Love Wins:Chapter Two

Here is a blog from John MacAuthur that clearly shows how much Rob Bell is redefining Christianity. After that is a Bible study on Heaven by John MacArthur.

http://http://www.gty.org/Blog/B110414

Rob Bell: “Evangelical and orthodox to the bone?” Hardly.
Thursday, April 14, 2011

Rob Bell is reminiscent of the Rich Young Ruler in Mark 10:17-27. He has a warped view of goodness. He talks as if his own standard of good is the norm, and Bell even suggests that God is not good if He sends people to hell.

Jesus’ reply to the young inquirer ("No one is good except God alone"—v. 18) says God himself alone is the standard of true good, not any creature—certainly not a fallen creature.

The Young Ruler was not saved, nor can any person be who thinks his or her own preferences determine what is truly good. That kind of arrogance reflects a damning egotism.



In his books, sermons, and videos, Rob Bell has consistently promoted views that are antithetical to biblical Christianity and hostile to historic evangelical principles.

For example, although he claims to “affirm the historic Christian faith, which includes the virgin birth and the Trinity and the inspiration of the Bible” (Velvet Elvis, 26), Bell is clearly more interested in casting doubt on the fundamental truths of biblical Christianity than he is in defending them.

Consider what else Bell says on that very same page of Velvet Elvis:


What if tomorrow someone digs up definitive proof that Jesus had a real, earthly, biological father named Larry, and archeologists find Larry’s tomb and do DNA samples and prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that the virgin birth was really just a bit of mythologizing the Gospel writers threw in to appeal to the followers of the Mithra and Dionysian religious cults that were hugely popular at the time of Jesus, whose gods had virgin births?

But what if, as you study the origin of the word ‘virgin’ you discover that the word ‘virgin’ in the gospel of Matthew actually comes from the book of Isaiah, and then you find out that in the Hebrew language at that time, the word ‘virgin’ could mean several things. And what if you discover that in the first century being ‘born of a virgin’ also referred to a child whose mother became pregnant the first time she had intercourse?

Bell compares the Christian faith to a large trampoline, with its cardinal doctrines (truths evangelicals have historically deemed essential) functioning like the springs that support the jumping platform. The individual springs aren’t absolutely essential, Bell says—including the virgin birth:


What if that spring [the virgin birth] were seriously questioned? Could a person keep on jumping? Could a person still love God? Could you still be a Christian? Is the way of Jesus still the best possible way to live? Or does the whole thing fall apart? . . . If the whole faith falls apart when we reexamine and rethink one spring, then it wasn’t that strong in the first place, was it?” (26-27)

So on the one hand, in a single sentence, he professes to affirm the virgin birth. On the other hand (and on the very same page), he spends multiple paragraphs calling the truthfulness and importance of that doctrine into question.

That is Bell’s modus operandi. He labels himself an evangelical while simultaneously undermining the foundational tenets of evangelical conviction.

In light of this, Love Wins should not have been a surprise to anyone. The book is consistent with several things Bell has been teaching for some time. For example:


• He has frequently espoused a distorted understanding of hell—one in which hell is not a literal place where wicked souls are punished, but more of a self-induced state of mind pertaining mainly to this life.


Rob Bell, Ooze Interview (July 2007): “I don’t know why as a Christian you would have to make such declarative statements. [Why would you] want there to be a literal hell? I am a bit skeptical of somebody who argues that passionately for a literal hell, why would you be on that side? Like if you are going to pick causes, if you’re literally going to say these are the lines in the sand, I’ve got to know that people are going to burn forever, this is one of the things that you drive your stake in the ground on. I don’t understand that.”

Rob Bell, Sex God, 21–22: “To the Jewish mind, heaven is not a fixed, unchanging geographical location somewhere other than this world. Heaven is the realm where things are as God intends them to be. . . . Now if there’s a realm where things are as God wants them to be, then there must be a realm where things are not as God wants them to be. Where things aren’t according to God’s will. Where people aren’t treated as fully human. It’s called hell.”

• His understanding of heaven is even more bizarre.



Rob Bell, Sex God, 168: “If sex is about connection, what happens when everybody is connected with everybody else? . . . Is sex in its greatest, purest, most joyful and honest expression a glimpse of forever? Are these brief moments of abandon and oneness and ecstasy just a couple of seconds or minutes of how things will be forever? Is sex a picture of heaven? In First Corinthians 12, Paul claimed to have seen a vision of heaven, and the phrase he used to describe it in Greek is translated ‘unwordable words.’ He wrote that he saw things man is ‘not permitted to tell.’ Maybe that’s why the Scriptures are so ambivalent about whether a person is married. About whether a person is having sex. Maybe Jesus knew what is coming and knew that whatever we experience here will pale compared with what awaits everyone. Do you long for that? Because that’s the center of Jesus’ message. An invitation.”

• Bell has also consistently promoted a form of universalism. For example:



Rob Bell, Velvet Elvis, 137: “So this reality, this forgiveness, this reconciliation, is true for everybody. . . . Heaven is full of forgiven people. Hell is full of forgiven people. Heaven is full of people God loves, whom Jesus died for. Hell is full of forgiven people God loves, whom Jesus died for. The difference is how we choose to live, which story we choose to live in, which version of reality we trust. Ours or God’s.”

Rob Bell and Don Golden, Jesus Wants to Save Christians, 147: “Jesus is the representative of the entire human family. His blood covers the entire created door. Jesus is saving everyone and everything.”

Rob Bell, Ooze Interview (July 2007): [In response to the question, “Do you believe in a literal hell that is defined simply as eternal separation from God?”] “Well, there are people now who are seriously separated from God. So I would assume that God will leave room for people to say ‘no I don’t want any part of this.’ My question would be, does grace win or is the human heart stronger than God’s love or grace. Who wins, does darkness and sin and hardness of heart win or does God’s love and grace win?”

Rob Bell, Velvet Elvis, 18: “God is bigger than any religion. God is bigger than any worldview. God is bigger than the Christian faith.”

So when he promotes Love Wins with the following words, why would we be surprised?


Rob Bell, Love Wins Promo Video: “And then there is the question behind the questions, the real question: What is God like? Because millions and millions of people were taught that the primary message—the center of the Gospel of Jesus—is that God is going to send you to hell, unless you believe in Jesus. And so, what gets, subtly, sort of caught and taught is that Jesus rescues you from God. But what kind of God is that; that we would need to be rescued from this God? How could that God ever be good; how could that God ever be trusted? And how could that ever be good news.”

Or when he suggests the possibility of post-mortem salvation, should we be shocked?


