08 April 2007
The Berean Call Newsletter April 2007
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THE BEREAN CALL www.thebereancall.org April 2007
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Why Everything Is the Way It Is
Dave Hunt
The prevailing view in today's media, public schools, and surrounding society is that the Bible isn't true, no educated person believes in God, and science is the key to life's mysteries. The lie of evolution becomes so deeply implanted that deliverance is increasingly difficult.
The world rejects "God says" and accepts "science says" as the ultimate truth. Few realize that science cannot answer the important questions:
why the universe and life exist, and why every child knows the difference between right and wrong and believes that God exists until taught "better."
Few know what leading scientists admit. Max Planck, father of Quantum Theory, declared: "Science cannot solve the ultimate mystery of
nature."1 We don't know what time, space, matter, or energy are-much less the soul and spirit.
Why? cannot be addressed to the universe but only to its Creator. One cannot reason with an earthquake or a hurricane. There is no sympathy in "Nature." Nobel laureate Erwin Schrödinger, one of the architects of quantum mechanics, wrote:
The scientific picture of the real world around me is...ghastly silent about all that...really matters to us....It knows nothing of beautiful and ugly, good or bad, God and eternity....
Whence came I and whither go I? That is the great unfathomable question...for every one of us. Science has no answer to it.2
Science knows nothing of truth-only physical facts. Lee Smolin, founding member of the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics in Waterloo, Canada, has said: "When a child asks, 'What is the world?' we literally have nothing to tell...."3 The question why? irritates atheists because the maker decides the purpose for whatever is made. Without a Creator, neither the universe nor life has any meaning. Without God, there is no reason for a rose bud or for the dew that makes it shimmer in the morning sun -or for anything else that we hold dear and enjoy, including human existence itself.
Why is everything the way it is? Because God is the way He is. But who is this God? Is he Zeus of the Greeks, Brahman of the Hindus, Allah of Islam? Does it matter? Can't we just acknowledge a "higher power"?
Higher than what? Power? No impersonal "power" could create personal beings. Nor could any "force" conceive and write in words on DNA the directions for constructing and operating all living things.
Atheism leads to numerous absurdities promoted by otherwise intelligent people. Sir Francis Crick, Nobel laureate as co-discoverer of the DNA language, begins his book, The Astonishing Hypothesis:
You, your joys and your sorrows, your memories and your ambitions, your sense of personal identity and free will, are in fact no more than the behavior of a vast assembly of nerve cells and their associated molecules.4
If this is the way the universe made us, why does Crick call it Astonishing? He knows it is contrary to common sense. Yet to cling to his atheism he must persist in such madness. However, most people would firmly object to Crick's description. Any thinking person knows he weighs choices carefully, experiences joys, sorrows, hopes, ambitions, fears, remorse, and regrets that are very real. But "science says" is a holy mantra that causes every knee to bow-except those who will not worship Baal (1 Ki 19:18). Biologist Richard Lewontin defiantly boasts:
We take the side of science in spite of the patent absurdity of some of its constructs...for we cannot allow a Divine Foot in the door.5
Arch atheist and outspoken enemy of God, Richard Dawkins, claims that we are merely vehicles through which "selfish genes" perpetuate themselves.
Yet he says genes have no foresight. They do not plan ahead. Genes just are. He also states, "Much as we might wish to believe otherwise, universal love and the welfare of the species...are concepts that simply do not make evolutionary sense."6 What an admission!
If evolution makes us incapable of true love, morals, or ethics, why do we admire these qualities? How can we be so unnatural, if we are the offspring of nature? Crick and Dawkins seem embarrassed that many of the human qualities that everyone possesses could not have been produced by evolution. We do not think and act like we should if we were evolved from lower creatures.
The language component in the human gene "is identical in every particular to [that in] a snail. [Only] the sequence of building blocks
is...different...."7 The organizational genius behind DNA is breathtaking. Using the same four letters for plants, animals, and man, distinction is maintained not only between all kinds of living things but between individuals of each kind. This ingenious arrangement sets bounds which make it impossible for DNA of one kind of life to change into DNA of another kind.
Unquestionably, the DNA language, which is the basis of all life, did not and cannot evolve. The similarity between man's DNA and that of all animals is no more evidence that man evolved from animals than is the similarity in human and plant DNA evidence that we evolved from plants.
Evolution did not make us. God made us. But atheists cling to evolution as an escape from accountability to God. Darwin's theory was his revenge against the god he could no longer believe in, the "god" that had allowed his daughter, Annie, to die. Darwinism's atheism prevents science from knowing why things are as they are. Without God there is no answer to the why for anything. Yet here we are in a vast and awesome universe and common sense cries out for a reason for its existence and ours.
Why is everything the way it is? Only because God, who created it all, is the way He is. And why is God the way He is? Because, unlike the capricious gods of non-Christian religions, God revealed Himself to Moses thus: "I AM THAT I AM" (Ex 3:14). Consistently the Bible's God declares, "I am the Lord, I change not (Mal 3:6)." God is outside of, and untouched by, the time and change so evident in our world.
Dawkins says, "Genes just are." No, genes are not self-existent and eternal. They had to have a Maker. God alone has no maker but is the Maker of all: self-existent, uncreated, unchanging, perfect, eternal, omniscient, omnipresent, and omnipotent. For God to be God, this is who He must be.
Why is everything the way it is? Because God, who made all, is the way He is. Of the newly created universe, we read: "God saw everything that he had made, and, behold, it was very good" (Gn 1:31). Why was everything "good"? Because God who made everything is good: "There is none good but one, that is God" (Mt 19:17).
Even in its present corrupt state, much in the universe is still so beautiful that it thrills and moves us deeply because the God who made it is beautiful. David wrote: "I seek [to] dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord..." (Ps 27:4). We need greater appreciation of God's beauty!
Why is there some apparent "good" even in a Hitler or a Stalin? Nazi extermination camp guards who had presided over the murder of Jews all day could come home at night, kiss their wives, play with their children, and enjoy listening to Wagner. This is because God, who is good, made man in His image (Gn 1:26,27). Although sin separated all mankind from a holy God, a remnant of the image of God in which we were created remains. Yet everything man touches, even love, is corrupted.
The man who persuades a woman to live with him without marriage tells her, "I love you." But what he may mean (perhaps unknown even to him) could be, "I love myself, and I want you." Only too late they may discover that this is what both of them mean by "love."
Why the blight, rot, and death that taunts us everywhere? This, too, is because God is the way He is. Without God, whose character reveals and condemns it, there would be no sin; and without God's law written in man's conscience, there would be no knowledge of sin: "I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the Lord do all these things" (Is 45:7).
How could a good God create evil? The same way the God who is light creates darkness. A person who was born and died in a cave in total darkness would not know he was in the dark until someone shined a light.
The light suddenly reveals the darkness for what it is; and God's holy perfection reveals evil for what it is. The haunting memory of paradise lost lingers elusively in man's heart. Why must it be this way? Because the God who is good is also holy and just-and man, made in His image, rebelled.
What about eternal torment in the Lake of Fire? That, too, is because God is love and God is just. He created man to live forever in the joy of His love-not as an "extra" but as man's very life. Those who reject God's love consign themselves to the eternal torment of a burning thirst for the One who made them for Himself. Heaven will be the eternal satisfaction of the living water flowing "out of the throne of God and of the Lamb" (Rv 22:1). Hell will be eternally dying from burning thirst for God, the horror of fully knowing one's sin and rebellion, and the realization that one is there only because of rejecting Christ.
"God is love" (1 Jn 4:8,16). Love is the essence of His being. He loves us and wants to forgive us; but He is also holy and just. For God to forgive sinners without the full penalty being paid would contradict His justice and make Him our partner in evil. Christ fully paid that penalty for our sins-but the pardon must be willingly and gladly received. God will not force anyone into heaven.
Atheists scoff, "How could a good God create this evil world? If God can't stop suffering and death, He is too weak to be God; and if He could but doesn't, He is a monster unworthy of our trust." In fact, this is not the world God made but the one we made in rebellion against Him.
Don't blame God for what we have done to His once-perfect world!
Why did God allow man to rebel? That fact, too, is true because "God is love." We can neither receive and enjoy His love nor love Him in return (or love one another) without the power of choice. Love is from the heart. The ability to say "yes" means nothing without the equal ability to say "no." Tragically, Adam and Eve, chose to say "no" to God and to follow Satan. The entire universe suffers as a result: "The whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now...waiting..." (Rom 8:20-23).
Those who reject the truth reject God. Sir David Attenborough, producer of decades of TV programs promoting evolution, argued:
The God you believe in...an all-merciful God created...a parasitic worm...that can live in no other way than in an innocent child's eyeball [in West Africa]?8 No, that is not the way the universe was at the beginning. And during the millennial reign of Christ, the world will be restored to its original condition, without animals devouring one another, without microbes and parasites preying on other living things: "The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb...the leopard shall lie down with the kid...the calf and the young lion...together; and a little child shall lead them....The lion shall eat straw like the ox...the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice' den...for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord..." (Is 11:6-9).
