Don't Even Go There

 As we approach the annual candy and costume fest I want to re post a blog article I wrote 5 years ago.  Warning!  My views are very conservative.  Reading them may cause your nose to bleed.

"There shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or his daughter pass through the fire, one who uses divination, one who practices witchcraft, or one who interprets omens, or a sorcerer, or one who casts a spell, or a medium, or a spiritist, or one who calls up the dead. For whoever does these things is detestable to the Lord". (Deuteronomy 18: 10-13)

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The last Harry Potter book has finally arrived, prefaced by weeks of speculation as to the fate of the young wizard, with last minute shots of anxious young kids and adults dressed as characters from the series waiting near midnight at Barnes and Nobles to satisfy this particular fantasy addiction. Part of the devoted newsprint was an article by a local minister who applauds the positive messages of friendship, devotion and sacrifice which enable good to triumph over evil. She freely admits to mining this potter's field for sermon illustrations. It seems somewhat ironic to me that in doing so she ignores the warnings that the Holy Spirit gives us through Holy Scripture about being deceived by anything connected with the occult.

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God hates those things, and the reason He hates them is because association with them always leads people away from God and toward bondage, fear, sickness, and sometimes even death. They are connected to the world of the evil one and are accompanied by evil spirits, yet are never advertised as such. There is a spiritual war going on that involves and impacts every living person. The main weapon for the enemy in this war is deception. He has established strongholds and maintains certain territorial rights. When we venture without protection into his strongholds or territory it gives him what I like to call a legal right to oppress us. I am a mature Christian and put on the armor of Ephesians 6:12 daily, yet the Holy Spirit tells me to avoid those strongholds and territories. And if they are dangerous for me, why would I want my children or grandchildren exposed to them?

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After becoming a believing Christian and being filled with the Holy Spirit I began to gradually grow in spiritual maturity as led by the Spirit. Along the way God would show me things and I would have to make decisions as to how I would respond to those revelations. One day the Spirit put it in my mind to examine the music I listened to. So I decided it would be a good idea to toss out everything that sang about sex, drugs, Eastern religion or the occult, thinking that a few albums might have to go. As I began to look over the song titles it occurred to me that maybe the only thing to remain of my collection would be the Christmas albums. Ninety percent of the rest did end up in the trash. My bohemian brother-in-law almost cried when he found out. "You could have given them to me!" Of course that wasn't the idea. Now much of that music is coming back, considered by today's standards classic but tame.

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Another time the Spirit had me examine my past and I prayed that He would bring to mind anytime that I had participated in where the evil one could have gained a foothold in my life. Some were obvious such as playing with a Ouija board or a time when I was a child and a neighbor invited me over for a seance where they did some table lifting, or the time I went to see the movie Rosemary's Baby. But I recalled other involvements as well where God wanted me to seek forgiveness and cleansing. 

My cousins and I would get together almost every Sunday afternoon from the time we were little until we started college. We made up a make believe world which we called "the ghost club". Although I cannot recall much about what we did in our ghost club, we were smart and creative kids and I'm sure we invented some great characters who had amazing adventures. I'm not saying that there is anything wrong with kids using their imaginations, or with fictional stories, or with having fun by being silly. It is very possible that we never crossed the line where imagination leads to actions that cross over to the spiritual. But if we did then I sure want to have the Father's forgiveness and cleansing from any residual effects that would cause lifelong afflictions. As parents we need to seek the guidance of the Holy Spirit so that we will be able to teach our children principles that will protect them from the attractive deceptions of the evil one.

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We tried to teach our children the principles of the spiritual war that we are involved in so as they grew they would know not just "the what not", but also "the why for".  We also put a fence of protection around them as well. That fence included our prayers, our examples and our guidance. It also involved decisions on what they could read, or watch, or listen to, and where they could go and with whom. Anything that portrayed witches, magic and such in a positive way were out of bounds. We would also not let our children go to slasher movies because those types of experiences of intense fear can also be entry points for demonic spirits. We did not withdraw from the world but we always had to work to discern what was in the will of God and what was not. Acceptance by the culture was not a gauge we used.

