Building on the Foundation

  Look down at your right hand. Now your left. What do you see? Now look at your right foot. And your left. What do you see? For most people, the answer will be five fingers on each hand, five toes on each foot. Of course, some folks may not have five digits, for reasons ranging from accidents to genetics, but most people on Planet Earth have five fingers on each hand and five toes on each foot. Why? Remember, God made man in His image: “Then God said, ‘Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.’ So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them’” (Gen. 1:26-27). If humans have two hands with five fingers each and two feet with five toes each, and if humans are also made in the image of God, then it stands to reason that God also has two hands w...

  Most Bible translations, as we see in the pages of the Old Testament, render God’s name YHWH as “LORD” in all caps. Sometimes, if the Hebrew text already uses adonai or “lord,” as in Adonai YHWH , then we may see it translated as “Lord GOD.” Today, I’d like to pose the question, who was YHWH, the LORD, in the Old Testament? When we see “LORD” or “GOD” in our Bibles, is it referring to God the Father or Jesus Christ? Just who was the God of the Old Testament? Many Scriptures demonstrate that both God the Father and Jesus Christ are YHWH. First, let’s look at a few for the Father. God the Father Is YHWH Keeping in mind that “LORD” is the same as “YHWH,” we read in Psa. 110:1, “The LORD said to my Lord, ‘Sit at My right hand, till I make Your enemies Your footstool.’” Whose words are reported here? God the Father, as Heb. 1:13 reveals: “But to which of the angels has He [the Father] ever said: ‘Sit at My right hand, till I make Your enemies Your footstool’?” While on this earth, Je...

  When was Creation? When was the Flood? When was the Exodus? When did King Solomon live? And where does the Bible tell us? Before we dive into these questions, the purpose of this post isn’t to put together a detailed timeline of Biblical events. That would require a far longer study. No, the purpose of this post is simply to give the reader a general idea of when key Biblical events took place. To answer these questions, we need to start with a date we already know and work from there. Unlike many researchers, and for reasons beyond the scope of this post, I reject many of the dates of Egyptian and Assyrian history. The later dates of Babylonian and Persian history are more firmly established. Based on analysis of Babylonian records, as well as details provided by Jewish records, it can be determined that King Nebuchadnezzar’s Babylonian army destroyed the Jerusalem temple in 587 BC. This spelled the end of the Kingdom of Judah. Of the last king of Judah, Zedekiah, the Book of Je...

  Isn’t it awe-inspiring when we think of God’s great mercy? When we realize that God can forgive the worst of sinners and pardon the worst of sins if only we humble ourselves before Him and repent? Jesus said, “Therefore I say to you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven men. Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him; but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven him, either in this age or in the age to come” (Mat. 12:31-32). The unpardonable sin is beyond the scope of this post, but let’s think about the rest of that statement for a moment. “Every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men.” I’m sure we’ve all committed terrible sins, whether in deed, in word, or in thought. And yet God overlooks all of those when we repent and change! Several stories in the Bible illustrate this fact, that God’s mercy knows virtually no limit. One of my favorites has always been th...

  As we’ve proven in some recent posts , the Sabbath serves as a sign between God and His people. It’s also pretty important to God. A life and death matter, in fact. So how should we keep the Sabbath? Folks have debated and quarreled over the Sabbath more than probably any other law of God. Like the ancient Israelites, most self-proclaimed Christians today rebel against God’s Sabbath command. But even among the few who understand that God expects us to keep the Sabbath, there’s considerable disagreement. Some folks go far beyond God’s instructions and turn the Sabbath into a burden; others view the Sabbath as little more than a day to go to church, and suppose that they can do whatever else they please on that day. So let’s examine what God’s Word tells us about keeping the Sabbath, and see what God really expects of us. Too many folks think of the Sabbath as a restraint, as something that stops them from doing other things they’d rather be doing. So I’d like to present the Sabba...