Self-development, self-control, meditation, beliefs and spirituality
Do you have a concept of an ultimate or an alleged immaterial reality; an inner path enabling a you to discover the essence of your being? Are you looking into yourself to find the deepest values and meanings by which you or other people live? Do you want to get in touch with your spiritual side through private meditation, quiet reflection, prayer, yoga, repetitive movements, t’ai-chi, sitting quiet on a bench or a mountain, or even long walks?
Origin and coming into being
When we look at the world we can wonder how it all came into existence, believe either in a Big Bang, Darwin Theory, other evolution theories, many ideas of many people having brought forth many religions. We all want to explain things or require an explanation for everything? But the world is so complex and our brain so limited that hunman beings can not explain everything. They are not able to find an answer for everything. They may be smart but they are all limited.
Perhaps because we do know our limitation and that of others we are happy to agree with purpose-based explanations for natural states of affairs. We also sometimes like to link such purpose-based explanations to thinking that someone (e.g., a god) accounts for the purpose. Even young children have the intuition that purpose is best accounted for by someone willing that purpose to be. So, perhaps it is a part of human nature to accept purpose-based explanations which also supports belief in a God or gods. As such people made up gods and created many religionswhich are not just a quirky interest of a few, it’s basic human nature.
Brain in a vat. Famous thought experiment in analytic philosophy. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Looking for answers in science
From the 1960s onwards more people started wondering and doubting all the behaviours around God and gods and tried to find more answers in science. There has been a desecularization in academic philosophy departments since the 1960′s, according to naturalist (that is, atheist) philosopher Quentin Smith. By the middle of the 20th century, atheism was the dominant view of mainstream analytic philosophy. By the second half of the twentieth century, universities and colleges had been become in the main secularized. The standard (if not exceptionless) position in each field, from physics to psychology, assumed or involved arguments for a naturalist world-view; departments of theology or religion aimed to understand the meaning and origins of religious writings, not to develop arguments against naturalism. Analytic philosophers (in the mainstream of analytic philosophy) treated theism as an antirealist or non-cognitivist world-view, requiring the reality, not of a deity, but merely of emotive expressions or certain “forms of life” (of course there were a few exceptions, e.g., Ewing, Ross, Hartshorne, etc.).
Naturalists
But realist theists were not outmatched by naturalists in terms of the most valued standards of analytic philosophy: conceptual precision, rigor of argumentation, technical erudition, and an in-depth defense of an original world-view. Naturalists passively watched as realist versions of theism, most influenced by Plantinga’s writings (God and Other Minds, in 1967 a.o.), began to sweep through the philosophical community, until today perhaps one-quarter or one-third of philosophy professors are theists, with most being orthodox Christians.
Several naturalist philosophers reacted by publicly ignoring the increasing desecularizing of philosophy (while privately disparaging theism, without really knowing anything about contemporary analytic philosophy of religion) and proceeded to work in their own area of specialization as if theism, the view of approximately one-quarter or one-third of their field, did not exist. Quickly, naturalists found themselves a mere bare majority, with many of the leading thinkers in the various disciplines of philosophy, ranging from philosophy of science (e.g., Van Fraassen) to epistemology (e.g., Moser), being theists. The predicament of naturalist philosophers is not just due to the influx of talented theists, but is due to the lack of counter-activity of naturalist philosophers themselves. A large number of publications advancing theism have come onto the scene by such philosophers as William Alston, Robert and Marilyn Adams, Peter Van Inwagen, Eleonore Stump, Nicholas Wolsterstorff, and Linda Zagzebski. Arguing for theism is no longer “an academically unrespectable scholarly pursuit.
Quentin Smith points out that in the past decade one catalogue of Oxford University Press, which is arguably the top publisher of contemporary philosophy, included 96 books on the philosophy of religion. 94 of these argued for theism, while the remaining 2 discussed both sides of the issue. I would add that since this time, with the advent of the new atheists, the publication numbers may not be as one-sided. Still, this is a radical shift that would have been unthinkable 60 years ago.
J.P. Moreland and William Lane Craig say that philosophy aids Christians in the tasks of apologetics, polemics and systematic theology. It reflects our having been made in the image of God, helps us to extend biblical teaching into areas not expressly addressed in Scripture, facilitates the spiritual discipline of study, enhances the boldness and self-image of the Christian community, and is requisite to the essential task of integrating faith and learning.
Oppression by religion
Sceptics have been around all the time. Fundamentalist we can find everywhere. Strange consequences may also be found. When religion is put onto people there is going on something wrong. For example when in Kentucky, a homeland security law requires the state’s citizens to acknowledge the security provided by the Almighty God this is imposing something on a whole community which is a matter of personal belief. The law and its sponsor, state representative Tom Riner, have been the subject of controversy since the law first surfaced in 2006, yet the Kentucky state Supreme Court has refused to review its constitutionality, despite clearly violating the First Amendment’s separation of church and state.
Dependence on God may be essential to come to the best form of living. In the end we shall get the best ‘political’ or ‘theocratic’ constitution or condition with the Kingdom of God. But as long as Jesus does not return we shall have to do it with human constitutions. In the Law of God, God demands people to make the choice and He does not force them. Though there are many people who want to force their ideas of Christianity, what to believe, what to chose and how to behave on others. It are them who do not allow freedom of mind, though they often call onto the constitution to say that provides for Freedom.
Saudi atheist “Jabir,” talking to Your Middle East:
Isn’t it a basic right for humans to believe or not believe freely! I know this is only a dream in Saudi, but it doesn’t change the fact that people will have different views and believes [sic], whether society will allow it or not.
Thanksgiving and Christmas
On Thursday in America they had Thanksgiving which nearly every year means it’s time for the ‘Religious Right’ to start carping about the so-called “war on Christmas.” The American Family Association (AFA) has released its annual “Naughty Or Nice” list of retailers. Traditionally, release of this list, which the AFA published on November 15, marks the beginning of the annual Religious Right whine-fest about the war on Christmas.
In Santa Monica, California, a large display depicting the nativity of Jesus had been erected for several years. Last year, an atheist group requested the right to use the space too, so city officials decided to hold a lottery. Atheist groups won most of the spaces in 2011, and there was some discontent over this – mainly, intolerant residents trashed the atheist displays. This year, the city has decided to shut down the forum rather than host any displays.
Lots of Christians do not recognise all the heathen elements in this so called Christian high-feast. Many even think it is an essential part of their faith and they can not come into a spiritual right state without celebrating Christmas.
Others do find that thankfulness is one of the distinguishing traits of the human spirit and therefore Thanksgiving should be the most important Christian holiday.
They may be right to point to the necessity to say thanks, and we realize we ought to be more grateful than we are. We furthermore perceive that we are indebted to (and accountable to) a higher power than ourselves — the God who made us. According to Scripture, everyone has this knowledge, including those who refuse to honour God or thank Him.
Indebted in a human being
Because Scripture tells us that the Creator of heaven and earth has given every part of creation something of Him and the knowledge of the Supreme being, we should not worry about forcing the knowledge of God onto others.
We are conscious that ingratitude is dishonourable by anyone’s reckoning. In case people willfully are ungrateful toward the Creator we do have to accept their choice to deny an essential aspect of our own humanity. The shame of such ingratitude is inscribed on the human conscience, and even the most dogmatic atheists are not immune from the knowledge that they ought to give thanks to God. Try as they might to suppress or deny the impulse, “what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them,” according to Romans 1:19.
Every person born gets from the moment he or she can think a confrontation with everything what is around its person. He or she gets confronted with many ideas and questions about the ‘whys’ and ‘whats’. Each person while growing up shall come to think about existence. More than once in a person’s life the man or woman in question shall think about the reasons why he or she exist and what he or she comes to do or has to do on this earth. A question about beliefs and religion shall also arise.
In many people’s conception if you really can’t be religious, at least you should try to be spiritual. If you are not, then you must be a damned selfish materialist according to them. If taking the word ‘Spriutality’ literally as if you are spiritual you believe in spirits (not of the alcohol-laden type), to be averse to the idea that matter and energy are all there is to the universe. This would not translate into someone being a better, more moral and hence more contactable person.
Indicating someone who devotes part of her time and energy to cultivate her “spirit,” as opposed to just being concerned with “material” things is the better part of the spirituality. It is where we try to get into our life an extra sense. Naturally we are not born with the materialistic mind. We have it in our selves to think about more important matters than just the material ones. It is our wealth which brings our head on the roller-skates. We do not originally think of our life as a dichotomous enterprise in the course of which we have to provide material/energy food for our stomach to process, as well as an entirely different kind of nourishment for our “spirit.” Our mind, whatever the detailed explanation of how it works, is a product of our brain, and the two simply can’t be disconnected, upon penalty of the first one simply ceasing to exist.
The soul of a person is his being, his breath, his thinking. It is not an other sort of spirit being accommodated in a physical body. Without breath we can not survive. Without thinking we shall also not be able to survive, because the brain lets us take care of the thoughts to preserve our body (it is our soul). From the start of the existence we had to get to know it was important to breath, to eat and to drink. We learned we had to provide for nutrition. Nourishment , we learned did not exist only as a power supply, we learned bad food or malnutrition would bring us in problems. Strangely enough many people did not get to see that malnutrition on the psychical part also would bring a person in in-balance and in problems.
From the beginning it was also indebted that we should take care of cultivating and reflecting on our ethics, our way of behavement, certainly because we are not on our own in this world, so we should take care of the others around us. when born soon we learn to react to our environment. The people around our cot let us make certain reactions. We learn from them and we continue to learn from reactions others make in our life. We do have to learn behaving justly and compassionately toward our fellow human beings, and of nurturing our aesthetic sense through arts and letters. This learning process is so different by all that it makes some people more reflective than others, some more compassionate, some more inclined to read literature and go to art museums or concerts (the latter activities also of course greatly depending on one’s means and education, not just our natural propensities).
Odysseus in Dante’s Inferno says: “Fatti non foste per viver come bruti, ma per seguir virtute e canoscenza” (We were not made to live like brutes, but to follow virtue and knowledge). No matter if a person is religious or not, it is part of our nature that we have our brains to let us think about matters. Every person has the basic notion about compassion and ethics. We all have a feeling about manners and how to behave to get on in our society. For this reason some think an interesting human being doesn’t need to be either religious or spiritual. He just needs to be human. But this being human, according to us, just demands using the brains to think about everything to get the own soul in unison with the rest of the world. Spirituality is the way to get in line with the surroundings. Religion may help to get oneself sorted out and to have moral qualms.
Question of spirituality
Traditionally, many religions have regarded spirituality as an integral aspect of religious experience. Among other factors, declining membership of organized religions and the growth of secularism in the western world have given rise to a broader view of spirituality. {Michael Hogan (2010). The Culture of Our Thinking in Relation to Spirituality. Nova Science Publishers: New York.} The term “spiritual” is now frequently used in contexts in which the term “religious” was formerly employed; compare James‘ 1902 lectures on the “Varieties of Religious Experience”. {James, W. (1985). The varieties of religious experience. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. (Original work published 1902) + Gorsuch, R.L., & Miller, W. R. (1999). Assessing spirituality. In W. R. Miller (Ed), Integrating spirituality into treatment (pp. 47-64). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.}
Many people do come to an evaluation of a particular individual’s durable moral qualities. Virtues such as integrity, courage, fortitude, honesty, and loyalty, or of good behaviors or habits are questioned. Thought and excellences of character are being questioned.
The Bible defines character as any behaviour or activity that reflects the character of God. The Book of Genesis says that God created man in his own image. (Genesis 1:27) Though we are created to act in accordance to the will of our creator, we are given the freedom to expand, to rule the earth and to use our brains in the manner we would like to use it. But humans should know that Christian character can only be “Fruits of the Spirit” . (Galatians 5:22-23)
Looking for ‘luck’ people have wondered who or what was behind the creation and if they did need to come to a spiritual form to form themselves and to create happiness around and for them. Many people hoped to find peace for their mind in spiritual practices such as mindfulness and meditation. Nearly everybody looks for human fulfilment without any supernatural interpretation or explanation. Spirituality in this context may be a matter of nurturing thoughts, emotions, words and actions that are in harmony with a belief that everything in the universe is mutually dependent; this stance has much in common with some versions of Buddhist spirituality. Sometimes it looks like every human being wants to go into an individual battle with himself and with the ‘existence‘. It seems we want to go into a struggle with the issues of how our lives fit into the greater scheme of things. This is true when our questions never give way to specific answers or give rise to specific practices such as prayer or meditation. We encounter spiritual issues every time we wonder where the universe comes from, why we are here, or what happens when we die. We also become spiritual when we become moved by values such as beauty, love, or creativity that seem to reveal a meaning or power beyond our visible world. An idea or practice is “spiritual” when it reveals our personal desire to establish a felt-relationship with the deepest meanings or powers governing life. {Fuller, Robert C. Spiritual, But Not Religious. }
In broad terms “spirituality” stands for lifestyles and practices that embody a vision of how the human spirit can achieve its full potential. In other words, spirituality embraces an aspirational approach to the meaning and conduct of life – we are driven by goals beyond purely material success or physical satisfaction.
Spirituality is connected and particularly shaped to any individual. it can not be imposed by others onto some one else. The human mind wondering and putting ideas in a certain order, trying to coop with behavement according those thoughts, is individually-tailored, democratic and eclectic, and offers an alternative source of inner-directed, personal authority in response to a decline of trust in conventional social or religious leaderships.
Quest for the sacred
“Spirituality involves a search for “meaning” – the purpose of life. It also concerns what is “holistic” – that is, an integrating factor, “life seen as a whole”. ” writes Philip Sheldrake in “Is spirituality a passing trend?”. He continues: ” Spirituality is also understood to be engaged with a quest for “the sacred” – whether God, the numinous, the boundless mysteries of the universe or our own human depths. The word is also regularly linked to “thriving” – what it means to thrive and how we are enabled to thrive. Contemporary approaches also relate spirituality to a self-reflective existence in place of an unexamined life.”
The great wisdom traditions suggest the adoption of certain spiritual practices and it is this aspect of spirituality that attracts many contemporary people. Forms of
meditation, retreat, physical posture or movement such as yoga, chanting or prayers, disciplines of frugality and abstinence (for example from alcohol or meat) or visits to sacred sites and pilgrimage (for example the popular practice of walking the “camino” to Santiago de Compostela) are among the most common. The point is that spiritual practices are not merely productive in a narrow sense but are disciplined and creative. A commitment to the regularity of a spiritual discipline like meditation gives shape to what may otherwise be a fragmented life. Many people also experience their creative activities in art, music, writing and so on as spiritual practices. {Is spirituality a passing trend? Philip Sheldrake}
Spirituality integral part of life
Spirituality is actually concerned with cultivating a “spiritual life” rather than simply with undertaking practices isolated from commitment. It offers a “value-added” factor to personal and professional lives.
Spirituality also expands ethical behaviour by moving it beyond right or wrong actions to a question of identity. Senior Research Fellow in the Cambridge Theological Federation (Westcott House) Professor Philip Sheldrake says “We are to be ethical people rather than simply to “do” ethical things. Character formation and the cultivation of virtue then become central concerns.”
The world moves on and many forms of meditation and ways to come to spirituality have been created. Many forms of meditation, physical posture or movement such as many forms of yoga, disciplines of frugality and abstinence (for example from alcohol or meat) or visits to sacred sites and pilgrimage (for example the popular practice of walking the “camino” to Santiago de Compostela) are among the most common. People try to get their mind to settle inward beyond thought, to experience the source of thought or come to pure awareness. They do hope that they shall be able to come into a state of restful alertness, where their brain shall be able to function with significantly greater coherence so that their body can gain deep rest. The main concern for many is to experience higher states of consciousness at this critical time for humanity.
Every year people seem to come out with a new form of ‘coming to the own self”. The cocooning spirit wants to find a growing diversity of new forms of spirituality as well as creative reinventions of the great traditions.
Sheldrake says: “The language of spirituality continues to expand into ever more professional and social worlds – for example urban planning and architecture, the corporate world, sport and law. Most strikingly there are recent signs of its emergence in two contexts that have been especially open to public criticism – commerce and politics. Equally, the Internet is increasingly used to expand access to spiritual wisdom. So, on current evidence, spirituality appears to be less of a fad than an instinctive desire to find a deeper level of values to live by. As such, it seems likely not only to survive but to develop further into many new forms.”
Careful with spiritualist forms
As Christians, followers of Christ Jesus, we should look to the Master Teacher Jesus, how he meditated and found a way to honour his Father.