Rob Bell, Love Wins, p. 107: [There will be] “endless opportunities in an endless amount of time for people to say yes to God. At the heart of this perspective is the belief that, given enough time, everybody will turn to God and find themselves in the joy and peace of God’s presence. The love of God will melt every hard heart, and even the most ‘depraved sinners’ will eventually give up their resistance and turn to God.”



INTRODUCTION

We live in a time when credit cards allow us to own what we can't afford, go where we wouldn't be able to go, and do what would otherwise be impossible for us. Then we begin paying--hopefully. Sometimes people allow their indebtedness to steadily increase until they can't meet all their obligations, and serious problems result. The credit problem is symptomatic of an attitude that says, "I want what I want when I want it!" The mindset of our age is against postponing anything. We prefer instant gratification, gladly sacrificing the future on the altar of the immediate.

Unfortunately the church has fallen prey to such materialistic indulgence. Rather than setting their affections on things above (Col. 3:1), many Christians are attached to the earth. Rather than laying up their treasure in heaven, they have dedicated themselves to accumulating treasure here. Certain television and radio ministries, preaching a prosperity gospel, promise people that Jesus wants them healthy, wealthy, and successful. Such teaching is extremely popular because it caters to people's desire to have everything in this life. Because the church doesn't have heaven on its mind, it tends to be indulgent, self- centered, and weak. Its present comfort consumes its thoughts, and it entertains only passing thoughts of heaven.

A. The Preciousness of Heaven

In reality, everything that is precious to us as Christians is in heaven.


1. Our Father

In Matthew 6:9 Jesus says, "Pray, then, in this way: Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name." Our Father, who is the source of everything, is in heaven.

2. Our Savior

Hebrews 9:24 says, "Christ did not enter a holy place made with hands, a mere copy of the true one, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us." Our Savior is also in heaven.

3. Our brothers and sisters in Christ

Hebrews 12:23 says, "To the general assembly and church of the first-born who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the Judge of all, and to the spirits of righteous men made perfect." Our brothers and sisters in the faith are there. Every Old and New Testament believer who has died is in heaven.

4. Our names

In Luke 10:20 Christ tells His disciples, who were casting out demons, "Do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are recorded in heaven." By saying that our names are written in heaven, Christ assures us that we have a title deed to property there.

5. Our inheritance

First Peter 1:3-4 says, "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you." Our eternal inheritance--all the riches of God's glory and grace--is there.

6. Our citizenship

In Philippians 3:20 Paul observes that "our citizenship is in heaven." We are citizens; we belong there.

7. Our eternal reward

In Matthew 5:12 Jesus says we we're to consider ourselves blessed when others persecute us because our reward is in heaven.

8. Our Master

In Ephesians 6:9 Paul reminds us that our Master is in heaven.

9. Our treasure

In Matthew 6:19-21 Jesus says that the only treasure we will possess throughout eternity is there.

We can summarize by saying that heaven is our home. Christians are strangers, pilgrims, and aliens in this world.

B. The Priority of heaven


1. Explained

Everything we love, everything we value, everything eternal is in heaven. Nevertheless the church in this century has tended to be self-indulgent, proof that many Christians have lost their heavenly perspective. Too many don't want to go to heaven until they've enjoyed all that the world can deliver. Only when all earthly pursuits are exhausted, or when age and sickness hamper their enjoyment, are they ready for heaven. It is as if they pray, "Please God, don't take to heaven yet; I haven't been to Hawaii!" Or, "I haven't gotten my new car or house." What a jaded perspective!

First John 2 says, "If any one loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.... The world is passing away" (vv. 15, 17). Many people who claim to love Christ love the world so much that they can't possibly be citizens of heaven. Like the old spiritual says, everybody talking about heaven ain't going there. But it is also true that everyone going there isn't talking about it. The hope of heaven should fill us with a joy of anticipation that loosens us from this transitory world. It's easy to become so attached to the world that we spend our energy consuming things that will perish rather than accumulating treasure in heaven. Some people think heaven is an imaginary place, the dream of little children. Others believe it is a state of mind, a projection of all that is good in humanity, or the immortality of truth and beauty. But the Bible says heaven is a place, the eventual dwelling of all who love God. We will live there forever in complete perfection and glory.

2. Exemplified


a) Paul's situation

When Paul wrote 2 Corinthians, he was facing overwhelming persecution. In 4:8-10 he says, "We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not despairing; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body." In verses 16-17 he says, "We do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day. For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison." Paul is saying that whatever we endure in this life can't be compared with the glory it's producing in the life to come. When the mother of James and John asked Christ if He would allow her sons to sit on His left and right in the Kingdom, Christ said that decision was the Father's, but implied that the Father would give it to the one who suffered most here for His name (Matt. 20:21-23). Whatever we endure here will be compensated for in eternity.

b) Paul's shell

Paul continues, "We look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal. For we know that if the earthly tent which is our house is torn down, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens" (2 Cor. 4:18[en]5:1).


(1) The decay of the earthly body

Our earthly tent is being torn down. I remember reading that when someone asked John Quincy Adams how he was doing, Adams replied something to the effect of, "John Quincy Adams is well, sir, very well. The house in which he has been living is dilapidated and old, and he has received word from its maker that he must vacate soon. But John Quincy Adams is well, sir, very well." Indeed our earthly tent is being torn down, but when it's gone, we'll have a building from God, eternal in the heavens. Second Corinthians 5:2 says of our earthly bodies, "Indeed in this house we groan." We groan because of the infirmities of the flesh and the sin that permeates it. We groan because we can't be what we long to be. We're debilitated in these bodies, so we groan with the rest of creation, waiting "eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God" (Rom. 8:19). We long to be clothed with a heavenly body.

(2) The anticipation of an eternal body

In 2 Corinthians 5:2-4 Paul continues, "We groan, longing to be clothed with our dwelling from heaven; inasmuch as we, having put it on, shall not be found naked. For indeed while we are in this tent, we groan, being burdened, because we do not want to be unclothed, but to be clothed, in order that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life." Although in this body we groan because we are burdened by sin, sickness, sorrow, and death, we don't want to be unclothed. We want both our spirits and our bodies to enter the presence of God. Paul yearned for heaven and his eternal body.

