everlasting life is also unbiblical. Jesus did not literally promise everlasting life to no one. Sorry! :*:
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Today's Scripture Reading
- Thread starter Psalm23
- Start date
everlasting life is also unbiblical. Jesus did not literally promise everlasting life to no one. Sorry! :*:
King David did so faithfully ?????
Moses failed; King David failed; Solomon failed... HEAR/LISTEN TO JESUS!
If you are under law, you have fallen from grace!
FYI, the word "Jew" is also unbiblical!
All Christians are ANTICHRISTS, period! :*:
The God who gave the Ten Commandments in the OT is the same as the NT Jesus. ??????
Jesus is God. You are a human because your outward/biological father is a human, and you are a god if your inward/spiritual Father is God. Jesus (the last Adam) was a human because his outward/biological father was a human (the first Adam), and he is also a god because his inward/spiritual Father is THE YHWH God.
The Father YHWH God is the Creator. The son Jesus is the creation! Jesus was born into this world some 2,000 years ago, and he had a birthday/beginning. The son of human, Jesus (being the last Adam, himself) never existed before:
John 1:14 (My rough cut)
And the Word BECAME flesh and tabernacled among us, and we SPECTATED the glory of His, glory as of an only engendered [Son] from beside a Father, full of grace and reality.
BECAME (verb ginomai) = to cause to happen/become. Causative! It was not out of Jesus' own freewill.
The ONLY son of God, Jesus (being the reincarnated first Adam, who was created in the YHWH God's image/likeness) existed before:
John 17:5 (My rough cut)
"And now, Father, glorify Me Thou with the glory of Thyself, which I had with Thee before the [human] of the World [existed] to be."
Err... your understanding is somewhat warped...
Genesis 3:8-9 (My rough cut)
8 And they heard the sound of YHWH Elohiym walking in the garden, in the wind, that day, and adam (the male human) and his woman (the female adam/human) hid themselves from the presence of YHWH Elohiym amongst the trees of the garden.
9 And YHWH Elohiym called unto adam, and said unto him, "Where [art] thou?"
wind (Hebrew ruwach; spirit) = always a feminine noun in the OT = wind; air (an invisible yet DYNAMIC force). The "spirit" is always a neuter noun in the NT (an invisible and abstract force/gift).
9 And YHWH Elohiym called unto adam - Notice that God did not call-out to the female adam/human?
*In the NT, it is always God Who calls and chose/elect. Many are called but few are chosen... It is neither the will/freewill nor the run/effort of humans. SO STOP YOUR BOASTING THAT YOU HAVE PERSONALLY FOUND GOD WITH YOUR PERSONAL EFFORT AND FREEWILL!
E.g. Jesus said:
John 4:23 (My rough cut)
But [otherwise] an hour is coming and now is [on its way], when the TRUE [outward] worshippers shall do homage to the Father in spirit and reality, for the Father seeketh such of these [worshippers] to do homage to Him.
the Father seeketh = God seeks. Not the other way round.
Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded. [James 4:8] ??????
You completely missed the point when you [mis]quoted scripture out of its proper context/sub-context...
The sub-context of James 4:6-10 is about 'The proud will be rejected and the lowly will be exalted' and it has nothing to do with prayer:
James 4:6-10 (My rough cut)
6 But He giveth great grace. Wherefore He saith, "The God rejects proud [ones], but giveth grace to lowly [ones]."
7 Subject yourselves then to the God, [but] resist the slanderous [devil], and he will flee from you.
8 Draw nigh to the God, and He will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your sinful hands; and purify your double-minded hearts.
9 Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep; let the laughter of yours be turned INTO mourning, and the joy [of yours] INTO heaviness.
10 Let yourselves be lowered in the sight of the Lord, and He shall uplift you.
And the Chiastic parallel of the above sub-context is about 'The lowly will be exalted and the rich will be humiliated/brough low' and it has nothing to do with prayer too:
James 1:9-10a (My rough cut)
9 But let the lowly brother boast in his exaltation;
10a But the rich [one] in the humiliation of his;
The emphasis of these parallels concerns 'The end of those who are financially rich':
James 1:10b-11 (My rough cut)
10b because as a flower of grass he, [the rich] shall pass away.
11 For the sun [rose] up completely with the burning heat and withereth the grass, and the flower of it fell, and the outward-beauty of the appearance of it is lost, so also shall the rich [one] fade away in the walks of his.
And its chiastic parallel:
James 5:1-6 (My rough cut)
1 Come now, the rich [ones]! Weep! Howl over the miseries of yours which are coming upon you.
2 The richness of yours are rotten, and the garments of yours have become moth-eaten.
3 The gold of yours and the silver have rusted, and the poison of them shall be TO you a TESTIMONY, and shall eat the flesh of yours as fire. Ye treasure-up in the last days!
4 Behold, the wage of the workmen who mowed the fields of yours, which hath been fraudulently kept back from, [by] you [all], crieth, and the cries of those who reaped have entered INTO the ears of Lord [YHWH] of Sabaoth.
5 Ye lived in luxury upon the earth, and were wanton; ye have fed the hearts of yours, as in a day of slaughter.
6 Ye have penalized, ye have killed the righteous [one]; he doth not reject you.
Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. [James 1:17] .... associated them as tangible objects or something that will bring tangible enjoyment to us ?????
You have twisted God's words again?
James 1:17 (My rough cut)
Every GOOD giving and every COMPLETE [divine] gift is from ABOVE, coming down from the Father of the lights, with Whom is no variation or shadow of revolution.
GOOD (adjective agathos) = inwardly good.
[divine] gift (neuter noun dorema) = divine gift which is from ABOVE = divine gift which is of no variation or shadow of revolution. THIS particular inwardly good and divine gift (singular) is NOT EARTHLY, thus NOT TANGIBLE!
And what is THIS particular gift from ABOVE in its proper context? Its chiastic parallel is:
James 3:17 (My rough cut)
But the wisdom from ABOVE is firstly pure indeed, thereafter peaceable; reasonable; persuasive; full of kindness and GOOD fruits; without partiality and without hypocrisy.
Answer: gift from ABOVE = wisdom from ABOVE = Heavenly wisdom, as in contrast with, say, the earthly wisdom of King Solomon. For behold! A greater than Solomon is here! :*: HalleluYH!
Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth. [Psalm 46:10] ??????
Not "Be still", but "Desist" (To cease from all your own effort. In other words, let go and let god.
Not "heathen", but "nations".
Sigh! :(
Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. [James 1:17] .... associated them as tangible objects or something that will bring tangible enjoyment to us ?????
You have twisted God's words again?
James 1:17 (My rough cut)
Every GOOD giving and every COMPLETE [divine] gift is from ABOVE, coming down from the Father of the lights, with Whom is no variation or shadow of revolution.
GOOD (adjective agathos) = inwardly good.
