Genesis 1-11

Just before my wife and I went away for a few days (we returned yesterday), I started a new series that I hope to publish on this blog. It is to be based on The Bible Project, and will provide a basic overview of every book in the Bible. It should be helpful to anyone who wishes to know more about the most important book (or, more accurately, library of books!) in the world, whether as a new disciple of Jesus, or as someone who just doesn't like reading very much! 

The Book of Genesis is the first book in the Bible Library and, as the name indicates, it deals with the beginning of all that is. There are, however, two distinct parts to the book. This video deals with the first of them - chapters 1-11.

Genesis 1-11 is one of the most important sections of the whole Bible! It deals with foundational truths, and sets the scene for the redemptive work of the Creator. In the next post, we'll look at the remainder of Genesis. 

Getting to know you!

In his book "Five things every Christian needs to grow" (my emphasis), the late R.C.Sproul makes the point that living the Christian life, effectively, is not something that "just happens". Just as a Gold Medal winner in the Olympic Games didn't just happen to arrive at the Stadium one day, and just happened to jump higher, run more quickly, or lift the heaviest weight, but did so as the result of years of training, practice, and discipline; so the Christian does not "just grow" in his faith. 

The Christian life is a vital relationship with Father God, through the Lord Jesus, the Christ and, like all relationships, it requires to be worked at. As I type this, my wife and I have been married for more than 48 years. That sort of marriage requires a lot more than the physical attraction we had for one another 50 years ago (when we started to be "an item"!). Our relationship with the Father requires to be worked at, as well! Paul encourages us: "...  work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for God is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure." (Phil 2:12-13).

R.C.Sproul offers five disciplines that will help us to live our Christian lives to the full. The first of these is Bible Study. That is the topic that, God willing, I shall seek to deal with over the next however many posts it takes. A friend; here in France; has often stated that the Church in the "West" is dying from ignorance - ignorance (as in 'lack of knowledge') of the Word of God. I agree fully! however, knowing that there are those who do not enjoy reading as much as I do, I plan to use some video clips. I plan to go through a particular series produced by The Bible Project; and also to intersperse those with some of the "Shorts" - a series of short answers to important questions, produced by SOLAS (The Centre for Public Christianity).

As I am going to be away for few days, and have extremely limited internet access, so this first post is going to be merely introductory. Of course, if a topic arises that I sense needs to be dealt with, then the series will be interrupted!

So, here are your two "starter" videos. Watch, and enjoy. I trust that they will be sufficient to whet your appetite for what is to follow.

For the SOLAS video intro, please click on the following link:

https://www.facebook.com/solascpc/videos/1424789827556253/?t=60 

Sorry, this link appears not to be working! Please "copy and paste"!

Postscript

In an unexpected situation, the following information was delivered to my Inbox, today. It has a direct application to the early part of the previous post, even if it deals with an different substance. However, as I doubt that very many teenagers access my blog, may I suggest that those who have direct access to that age group pass on the information to them?

"Using cannabis as a teenager increases the likelihood of depression and suicidal behaviour, new research has confirmed.

Doctors analysed eleven previous studies, covering more than 23,000 young people.

They warned that cannabis has a “devastating impact”, and urged teens to avoid using the drug.

Depression

In the largest study to date, researchers from the University of Oxford and McGill University in Canada found that using cannabis before the age of 18 increased the chance of developing depression by 37 per cent.

Published by the American Medical Association, the study found that around 60,000 cases of depression in the UK could be attributed to cannabis use in teenage years.

Researchers said the findings highlighted an important public health problem.

‘Devastating’

The team emphasised that teenagers should stop using the drug, and said greater education is needed for parents who have a relaxed attitude to it.

Professor Andrea Cipriani, the study’s co-author, said: “The number of people who are exposed to cannabis, especially in this vulnerable age, is very high”.

He added: “Now we know that, especially for teenagers, there may be an effect which is biological, with some consequences which can be devastating”.

More attention

The Times editorial welcomed the findings, saying: “The new study creates the most robust link between youthful cannabis use and depression.”

The newspaper also encouraged parents to be better informed about the danger the drug poses for their children.

It concluded that “too little attention has been paid to the drug’s far wider psychological impact, which is anything but benign”."

Keep off the grass!

