Let's check out the interior workings of the Bible. I have been doing so many extra-scripture studies because to me it helps to bring the Word alive when I know everything else that was going on at the time!

Jerome (340-420) began his lifestyle of contemplation and rigorous self-denial for religious purposes, as a hermit but found he needed something to occupy his mind. He took up Hebrew and eventually began teaching classes in biblical interpretation. In A. D. 382 he would translate the Old and New Testament from their original languages (Hebrew and Greek) into Latin─what we call the "Vulgate."

The test of canonicity included: (1) the book had to have a history of being used in Christian worship; (2) the book had to be written by an apostle, or associated with an apostle; and (3) the book had to have evidenced power in the lives of believers.

No New Testament. During the entire first century and much of the second century there was no concept of a New Testament canon. Church fathers often quoted from sources that were familiar in tone yet different in the names of the sources. Paul's writings were the most well known and were quoted often, but they were not thought of as scriptural.

The term New Testament was created by Tertullian around the year 200. In an attempt to move the church away from Greek and toward Latin, which has become the preferred language of scholars, Tertullian referred to the writings of the Christian church as Novum Testamentum--a phrase we still employ today. Interestingly Tertullian also coined the term Trinity to refer to the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

A New Testament Canon was not looked upon favorably at first. In fact it was through heretical movements that the New Testament came into being as a legitimate part of the Holy Bible. Marcion was a teacher who broke away from the church in Rome. Around A. D. 150 he rejected the Old Testament and instead chose to accept only ten letters from Paul along with the Gospel of Luke as authoritative Christian Scripture.

The Muratorian Canon is named for its discoverer, L.A. Muratori, who first published it in 1740. A fascinating look into the early church, it reveals that by the year 190, Christians had developed their own New Testament and put it alongside the Jewish Scriptures─the former the fulfillment of the latter. It contains in order: Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts, 1 and 2 Corinthians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, Galatians, 1 and 2 Thessalonians, Romans, Philemon, Titus, 1 and 2 Timothy, the Apocalypse of John (Revelations), the Apocalypse of Peter, and the Wisdom of Solomon.

Some books of Scripture faced challenges. Christians in the West didn't like Hebrews, while those in the East opposed Revelation. Church historian Eusebuis, writing in the fourth century, noted that James, 2 Peter, 2 and 3 John, Jude, and Revelation were the only books "spoken against." Martin Luther would challenge the Book of James in the sixteenth century, calling it "an epistle of straw."

Accepted at last. The Eastern church accepted the New Testament as we know it in A. D. 367 with the 39th Pashal Letter of Athanasius, and the Western church followed suit after Pope Damascus called a synod together in Rome in 382.

The allegorical method of interpretation went to extreme lengths to try to make the Old Testament into a Christian book. Origen, one of the first Christian theologians, believed that "the Scriptures were composed through the Spirit of God and have both a meaning which is obvious and another which is hidden." He then proceeded to create all sorts of allegorical meanings to the Word of God─infuriating his critics, who felt that Origen was crafting theological implications out of thin air.

I hope I didn't cross your eyes too much, but this kind of info is fascinating to me! I'll finish this up in the next lesson!

by Bonnie Calhoun

In our Sunday lesson, I want to delve into the incredible accuracy of the Old Testament. Although the Bible has been relentlessly attacked by unbelieving scholars for more than a century, it still stands as the most accurate and authoritative book ever written.

Evidence from historical inscriptions and manuscripts discovered in the last century prove that the Word of God is inspired. Although we will never be able to verify every miniscule piece of data, the overwhelming evidence will provide any reader with the confidence that we have established the credibility of the greatest book ever written!

For example: Critics denied that Moses could have written his account in the fifteenth century before Christ because they claimed that writing was not yet invented. However, the discovery by archeologists of numerous ancient written inscriptions, including the famous black stele containing the Laws of Hammurabi written before 2000 B.C., have conclusively proven that writing was widespread for many centuries before the time of Moses.

The Greek historian Herodotus discussed the Exodus in his book Polymnia, section c. 89: "This people [the Israelites], by their own account, inhabited the coasts of the Red Sea, but migrated thence to the maritime parts of Syria, all which district, as far as Egypt, is denominated Palestine."

It is an interesting note about Herodotus is that he was a secular historian. In his own history, he wrote, "my business is to record what people say. But I am by no means bound to believe it." We can also note that he was extremely careful and accurate in his recording of historical fact.

Another interesting note is that Strabo, a pagan historian and geographer who was born in 54 B.C., also confirmed the history of the Jews and their escape from Egypt under the leadership of Moses. He wrote, "Among many things believed respecting the temple and inhabitants of Jerusalem, the report most credited is that the Egyptians were the ancestors of the present Jews.

An Egyptian priest named Moses, who possessed a portion of the country called lower Egypt, being dissatisfied with the institutions there, left it and came to Judea with a large body of people who worshipped the Divinity." (Strabo, Geography, lib.xvi.,c.2).

Many critics have also suggested that such a dry desert area as the Sinai could never have supported the huge flocks of sheep of the Israelites as recorded in Exodus. In 1860, W. Holland explored most of the Sinai Peninsula. Despite the present conditions, he found some areas that would still support large herds and that at one time the peninsula itself was formerly thickly wooded. (W. Holland, Recent Explorations in the Peninsula of Sinai, 1869)

by Bonnie Calhoun

Today lesson from the land of the Bible, will literally be a lesson of the land where the Bible originated.

Most rivers in the Bible lands dry up during the rainless summer, but not the Nile. Heavy rains and melting snow feed the tributaries that form the Nile River. The torrent of water reaches Egypt during the late summer and it overflows the banks, leaving a fresh layer of fertile moist soil along its banks.

