaven know my secret sins on Earth?”

 

                As with all books such as this, the author is not trying to tell you what to think. He is trying to challenge you to read your Bible and to listen to what it says. Do not believe just anything because someone else told to believe it; let the Holy Spirit guide you to the truth.

                Information you will need to search for this book: Hart, John, 50 Things You Need to Know About Heaven (Minneapolis, MN: Bethany House Publishers, 2014)

             

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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.

There is nothing new under the sun

 

"There is nothing new under the sun." William Shakespeare said that, right?  Nope. It is from the Bible in Ecclesiastes 1:9.

Not Done in a Corner

 

        "Things are not done in a corner" is a phrase which derives from the Bible, in Acts 26:26, where the Apostle Paul, while defending his Christian activities to King Agrippa, says, "… none of these things are hidden from him; for this thing was not done in a corner.". Nothing about it is secret; there is nothing to hide. It is there to see if you just look.

Saints on the Loose! Tools: "Search This Blog" and "Translate This Blog".

        On this blog, Saints on the Loose!, there are two useful tools: "Search This Blog" and "Translate This Blog".

        The "Search This Blog" drop-down tool provides the reader with access to over 1700 subject listings from Christian doctrinal issues, social and cultural issues, sports, health, movies, food, books, television programs, history, Christian heresies, apologetics, and many other subjects.

        The "Translate This Blog" drop-down tool allows the the reader to select a language other than English in which they may read the blog post. This tool uses the Google Translate function and, as of January 2025, can translate 249 languages. A detailed but not excessively technical discussion about Google Translate can be found on Wikipedia.

        Use of these two tools in tandem can greatly increase the usefulness of this blog to you.

        The Google Translate tool provides what is probably a very literal, but readable translation.  Idiomatic meaning and some subtleties unique to particular languages may be lost. The following two example translations are of a portion of this post, in Traditional Chinese and in Spanish..

在這個部落格 Saints Loose! 中，有兩個有用的工具：「搜尋此部落格」和「翻譯此部落格」。

        「搜尋此部落格」下拉工具為讀者提供了數千個主題列表，包括基督教教義問題、社會和文化問題、體育、健康、電影、食品、書籍、電視節目、歷史、基督教異端、護教學，以及許多其他主題。

        La herramienta desplegable "Buscar en este blog" proporciona al lector acceso a miles de listas de temas, desde cuestiones doctrinales cristianas, cuestiones sociales y culturales, deportes, salud, películas, comida, libros, programas de televisión, historia, herejías cristianas, apologética, y muchos otros temas.

The Inspiration of the Bible

I believe in the full and absolute inspiration of the Bible. It is totally free of errors. Where errors have been claimed by critics the critics have usually been eventually proven to have been in error themselves. An example of this is the Hittite people .

Since no archeological evidence was ever found for the Hittites, many believed that they were a fictional element in the Bible. Then. in 1871, at Carchemish, extra-Biblical documentary evidence of the Hittites was unearthed. Later (1906 - 1907), the ruins of Hattusas, the capital of the Hittite empire, were discovered in Turkey. Hattusas was found the hold over 10,000 Hittite records recorded on clay tablets. Now, Hittite history, including king lists and court records, is well established.

It is true that there are still claims of errors in the Bible. I believe that they will eventually be resolved as we learn more about the history of the Middle East. There is probably more under the dirt of the Middle East than is on top of it.

United States Tax Code and the Bible

"The tax code in America is ten times the size of the Bible with none of the Good News."
Vice President of the United States, Mike Pence.

Two Roman Catholic Bishops Named Lucifer

The Hebrew phrase helel ben saar in Isaiah 14:12 was translated in the King James Version of the Bible as “Lucifer, son of the morning.” The traditional Jewish interpretation is that this is a reference to Nebuchadnezzar II. This is also the understanding of the Christian preterist interpretation of the Bible.

The Latin word for “morning star” is Lucifer. In later Christian tradition the name came to be seen as referring to the beautiful being Satan before his fall. The idea expressed in the name is “the morning star,” the “shining one.”or “the light bringer.” There seems to be no real Biblical indication that the personal name of the Devil is Lucifer. In fact, the three personal names the Devil is given are all actually insults: Abbadon (destruction), Apollyon (destroyer), and Beelzebub (Lord of the Flies). The Bible calls the Devil many names including liar, deceiver, accuser, adversary, lord of this world, lord of the flies, tempter, and evil one.

The Bible is quite clear that the Devil is a real person who is the embodiment of everything which is vile, evil, and opposed to God. He is not merely a force, or an idea, or a myth. We just do not know his name nor do we need to. It is finished. He is defeated.

