Thinking about God, Jesus and The Big Questions

This is a review of the book " God on Mute " by Pete Greig. It is a non-fiction Christian about what happens when God meets your prayers with silence. What do you do? This book is of interest not only to Christians, but also to atheists struggling with the question of "If God is good, why do bad things happen?" (I have some information about that question here ). Interspersing theological research with his own personal experience with unanswered prayers for healing for his wife suffering a serious medical condition, Pete Greig does an amazing job answering one of the toughest questions of Christianity. Everyone can relate to this book and these difficult questions.  One thing I particularly loved about this book is that Pete Greig is not trying to assign blame to the situation. He explains first that some prayers God will not answer for reasons which might become clear upon inspection (e.g. 2 people are praying for opposite things - one for rain, the other for sunsh...

We are well equipped for detecting things in our 3 dimensions of space and 1 of time, but poorly equipped for detecting things in the spiritual dimension, even though the spiritual dimension is more real and solid than the physical one .  In other words, our God detection sensors are bad. In the book of Hebrews, the meaning of faith is clearly described for us: Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. Indeed, by faith our ancestors received approval. By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was made from things that are not visible. Hebrews 11: 1-3 In particular, the last part of it is what we need to remember: what is seen was made from things that are not visible. This means that what we so easily detect with our eyes (the physical dimension) is made from things which are not visible (the spiritual dimension). The spiritual dimension clearly exists, and came first before the physical di...

Each year, I read the Bible all the way through. Each year, I always find it almost surprising how much of the Bible is the Old Testament. In fact, the New Testament is only about a quarter of the Bible.  This means if we want to learn as much as we can about Jesus, it will still be a fraction of what is written in the Bible. But it makes sense, if we think about it. There are many signposts in the Old Testament pointing to Jesus. We can't just ignore the signposts and focus purely on Jesus, even if we kind of want to. The signpost are part of the journey. We can't just say "let's skip ahead to the good stuff" - because all of it hangs together. It's a history - that points to Jesus. Indeed, right now, we are living a part of time where the Bible has shown that in the future are signposts to the end of the days. It is fairly specific about some of these. For example, take a look at these 2 very specific events which are in our future . Just as the Old Testamen...

Most of the book of Proverbs was thought to be written by King Solomon, who was the wisest man who ever was or will be. The rest of its authorship is thought to be from other Jewish people as the accumulated wisdom of the people.  This book is very valuable. Not only does it contain wisdom that is available to all of us today, but also, the more I read it the more I see it as perhaps the most subversive book of the Bible, which I have written about here .  Many people don't always avail themselves of this source of wisdom, even in instances when they are seeking wisdom from other sources (e.g. self-help books, financial savviness books, etc).  The book of Proverbs does not need to be the only book we read to gain wisdom, but it should certainly be one of them! For where else can we get the words of the wisest man who ever lived, in addition to the accumulated wisdom of others? There are several things which are repeated multiple times in Proverbs. Since they are repeate...

I'm in the middle of reading the New Testament, and in the past I had never bothered to consider word choice. But this time around, I posed the question: Why did Jesus use the phrasings that He used? To get His meaning across in anything He said, He could have chosen between different phrasings. Yet He phrased it a certain way.  Of course, we should be cautious how much importance we put into this. After all, the Bible was written in Hebrew and Greek. It was not written in English, so what I am reading in English is a translation. Inevitably, something winds up having to be approximated in a translation. Also, certain translations of the Bible are more focused on word for word while others are more focused on meaning for meaning.  If you are wondering about phrasing, then use a word for word translation (e.g. Good News Translation), since a meaning for meaning translation might wander further from the original words used. Nonetheless, it's still a fascinating exercise to ask w...

The Bible is like spiritual food. We need it daily. Although I had been reading the Bible daily for years now, I didn't "see" this analogy to food or exercise until recently. While out on a run, I contemplated how convenient it would be if I could front-end my year's exercise into a big daily run for the first 3 months and then no more exercise for the rest of the year. I realized sadly that exercise simply does not work like this, any more than food does. You can't just eat lots and lots of food early in the year and then stop eating for the rest of the year. The Bible is exactly like food or exercise in that way. You would be hurting your own spiritual health if you just stop reading the Bible, in the same way that you'd be hurting your physical health if you stopped eating or exercising. You would still be physically alive without reading the Bible, but you would miss out on all the benefits of having your own wise counselor right there (God). You would mis...

What are the end time prophesies in the Bible which I most want people to know about? There are 2 very specific prophesies in the Bible whose events can't easily get mistaken for anything else. The first prophecy is that Greece and Iran will go to war, and Greece will win. The second prophecy is that people will need to get a mark on their forehead or right hand in order to buy or sell anything. It's extremely important not to get that mark, since the prophecy in the Bible tells us that it's the mark of the enemy. The mark could be an implantable chip, a bar code tattoo, or some as yet unknown technology. You can read in more detail about the first prophecy, the one from the book of Daniel about Greece and Iran going to war . You can also learn in more detail about the second prophecy, the one from the book of Revelation about the Mark of the Beast . These prophecies are both quite specific and are unlikely to get confused for anything else.  For example, war in general cou...

