NEW TESTAMENT

Basic Overview of the Bible Part II The New Testament (c)2000 Rev. Paul R. Schmidtbleicher, Th.B., Th.M. Introduction: The Bible is an massive library of 66 separate books. Gaining an understanding of this one book composed of sixty-six is a life long study. As one has said, “It is hard to see the forest through […]

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Run with endurance, looking to Jesus — Beholding Him Ministries

and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith.…Hebrews 12:1b-2a Praise God for choosing us to participate in the race! We are told to run the race with endurance. ENDURANCE! Yes, even a faith-filled life requires endurance. Endurance is a steady determination […] […]

IF YOU HAVE DONE THE FOLLOWING? BORN AGAIN,,,,,

“,The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart,”[d] that is, the message concerning faith that we proclaim: 9 If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For it is with your […]

Worship – Exodus 23:25 — The Bottom of a Bottle

Worship – Exodus 23:25 My blessing is upon you My faithful child To the one who worships Who praises my name I give you my blessing Over all you consume I lift from you the sickness I will tend to your wounds All I ask of you is this You continue to worship my name via […]

Photo Challenge: Whispers of the Past amidst the Forest Silence — Spirit in Politics

The brook whispering as it slid past the ice on the banks was the solitary sound in the woods, but I imagined it carried a voice–her voice–from winters past, but not forgotten. Before I quite caught it, the memory slipped away, as the sparkling water disappeared around the bend. Yet, the sky shone with an […] […]

Equipped to Love — positively second

We have the power to love people. We have the power to love people as we would like to be loved. It’s there. We just need to tap into it. via Equipped to Love — positively second

At Times Life Is Hard — It Just Dawned On Me

At times life is hard. Gut-wrenching hard. Breath knocked out of you, hard. There are things that happen to each of us. Things we don’t like. Things we don’t want. Things we never asked for. These things leave us bone tired, weary from the troubles, ready to give in or give up. At those times […] […]

 …  Why would God send a bear to maul children? Why would God send a bear to maul children?  September 7, 2017  Paul Baxter Save Print Friendly, PDF & Email I was sitting in a church on a recent Wednesday night listening to the pastor teach an in-depth Bible lesson. All of a sudden there was a tangential discussion on people’s hair and bald-headedness. That is when the pastor injected a comment about Elisha cursing some children who had taunted him, and how they were then attacked and mauled by two bears. The congregation was surprised and startled by what their pastor said. His words engendered two questions from the congregation: Was what he said really in the Bible and if so, where was it? WIKIPEDIA COMMONS II Kings 2: 23-24: “From there Elisha went up to Bethel. As he was walking up the path, some small boys came out of the city and harassed him, chanting, ‘Go up, baldy! Go up, baldy!’ He turned around, looked at them, and cursed them in the name of the Lord. Then two female bears came out of the woods and mauled 42 of the children.” This brings us to our question: Why would God send two bears to maul little children? One person writes: “Many years ago, I had an atheist question me on the passage in II Kings 2:23-24. I’ve sought an answer to that one for a long time, and never could find a satisfactory response.” What is our answer to this question? First and foremost, we must carefully and above all prayerfully examine the text. Too often, skeptics and critics of the Bible love to “mischaracterize” what the Bible says. Walter C. Kaiser, Jr. captures this fact when he writes: “The way many read this text, a mild personal offense by some innocent little children was turned into a federal case by a crotchety old prophet as short on hair as he was on humor” and “such unfavorable assessments of this incident have brought more criticism of the Bible than almost any other narrative.” He then declares: “This is a false reconstruction of the event!” It is! It is a caricature of the real story! Let’s look at the context of this story (vs. 13-25 entitled “Elisha Succeeds Elijah”). It is about how Elisha was in a most challenging time of taking over from the great prophet Elijah, who was swept up to heaven in “a chariot of fire.” God endorsed him as a successor to Elijah in dramatic and eye-catching ways: Dividing the river he was crossing right in front of the faithful “sons of the prophets,” purifying Jericho’s polluted water, and disciplining a gang of ruffians who were ridiculing and rejecting God and His prophet. We read how Elisha, the prophet of God, was entering one of the worst places in the corrupt and decadent nation of Israel. Although Bethel was called “the House of God,” what should have been a holy place was a center of idolatry and immorality where the “sons of God” were vastly outnumbered by those who taunted and trashed the faith of Elijah and Elisha! Bethel was so bad that a gang of young teenagers “harassed” Elisha, taunting him to leave them and their town alone and go off to be with his God (as Elijah had done). Gleason Archer puts everything in perspective when he describes this large roving band of teenagers as “a serious public danger, quite as grave as the large youth gangs that roam the ghetto sections of our modern American cities.” The Apologetics Study Bible explains: “The Hebrew phrase for ‘small boys’ refers to adolescents from 12 to 30 years old (see I Samuel 20:35; I Kings 3:7; 11:17). It is unlikely that these youths were younger than 12 years old.” Contrary to the caricature, Elisha was a young man, probably in his mid twenties, though obviously bald. We are also reminded that the real issue was not how this gang showed contempt and “disrespect for God’s prophet,” but revealed utter “disrespect for the Lord.” Therefore, “a strong message was sent to the city and parents” reminiscent of Leviticus 26:21-22. This Scripture tells how hostility toward God and an unwillingness to obey Him can result in being besieged by plagues and wild animals. The message was a corrective message to address current attitudes and behavior that if heeded would ward off worse sins and greater judgment. The gang was shocked and silenced when mauled (not necessarily killed) by the bears, and their parents and community were warned to repent of their sins (reflected in their children) and obey God before worse judgments befell them! Walter C. Kaiser writes how the eventual fall of Israel “would have been avoided had the people repented after the bear attack.” They did not. According to II Chronicles 36:16 we read how “they kept ridiculing God’s messengers, despising His words, and scoffing at His prophets … As Kaiser wisely states: The “bear attack shows God trying repeatedly to bring his people back to himself through smaller judgments” so that they could avoid a worse “full force” judgment. About The Author

WISDOM OF SOLOMON

Solomon Rules Wisely Solomon Rules Wisely Jehovah gives King Solomon a heart of wisdom; during Solomon’s reign, the Israelites enjoy unsurpassed peace and prosperity WHAT would life be like if an entire nation and its ruler followed Jehovah as their Sovereign and obeyed His laws? The answer was demonstrated during the 40-year-reign of King Solomon. […]