Verse 5 says, "He who prepared us for this very purpose is God, who gave to the Spirit as a pledge." The Greek word translated "pledge" is arrab[ma]on, the same word Paul uses in Ephesians 1:14 to refer to the Holy Spirit. In modern Greek a form of arrab[ma]on refers to an engagement ring. In New Testament times it referred to a down payment or first installment--earnest money. So, the Holy Spirit is the pledge of the new body we will have in the glories of heaven.

c) Paul's strategy

In verses 6-8 Paul mentions the practical results of his teaching in the previous verses: "Therefore, being always of good courage, and knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord--for we walk by faith, not by sight--we are of good courage, I say, and prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord." Do you find it difficult to say honestly that those verses express the deepest desires of your heart? There is a tendency to hold tightly to this world because it's all we know. We experience meaningful relationships here, so we become captive to this life. But notice that Paul says, "At home with the Lord." We are at home only when we're with the Lord--that's where we belong.

As we examine what the Bible teaches about heaven, we should long to be clothed with our heavenly form. We should look forward to being absent from the body and present with the Lord. We should become more preoccupied with the glories of eternity rather than the afflictions of today. We need to spend our energy accumulating heavenly treasures rather than amassing treasures here that are ultimately meaningless. After a rich person died, someone asked one of his friends how much he left. The friend answered, "All of it." And that's exactly what each of us will leave.

LESSON

I. WHAT HEAVEN IS

The Bible refers to heaven about 550 times. The Hebrew word translated "heaven" (shamayim) is plural and literally means "the heights." The Greek word translated "heaven" is ouranos, which inspired the name of the planet Uranus. It refers to that which is raised up or lofty.

A. A Place

Both those words are used to refer to three different places. In 2 Corinthians 12:2 Paul says, "Such a man [probably a reference to himself] was caught up to the third heaven" (emphasis added). That clearly demonstrates there are three heavens.


1. The atmospheric heaven

Sometimes when the Bible speaks of heaven, it is referring to the region usually called the troposphere--the atmosphere around the earth. It's the air we breathe. For example, Isaiah 55:9 says, "As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts. For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven ...." Here the word "heaven" refers to the atmosphere, which is where the hydrological cycle occurs. Psalm 147:8 says that God "covers the heavens with clouds." That is the first heaven.

2. The planetary heaven

The second heaven is where the stars, moons, and planets are. Scripture also mentions this heaven. For example, Genesis 1 says, "God said, Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens.... God made the two great lights, the greater light to govern the day, and the lesser light to govern the night; He made the stars also. And God placed them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth" (vv. 14,16-17). That's the second heaven.

3. The divine heaven

The third heaven is the place where God dwells with His holy angels and those saints who have died.


How Can an Omnipresent God Live in Heaven?

In 1 Kings 8:27 Solomon prays, "Heaven and the highest heaven [lit. "heaven of heavens"] cannot contain Thee, how much less this house which I have built!" There is a sense in which the heaven of heavens can't contain God, yet in another sense it is His dwelling place. A simple illustration may help clarify how both can be true: I live in a house, but that house can't contain me. It doesn't contain me bodily at all times, and it certainly can't contain the effect of my life--my influence. Although that is an imperfect illustration, it expresses how God can dwell in heaven, but at the same time not be limited or contained to it.



a) In the Old Testament

Isaiah 57:15 says, "Thus says the high and exalted One who lives forever, whose name is Holy, I dwell on a high and holy place." God has a real dwelling place. Isaiah 63:15 identifies that place: "Look down from heaven, and see from Thy holy and glorious habitation." Psalm 33:13-14 says, "The Lord looks from heaven; He sees all the sons of men; from His dwelling place He looks out." So there is a place where God dwells, and that place is called heaven. It's the heaven of heavens, the third heaven. Psalm 102:19 says, "He looked down from His holy height; from heaven the Lord gazed upon the earth."

b) In the New Testament


(1) Revelation

Revelation 3:12 says, "He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of My God, and he will not go out from it anymore; and I will write upon him the name of My God, and the name of the city of My God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from My God." John describes the city as descending out of heaven at God's command.

(2) Matthew

Christ repeatedly stressed that the Father is in heaven. In Matthew 5:16 He says, "Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven." In verse 34 He says, "Make no oath at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God." Verse 45 says, "That you may be the sons of your Father who is in heaven." Matthew 6:1 says, "Beware of practicing your righteousness before men to be noticed by them; otherwise you have no reward with your Father who is in heaven." In verse 9 Christ says, "Pray, then, in this way: Our Father who art in heaven." Matthew 7:11 says, "If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your Father who is in heaven give what is good to those who ask Him!" Verse 21 says, "Not every one who says to Me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven; but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven." Matthew 10:32-33 says, "Everyone therefore who shall confess Me before men, I will also confess him before My Father who is in heaven. But whosoever shall deny Me before men, I will also deny him before My Father who is in heaven."

Matthew 12:50 says, "Whoever does the will of My Father who is in heaven, he is My brother and sister and mother." In Matthew 16:17 Jesus said to Peter, "Blessed are you, Simon Barjona, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but My Father who is in heaven." Matthew 18:10 says, "Do not despise one of these little ones [believers], for I say unto you, that their angels in heaven continually behold the face of My Father who is in heaven." Verse 14 says, "It is not the will of your Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones perish." Verse 19 says, "If two of you agree on earth about anything that they may ask, it shall be done for them by My Father who is in heaven." In verse 35 Christ says, "So shall My heavenly Father also do to you."

(3) John

In John 6 Jesus says, "The bread of God is that which comes down out of heaven, and gives life to the world" (v. 33). Again Jesus links God and heaven. In verse 38 Christ says, "I have come down from heaven." In verses 41-42 He says, "I am the bread that came down out of heaven.... I have come down out of heaven." In verses 50-51 He says, "This is the bread which comes down out of heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that came down out of heaven." Verse 58 says, "This is the bread which came down out of heaven."

Heaven is not a figment of imagination, a feeling, or an emotion-- it's a place, God's place.


A Key to Interpreting the New Testament

Heaven is so much God's place that it became a synonym for God Himself. That usage is common in the New Testament. In Matthew 23:22 Jesus says, "He who swears by heaven, swears both by the throne of God and by Him who sits upon it." Heaven there is synonymous with God. You can refer to either heaven or God and mean both. In Luke 15:7 Christ says that "there will be...joy in heaven over one sinner who repents." The following parables, including that of the prodigal son, illustrate that that refers to joy in heart of God. In fact, the prodigal son, rehearsing what he would say to his Father, said, "I will get up and go to my father, and will say to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven" (Luke 15:18). That meant the same thing as sinning against God.

