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Showing posts from August, 2013

Damascus and Syria

    I do not claim to be an expert on the Middle East or even on prophecy.  I've read the Bible cover to cover at least 20 or more times though and have seen people every time there is a conflict in the Middle East talk about the end times.  It happened last times rockets fell on Israel and when we attacked Iraq.  In a way it is good since it shows that we are trying to fit what the Bible says into our news today.  But, over time I think it makes people insensitive to the signs around them.  Like the little boy that cried wolf, when there really is trouble nobody believed him.     The Bible makes several references of Damascus and the place where many people died within the last week by chemical weapons.  Most of these references have to do about a time long since past when Israel was carried off into captivity by the Assyrians.  I would point out to you that these Israelites never returned back to their homeland.  The Assyrians ruled in an area now within the boundaries of mode

more on Job

     When I was in college, I studied the Bible a lot on my own.  I noticed one day that the king of Judah named Jehoiachin was said to be eighteen years old in 2 Kings 24:8 and was said to be eight years old in 2 Chronicles 36:9.  This troubled me a great deal that there was a inconsistence and I asked my pastor about it at the time Dr.Austin.  Dr.Austin did not seem all that surprised, but commented that there were several more places like it that dates and numbers were inconsistent.  I had a time dealing with this as before I didn't believe in scribal errors and wondered if this was true what else might not be true.       If reading this troubles you, you might be in the same place I was back then.  One person told me one day when we talked about how the Bible was inspired by God that God used man to deliver his message, but he didn't fax it down.  The whole process of the compiling of scripture and writing appears to have been at times a messy process.  There was writing

Questions about Job

     I want to start off by saying that what I am going to say about Job and my questions about Job is in no way a criticism or saying that I don't believe that God's Word is the inspired Word of God.  I do believe that God's word is inspired and that God speaks to us through his word.  Job was one of those books early on in my christian walk that I was interested in.  It was the first book that I taught a bible study on as teenager.  I think it has a lot to say to us about suffering and God's presence in the midst of suffering.  But, I also have some quetions in mind when I look at this book.       I noticed in looking at my study notes about this book that it says that there are some sections in Job that are regarded as additions that were added later than the original.  Among those are the preface and conclusion, chapter 28, chapters 32-37 and some or all of the Lord's discourses.  That makes us a pretty large section of the book.  One of my questions about the