If you haven’t heard…Codex Sinaiticus will be posted online for all to see and study….wow!
Here is a snippet of the press release….
BERLIN – More than 1,600 years after it was written in Greek, one of the oldest copies of the Bible will become globally accessible online for the first time this week.
read the rest here:
This is just a very short snippet of a sermon that is available at www.lanechaplin.com. It’s Paul Washer’s sermon entitled “Not Ashamed of the Gospel.”
Enjoy
doneThis is a video from James White in which he asks the question: How would YOU answer Atheist Christopher Hitchens’ statement about man’s history and God’s plan?
I say it often and I’ll say it again, theology matters. Solid theology. Not a theology centered on man, but a theology centered squarely on God, His attributes, His plans, His glory.
Here is the video
I was worshiping in church today and since we sing a mixture of modern Christian tunes and traditional hymns, I had a chance to do a “lyric comparison” between the old and the new…what I found was interesting, but probably not surprising…
Among what we sang were these two tunes: “I am a friend of God”, and “Holy Holy Holy.” I’d like to compare the two sets of lyrics and illustrate something.
Here are the lyrics from “I am a Friend of God”
Who am I that You are mindful of me
That You hear me when I call
Is it true that You are thinking of me
How You love me it’s amazing
(Chorus)
I am a friend of God
I am a friend of God
I am a friend of God
He calls me friend
God Almighty, Lord of Glory
You have called me friend
(Repeat Chorus)
He calls me friend
He calls me friend…
and here is the lyrics to “Holy Holy Holy”
Right away I notice a few things:
The older hymn is “God centered” in its lyric. It’s all about God-adoration.
Secondly; I notice that there is a lot of good theology packed in this hymn:
God’s attributes;
holiness,
mercy,
might.
A partial description of the Trinity; “God in 3 persons,”
The fact that there is none like God,
that He’s eternal.
His power,
His love,
His purity.
Sin
Cherubim, Seraphim
As for the modern tune?
It sounds like a love song to the person who wrote it. It’s almost embarrassing to sing. It’s centered on ME.
And I can’t help getting almost physically Ill at the line “Is it true that You are thinking of me?” as if God is sitting up there just making goo-goo eyes at me and getting all gooey over the idea that He loves me soooooo much and how fortunate God is to have ME for a friend!
Yes, I realize that there are a couple of times in scripture where people are referred to as “Friends of God” but it’s just the general tone, and feel of the song that’s creepy.
These aren’t the only tunes that I’ve noticed this happening on, a lot of modern worship tunes basically worship the worshiper!
I’m not downing anything new, I’m just pointing out the trend that I notice of the “God is my boyfriend” type of subject matter that’s prevalent these days.
Your thoughts?
Recently I had a discussion with a Mormon friend of mine; we were talking about the Mormon belief that Jesus Christ, and God the Father are “separate and distinct” gods and that Mormons believe that Jehovah (YHWH) is Jesus’ name and that Elohim is God’s name.
I had forgotten about this discussion until doing my morning reading. I was going through Deuteronomy 32, and I noticed that Lord and God are presented as equivalents within the parallelisms. Parallelisms are common in the OT and are characteristic of Hebrew poetry.
Here is the passage:
My teaching will drop like the rain, my sayings will drip like the dew,
as rain drops upon the grass, and showers upon new growth.
For I will proclaim the name of the Lord; you must acknowledge the greatness of our God.
As for the Rock, his work is perfect, for all his ways are just.
He is a reliable God who is never unjust, he is fair and upright.
Aside from being a beautiful passage, what do we see? Clearly, Moses is speaking of God here. There is a lot of parallelism going on because this is in song form. The first line and the second line of each couplet are equal and complimentary.
teaching = sayings
drop like the rain = drip like the dew
drops on the grass = showers upon new growth
Proclaim the name of the Lord = Acknowledge the greatness of our God.
His work is perfect = His ways are just.
Never unjust = fair and upright
But what’s notable is that “Lord”, and “God” are aligned in the Hebrew parallel style just as all of the other synonyms. This song is written from Moses’ point of view…he is referencing one God; the God of the burning bush.
Not only that; before our passage, it says that Moses writes the words of this song down and commands them to put it in the Ark of the Covenant. He tells them:
31:26 “Take this scroll of the law and place it beside the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God.
The phrase “Lord your God” in Hebrew is:
“YHWH attem Elohim,” clearly speaking of one entity. Just as in the preceding song of Moses; Lord and God are synonymous; one is the proper name of God, the other is the generic term for God, as in “Fred, your teacher.”
If the words YHWH and Elohim are to be understood from the Mormon point of view (that YHWH is the name of Jesus and that Elohim is the name of God the father) then none of this would make any sense, it would become:
31:26 “Take this scroll of the law and place it beside the ark of the covenant of the Jesus Christ your God the Father”
That turns the verse into gibberish.
In fact; a simple search of the words “YHWH” and Elohim” reveals that the reference “Lord God” or “Lord your God” is found 562 times in the Old Testament in the context of referring to God.
So, where does the evidence lead us? To the idea that “YHWH” is Jesus’ name, and that “Elohim” is God’s name and that they are “separate and distinct gods” or that both words refer to the same being?
In other words; does the Mormon belief hold up under scrutiny?
No.
If you are Mormon, do you have any thoughts on what I’ve written here?
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