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It is very difficult to raise children in our secular world and not have them be involved in certain cultural things that most of their friends are. We can lay down a law as a fence to protect them, but we must also lead them to the helmet of salvation, and show them how to put on the coverings of truth and righteousness, and teach them how to use the shield of faith. And as they grow in being guided by the Spirit they will be less inclined to sneak over that fence. Instead, they will learn to wield the sword of the Spirit. That sword will be for protection, but it will also be used by those young boys and girls, chosen by the Lord God Almighty in this special day and age, to tear down the strongholds and destroy the territory of the enemy. Truth is more exciting than fiction, and the stories of the adventures that God has for our young will fill much more than seven volumes.

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"For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses. We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ, and we are ready to punish all disobedience, whenever our obedience is complete". (2 Corinthians 10: 3-6)

Will The Grill

I've lived most of my life in Holland, Michigan, a nice little Mid Western burg where pristine waters lap against white, sandy beaches and tulips bloom in May.  I've been to New York City just once, took a memorable taxi ride across some famous bridge, glanced at the teeming masses, and then bid it a fond adieu.

When I was 17 I headed out via train to an Outward Bound camp in Colorado.  It was on that train that I met Juan, a Puerto Rican kid from New York who was heading to the same camp.  I was going by choice.  Juan was being sent.  I later found out after arriving that a good portion of the campers were actually, how shall I say it, juvenile delinquents who authorities had given a chance to be toughen up by 14,000 foot mountains.

What a shock.  My parents were happily married.  The only argument I had ever heard between them was one time with my dad and mom at dinner, beginning with my dad.  "Eat your peas.  I don't want to eat my peas.  You better eat your peas or you'll get sick.  I'm NOT going to eat my peas!"   I thought this was pretty normal.  I didn't even know anyone else whose parents were divorced.

Then at Outward Bound there were statements like this from a pretty big guy:  "If I ever see my dad hit my mom again I'm going to take a base ball bat and beat the crap out of him."   Needless to say, when our group would get lost on a ten mile hike and two type A junies were arguing over how to read the compass I would from the background politely suggest that maybe we should try Pete's way first and then give Nick's plan a go.  Lucky for me Pete was a much better navigator than Nick.

Juan was not in our group at camp but while on the train, like a normal 17 year old, he wanted to talk music.  He would ask me if I had heard this Latino sounding group or that Latino sounding group, on and on, all apparently very popular in New York.  "Um, no.  I do like, you know, groups like The Beetles," trying to sound cool.  "Who?"  Ah, the chasim is wide and deep tween urban city East and Mid West.

This week a very big and imposing black dude comes in for a road test.  William has recently moved to Grand Rapids from New York.  I asked him what he does for work and he tells me he has a clothing store downtown.  "What kind of work did you do in New York?"  William tells me that he sold gold grill work.  I had no idea what he was talking about so he tells me that he sold gold teeth and gold caps which could cover the entire top and bottom of your teeth with 24 caret gold.

"Are you a dentist?" I naively ask.  "No man!  I take a powder and make impressions of their teeth.  I send the impressions to my father who melts the gold, does the work, and then sends them back to me.  In New York they call me Will The Grill."

This is totally a different world than I'm use to.  I imagine if one of my brother in laws showed up one day to a family gathering sporting a new, beautiful gold grill, that the rest of the brother in laws would play rock, paper, scissors to see who would get to file the papers to have him committed.

"Did you make pretty good money at that?" I inquired of Will.

"I did until, well, you know, the economy."

"How is your clothing store doing?"

"Well, you know, the economy."

New York, Grand Rapids.  I guess some things are the same everywhere.

 

       

Say What?

I learned a new saying which just might come in handy someday.

Kid comes for a road test.  His grandmother is driving the car they are going to use.  Grandmother has these very large, red lipstick coated lips, blotchy skin and short black hair tightly wrapped in pink curlers.  She gets her tall thin frame out of the vehicle and is wearing a coat that looks very much like a bathrobe.

Grandson says something to her which I did not hear and grandma replies; "Can't do that.  I'm dysfunctional."