In Christ alone, and His payment of the penalty for our sins upon the Cross, we find reconciliation to God and ultimate meaning and purpose.
"All things were made by him..." (Jn 1:2). O mystery! The babe born in Bethlehem was and forever is "the mighty God, the everlasting Father"
(Is 9:6). Jesus said, "I and my Father are one" (Jn 10:30).
How can we understand and better know this infinite God? He made us for Himself, and we naturally thirst for Him: "My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God..." (Ps 42:2). Yet those in rebellion foolishly attempt to quench that thirst in earthly possessions, pleasures, and pride. It was to reveal God to man as the only One who could fulfill that inner longing that Jesus, God's "only begotten" Son (Jn 1:14; 3:16,
etc.) was born into this world.
The suffering that Christ endured at men's hands revealed the evil in all of our hearts. That suffering, which we inflicted upon Him, could not save us. It was the punishment for our sins that Jesus suffered on the Cross under God's wrath against sin that made it possible for all to be forgiven who believe on Him. It is because He fully paid that penalty in our place that He can say, "If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink" (Jn 7:37).
He who was born of a virgin and fully man is also fully God: "For in him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily (Col 2:9); who being the brightness of his [God the Father's] glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power...by himself purged our sins..." (Heb 1:3).
Paul declared, "Without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness:
God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory" (1 Tm 3:16). Though now we only dimly understand ("we see through a glass darkly [and] know in part"-1 Cor 13:12), we have the glorious promise that the more we by faith look upon, meditate upon, and understand our Lord Jesus Christ, the more clearly we see Him and become like Him: "But we all, with open [unveiled] face beholding as in a glass [mirror] the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord" (2 Cor 3:18).
The revelation of Christ, for which our souls thirst, thrills us increasingly as we more clearly understand who He is in all His fullness and what He accomplished to reconcile us to Himself. Something of His glorious person is beautifully expressed in Graham Kendrick's hymn:
Meekness and majesty, manhood and deity, In perfect harmony-the man who is God; Lord of eternity, dwells in humanity, Kneels in humility, and washes our feet.
Father's pure radiance, perfect in innocence, Yet learns obedience to death on a cross; Suffering to give us life, Conquering through sacrifice- And as they crucify, prays, "Father, forgive."
Wisdom unsearchable, God the invisible,
Love indestructible in frailty appears;
Lord of infinity, stooping so tenderly
Lifts our humanity
To the heights of his throne.
Oh, what a mystery-Meekness and majesty; Bow down and worship, For this is your God,
This is your God! tbc
Endnotes
1. Max Planck, "The Mystery of Our Being," in Quantum Questions, ed. Ken Wilbur (Boston: New Science Library, 1984), 153.
2. Erwin Schrödinger, quoted in Quantum, 81.
3. Dennis Overbye, "Physics awaits new options as Standard Model idles,"
Symmetry, vol 03, issue 06, August 06.
4. Francis Crick, The Astonishing Hypothesis: The Scientific Search for the Soul (New York: Touchstone/Simon & Schuster, 1994), 3.
5. Richard Lewontin, "Billions and Billions of Demons, The New York Review, January 9, 1997, 31.
6. Richard Dawkins, The Selfish Gene (Oxford University Press, 30th anniversary edition, 2006), 2.
7. Dawkins, Selfish, 22.
8. M. Buchanan, "Wild, Wild Life," Sydney Morning Herald, The Guide, March 24, 2003, 6.
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Quotable
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Countless "Christians" today believe..."because it works" (pragmatism), because they "feel it is true in their experience" (subjectivism), because they sincerely believe it is true "for them" (relativism), and so on....The Christian faith is not true because it works; it works because it is true. It is not true because we experience it; we experience it-deeply and gloriously-because it is true.
Os Guinness, Time for Truth, 58
When the Christian life becomes a lifestyle and no longer a relationship with a Person-rather than growing in the grace and knowledge of the Savior, we will develop in the art of refining, polishing, and perfecting the flesh. Then we can have the programs and activities, methods and formulas, strategies and procedures, systems and theologies, political involvement and community service...religious causes..."how-to" seminars and self-help books...and even outstanding character qualities-all without Christ as our sufficiency! Our flesh is very creative and knows how to make itself appear and act spiritual. But it is still the flesh, and it is rotten to the core!
Jerry Benjamin, Simply Singular: Is Christ Prominent or Preeminent?, 22-23
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Q&A
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Question: Enclosed is a booklet by Harold Camping titled, What Must I Do to Become Saved? I would appreciate your opinion about what he says.
Response: Harold Camping is a confused man who is leading many astray.
He owns and controls everything that is said on Family Radio Network (40
+ stations and 100 + translators). His unbiblical teaching goes out in
23 languages by short wave. Very little outside ministry is aired on his network. He believes that the church replaced Israel and that the Church Age ended in 1988; God is done with organized churches, we are to worship only in our homes, listen to Family Radio, and follow Camping.
In these fellowships there is no authority except Camping's teachings, no baptism, no breaking of bread.
In 1992 he wrote and self-published 1994?, which predicted that the world would end September 6, 1994. When that didn't happen, he decided (as did Ellen G. White of the Seventh-day Adventists for 1844 and Charles Taize Russell of the Jehovah's Witnesses for 1874, then 1914), that the date was right but the interpretation wrong. Then, in 2002, Camping published The End of the Church Age...and After. He says the Bible's meaning is progressively revealed, and much previously unknown is now being revealed through him. The "end of the world" will now be 2011. So says his 2005 book titled Time Has an End: A Biblical History of the World, 11,013 BC - 2011 AD. He's way off on the "BC" also.
His background is Dutch Reformed and his Calvinism dominates the booklet
mentioned: You can't know whether you are one of the elect for whom Christ died-you can hope you are, but there is nothing one can do about it. Admitting this hopeless fact is required for salvation. He says:
God...can save an elect individual at any time....The only requirement is [to] be under the hearing of the Bible. At the moment of salvation, God gives that individual spiritual ears and a new eternal soul. Thus, a baby [as Calvin said] can be saved as readily as a mature adult....At an appropriate time...God will cause this person to actually experience the wonderful fact of salvation [and] a new resurrected soul.
Under the heading on page 17, "What Must I Do to Become Saved?", he
responds: "I cannot do anything....I must patiently wait upon the mercy of God....It is entirely possible that I, too...could be one of those who are chosen by God to become saved." He says that verses such as, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved" don't tell the sinner how to get saved. Why? "When God is speaking to unsaved people, He is speaking to spiritual corpses [but] one here, one in another place...begins to believe...finds in their life a strong desire to obey the Bible [because] Jesus [has] created within them a new soul [with] eternal life...because they had been chosen by God from before the beginning of creation."
So the "good news" we preach to the world is not that anyone may believe on Christ and be saved but that maybe one was elected unto salvation. We can't know for sure, but if we're one of the elect, God will give us a new "resurrected" soul and cause us to believe and to love His Word.
Some of the most revered Christian leaders of today teach this same Calvinism but more subtly. We hear, from around the world, of Calvinism infiltrating evangelical churches and causing division. We also hear of many, including leaders, being rescued from Calvinism through reading What Love Is This? (See offering list.)
Question: John Hagee says we should not witness to the Jewish people; God will take care of them. Is this biblical?
Response: Speaking at the last Pre-trib Seminar in Dallas, Hagee said he had never taught this. In fact, he has taught it a number of times. The Houston Chronicle (4/30/88, sec. 6, p. 1) quoted Hagee, "I'm not trying to convert the Jewish people to the Christian faith...trying to convert Jews is a waste of time."
It only takes a few Bible verses to expose this serious heresy condemned by Paul in Galatians 1. The first Christians were all Jews. Peter preached the gospel on the day of Pentecost to Jews. The early Christians and apostles thought the gospel was only for Jews and preached "the word...unto the Jews only" (Acts 11:19). God had to give Peter a vision to get him to preach to Gentiles (Acts 10:9-16). In every town Paul entered, he first went into the synagogue, where he preached to the Jews, and only when they rejected the gospel did he turn to the Gentiles (Acts 9:20; 13:5, 14-46; 14:1; 17:2, etc.). Why did he always offer salvation to the Jews first? Because, as we are clearly told, "the gospel of Christ is the power of God unto salvation...to the Jew first..." (Rom 1:16).
Question (Representative of several): I was listening to the Bible Answer Man when someone called in to ask Hank [Hanegraaff] about Dave Hunt. Please respond to what he said (from a transcript): "Dave Hunt has been a popular Christian author...and I think it's ironic that his organization is called The Berean Call, because the Bereans were counted as being more noble by the apostle Paul because daily they examined the scriptures to see if what he was saying was so....If you examine...what Dave Hunt is saying...you will find out that he errs quite consistently in his interpretation of scripture.
