BiblicalInsights.net

     The Bible on Trial is a new book by Wayne Jackson.  I have written a brief review of this book and posted it on this site under book reviews.  Some of the excerpts below will give you an idea of the value of this book.
     Consider the integrity of the text of the Old Testament.  “Let us compare Isaiah 53 in the Masoretic Text with that of the Dead Sea Scrolls–and remember, the two are separated by a thousand years of time.  Of the 166 words in Isaiah 53, there are only seventeen letters in question.  Ten of these letters are simply a matter of spelling, which does not affect the sense.  Four more letters are minor stylistic changes, such as conjunctions.  The remaining three letters comprise the word “light,” which is added in verse eleven, and does not affect the meaning greatly.  Thus, in one chapter of 166 words, there is only one word (three letters) in question after a thousand years of transmission, and this word does not significantly change the meaning of the passage (Geisler and Nix 1986, 263–quoted by Jackson, p. 260-261).
     The marvelous accuracy of the New Testament.  “In Acts, Luke mentions thirty-two countries, fifty-four cities, and nine Mediterranean islands.  He also mentions ninety-five persons, sixty-two of which are not named elsewhere in the New Testament.  And his references, where checkable, are always correct” (Jackson, p. 27).
     The wonderful unity of the Bible.  “The sacred Scriptures were written by some forty different persons, over a span of some 1,600 years.   These authors, from a variety of cultural and educational backgrounds, writing in three different languages (Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek), produced a volume of sixty-six books that is characterized by such an amazing unity and beautiful continuity as to be inexplicable on the basis of mere human origin” (Jackson, p. 26).  The unity of the Bible is seen in its theme, plan, doctrine and factual harmony.
     These exerpts contain a sample of insights into the sacred Scriptures that will thrill any Bible student.  This 294 page, paper-back book, is worth reading and studying.  I highly recommend it to you.

     Have you stopped to consider the impact of fatherlessness on our country?  With the rise of single parent families in America and the absence of a father in the home, social ills have increased.  Six are noted here.
     –Poverty.  Children in fatherless homes are five times more likely to be poor.  In 2002, 7.8% of children in married-couple families were living in poverty, compared to 38.4% of children in female-householder families.  Almost 75% of American children living in single-parent families will experience poverty before they turn 11 years old.
     –Drugs and Alcohol Abuse.  The U. S. Department of Health and Human Services states, “Fatherless children are at a dramatically greater risk of drug and alcohol abuse.”  Children who live apart from their fathers are 4.3 times more likely to smoke cigarettes as teenagers than children growing up with their fathers in the home.
     –Physical and Emotional Health.  Children in single-parent families are two to three times as likely as children in two-parent families to have emotional and behavioral  problems.  A study on nearly 6,000 children found that children from single parent homes had more physical and mental health problems than children who lived with two married parents.  Additionally, boys in single parent homes were found to have more illnesses than girls in single parent homes.  Three out of four teenage suicides occur in households where a parent has been absent.
     –Educational Achievement.  In studies involving over 25,000 children using nationally representative data sets, children who lived with only one parent had lower grade point averages, lower college aspirations, poor attendance records, and higher drop out rates than students who lived with both parents.  Fatherless children are twice as likely to drop out of school.  Even divorce has an impact on children.  School children from divorced families are absent more, are more anxious, hostile, and withdrawn, and are less popular with their peers than those from intact families.
     –Crime.  In a study using a national probability sample of 1,636 young men and women, it was found that older boys and girls from female headed households are more likely to commit criminal acts than their peers who lived with two parents.   A study in the state of Washington using statewide data found a male born to an unmarried teen mother was ten times more likely to become a chronic juvenile offender.
     –Sexual Activity and Teen Pregnancy.   A survey of 720 teenage girls found:  97% of the girls said that having parents they could talk to could help reduce teen pregnancy.  93% said having loving parents reduced the risk.  76% said that their fathers were very or somewhat influential on their decision to have sex.  Children in single parent families are more likely to get pregnant as teenagers than their peers who grow up with two parents.  (All of the above statistics are from: www.fathers.com).
     Fathers have a significant position and role to play in the home.  While all of the above information proves this point, consider also the spiritual leadership that fathers should provide for their children.  Paul writes, “And ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath, but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord” (Eph. 6:4).  Fathers should nurture their children by spiritual instruction and training.  Children desperately need their fathers to be present in their lives, to love them, to be a role model for them, and to lead them spiritually to know and follow God.

