What Is Marriage? 1 & 2. Farmed Fish vs. Wild-Caught.

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What Is Marriage? 1  (Special thoughts for Valentine’s Day)

“The Creator God made humans male and female, and He made the institution of marriage. He tells us why He created it and what marriage is supposed to be.

There is only one original source on earth where you can find out how, when, where and why marriage began. More copies of this book—the Holy Bible—have been published than any other written work, yet it is little understood. But by going to it, you can find an understanding of the meaning of marriage.

 

Summing up what the Bible teaches about marriage

1. God designed marriage to be a lifelong, faithful relationship between one man and one woman.
2. Adam was created first and was initially the lone human. From one of his ribs God lovingly formed a woman and presented her to Adam. They were “one flesh,” and she was the perfect complement to Adam. Together they formed a whole, and together they were able to build a family, having and raising children together.
3. Because of sin, polygamy and divorce entered. Christ said divorce was only allowed in Israel because of their hardness of heart. While God does provide provisions for a marriage to dissolve under some circumstances, it is an extremely painful experience. God didn’t want His children to hurt one another in that manner.
4. Through the words of Jesus Christ and the apostles, we can see that God’s perspective of marriage as a loving, monogamous relationship between one man and one woman has not changed. In the New Testament God reaffirms it and shows how very important fidelity within marriage is.

Men and women are different by design, intended to complement each other. And it is only through the marriage relationship that God intended children to be brought into the world—to be raised and taught under the loving, thoughtful care of their mother and father.

If you would like to read further about how to have a happy marriage, this “Marriage” section has many related articles for you to read. You will be glad you did!”  Complete article at: https://lifehopeandtruth.com/relationships/marriage/what-is-marriage/

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What Is Marriage?  2

“Some topics are more personal than others and tend to trigger more emotional reactions. Food and holidays, for example. Or “is that dress white and gold or blue and black” and, of course, marriage and sexual relations.

Although the Bible has a lot to say about marriage, it never explicitly answers the question, “What is marriage?” Probably for the same reason it doesn’t give a precise definition for travel, war, and sacrifice. Everyone in the Bible’s original audience already knew what marriage was, so why waste expensive paper and ink explaining it.

Our world, on the other hand, has become so full of confusion that we need to spell out even the most basic ideas. So, let me begin at the beginning…

Adam gave names to all livestock and to the birds of the heavens and to every beast of the field, but the man could not find a helper fit for him. So YHWH God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. And the rib that YHWH God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. Then the man said, “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman (ishah), because she was taken out of Man.” Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.      Genesis 2:20-24

This passage gives us the three most important elements of the definition of marriage.

1. Marriage exists to help a man fulfill his assigned role in Creation.
2. Marriage is meant to be a lifelong union of a man and woman.
3. Marriage was instituted by God from the very beginning.

Marriage Exists to Help Man Fulfill His Mission

Although Genesis 1:28 records that the first collective mission of mankind was to be a caretaker over the earth and all life on it, Adam’s first individual assignment was to evaluate all of the other creatures to see if one of them might serve as a special helper for him. Of course, God knew that none of them would, but he had Adam go through this process so that the man would also know. When Adam was satisfied that none of the animals would meet his requirements, God created a woman, whom Adam named Eve.

Adam and most other creatures were created from the ground, but Eve was created directly from Adam. God didn’t create Eve from Adam’s head or foot, but from his side, showing that she wasn’t supposed to rule over him nor be his slave, but was supposed to be a peer. The woman was to be more like the man than any other creature in heaven or earth, a counterpart who would rule over and care for the earth together with him.

Eve wasn’t created to be exactly like Adam, though, or else God would have created another man and made them hermaphrodites or capable of parthenogenesis. Woman shares in the collective purpose of mankind as God’s stewards on earth, but each woman does so primarily by assisting her husband in his individual mission.

For man was not made from woman, but woman from man. Neither was man created for woman, but woman for man.    1 Corinthians 11:8-9 ESV

I know that doesn’t sit well with many people, but it is the plain teaching of Scripture. Eve was created specifically to be a helper for Adam, and Paul asserts that this principle applies within all marriages.

While the original task of humanity was to be a caretaker of God’s creation, the Fall necessitated a change in mission parameters. Our task now is to expand the Kingdom of God through procreation, evangelism, establishing justice, and generally doing good works according to God’s standards of justice and good. How each individual and family participates in this mission varies in as many ways as there are individuals and families, but you can know this with absolute certainty: A woman’s divinely appointed mission will never be at odds with her husband’s.

All kinds of things can prevent us from fulfilling marriage’s full purpose: illness and other circumstances that might be out of our control, the husband isn’t fulfilling his calling, or the wife isn’t fulfilling hers. However, our circumstances and failings can’t change the reason God created marriage.