[divine] gift (neuter noun dorema) = divine gift which is from ABOVE = divine gift which is of no variation or shadow of revolution. THIS particular inwardly good and divine gift (singular) is NOT EARTHLY, thus NOT TANGIBLE!
And what is THIS particular gift from ABOVE in its proper context? Its chiastic parallel is:
James 3:17 (My rough cut)
But the wisdom from ABOVE is firstly pure indeed, thereafter peaceable; reasonable; persuasive; full of kindness and GOOD fruits; without partiality and without hypocrisy.
Answer: gift from ABOVE = wisdom from ABOVE = Heavenly wisdom, as in contrast with, say, the earthly wisdom of King Solomon. For behold! A greater than Solomon is here! :*: HalleluYH!
the earthly wisdom of King Solomon was given/granted to him by God (the Master of sarcasm).
:*:
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The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. [Psalm 23:1]
want should read "lack".
Jesus willingly ??????
Then, in the garden of Gethsemane, Jesus almost "chickened out" from God's original purpose/will for him to be the Passover lamb, but his "repeated" prayer was not answered:
Matthew 26 & c. (KJV)
...
39 And he went a little further, and fell on his face, and prayed, saying, "O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt."
40 And he cometh unto the disciples, and findeth them asleep, and saith unto Peter, "What, could ye not watch with me one hour?
41 Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak."
42 He went away again the second time, and prayed, saying, "O my Father, if this cup may not pass away from me, except I drink it, thy will be done."
43 And he came and found them asleep again: for their eyes were heavy.
44 And he left them, and went away again, and prayed the third time, saying the same words.
45 Then cometh he to his disciples, and saith unto them, "Sleep on now, and take your rest: behold, the hour is at hand, and the Son of man is betrayed into the hands of sinners.
46 Rise, let us be going: behold, he is at hand that doth betray me."
...
*Be it the Father YHWH God's will!
He shed every drop of His Blood from head to toe ??????
Is this biblical?
heed should read "hear [to recognize]"
Church (circe/circle as in circle dancing to worship Satan/demons) is unbiblical.
the body of Christ is spiritual. It is neither the mother of harlots/prostitutes or her daughters/harlots/prostitutes.
COME OUT OF HER, MY PEOPLE! (Revelation 18:4)
forever should read "length of days".
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Jesus is the Saviour of the world (not just believers).
1Corinthians 15:22 (KJV)
For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.
And all means all.
the Holy Spirit ??????
Here, are you referring this so-called "the Holy Spirit" to the same "the Holy Spirit" that impregnated Mary (according to popular Christian belief)?
Comforter ??????
Is this Comforter/Counselor the same above-mentioned "the Holy Spirit" that impregnated Mary? Is this Comforter/Counselor the rightful Father of Jesus?
(1) The Spirit should read "the spirit" (an individual believer's spirit).
(2) The Spirit should read "the spirit" (an individual believer's spirit).
(4) The Spirit... The Spirit... The Spirit are unbiblical.
(5) the Holy Spirit should read "the holy spirit of the God".
A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak [Ecclesiastes 3:7] ??????
And a time to kill.... And a time to hate.... And a time for war.... !?!?!
Sigh! :*:
Today’s Scripture Reading [July 31, 2011]
Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it. [Matthew 7:13-14. KJV]
As motorists, we all know that many fatal motor accidents occurred at the highways. The reasons are very obvious. Unlike side roads, highways are easily accessible, and often motorists can drive for very long period without encountering sharp bends, humps or speed regulating stripes to slow them down. With few obstacles unlike those that we can find on city roads or on side roads, and especially during non-peak hours when highways are clear of heavy traffic, driving at the highway seems effortless so much so that it is quite a common occurrence for people to fall asleep and this split second of unconsciousness could prove deadly. Even though we all try to keep awake when we are on the wheel, the lack of obstacles gives drivers the temptation to speed and exceed the speed limit. To take the most advantage when driving at the highway, drivers often turn on to auto-cruise mode that now comes with most cars. We all may have many years of driving experience, but once we got into the highways, we can readily be tempted and to become reckless drivers that not only endanger our own lives but others too. However, our driving on side roads or around urban and city areas is a completely different experience. With all the bends, humps and speed regulating strips, driving on the side roads or around city areas requires the drivers to pay greater attention as compared to driving on the highways. Furthermore, when we are driving at the side roads or around city areas, we do not really have the luxury of huge road signs to guide us to the destinations, and hence sometime we found ourselves struggling to drive to our desired destinations. Some of these side road and city area signs are even displayed out of the clear sight of drivers’ view, unlike those at the highways which are displayed with large lettering for the drivers. Because we are living in a small country, we may not really notice the big difference as much as those people who are living in big countries, but still we all know for sure that when an accident occurs at the highway, it is going to be definitely much more serious than those accidents occur at the side roads.
There is much we can learn from the experience of driving on the highway and driving on the side road or around city areas which we can relate to our living for God. The often crowded highways and the often sparing side roads is an analogy of a truth as mentioned in the Scriptures. It is a declaration that, comparatively speaking, few who go to heaven. This does not mean that people who are traveling at the highway will end up in hell but rather this simply means that we all need to be awakened to a sense of our danger as we walk on this earth. We must not walk our iives on earth like as if we are driving on the highways on auto-cruise paying little attention and assume that the road is all but safe. Rather we must walk on this earth like we are driving our car on the side road because driving on the side roads demands attention and that we need to struggle quite a bit to get to our destination. As noted by one great preacher, John MacArthur “Entering the narrow gate is nonetheless difficult because its cost in terms of human pride, because of the sinner’s nature love for sin, and because of the world’s and Satan’s opposition to the truth”. Given this godly comment, we must quickly come to our urgent sense that our salvation must be the most important matter in our lives, and how we move or drive forward our lives will determine where we are heading to. Many of us want to go to heaven, and who doesn’t want, but we want to go to heaven on our own terms. We want “the best of the both worlds” of having a good time here and having a better time in heaven. And some think they can buy their way to heaven. Sorry! That’s not the way God has intended for us! Many are not saved because they want to enter on their own terms instead of God’s terms, or they want to enter the Kingdom of God through the highway of ease and comfort, or they want to enter on the basis of good works that pleases man rather than God, or they think they will enter because God is love and will not cast out anyone. Again sorry, Jesus tells us the many will come to Him one day and acknowledge Him “Lord, Lord, and proclaim to Him: I have done many wonderful things” but He is going to tell them: I never knew you; depart from me, you evildoers (Matthew 7:21-23).”
Combined the verses in Matthew 7:13-14 and Matthew 7:21-23, we can discover that to enter upon this path of narrow and strait gate is our bounden duty and we can discharge this bounden duty only by ourselves because no one can do it for us, not your servants; not your pastor; not your priest; and not those ‘wonderful things’ you have done! God never intended that men should follow the desire of their own hearts. Difficult as the duty is, it has been performed by many people of God in all ages beginning of course with the early disciples and followers of Christ. We therefore should exert and walk towards this narrow and strait gates that leads to life eternal without delay. We must not stand aloof, doubting and hesitating whether we shall enter upon this way or not; nor must we put off the time of entering upon it to some more convenient season. The command of God is clear (but certainly not easy): “Enter ye in at the strait gate.”
