His Soul's Tongue

So he called to him, "Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in the fire. Luke 16:24

When my wife died, I talked to the funeral director about anyone mentioning the immortal soul. I told him of our belief that there is no such thing. He replied, "What about the rich man and Lazarus?" The director is a Baptist minister, and though he was a very nice man, I was disappointed to hear his Standard Answer.

Now who am I to "defy" anyone? What a joke. But here goes anyway.

I defy anyone to show how this story by Jesus can be interpreted literally. Imagine a man tormented by fire, asking for relief by a finger tip's amount of water being put on his tongue!

Did I say a man? I mean a man's soul. If his grave was dug up I am certain his body would still be there, so it must be a soul seeking relief.

The story also says that between Abraham,Lazarus and the rich man, there was a great gulf fixed. Now the immortal soul of Lazarus reaching across a great gulf with water on its finger to cool the rich man's soul's tongue is not a literal possibility.

Modern translations call this story a parable. Imagine Paul telling such a story to the Gentiles! Those (few) who look into such things say that this is a parabolic story, custom made for Jews. It is not to be used as a map to hell, but has another moral lesson which Jesus wants to tell. So the moral is ignored and his story is used to establish the existence of hell.

Thus, we have a nice man in Missouri (who I want to be the one who will bury me) parroting what his church believes is one of the foundations of their faith. It beats thinking. Maybe that is why it is so popular.

Mr. Smarty Pants on Falling Away

Dear Smarty Pants,
Are there theological questions that you feel should have been resolved by now?

S.P. Thank you for dropping "Answer Man" from your title for me.

Yes, I am thinking of one now. A very important issue is unresolved in the minds of some people who should know better. This concerns 2Thessalonians 2:2 and 3, where Paul speaks of the "day of Christ" and the "falling away". This is King James language. Can we trust the translation--and those who teach from it--on this point? Let us compare two translations.

Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God;.. KJV

Don't let anyone deceive you in any way, for that day will not come until the rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the man doomed to destruction. NIV

What is my question? Do not both translations say the same thing?

The problem is that some very respected teachers claim that the statement "falling away" is not resolved. The NIV clears this up nicely, but those teaching from KJV (some of my favorite teachers) maintain that the "falling away" could mean either the Day of the Lord, or the Rapture!

So disappointing, that after all these centuries, such an important point is not settled. The whole second chapter is so illuminating. It was written to clear up confusion, oh so long ago, and to some it is still a problem.

Pins on the Map

Leuren Moret is an expert on radiation and allied threats. To her the much laughed at "black helicopters" are no laughing matter. She has seen them up close and on the ground. While Linda Moulton Howe pioneered investigation into the phenomenon of animal mutilation with her book Strange Harvest, and may be the world's greatest expert on the subject, Leuren Moret has really nailed the significance of these "harvests".

She saw a map with two sets of pins. One was of mutilation sites. She asked what the other pins represented and was told they were reactor sites. Conclusion: the animal parts were taken to monitor radiation.

Poor Leuren, she gets so involved that sometimes she forgets the question she is answering, but her knowledge and insights are so valuable I forgive her. She starts where others leave off.

See the following items.

• Leuren Moret: USA, UK Monarchy behind Fukushima radiation genocide
• Cattle mutilation, From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
• New Mexico Cop Says Military Responsible for Cattle Mutilations
• Google search results for Cattle Mutilations

Elect and Election

And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other. Matthew 24:31

I love this whole chapter of Matthew for bringing prophecies together in such an understandable fashion. But some will say, "Elect, just His elect?" To some, this idea, like predestination, sounds so unfair.

Does God "play favorites?" Let me say, in the most solemn theological terms, "Boy, does He!"

Democracy may be a great political idea, but as theology it is rotten. More to the point, equality in the Bible does not mean everyone. It is limited to groups such as Israel or the Church, and even then there are greater and lesser. Why would anyone be offended by this?