Dating Da Deluge

Fragment from the Dead Sea Scrolls, showing a portion of Genesis.

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"Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually . . . Then God said to Noah, "The end of all flesh has come before Me, for the earth is filled with violence because of them, and behold, I am about to destroy them with the earth . . . I am bringing the flood of water upon the earth, to destroy all flesh in which is the breath of life . . . But I will establish My covenant with you" . . . Then the Lord said to Noah, "Enter the ark, you and all your household; for you alone I have seen to be righteous before Me in this time" . . . In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on the same day all the fountains of the great deep burst open, and the flood-gates of the sky were opened, and the rain fell upon the earth for forty days and forty nights . . . And all the flesh that moved on the earth perished . . ."

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"Now it came about in the six hundred and first year, in the first month, on the first of the month, the water was dried up from the earth . . . Then God spoke to Noah, saying, "Go out of the ark, you and your wife and your sons and your sons' wives with you. Bring out with you every living thing of all flesh that is with you . . . that they may breed abundantly on the earth, and be fruitful and multiply on the earth". So Noah went out, and his sons and his wife and his sons' wives with him. Every beast, every creeping thing, and every bird, everything that moves on the earth, went out by their families from the ark . . . and God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth". (Genesis; 6:5 - 9:1)

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Some years ago I went to Barnes and Noble and bought a book that was on sale called - The Time chart History Of The World (6000 Years Of World History Unfolded) - a 12" wide x 18" high book consisting of glossy Victorian style art, charts, timelines, maps and graphs that could be unfolded to 15' (plus another 15' of other interesting stuff on the flip side). The Time chart was based on a Victorian wall chart that was published in 1890, using dates calculated from the Bible and known history by an Archbishop Ussher in the seventeenth century.




Genesis presents a history of a righteous line that goes from Adam's son Seth, all the way to Abraham and to his descendents. Other books in the Bible also provide clues and information which pave a way straight through to Jesus. Scripture seems to go to great lengths to present this ancestral trail. Genesis was written by Moses who would have used information passed down from his Hebrew ancestors. But Moses also spent two sessions of 40 days in the presence of God while at the top of Mt. Sinai, as well as being in His presence many other times in the tent of meeting, helping us to have trust in the historical information Moses provided as author of the 1st 5 books of the Bible. It sure seems to me that God had a purpose to put specific dates, times and ages into the accounts. And Archbishop Ussher used that information to create a timeline from creation until his day, also showing the origins and development of other major early civilizations as they progressed along that timeline.

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Ussher came up with an exact day and hour for the creation of the earth and of Adam, and the year he came up with was 4004 BC (BCE). The flood of Noah is dated at 2348 BCE. Abram (Abraham) is born around 2000 BCE, and Jesus was born close to 4 BCE. These calculations have been used by many who study Biblical prophecy and who are looking for the soon return of Jesus to set up His 1000 year reign on earth. The idea is that if we take the verse in scripture that says that "with God, a day is as a thousand years", and if we see the 6 days of creation in Genesis as being a pattern for the age of mankind on earth, then it would be logical to assume that since it was 2000 years from Adam to Abraham, and 2000 years from Abraham to Jesus, and 2000 years from Jesus to the present day (a total of six 1000 year days), then Jesus could return at anytime to rule for the last 1000 years (the seventh day.)

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While this is a nice tidy way to look at things it can easily be seen that even for those of us who believe in the inspiration of the sacred scriptures, who believe that everything contained within them is there for a reason and a purpose, who see a literal Adam and a literal Noah, with a deluge that destroyed all land life save that on the ark, that there are some difficulties with this seven, 1000 year day plan. One is that we are already well into the last 1000 year day, and another is that a flood date of 2348 BCE does not look very probable. Yes, we need to trust in scripture, even when it may not agree with what science and history teaches. We need to also realize that science and history should agree with scripture. Certain scientific and historical conclusions may be tainted by prejudices of long time frames, uniformarinism, and atheistic viewpoints, but our scriptural interpretations may also be influenced by someone else's conclusions, or by limitations inherent in translation of language, text, or culture.