The broad way which is the highway of our lives will infallibly lead us to everlasting destruction. When I just started to work for an U.S. MNC many years ago and during a conversation with one of my senior colleagues who was a U.S. expatriates, the topic was about which cities were the most exciting in the world. Without hesitation, the U.S. expatriate colleague of mine proclaimed, “The four most exciting cities in the world are London, New York, Paris and Tokyo.” Singapore, our beloved county then was boring and dull. There was no casino; x-rated movie was completely banned; sexy-pole dancing was never heard of; the Cosmopolitan Magazine, motor-racing, boxing were banned. By all definition, an exciting city is a place where one can legally find all what one to find from x-rated movies to casinos to Playboy magazines to prostitutions. Many cities in most of the third countries like India, China were then like Singapore – boring and dull. But since the new economic evolution especially in the last 15 years and due to the new found wealth of many people around the world, it has given rise to many cities with comparable (if not greater) notoriety than London, New York, Paris and Tokyo. We can see that opening casinos is now being aggressively campaigned by law makers around this part of the world including communist countries that were once considered casino and gambling as one of the great social evils that needed to be completely eradicated. But take heed. Every way of sin will destroy the soul. And there is no such thing as open or secret sin; refined or unrefined sin. Sin will surely bring upon us the wrath of God. Sin will always be sin. The idolatrous compliance of nations is the seed planted for God’s wrath and when it becomes fully grown, the inhabitants of the nations will not be exempted from punishment. We see this happened to the ancient cities of Sodom and Gomorrah and we are going to see this in many cities in modern time. Many of us are all overwhelmed by the highway of our lives no less exciting than those we see in London, New York, Paris or Tokyo. In fact, anyone here can now enjoy the highway lives right at our door step. Instead of taking a flight to these cities to taste these highway lives of debauchery, our beloved country now is just another avenue with some of these avenues operates 24/7 all year round like the famous (or infamous) integrated casino-resort.
God cannot but delight in holiness; and He will testify His approbation of it in the last day. The narrow and strait path, however, will surely lead us to victory and to glory. Every step that we take should be marked and approbated by God because He cannot but delight in holiness and in due cause, we will arrive at our desired destination that God has intended for us. We are all created by God for His glory, but when we refuse to come to Him "through the narrow gate" for salvation, we lose our opportunity for eternal redemption and ultimately losing the opportunity of becoming what God intended for us to be in Christ. So, for those who are not yet started the journey to His narrow and strait gate – perhaps you and perhaps me, let’s us not delay anymore because the door of the gate is not going to be open forever. We must not miss out this opportunity because the window (or rather the door) of opportunity is indeed very narrow and as much as we want to procrastinate, we must be warned and to seriously take note of the advice by Prophet Isaiah: Seek Him while He may be found (Isaiah 55:6).
Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it. [Matthew 7:13-14. KJV]
As motorists, we all know that many fatal motor accidents occurred at the highways. The reasons are very obvious. Unlike side roads, highways are easily accessible, and often motorists can drive for very long period without encountering sharp bends, humps or speed regulating stripes to slow them down. With few obstacles unlike those that we can find on city roads or on side roads, and especially during non-peak hours when highways are clear of heavy traffic, driving at the highway seems effortless so much so that it is quite a common occurrence for people to fall asleep and this split second of unconsciousness could prove deadly. Even though we all try to keep awake when we are on the wheel, the lack of obstacles gives drivers the temptation to speed and exceed the speed limit. To take the most advantage when driving at the highway, drivers often turn on to auto-cruise mode that now comes with most cars. We all may have many years of driving experience, but once we got into the highways, we can readily be tempted and to become reckless drivers that not only endanger our own lives but others too. However, our driving on side roads or around urban and city areas is a completely different experience. With all the bends, humps and speed regulating strips, driving on the side roads or around city areas requires the drivers to pay greater attention as compared to driving on the highways. Furthermore, when we are driving at the side roads or around city areas, we do not really have the luxury of huge road signs to guide us to the destinations, and hence sometime we found ourselves struggling to drive to our desired destinations. Some of these side road and city area signs are even displayed out of the clear sight of drivers’ view, unlike those at the highways which are displayed with large lettering for the drivers. Because we are living in a small country, we may not really notice the big difference as much as those people who are living in big countries, but still we all know for sure that when an accident occurs at the highway, it is going to be definitely much more serious than those accidents occur at the side roads.
There is much we can learn from the experience of driving on the highway and driving on the side road or around city areas which we can relate to our living for God. The often crowded highways and the often sparing side roads is an analogy of a truth as mentioned in the Scriptures. It is a declaration that, comparatively speaking, few who go to heaven. This does not mean that people who are traveling at the highway will end up in hell but rather this simply means that we all need to be awakened to a sense of our danger as we walk on this earth. We must not walk our iives on earth like as if we are driving on the highways on auto-cruise paying little attention and assume that the road is all but safe. Rather we must walk on this earth like we are driving our car on the side road because driving on the side roads demands attention and that we need to struggle quite a bit to get to our destination. As noted by one great preacher, John MacArthur “Entering the narrow gate is nonetheless difficult because its cost in terms of human pride, because of the sinner’s nature love for sin, and because of the world’s and Satan’s opposition to the truth”. Given this godly comment, we must quickly come to our urgent sense that our salvation must be the most important matter in our lives, and how we move or drive forward our lives will determine where we are heading to. Many of us want to go to heaven, and who doesn’t want, but we want to go to heaven on our own terms. We want “the best of the both worlds” of having a good time here and having a better time in heaven. And some think they can buy their way to heaven. Sorry! That’s not the way God has intended for us! Many are not saved because they want to enter on their own terms instead of God’s terms, or they want to enter the Kingdom of God through the highway of ease and comfort, or they want to enter on the basis of good works that pleases man rather than God, or they think they will enter because God is love and will not cast out anyone. Again sorry, Jesus tells us the many will come to Him one day and acknowledge Him “Lord, Lord, and proclaim to Him: I have done many wonderful things” but He is going to tell them: I never knew you; depart from me, you evildoers (Matthew 7:21-23).”
Combined the verses in Matthew 7:13-14 and Matthew 7:21-23, we can discover that to enter upon this path of narrow and strait gate is our bounden duty and we can discharge this bounden duty only by ourselves because no one can do it for us, not your servants; not your pastor; not your priest; and not those ‘wonderful things’ you have done! God never intended that men should follow the desire of their own hearts. Difficult as the duty is, it has been performed by many people of God in all ages beginning of course with the early disciples and followers of Christ. We therefore should exert and walk towards this narrow and strait gates that leads to life eternal without delay. We must not stand aloof, doubting and hesitating whether we shall enter upon this way or not; nor must we put off the time of entering upon it to some more convenient season. The command of God is clear (but certainly not easy): “Enter ye in at the strait gate.”