The Holy Land is so small that a soaring eagle can see almost all it at once on a clear day. From Dan to Beersheba is little more than 150 miles, roughly the same distance as from New York City to Albany. From east to west, the Holy Land is even narrower. At its widest point, a hundred miles lie between the Mediterranean coast and the Arabian Desert on the east. The land in which such great events took place is only a little larger than the state of New Jersey and smaller than Belgium.

The Holy Lands position at the crossroads of three continents makes it a meeting ground for species of plant and animals of different origins. Almost every kind of bird, for example, that inhabits northern Africa, southern Europe, and western Asia has been seen at one time or another in the Bible Lands. The fauna comes from as far away as Central Asia (the horse), equatorial Africa (the crocodile), and western Europe (the stork).

The great variety of deserts, mountains, forests, grasslands, lakes, and seashores provide nearly every possible habitat in which plants and animals can find the exact living conditions they need. About 2,500 species of trees and shrubs and annual and perennial plants grow in the Holy Land; Egypt, although much larger, has only 1,500. About 700 species of mammals, birds, and reptiles are found in the Holy Land.

The contrasts in the landscape are remarkable. Mount Hermon rises to 9,400 feet, and its summit is artic in climate. A little over a hundred miles away, at the Dead Sea, the climate is tropical. In the same glance you can see snow-capped mountains and sun-baked deserts. Alongside cultivated fields are stark deserts that afford scarcely enough pasture for flocks.

The road from Jerusalem to Jericho drops three thousand feet in only fifteen miles, and while fruit is growing on the farms around Jericho, it may be snowing in Jerusalem. The varied animals and plants, the many different landscapes, the abrupt changes in climate─all these realities were observed by the bible's writers. And they put them to use to illustrate spiritual teachings.

The Jordan Valley is part of the Great Rift that extends from Turkey deep into Africa for four thousand miles. The Great Rift is the deepest chasm on the face of the globe. Unlike the Grand Canyon, which was formed by the process of erosion, great swells and cracking of the earth's crust caused huge blocks of land to collapse, leaving deep valleys that were flooded. In the Holy Land this formed the Jordan River, Lake Huleh, the Sea of Galilee, and the Dead Sea.

The shore of the Dead Sea is the lowest place on the land surface of the earth. This sea is also the saltiest body of water in the world, and nine times saltier than the oceans! It is so salty that it is impossible for a human swimmer to sink in it. During the Roman siege of Jerusalem in A.D. 70, a Roman commander sentenced some prisoners to death by having them thrown in from a hill, but they did not drown, Several times they were pulled out and tossed in again, yet each time they bobbed to the surface. The commander was impressed by this seeming miracle, since he did not understand its cause, and he pardoned the prisoners.

Ancient Hebrew had an unlimited supply of salt. They formed brine pits called "salt-pans" along the Dead Sea's flat coastal area. The sun evaporated the water in the pits, leaving behind an abundant supply of mineral salts.

Salt was the chief economic product of the ancient world, and the Hebrews used it in a variety if ways: for flavoring foods, preserving fish, curing meat, and pickling olives and vegetables. Infants were rubbed in salt to insure good health before swaddling. Salt was also believed to have been an antidote for tooth decay. Salt was an ingredient in the sacred anointing oil and ritual sacrifices symbolizing God's perpetual covenant with Israel (Numbers 18:19).

by Bonnie Calhoun

by Bonnie S. Calhoun

Let us continue our study of the Holy Spirit.

One of the most common descriptors for the Holy Spirit is the name "Comforter." This comes from the Greek word paracletos, which literally means "one who comes alongside." The Holy Spirit is God's way of personally coming alongside each believer (see John 15:26)

The Holy Spirit is referred to as our "guide" in several New Testament passages. This reveals the Spirit's job of leading believers into maturity in Christ. As John 16:13 puts it, "The Spirit of truth...will guide you..."

Romans 8:26-27 describes the Holy Spirit as our intercessor. In that role he will reveal the Father's will, pray with us, and connect us to the Father.

The work of the Holy Spirit is evident in creation (see Gen. 1:2, 26), in the inspiration of Scripture (see 2 Tim. 3:16 and 2 Peter 1:21), and in the salvation of humankind (see John 7:38-39).

The Holy Spirit was active in the Old Testament. He empowered Gideon in Judges 6:34, Samson in Judges 14:6, and David in 1 Samuel 16:13.

"Quenching the Spirit" is referred to in several passages of Scripture, including 1 Thessalonians 5:19, Psalm 51, and 1 Samuel 16:14. Sin, particularly secret sin in the life of a believer, will prevent the Spirit from working in one's life.

The Holy Spirit became manifest in the lives of believers on the day of Pentecost, when he came upon the members of the early church and allowed them to speak in other tongues so that everyone in the crowd heard their own language (see Acts 2).

"And be not drunk with wine... but be filled with the Spirit," Paul wrote in Ephesians 5:18. The "filling of the Spirit" is likened to being drunk, since control of our lives is turned over to something else─in this case, God. Some charismatic and Pentecostal groups believe this is a regular event in the lives of believers, while most other believers see the filling of the Spirit as a one-time event, occurring at the moment of salvation.

One if the activities of the Holy Spirit is to provide believers with spiritual gifts. Romans 12 and 1 Corinthians 12 both describe a number of gifts the Spirit gives to believers, including wiadom, knowledge, faith, healing, miracles, prophecy, tongues, interpretation, serving, teaching, discerning, and encouraging. While each believer has been given at least one spiritual gift, no one has a right to ask for a particular gift. These gifts blend together in a church to bring unity to the body of Christ.

The Holy Spirit also produces "fruit" in the lives of believers. Galatians 5:22-23 details some of the fruit that is produced: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

"Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit" is sometimes referred to as "the unpardonable sin." According to Matthew 12:22-32, Mark 3:22-30, and Luke 12:10, blasphemy against the Holy Spirit refers to examining the clear, supernatural work of God and ascribing it to satan.