Marriage Is a Lifelong Union

Genesis 2:24 says that the relationship of Adam and Eve is to be a pattern for all marriages, that a new marriage is inaugurated when a man leaves his father and mother to become one flesh with his wife.

“One flesh” implies that they are united in a way that would be painful and unnatural to separate and Yeshua (Jesus) confirmed this understanding when he said “They are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.” (See Matthew 19:4-6 and Mark 10:6-9.)

“Leaves his father and mother” doesn’t necessarily mean that he physically leaves their dwelling place. The Scriptural example is for extended families normally to live close together, frequently on the same land, and obedience to God’s instructions for the use of the land in Israel requires this. What this statement actually means is that the man steps outside of the nuclear family unit into which he was born and creates a new family still under the broad umbrella of his father’s clan and tribe.

This also doesn’t mean that marriage cannot be ended. God hates both divorce and death, but both happen, whether for good or bad, and both end a marriage. I’ll write more about this another time, but the Torah, Prophets, Yeshua, and Apostles all discuss when it is and is not appropriate to end a marriage. Divorce should be avoided because it breaks something that God didn’t want to be broken, but it is still possible.

Marriage Was Instituted by God

From the very beginning, God intended mankind to be male and female and to be joined in a union that he uses as a metaphor of his relationship with Israel.

Like the Sabbath, marriage was created for mankind’s benefit. Both parties, as well as their children, benefit from the arrangement, especially if it is conducted according to all of God’s instructions. However, also like the Sabbath, God created marriage because it suited his purposes. Every good master provides his servants with the tools necessary to accomplish his assigned tasks. The servant benefits because his job is made easier and more enjoyable. The master benefits because the servant is able to do a better job with greater economy.

Also like the Sabbath, marriage is not a man-made custom and man doesn’t get to define it. People today insist that they can make marriage whatever they want it to be: a man and another man, a woman and herself, and every other perversion one can imagine. Yet, Yeshua said that marriage is “what God has joined together”, so there can be no real question on this score. God makes the rules, not us.

Marriage was the very first government and was created by God to serve as the core of ministry, labor, justice, and civilization. It is a model of God and of our relationship to God and, as God is one (Hebrew echad), man and woman are to be one in spirit and flesh. Marriage benefits us and was created to help us in the work for which we were created, but ultimately both we and marriage belong to God and we have a responsibility to him to protect and honor it.”  From: https://www.americantorah.com/2023/03/27/what-is-marriage/

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Farmed Fish vs. Wild-Caught

Transcript of video at: https://nutritionfacts.org/video/farmed-fish-vs-wild-caught-2/

“The levels of industrial pollutants found in aquaculture.

Although the levels of dioxins and PCBs continue to decline, there is one dietary source that still remains a threat: fish. Everything eventually washes into the sea. Yes, we can get some from eating horses, but most of human dioxin exposure comes from eating fish. The World Health Organization puts the tolerable upper daily limit of intake at 1 picogram—one trillionth of a gram. As you can see, just eating dairy and we’re already skirting with the max, and fish takes us straight over the top.

Everyone agrees that the omega-3 fatty acids, like DHA, found in fish, are healthy. But, given the industrial contaminants in fish, as a recent analysis in Food and Chemical Toxicology concludes: “If people choose to get their recommended long-chain omega-3 intake from fish, the majority of consumers would exceed the safety limits for dioxins and dioxin-like substances (like PCBs).”

And, just like with eggs, factory-farmed fish have significantly more dioxins. In fact, for every toxin tested, farmed fish had higher levels of DDT, these other banned pesticides, over ten times more PCBs, and ten times more dioxins than wild-caught fish. Aquaculture fish can be considered farmed and dangerous.”

To see any graphs, charts, graphics, images, and quotes to which Dr. Greger may be referring, watch the above video. This is just an approximation of the audio contributed by Dianne Moore.

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The Origin of the Jack-o’-Lantern. Our Dark Side. How to Cook Rice to Lower Arsenic Levels.

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The Origin of the Jack-o’-Lantern

“The jack-o’-lantern is now associated with the holiday of Halloween. Where did this mysterious symbol come from? What should we do with that knowledge?

Where did the jack-o’-lantern come from?

The childhood of many a person has been haunted by a dark, headless figure on a horse holding a flaming jack-o’-lantern. Washington Irving’s classic horror story “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” has intrigued and terrified millions for over 200 years.

Interestingly, Washington Irving never mentioned his dark rider bearing a jack-o’-lantern. The author only referred to a shattered pumpkin found the morning after the main character’s disappearance. Adaptations of Irving’s story since then have made the famous pumpkin into the glowing jack-o’-lantern that we all imagine today. Since that fateful connection, the pumpkin with a sinister grin has become an integral part of Halloween.