The broad way which is the highway of our lives will infallibly lead us to everlasting destruction. When I just started to work for an U.S. MNC many years ago and during a conversation with one of my senior colleagues who was a U.S. expatriates, the topic was about which cities were the most exciting in the world. Without hesitation, the U.S. expatriate colleague of mine proclaimed, “The four most exciting cities in the world are London, New York, Paris and Tokyo.” Singapore, our beloved county then was boring and dull. There was no casino; x-rated movie was completely banned; sexy-pole dancing was never heard of; the Cosmopolitan Magazine, motor-racing, boxing were banned. By all definition, an exciting city is a place where one can legally find all what one to find from x-rated movies to casinos to Playboy magazines to prostitutions. Many cities in most of the third countries like India, China were then like Singapore – boring and dull. But since the new economic evolution especially in the last 15 years and due to the new found wealth of many people around the world, it has given rise to many cities with comparable (if not greater) notoriety than London, New York, Paris and Tokyo. We can see that opening casinos is now being aggressively campaigned by law makers around this part of the world including communist countries that were once considered casino and gambling as one of the great social evils that needed to be completely eradicated. But take heed. Every way of sin will destroy the soul. And there is no such thing as open or secret sin; refined or unrefined sin. Sin will surely bring upon us the wrath of God. Sin will always be sin. The idolatrous compliance of nations is the seed planted for God’s wrath and when it becomes fully grown, the inhabitants of the nations will not be exempted from punishment. We see this happened to the ancient cities of Sodom and Gomorrah and we are going to see this in many cities in modern time. Many of us are all overwhelmed by the highway of our lives no less exciting than those we see in London, New York, Paris or Tokyo. In fact, anyone here can now enjoy the highway lives right at our door step. Instead of taking a flight to these cities to taste these highway lives of debauchery, our beloved country now is just another avenue with some of these avenues operates 24/7 all year round like the famous (or infamous) integrated casino-resort.
God cannot but delight in holiness; and He will testify His approbation of it in the last day. The narrow and strait path, however, will surely lead us to victory and to glory. Every step that we take should be marked and approbated by God because He cannot but delight in holiness and in due cause, we will arrive at our desired destination that God has intended for us. We are all created by God for His glory, but when we refuse to come to Him "through the narrow gate" for salvation, we lose our opportunity for eternal redemption and ultimately losing the opportunity of becoming what God intended for us to be in Christ. So, for those who are not yet started the journey to His narrow and strait gate – perhaps you and perhaps me, let’s us not delay anymore because the door of the gate is not going to be open forever. We must not miss out this opportunity because the window (or rather the door) of opportunity is indeed very narrow and as much as we want to procrastinate, we must be warned and to seriously take note of the advice by Prophet Isaiah: Seek Him while He may be found (Isaiah 55:6).
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Today’s Scripture Reading [August 8, 2011]
And he said unto them in his doctrine, Beware of the scribes, which love to go in long clothing, and love salutations in the marketplaces, And the chief seats in the synagogues, and the uppermost rooms at feasts: Which devour widows' houses, and for a pretence make long prayers: these shall receive greater damnation. [Mark 12:38-40. KJV]
The last week of the journey of our Lord Jesus on earth was marked by several events of biblical significance. In my message today, I am not referring to the torture of Jesus by the Roman soldiers which lead to the final crucifixion of Jesus which, I believe, many us are very familiar with. Rather, I would like to share of the concerns that Jesus had in spite Him facing His final fate when Jesus still shown deep concern for the widows. In ancient times, widows and orphans were least protected. Even today, we see in many countries widows and orphans suffer not just of their hardship to struggle to support themselves, but were fighting against some rich and powerful people who are trying to take advantage of their situation.
On the last week of Jesus life while He was at the temple observing the ‘businesses’ that were taking place there, Jesus became very concern for what was going on there, especially the conduct of the scribes. Having witnessed their conduct, He then told the temple crowd to be aware of the scribes. During Jesus day, two groups of religious people dominated the Jewish religious traditions. They were the Pharisees and the scribes. A Pharisee being a member of Jewish sect with priestly status and a scribe being a learned man who made a systematic study of the law and its exposition were very influential, and people were very afraid of them. They were the people who, for their very selfish reasons, wanted to keep the Jewish traditions which were handed down by their fathers or elders. These traditions constituted the oral law, and were regarded in the Jewish community as being equal in authority with the laws of Moses. Their words could become their swords, so to speak and no one dare to offend them. In fact, the Pharisees intended to make these traditions of greater authority than the laws of Moses. Because of their unique priestly or even near-princely status and their strong political connections with the emperor, the governors and other senior political office-holders, they could take advantage of people at will and to obtain their possession and property. The widows were the most vulnerable to their terror as we can clearly see from the rebuke by Jesus on these religious leaders. The word ‘devour’ that used by Jesus is a very strong word. As we search into its meaning in plain English, it means: to eat greedily or to destroy completely. Jesus was indeed extremely forceful when He spoke of the scribes and the Jewish religious leaders. It must be quite a common occurrence that the scribes and the Jewish religious leaders were forcibly appropriating the property of widows and stripping them of their possessions so much so that it deserved, rightly, this very condemning rebuke that these (i.e. the scribes) shall receive greater damnation for their greed to devour widows’ possessions from our Lord Jesus (Mark 12:40). As we search into the scriptures both in the Old and the New Testaments, we can discover that many verses have been written about the need to take care or to protect the widows and orphans. (Note: For your reference, you may want to refer to the following verses: Exodus 22:22; Deuteronomy 10:18;14:28-29;Deuteronomy 24:17;24:19-21;27:19;Job 29:12; 31:16; Psalm 68:5; 72:4; 82:3-4;146:9; Proverbs 15:25; Isaiah 1:17; Jeremiah 7:6; 22:3; Zechariah 7:10; Malachi 3:5; Mark 12:40; Luke 20:46-47;1 Timothy 5:3; James 1:27. In addition, there are as many verses written concerning the need to provide for the poor and the helpless who may not be widows or orphans.)
In Mark 12:41, we are connected to the story of the rich (and most likely the powerful) who contributed large offering into the temple’s collection but Jesus was not impressed. He knew that much of the giving by the rich was not from their heart but only for show. This showmanship is not different from what we can see here of the scribes walked around with nice "long robes" on. Just like so many of the gospel peddlers today they loved to be greeted "in the marketplaces" being called "reverend" and "father" even "holy father". These gospel peddlers love to sit up front in the pulpit as they say, and they ravish getting their "props" at these special events that turned churches into mere entertainment halls.