The Spirit was active all along from the beginning of time, hovering over the waters at creation and inspiring God's messengers throughout the Old Testament history─378 passages in the Hebrew Bible mention the Spirit!

by Bonnie Calhoun

Today, I felt led to study the Holy Spirit.

This study is called "pneumatology," which comes from the Greek words pneuma (meaning "spirit") and logos (meaning "doctrine").

The Hebrew word that is commonly translated "Spirit" literally means "wind" or "breath." Thus the "Spirit of God" is literally the invisible, active presence of God. You can hear the wind and see its result as it moves the branches of a tree, but you cannot see the wind itself. Similarly the actions of the Holy Spirit are evident in the lives of believers, even though we cannot see him directly.

The Spirit is a person. Before ut can be decided that the Holy Spirit is God, it must first be established that he is a person, not mere influence or divine power. And he truly is. Though the Greek term for spirit is neuter, Jesus in John 14:26 and 16:13-14 used the masculine pronoun "he" when speaking of the Holy Spirit. He also has the three essential elements of personality: intellect (1 Cor. 2:11), sensibilities (Rom. 8:27; 15:30), and will (1Cor. 12:11). He can be tempted (Acts 5:9), lied to (Acts 5:3), grieved (Eph. 4:30), resisted (Acts 7:51), insulted (Heb. 10:29), and blasphemed (Matt. 12:31-32).

The Holy Spirit is recognized as God. He is a divine person as can be shown by his attributes of diety: He is eternal )Heb. 9:14), omniscient (1 Cor. 2:10-11), omnipotent (Luke 1:35), and omnipresent (Ps.139:7-10). Works of Deity are also ascribed to him such as creation, regeneration, inspiration of the Scriptures, and raising of the dead.

Some groups (for example, the Jehovah's Witness) view the Holy Spirit as a "force" or "power", rather than as a person. However, that heresy grew largely from the translators of the King James Bible, who referred to the Spirit as "it."

The Holy Spirit has personality, as revealed by the fact that he has a will (1Cor. 12:11), a mind (Rom 8:27), knowledge (John 14:26), the ability to communicate (Acts 1:16), and emotions (Eph. 4:30). His personality is also demonstrated in the fact that he has a job: to teach, guide, restrain, comfort, and intercede on behalf of believers.

The New Testament reveals that the Spirit can be grieved, quenched, resisted, blasphemed, and insulted.

The Holy Spirit is referred to as "God" in Acts 5:3-4, as "Lord" in 2 Corinthians 3:18, ans as being equal to the Father and the Son in Matthew 28:19.

Scripture reveals the divine attributes of the Holy Spirit, referring to him as eternal (Heb. 9:14), omniscient (John 14:26), omnipotent (Job 26:13), all wise (Isa. 40:13), sovereign (1 Cor. 12:11), and the giver of life (Rom. 8:2).

I will finish this study of the Holy Spirit on Wednesday evening.

by Bonnie Calhoun

While watching a little TV on Sunday instead of going to church, I watched a church in Atlanta honoring one of its senior pastors who had been retired many years. He was 92 at that time and I wondered why the church even bothered to ask the old gentleman to preach at that age.

After a warm and welcoming introduction of this speaker, and as the applause quieted down, he rose from his high back chair and walked slowly, with great effort and a sliding gait to the podium. Without a noteor written paper of any kind he placed both hands on the pulpit to steady himself and then quietly and slowly he began to speak...

"When I was asked to come here today and talk to you, your pastor asked me to tell you what was the greatest lesson ever learned in my 50-odd years of preaching. I thought about it for a few days and boiled it down to just one thing that made the most difference in my life and sustained me through all my trials... The one thing that I could always rely on when tears and heartbreak and pain and fear and sorrow paralyzed me... the only thing that would comfort was this verse...

"Jesus loves me this I know.
For the Bible tells me so.
Little ones to Him belong,
we are weak but He is strong...
Yes, Jesus loves me....
The Bible tells me so."

When he finished, the church was quiet. You actually could hear his foot steps as he shuffled back to his chair. I don't believe I will ever forget it.

A pastor once stated, "I always noticed that it was the adults who chose the children's hymn 'Jesus Loves Me' (for the children of course) during a hymn sing, and it was the adults who sang the loudest because I could see they knew it the best."

"Senior version of Jesus Loves Me" (Below)

Here is a new version just for us who have white hair or no hair at all. For us over middle age (or even those almost there) and all you others, check out this newest version of Jesus Loves Me.


JESUS LOVES ME

Jesus loves me, this I know,
Though my hair is white as snow
Though my sight is growing dim,
Still He bids me trust in Him.
(CHORUS)
YES, JESUS LOVES ME.. YES, JESUS LOVES ME..
YES, JESUS LOVES ME, FOR THE BIBLE TELLS ME SO.

Though my steps are oh, so slow,
With my hand in His I'll go
On through life, let come what may,
He'll be there to lead the way.
(CHORUS)

When the nights are dark and long,
In my heart He puts a song..
Telling me in words so clear,
"Have no fear, for I am near."
(CHORUS)

When my work on earth is done,
And life's victories have been won.
He will take me home above,
Then I'll understand His love.
(CHORUS)

I love Jesus, does He know?
Have I ever told Him so?
Jesus loves to hear me say,
That I love Him every day.
(CHORUS)


If you think this is neat, please pass it on to your friends. If you do not pass it on, nothing bad will happen, but you will have missed an opportunity to "reach out and touch" a friend or a loved one.

God Bless Us All!

by Bonnie S. Calhoun

I'm sorry for the delay but life got in the way!

ROFLOL...now that I have regaled you with my poetic rhyme I will give you the awaited answers. And LOL...only two of you were somewhat close!