"He, for example, will tell you that the great whore of Babylon in Revelation 17 (he wrote a book about it) is the Roman Catholic Church, so he is slandering an already vulnerable target....This statement is absolutely reprehensible. I'm going to point this out in a book that I just finished which is called, The Apocalypse Code....
"He is also a sensationalist. He was right about Y2K for all the wrong reasons...he imposed his dispensational theology, his rapture theory...on Y2K to come up with a particular interpretation of Y2K and I debunk that in a book that I wrote called The Millennium Bug Debugged...I wrote this book and came to the same conclusion, which was that Y2K was not going to be a big problem...but a lot of people were jumping on it and making all kinds of interpretations about it, but they were doing it [by] imposing their particular model of eschatology on the scripture as Dave Hunt did when he wrote A Woman Rides the Beast. So yeah, this is a guy that you need to be very careful with because if you test what he says in light of scripture you'll find out that he gets it wrong more often than not."
Response: Whenever Hank is asked about me, this is his standard response. It is slanderous. I gave a more detailed response 11 years ago (TBC Q&A May 1996).
The Roman Catholic Church is the largest, wealthiest, and most powerful institution in history and the world today. Yet Hank describes it as a "vulnerable target." What?! I'm slandering it by identifying it as the whore in Revelation 17-18? The angel gives to John fourteen identifying characteristics that fit the Vatican (and nothing else) perfectly. This is how Luther and the Reformers and the thousands of true Christians down through history whom the RCC slaughtered (including even some Roman Catholic leaders) have always identified the "whore." Of these martyrs, the great historian, Will Durant, wrote, "The Roman Church, they were sure, was the Whore of Babylon." Einerius, an inquisitor appointed by Pope Innocent III 350 years before the Reformation, said of the Waldensian Christians, whom the RCC was attempting to exterminate, "They claim [that] the Roman Church is the whore described in John's Revelation." Even St. Bonaventure, cardinal and general of the Franciscans, in his Commentary on the Apocalypse, 300 years before the Reformation, called Rome "the harlot who makes kings and nations drunk with the wine of her whoredoms." D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones said, "I would not hesitate with the Reformers...to [say that the RCC] is, as the Scripture puts it, 'the whore.'" When I tried to explain this to Hank and his staff many years ago, they accused me of inventing a new idea unknown in history. Their guffaws nearly drove me out of Hank's office.
My book, Y2K: A Reasoned Response to Mass Hysteria?, was published before Hank's. He says my Y2K book was based upon my "dispensational theology...rapture theory"? He only needed to read the back cover ("Dave Hunt argues that...Y2K has no direct relationship to biblical prophecy"), to realize that this is a baseless charge.
For the first 165 pages I quote the doomsayers, Christian and secular, who were predicting that millions would die. I analyze the problem from a purely technical and practical basis, quote the experts, top bankers, and IT managers who were not concerned at all, and explain why Y2K was not going to be any problem. I point out the folly of church leaders who were organizing Christians to store up food and water with which to rescue unsaved neighbors and thereby win them to Christ. The churches in our own town, led by a "Y2K Preparedness Committee," were going to rescue Bend from disaster. This was the biggest thing in the church for months. I won't name the popular Christian leaders who promoted this craze, nor those who accused me of causing a complacency that would kill millions.
It was not until page 166 that I dealt with Y2K from a biblical standpoint because so many Christian leaders were warning the inevitable computer crash would usher in a cashless society and the reign of Antichrist. Really? A cashless society would need computers, and so would the Antichrist to control the world. I pointed out the folly of trying to tie every apparent war or disaster to Bible prophecy and quoted the predictions of Christian leaders and prophecy teachers making Y2K a part of Bible prophecy. I wrote: "Sadly, each time a correspondence has been attempted between a current event and a specific biblical prophecy and the event failed to live up to that expectation (as in the case of the Gulf War), Bible prophecy was discredited....There is a great danger of the same disillusionment occurring again when Bible teachers link Y2K with Bible prophecy....Throughout this book we provide sufficient documentation to show that there will not be a general failure of computers on January 1, 2000. Yet a surprising number of Christians say that God has been confirming the worst Y2K disaster scenario to them by revelation and dreams."
Only on page 182 did I chide Christians for being so obsessed with Y2K that they had forgotten their hope of heaven and instead of looking for the Rapture were spending their time, money, and efforts preparing to survive Y2K on earth. For the next 20 pages I show that the Y2K disaster predictions, far from fulfilling biblical prophecy, contradicted it.
Then I go back to the technical reasons why Y2K was not going to be what the alarmists were saying.
I hope that Hank's accusations that I was "right about Y2K for all the wrong reasons [and] imposed [my] dispensational...rapture theory...on Y2K to come up with a particular interpretation of Y2K," as well as his claims relative to the "whore of Babylon" will at last be put to rest.
question: I've told unsaved friends that the Qur'an, Book of Mormon, etc., are false additions to the Bible. They asked me, "What is different about the many Old Testament books added to the Torah, and the New Testament to the Old?
response: The Qur'an, Book of Mormon, etc., make no claim of being part of the Bible, contradict it completely, and obviously have different authors. The entire Old and New Testaments agree with, foretell and/or fulfill each other, and clearly have the same Author.
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News Alert
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http://www.abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=2946397, 3/13/2007: The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Peter Pace, is facing some tough questions this morning about controversial comments he made about homosexuality and gays serving in the military during a newspaper interview.
Pace was asked about his view on gays in the military by the Chicago Tribune. His answer was carefully worded, but his meaning was unmistakable.
"My upbringing is such that I believe there are certain things, certain types of conduct that are immoral," Pace said during the tape-recorded interview.
"I believe that military members who sleep with other military members'
wives are immoral in their conduct, [and] that we should not tolerate that."
"I believe that homosexual acts between individuals are immoral and that we should not condone immoral acts."
Those comments are sure to provoke a firestorm today on Capitol Hill, where Democrats have been trying to overturn the Pentagon's "don't ask, don't tell" policy on gays in the military.
Pace made it clear that he supported the policy because he believed homosexual acts were "immoral."
The "don't ask, don't tell" policy, which was instituted by President Clinton and written by then-Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Colin Powell, allows gays in the military only if they stay in the closet.
Pace says he supports the policy because it bans homosexual acts.
"I do not believe the armed forces of the U.S. are well served by saying through our policies that it is OK to be immoral in any way," Pace said.
A spokesperson for Pace told ABC News that the general had been asked to give his personal opinion, and "he provided it."
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Itinerary
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Apr 13-14
So. Manitoba Prophecy Conference (Dave)
Winkler MB
(204) 325-6714
Apr 15
Ambassador Baptist Church (Dave)
Morden MB
(204) 822-3398
Apr 20-21
Discerning the Times Bible Conference (T.A.)
Saskatoon SK
(306) 717-0374
Apr 27- May 8
Various Assemblies of Believers in Albania (Dave) GEOSTURM01@aol.com
Jun 2-3
A Church for Jesus (Dave)
Port Neches TX
(409) 722-6959
Jul 6-7
Berean Calvary Chapel (Dave)
Kirkville NY
(315) 656-7021
Jul 8-14
Word of Life (Dave)
Schroon Lake NY
(518) 532-7114
Aug 3-4
Hope for Today Conference (Dave)
Chino Hills CA
(800) 752-4253
Aug 10-12
TBC Conference (Dave / TA)
Bend OR
(800) 937-6638
Aug 22-26
Hong Kong (Dave / TA)
(852) 2336-7602
Sep 7-9
Great Lakes Prophecy Conference (Dave / TA)
Appleton WI
(920) 735-1242
Sep 12-15
Winnipeg Prophecy Conference (Dave)
Winnipeg MB
(204) 853-7786
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Letters
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Dear Dave,
Words fail to express my appreciation for the way you have covered the current state of world affairs in...Judgment Day....We are indeed living in the last days and our hope rests not in the "strength of the horse"
(implements of war) but in trusting God and His prophetic Word. [Many] people (so-called believers included) exhibit disdain for anything dealing with the word "prophecy."...In fact, even in many so-called sound churches, the mere mention of the word "prophecy" sets the speaker up as a sure target for...ridicule. The standard response...is, "We've heard all this before!" The truth revealed in Judgment Day, however, is not only confirmed by the Word of God but also [events] reported daily by the world media. Thank you for using your God-given talent to call the world's attention to global events which are now spiraling out of man's control and for showing us where we must look for answers. DT (KY)
Dear Dave,
Thank you for your newsletter. It is so informative and very needed in
these days. Sometimes I feel that maybe I am not understanding things
and that I am wrong and that nobody sees things the way I do, and then
your newsletter will come in the mail and I realize I'm not alone or
crazy. JE (IN)
Dear Dave,
I thank...God for the team of The Berean Call, who continued to send
your...publication to me during a troubled period in my life. [It] was a
source of encouragement and strength because it has a "single eye,"
focused on God's Word alone for truth. (Matt 6:22). An elderly Christian
lady shared this verse with me years ago to show the importance of
holding fast to biblical truth as the sole, absolute, and final
authority of my faith. Now that I am becoming the older woman, I am
following the example of this fine lady who has since gone home to be
with the Lord. This is my main thrust in ministering to younger women-to
take God's Word into their hearts just as God has written it, not
to...try to redefine His doctrine or to mix His words with the consensus
of man's opinions. MP (MA)
Dear Dave, TA, and Friends,
I caused the death of a friend. After thirteen years, I was [finally]
able to ask for and receive forgiveness from his mom. I have a good
life....I have running water, filtered air, and free electricity in my
"dwelling." Literally half the people in the world can't say that.