It was a sign that I saw many times when I was a young boy. Usually in public parks, and similar grassy areas, the sign "Keep off the grass" was a warning to walk only on the pathway provided!

Of course, as I grew older, I discovered that "grass" was another name given to the dried leaf of the hemp plant - also known as marijuana, and referred to as "weed", "pot", or "grass". Often (I believe - I have no personal experience! However, I learned a lot during my time as a Police Force Chaplain.) it is smoked like a cigarette, named a "reefer", and produces an exaggerated feeling of well-being; an increased sense of self-confidence; and a lessening of moral restraint. It distorts perception, and creates a psychological dependence, that we refer to as an addiction. There may well be medical uses for marijuana, and having it administered under clinical conditions, and by a qualified doctor may be useful (when I went into hospital, in my early twenties, with renal colic - stones in the kidney - I was given morphine injections!) but the golden rule would be "Keep off the grass"!

These addictive drugs mean that one is, basically, dependant upon something other than Father God. However, while the destructive habits of the drug addict - and that addiction could be to anything from alcohol to heroin - are a serious problem for the user, those of us who have not succumbed to such substances may well ask ourselves if it is possible that we may, in principle, be guilty of similar unhealthy habits!

This may be especially true for those of us who claim to be disciples of the Lord Jesus, the Christ. While not addicted to a drug such as marijuana,or any other similar substance, we may all too easily become dependant upon other "gods" to produce the same effects. Some, for example, try to lose their fears in an endless round of social activities - while neglecting fellowship with the Lord's people. Others are so addicted to watching television that they have little time for prayer and the reading and study of God's written Word. Still others look to money, and other possessions.

However, if we are truly honest, none of these things bring us lasting satisfaction. Indeed, anything that detracts from our dependence upon the Heavenly Father is an offence in His eyes! Things that may not be, in themselves, wrong can finally occupy such a prominent place in my life that they become objects of worship and, if that happens, I am breaking the first and greatest commandment. "... a lawyer, asked [Jesus] a question, to test Him. "Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?" And He said to him, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment." (Matt 22:35-38).

The highest good for the disciple of Jesus is found in complete reliance upon Him, and the Spirit Who indwells us. Let us, therefore, "Keep off the grass" of false substitutes for God - whatever they may be!

Womb - or tomb (Part 4)

This is the last of the four posts on the topic of abortion that that, due to the current controversy in the USA, I am repeating from August 2014. 

This final part of this mini-series is one for which a warning must be issued.  The following post contains information that some will find distressing.  In this post, I wish to look at the methods that are used by the abortion industry.

The pregnancy may be about one-third of the way through its course - it may, of course, be even further on!  The mother is probably lying on a gynaecological examination table.  The abortionist uses a syringe with a four-inch needle to extract about 60cc of the amniotic fluid from the womb. This is then replaced with 200cc of a strong saline solution.

Immediately, that little human being who already has all of the organs of any other human, and even has the fingerprints that make that child unique in the whole history of humankind, begins to suffer violent convulsions.  Instead of the pleasant, and beneficial, swallows of the amniotic fluid, the unborn child now experiences the bitter taste of a lethal poison.  Caustic salt burns that little throat; the delicate skin; the unopened eyes; the ears that will never hear.  Vainly the child tries to escape, throwing him/herself from side to side in violent contortions - an agony that may last for hours, and which the mother will follow by those pointless movements of self-defence.

When death does arrive, the tragic drama may still have several hours to play out - until the the child, looking like the victim of napalm bombing, is finally expelled from what should have been the safest of environments. 

However, that is only one of the methods used in this murderous trade.  If the abortion takes place early enough in the pregnancy, the method used is more likely to be that of vacuum aspiration.  This involves the use of a vacuum machine that is almost thirty times more powerful than a domestic cleaner.  As an aside, I do wonder if the current decision of the European Union to ban the sale of all vacuum cleaners with motors stronger than 1600 watts will apply to abortion clinics!  I think that I know the answer!  Such powerful machines are necessary - as a special tube, inserted through the mother's vagina, sucks the baby from the womb; tearing it, violently, from the walls of the uterus. Death, at least, comes quickly, as the little unique individual is totally dismembered.