The well-known evangelist that committed suicide is Judas in Matthew 27: 1-10

The innocent man tortured and executed while townspeople cheer is Jesus in Luke 23:13-25

The fat man found murdered is the story of Ehud in Judges 3:12-25.

The man who cuts up his raped wife is the Levite in Judges 19:22-30.

The woman savaged by vicious dogs is Jezebel in 2Kings 9:30-37.

And the woman who used the tent peg thru the head to pin the man to to ground is in the Song of Deborah. It's Jael in Judges 5:20-27.

There are a ton more great and interesting stories in the Bible. How many of them do you know?

God bless.

by Bonnie S. Calhoun

How many of these bible stories can you name? I'll give you the answers over the weekend...LOL...or tomorrow if enough people bug me :-)

And there's another one to add to the mix:

42 Youth Mauled by Bear for Taunting Prophet!

by Bonnie S. Calhoun

Prompted by a Facebook comment about the name of Jesus not being valid, I decided to share this teaching I have done on His name in the past.

The Tanakh, which is the Old Testament in Hebrew, was translated into Greek for the Jews of the 2nd and 3rd centuries B.C.E. The translation was called the Septuagint or LXX. Septuagint means “Translation of the Seventy” because it was transcribed by 70 Jewish translators.

You must remember that this was a translation of the Masoretic Text, so even though it works great really for certain types of biblical research, it does not take authority over the original Hebrew. Now that I’ve added that caveat, let’s look at the Hebraic concepts that were translated into Greek.

The Greek equivalent of “Christ” comes from their word “christos,” which is the equivalent of the Hebrew “messiah” (masciach) meaning the “Anointed One.”

In the Septuagint, a short list of finding “christos” (Christ) and “christian” which are the the direct subjects of verbs takes us to these places in the Old Testament.

Leviticus 4:5, 6:15, 21:12
1 Samuel 24:7, 24:11; 26:9, 11, 16, 23
2 Samuel 1:14, 16; 2:5, 19:22, 23:1
2 Chronicles 22:7
Lamentations 4:20
Amos 4:13
Psalm 19:7, 20:6, 88:39

There is also textual evidence that before Jesus came, the Greek-speaking Jews of that day referred to the Maschiach as Christos…ergo “Christ.” During the time of Jesus, when he was considered the Messiah, they referred to him as ho christos “the Christ.”

Now for the name of Jesus. Yeshua originated from Joshua’s Hebrew name, Yehoshua, which when shortened was Yeshua, which when translated to Greek becomes Iesous (Yay-soos). In old English, the “y” sound was rendered as “j”, and so we get “Jesus.”

To argue that Yeshua’s name was incorrectly transliterated is like complaining that the Jews are called “Jews” rather than the exact term “Y’hudi” which was also transliterated from the Greek word Ioudaios and thusly became our English word “Judean.”

ROFLOL…So we should really be calling Judiasm by the name “Yoodiasm.”

The bottom line is that for those of us raised with the Latin alphabet in English speaking countries, our Lord’s name is Jesus Christ…and it’s all good. AMEN.


by Bonnie S. Calhoun

Today we're going to look at the "Son of God" scroll.


This was found in Cave Four known as 4Q246, and it refers to the hope of a future Messiah figure. Amazingly this scroll refers to the Messiah as "the son of God" and the "son of the Most High." These words are the exact words recorded in the Gospel of Luke.

The Text of Scroll 4Q246 – the Son of God Scroll

"He shall be called the son of God,
and they shall designate [call] him son of the Most High.
Like the appearance of comets, so shall be their kingdom.
For brief years they shall reign over the earth and shall trample on all;
one people shall trample on another and
one province on another until the people of God shall rise and all shall rest from the sword."

Compare the words in the scroll to the inspired words found in Luke 1:32 and 35!

Anyone comparing these two first century texts will be startled by the amazing similarity of concept and wording describing the Messianic leader. One of the great differences between Christians and Jewish conceptions of the promised Messiah revolves around His relationship to God.

While the Jews believe the Messiah will be a great man, such as Moses, with a divine mission, the Christians believe that the Bible teaches that the Messiah would be uniquely "the Son of God."

The Jewish view usually held that the concept of a "son of God" violated the primary truth of monotheism found in Deuteronomy 6:4, "Hear, O Israel" The Lord our God is one Lord."

The Christians believed that Jesus' claim to be the Son of God was not a violation of Deuteronomy 6:4. Rather, Christians believe in the Trinity, the doctrine that the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are revealed in the Bible to be One God, revealed in three personalities.

As Christians, we do not believe in three separate Gods. Therefore, Christians understand the statement about Jesus as the Son of God to be in complete conformity to the truth of monotheism─there is only one God.

The presence of these statements in the Dead Sea scrolls suggests that some of the Essenes either accepted the Messianic claims of Jesus to be the Son of God or anticipated this concept. The discovery of the virtually identical wording "the Son of God" from Luke 1:32 and 35 with the scroll found buried in a cave in A.D.68, stands as a tremendous witness to the early existence and transmission of the Gospel record within thirty-five years of Christ.

If the Gospels were written and distributed within thirty-five years of the events of the life of Jesus, then they stand as the best witness historical records we could ever hope to possess.

In fact, all of these ancient historical records confirm the truth of the Gospels

To do personal study on the Dead Sea Scrolls, I recommend these two sites"

Portions of this article came from Grant R. Jeffries "The Signature of God"(but this is a revised edition not the original that we studied)


Scrolls from the Dead Sea


Dead Sea Scrolls

by Bonnie Calhoun

Someone sent this to me today I couldn't resist sharing. It's written by Dan Miller of 48 Days.

