The Book of Mormon

Just a quick note to let everyone know that I added a page for the Book of Mormon.  The best information I could find at this time.  Very informative.

Ruth & Esther

The Book of Ruth

The Book of Esther

The Old Testament is blessed with two books with female titles.  Ruth & Esther.  Honestly prior to yesterday I had never read, seen, nor heard of these two books.  But these two have representatives on NetFlix, of which I spent the time to watch.  And WOW was it worth it.  These two women are totally phenominal.  

Ruth is from Moab, marries the son of Na'Omi, and when Na'Omi's husband and both sons die, she stays with Na'Omi, even when Na'Omi decides to travel back to Israel.  She adopts Na'Omi's God, and He blesses her.  She goes out to the field and gleens to bring wheat into the home for food.  She listens to Na'Omi and lands her a great man, that loves her, and has plenty of wealth to take care of her.  

Esther's story is totally vague about where she comes from, other than she is a Jew, in the land of Persia.  Her uncle positions her with the King, and she becomes his Queen.  And then through expert negotiation skills and cunning language she turns the evil Hayman's plot to kill the Jews back on him.  

I found both movies excellent ways to spend an hour and a half.

And can not wait to sit down and read the stories for myself.

Christianity vs. Islam

I've heard a lot of things lately, that I want to take the time to address at this point.  I have heard that many sources are trying to "merge" Christianity and Islam into a Chrislam religion.  I have heard that Yitz'chak (Isaac) and Yishma'el (Ishmael) are brothers born of Abraham, and that Ishmael is the father of Islam, Isaac is the father of Judaism, and thus these religions are two branches of the same religion following the same God.  I have heard it said that Allah is just Arabic for God.  I have heard many other things along this line but I just have to straighten this out.

How do we know God?

We know God by his name.... and his attributes.  These are the only two ways that we know God.

So let's look at his name:  

In the Jewish/Christian Bible:  YHWH (in the original Hebrew it's much prettier to look at.  Yud-Hay-Vav-Hay are the letters.  This is God's name.  There are many titles that we see used to refer to him, Elohim, God, Lord, Majesty, Father, Lord on High, Jehovah, just to name a few, but his name is YHWH (Yahweh).  He tells us this in the bible.

In Islam:  his name is Allah.  Only Allah.

Islam uses the bible of the Jewish/Christian religions, but they ignore the YHWH, and say that it "should" have said Allah instead.

So let us continue on to look at the attributes:

The god of Islam glorifies death.		The God of the Bible glorifies life.
The god of Islam says that Muslims are to win converts to Islam by means of the sword.		The God of the Bible says that His believers are to win converts by means of love and faith.
The god of Islam says that a Muslim’s behavior determines his eternal future.		The God of the Bible says the condition of one’s heart determines his eternal future.
The god of Islam has no Messiah for salvation.		The God of the Bible says there must be salvation by means of a Messiah.
The god of Islam is a war god.		The God of the Bible is a shalom God.

So in my opinion here, these two are simply NOT the same.  

Some additional information:

(the following dates and times are approximate dates, not exact dates, but are really close)

Islam did not come into existence until Muhammad formed it.  Muhammad was born 600 years AFTER Jesus Christ.  

The last book of the OT was written one thousand years before Muhammad was born.  

The last book of the NT was written 500 years before Muhammad was born.  

Ishmael had nothing to do whatsoever with the forming of Islam, this was something Muhammad did on his own.  He took The Bible and rewrote it to read what he wanted it too.  And then tells us that "over the years the translations of The Bible have been corrupted" the bible should have read Ishmael was the chosen one, Ishmael received the Covenant of Abraham from God, Isaac was rewritten to "inherit" erroneously by the Jews.  Now, they may have been able to say this, until the Dead Sea Scrolls were unearthed.  These were buried around 100 BC,  and we can see from these that there has been no change in the "structure" and stories from what we have today. 

So, to sum this up, we know God, by His name YHWH, (Yahweh), and we know God by His attributes, which are totally different from Allah's.  These two religions are not two different branches of the same God, they are two different trees.  

I am instructed to remind you now of a time when the Israelites worshipped both Yahweh and the gods of other nations.  At a point in history it was said that Yahweh and Ba'al were one and the same god.  What happened to them?  They were scattered across the world, millions of them killed and destroyed.  Don't let this happen to you, and those you love.  

The Bible ~ Original aired on the History Channel, currently on Netflix.

The Bible ~ Original aired on the History Channel, currently on Netflix.

Starring Robert Powell as Jesus, and Roma Downey as Mother Mary.

