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by Bill Seng

The breakdown of family is the breakdown of civilization. The family is the most basic unit of government and the structure given to us by God through which we can learn to build relationships with other people. Ultimately, family remains family no matter what. Even when a family disowns someone, that person will never be separated from the lasting bond that God has built into the family structure. In a positive sense, I would typically use the relationship between Jacob and Esau to describe this aspect of family. But today we speak of the tragedy that occurs when we defy God’s rules for building and maintaining a family, through the example of the Midianites.

So many people, Christians and Christian sects included, have debated about the legality of polygamy inside of the law of God. I will start off by saying that there are commands that make it clear that polygamy is not the ideal for God-honoring relationships. Having said that, Abraham, after his wife Sarah died, became a polygamist. He had children by multiple women and these offspring would further populate the Middle East.

How can Christians make the case that polygamy is wrong when the one who is arguably the founder of the faith was, indeed, a polygamist? For the longest time a particular sect of Christianity claimed that polygamy was practically a pathway to deification because of its ability to allow for the cultivation of families, the size of which would be impossible to attain had it not been for the allowance of polygamy. Those who try to justify polygamy can be easily discredited once it is pointed out what the consequences of polygamy are.

The Midianites are the people who descended from Midian, the son of Keturah, the second wife to Abraham after Sarah died. This information can be found in Genesis 25, which lists his descendants through Keturah but also makes mention that Abraham had concubines who had borne him children. In verses 5 and 6 it mentions that all that he had went to Isaac, but he gifted his other children throughout his life and eventually sent them away (Genesis 25:5-6). Observe closely the families in the Bible that were begotten through polygamous relationships. Their futures don’t end well.

The Midianites became wicked and idolatrous. As with the other groups we have discussed, they became a thorn in Israel’s side. They oppressed the nation of Israel for a long time until they met the sword of Gideon and his 300 fighting men. The Lord made it known through this small dispatch that it was his judgment that was falling upon the people of that region, namely the Midianites (Judges 7:24-25).

There is a reason why God created one man married to one woman to fill the earth and build a great family. It is only inside of that context that both parents can properly tend to the needs of all of their children and raise them up with the knowledge and love of the Lord. Yes, Abraham became a polygamous man and, yes, God did permit this for that time. It, however, was not ideal and resulted in tragedy as his later children would be crushed by his children of promise.

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by Katie Erickson

This week we’re continuing taking a look at different people groups who are talked about in the Bible, other than the people of Israel. Today we’re looking at the Midianites.

The Midianites are the descendants of Midian, who was the fourth son of Abraham by his lesser-known wife, Keturah (Genesis 25:1-2). The Midianites were an Arabian tribe who lived primarily in the northern deserts of Arabia. They were so dominant that they essentially ruled the Arabian peninsula, even though their primary way of life was as shepherds. They were nomadic and did not settle in one particular location.

We first hear about the Midianites as a nation in Genesis 37:28, when Joseph was sold into slavery by his brothers to a Midianite caravan. The MIdianites then sold Joseph to Potiphar in Egypt in Genesis 37:36. The next Biblical mention of them is generations later when Moses fled Egypt to Midian (Exodus 2:15-21).

Because of this, the Midianites were generally friendly to the people of Israel right after their exodus from Egypt, as long as the Israelites stayed on the outlying part of the Midianites’ lands. But when Israel started to get too far into the Midian lands, the Midianites joined forces with the Moabites to try and get rid of them before they took over. They convinced the Israelites to join in a festival to worship a pagan god, and Israel did. Naturally, God was not happy about this, so the Israelites were cursed. This resulted in a plague on Israel, where more than 24,000 of the people died. (You can read the full story in Numbers 22-25.) But the Midianites did not go unpunished for this; their cities were conquered and burned, and 5 of their kings died (Joshua 13:21-22).

But that was not the end of the Midianites. Around 250 years later they had regained their strength as a nation, and they joined with the Amalekites to wage war against Israel. But God raised up Gideon to fight them (Judges 6-7), and that was the end of the Midianites for good.

As you can see, God used the people of Midian in various ways in relation to His chosen people of the Israelites. They are both friend and foe at various times, and always used to further God’s plan for His people and for the world. How is God using the people around you in your life, even those who are different than you? Are you allowing God to use you to further His Kingdom in the lives of those around you?

[Note: Much of this material was taken from the Easton Dictionary of the Bible.]