Chris Hedges, a proud liberal, says many so-called liberals champion the rights of the down trodden, but neither know them or mingle with them. Seems like some people are just waiting to accuse God of something, and they think that God choosing some and not others is a perfect example.

Where is the extreme joy in being among the elect? Maybe they feel that this doctrine leaves them out?

Talk About Bread

I just received a charming e-mail. A lady told me of eating a new kind of bread. It has eight grains in it: wheat, oats, triticale, barley, amaranth, flax, corn and rye. I was happy that she printed amaranth in bold type. She knows I am fascinated by this pseudo grain. She will be growing some this season to store in canning jars.

Found out that a regular sized loaf weighs 3 pounds. You can see how people once lived on such bread. It is said that at one time amaranth was 80% of the Aztec diet. When this grain was denied them, they began to sicken and die.

A famine is anticipated, not just a shortage of food, however high-priced. This famine will be of pure food, unmodified genetically. Yesterday I heard that the market for such food in the US has reached 12% of our food budget. It is a rapidly growing sector, being demanded by people who have become awake.

What about this wonderful bread? It is called Innkeeper's Bed and Breakfast Healthful 8 Grain Bread. There web address is www.bread.com.

I am a sucker for anything baked. I'm going out to the kitchen and get some now.

Calvin, the Non-Inventor

I told you about how many people hate John Calvin, or at least "his" invention, Calvinism. But a careful search of the Patent Office will reveal that Calvin invented nothing.

Then where did he get this notion of the Five Points, and where did the Tulip Doctrines come from? To prove that John was not the great inventor he is supposed to be, I will now reveal where so-called Calvinism, and the Reformed doctrine represented by the tulip came from: the Bible.

I love John, because, though he was not an inventor, he was a wonderful organizer. In the midst of fierce opposition, he revealed and wrote about the subjects often represented by the tulip. They are: Total depravity, Unconditional Election, Limited Atonement, Irresistible Grace, and Persistence of the Saints. These are amply verified in the Bible. John did not invent them any more than he invented tulip flowers.

That he and the doctrines he organized are controversial at all, is an illustration of the perversity of man. I thought that would sound better than "pig headedness". When you argue these points, or even mention them, you run into the wrath of wounded human nature. Calvin in hell is a theme used by some.

I really think doctrines are accepted or rejected according to how they please people--how they inflate or deflate the Infinite Ego. God, greater than man, unthinkable!

See The Five Points of Calvinism.

Extraterrestrial or Pre-flood?

My mother was a rebel, quiet and gentle. When she was admitted to a hospital, she gave her religion as Jehovah's Witness and her political party as Socialist. She voted for Norman Thomas the Socialist. Such a departure from the norm of a Methodist Lady of those times!

Later, I found that she did so in rebellion against what she felt were the evils in both religion and politics. She was open to minorities and social outcasts too.

When I read the words of Solomon about there being nothing new under the Sun, she got angry, and said, "I suppose they have always had television too!" Now my mother in law took a different tack, and one in conformity with the Bible. She was convinced that there was indeed "nothing new under the Sun." She believed that pre-flood civilization held all these things and perhaps more.

As a young man I was shocked to find that my then-worshipped science was not the realm of objective truth. Within geology, biology, and archeology, for instance, there is a law of "conform or perish". That is, conform to a Godless world view, or be left out of those disciplines.

Today there is much talk of "extraterrestrial artifacts". As if, according to these people, beings from outer space came to the Earth and piled up stones in order to worship the Sun. I believe in beings from the starry heaven. Three places in the Bible--Genesis 6, Daniel 8, and Revelation 12--confirm them.

But what is ignored by many, is the giant relics of a pre-flood civilization. Structures we could not replicate today are visible all over the world. They do not conform to the idea of mankind slowly working its way up from amoeba and are thus ignored.

Rather, our so called upward climb has been a recovery from the Flood of Noah's time. What existed before the flood is a forbidden subject.

Watch Artifacts of the Last Global Civilization.