The Solution to All Our Problems

So it shall come about, when the Lord your God has given you rest from all your surrounding enemies in the land which the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance to possess, that you shall wipe out the mention of the name Amalek from under heaven; you must not forget.  Deuteronomy 25:19  NASB Wipe out – What single word…

Lord of the Flies

And I will make mere boys their leaders, and mischievous children will rule over them, and the people will be oppressed, each one by another, and each one by his neighbor; the youth will assault the elder, and the contemptible person will assault the one honored.  Isaiah 3:4-5  NASB Youth/ contemptible – These two verses in Isaiah could have been the inspiration for…

The Ethics of Fear

Come, you children, listen to me; I will teach you the fear of the Lord.  Psalm 34:11  NASB Fear – There are basically two kinds of ethical systems in the world.  They both have long histories.  The first is the one we are most familiar with in the modern world, although it is not the most ancient…

Biblical Conformity

In Your righteousness rescue me and save me; extend Your ear to me and help me.  Psalm 71:2  NASB Righteousness – Conformity is almost a dirty word in the modern world.  As we discovered yesterday, self-identity and self-concern were pregnant in the idea of the individual, born into a new sense of Man in the…

Abraham and Sarah

If there is a man who takes his sister, his father’s daughter or his mother’s daughter, so that he sees her nakedness and she sees his nakedness, it is a disgrace; and they shall be cut off in the sight of the sons of their people. He has uncovered his sister’s nakedness; he bears his guilt.  Leviticus…

It’s Later Than I Thought

(A politically-incorrect evaluation) I thought it wouldn’t happen until my grandchildren had to deal with it.  I thought I had time.  My children might notice real differences, but the truly horrible impact would be later. I was wrong. Since the first time I visited South Africa, I would tell my American acquaintances that if they…

But I Feel Guilty

For this is the will of God, your sanctification; that is, that you abstain from sexual immorality;  1 Thessalonians 4:3  NASB Sexual immorality – As you know, there are two kinds of impurity in the Bible.  The first is ritual impurity.  All kinds of ordinary human conditions can be the cause of ritual impurity, like seminal emissions…

Applying the Definition

For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin.  Hebrews 4:15  NASB Sin– Last week we looked at Wyschogrod’s work on the idea of sin.  What we discovered is that sin in nota moral or ethical category.  Sin exists as…

Ellul-cidate

And he left for Tarsus to look for Saul; and when he had found him, he brought him to Antioch. And for an entire year they met with the church and taught considerable numbers; and the disciples were first called Christians in Antioch. Acts 11:25-26 NASB Christians – This confirms the beginning of the “church,” according to Christian history. Of course, there…

What We Really Want

“For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” Genesis 3:5  NASB You will be like God– Translated in this way, the serpent’s voice strikes us as the epitome of arrogance, hubris and folly.  Of course, we can’t be like…