In the Middle Ages, Lucifer (“shining one”) was used as a personal name as seen in the names of two Roman Catholic bishops: Saint Lucifer of Cagliari and Lucifer of Sienna.

Lucifer of Cagliari, who died in 371, was a Sardinian and held the office of Bishop of Cagliari in Italy. He was a determined opponent of the Arian heresy and a fierce defender of Bishop Atanasius. In 363, he led a schismatic sect called the Luciferians who opposed the return of Arian bishops into Roman Catholic orthodoxy.

Little is known of Lucifer of Siena other than that he was appointed in 306 as the the first bishop of Siena in Italy.

The Importance of Archeology

“ In a letter to Biblical Archeology Review (May - June 2016, professor Amihai Mazar of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem states, “If we would have to rely on archeology alone, we would not be able to say anything about Israel until the ninth century B.C.E., except the one mention in the Merneptah Stele in the late 13th century.”    

The Bible mentions cities and peoples otherwise unknown to history, Speaking about unidentified Iron and Bronze Age settlements, Professor Mazar believes that “It is only the Biblical tradition that provides clues to the identity and context of these archeological phenomena.”

One of the cultures mentioned by the Bible which archeology and history declared to be mythological was the Hittite Empire. That is, until the Hittite capital, Hattusas, was identified near Bogas Koy, Turkey in 1884. It was then realized that other ruins discovered in 1834 were also Hittite.  

Opinions about the historicity of the Bible vary wildly depending on numerous factors: educational level, religious background, preconceived biases, etc.  They range from the utterly ridiculous, "2/3 0f Bible is fictional," to the extreme literalist, to the skeptical, to those who give a somewhat grudging acknowledgment.

Ken Ham, writing on the website, Answers in Genesis, quotes from a letter he received from the Smithsonian Institution in response to a question about the historicity of The Flood recounted in Genesis. ’In the best analysis, the Bible is a religious book, not an historical document.’

The historicity of the Bible is the message of the massive apologetic work The Bible as History, written by Werner Keller. Dr. Keller recounts thousands of archeological and scientific items which point to the fact that the Bible is accurate in its historical assertions. Kings and cultures are mentioned in the Bible in the same order and historical context as established by secular sources. The cultural contexts spoken of are consistent with known facts.

The apparent historicity of the Bible is not proof of the truth of the religious claims of Christianity or of Judaism. It does, though, add to the overwhelming evidence pointing toward that truth.  

Treat Your Bible Like Your Cell Phone

Found this excellent 2011 post today. It was written by Salvation Army Major Tim Lynn in Victoria, Australia.
http://tdlynn.blogspot.com/2011/01/if-our-bible-were-just-as-important-as.html

Are People Afraid of the Truth?

I was walking in to my workplace when a fellow employee whom I did not know spoke to me.

"Is that a murder mystery? ... That book you are carrying."

In my hand was The Case for the Real Jesus by Lee Strobel. I planned to do some reading in the book during my lunch break from work.

As we walked, I explained that the book was a work of apologetics. It responds vigorously to the numerous modern attempts to discredit the historical accuracy of the Bible and, more specifically, its depiction of Jesus.

A strange look spread across the face of the woman. She backed away and said, "It's because of all the translations and all the edits. That's why it doesn't have any credibility." The same unsupportable, incoherent, historical fact denying, vapid popular culture, anti-intellectual charges that we hear over and over and over!

She sped up and walked quickly away, probably to escape from the crazy religious person. She never looked back. Perhaps she feared for her life.

My thought was, "Wow! You really do need to read this book." Perhaps she was afraid that she might hear something which challenged her shallow postmodernist views.
 

Book Comment: The Bible as History

Werner Keller's, The Bible as History, has sold over three and a half million copies since its first publication in 1956. There is clearly a reason why. Though there can be no absolute proof that the Bible is what it says it is, there is a continually building body of evidence that the Bible is historically accurate in its claims. Kings and cultures are mentioned in their correct historical context, the presented customs and practices reflect those which prevailed at the time the individual books were written, mentioned individuals are found in extra-biblical documents and archeological sites, and recorded weather and natural events correspond to known science.  Individuals and cultures mentioned only in the Bible have later been confirmed by archeology to be historical.  As Dr. Keller states, " Many events that previously passed for pious tales must now be judged to be historical."

In the thick book (almost 500 pages), Dr. Keller brings together evidence from archeological sites, history, meteorology, astronomy, architecture, sociology, geography, topography, agriculture, language translation, textile technology, and even botany, to give, as he calls it "a confirmation of the Book of Books." The massive weight of the evidence clearly points to the historicity of the Bible. This is a major work of apologetics.

