Repent

Living and loving through the New Covenant; eating and drinking the body and blood of Jesus our Messiah (reading and doing all of His Word). “Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the LORD. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.” (Jeremiah 31:31–34, ESV. See also Exodus 20:6; Deuteronomy 5:10; Ezekiel 11:19-21)

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Posted in Daily Living • Feast and Festivals • Identity • Judgment • Law • Love • Tradition • Trumpets

Judging with Righteous Judgment Pt. 3 – Baby Steps

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Training in righteous judgment comes from balanced and consistent practice. This is illustrated for us in Scripture such as 2 Timothy 3:16 and Titus 2:1-10 among many others. We learn how to apply the Law by applying it ourselves to our own life on a daily basis. We start with small things, which some call shadows, learning love and faithfulness with baby steps. Later we can perhaps run a marathon.

 

The feasts and holy days of our Father are excellent places to begin training in righteous judgment. Think about how many questions have to be answered in order to practice His instructions in the feasts and festivals. Am I going to take the Sabbaths off from work? Will I let worldly things get in the way of our celebration? Is it all important, because every word He speaks is important? What does it mean to take time to blow a trumpet or learn how to blow one? What are the themes associated with a feast, and where else do we find them in the Word? Where is Jesus in the symbols? Since Jesus was the one to prescribe these, is there a new connection I can make with Him, making His presence more real and concrete in daily living?

 

We need to carve out time for His appointments with us, just as we would for a dentist, doctor or lawyer. Each instruction has to be contemplated, incorporated into our planning, and juggled with other commitments. How we treat the less weighty things is an indication of how we will treat the more weighty things. We have to rate the importance of His commands compared to all the other demands on our time. There are times the other things will have to give way. How much do we love the Father, and how willing are we to clear everything out of the path to Him?

 

Questions and considerations like these also play into weightier issues too. If we are faithful in small things, we will be faithful in greater things. If we are unfaithful in small things, how can we be trusted with bigger things? Are we the second son who says “I will go” then doesn’t?

 

“What do you think? A man had two sons. And he went to the first and said, ‘Son, go and work in the vineyard today.’ And he answered, ‘I will not,’ but afterward he changed his mind and went. And he went to the other son and said the same. And he answered, ‘I go, sir,’ but did not go. Which of the two did the will of his father?” They said, “The first.” Jesus said to them, “Truly, I say to you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes go into the kingdom of God before you. For John came to you in the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes believed him. And even when you saw it, you did not afterward change your minds and believe him. (Matthew 21:28–32, ESV)

 

On the other hand, do we get caught up in all the showy stuff about holy days such as Hebrew language or mystical interpretations and neglect to just do them with a heart of flesh in the Spirit? Do we worship the traditions or the One who gave them? These are just some of the issues that help train us not only to see the right things to do, but also to do them.

Posted in Clean & Unclean • Daily Living • Idolatry • Law • Love • Paganism • Prayer

Judging with Righteous Judgment Pt. 2 – Canaanite Marriage

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Judging with righteous judgment in the area of marriage can be tough. Especially in modern times when the only requirement is that you “love” the other person. Modern love however is lacking in righteous judgment almost completely. The main consideration is strong sentiment or romance only, which we get from the Greeks. Some are even so stupid as to think they should be “sexually compatible” so they jump in the sack before marriage. I don’t think you can get much dumber than that, because of course we are all “sexually compatible.” God made it that way.

 

But what God wants is almost never a consideration. Then later people want you to “pray” for their marriage. Really? Ignore God and do what you want, then pray for God to get your ass out of a sling of your own making? Sorry, baby. You poured the wine, you drink the cup.

 

In several places in the Law believers are instructed to avoid marriage with Canaanites. This law seems to have been in place long before Sinai. Isaac was directed not to marry a Canaanite (Genesis 24:3), and Isaac in turn charged Jacob with the same prohibition (Genesis 28:1). Some of Jacob’s sons didn’t pay attention, so Judah had trouble with sons from a Canaanite woman (Genesis 38).

 

God formally charged His people not to intermarry with Canaanites (Deuteronomy 7 for instance) because they would turn the hearts of Israel away from God. Solomon proved this (and many others did too) with his 700 wives and 300 concubines (1 Kings 11).