When the writers of Scripture speak of the Kingdom of Heaven, they are actually referring to the Kingdom of God. Particularly during the Intertestamental Period, the 400 years between the events of the Old Testament and the New, the Jewish people developed a fear of using God's name. They didn't like using the covenant name of God (Yahweh or Jehovah), because they thought it was too holy to pass through their lips. So they began substituting things for the name of God, and "heaven" became a common substitute. By New Testament times that practice was so ingrained that the Jewish people understood any reference to the Kingdom of Heaven as a reference to the Kingdom of God.


B. A Sphere


1. Explained

In Ephesians 1:3 the apostle Paul says, "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places [heavenlies] in Christ." Notice that the verb tense indicates that the blessing occurred in the past. Ephesians 2:4-6 says, "God, being rich in mercy...even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised [past tense] us up with Him, and seated [past tense] us with Him in the heavenly places, in Christ Jesus." Although we aren't yet in heaven, we are in the heavenlies. Heaven is where God lives and rules. We aren't in the place called heaven, but we are under the dominion of the King of heaven, so we are living in the heavenlies.

Christ preached that the Kingdom of Heaven or Kingdom of God was at hand. He called people to enter that Kingdom, to be saved, and to inherit eternal life. Those three expressions all point to one experience: salvation. Whenever someone believes in Christ, he enters the Kingdom of God--he comes under God's rule, not in heaven but in the heavenlies. Although we don't yet live in heaven, we do live in the heavenlies and should therefore be preoccupied with heavenly things. Our new life in Christ is in the heavenlies--it is under the rule and dominion of God.

2. Examined

Heaven will be a new community of holiness and fellowship with God. It will be a place of joy, peace, love, and fulfillment. But we experience that partially even now. The Holy Spirit is producing in us the fruit of "love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control" (Gal. 5:22-23). Those traits characterize heaven. That's what Fanny Crosby meant by "a foretaste of glory divine" in her hymn "Blessed Assurance." We are tasting now what we will enjoy in heaven. We have the life of God in us and the rule of God over us. We know joy, peace, love, goodness, and blessing. We have become part of a new family, a new kind of community. We have left the kingdom of darkness for the kingdom of light. We are no longer under the dominion of Satan but the dominion of God in Christ. Second Corinthians 5:17 says, "If any man is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come." We are new creations.

We are members of a new family. Rather than remaining the children of Satan, we have become the children of God. Galatians 4:26 says that Jerusalem is our mother, referring not to the earthly Jerusalem, but to the Jerusalem where God rules. We have a new citizenship (Phil. 3:20), new affections (Col. 3:1), and a new storehouse where we are to store our treasures (Matt. 6:19-20).



CONCLUSION

So heaven is an actual place, but it is also a sphere in this world where God rules. The best of our spiritual experiences here is only a taste of heaven. Our highest spiritual heights, profoundest depths, and greatest spiritual blessings will be normal in heaven. As we live now in the heavenlies, we are merely tasting the glories of the life to come. To us heaven is now a sphere where we live under God's rule and His Spirit's blessing. Someday it will also be a real place where we will walk in our glorified bodies. In John 17 Christ prays, "Father, I desire that they also, whom Thou hast given Me, be with Me where I am, in order that they may behold My glory" (v. 24). In John 14:1 Christ says to His disciples, "Let not your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father's house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for 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 to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also." Jesus is preparing a place where we will live in a glorified, physical form similar to that of the resurrected body of Christ. He walked, ate, and sang, but He also ascended through space into the third heaven.

We are longing for "the city which has foundations, whose architect and builder is God" (Heb. 11:10). In ancient times a city was a place of safety and refuge. The nomadic people of those times were especially vulnerable to robbers, thieves, and the elements. Imagine after many weeks or even months of such wandering how refreshing it was to enter the protection of a walled city. Every Christian needs to see himself as a pilgrim, wandering through this world, looking for "the city...whose architect and builder is God"--a real place where we will live with Christ. We will be with Him, just as the disciples were with Him after His resurrection. Like Thomas, we will touch Him. We will sit with Him and sing with Him. The joy we have of walking with Christ and knowing that the Spirit lives within us is the pledge that someday we will live in heaven.


There Is No Purgatory

If you are a Christian, the moment you leave this life you go to heaven. The Bible doesn't teach what the medieval theologians referred to as limbus patrum or limbo. There is no purgatory. Paul said he preferred "to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord" (2 Cor. 5:8). He said he desired "to depart and be with Christ" (Phil. 1:23).

When we consider that Christ prayed that all who know Him would spend eternity with Him (John 17:24), our hearts should overflow with gratitude. We need to have the heart of Paul--yearning to to be clothed with our heavenly form and to exchange this transient world for eternal joy.

Love Wins, Chapter one.

Here is chapter one of Love Wins by Rob Bell. I have listen to this chapter twice and I am receiving a brain freeze with all the questions and jumping like a jack rabbit all over the New Testament. His view of Jesus Christ still comes down to his starting point, his presupposition. Which I am hearing from Rob Bell. All the words of Scripture have to be viewed by experiences of life, by his rejection of church Fathers and theologians that do not agree with his "Journey". And a misrepresentation of the Bible. My heart yearns for a elder. Grounded in a Historical, Biblical Truth that would reach this man. I can't give up and not pray for Rob Bell. Until he questions his own books and his own starting point. He will continue to worship a 'god' of his choice.

A good Biblical foundation to answer a false foundation and false questioning is the Gospel. So I will be airing chapters from John MacArthur's book: The Gospel According to Jesus. Lets start with chapter one: What did Jesus Really mean, "Follow me".

Roger Oakland Update and Message

First is a video update from Roger Oakland. He is going through a lot of changes in his website. Please check it out.
Roger has stood for Biblical Truth all through his ministry. But it is important to give complete credit to the Mercy and Grace of Jesus Christ for revealing His truth and keeping Roger in the narrow way. What a kind God! He can do the same to anyone who becomes a slave of the Gospel.

Here is copy of the news of Understanding the Time Radio Program being pulled from Calvary Chapel Radio.

Roger Oakland Removed from Calvary Chapel Radio

November 20, 2007

Sent from Lighthousetrails:

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In less than 48 hours after Roger Oakland of Understand the Times posted an article (on 11/15/07) titled “Ichabod,” his radio program was removed from Calvary Chapel’s radio network, KWVE. Lighthouse Trails contacted KWVE on November 19th to confirm the removal and to find out the reasons that this took place. Richard McIntosh, KWVE station manager, confirmed the removal and told Lighthouse Trails that while he knew the reason, he would not comment. A secretary at KWVE suggested Lighthouse Trails speak with McIntosh’s boss for more information. She transferred the call to the office of Chuck Smith Sr. who was unavailable for comment at the time.

