Category: Provocative Thoughts

Provocative thoughts . . . Is the Bible more than a religious tome?

Copyright 2017 by Joan Berry

Generations past and present were/are taught that the Bible is only a book about the Jewish nation and moral laws that apply to all regardless of the age in which we live, and that its contents are a precursor to the arrival of the Messiah. All mentioned is true, but not complete. It is common knowledge that some clergy, archaeologists, anthropologists, and related scholars have asserted that the Bible is not a book to be relied upon for science, accurate history, or some concepts of religion. The Bible contains poetry, songs, history, prophecy, parables, diet, laws, what the people of God experienced and what they saw and recorded; all inspired by God.

Following is an example of a little mystery in Job. Those who take the Bible literally may pick up on what the following verses in Job are describing: God said to Job (Ch. 40)–

“Look now at the behemoth, which I made along with you;
He eats grass like an ox.
¹⁶ See now, his strength is in his hips,
And his power is in his stomach muscles.
¹⁷ He moves his tail like a cedar;
The sinews of his thighs are tightly knit.
¹⁸ His bones are like beams of bronze;                                                                                          His ribs like bars of iron.

The conclusions that many scholars have arrived at is that the beast may be a metaphor, an elephant, hippopotamus, ox, or a crocodile. However, ‘the tale of the tail’ says otherwise. “He moves his tail like a cedar” — The crocodile neither grazes on grass nor lifts its tail up high as do some reptiles. An elephant, hippopotamus, and ox do not have tails like cedars. The tails are short and fat. However, there was an animal that does fit the description in the family of the sauropod dinosaurs. Specimens of this dinosaur were found and some of the tails were as large as a tree trunk. The animal had a long neck and the huge tail helped balance the sauropod. Some descriptions include a description of the hips. That dinosaurs existed with mankind should not be a surprise. Fossils of human and dinosaur footprints sites were found in recent years in Texas where the prints were side-by-side. It has also been suggested that the animal was a stegosaurus dinosaur.

What do you think is being described?

Provocative thoughts . . .Abortions

Currently, there is quite a controversy about late-term abortions and for a good reason. No matter the decision to perform such an action, it is outright murder. I realize in some circumstances, an abortion may be necessary, but as a birth control method is going way too far. Some infants survive the abortion only to be killed by the doctor using surgical scissors to cut through the vertebrae at the base of the skull and death occurs. Another horrible procedure that is done earlier than late-term abortions is to dismember the infant (fully formed) while the child is in the womb. Infants (fetuses) hear noises and also react to pain. I leave it to you to imagine what that baby must experience being torn apart. Somewhere on the Web, there is a secretly filmed record of these procedures, based on an investigation. Now there is a movement to allow abortions right up the birth of the baby.

Provocative Thoughts . . .

Aliens, giants, and ancient advanced civilizations           

 Sometimes I wonder just how ignorant the government thinks we are along with some religious leaders. For example, the other day during a discussion on TV, one of the speakers said that finding out there are other beings in the universe would create chaos in the Christian religion. And not only that, people would cease to believe in God or Jesus Christ. There is a Creator (God) who created us (a separate species) in His image (the godhead). The Bibles peaks of other worlds (Hebrews 1:2; 11:3). The important thing here is that Jesus is God’s only begotten son. He is born of God the Father and a human female. Jesus was not created in the manner as were Adam and Eve, who were prototypes. As for dismissing Jesus Christ, that is ridiculous. Scribes and historians such as Josephus wrote about Jesus as well as the disciples.

            We live in a universe that contains millions of planets. Why would an almighty God only pick our Earth alone to start life here? We know from astronauts, scientists, and others that UFOs are real and other species of humanoids exist. A fleet of UFOs flew over the capitol, Washington, D. C. in 1952 and was filmed. That must have been hard to explain away. And then there are people who scoff at the idea of giants roaming this world in Biblical times. That giant humans once roamed Earth is easy to prove. Let’s start with Enoch, who wrote about the giants over 3,000 years ago. He describes them as being about 15-feet tall. Genesis, Deuteronomy, Numbers and other Biblical books all discuss the giants often referred to as Nephilim. After the flood, they disappeared for a while, and then reappeared later as God’s enemies. Goliath was of this race. Several studies have been made concerning this race of people that I consider interesting.

Captain Cook and his crew of explorers reported seeing strange looking inhabitants on some South Pacific islands and described as being 12-feet tall. Josephus (37-95 C.E) wrote about the king of Persia sending hostages 10-feet tall to Rome. Skeletons of giants have been found in eastern China and Peking; Wisconsin, U. S. — 10 giant skeletons found in Wisconsin in a burial mound, others were found in caves; and others were found buried on California islands, and still others in the New England states. Gigantism exists today, not as a race, but rather based on growth hormone problems induced or as an existing disease. 

If we truly read the Bible for understanding, the truth is right before our eyes. Aside from parables that teach lessons for us, the Scriptures are quite literal. People used to believe that some accounts were myths, especially the account of Jericho.  Scientists, archaeologists, and anthropologists have discovered the city and probable cause used to bring down the walls just as the Bible states. The Bible is often compared to an onion, layer upon layer. What we read on the surface is good, but the more we study, it gets much better. We have to consider that we need to read the Bible taking into consideration the time in which it was written and the circumstances.

With an open mind, we can see the symbolic language. The ancients compared what they saw to their surrounding just as we do. For example, Ezekiel describes a flying machine and how he traveled in it. He was trying to describe what he saw in symbolic language of the time. Before the Great Flood of Noah’s time, great advanced civilizations existed, notably the Sumarians. According to the Sumarians’ cuneiform records, they had the power of flight and submarines. . Sumarians called their submarines “sunken boats” because they traveled underwater, not wrecks. We must take into account that before the Great Flood, there were great civilizations. After the flood, mankind had start all over again.