"I prayed for twenty years but received no answer until I prayed with my legs."
-- Frederick Douglass

Far too many people who are 'praying' for solutions and answers, and simply living in that prayerful mode - hands folded and eyes closed, waiting on God to supernaturally give them the specific answer that will remove their challenge. So, just how does God answer our prayers?

Imagine any of these situations with me:
You really need a job
You'd like a better car
You want to make peace with your spouse
Your lawn mower is broken
You want to have a best-selling book
You would like to have a college degree
You want to be a more effective parent
You must have $5,000 for a new air conditioning unit

I believe God is the providential supplier of everything we need. But I also believe that his delivery system requires our active participation - 'praying with our legs.' If you need a job identify 30-40 target companies; contact them each three times and God will provide a job. If you want a best-selling book write something of value then be willing to persist through the rejection of 14 publishers as Max Lucado did with his first book (his books have now sold over 30 million copies.) - and watch God open doors. If you want a college degree explore six options for doing so that are possible even while you continue working. Block out 2 hours a day for focused study and see God allow that degree to be yours.

And can I find scripture to support faith and prayer that involve our legs? Oh yeah. My favorite is in Exodus 14:15. Moses is dealing with those whining, complaining children of Israel who see the Egyptians coming after them in the desert. I can just see them on their knees, praying and begging God to solve their problems. And the verse says - 'Then the Lord said to Moses, "Quit praying and get the people moving! Forward, march!" - (Living Bible)

God provides food for the birds - but he doesn't just show up and throw it in their nest. Sometimes the exercise of faith we need most may be to engage our spiritual quadriceps, stretch those hamstrings and use our gluteus maximus for something other than supporting our head while we pray.


by Bonnie S. Calhoun

This week and next week we're going to study the biblical evidence about Jesus, written in the Dead Sea Scrolls.

If someone had asked a minister in 1947 to prove that the original Hebrew Scriptures from the Old Testament were reliably copied without error throughout the last two thousand years, he might have had difficulty proving an answer.

The oldest Old Testament manuscript used by the King James translators was dated approximately A.D. 1100. Obviously, that old manuscript was a copy of a copy of a copy, for over two thousand years.

How could we be sure that the text in the A.D. 1100 copy was identical to the original text? An extraordinary discovery occurred in the turbulent years before Israel became a nation!

A Bedouin Arab found a cave in Qumran near the Dead Sea which ultimately yielded over a thousand priceless manuscripts dating back to A.D.68, when the Roman legions destroyed the Qumran village during the Jewish war against Rome.

When the ancient Hebrew scrolls, discovered by this Arab shepherd boy, were examined by scholars, they found that the Qumran site contained a library with hundreds of precious texts of both biblical and secular manuscripts that dated back before the destruction of the Second Temple and the death of Jesus Christ.

The most important discovery was the immense library of biblical texts in Cave Four. They found every single book of the Old Testament with the exception of the Book of Ester. Multiple copies of several biblical texts such as Genesis, Deuteronomy and Isaiah were found in Cave Four.

Scholars were able to reach back a further two thousand years in time to examine biblical texts that has lain undisturbed in the desert cave during all of the intervening centuries. The scholars discovered that the manuscripts copies of the most authoritative Hebrew text, Textus Recepticus, used by the King James translators in 1611, were virtually identical to these ancient Dead Sea Scrolls.

Aside from a tiny number of spelling variations, not a single word was altered from the original scrolls. How could the Bible have been copied so accurately and faithfully over the many centuries without human error entering into the text?

The answer is found in the overwhelming respect and fear of God that motivated Jewish and Christian scholars whose job was to faithfully copy the text of the Bible. In a later lesson I will show how the Masoretic scribes meticulously copied the text of the Scriptures over the centuries.

In 1991 the world was astonished to hear that one of the unpublished scrolls included incredible references to a "Messiah" who suffered crucifixion for the sins of men. The scroll was translated by Dr. Robert Eisenman, Professor of Middle East Religions of California State University.

This five line scroll contained fascinating information about the death of the Messiah. This exciting discovery reveals that the Essene writer of this scroll understood the dual role of the Messiah as Christians did.

This scroll identified the Messiah as the "Shoot of Jesse" [King David's father] the "Branch of David", and declared that he was the "pierced" and "wounded." The word "pierced reminds us of the Messianic prophecy in Psalm 22:16: "They pierced my hands and feet." The prophet Jeremiah [23:5] said, "I will raise unto David a righteous branch."

We will continue this study next week with the "Son of God" scroll!

by Bonnie Calhoun

My power verse for the week: 2 Corinthians 5:10..."For we must all appear before the judgement seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad."

Yikes! Doesn't that put a stab in your heart! First response is, "But I'm washed in the blood and forgiven." In other words..."I should be forgiven for everything I ever do bad, even when I know I'm doing wrong 'cause I'm cleaned of my sins by Jesus."

ROFLOL...right! And what do you think that God thinks when you willingly sin, but ask for forgiveness after the fact?

Accepting Jesus as our Lord and Savior gives us that reliablity that we are NOT going to be sent to hell for our sins. Because God can not look upon sin. He turns away. But when we accept Jesus, He covers those sins so God doesn't have to turn away.

But the verse clearly tells you that we're going to get a talking to...just thankfully not sent to hell for the transgressions. I like to say in heaven there are many crowns. Some of us are going to get crowns...and some of us are going to get crowned!

The teens in my Sunday School class were discussing this a few weeks ago, as they had never seen this particular verse, and were aghast that their going to get a talking to.

My response: "If you don't want a talking to...live a righteous life."

by Bonnie Calhoun

The celebration of the 12 Days of Christmas has long been heralded in the song by the same name and that song has led to the misnomer that it is celebrated in the 12 days leading up to Christmas. But this is not the case.

Eastern and Western churches both celebrate the Epiphany 12 days AFTER Christmas. But they both celebrate it slightly different to add to your confusion!