Below is a copy of a notice Roger Oakland posted regarding the removal of his program, which had been on KWVE for 15 years. Oakland, author of Faith Undone, a powerful expose’ on the emerging church, has become increasingly vocal about Christian leaders who have been promoting both the emerging church and New Age mysticism in the church. He has been lecturing and speaking throughout the world for over 20 years – many of the audiences have been Calvary Chapel churches and pastors. While Calvary Chapel’s founding pastor, Chuck Smith, spoke out against the emerging church and contemplative spirituality (including Purpose Driven which is a promoter of both movements) in 2006 (see documentation) many Calvary Chapel churches have continued promoting these movements as is the case in nearly every Christian denomination today.

Roger Oakland’s commentary on the removal of his program off KWVE:

Following the publication of the commentary “Ichabod” posted at our web site Thursday, November 15, our “Understand The Times” radio program that has been broadcast Monday through Friday on KWVE 107.9 for the past fifteen years was removed from the air. The final program KWVE was Friday, November 16, 2007.

For those who have been regular listeners, you will be able to continue to hear Understand The Times radio programs by going to understandthetimes.org and finding the “Webcasts” button on the home page. The link to the radio transcripts is under that button.

New Understand The Times programs are posted weekly. You will be also able to download the transcripts of each program or sign up for Understand The Times podcasts.

Further, when this announcement was made by the KWVE manager, Roger was in Rome speaking at a conference on Biblical Creation. Evidence was presented to support the Genesis record and the theory of evolution was exposed for what it is – great deception. Many people’s lives were impacted. God’s Word was proclaimed with the anointing of the Holy Spirit. New doors are opening. God is on the throne. Jesus is coming soon!

Please pray for Roger, his family and the ministry of Understand The Times, at this time. Prayers are being answered and new doors for ministry are being opened, as other doors are closing.Now gird up your loins, and arise and speak to them all which I command you, “Do not be dismayed before them, lest I dismay you before them. Now behold I have made you today as a fortified city, and as a pillar of iron and as walls of bronze against the whole land, to the kings and to the people of the land. And they will fight against you but they will not overcome you, for I am with you to deliver you,” declares the LORD. Jeremiah 1:17-19

Sincerely In Christ,
Roger Oakland
Understand The Times, International

Here is a recent message from Roger Oakland when he was in Saskatoon on April 10,2011

World History; Church History; And What You Can Do About It

Lady Gaga did not receive the Gospel

There is an old story of how a diver saw a piece of paper clutched in the mouth of an oyster. The man grabbed it, found that it was a gospel tract and said, "I can't hold out any longer. His mercy is so great that He has caused His Word to follow me even to the bottom of the ocean." God used a tract to save the man. Why should a Christian use tracts? Simply because God uses them. He used a tract to save the great missionary Hudson Taylor, as well as many, many others. That fact alone should be enough incentive for a Christian to always use tracts to reach the lost, but there are even more reasons why we should use them. Here are a few:

• Tracts can make an opening for us to share our faith. We can watch people's reaction as we give them a tract, and see if they are open to listen to spiritual things.
• They can do the witnessing for us. If we are too timid to speak to someone about the things of God, we can at least give them a tract, or leave it lying around so that someone will pick it up.
• They speak to the person when they are ready--i.e. they don't read it until they want to.
• They can find their way into people's homes when we can't.
• They don't get into argument. They just state their case.
• Dr. Oswald J. Smith said, "The only way to carry out the Great Commission will be by the means of the printed page." Billy Graham said, "Nothing surpasses a tract for sowing the seed of the Good News." The Apostle Paul said, "I might by any means save some." I'm sure that if Paul had access to the printed page that we have access to, he would carry his convictions to the full.

I am never in public without gospel tracts. In fact, if anyone ever finds me in public without them, I will give them $20. That makes sure I am always loaded for battle (you should say the same thing to your friends). When I see an attendant who is standing in a store looking bored, I can give him or her a tract and say, "This will break your boredom." Most people smile, and say “Thanks.” In fact, we have tracts especially to break boredom. One is called the Intelligence Test Bookmark. This tract has a ten-minute “getaway” time. After you give it to them, you have ten minutes to get away, before they even know that it's a Christian tract. Other titles are especially designed for specific purposes.

If you want people to accept your tract from you, don't say, "Would you like this?" They will probably say, "What is it?" and then you're in trouble. Instead, say, "Did you get one of these?" That question has a two-fold effect. You stir up curiosity and make them ask "One of what?" That's when you pass it to them. That phrase also makes them feel as though they are missing out on something. And so they are.

Perhaps your whole life seems to pass before your eyes at the thought of giving someone a tract. Don't worry--you are not alone. We all battle fear. The answer to fear is found in the prayer closet. Ask God to give you a compassion that will swallow your fears. Meditate on the fate of the ungodly. Give Hell some deep thought. Confront what it is that you are so fearful of.

Do you like roller coasters? Some Christians want to try bungie-jumping or sky diving. Isn't it strange? We are prepared to risk our lives for the love of fear…and yet we are willing to let a sinner go to Hell for the fear of giving out a tract. Ask yourself how many piles of bloodied stones you can find where Christians have been stoned to death for preaching the gospel. How much singed soil can you find where they have been burned at the stake. Shame on us. We have a fear of rejection. We are fearful of looking foolish. That's a subtle form of pride. That sort of fear isn't from God. He hasn't given us the spirit of fear. If we listen to the lies of the devil rather than the Word of God, it shows we prefer to have faith in the devil rather than in our faithful Creator. What a terrible thought! Faith in His “precious promises” will lift us above the fear that so easily paralyzes us. If God is with us, nothing can be against us.

If you have never given out tracts, leave them in a shopping cart, or put them in the mail when you pay bills. Why not begin today? Then each night as you shut your eyes to go to sleep, you will have something very special to pray about…that God will use the tract you put somewhere. You will also have a deep sense of satisfaction, that you played a small part in carrying out the Great Commission…to reach this dying world with the gospel of everlasting life. Don't waste your life. Do something for the Kingdom of God while you are able to. Finally, always remember--treat every day as though it were your last…one day you will be right, so do something for God while you are able.

Author: Ray Comfort of Living Waters Publications

Richard Dawkins gets a heart full

Earlier this year Wendy Wright, President of Concerned Women for America and Outspoken Evolutionist Richard Dawkins. Got together and had a debate. And recorded their meeting, I must say that in order for Richard Dawkins to accept an evidence against Evolution. He has to leave his presupposition that there is no God. Wendy Wright's point is so valid that the value of an human being is tied up in the discussion of the existence of God. If you have blind chance and random DNA accidents creating single cell animals and then up the family tree to Humans. This can and does effect how much value we place on the unborn child and even effects the bullying issue.
Here are the seven parts.