 

Okay, so what’s a Canaanite? We don’t know for sure today who is and isn’t one, because there is no country or tribe called Canaan anymore. Some think that a Canaanite has dark skin. This is wrong, because the Bible doesn’t mention skin color in connection with it. Besides, the Canaanites had the same father as everyone else – Noah. Skin color was never an issue. According to creation ministries such as Answers in Genesis and Creation Today Adam and Eve very likely were dark brown, and not just from running around naked in the Garden either. Jesus was probably dark brown. Recently there was a story in the news about a black couple in England who had a white baby (and it has happened before too) and there are white couples who had black babies from what I understand. There is only one race – human. Skin color is a consideration, not because it is wrong but because the prejudice of other people will make things more difficult. But God never said not to intermarry with people of different skin colors.

 

God’s concern was intermarriage with people who followed their own hearts. Pagans. Idolaters. Unclean. One of the hallmarks of Canaanites, besides idolatry, was sexual immorality. The father of Canaan was Ham son of Noah, who was the one that “saw the nakedness of his father” while he was drunk (Genesis 9). This gives us a clearer picture of the identity of modern Canaanites, even if there is no tribal or geographic area attached to them. They are the ones who don’t follow God. They have no heart for Him at all. They’re everywhere. They might even be in the church. Ezra says they are impure with their practice of abominations that have filled the land end to end with uncleanness (Ezra 9). Paul tells us not to be “unequally yoked” in a partnership between righteousness and lawlessness (2 Corinthians 6:14). He doesn’t mention skin color, though some want to twist the meaning of light and darkness into merely skin color. He references the temple of God and idols instead.

 

So the application of the Law about intermarriage is to make sure the possible partner has a heart after God’s. This is a much greater consideration than idiotic romantic love. I’ve always told my kids that almost any two people can make a good marriage if they are committed to God and to each other. There are other considerations too, but this is the most important. If your prospective mate does not have the same faith as the one approved by God, it is more likely they will pull your heart down to the pit rather than helping lift you up to heaven. And no amount of prayer will change that.

Posted in Daily Living • Division • Judgment • Law • Love • Whole Bible Christianity book

Judging with Righteous Judgment Pt. 1 – Losing Friends

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I lost another friend recently. He decided after reading my book “Whole Bible Christianity,” which is full of righteous judgment or application of the Law, and a couple of emails about the practical applications, that he wasn’t a happy camper.

 

“I enjoy talking with you about Scripture; it is an entertaining, learning, and intellectual exercise. But I do not agree with your conclusions or your applications. I especially do not agree with your analysis regarding the church, others, or anything outside of Scripture.”

 

He hasn’t emailed me back after I responded to this and other things at the end of February. There wasn’t a single biblical argument he made in rebuttal, either to the book or my applications, so he just decided to call me a few names and cut it off.

 

This was after, of course, he lectured me extensively on “love,” especially on its unconditional aspects where God is concerned. I’m sure you can appreciate the irony. I disagreed with his version, which consisted pretty much of sentiment only, and argued for the Bible version, consisting of doing what God says. As with any clique, the church version lasts only as long as you push whatever agenda (doctrine, tradition, whatever) that particular church pushes. This explains his departure. So much for the church version of love. That kind of love believers don’t need. I much prefer God’s version, which keeps me a part of His household no matter what mistakes I make.

 

It wasn’t like I didn’t have abundant Scriptural proof of what I was saying. There are over 800 verses written out and hundreds of references for other verses too. It was just that he didn’t like it. That’s going to happen a lot when we are dealing with Bible subjects, and especially how they are used in righteous judgment for daily living. Law is love, and love is Law. Many people do not like the Law precisely because it is objective and clear. They want to keep doing what they are doing, and believing what they are believing. This makes their love suspect. The Law just gets in the way.

 

So one of the things we need to realize as we apply the Bible with righteous judgment, as Jesus tells us, is that we are going to lose friends. But if we are not losing “friends” then there is a good possibility that we are not really applying His Words at all, let alone with righteous judgment.

 

There is a war going on which God didn’t start. But He’s the one who is going to finish it. I have not picked the battle, but I HAVE picked which side I’m on.