Solomon, the wisest man who ever lived, counseled against knee-jerk reactions. Reacting without thinking is not a wise way to live. Here are his sayings on that: Do not be quick to anger, for anger lodges in the bosom of fools. Do not say, ‘Why were the former days better than these?’ For it is not from wisdom that you ask this. Ecclesiastes 7: 9-10  This reminds me to pray, think, and read the Bible when any issue crops up. I'm not good at it - I still get angry quickly when I know that is not the best way. But I am trying, at least. I realize that knee-jerk reactions are literally the enemy of wisdom, as Solomon said. Mental shortcuts like that remove the opportunity to seek God in the middle of this problem. I find it helps me to think "everything is more nuanced than you think it is at first glance", and we do need God's guidance for that. God is the fount of wisdom, so our number one priority should be to seek Him and His solutions, not to give a knee-jer...

I have become a little concerned by the attitude of some people that the spread of germs through a community is desirable to God - for example, the idea of not being concerned about catching (and therefore spreading) Covid. There is actually plenty of biblical evidence against that attitude. The book of Leviticus shows a lot of instructions for cleanliness, which back in those days the instructions may have seemed inexplicable. These may have seemed like a long list of things to be obedient about without a clear reason why. However, if we read this book of the Bible with our modern-day knowledge of bacteria, viruses and fungi, these instructions quickly make sense. The instructions were designed to avoid the spread of germs. Here is an example from the Bible of what to do with clothing (made of cloth, wool, or animal skin) that has a spreading disease in it. This referred to a discoloration such as mold or something similar: If the priest makes an examination, and the disease has not ...

The book of Proverbs is the combined knowledge of generations of people, and much of it is the collected sayings of King Solomon, who was the wisest man ever to live. The Bible specifically says that no man wiser than Solomon has come before him nor will come after him. This is shown in the book of Kings, where Solomon asks God for wisdom. Here we see God's reply: God said to him, “Because you have asked this, and have not asked for yourself long life or riches, or for the life of your enemies, but have asked for yourself understanding to discern what is right, I now do according to your word. Indeed I give you a wise and discerning mind; no one like you has been before you and no one like you shall arise after you. 1 Kings 3: 11- 13 We see here than Solomon was granted wisdom by God. Assuming he is the wisest man ever to have lived, then if we desire to follow words of wisdom we should pay particular attention to the parts of the Bible that are attributed to Solomon. These writing...

Despite all of the bad things that are happening in the word, we do have the power to choose our own thoughts.  Yes, it's true that it's really hard to choose positive thoughts when we are busy, or have a lot of responsibilities, or deal with a lot of stress daily. But choosing positive thoughts is a habit we need to start if we haven't already.  If we instead decided to wait until the "perfect day" for those thoughts, when we are on vacation with no responsibilities.... hold on, that sort of thing doesn't exist! Exactly. We are responsible for choosing positive thoughts even in situations when it's easier not to . The Holy Spirit dwells within us, and wouldn't it be wonderful to let the Holy Spirit reside in a place that is beautiful on the inside?  If it's a mess of worry (and yes, I've been there, and sometimes keep going there!) then won't it be a little hard for us to hear the Holy Spirit? And wouldn't it be hard for the Holy Spiri...

I was reading the parable of the rich man and Lazarus. You can read the full parable in Matthew 16: 19-31. There, a rich man who feasted each day did not share even scraps with a poor man called Lazarus who was hungry. They eventually both died, and the poor man went to heaven and the rich man to Hades (hell).  There, the rich man was in agony and asked Abraham in heaven to relieve him, but Abraham said there was a great chasm between the two places so it was not possible. Then the rich man pleaded to Abraham to at least send Lazarus to the rich man's father's house to warn his five brothers so that they would not wind up in hell. Let's examine what happens next: Abraham replied, ‘They have Moses and the prophets; they should listen to them.’ He said, ‘No, father Abraham; but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’ He said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.’” Matthew...

Often, people today seeking for writings and advice of wisdom tend to look toward those who lived within the past 50 years or so. They look for wise men in that range, perhaps feeling that anything prior to that might be "out of touch". But let's take a look at our future: in another 100 years, will people still think of Bill Gates, Steve Jobs or Warren Buffet as intellectual giants? Will their names and their fame stand the test of time? Even if you think it's still possible they might still be heard of in another 100 years, how about in 500 years? 1000 years from now? How about 2000 or more? I doubt that any of these men, or for that matter any one of their contemporaries will even have been heard of 2000 years or more from today. Yet I can think of at least two who are truly visionary, truly wise, and their sayings and advice have proved to stand the test of time well beyond 2000 years. The first is Jesus, and the second is Solomon. There are others who are wise ...