Rob Bell: Questions become Statements. Preface of "Love Win"s

Rob Bell becomes more clear in where he stands regarding Orthodox Christianity. His Questions are becoming statements.

Here is an audio of the preface from Love Wins audio book. It seems that the discussion about the "story" of Jesus Christ because more important than Truth itself. This story that he repeats from history appears to Rob Bell to be the "god" of his choosing.

Notice that Rob Bell states that The "Jesus Story has been hijacked by a few. Here is the Books for further study that Kevin DeYoung includes after His Book Review. If these men are the hijackers. The Biblical Truth is being proclaimed today as it was in the first century of Christianity. Thank the Lord for these men and their writings.

The Doctrine of God

J. I. Packer, Knowing God (Downers Grove: IVP, 1998).

D. A. Carson, The Difficult Doctrine of the Love of God (Wheaton: Crossway, 1999).

Eternal Punishment and the Uniqueness of Christ

Christopher W. Morgan and Robert A. Peterson, eds., Hell Under Fire: Modern Scholarship

Reinvents Eternal Punishment (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2004).

Christopher W. Morgan and Robert A. Peterson, eds., Faith Comes by Hearing: A Response to

Inclusivism (Downers Grove: IVP, 2008).

John Piper, Jesus: The Only Way to God: Must You Hear the Gospel to Be Saved? (Grand

Rapids: Baker, 2010).

The Gospel

Greg Gilbert, What Is the Gospel? (Wheaton: Crossway, 2010).

Steve Jeffery, Mike Ovey, Andrew Sach, Pierced for Our Transgressions: Rediscovering the

Glory of Penal Substitution (Wheaton: Crossway, 2007).

Systematic Theologies

Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology: An Introduction to Biblical Doctrine (Grand Rapids:

Zondervan, 1994), 1140–67.

Michael Horton, The Christian Faith: A Systematic Theology for Pilgrims on the Way (Grand

Rapids: Zondervan, 2011), 919–990.

Mark Driscoll and Gerry Breshears, Doctrine: What Christians Should Believe (Wheaton:

Crossway, 2010), 145–174, 407–436.

Related Books

Kevin DeYoung and Ted Kluck, Why We’re Not Emergent: By Two Guys Who Should Be

(Chicago: Moody, 2008).

Kevin DeYoung, ed., Don’t Call It a Comeback: The Old Faith for a New Day (Wheaton:

Crossway, 2011).

David Clotfelter, Sinners in the Hands of a Good God: Reconciling Divine Judgment and Mercy

(Chicago: Moody, 2004).

J. Gresham Machen, Christianity and Liberalism (1923; new ed.; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans,

2009).

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Read Kevin DeYoung"s six points to understand where Rob Bell's foundation for his "discussion"

From God is still Holy and what you learned in Sunday School is still True. A Review of Love Wins.

A Few Preliminaries

Before going any further with a critique, a number of preliminary comments are in order. A few

opening remarks may help put this critical review in context and encourage productive responses.

One, although Bell asks a lot of questions (350 by one count), we should not write off the

provocative theology as mere question-raising. Bell did not write an entire book because he was

looking for some good resources on heaven and hell. This isn’t the thirteen-year-old in your

youth group asking her teacher, “How can a good God send people to hell?” Any pastor worth his

covenant salt will welcome sincere questions like this. (“Good question, Jenny, let’s see what the

Bible says about that.”) But Bell is a popular teacher of a huge church with a huge following. This

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book is not an invitation to talk. It’s him telling us what he thinks (nothing wrong with that). As

Bell himself writes, “But this isn’t a book of questions. It’s a book of responses to these questions”

(19).

Two, we should notice the obvious: this is a book. It is a book with lots of Scripture references.

It is a book that draws from history and personal experience. It makes a case for something. It

purports one story of Christianity to be better than another. Bell means to persuade. He wants

to convince us of something. He is a teacher teaching. This book is not a poem. It is not a piece

of art. This is a theological book by a pastor trying to impart a different way of looking at heaven

and hell. Whether Bell is creative or a provocateur is beside the point. If Bell is inconsistent,

unclear, or inaccurate, claiming the “artist” mantle is no help.

Three, I’m sure that many people looking to defend Bell will be drawn to a couple escape

hatches he launches along the way. As you’ll see, the book is a sustained attack on the idea that

those who fail to believe in Jesus Christ in this life will suffer eternally for their sins. This is the

traditional Christianity he finds “misguided and toxic” (viii). But in one or two places Bell seems

more agnostic.

Will everybody be saved, or will some perish apart from God forever because of

their choices? Those are questions, or more accurately, those are tensions we are

free to leave fully intact. We don’t need to resolve them or answer them because

we can’t, and so we simply respect them, creating space for the freedom that love

requires. (115)

These are strange sentences because they fall in the chapter where Bell argues that God wants

everyone to be saved and God gets what God wants. He tells us that “never-ending punishment”

does not give God glory, and “God’s love will eventually melt even the hardest hearts” (108).

So it’s unclear where the sudden agnosticism comes from. Is Bell wrestling with himself? Did a

friend or editor ask him to throw in a few caveats? Is he simply inconsistent?

Similarly, at the end Bell argues, rather out of the blue, that we need to trust God in the present,

that our choices here and now “matter more than we can begin to imagine” because we can miss

out on rewards and celebrations (197). This almost looks like an old-fashioned call to turn to

Christ before it’s too late. When you look more carefully, however, you see that Bell is not saying

what evangelicals might think. He wants us to make the most of life because “while we may get

other opportunities, we won’t get the one right in front of us again” (197). In other words, there

are consequences for our actions, in this life and in the next, and we can’t get this moment back;

but there will always be more chances. If you don’t live life to the fullest and choose love now,

you may initially miss out on some good things in the life to come, but in the end love wins

(197–198).

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For anyone tempted to take these few lines and make Bell sound orthodox, I encourage you

to read the whole book more carefully. Likewise, before you rush to accept that Bell believes

in hell and believes Christ is the only way, pay attention to his conception of hell and in what

way he thinks Jesus is the only way. Bad theology usually sneaks in under the guise of familiar

language. There’s a reason he’s written 200 pages on why you must be deluded to think people

end up in eternal conscious punishment under the just wrath of God. Words mean something,

even when some of them seem forced or out of place. Take the book as a whole to get Bell’s

whole message.