The Eastern Churches celebrate the baptism of Christ in the Jordan, calling it the Feast of Theophany, where the emphasis is on the "shining forth" and revelation of Jesus Christ as the Messiah and Second Person of the Trinity as the baptism occured. They celebrate on January 6th.

The Western Churches celebrate the coming of the Magi (traditionally named Caspar, Melchior, and Balthasar) when they sought out the infant Jesus with gifts that carried great prophetic significance. Gold reflected the kingship of Jesus the Messiah. Frankincense was a spice used in the priestly duties. And myrrh was an embalming ointment that signified Jesus' death.

The Western historically observed it as 12-day feast beginning on Christmas Day and ending on January 5th. But the liturgical church (Roman Catholic Church) in 1970 revised their calendar of saints and Epiphany is now celebrated on January 6th.

Urban legend declares that religious symbolism is hidden in the gifts named in the popular 12 Days of Christmas song. That is questionable, but it's interesting to take note of the symbolism that some people have placed on the gifts:

A Partridge in a Pear Tree - Jesus Christ
Two Turtle Doves - The Old and New Testaments
Three French Hens - Faith, Hope and Charity, the theological values
Four Calling Birds - Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, or the Four Gospels
Five Golden Rings – The five books of Moses, the "Pentateuch", which gives the history of man's fall from grace.
Six Geese-a-Laying – The six days of creation before God rested
Seven Swans-a-Swimming – The seven gifts of the Holy Spirit, the seven sacraments
Eight Maids-a-Milking – The eight Beatitudes
Nine Ladies Dancing – The nine fruits of the Holy Spirit
Ten Lords-a-Leaping - Ten Commandments
Eleven Pipers Piping - Eleven faithful disciples
Twelve Drummers Drumming -Twelve points of belief in the Apostles' Creed

Here is a great rendition of the Twelve Days of Christmas. Be blessed!



by Bonnie Calhoun

by Bonnie Calhoun

I though today that I'd like to take a tiny peek at the historical evidence about Jesus.

My concentration will be on Flavius Josephus.

"Now there was about this time Jesus, a wise man if it be lawful to call him a man, for he was a doer of wonderful works, a teacher of such men as receive the truth with pleasure. He drew over to him both many of the Jews, and many of the Gentiles. He was [the] Christ, and when Pilate, at the suggestion of the principal men among us, had condemned him to the cross, them that loved him at the first did not forsake him: for he appeared to them alive again the third day: as the divine prophets had foretold these and ten thousand other wonderful things concerning him. And the tribe of Christians so named from him are not extinct at this day" (Flavius Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, bk. XVIII, chap.III, Section 3).

Flavius Josephus was a Pharisee and priest living in Jerusalem. Born in A.D. 37, following the death of Christ, he witnessed first-hand the events leading up to the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple. He fought as a general of the Jewish rebel forces in Galilee in the war against Rome. Josephus was captured by the Romans at the fall of the city of Jotapata and became friends with the Roman general Vespasian.

As a historian, with access to both Roman and Jewish governmental records, he described the events in Israel during the turbulent decades of the first century. One of the most fascinating passages in his important history concerned the events in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Numerous liberal scholars have declared that this reference to Jesus Christ and other references to James and John the Baptist must be interpolations or forgeries by later Christian editors. Yet none of these so-called scholars can produce a single copy of Josephus' Antiquities that does not contain these passages on Jesus.

In another passage in Josephus' book Antiquities (bk.XX, chap.IX, sect. 1) he described the death of James, the brother of Jesus...

"As therefore Ananus (the High Priest)) was of such a disposition, he thought he had now a good opportunity, as Festus (the Roman Procurator) was now dead, and Albinus (the new Procurator) was still on the road; so he assembled a council of judges, and brought before it the brother of Jesus the so-called Christ, whose name was James, togehter with some others, and having accused them as law-breakers, he delivered them over to be stoned."

Josephus also described the death of John the Baptist as follows: "Now, some of the Jews thought that the destruction of Herod's army came from God, and that very justly, as a punishment of what he did against John, that was called the Baptist; for Herod slew him, who was a good man, and commanded the Jews to exercise virtue, both as to righteousness towards on another, and piety towards God....by hearing his words, Herod, who feared lest the great influence John had over the people....thought it best...to put him to death. (Antiquities of the Jews, bk.XVIII, chap. V, sect. 2)

These historical descriptions by Josephus, together with other sources, provide ample evidence that Jesus of Nazareth lived in the first century of this era!

Sorry...I had pictures but Blogger is being difficult!

Let's do a short study on Angels.

The word angel comes from the Greek word aggelos (pronounced angelos) and means "messenger." In the Bible this is the form used in almost every mention of angels except one─in Luke 20:36 (KJV) where the phrase reads "equal unto the angels," or the Greek word isaggelos, which means "like an angel" or "angelic."

Angels are beings that are created as "intermediate" beings between God and man. They are created beings by God, making them lower, but Psalm 8:5 states that man was made a little lower than the angels.

There are more than three hundred references to angels in the Bible. They play an important role and are seen in some of the most famous Bible stories, including the Christmas story.

An angel is neither a god nor a human. Angels are spirits, as Hebrews 1:14 says:"[they are] ministering spirits sent to serve those who will inherit salvation." As such they come to our aid and offer help where they can to make our lives better. They are spiritual beings that remain invisible.

The first mention of angels in the Bible is where Adam and Eve left the Garden after the fall. They are banished from Eden, and Eden is protected by cherubim, angels that are depicted elsewhere as winged bulls or lions with human heads.

Cherubim are symbolic attendants to places of the Lord's "enthronement" on earth in the Old Testament. They guard the Garden of Eden and the ark of the covenant.