In a sharp contrasting observation, Jesus noted of a poor widow putting just two mites into the temple collection. Jesus knew that was all this poor widow had. Bible scholars who are familiar with the monetary and currency system of that period have pointed out that the mite as mentioned in Mark 12:42 was the smallest monetary denomination, and in purchasing power term, two mites could only just worth a loaf of bread. Even though that was what this poor widow had in her possession, she gave them all to the temple collection and yet the scribes had not shown any concern of how this poor widow was going to eat for that day. It is very important lesson for us to learn and, hopefully and prayerfully, modern church leaders must ponder this very carefully before started to ask congregation for money, for tithes, for offering. If the Scriptures say the scribes "devour widows’ houses", and Jesus later connected these events and told the disciples of the poor widow’s giving of the two mites, then do we not think that asking money without careful due consideration of other people’s financial needs is unscriptural? If churches simply do it without due concern for the welfare of the church members, then something is very sad and ungodly about these gospel peddlers who get your tithes and offerings and claim that they needed (or their church needed) to preach, to teach, to build bigger building, to do missionary work, etc. However, they rarely if ever say it’s for the poor in the congregation. Many of the churches around the world seem to be telling the congregation to give, give and give, and some churches have even gone to the extent of misquoting Mark 12:41-43 and Luke 21:1-4 and use these to ‘soft-sell’ in their efforts to collect money from people. I have personally heard of a church pastor who told his congregation that one of his close relatives were so blessed with several apartments because she had honored God with her giving in spite of her poverty. He ‘testified’ that though this woman relative of his was very poor and at times she got to struggle for her next meal or to pay for her house rental, she was faithful in her giving and the result was that God in turn blessed her with more wealth, and not only that relative of his did not need to struggle for her next meal, she now even had more than one apartments where she could rent out. What followed this was very obvious - collection bags were passed around to the congregations to collect money! We don’t know whether the story of the ‘blessed’ relative of this pastor is true or not but we do know is that the Bible has had no such stories recorded! Today, the world knows more about the nameless widow and her story than who those scribes were, and the nominal religion of what we see in the ancient Jewish community as recorded in those verses are quite similar to what we observe in our modern religious community. It is now quite common for some church 'special' services to go by some fanciful names and use them as their primarily money-collecting tools.
False prophets, false teachers are real and they are right in church (2 Peter 2:1). While some of us are trying to struggle to understand the latest news of a religious sect leader with 79 wives, we must personally pay much attention to the warnings by Jesus and His apostles concerning false prophets and false teachers. The Lord observes our motives. When we receive greater knowledge and opportunities for service there comes with it greater responsibility but this must not become a temptation for us to abuse the position and to behave like those scribes or the Pharisees. Our day is no different from what we saw in Jesus’ day. Jesus warned against the craving to be somebody. The religious leaders wanted to be prominent, honored and wealthy. They lived for appearance, performance and status in life. Jesus rebuked their sham. He condemned religion for profit and gain. He was opposed to us to do things seemingly for God but in reality is to get some personal benefits out of it. Are we willing to abandon ourselves to Him? We, as children of God, belong to God! If we are owned by Christ, that means our body, our mind, our time, our will, our talent and our material assets all belong to Christ. We own nothing. God owns it all. In spite of all these, we still have two choices: To be at His service or to be at the service of man. If we chose to be His service, we must stop all our covetousness altogether and be prepared to live the best portion of our lives for God as a “nameless, unremembered acts of kindness and of love” as penned by William Wordsworth,a renowned 17th century poet.
And he said unto them in his doctrine, Beware of the scribes, which love to go in long clothing, and love salutations in the marketplaces, And the chief seats in the synagogues, and the uppermost rooms at feasts: Which devour widows' houses, and for a pretence make long prayers: these shall receive greater damnation. [Mark 12:38-40. KJV]
The last week of the journey of our Lord Jesus on earth was marked by several events of biblical significance. In my message today, I am not referring to the torture of Jesus by the Roman soldiers which lead to the final crucifixion of Jesus which, I believe, many us are very familiar with. Rather, I would like to share of the concerns that Jesus had in spite Him facing His final fate when Jesus still shown deep concern for the widows. In ancient times, widows and orphans were least protected. Even today, we see in many countries widows and orphans suffer not just of their hardship to struggle to support themselves, but were fighting against some rich and powerful people who are trying to take advantage of their situation.
On the last week of Jesus life while He was at the temple observing the ‘businesses’ that were taking place there, Jesus became very concern for what was going on there, especially the conduct of the scribes. Having witnessed their conduct, He then told the temple crowd to be aware of the scribes. During Jesus day, two groups of religious people dominated the Jewish religious traditions. They were the Pharisees and the scribes. A Pharisee being a member of Jewish sect with priestly status and a scribe being a learned man who made a systematic study of the law and its exposition were very influential, and people were very afraid of them. They were the people who, for their very selfish reasons, wanted to keep the Jewish traditions which were handed down by their fathers or elders. These traditions constituted the oral law, and were regarded in the Jewish community as being equal in authority with the laws of Moses. Their words could become their swords, so to speak and no one dare to offend them. In fact, the Pharisees intended to make these traditions of greater authority than the laws of Moses. Because of their unique priestly or even near-princely status and their strong political connections with the emperor, the governors and other senior political office-holders, they could take advantage of people at will and to obtain their possession and property. The widows were the most vulnerable to their terror as we can clearly see from the rebuke by Jesus on these religious leaders. The word ‘devour’ that used by Jesus is a very strong word. As we search into its meaning in plain English, it means: to eat greedily or to destroy completely. Jesus was indeed extremely forceful when He spoke of the scribes and the Jewish religious leaders. It must be quite a common occurrence that the scribes and the Jewish religious leaders were forcibly appropriating the property of widows and stripping them of their possessions so much so that it deserved, rightly, this very condemning rebuke that these (i.e. the scribes) shall receive greater damnation for their greed to devour widows’ possessions from our Lord Jesus (Mark 12:40). As we search into the scriptures both in the Old and the New Testaments, we can discover that many verses have been written about the need to take care or to protect the widows and orphans. (Note: For your reference, you may want to refer to the following verses: Exodus 22:22; Deuteronomy 10:18;14:28-29;Deuteronomy 24:17;24:19-21;27:19;Job 29:12; 31:16; Psalm 68:5; 72:4; 82:3-4;146:9; Proverbs 15:25; Isaiah 1:17; Jeremiah 7:6; 22:3; Zechariah 7:10; Malachi 3:5; Mark 12:40; Luke 20:46-47;1 Timothy 5:3; James 1:27. In addition, there are as many verses written concerning the need to provide for the poor and the helpless who may not be widows or orphans.)