Up until now, the book of Psalms was always the hardest one for me to read, because I found it difficult to see how each sentence made sense. Co-incidentally, I happened to be participating in an Advent Bible study at the same time as I was reading Psalms in my daily readings. In the Advent study, there was a lot of focus on waiting (for the Messiah, in previous times; for His return, in current times). This shed a lot of light onto Psalms. Once I started reading Psalms in a future-tense way instead of a current-tense way, it made a lot more sense. The writers of Psalms were expressing their thankfulness for past promises and also for their trust in the Lord for the future . They were not (quite as much as I thought) expressing their immediate, present-day situation. Psalms suddenly became a lot more readable and made a lot more sense once I realized that these writings were about yearnings and not about current states. If you found this post interesting, you may also like th...

It's all too easy to feel that the Old Testament is out of touch. I used to feel like that for a long time. I would read the New Testament, and I felt like I could see the relevance. For that reason, the New Testament felt more "real" to me than the Old Testament. After reading the Bible all the way through a few times, I know that the Old Testament is just as relevant and "real" as the New Testament. I'll explain this here using an example. First though, the best way to consider the New Testament is as a continuation of the Old Testament; not as an alternative or something that is supplanting it. I find it helpful to think of the Old Testament as the "First Testament". For our example, remember when Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt? At first they were joyful, but then they started grumbling during the long journey. During this time, some of them even started worshiping other gods. God didn't like this, and he punished them. Then t...

I'm now getting to the close of my 3rd time reading through the Bible. I got a lot out of it, but it took me much longer than a year, and I'd like to shorten that for the next time. I also had the problem of not making a consistent mix of Old Testament and New Testament, and wound up with lots of extra Old Testament left over at the end that I needed to read without the New Testament. There are many 1-year Bible reading plans. The problem is that many of these require a lot of hopping around in the Bible, necessitating always having plan handy, as well as possibly multiple bookmarks. Instead, I wanted something fairly simple. Previously I'd been doing a bit from the Old Testament and a bit from the New Testament each day, but without any prescribed amounts. This meant I was reading unevenly between the two, and wound up with a lot of Old Testament left over at the end. Reading x number of verses a day doesn't always help either, because some verses are so much lon...

I am sure I am not the only one that has struggled a lot with worries and negativity (and still do).  I have been reading the devotional of "The Battlefield of the Mind" by Joyce Meyer over the past few weeks. This has helped me a lot. Certainly, reading the Bible is incredibly helpful in a general sense, but I have also felt immensely helped by Joyce Meyer's book for that specific problem of the battlefield of the mind. In that devotional, I learned that it is deceptively easy for us to get tricked by Satan into turning our attention away from God and into the worries of the world. Sometimes this can even happen due to good intentions on our part, e.g. a desire to empathize and be compassionate. However, if we are not careful, we can all too easily become distracted with all of the negative things that are happening around us, without any thought for a) God and Jesus, or b) any of the positive things that are also happening. Now I realize that God never meant for us ...

We complain about the fast pace of life today.  I understand.  When I was working 50 hours a week regularly (and I realize this isn't all that much compared to the 60+ hours a week worked by some), it seemed I never had time to take care of even the basics. Things like laundry, groceries, washing dishes, cooking food, cleaning, and so on seemed to use up what little time I had left over in the day.  How, then, could anyone expect to have any time to think about any of the big questions, like whether God exists? Even for Christians (believers), how can any of us make time to study God's word? It seemed like the business of just living took up all my time! Yes, I made time to attend church and Sunday School each week.  I did volunteer activities.  Somehow, I fitted this in.  Yet, with or without these, I still felt sorry for myself and for our generation. I felt we didn't have enough time to think about God and study His word. But when I stopped to real...

This is the long-promised post on the issue of those who reject the Bible because it isn't "complete" (by their standards).  The Bible isn't meant to be a science textbook The Bible is sufficient to generate faith.  The Bible is not meant to contain all the answers to scientific questions, nor is it meant to be a manual on how the universe works.  It is a guide to God and Jesus.  Just as a music textbook needn't include for instance a section on English literature, neither does a book on God and Jesus have to include sections on music, engineering, science, etc.  However, it is surprising how many atheists expect that the Bible should do all these things!  What would happen if the Bible DID contain 'everything'? Let's consider for a moment what would happen if the bible was very "complete" (by atheist standards).  This would result in a huge and lengthy tome which no-one would ever read! Even with the life expectancy of today, even a B...

The chapter of Revelation, a vision given to John, tells us quite a lot about government at the end of days:  I saw a beast coming out of the sea. He had ten horns and seven heads. There were ten crowns on his horns. On each head was an evil name that was displeasing to God. The beast I saw looked like a leopard. But he had feet like a bear and a mouth like a lion. The dragon gave the beast his power, his throne, and great authority. One of the beast's heads seemed to have had a deadly wound. But the wound had been healed. The whole world was amazed and followed the beast. People worshiped the dragon, because he had given authority to the beast. They also worshiped the beast. They asked, "Who is like the beast? Who can make war against him?" Revelation 13:1-4 The beast has been suggested by Christian scholars to be a form of government.  This is because Revelation 18: 9-10 explains that the seven heads represent seven kings, and the ten horns are ten kings ...