Four, it is possible that I (like other critics) am mean-spirited, nasty, and cruel. But voicing

strong disagreement does not automatically make me any of these. Judgmentalism is not the

same as making judgments. The same Jesus who said “do not judge” in Matthew 7:1 calls his

opponents dogs and pigs in Matthew 7:6. Paul pronounces an anathema on those who preach a

false gospel (Gal. 1:8). Disagreement among professing Christians is not a plague on the church.

In fact, it is sometimes necessary. The whole Bible is full of evaluation and encourages the

faithful to be discerning and make their own evaluations. What’s tricky is that some fights are

stupid, and some judgments are unfair and judgmental. But this must be proven, not assumed.

Bell feels strongly about this matter of heaven and hell. So do a lot of other people. Strong

language and forceful arguments are appropriate.

Five, I am not against conversation. What I am against is false teaching. I did not go to the

trouble of writing a review because I worry that God can’t handle our questions. The question is

never whether God can handle our honest reappraisals of traditional Christianity, but whether

he likes them.

On the subject of conversation, it’s worth pointing out that this book actually mitigates against

further conversation. For starters, there’s the McLarenesque complaint about the close-minded

traditionalists who don’t allow for questions, change, and maturity (ix). This is a kind of preemptive

“damned if you do, damned if you don’t” approach to conversation (cf. 183). In essence,

“Let’s talk, but I know already that the benighted and violent will hate my theology.” That hardly

invites further dialogue. More practically, Bell includes no footnotes for his historical claims and

rarely gives chapter and verse when citing the Bible. It is difficult to examine Bell’s claims when

he is less than careful in backing them up.

Six, this is not an evangelistic work, not in the traditional sense anyway. The primary intended

audience appears to be not so much secularists with objections to Christianity (á la Keller’s

Reason for God), but disaffected evangelicals who can’t accept the doctrine they grew up with.

Bell writes for the “growing number” who have become aware that the Christian story has been

“hijacked” (vii). Love Wins is for those who have heard a version of the gospel that now makes

their stomachs churn and their pulses rise, and makes them cry out, “I would never be a part of

that” (viii). This is a book for people like Bell, people who grew up in an evangelical environment

4

and don’t want to leave it completely, but want to change it, grow up out of it, and transcend it.

The emerging church is not an evangelistic strategy. It is the last rung for evangelicals falling off

the ladder into liberalism or unbelief.

Over and over, Bell refers to the “staggering number” of people just like him, people who

can’t believe the message they used to believe, people who want nothing to do with traditional

Christianity, people who don’t want to leave the faith but can’t live in the faith they once

embraced. I have no doubt there are many people like this inside and outside our churches.

Some will leave the faith altogether. Others—and they are in the worse position—will opt for

liberalism, which has always seen itself as a halfway house between conservative orthodoxy and

secular disbelief.

But before we let Bell and others write the present story, we must remember that there are also

a “staggering number” of young people who want the straight up, unvarnished truth. They want

doctrinal edges and traditional orthodoxy. They want no-holds-barred preaching. They don’t

want to leave traditional Christianity. They are ready to go deeper into it.

Love Wins has ignited such a firestorm of controversy because it’s the current fissure point

for a larger fault-line. As younger generations come up against an increasingly hostile cultural

environment, they are breaking in one of two directions—back to robust orthodoxy (often

Reformed) or back to liberalism. The neo-evangelical consensus is cracking up. Love Wins is

simply one of many tremors.

Why is Theology Important to You?

Why is Biblical Theology important?

Biblical theology is an important discipline for several reasons; first, it helps us to determine what themes and truths of scriptures are really important, and why. As we seek to understand how the scriptures naturally unfold, and how its themes are developed and grow ever more mature, we start to realize what's truly being emphasized. If we relied on systematic theology alone, we might come to know many truths about angels and men and sin and redemption, but which of those truths are the most important? Which are the most emphasized and developed in the history of special revelation? Is it as important to know about cherubim and seraphim as it is to know about justification and redemption?

Second, biblical theology gives us the “big picture,” and shows us how all the truths of the bible cohere and relate to each other, and make sense as a whole. The bible was not given to us as a handbook of various truths and doctrines, but fundamentally as an epic story, in which all truths exist to portray the glory of one great Hero, promised, foreshadowed, and prepared for in the Old Testament, and finally coming to accomplish his magnificent and many-faceted work in the New Testament. Systematic Theology alone does not give this epic, Christ-centered sense of the bible as one great unified whole, testifying to the mighty work of God's redemption through his eternal Son, the triumphant Christ.

Third, biblical theology can be helpful in demanding the application of a rigorous historical-grammatical hermeneutic in exegesis. Biblical theology, by its very nature, must take into account the history and context of special revelation, and answer the questions of why a particular book was written at a particular time, what problems it addressed, how it further prepared the world and the people of God for the coming of Christ, and so on; and for this reason, it can be a healthy corrective to any tendency toward careless “proof-texting”.


Monergism Copyright © 2008

Unicorns in the Bible?

