IS THERE NO GOD IN ISRAEL? (Or how to insult a head of state with one question.)

Interesting things happen when one is faithful in everyday stuff. For instance, this morning my wife and I were having our regular Sunday morning Bible study. Each Sunday we read and discuss 5 chapters of Scripture, working our way through the entire Bible. Today we started II Kings. The book starts with the sad story of Ahazia (pronounced ah-khaz-YAH, meaning "Yah has grasped"). Ahazia was sick due to a fall. Wanting to know if he would live or die, he sent messengers to ask this question of the Philistine god, Baal-zebub (pronounced bah-all-zu-VOOV, meaning "master of flies"). The Angel of God met with Elija (pronounced eh-lee-YAH, meaning "my god is Yah" or "God is Yah") and told him to confront Ahazia with this simple question:

Is there no god in Israel?

This reminds me of Jesus' often asked questions, "...have you not read..." and "...is it not written..."

The question asked by Elijah is simple, straightforward...and a VERY hard insult to the intelligence of the king. Having the Torah, the writings of Moses, and the presence of the Creator God of which to inquire, why did Ahazia send messengers to a filthy idol named after insects who live by eating rotten flesh? Having men of God locally, even Elijah, to ask, why send to a foreign land and wait? The question of life or death had to be one that burned for the ailing king, one he wanted answered right now. So doctrinally, logically, and logistically, sending his aids across the border to a filthy god of a filthy people who killed Israelites didn't make any sense.

It was just stupid. And Ahazia paid with his life for this stupid act. II Kings 1:6.

Here is my question to you:

IS THERE NO BIBLE?
How stupid are you to spend hard earned dollars buying the latest from the religious book store when you have the Bible right on your night stand? How stupid are you to watch hours of Rob Bell videos about the Holy Spirit when the Holy Spirit has written an entire book to you?

How stupid are you to trust such strangers who make money, even millions, off their books, tapes, and videos? How stupid are you to think even for a minute their hands are innocent and their motives pure when such profit is possible, and the master told us to give as freely as we received? Mattew 10:8, Mark 1:45.

Don't you realize that even the good teachers have to eat from the same plate (the Bible) as you? So why not eat it yourself? Do you prefer the saliva of a preacher? How stupid are you to eat vomitted food, when you can eat the steak, drink the wine, enjoy the cheese the very God of truth has spread before you? And how can you know a good teacher if you know Spurgeon and McLaren, but not David, Moses, and Paul?

JESUS' QUESTIONS
In the gospels Jesus asked two questions aimed at insulting the religious teachers of the day, "...is it not written..." and "...have you not read..." His point was the same as that of Elijah. Just as Ahaziah ignored the true God and His prophets in favor of the disease-carrying insect god, the religious leaders of the day put as much weight on religious traditions and writings as the Scripture, often violating the Scriptures in order to obey men. As a result they were not as informed about the Scripture as they ought to be.

Thus His questions. He insulted them on purpose. Before answering the doctrinal question, He badgered them for not knowing the Bible in the first place.

LONG AWAITED ANSWER
I have, for some time now, considered the mess called North American Christianity. I find folks that know less and less about the Bible each passing year call themselves Christians. I have watched as more and more books and videos come out that are considered essential (until the next big religious thing, that is). "Christians" are conversant in all sorts of doctrines and all sorts of authors, but can't name the twelve disciples, the twelve tribes, the ten commandments, or any of the covenants.

So how do I confront them? How do I motivate them to study or to admit that they simply don't want to do such work?

Now, because of a simple Bible reading this morning that I wanted to skip because of a stomach flu, I know.

Practice the sufficiency of Scripture.

Scripture works,
Phil Perkins.

Preview of an upcoming post: BALANCING HOLINESS AND LOVE?

Here is an post I've been working on for about two weeks. Sorry for the logn lay off. Some have emailed asking about me and the blog. I DO appreciate the support. Some of it has been work, some of it has been family, but most of it has been a lack of diligence about the work I believe God has given me. Your support and interest does help.

Here's the preview:

Francis Schaeffer wrote in The Great Evangelical Disaster that both love and holiness must be "evident simultaneously". (1) Both were together, two batteries in the flashlight. Neither was to be omitted or limited. At first this may sound as if we are to balance the two, but in the context of the rest of what Schaeffer wrote, balance may not be what he had in mind. And in actual fact, Schaeffer didn't speak of a balance.

Today, on the other hand, many speak of a balance between holiness and love. Is this biblical? Is it logical?

LOGIC FIRST
Let's look at the biblical doctrines of holiness and love, apply sound logic, and see if a balanced approach makes sense. Later, we can look at Scripture, the real authority, to see if our logic is correct.

We won't take the time here to go in depth concerning the definitions of holiness and love until we first logical at Who is holy and loving and our Great Example of holiness and love. Instead we are simply going to ask two logical questions.

Is God One?
Huh? Of course God is One, but what has that to do with holiness and love? Simply put, the Scripture says three specific things pertinent here.  1. God is One. (2) 2. God is holy. (3) 3. God is love. (4)

Are both love and holiness commanded for men to live out?

(1) Schaeffer, Francis A.; The Great Evangelical Disaster ; Wheaton, IL; 1970; p 69.

SPEAKING OF ANTI-SEMITISM...

Socialists are anti-Semites, too. Don't believe me? Go here and scroll down through the picutres. The "One Nation" socialist rally recently done in Washington DC included a lot of hatred for Jews and for Israel. The old media won't tell you the truth on that, so look for yourself.

I seldom do political themes on this blog for two reasons:

1. This isn't a political blog.
2. What is often called Evangelicalism today is a mixture of quazi-biblical beliefs mixed with a nasty dose of American religious jingoism, a belief that this is "God's country" and that we are special in God's eyes over other nations. I don't want to promote that at all.