Depending on the stage of the pregnancy, another method may be used.  This is D&C (Dilation and Curettage).  This involves cutting the placenta, and slicing up the body of the unborn child within the uterus, using special surgical instruments called curettes, before finally sucking it out.  This is a method that requires very careful follow-up.  In order to ensure that no foetal part that could cause a life-threatening infection in the womb, the body of that helpless, unborn, child has to be carefully put together again - like some grotesque human jigsaw puzzle.  It is then disposed of in whatever way the clinic/hospital sees fit.

Of course, if the unborn child is more than three months old, the bones will already have calcified (hardened).  The procedure then available is D&E (Dilation and Evacuation).  In this case, tongs are used to separate the bones - first of the legs; then the arms; then the back.  Finally, the head must be crushed before all is sucked out.

Please note that, in all of these methods, the unborn child is not even anaesthetised!  In spite of overwhelming medical and scientific evidence, the abortion industry refuses to accept the sentience of the unborn child.  In other words, it refuses to accept that those little bodies are capable of feeling pain!

Just two other methods may be used, as far as I know, both for late abortions.  One involves the injection of a chemical that induces premature delivery; the other involves a hysterotomy - simply a Caesarean procedure that aims, not to save the child's life, but to destroy it.  In each of these cases, the infant dies outside the womb - and it is after such abortions that children have been discovered alive, in black bin-bags, ready to be thrown into the incinerator.

Abortion - the murder of a helpless human being, at a very early stage of its development, in the place in which it should be safest - its mother's womb.  It is a terrible indictment on humankind that, for so many, that womb becomes, temporarily, a tomb.

Womb - or tomb? (Part 3).

In this third of four posts on the sensitive, emotional, but topical subject of abortion, we look at the beginning of life - a unique and individual life. This particular post was first published on August 28th, 2014. It has not been edited.

Life never begins!  It is only transmitted.  Since the creation of the first man, when Almighty God "... breathed into his nostrils the breath of life ..." (Gen.2:7), living beings come only from other living beings.  This is a simple fact, recognised by eminent biologists, but ignored by the so-called 'pro-choice' brigade.

The formation of a new human being is contained in the male sperm, and the female egg, and is produced through the fusion of these two gametes (to use a medical, scientific, term!).  What happens is that when the egg is fertilised by the sperm, a new cell (zygote) is produced with a genetic code that is not only distinct from those of the gametes whose fusion brought it into being, but is also totally unique!

The journey of this zygote takes it down the Fallopian tubes of the still-unaware mother, towards the uterus.  Already, the process of cell multiplication (mitosis) is well under way. However, after that first instant of conception, when the egg was fertilised, there is no stage at all at which this embryonic human being receives any new, or essential, genetic contribution in order for it to be what it is!  There can be no doubt about it, from a scientific, biological, perspective - from the moment of fertilisation, we already have a new human life.  This is most definitely not merely a part of the body of the mother.  It is most certainly not some kind of alien parasite.  As Dr Jerome Lejeune, the renowned French geneticist, and the discoverer of the cause of Down's Syndrome (which condition, according to Richard Dawkins, ought to lead to an abortion!) summarised the situation succinctly when he wrote: "As soon as he has been conceived, a man is a man."

Again, I would emphasise that this new human being is distinct from its mother.  In biological, and genetic, terms, it is not the mother who transforms her cells into the cells of a new being.  It is the embryo itself that undertakes, in a veritable explosion of vitality, this 'self-construction' within the habitat of the womb. 

How regretful that, for so many millions, that very womb has become, and becomes, a temporary tomb!

Womb - or tomb? (Part 2).

This is the second of the brief series of posts that I published in Aug. 2014 and that I am now repeating in the light of the current controversy in the USA. Once again, I have not changed anything.

For a number of years I gave the opportunity, to my senior pupils, to choose a major topic for discussion.  One of the most popular was that of abortion!   However, one day I was summoned to the office of the head teacher.  He had received a telephone call from a parent, complaining about my having told his 16-year-old daughter what happened at an abortion (almost as if he thought that the rest of the class had not been present!).  I cannot now recall his exact words - as related to me by the head teacher - but the gist of them was that he didn't want his daughter, already able to legally engage in sexual intercourse, to know what happened, "in case she ever needed to have an abortion"!

That, I believe, is a major part of the problem about the procedure.  So many do not know - and do not wish to know - what actually happens.  They are content to believe that all that is removed from the female is a homogeneous bundle of cells, no more 'human' than an appendix or than tonsils.  That is why, I suspect, so many talk of the woman's body, as if that was all that was involved.