People love me and I can...appreciate that love now. Most of all, my
Creator, Father, Master, Lord, Savior has a pure desire for me, which is
not tainted by a willful heart but rather continually manifested in His
patient drawing of me toward Him. When I got off dope... I caught the
pointed revelation that my life was ruined because of my own will. I
started to take responsibility for my situation, understood my
accountability to my Creator, and identified with Christ's death and
resurrection....But it took a five-year [period of trials] before my
heart was open to God's still, small voice....And though I had a lack of
fellowship, I had The Berean Call....I thank...you for your acceptance
of the monumental duty of love the Lord has set before you....I remind
myself when I deal with hopefully future believers that The Berean
Call's mission is not to judge and bad-mouth but to inform and warn out
of love-real, godly, loving consideration for a soul either unsaved or
just barely shining. JH (prisoner, NE)
Dear Dave,
I think it is unfortunate, Dave, that you work so hard at dividing God's
people rather than uniting them. Is it any wonder that we are losing the
war? Even the Lord himself said that a house divided against itself
cannot stand. Instead of cutting up those who hold to sound doctrine,
expose the Benny Hinn's, the Copeland's, and Schuller's, or the DaVinci
Codes, and the like. That is the kind of error that the body of Christ
needs to have exposed....You and Calvin are not that far apart, although
he never got into end time interpretations....His overall interpretation
could lead to a different end than yours, and I could see where that
could be a problem for you. Throughout my Christianity, I have had to
let the Spirit of God transform my thinking from previously held views,
because as you yourself have said, not Calvin, not our leaders, and not
you, but the Word of God is the final authority. LM (CA)
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TBC Notes
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Our Blessed Hope
Let us all be encouraged to keep "Looking for that blessed hope, and the
glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ" (Titus
2:13).
I know I need that encouragement. But it's not because my love for the
Lord has cooled off; it's because I get distracted, even drawn, from
time-to-time, to the things of this world.
When one considers the history of the church regarding its attitude
toward its "blessed hope" through the Rapture, it's easy to recognize
the conditions that cause apathy. As true believers got comfortable with
or began to preoccupy themselves with this world, they simply lost
interest in the imminent return of Jesus for them, His bride, to take
her to heaven.
That loss of interest had another dire consequence, one we tend to
forget about when we think about the Rapture. The doctrine with its
emphasis upon imminency has us expecting our Lord's coming for us at any
moment. Such an expectation has a purifying effect upon our lives, as
the Apostle John tells us: "We know that, when he shall appear, we shall
be like him; for we shall see him as he is. And every man that hath this
hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure" (1 John 3: 2,3).
Lord, keep our hearts and minds stayed upon You, doing what pleases You,
and continually looking for Your appearing!
T.A. McMahon
Executive Director
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TBC Extra
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Idolatry
J.C. Ryle (1816-1900)
[Excerpts] Let me, then, first of all supply a definition of idolatry.
Let me show what it is.
It is of the utmost importance that we should understand this. Unless I
make this clear, I can do nothing with the subject. Vagueness and
indistinctness prevail upon this point, as upon almost every other in
religion. The Christian who desires [to] not be continually running
aground in his spiritual voyage, must have his channel well buoyed, and
his mind well stored with clear definitions.
I say then, that idolatry is a worship, in which the honor due to the
triune God, and to God only, is given to some of his creatures, or to
some invention of His creatures.
It may vary. It may assume different forms, according to the ignorance
or the knowledge-the civilization or the barbarism, of those who offer
it. It may be grossly absurd and ludicrous, or it may closely border on
truth, and being most superficially defended. But whether in the
adoration of the idol of Juggernaut, or in the adoration of the Pope in
St. Peter's at Rome, the principle of idolatry is in reality the same.
In either case the honor due to God is turned aside from Him, and
bestowed on that which is not God. And whenever this is done, whether in
heathen temples or in professedly Christian Churches, there is an act of
idolatry.
It is not necessary, for a man to formally deny God and Christ, in order
to be an idolater. Far from it. Professed reverence for the God of the
Bible and actual idolatry, are perfectly compatible. They have often
been done side by side, and they still do so. The children of Israel
never thought of renouncing God when they persuaded Aaron to make the
golden calf. "Here are your gods," they said, "who brought you up out of
Egypt." And the feast in honor of the calf was kept as a "festival to
the LORD (Jehovah)" (Exodus 32:4, 5).
Jeroboam, again, never pretended to ask the ten tribes to cast off their
allegiance to the God of David and Solomon. When he set up the calves of
gold in Dan and Bethel, he only said, "It is too much for you to go up
to Jerusalem. Here are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of
Egypt" (1 Kings 12:28).
In both instances, we should observe, the idol was not set up as a rival
to God, but under the pretense of being a help-a steppingstone to His
service. But, in both instances, a great sin was committed. The honor
due to God was given to a visible representation of Him. The majesty of
Jehovah was offended. The second commandment was broken. There was, in
the eyes of God, a flagrant act of idolatry.
Let us mark this well. It is high time to dismiss from our minds those
loose ideas about idolatry, which are common in this day. We must not
think, as many do, that there are only two sorts of idolatry-the
spiritual idolatry of the man who loves his wife, or child, or money
more than God; and the open, gross idolatry of the man who bows down to
an image of wood, or metal, or stone, because he knows no better. We may
rest assured that idolatry is a sin, which occupies a far wider field
than this. It is not merely a thing in pagan lands, that we may hear of
and pity at missionary meetings; nor yet is it a thing confined to our
own hearts, that we may confess before the mercy-seat upon our knees. It
is a pestilence that walks in the Church of the Living Christ to a much
greater extent than many suppose. It is an evil that, like the man of
sin, "that sets himself up in God's temple, proclaiming himself to be
God" (2 Thessalonians 2:4).
It is a sin that we all need to watch and pray against continually. It
creeps into our religious worship unnoticed, and is upon us before we
are aware. Those are tremendous words which Isaiah spoke to the faithful
Jew-not to the worshiper of Baal, remember, to the man who actually came
to the temple (Isaiah 66:3): "Whoever sacrifices a bull is like one who
kills a man, and whoever offers a lamb, like one who breaks a dog's
neck; whoever makes a grain offering is like one who presents pig's
blood, and whoever burns memorial incense, like one who worships an idol."
This is that sin which God has especially denounced in His Word. One
commandment out of ten is devoted to the prohibition of it. Not one of
all the ten contains such a solemn declaration of God's character, and
of His judgments against the disobedient: "I, the LORD your God, am a
jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the
third and fourth generation of those who hate me" (Exodus 20:5). Not
one, perhaps, of all the ten is so emphatically repeated and amplified,
and especially in the fourth chapter of the book of Deuteronomy. This is
the sin, of all others, to which the Jews seem to have been most
inclined to commit before the destruction of Solomon's temple. What is
the history of Israel under their judges and kings but a sorrowful
record of repeated falling away into idolatry? Again and again we read
of "high places" and "false gods." Again and again we read of
captivities and chastisements on account of idolatry. Again and again we
read of a return to the old sin. It seems as if the love of idols among
the Jews was naturally bone of their bone and flesh of their flesh. The
besetting sin of the Old Testament Church, in one word, was idolatry. In
the face of the most elaborate ceremonial ordinances that God ever gave
to His people, Israel was incessantly turning aside after idols, and
worshipping the work of men's hands.
This is the sin, of all others, which has brought down the heaviest
judgments on the visible Church. It brought on Israel the armies of
Egypt, Assyria, and Babylon. It scattered the ten tribes, burned up
Jerusalem, and carried Judah and Benjamin into captivity. It brought on
the Eastern Churches, in later days, the overwhelming flood of the
Muslim invasion, and turned many a spiritual garden into a wilderness.
The desolation which reigns where Cyprian and Augustine once preached,
the living death in which the Churches of Asia Minor and Syria are
buried, are all attributable to this sin. All testify to the same great
truth which the Lord proclaims in Isaiah: "I will not give my glory to
another or my praise to idols" (Isaiah 42:8).
Let us gather up these things in our minds, and ponder them well.
Idolatry is a subject which, in every Christian Church, that wants to
keep herself pure, should be thoroughly examined, understood, and known.
It is not for nothing that Paul lays down the stern command, "Flee from
idolatry."
This updated and revised manuscript is copyrighted 1998
by Tony Capoccia. All rights reserved.