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Archbishop Ussher calculated his dates using a translation of the Hebrew scriptures known as the Masoretic Text (MT). From the MT, depending on how certain things are interpreted, one can date Adam anywhere from 4004 BCE to 4118 BCE, and The Flood anywhere from 2348 BCE to 2462 BCE. Of the different texts used for translating the Old Testament, and calculating in the same manner, the MT provides the shortest time frame from now, then back to the flood or to Adam. A second source is the Samaritan Text which dates the flood at 3112 BCE, and Adam at 4419 BCE. And a third source is the Septuagint (LXX) which can date the flood as late as 3242 BCE, or as early as 3547 BCE, and Adam as late as 5484 BCE or as early as 5803 BCE.


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Most of the Old Testament was in Hebrew, a language with an alphabet that did not use vowels or punctuation marks in it's written form. This allows for many words to have multiple meanings, understood by context, pronunciation and tradition. The originals were made by hand then recopied and passed on for generations and the material used was subject to decay and destruction. The Hebrews were very concerned that the copies would be exact, letter for letter, and had come up with different methods to insure accuracy. Even so, mistakes can happen over time. Yet even if the copies are perfect there are always the questions - What was the original meaning of a word or phrase and how should the words be pronounced when read in public? The oldest surviving texts in the original Hebrew only go back to the 1st century BCE, found in the pieces and sections known as the Dead Sea Scrolls. I remember from visiting the traveling exhibit that came to the Grand Rapids museum that, although the shapes of some of the Hebrew letters had slightly changed, the scrolls and fragments do show that the texts of the 1st century BCE were very close to those of the 10th century CE.


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The Septuagint (LXX) is a translation into Greek of Hebrew texts done in the 3rd century BCE by a group of 70 Jewish scholars. The Greek empire was ruling the Holy Land and many copies of the scriptures were made, some which have survived. This brings us closer to the original texts time wise. Although it is not the original but a translation it does show how the Jewish scholars of the day interpreted the text they had. Commentators say the LXX was the text used by the Jews in Jesus day and that many Old Testament quotes found in the New Testament come from the LXX. The LXX was favored by some of the early fathers of the Christian Church and was used as well by the Jewish historian Josephus.

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The MT was compiled much later in the 7th to 10th century CE, partly as a reaction by the Jews who saw the LXX being used by the Christians and who wanted a purely Jewish translation. They included in the MT not just the Hebrew letters, but notations in the borders indicating 7th-10th century CE Jewish understandings of interpretation, punctuation and pronunciation. This included a dating bias made by a prominent Jewish high priest earlier to prop up support for the timing of a false Messiah. The Protestant translations of Archbishop Ussher's day used the MT as a primary source. Most of scripture is identical between what ended up in the MT and the LXX but what concerns us are differences in the ages recorded for some of the personalities and for the time frame between certain events. I have no way of knowing which text is more accurate but the LXX is certainly more in line with what seems logical in recorded history.


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Three of the oldest civilizations with recorded history are the Egyptian, the Sumerian, and the Chinese. As far as I can tell we cannot be too sure on any of their records that predate 2800 BCE, and perhaps even earlier than that. There is a list of rulers carved into an Egyptian tomb. If accurate the list of kings for Egypt may be dated to a first ruler named Menes, about 3100-3150 BCE. The 1st Chinese dynasty was the Xia, dating from 2000 - 1500 BCE. Their Longshorne culture may predate that to 2500 BCE and their Bronze Knife culture may go back to 3000 BCE. Evidence seems to indicate that the Sumerians became an organized society around 2800 BCE. If we look to date the spread of civilization listed in the Bible we must first have time to build up family groups from the three sons of Noah. They had to be gathered together to build the tower of Babel and then they needed to disperse to the rest of the world, eventually developing organized civilizations.

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It is interesting that history shows that not only do those 3 civilizations begin at about the same time but that we know nothing about any other organized civilizations that predate those. A flood date of 2348 BCE does not seem defendable whereas the LXX date of 3242 - 3547 BCE should fit quite nicely with current interpretations of historical evidence. The only scientific obstacles are the claims of humanoid remains dating thousands or tens of thousand of years earlier and fossilized tree ring theory. These are dependent on the accuracy of Carbon-14 and Radiometric type dating and the presuppositions they are based on. While these can't be ignored they should certainly be open to question.