Posted in Bible Verse • Church • Daily Living • Faith • Natural Man • Paul Teachings

The Last Days Have Come

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But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be:

 

    lovers of self
    lovers of money
    proud
    arrogant
    abusive
    disobedient to their parents
    ungrateful
    unholy
    heartless
    unappeasable
    slanderous
    without self-control
    brutal
    not loving good
    treacherous
    reckless
    swollen with conceit
    lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God
    having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power.

 

Avoid such people. For among them are those who creep into households and capture weak women, burdened with sins and led astray by various passions, always learning and never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth.

 

Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so these men also oppose the truth, men corrupted in mind and disqualified regarding the faith. But they will not get very far, for their folly will be plain to all, as was that of those two men. (2 Timothy 3:1–9, ESV)

 

I don’t see how much more “last” the last days can get than where we are now. Can you?

Posted in Adultery • Daily Living • Grace • Judgment • Law • Punishment

Judgment

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Do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment.” (John 7:24, ESV)

 

Applying the Law takes judgment. Most people are scared of this because either they don’t have it or they think of it only as condemnation. There is a judging that is outside of God’s Word, and that is wrong judgment. Or there is only a very loose effort to use His Word and we substitute our own knowledge for it. This is the opposite of right judgment. We also have to judge ourselves first, to make sure we are clean and properly prepared for judging with right judgment.

 

But when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined so that we may not be condemned along with the world. (1 Corinthians 11:32, ESV)

 

Some think no one can judge because they misinterpret Scripture. They use John 8:7 (“he who is without sin cast the first stone”) to say that the woman caught in adultery is excused by Jesus because no one can judge due to lack of perfection. This is incorrect. What Jesus was saying is that “right judgment” was not being pursued, therefore the trial was a sham. They were not going by God’s standard of right judgment. If indeed the crowd was a lawful court, and if the guy would’ve been there (hello, wasn’t he supposed to be there too if “caught in the act?”), if there were two or more witnesses, and if God’s other standards were properly applied, then the ruling would’ve been to stone her (and the guy too). That was not the case, so that was why Jesus pointed out that no one was without sin here.

 

Obviously Jesus tells us it’s okay to judge, and even commands it. But to judge with right judgment means we have to have a standard to judge by. If something is crooked we need a straight edge or ruler to check it against to see what’s out of whack. We who have all of His Words in our hearts, reading all of them and following all of them, are the ones who are equipped to perfectly judge with right judgment. It is those who don’t have His words, or only claim to have them (hypocrites, like the people in the crowd of John 8), that are unqualified to judge.

 

Or do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world is to be judged by you, are you incompetent to try trivial cases? Do you not know that we are to judge angels? How much more, then, matters pertaining to this life! (1 Corinthians 6:2–3, ESV)

 

Equally obvious is the fact that the world cannot judge for beans. It is because they do not seek justice, ignore God’s Word, and judge according to appearance. Wealthy people get “more justice,” and poor people not so much. Sometimes skin color is a factor. Sometimes political connections. They are giving themselves permission to sin, because that’s what they want to feed their flesh. This is one of the primary reasons for our society going into the toilet. It is also one of the reasons for the church going into the toilet.

 

“You shall do no injustice in court. You shall not be partial to the poor or defer to the great, but in righteousness shall you judge your neighbor. You shall not go around as a slanderer among your people, and you shall not stand up against the life of your neighbor: I am the LORD. “You shall not hate your brother in your heart, but you shall reason frankly with your neighbor, lest you incur sin because of him. You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the LORD. (Leviticus 19:15–18, ESV)

 

Coming in the next few posts: Applications of right judgment using His Standard in the real world.

Posted in Clean & Unclean • Daily Living • Faith • Healing • Prayer • Repentance

I’ll Pray for You

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What does it mean to pray for someone?

 

What are they really asking? If an unbeliever asks me to pray for healing for them, will God listen? Does God answer prayer even if we are out of whack with Him? Does someone who claims to be a believer, but ignores God’s righteous decrees, automatically get healing just because they ask? Or is persistent sickness or tragedy a sign of unconfessed sin? Should the believer concentrate on asking for healing, or asking for forgiveness? And is asking forgiveness just to get well, or restore a right relationship with God?