太極拳 / 太极拳 Taijiquan or T’ai chi ch’uan in Lanzhou
We should be very careful how we want of if we want to incorporate meditation forms or prayer practices from one faith tradition into another. The last few years we see that for many this seems so natural to them. Many people have a fear of other religions and a nervousness about incorporating any elements drawn from other faith traditions into their own religious practice. And they have good reason. But we must also see that certain forms can be un-connected from the religions where it is associated with. To our mind you may be doing yoga or t’ai-chi without being a Buddhist or without committing yourself to Buddhism or integrating Buddhism in your Christian Faith. The only problem is that we notice certain people doing that.
It is not because many Christians in many parts of the world have long looked to Buddhism and other Eastern religions for spiritual nourishment, that this would be acceptable in the eyes of God. Such a going away from the Biblical guidance has shown that many also abandoned their Christianity altogether. In several regions we can see more pagan rites are taken in to the worshipping and many other have already incorporated Zen meditation or Theravadan vipassana meditation into their Christian prayer.
Many find it hard to focus their mind, but God has also provided ways for them to come at ease. In His Word He provided enough information to come at peace with the own self. It also gives advice to come at peace with other people around you.
St. Francis de Sales, French saint and Bishop of Geneva, said: “If the heart wanders or is distracted, bring it back to the point quite gently…And even if you did nothing during the whole of your hour but bring your heart back, though it went away every time you bought it back, your hour would be very well employed.”
Each of us can take a moment in the day to just take time for him or her self. Taking a few minutes just to put all the happenings of the day in the collection box of our mind and to analyse everything what happened that day.
When it is difficult to get a moment of rest, wonder what is of hindrance. If you cannot silence your mind, take the opportunity to become aware of what your mind is going on about. Self-awareness is an important skill! Every bit of effort you put into meditation and mastering your mind is time well-spent, even though the process may sometimes seem slow. Meditation, taking time to think or to let your spirit wonder over thoughts, and prayer are very closely related in that they are periods of intense focus, however meditation can be a purely secular practice of relaxation, mind control, and self-mastery. Meditation techniques may differ from one culture to another. Often different meditation techniques are suited to different personality types. Some techniques are expansive and allow for the free flow of thoughts and their observation whereas some types are concentrative that involve bringing focus into one’s thoughts.
A liberating spirituality
Take the Bible in your hand and open it wherever it falls open and start reading there. See if you can find guidance in those text which came in front of your eyes. Next, try to take every day a moment to continue reading the Bible according a plan, for example each day one chapter of a Bible Book.
The Spirituality God has to offer in His Word brings ‘insight’ and shall after some time give you the ability to see things as they really are, attained through a process of self-observation. It means identifying one’s own nature, recognizing the bad elements and consciously eliminating them from the system. When you shall continue to read the Holy Scriptures you shall find that those Words shall be able to transform you. When you are willing to put aside all previously learned doctrines you shall see that the Word of God can set you free of rites and shall help to develop wisdom. The great surplus the Words from the Bible shall give is that it will change your thoughts from being negative to positive. Focusing more on within our self, letting the Word of Goddoing its work we shall becoming free of negativity, transforming yourself, your thoughts, and recognizing the negative thoughts, and changing them into positive and peaceful thoughts.
The Bible compass for life
The Bible shall set your mind free and give a spiritual feeling which brings you further on the road of self-development.
No one can control eradicate adversity in life but you can master the way you respond in regards to your thinking processes. Giving yourself in the hands of the Most High Supreme, shall offer you an open gate to a spiritual world where you shall be able to encounter many more souls with the same free mind. Those people having found the liberating power of the son of God, are prepared to come together too spirituality as Brothers and Sisters in Christ.
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Please do read:
- The Metaphilosophy of Naturalism by Quentin Smith
- A Year in Jail for Not Believing in God? How Kentucky is Persecuting Atheists
- ‘Tis The Season To Be Cranky: Religious Right Gears Up New Round Of ‘War On Christmas’ Claims
- The atheist’s Thanksgiving dilemma Whom to thank when there’s no recipient?
- Is spirituality a passing trend? by Philip Sheldrake
- Religion and spirituality
- Church sent into the world
- Unfair to characterize atheists’ activism as evangelism
- Casual Christians
- The truth is very plain to see and God can be clearly seen
- Life is too precious
- Soul
- The Soul not a ghost
- A Living Faith #5 Perseverance
- A Living Faith #10: Our manner of Life #2
- Seeing the world through the lens of his own experience
- If you have integrity
- Christmas, Saturnalia and the birth of Jesus
- Wishing lanterns and Christmas
- Christmas customs – Are They Christian?
- Newsweek asks: How ignorant are you?
- If we, in our prosperity, neglect religious instruction and authority
- To mean, to think, outing your opinion, conviction, belief – Menen, mening, overtuiging, opinie, geloof
- Doctrine and Conduct Cause and Effect
- The business of this life
- Quakertime
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Of interest:
- If you have integrity
- Choices
- It is a free will choice
- We have a choice every day regarding the attitude we will embrace
- Not enlightened by God’s Spirit
- The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands
- No man is free who is not master of himself
- Only the contrite self, sick of its pretensions, can find salvation
- For those who make other choices
- Are Christadelphians so Old Fashioned?
- Quit griping about your church
- Unconditional love
- Your life the sum total of all your choices
- Choose you this day whom ye will serve
- Merry Christmas with the King of Kings
- Honour your own words as if they were an important contract
- Be like a tree planted by streams of water
- Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love
- Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked
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Related articles
- New Books in Theology, Philosophy, & Apologetics – November 2012 (greatcloud.wordpress.com)
Philosophy, archaeology and science are hot topics in Christian circles, perplexing many believers about how these issues relate to faith.
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Do people hold to a particular religion just because of an accident of geography? Is believing in Jesus as arbitrary as believing in Zeus? Why would God order the slaughter of infants or send people to hell? How do you know you’re really real, and not just a character in someone’s book? - William Lane Craig lectures against naturalism at the University of St. Andrews, Scotland (winteryknight.wordpress.com)
Dr. Craig was in Scotland to lecture at a physics conference, but a local church organized this public lecture at the University of St. Andrews. - “Indeed, it is theism, not naturalism, that deserves to be called ‘the scientific worldview.’” (insightscoop.typepad.com)
For too long, Mr. Plantinga contends in a new book, theists have been on the defensive, merely rebutting the charge that their beliefs are irrational. It’s time for believers in the old-fashioned creator God of the Bible to go on the offensive, he argues, and he has some sports metaphors at the ready.
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Theism, with its vision of an orderly universe superintended by a God who created rational-minded creatures in his own image, “is vastly more hospitable to science than naturalism,” with its random process of natural selection, he writes. “Indeed, it is theism, not naturalism, that deserves to be called ‘the scientific worldview.’ ” - Naturalism and science are incompatible (openparachute.wordpress.com)
Well, that’s what the Christian apologist philosopher Alvin Plantinga claims. And he has written a book to “prove” it - Where the Conflict Really Lies: Science, Religion, and Naturalism. Apparently its required reading for students of theology and the philosophy of religion. Probably because he declares there is a “deep concord between science and theistic belief, . . . . and deep conflict between science and naturalism.”
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all philosophies or ideologies are incompatible with science in the sense that science does not, and should not, a priori, include any of these ideological/philosophical presumptions. - An Imperfect God (opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com)
You often hear philosophers describe “theism” as the belief in a perfect being — a being whose attributes are said to include being all-powerful, all-knowing, immutable, perfectly good, perfectly simple, and necessarily existent (among others). And today, something like this view is common among lay people as well.
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Philosophers have spent many centuries trying to get God’s supposed perfections to fit together in a coherent conception, and then trying to get that to fit with the Bible. By now it’s reasonably clear that this can’t be done. In fact, part of the reason God-bashers like Richard Dawkins and Sam Harris are so influential (apart from the fact they write so well) is their insistence that the doctrine of God’s perfections makes no sense, and that the idealized “being” it tells us about doesn’t resemble the biblical God at all.
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As Donald Harman Akenson writes, the God of Hebrew Scripture is meant to be an “embodiment of what is, of reality” as we experience it. God’s abrupt shifts from action to seeming indifference and back, his changing demands from the human beings standing before him, his at-times devastating responses to mankind’s deeds and misdeeds — all these reflect the hardship so often present in the lives of most human beings. - Theism, Naturalism, and Morality (psychologytoday.com)
philosopher J.P. Moreland argues that there are several aspects of reality which naturalism is unable to account for, while theism can: consciousness, free will, rationality, morality, value, and a substantial human soul.
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The sense of guilt one feels for falling short of the moral law is best explained if a good God is the source or ultimate exemplification of that law. As Moreland puts it, “One cannot sense shame and guilt towards a Platonic form” (p. 147).
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Evolutionary explanations fall short because of what is selected for in evolutionary processes on naturalistic versions of evolutionary theory.
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the theist can offer a variety of reasons to adopt the moral point of view–the moral law is true; it is an expression of the non-arbitrary character of a good, loving, wise, and just God; and we were designed to function properly when living a moral life. - Believe It or Not (dedicatedtothegame.com)
Dr. Kim wants to know if the relationship in question is describable and thus knowable to us as we know other things. He frames his question in terms of a “pairing problem” to lay out how we think of causation. We must somehow be able to “locate” or identify events and objects in relationship to each other to establish a cause and effect relationship between them. He concludes that our understanding of causation requires some shared context. Space-time provides such a relational context for physical objects, but what of the immaterial, wholly separate divine substance?
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The knowledge of a separate substance could only be a direct knowledge. It must be a thing out of context, unextended. . Anything we can know about it is thus available only through “revelation”, “faith”, “intuition” – whatever you want to call pure, non-contingent experience, if such a thing exists, and so, as Kant says, our awareness of the other stuff’s existence must be the full extent of what we know about it. - Plantinga Reviews Nagel (maverickphilosopher.typepad.com)
What excites the theists’ approbation, of course, are not Nagel’s positive panpsychist and natural-teleological suggestions, which remain within the ambit of naturalism, but his assault on materialist naturalism.
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Materialist naturalism cannot explain belief, cognition, and reason.
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As for natural teleology: does it really make sense to suppose that the world in itself, without the presence of God, should be doing something we could sensibly call “aiming at” some states of affairs rather than others—that it has as a goal the actuality of some states of affairs as opposed to others?
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What is Reason? How Did it Arise? Nagel and Non-Intentional Teleology + Nagel’s Reason for Rejecting Theism
Religious Practices around the world
Religious Practices around the world, Compiled and Explained
- posted by Andy Rau
world?
What and where are the largest churches in the world? All of these questions and hundreds of others are answered at adherents.org[1], a massive repository of religion statistics, demographic information, and other facts about religious beliefs all around the world. Some interesting places to start are this list of the predominant religion[2] of every country in the world; an extensive database of famous religious figures[3], and a description of the largest religious groups in the U.S.[4] Church leaders, missionaries, and anyone who’s curious about the world’s religious practices will find hours’ worth of reading material.
– Links in this story –
- over 43,870 adherent statistics and religious geography citations: references to published membership/adherent statistics and congregation statistics for over 4,200 religions, churches, denominations, religious bodies, faith groups, tribes, cultures, movements, ultimate concerns, etc.
- influential and famous adherents of over 100 different religious groups (famous Methodists, famous Jews, famous Catholics, famous Zoroastrians, famous Jehovah’s Witnesses, famous Theosophists, etc.)
- lists of prominent people(actors, politicians, authors, U.S. presidents, artists, musicians, Supreme Court justices, film directors, etc.) classified by religious affiliation. These lists are linked to thousands of detailed religious/spiritual biographies.
- In most countries of the world, a majority of people (over 50%) are adherents of the same religion.
- Prominent, Notable, Celebrity, Influential, Famous Members of Various Religions and Denominations
[4] http://www.adherents.com/rel_USA.html
- the United States has a greater number of religious groups than any other country in the world
Related articles
- How about a module on religious practices, too? (todayonline.com)
the next step is to have a compulsory module on Comparative Religion, to educate our population on the doctrines and practices of world religions.It would touch on the philosophical concerns of religion, from ethics to the various ways of attaining salvation.
One who takes the course would benefit from a better understanding of the diverse views of human beliefs and practices.
- Religious freedom: US not fit to preach (english.ruvr.ru)
“In the Obama Administration we’ve elevated religious freedom as a diplomatic priority”, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said while speaking at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. “The United States will also stand for the value, the principle that religious freedom represents, not only for us but for people everywhere.”This poses two main questions: why would a government, in a country where church has been separated from state, try to impose its own vision on something as delicate as religious matters on other sovereign states? And is it in a position to do so?
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Earlier this year, Pope Benedict XVI warned of a “grave threat” to religious liberty in the United States. He noted that America’s historical experience of religious freedom has been eroded “in the face of powerful new cultural currents” which are “not only directly opposed to core moral teachings of the Judeo-Christian tradition, but increasingly hostile to Christianity.” Currently, Christianity is practiced by more than 75% of the US citizens. - US says world has lost religious freedom (bigpondnews.com)
The United States says the world is sliding backwards on religious freedoms, criticising China for cracking down on Tibetan Buddhists and hitting out at Pakistan and Afghanistan.As the State Department unveiled its first report on religious freedoms since the start of the Arab Spring, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Monday it was a ‘signal to the worst offenders’ that the world was watching.
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The 2011 International Religious Freedom Report noted that last year governments increasingly used blasphemy laws to ‘restrict religious liberty, constrain the rights of religious minorities and limit freedom of expression.’
+The report also warned that European nations undergoing major demographic shifts have seen ‘growing xenophobia, anti-Semitism, anti-Muslim sentiment, and intolerance toward people considered ‘the other.”
It complains of a ‘rising number of European countries, including Belgium and France, whose laws restricting dress adversely affected Muslims and others’.
- World Backsliding on Religious Freedom (theepochtimes.com)
At a time when at least some countries are loosening up on political expression, the world is sliding backward on religious freedom, says U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.Speaking on the release of the United States “International Religious Freedom Report” for 2011 on July 30, Clinton said now more than ever, it was urgent to highlight religious freedom.“When we consider the global picture and ask whether religious freedom is expanding or shrinking the answer is sobering,” she said at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in D.C. “More than a billion people live under governments that systematically suppress religious freedom.”
+In Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, and Burma, where regimes had fallen or moved to less restrictive practices, people were taking the first steps in newfound freedoms. The transition path, however, is fraught with its own dangers, particularly for minorities.
Violence against Coptic Christians had increased in Egypt, for example, as had incidents against the Muslim Rohingya ethnic minority in Burma, who remain severely ostracized.
The expanded use and abuse of blasphemy laws to further restrict religious liberty and expression was also cited as a growing trend. In Saudi Arabia, blasphemy against the Wahabi interpretation of Sunni Islam is punishable by death; while in Indonesia, the penalty is imprisonment.
In Pakistan, anyone blaspheming or criticizing blaspheming laws is vulnerable to assassination by extremists.
A rise in anti-Semitism was identified as a disturbing trend. The report cites Venezuela for anti-Semitic statements in official media and Iran for unrestrained Holocaust denial. In Europe, Ukraine and France saw incidents of Jewish cemeteries and synagogues being desecrated, and Hungary saw the rise of an anti-Semitic political party.
Some governments were also cited for targeting minorities as “violent extremists,” the report citing Bahrain, Russia, Iraq, and Nigeria for the trend.
“Authorities often failed to distinguish between peaceful religious practice and criminal or terrorist activities,” the report said.
- Fastest Growing Religious Group in America: The Amish (?!?) (patheos.com)
Ohio State University researchers are reporting that the Amish may be one of the fastest growing religious group in America. It’s arguable that that distinction currently belongs to the non-religious:
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A new census of the Amish population in the United States estimates that a new Amish community is founded, on average, about every 3 ½ weeks, and shows that more than 60 percent of all existing Amish settlements have been founded since 1990.