That being said, I am politically conservative in the American sense (not the European sense) and I hate anti-Semitism or racism of any kind with a passion.

I'LL BET YOU DIDN'T KNOW...
While many early socialists were Jews, socialism actually came out of anti-Semitism. Now as a fairly informed American, I know the unorthodoxy in saying anti-Semitism is actually a product of the Left.

But it is. It actually came about when anti-Semites in Russia decided that it was smarter to hate all the rich, not just the rich Jews. Steal all the money, not just the Jewish money.

NOTE: I am currently working out of town away from my library. So I can't access the proper documentation, and the idea that the Left is the real home of anti-Semitism has been so lied about by our academy and media in this country, many of you will think I am lying. I'm not. So I will finish this article this weekend with full documentation of my main claim.

In Christ,
Phil.

RICK WARREN AND TERRORISM

Sound crazy? Well, here's just one more reason to distrust Warren.

I think there is no doubt that many "Christian" leaders have anti-Semitic tendencies or the cowardice to stop them from opposing such bigotry. Many won't speak against any type of racism/bigotry among us. That was the point of this article I wrote in July. As Christians we should have nothing to do with Warren, any leaders who invite him to speak (such as John Piper), or the Southern Baptist Conference for allowing this man to remain in an SBC pulpit.

Phil Perkins.

GEEZUS O' DA WEAK--Septenber 28, 2010

In the prophetic and apostolic tradition of ridiculing the ridiculous and scorning the superficial, I present to you this week's example of the god of the refrigerator, the deity of the dashboard:

FASCINATING-FOOD-MIRACLE GEEZUS NUMBER 1.

This is truly the most inspiring geesuz catgegory we here at Al Tosap can think of. If anyone thinks his god no longer does miracles, just wait until someone spills the jello at Thanksgiving and it makes the shape of Moses crossing the Red Sea or the Used-to-be-a-virgin-before-all-those-brothers-and-sisters-of-Jesus Mary washing the dishes in her bathrobe and slippers!

Yes, sir. You can bet that when Sven from South Dakota saw Fascinating-Food-Miracle Geezus Number 1, he flipped his lid as well as his pancake! In our exclusive Al Tosap interview, Sven, said, "I knew it was my Geezus, cuz I'd saw all kinds o' other pichurzs o' him before. It's just like the one on my mom's refrigerator! 'Cept it ain't all brown pancake color, ya know. And Mom's geezus' hair is a little more wispier. I didn't like the wispy hair anyway. It's like I was sent just the purfec geezus just for me."

It's a miracle!

INTERNET BIBLE INDEX--Slow, But It's Coming.

Well, thanks for your patience. As I promised here, I started working at publishing my Internet Bible Index this past weekend. NOT as promised, I failed to get any of it up until just yesterday. As it turns out, the fonts are a problem. I have to retype all the Hebrew and Greek passages in fonts that can be reproduced in PDF's. This isn't easy. Only being about one third done, it's already about 270 pages of text.

So for the next few weeks, no progress will be made on the reading and editing because I will be retyping it all and publishing each section as I complete that section. As of now, all I have up is Section A and Section B. That's because I'm currently working on Section C. But it's all coming, God willing, and I will publish each section as I complete them.

And by way of reminder, feel free to suggest your passages. Send them to philperkins99@yahoo.com.

Phil.

NEW FEATURE COMING--THE INTERNET BIBLE INDEX

There's something I've been doing. It's not done. I make it a practice to read through the Bible in the original languages over and over. When I'm done, I start all over. I read some in the NT and then some in the OT.

The last time through, I started taking notes and saving them on memory sticks simply for my own use. They're arranged in alphabetical order based on topic. It's basically an updated Nave's Topical Bible, but Mr Nave isn't involved and the topics chosen are arranged differently.

Then one day, I thought, "This is a lot of work and it really slows my reading down, so why not let others have the fruits? If this is a great help to me, it should help others, too." So I decided to publish it.

Currently I'm only about one third done. I'm in I Samuel and Luke. I have thought it may be helpful for your Bible study if I went ahead and published it as is, adding as I progress. That way you can begin to use what's there.

Once category is the Passage Index, an index of the Index that lists verses and passages according to their appearances in the topic categories. So you can look up topics and find the passages under the topic category, or you can look up passages and find the categories under which I've listed them.

I've tried to make the topics reflect the biblical issues current today. For instance, some today tell us "brothers" in the Bible actually means "brothers and sisters" and "sons" means "sons and daughters". Now you can look up that specfic topic category, read biblical passages that use those terms, read the context for yourself, and decide for yourself. To get there look up the topic category GENDER and the subcategory “Sons of Israel” and “people of Israel” and “brother” used generically or specifically, find your passages and simply read for yourself.

In addition, the passages will be listed in both English and the appropriate biblical language. Many passages have notes with specific details concerning important aspects of the Greek, Aramaic, and Hebrew.

TOPIC CATEGORY NOTES
At least some of the topic categories will have short explanations of why those categories are included, what current doctrinal controversies they are intended to address, or exactly what the name of the topic category means.

YOU CAN PARTICIPATE
And I hope you do. Please feel free to add to the index by contacting me at philperkins99@yahoo.com. Please  mention to me passages you think fit into a specific topic category. Suggest categories, too. I will do the editing, deciding what will and won't be included and I will email you back with my decision on your passage with the reasons. And PLEASE call attention to any mistakes. Especially, tell me about passages listed under a category, but not listed in the Passage Index.

It will appear on my sidebar and under "INTERNET BIBLE INDEX".  God willing I will start publishing topic categories this weekend.

God bless,
Phil Perkins.