     The British carried out the most famous of all paradummy missions during the early hours of D-Day, June 5/6th, 1944.  The paradummy operation was code-named “Titanic” and involved dropping hundreds of paradummies along the French coast to confuse and deceive the Germans as to where the actual Allied Airborne drops would occur.
     These dummies, which have come to be known as “Ruperts” (as opposed to the American “Oscars”) were made of simple stuffed burlap sack cloth.  They were filled with sand, straw, or wood shavings and were attached to small scale sized parachutes.  They were small, only about 3 feet tall and could be dressed in actual small uniforms.
     Six brave SAS men jumped along with the paradummies to make a lot of noise on the ground, play combat recordings, make small attacks on German troops (like couriers) and generally help make the landings appear real to the Germans.  Days after the operation, only two of these six men returned to friendly lines.
     Deception can be a tool in war.  It can also be a tool of Satan.  Paul writes, “And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light.  Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works” (2 Cor. 11:14).
     False teachers do not go around wearing a badge indicating that they are false teachers!  All teachers should be put to the test of truth and righteousness (I John 4:1).  Those who are teaching the truth do not fear such scrutiny.  Those who teach error avoid it.  Spiritual discernment based upon a righteous standard is sorely needed today.  The spiritually immature are easily duped by Satan’s disguises.  Beware the “Rupert.”  Beware of deception.

     Philosopher Peter Kreeft, commenting on Francis Bacon’s Man’s Conquest of Nature, had this to say, “The term in the phrase Man’s Conquest of Nature is a sexually chavinistic term, not because all use of the traditional generic “Man” is, but because we have a civilization that is in the midst of what Karl Stern called “the flight from woman.” We extol action over being, analysis over intuition, problems over mysteries, success over contentment, conquering over nurturing, the quick fix over life-long commitments, the prostitute over the mother” (Ravi Zacharias, I, Isaac, Take Thee Rebekah, 16). 
     This flight from womanhood is the costly price we have paid in our gender wars by making difference synonymous with hierarchy.  God made the differences, and those differences are purposeful.  There is also difference in the Trinity without inferiority” (Zacharias, 16-17).
     “The entire fury over gender warfare and sexuality is because the issues are positioned purely in pragmatic terms, forgetting that in the first created order there was specific design and intended purpose.  All the philosophizing and arguing by well-meaning people to the contrary will not explain why the biology is so distinctive, as is the chemistry that follows.  The differences between men and women are not perfunctory; they are essential.  The complementariness is not bestowed by society; it is God-given.  The purpose is not just love; it is procreation.  It is not merely a provision; it is a pattern.  Woman is not a fellow man; she is a unique entity, part of man but separate from him.  The difference matters and is sacred in purpose.  In violating this we violate a transcending intent” (Zacharias, 16). 
     Zacharias touches on an important aspect of human existence.  God created Adam and Eve.  In this creative act, He made them male and female.  He gave them each individual purpose.  He made them complementary.  Whenever equality is pushed to the point that God’s original design and purpose are distorted beyond recognition, then the consequence to human identity and meaningful purpose is destructive and great harm is done.  The evolutionary model of man destroys this sacred intent and attempts to blur the distinction between men and women that God has divinely purposed. This is just another example of the difference between the sacred and the profane.
     The Word of God upholds the value and preciousness of womanhood.  The virtuous woman of Proverbs 31:10-31 gains the respect of her husband, her household, and her God.  She does this by manifesting a “fear of the Lord.”  “Favour is deceitful, and beauty is vain: but a woman that feareth the LORD, she shall be praised.  Give her of the fruit of her hands and let her own works praise her in the gates” (Proverbs 31:30-31).