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“The Amish are one of the fastest-growing religious groups in North America,” said Joseph Donnermeyer, professor of rural sociology in Ohio State’s School of Environment and Natural Resources, who led the census project. “They’re doubling their population about every 21 to 22 years, primarily because they produce large families and the vast majority of daughters and sons remain in the community as adults baptized into the faith, starting their own families and sustaining their religious beliefs and practices.” - China steps up over religious practice in Xinjiang (fmnnow.com)
Local officials in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region have taken strict measurements to prohibit religious practices among Party members, Public officials and students, as many muslims in Xinjiang are fasting during Ramadan.According to local government website of Yecheng County in Kashi, the county conducted a full deployment during Ramadan starting from July 20. All Party members, public employees and school students were prohibited to participate any forms of religious practice. While authorities responded the restrictions of Ramadan are out of health concerns. A regional spokeswoman, Hou Hanmin, was quoted in Global Times as saying authorities encourage people to “eat properly for study and work” but would not force anyone to eat during Ramadan. - Religious Accommodations in the Workplace (blogs.lawyers.com)
f you’re Christian in the United States, you may not have given much thought to how people of other religions observe holidays. After all, many Christians in the United States take it for granted that they won’t have to work on religious holidays. With the exception of some retail stores, most companies close entirely for Christian holidays, including Good Friday, Easter and Christmas. But what if you’re Jewish and observe Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, when work is forbidden? What if you’re Muslim and want to pray five times daily, even though some of those prayer times fall during business hours? What if you are you are a Sikh man who wears a turban but works at a business that wants you to wear a baseball hat with the company logo on it?It is against the law for your employer to treat you differently or to harass you because of your religious, moral and ethical beliefs. Your employer must respect your sincere and meaningful religious beliefs, and must make a reasonable effort to accommodate your religious practices unless they cause an undue hardship on the company. - Austria gives go ahead on circumcisions after religious leaders make appeals (lampandherald.wordpress.com)
In an article for Reuters, Michael Shields writes that physicians ”in Austria’s westernmost province have been cleared to resume circumcisions after the Justice Ministry reassured them that they can perform the religious practice without risking criminal charges.”Shields says that apparently a regional court ruling in Germany caused confusion when it was reported that “the practice supported by Muslims and Jews amounted to physical abuse.” Doctors were then advised to suspend the ruling.
+If your employer discriminates against you on the basis of your religion, you may be entitled to relief in the form of back pay, hiring, promotion, reinstatement, front pay, reasonable accommodation, or other forms of relief. Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 also allows you to recover your attorney’s fees.
If you believe that you’ve been discriminated against on the basis of religion in your employment, an employment discrimination attorney can help you review your options.
- The DC Folly Trolley – 07/29/12 (dcwreck.wordpress.com)
Eric Cantor seems to believe he could not practice his religion anywhere else in the world as freely as he can in the United States.I wonder how countries like England, France, Belgium, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland and many others would interpret such a statement, to say nothing of Israel.
Of course, he could be a Pastafarian. In which case I’m not certain which countries allow freedom to practice those beliefs.
Taking his remarks about the right to practice religion freely in the U S more as a statement of American exceptionalism rather than one of limitations on religious practices in other countries, Eric Cantor’s statement does not quite ring true.
I wonder how countries like England, France, Belgium, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland and many others would interpret such a statement, to say nothing of Israel.
New Thinky Things
Two new books
Thinky Things Volume 2
In case you do not know yet Robert Prins his musings about certain Scriptures verses, know it is time to get acquainted with.
After the first volume we are happy that we can find “Thinky Things Volume 2″, by Bro Robert Prins on the bookshelf.
Thinky Things Volume 2 is a book of Bible meditations for every day of the year. Following on from Thinky Things, this second collection, in a gold coloured cover, will continue to stimulate, encourage and provoke every one, from the casual Bible reader to the more serious Bible student. It follows the daily reading chart that helps you read the whole Bible in the year. The thoughts contained in this book have been described as “deceptively simple, yet personally challenging”. The meditations in Thinky Things Volume 2 are on different portions of the daily Bible readings than the first blue Thinky Things book.
That We May Be One
That We May Be One by Bro Robert and Sis Sharon Prins
That We May One is a book for married couples about awesome marriages. No matter where you marriage is now, it can become amazing. This book gives both scriptural and practical advice to take average marriages and make them into what God designed them to be. Through the 320 pages, Robert and Sharon talk about growing to become One, explore love and commitment, give specific advice for men and advice for wives, and also share thoughts on money, prayer, forgiveness and communication.These books and prices in your local currency are available from www.printlandpublishers.com or in New Zealand from Bro Robert Prins.
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )Self inflicted misery #9 Subject to worldly things
Self inflicted misery to bear
9. Subject to worldly things
We are subject to the worldly things and suffering because of our mortality and the consequences of the human pride that man wanted to do it on his own and could know it better than God the Creator. We cannot be certain what will take place tomorrow. What is your life? It is a mist, which is seen for a little time and then is gone. We are like the wind or like a breath; our life is like a shade which is quickly gone and we fade away or are cut down like a flower. (Job 14:12; Psalms 102:11; 144:4; James 4:14)
We should be aware that several bad things could have and can be avoided. The result of personal behaviour which brings forth the possibility of bad things which can cause suffering to us or to others can be avoided if we take control of our actions and live according to good values. By following the lifestyle advocated in the Bible we will avoid much self-inflicted misery.
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Next: Salvation, trust and action in Jesus #1 Suffering covered by Peace Offering
Glory of the New Born Christ in presence of God Father and the Holy Spirit (Annakirche, Vienna) Ceiling painting made by Daniel Gran (1694-1757).
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Related articles
- Jesus was the talk of the town and strengthened by the Holy Spirit he had not given in to the adversaries of God. Luke Chapter 4 (pofw.wordpress.com) tells us that the news over this man of God went quickly around. It was because Jesus is not God that the Almighty God of gods had to provide His son with the power to preach and heal. ““‘YHWH’s Pneuma is upon me for He has anointed me to preach Good News to the poor. He has sent me to preach a release to the captives and a recovery of sight to the blind-to send the oppressed away to freedom-” (Luke 4:18 MHM) Jesus became anointed by his Father to fulfil the task God had prepared for him. God was the Spirit who had given His Word to come in fulfilment. By the birth of Jesus Gods Word became reality. From that moment onwards Jesus was the realisation of that promise of years ago. The covenant made with Abraham to him and his descendants could come into live. By listening to Jesus the Word of God or the Holy Scripture is being fulfilled. “He began to tell them, “Today, this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”” (Luke 4:21 WEB)
Jesus his message was delivered with authority (Luke 4:32) and we should carefully listen to it and pay attention on all of it. Let us understand what it meant what the possessed man said: “Now in the synagogue there was someone possessed by an unclean demon, and he screamed in a loud voice: “Ahhhhh, what is there between you and us, Jesus the Nazarene? Did you come to destroy us? I know who you are-the Holy One of The God!”” (Luke 4:33-34 MHM) Yes Jesus was the special man send from God, who could do many special things, but only because his Father allowed him to do it. And the wise words he spoke he could speak because he knew the Scriptures so well and he wanted to do only the Will of God. Let us always keep in mind what the cleansed people saw: “You are the Christ, the Son of God!” > “Now when the sun was setting, all they that had any sick with various diseases brought them to him; and he laid his hands on every one of them, and healed them. And devils also came out of many, crying out, and saying, You are the Messiah the Son of God. And he rebuking them allowed them not to speak: for they knew that he was the Messiah.” (Luke 4:40-41 KJBPNV) - Those who want to take Jesus as God and want to hold fast on to what lots of worldly people think are often taken by the SELF LOVE (professed by evil) vs. SELFLESS LOVE (professed by Jesus) (foodforthespiritualsoul.wordpress.com). People should be fully aware that Unconditional Love of the Father of Creation is Selfless in nature and humble to accept the words of the man from Nazareth, Jesus, also called the Christos or Christ the Messiah. Opposite to what Jesus Christ, the Son of God, demonstrated of His Own Life…by dying for the sake of all of Mankind, many people want to see in him God the son, which would mean that Jesus could not die because God can not die, being an eternal spirit. Some even do say this God had a mother, though the Bible indicates it very clearly that God was the first and has ever been. God is not born, and surely not out of a human being because it was God the Creator of all things who also created the first human being, Adam, the first man and only afterwards the first woman, Eve.
It is the Father of Creation who has sent His Son, for the sake of all mankind, sinners and no sinners (which there are not), believers but also for non-believers, to find their way back home to Him. He gives us the choice to CHOOSE to work for Him as His Servants of Love, and that is what we should choose to be, no matter how much we do have to suffer on this earth. In Jesus we have the prospect of our hope and the best mediator we can have. Let’s be thankful for this man who wants to take it up for us sinners. - As you can read in Laatste dagen omroepers, Harold Camping komt met nieuwe dag op de proppen zonder verontschuldiging there are many doom preachers and people who love to curse others and say they are the ones who receive the punishment form God. Some speak of sodomite nation of flag-worshipping idolaters (Antichrist and The Most Hated Family in America in crisis + De Meest gehate familie in America – inleiding tot vervolg). Such preachers making people afraid get a so called Church Growth Through Misery (petrosbaptist.wordpress.com) but we are afraid it is not going to be the right church nor the lasting group of believers. They are not creating a church on selfless love. And they are not focusing on future wealth of spiritual richness, but on earthly richness of this day.
Dr Jim West rightly writes: “Growth through misery may be popular, but it isn’t substantive. When misery fades away, as it always does with the passing of time, so to do those who mercenarily ‘follow’ Christ (always at a distance and never with a willingness to die to self).” - We live in a world driven by the constant pursuit of pleasure and personal satisfaction. The world encourages individuals to adopt a “me-first” mentality and avoid hardship at all cost. Because so many persons put their pleasures on the first place we do get so many hurt people and so many problems in this world.
Scripture teaches us that while we are not to actively pursue hardship, we nonetheless are to realize that God uses challenging situations to help us conform to the perfect image of His Son.
The New Testament also teaches us that God sometimes sovereignly guides His people through challenging circumstances that ultimately profit them. In Hebrews 12:5–11, the author explains that God disciplines His children like a loving Father and that discipline ultimately benefits us by helping us “share His holiness” (v. 10). Believers may therefore look upon God’s discipline as corrective; that is, aimed at helping us overcome our sinful behaviour (cf. Proverbs 3:11–12; I Corinthians 11:32; Revelation 3:19). We may also distinguish between punishment and chastisement; the former is to be associated with God’s wrath upon unbelievers and the latter with God’s loving desire to shape and mould His children.
Read more about that: Submit to divine discipline and read Jeremiah 19:3–6; 21:1–5, 11–12. - God had planted the seed of salvation into the Virgin Mary. That young girl did not mind taking the burden on to her. Not only had she have to going to suffer for what others were going to say and how she had to face the possibility to become stoned to death, because she was not yet married. She also had not have an easy time with this “man from God’ who sometimes did not what she had asked but what his Father had asked him to do. John 3 Who is the “Son”? (revivalandreformation.wordpress.com) brings us the picture of the Jewish ruler who saw in Jesus his real role of master teacher and representative of God. “There was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews: The same came to Yahshua by night, and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that you do, unless God is with him.” (John 3:1-2 KJBPNV)
This man Jesus from Nazareth, inflicted pain on himself by accepting the role which was made in petto for him. He was willing to fulfil the role of the Adam, the first man, who could prove to keep faithful and honour the Only One God. He studied the Torah and knew the Word of God very well. He also kept to it, no matter what people did to him to get him to other ideas. Though he was without sin, he also had to suffer. So you can wonder why God had to punish him, if suffering is a punishment from God, which it is not. And as you can see from the story of his life, though he did the Will of God, he was not exempt from doubts or pains and had to suffer a lot. - People around Jesus, who became faithful followers, had also to suffer a lot when they had Jesus not around them anymore. They did consider those persecutions as Bad things no punishment from God but as part of the reactions of those people who did not want to live according the rules of God.
- That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life does not mean we shall be excluded from suffering, because the freedom God gave to the people made it also possible that the humans do stupid things by which stupid things can come over them. The risk taking society has to become aware that it just not can do everything what it would like to do without having to bear the consequences of its deeds. So when they play with nature forces or atoms they should be aware of the dangers of nuclear damage. They could go to a scheme of Securing risks to reduce the impact of the damage. But often people do not want to learn from previous experiences. Japan’s nuclear disaster reason to think twice you should think, but many continue to use the world resources in the wrong way and they think they can play with it to their own good, not thinking about what it is going to do to next generations. So when those following generations are going to undergo the problems of the previous generations it shall not be a punishment from God, but they shall have to suffer because the selfishness of the people before them.
- People are often taking too much for granted and do not stand still to the causes of Shocking News. People on the other hand do not always have to look for the cause of a disaster in the Hand of God nor in the wrongdoings of people. There are just phenomenon of the nature which can show the beauty, the power, the destruction but also the new creation of its inside forces.
In those exceptional natural movements we also could see and find reasons to Let us recognise how great God is. Though it sometimes can sound hard but we can have Profitable disasters coming over a world who does not always want to open her eyes. - Please do find more about Suffering and how we have to look at it in the articles on the Book of Job.
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Bible and Bookroll of the Holy Scriptures - Bijbel en Boekrol
Fragments from the Book of Job #7 Epilogue
As Kevin Miller writes in his blog article about Job “Job is a book of tragedy, foolish counsel, mourning, but also great strength.” For us it can be counted as such a real romantic film: Job begins and ends happy and cheery, but in-between we get drama of high calibre. By the end of the very first chapter, all of Job’s kids were dead, his animals had been killed and/or stolen, almost of of his servants were dead, and he had completely crushed. Than his health was taken away and by the end of Job 2, we found this (once) wealthy, healthy, man of integrity sitting on a pile of ashes scraping his gaping wounds with broken pieces of pottery. As so often happens by humans is that his friends also started to accuse him of all sorts of bad things. People love it to find the evil by an other, but do not want to see “the beam” in their own eyes. “In Job 8:4, Job’s good old buddy, Bildad, even has the audacity to accuse Job of hidden sin! As if Job were to blame for his suffering! That’s a sad misconception that is sometimes even taught from pulpits today: hidden sin is causing your suffering. ” writes Miller rightly. We have to be careful not to fall in that trap or pitfall.
We also may not accept the latest theologies: Poverty theology and prosperity theology. The first considering those who are poor to be more righteous than those who are rich. It considers a matter of greed to become more wealthy than others and it honours those who choose to live in poverty as particularly devoted to God. Conversely, prosperity theology considers those who are rich to be more righteous than those who are poor; it honours those who are affluent as being rewarded by God because of their faith. In fact, both poverty and prosperity theology can be half-truths but are not depicting the full picture of Gods handling people.
Job and his family restored - Blake
Instead of clinging our hears to false teachers we do better to take Gods Words to our heart. As Arlin Sorensen says: “God has spoken to us clearly through His Word – the Bible is His first communication to us. But more than that – God continues to speak to us as well. The Holy Spirit lives in us to communicate God’s Truth to our hearts. God may speak to us through a dream or a vision. There is no shortage of God speaking to us and giving us direction for life. ” (About Job 33) Even without any book we could and should hear the words from God, because God is talking to us continually through creation, His Word, and the Spirit that lives in us. In the Book of Job as in many other Books of the Bible God lifts up a veil and is shown up as the Most Almighty, Omnipotent, Most Wise and Creator of all things and of all beings. The problem is that most of us do not want to read the Bible and as such hear the Words of God. They prefer to listen to the most popular speakers. But they are not always the wise speakers. On the other hand we also often fail as listeners because we have certain ideas to which we want to keep fast. Most listeners are already preparing their response before the ones to whom they listen ever finish what they have to say. We saw a glimpse of how we want to win the argument, like Elihu who thought he had all the answers. A lot of persons also think the Bible is just an old book and they forget that this Book of Books, the Best-seller of all times can change their life.
Because we want things our way, we prefer the answers who go in our direction of thinking and we dare to feel unjustified when something does happen not like we want it. Often it is our pride which hinders us to think straight and worse, makes it impossible to hear the answers from God. I do hope that in Arlin Sorensen’s Thoughts on Scripture the writer means not with ” It does keep us from hearing God’s response – because there isn’t one. ” that there is no answer for us, because even if we have haughtiness or arrogance God has everybody given the chance to put his or her pride aside and to take up His Word of Wisdom in their hands to learn from it. He is right to say that God opposes the proud. Scripture tells us that over and over. But that God doesn’t hear well – if at all – when pride is our defining character we cannot find right, because God listens to everything what happens and to what people say. He knows and sees everything. Nothing can escape His eye or ear. He doesn’t despise any. Jehovah is not going to look down upon with contempt just because a person can have some bad characteristics as pride. Yes He detest excessive self-esteem but He does see through our eyes and heart and knows were our attitude comes from. If we are honestly willing to hear God He shall come close to us. God shows no partiality to mankind (Job 34:19) and He has always His answer ready for everybody, who wants to hear it. Though it may not always come at the time we would think appropriate. It is up to God to decide to whom He gives answer when. God is always in control of everything. God is powerful and mighty because His righteous judgement and wisdom. Elihu showed us in chapter 36 how God gives some answers to the world, though they may not be like they would like to hear them. (Fragments from the Book of Job #5: chapters 32-37) Nothing can be “thwarted” from God (NIV) no purpose of Him can be restrained. (Job 42:2) Nothing is to difficult for God (Genesis 18:14; Isaiah 43:13; Jeremiah 32:17; Matthew 19:26) When we are in agony, like Jesus was in the garden of Gethsemane, we can pray to Him and ask Him for things which seem impossible, because He can do everything (Mark 14:36) which shall always be more than any human being (Luke 18:27). God wants to be heard (Job 33:16) and use also people to let His voice been heard (2 Kings 17:13). By showing the people the results of their doings, the crimes caused by their pride, God gives answers to them (Job 36:9). To hear God we sometimes have to be willing to stand still and to be prepared to listen (Job 37:14). To stop or “stand still”: “Stand still and see the salvation of God” (Exodus 14:13; 2 Chronicles 20:17). “Stand still and hear God’s commandments” (Numbers 9:8). “Stand still that I may show you the word of God” (1 Samuel 9:27). “Stand still that I may reason with you” (1 Samuel 12:7).
