A new 10 hour 5 week mini series called "The Bible" is a surprise hit on the History Channel. It is drawing as many viewers as American Idol and is produced by Touched by an Angel actress Roma Downey and her husband, reality show producer Mark Burnett. At the very least this proves America has a thirst for spiritual things.
While I don't know how "biblically correct" a History Channel show is, it may be a step in the right direction. When Jim Carrey was 19 years old he spent his first night in Hollywood in a seedy motel. Something he was watching made him want to look for a Bible in his room. He was surprised to find no bible in his hotel room. He went down to the front desk to ask for a bible and the clerk said, "Son, you won't find a bible anywhere in Hollywood."
It also may just mean America is open to spiritual things but only on their terms. I haven't watched the show but I find it hard to believe they are going to take the Bible literally. There are many places
where men today compromise the Bible. For example, many folks do not take Genesis literally and instead merge it with evolution to blend the truth of the Bible and the myth of millions of years. Others wrongly teach a local flood. The flood covered the whole earth 4,300 years ago and it left clear evidence that only a blind evolutionist can miss. Others teach that the newer bible versions are better more faithful translations, which is a lie. Only the King James version is faithful to the original writings and can be trusted. Many teach the clear miracles of the Bible and things they don't understand as symbolism. Jesus is our authority and he taught events like Jonah in the belly of the whale and the destruction of Sodom as facts. The bible literally is the history book of the universe because it's author created the universe.
The Bible describes the condition of men in the last days in 2nd Timothy 3. Verse 5 says of mankind, Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof. One reason it is not actual Godliness is there is no fear, respect, or obedience of God's word today. Sitting down for 5 weeks and watching the action packed war scenes and David take down Goliath is not the same as obeying it as the literal word of God.
God's word is the History book of the Universe and as accurate as a newspaper from the future. Because of the translation of the month club, the bible has become a book that people scoff at and laugh at and IGNORE. However, we will be judged by that book whether we have read it or not.
If I pour Kool Aid in my car because I think it is cheaper than $4 a gallon gasoline, my car will still DIE even though I can plead ignorance because I didn't see any warning because I wouldn't read my car owner's manual. Folks, we are not doing so hot in America now that the Bible is replaced with Sports Illustrated, Playboy, Maxim, Cosmo, TV Guide, USA Today, and Newsweek. Schools before maybe had a problem with school spitballs. Today we have school shootings.
The Bible says BLESSED IS THE NATION WHOSE GOD IS THE LORD. The LORD and The Bible go hand in hand. When the GOD of the Bible was our GOD in AMERICA we were blessed and the BOOK was read, revered, respected, and the RESULTS WERE AMERICANS who didn't need 4 different anti-depressants and anti-anxiety meds to get through life or a case of Bud-Dumber to get through the weekend. Weekends were made for the Lord Jesus and Sunday was the Lord's Day.
Now Sunday is a day one has to sacrifice because they can't buy beer until noon. Revelation saw this all coming. The Book of Genesis says WHO Began it and AND HOW it BEGAN. The Book of Revelation says WHO will END it and HOW it will END. It will not end by nuclear invasion. It will not be us destroying the environment. It will not be by us not saving the whales. God is going to show true GLOBAL WARMING so he is giving you a GLOBAL WARNING RIGHT Now!!!!
Revelation is a prophetic book, teaching modern history as it unfolds from a book written 2,000 years ago. It is exactly like having a newspaper from the future in our hands. The mistake the Catholic Church and Protestant Churches have made with the Book of Revelation is turning the book into a book of symbolism and mystic mumbo jumbo that no one can understand (not even them!).
God is not the author of confusion says the Bible. The book of Revelation is meant to be taken literally except where it is obvious the author is using a metaphor. It also defines words that might be confusing and the book provides it's own built in dictionary for items like the 7 Golden Candlesticks and Golden stars, etc. Revelation 1:20 defines the Candlesticks and the Stars, for example.
The book of Revelation, like the entire Bible is a CLOSED and OPEN book. God is the author of the Bible, and the Bible is 66 different Books written over hundreds and hundreds of years from all kinds of authors that forms one book with one central theme. You can't even get 2 University Professors to agree that closely in their writings! God wrote the best seller of all time, the bible, and God wrote it THROUGH men, just like I type a text through a cell phone.
The Bible says all scripture is given by inspiration of God. (1st Tim 3:16). Job 32:8 says But there is a spirit in man: and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth them understanding. Did I write the text or did my cell phone? I could say my blog is "inspired". It might be an outrageous claim. But if 65 other people around the world all posted the same themed blog posts, and if you connected our posts together and they formed ONE blog with a beginning, middle and end, you could say with confidence that you were witnessing something supernatural.
The Bible is like that. If you look at anything man makes, say my $27 8-pack of Gillette Fusion Razor Blades, or perhaps a 747 plane, the closer you looked at it the less impressive it would look. My gourmet razors would look dull and pathetic under a microscope. Instead, anything God designed looks wonderful the closer up you look at it.