But where exactly did the jack-o’-lantern come from, and what made it fit in so well with this haunting story and the holiday of Halloween?

Why carve up pumpkins?

The origin of the jack-o’-lantern goes back several centuries, starting with pagan customs that predated even the term jack-o’-lantern. In the dark woods of Ireland, England and Scotland, the Celts ruled. In their religion, the shortening days of autumn indicated the merging of the spirit world with our physical world. This merging was believed to fully happen on their holiday of Samhain (pronounced sah-win) on the night of Oct. 31.

Because of this terrifying belief, the Celts prepared for this time when they believed the spirits of the dead wandered the earth. They imagined that some of the spirits just wandered around, while others were vengeful spirits.

People were mostly defenseless against these dreaded spirits, except for the use of costumes and root vegetables such as turnips with carved faces. To add to the effect, they were “then illuminated by coal, wooden embers, or candles as a way to ward off evil spirits” (Merriam-Webster.com, “The History of ‘Jack-O’-Lantern’”). Displaying these ghastly vegetables was said to keep the spirits from visiting a person’s property.

English historian Ronald Hutton states that root vegetables were “hollowed out to act as lanterns and often carved with grotesque faces,” in association with Samhain, later known as Halloween, in the Celtic part of the world (The Stations of the Sun, 1996).

Eventually, the Roman Empire took over and “christianized” this pagan festival of Samhain, creating All Saints’ Day Nov. 1, with All Hallows Eve (Halloween) the night before. As Irish celebrants eventually moved to the United States, some of the ancient practices came with them. In the United States, the pumpkin was abundant and quickly became the vegetable of choice for carving.

But why call it a “jack-o’-lantern”?

There are various ideas about where the name “jack-o’-lantern” comes from. Britannica in its article “Why Do We Carve Pumpkins at Halloween?” states that it started with the Irish tale of Stingy Jack, who tricked the devil. When he died, the story goes, the deceitful Jack was not allowed to go to heaven due to the life that he had lived. The devil, however, wouldn’t allow him to enter his domain either.

Jack-o’-lanterns may appear fun now, but they have a very dark past that involved pagan worship and an attempt to keep roaming spirits away. To God, anything associated with any of those pagan customs cannot be tolerated in any way, shape or form. Destined to restlessly roam the earth forever, the spirit of Jack was given a burning ember by Satan. Placing that ember in a carved-out turnip, Jack wandered the countryside with his ghastly lantern. The superstitious Celts believed that mysterious swamp fires, called ignis fatuus, that actually occurred when decaying matter combusted, were evidence Jack’s spirit was roaming nearby. Over time, “Jack of the Lantern” became shortened to “jack-o’-lantern.”

Carved turnips and other vegetables were placed in the window at night to ward off Jack and other unwanted spirits. Naturally, the ghostly tale of Jack of the Lantern came to be associated with Halloween and added to the allure of the dark holiday.

According to History.com, when the Scots and Irish migrated to the United States, they used the abundant pumpkins to ward off evil spirits and celebrate Halloween (“How Jack O’Lanterns Originated in Irish Myth”).

What does God think of jack-o’-lanterns?

Many today think that jack-o’-lanterns are cute or fun symbols of a holiday celebrated by many Christians, Halloween. (For more about the origin of Halloween, read “Halloween: Should Christians Celebrate It?”) The symbolism in the minds of some has even changed from one of horror and wandering spirits to one of community, according to National Geographic.

Admittedly, very few will set out jack-o’-lanterns this year hoping to scare off evil spirits. Probably no one will do it in honor of Stingy Jack. Does that mean the symbol has been cleaned up and is okay to use?

Some pagan religions, including Wicca, do still use jack-o’-lanterns for their originally intended purpose.

However, the ultimate question is, What does God think of people using jack-o’-lanterns?

God warns us to avoid spirits or anything associated with them (Leviticus 19:31, and Jeremiah 10). He abhors witchcraft and pagan religions, as well as any of the dark arts that delve into an evil spirit world. 

God also has strong words to say about mixing His true religion with false and pagan practices: “Take heed to yourself that you are not ensnared to follow them, after they are destroyed from before you, and that you do not inquire after their gods, saying, ‘How did these nations serve their gods? I also will do likewise.’ You shall not worship the LORD your God in that way; for every abomination to the LORD which He hates they have done to their gods; for they burn even their sons and daughters in the fire to their gods” (Deuteronomy 12:30-31).

Jack-o’-lanterns may appear fun now, but they have a very dark past that involved pagan worship and an attempt to keep roaming spirits away. To God, anything associated with any of those pagan customs cannot be tolerated in any way, shape or form.