One of the beauties of Gods creation where Jesus prayed to His Father, his and our God
“Behold, God is mighty, and despises not any: he is mighty in strength and wisdom. He preserves not the life of the wicked: but gives right to the poor. He withdraws not his eyes from the righteous: but with kings are they on the throne; yes, he does establish them forever, and they are exalted. And if they are bound in fetters, and are held in cords of affliction; Then he shows them their work, and their transgressions that they have exceeded. He opens also their ear to discipline, and commands that they return from iniquity.” You can read here how God answers them and which advice He give those people who got a higher position but could not keep it right. ” If they obey and serve him, they shall spend their days in prosperity, and their years in pleasures. But if they obey not, they shall perish by the sword, and they shall die without knowledge. But the hypocrites in heart heap up wrath: they cry not when he binds them. They die in youth, and their life is among the unclean.” (Job 36:5-14 KJBPNV)
“He delivers the poor in his affliction, and opens their ears in oppression. Even so would he have removed you out of the strait into a broad place, where there is no narrow place; and that which should be set on your table should be full of fatness.” (Job 36:15-16 KJBPNV)
“Behold, God exalts by his power: who teaches like him?” (Job 36:22 KJBPNV)
“He seals up the hand of every man; that all men may know his work.” (Job 37:7 KJBPNV)
“Touching the Almighty, we cannot find him out: he is excellent in power, and in judgment, and in plenty of justice: he will not afflict. Men do therefore fear him: he respects not any that are wise of heart.” (Job 37:23-24 KJBPNV)
“Gird up your loins now like a man: I will demand of you, and declare you unto me.” (Job 40:7 KJBPNV)
“Then will I also confess to you that your own right hand can save you.” (Job 40:14 KJBPNV)
“I know that you can do every thing, and that no thought can be withheld from you. Who is he that hides counsel without knowledge? therefore have I uttered that I understood not; things too wonderful for me, which I knew not.” (Job 42:2-3 KJBPNV)
Also people who do not believe in God shall at certain times, decided by God, be able to hear God saying things to them. Because God’s desire is that we move away from sin and move to righteousness. He opens our ears to know His commands Job 36:10).
In Job 37:19 Elihu seems to have taunted Job asking him to teach them (Elihu and the three friends) how they should understand how to speak with God. Our brother Robert Prins wrote: “Elihu began by looking up. Maybe we should do the same as we gaze at the vastness of the heavens, the ethereal blue of the sky, the beauty of the sunrise and the sunset – new pictures painted by God for us to marvel at every day. We can see the expanse of his power as we look up into space and see the millions of stars he has created in glorious beauty, shining in the blackness on the night sky. And when we see clouds we can be impressed by the sheer volume and weight of water that God suspends above the earth. Who has not failed to be impressed by the thunder and lightening of a storm – thunder that can be heard all over the land, and lightening that lights up the whole earth with one almighty flash. And what about the rain, the snow or the hot sun and the way that God can disrupt the whole of man’s affairs by floods, snowstorm, earthquake or heatwave…
May our hearts also pound and leap from their places as we stop to consider God’s wonders.”
We have to reflect on what happens in the world and how God works on it. we have to try to understand God’s involvement in the way that things work in the natural world. Looking around us we can “see” and “hear” a lot of answers to our questions. Other people can sensitise others, like us, to get to know more about the Creator deity. They also can let us see that trials we often go through are not only for us, but for those around us as well and for people far away, who often have nothing to do with what caused their problem either.
As God broke His silence to Job (Job 38:1-) (Fragments from the Book of Job #6: chapters 38-42) He employed a series of more than 70 questions to show Job and humankind, his ignorance and God’s greatness. As long as everything goes all right nobody seems to worry about God, but as soon as something terrible happens ‘everybody’ wants to blame God for it. Suddenly everybody has than criticism on the Creator. Speaking with great irony and personifying His other creations God want putting men right in front of it, and having them to face the facts. did not God confront Job with mysteries of the animal kingdom in order to make him more aware of his ignorance and thus of his inability to be a competent judge of the works of God?
We get to see the other point about what the Book of Job is about. When people criticizes the way things happen in the world and blame God for it, they are trying to usurp God’s position as Master or Governor of this world (Job 40:6-14).
Normally God has not to justify Himself before us, but God addressed the issue of His own justice and Job his futile attempt at self-justification (Job 40:8-14). God questions man if he would condemn the Creator or discredit His justice to justify man himself (Job 40:8 )
gods of the babyboom generation
In this world many want to have modern gods, people to whom they can look up. Some of those men and women would not mind taking on the appearance of deity. God challenges those people (Job 40:10) King David knew his place and wanted to honour God, but hoped that the adversaries and accusers would be clothed with disgrace and wrapped in shame as in a cloak (Psalm 109:29).
As we came to chapter 42 of the Book of Job the contest with the satan, i.e. the accuser is now over and Job became restored. Job repented for the presumptuous words he spoke to the Most High, his Creator(Job 42:6). We got to see that Jehovah does not want people to suffer for no reason. God could not be impressed with the words of Jobs friends. He found it time that the friends of Job were put on their place and that Job could enjoy again happiness. This last one put away his pride and rebellion and finds contentment in the knowledge that he has God’s fellowship. We also should already be pleased that God wants to be with us, though we do not understand all His ways with us and with the world around us.
Knowing that God is in control of everything but that He has given men the right to clear all things themselves, it is up to take our own responsibility. After the fall Adam and Eve and all their next generations could prove they could manage the creation. So lets tackle it according to our best means, knowing that we all received everything around us in loan from the Creator Jehovah our God, the Most High and omnipotent.
As a Christian, we should lovingly and sincerely have concern for many people and their many circumstances. We should see what happens in the world and should look for the underlying causes. First of all should we always remember that God has given men a free will. The Creator has given men the possibility to choose and to have many choices. So we should be aware which way several people wanted to go, what they did and what consequences they and not God, brought to other human beings and to the rest of the creation of God. As children of God our hearts should ache for the pain and trouble that other creatures experience in life. This concern should compel us to react wisely and to come unto their help. To people we should speak truth into their life, which can include everything from pointing out sin to giving wise counsel, and intercede for them before God in prayer. We also have to stay aware of our limitations. We never can “play for God”. As finite beings, there is only so much we can do and we must discern whom God has called us to help and how God has called us to help them. We have to make choices how and how much we can help and have to put priorities first. Whatever happens we should carry first whatever load God has allowed to come over us, but not blaming Him for it. Than we should see how God still stays with us and helps us to carry that load or burden. As brothers and sisters in Christ we can help each other to make the burden lighter. Out of love we should try to do everything to make the problems less.
“Bear you one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of the Messiah. For if a man thinks himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself. But let every man prove his own work, and then shall he have rejoicing in himself alone, and not in another. For every man shall bear his own burden.” (Galatians 6:2-5 KJBPNV)
Let us be humble enough to accept that the Creator of all things has a good Plan which He is going to bring to a good end in due time. Although we cannot fully understand or appreciate Him, we can love, trust, respect Him and acknowledge that God alone can save us. Jehovah is our strength and He is the only underived and self-sustaining existence in the universe. All other forms of life are but incorporations of the life which is in Him — so many subdivisions of the stream which issues from the great fountainhead. God, as the antecedent, eternal power of the universe, has elaborated all things out of Himself. The testimony before us is, that the God of gods did not hide from the wilderness Israelites, for in the startling familiarity they had every proof that He was with them in the shining face of Moses and the tables of stone. There were rules in abundance on how to worship, but even that did not make obedient children. God’s life instruction and every provision of over reaching care, made little difference to the Israelites. Having the opportunity to read all the stories what happened to the people of God we should know better and take care not “to follow the world”. We should choose to follow the man God had sent to the earth to save the world. And we should follow the teachings of that son of God, called Yeshua or Jesus, the Nazarene, also called the Messiah.
In case we are not so happy with our life, let us look how we can make it better and easier to bear. Our disappointment is in itself a sign that we hunger for something better, and whatever our suffering situation and disappointment with the outcome, that we will regain a better outlook. All sufferers can have Hope. God especially cares and provides for all men — He is not willing that any should perish (2 Peter 3:9; John 3:16,17). The disappointment, with God’s answer, can be overwhelming, but God’s disappointment with us and God’s rejection of us are worse. We may never know the purpose of our suffering, but we need to rest assured that God has one. None of His should ever risk rejection.
If God leaves room for doubts and doubters, and we know He does, He also leaves room for the faithless, and in our disappointment, even for us. So God wants to give everybody His answer and His Help. The God who is positive has not only measures and rules for us but also promises.That we always have our ears and eyes open to see God ways and hear His answers and follow His instructions. That we have our eyes fixed on Gods Hope and that we hope in Him and in His son.
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“The final chapters of this remarkable book, one of the first on record, brings the drama to a wonderful conclusion. The questions with which it opened by the quest of the Satan, are now answered, and Job finds his experiences have developed his character and understanding. As a wonderful type of the Lord Jesus, Job is vindicated by Yahweh, and becomes a mediator for his friends. He is again commended as Yahweh’s ‘righteous servant’ and is restored and honoured sevenfold. The last speech of the Deity is in Job 41, in which is revealed the power of the flesh in the great leviathan, and the way in which the Almighty Creator permits His creation to display greater spiritual principles. So the record continues as the mighty leviathan is presented as the final picture of Yahweh’s omnipotence. [1] Its untamable ferocity: Job 41: 1-9. [2] Its terrifying appearance: Job 41: 10-24. [3] Its power in attack: Job 41: 25-32. [4] Its incontestable supremacy: Job 41: 33,34″ (GEM).
Job 42: “The picture moves to the exaltation of Job: [1] Job humbles himself before Yahweh: Job 42 1-6. [6] Divine rebuke of Job’s accusers: Job 42 7-9. [7] Job restored and honoured: Job 42 10-17. The type is before us in the record of Job; the antitype will shortly be revealed in the return of Yahshua the Anointed, and the elevation of his true family. Then great blessing will come to the whole world, in fulfilment of the Abrahamic covenant” (GEM).
“Trouble (so far from being evidence of desertion) is a means employed in His hands to lay the foundation of future joy and blessedness. Let His children then be comforted and strengthened to endure even the deepest and most inexplicable affliction. Let them learn to see God in the darkness and to feel His hand in the tempest. Let them beware of the folly of Job’s three friends rebuked of God. Let them know that this time of our pilgrimage is the night, and that though weeping may endure for a night, joy cometh in the morning and that joy a joy prepared by the weeping. Let them apply the consolation Christ has given them: ‘Blessed are ye that weep now, for ye shall be comforted’ [Matthew 5:4]” (WP 83).
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Epilogue of the Book of Job
The Deliverance of Job
Job 42 (New Century Version)
7 After the Lord had said these things to Job, he said to Eliphaz the Temanite, “I am angry with you and your two friends, because you have not said what is right about me, as my servant Job did. 8 Now take seven bulls and seven male sheep, and go to my servant Job, and offer a burnt offering for yourselves. My servant Job will pray for you, and I will listen to his prayer. Then I will not punish you for being foolish. You have not said what is right about me, as my servant Job did.” 9 So Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite did as the Lord said, and the Lord listened to Job’s prayer. 10 After Job had prayed for his friends, the Lord gave him success again. The Lord gave Job twice as much as he had owned before. 11 Job’s brothers and sisters came to his house, along with everyone who had known him before, and they all ate with him there. They comforted him and made him feel better about the trouble the Lord had brought on him, and each one gave Job a piece of silver and a gold ring. 12 The Lord blessed the last part of Job’s life even more than the first part. Job had fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels, a thousand teams of oxen, and a thousand female donkeys. 13 Job also had seven sons and three daughters. 14 He named the first daughter Jemimah, the second daughter Keziah, and the third daughter Keren-Happuch. 15 There were no other women in all the land as beautiful as Job’s daughters. And their father Job gave them land to own along with their brothers. 16 After this, Job lived one hundred forty years. He lived to see his children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and great-great-grandchildren. 17 Then Job died; he was old and had lived many years.
Job 42:17
The LXX adds, as footnote: “And it is written that he shall rise up again, with those whom the LORD shall raise up.”
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Next: Let us recognise how great God is
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Please do find more about Suffering on our main website:
Related please do read:
- About suffering
- Disappointed with God
- Gods design in the creation of the world
- Gods instruction about joy and suffering
- Gods promises
- Gods measure not our measure
- Gods non answer
- Gods promises to us in our suffering
- Gods hope and our hope
- Gods salvation
- Hope for the future
- Importuning for suffering hearts
- Looking for blessed hope
- Miracles in our time of suffering
- Our relationship with God, Jesus and each other
- Promise of comforter
- Seems no future in suffering
- Suffering
- Suffering – through the apparent silence of God
- Suffering continues
- Suffering leading to joy
- Surprised by time in joys & sufferings
- Words from God about suffering
- Working of the hope
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Related articles
- Self inflicted misery #1 The root by man (christadelphians.wordpress.com)
- According to some Job (davidscommonplacebook.wordpress.com) receives from God a response more than a little unsatisfying. According to those writers God does not tell Job why he has suffered. God puts Job in his place by showing him how little Job actually knows and when you read the story good you can find a lot of answers in the discussions that went on.
- Surviving and Learning from the Book of Job (richardburkey.wordpress.com) let us rightly know that God’s plans are bigger than our plans. God’s view of the world is bigger then our view. The book of Job challenges our reading as God “corrects” the 3 friends and their theology. In many ways, they sum up what most believe about God. They state what the obvious should be, how most situations work, or in most case “rules of thumb” when it comes to understanding how the world works. One problem, they are proven wrong. Put God in a box, and the lid shuts tight usually either snapping at a finger or leaving you on the outside.
Job throughout the book has pleaded for a hearing before God. Job wants to know why (don’t we all?). Yet God simply, powerfully, eloquently declares who He is. He is God, beyond Job in his day, and beyond us in our day. - Fragments from the Book of Job #2: chapters 12-20 (christadelphians.wordpress.com)
- Fragments from the Book of Job #3: chapters 21-26 (christadelphians.wordpress.com)
- Fragments from the Book of Job #4: chapters 27-31 (christadelphians.wordpress.com)
- Fragments from the Book of Job #5: chapters 32-37 (christadelphians.wordpress.com)
- Fragments from the Book of Job #6: chapters 38-42 (christadelphians.wordpress.com)
- Fragments from the Book of Job #7 Epilogue (christadelphians.wordpress.com)
Fragments from the Book of Job #5: chapters 32-37
We can imagine that people get scared when they hear certain preachers talking as the three friends of Job. As the wife of a Southern Baptist pastor writes in her blog that one pastor saying that all the troubles which befell Job were his fault because he spoke forth fear into his life. That alleviated some of her fears somewhat. Though we would recommend starting to read the full Book of Job it is true that you don’t hear much in church or otherwise about the book of Job other than a passing comment or reference here or there. Studying Job brings forward that there is much more than that character of a righteous man blamed to be unrighteous and being rightly penalised by God.
Last chapter we saw that Job succumbed to the same self pity we all succumb to at times.
