ARCHEOLOGY AND THE BIBLE

From the National Post, circa 2000, Reuters. Archeology shows the Bible is true concerning what it says. Every time this happens we are not astonished. We are happy to be reminded that we have believed the right thing. We have not believed the Bible in vain. The Bible is historically accurate.

The ancient Assyrian Empire occupies a comparatively substantial portion of Scripture’s historical narrative. It is mentioned, sometimes at large, in over a dozen Old Testament books. The Bible speaks of this Empire; archeology has often echoed what the Bible says about it; now we hear this echo again. 

Pay special attention to the notice of these ‘winged lions’ that were discovered. Are these statues just a representation of some figure in Classical Mythology? Encyclopaedia Britannica tells us that “mythological and epic themes are…found in Geometric Art of the 8^th century BC.” But the idea for these winged lions came from somewhere else than mythology. And much of mythology derives from facts laid out in the Bible.

Objects comparable to the winged lions were brought to light by a Dr. Layard just over a century ago from the same ruins of ancient Nineveh in Nimrud, Iraq. In his Inhabitants of Heaven (1862; 1877) James Killen demonstrates by careful research that sculptures like those referred to in our article are nothing else and nothing less than distorted depictions of the Cherubim of Ezekiel, Isaiah, and Revelation. “And this was their appearance…every one had four faces…four wings…the face of a man, and the face of a lion” etc. (Ezekiel 1.5, 6, 10.) Since “Paganism…is but a corruption of Patriarchism [the cultural paradigm during the time of the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob when Cherubic figures and images were already popular]…we need not be surprised to find, amongst the objects of Pagan superstition, forms more or less nearly resembling the Cherubic symbols” (Killen, p. 275.) In like manner, have we not found variations of the biblical Flood account among pagan civilizations?  

Myth and legend originate from some truth more often than we realize. A biblical explanation for fabulous-looking creatures is satisfying and convincing. Compare Encyclopaedia Britannica’s take on the origin of the Minotaur (a half human, half bull) idea: “could have arisen from exaggerated accounts of bull leaping in ancient Crete.” How likely is that?

Discoveries of winged lions are exciting and fascinating because the idea for their creation came down through oral tradition and artistic representation of what the Cherubim guarding the entrance to the garden of Eden looked like! This is like a piece of heaven right here on the ground of history! “We have in these Assyrian remains, those winged figures…an evident and striking representation of the Paradisiacal Cherubim as the guardians of the tree of life in Eden” (Killen, p. 288.) Archeology corroborates the biblical narrative.

MAD SCIENCE

This frightening piece of news is taken from the National Post some time near the turn of the second millennium. Certain blind or ignorant optimists would scoff at the notion that the potentiality spoken of in the headline could soon become a reality. Others, because they already benefit financially from runaway science, will try and convince us that human laws will prevent scientists from going too far. But concocting human embryos in a petri dish has already been allowed when such a thing would have been outlawed by more cautious generations.

Godless peoples will unite their ideas and forces to do creator-like things. No power but the true God is able to prevent the monstrous machinations of man. “Behold, the people is one,” said the LORD one time, “and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do” (Genesis 11.6.) The principal ‘one language’ the world is using today to build its tower up to heaven is called science. But it is a science gone mad. How high God will permit this Babel to ascend we do not know. But we know that Bio-Medical Research, even if it were restricted to operate within the bounds of propriety and righteous conduct, will not be the dialect by which man achieves any sort of immortality. Only the word of God through Man the Word can do that. Jesus Christ is the life-giving word.

This scientific mixing of man and beast is a sophisticated form of that confusion spoken of in Leviticus 18.23. A sexual union between man and beast is there called confusion: an ‘unnatural mixture.’ A union of the same by the use of a petri dish is confusion too. In one sense, the latter is worse, for science might bring about some offspring by its deeds. Soon, we hope, God will once again bring his own confusion upon mad scientists. “Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language…So the LORD scattered them” (Genesis 11.7, 8.) We pray God to hurry up because many confusions (though less horrific than a ‘half-human, half-chimp’) have already been created. The appended article goes on to say, “The little white mice in Keith Humphries’ lab are part human. They carry genes for human blood components and pass them on to their young…Such hybrids…invaluable for studying…disorders.”