Angels have three important responsibilities: to attend God's holy throne, to protect people, and to serve as messengers carrying special news or tidings. They are worshipful beings that serve God by carrying out His wishes through these three main roles.

Guardian angels are spoken of throughout the Bible. Abraham spoke of God sending His angel before His servant Elias as the steward went to seek out a wife for Abraham's son Isaac. Psalm 91:11-12 also speaks of watchful angels:

For he will command his angels concerning you
To guard you in all your ways;
They will lift you up in their hands,
So that you will not strike your foot against a stone.

As messengers the angels communicate God's will to us. They serve as rescuers (such as when Lot was saved from Sodom); as bearers of great tidings (to Mary concerning the birth of Jesus); to instruct prophets (Daniel was given detailed directions from "the man Gabriel"). Angels are mediators who pass along messages God has for his people.

Jacob's vision depicts the angels as being lined up on an immense ladder that stretches between the earth and the heavens (Gen 28:12-15). God looks down and sees us and watches as the angels bring their messages from Him.

The apostle Paul tells us four of the orders of angels in his letter to the Ephesians: "above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion"(KJV). He also writes to the Colossians concerning angels: "whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers.

Only two personal names for angels are given in the Bible: Michael and Gabriel. Other angels with personal names are given in the Apocrypha, such as Uriel and Jeremiel.

Gabriel makes appearances in both the Old Testament and the New Testament. He interprets Daniel's visions in the Book of Daniel and also announces the births of John and Jesus to their respective parents.

Michael is an archangel and a warrior in the angelic realm. He is the protector of Israel, according to several references in the Book of Daniel and one in the Book of Revelation. The Book of Jude also says that he disputed satan for the body of Moses.

Fallen angels are angels who have rebelled against God and lost their standing in heaven (also in the Book of Jude) They have not been cast into hell, and they are under God's power, but they take orders from satan (Rev. 12:7)

Satan is perhaps the most famous angel of all time. He is a fallen angel, one who was cast out of heaven after rebelling against God. Paul speaks of how satan "masquerades as an agel of light" (2 Cor. 11:14). In reality satan is "the prince of darkness."

A final battle between the good angels and the fallen angels is prophesied in Revelation 12:7-9.

Christians will see angels on the last day. Matthew 24:31 states that God will "send His angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather His elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other." Angels will escort believers into heaven and the holy throne!

by Bonnie Calhoun

by Bonnie Calhoun

Today I want to look at how the Bible actually reads. By the time we are done with these lessons, I will hope to have answered every question someone could make to you about the Bible. There have been some good observations so far! If there are any that I've missed, please let me know and I will try to cover it!

More than three thousand versions of the entire Bible, or portions of it, exist in English.

Chapter and verse divisions in the Bible were not determined by those who wrote the words that we read. These divisions were added to the text hundreds of years after the authors died. The original writers neither planned nor anticipated these divisions.

Chapter and verse numbers in the apostles' letters, for example, would appear as strange to them as the following does to us:


Dear Aunt Sue,

Chapter One

Last week we went to town and learned that....

"Divided on horseback" was the criticism of Robert Estienne, a French publisher and convert to Protestantism who decided to number the verses in the New Testament in order to make it easier to study and memorize. While Stephen Langton had divided the text into chapters, Estienne then broke each chapter into numbered verses. According to his son, he did much of the work while on horseback—leading some critics ever since to suggest the reason some verses' divisions are short and others are long was because of the bumpy ride between his office in Paris and his home in southern France.

The Bible was designed more for the ear that the eye. In antiquity people passed history and genealogy from generation to generation by oral tradition—through storytelling or by reading aloud. Those who wrote the Bible did so knowing that their words would be read aloud. So puns, acrostics, and cryptograms are all used widely throughout the Hebrew Scriptures.

Mgn rdng ths bk wtht vwls. Myb ftr whl y cld fll n sm f th blnks nd fgr t mst f t. Ftr ll, t's smpl sglsh. Bt nw, mgn t s prt f n ncnt lngg tht hs flln nt dss vr svrl cntrs. Tht s hw th Bbl nc pprd. Imagine reading a book without vowels. Maybe after a while you could fill in some of the blanks and figure out most of it. After all, it's simple English. But now. Imagine it as part of an ancient language that has fallen into disuse over several centuries. That is how the Bible once appeared!

Hieroglyphics—derived from two Greek words that mean "sacred carvings," since the signs were at first chiseled on stone—were the basci writing system in Egypt at the time of Moses. Since young Moses was educated in the Egyptian sciences and arts, he no doubt learned to read and write Egyptian hieroglyphics. About 750 pictures were used at first in hieroglyphics. At least twenty-two signs existed for various birds, such as the curved neck of the Egyptian vulture, the flat face of an owl, and the tail feathers of the pintail duck.

We will finish up this lesson next week!

by Bonnie Calhoun



Our lesson this Saturday is looking at more of the inscriptions found in the Sinai attesting to the passing by of Moses and the Israelites. Also adding to the validity of the applicable Bible passages. These references come from A.P. Stanley, Sinai and Palestine, London: John Murray, 1905.

Explorers found two inscriptions in Wadi Sidri that refer to the murmuring of the Jewish people against Moses about their great thirst, hunger and terror they experienced during their flight from the Egyptians as they entered the great desert of the Sinai Peninsula.

The inscriptions:

Pilgrims fugitive through the sea find a place of refuge at Sidri.
Lighting upon plain ground they proceed on their pilgrimage full of terror [77]

The Hebrews pass over the sea into the wide waterless desert, famished with hunger and thirst. [17]

Moses recorded the experience in the wilderness when the Israelites complained bitterly against God and their leaders, in Exodus 17:1-3.

Another Sinai inscription describes God's miraculous provision of water to the Children of Israel through god commanding Moses to cause water to flow from a rock.