Job - Blake
When things are going good in their lives, rarely do people give God the credit for it, but as soon as trouble comes along, the first one to get the blame is God. Even worse, there are ministers out there telling people its O.K. to get angry with God. (Stop Blaming God) There are also a lot of preachers trying to convince people that it is God who brings punishment to the wicked today. Many have to come out that came out of that false system of thinking. Job’s friends did not see that it was the accuser and adversary of God (satan) was trying to drive a wedge between God and His beloved. If Job proved to be righteous only because “it pays” then Satan (any adversary) wins his bet with God. As the friends certain pastors say rightly God is almighty and just. They also preach that because no human is entirely innocent in God’s eyes and therefore have to suffer as suffering, according to them, must be a retribution for some sin. It has come so bad that today we even find pastors who say certain violent action and bringing pain to others is justified because the others deserve it. (Antichrist and The Most Hated Family in America in crisis) These doom preachers are right when they say that the Holy God shows us, that He completely is in state to bring the destruction over this whole world because of the sin. The Bible tells us of this tremendous fact in Genesis 6:12-13 when God, looking on the earth, saw that it was evil: for the way of all flesh had become evil on the earth. And God said to Noah, The end of all flesh has come; the earth is full of their violent doings, and now I will put an end to them with the earth. “And God saw the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted their way upon the earth. And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth.” (Genesis 6:12-13 ASV) God brought the deluge over the earth, but that was the first and last turn that God would do that. Lots of doom thinkers make people frightened. Often they try to get the people of their congregation in their ban with cursings to the outer world and with “If you had more faith”. We should recognise the false teachers at the words and actions they take. Teachers or preachers their sayings we always do have to compare them with the Words of God which we can find in the Book of Books, the Bible. Compare where the Holy Scriptures disagrees. In a time when so many people are striving for an explanation of why their lives turn out a certain way, or why things (good or bad) happen to them, the expressions “it’s all part of God’s plan,” “everything happens for the best,” or “it just wasn’t meant to be,” and so on, have became a little tiresome. In “When Bad Things Happen to Good People,” perhaps Rabbi Harold S. Kushner can offer you a refreshing point of view that differs from those who think everything occurs on earth because God wants it that way, and at the same time provides a surprising comfort in the fact that events actually can, and do, take place for no reason at all. Rabbi Kushner tries to reconcile a common Judeo-Christian view of God and causality with a perspective of life that holds a place for randomness and happenstance. He tries to proof that things happen in life that God has nothing to do with, and there is a way to find peace in accepting this. Also for him as for us not everything that takes place in the world has a purpose or comes from God. God, in Kushner’s view, created the world and provides the foundation of moral principle. But according some thoughts God would not quite be in control of the world He created. He hopes for our good and He sympathizes, as it were, with us in our pain, but He is powerless to do anything about it according this Jewish writer. But the One who created is in control but allows people a lot of freedom. Aish.com, a division of Aish HaTorah, an apolitical network of Jewish educational centres in 35 branches on five continents remarks: “As to why a God Who had the power to create the entire universe in the first place would create one that He is powerless to control, Kushner basically shrugs his shoulders and contents himself with noting that the world is relatively good for most people most of the time. We might designate this theory as “randomness plus God.”" (Why Harold Kushner is wrong) Fro them Harold Kushner’s approach to suffering is profoundly un-Jewish and provides no solace to those in pain. Unable to understand why a good God would allow individuals to suffer, Kushner ends by neatly defining the question away. He cannot even conceive of the possibility of any understanding, and so concludes that we have no answers because there are no answers. But God has provided those who want to listen and who want to find insight and wisdom, the possibilities to find the answers in the Holy Scriptures. “By arguing that much of what happens is beyond God’s control, Kushner effectively severs the connection between God and the world and thereby empties physical existence of all meaning.” dixit Aish.
When bad things happen to good people who do you blame? What, if anything, keeps you from accepting painful situations or losses in your life?
A lot of people do not see that the Book of Job also gives a picture of who God is and of what He wants from us. They also quote a lot from the friends their words but forget how in Job and Elihu’s replies we get a rectification and the solution to the whole problem in the answer of the Elohim, Jehovah God.
In chapters 29-31 of the Book of Job (Fragments from the Book of Job #4: chapters 27-31) Job also present us a picture of some of the commandments to which we better keep to live in conformity with the Will of God or Gods Law. Those Commandments of God or Mitzvah (Hebrew: מצוה “commandment”, [mitsˈva], Biblical: Miṣwah; plural mitzvot [mitsˈvot]; Biblical: Miṣwoth from צוה ṣiwwah “command”) were brought to humankind through the ages that God ministered His People. In Judaism they refer to the 613 Mitzvot (Hebrew: תרי”ג מצוות: Taryag Mitzvot, “613 commandments”; Biblical Hebrew: Miṣwoth) or 613 commandments given in the Torah. Job brought some statements and principles of law, ethics, and spiritual practice contained in the Torah or Five Books of Moses forwards to proof that he tried honestly to fullfill Gods wishes.
When the friendship of God was with Job, he argued, (Job 29:4) that the Almighty was yet with him. He had the idea that God had deserted him, like Jesus also asked God why He had abandoned him. Strangely Job does not see that God was all the time with him. No matter what happens, when we stay with God, He shall always stay around us. Though we do not hear Him, He shall keep an eye onto us. God is often seemingly hidden, but His silence, His deafness, His blindness is all part of His plan to strengthen our relationship with Him. It can be hard when God does not reveal Himself in visible proofs. But it makes stronger faith. We have to be careful that we do not project our human limitation upon God so that we could better understand our problems. We have limits, but the Only One God has no limits as a spirit. “The God is Pneuma, and those worshipping Him must of necessity worship spiritually and in harmony with Truth.”” (John 4:24 MHM)
Sometimes we are too busy to attend to all the details in our life, but Jehovah God never loses track of the details.
Also the friendship in the community is being questioned. You can compare the situation of Job and his friends as to what you expect of your “brethren”. How do we react when something goes wrong with somebody of the ecclesia? And when one of the brothers or sisters is taken in any wrongdoing, how do you want to put such a one right in a spirit of love; keeping watch on yourself, for fear that you yourself may be tested. Are you also willing to take on yourselves one another’s troubles, and so keep the law of Christ. “Brothers, if anyone is overcome by some mistake those who are spiritual should gently and meekly readjust such a person. However, watch yourselves so you are never tempted. Continue to carry the heavy burdens of one another and in this manner fulfil Christ’s Law.” (Galatians 6:1-2 MHM)
Job had moments of doubt and we also can feel that we are standing alone in the turbulent storm. All the thorns from the problems can hurt us deep and cause anger against the others and worse, against God for His seeming abandonment in His hiddenness. But from the next chapters and other Books from the Old and New Testament we shall see that God does not turn a deaf ear and a blind eye. God does see and hear in the camps of the evil ones, and not only that, but He assures us that He is there in the middle of the evil. He does not forsake those sons and daughters of His as it seems, for He sets the joy before them, and will send an accompanying angel to bear them up in the extreme. He wants us to “Look up”, but if we are so deep in the pit in the evil camp with our eyes permanently cast down, alas we find, miraculously, and mercifully that He is there with us. He is not hidden, and He whispers, “Look up, look up for I am here with you”. When Job refused to give up on God, despite the pleadings of all his accusers, he won the contest with them, and was privileged to see what he would have missed had he succumbed to their suggestions. How do you look up to God. Can you keep trusting God and have a positive perspective? What might you think in a similar situation? Where do you place God in your life and where was God for you when it hurt the most?
Job demanded an audience with God in which he was sure he would be vindicated. Enter Elihu on the scene who sets Job straight before the entrance of God himself. When Job finally gets his audience with God it doesn’t go like he planned at all. He comes away humbled and repentant for his selfish behaviour. He is accepted by God still however, which speaks to eternal security of the believer. His three friends are a different matter however. It says God’s anger burned toward them. (see Jot’s writing on Job)
Job, who consciously lived his life as if it were open before and in service to the God of heaven and earth and kept to the regulation of community, (one of the Laws or Deuteronomic code) brought forwards all the good deeds he had done. We also have to do such good things. Delivering or taking care of the poor and the fatherless (Job 31:16–23); giving widows heart to sing for joy; no stealing or coveting; putting on righteousness; helping the blind, the lame and the needy; even helping animals, providing them with food (Job 31:31) searching out causes; putting the unrighteous on their place; giving counsel or advice; not having looked at the elements of the earth to worship them (Job 31:24-28) because we have to abstain from any pagan worship and our worship of God must remain pure. Not erecting sacred stones or adoring the richness of the earth (gold, silver, money, wealth), not making for yourself an idol. Keeping to purity and respecting rules which regulate marriage.
We should try to get to know the regulations of the Most High, but just keeping to them because we are afraid He might harm us is not the good reason to hold vast to the commandments. God wants from us that we do come out of our own free will, and that we love Him for what He really is. It is not by the disasters in the world or the many problems on earth that the greatness of the Creator is shown.
Does not God and His son gave to those who came with a request? We all can use this earth in loan from the Creator but so we want to share of it with others? do some of us not keep their property from him who would for a time make use of it. You have knowledge that it was said, “Have love for your neighbour, and hate for him who is against you”. But Jesus said to us: “Have love for those who are against you, and make prayer for those who are cruel to you; So that you may be the sons of your Father in heaven; for his sun gives light to the evil and to the good, and he sends rain on the upright man and on the sinner. For if you have love for those who have love for you, what credit is it to you? do not the tax-farmers the same? And if you say, Good day, to your brothers only, what do you do more than others? do not even the Gentiles the same?” (Matthew 5:42-47 BBE). “Instead, all of you continue to show loving concern for your enemies. And continue doing good-continue lending money without expecting anything to be paid back. If you do your reward will be considerable, for you will become the Most High’s offspring, because He is kind to the ungrateful and wicked.” (Luke 6:35 MHM)
We should know that “Jehovah is good to all; And his tender mercies are over all his works.” (Psalms 145:9 ASV)
We can also notice that Job recited a blessing for each enjoyment, but also blessings and curses for those who keep and break the law (Deuteronomic code in Deuteronomy Chapters 12-26).
Job preferred to curse the day he was born rather than God.
If we read in between the lines we can see that it is with profound courage and compassion that sufferers survive the inhuman dignities placed upon them by captors, and torturers and they need to remember that it is easier to receive the pain and moan with it, than it is to be the source of the inhuman behaviour, for there is no escaping the human consciousness that makes inhumanity possible. So, in that sense, human captors or persecutors and torturers are always worse off than their prisoners, or those who they torment. In a way we can’t escape that not such liked events intrude with such force that we are compelled to deal with our faith in the context of what is taking place in our lives. Suffering is one such event. It challenges us to confront the ultimate questions of who we are and what is the significance of our lives. Suffering is a painful invitation to deepen our faith and make it a real part of our lives.
We also get the question of “what makes “happy“, “healthy”, “wealthy” and “wise“.
Now we have heard the speeches of Jobs friends and his replies. Does the hair-rising, mystical spiritual experience of Eliphaz sound reliable to you? (Job 4:12-16) Can we be righteous as against God and be blameless against our Maker?
When we hear what happens in some churches and see how preachers rage on television do you not question if “correct” theology (all the right words) and/or quoting just some phrases out of context can ever be “bad” theology?
Elihu said i am young and ye are very old
Today we listen to Elius or Elihu son of Barakel the Buzite who was young in years. He had kept silent all the time because the others were older and therefore he did not dare to speak up against them. He was fearful, not daring to tell them what he knew. (Job 32:6). There is a great lesson for us all here. It is not necessarily the case that old age brings wisdom. Wisdom is a result of experience. We should not keep to our pride and think because we have a certain age we also would have the wisdom. If we want to listen to advice or hear wisdom we should look for a trustworthy man person, who has had many testings in his or her life and stuck to his or her faith throughout, rather than one who has reached a great age or got a lot of wealth. It is clear from this book that old age does not always bring wisdom and understanding, but in this latter part of the book we are brought to our senses by this younger man who has the answers and who is able to help Job see his life in perspective. Let us not ignore the potential for wisdom to come from our younger members. And the wisdom does not always come from the most popular nor from the most liked one. The wisdom does not always flatter. We must recognise that there are certain preachers who want to be popular and even get huge churches full of people, because they know how to present their “show”. they know exactly what the people want to hear and give it to them in such a way that the people are pleased to hear such talking. But Elihu made it clear that what he had to say would not be emotional, or spoken with prejudice. He would not flatter, nor would he show respect to persons. He knew that God would condemn those who did. Though he also could find his thoughts “darkened”, and that is also what we all have to be aware of, certain things we can know for sure, others not, in certain things we can have wisdom, in others not. At certain point we even can find some haughtiness in his speaking. With a certain arrogance he boast that he has so much to say he can’t keep him straight. (Job 32: 18-22) Do we notice a taste of a braggart? In case we know something more then an other we should be pleased that we can be blessed as such. Let us therefore always be humble enough and listen in first instance to the One and Only God Almighty.
Brenton Translation
1851 by Lancelot Brenton
Job Chapter 32
Job 32:1 And his three friends also ceased any longer to answer Job: for Job was righteous before them.
Job 32:2 Then Elius the son of Barachiel, the Buzite, of the kindred of Ram, of the country of Ausis, was angered: and he was very angry with Job, because he justified himself before the Lord.
Job 32:3 And he was also very angry with [his] three friends, because they were not able to return answers to Job, yet set him down for an ungodly man.
Job 32:4 But Elius had forborne to give an answer to Job, because they were older than he.
Job 32:5 And Elius saw that there was no answer in the mouth of the three men; and he was angered in his wrath.
Job 32:6 And Elius the Buzite the son of Barachiel answered and said, I am younger in age, and ye are elder, wherefore I kept silence, fearing to declare to you my own knowledge.
Job 32:7 And I said, It is not time that speaks, though in many years [men] know wisdom:
Job 32:8 but there is a spirit in mortals; and the inspiration of the Almighty is that which teaches.
Job 32:9 The long-lived are not wise [as such]; neither do the aged know judgment.
Job 32:10 Wherefore I said, Hear me, and I will tell you what I know.
Job 32:11 Hearken to my words; for I will speak in your hearing, until ye shall have tried [the matter] with words:
Job 32:12 and I shall understand as far as you; and, behold, there was no one of you that answered Job his words in argument,
Job 32:13 lest ye should say, We have found that we have added wisdom to the Lord.
Job 32:14 And ye have commissioned a man to speak such words.
Job 32:15 They were afraid, they answered no longer; they gave up their speaking.
Job 32:16 I waited, (for I had not spoken,) because they stood still, they answered not.
Job 32:17 And Elius continued, and said, I will again speak,
Job 32:18 for I am full of words, for the spirit of my belly destroys me.
Job 32:19 And my belly is as a skin of sweet wine, bound up [and] ready to burst; or as a brazier’s labouring bellows.
Job 32:20 I will speak, that I may open my lips and relieve myself.
Job 32:21 For truly I will not be awed because of man, nor indeed will I be confounded before a mortal.
Job 32:22 For I know not how to respect persons: and if otherwise, even the moths would eat me.
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Job 33:1 Howbeit hear, Job, my words, and hearken to my speech.
Job 33:2 For behold, I have opened my mouth, and my tongue has spoken.
Job 33:3 My heart [shall be found] pure by [my] words; and the understanding of my lips shall meditate purity.
Job 33:4 The Divine Spirit is that which formed me, and the breath of the Almighty that which teaches me.
Job 33:5 If thou canst, give me an answer: wait therefore; stand against me, and I [will stand] against thee.
Job 33:6 Thou art formed out of the clay as also I: we have been formed out of the same [substance].
Job 33:7 My fear shall not terrify thee, neither shall my hand be heavy upon thee.
Job 33:8 But thou hast said in mine ears, (I have heard the voice of thy words;) because thou sayest, I am pure, not having sinned;
Job 33:9 I am blameless, for I have not transgressed.
Job 33:10 Yet he has discovered a charge against me, and he has reckoned me as an adversary.
Job 33:11 And he has put my foot in the stocks, and has watched all my ways.
Job 33:12 For how sayest thou, I am righteous, yet he has not hearkened to me? for he that is above mortals is eternal.
Job 33:13 But thou sayest, Why has he not heard every word of my cause?
Job 33:14 For when the Lord speaks once, or a second time,
Job 33:15 [sending] a dream, or in the meditation of the night; (as when a dreadful alarm happens to fall upon men, in slumberings on the bed:)
Job 33:16 then opens he the understanding of men: he scares them with such fearful visions:
Job 33:17 to turn a man from unrighteousness, and he delivers his body from a fall.
Job 33:18 He spares also his soul from death, and [suffers] him not to fall in war.
Job 33:19 And again, he chastens him with sickness on his bed, and the multitude of his bones is benumbed.
Job 33:20 And he shall not be able to take any food, though his soul shall desire meat;
Job 33:21 until his flesh shall be consumed, and he shall shew his bones bare.
Job 33:22 His soul also draws nigh to death, and his life is in Hades (the grave).