This forum is meant to foster discussion and allow for differing viewpoints to be explored with equal and respectful consideration.  All comments are moderated and any foul language or threatening/abusive comments will not be approved.  Users who engage in threatening or abusive comments which are physically harmful in nature will be reported to the authorities.

by Charlie Wolcott

Which battles are worth fighting? Which ones need to be avoided? Many of us growing up have been told we need to pick and choose our battles wisely. Which points of belief are held so strongly that you would fight to the death to retain? Which points of belief require such conviction that you will not budge from them no matter what it costs you?

Many people will not agree with what I have to share here and for various reasons. Many might agree in ideal, but are not willing to take action regarding it. As Christians, we are called to go to a hill and to fight for the Kingdom and the Glory of God. Our battles are not fought with physical weapons but with spiritual weapons, and our foes are not physical foes but spiritual foes, ideas, and authorities. Some of you reading this are warriors for Christ; some of you do not ally yourself with Christ. But we are all on this battlefield. The question is who are we fighting for, who are we fighting against, and what are we fighting for.

The last 2 ½ years, I have studied the Biblical worldview with extreme detail, and God has been raising me to be a defender of the faith. There are things where I need to stand my ground and not budge from my position. There are hills I need to have the courage to die on so that hill can be retained for the glory of God. What are these hills?

The first one that I fight for primarily is for the authority of Scripture. God put Scripture in the highest place of authority, even above his name according to Psalm 138:2. To have a proper understanding of the world around us, scientifically, historically, morally, socially, etc., we need to see it the way God sees it, and the way God sees it is revealed in Scripture.

When I come across someone who claims to be a Christian, I look to see if the Bible is their source of authority. Many times, it isn’t. The origins “debate” has been the focal point of my studies, and it is a critical point to understand because that is the framework and foundation for everything else in the Bible. I believe in a natural, plain reading of Genesis is the proper way to read it, which is how the young earth creationists read it. But many others do not read Genesis that way. Is that a battle worth fighting? Is that a hill worth dying on? 6 days or millions of years?

Before I give my answer, let me expound for a minute. I have heard numerous people who hold to an old earth position, regardless of the variation of it they have, tell me that “origins does not matter. Only the cross matters. It is only young earth creationists that make an issue of Genesis.” Is that really so? The other day I heard a theistic evolutionist claim this, but what do I see him do? Every time a young earth creationist say something regarding Genesis, he gets in there and says, “There are other ways to look at it.” Is that a secondary issue to him? Absolutely not. It is primary for him, because he keeps making an issue of keeping confusion in the discussion. This is for anyone. If origins did not matter to these people, they would not have issues with one position being presented. Instead, however, they have major issues with that one side being presented. Why? Because their position is shown to be wrong. And here is where it boils down to: is the Bible their primary source of authority or not? It does not take me long to figure out which position they hold: above Scripture, equal to Scripture, or below Scripture.

Is the origins issue a hill worth dying on? It depends on the situation. I have dealt with old earth creationists where I can agree to disagree on that point, because while I believe they are wrong on the origins issue, they overall hold the Bible in the proper authority where it belongs. They are just wrong on that one point. It is the ones where I see the authority and integrity of Scripture being challenged is when I will fight. Why? Because those who are using that position are fighting against me and the God whom I serve. I may be little more than a dog in God’s Kingdom, but when my master is being threatened, I growl and I will bark.

There is something else we must also be watchful for: the Mt. McGuffin. A McGuffin is a literary device in a story where a person or object is put into the story but has absolutely no point or purpose to the story or the character’s arc other than to bring the characters together. An example of this is in Mission Impossible (the first one). The NOC List actually had nothing to do with the plot, but was just a tool/device to bring all the characters together.

In a spiritual sense, Mt. McGuffin is a battlefield that draws us together but has nothing to do with the overall vision of our Commander-in-Chief. We must be watchful of these hills. Our spiritual enemy, Satan, will strive to get us over to that hill and engage him there. However, this battlefield does nothing to help us achieve God’s will in our lives, nor does losing it mean anything to the enemy. Satan will readily use up his resources if he can get us to fight a meaningless battle, taking us out from the position we need to stand on, and getting us to fight for a hill that actually does not help us.

Many church battles are lost because of Mt. McGuffins. Eric Ludy has a spectacular sermon called “Christophany” where he deals with seven such issues: Creation, End Times, Theology, Method of Salvation, the Sabbath, Behavior, and even Gifts of the Spirit. Many Christians have fought and “died” on these hills and all it did was create in-fighting and distractions. Where these battles need to be fought are in context of Christ being glorified and the center of the attention. When I fight for Creation, I need to fight because the authority of God’s Word is being threatened and Christ is being attacked as a result. But if I do not direct the battle from Creation to Christ, I can often miss the point of fighting it.