Look at a common fly or a tick under an electron microscope! Wow! Amazing! A cell of a tree is more complex than the NASA Space Shuttle! There is a factory inside! Design demands a designer! The Bible works like that. The closer you look at the Modern Perversions-- the NIV, the New KJV, the RSV, Good NEWS for Modern Man, the Living Bible, the Amplified Bible, the Message, etc, the less impressive it looks. Missing verses, contradictions, strange confusing statements, missing words, and just plain nonsense.
The closer you look at the KJV the more impressive it looks. Yet despite the impressive evidence, it still takes faith to believe 1) The bible is God's Word. and 2) the KJV is God's Approved, Authorized translation. The way to approach the Bible is this--- with an open mind and hungry heart.
The attitude of the reader determines the response of the Author. If you read the book to JUDGE IT, it is a CLOSED Book. IF you read the book to let it JUDGE YOU, it is an open book. Modern scholars like to let the ORIGINAL AUTOGRAPHS which are LONG GONE, TRUMP the TRANSLATION you can hold in your HAND in the form of the 1611 Authorized version known as the King James Version. Then the SCHOLAR BECOMES THE AUTHORITY to tell you WHAT HATH GOD SAID? God wants His word in the Hand of the Common Man!!!
The Catholic church for years convinced man that they cannot understand the scriptures and you need a Priest to tell you what it says. Now no one reads the Bible anyway, so they don't act as dogmatic about it. They now encourage you to read it (so they look more "Protestant") and we humans are a bunch of rebels so now we don't read it when we are told to. Anyway, the book of Revelation works like that --- if you are open it is open. Seek and ye shall find. Ask and it shall be given unto you.
The Bible is alive.
You will honestly get help and answers to problems you are facing today, 03/17/13 from a book written before 03/17/0013. It is a living book but we are spiritually dead. It is like an unplugged fax machine. We may be sending messages, we may be sending heart felt prayers and questions to God, but if we aren't willing to turn to God his way, we continue to operate a machine with potential, but one that is useless at the moment.
When you are saved, you get plugged into God. Saved, or lost, though, the Bible will be open to the honest seeker of truth. If you respond positively to the light God sheds on both HIS WORD and YOUR SIN as you come toward Him, the more light he will shine. And like a garden, the word is a seed. With LIGHT and WATER you will see something growing sooner than you'd expect.
Why do we doubt the Bible when college books from just 10 years ago are already outdated? In Revelation 3, it describes today's Christians, and this is the final church age before Jesus returns. Jesus calls them lukewarm, and they say, "I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing." (See Revelation 3:13-15). Lukewarm and a form of godliness are good ways to describe the average Christian today.
Most are false converts and much of the church has a head knowledge of God but end up in Hell over a mere 18 inches. It never went the 18 inches from the head to the heart, and there was just a form of godliness only. Many know the right answers, but don't KNOW the God asking the Questions. They know every sports statistic and can recite every beer jingle, but the only Bible verse they know is Don't judge. I am merely warning to let you LET The BOOK do it's job and let it JUDGE YOU.
It is quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword. Let it do it's job. It will cut you open to perform the operation of God, but it will quickly heal you up before you hurt too long. It never just hurts without a reason. Conviction and guilt are wonderful things-- they reveal our need for a Savior and make us thirsty for God. Read God's word, but come open and hungry. Have an expectant attitude. Pray for God to reveal himself in His word.
One time I prayed for God to reveal Himself when I was reading the Bible on a lunch break. I closed my 1000 page Bible at a certain verse. That night when I went to go home, I turned on the car and my radio, and a Preacher was on the radio. The very first thing he said was that verse. Another time I asked God to reveal Himself, I was kneeling at my seat in prayer, and the Pastor said, Open your bibles. I opened my bible randomly I thought to a certain chapter in Psalms. He then announced turn to chapter so and so. When I went to turn I was shocked to see I was staring right at the verse, having already turned to it. Just tonight in church, Preacher was reading a portion from 2nd Timothy. He made some comments and moved on. Then he said to go back to 2nd Timothy. Something in me caused my eyes to lock on a verse in the middle of the page when in reality I had no idea where I was to read as he didn't announce which verse. As he announced the exact verse and started reading it, my eyes were exactly in step with his readings. There was something supernatural going on. I can't even find an address my wife needs when I am looking right at it in her address book!
This morning on my way to work I listened to a revival meeting message Bro Hardman preached last October. His main thought was in Proverbs, A friend loveth at all times, and a brother is born for adversity. When I got to work I had time to read my proverbs for the day. Since there are 31 Proverb chapters a good discipline is to read the chapter that corresponds to that day on the calendar. That verse was in today's Proverbs I read for the day -- correlating to a message back in October.
It is a living book. It is different than the newspaper which only has bad news. The Bible has both good and bad news. It will ignite in you a fire for God and if you get the word in you, and let God bring it to fruition, it will make you alive to God. Blessed are the PURE in Heart for they shall see God says the Book of Matthew.
It will clean up your heart, it will filter your mind, wash you and make you clean from the inside out, it will change your desires, it will speak to you, it will feed you, it will nourish you, and it will satisfy your hungry soul. Read it! Love it! Learn it! Teach it! Share it! Cherish it! Thy word have I hid in mine heart that I might not sin against thee says Psalm 119. Meditate and Memorize it! Sing it!
And most IMPORTANTLY DO WHAT IT SAYS! OBEY IT!!!!!
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