Job 33:23 Though there should be a thousand messengers of death, not one of them shall wound him: if he should purpose in his heart to turn to the Lord, and declare to man his fault, and shew his folly;
Job 33:24 he will support him, that he should not perish, and will restore his body as [fresh] plaster upon a wall; and he will fill his bones with morrow.
Job 33:25 And he will make his flesh tender as that of a babe, and he will restore him among men in [his] full strength.
Job 33:26 And he shall pray to the Lord, and his prayer shall be accepted of him; he shall enter with a cheerful countenance, with a full expression [of praise]: for he will render to men [their] due.
Job 33:27 Even then a man shall blame himself, saying, What kind of things have I done? and he has not punished me according to the full amount of my sins.
Job 33:28 Deliver my soul, that it may not go to destruction, and my life shall see the light.
Job 33:29 Behold, all these things, the Mighty One works in a threefold manner with a man.
Job 33:30 And he has delivered my soul from death, that my life may praise him in the light.
Job 33:31 Hearken, Job, and hear me: be silent, and I will speak.
Job 33:32 If thou hast words, answer me: speak, for I desire thee to be justified.
Job 33:33 If not, do thou hear me: be silent, and I will teach thee.
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Job 34:1 And Elius continued, and said,
Job 34:2 Hear me, ye wise men; hearken, ye that have knowledge.
Job 34:3 For the ear tries words, and the mouth tastes meat.
Job 34:4 Let us choose judgment to ourselves: let us know amount ourselves what is right.
Job 34:5 For Job has said, I am righteous: the Lord has removed my judgment.
Job 34:6 And he has erred in my judgment: my wound is severe without unrighteousness [of mine].
Job 34:7 What man is as Job, drinking scorning like water?
Job 34:8 [saying], I have not sinned, nor committed ungodliness, nor had fellowship with workers of iniquity, to go with the ungodly.
Job 34:9 For thou shouldest not say, There shall be no visitation of a man, whereas [there is] a visitation on him from the Lord.
Job 34:10 Wherefore hear me, ye that are wise in heart: far be it from me to sin before the Lord, and to pervert righteousness before the almighty.
Job 34:11 Yea, he renders to a man accordingly as each of them does, and in a man’s path he will find him.
Job 34:12 And thinkest thou that the Lord will do wrong, or will the Almighty who made the earth wrest judgment?
Job 34:13 And who is he that made [the whole world] under heaven, and all things therein?
Job 34:14 For if he would confine, and restrain his spirit with himself;
Job 34:15 all flesh would die together, and every mortal would return to the earth, whence also he was formed.
Job 34:16 Take heed lest he rebuke [thee]: hear this, hearken to the voice of words.
Job 34:17 Behold then the one that hates iniquities, and that destroys the wicked, who is for ever just.
Job 34:18 [He is] ungodly that says to a king, Thou art a transgressor, [that says] to princes, O most ungodly one.
Job 34:19 [Such a one] as would not reverence the face of an honourable man, neither knows how to give honour to the great, so as that their persons should be respected.
Job 34:20 But it shall turn out vanity to them, to cry and beseech a man; for they dealt unlawfully, the poor being turned aside [from their right].
Job 34:21 For he surveys the works of men, and nothing of what they do has escaped him.
Job 34:22 Neither shall there be a place for the workers of iniquity to hide themselves.
Job 34:23 For he will not lay upon a man more [than right].
Job 34:24 For the Lord looks down upon all men, who comprehends unsearchable things, glorious also and excellent things without number.
Job 34:25 Who discovers their works, and will bring night about [upon them], and they shall be brought low.
Job 34:26 And he quite destroys the ungodly, for they are seen before him.
Job 34:27 Because they turned aside from the law of God, and did not regard his ordinances,
Job 34:28 so as to bring before him the cry of the needy; for he will hear the cry of the poor.
Job 34:29 And he will give quiet, and who will condemn? and he will hide his face, and who shall see him? whether [it be done] against a nation, or against a man also:
Job 34:30 causing a hypocrite to be king, because of the waywardness of the people.
Job 34:31 For [there is] one that says to the Mighty One, I have received [blessings]; I will not take a pledge:
Job 34:32 I will see apart from myself: do thou shew me if I have done unrighteousness; I will not do [so] any more.
Job 34:33 Will he take vengeance for it on thee, whereas thou wilt put [it] far [from thee]? for thou shalt choose, and not I; and what thou knowest, speak thou.
Job 34:34 Because the wise in heart shall say this, and a wise man listens to my word.
Job 34:35 But Job has not spoken with understanding, his words are not [uttered] with knowledge.
Job 34:36 Howbeit do thou learn, Job: no longer make answer as the foolish:
Job 34:37 that we add not to our sins: for iniquity will be reckoned against us, if [we] speak many words before the Lord.
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Job 35:1 And Elius resumed and said,
Job 35:2 What is this that thou thinkest to be according to right? who art thou that thou hast said, I am righteous before the Lord?
Job 35:3 I will answer thee, and thy three friends.
Job 35:4 Look up to the sky and see; and consider the clouds, how high [they are] above thee.
Job 35:5 If thou hast sinned, what wilt thou do?
Job 35:6 and if too thou hast transgressed much, what canst thou perform?
Job 35:7 And suppose thou art righteous, what wilt thou give him? or what shall he receive of thy hand?
Job 35:8 Thy ungodliness [may affect] a man who is like to thee; or thy righteousness a son of man.
Job 35:9 They that are oppressed of a multitude will be ready to cry out; they will call for help because of the arm of many.
Job 35:10 But none said, Where is God that made me, who appoints the night-watches;
Job 35:11 who makes me to differ from the four-footed beasts of the earth, and from the birds of the sky?
Job 35:12 There they shall cry, and none shall hearken, even because of the insolence of wicked men.
Job 35:13 For the Lord desires not to look on error, for he is the Almighty One.
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Job 36:1 And Elius further continued, and said,
Job 36:2 Wait form me yet a little while, that I may teach thee: for there is yet speech in me.
Job 36:3 Having fetched my knowledge from afar, and according to my works,
Job 36:4 I will speak just things truly, and thou shalt not unjustly receive unjust words.
Job 36:5 But know that the Lord will not cast off an innocent man: being mighty in strength of wisdom,
Job 36:6 he will not by any means save alive the ungodly: and he will grant the judgment of the poor.
Job 36:7 He will not turn away his eyes from the righteous, but [they shall be] with kings on the throne: and he will establish them in triumph, and they shall be exalted.
Job 36:8 But they that are bound in fetters shall be holden in cords of poverty.
Job 36:9 And he shall recount to them their works, and their transgressions, for such will act with violence.
Job 36:10 But he will hearken to the righteous: and he has said that they shall turn from unrighteousness.
Job 36:11 If they should hear and serve [him], they shall spend their days in prosperity, and their years in honour.
Job 36:12 But he preserves not the ungodly; because they are not willing to know the Lord, and because when reproved they were disobedient.
Job 36:13 And the hypocrites in heart will array wrath [against themselves]; they will not cry, because he has bound them.
Job 36:14 Therefore let their soul die in youth, and their life be wounded by messengers [of death].
Job 36:15 Because they afflicted the weak and helpless: and he will vindicate the judgment of the meek.
Job 36:16 And he has also enticed thee out of the mouth of the enemy:
Job 36:17 [there is] a deep gulf [and] a rushing stream beneath it, and thy table came down full of fatness. Judgment shall not fail from the righteous;
Job 36:18 but there shall be wrath upon the ungodly, by reason of the ungodliness of the bribes which they received for iniquities.
Job 36:19 Let not [thy] mind willingly turn thee aside from the petition of the feeble that are in distress.
Job 36:20 And draw not forth all the mighty [men] by night, so that the people should go up instead of them.
Job 36:21 But take heed lest thou do that which is wrong: for of this thou has made choice because of poverty.
Job 36:22 Behold, the Mighty One shall prevail by his strength: for who is powerful as he is?
Job 36:23 And who is he that examines his works? or who can say, he has wrought injustice?
Job 36:24 Remember that his works are great [beyond] those which men have attempted.
Job 36:25 Every man has seen in himself, how many mortals are wounded.
Job 36:26 Behold, the Mighty One is great, and we shall not know [him]: the number of his years is even infinite.
Job 36:27 And the drops of rain are numbered by him, and shall be poured out in rain to form a cloud.
Job 36:28 The ancient [heavens] shall flow, and the clouds overshadow innumerable mortals: (36:28A) he has fixed a time to cattle, and they know the order of rest. (36:28B) [Yet] by all these things thy understanding is not astonished, neither is thy mind disturbed in [thy] body.
Job 36:29 And though one should understand the outspreadings of the clouds, [or] the measure of his tabernacle;
Job 36:30 behold he will stretch his bow against him, and he covers the bottom of the sea.
Job 36:31 For by them he will judge the nations: he will give food to him that has strength.
Job 36:32 He has hidden the light in [his] hands, and given charge concerning it to the interposing [cloud].
Job 36:33 The Lord will declare concerning this [to] his friend: [but there is] a portion also for unrighteousness.
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Job 37:1 At this also my heart is troubled, and moved out of its place.
Job 37:2 Hear thou a report by the anger of the Lord’s wrath, and a discourse shall come out of his mouth.
Job 37:3 His dominion is under the whole heaven, and his light is at the extremities of the earth.
Job 37:4 After him shall be a cry with a [loud] voice; he shall thunder with the voice of his excellency, yet he shall not cause men to pass away, for one shall hear his voice.
Job 37:5 The Mighty One shall thunder wonderfully with his voice: for he has done great things which we knew not;
Job 37:6 commanding the snow, Be thou upon the earth, and the stormy rain, and the storm of the showers of his might.
Job 37:7 He seals up the hand of every man, that every man may know his own weakness.
Job 37:8 And the wild beasts come in under the covert, and rest in [their] lair.
Job 37:9 Troubles come on out of the secret chambers, and cold from the mountain-tops.
Job 37:10 And from the breath of the Mighty One he will send frost; and he guides the water in whatever way he pleases.
Job 37:11 And [if] a cloud obscures [what is] precious [to him], his light will disperse the cloud.
Job 37:12 And he will carry round the encircling [clouds] by his governance, to [perform] their works: whatsoever he shall command them,
Job 37:13 this has been appointed by him on the earth, whether for correction, [or] for his land, or if he shall find him [an object] for mercy.
Job 37:14 Hearken to this, O Job: stand still, and be admonished of the power of the Lord.
Job 37:15 We know that god has disposed his works, having made light out of darkness.
Job 37:16 And he knows the divisions of the clouds, and the signal overthrows of the ungodly.
Job 37:17 But thy robe is warm, and there is quiet upon the land.
Job 37:18 Wilt thou establish with him [foundations] for the ancient [heavens? they are] strong as a molten mirror.
Job 37:19 Wherefore teach me, what shall we say to him? and let us cease from saying much.
Job 37:20 Have I a book or a scribe my me, that I may stand and put man to silence?
Job 37:21 But the light is not visible to all: it shines afar off in the heavens, as that which is from him in the clouds.
Job 37:22 From the [north] come the clouds shining like gold: in these great are the glory and honour of the Almighty;
Job 37:23 and we do not find another his equal in strength: [as for] him that judges justly, dost thou not think that he listens?
Job 37:24 Wherefore men shall fear him; and the wise also in heart shall fear him.
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Continues: Fragments from the Book of Job #6: chapters 38-42
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- The Role And Character Of Elihu In The Book Of Job
Perhaps no other biblical character has been characterized by scholars in such radically different ways as Elihu. Concerning wisdom, Elihu is described as either an “exceeding wise” man or a “buffoon”; concerning his motivation, he is seen as anything from a divinely-inspired “man of God” to the “person assumed or adopted by Satan” to attack Job; concerning his contribution to the Book of Job, he is considered to be “irrelevant” or “integral.
… many scholars believe that the Elihu speeches as we have them now were not part of the original Book of Job.
reasons for rejecting the authenticity:- Elihu is mentioned nowhere in the Book of Job outside of his speeches in Job 32-37
- the style of the Elihu speeches is different from the style used in the other parts of the book.
- Job’s challenge in chapter 31 calls for God, not Elihu, to make an appearance.
- Elihu’s speeches supposedly contribute nothing to the Book of Job. (but as you can read Elihu does have something significant to add)
… many scholars reject these arguments as unconvincing and strongly believe the Elihu speeches to be an original part of Job.
Fragments from the Book of Job #1: chapters 1-12
Fragments from the story of Job or Jobab (Job 42:17) and its numerous exegeses attempting to address the problem of evil. (Highlights ours, in purpose for the study on suffering and Gods hand in it. But please take your translation at hand and read the full chapters.)
Brenton Translation
1851 by Lancelot Brenton
Title Page for the Book of Job 1973 - Image by Black Country Museums via Flickr
Job Chapters 1-12
Job 1:1 There was a certain man in the land of Ausis, whose name [was] Job; and than man was true, blameless, righteous, [and] godly, abstaining from everything evil.
Job 1:2 And he had seven sons and three daughters.
Job 1:3 And his cattle consisted of seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred yoke of oxen, five hundred she-asses in the pastures, and a very great household, and he had a great husbandry on the earth; and that man was [most] noble of the [men] of the east.
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Job 1:6 And it came to pass on a day, that behold, the angels of God came to stand before the Lord, and the devil (the adversary) came with them.
Job 1:7 And the Lord said to the devil, Whence art thou come? And the devil answered the Lord, and said, I am come from compassing the earth, and walking up and down in the world.
Job 1:8 And the Lord said to him, Hast thou diligently considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a man blameless, true, godly, abstaining from everything evil?
Job 1:9 Then the devil answered, and said before the Lord, Does Job worship the Lord for nothing?
Job 1:10 Hast thou not made a hedge about him, and about his household, and all his possessions round about? and hast thou not blessed the works of his hands, and multiplied his cattle upon the land?
Job 1:11 But put forth thine hand, and touch all that he has: verily he will bless thee to [thy] face.
Job 1:12 Then the Lord said to the devil, Behold, I give into thine hand all that he has, but touch not himself. So the devil went out from the presence of the Lord.
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Job 1:20 So Job arose, and rent his garments, and shaved the hair of his head, and fell on the earth, and worshipped,
Job 1:21 and said, I myself came forth naked from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return thither; the Lord gave, the Lord has taken away: as it seemed good to the Lord, so has it come to pass; blessed be the name of the Lord.
Job 1:22 In all these events that befell him Job sinned not at all before the Lord, and did not impute folly to God.
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Job 2:1 And it came to pass on a certain day, that the angels of God came to stand before the Lord, and the devil came among them to stand before the Lord.
Job 2:2 And the Lord, said to the devil, Whence comest thou? Then the devil said before the Lord, I (the evil) am come from going through the world, and walking about the whole earth.
Job 2:3 And the Lord said to the devil, Hast thou then observed my servant Job, that there is none of [men] upon the earth like him, a harmless, true, blameless, godly man, abstaining from all evil? and he yet cleaves to innocence, whereas thou has told [me] to destroy his substance without cause?
Job 2:4 And the devil answered and said to the Lord, Skin for skin, all that a man has will he give as a ransom for his life.
Job 2:5 Nay, but put forth thine hand, and touch his bones and his flesh: verily he will bless thee to [thy] face.
Job 2:6 And the Lord said to the devil, Behold, I deliver him up to thee; only save his life.
Job 2:7 So the devil went out from the Lord, and smote Job with sore boils from [his] feet to [his] head.
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Job 2:10 …Thou hast spoken like one of the foolish women. If we have received good things of the hand of the Lord, shall we not endure evil things? In all these things that happened to him, Job sinned not at all with his lips before God.
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Job 3:1 After this Job opened his mouth, and cursed his day,
Job 3:2 saying,
Job 3:3 Let the day perish in which I was born, and that night in which they said, Behold a man-child!
Job 3:4 Let that night be darkness, and let not the Lord regard it from above, neither let light come upon it.
Job 3:5 But let darkness and the shadow of death seize it; let blackness come upon it;
Job 3:6 let that day and night be cursed, let darkness carry them away; let it not come into the days of the year, neither let it be numbered with the days of the months.
Job 3:7 But let that night be pain, and let not mirth come upon it, nor joy.
Job 3:8 But let him that curses that day curse it, [even] he that is ready to attack the great whale.
Job 3:9 Let the stars of that night be darkened; let it remain [dark], and not come into light; and let it not see the morning star arise:
Job 3:10 because it shut not up the gates of my mother’s womb, for [so] it would have removed sorrow from my eyes.