Home of Alexander Campbell, Bethany, WV

This photo is a recent picture of the home of Alexander Campbell.  Alexander and his father Thomas were leaders in the Restoration Movement.  The Restoration Movement was the largest religious movement in American history.  Thomas Campbell wrote the Declaration and Address, an important document in Restoration history.  In this document, Thomas Campbell demonstrates a passion for unity and a passion for truth.  You cannot have unity without truth!  Let me share a few quotes from this historical document.  In proposition one, Campbell wrote, “The Church of Christ upon earth is essentially, intentionally and constitutionally one; consisting of all those in every place that profess their faith in Christ and obedience to him in all things according to the Scriptures, and that manifest the same by their tempers and conduct, and of none else; as none else can be truly and properly called Christians” (Declaration and Address, Hester pub., 23).  Campbell was opposed to division.  He wrote in proposition ten, “That division among the Christians is a horrid evil fraught with many evils.  It is antichristian, as it destroys the visible unity of the body of Christ; as if he were divided against himself, excluding and excommunicating a part of himself.  It is antiscriptural, as being strictly prohibited by his sovereign authority; a direct violation of his express command.  It is antinatural, as it excites Christians to contemn, to hate, and oppose one another, who are bound by the highest and most endearing obligations to love each other as brethren, even as Christ has loved them.  In a word, it is productive of confusion and of every evil work” (Declaration and Address, Hester pub., 26).  Finally, Campbell pleaded that to achieve unity, “nothing out to be inculcated upon Christians as articles of faith; nor required of them as terms of communion, but what is expressly taught and enjoined upon them in the word of God.  Nor ought anything to be admitted, as of Divine obligation, in their Church constitution and managements, but what is expressly enjoined by the authority of our Lord Jesus Christ and his apostles upon the New Testament Church; either in express terms or by approved precedent” (Proposition no. 3, Declaration and Address, Hester pub., 23, 24).  The New Testament is normative for God’s church.  Campbell called the New Testament “a perfect model…for the worship, discipline, and government of the Christian Church.” Campbell’s most famous quotation was made during the meeting when the Declaration and Address was adopted, “Let us  speak where the Bible speaks and be silent where it is silent.”
     This year is the 200th anniversary of the writing of the Declaration and Address.  It was adopted on September 7, 1809 by the Christian Association in Washington, PA.  This would be a good time to renew the important study of the subject of unity as taught by the Lord Jesus Christ and His apostles in the New Testament.

     Marriage–The Promise
     “The playwright Thornton Wilder said it well: I didn’t marry you because you were perfect.  I didn’t marry you even because I loved you.  I married you because you gave me a promise.  That promise made up for your faults.  And the promise I gave you made up for mine.  Two imperfect people got married and it was the promise that made the marriage.  And when our children were growing up, it wasn’t a house that protected them; and it wasn’t our love that protected them–it was that promise.”  (Ravi Zacharias, I, Isaac, Take Thee, Rebekah, p. 45).  Many are afraid of commitment.  They believe that they can have a lasting relationship without it.  This is not true.  In marriage, we take a sacred vow and make a promise “to have and to hold” “until death do us part.”  We must keep that promise.  Jesus said, “Wherefore they are  no more twain, but one flesh.  What therefore God hath joined together, let  not man put asunder” (Matt. 19:6).  Keeping the “lock” in wedlock depends upon meeting the responsibility of a commitment to another person made in a sacred promise.
     Marriage–The Service of Love
     “If the first thing about committing the will is that it is a death to yourself, what comes to life is a disposition that seeks to serve.  The one who serves does so with kindness and gentleness.  This is something we almost never think of anymore, that we are called to the service of love.  We are so prone to lay claim to our rights that we bury the demand that calls us to serve.  Our love story shows us in a simple act the beauty of service that has at its heart a kind spirit.” (Zacharias, I, Isaac, Take Thee, Rebekah, p. 49).
     Marriage–Lovingkindness
     The Hebrew word translated “lovingkindness” is hesed.  It is the covenantal term for God’s love.  Hesed is the unmerited and generous favor of God.  It is a love that is gentle and always reaching out to the object of that love.  Old Testament scholar Daniel Block describes hesed as “that quality that moves a person to act for the benefit of another without respect to the advantage that it might bring to the one who expresses it…(This) quality is expressed fundamentally in action rather than word or emotion” (Zacharias, I, Isaac, Take Thee, Rebekah, p. 51).
     Marriage-Sense of Humor

     Love is like an onion–
     You taste it with delight,
     But when it’s gone you wonder
     Whatever made you bite.
     Love is a funny thing, just like a lizard,
     It curls up ’round your heart and then jumps into your gizzard.’
     Love is swell, it’s so enticing,
     It’s orange gel, it’s strawberry icing,
     It’s chocolate mousse, it’s roasted goose,
     It’s ham on rye, it’s banana pie.
     Love’s all good things without a question;
     In other words, it’s indigestion.
            (Zacharias, I, Isaac, Take Thee, Rebekah, p. 10)