Interaction With The Problem Of Divine Hiddenness

        God gave the Jewish people signs and wonders, yet they still did not believe in Him. Consider, for example, them making a golden calf not long after being miraculously delivered from the pharaohs' grasp in the land of Egypt. In fact, their lengthy record of unfaithfulness as narrated in the Old Testament gives witness to this point.

        The Jews did not accept Christ even though He performed miracles (Matthew 12:39; 16:4), which were verifiable to their senses. There was nothing concealed about the ministry of Christ (1 John 1:1-4). Therefore, the problem with mankind is not evidential, but his sinful heart. Advances in learning have not helped him to grow out of rebelling against his Maker.

        God has revealed Himself to us. He has given to us special revelation (Luke 16:29-31). He has revealed Himself to us through creation (Romans 1:20). He has revealed Himself to us through the person of Jesus Christ (Hebrews 1:1-3). He speaks to us daily through the Holy Scriptures. God has spoken to man in various ways.

        God has not manifested Himself directly to human beings throughout most of history. Practically every person of faith has not had such an encounter with Him while alive on this earth. What makes us so special that we should be treated any differently? Hence, we should not be surprised or shocked that God does not speak audibly to us right now.

        The Bible as a whole documents roughly 200 miracles. That is not a large number given it was written over the course of thousands of years. How things take place right now concerning the occurrence of miracles is consistent with history in its entirety. It is almost certain that the vast majority of people will never see a miraculous event happen during their lives.

        If miracles happened on a regular basis, then they would cease to be miraculous. They could no longer be used for the specific purposes that God ordains. Miracles would be ordinary events, just like driving or washing the dishes. They would no longer stand out to us as different.

        The question should not so much be why God does not reveal Himself to us in a more obvious way, but when is enough evidence enough? There are people who would not be satisfied, even if He spoke audibly to them or brought someone back from the dead.

Abortion And The Incarnation

        The New Testament clearly indicates that Jesus Christ received a human nature at the moment of His conception (Luke 1:26-37). The natural process here had a supernatural origin. Moreover, John the Baptist is said to have leaped with joy in the womb of his mother Elizabeth (Luke 1:15, 44), thereby implicitly attributing the status of personhood to him.

        If abortion is morally permissible and a fetus is not a human being, then what was the mass of flesh in Mary's womb? When exactly did it gain the status of personhood? What was the state or condition with respect to Christ's flesh and blood prior to Him taking on these?

        If this mass of flesh makes up a human person because of its own special qualities and not because of a connection with something else, then that would lead to Nestorianism because the person of Christ would include two distinct persons.

        If this mass of flesh does not make up a human person in and of itself but takes on personhood at a later point in time, then that would lead to Apollinarianism because Christ's human nature would temporarily be without a human soul. 

        In order to consistently uphold the incarnation, the pro-life stance is a requirement. Denying the personhood of a fetus results in christological problems.

Diligently Confirming Our Calling And Election

        "Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election, for if you practice these qualities you will never fall." (2 Peter 1:10)

        The Apostle Peter's words concern the application of various characteristics (2 Peter 1:5-7) amongst people who are in Christ. A productive servant of God will display these qualities. We have been called to mature in faith now that we have been renewed by the Holy Spirit. If we faithfully serve God, then that can only bolster our confidence that we are His children. Our assurance of salvation is rooted firmly in the person and work of Christ.

        The two epistles of Peter are written on the assumption that the intended audience has already been justified before God by faith. The object of emphasis is on people who have believed on the gospel and are loved by Him (1 Peter 2:7; 2 Peter 1:1). The highlighted passage of Scripture gives us a picture of what sanctification looks like. Calling and election are gifts according to God's eternal plan (Romans 9:11-16; 2 Timothy 1:9).

The Kindness Of God

"Mercy to him who wrote, O Lord, wisdom to those who read, grace to those who hear, salvation to those who own. Amen."

A prayer attached to a copy of the Psalms by a ninth-century scribe

A Conundrum For Catholics And Their Abstinence From Meats During Lent

        Despite Pope Paul VI permitting bishops to modify the meat abstinence policy as they see fit in their respective jurisdictions, the idea of weekly abstinence from meats each Friday is one that still exists in the Code of Canon Law (Canons 1250-1253). Violating this commandment is considered by the Roman Catholic Church to be a mortal sin. That means a Catholic who consumes meat on Friday is destined to hell unless the sin is absolved by a priest. This restriction has been limited to Ash Wednesday and Lent in the United States since 1966 (when Paul VI issued Paenitemini). Does this mean that adherents of Rome who ate meat on Friday and failed to confess their sin to a priest before that year are in hell? Did God "bend the rules" and release these souls from hell the moment Church policy changed?