 

The LORD is far from the wicked, but he hears the prayer of the righteous. (Proverbs 15:29, ESV)

 

Can a divorced believer ask for God to bless their divorce, or the results of divorce (like someone needing a job or day care or something like that)? Or will God only bless something in divorce for one of the people who isn’t at fault? And how do we determine fault?

 

Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working. (James 5:16, ESV)

 

Can a homosexual ask God to heal them of AIDS though they persist in the behavior? Can he ask for any kind of blessings or reprieve from judgment? Will God hear him if he needs a job? Or rain for his crops?

 

For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and his ears are open to their prayer. But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.” (1 Peter 3:12, ESV)

 

Moving on a little from obvious stuff like sexual immorality, how much evil can we get away with before God doesn’t answer, or stops answering, prayer? Is a little disobedience okay? Will the cosmic eraser of Jesus that the church preaches cover any iniquity, so let us sin that grace may abound? How much of His Law (or Word) can we ignore and still expect Him to answer our prayers?

 

Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord. Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself. That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died. But if we judged ourselves truly, we would not be judged. But when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined so that we may not be condemned along with the world. (1 Corinthians 11:27–32, ESV)

 

What if He put things in His Law that have spiritual effects, such that we can’t see the connections but they are nonetheless connected? If we eat piles of bacon, for instance, is there a connection to illness? Maybe His Word and the physical and spiritual are more interconnected than we think? We know we can get sick from improperly prepared seafood, but just because there is no immediate affect from properly prepared seafood does that mean it doesn’t harm us?

 

You shall therefore separate the clean beast from the unclean, and the unclean bird from the clean. You shall not make yourselves detestable by beast or by bird or by anything with which the ground crawls, which I have set apart for you to hold unclean. You shall be holy to me, for I the LORD am holy and have separated you from the peoples, that you should be mine. (Leviticus 20:25–26, ESV)

 

What are the spiritual effects of following His Laws? Is there a spiritual aspect to being sick? Does righteousness make us well? Is harm really random, or is it related to sin? Or is sin like mold on our souls, and the physical reaction is illness? Maybe it’s not just our own sin, either. Is there a spiritual corruption that emanates from other people’s sin and contaminates people around them too, such as is taught in God’s Laws of clean and unclean?

 

But you shall keep my statutes and my rules and do none of these abominations, either the native or the stranger who sojourns among you (for the people of the land, who were before you, did all of these abominations, so that the land became unclean), lest the land vomit you out when you make it unclean, as it vomited out the nation that was before you. (Leviticus 18:26–28, ESV)

 

Do we look to doctors first, or do we look to God first? Do we consult the database of His Word in every area of life, before we get sick? Are we taking preventative measures that are recommended by our Heavenly Physician before we consult and believe human doctors who don’t have a place in their worldview for God’s Word? Are we sick because we have a chemical imbalance, or because we have disobeyed?

 

It is possible to be afflicted by God for other reasons than our sin. The book of Job shows us that. Sometimes God afflicts to test us, and sometimes to build trust and obedience. But it is clear from His Word that sin is a big part of health (or lack of it) in many instances. And our heart is the one place where we have control. At the very least we should be aware of the possibility of sin and seek God’s cleansing by confessing and the washing of His Word before we pray for Him to remove the possible by-product of disobedience. It would behoove us to kneel on solid, clean ground every day in constant communion. It might go a long way toward not getting sick in the first place.

Posted in Uncategorized

I Am a Homophobe update

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You might not realize that the last post titled “I Am a Homophobe” is an excerpt from a 9 page article.

The article is full of quotes and statistics, useful for countering all those “accepting” and “tolerant” people out there, who are accepting and tolerating a deadly, corrupt and corrupting lifestyle. The information is also useful for countering those virulent bullies hammering away at the goodness and love of a tolerant God and His followers.

The article is at www.wholebible.com/Homophobe if you want to get the straight scoop from knowledgeable people (including many quotes from homosexual literature) on this destructive choice.

Posted in Love • Sex

I Am a Homophobe

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A phobia is defined in the dictionary as a persistent, irrational fear of a specific object, activity, or situation that leads to a compelling desire to avoid it. Homophobe is a term used to denigrate and bully those who oppose homosexuality. But given the facts, a fear of homosexuals and desire to avoid them is perhaps not so irrational. It ends up being as good a word to describe my fear as any, and I don’t think the homosexuals should control the discussion. So I am coming out of the closet.

