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Answering Good Friday and Easter Questions

Many events occurred during what many Christians call Holy Week , leading up to the Crucifixion of Jesus on Good Friday and his bodily Resurrection on Sunday. Some professing Christians are confused, annoyed, and even judgmental about our celebrations of Easter, and misotheists join in the attacks. Credit: Free Christian Illustrations One of the questions people have is when they count on their fingers, they believe that Jesus could not have been crucified on Friday and rise from the dead on Sunday. This comes from shoehorning modern counting methods into ancient Jewish reckoning. We do  want to be honest with the text, don't we?  Another problem some people have is the claim that Easter is based on pagan traditions. Unfortunately, this nonsense is spread by modern church traditions and ill-informed pastors. Ignorance of history and languages are not excuses for Pecksniffian attitudes of religious people who look down on those of us who choose to celebrate Easter.  If yo...

Is God Foolish?

by Cowboy Bob Sorensen People get mighty fond of their learning and intelligence, and usually detest being called ignorant or stupid. Humanistic philosophies elevate "science" (which is a philosophy in and of itself) to supreme authority and importance in matters of truth. Mankind as a whole looks down on God and considers his wisdom as foolishness. Quote miners may find the phrase "the foolishness of God" and use it to their own advantage. Inquisitive honest people may want to read the source, 1 Corinthians 1:25, and see that it means something completely different. Image credit: Morguefile / Plume Those who are wise in the eyes of the world arrogantly require God to do things their way, and fallaciously claim that if they cannot understand God's methods, he does not exist. What happens is that they become idolators, creating a false god that they can reference but has nothing to do with the true Creator God as revealed in the Bible. The wisdom of...

Pre-Adam Men and the Gap — Heretics Twisting Genesis 1

by Cowboy Bob Sorensen To borrow from Chris Rosebrough (who is linked below), I'm not asking people to read this or watch the video with open minds, but to have open Bibles. My opinion and yours are not worth a whole lot, nor are our traditions. Only God's Word matters (Isaiah 40:8, Mark 13:31). Way back yonder, I was a follower of "Word of Faith" heretic Kenneth Copeland and some of his gang, but I didn't go whole hog on his teachings. Still, I accepted too much at the time. One of several things he said that I rejected out of hand was his affirmation of the "gap theory", where there are supposedly millions of years between the first two chapters of Genesis. I disremember why he wanted to use this gap eisegesis , especially since there is nothing to support it in the rest of Scripture, and I don't think there's anything about it in church history, since an old Earth is a relatively new phenomenon in liberal Christian thinking. Mrs...

How Should We Interpret Genesis?

by Cowboy Bob Sorensen The first eleven chapters of Genesis are the most attacked section of the Bible (and with increasing intensity nowadays), and were understood to be actual history by most Christians throughout church history , until Christians began ceding science to secularists about 150 years ago . There's a good reason for understanding Genesis as written , since Jesus, Peter, Paul, and others referred to Genesis as literal history as well. Still, riders on the Old Earth Owlhoot Trail want to force in millions of years by way of the latest trends in man-made science philosophies, and tell God what he said and meant instead of taking the natural reading of Genesis. Naturally, atheists support them. The Expulsion of Adam and Eve from Paradise , Benjamin West , 1791 One area of compromise came from Scottish preacher Thomas Chalmers in 1814, who proposed a gap of long ages between the first two verses of Genesis, but the "Gap Theory" simply does not work ...

Get Your Armor On!

There are many people who claim the name of Christ, fill their minds with garbage from enemies of God (that is, the world, James 4:4), then wonder why their Christian life is a shambles. I've seen social media profiles of people who call themselves Christians, and mayhaps have a religious movie or two in their profiles, say they like the Bible, and have a passel of entertainment sources listed that proclaim things in direct opposition to God's Word! Scripturally illiterate Christians have weak or nonexistent spiritual walks, and are actually a hindrance in proclaiming the gospel and defending the faith. Roman soldier image credit: openclipart What people don't realize is that we're in the middle of a war. You're either God's property or Satan's property, there's no middle ground.  1 Peter 5:8-9 tells us that Satan is on the prowl. People who are compromisers, don't know their doctrines, are unwilling to take a stand for the truth — they'r...

The Unpardonable Sin

by Cowboy Bob Sorensen Sadly, there are some people who are afraid that they have committed the unpardonable sin and are beyond redemption for eternity. While it is good to be concerned, the unpardonable sin is not something that can be committed casually. Think about it. God is not capricious and willing to condemn someone for such a serious sin committed in ignorance or by something said in haste. ESV Bible text added to Woe unto You, Scribes and Pharisees by James Tissot / Public Domain There are several views on this sin. One is that it cannot be committed today, it was a "game over" for the Pharisees who had been condemning him and had finally crossed the line because of the constant hardening of their hearts. Another view is that this sin is the rejection of salvation, where someone dies without Christ. (In the latter case, the end result is the same.) Even some Christians are afraid that they fouled up somehow, and take the unbiblical view of losing their sa...