Is Blessed The Same As Happy In Psalm 1?

So the word "blessed" - what does that mean? Many moderns translate it "happy." I think that's inadequate. I don't think we have a word for it.

But I point out in Hebrew that there are two different words for "bless"...So you have barak which means "to bless", and then you have this word ashrei.

The word barak means "to be filled with the potency for life". It's the ability to reproduce. So that when God blessed the creation, it was to be fruitful and multiply. Now when you carry that over to the NT, Jesus blessed the disciples. He himself never married. He's not saying to them be fruitful and multiply physically, but be fruitful and multiply spiritually. It's a different form of the kingdom. So that's the word "to bless", barak.

Now the other "to bless" is ashrei. The word used here [in Psalm 1:1]. And that word ashrei means that you have a blessed destiny. It usually refers to the future. And that future, that blessed future, is based upon your present relationship with God. The blessed person when you use ashrei may be in deep trouble at the time...This is a quote from Eliphaz in the book of Job. This would be the Greek equivalent of ashrei - makarios. He says "Blessed is the one whom God corrects". We don't think a person who is being disciplined is particularly blessed, but that's a blessed person. "Blessed is the one whom God corrects, so do not despise the discipline of the Almighty, for he wounds, but he also binds up; he injures, but his hands also heal" [Job 5:17-18]. You have a blessed future. So be thankful that you're a blessed person because God is disciplining you to give you the celestial city. You see how that's different from the word "fill you with potency with life and victory"? It's a different word.

Or another illustration is from the Greek of the Beatitudes of Jesus. Who are the blessed? It's not the way we normally think of it. "Blessed - makarioi, plural - are those who mourn, for they will be comforted...Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of God. Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you...Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven..." (Mt 5:4, 10-12). So the blessed person is a person who has this great reward in the future. That is not translated by "happy". It's totally inadequate for that. I agree the average person doesn't understand it always, but I think it carries more than just being happy.

Professor Bruce K. Waltke, What Do "Person" And "Blessed" Mean In Psalm 1?

A Dilemma For Strictly Materialistic Views Of Biology

"Nothing in nature will ever simultaneously go to both low entropy and high energy at the same time. It’s a physical impossibility. Yet life had to do that. Life had to take simple chemicals and go to a state of high energy and of low entropy. That’s a physical impossibility."

Physicist Brian Miller, "Conundrums for Strictly Materialist Views of Biology"

Debunking The Mormon Teaching Of Human Souls Being Preexistent

        “Before you were born on the earth, you lived in the presence of your Heavenly Father as one of his spirit children.” (True to the Faith: A Gospel Reference, p. 115)

        In Genesis 2:7, we are told that God created Adam from the dust of the earth. He was not a pre-existing soul. Rather, he had life breathed into him. That is the precise moment when Adam's life began. He did not exist prior to walking in the Garden of Eden.

        In Genesis 5:3, we are told that Adam had a son in his own image and likeness named Seth. Thus, he had life breathed into him just as did his father. Seth never existed in the form of a disembodied soul prior to his birth.

       In 1 Corinthians 15:46-47, the Apostle Paul states that our physical birth takes place prior to our spiritual birth. This is contrary to the idea of our souls being pre-existent. God breathed life into man when he was created from the dust of the ground, not put already existing souls into bodies.

       Jesus Christ as God existed eternally with the Father. He took on flesh to make atonement for our sins. If our souls are pre-existent, then that would compromise the uniqueness of Christ. There would be no basis for Him to appeal to His pre-existence as a special qualification (John 8:56-58). The response to Christ's claims of being God points to a general absence of belief in all human souls being pre-existent amongst Jews of His day (John 8:59).