Some newspaper browsers won’t even muffle their giggles when they read about the next abomination man may actuate. These are they who are content to do what they must to survive, and spend the rest of their time and energy listening and looking for any new thing that might feed their lust for amusement and shock. They would be the first to approve of the creation of a man-beast just so they could get a look at it. They don’t doubt that man may be able to make a ‘half-human, half-chimp.’ But will they believe that God will yet raise cadavers from the grave to unite them to the souls they once belonged to? No, a Grander Science by the Highest Power they will not believe. Imagine, a body resurrected to be thrust away from God and good, a risen body reunited to a half-despairing, half-longing soul that is condemned to feel alienated for ever! Is that a monstrosity for the idle reader to giggle at? There will be a resurrection. Only those who believed and trusted in Jesus will be given glorified bodies. Therefore, pray that you will soon be able to say with the sincerity of a real Christian, “But we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raiseth the dead” (1 Corinthians 1.9.)

LECHEROUS PRIESTS LURKING

This clipping is from one of the Sun newspapers, February 16, 2005. I’m glad I saved it. As upsetting as the contents may be, let’s go on saving this piece of vile news in order to be reminded how the Roman Catholic Church deals with pedophiles in her midst. She simply has them quietly ‘transferred from parish to parish,’ it goes on to say. What does this do except broaden the scope of the pedophiles’ hunting ground? Does the Bible speak of this? “They gather themselves together, they hide themselves, they mark my steps, when they wait for my soul” (Psalm 56.6.) Listen, the Church of Rome is not led by men alone, but is what the Bible calls a “synagogue of Satan” (Revelation 2.9; 3.9.) This is why it is no slander to assert and insist that Rome persecutes whenever and wherever she can get away with it, if not in your parish, then in a parish near you.

Those who love children will righteously sneer at the fact that this child rapist could be out of prison as early as 2013. Is there a sentence anywhere on earth righteous enough to satisfy those of us who are grieved at how children are affected by molestation? Think for a moment what rape does to a kid! If we love children, we should fiercely defend them. The principle of mercy does not argue against the State bearing the sword (Romans 13.) But in Canada presently, what can we urge the assaulted to do but say from the heart, “They be many that fight against me, O thou most High. What time I am afraid, I will trust in thee” (Psalm 56.2, 3.) In fact, the less we can rely on Government, the more cause we have to trust God, and through the forgiveness and justification we need because of our own sins, one day see all our unrepentant enemies put down and ourselves lifted up, yea, lifted up all the way to HEAVEN. All of this by God’s only Begotten, through whom all blessings get channeled to his persecuted children. “And he [Jesus] took them [little children] up in his arms, put hands upon them, and blessed them” (Mark 10.16.)

SEDUCING SPIRITS

Could anyone dream up a headline more apt to give Christians, Christ, and God a bad name? This article from February 28, 2004 is no illusion or fabrication. The contents beneath it certainly contain no exaggeration. Bishop Wilton Gregory, president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops is quoted further down. He admits, “This is a terrible history, but it is history.”

Catholic priests are notorious for their evil deeds. They are infamous for casting a bad reflection on everything and everyone they say they represent. Upon reading about such a bulk of wicked exploits committed by perverted priests, we can jump to the conclusion that there must be no God and that all churches are evil. Or we can do what Scripture commands us to do when evil is done by ministers. “Try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world” (1 John 4.1.) And so, ‘test the spirits of these priests to see whether they are of God.’ How do we do that? Is there a passage of Scripture, maybe, warning of these dirty priests? And since we already know by their sick deeds that they pass no spiritual test, why should we bother to look? Because we might discover, that not only are the priests not of God, but that their church is false. Then by seeing that God condemns this church of theirs, there is no just cause to quit God and blame all churches for the deeds of an unholy, lecherous priesthood that God never did ordain nor approve.

The apostle Paul warned long ago, “Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils, speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron; forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats” (1 Timothy 4.1-3.) What church has disallowed meats for certain days? What church has forbidden her priests to marry? What church has so many priests whose seared consciences allow them to molest and rape tiny defenseless kids? The church is that one which rules from Rome, the Roman Catholic Church.