God knows the origin of the jack-o’-lantern and will not have anything to do with it. What will you do now that you know the origin of the jack-o’-lantern?”       From: https://lifehopeandtruth.com/life/plan-of-salvation/holy-days-vs-holidays/halloween/origin-jack-o-lantern/

Jeremiah 10

Idols and the True God

10 Hear the word which the Lord speaks to you, O house of Israel.

² Thus says the Lord:

“Do not learn the way of the Gentiles; Do not be dismayed at the signs of heaven,
For the Gentiles are dismayed at them.
³ For the customs of the peoples are ^[a]futile; For one cuts a tree from the forest, The work of the hands of the workman, with the ax.
⁴ They decorate it with silver and gold; They fasten it with nails and hammers, So that it will not topple.
⁵ They are upright, like a palm tree, And they cannot speak; They must be carried, Because they cannot go by themselves. Do not be afraid of them, For they cannot do evil, Nor can they do any good.”

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Our Dark Side

 

“Marketing experts know there's something strangely appealing about the dark side of human nature—and they are capitalizing on it.

"Get in touch with your dark side," urges Toyota in an ad for the Matrix VCAM.

"Go ahead, indulge your dark side," Nestle says of its dark chocolate caramel Treasures.

Marketing experts know there's something strangely appealing about the dark side of human nature—and they are capitalizing on it.

Goth and Halloween

One example of this strategy is the successful promotion of Goth characters such as Emily the Strange that are rapidly gaining popularity with preteens. As Karyn M. Peterson of Playthings magazine reports, "Fuzzy zombie teddy bears wielding weapons, cuddly-yet-creepy skeletal pets, designer dolls with ghostly death-mask faces—toys and collectibles like these that embrace dark (and even macabre) themes...are increasingly finding younger and younger fans."

Another example is the annual marketing blitz surrounding Halloween. According to Businessweek, "Halloween is the second-biggest holiday behind Christmas in home-decorating sales, and the sixth-biggest retail holiday for overall sales." Between all the parties, TV shows and special events that accompany this holiday, themes of fear and death have now become normalized as entertaining traditions.

Desensitizing games

Does popularizing evil desensitize us to the true nature of the human heart?

A 2007 Iowa State University study of video game players found that even brief exposure to violent media has a measurably desensitizing effect. The authors of this study expressed the following concerns regarding the way popular media is presented to the public over our lifespan:

"Children receive high doses of media violence. It initially is packaged in ways that are not too threatening, with cute cartoon-like characters, a total absence of blood and gore, and other features that make the overall experience a pleasant one, arousing positive emotional reactions that are incongruent with normal negative reactions to violence. Older children consume increasingly threatening and realistic violence, but the increases are gradual and always in a way that is fun. In short, the modern entertainment media landscape could accurately be described as an effective systematic violence desensitization tool."

Desensitization often starts when we are very young, whether through the surrounding culture and related media or via family experiences. This may lead to a decreased appreciation—or even subtle acceptance—of the evil and all too typical violence that permeates the world such as:

• The attack that occurred in Beijing just after the opening ceremony of the Olympics.
• The practice of slavery—still a problem all over the globe.
• Terrorist plots to overthrow entire national or religious cultures.

Cure for a sick heart

How dangerous is our world to us? The common thread among these and other evils we see today is a sick heart—and we're all vulnerable to infection.

"Who can understand the human heart? There is nothing else so deceitful; it is too sick to be healed" (Jeremiah 17:9, Good News Bible).

God says we all have the capacity to deceive ourselves into thinking good is evil, and evil is good. That's a frightening revelation. Given the right circumstances, we have the ability to commit evil and justify doing so. If we desensitize to the point that we can no longer recognize evil, is it possible that we, too, could become agents of evil instead of just spectators?

Our Creator warns us to carefully guard the thoughts and motives of our heart to avoid falling prey to self-deception. With His help and careful vigilance as to what we allow into our minds, we can prevent the dark side of the human heart from controlling our destiny.

To find out more about how to overcome your dark side, read "The Battle for Your Mind."  From: https://www.ucg.org/vertical-thought/our-dark-side

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How to Cook Rice to Lower Arsenic Levels

Boiling rice like pasta reduces arsenic levels, but how much nutrition is lost?

See video at: https://nutritionfacts.org/video/how-to-cook-rice-to-lower-arsenic-levels/

Below is an approximation of this video’s audio content. To see any graphs, charts, graphics, images, and quotes to which Dr. Greger may be referring, watch the above video.

“Cooking rice in a high water to rice ratio reduces [toxic] arsenic content”—meaning if you boil rice like pasta, and then drain off the water at the end, you can drop arsenic levels in half. 50 to 60 percent of the arsenic gets poured down the drain, whereas the typical way we make rice, boiling the water off like in a rice cooker or pot, doesn’t help. Or, may even make things worse, if the water you’re using to cook the rice has arsenic in it too—a problem that exists for about three million Americans, as about 8% of public water supplies exceed the current legal arsenic limits.