Tony Capoccia - www.biblebb.com
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Why Everything Is the Way It Is
Dave Hunt
The prevailing view in today's media, public schools, and surrounding society is that the Bible isn't true, no educated person believes in God, and science is the key to life's mysteries. The lie of evolution becomes so deeply implanted that deliverance is increasingly difficult.
The world rejects "God says" and accepts "science says" as the ultimate truth. Few realize that science cannot answer the important questions:
why the universe and life exist, and why every child knows the difference between right and wrong and believes that God exists until taught "better."
Few know what leading scientists admit. Max Planck, father of Quantum Theory, declared: "Science cannot solve the ultimate mystery of
nature."1 We don't know what time, space, matter, or energy are-much less the soul and spirit.
Why? cannot be addressed to the universe but only to its Creator. One cannot reason with an earthquake or a hurricane. There is no sympathy in "Nature." Nobel laureate Erwin Schrödinger, one of the architects of quantum mechanics, wrote:
The scientific picture of the real world around me is...ghastly silent about all that...really matters to us....It knows nothing of beautiful and ugly, good or bad, God and eternity....
Whence came I and whither go I? That is the great unfathomable question...for every one of us. Science has no answer to it.2
Science knows nothing of truth-only physical facts. Lee Smolin, founding member of the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics in Waterloo, Canada, has said: "When a child asks, 'What is the world?' we literally have nothing to tell...."3 The question why? irritates atheists because the maker decides the purpose for whatever is made. Without a Creator, neither the universe nor life has any meaning. Without God, there is no reason for a rose bud or for the dew that makes it shimmer in the morning sun -or for anything else that we hold dear and enjoy, including human existence itself.
Why is everything the way it is? Because God is the way He is. But who is this God? Is he Zeus of the Greeks, Brahman of the Hindus, Allah of Islam? Does it matter? Can't we just acknowledge a "higher power"?
Higher than what? Power? No impersonal "power" could create personal beings. Nor could any "force" conceive and write in words on DNA the directions for constructing and operating all living things.
Atheism leads to numerous absurdities promoted by otherwise intelligent people. Sir Francis Crick, Nobel laureate as co-discoverer of the DNA language, begins his book, The Astonishing Hypothesis:
You, your joys and your sorrows, your memories and your ambitions, your sense of personal identity and free will, are in fact no more than the behavior of a vast assembly of nerve cells and their associated molecules.4
If this is the way the universe made us, why does Crick call it Astonishing? He knows it is contrary to common sense. Yet to cling to his atheism he must persist in such madness. However, most people would firmly object to Crick's description. Any thinking person knows he weighs choices carefully, experiences joys, sorrows, hopes, ambitions, fears, remorse, and regrets that are very real. But "science says" is a holy mantra that causes every knee to bow-except those who will not worship Baal (1 Ki 19:18). Biologist Richard Lewontin defiantly boasts:
We take the side of science in spite of the patent absurdity of some of its constructs...for we cannot allow a Divine Foot in the door.5
Arch atheist and outspoken enemy of God, Richard Dawkins, claims that we are merely vehicles through which "selfish genes" perpetuate themselves.
Yet he says genes have no foresight. They do not plan ahead. Genes just are. He also states, "Much as we might wish to believe otherwise, universal love and the welfare of the species...are concepts that simply do not make evolutionary sense."6 What an admission!
If evolution makes us incapable of true love, morals, or ethics, why do we admire these qualities? How can we be so unnatural, if we are the offspring of nature? Crick and Dawkins seem embarrassed that many of the human qualities that everyone possesses could not have been produced by evolution. We do not think and act like we should if we were evolved from lower creatures.
The language component in the human gene "is identical in every particular to [that in] a snail. [Only] the sequence of building blocks
is...different...."7 The organizational genius behind DNA is breathtaking. Using the same four letters for plants, animals, and man, distinction is maintained not only between all kinds of living things but between individuals of each kind. This ingenious arrangement sets bounds which make it impossible for DNA of one kind of life to change into DNA of another kind.
Unquestionably, the DNA language, which is the basis of all life, did not and cannot evolve. The similarity between man's DNA and that of all animals is no more evidence that man evolved from animals than is the similarity in human and plant DNA evidence that we evolved from plants.
Evolution did not make us. God made us. But atheists cling to evolution as an escape from accountability to God. Darwin's theory was his revenge against the god he could no longer believe in, the "god" that had allowed his daughter, Annie, to die. Darwinism's atheism prevents science from knowing why things are as they are. Without God there is no answer to the why for anything. Yet here we are in a vast and awesome universe and common sense cries out for a reason for its existence and ours.
Why is everything the way it is? Only because God, who created it all, is the way He is. And why is God the way He is? Because, unlike the capricious gods of non-Christian religions, God revealed Himself to Moses thus: "I AM THAT I AM" (Ex 3:14). Consistently the Bible's God declares, "I am the Lord, I change not (Mal 3:6)." God is outside of, and untouched by, the time and change so evident in our world.
Dawkins says, "Genes just are." No, genes are not self-existent and eternal. They had to have a Maker. God alone has no maker but is the Maker of all: self-existent, uncreated, unchanging, perfect, eternal, omniscient, omnipresent, and omnipotent. For God to be God, this is who He must be.
Why is everything the way it is? Because God, who made all, is the way He is. Of the newly created universe, we read: "God saw everything that he had made, and, behold, it was very good" (Gn 1:31). Why was everything "good"? Because God who made everything is good: "There is none good but one, that is God" (Mt 19:17).
Even in its present corrupt state, much in the universe is still so beautiful that it thrills and moves us deeply because the God who made it is beautiful. David wrote: "I seek [to] dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord..." (Ps 27:4). We need greater appreciation of God's beauty!
Why is there some apparent "good" even in a Hitler or a Stalin? Nazi extermination camp guards who had presided over the murder of Jews all day could come home at night, kiss their wives, play with their children, and enjoy listening to Wagner. This is because God, who is good, made man in His image (Gn 1:26,27). Although sin separated all mankind from a holy God, a remnant of the image of God in which we were created remains. Yet everything man touches, even love, is corrupted.
The man who persuades a woman to live with him without marriage tells her, "I love you." But what he may mean (perhaps unknown even to him) could be, "I love myself, and I want you." Only too late they may discover that this is what both of them mean by "love."
Why the blight, rot, and death that taunts us everywhere? This, too, is because God is the way He is. Without God, whose character reveals and condemns it, there would be no sin; and without God's law written in man's conscience, there would be no knowledge of sin: "I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the Lord do all these things" (Is 45:7).
How could a good God create evil? The same way the God who is light creates darkness. A person who was born and died in a cave in total darkness would not know he was in the dark until someone shined a light.
The light suddenly reveals the darkness for what it is; and God's holy perfection reveals evil for what it is. The haunting memory of paradise lost lingers elusively in man's heart. Why must it be this way? Because the God who is good is also holy and just-and man, made in His image, rebelled.
What about eternal torment in the Lake of Fire? That, too, is because God is love and God is just. He created man to live forever in the joy of His love-not as an "extra" but as man's very life. Those who reject God's love consign themselves to the eternal torment of a burning thirst for the One who made them for Himself. Heaven will be the eternal satisfaction of the living water flowing "out of the throne of God and of the Lamb" (Rv 22:1). Hell will be eternally dying from burning thirst for God, the horror of fully knowing one's sin and rebellion, and the realization that one is there only because of rejecting Christ.
"God is love" (1 Jn 4:8,16). Love is the essence of His being. He loves us and wants to forgive us; but He is also holy and just. For God to forgive sinners without the full penalty being paid would contradict His justice and make Him our partner in evil. Christ fully paid that penalty for our sins-but the pardon must be willingly and gladly received. God will not force anyone into heaven.
Atheists scoff, "How could a good God create this evil world? If God can't stop suffering and death, He is too weak to be God; and if He could but doesn't, He is a monster unworthy of our trust." In fact, this is not the world God made but the one we made in rebellion against Him.
Don't blame God for what we have done to His once-perfect world!
Why did God allow man to rebel? That fact, too, is true because "God is love." We can neither receive and enjoy His love nor love Him in return (or love one another) without the power of choice. Love is from the heart. The ability to say "yes" means nothing without the equal ability to say "no." Tragically, Adam and Eve, chose to say "no" to God and to follow Satan. The entire universe suffers as a result: "The whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now...waiting..." (Rom 8:20-23).
Those who reject the truth reject God. Sir David Attenborough, producer of decades of TV programs promoting evolution, argued:
The God you believe in...an all-merciful God created...a parasitic worm...that can live in no other way than in an innocent child's eyeball [in West Africa]?8 No, that is not the way the universe was at the beginning. And during the millennial reign of Christ, the world will be restored to its original condition, without animals devouring one another, without microbes and parasites preying on other living things: "The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb...the leopard shall lie down with the kid...the calf and the young lion...together; and a little child shall lead them....The lion shall eat straw like the ox...the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice' den...for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord..." (Is 11:6-9).
