Lee Harmon's Blog, page 12
October 28, 2014
Exodus 20:4-5, One Calf Or Two? Part II of II
Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image .. Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them.
//Yesterday, I introduced two places in scripture where golden calves (young bulls) were set up for cultic worship in Israel. One was by the first Hebrew priest, Aaron, and the other was by king Jeroboam. Both announced that “these are the gods which brought you up out of the land of Egypt.”
Before continuing the story, let’s be clear about something. What Aaron did, and what Jeroboam did,...
October 27, 2014
Exodus 32:4, One Calf Or Two? Part I of II
And he received them at their hand, and fashioned it with a graving tool, after he had made it a molten calf: and they said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.
//Here’s a puzzle for you. While Moses was up on the mountain talking to God, the children of Israel grew impatient. They asked Aaron to make for them a golden calf. So he made a calf, and ordained it with this statement “These be thy gods.”
Huh? How did one golden calf become plural? A clue come...
October 25, 2014
Book review: You Don’t Understand the Bible Because You Are Christian
by Richard Gist
★★★★★
Definitely a candidate for the Dubious Disciple top ten award this year. I can’t recall when I last enjoyed a book this much. Gist brings the Bible alive as ancient Hebrew storytelling, and though there’s sometimes a bit of speculation involved, the flavor of his interpretation is so fascinating that it must be spot on.
Gist describes himself as a “still growing, though retired, minister, who enjoys what he is continuously learning about the Bible.” He does not pretend to b...
October 24, 2014
Matthew 25:33, What’s Wrong With Goats?
And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left.
//What’s wrong with goats? Why do they get separated from the sheep? The sheep go on the right … “come, ye blessed” … and the goats go on the left … “depart from me, ye cursed.”
Is it because goats are stubborn? Naw. Goats have had a bad rap in scripture from the beginning. It’s interesting to note that anytime you have a goat and clothing in the same story in the Bible, it’s a tale of deceit.* Some examples:
Jacob fools hi...
October 23, 2014
Genesis 6:14, What Is An Ark?
Make thee an ark of gopher wood; rooms shalt thou make in the ark, and shalt pitch it within and without with pitch.
//The word tevah, translated into the English word Ark, occurs in two stories in the Bible. Today’s verse is one of the two: Noah’s ark, in which all life on earth was saved from the flood.
Can you guess the second occurrence of the word? If you said the Ark of the Covenant, you’re…
Wrong. That’s an entirely different word in Hebrew. The other occurrence of tevah is the little bas...
October 22, 2014
Genesis 29:26, Jacob Gets His Just Desserts
And Laban said, It must not be so done in our country, to give the younger before the firstborn.
//Here’s the story. Jacob, the second-born child, sneakily cheats his brother Esau out of his birthright. Esau, as the first-born, deserved special privileges that Jacob stole through trickery.
The day comes when Jacob and Esau leave the nest and go in search of wives. Esau seems to have no trouble choosing a mate. Jacob, likewise, finds the perfect one. Her name is Rachel. But Laban, Rachel’s fathe...
October 20, 2014
Matthew 28:19-20, The REAL Great Commission
Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you.
//Am I allowed another rant? I’m so tired of hearing people say they are following the Great Commission in spreading the Christian religion. Read the Bible, people!
Jesus never asked us to convert anybody to any religion. He does not ask us to share our theological doctrines. He probably couldn’t care less w...
October 18, 2014
Book Excerpt: The River of Life
In our Bibles, there are four Greek words that are commonly translated into the word “hell”. These words are Sheol, Hades, Tartarus, and Gehenna, and each is described briefly in Lee Harmon’s new book, The River of Life. The following is an excerpt from this book describing one of the four.
Hades - This may be thought of as the Greek version of Sheol. By the time the New Testament was written, Sheol had morphed into Hades, which is much more colorful than its Hebrew counterpart. The Greeks had...
October 16, 2014
Book review: The Way of Serenity
by Father Jonathan Morris
★★★★★
Lord, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.
Repeated by millions worldwide, this simple prayer has transformative power. Father Morris first began to contemplate its healing power when he found himself sitting in an open Alcoholics Anonymous meeting and hearing it shared aloud. Says Morris, “It was the purest and most genuine act of self-abandonment to God’s will I...
October 15, 2014
Matthew 5:13, Doing Good: The Meaning of Christianity, Part II of II
Ye are the salt of the earth
//Yesterday I mentioned that the difference between the sheep and goats was merely that the goats performed no kindnesses to those around them. Yet some Christians consider it proper to take a defeatist attitude and pretend that we can do nothing to change this old evil world. It’s hopelessly corrupted and we shouldn’t waste our time trying to make it better.
To this, I respond with three comments by Jesus: Ye are the salt of the earth, Ye are the light of the world...
