Numbers 26

This is a long, dull chapter.

The important thing to remember is that God keeps his word, to those who love him and those who don't..

naturalistic evolution taken to its logical conclusion

my "stupid reflexes" have been taken as possible proof of evolution. I would respectfully disagree. I am alive due to the work of medical professionals, who worked very hard to save my life, but effectively removed me from the gene pool,

Since evolution, as I understand, is all about genetics, I'm pretty much evolutionarily irrelevant at this point. That's why I don't believe my stupid reflexes are proof of evolution. Since they don't help me pass on genetic material, they're irrelevant.

So is most of what humanity does, in fact. If all your time isn't being spent staying alive and producing children, it's being wasted. The model for humanity isn't God, but stud bull.

That's what evolutionary theory would call truth.

Naturalistic evolution -- that is,evolution without a gluing intelligence; what most people mean by "evolution" -- is ultimately nihilistic. It leaves no room for a God, and thus no room for hope. It has nothing to say to those of us dissatisfied with the world as it is. There's  no point working to improve things if the people we're trying to help are just going to be replaced by the next generation, who may or may not Berber.

Nihilism is just a fancy way of saying there's no point to anything. It's a kid's philosophy. It's an adolescent saying that over and over so he doesn't have to hear anything he doesn't like, and because he's an adolescent he doesn't like anything.

Some will say that I only write these things because I hate science, but that's not true. I love science, and am very thankful for the good it's done. But this form of evolution isn't science. It's not observable and not repeatable in a laboratory. It can't be proven by the scientific method.

For many years I tried to believe two irreconcilable things. I'm glad I had to choose.

Numbers 25

every priest after Phinehas was his descendant.

Not because Phinehas cared about Phinehas, but because he cared about God.

Review: STOP ASKING JESUS INTO YOUR HEART by J. D. Greear

As an evanfelist and someone who loves the Bible, I hate the sinner's prayer. There's simply no biblical warrant for "asking Jesus into your heart". Before you throw Revelation 3.20 at me, read it in context, it's addressed to professing Christians.

I went into this book thinking that it was a refutation of that unbiased mindset. Instead, it was about assurance of salvation. It's still a very good book.

Greear writes well, though not astoundingly so,and the book is strongly biblically-based. Ironically, the part with the least biblical support was the part that spoke most strongly to me.

For years I have been wondering if I should get rebaptized. I was dunked when I was 20, about ten years before I truly became a Christian. Since then, I've heard -- and said -- for years that if you weren't saved when you were baptized, you just got wet. Is this right?

This isn't the place to debate all the issues surrounding baptism, but Greear's answer is a simple no, and after much thought and prayer, I tend to agree. Regardless of your opinion on that subject, I recommend this book

Numbers 24

Balaam could speak the word of God because his eyes were open.

It will shock some people, but this isn't the real world. I know it will because I've met plenty of professing Christistians who are perfectly fine with doing the opposite of what God has revealed in his word because they live in the "real world".

I'm sure Balaam understood. In the end, this world doesn't matter. We don't mater. Only God matters.

Numbers 23

Balaam was not an Israelite, he wasn't a descendant of Abraham, as far as we know. He was apparently just some Aramean through whom God spoke.

And he paid attention to every word.

a correction

Last week I said that 2Maccabees was prophetic. It isn't; it's a historical book that focuses on Judas Maccabeus and his followers. That's what I get for doing this from memory.

I should also note that I used the KJV Apocrypha, mostly because I had it handy. There are a couple of different presents of the Apocrypha. Some Bibles just have the books as part of the Old Testament, and others have them in a separate section, There are many versions, also, ranging from that of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, which as I understand it has the largest Apocrypha, to the many Protestant groups that accept none of these books.

I belong to one of those groups, the Southern Baptist Convention. So why spend so much time on books I don't believe are Scripture? For two reasons. The first is that these Wednesday posts are mostly written to new Christians. They've most likely seen, heard about, or been given a Bible with more than 66 books. I feel I have a duty to address that.