But “cooking rice in excess water [and then discarding] efficiently reduces the amount of [toxic arsenic] in the cooked rice.” Yeah, but how much nutrition are you pouring down the drain when you do that? We didn’t know, until now.

“Unpolished brown rice naturally contains [nutrients] that are lost when the bran layer and germ are removed to make white rice. To compensate, since the 1940s,” white rice has had vitamins and minerals sprayed on it to quote-unquote “enrich it.” That’s why cooking instructions for white rice specifically say don’t rinse it, and cook it “in a minimal amount of water.” In other words, “the opposite” of what you’d do to get rid of some of the arsenic. But brown rice has the nutrients inside, not just sprayed on.

For example, “rinsing [white] rice [—like putting it in a colander under running water—] removes much of the enriched vitamins sprayed onto the [white] rice…surface during manufacture,” removing most of the B vitamins, but has “almost no effect on vitamins in whole-grain brown rice,” because it’s got the nutrition inside. Same thing with iron: rinsing white rice reduces iron levels by like three-fourths, but the iron in brown rice is actually in it; and so, rinsing only reduces the iron concentration in brown rice by like 10%. But rinsing didn’t seem to affect the arsenic levels; so, why bother?

Now, if you really wash the rice, like agitate the uncooked rice in water for three minutes, and then rinse and repeat, you may be able to remove about 10% of the arsenic. And so, this research team recommends washing, as well as boiling in excess water. But I don’t know if the 10% is worth the extra wash time. But, boiling like pasta and then draining the excess water does really cut way down on the arsenic, and while that also takes a whack on the nutrition in white rice, the nutrient loss in brown rice is “significantly less,” as it is not so much enriched as it is rich in nutrition in the first place.

“Cooking brown rice in large amounts of excess water reduces the [toxic arsenic] by almost 60% and only reduces the [iron] content by 5%,” but does reduce “the vitamin content of brown rice by about half.” Here it is graphically. A quick rinse of brown rice before you cook it doesn’t lower arsenic levels, but boiling it instead of cooking to dry, and draining off the excess water drops arsenic levels 40%. That was using like six parts water to one part rice. What if you use even more water, boiling at 10:1 water to rice? A 60% drop in arsenic levels.

With white rice, you can rinse off a little arsenic, but after cooking, you end up with similar final drops in arsenic content. But the iron gets wiped out in white rice by rinsing and cooking, whereas the iron in brown rice stays strong. Similar decrements in the B vitamins with cooking for brown and unrinsed white, but once you rinse white rice, they’re mostly gone before they make it into the pot.

What about percolating rice? We know regular rice cooking doesn’t help, but boiling like pasta and draining does. Steaming doesn’t do much. What about percolating rice as a radical rethink to “optimize [arsenic] removal”? So, they tried like some mad scientist lab set-up, but also just a regular “off-the-shelf coffee percolator.” But instead of putting coffee, they put rice, percolating 20 minutes for white, 30 for brown, and got about a 60% drop in arsenic levels using a 12-to-1 water-to-rice ratio. Here’s where the arsenic levels started and ended up. The squares are the brown rice; circles are the white.

So, raw brown may start out double that of raw white, but after cooking with enough excess water and draining, they end up much closer. Though, 60%, percolating at a 12-to-1 ratio, was about what we got boiling at just 10-to-1; So, I see no reason to buy a percolator.

But, even with that 60%, what does that mean? By boiling and draining a daily serving of rice, we could cut excess cancer risk more than half, from like 165 times the acceptable cancer risk, to only like 66 times the acceptable risk.”  From: https://nutritionfacts.org/video/how-to-cook-rice-to-lower-arsenic-levels/

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The Origin of the Jack-o’-Lantern. Go the Extra Mile. Bleach-Free Pumpkins

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The Origin of the Jack-o’-Lantern

“The jack-o’-lantern is now associated with the holiday of Halloween. Where did this mysterious symbol come from? What should we do with that knowledge?

Where did the jack-o’-lantern come from?

The childhood of many a person has been haunted by a dark, headless figure on a horse holding a flaming jack-o’-lantern. Washington Irving’s classic horror story “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” has intrigued and terrified millions for over 200 years.

Interestingly, Washington Irving never mentioned his dark rider bearing a jack-o’-lantern. The author only referred to a shattered pumpkin found the morning after the main character’s disappearance. Adaptations of Irving’s story since then have made the famous pumpkin into the glowing jack-o’-lantern that we all imagine today. Since that fateful connection, the pumpkin with a sinister grin has become an integral part of Halloween.