In Mark 12:41, we are connected to the story of the rich (and most likely the powerful) who contributed large offering into the temple’s collection but Jesus was not impressed. He knew that much of the giving by the rich was not from their heart but only for show. This showmanship is not different from what we can see here of the scribes walked around with nice "long robes" on. Just like so many of the gospel peddlers today they loved to be greeted "in the marketplaces" being called "reverend" and "father" even "holy father". These gospel peddlers love to sit up front in the pulpit as they say, and they ravish getting their "props" at these special events that turned churches into mere entertainment halls.
In a sharp contrasting observation, Jesus noted of a poor widow putting just two mites into the temple collection. Jesus knew that was all this poor widow had. Bible scholars who are familiar with the monetary and currency system of that period have pointed out that the mite as mentioned in Mark 12:42 was the smallest monetary denomination, and in purchasing power term, two mites could only just worth a loaf of bread. Even though that was what this poor widow had in her possession, she gave them all to the temple collection and yet the scribes had not shown any concern of how this poor widow was going to eat for that day. It is very important lesson for us to learn and, hopefully and prayerfully, modern church leaders must ponder this very carefully before started to ask congregation for money, for tithes, for offering. If the Scriptures say the scribes "devour widows’ houses", and Jesus later connected these events and told the disciples of the poor widow’s giving of the two mites, then do we not think that asking money without careful due consideration of other people’s financial needs is unscriptural? If churches simply do it without due concern for the welfare of the church members, then something is very sad and ungodly about these gospel peddlers who get your tithes and offerings and claim that they needed (or their church needed) to preach, to teach, to build bigger building, to do missionary work, etc. However, they rarely if ever say it’s for the poor in the congregation. Many of the churches around the world seem to be telling the congregation to give, give and give, and some churches have even gone to the extent of misquoting Mark 12:41-43 and Luke 21:1-4 and use these to ‘soft-sell’ in their efforts to collect money from people. I have personally heard of a church pastor who told his congregation that one of his close relatives were so blessed with several apartments because she had honored God with her giving in spite of her poverty. He ‘testified’ that though this woman relative of his was very poor and at times she got to struggle for her next meal or to pay for her house rental, she was faithful in her giving and the result was that God in turn blessed her with more wealth, and not only that relative of his did not need to struggle for her next meal, she now even had more than one apartments where she could rent out. What followed this was very obvious - collection bags were passed around to the congregations to collect money! We don’t know whether the story of the ‘blessed’ relative of this pastor is true or not but we do know is that the Bible has had no such stories recorded! Today, the world knows more about the nameless widow and her story than who those scribes were, and the nominal religion of what we see in the ancient Jewish community as recorded in those verses are quite similar to what we observe in our modern religious community. It is now quite common for some church 'special' services to go by some fanciful names and use them as their primarily money-collecting tools.
False prophets, false teachers are real and they are right in church (2 Peter 2:1). While some of us are trying to struggle to understand the latest news of a religious sect leader with 79 wives, we must personally pay much attention to the warnings by Jesus and His apostles concerning false prophets and false teachers. The Lord observes our motives. When we receive greater knowledge and opportunities for service there comes with it greater responsibility but this must not become a temptation for us to abuse the position and to behave like those scribes or the Pharisees. Our day is no different from what we saw in Jesus’ day. Jesus warned against the craving to be somebody. The religious leaders wanted to be prominent, honored and wealthy. They lived for appearance, performance and status in life. Jesus rebuked their sham. He condemned religion for profit and gain. He was opposed to us to do things seemingly for God but in reality is to get some personal benefits out of it. Are we willing to abandon ourselves to Him? We, as children of God, belong to God! If we are owned by Christ, that means our body, our mind, our time, our will, our talent and our material assets all belong to Christ. We own nothing. God owns it all. In spite of all these, we still have two choices: To be at His service or to be at the service of man. If we chose to be His service, we must stop all our covetousness altogether and be prepared to live the best portion of our lives for God as a “nameless, unremembered acts of kindness and of love” as penned by William Wordsworth,a renowned 17th century poet.
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Today’s Scripture Reading [August 14, 2011]
And the LORD said, Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grievous; I will go down now, and see whether they have done altogether according to the cry of it, which is come unto me; and if not, I will know. [Genesis 18:20-21, KJV]
In an account in Genesis 18:16 -19:29, we are told of the story of the wrath of God that we finally saw the destruction of evil cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. The reason for God wanting to destroy the cities was because of the evil and sinful ways of the people. Those people must be living their ways similar to what we can see, read or hear about today in many cities around the world. Because of the ease of communication and the influence of computer, mobile phones, internet and other modern electronic devices, sins that used to be committed mainly by city dwellers have found their way to the rural areas. These new inventions have removed the border of what we used to call city versus rural sin. Satan has cleverly camouflage sinful lifestyles with fanciful names and people are being swayed to accept them without question. In fact, those who refuse to accept some of these sinful lifestyles have found themselves labeled as anti-social or as religious nuts. Admittedly, in some respect their accusations are quite justifiable, and as children of God, we should not be apologetic about it. After all, we are called to be peculiar people, to be people belonging to God (1 Peter 2:9), to be kept out of the evil because though we are in the world but we are not of the world (John 17:15-16).
In Genesis 18:16-19:29, we read of Abraham, a special friend of God who has promised him to be the father of a great nation started to bargain with God to spare the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah if there were righteous people in them. First Abraham asked would the Lord spare the cities if he could find fifty righteous people lived there. The Lord said yes, and he started to search for those fifty righteous people but he failed to find them. Boldly and confidently, Abraham kept bargaining down, until God agreed not to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah if even he could just find ten righteous people lived there but still Abraham could not find ten righteous people. As Abraham could not keep up to God’s demand even though God had already compromised in His demand and was prepared to spare the cities from destrucion if only there were ten righteous people there, God kept to His word and destroy the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah by raining burning sulfur and brimestone, destroying the buildings, the vegetation in the plain, and all the people except three, Lot, Abraham’s nephew and Lot’s two daughters.
There are several key lessons we can learn about God’s dealing with the sinners and the righteous. First, God is not so interested in the geography or the physical aspect of land and places. He places great emphasis on the people living there, the lifestyles, the things they do, and more importantly, how important God is to them. Second, God is merciful and He is willing to spare the cities for the sake of a few righteous people. Tragically, as we can read in the story of Sodom and Gomorrah, none could be found there. Thirdly, as Creator of all things, God has the divine right to destroy evil and to protect the righteous as He sees fit. As we can see in the story of Sodom and Gomorrah, He did not want the Jews, His chosen race, to be influenced by the evil, it thus follows that the destruction of evil could be a lesson for Christians to learn that we must not be influenced by the evil. Fourthly, even though the future sons-in-law of Lot took knowledge of the impending destruction, they refused to believe and thought Lot was joking. Today, millions of people think God and sin are things to joke about. Many accept that there are such things as sinful acts but not many believe that God does exit. Making jokes about sins, practicing them and refusing to accept that there is One Creator, One Lord, One God is now the order of the day. A question of divine importance that we must ponder at: Evil is all around us in today's society, from lying and stealing to pornography (and now in 3D!), drugs, illicit sex, and violence. God calls us to be holy people set apart, not influenced by our wicked culture. Sin always has consequences. We must not joke about it and we must take sin and God's wrath seriously!