Not all priests are molesters. Not all Catholics are unchristian. But they all serve in a false church. Once a Catholic gets saved, his enlivened conscience ought to drive him out of that guilty Cathedral of sin with a healthy sigh of relief and disgust. God says, “Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues” (Revelation 18.4.) It makes no difference whether or not Rome is the Babylon of this verse. Rome is a Babylon: she is a type of tyranny: severe, cruel, and abusive.

DESPERATELY WICKED

Jeremiah the prophet uses the phrase ‘desperately wicked’ to describe the natural condition of the heart of man. Only God knows how wicked this heart can become. But sometimes through the news we learn something about what God knows, don’t we?

This hideous ‘homosexual pedophile’ has not and will not receive a full penalty for his crimes, not in Canada, and not in this life. Notice that he molested the boy in question after ‘a previous similar conviction.’ If our country were not so godless, and therefore more for exacting a penalty and less for recommending ‘treatment,’ the boy had been saved from being assaulted by this grossly indecent monster. This clipping from The Edmonton Sun is dated, September 23, 2003. And so this child molesting creep has been free to molest yet again since many years ago. God will hold the judge responsible for any further crimes! I tell you, he’ll share the blame!

Our godless society and court system do not believe there is an absolute standard for determining what is right and what is wrong. Hence the false, lenient judgment. And being atheistic, Canada’s Bench offers no hope that justice will prevail in the Afterlife any more than it does in this life. Our judges sacrifice our children on the altar of their godless philosophy just as certainly as Israel at her worst sacrificed her children to the gods she went whoring after.

But victims of obscenity, take heart! There is a perfect ‘back-up plan’ when the Government refuses to bear the sword against evildoers (Romans 13.) God himself will take up his own Sword at the End of Time. Heathens may break God’s righteous rules and think they’ll get away with it; judges may scorn True Law and dream up lawless sentences instead; but “He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh” (Psalm 2.)

Yet poor victimized soul, you must know that your own heart is desperately wicked also, maybe not nearly so wicked as the heart of your sex assaulter’s, but bad enough and vulgar enough that without salvation from sin by Jesus Christ you must be locked out of heaven as surely as the pedophile must be locked into hell. Now what consolation will it be that the grimy molester is finally judged if you wind up just a little above him in the bowels of hell? Or what if he gets saved and you don’t?! It can happen. Jesus said, “Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me” (John 14.1.) Believe means ‘trust.’ Put your sins away and put your confidence in Jesus! And he that ascended into heaven will receive you!

STUBBORN SINNERS

There is a similarity so striking between our present generation and a certain bunch of sinners mentioned in the Bible that every time I go through Revelation I am awed by it. This report from The Edmonton Sun, August 5, 2003 is the best example of this generation that I have in my archives.

I don’t presume to know exactly what plagues are released by the blowing of the sixth trumpet in the Apocalypse. But I know for sure that the stubborn sinners of Revelation 9.20, 21 are no worse than, and the same in nature and attitude as, those who returned to the Bali bar when it reopened. Here is that Scripture passage, “And the rest of the men which were not killed by these plagues yet repented not of the works of their hands, that they should not worship devils, and idols of gold, and silver, and brass, and stone, and of wood: which neither can see, nor hear, nor walk: Neither repented they of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts.” These sinners won’t quit their dens of sin, their needless consumption of luxury goods, their rowdy behavior, their drugs and drinking, their unmarried sex, their stealing, and their ungodly ways. That’s what’s going on both in the Bible passage and this Bali bar.

Of course the terrorists were wrong to bomb the bar. But in our concern and anger about that we must be careful not to miss this more important point: that when sinners are blasted while in the act of sinning, this is a reminder from God to obey his command to turn from sin, and to do so without delay.

Now what sins have you been hammered for while still in the act? Maybe your hangover started before you finished getting hammered. Maybe you got nailed in the act of breaking and entering.  Sin can boomerang like that. And then later what did you do? Return to do it all over again like the dog that returns to its vomit? Beware! If you die in that stubborn state you’ll be forever doomed and damned to misery and agony! You’ll end up being cast into that unquenchable fire where those unrepentant, spiritual cripples of Revelation must certainly go! “Tormented with fire,” the Bible says! (Revelation 14.10.) How can I make you take it seriously? Only the Holy Spirit can. There can be no repenting after death, no Jesus for you then. Be saved by Jesus now. Trust him now. Leave your sins and take his forgiveness. “Behold, now is the day of salvation” (2 Corinthians 6.2.) Have you not heard that Jesus came into this world to save? That he died on the cross for sin? That he rose from the grave? That he’ll grant LIFE to the just and JUDGMENT to the wicked? “Behold, now is the day of salvation.”