Also saw this at WalMart today (6/12/2014) under the same Son of God   (Son of God is a 2014 American Christian movie feature, produced by Mark Burnett and Roma Downey. It was released in the United States on February 28, 2014.   The film was adapted from the ten-hour miniseries The Bible,  which aired in March 2013 on the History channel.)

I must admit, I have more of an open mind than I truly expected myself to have at this point.  And I am so hungry for the Word and the Truth, that I just can’t get enough.  I am watching everything that comes across my scope of purview, and I am reading as much as time will allow.  There are just so many avenues, thoughts, directions, that all need to be looked at. 

I watched the mini-series version of this project.  And the first episode The Beginnings, starts with Noah (Noach) and skips a lot of important stuff, and some of it just isn’t in the depth I would have liked.  However, at the beginning the disclaimer says that it is based on the stories in the Bible, and “tries” to remain true to the spirit of the stories.  AND yes they did.  There were quite a few “embellishments” to make the story flow in movie form, but they did not discredit any of the tales, and I must admit, that Mark Burnett and Roma Downey did an excellent job.  By far, the best movie I’ve seen in quite some time. 

Once I started, I couldn’t stop.  I watched episode 2 on my iPad the next day.  Well I started it anyway.  My husband was trying to listen, and couldn’t see from his chair, so he loaded it on his computer and played it on the big screen.  He was hooked as well.  We made it a Saturday family film fest.  Watching them all by the end of the day.

I would even go so far as to tell you guys, that I made my kids leave the room during the “40 lashes” due to thoughts of the depiction of this scene in “Passion of the Christ”, which I refuse to let my kids see until they are much older.  But I didn’t need to, it was shown, not in it’s fullness and not in it’s full effect, so it was very kid friendly. 

All in all, this was an excellent family oriented telling of the story of the Bible.  One that I would whole heartedly recommend for all ages, genres and orientations.  A great starting point.  And a nice introduction to some of the story I haven’t read yet.  Sampson & Delilah, David & Goliath, Stephen, King Cyrus, this series has me wanted to go through it faster, and I find myself, forcing myself, to slow down and go through The Bible slow and steady.  

Did God Create the Universe ~ Stephen Hawking

I found this show on Netflix last weekend, among others, and decided why not.  I spent the 42-43 minutes watching the film.  Mr. Hawking is a very well known theoretical physicist, cosmologist, author, and director of research at the Centre for Theoretical Cosmology within the University of Cambridge.   

And quite frankly because of all those "hats" I really thought he was a smart man.  Maybe it's that he's uber intelligent that he just can't see common sense.  

In essence, I expected something great out of this show.  IN either direction, I expected something great.  However, I was sorely disappointed.  

Mr. Hawking spent a lot of time explaining that he might have made some folks mad with his earlier book.  He spent quite a bit of time explaining that he was not intentionally trying to offend anyone with his position.  He did spend a little bit of time of explaining the universe is extremely complex and intricate and he can see where one might think there was a "creator".  

But in the end, his stance:

Time begin when the big bang happened.  Before time began there could be nothing, because time had not yet begun.  And therefore God could not have created the big bang, therefore God did not create the universe.  

What a load of hoooey.....   Sorry Mr. Hawking, but I just need a little more than that.  

In my opinion, and according to the bible, God IS the beginning and the end, and God IS the Alpha and the Omega.  God created the universe, and he created the "laws" of nature that you study, AND the laws of time.  He lives outside of what you know, and can study.  All of these things he created, all of these things are his "GRAND" design.  

Stephen Hawking

Genesis 1

Genesis1

There has always been a lot of controversy about "How long did it take God to make the world"?

1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 The earth was unformed and void, darkness was on the face of the deep, and the Spirit of God hovered over the surface of the water. 

3 Then God said, "Let there be light"; and there was light. 4 God saw that the light was good, and God divided the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. So there was evening, and there was morning, one day. 

Let's look at the first two verses...

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.  When?  In the beginning.  Is this the first day? Maybe, maybe not.  How long did it take God to create the heavens and the earth?  Wow, now that's a good question.  Do you think he could do it one day.  I personally think, yes he could do it in one day.  He's God, he can do all things whenever he wants too.  Can he make a rock that is billions of years old?  I would have to say yes, because God exists outside of time, and he's got the power to make whatever he decides too.  

Let's look at verse 3-5 a little closer.  Verse 3 starts with "Then"... so to me, he did something, THEN he did something else.  In the case of verse 3, THEN he made light, which divided from the darkness, this he did in one day.  So if he created light on day one, then when did he created the heaven and the earth?

Creating the heavens and the earth, is not included in the one day, because they were created sometime before the first day, in the beginning.