         Blake T. Ostler notes the following regarding the absence of belief in the preexistence of human souls amongst the earliest followers of Mormonism:

       "The earliest Mormon publications defined God—in terms borrowed from contemporary orthodox Christianity—as the sole and necessary basis of all existence.2 [See, for example, Apostle Parley P. Pratt’s statement that at death the human spirit “return[s] to the fountain and become[s] part of the great all from which [it] emanated,” in Parker Pratt Robinson, Writings of Parley P. Pratt (Salt Lake City: Robinson, 1952), 216.] The concept of a preexistence either in the sense of eternal, uncreated spirits co-existing with God or as spirit offspring of God did not exist in early Mormon thought. The Book of Mormon assumed that human existence depended entirely upon God (see, for example, Mos. 2:20-21). When the premortal Lord revealed his finger to the brother of Jared, he explained that humans were created “in the beginning after mine own image … after the body of my spirit” (Eth. 3:15-16), implying that human, physical bodies resemble God’s spiritual body. In contrast, orthodox Christianity interpreted “image and likeness” (Gen. 1:26) [p.128]to mean humankind’s moral capacities, not its physical attributes. The seeds, at least, of anthropomorphism and of co-existence of humans with God were thus planted in Mormon thought in the Book of Mormon notion of creation after the image of God’s spiritual body."

        The same cited source also said the following regarding the pre-existence of man being foreign to early Mormon thought:

        "The classical gulf between God and his mortal creations entailed in the doctrine of creatio ex nihilo was accepted without revision in the official Mormon publication The Evening and the Morning Star in October 1832: “The Creator, who having created our souls at first by an act of his will can either eternally preserve them or absolutely annihilate them” (p. 77). Humans were thus contingent beings who did not exist prior to their creation by God—either as body or as spirit—and could lapse into non-being if God willed it. A letter in the May 1835 Latter Day Saints’ Messenger and Advocate echoed a similar belief: “Man is dependent on the great first cause and is constantly upheld by Him, therefore justly amenable to him” (p. 113)."

Mormons Refuted: God The Father And Jesus Christ Are Not Two Separate Gods

        The Mormons do not adhere to the traditional Christian doctrine of the Trinity. Instead, they believe that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are three distinct gods, a belief known as tritheism. In Mormon theology, God the Father is referred to as Elohim (a Hebrew term for God), while Jesus Christ is recognized as Jehovah, a term that can be legitimate in certain contexts because He is the second person of the Trinity.

         However, this perspective raises questions when interpreting certain biblical texts. For example, how would a Mormon understand Psalm 110:1-2, which is quoted by Jesus in Matthew 22:41-45? According to Mormon logic, Jesus would be telling Himself to sit at His own right hand! In contrast, the Trinitarian perspective interprets this text as God the Father addressing God the Son, maintaining a distinct yet unified relationship. If Jehovah refers to Jesus as a separate god, it could imply that He is exalted above God the Father, as suggested by Psalm 97:9.

The Genesis Flood As A Prototype Of The Final Judgment

        "and did not spare the ancient world, but saved Noah, one of eight people, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood on the world of the ungodly." (2 Peter 2:5)

        What caused God to send a flood upon this earth, resulting in the death of mankind and other forms of life? It had to do with the wickedness of man (Genesis 6:5-8). He had forgotten the ways of his Creator. People became overly comfortable with temporal blessings and so had removed the things of God from their minds. They behaved as though He did not exist, caring only about the things of this earthly realm (Matthew 24:38; Luke 17:27).

        Noah warned his generation of how God would judge the world through a flood. He was the recipient of mocking and scoffing as he prepared an ark for his family. The people were preoccupied with the things of this life: eating, drinking, and marriage. They were not concerned with the things of God. That is why the flood which Noah had spoken of beforehand was unexpected (2 Peter 3:3-6). There came a time when God closed the door on the ark.

        Just as God cast judgment on sinful mankind through a flood, so He will judge the unrepentant and unbelieving world again. The imagery of fire is utilized as He refines creation and permanently does away with evil (2 Peter 3:7; 10-13). Both scenarios point us to the beginning of a new creation. Those who are righteous by faith will be delivered from the wrath of God to come (Hebrews 11:7).

        Just as faithful Noah was dismissed when he preached repentance, so there are plenty in this fallen world who mock the gospel message proclaimed by God's church. Indeed, He has been rather patient and merciful with all people (2 Peter 3:8-9). It will not always be that way, for there is a time coming which is reserved for judgment.

        Noah’s story is a powerful reminder of both God’s judgment and mercy. It urges us to reflect on our own lives and consider how we live in relation to our Creator. The fact that He gave the unbelieving world in Noah's day time to repent is an element of mercy shining forth through an otherwise dreary narrative. As we navigate the comforts and distractions of this world, let us not forget the eternal truths and the impending divine judgment.