Saturday Resource: OEC Compromisers

It seems that Old Earth Creationists (OECs) who use atheistic methods and interpretations of science and then add huge amounts of time into the early chapters of Genesis are more extreme than I thought. No, I am not saying "extreme" as in "blowing up buildings belonging to Biblical creationists". What I mean is that they have to keep twisting Scriptures and forcing excuses to justify their compromising positions. From Ken Ham's Weblog: After watching what turned into a two-hour debate between Hugh Ross and me on TBN television last week, AiG board chairman, Pastor Don Landis, gave an address to the AiG staff yesterday morning titled “Contending for the Faith” (Jude 3). Jude 3 states “Beloved, while I was very diligent to write to you concerning our common salvation, I found it necessary to write to you exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints.” His powerful address focused on challenging the staff t...

Saturday Resource: Now What?

I thought I was done with Thursday's article . Then Dr. Charles Stanley of "In Touch Ministries" caught my attention with his broadcast of "I'm Saved — Now What?" Although it does not directly apply to that article, several points in there complement it. Although it is targeted for new Christians, there is a great deal of useful information for all Christians. Even if you know the material, the occasional refresher does not hurt. And I strongly suspect that there are items in there that you had not considered. The forty-something minute video is here , or you can listen to/download the MP3 podcasts, Part 1 here and Part 2 here . Highly recommended!

Saturday Resource: Are We Making Him Known?

As Christians, are we keeping the truth to ourselves? When we meet God on Judgment Day, will we have people say, "Yes, Lord, this one led me to you"? For that matter, are we sure that we are right with God, or are we playing religious games with ourselves? Today's resource is not going to take you all that long (this time). It is about twenty minutes. You can click the link and listen to the audio, or right-click and "save as" so you can listen to it offline. It is by Dr. Charles Stanley, and it is called "Making Him Known". I sincerely hope that you will use this link and give it a listen .

I Like Bibles Part 3: Saturday Resource

by Cowboy Bob Sorensen  Trevor's Stack of Bibles Although I risk stricter judgment by presuming to teach (James 3.1), this installment is significantly less objective than other things that I have done. But I still hope that you can get something out of it. In our previous adventures, I told you a bit of my personal history , and then some of the history of English language Bibles . That last one was a great deal of work, but very rewarding. I left off somewhere around 1611, when the King James Version had been released. Since then, not only has the KJV had several revisions, but other Bible revisions and translations have cropped up. I believe that is a good thing to some extent (I am most definitely not a "King James Only" advocate), but there are also drawbacks. One drawback that I will briefly mention is that Bibles have been rewritten by and for cultists like Joseph Smith , Johannes Greber and the Jehovah's Witnesses . I urge Christians to rem...

On the Origin of Respectability

In the beginning God created the heauen and the earth. And the earth was without forme and voide, and darkenesse was vpon the deepe, and the Spirit of God moued vpon ye waters. Then God saide, Let there be light: And there was light. And God sawe the light that it was good, and God separated the light from the darkenes. And God called the light, Day, and the darkenes, he called Night. So the euening and the morning were the first day. — Genesis 1.1-5 (Geneva) Or, to say it another way: בְּרֵאשִׁית בָּרָא אֱלֹהִים אֵת הַשָּׁמַיִם וְאֵת הָאָֽרֶץ׃ וְהָאָרֶץ הָיְתָה תֹהוּ וָבֹהוּ וְחֹשֶׁךְ עַל־פְּנֵי תְהֹום וְרוּחַ אֱלֹהִים מְרַחֶפֶת עַל־פְּנֵי הַמָּֽיִם׃ וַיֹּאמֶר אֱלֹהִים יְהִי אֹור וַֽיְהִי־אֹֽור׃ וַיַּרְא אֱלֹהִים אֶת־הָאֹור כִּי־טֹוב וַיַּבְדֵּל אֱלֹהִים בֵּין הָאֹור וּבֵין הַחֹֽשֶׁךְ׃ וַיִּקְרָא אֱלֹהִים ׀ לָאֹור יֹום וְלַחֹשֶׁךְ קָרָא לָיְלָה וַֽיְהִי־עֶרֶב וַֽיְהִי־בֹקֶר יֹום אֶחָֽד׃ פ (WLC, but someone with real knowledge of Hebrew will have to tell me if this copied ...