PREPARING A MANSION

Red Deer Advocate, September 8, 2007. This house seems to have it all, even “a 103-seat movie theatre,” the article says. Don’t you wish you had the money to create your own mansion? Are you worried you might never be able to pull it off? Don’t worry about it. There is coming a day when the earth will pass away “and the works that are therein shall be burned up” (2 Peter 3.10.) Maybe you’d like to live in your mansion until then. Never mind that, too. Your life span is only about 70 to 80 years—if you’re lucky. And how many years have you already used up? “The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labour and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away” ( Psalm 90.10.)

We are soon cut off from the earth, the Bible says. Then we fly away. What’s the point of a mansion, then? Listen, Jesus is now preparing mansions that will last forever for ever lasting souls to live in. “In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, ye may be also” (John 14.2, 3.) That’s Jesus speaking. But is Jesus preparing a place for you? That depends. Are you his disciple? I mean, are you trusting him to save you from hellfire? And have you quit the sins people go to hellfire for? Are you clean? Are you sleeping around? Are you being lazy? Are you using the soup kitchen just so you can spend your money on your sins? I want you to get a mansion from Jesus, not hell for your sins. Ask Jesus to save you. You don’t like being called a sinner? But “Jesus came into the world to save sinners” (1 Timothy 1.15.) I am come to call “sinners to repentance,” he said (Matthew 9.13.)

PYRAMID SCHEMES

The scene above is from The Edmonton Journal, February 15, 1997. Pyramid schemes are still as popular as ever. Schemers continue to invent schemes because people continue to be gullible enough to buy in. About these pyramids, the article says, “The funds promise wild returns…But such schemes collapse when no new investors can be found.” When the thing goes belly-up, late comers to the evil scheme get no returns for their investment.

The typical pyramid scheme exaggerates to a hyper degree the usefulness of an average product, or line of average products. These products are given clever-sounding handles like Mona Vie. The main emphasis to the one buying in is on signing others up, not selling the products he just bought to the public. Getting as many people as possible signed up below you is how you push yourself up the pyramid, where all the big money gets funneled to. The pyramid plan especially tempts persons who want riches without labor.

Now what’s wrong with all this? Exaggeration is lying; promoting exaggerated stuff is dishonest; making easy money off gullible people is robbery; and making money this way is a greedy, lazy species of inactivity. Does the Bible identify pyramid schemers? “He that hasteth to be rich hath an evil eye, and considereth not that poverty shall come upon him” (Proverbs 28.22.) What greater poverty can one come to than hell for a home for committing sins like these? On the American dollar there is a picture of a pyramid with an eyeball on top. This reminds us of the pyramid scheme: resting on money, overseen by an evil eye! These schemes are even popular among church members. In particular are they the rage in charismatic-type churches. If these members are really members of Christ, we expect they soon will, instead of lazily raking in money at the expense of gullible people, “with quietness…work, and eat their own bread” (2 Thessalonians 3.12.) That’s an exhortation by Jesus Christ through his apostle Paul. In fact, “if any would not work, neither should he eat” (verse 10.) Years ago I went to the Word of Life Centre in Red Deer to see if a certain ‘faith healer’ could heal me. When that failed, a man there who had, during this service, laid hands on me to no effect promised to visit me and see me through until I was a healed man. He was receiving, he said, about $5,000.00 per month in the mail for doing nothing. And so he would have all kinds of time to help me out. I never saw him again. You see the spiritual results of getting ahead without effort? Your promises will be as hollow as your pockets are deep. And Jesus will be as far from you as he is from hypocrites.

KILLING TIME

Many Bible verses come to mind as we read this unusual piece of news. Verses condemning laziness, verses urging good works—there are many of these that suit. But two verses from Psalm 90 seem more appropriate than them all. “Who knoweth the power of thine anger? even according to thy fear, so thy wrath. So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom” (verses 11, 12.)