In Christ alone, and His payment of the penalty for our sins upon the Cross, we find reconciliation to God and ultimate meaning and purpose.
"All things were made by him..." (Jn 1:2). O mystery! The babe born in Bethlehem was and forever is "the mighty God, the everlasting Father"
(Is 9:6). Jesus said, "I and my Father are one" (Jn 10:30).
How can we understand and better know this infinite God? He made us for Himself, and we naturally thirst for Him: "My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God..." (Ps 42:2). Yet those in rebellion foolishly attempt to quench that thirst in earthly possessions, pleasures, and pride. It was to reveal God to man as the only One who could fulfill that inner longing that Jesus, God's "only begotten" Son (Jn 1:14; 3:16,
etc.) was born into this world.
The suffering that Christ endured at men's hands revealed the evil in all of our hearts. That suffering, which we inflicted upon Him, could not save us. It was the punishment for our sins that Jesus suffered on the Cross under God's wrath against sin that made it possible for all to be forgiven who believe on Him. It is because He fully paid that penalty in our place that He can say, "If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink" (Jn 7:37).
He who was born of a virgin and fully man is also fully God: "For in him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily (Col 2:9); who being the brightness of his [God the Father's] glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power...by himself purged our sins..." (Heb 1:3).
Paul declared, "Without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness:
God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory" (1 Tm 3:16). Though now we only dimly understand ("we see through a glass darkly [and] know in part"-1 Cor 13:12), we have the glorious promise that the more we by faith look upon, meditate upon, and understand our Lord Jesus Christ, the more clearly we see Him and become like Him: "But we all, with open [unveiled] face beholding as in a glass [mirror] the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord" (2 Cor 3:18).
The revelation of Christ, for which our souls thirst, thrills us increasingly as we more clearly understand who He is in all His fullness and what He accomplished to reconcile us to Himself. Something of His glorious person is beautifully expressed in Graham Kendrick's hymn:
Meekness and majesty, manhood and deity, In perfect harmony-the man who is God; Lord of eternity, dwells in humanity, Kneels in humility, and washes our feet.
Father's pure radiance, perfect in innocence, Yet learns obedience to death on a cross; Suffering to give us life, Conquering through sacrifice- And as they crucify, prays, "Father, forgive."
Wisdom unsearchable, God the invisible,
Love indestructible in frailty appears;
Lord of infinity, stooping so tenderly
Lifts our humanity
To the heights of his throne.
Oh, what a mystery-Meekness and majesty; Bow down and worship, For this is your God,
This is your God! tbc
Endnotes
1. Max Planck, "The Mystery of Our Being," in Quantum Questions, ed. Ken Wilbur (Boston: New Science Library, 1984), 153.
2. Erwin Schrödinger, quoted in Quantum, 81.
3. Dennis Overbye, "Physics awaits new options as Standard Model idles,"
Symmetry, vol 03, issue 06, August 06.
4. Francis Crick, The Astonishing Hypothesis: The Scientific Search for the Soul (New York: Touchstone/Simon & Schuster, 1994), 3.
5. Richard Lewontin, "Billions and Billions of Demons, The New York Review, January 9, 1997, 31.
6. Richard Dawkins, The Selfish Gene (Oxford University Press, 30th anniversary edition, 2006), 2.
7. Dawkins, Selfish, 22.
8. M. Buchanan, "Wild, Wild Life," Sydney Morning Herald, The Guide, March 24, 2003, 6.
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Quotable
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Countless "Christians" today believe..."because it works" (pragmatism), because they "feel it is true in their experience" (subjectivism), because they sincerely believe it is true "for them" (relativism), and so on....The Christian faith is not true because it works; it works because it is true. It is not true because we experience it; we experience it-deeply and gloriously-because it is true.
Os Guinness, Time for Truth, 58
When the Christian life becomes a lifestyle and no longer a relationship with a Person-rather than growing in the grace and knowledge of the Savior, we will develop in the art of refining, polishing, and perfecting the flesh. Then we can have the programs and activities, methods and formulas, strategies and procedures, systems and theologies, political involvement and community service...religious causes..."how-to" seminars and self-help books...and even outstanding character qualities-all without Christ as our sufficiency! Our flesh is very creative and knows how to make itself appear and act spiritual. But it is still the flesh, and it is rotten to the core!
Jerry Benjamin, Simply Singular: Is Christ Prominent or Preeminent?, 22-23
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Q&A
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Question: Enclosed is a booklet by Harold Camping titled, What Must I Do to Become Saved? I would appreciate your opinion about what he says.
Response: Harold Camping is a confused man who is leading many astray.
He owns and controls everything that is said on Family Radio Network (40
+ stations and 100 + translators). His unbiblical teaching goes out in
23 languages by short wave. Very little outside ministry is aired on his network. He believes that the church replaced Israel and that the Church Age ended in 1988; God is done with organized churches, we are to worship only in our homes, listen to Family Radio, and follow Camping.
In these fellowships there is no authority except Camping's teachings, no baptism, no breaking of bread.
In 1992 he wrote and self-published 1994?, which predicted that the world would end September 6, 1994. When that didn't happen, he decided (as did Ellen G. White of the Seventh-day Adventists for 1844 and Charles Taize Russell of the Jehovah's Witnesses for 1874, then 1914), that the date was right but the interpretation wrong. Then, in 2002, Camping published The End of the Church Age...and After. He says the Bible's meaning is progressively revealed, and much previously unknown is now being revealed through him. The "end of the world" will now be 2011. So says his 2005 book titled Time Has an End: A Biblical History of the World, 11,013 BC - 2011 AD. He's way off on the "BC" also.
His background is Dutch Reformed and his Calvinism dominates the booklet
mentioned: You can't know whether you are one of the elect for whom Christ died-you can hope you are, but there is nothing one can do about it. Admitting this hopeless fact is required for salvation. He says:
God...can save an elect individual at any time....The only requirement is [to] be under the hearing of the Bible. At the moment of salvation, God gives that individual spiritual ears and a new eternal soul. Thus, a baby [as Calvin said] can be saved as readily as a mature adult....At an appropriate time...God will cause this person to actually experience the wonderful fact of salvation [and] a new resurrected soul.
Under the heading on page 17, "What Must I Do to Become Saved?", he
responds: "I cannot do anything....I must patiently wait upon the mercy of God....It is entirely possible that I, too...could be one of those who are chosen by God to become saved." He says that verses such as, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved" don't tell the sinner how to get saved. Why? "When God is speaking to unsaved people, He is speaking to spiritual corpses [but] one here, one in another place...begins to believe...finds in their life a strong desire to obey the Bible [because] Jesus [has] created within them a new soul [with] eternal life...because they had been chosen by God from before the beginning of creation."
So the "good news" we preach to the world is not that anyone may believe on Christ and be saved but that maybe one was elected unto salvation. We can't know for sure, but if we're one of the elect, God will give us a new "resurrected" soul and cause us to believe and to love His Word.
Some of the most revered Christian leaders of today teach this same Calvinism but more subtly. We hear, from around the world, of Calvinism infiltrating evangelical churches and causing division. We also hear of many, including leaders, being rescued from Calvinism through reading What Love Is This? (See offering list.)
Question: John Hagee says we should not witness to the Jewish people; God will take care of them. Is this biblical?
Response: Speaking at the last Pre-trib Seminar in Dallas, Hagee said he had never taught this. In fact, he has taught it a number of times. The Houston Chronicle (4/30/88, sec. 6, p. 1) quoted Hagee, "I'm not trying to convert the Jewish people to the Christian faith...trying to convert Jews is a waste of time."
It only takes a few Bible verses to expose this serious heresy condemned by Paul in Galatians 1. The first Christians were all Jews. Peter preached the gospel on the day of Pentecost to Jews. The early Christians and apostles thought the gospel was only for Jews and preached "the word...unto the Jews only" (Acts 11:19). God had to give Peter a vision to get him to preach to Gentiles (Acts 10:9-16). In every town Paul entered, he first went into the synagogue, where he preached to the Jews, and only when they rejected the gospel did he turn to the Gentiles (Acts 9:20; 13:5, 14-46; 14:1; 17:2, etc.). Why did he always offer salvation to the Jews first? Because, as we are clearly told, "the gospel of Christ is the power of God unto salvation...to the Jew first..." (Rom 1:16).
Question (Representative of several): I was listening to the Bible Answer Man when someone called in to ask Hank [Hanegraaff] about Dave Hunt. Please respond to what he said (from a transcript): "Dave Hunt has been a popular Christian author...and I think it's ironic that his organization is called The Berean Call, because the Bereans were counted as being more noble by the apostle Paul because daily they examined the scriptures to see if what he was saying was so....If you examine...what Dave Hunt is saying...you will find out that he errs quite consistently in his interpretation of scripture.