But where exactly did the jack-o’-lantern come from, and what made it fit in so well with this haunting story and the holiday of Halloween?

Why carve up pumpkins?

The origin of the jack-o’-lantern goes back several centuries, starting with pagan customs that predated even the term jack-o’-lantern. In the dark woods of Ireland, England and Scotland, the Celts ruled. In their religion, the shortening days of autumn indicated the merging of the spirit world with our physical world. This merging was believed to fully happen on their holiday of Samhain (pronounced sah-win) on the night of Oct. 31.

Because of this terrifying belief, the Celts prepared for this time when they believed the spirits of the dead wandered the earth. They imagined that some of the spirits just wandered around, while others were vengeful spirits.

People were mostly defenseless against these dreaded spirits, except for the use of costumes and root vegetables such as turnips with carved faces. To add to the effect, they were “then illuminated by coal, wooden embers, or candles as a way to ward off evil spirits” (Merriam-Webster.com, “The History of ‘Jack-O’-Lantern’”). Displaying these ghastly vegetables was said to keep the spirits from visiting a person’s property.

English historian Ronald Hutton states that root vegetables were “hollowed out to act as lanterns and often carved with grotesque faces,” in association with Samhain, later known as Halloween, in the Celtic part of the world (The Stations of the Sun, 1996).

Eventually, the Roman Empire took over and “christianized” this pagan festival of Samhain, creating All Saints’ Day Nov. 1, with All Hallows Eve (Halloween) the night before. As Irish celebrants eventually moved to the United States, some of the ancient practices came with them. In the United States, the pumpkin was abundant and quickly became the vegetable of choice for carving.

But why call it a “jack-o’-lantern”?

There are various ideas about where the name “jack-o’-lantern” comes from. Britannica in its article “Why Do We Carve Pumpkins at Halloween?” states that it started with the Irish tale of Stingy Jack, who tricked the devil. When he died, the story goes, the deceitful Jack was not allowed to go to heaven due to the life that he had lived. The devil, however, wouldn’t allow him to enter his domain either.

Jack-o’-lanterns may appear fun now, but they have a very dark past that involved pagan worship and an attempt to keep roaming spirits away. To God, anything associated with any of those pagan customs cannot be tolerated in any way, shape or form.Destined to restlessly roam the earth forever, the spirit of Jack was given a burning ember by Satan. Placing that ember in a carved-out turnip, Jack wandered the countryside with his ghastly lantern. The superstitious Celts believed that mysterious swamp fires, called ignis fatuus, that actually occurred when decaying matter combusted, were evidence Jack’s spirit was roaming nearby. Over time, “Jack of the Lantern” became shortened to “jack-o’-lantern.”

Carved turnips and other vegetables were placed in the window at night to ward off Jack and other unwanted spirits. Naturally, the ghostly tale of Jack of the Lantern came to be associated with Halloween and added to the allure of the dark holiday.

According to History.com, when the Scots and Irish migrated to the United States, they used the abundant pumpkins to ward off evil spirits and celebrate Halloween (“How Jack O’Lanterns Originated in Irish Myth”).

Another, less dramatic, theory for the origin of the name is that a night watchman was generically known as “Jack” (similar to our phrase “John Doe”) and was called a “jack-o’-lantern.” How a night watchman would become associated with the Halloween holiday isn’t clearly explained, so the legend of Stingy Jack seems to be the more likely origin of the term.

What does God think of jack-o’-lanterns?

Many today think that jack-o’-lanterns are cute or fun symbols of a holiday celebrated by many Christians, Halloween. (For more about the origin of Halloween, read “Halloween: Should Christians Celebrate It?”) The symbolism in the minds of some has even changed from one of horror and wandering spirits to one of community, according to National Geographic.

Admittedly, very few will set out jack-o’-lanterns this year hoping to scare off evil spirits. Probably no one will do it in honor of Stingy Jack. Does that mean the symbol has been cleaned up and is okay to use?

Some pagan religions, including Wicca, do still use jack-o’-lanterns for their originally intended purpose.

However, the ultimate question is, What does God think of people using jack-o’-lanterns?

God warns us to avoid spirits or anything associated with them (Leviticus 19:31). He abhors witchcraft and pagan religions, as well as any of the dark arts that delve into an evil spirit world.

God also has strong words to say about mixing His true religion with false and pagan practices: “Take heed to yourself that you are not ensnared to follow them, after they are destroyed from before you, and that you do not inquire after their gods, saying, ‘How did these nations serve their gods? I also will do likewise.’ You shall not worship the LORD your God in that way; for every abomination to the LORD which He hates they have done to their gods; for they burn even their sons and daughters in the fire to their gods” (Deuteronomy 12:30-31).