Upon which hills are you so strongly convinced that you will fight and die, if necessary, for that point? Are we fighting for God or are we fighting just to prove ourselves right? Are we picking and choosing our battles wisely? Where God is the central focus? Are we fighting the spiritual powers that are causing the deception, or the people blinded to the forces of darkness and of this world? Or are we even fighting at all? Know when to fight, know when not to fight, but know we are in a battle one way or the other. Which side are you on? And why are you on that side?

This forum is meant to foster discussion and allow for differing viewpoints to be explored with equal and respectful consideration.  All comments are moderated and any foul language or threatening/abusive comments will not be approved.  Users who engage in threatening or abusive comments which are physically harmful in nature will be reported to the authorities.

by Bill Seng

“As the sun was setting, Abram fell into a deep sleep, and a thick and dreadful darkness came over him. Then the Lord said to him, ‘Know for certain that for four hundred years your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own and that they will be enslaved and mistreated there. But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves, and afterward they will come out with great possessions. You, however, will go to your ancestors in peace and be buried at a good old age. In the fourth generation your descendants will come back here, for the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure.’” ~Genesis 15:12-16

We should be encouraged to know that all things work for good for those who love God (Romans 8:28). But things don’t always look the way we would like them to be. In these situations it is very easy to think that God has forgotten you. What is more, when wicked people seem to be prospering while you struggle in all things, it’s hard to believe that God has remembered you. The reign of the Amorites may have been such a case in the days of Abram.

The father of the Amorites was Canaan, the one who was cursed by Noah. Although the people who descended from Canaan seemed to be prosperous and powerful, they were all wicked and idolatrous. In the book of Genesis, Abram (later to be renamed Abraham), lived in the same region where the Amorites dwelt. No doubt, Abram was surrounded by all sorts of evil. Abram fell asleep while God was confirming his promise to him and it was while he was sleeping that God revealed the future. Apparently, the sins of the Amorites were linked in some way to Israel’s departure to Egypt and their return to the Promised Land.

It is never quite explained what the sin of the Amorites was. More than likely it was probably along the lines of the sin of Sodom and Gomorrah. Many people would say that homosexuality was the sin of Sodom and Gomorrah, but their sin ran far deeper than that. Romans 1:24-27 reveals that the sins that we know as sodomy and bestiality (the latter of which was not mentioned of the Sodomites) are an indication that a culture has not only defied the natural order of things, but God’s righteous decree. This means that the sins of a nation are more than just condoning of one wicked act, but a multitude.

In the United States, we tend to think that, say, abortion will be the sin by which we are condemned. The reality is that abortion is a symptom of the wickedness of our country. In reality, the greatest sin America has committed is the rejection of the Word of God. Without a foundation in God’s Word, all other sins will inevitably follow. Today, many of us feel like maybe Abram did back in the days before God fulfilled his promise to him. Perhaps we will also have the opportunity to rejoice over the conquering of sin through God’s Holy Spirit and a nationwide revival. There is no telling what God has in store for us.

Nonetheless, God revealed that it would be 400 years until the sin of the Amorites would reach its peak! At the same time, the Israelites would be suffering in Egypt. Talk about discouragement!

Throughout the book of Judges, it is important to know who the Amorites are. For a good portion of the book they appear as a major enemy of the Israelites. Even after 400 years of the Amorites reigning in wickedness, the Israelites would still have to battle them in order to take their land. Ultimately, God would give them victory after Israel repented from her sins.

This forum is meant to foster discussion and allow for differing viewpoints to be explored with equal and respectful consideration.  All comments are moderated and any foul language or threatening/abusive comments will not be approved.  Users who engage in threatening or abusive comments which are physically harmful in nature will be reported to the authorities.

by Katie Erickson

We’re in week three of our series on looking at other nations referred to in the Bible, and this week we’re looking at the Amorites. You can read about the Canaanites here, and the Amalekites here.

The Amorites were the descendants of one of the sons of Canaan (Genesis 10:15-18). We see them first mentioned in context in Genesis 14:7 where they were conquered, but not destroyed. In Genesis 14:13, we note that Abram (later known as Abraham) was an ally with Mamre, an Ammonite. Abram helped Mamre get his kingdom back, but later on the Amorites became enemies of Israel.

In Joshua 10:5-10 we read that the 5 kings of the Amorites were defeated by Joshua, and they were again defeated in Joshua 11 “until no survivors were left” (verse 8).