The second reason is that I've always been interested in the Apocrypha. Why? The answer is simple, and it's the same reason I've spent time learning about Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, and a thousand other things I don't believe: I like to learn. I'm curious, especially about religion, and there was so much misinformation from all sides regarding the Apocrypha that I wanted to find out the truth for myself.

I don't read Greek or Hebrew, but I know of many who do who are generally trustworthy. I depend on them, and on the many who have gone before, when I say the Apocrypha is good reading, but not the word of God.

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Numbers 22

God will let people seem to have their own way, only to show it was all part of his plan anyway.

Maybe the moral is "don't make God mad".

Numbers 21

What was the Book of the Wars of The Lord? I don't know. Does it matter?

If God wanted us to have it, we'd have it.

What Chris thinks about all this

My wife's been asked what I think about being ing in this condition. The implication is that I don't want to live like this, and that Lora's only keeping me around for selfish reasons.

Let me assure you that part of that is correct. I don't want to be like this. No one in his right mind would.

As it stands, I'm here now. God will take me when he's ready. Until then, my job is to try and build his kingdom, and I intend to do a good job.

Or, as the apostle Paul put it, "to live is Christ and to die is gain,"

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Numbers 20

God had a certain way he wanted things done, and the Israelites refused to go along. They rebelled and complained every chance they got 

God still took care of them anyway..

Review: COMPETE WORKS by Aeschylus

One thing I'm trying to do is to read through the first Great Books series, published back in the 1950s by Encyclopaedia Britannica.  I made it through .The Odyssey (good) and The Illiad (bad), and remembered that after that came four playwrights: Aeschylus, Sophocles, Eurpides, and Aristophanes. So far, they've  been kind of ugly.

There are seven extant plays by Aeschylus, and all of the are very boring. I think this more than anything else has to do with the age of the plays. They're over 2000 years old, and the fact that I read them them in a Victorian translation didn't help.

Some people swear by Classical Greek dreams, but I found it dull. Not recommended unless you're masochistic, hardheaded, or both.

Numbers 19

Water didn't make a person clean. Ritually, anyway.

The people still needed to wash themselves, because God had told them to. Even after they'd done so, they were still unclean the rest of the day. It was God's grace, not water, that made them clean..

Numbers 18

Every priest was a Levites, but not every Levites was a priest.

It's important to know the difference.

The Apocrypha

Some Bibles have another class of Old Testament books, generally called the Apocrypha. These are later books, which appeared in Greek first, not Hebrew

1Esdras covers the same groound as Ezra and Nehemiah, while 2Esdras is prophetic. The Additions to Esther are exactly what they sound like.  The Wisdom of Solomonand The Wisdoom of Jesus,the Son of Sirach are similar to Proverbs, Baruch and The Epistle of Jeremiah claim to be by Jeremiah's secretary and Jeremiah's respectively, and The Prayer of Manasseh purports to be the prayer of repentance of one of Judah's wicked kings. The Song of the Three Holy Children, The History of Susanna, .and The History of the Destruction of Bel and the Dragon are all additions to Daniel. 1Maccabees tells of a war between Israel and the Greeks, and 2Maccabees is prophetic.

And Tobit and Judith are about individuals.

I've never seen any reason to include them in Scripture. At the same time, there are a lot of good reasons to read them; chief among these is the fact that  any Christian can learn from them.

The Apocrypha is not something the Catholics came up with in the 1500s. Nor is it true that these books were unknown when the apostles wrote. Still, I defer to those wiser and godlier than I. The Apocrypha is good reading, but not the Bible.

Numbers 17

I love that God always does more than he has to.

As an example, he promised to make a staff blossom, That would have been enough. But God didn't just make Aaron's staff bloom, but bud and produce ripe fruit overnight..