Job 3:11 For why died I not in the belly? and [why] did I not come forth from the womb and die immediately?
Job 3:12 and why did the knees support me? and why did I suck the breasts?
Job 3:13 Now I should have lain down and been quiet, I should have slept and been at rest,
Job 3:14 with kings [and] councillors of the earth, who gloried in [their] swords;
Job 3:15 or with rulers, whose gold was abundant, who filled their houses with silver:
Job 3:16 or [I should have been] as an untimely birth proceeding from his mother’s womb, or as infants who never saw light.
Job 3:17 There the ungodly have burnt out the fury of rage; there the wearied in body rest.
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Job 3:23 Death [is] rest to [such] a man, for God has hedged him in.
Job 3:24 For my groaning comes before my food, and I weep being beset with terror.
Job 3:25 For the terror of which I meditated has come upon me, and that which I had feared has befallen me.
Job 3:26 I was not at peace, nor quiet, nor had I rest; yet wrath came upon me.
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Job 4:5 Yet now [that] pain has come upon thee, and touched thee, thou art troubled.
Job 4:6 Is not thy fear [founded] in folly, thy hope also, and the mischief of thy way?
Job 4:7 Remember then who has perished, being pure? or when were the true-hearted utterly destroyed?
Job 4:8 Accordingly as I have seen men ploughing barren places, and they that sow them will reap sorrows for themselves.
Job 4:9 They shall perish by the command of the Lord, and shall be utterly consumed by the breath of his wrath.
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Job 4:13 But [as when] terror falls upon men, with dread and a sound in the night,
Job 4:14 horror and trembling seized me, and caused all my bones greatly to shake.
Job 4:15 And a spirit came before my face; and my hair and flesh quivered.
Job 4:16 I arose and perceived it not: I looked, and there, was no form before my eyes: but I only heard a breath and a voice, [saying],
Job 4:17 What, shall a mortal be pure before the Lord? or a man be blameless in regard to his works?
Job 4:18 Whereas he trust not in his servants, and perceives perverseness in his angels.
Job 4:19 But [as for] them that dwell in houses of clay, of whom we also are formed of the same clay, he smites them like a moth.
Job 4:20 And from the morning to evening they no longer exist: they have perished, because they cannot help themselves.
Job 4:21 For he blows upon them, and they are withered: they have perished for lack of wisdom.
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Job 5:1 But call, if any one will hearken to thee, or if thou shalt see any of the holy angels.
Job 5:2 For wrath destroys the foolish one, and envy slays him that has gone astray.
Job 5:3 And I have seen foolish ones taking root: but suddenly their habitation was devoured.
Job 5:4 Let their children be far from safety, and let them be crushed at the doors of vile men, and let there be no deliverer.
Job 5:5 For what they have collected, the just shall eat; but they shall not be delivered out of calamities: let their strength be utterly exhausted.
Job 5:6 For labour cannot by any means come out of the earth, nor shall trouble spring out of the mountains:
Job 5:7 yet man is born to labour, and [even so] the vulture’s young seek the high places.
Job 5:8 Nevertheless I will beseech the Lord, and will call upon the Lord, the sovereign of all;
Job 5:9 who does great things and untraceable, glorious things also, and marvellous, of which there is no number:
Job 5:10 who gives rain upon the earth, sending water on the earth:
Job 5:11 who exalts the lowly, and raises up them that are lost:
Job 5:12 frustrating the counsels of the crafty, and their hands shall not perform the truth:
Job 5:13 who takes the wise in their wisdom, and subverts the counsel of the crafty
Job 5:14 In the day darkness shall come upon them, and let them grope in the noon-day even as in the night:
Job 5:15 and let them perish in war, and let the weak escape from the hand of the mighty.
Job 5:16 And let the weak have hope, but the mouth of the unjust be stopped.
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Job 5:17 But blessed [is] the man whom the Lord has reproved; and reject not thou the chastening of the Almighty.
Job 5:18 for he causes [a man] to be in pain, and restores [him] again: he smites, and his hands heal.
Job 5:19 Six time he shall deliver thee out of distresses: and in the seventh harm shall not touch thee.
Job 5:20 In famine he shall deliver thee from death: and in war he shall free thee from the power of the sword.
Job 5:21 He shall hide thee from the scourge of the tongue: and thou shalt not be afraid of coming evils.
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Job 6:1 But Job answered and said,
Job 6:2 Oh that one would indeed weigh the wrath that is upon me, and take up my griefs in a balance together!
Job 6:3 And verily they would be heavier than the sand by the seashore: but, as it seems, my words are vain.
Job 6:4 For the arrows of the Lord are in my body, whose violence drinks up my blood: whenever I am going to speak, they pierce me.
Job 6:5 What then? will the wild ass bray for nothing, if he is not seeking food? or again, will the ox low at the manger, when he has a fodder?
Job 6:6 Shall bread be eaten without salt? or again, is there taste in empty words?
Job 6:7 For my wrath cannot cease; for I perceive my food as the smell of a lion [to be] loathsome.
Job 6:8 For oh that he would grant [my desire], and my petition might come, and the Lord would grant my hope!
Job 6:9 Let the Lord begin and wound me, but let him not utterly destroy me.
Job 6:10 Let the grave be my city, upon the walls of which I have leaped: I will not shrink from it; for I have not denied the holy words of my God.
Job 6:11 For what is my strength, that I continue? what is my time, that my soul endures?
Job 6:12 Is my strength the strength of stones? or is my flesh of brass?
Job 6:13 Or have I not trusted in him? but help is [far] from me.
Job 6:14 Mercy has rejected me; and the visitation of the Lord has disregarded me.
Job 6:15 My nearest relations have not regarded me; they have passed me by like a failing brook, or like a wave.
Job 6:16 They who used to reverence me, now have come against me like snow or congealed ice.
Job 6:17 When it has melted at the approach of heat, it is not known what it was.
Job 6:18 Thus I also have been deserted of all; and I am ruined, and become an outcast.
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Job 7:1 Is not the life of man upon earth a state of trial? and his existence as that of a hireling by the day?
Job 7:2 Or as a servant that fears his master, and one who has grasped a shadow? or as a hireling waiting for his pay?
Job 7:3 So have I also endured months of vanity, and nights of pain have been appointed me.
Job 7:4 Whenever I lie down, I say, When [will it be] day? and whenever I rise up, again [I say] when [will it be] evening? and I am full of pains from evening to morning.
Job 7:5 And my body is covered with loathsome worms; and I waste away, scraping off clods of dust from my eruption.
Job 7:6 And my life is lighter than a word, and has perished in vain hope.
Job 7:7 Remember then that my life is breath, and mine eye shalt not yet again see good.
Job 7:8 The eye of him that sees me shall not see me [again]: thine eyes are upon me, and I am no more.
Job 7:9 [I am] as a cloud that is cleared away from the sky: for if a man go down to the grave, he shall not come up again:
Job 7:10 and he shall surely not return to his own house, neither shall his place know him any more.
Job 7:11 Then neither will I refrain my mouth: I will speak being in distress; being in anguish I will disclose the bitterness of my soul.
Job 7:12 Am I a sea, or a serpent, that thou hast set a watch over me?
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Job 7:16 For I shall not live for ever, that I should patiently endure: depart from me, for my life [is] vain.
Job 7:17 For what is man, that thou hast magnified him? or that thou givest heed to him?
Job 7:18 Wilt thou visit him till the morning, and judge him till [the time of] rest?
Job 7:19 How long dost thou not let me alone, nor let me go, until I shall swallow down my spittle?
Job 7:20 If I have sinned, what shall I be able to do, O thou that understandest the mind of men? why hast thou made me as thine accuser, and [why] am I a burden to thee?
Job 7:21 Why hast thou not forgotten my iniquity, and purged my sin? but now I shall depart to the earth; and in the morning I am no more.
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Job 8:3 Will the Lord be unjust when he judges; or will he that has made all things pervert justice?
Job 8:4 If thy sons have sinned before him, he has cast them away because of their transgression.
Job 8:5 But be thou early in prayer to the Lord Almighty.
Job 8:6 If thou art pure and true, he will hearken to thy supplication, and will restore to thee the habitation of righteousness.
Job 8:7 Though then thy beginning should be small, yet thy end should be unspeakably great.
Job 8:8 For ask of the former generation, and search diligently among the race of [our] fathers:
Job 8:9 (for we are of yesterday, and know nothing; for our life upon the earth is a shadow:)
Job 8:10 shall not these teach thee, and report [to thee], and bring out words from [their] heart?
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Job 8:18 If [God] should destroy [him], his place shall deny him. Hast thou not seen such things,
Job 8:19 that such is the overthrow of the ungodly? and out of the earth another shall grow.
Job 8:20 For the Lord will by no means reject the harmless man; but he will not receive any gift of the ungodly.
Job 8:21 But he will fill with laughter the mouth of the sincere, and their lips with thanksgiving.
Job 8:22 But their adversaries shall clothe themselves with shame; and the habitation of the ungodly shall perish.
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Job 9:1 Then Job answered and said,
Job 9:2 I know of a truth that it is so: for how shall a mortal man be just before the Lord?
Job 9:3 For if he would enter into judgment with him, [God] would not hearken to him, so that he should answer to one of his charges of a thousand.
Job 9:4 For he is wise in mind, and mighty, and great: who has hardened himself against him and endured?
Job 9:5 Who wears out the mountains, and [men] know it not: who overturns them in anger.
Job 9:6 Who shakes the [earth] under heaven from its foundations, and its pillars totter.
Job 9:7 Who commands the sun, and it rises not; and he seals up the stars.
Job 9:8 Who alone has stretched out the heavens, and walks on the sea as on firm ground.
Job 9:9 Who makes Pleias, and Hesperus, and Arcturus, and the chambers of the south.
Job 9:10 Who does great and unsearchable things; glorious also and excellent things, innumerable.
Job 9:11 If ever he should go beyond me, I shall not see him: if he should pass by me, neither thus have I known [it].
Job 9:12 If he would take away, who shall turn him back? or who shall say to him, What hast thou done?
Job 9:13 For [if] he has turned away [his] anger, the whales under heaven have stooped under him.
Job 9:14 Oh then that he would hearken to me, or judge my cause.
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Job 9:19 For indeed he is strong in power: who then shall resist his judgment?
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Job 9:22 Wherefore I said, Wrath slays the great and mighty man.
Job 9:23 For the worthless die, but the righteous are laughed to scorn.
Job 9:24 For they are delivered into the hands of the unrighteous [man]: he covers the faces of the judges [of the earth]: but if it be not he, who is it?
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Job 9:33 Would that [he] our mediator were [present], and a reprover, and one who should hear [the cause] between both.
Job 9:34 Let him remove [his] rod from me, and let not his fear terrify me:
Job 9:35 so shall I not be afraid, but I will speak: for I am not thus conscious [of guilt].
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Job 10:3 Is it good before thee if I be unrighteous? for thou hast disowned the work of thy hands, and attended to the counsel of the ungodly.
Job 10:4 Or dost thou see as a mortal sees? or wilt thou look as a man sees?
Job 10:5 Or is thy life human, or thy years [the years] of a man,
Job 10:6 that thou hast enquired into mine iniquity, and searched out my sins?
Job 10:7 For thou knowest that I have not committed iniquity: but who is he that can deliver out of thy hands?
Job 10:8 Thy hands have formed me and made me; afterwards thou didst change [thy mind], and smite me.
Job 10:9 Remember that thou hast made me [as] clay, and thou dost turn me again to earth.
Job 10:10 Hast thou not poured me out like milk, and curdled me like cheese?
Job 10:11 And thou didst clothe me with skin and flesh, and frame me with bones and sinews.
Job 10:12 And thou didst bestow upon me life and mercy, and thy oversight has preserved my spirit.
Job 10:13 Having these things in thyself, I know that thou canst do all things; for nothing is impossible with thee.
Job 10:14 And if I should sin, thou watchest me; and thou hast not cleared me from iniquity.
Job 10:15 Or if I should be ungodly, woe is me: and if I should be righteous, I cannot lift myself up, for I am full of dishonour.
Job 10:16 For I am hunted like a lion for slaughter; for again thou hast changed and art terribly destroying me;
Job 10:17 renewing against me my torture: and thou hast dealt with me in great anger, and thou hast brought trials upon me.
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Job 10:20 Is not the time of my life short? suffer me to rest a little,
Job 10:21 before I go whence I shall not return, to a land of darkness and gloominess;
Job 10:22 to a land of perpetual darkness, where there is no light, neither [can any one] see the life of mortals.
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Job 11:5 But oh that the Lord would speak to thee, and open his lips to thee!
Job 11:6 Then shall he declare to thee the power of wisdom; for it shall be double of that which is with thee: and then shalt thou know, that a just recompence of thy sins has come to thee from the Lord.
Job 11:7 Wilt thou find out the traces of the Lord? or hast thou come to the end [of that] which the Almighty has made?
Job 11:8 Heaven [is] high; and what wilt thou do? and there are deeper things than those in hell; what dost thou know?
Job 11:9 Or longer than the measure of the earth, or the breadth of the sea.
Job 11:10 And if he should overthrow all things, who will say to him, What hast thou done?
Job 11:11 For he knows the works of transgressors; and when he sees wickedness, he will not overlook [it].
Job 11:12 But man vainly buoys himself up with words; and a mortal born of woman [is] like an ass in the desert.
Job 11:13 For if thou hast made thine heart pure, and liftest up [thine] hands towards him;
Job 11:14 if there is any iniquity in thy hands, put if far from thee, and let not unrighteousness lodge in thy habitation.
Job 11:15 For thus shall thy countenance shine again, as pure water; and thou shalt divest thyself of uncleanness, and shalt not fear.
Job 11:16 And thou shalt forget trouble, as a wave that has passed by; and thou shalt not be scared.
Job 11:17 And thy prayer [shall be] as the morning star, and life shall arise to thee [as] from the noonday.
Job 11:18 And thou shalt be confident, because thou hast hope; and peace shall dawn to thee from out of anxiety and care.
Job 11:19 For thou shalt be at ease, and there shall be no one to fight against thee; and many shall charge, and make supplication to thee.
Job 11:20 But safety shall fail them; for their hope is destruction, and the eyes of the ungodly shall waste away.
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Job 12:9 Who then has not known in all these things, that the hand of the Lord has made them?
Job 12:10 Whereas the life of all living things is in his hand, and the breath of every man.
Job 12:11 For the ear tries words, and the palate tastes meats.
Job 12:12 In length of time is wisdom, and in long life knowledge.
Job 12:13 With him are wisdom and power, with him counsel and understanding.
Job 12:14 If he should cast down, who will build up? if he should shut up against man, who shall open?
Job 12:15 If he should withhold the water, he will dry the earth: and if he should let it loose, he overthrows and destroys it.
Job 12:16 With him are strength and power: he has knowledge and understanding.
Job 12:17 He leads counsellors away captive, and maddens the judges of the earth.
Job 12:18 He seats kings upon thrones, and girds their loins with a girdle.
Job 12:19 He sends away priests into captivity, and overthrows the mighty ones of the earth.
Job 12:20 He changes the lips of the trusty, and he knows the understanding of the elders.
Job 12:21 He pours dishonour upon princes, and heals the lowly.
Job 12:22 Revealing deep things out of darkness: and he has brought into light the shadow of death.
Job 12:23 Causing the nations to wander, and destroying them: overthrowing the nations, and leading them [away].
Job 12:24 Perplexing the minds of the princes of the earth: and he causes them to wander in a way, they have not known, [saying],
Job 12:25 Let them grope [in] darkness, and [let there be] no light, and let them wander as a drunken man.
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Continues: Fragments from the Book of Job #2: chapters 12-20
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( 6 so far )Bad things no punishment from God
All those bad things which come over this world is it
whether or not punishment from God?
This world is hit regularly by disasters. Today we can see enough signs that we have come in the End Times as described in the Holy Scriptures.
In such a way coming difficulties over us are already notified in the Sacred Writings this not yet means that the one who has let this write down is also the responsible of what comes over us.
Chernobyl disaster - Image via Wikipedia
God has created men, but this creation has turned itself against its maker. For this wrong the designer has not hangerd himself in that extent that He destroyed His Creation. On the contrary He has out of His goodness given that men the chance to take care of this world and of himself. He received the allowance to do it as he wanted it, he got a free wil. With the consequence that that man has made of it not many soups. One attempt after the other layman failed. With traps, falling down and standing up again, man stayed laymen and did not seem to learn from his experiences. Man wanted to repeat the many things his predecessor did even when it was done wrong. He did always the same mistakes. At the sideline God looked and followed closely and came in to help where it really was necessarily . For the rest, He wanted to let go the man his own course.