"He, for example, will tell you that the great whore of Babylon in Revelation 17 (he wrote a book about it) is the Roman Catholic Church, so he is slandering an already vulnerable target....This statement is absolutely reprehensible. I'm going to point this out in a book that I just finished which is called, The Apocalypse Code....
"He is also a sensationalist. He was right about Y2K for all the wrong reasons...he imposed his dispensational theology, his rapture theory...on Y2K to come up with a particular interpretation of Y2K and I debunk that in a book that I wrote called The Millennium Bug Debugged...I wrote this book and came to the same conclusion, which was that Y2K was not going to be a big problem...but a lot of people were jumping on it and making all kinds of interpretations about it, but they were doing it [by] imposing their particular model of eschatology on the scripture as Dave Hunt did when he wrote A Woman Rides the Beast. So yeah, this is a guy that you need to be very careful with because if you test what he says in light of scripture you'll find out that he gets it wrong more often than not."
Response: Whenever Hank is asked about me, this is his standard response. It is slanderous. I gave a more detailed response 11 years ago (TBC Q&A May 1996).
The Roman Catholic Church is the largest, wealthiest, and most powerful institution in history and the world today. Yet Hank describes it as a "vulnerable target." What?! I'm slandering it by identifying it as the whore in Revelation 17-18? The angel gives to John fourteen identifying characteristics that fit the Vatican (and nothing else) perfectly. This is how Luther and the Reformers and the thousands of true Christians down through history whom the RCC slaughtered (including even some Roman Catholic leaders) have always identified the "whore." Of these martyrs, the great historian, Will Durant, wrote, "The Roman Church, they were sure, was the Whore of Babylon." Einerius, an inquisitor appointed by Pope Innocent III 350 years before the Reformation, said of the Waldensian Christians, whom the RCC was attempting to exterminate, "They claim [that] the Roman Church is the whore described in John's Revelation." Even St. Bonaventure, cardinal and general of the Franciscans, in his Commentary on the Apocalypse, 300 years before the Reformation, called Rome "the harlot who makes kings and nations drunk with the wine of her whoredoms." D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones said, "I would not hesitate with the Reformers...to [say that the RCC] is, as the Scripture puts it, 'the whore.'" When I tried to explain this to Hank and his staff many years ago, they accused me of inventing a new idea unknown in history. Their guffaws nearly drove me out of Hank's office.
My book, Y2K: A Reasoned Response to Mass Hysteria?, was published before Hank's. He says my Y2K book was based upon my "dispensational theology...rapture theory"? He only needed to read the back cover ("Dave Hunt argues that...Y2K has no direct relationship to biblical prophecy"), to realize that this is a baseless charge.
For the first 165 pages I quote the doomsayers, Christian and secular, who were predicting that millions would die. I analyze the problem from a purely technical and practical basis, quote the experts, top bankers, and IT managers who were not concerned at all, and explain why Y2K was not going to be any problem. I point out the folly of church leaders who were organizing Christians to store up food and water with which to rescue unsaved neighbors and thereby win them to Christ. The churches in our own town, led by a "Y2K Preparedness Committee," were going to rescue Bend from disaster. This was the biggest thing in the church for months. I won't name the popular Christian leaders who promoted this craze, nor those who accused me of causing a complacency that would kill millions.
It was not until page 166 that I dealt with Y2K from a biblical standpoint because so many Christian leaders were warning the inevitable computer crash would usher in a cashless society and the reign of Antichrist. Really? A cashless society would need computers, and so would the Antichrist to control the world. I pointed out the folly of trying to tie every apparent war or disaster to Bible prophecy and quoted the predictions of Christian leaders and prophecy teachers making Y2K a part of Bible prophecy. I wrote: "Sadly, each time a correspondence has been attempted between a current event and a specific biblical prophecy and the event failed to live up to that expectation (as in the case of the Gulf War), Bible prophecy was discredited....There is a great danger of the same disillusionment occurring again when Bible teachers link Y2K with Bible prophecy....Throughout this book we provide sufficient documentation to show that there will not be a general failure of computers on January 1, 2000. Yet a surprising number of Christians say that God has been confirming the worst Y2K disaster scenario to them by revelation and dreams."
Only on page 182 did I chide Christians for being so obsessed with Y2K that they had forgotten their hope of heaven and instead of looking for the Rapture were spending their time, money, and efforts preparing to survive Y2K on earth. For the next 20 pages I show that the Y2K disaster predictions, far from fulfilling biblical prophecy, contradicted it.
Then I go back to the technical reasons why Y2K was not going to be what the alarmists were saying.
I hope that Hank's accusations that I was "right about Y2K for all the wrong reasons [and] imposed [my] dispensational...rapture theory...on Y2K to come up with a particular interpretation of Y2K," as well as his claims relative to the "whore of Babylon" will at last be put to rest.
question: I've told unsaved friends that the Qur'an, Book of Mormon, etc., are false additions to the Bible. They asked me, "What is different about the many Old Testament books added to the Torah, and the New Testament to the Old?
response: The Qur'an, Book of Mormon, etc., make no claim of being part of the Bible, contradict it completely, and obviously have different authors. The entire Old and New Testaments agree with, foretell and/or fulfill each other, and clearly have the same Author.
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News Alert
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http://www.abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=2946397, 3/13/2007: The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Peter Pace, is facing some tough questions this morning about controversial comments he made about homosexuality and gays serving in the military during a newspaper interview.
Pace was asked about his view on gays in the military by the Chicago Tribune. His answer was carefully worded, but his meaning was unmistakable.
"My upbringing is such that I believe there are certain things, certain types of conduct that are immoral," Pace said during the tape-recorded interview.
"I believe that military members who sleep with other military members'
wives are immoral in their conduct, [and] that we should not tolerate that."
"I believe that homosexual acts between individuals are immoral and that we should not condone immoral acts."
Those comments are sure to provoke a firestorm today on Capitol Hill, where Democrats have been trying to overturn the Pentagon's "don't ask, don't tell" policy on gays in the military.
Pace made it clear that he supported the policy because he believed homosexual acts were "immoral."
The "don't ask, don't tell" policy, which was instituted by President Clinton and written by then-Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Colin Powell, allows gays in the military only if they stay in the closet.
Pace says he supports the policy because it bans homosexual acts.
"I do not believe the armed forces of the U.S. are well served by saying through our policies that it is OK to be immoral in any way," Pace said.
A spokesperson for Pace told ABC News that the general had been asked to give his personal opinion, and "he provided it."
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Itinerary
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Apr 13-14
So. Manitoba Prophecy Conference (Dave)
Winkler MB
(204) 325-6714
Apr 15
Ambassador Baptist Church (Dave)
Morden MB
(204) 822-3398
Apr 20-21
Discerning the Times Bible Conference (T.A.)
Saskatoon SK
(306) 717-0374
Apr 27- May 8
Various Assemblies of Believers in Albania (Dave) GEOSTURM01@aol.com
Jun 2-3
A Church for Jesus (Dave)
Port Neches TX
(409) 722-6959
Jul 6-7
Berean Calvary Chapel (Dave)
Kirkville NY
(315) 656-7021
Jul 8-14
Word of Life (Dave)
Schroon Lake NY
(518) 532-7114
Aug 3-4
Hope for Today Conference (Dave)
Chino Hills CA
(800) 752-4253
Aug 10-12
TBC Conference (Dave / TA)
Bend OR
(800) 937-6638
Aug 22-26
Hong Kong (Dave / TA)
(852) 2336-7602
Sep 7-9
Great Lakes Prophecy Conference (Dave / TA)
Appleton WI
(920) 735-1242
Sep 12-15
Winnipeg Prophecy Conference (Dave)
Winnipeg MB
(204) 853-7786
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Letters
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Dear Dave,
Words fail to express my appreciation for the way you have covered the current state of world affairs in...Judgment Day....We are indeed living in the last days and our hope rests not in the "strength of the horse"
(implements of war) but in trusting God and His prophetic Word. [Many] people (so-called believers included) exhibit disdain for anything dealing with the word "prophecy."...In fact, even in many so-called sound churches, the mere mention of the word "prophecy" sets the speaker up as a sure target for...ridicule. The standard response...is, "We've heard all this before!" The truth revealed in Judgment Day, however, is not only confirmed by the Word of God but also [events] reported daily by the world media. Thank you for using your God-given talent to call the world's attention to global events which are now spiraling out of man's control and for showing us where we must look for answers. DT (KY)
Dear Dave,
Thank you for your newsletter. It is so informative and very needed in
these days. Sometimes I feel that maybe I am not understanding things
and that I am wrong and that nobody sees things the way I do, and then
your newsletter will come in the mail and I realize I'm not alone or
crazy. JE (IN)
Dear Dave,
I thank...God for the team of The Berean Call, who continued to send
your...publication to me during a troubled period in my life. [It] was a
source of encouragement and strength because it has a "single eye,"
focused on God's Word alone for truth. (Matt 6:22). An elderly Christian
lady shared this verse with me years ago to show the importance of
holding fast to biblical truth as the sole, absolute, and final
authority of my faith. Now that I am becoming the older woman, I am
following the example of this fine lady who has since gone home to be
with the Lord. This is my main thrust in ministering to younger women-to
take God's Word into their hearts just as God has written it, not
to...try to redefine His doctrine or to mix His words with the consensus
of man's opinions. MP (MA)
Dear Dave, TA, and Friends,
I caused the death of a friend. After thirteen years, I was [finally]
able to ask for and receive forgiveness from his mom. I have a good
life....I have running water, filtered air, and free electricity in my
"dwelling." Literally half the people in the world can't say that.