Numbers 16

God was very clear who was in chargr and how things should be done,  but Korah and his friends wanted another way. And the people were willing to follow them.

That's in the first  part of the chapter. The real kicker is in the second half.

I, Leslie Christopher Bloom ...

... being of sound mind and body, do hereby not know the rest of words. This is what I would like to happen should happen to me:

Since Emily seems to like the little Bible. I wantLeslie to have the one I like to preach from, when she's old enough. Emily should get the KJV.. Both have my notes in them, and both are the word of God, able to lead us to him if we just read and obey it.

I'd like my books  tbe given to the library at Bluff Park Baptst Church. My medical equipment should also be donated, to someone who can give it to those who need it.

Lora should know that I've always loved her, deeply and fiercely, and that hurting her is the worst thing I've ever done.

My other posessions should be sold or given to whomever needs them.

Let me be clear: nothing new is wrong. I know as well  as anyone how quickly things can change, though, so it seemed best to go ahead and get it out there.

Numbers 15

I've said it before, and I'll probably say it again: God wants things done a certain way.

And he's very very serious..

Review: THE COMMUNIST MANIFESTO by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels

In the mid-1800s there were a lot of manifestos. This was the height of the Industrial Revolution, and also of modernism, when it seemed science could solve all of of mankind's problems. Everybody had a way to improve the world, and everybody wanted to write about it,

Though attributed to both Marx and Engels, the majority of the Manifesto was written by Marx, which means two things. The first is that it is very well-written. Marx was a great writer 19th-century standards, though by modern standards he's very, very boring.

The second is that it was extremely wrong. Marx had a one-track mind, and that one track was Communism. Everything was subsumed to it, and anything that didn't fit was thrown aside with great disdain. This means that there are things in Marx's writings that simply aren't true. They make sense, though, if you accept the basic premises of Communism.

There's no doubt there were -- and are -- abuses that needed correcting. But this would be forgotten like all those other manifestos if someone hadn't taken it seriously.

Numbers 14

God doesn't want you to do amazing things. He wants you to be obedient.

God had already told the Israelites something, but they tried to enter the land without him. Needless to say it didn't work.

Numbers 13

The land was everything God said, which shouldn't have surprised them by now.

And yet they were afraid.

The New Testament

This is the part that Christians need to pay attention to. Actually, a Christian should pay attention to the whole thing, but this is the part of the Bible written to us.

Matthew-John are the Gospels, four accounts of the life of Jesus Christ. Acts describes the growth of the Church in its first 30 years or so. Romans-Philemon are letters from Paul, an early convert and the greatest of Christian missionaries. Hebrews-Jude are known as the general or catholic -- meaning universal -- epistles, because they name no specific recipient. Revelation is the only prophetic book in the New Testament, and there's a lot of debate as to its meaning.

The two testaments go together;they make sense of and reinforce each other. And I believe these are true, too.

Numbers 12

Do not go against the one God's chosen. I don't care who you are. Just don't.

Why was only Miriam punished by turning leprous? I don't know; the chapter doesn't say. If the Holy Spirit had wanted us to know, he would've told us.

Numbers 11

Go ahead. Complain to God.

He'll give you what you want 'til il you're sick of it.

Shame on you

If you've come by, thank you.

If you've come by more than once, then thank you that much more. I know I'm not the easiest person to talk to, so you have no idea what it means that you've kept coming back.

If you've helped , thank you very much. I can never thank you enough for taking a load off of my and Lora.'s minds.

If you haven't done any of these things, shame on you. It's inconsistent? It inconvenient to be like this, too. You haven't shown the love of Christ, or of a Chrstian. No, I'm not saying you're not a Christian. I am saying you should examine yourselves. Like it says in the Bible. In 2Corinthians 13.5. In so many words.

One other thing: I understand time, distance, and money. Thanks to the interwebs, I have friends all over the world. I even understand old age, to a point. I don't mean y'all.