We read a little more about the Amorites in Judges 1:34-36. There we learn that they had trapped the weaker Israeli tribe of Dan, but then the tribes of Joseph (Ephraim and Manasseh) were able to overpower them. In the time of Solomon in 1 Kings 9:20-21, we see that the Amorites were still around, and they were made to be slave labor to the Israelites.

So wait - the Amorites were all destroyed in Joshua 11, but then we’re still hearing about them in Judges and 1 Kings, which came later chronologically? What’s the deal with that? Well, the name Amorite is often used synonymously with the name Canaanite, and the Canaanites were a nation for a lot longer than these first Amorites we read about. It’s like saying I’m an Ohioan and an American; both are correct, but one is a little more specific. There were lots of Canaanites, and the Amorites were one specific group of them, and somewhere in history the two names got mingled together and mixed up until they essentially meant the same people.

The Amorites occupied the land of Syria, including Palestine. They were warlike mountaineers. The Egyptians represented them in their hieroglyphics as people with fair skin, light hair, blue eyes, and pointed beards. The Amorites controlled the land of Babylon from 2000-1595 B.C. The most famous Amorite (who you still may not have heard of) was Hammurabi. Hammurabi wrote a code of laws, which was his version of how people should live. Hammurabi’s code is sometimes compared with the Ten Commandments, since they are similar in nature of being ancient rules for living; however, the Ten Commandments were given by God, and Hammurabi was a regular man, though an important one in his day.

The Amorites are one example of how names can get confused over the course of history. Archaeologists and historians do their best to piece together who’s who and what happened in history, and the Bible is a valuable resource in tracking some of these ancient nations.

[Note: Much of this material was taken from the Easton Dictionary of the Bible and the Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary.]

This forum is meant to foster discussion and allow for differing viewpoints to be explored with equal and respectful consideration.  All comments are moderated and any foul language or threatening/abusive comments will not be approved.  Users who engage in threatening or abusive comments which are physically harmful in nature will be reported to the authorities.

by Ami Samuels

Most of us have enjoyed trips to the amusement park. There is always a “King of all Kings” rollercoaster with long winding lines we wait in to experience the thrill of the ride. In our group of friends, we always have people who are willing to stand in line and experience the ride and some that sit on the park bench holding everyone else’s stuff. Even if you fall into the riding the rollercoaster crowd you still may be apprehensive, thinking things like:
“I hope the seatbelt holds.”
“I wonder where my will is?”
“I wish I hadn’t eaten that funnel cake.”

However, the people in this group still enjoy the ride, in spite of their fears. And after the short ride is over they are ready to go again.

Let’s consider the park goers who choose to stay safely seated on the park bench. Their thoughts might be more along these lines:
“What if the seatbelt breaks?”
“What if the car goes off of the track?”
“What if I fall to my death?”

These people are paralyzed by the “what ifs.” They are so afraid of what could happen that they never leave the park bench.

We were born to LIVE!!

This is just an analogy, but the “what ifs” and fear can paralyze us from living the life God intends for us to live. Taking steps out of our comfort zone is never easy, but when taken with Jesus as our pilot, it is so worth the ride.

If you find yourself feeling like you are merely living day to day, just surviving, I would like to encourage you to try something new. If God is leading you to a new ministry or area of service, and the “what ifs” or fear are the only things standing in your way, take that step of faith and trust Jesus with the process.

Don’t let life slip by as you sit safely on the sidelines. Face your fears and enjoy the ride.

This forum is meant to foster discussion and allow for differing viewpoints to be explored with equal and respectful consideration.  All comments are moderated and any foul language or threatening/abusive comments will not be approved.  Users who engage in threatening or abusive comments which are physically harmful in nature will be reported to the authorities.

by Charlie Wolcott

People who have missions experience or are interested in the lives of missionaries may have read Peace Child by Don Richardson. He wrote another book in 1983 that I just finished reading: Eternity in Their Hearts. This book is as old as I am and typically only the generation before me knows about it. This is very unfortunate, because what I saw in this book is very important for anyone who is trying to defend their faith in Christ.

Don Richardson wrote Eternity in Their Hearts with a mission perspective. He wrote the book to show how the world is already prepared for the Gospel and how the Gospel was prepared to go out into the world. But when I read it, while I understand the mission-driven point of view, I saw the worldview side of it. This post is a review of this book and I am going to say this is a MUST have for any Christian apologist.

The topic: Eternity in Their Hearts covers the stories and legends of 25 different tribes and people groups around the world from the Greeks, to the Canaanites, to the Inca, to tribes in India, China, Korea, Burma and more. Each of these tribes have things woven deep into their culture that strike an incredible resemblance to the Bible’s teachings, particularly Genesis 1-11. What kind of things?