I'll explain a little about procedure in a subsequent post but, for now, let's determine exactly what it is that is being aborted.

It is safe to say that the female - girl or woman - does not know, for certain, that she is indeed pregnant until approximately seven to eight weeks after conception.  By that time, the embryonic heart is already beating!  I would suggest that it is also safe to say that, by the time a decision is made to seek an abortion, and arrangements made for the procedure to take place, another four to six weeks will have passed.  This means that the earliest stage at which an abortion would normally be carried out would about twelve to fourteen weeks after conception or, to put in another way, approximately one-third of the way through the pregnancy.

With the benefit of scans, we now have a clear picture of what the unborn child is like at that stage in its pre-natal life.  At twelve weeks, the foetus measures about 60 mm from crown to rump and weighs between 9 and 14 grams. It is fully formed, from tooth buds to toenails, and the baby's job now is simply to continue getting larger and stronger for the rest of the pregnancy. With the most critical development behind the foetus, the chance of miscarriage drops considerably after this week.  However, it is only at this stage that the possibility of an abortion becomes a reality!  This, it must be clear to any normal person, is no 'lump of cells'.  This is, unmistakably, a baby - a human being at an early stage of its development, but a human being nevertheless.

This little life is, of course, dependent upon its mother - but it is a totally separate being.   A unique individual, just waiting to be born.

Next time, we'll look at some of the methods used to kill this little life - and to turn the womb into, temporarily, a tomb.

Womb - or tomb? (Part 1)

The current controversy, in the United States of America, regarding "late-term abortion" - i.e. legalising abortion right up until the infant is actually in the birth canal, in the process of being born - and what is, in fact, infanticide - allowing a fully delivered baby to die, or be put to death (a euphemism for 'murdered'!), has led me to do what I have never done before in the more than eleven years during which I have been 'blogging'. I am re-sharing four consecutive posts from August 2014 on the subject of abortion. As then, I am not wishing to enter into any discussion on the subject. I am merely highlighting the procedures that are followed when a child is deliberately killed in its mother's womb.

This is the first of the series, exactly as written at the time (so please excuse 'time-specific' references!).

"In a speech yesterday - that is in no way connected to the forthcoming General Election!! - Mr David Cameron set out new measures to help families, and made a fresh commitment to put family life at the heart of Conservative policy. Among other things, he said: "For me, nothing matters more than family. It's at the centre of my life and the heart of my politics. It's family that brings up children, teaches values, passes on knowledge, instils in us all the responsibility to be good citizens and to live in harmony with others."

I liked that bit about "It's family that brings up children" because, of course, the children must be there to bring up.  Unfortunately, too many don't make it that far - and the government could do something about it!

Earlier today, I was reading about Moloch - a god of the ancient Canaanites or Phoenicians - mentioned by the Old Testament prophet, Amos (5:26).  As part of the 'worship' of this pagan deity, that was represented by a large bronze statue with a cavernous mouth that contained a furnace, mothers would throw their own live children into that mouth, where they were devoured by the flames.  In such a way, tens of thousands of innocent victims were used to placate this 'god'.  Drums were even beaten loudly in order to drown the screams of these little children.

I cannot imagine any normal human being, including Mr Cameron - our new champion of the family! -  not being appalled at such atrocities.  However, if we look at the society and culture in which we live in this 21st century, we discover that we are no better!

The modern equivalent of Moloch is, I would argue, much more implacable than the Canaanite 'god'.  Indeed, if we compare the tens of millions of victims today, then those human sacrifices of antiquity pale into numerical insignificance. 

Today, and for many decades, we do not throw these children into a fire. Rather, their lives are snatched away in the cold, sterile, silence of the abortionist's operating room.  Not even given the opportunity to breathe, these little human beings are sacrificed on the altar of the 'personal convenience' of the mother.  In the womb - where they should be most protected - their little lives are snuffed out, and their little bodies are discarded.  The human sacrifices becomes, until it is emptied, a tomb!  Such is the wonder of 'modern civilisation'!

Now, in order to pre-empt some anticipated comments, let me say that there are some - very rare - situations in which abortion is the least worst thing to do.  But these are, indeed, very rare.

I expect to continue this theme for a couple of posts, so do ensure that you return to the blog!"