Does the Bible Give It’s Okay to Killing Babies?

Atheists and Bible skeptics will often attack the moral stance of the God’s Word by quoting Psalm 137:9

“How blessed will be the one who seizes and dashes your little ones against the rock,”

If you look at the written scripture in context you will see that the Bible does not say it is okay the kill babies. The Psalmist was speaking of the Babylonian captivity, and how the captors were treating God’s people. Revenge was very common in those days and the Psalmist wished the same to the captors as he may have witnessed those offences done to them. He wanted their complete annihilation.

There is no scripture that reads that God condoned such actions. It was merely recorded in the Old Testament.

The atheist or skeptic in any case must first have a standard against which to measure good and bad, to say this is unacceptable; and without a standard, no complaints can be legitimately offered. This is a sincere question that if not answered by the skeptic, makes the critics’ accusation problematic.

Are Christians Supposed To Keep The Sabbath?

We can reference Old Testament scripture that would support keeping the Sabbath, such as;

Exodus 31: 15: 15, For six days work, may be done, but on the seventh day there is a Sabbath of complete rest, holy to the Lord; whoever does any work on the Sabbath day shall surely be put to death.

Exodus 23: 12: 12, “Six days you are to do your work, but on the seventh day you shall cease from labor so that your ox and your donkey may rest, and the son of your female slave, as well as your stranger, may refresh themselves.
And, Leviticus 26: 2, 2 You shall keep My Sabbaths and reverence My sanctuary; I am the Lord.

The Old Testament Law of keeping the Sabbath was paramount, was the moral, ceremonial and legal system for the Jewish people to “stay in favor” with God. Since we have been justified by faith, by Jesus’ atonement we have not entrenched in the Law anymore. And since keeping the Sabbath was part of those laws we do not need to keep the Sabbath anymore.

New Testament Scripture supporting this is:

Colossians 2: 16-17, 16 Therefore no one is to act as your judge in regard to food or drink or in respect to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day— 17 things which are a mere shadow of what is to come; but the substance belongs to Christ.

Romans 5: 1-2, 5 Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand; and we exult in hope of the glory of God.

Romans 14: 5-6, 5 One person regards one day above another, another regards every day alike. Each person must be fully convinced in his own mind. 6 He who observes the day, observes it for the Lord, and he who eats, does so for the Lord, for he gives thanks to God; and he who eats not, for the Lord he does not eat, and gives thanks to God.

God Bless
Brian Mason

“Passover” What Is It?

The term “Passover” comes from the Hebrew “pasch” and translated into English it means “to pass over”.
So what is the story behind Passover?

The Egyptians had enslaved the Jews and Moses was raised up by the Lord to be the Jews “deliverer”. Moses had announced to Pharaoh that plagues would come over the Egyptian people if God’s people were not freed. Pharaoh refused and so the plagues walloped Egypt.

Because the Jews were inside Egypt, they too would be subjected to the plagues onslaught. The Lord though, would provide a guard against the plagues for the Jewish people. This protection was put in place by taking the blood of a lamb and applying it to all doorposts of their homes. Thus the Lord would “pass over” them and the firstborn male of the house would be spared (the last of the plagues killed the firstborn male of all who lived in Egypt).

Read Exodus 12:12-13:

12 “I will pass through the land of Egypt on that night and strike every firstborn male in the land of Egypt, both man and beast. I am Yahweh; I will execute judgments against all the gods of Egypt. 13 The blood on the houses where you are staying will be a distinguishing mark for you; when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No plague will be among you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.

The blood of the lamb was obviously the shed blood of Jesus Christ. Thus God’s judgment was not delivered to those who were under the blood of the lamb.

God Bless

Brian Mason

An Inaccurate Value for “pi” in the Old Testament?

This article is the first in a series of examining Bible difficulties in defense of the “Inerrant Bible”

Critics have brought up 1 Kings 7: 23 as a “U-HUH!” moment whenever the subject of Biblical inerrancy comes up. But let’s look into the scripture and defend the Bible. First the scripture in question;

1 Kings 7: 23 (NASB)

23 “ Now he (Hiram) made the sea of cast metal ten cubits from brim to brim, circular in form, and its height was five cubits, and thirty cubits in circumference.”

Critics have suggested that this approximate value of three to one as the relationship between the diameter and circumference of a circle is a geometric inaccuracy, thus questioning the “inerrancy” of the scripture. The actual value of pi is;

3.14159 Instead of 3.0

The critics’ assessment lacks credit though. The actual value of pi is more used for manufacturing of intricate machines or highly precise parts such as factory machines etc. And in contrast as indicated in speech of today we also use approximations. Let’s look at population figures for example; we find ourselves saying that a certain city has a population of 5 Million, when the actual population may be 5,012,091 for instance. It likely is around that number due to births and deaths, so the actual figure could really never stay at 5 Million for long.

This may seem like a minor issue to some and a major issue to others. Remember the Bible is God’s breathed inspired word, not a book of Geometry.

God Bless

Brian Mason