The people clamor vociferously. The people anger Moses.
Swerving from the right way, they thirst for water insatiably.
The water flows, gently gushing out of the stony rock.
Out of the rock a murmur of abundant waters.
Out of the hard stone a springing well.
Like the wild asses braying,
the Hebrews swallow down enormously and greedily.
Greedy of food like infants,
they plunge into sin against Jehovah (YHWH) [46]

The people drink, winding on their way,
drinking with prone mouth,
Jehovah (YHWH) gives them drink again and again. [39]

The people sore thirst, drink vehemently.
They quaff the water-spring without pause, ever drinking.
Reprobate beside the gushing well-spring. [58]

The Book of Exodus also record this in Exodus 17:6.

Despite God's ample and miraculous provisions for them, the Israelites remained reprobate in their attitude, refusing either to thank God or trust in His continuing provision for their daily needs!

Another inscription in the Sinai records that the Israelites' succumbed to gluttony in eating the quails which God miraculously provided at a place called Kibroth-hattaavah.

Despite God's daily provision of manna, the Israelites rebelled against the Lord and Moses by complaining about the sameness of food. This rebellion unleashed the wrath of God on their sinfulness. He sent a massive flock of quail to provide meat.

Rather than gratefully accept this as a gift from God, the Israelites greedily stuffed their mouths with the quail. Many died there in the plague of gluttony.

The inscription:

The people have drink to satiety. In crowds the swillFlesh they strip from the bone, mangling it.
Replete with food, they are obstreperous.
Surfeited, they cram themselves; clamoring, they vomit.
They people are drinking water to repletion.
They tribes, weeping for the dead, cry aloud with downcast eyes.
The dove mourns, devoured by grief.
The hungry ass kicketh: the tempted men, brought to destruction, perish.
Apostasy from the faith leads them to the tomb. [28]

Devouring flesh ravenously, drinking wine greedily
Dancing, shouting, they play.
Congregating on all sides to ensnare them,
The people voraciously devour the quails.
Binding the bow against them, bringing them down.
Eagerly and enormously eating the half raw flesh,
The pilgrims become plague-stricken. [34]

Moses gives us this account in Numbers 11:31-33. The next statement by Moses recorded in Numbers 11:34 gives the location where this event occurred: the very same place where the inscription was discovered over fifteen centuries later.

In 1761, the German explorer Barthold Niebuhr (Voyage en Arabie, tom. I, p. 191) discovered an extensive ruined cemetery with carved inscriptions and engravings of quail, standing, flying and apparently, even trussed and cooked, on the tombs and within a sepulcher on top of an inaccessible mountain in Sinai called Sarbut-el-Khadem. The

Byzantine monk Cosmas Indicopleustes had previously recorded his discovery of these graves in A.D. 535

Today in our quest to demonstrate the scientific accuracy of the Bible, we're going to explore Bible verses.

Critics of the Bible falsely suggested that the Bible stated the earth was flat because of the biblical expression, "the four corners of the earth" (Isaiah 11:12; Rev. 7:1), like writers actually believed in a flat earth. However, this phrase was simply a colloquial expression. It is still used by educated individuals to indicate either the whole earth or the four extremities of the globe from a central position.

God inspired the prophet Isaiah to reveal that our planet was a globe, knowledge that was far in advance of what the men in that day knew. "It is he that sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers; that stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in" (Isaiah 40:22) This expression "the circle of the earth" clearly describes the earth as a sphere or globe!

The ancient pagans, who were contemporary with Job, believed that the earth was balanced on the back of an elephant that rested on the back of a turtle. Other Pagans believed that the mythological hero Atlas carried the earth on his shoulder.

While as recently as a century ago scientist believed that the earth and stars were supported by some kind of ether. However, four thousand years ago, Job was inspired by God to correctly declare that God "He hangs the earth on nothing"(Job 26:7).

Another astonishing discovery by astronomers recently revealed that the area to the north of the axis of our earth toward the polar star is almost empty of stars in contrast to the other directions. There are far more distant stars in every other direction from our earth than in the area to the far north of our planet. As Job reported, "He stretches out the north over empty space" (Job 26:7).

Mitchell Waldrop wrote: "The recently announced 'hole in space', a 300 million-light-year gap in the distribution of galaxies, has taken cosmologists by surprise...But three very deep core samples in the Northern Hemisphere, lying in the general direction of the constellation Bootes, showed striking gaps in the red shift distribution. [Mitchell Waldrop, "Delving the Hole in Space," Science magazine, Nov. 27, 1981].

The gospel writer Luke described the coming of Christ in the daytime as follows: "Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed." However, several verses later, Luke described the same event by declaring that Christ will come in the night: "I tell you, in that night there shall be two men in one bed; the one shall be taken, and the other shall be left" (Luke 17:34).

In that era it must have seemed contradictory. However, now we understand that, on whatever day Christ returns, it will be a daytime event for those on one side of the globe while the event will occur during the night for those living on the other side of the planet!

In the Book of Amos we read about the seven stars in the constellation known as Pleiades. The King James Version says: "Seek him that maketh the seven stars and Orion" (Amos 5:8 [KJV]). The King James Version translators confirmed that Amos' original Hebrew statement about "the seven stars" referred to the constellation Pleiades. However, modern translators render this verse as, "He made the Pleiades and Orion" (Amos 5:8 [NKJV]) Early translators were puzzled by this verse because there were only six stars that could be seen by the naked eye in the constellation Pleiades. Now, modern telescopes have revealed the existence of a seventh star in Pleiades; it is so dim only a telescope can detect it! Amos knew it 2500 years ago!

"In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth" (Genesis 1:1). This statement revealed that God created our earth and the universe in a single moment of time. However, Genesis also reveals God's purpose: "Then God blessed them, and God said to them, 'Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth'" (Genesis 1:28)