If any one brings up reasons for not trusting the Bible because it is written by men. This information may help. But always remember to get to the gospel facts as so as possible.
This information is from http://http//www.answersingenesis.org/ by Dr. Elizabeth Mitchell, AiG–U.S. onJune 25, 2008 Some people claim the Bible is a book of fairy tales because it mentions unicorns. However, the biblical unicorn was a real animal, not an imaginary creature. The Bible refers to the unicorn in the context of familiar animals, such as peacocks, lambs, lions, bullocks, goats, donkeys, horses, dogs, eagles, and calves (Job 39:9–12.1) In Job 38–41, God reminded Job of the characteristics of a variety of impressive animals He had created, showing Job that God was far above man in power and strength.2 Job had to be familiar with the animals on God’s list for the illustration to be effective. God points out in Job 39:9–12 that the unicorn, “whose strength is great,” is useless for agricultural work, refusing to serve man or “harrow (plow) the valley.” This visual aid gave Job a glimpse of God’s greatness. An imaginary fantasy animal would have defeated the purpose of God’s illustration. Modern readers have trouble with the Bible’s unicorns because we forget that a single-horned feature is not uncommon on God’s menu for animal design. (Consider the rhinoceros and narwhal.) The Bible describes unicorns skipping like calves (Psalm 29:6), traveling like bullocks, and bleeding when they die (Isaiah 34:7). The presence of a very strong horn on this powerful, independent-minded creature is intended to make readers think of strength. The absence of a unicorn in the modern world should not cause us to doubt its past existence. (Think of the dodo bird. It does not exist today, but we do not doubt that it existed in the past.). Eighteenth century reports from southern Africa described rock drawings and eyewitness accounts of fierce, single-horned, equine-like animals. One such report describes “a single horn, directly in front, about as long as one’s arm, and at the base about as thick . . . . [It] had a sharp point; it was not attached to the bone of the forehead, but fixed only in the skin.”3 The elasmotherium, an extinct giant rhinoceros, provides another possibility for the unicorn’s identity. The elasmotherium’s 33-inch-long skull has a huge bony protuberance on the frontal bone consistent with the support structure for a massive horn.4 In fact, archaeologist Austen Henry Layard, in his 1849 book Nineveh and Its Remains, sketched a single-horned creature from an obelisk in company with two-horned bovine animals; he identified the single-horned animal as an Indian rhinoceros.5 The biblical unicorn could have been the elasmotherium.6 Assyrian archaeology provides one other possible solution to the unicorn identity crisis. The biblical unicorn could have been an aurochs (a kind of wild ox known to the Assyrians as rimu).7 The aurochs’s horns were very symmetrical and often appeared as one in profile, as can be seen on Ashurnasirpal II’s palace relief and Esarhaddon’s stone prism.8 Fighting rimu was a popular sport for Assyrian kings. On a broken obelisk, for instance, Tiglath-Pileser I boasted of slaying them in the Lebanon mountains.9 Extinct since about 1627, aurochs, Bos primigenius, were huge bovine creatures.10 Julius Caesar described them in his Gallic Wars as: “a little below the elephant in size, and of the appearance, color, and shape of a bull. Their strength and speed are extraordinary; they spare neither man nor wild beast which they have espied . . . . Not even when taken very young can they be rendered familiar to men and tamed. The size, shape, and appearance of their horns differ much from the horns of our oxen. These they anxiously seek after, and bind at the tips with silver, and use as cups at their most sumptuous entertainments.”11 The aurochs’ highly prized horns would have been a symbol of great strength to the ancient Bible reader. One scholarly urge to identify the biblical unicorn with the Assyrian aurochs springs from a similarity between the Assyrian word rimu and the Hebrew word re’em. We must be very careful when dealing with anglicized transliterated words from languages that do not share the English alphabet and phonetic structure.12 However, similar words in Ugaritic and Akkadian (other languages of the ancient Middle East) as well as Aramaic mean “wild bull” or “buffalo,” and an Arabic cognate means “white antelope.” However, the linguistics of the text cannot conclusively prove how many horns the biblical unicorn had. While modern translations typically translate re’em as “wild ox,” the King James Version (1611), Luther’s German Bible (1534), the Septuagint, and the Latin Vulgate translated this Hebrew word with words meaning “one-horned animal.” 13 The importance of the biblical unicorn is not so much its specific identity—much as we would like to know—but its reality. The Bible is clearly describing a real animal. The unicorn mentioned in the Bible was a powerful animal possessing one or two strong horns—not the fantasy animal that has been popularized in movies and books. Whatever it was, it is now likely extinct like many other animals. To think of the biblical unicorn as a fantasy animal is to demean God’s Word, which is true in every detail. Footnotes 1.In addition to Job 39:9–10, the unicorn is mentioned in Numbers 23:22, 24:8; Deuteronomy 33:17; Psalm 22:21, 29:6, 92:10; Isaiah 34:7. Back 2.In Job, God’s list of impressive real animals goes on to discuss peacocks, ostriches, horses, hawks, and eagles. God builds up to a crescendo, commanding Job to look at the behemoth, which He had created on the same day He created man (Job 40:15). The behemoth’s description matches that of a sauropod dinosaur. Following the behemoth, the list concludes with the leviathan, a powerful fiery sea creature. See “Could Behemoth Have Been a Dinosaur?” Back 3.Edward Robinson, ed., Calmet’s Dictionary of the Holy Bible, 1832 revised edition, pages 907–908. Back 4.The report in Nature described a 33-inch-long skull with a bony frontal protuberance more than three feet in circumference. This bony protuberance with its associated structures is thought to have supported a horn over a yard long. Norman Lockyer, “The Elasmotherium,” Nature: International Weekly Journal of Science, August 8, 1878, p. 388. Back 5.Austen Henry Layard, Nineveh and Its Remains (London: John Murray, 1849), p. 435. Back 6.A margin note on Isaiah 34:7 placed in the King James Version in 1769 mentions this possible identity, and the Latin Vulgate translates the same Hebrew word as “unicorn” in some contexts and “rhinoceros” in others. Back 7.Aurochs is both singular and plural, like sheep. Back 8.Viewable at www.britishmuseum.org. Back 9.Algernon Heber-Percy, A Visit to Bashan and Argob (London: The Religious Tract Society, 1895), p. 150. Back 10.Brittanica Concise Encyclopedia, 2007, s.v. “Aurochs.” Back 11.Julius Caesar, Gallic Wars, Book 6, chapter 28 (http://classics.mit.edu/Caesar/gallic.6.6.html). Back 12.Elizabeth Mitchell, “Doesn’t Egyptian Chronology Prove That the Bible Is Unreliable?” in The New Answer Book 2, ed. Ken Ham (Green Forest, Arkansas: Master Books, 2008), pp. 245–264 Back 13.Some writers who hold to the two-horned identity think that the KJV translators substituted the plural unicorns for the singular an unicorn in Deuteronomy 33:17 because they were uncomfortable with the idea of a two-horned unicorn. However, the KJV translators themselves noted the literal translation an unicorn in their own margin note. They likely chose the plural rendering to fit the context of the verse. Deuteronomy 33:17 states, “His [Joseph’s] glory is like the firstling of his bullock, and his horns are like the horns of unicorns: with them he shall push the people together to the ends of the earth: and they are the ten thousands of Ephraim, and they are the thousands of Manasseh.” The verse compares the tribal descendants of Joseph’s “horns,” meaning descendants of his two sons Ephraim and Manasseh, with the strong horns of unicorns. “Horns” is plural because there are two sons in view, and “unicorn” is referenced because the unicorn’s horn is so incredibly strong.

Is it Right to Name Individuals that Error from Truth

I hope these videos will help you understand the need to expose public speakers of teaching false doctrines and teachings that are not grounded in Scripture. There is growing opposition to being truthful with the church. One of the main objections is that it is unloving. But again it is loving to take a deaf ear and let individuals be in danger of worshiping a non-existent 'God". Or in other words a idol that we make up with our minds and not starting with Scripture to shape our understanding of Truth. First is Brannon Howse from his article: Is It Negative and Unbiblical to Name False Teachers?