Richardson’s first chapter covers different tribes, many of whom were polytheistic, who had a concept and idea of an ultimate supreme being who was above any of the other gods the people worshipped. The first story Richardson addresses is about Epimenides, a “prophet” who was aware of an unknown god without a name the Greeks had not appeased. He proposed a sacrifice of a “clean” animal quite similar to how the Jews did it, and offered it to the nameless god. This is the account Paul used in Acts 17 when addressing Mars Hill. He knew of the story and revealed the name of this unknown God to the Greeks.

Pachacuti was the king of the Inca shortly before the Spanish Conquistadors arrived. To the Inca, the sun god was the chief of the gods. However, Pachacuti realized that the sun could be covered by a mere cloud and was only visible half the time. He discovered there was a single omnipotent God who was above and beyond all the others. Unfortunately the Incas had no one who brought the Gospel to them before the Conquistadors wiped them out.

My favorite account in the book was of the Santal of India. When missionaries Lars Skresfrud and Hans Borreson arrived, they heard of the stories of their history. The Santal has an account of Thakur Jiu, the Supreme God, interacting with an “Adam and Eve” who listened to “Lita” by making rice beer, getting drunk, and waking up realizing they were naked. Then the people then the people had to flee to Mount Harata to escape a flood. Those people settled in a plain, Sasan Beda, before Thakur Jiu scattered them. If you are remotely familiar with Genesis 1-11, this is quite spot on. The Santal tried to cross the mountains (likely Himilayan) and began to serve other gods to pass through and knowledge of Thakur Jiu was lost to legend but always stuck around.

I would go on and on, but one thing Richardson kept pointing out was how all these tribes had within their culture the things that pointed to God. These peoples were lost, but many of them longed for and sought the answer that was promised. Some were known to be waiting for “the book from God.” Others had very strange cultural practices that just so happened to be similar to those of the Hebrews. The Asmat of Netherlands New Guinea had a “scapegoat” tradition AND a “re-birthing” tradition. There was no need to try to explain what being born again meant to the Asmat because they already knew it. Richardson makes explicitly clear that all these legends and traditions were not “gospel truth,” but mere pictures of what God had in store for them, shadows of what Christ was to do. It is actually little different than what the Hebrews had. They had numerous pictures of what Christ was to do, while the picture itself was not the fulfilling promise. The difference between the general revelations of the different tribes and the special revelation of the Hebrews was that God had a direct hand in giving the Word to the Hebrews and validated it in numerous way that I do not have the space to get into here.

Richardson then also shows how through the entire Bible, God shows that the intention of giving the Hebrews his Word and his standards was not to make them “special” but so they could be the instruments to take it to the whole world. And through most of the Bible, we see a heavy reluctance in doing that.

Missions is Richardson’s driving point in this book. His goal and purpose was to encourage people to get out of their comfort zones and fulfill the “bottom line” of the original promise to Abraham (to bless all nations). However, what I see in this book is how the Biblical Worldview shows to be true. If the accounts of Genesis 1-11 are true, we should expect to see the different people’s tribes to have stories of the global events of Creation, Sin, the Flood, and the Tower of Babel dispersion. And we do. Richardson actually takes a whole chapter to address how the worldview issue has been attacked.

He addresses Edward Tylor who used Darwinian thinking (and the predecessor theories) to suggest a complete different history than what is actually there. Tylor suggests that monotheism came from polytheism which was just an invention to explain the soul and emotion. This theory also suggests that all peoples are “running a race” and the most advanced people group (Europeans at this time) had the right to dictate the standards for everyone else. Instead reality shows each people group is running a “different race.” Tylor theory was complete debunked but it has numerous “children” which are rampant today. The modern history textbooks, Evolution, and general secular humanism are all fruits of what Tylor compiled together and all of it has a specific purpose - the blind the eyes of the next generation from the actual history - which all points to Genesis 1-11.

Eternity in Their Hearts rang a lot of bells with me. With each section that lightbulb of awe lit up. I now know how to address how these people groups could be saved without hearing the Gospel: by looking forward to the coming of the Message, the same way the Jews before Christ were saved. This book is one I strongly recommend. Richardson is well-read and well-researched, and what he reveals matches precisely what we should expect if we take the Bible as truth. If it is not in your library, add it.

This forum is meant to foster discussion and allow for differing viewpoints to be explored with equal and respectful consideration.  All comments are moderated and any foul language or threatening/abusive comments will not be approved.  Users who engage in threatening or abusive comments which are physically harmful in nature will be reported to the authorities.