Some readers may not appreciate or wish to accept all of Dr. Keller's conclusions, but as the renowned archeologist Andre Parrot said, "How can we understand the Word, unless we see it in its proper chronological, historical and geographical setting?"

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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.

Comic Book Bibles

I have not personally seen any of these books and do not know of their quality or of their fidelity to orthodox Christianity.  I found them during an internet search.

http://www.dccomics.com/graphic-novels/the-bible

http://www.amazon.com/The-Comic-Book-Bible-Suggs/dp/1602606854

http://theactionbible.com/

http://www.amazon.com/Comic-Book-Bible-Adaptations/lm/RP6HJFWU5YV9X

http://www.sph.as/products/bible-books/the-comic-book-bibles/

http://www.wordforwordbiblecomic.com/

http://staircasestudio.com/jonah/

http://goodandevilbook.com/

http://www.freeillustratedbible.com/free_bible_selections.html

http://www.theheroesofthefaith.com/

http://www.bipcomics.com/showcase/PictureStoriesFromTheBible/

http://saintsontheloose.blogspot.com/2011/12/spire-christian-comics.html

Does 12-13-14 Have Any Special Meaning?

I imagine that the numerologists are very busy today looking for arcane messages in today’s date, 13 December 2014. This date can be represented as 12-13-14.  This alignment of dates will not happen again for 100 years.  Surely it must have some cosmic significance! Personally, I think it is just a coincidental arrangement of numbers due to our current dating system.

When I noticed the 12-13-14 arrangement, I thought about the significance of numbers, especially in the Bible, which does use numbers as symbols. Think of the numbers 3, 7, 666, and 1000. Some people think that they see beyond the obvious symbolic use of numbers and that they can detect many numerological messages secretly embedded in the text by God. This is on the same order as belief in the controversial Torah Bible Codes.

The hidden messages which do undeniably exit in the Bible were of human origin. For instance, investigate ATBASH. An example occurs at Jeremiah 25:26. These messages were meant by the writers to obscure the true meaning from hostile governmental authorities who might read the texts. The idea is "to hide in plain sight." Also investigate the use of acrostics, an intentional literary form used by some of the Old Testament writers. Two examples of biblical acrostics occur at Proverbs 31:10-31 and Psalms 119.

I do not believe that the Bible is full of hidden supernatural messages. That is a pagan Gnostic idea. God inspired the writing of the various books of the Bible as a coherent whole and it is intended to be understood. It is a tool, a book of revelation about the nature of God, not a book of puzzles.

The Bible tells us that God is not a man and that His ways are not our ways. God is totally other, unknowable, and perfect.  He moves in the sub-atomic places and in the cosmic places. The Bible is part of God’s effort to make the utterly unknowable (Himself) understandable, at least partly, to our inadequate tiny little minds. Over and over we are told, “the Kingdom of God is like ….” I believe that God has used the entire Jewish religious and cultural system to explain what He is like. The entire Bible points toward Jesus, Who is the ultimate revelation of Who God is.

Book Comment: Judaism for Everyone and Why the Jews Rejected Jesus

Two books this time: Judaism for Everyone (2002) and Why the Jews Rejected Jesus (2005). These two books are two sides of the same coin and discuss some of the same issues.

Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, the author of eleven books with titles like Kosher Sex, The Rabbi and the Psychic, and The Jewish Guide to Adultery, wrote Judaism for Everyone as an apologetic work  (but, he emphatically points out, not as an evangelistic effort). The secondary title of the book is Renewing Your Life Through the Vibrant Lessons of the Jewish Faith.

David Klinghoffer says that he wrote Why the Jews Rejected Jesus as an explanation to his well-meaning Christian friends who cannot understand why he would reject the free gift of salvation offered by the Gospel.

For both authors the idea reduces down to one point: they do not believe that Jesus fulfilled the requirements for being declared the Messiah. Christians, of course, see the same things, but come to an entirely different interpretation *.

The Jews list these reasons for rejecting Jesus:

1.     Jesus never fought the Romans. * Chrisians say that Rome clearly saw Jesus as a threat.

2.     Jesus did not establish a physical political messianic kingdom.  * Christians say that Jesus established His kingdom in the hearts of His followers, an idea which Jews utterly reject.

3.     A new Temple was not built in Jerusalem.  * Christians say that Jesus Himself is the new Temple and its priest.

4.     The world did not recognize God as Lord.  * Christians say that at the Second Coming every head will bow and every knee will bend in acknowledgement of God.