I am a homophobe. I am afraid of homosexuals, their lifestyle choices, and their protectors and promoters.

I am afraid they are tearing my country apart with their perverse desires to rip the traditional family to shreds. The only reason for homosexual “marriage” is to destroy real marriage.

  • Michelangelo Signorile, writing in Out! magazine, has stated that homosexuals should, “…fight for same-sex marriage and its benefits and then, once granted, redefine the institution of marriage completely … To debunk a myth and radically alter an archaic institution. … The most subversive action lesbians and gays can undertake-and one that would perhaps benefit all of society-is to transform the notion of ‘family’ altogether.” (Out! magazine, Dec./Jan., 1994.)
  • “In 1972 the National Coalition of Gay Organizations demanded the ‘repeal of all legislative provisions that restrict the sex or number of persons entering into a marriage unit; and the extension of legal benefits to all persons who cohabit regardless of sex or numbers.’ Would polygamy invite abuse of child brides, as feminists in Muslim countries and prosecutors in Mormon Utah charge? No. Group marriage could comprise any combination of genders.” (Stop the Wedding!: Why Gay Marriage Isn’t Radical Enough; Judith Levine; The Village Voice; July 23-29, 2003.)
  • See also the booklet Same Sex Marriage: Til Death Do Us Part?; Dr. Paul Cameron; published by Family Research Institute of Colorado Springs, CO. Get it at http://www.familyresearchinst.org/. Read it online at http://www.biblebelievers.com/Cameron1.html#info. Homosexual marriages are short lived; Studies show homosexual marriage is hazardous to one’s health.

I am afraid they have no desire for monogamous relationships of any kind, married or not.

  • 43% of white male homosexuals estimated they had sex with 500 or more different partners. 75% had 100 or more. 28% (the largest subcategory) reported more than 1000 partners. 79% said more than half their partners were strangers. 70% said more than half their sexual partners were men with whom they had sex only once. (Homosexualities: A Study of Diversity Among Men and Women; Bell and Weinberg; New York; Simon and Schuster; 1978, pp. 308-309; referring to a study published by The Kinsey Institute. I’ve also seen it cited as published by Touchstone; 1979.)
  • Homosexual activists and marketing experts Marshall Kirk and Hunter Madsen say “[T]he cheating ratio of ‘married’ gay males, given enough time, approaches 100%…Many gay lovers, bowing to the inevitable, agree to an ‘open relationship,’ for which there are as many sets of ground rules as there are couples.” (After the Ball; by homosexuals Marshall Kirk and Hunter Madsen; Plume; Sept. 1990; page 330.)
  • “The single most important factor that keeps couples together past the ten-year mark is the lack of possessiveness they feel. Many couples learn very early in their relationship that ownership of each other sexually can become the greatest internal threat to their staying together.” (The Male Couple: How Relationships Develop; by homosexuals David McWhirter and Andrew Mattison; Prentice Hall Trade; February 1985.)
  • “The incidence of domestic violence among gay men is nearly double that in the heterosexual population.” (Intimate Violence in Lesbian Relationships: Discussion of Survey Findings and Practice Implications; Gwat Yong Lie and Sabrina Gentlewarrier; Journal of Social Service Research 15 (1991): 41–59. Quoted from www.exodusglobalalliance.org/ishomosexualityhealthyp60.php.

I am afraid of their diseases, their AIDS virus, the way they carelessly spread so many STD’s and the death and destruction that follow in the wake of their lifestyle choice.

Read more at www.wholebible.com/Homophobe.htm

Posted in Authority • Balance • Continuity & Discontinuity • God • Holy Spirit • Jesus • Law • Whole Bible Christianity book

Distractions Part Five, A Split God

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“Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD is one! 5“You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. (Deuteronomy 6:4-5 NASB95)

 

We have to talk about God being One because a main tool used to distract from, eliminate or severely prune the Law is to cast it as a different message from another God. It’s as if Jesus and the Father were two separate gods kind of at loggerheads with each other. If a person wants to dodge the Law he can pretend it came from someone who either changed His mind or didn’t mean what He said in the first place. We also have to talk about this because there is a big group of people who advocate for the Law in a believer’s life yet deny the deity of Jesus.