But if you can and you haven't so much as stopped in:

Shame on you.

Numbers 10

In this chapter,God foretells the book of Judges.

One time the silver trumpets were tobe used was when they fought an enemy who oppressed them, that's half of Judges right there.

Review: EATING DIAMOND PIE by David Thorpe

This novel reminds me of my friend Davo. I don't know that there's a standard British style, but it reds so much like Davo's that I could almost believe Davo wrote it.  The fact that he sent me an email while I was reading Thorpe's book just reinforced that.

This book was finny. The part with the hornets and the bathroom fan was hilarious, been in retrospect. This definitely wasn't a "Christian" novel, but it was irreverent and had more sex and profanity than I'd hoped, but far less than I'd feared. In this respect, too, it was Veddy Blitish.

Altogether, I liked this book, probably far more than I should have. I think my friend Davo would, too.

Numbers 9

There was not any fire over the tabernacle at night. At least the Bible doesn't say so.

It says the cloud was "like the appearance of fire." You may think I'm being nitpicky. You may be right, but let's stick to what this chapter actually says..

The Old Testament books I forgot

I could make a excuse, but like the man said, ain't nobody's fault but mine.

Ezra and Nehemiah tell, from a religious and political perspective, what happened to the Jews who came back from their exile. Esther is about some of those who stayed.

These three fit in the historical book, right after 2Chronicles.

I don't know why, but I always forget these books. It's not right, but it's how it is.

Numbers 8

Jusst like the priests and the tabernacle, the Levites had to be consecrated,

Could 22,000 men have laid their hands on two bulls? I don't see how, but that's what this chapter says. The most important thing to notice is that the Levites needed their sins forgiven. They were going to be close to God, so they had to be holy..

Numbers 7

This chapter is very long and highly repetitious, listing the offerings of each tribe for the consecration of the tabernacle.

The important thing is that they all gave the same. Though somebebody has to go first, every worshiper is equal before God.

Numbers 6

Most of this chapter is abut theNazirite vow, but tucked in at the end is one the most beautiful blessings I in all of Scripture.

God does this. He lulls you, then blindsides you with uunimaginable grace.

Common objections

"I don't feel comfortable evangelizing." No one feels comfortable evangelizing. Do it anyway.

"I don't know how todo it." If this were honestly your concern, you'd find out. Besides, you already evangelized for your favorite TV shows, bands,movies, and teams. If something is important to you, you want to share it. That's all evangelism is.

"I'm not called to evangelize." Are you a Christian? Then you're called.

"I'm not gifted as an evangelist." Congratulation. You've just used Scripture to justify your disobedience. If you read the passage,you'll see that people are gifted by the Holy Spiritas evangelists, but specifically "for the building up of the church."

These are the most common reasons I've heard why professing  Chrtistians who say they believe the Bible give for disregarding both it and theGod they claim to worship.

If you're not a follower of Jesus, this is why those same  people would rather see you spemd etermity in Hell than speak up.

Numbers 5

In this chapter, as in so many others, the people did t God said. That's huge.

Today wre look for ways to disobey, or to technically obey whole stil doing what we want. Here they just obeyed. Think about that..

Review: CHRISTIANS ARE HATE-FILLED HYPOCRITES

... and Other Lies You've Been Told. By Bradley R. E. Wright

Wright's book is very well-written, but he makes two very serious mistakes that ultimately sink it.

First, he confuses Christianity with church membership. Membership, or even attendance, is not the same as really believing. Most pastors will tell you that in a given congregation. There are a few who are serious about their faith. Those are the Christians.

Second, Wright doesn't seem to recognize that people do lie. He gives a long and very logical argument  as to why lyyinconfers no advantage in this case, but he ignores the fact that people lie anyway. People love to lie. It's in our nature.

I had high hopes for this book, but it was just an argument for the status quo. For that reason, I can't recommend it,