Fear and Love

By Clif Dennis

I recently read an excerpt from a book which remained on the N.Y. Times best­seller list for more than forty weeks, in­cluding five weeks at #1. Embraced By The Light, by Betty Eadie is nothing more than a sensational account of her allegedly dying during surgery, spending five hours in heaven with Jesus, Who revealed the secrets of heaven to her. Eadie says that while she was in heaven with Jesus, He "never wanted to do or say anything that would offend me." She effectively brought Jesus down to the level of a happy tour guide. According to her, He explained all the mysteries of the ages to her. He explained all the things she had always wondered about with absolute clarity and now it "all makes sense to her." She wanted to remain in heaven, but Jesus insisted she must return to her former mor­tal state to reveal this new found knowledge to mankind.

Jesus never mentioned to her the idea of judgment and the Biblical fact that the con­sequences of sin are eternal punishment in hell. To her God is nothing but love and His great love for mankind would never allow Him to show His wrath.

Her blasphemous rantings discount the fact that Jesus revealed all truth to His apostles two thousand years ago, (John 16:13-15) and that what she supposedly learned while strolling the heavens with Jesus, was a bunch of hocus-pocus, none of which can be found in the revealed word of God.

Many thousands have bought into this nonsense while she pads her bank account with their ignorance. This ignorance has al­ways afflicted people who are gullible enough to seek after the sensational. God said through the prophet Hosea, "My people are destroyed for a lack of knowl­edge." (Hosea 4:6) The apostle Peter de­clared that "His divine power has given to us all things which pertain to life and godli­ness." (2 Peter 1:3) If we already have all we need to gain life and be godly, WHY would anyone become involved with a false teacher such as this, whose Bible knowledge can at best, be described as highly ques­tionable? Jesus answers this in John 15:22, He says we are without excuse. Paul says it again in Romans 1:20, we are without ex­cuse. Ignorance will not suffice in the judg­ment.

It never ceases to amaze me that people will not accept plain Bible truth, and will get irate with you while trying to present them the truth, but will fall for any false teaching that comes down the pike and latch onto it as if it was falling from the lips of Jesus. I know people personally who, because of a lack of Bible knowledge, do this. The great apostle Paul experienced this in his preach­ing to the Galatians. "Have I therefore be­come your enemy because I tell you the truth?" (Galatians 4:20) & (The Reminder, Vol. 5, No. 24)

Help in Time of Need

A young boy was doing his best to lift a rock that was too large for some­one his size. He grunted and puffed as he tried various methods for lifting the rock. But, in spite of all his efforts, the rock wouldn't budge. His father walked by and, after watching his son's struggle, asked if he was having trou­ble. The boy answered, "Yes, I've tried eve­rything, and it won't move." The father re­plied. "Are you sure you have tried every possibility - that you have used every re­source at your disposal?" The boy looked up with frustration and exhaus­tion and grunted out, "Yes!" With kindness, the father bent over and softly said, "No, my son, you haven't. You haven't asked for my help."

We are often like the little boy, struggling with our problems but unable to solve them - because we have not asked our heavenly Father's help. The effective, fervent prayer of a right­eous man avails much." (James 5:16). "The prayer of the upright is His de­light." (Proverbs 15:8). "For the eyes of the LORD are on the righteous, and His ears open to their prayers." (1 Peter 3:12). From Illustrations for Biblical Preaching (The Reminder, Vol. 5, No. 25) &

Can You Prove Anything from the Bible?

By Clif Dennis

Some say that you can prove anything from the Bible. Not so! A false prem­ise cannot, within the proper biblical context, be proven true. Only closed minds not open to Bible truth, will try to prove a false position by the Bible, but they come up short every time. See 2 Thess. 2:11. Truth will never prove a lie to be true. & (The Reminder, Vol. 5, No. 26)

What Is Faith? (Part One)

By Bob Myhan

Because there is so much confusion and disagreement in the religious world on the subject of faith, there is a need, from time to time, for a consid­eration of the various uses of the word in the Bible, and the nature of what we might call “saving faith.”

Faith differs from knowledge and opinion. Knowledge is based on the evi­dence of the senses; faith rests on the evidence and tes­timony of others. Opinions are formed with­out regard for evidence suf­ficient for either faith or knowledge. For ex­ample, a juror does not know whether or not the defendant is guilty (though he may have an opinion) but he comes to believe that the de­fendant is guilty—or not—by honestly weighing the testimony of the vari­ous wit­nesses, and the other evidence pre­sented by the prosecu­tion and the defense.

Look up almost any English word in a dic­tionary and you will find that it does not al­ways mean exactly the same thing every time it is used. This was also true of the Koine [common] Greek language, in which the New Testament was originally written. In fact, this writer ventures to say, that, in every language, there are a variety of appli­cations of nearly every word, but a basic idea common to every application. The fail­ure to recognize this fact has led many to misunderstand much of what is said about faith in the New Testament.

Common to every application of the word, “faith,” is the basic idea of the acceptance of testimony. For example, the reader does not really know the identity of his bio­logical parents. Unless told otherwise, he long ago ac­cepted the testimony of a certain couple that he was born to them, but there is no way that he could “know” the truth of the claim. Many individuals have discovered as adults that they were adopted, and have sought out their bio­logical parents. Also, many couples have gone home from the hospital believing (and having every reason to believe) the baby they took home was their own, only to find out later there was a mix-up.

When Jacob accepted the implied testi­mony of his sons that Joseph was dead [implied by the contrived evidence that they presented to him] he “rent his clothes, put sackcloth upon his loins, and mourned for his son many days” (Gen. 37:31-34). His reaction was exactly the same as it would have been had he known Joseph was dead. He be­lieved so strongly that Joseph had been killed that he initially refused to believe—years later—that Joseph was still alive (Gen. 45:25-26).

The only way one can “know” anything is through the exercise of the physical senses: sight, smell, taste, touch and hearing. One cannot know what a rose smells like except by smelling it, or what a pudding tastes like except by tasting it. Likewise, Jacob could only know Joseph was dead by seeing his lifeless body. But all he saw was the bloody coat that he had given him. And, assuming the blood to be that of his favorite son, he erroneously believed Joseph was dead. But believing it did not make it true. &