That freedom that the man has gotten he took not always in thanks. Regularly he went even so far to reproach God and to make Him guilty for particular things for which the man actually was responsible himself. Only how eager does not want the man to find a scapegoat. To give some one else the debt for the wrong things done or overcome to oneself is the easiest thing. Man preferred to give the guilt to somebody else and therefore created someone else like the figures of a Devil, Fallen Angel, Satan and a Lucifer. Each adversary of God became now the responsible person himself but got portrayed on a kind of super specimen, a sort ghost, the devil, a fallen angel. That ‘person’ seemed to be the ‘bogeyman’ they remained to accuse the Creator for punishing them.
Every time as man got something awful over him he became angry and pointed still with the finger to God. Even through not religiously. For in disaster men suddenly get to know God and hurry to accuse this God once more.
Only is that true that God is the one who is responsible for all those bad things which come over humanity? Is He really the responsible for the lot of sorrow that comes over us?
We don’t think so. We believe not in a pitiless relentless God that enjoys the pains of others or delights in suffering men. As each parent wants to be good for his children so does God. As every parent who sees that his beloved children have done something wrong he perhaps reprimands them but does not want to harm them. A good parent does not find joy in the pain of his children. God loves to take care of His children and fully loves them and therefore wants to give them as many as possible good things, not wanting bad things coming over them. God is a soothing Father and is not on eager to see His children to furnish with suffering. But He has given them well freedom to go their own course. And in that they must carry the consequences of their own choices.
If there is a vehicle which runs over some one, this would not be a punishment from God for that victim. It also would not be the fault of the car, but is one consequence of either carelessness of the driver or through a mistake of one of the two or more concerned.
Also by a mud stream or landslide, when several men or taken with the flood on its devastating path, it would not be something that is part of God’s actions, but mostly it lies at the neighbours self that the region has been deforested and that men took away the possibility for the roots to hold the ground together.
This are only two examples, but one can find many more like this to show that the cause of lots of problems does not lie by God but comes from men himself. Many things that come over man are the boomerang that comes back at him. lt are the results from misdeeds man has done. lt then comes from his or other men’s step in the wrong place and for which they now get the bill.
We our self are responsible for the acts that we bring into effect. We have to bear the responsibility our self. Our attitude towards nature and fellow man shall be a deciding factor for what happens next to this nature or to the inhabitants. Our actions in this nature are going to be decisive for what is going to happen next. For this many persons close their eyes and are not interested in what shall happen in the far future. It does not seem to concern them, why should they bother? When we go about uncareful with the natural sources it can well be that we use them up and that they shall all be gone for for our descendants. They no longer shall be able to make use of those basic products because our fault, not theirs and not as penalty from God. Many animals we so massacred , many plants have disappeared because of men’s actions. We have so many thoughtless deeds and go so rash with mother earth. So we all have to face this earth and the foolishness of its inhabitants. We go around so impetuous with mother nature and this shall have its repercussions on the next generations. We cannot remain to do this just with impunity.
Each for himself will have to constitute which way he or she on wants to go. Everybody shall have to carry then the responsibility also for him or herself. It goes not up to give the debt on someone else.
We are guest, vassal or liege on this earth. We got it in loan from the Creator. It is not Him who taps us on the fingers when we do something wrong. It is usual the repercussion of our actions. The consequences of our acts. Therefore is it so important that we should be very conscious of what we all do and of the consequences that that can have not only for ourselves but also for others. For what we do ourself not always has consequences just for ourself. It can have also consequences for others.
Therefore must we make work of it so that everybody shall come to live more according to rules that are in line with the Will of God. In such a way that those who are not willing to choose for God will get by the striving from others to be able to live as well in a better world, more in accordance with the Will of God.
In case more men treat nature respectful and go around carefully with basis materials there will on that straight also happen less misfortunes or less disasters, so less harm and pain shall come over men, and they also will not accuse God undeservedly of a punishments act. In this fast evolving society we cannot go along further unthoughtful as men did so often. We may not miss the fast train. It becomes high time that we consider good what we want but also what we can do and really work out who is responsible when somewhat goes wrong.
20 feet debris spreads over small Japanese valley from the sea to the hillsides above, 2011 earthquake
We will therefore however may not look next to what happened in history. We shall have to face it that several times the man himself is the cause is of his misfortune. Other things also do come over him. And it surely is not always originating by men. Nature disasters just can happen. But one must not go to live in flood areas, or lay swamps dry to establish oneself there. The man must ask the question what he can and shall do with nature. How he can go around with it but also how he can foresee to it that he and those after him shall be able to make further use of it. The environment matters to every inhabitant of this planet. And one may not think only for his own spot. One must also work out how we can go around with our life and what the consequences may be for them that also live further away.
For everything the man wants to do he will have to think deeply and must consider good what the consequences or risks can be of his acts. As he will be able to save himself and many others a lot of sorrow. As well there will then later be less reason for God to come forwards with punishments. For yes, there will certainly punishment distributed, also by God. Only it is not yet the time for it here in this age in Gods Plan.
Now God let the man court. Man can still go his own way but since the coming of Jesus (Yeshua) this Nazarene man comes up as the Saviour, the Christ, the Messiah. God has accepted his kiss offering and must have no other offerings anymore. As He demands then no offerings any more each dead person is there one too much for Him.
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How we can go around with our responsibility and why that is so important you can read further in the articles below :
Japan’s nuclear disaster reason to think twice
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In Dutch you can find:
Wij zijn zelf verantwoordelijk
Nucleaire ramp in Japan doet mensen twee maal nadenken
Energie met vergiftigd geschenk
Nemen van Risico door de maatschappij
Read also: Seems no future in suffering
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Related articles
- Bad things no punishment from God (christadelphians.wordpress.com)
- Fragments from the Book of Job #7 Epilogue (christadelphians.wordpress.com)
- Greatest Pain (ericmsavage.com)
Don’t ever think that you aren’t a good christian because you are going through a difficult time. Sometimes Gods greatest people go through the lowest of lows. Before God can raise you up higher, He has to humble you lower.
Sometimes our most painful experiences are our greatest gifts in life.
There is a purpose in everything- even pain. God has you in His hand and He’s never going to allow you to go through something that He knows He can’t bring you out of better than you were before- in His eyes, not your definition of “better”
Dedication and Preaching Effort 400 years after the first King James Version
King James Version of the Bible - Image via Wikipedia
In the season 1975/76 the Christadelphians had “The Year of Dedication” and “The Year of Witness”. Today we are facing a similar project.
Our hope is that, God willing, the whole Christadelphian Brotherhood will become enthused with this Dedication and Preaching Effort, and will feel enabled to not only live the Truth better, but will be able to share their hope of the kingdom with friends, neighbours, colleagues and acquaintances.
Leaflets, DVD’s and booklets will also be available to explain what the Bible is, and to offer an easy-to-follow reading plan.
A new “Bible Newspaper” is being produced, which will give short and simple “news items” about the Bible. This will be made available to give away to friends, or to distribute in our areas.
A fairly substantial book is being written all about the Bible, and about the wonderful hope it contains.
The English Christadelphians are also producing a DVD and a set of speakers’ notes about the way the Bible was written, translated, and passed down through the ages. All interested people can read about the historic evolution of the many translations of the Word of God.
We should make sure that as many people as possible know that Bible is the centre of our lives. The Bible is the only book in the world which we know came from the Most Almighty Creator, Jehovah God. It should really stimulate and thrill us, so that “we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard” (Acts 4:20). We should read it daily and invest time to learn its message, taking a careful look at the Bible and noting its special characteristics. We shall find them so exceptional as to make the Bible unique in the world – a book in fact that we cannot ignore. It is not sufficient just to read it in church or on our own and be quit about it. We should use it to encourage each other; recognising that it alone can make us wise unto salvation. The more we know it, the more marvellous it becomes to us. By reading in those marvellous Scriptures we never stop learning.
Also should we let others know that a plan for the government of the world, ensuring peace and blessings for all nations of the earth, was already outlined so many centuries ago in the Bible and proves to be exactly what the nations of the 20th Century need.
Let us show the others that we have received a message of hope and encouragement for every person man and woman, which is reinforced on every page of the New Testament.
We would like to invite all our friends to try to make use of the 400 th anniversary of the King James Version to talk about the Word of God. Try making time to talk with neighbours and friends and if they do not have a Bible version offering them one. To help with this the Committee of Bible4Life is currently comparing prices and the suitability of different translations, with the aim of securing the best price by bulk ordering.
Everybody can also advertise websites from where the public can download information about the Bible.
In England there shall be The Bible Exhibition trying to show the Bible’s place in history and how it has survived; how it accurately describes past events, and future events; and what this unique book’s message is.
Read more:
THE BIBLE 4 LIFE to share our enthusiasm about the Bible with you! With the organisation of the Bible4life.org Project, Bible4Life Newspaper, magazines, the Bible4life Videos and tools: The Bible4life Organisation.
400th Anniversary of the King James Bible
2011 is the 400th anniversary of the first printing of the King James Bible- Listen to a chapter being read
- Read the chapter online
- Read comments about the chapter
- Learn about Bible translations
- See the origins of everyday sayings
- Read The Miracle of the Bible
Find the Leaflet: Tell me about the Bible.
The Bible4life dedication
Please do find : Inspiration and Early Translations; Part One: The Bible, Appointed to be Read … in the Glad Tidings of January 2011.
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Related articles
- The Book of Books, a history of the King James Bible (johndierckx.wordpress.com)
- King James, hys Bible(internationalroutier.wordpress.com)The translation by committee was a clearly a political exercise with King Jim trying to reassert his control over the puritan branch of the church. One result was the founding of the colonies in America in 1620 and the other was a book that languished unloved, until someone needed to reinforce the God-given role of Kings some 50 years later.”Just like the use of beautiful stonework and stained glass to make people feel closer to God, poetic beauty was a characteristic of all the translations of the period. The King James Version is no more noble or poetic than any of those earlier versions, it is only the presentation to modern eyes of a later sanitised edition of Victorian age in the absence of those others that separates it in any real way. It is seen as like Shakespeare without the bum jokes (apart from that one in Psalm 68… and the bit where Solomon goes in to the cave… oh, and ALL of Song of Songs…).” writes Leatherworking Reverend on the International Routier-the Blog
- The KJB Sea to Sea (manifoldgreatness.wordpress.com)
Institutions around the world have been celebrating the 400th anniversary of the publication of the King James Bible, and this spring the William Andrews Clark Memorial Library at UCLA, which houses substantial rare book holdings, hosted an exhibition highlighting the history, context, and ongoing influence of the KJB. - Those were different days… (toddlohenry.com)
A Continental Congress committee passed the motion: “The use of the Bible is so universal and its importance so great that your committee refers the above to the consideration of Congress…The Committee recommends that Congress will order the Committee of Commerce to import 20,000 Bibles from Holland, Scotland, or elsewhere, into the different parts of the States of the Union. Whereupon it was resolved accordingly to direct said Committee of Commerce to import 20,000 copies of the Bible.”
Reasons to come to gether
In earlier articles you could already read that we find it considerably important to come together as Christian brothers and sisters.
We must assemble or come together to feel the solidarity with each other in connection with Christ in our meetings and in our daily live. Those believers that come together have to show expression of their belief and have to give a clear picture to others of their agreement.
On Christadelphians you can find an introduction to the Tags “to meet, assemble, congregate” and on “ecclesia”.
In the light of the Bible, we look at why it is so important to come together and to form together a community.
Coming together or assembling, has not only to come together to a place but also getting involved with each other. Coming together is giving an opportunity to talk with each other. It can give occasions to lead discussions and decisions over the order of a service. In meetings first there can be considered how we will realize the service and how we can give the belief community further growth power. The entire structure of the ecclesia can come part of the discussion in a meeting, but also the contact with the men outside the community of religious and between the religious mutually.
Bible Study, Image by jonmallard via Flickr
This coming together or gathering can be a sign of togetherness by which we brotherly unite, meeting each other but also getting the chance to bring new people to the union. Also it is not bad to have reunions or special meetings like Bible-study Weekends, Bible Camps etc. on regular moments to reunite with other Christadelphians.
To confer or hold congresses, or larger assemblies could also be fascinating enterprises that are worth considering and generally can contribute to the welfare of the local ecclesia as well as to the general larger feeling of solidarity. Bible-days, Bible weekends, Bible-weeks, Biblecamps and other more than one day events can give an extra dimension at meetings.
Already in the antiquity, one had the “municipality of the assembly of Israel [Hebrew: qehal ‘`adhath-Jis·ra·´el']“. (Exodus 12:6) and important and larger events were taken to hold special meetings. Organized groups of men as the “municipalities of Israel” (Leviticus 16:17; Joshua 8:35; 1 Kings 8:14), “municipality of the true God” (Nehemiah 13:1), “municipality of Jehovah” (Deuteronomy 23:2, 3; Micha 2:5), and “Jehovah’s municipality” (Numeri 20:4; 1Chonicals 28:8) came then with each other specially to allot time for God and the community of His supporters.
There were different kinds of meetings of men, as for religious goals (Deuteronomy 9:10; 18:16; 1 Kings 8:65; Psalms 22:25; 107:32), for the treating of administrative matters (1 Kings 12:3) but unfortunately also for warfare (1 Samuel 17:47; Ezra 16:40). Today we can concentrate us fortunately mostly on the peaceful activity and on the daily service of the local belief community or ek·kle’ si·a, the ecclesia.
Formerly the public assemblies (Gr. : su·na·go’ ge) found mainly place in the Synagogue where one generally assembled to meet, collect, and to bring men in contact with the Word of God. And that must also be the principal purpose of our meetings or assemblies.
Jesus has brought a lot of men up from their seat to collect around him and who met regularly with his disciples to give their spiritual instruction. As these apostles after Jesus’ death came together , as on the Whit Sunday in 33 C. T., when the Holy Spirit was poured out on those who were together (Acts 2:1-4) we in imitation of these examples have to call and to bring together disbelieving people together with Christians to meet, to study the Word of God and to clear viewpoints in this world and to take the right stand, concerning the manner on which we have to live according the Will of God and to what we are going to do with the world.
Regular meetings will give us the occasion to hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; strong and unshaking to the hope we acknowledge, and will create occasions to move one another at all times to love and good works. This stirring up like a fire among ourselves compassionate affection and good works can stimulate the whole community, the congregation, the parish but also the rest of the village. Therefore we should not be giving up our meetings, as is the way of some, but keeping one another strong in faith; and all the more because we should see the day coming near. (Hebrews 10:23- 25)
Like these assemblies previously could take place in the sunagoge, synogue or in the ekklesia or ecclesia (Acts 7:38; 8:1; 13:1; 19:23, 24, 29, 32, 41; 1 Corinthians 12:28; 2 Corinthians:1) the meetings of the followers of Christ could also find place in the house of a fellow believer (Romans 16:5; Philemon 2). Today we also can assemble in each other’s houses, public places or especially for that reason built buildings. But we may certainly not postpone the assembling because we would not have a special building or churches. No, we can build up at flaw of a church our ‘church’ in a usual living room or even in a cafeteria or a restaurant or in a conference hall. The assembling in a private house is natural the most simple and the cheapest way. The coming together in a living room brings a domestic atmosphere to the belief community that can make there then also a full house church .
In small groups, we can form then separate Christian municipalities or “municipalities of God” (Acts of the apostles 15:41; 1 Corinthians 11:16) that can grow into full church communities. In older Dutch translations sometimes the word “church” becomes used in Scriptures, in relation to the Christian municipality, as in 1 Corinthians 16:19 (KB; Leu). Since many people think more of a building think where religious services are held, by the word “church” then of a municipality that practises her religion, the translation “church” can be misleading. Therefore we, as brothers of Christ, give preference to use the word ecclesia as it was used before. The association of the “Church” with the Roman catholic Catholic churches with cross constructions and church tower must become put aside and the Church must be seen as the Body of Christ made up by the collection of religious people. The meeting religious people form together the church. They must feed the church community and make it really happen.
Read more > Congregate, to gather, to meet
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( 3 so far )Christadelphian video’s
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What is peace and who can provide it? WIll we ever see it? > What is Peace?
I Pray It Won’t Be Long
The barriers and Jesus Christ; the Only Answer. Jesus is greater than culture! > The Graffiti Gospel
God gave us Jesus. WHat the Christadelphian faith is all about > Re: Christadelphian YouPreach3
Exeter Christadelphian Church Holiday Club
Reactions to You Preach
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Christadelphia in the World