What was the population in Sodom and Gomorrah during Lot’s time? Bible scholars who have done substantial research have estimated there were perhaps 200,000 to 300,000 inhabitants there. Yet, Abraham could not find just ten righteous men from these 200,000 to 300,000 inhabitants. This is another important scriptural clue to us regarding the standard of God’s righteousness. Righteousness of God is absolute, and it must be righteous in His sight and not in man’s sight because we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousness are as filthy rags (Isaiah 64:6).
“A Few Good Men.” This was the title of a mini-poster I saw in the August 8 publication of the Today newspaper. In that poster was a brief message that said: “We salute the contributions of three Singapore’s most eminent politicians and leaders. All three men played an instrumental role in bringing Singapore from third world to first. They are key writers of the Singapore Story.” These three good men whose photographs appeared in the newspaper are our present president and two ex-prime ministers.
Many of us, especially those in the 50s onwards can fully agree that the economic progress and advancement that Singapore had over the last 45 years or so was achieved with much efforts that duly largely to our country’s leadership. Today, our economic prosperity is of world class standard and only very few countries can boast to have achieved the same kind of standard as ours. From economic perspective, yes, there were indeed “good men” who could bring material prosperity to this little nation totally void of natural resources. But what sadden me was why only just three? Are we like in Lot’s day? Given that we have a population of over four million people today, and millions had lived and died here, are we not able to find 50 or even 100 good men? Perhaps, this mini-poster may just a gimmick to attract people to read the articles which would be written to pay tribute to these ‘Three Good Men’ but I truly believe this really reflects what society is today (as it was in Lot’s day) – good men, even by worldly standard, are hard to come by, let alone by God's standard! We now could really appreciate and understand why Abraham found it was impossible to find ten righteous men of God!
Those three words “Few Good Men” has also reminded me of a U.S. Marine recruitment poster. The wordings in the poster were: “If anybody could get in the Marines, it wouldn’t be the Marines. WE’RE LOOKING FOR A FEW GOOD MEN”. In essence, to be the U.S. Marines, you have to learn self discipline, submission to authority, commitment, endurance, loyalty, integrity.
As we read from the two posters – the one in Today’s paper and the one that belongs to the U.S. Marine recruitment poster, it is very obvious that that there is no single definition of what constitutes a ‘good man’, wordly-speaking. For us who are living in this resource-deprived nation, we see that if you are able to bring good health, big wealth and stable government, you are a good man even though you may have unjustifiable put people in jail for decades. For the U.S. Marines, if you are prepared to be submissive to authority, courageous and be willing to die for your country, you are a good man even if you kill and slaughter the helpless and the innocent because you have dutifully obeyed the commands from your general even you know they are not right.
Bible is certainly not silent on this topic of what constitute good (or rather godly) men. In fact, from cover to cover, we are told to be good and godly men (and also good and godly women) all for the glory of God and God alone. More importantly, godly men with leadership positions are singled out by the scriptures calling them for special attention. We can learn much from those scriptures. Let’s examine just one scriptural verse taken from Ezekiel 22:29: “The people of the land have used oppression, and exercised robbery, and have vexed the poor and needy: yea, they have oppressed the stranger wrongfully”. This verse is clear reminder and rebuke by God that no matter what you do, you can bring prosperity, you can have the strongest army, you can build the highest tower, so long you have oppressed the underprivileged and the helpless (whoever they are, whether you owned these people, or they are just strangers), you are bad people in God’s sight, and the result for oppressing the underprivileged or the helpless is to face destruction. And it is up to God to exercise His divine authority whether the destruction to be taken place at a national scale or just at a personal level on oppressors. Let us remind ourselves that even though King David was considered by God as a man after God’s own heart, he has to face very harsh punishments from God and that was because King David had committed sins that at times King David just couldn’t forgive himself for what he had done.
At times, as we read through the scriptures, we struggle with the context of what constitutes ‘real good men.' Perhaps one commonly used verses in the Bible could help us to reflect on what are 'real good men' can be found in Matthew 6:19-20: “Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” One common interpretation (or rather misinterpretation) of these verses by some preachers tends to focus on topic that we should give generous to churches which can use for the extension of God's kingdom. Yes, churches need finances to help them in build bigger multistory church buildings which are happening here, or to purchase private jets for their pastors as we saw in some mega-rich churches in the U.S, to reach out to the world using the state-of-the-art technology even better than those entertainment concert halls, and, yes, money is absolutely essential to execute some of these church programs. But this is not, I personally believe, what these verses meant because we must realize that no matter how tall or how big a church building is, it is going to turn into ashes when our Lord Jesus come to restore His kingdom. No matter what we invested here on earth – material-wise – they will be eventually destroyed and turned into ashes! This is a biblical truth. What it means here is that we must build our character to be more like Jesus, to be doer rather than just hearer of His word because when we depart from this earth, that is the ONLY thing we can take along - our very personal character, and nothing else. There is very high calling for us here because it is referring to the investment of our spiritual treasure which never fades. It never pass away for it is eternal. It is found within us – seek first the kingdom of God (Matthew 6:33).
And the LORD said, Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grievous; I will go down now, and see whether they have done altogether according to the cry of it, which is come unto me; and if not, I will know. [Genesis 18:20-21, KJV]
In an account in Genesis 18:16 -19:29, we are told of the story of the wrath of God that we finally saw the destruction of evil cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. The reason for God wanting to destroy the cities was because of the evil and sinful ways of the people. Those people must be living their ways similar to what we can see, read or hear about today in many cities around the world. Because of the ease of communication and the influence of computer, mobile phones, internet and other modern electronic devices, sins that used to be committed mainly by city dwellers have found their way to the rural areas. These new inventions have removed the border of what we used to call city versus rural sin. Satan has cleverly camouflage sinful lifestyles with fanciful names and people are being swayed to accept them without question. In fact, those who refuse to accept some of these sinful lifestyles have found themselves labeled as anti-social or as religious nuts. Admittedly, in some respect their accusations are quite justifiable, and as children of God, we should not be apologetic about it. After all, we are called to be peculiar people, to be people belonging to God (1 Peter 2:9), to be kept out of the evil because though we are in the world but we are not of the world (John 17:15-16).
In Genesis 18:16-19:29, we read of Abraham, a special friend of God who has promised him to be the father of a great nation started to bargain with God to spare the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah if there were righteous people in them. First Abraham asked would the Lord spare the cities if he could find fifty righteous people lived there. The Lord said yes, and he started to search for those fifty righteous people but he failed to find them. Boldly and confidently, Abraham kept bargaining down, until God agreed not to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah if even he could just find ten righteous people lived there but still Abraham could not find ten righteous people. As Abraham could not keep up to God’s demand even though God had already compromised in His demand and was prepared to spare the cities from destrucion if only there were ten righteous people there, God kept to His word and destroy the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah by raining burning sulfur and brimestone, destroying the buildings, the vegetation in the plain, and all the people except three, Lot, Abraham’s nephew and Lot’s two daughters.
