Matthew 7:13 Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: 14 Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.
John 14:1 ¶ Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. 2 In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also. 4 ¶ And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know. 5 Thomas saith unto him, Lord, we know not whither thou goest; and how can we know the way? 6 Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.
The following tells about those (called nones) who are seeking to get to Heaven their own way! However, unless they repent of their sins and turn by faith to the Lord Jesus none of these “nones” will enter Heaven but will spend eternity in the Lake of Fire. Acts 20:21 ..repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.
1Timothy 4:1 ¶ Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils
‘Jesus was almost to the tomb of Lazarus and about to demonstrate his Divinity by raising His friend from the dead. But He was deeply moved in sympathetic sorrow by the distraught and weeping Mary and all those weeping around her. Here on the part of the Son of Man were tears of love, of sympathy, of compassion, and of deep emotion. The Bible says He was deeply moved. Jesus is not only perfectly divine, but perfectly human!
The verse from John 11:35, which is famously the shortest verse in the King James Bible, highlights the fact that tears demonstrate humanity – not only Christ’s identification with our humanity but humanity itself. In fact, they are an important part of our body, soul, and spirit!
Researchers say that human beings are distinct from animals because we can cry emotional tears. They also say that it can be a healthy thing to shed such tears. Tears can release hormones and other body chemistry which cleanse and renew us.
I remember I cried at the birth of each of our six children. I cried as I danced the father-daughter dance at her wedding reception. I’ve cried in worship experiences and other times in communion with the Lord, and at the passing of loved ones and other losses. I’ve also cried in repentance.
The human body is amazing and has many special distinctions from the animal kingdom. And we human beings are not only physical bodies, but are also made up of soul and spirit per the Bible (e.g., 1 Thessalonians 5:23). This means that the interactions between physicality, biochemistry, emotions, intellect, personality and things like repentance, forgiveness, and other interactions of a spiritual nature all overlap. Emotions can trigger release of biochemical hormones, and vice versa. Biochemical hormone release in the body can trigger emotions, as can drugs ingested into the body. And things like faith, fear, joy, and love can trigger biochemical hormones in the body. So it goes both ways across a continuum – the immaterial to the physical, and vice versa.
The human body is an amazing thing, interacting marvelously with mental and emotional focus. Baseball players can actually watch a baseball thrown toward them at 90 miles an hour by someone who doesn’t want them to succeed, and swing a bat around with their legs, hips, arms, and wrists all working together to hit the fast-moving spheroid into the field of play, and then run to first base. That the eyes, brain, and other body parts can work so well together – adjusting to fast balls, curve balls, sliders and other pitches over different parts of home plate – is really quite amazing. There is still no machine that can replace a baseball batter – yet, the human body is said to have evolved by chance and natural selection?!
The human eye can detect the faintest light possible – a single photon of light – and can also work with 10 billion photons of light. In the language of Optics, its “dynamic range”, that is the ability to capture “contrast”, is 10 billion to one! The best digital cameras can only reach half that. The human eye also has an enormous number of “pixels” (a very small area of illumination on a screen) especially compared to even the best HD TV screens – 130 million pixels versus 8.3 million for a 3840 x 2160, horizontal x vertical pixel HD TV. And those human eyes can also shed emotional tears.
Clearly, there is a God, the Biblical God, who designed and created all this! And clearly, human beings are unique in our intellectual, emotional and spiritual connection to Him and His marvelous creation! Once again, we are comprised of body, soul, and spirit – simultaneously!
Christians have understood this. Humanity is God’s special creation. And Christian movements over the years have declared, decreed, and organized their vision and mission around the Great Commission to redeem us to our Maker. Listen to the famous words of Pastor Robert Hunt on April 29, 1607 at the first landing on Cape Henry in the mouth of Chesapeake Bay during the founding of the Jamestown Colony. It was a special declaration that has been honored and proven true for over 400 years! – about the United States, and the gospel outreach that has flowed within and from “these shores”.
“We do hereby dedicate this Land, and ourselves, to reach the People within these shores with the Gospel of Jesus Christ,and to raise up Godly generations after us, and with these generations take the Kingdom of God to all the earth. … May those who come here to inhabit join us in this Covenant and this most noble work, that the Holy Scriptures may be fulfilled. From these very shores the gospel shall go forth, not only to this new world, but the entire world.” Then he read from Psalm 22:27, “All the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the Lord. And all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before Thee.”
For many years, America has been organizing, spending and sending a bulk of the missions effort for worldwide gospel outreach. That continues to this day – in spite of all the evil influence of modern culture! It’s a wonderful legacy. Yet, we could do so much more. How is it that so many Christians can tip the server 15% at the restaurant but have a hard time giving 10% to gospel outreach?
For several years, Creation Moments has been responding to the Lord’s leading from Revelation 14:6-7 – to grow our efforts to expand the languages and worldwide broadcast reach for our pre-evangelism creation science and creation-evangelism programming. We have “heard the word” and “received the illumination” of God’s call to us about “the angel having the everlasting gospel” to “preach… to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people” a message that hinges on the truth of creation! “Worship Him that made heaven and earth, and the sea and the fountains of waters” (Revelation 14:7b).Here is the last use of the word “gospel” in the whole Bible. And it contains the most essential creationist messaging!’https://creationmoments.com/newsletter/august-2023-from-these-very-shores-the-gospel-shall-go-forth-not-only-to-this-new-world-but-the-entire-world/?mc_cid=d108c81508&mc_eid=00c1dcff3c
Romans 15:4 For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope.
‘American pastor Andy Stanley stated in a 2018 sermon, “Peter, James, [and] Paul elected to unhitch the Christian faith from their Jewish scriptures, and my friends, we must as well.”
He’s not the only one with this opinion. Many believers today think the Old Testament is obsolete, and all that matters now is the New Testament.
But how can you love the New Testament and the gospel message if you don’t know the Hebrew Scriptures on which the Good News is built? The authors of the New Testament loved God’s Word too. But until they wrote their Gospels and Epistles, the only Scripture they had ever received from God came in the books of law, prophecy, and writings of the Tanakh—the Jewish Bible.
Many churches today struggle to appreciate the divine truths God has spoken to us through the Old Testament. A 2019 Pew Research study of U.S. churches found that evangelicals hear from the New Testament in 93 percent of sermons, while Old Testament Scripture appears in only 66 percent of sermons—a discouraging 27-percent gap, despite the fact that the Old Testament is more than three times longer than the New.
These churches may preach on the value of Paul’s teaching from 2 Timothy 3:16–17: “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.” But such teaching rings hollow if the Old Testament is pushed aside on Sunday mornings and in personal study.
Like those who read Scripture thousands of years ago, we have the great privilege of knowing our unchanging, holy God through the pages of the Tanakh. Without the lens of the Old Testament and its Jewish context, we miss so much of the beauty of New Testament Scripture God has made plain to those who study the Bible faithfully.’https://israelmyglory.org/article/from-the-editor-jul-aug-2023/
This is the first review of Dr. D. A. Waite’s 306 page book DEFENDING THE KING JAMES BIBLE. Doctor Waite is now in his 90’s and recently entered a nursing home. However, his love for and defense of the original texts underlying the King James Bible will never be forgotten by this preacher. May the Lord give us more D. A. Waites!
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