What the Psalmist is getting at about God’s anger is the fact that since man is in a condemned state on account of sin, the wrath of God hangs over his head like an axe or guillotine ready to fall from holy heaven to end his days on earth and begin his eternity under divine judgment. “He that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God” (John 3.18.) You see how the Old and New Testaments agree? Sure, the first part of the verse (which I left out) says that he that believes on Jesus is not condemned. But I’m not speaking to the believer. I’m looking for sinners unconverted.

Does this kind of preaching surprise you? I’m not surprised if it does. Virtually all we hear nowadays is that “God so loved the world.” You think you’re alright on account of those five words? The rest of the story the fearful pastors will not tell you. And they are more guilty of not applying their hearts to wisdom than all the lazy fools in all the world, and your soul’s blood they are responsible for. They’ve killed a lot of time playing with the Scriptures instead of studying, emphasizing the love of God as if you were in the clear. You are not in the clear. Because your guiltiness reaches up to God, then God threatens to cast you down all the way to hell. No matter how insignificant you feel your sins to be, they have condemned you already. To make matters worse, you have killed time watching TV, playing golf, shopping for stuff you don’t need, or who knows what else. Count your days, the Psalmist is telling you. Don’t presume you have so many left. Next when you are tempted to kill time, apply your heart to wisdom instead. Find that secret Way to avoid God’s Wrath. This Way will remain a secret to you unless you quit idling away your time. Apply yourself to getting wisdom! Even if I reveal the secret: “I [Jesus] am the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14.6)—chances are the time-waster will not understand. Can you not at least utter a prayer to God? Ask him to empower you to exchange your time-squandering activity so you can apply yourself to wisdom.

You must get wise to the reality of the power of God’s anger before it overtakes and amazes you! The Psalmist asks, ‘Who knows the power of God’s anger?’ No one can measure it. But those already in hell could tell you a great deal about it.



SAME-SEX MARRIAGE

There are many ‘firsts’ that could be accomplished by the man who would etch his name into history for the public to look back upon some day in remembrance of. One might wish to be the first man to step into a fight in the righteous cause of defending the defenseless. One might wish to be the first man to rush through flames to save a schoolhouse full of children. One might wish to be first on the scene to bear witness to some unexpected marvel. ‘First MP to legally marry same-sex partner’ (Red Deer Life)—this too, in the opinion of many Canadians, ranks right up there as a dignified first to have one’s name sealed to. Already this first is being adored as a courageous, groundbreaking act in the cause of tolerance, equality, and progress. Like feminism’s many firsts, this Idol will no doubt grow to such legendary status as to be hailed as a godlike deed by those debauched quarters of our media.

But in the Farther Future of Eternity this first will be assigned its rightful place and rank. It will be brushed over to the left among the goats, lies, and blasphemy, and then down among the worms and the fire. Woe to those Canadians who go to their graves believing, as the guests did on the dishonorable day in question, that a monster-marriage of two men is “something we need to celebrate”! Can you be ready to meet God when you love wickedness?  

Who was on the guest list for this “history-making event” in August, 2007? Politicians like Liberal Leader Stephane Dion and former Prime Ministers Joe Clark and Paul Martin. Imagine standing before God as a political influence responsible for making legal a lifestyle judged by God to be nothing less than an abomination! Every politician who did not oppose the introduction of same-sex marriage into Canadian law approved it. “He that is not with me is against me,” said Jesus (Matthew 12.30.) And therefore he who takes no stand on Jesus’ side of an issue stands on the opposing, rebellious, ungodly side. The book of Revelation is called “the Revelation of Jesus Christ” (Revelation 1.1.) Jesus reveals in there that whatsoever “worketh abomination” will have no part in the enjoyment of future glory (21.27.) To support same-sex marriage is to ‘work abomination.’

Who works abominations more eagerly than the church (United) that performed this grotesque ceremony? The Gospel says to turn from sin to be saved by Jesus. The churchgoer who embraces what Jesus condemns proves by this that he has believed a false gospel and received a jesus of Satan’s imagination. Look at the headline one more time. Now Satan was the first antichrist; Cain, the first murderer; Judas, the first apostate disciple. ‘Firsts’ are not always good.