Star Trek Mimics Real Miraculous Actions of Jesus

Copyright 2019 by Joan berry

            “Beam me up, Scotty.” Many of us will recall that famous order by Captain Kirk on the original TV series, Star Trek. The characters in the show often appeared and disappeared at the push of a button. A few years later, a small number of scientists accomplished this “transportation” on a very small scale. I understand that it was too dangerous to continue the experiments. I would think that the Philadelphia experiment might have come to their minds. However, in real life long ago (ca. 30 C.E.), the Son of the Almighty God was popping in and out of places quicker than the blink of an eye; and He metamorphosed into a glorious, radiant being from the inside out. Thus, His inner circle got a glimpse of Jesus’ deity and His connection between Heaven and Earth. Following are accounts of Jesus’ appearances and disappearances and the transfiguration based on the books of the New Testament.

The Metamorphosis: The purpose of the occasion was to further teach a deeper understanding of the deity of Christ and of events to come.

Before Jesus was crucified, He took His inner circle, Peter and brothers James and John, into the country for rest and prayer on a mountainside. At some point, the disciples fell asleep and when they awoke, they saw figure of glorious radiance. His face shone like the sun and His clothes were a brilliant, glowing white. They beheld their Lord as He appeared in His deity. Appearing with Jesus were Moses (law) and Elijah (prophet). The glory of God appeared as a cloud that enveloped them. Peter made an error when he offered to make a booth (tabernacle) for each of them because this placed all three on equal status. To undo the error, God proclaimed from the cloud, ”Listen to Him,” referring to Jesus. The disciples had fallen on their faces in fear and Jesus comforted them as the two Old Testament figures disappeared and Jesus transfigured back into His recognizable body. And then He instructed them to tell no one of their experience. They needed to have this experience to better understand the mission of Jesus and what would soon come.

Appearances and Disappearances

Prior to meeting the two believers on the road to Emmaus, Jesus had suddenly appeared to the two Marys at the tomb and to Peter.

Mark and Luke have similar stories about Jesus and the two men on the road to Emmaus. According to Mark, Jesus appeared to two believers on the road and they did not recognize Him because He had changed his body. Mark pointed out that the men were walking in the wrong direction – away from the believers in Jerusalem; Jesus rebuked them for their lack of Scripture knowledge; and when they recognized Him, they turned back toward Jerusalem. Generally, biblical scholars believe that God did not want Jesus to be recognized right away until the full reality of the bodily resurrection could be better understood.

 Luke reported a fuller account of this event; the same account as Mark told about Jesus’ appearance to the two men on the road to Emmaus, but here the accounts differ: Jesus starts a conversation by asking what recent events had occurred in Jerusalem. The men began to tell of a crucifixion three days prior of Jesus, who was a prophet who performed great miracles of healing and was an equally great teacher. However, he died as other prophets.  They said that they heard He had risen from the dead, but didn’t believe it. When the group arrived at Emmaus, the men invited Jesus to stay with them and continue their conversation. During the meal, when Jesus broke bread with them, their eyes were opened and they recognized Him. And then Jesus disappeared. According to Mark, the followers returned to the believers in Jerusalem.

Appearance to the Disciples

The disciples gathered behind closed doors in Jerusalem to talk about what they had seen and heard about. Amid all the excitement, Jesus appeared in the room but was not immediately recognized because of the changes due to the resurrection and glorification of His body. In His new body, he was transcendent of all things. When the disciples finally recognized Him, they thought He was a ghost and Jesus ate a piece of broiled fish to prove otherwise. His body was not restored to the state familiar to His disciples as was Lazarus,’ but His crucifixion wounds were visible as a testament to his followers. His body was glorified and immortal and could appear or disappear at His will. Jesus met with His disciples at this time to prove He was resurrected and to further teach them to open their eyes to understand the purpose of His life and death and resurrection. He prepared them to teach and preach to others as His witnesses to the Good News.

 Eight days following this meeting, Jesus again appeared to the disciples. This time Thomas was present having missed the first appearance. Jesus appeared to all eleven disciples to dispel any further unbelief concerning His resurrection (Judas was dead). Jesus rebuked their unbelief; He had foretold His death; He had foretold His resurrection; He told them the Old Testament had prophesized all that happened; and that the disciples had no excuse for their unbelief. We all know how Thomas (aka Doubting Thomas) touched a wound on Jesus’ body and declared “My Lord, My God!”

Great Commission

In another post resurrection encounter with His disciples, Jesus gave them the Great Commission. He instructed them to go forth into the world to teach, preach, baptize in His name and as His witnesses. Jesus spent 40 days between His resurrection and assentation during which he appeared to various people.

Ascension

Following a meeting with the His 11 disciples, Jesus led them out of Jerusalem to Bethany on the slopes of Mt. Olives. After speaking to them and promising them the fulfillment of Holy Spirit, and instructing them to wait for it in Jerusalem, He blessed them and then  enveloped by a cloud (glory of God), He ascended heavenward until He disappeared.

Epilogue

The power of Jesus is amazing, not only for his metamorphotic powers, healing the sick, and walking on water, but for His love of us and the sacrifice to save us, To God be the Glory.

Sources

Life Application: New Testament Commentary. (2001). Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House Pub.

Life Application Study Bible NIV (2005). Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House Pub.

NKJV Study Bible. (2007). Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, Inc.

Mark 16: 12-13; 14; 19-20. Luke 24: 13-34; 35-43; 44-49; 50: 53. John 20: 19-23; 21: 1-24; 21: 15-25.