Jack-o’-lanterns may appear fun now, but they have a very dark past that involved pagan worship and an attempt to keep roaming spirits away. To God, anything associated with any of those pagan customs cannot be tolerated in any way, shape or form.

God knows the origin of the jack-o’-lantern and will not have anything to do with it. What will you do now that you know the origin of the jack-o’-lantern?”  From: https://lifehopeandtruth.com/life/plan-of-salvation/holy-days-vs-holidays/halloween/origin-jack-o-lantern/?

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Matthew 5:41   Go the Extra Mile

(41) And whoever compels you to go one mile, go with him two.

• New King James Version

“In this passage, Christ addresses the Roman practice of commandeering civilians or their property (mules, horses, oxen, camels, carts, wagons, etc.) to carry the luggage or other burden of military personnel for, in this case, one mile.

Evidently, the practice did not originate with the Romans but with the Persians. As there were no post offices at the time, and in order that royal orders might reach their destination quickly, Cyrus set up a system not unlike our Pony Express. A rider in this service was empowered to take a civilian's horse (usually his best or only horse), if his was worn out or lame. In addition, he could press a boat, cart, or any other vehicle into the king's service.

In recent centuries, this practice, often used to force seamen into the service of another nation's ships, has been called impressment. In America's Revolutionary War period, British ships would often intercept other nations' ships and force any American sailors found on them to work for the Royal Navy. In Roman times, a man could have worked all day, his family waiting for him to come in from his fields, and suddenly, a Roman soldier could order him to carry a heavy load for a mile.

No one likes to be made to do someone else's work. At the very least, we are apt to complain, argue, or simply refuse to be so used. Being compelled to engage in "community service" by law or by might is demeaning and perhaps unjust. But Jesus tells us to take the sting out of the situation by being willing to carry such a burden an extra mile in a cheerful attitude.

In a similar vein, Solomon advises, "If your enemy is hungry, give him bread to eat; and if he is thirsty, give him water to drink; for so you will heap coals of fire on his head, and the LORD will reward you" (Proverbs 25:21-22). Jesus says something very similar in His subsequent teaching (Matthew 5:44-45). Being struck, sued, or forced to carry a heavy load can bring out the worst in human nature: anger, resentment, outrage, and even violence. But when those who have been called find themselves in difficult and trying circumstances, their attitude must not be belligerent, spiteful, or vengeful, but helpful, willing, and good-natured. "Above and beyond" must be their motto.”

— John O. Reid.  To learn more, see:  Go the Extra Mile  From: https://www.theberean.org/index.cfm/main/default/id/7345/ver/NKJV/matthew-5-41.htm

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Bleach-Free Pumpkins

“People spend a lot of time and effort on their jack-o’-lanterns and want them to last as long as possible, so some use bleach to preserve them and deter animals from snacking on them.

But bleach is dangerous to wildlife.

Squirrels, raccoons, and deer are just a few animals who may nibble on your masterpiece.

A great alternative to bleach is vinegar. Use one part vinegar to 10 parts water to help preserve your pumpkin.”  From:  https://therainforestsite.greatergood.com/clicktogive/ars/home

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Could Biblical Laws Have Prevented Coronavirus? Let Jacob Rejoice. Forgiveness According to the Riches of His Grace. Update.

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What’s Behind the Coronavirus Outbreak?

Had human beings respected and obeyed the Bible’s food laws, the coronavirus outbreak would likely never have occurred.

The coronavirus is causing fear throughout the world. What’s behind this disease epidemic? Is there a solution to it? Will disease epidemics ever end?

Medical workers in protective suits help patients diagnosed with the coronavirus in a temporary hospital in Wuhan, China (Chinatopix via AP). 

The four horsemen of the Apocalypse represent four major trends the world has faced for centuries, but which will intensify to their maximum level in the end times (Revelation 6:1-8).

The fourth horseman is described as riding a “pale horse” (verse 8). This horse is associated with death. By comparing Revelation 6 with Jesus’ Olivet Discourse (found in Matthew 24), we can identify this pale horse as “pestilences,” or plagues (Matthew 24:7). To learn how Jesus’ Olivet Discourse aligns with the four horsemen of Revelation, read “What Are the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse?”

The pale horse represents disease epidemics that have killed millions of people throughout history and that will afflict the world on an unimaginable scale in the end time.

Disease epidemics are a major issue in the world right now because of the spread of the 2019 Wuhan coronavirus (currently being called 2019-nCoV). Although China is the epicenter of the outbreak and the most affected country, the coronavirus has already spread to other countries in Southeast Asia, and cases have also been detected in Europe and America.

In the age of the plane, nations no longer live in relative isolation. Now a possible disease carrier can infect people in another country or continent thousands of miles away, all in a matter of hours. As of Feb. 11, there are at least 1,016 confirmed deaths and over 42,000 confirmed infections. The numbers increase hour by hour, which has health officials around the world on alert.