There are several key lessons we can learn about God’s dealing with the sinners and the righteous. First, God is not so interested in the geography or the physical aspect of land and places. He places great emphasis on the people living there, the lifestyles, the things they do, and more importantly, how important God is to them. Second, God is merciful and He is willing to spare the cities for the sake of a few righteous people. Tragically, as we can read in the story of Sodom and Gomorrah, none could be found there. Thirdly, as Creator of all things, God has the divine right to destroy evil and to protect the righteous as He sees fit. As we can see in the story of Sodom and Gomorrah, He did not want the Jews, His chosen race, to be influenced by the evil, it thus follows that the destruction of evil could be a lesson for Christians to learn that we must not be influenced by the evil. Fourthly, even though the future sons-in-law of Lot took knowledge of the impending destruction, they refused to believe and thought Lot was joking. Today, millions of people think God and sin are things to joke about. Many accept that there are such things as sinful acts but not many believe that God does exit. Making jokes about sins, practicing them and refusing to accept that there is One Creator, One Lord, One God is now the order of the day. A question of divine importance that we must ponder at: Evil is all around us in today's society, from lying and stealing to pornography (and now in 3D!), drugs, illicit sex, and violence. God calls us to be holy people set apart, not influenced by our wicked culture. Sin always has consequences. We must not joke about it and we must take sin and God's wrath seriously!
What was the population in Sodom and Gomorrah during Lot’s time? Bible scholars who have done substantial research have estimated there were perhaps 200,000 to 300,000 inhabitants there. Yet, Abraham could not find just ten righteous men from these 200,000 to 300,000 inhabitants. This is another important scriptural clue to us regarding the standard of God’s righteousness. Righteousness of God is absolute, and it must be righteous in His sight and not in man’s sight because we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousness are as filthy rags (Isaiah 64:6).
“A Few Good Men.” This was the title of a mini-poster I saw in the August 8 publication of the Today newspaper. In that poster was a brief message that said: “We salute the contributions of three Singapore’s most eminent politicians and leaders. All three men played an instrumental role in bringing Singapore from third world to first. They are key writers of the Singapore Story.” These three good men whose photographs appeared in the newspaper are our present president and two ex-prime ministers.
Many of us, especially those in the 50s onwards can fully agree that the economic progress and advancement that Singapore had over the last 45 years or so was achieved with much efforts that duly largely to our country’s leadership. Today, our economic prosperity is of world class standard and only very few countries can boast to have achieved the same kind of standard as ours. From economic perspective, yes, there were indeed “good men” who could bring material prosperity to this little nation totally void of natural resources. But what sadden me was why only just three? Are we like in Lot’s day? Given that we have a population of over four million people today, and millions had lived and died here, are we not able to find 50 or even 100 good men? Perhaps, this mini-poster may just a gimmick to attract people to read the articles which would be written to pay tribute to these ‘Three Good Men’ but I truly believe this really reflects what society is today (as it was in Lot’s day) – good men, even by worldly standard, are hard to come by, let alone by God's standard! We now could really appreciate and understand why Abraham found it was impossible to find ten righteous men of God!
Those three words “Few Good Men” has also reminded me of a U.S. Marine recruitment poster. The wordings in the poster were: “If anybody could get in the Marines, it wouldn’t be the Marines. WE’RE LOOKING FOR A FEW GOOD MEN”. In essence, to be the U.S. Marines, you have to learn self discipline, submission to authority, commitment, endurance, loyalty, integrity.
As we read from the two posters – the one in Today’s paper and the one that belongs to the U.S. Marine recruitment poster, it is very obvious that that there is no single definition of what constitutes a ‘good man’, wordly-speaking. For us who are living in this resource-deprived nation, we see that if you are able to bring good health, big wealth and stable government, you are a good man even though you may have unjustifiable put people in jail for decades. For the U.S. Marines, if you are prepared to be submissive to authority, courageous and be willing to die for your country, you are a good man even if you kill and slaughter the helpless and the innocent because you have dutifully obeyed the commands from your general even you know they are not right.
Bible is certainly not silent on this topic of what constitute good (or rather godly) men. In fact, from cover to cover, we are told to be good and godly men (and also good and godly women) all for the glory of God and God alone. More importantly, godly men with leadership positions are singled out by the scriptures calling them for special attention. We can learn much from those scriptures. Let’s examine just one scriptural verse taken from Ezekiel 22:29: “The people of the land have used oppression, and exercised robbery, and have vexed the poor and needy: yea, they have oppressed the stranger wrongfully”. This verse is clear reminder and rebuke by God that no matter what you do, you can bring prosperity, you can have the strongest army, you can build the highest tower, so long you have oppressed the underprivileged and the helpless (whoever they are, whether you owned these people, or they are just strangers), you are bad people in God’s sight, and the result for oppressing the underprivileged or the helpless is to face destruction. And it is up to God to exercise His divine authority whether the destruction to be taken place at a national scale or just at a personal level on oppressors. Let us remind ourselves that even though King David was considered by God as a man after God’s own heart, he has to face very harsh punishments from God and that was because King David had committed sins that at times King David just couldn’t forgive himself for what he had done.
At times, as we read through the scriptures, we struggle with the context of what constitutes ‘real good men.' Perhaps one commonly used verses in the Bible could help us to reflect on what are 'real good men' can be found in Matthew 6:19-20: “Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” One common interpretation (or rather misinterpretation) of these verses by some preachers tends to focus on topic that we should give generous to churches which can use for the extension of God's kingdom. Yes, churches need finances to help them in build bigger multistory church buildings which are happening here, or to purchase private jets for their pastors as we saw in some mega-rich churches in the U.S, to reach out to the world using the state-of-the-art technology even better than those entertainment concert halls, and, yes, money is absolutely essential to execute some of these church programs. But this is not, I personally believe, what these verses meant because we must realize that no matter how tall or how big a church building is, it is going to turn into ashes when our Lord Jesus come to restore His kingdom. No matter what we invested here on earth – material-wise – they will be eventually destroyed and turned into ashes! This is a biblical truth. What it means here is that we must build our character to be more like Jesus, to be doer rather than just hearer of His word because when we depart from this earth, that is the ONLY thing we can take along - our very personal character, and nothing else. There is very high calling for us here because it is referring to the investment of our spiritual treasure which never fades. It never pass away for it is eternal. It is found within us – seek first the kingdom of God (Matthew 6:33).
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God created evil in the 1st place and then he tried to drown all humans becoz they were evil ???
LOL....................the old fool...................
LOL....................the old fool...................
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