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It seems to me that scripture, science and history can fit quite nicely with a fairly recent flood and a fairly recent Adam if we are not bound by someone's teaching that requires a 7000 year time frame. Mankind is still suffering the consequences of a sin that happened perhaps 7500 years ago. Our present world geography was formed by a judgment against wickedness that happened perhaps 5250 years ago. We all have hope because of a redemption, brought by the second Adam, that happened about 1980 years ago. The time of decision, for each of us, is today.

Driving Distractions

Did you know that the average time a driver looks away from the road while texting is 5 seconds?  Yup, enough time to take you and me into a very happy place.  Well, at least me.  If I'm lucky enough to die instead of getting crippled.

Texting is a relatively new driving hazard.  How new?  My spell check underlined texting and gave me the following options:  testing - exiting - taxing - jesting and  tasting.  To remember my options I've come up with the following sentence.

While testing a young lady and exiting the freeway we slammed on our brakes to avoid a driver who while texting cut us off, taxing our ability to keep jesting and tasting life to it's fullest.

A much older obstacle to safe driving is the behaviour I noticed yesterday.  I'm sitting at a corner and the car passing in front of me appears to be driven by a big shaggy dog, paws on the steering wheel, happy face looking out the open driver side window.  I say appears because I never actually saw the stupid human who must at least be working the gas and brake.  There was no way he could have seen me.

Feline lovers at least keep their driving buddies out of sight, one hand on the wheel, the other rubbing the furry beast.  I think this is more the choice of the cat.  They don't like wind, they don't look happy but sometimes they do want to know what's going on so they sit in the back window, creeping me out as they stare at me.

One of the latest fashions for people who wear glasses are frames with these very wide side brackets.  They look nice but like the idiot with the dog on his lap the glasses offer no peripheral vision. At least these fashionistas (machinists in my spell check) can learn to move their head to compensate and don't have to worry about what will happen to their lap if a dog gets frightened or a cat gets frisky.

I won't bore you with statistics concerning gory death and cell phone while driving usage.  Do you really care?  Does the average person think, "Oh, this may end my life.  It would be wise to pull over and talk."  I would say that maybe 20% of people that come in for road tests between the ages of 18 and 24 actually keep their iPhone on their lap when driving, ON THE ROAD TEST!  They don't use it but you know this is their life.

I bet when they leave me they have one hand on the wheel, one thumb changing screens and doing all the other stuff I wouldn't know because I don't have an iPhone.  This prompts an interesting thought.  Your driving attention while you are on your cell phone is maybe 50% and theirs is at 10%.  What are your odds of finding that happy place?

25 Points That Guide My Voting

I cannot vote for a person or a party that encourages abortion.

Same sex orientation should not be given the status of marriage.

Education is more a local matter than a Federal matter.

We must help the poor to get out of their situation.

We should revise policies that encourage a culture of single parent families.

Protection of our borders should have priority over votes.

Revenue for social programs come from tax payers, not the government.

Our rights come from the Creator, not the government.

Our country should be able to pay for everything it provides without needing to borrow or print money.

If we don't have the money we need to first cut back on spending.

Spending can be added if and when revenues increase, not on promises.

Because we can't have everything we need to prioritize, have a say in the process, and go without.

16 Trillion in debt is going to destroy this country, hurting everyone, the poor first.

Inflation (rising gas, utilities, food prices) hurt everyone, the poor first.

Becoming energy independent must happen soon.

We are responsible for protecting our environment, but there must be balance.

Solar and wind requirements should not be mandated.

Gas millage should not be mandated.

Social engineering should not be mandated.

In today's world we need a strong military.

We should not apologize to the world for our values or history.

We need to stand with and support our allies.

We need to seek the will of God for us and for our country.

We need to cry out to Him for forgiveness and mercy.

We need to thank Him for placing us in this place at this time.