Lee Harmon's Blog, page 2
May 11, 2015
Book Excerpt: The River of Life
The word “gospel” means “good news.” Jesus says his message is good news—not to the prosperous, but to the poor. Not to the happy, but to the brokenhearted. Not to the slave owner, but to the captive. Not to the seeing, but to the blind. Jesus himself says the reason he came was to “preach the acceptable year of the Lord.”
Do you know what the “acceptable year of the Lord” is? Many translations read “the year of the Lord’s favor.” Does that help explain it?
This special year, often called th...
May 6, 2015
Exodus 4:16, Moses as God
So he shall be your spokesman to the people. And he himself shall be as a mouth for you, and you shall be to him as God.
//These words are spoken by God to Moses about Aaron. God tells Moses that Aaron will do the speaking for him, and he (Moses) will act as God for Aaron.
Does this make Moses divine, taking on the role of God? The Jewish writer Philo (c. 25 BCE – c. 50 CE) thought so. He wrote “Having given up and left behind all mortal kinds, [Moses] is changed into the divine, so that such...
May 4, 2015
1 Thessalonians 5:17, When to Pray
Pray without ceasing.
//Do you believe in prayer? Stephen Hawley Martin, in his book Life After Death, Powerful Evidence you Will Never Die, describes an experiment performed by Christian Science practitioners. It relates to the effect of prayer in times of stress.
That it was Christian Science practitioners who dreamed up the experiment shouldn’t come as a surprise. See http://www.dubiousdisciple.com/2012/07/book-review-21st-century-science-health.html for more information about this belief...
May 1, 2015
Book Excerpt: Life After Death, Powerful Evidence You Will Never Die
by Stephen Hawley Martin
How do we believe?
I reviewed this book a couple days ago, and obtained permission to print the following excerpt. Its relevance to religion, and life after death in particular, should be recognizable.
pp 140-141
For years, Drew Westen, a psychologist at Emory University, has been studying how people think, particularly in the area of politics. … In experiments using MRI scans, Westen has demonstrated that persons with partisan preferences believe what they want to b...
April 29, 2015
Book review: Life After Death, Powerful Evidence You Will Never Die
by Stephen Hawley Martin
Martin presents evidence in this book for consciousness outliving our bodies, and finds the case for reincarnation strong. He points to a cosmic mind as something we all share. He discusses Near Death Experiences, communication with spirits, the unlikelihood of evolution alone accounting for our guided development, and more to back up his arguments.
Most of the evidence presented is case studies. There’s little repeatable experimental research described, but one sec...
April 24, 2015
Matthew 2:2-28, The Sacraments as Sacrifice
And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and blessed it, and brake it, and gave it to the disciples, and said, Take, eat; this is my body. And he took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, Drink ye all of it; For this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.
//Yesterday I posed a question: What are we to make of the ritual Jesus implemented, with the bread and wine, if we accept that Jesus himself was opposed to the sacrificial sys...
April 23, 2015
Matthew 12:17, The Sacrifice for our Sins
But you would not have condemned my innocent disciples if you knew the meaning of this Scripture: ‘I want you to show mercy, not offer sacrifices.’
//Why did Jesus have to die on the cross?
It was to save us from our sins, right? He was God’s substitutionary atonement, the sacrificial lamb, who gave his life for us so we could live. After his execution, his followers increasingly taught that Jesus became a human sacrifice. In fact, they began to associate Jesus with both the sacrificed Passov...
April 21, 2015
Book review: He Who Wept
by Thom Lemmons
This isn’t a new book–it was given to me by a friend–but I thoroughly enjoyed reading it. It’s historical fiction, based on the prophet Jeremiah.
The loneliness of the life of God’s prophets rings loud and clear. Seldom were they popular in their own time; certainly Jeremiah wasn’t. These are the men who spoke fearlessly in the name of God, often against kings and crowds.
He Who Wept accurately captures the politics of the day, centering on the little kingdom of Judah, preca...
April 9, 2015
Ephesians Chapter 6: Is Football in the Bible?
Put on the whole uniform of the Team, that ye may be able to stand against the blitz of oncoming linebackers. Don the hip pads of truth, the shoulder pads of righteousness, the cleats of preparation. Don’t forget the facemask of faith and the helmet of salvation. Then clutch the pigskin with much Spirit, for that is what the Play Book of your Coach in Heaven demands.
//Readers, I want to apologize for the distraction over the last few weeks. Leslie and I have been working furiously on a start...
April 7, 2015
1 Corinthians 2:14-1, The Mind of Christ
But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. But he who is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is rightly judged by no one. For “who has known the mind of the LORD that he may instruct Him?” But we have the mind of Christ.
//Read today’s verses carefully. How do you feel about them? Do they give you comfort, knowing that you are one of those who possess the mind of...