People love me and I can...appreciate that love now. Most of all, my
Creator, Father, Master, Lord, Savior has a pure desire for me, which is
not tainted by a willful heart but rather continually manifested in His
patient drawing of me toward Him. When I got off dope... I caught the
pointed revelation that my life was ruined because of my own will. I
started to take responsibility for my situation, understood my
accountability to my Creator, and identified with Christ's death and
resurrection....But it took a five-year [period of trials] before my
heart was open to God's still, small voice....And though I had a lack of
fellowship, I had The Berean Call....I thank...you for your acceptance
of the monumental duty of love the Lord has set before you....I remind
myself when I deal with hopefully future believers that The Berean
Call's mission is not to judge and bad-mouth but to inform and warn out
of love-real, godly, loving consideration for a soul either unsaved or
just barely shining. JH (prisoner, NE)
Dear Dave,
I think it is unfortunate, Dave, that you work so hard at dividing God's
people rather than uniting them. Is it any wonder that we are losing the
war? Even the Lord himself said that a house divided against itself
cannot stand. Instead of cutting up those who hold to sound doctrine,
expose the Benny Hinn's, the Copeland's, and Schuller's, or the DaVinci
Codes, and the like. That is the kind of error that the body of Christ
needs to have exposed....You and Calvin are not that far apart, although
he never got into end time interpretations....His overall interpretation
could lead to a different end than yours, and I could see where that
could be a problem for you. Throughout my Christianity, I have had to
let the Spirit of God transform my thinking from previously held views,
because as you yourself have said, not Calvin, not our leaders, and not
you, but the Word of God is the final authority. LM (CA)
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TBC Notes
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Our Blessed Hope
Let us all be encouraged to keep "Looking for that blessed hope, and the
glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ" (Titus
2:13).
I know I need that encouragement. But it's not because my love for the
Lord has cooled off; it's because I get distracted, even drawn, from
time-to-time, to the things of this world.
When one considers the history of the church regarding its attitude
toward its "blessed hope" through the Rapture, it's easy to recognize
the conditions that cause apathy. As true believers got comfortable with
or began to preoccupy themselves with this world, they simply lost
interest in the imminent return of Jesus for them, His bride, to take
her to heaven.
That loss of interest had another dire consequence, one we tend to
forget about when we think about the Rapture. The doctrine with its
emphasis upon imminency has us expecting our Lord's coming for us at any
moment. Such an expectation has a purifying effect upon our lives, as
the Apostle John tells us: "We know that, when he shall appear, we shall
be like him; for we shall see him as he is. And every man that hath this
hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure" (1 John 3: 2,3).
Lord, keep our hearts and minds stayed upon You, doing what pleases You,
and continually looking for Your appearing!
T.A. McMahon
Executive Director
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TBC Extra
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Idolatry
J.C. Ryle (1816-1900)
[Excerpts] Let me, then, first of all supply a definition of idolatry.
Let me show what it is.
It is of the utmost importance that we should understand this. Unless I
make this clear, I can do nothing with the subject. Vagueness and
indistinctness prevail upon this point, as upon almost every other in
religion. The Christian who desires [to] not be continually running
aground in his spiritual voyage, must have his channel well buoyed, and
his mind well stored with clear definitions.
I say then, that idolatry is a worship, in which the honor due to the
triune God, and to God only, is given to some of his creatures, or to
some invention of His creatures.
It may vary. It may assume different forms, according to the ignorance
or the knowledge-the civilization or the barbarism, of those who offer
it. It may be grossly absurd and ludicrous, or it may closely border on
truth, and being most superficially defended. But whether in the
adoration of the idol of Juggernaut, or in the adoration of the Pope in
St. Peter's at Rome, the principle of idolatry is in reality the same.
In either case the honor due to God is turned aside from Him, and
bestowed on that which is not God. And whenever this is done, whether in
heathen temples or in professedly Christian Churches, there is an act of
idolatry.
It is not necessary, for a man to formally deny God and Christ, in order
to be an idolater. Far from it. Professed reverence for the God of the
Bible and actual idolatry, are perfectly compatible. They have often
been done side by side, and they still do so. The children of Israel
never thought of renouncing God when they persuaded Aaron to make the
golden calf. "Here are your gods," they said, "who brought you up out of
Egypt." And the feast in honor of the calf was kept as a "festival to
the LORD (Jehovah)" (Exodus 32:4, 5).
Jeroboam, again, never pretended to ask the ten tribes to cast off their
allegiance to the God of David and Solomon. When he set up the calves of
gold in Dan and Bethel, he only said, "It is too much for you to go up
to Jerusalem. Here are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of
Egypt" (1 Kings 12:28).
In both instances, we should observe, the idol was not set up as a rival
to God, but under the pretense of being a help-a steppingstone to His
service. But, in both instances, a great sin was committed. The honor
due to God was given to a visible representation of Him. The majesty of
Jehovah was offended. The second commandment was broken. There was, in
the eyes of God, a flagrant act of idolatry.
Let us mark this well. It is high time to dismiss from our minds those
loose ideas about idolatry, which are common in this day. We must not
think, as many do, that there are only two sorts of idolatry-the
spiritual idolatry of the man who loves his wife, or child, or money
more than God; and the open, gross idolatry of the man who bows down to
an image of wood, or metal, or stone, because he knows no better. We may
rest assured that idolatry is a sin, which occupies a far wider field
than this. It is not merely a thing in pagan lands, that we may hear of
and pity at missionary meetings; nor yet is it a thing confined to our
own hearts, that we may confess before the mercy-seat upon our knees. It
is a pestilence that walks in the Church of the Living Christ to a much
greater extent than many suppose. It is an evil that, like the man of
sin, "that sets himself up in God's temple, proclaiming himself to be
God" (2 Thessalonians 2:4).
It is a sin that we all need to watch and pray against continually. It
creeps into our religious worship unnoticed, and is upon us before we
are aware. Those are tremendous words which Isaiah spoke to the faithful
Jew-not to the worshiper of Baal, remember, to the man who actually came
to the temple (Isaiah 66:3): "Whoever sacrifices a bull is like one who
kills a man, and whoever offers a lamb, like one who breaks a dog's
neck; whoever makes a grain offering is like one who presents pig's
blood, and whoever burns memorial incense, like one who worships an idol."
This is that sin which God has especially denounced in His Word. One
commandment out of ten is devoted to the prohibition of it. Not one of
all the ten contains such a solemn declaration of God's character, and
of His judgments against the disobedient: "I, the LORD your God, am a
jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the
third and fourth generation of those who hate me" (Exodus 20:5). Not
one, perhaps, of all the ten is so emphatically repeated and amplified,
and especially in the fourth chapter of the book of Deuteronomy. This is
the sin, of all others, to which the Jews seem to have been most
inclined to commit before the destruction of Solomon's temple. What is
the history of Israel under their judges and kings but a sorrowful
record of repeated falling away into idolatry? Again and again we read
of "high places" and "false gods." Again and again we read of
captivities and chastisements on account of idolatry. Again and again we
read of a return to the old sin. It seems as if the love of idols among
the Jews was naturally bone of their bone and flesh of their flesh. The
besetting sin of the Old Testament Church, in one word, was idolatry. In
the face of the most elaborate ceremonial ordinances that God ever gave
to His people, Israel was incessantly turning aside after idols, and
worshipping the work of men's hands.
This is the sin, of all others, which has brought down the heaviest
judgments on the visible Church. It brought on Israel the armies of
Egypt, Assyria, and Babylon. It scattered the ten tribes, burned up
Jerusalem, and carried Judah and Benjamin into captivity. It brought on
the Eastern Churches, in later days, the overwhelming flood of the
Muslim invasion, and turned many a spiritual garden into a wilderness.
The desolation which reigns where Cyprian and Augustine once preached,
the living death in which the Churches of Asia Minor and Syria are
buried, are all attributable to this sin. All testify to the same great
truth which the Lord proclaims in Isaiah: "I will not give my glory to
another or my praise to idols" (Isaiah 42:8).
Let us gather up these things in our minds, and ponder them well.
Idolatry is a subject which, in every Christian Church, that wants to
keep herself pure, should be thoroughly examined, understood, and known.
It is not for nothing that Paul lays down the stern command, "Flee from
idolatry."
This updated and revised manuscript is copyrighted 1998
by Tony Capoccia. All rights reserved.
Tony Capoccia - www.biblebb.com
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