 

You may already accept that God and Jesus are one, but you may not realize exactly what it means. The church tends to skip over that part. For instance, if God and Jesus are one, then Jesus gave the Law at Sinai. So when He tells us in Matthew 28 to teach the disciples “all I commanded,” it includes the Law that He “filled up full” or fulfilled.

 

guernica

 

A cubist painting looks like it has been cut up and put back together out of order. You know, the nose is where the ear is supposed to be, and the eyes are not lined up. Every part is out of place (Like Pablo Picasso’s “Guernica,” pictured above). The picture of God painted by the modern church now looks sort of cubist. God is variously described as a fierce, distant and unfriendly god, or a buddy from out of town who winks at sin. He’s either a god of cloud and flame and lightening, or a pacifist hippie flower child who spouts one-liners about peace and love.

 

We use artistic license like cubism to interpret the patterns in the Word and make a picture that doesn’t even resemble the original. One pattern is for Jews and another is for the church. This part is for me and that part is for you. There are “old” and “new” god models. The old god is supposed to be a severe, demanding god of bloody sacrifices and death. The new god is a sweet guy who looks the other way when we sin. The old god beat us up with rules we couldn’t obey and restricts what we eat. The new god came to change all the stuff the old god gave us, and died so we could eat a ham sandwich. We have created, as Dr. Michael Brown says, a “worldly, cultural Christianity” with a “Jesus who radically empowers us” rather that a “Jesus who radically changes us.” I agree with him that “that’s why we have ‘Christian’ lingerie models and ‘Christian’ rappers who frequent strip clubs.”

 

The picture of God is critical to faith. When we paint Him as capricious, powerful and judgmental, giving us laws we could never obey, we can’t trust Him or do what He says. On the other hand when we paint Him with the color of sentiment (without justice or holiness) our false picture might let us do what we want even if it kills us. But it isn’t love.

 

From the book Whole Bible Christianity a draft of which is available to read at www.wholebible.com/Whole_Bible_Christianity.htm

Posted in Bible • Idolatry • Prophecy

Distractions, Part Three, Bible Codes

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Whoops. When numbering these distractions, I got distracted. So I posted part four before this one. Sorry. Your fingers aren’t lying to you. And there’s no secret code to it either.

 

A Bible code is supposed to be some hidden message in the text that we find by looking at every third letter in a sentence, or the first word in a line or something like that. Put all the letters together with some involved math and allegedly they impart secret information. This information is supposed to reveal things like the plot to assassinate certain leaders or natural disasters.

 

It is kind of interesting that you can do this with the original languages of the Bible. It’s also interesting that you can do it with just about any writing. The system depends on looking for certain words or names to start with. For instance, if you want to search for “Reagan” you can find the name. But if you don’t start with something you want to find, you can’t find it. Hmm. Sounds like the approach non-believers use to reject the Bible message. They start with the assumption that God is a meany, and surprise surprise they find their proof when they selectively look at certain texts separated from context. Or separated from common sense for that matter.

 

They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. (Ephesians 4:18, ESV)

 

The problem I have with the distraction of Bible codes is that while interesting they don’t mean anything. People who love these codes spend so much time on the puzzle of the letters that they don’t have time to read (or follow) the plain language. They spend more time looking for alleged codes than they do in reading the message and doing what it says. People who preach the codes also seem to avoid preaching the plain meaning of the Word. It seems that people become experts in codes and other distractions only to lose the Bible message in the chatter.

 

“For this commandment that I command you today is not too hard for you, neither is it far off. It is not in heaven, that you should say, ‘Who will ascend to heaven for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?’ Neither is it beyond the sea, that you should say, ‘Who will go over the sea for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?’ But the word is very near you. It is in your mouth and in your heart, so that you can do it. (Deuteronomy 30:11–14, ESV)

 

God caused His words to be written down in plain language easily understood by anyone. There are a number of messages from Him that He wants us to get. They are not hidden, except to a heart of stone hardened to the desire to follow them. I suggest becoming expert in those messages first. I think you’ll find they will occupy your time so well that you don’t have time for shiny baubles like Bible codes.

 

“For the Lord GOD does nothing without revealing his secret to his servants the prophets. (Amos 3:7, ESV)