Malachi 3:16 mentions a “book of remembrance” written before the LORD. And what are remembered in this book? The verse continues about what the book is for: “…for those who fear the LORD and who meditate on His name.” In this day and age when many, if not most, people have forgotten about the fear of God, it is a mighty serious matter that we retain, recapture or begin to have, the proper fear of God. Otherwise God will also forget us and not keep us in His “book of remembrance.”
The Real Red Sea Crossing
Quite a bit of controversy has surrounded the issue about the exact location of the Red Sea crossing by the children of Israel. This momentous event in the history of Israel is recorded in Exodus 14. The long accepted belief has been that the children of Israel crossed from Succoth through the Egyptian side of the western gulf of the Red Sea, what has been known as the Gulf of Suez, through the sea and onto the eastern side of that gulf. [In recent years this gulf hit the news headlines when Somalian pirates hijacked ships plying the gulf out from or into the Mediterranean Sea through the Suez Canal.]
God’s Kingdom and Israel
Today, most people think, and have assumed, that the tiny nation in the Middle East called “Israel” is all there is that’s left of the ancient nation which God dealt with in the Old Testament. But, as even children who have studied the Bible in Sunday or Sabbath school know, the “Israel” of the Old Testament was a nation composed of the descendants of the twelve sons of Jacob (Genesis 35:23-26; 32:28). Jacob was later renamed “Israel” (Genesis 35:10).
The Divine Prerogatives
“How can I believe in a God who commands people ‘You shall not murder’ (Exodus 20:13) and yet this God goes killing off, left and right, people whom He dislikes or hates?” This is one reason a good number of people have become atheists. Among other reasons atheists cite for their unbelief in God are: why does God allow a race or class of people to impose cruel slavery upon another race or class; why is there so much suffering, so much violence, within humanity and within the animal kingdom?
“Happy New Year!”
In at least three regions of the world and at least at three different times in the year, we hear people greet each other “Happy New Year!” or whatever equivalent in their languages.
- Most common perhaps is the “new year” that begins on January 1 in the widespread Gregorian calendar (which was promulgated during the watch of the Roman Catholic Pope Gregory, in 590 – 604A.D.; hence the name). [For more on the Gregorian calendar click on this popular link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregorian_calendar.]
The Book of Life
Some people have wondered whether every human being ever born has his name written in God’s “Book of Life” — or whether his name is written there only when he is “saved” or is on his way to salvation.
What, exactly, does the Bible say about this important subject?
We would want to make sure we are not among those people who are “not found written in the Book of Life and [will be] cast into the lake of fire,” after everyone will have been judged (Revelation 20:11-15).
The Flaming Sword East of Eden
He placed cherubim at the east of the garden of Eden, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life. (Genesis 3:24, NKJV.)
After Adam and Eve had sinned and had been driven out of the Garden of Eden, God placed cherubim — special angelic, spiritual creatures (a description of them is found in Ezekiel 1:4-28; 10:1, 15) — and a flaming sword to bar man from re-entry into the garden. This was to prevent access by man to the “tree of life,” to take its fruit, eat it, and live forever (Genesis 3:22).
Why did God bar man from eating the fruit of that tree? After all, doesn’t God want man to have everlasting life — to live forever?
Who Wrote the Letter to the Hebrews?
Most evangelical Christians today maintain that the anonymous Letter to the Hebrews could not have been written by the apostle Paul. For example, the monumental Dictionary of Paul and His Letters (published 1993 by Inter-Varsity Press Academic, edited by Gerald F. Hawthorne, Ralph P. Martin and Daniel G. Reid) does not include the Letter to the Hebrews among those written by Paul. Some commentaries and books on the New Testament suggest that Apollos or Barnabas, instead, could have written this letter. Others also suggest Priscilla.
One Bible commentary has even judged that, because of the lack of a clear identity of the author of this letter, it would be presumptuous for anyone to suggest any possible author.
World Peace — At Last!
Hardly can we find a person today who does not want peace. Yes, there are always those who are for war. There have always been such people from the beginning of human history. But, as bloody wars and violence have alarmingly proliferated and escalated just in the last decade, many people feel they have had it, and their cries for “Peace, peace!” haven’t been louder, especially at this time of year! Yet, amidst all this clamor for the much pursued “peace on earth, goodwill towards men” — peace between and among nations — that global peace has remained elusive. Why?
Drunk With Strange Wine
One of the various charges God gave to the Old Testament priesthood of Israel (descendants of Aaron) was this: “Do not drink wine or intoxicating drink, you, nor your sons with you, when you go into the tabernacle of meeting [with the LORD] , lest you die. It shall be a statute throughout your generations” (Leviticus 10:9).
Why did God give this charge to the priests? He told them: so “…that you may distinguish between holy and unholy, and between unclean and clean, and that you may teach the children of Israel all the statutes which the LORD has spoken to them by the hand of Moses” (Verses 10-11).