Book Comment: Handbook of Denominations in the United States

Do you know a Schwenkfelder?  Do you know the difference between the Unity School of Christianity and the Unity of the Brethren?  Frank S. Mead's classic 1951 reference book, Handbook of Denominations in the United States can help you with these questions and many others. The book is so useful that it has been released in multiple editions (there were eleven editions by 1985!)

Each religious body is described listing its history, contact address, membership statistics, distinctive doctrines and beliefs, prominent members, geographical distribution data, and a discussion of the body's government.  The listings are placed within major groupings: Baptist, Adventist, Bahai, Jewish, Muslim, Episcopal/Anglican, Mennonite, Orthodox, Pentecostal, Spiritualist, Reformed, Catholic, Fundamentalist,  Mormon, and others.

Opening the book to ten random pages finds articles on the following groups: Anglican Catholic Church,  Branch Davidians, Hungarian Reformed Church in America,  Conservative Baptist Association of America, The Pillar of Fire, Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church, Open Bible Standard Churches, International Communion of the Charismatic Episcopal Church, Unification Church, and the National Baptist Convention of America.

I know that the idea of a reference book may sound dry and boring but this well-written book is fascinating.  It will be useful reading to anyone interested in the history of religion in the United States and should be available in the adult reference section in most larger libraries.

Saying Their Prayers

I do not know the source of this photograph.

David Wilkerson is Dead

Assemblies of God evangelist-pastor David Wilkerson died Wednesday in a head-on crash with a tractor trailer truck on a highway in Texas.  Wilkerson was the subject of the film, The Cross and the Switchblade, about his encounter with the street gang thug, Nicky Cruz, who is now a Christian evangelist.

Here is his seemingly prophetic final blog post: 

"To those going through the valley and shadow of death, hear this word: Weeping will last through some dark, awful nights, and in that darkness you will soon hear the Father whisper, `I am with you. I cannot tell you why right now, but one day it will all make sense. You will see it was all part of my plan. It was no accident." 

This is why some people are fascinated by the Bible Codes.

GENESIS 1: 22-26

The Hebrew text above is one example of why many people believe in the phenomenon of the Bible Codes.  I must admit that I tend to be a skeptic about things like this, but you can see why this would intrigue people.

Rabbi Chaim Michael Dov Weissmandl (1903-1957), the driving force behind the Bible Codes movement, found the following in Genesis 1:22-26; the name of Abraham is spelled out (from the top line down, enclosed in the added boxes) by the letters in the passage with each letter of the name separated from the preceding letter by forty-nine (seven times seven; seven was a sacred number, Genesis 2:2, 4:24, 21:28)) intercalary letters.  In each of the forty-nine letter sequences, אֱלֹהִים (elohim/God, backlit in gray) appears.

 In the midrash Bereshit Rabbah (68, 11f), Rabbi Nehemiah said, "The Holy One, blessed be He, united His name with Abraham; with Isaac too he united His name."  

One of the names of God is "Yahweh" (in biblical Hebrew this is represented as HWHY, read from right to left).  Remember that the ancients believed that names and even the letters of which the names were composed carried meaning and power.

When God confirmed His covenant to Abram by declaring that Sarai's son would be the long-promised heir, He inserted himself (the "H") into their names, giving them new and suddenly different lives.  Abram became Abraham; Sarai became Sarah.  Isaac means "he laughed" which is what elderly Abram did when God told him that he and and his very old wife were going to finally have a son. 

The text (Genesis 1: 22-26) into which this insertion of the name of Abraham occurs says nothing about Abram.  He wouldn't be born until centuries later.

"And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth. And the evening and the morning were the fifth day.  And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so.  And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good.  And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth."

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There are often odd spacings and other abnormalities in the text when Hebrew and other Semitic languages like Arabic are inserted into a text.  Microsoft Word insists on reversing the letter order to conform to English usage (unintended ATBASH?)  Word processors need special software to properly handle these alphabets; without the software you have to try to trick Microsoft Word which doesn't always work.

Found in You (In Japanese)

Usama bin Laden is Dead

Usama bin Laden, the head of al-Qaida, is dead, killed in a American commando raid and his body is in the hands of American forces.  This can only be seen as a good thing.  At the same time, I am troubled.

Some of the network news people seemed almost giddy, giggling, exulting.  The death of a person, even Usama bin Laden, should not be a cause for celebration.  It was necessary.

Romans 13: 1-7 tells us that government's function is to protect the people and punish the wrongdoer and this situation certainly fits that description.  The commandos who carried out this action, as agents of the state, bear no personal responsibility for bin Laden's death.

The soldiers mentioned in the Bible, when carrying out the legitimate functions of the state, are spoken of favorably.  They are respected persons.

Swahili Worship Song