5.      A New Covenant based on restored commitment to observance of the Law was not given to the Jews. * Christians say that the New Covenant based on Faith in the Saving Grace of Jesus is the fulfillment of the Law.

6.     There was no ingathering of the Jewish exiles.  * Some Christians see the fulfillment of this requirement in the establishment of the modern State of Israel.

The Jews saw the claims of Jesus and His Christian followers to be blasphemous.  Klinghoffer points out that to the Jews, blasphemy is abusing God’s name for a forbidden purpose. Boteach clarifies what the Jews see as that forbidden purpose: He declares that the idea that God can be Human is the ultimate heresy. *Christians, of course, insist that Jesus was fully divine and fully human.

I urge you to read both of these books. Christianity and Judaism have major differences between them.  A Christian, for example, cannot echo Rabbi Boteach in saying, “Doing the right thing for the wrong reasons is far more important than waiting for the right motivation.”

Even with the differences, there is agreement on the vast majority of our two worldviews and an understanding of Jewish history, symbolism, and theology is absolutely essential for a proper understanding of Christianity. Jesus was an orthodox Jew.

Also, since God does not change, all of His promises to Israel still stand. He is not finished with the Jews.  The Bible tells us that in the end days “all Israel shall be saved.”

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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.

The World's Slowest Selling Bible

The world's slowest selling Bible and possibly the world's slowest selling legitimately published book is the Coptic translation of the Bible published in 1791 by David Wilkins (1685 - 1745). The book has never sold more than two copies a year.

Wilkins was a Prussian orientalist born as David Wilke (or David Wilkius) in what is now Lithuania. As an adult he lived and worked in England as an Anglican priest, librarian, translator, and university professor. He was a specialist in Arabic, Coptic, Hebrew, Armenian, Chaldaic, and Anglo-Saxon.

Bible Printer's Errors: The Placemakers Bible

The second edition of the Geneva Bible which was published in 1562 is sometimes known as The Placemaker's Bible because of an error in Matthew 5:9. Instead of "Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the children of God" (KJV) the text reads as "Blessed are the placemakers for they shall be called the children of God." The proofreader failed to catch the misspelled word.

I Don't Know

Recently the comedian/actor Robin Williams committed suicide. This has set off intense discussion in the United States about suicide, depression, and several other mental health issues. And, of course, those in the religious community are right in the middle of the discussion.

There is little unanimity or consensus among declared believers about some of these issues. One of the most argued questions is, “What if a born-again believer commits suicide?”

The fast response is that a born-again believer would not commit suicide because suicide indicates despair and hopelessness and a failure to trust in God to be in control of any situation. Also, suicide can be understood as the sin of self murder.

Early Christians believed that suicide was blasphemous. In the sixth century, suicide was declared to be a secular crime. Statement  2281 of the Cathechism of the Roman Catholic Church states that “Suicide contradicts the natural inclination of the human being to preserve and perpetuate his life. It is gravely contrary to the just love of self. It likewise offends love of neighbor because it unjustly breaks the ties of solidarity with family, nation, and other human societies to which we continue to have obligations. Suicide is contrary to love for the living God.” Many, but not all, Protestants would agree that a true believer will never commit suicide.

There are numerous questions which have arisen out of this discussion.

1.     Are not all of our sins washed clean forever at the moment of our salvation?

2.     If one is truly born again, can they ever be lost again?

3.     Is despair truly a rejection of Jesus and a rejection of our salvation or merely an intense emotional state? Can despair possibly be the result of a physiological imbalance and, therefore, out of our control?

4.     Repentence for suicide is not possible because one is dead.

5.     If, as some assert, there is an after-life period of Purgatory, can one atone for the sin of suicide?

6.     What if the suicide is to prevent torture or to escape a painful, slow death by disease? Some women have committed suicide to avoid rape.

7.     What about participation in mass suicide to prevent oneself from being forced to violate one’s religious beliefs?

8.     Can suicide be a form a mental illness?

There are seven suicides presented in the Bible but truly definitive answers to all the questions raised by  suicide do not seem to be presented. One’s personal understanding on this issue would seem to fall into the category of a persuasion or opinion, often strongly held.

Some persons insist on a definitive answer to every subject as if any ambiguity threatens to collapse the entire “house of cards.” I think this belies a lack of grounding on their part. Christianity is not an unstable house of cards. There is an extremely strong rational and historical basis for our faith. I would suggest that they read Josh McDowell’s Evidence That Demands a Verdict (1972) and other Christian apologetic works.   

“I don’t know” is a valid answer to some questions.  God is just and He knows the answers.