The troubling origin of the coronavirus

Initially, it was believed that this coronavirus originated from bats and was transferred to people through bat soup. Scientists researching the origin of the virus believe it can be traced back to a particular “wet market” (a Chinese marketplace specializing in fresh seafood and other meats).

According to Health.com, “researchers studied the genetic code of 2019-nCoV and found that it’s most closely related to two SARS-like coronavirus samples, suggesting that it, too, may have had a bat origin. But when researchers looked deeper, they discovered that the protein codes of 2019-nCoV were most like those used in snakes.”

The current thinking is that the virus could have been transferred to snakes from bats (snakes often eat bats in the wild), and then transferred to humans through snake meat sold at a particular wet market in Wuhan, China.

A recent article in the Journal of Medical Virology found: “Snakes were also sold at the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market where many patients worked or had history of exposure to wildlife or farm animals. Taken together, snakes could be the most probable wildlife animal reservoir for the 2019-nCoV.”

Though consuming reptiles and bats is repulsive to many in the Western world, these and many other unusual creatures are commonly eaten in many Asian cultures.

Could biblical laws have prevented the coronavirus?

Though largely ignored in our world today, the Bible contains dietary laws that tell us which meats are designed by God to be eaten and which meats are not. Many have found that these laws benefit human health.

Both bats and snakes are labeled “unclean” in the Bible, that is, not fit for human consumption (Leviticus 11). As is often the case, had human beings respected and obeyed the Bible’s food laws by not eating snake or bat meat, the coronavirus outbreak would likely never have occurred.

To learn more about the biblical laws of clean and unclean meats, read our article “Clean and Unclean Animals: Does God Care What Meats We Eat?”

Another example of a biblical law that can prevent the spread of disease is the Seventh Commandment: “You shall not commit adultery.” This law forbids all sexual activity outside of marriage between a man and woman (Exodus 20:14). This simple law is insurance against contracting the many sexually transmitted infections (STIs) that are carried by so many people today—HIV, gonorrhea, syphilis, human papillomavirus, genital herpes, etc.

(Of course, not everyone who contracts an STI is guilty of breaking this law. Unfortunately, sometimes these diseases are passed to children by a parent or by unsanitary practices at hospitals. Sadly, people’s sins often have repercussions that impact other innocent people.)

God also told the Israelites to bury their bodily waste (Deuteronomy 23:12-13), instead of disposing of it in rivers, lakes and oceans as is often done today—especially in the developing world. This simple preventive measure, if followed, would virtually eliminate the threat of devastating waterborne diseases, such as dysentery, cholera, typhoid, hepatitis and others.

Sanitation, cleaning and quarantine were also emphasized in the Bible. Procedures were also given for the treatment of people with various types of sores and infections (Leviticus 15). Virtually everything the person touched was considered contaminated, including dishes, clothing and even where he or she sat.

These laws were given to help Israel stay healthy and show love to each other. When these laws are applied in the modern world, they can have the same effect!

The ride of the pale horse will be ended

Hopefully, the current coronavirus will be brought under control and its spread will be stopped. But we still know from Bible prophecy that even more serious and deadly disease epidemics are ahead of us. The “pale horse” is already riding—and will ride with more strength and speed during the coming Great Tribulation.

The good news is that Jesus Christ will return to establish the Kingdom of God on earth. When that happens, God’s laws will be implemented throughout the world (Isaiah 2:2-4), which will result in a healthy world—both physically and spiritually!

Jesus Christ, who will return on a white horse, will overpower and destroy the four horsemen of Revelation, including the “pale horse” of pestilence.

The sins that led to the pale horse’s ride will be corrected when humanity repents and starts obeying God’s good and beneficial laws. Human beings will no longer eat unclean meats or do any of the other things that have historically contributed to disease outbreaks.  Had human beings respected and obeyed the Bible’s food laws, the coronavirus outbreak would likely never have occurred.

Pray for those suffering from the terrible coronavirus—and for the return of Jesus Christ to earth to stop disease epidemics!”    From: https://lifehopeandtruth.com/prophecy/blog/whats-behind-the-coronavirus-outbreak/?

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Let Jacob Rejoice

Psalm 14:7

Oh, that the salvation of Israel would come out of Zion! When the LORD brings back the captivity of His people, let Jacob rejoice and Israel be glad.

“The story of the Bible reveals a cyclical history of God’s people. God loves His people, gives them His good laws and His blessings, but too soon the people forget to thank God and forget His laws. They begin doing things the way that seems right to them, but which He knows will result only in suffering and death. The people bring negative consequences and even captivity on themselves, only to cry out to God for rescue.

In Psalm 14 David looks to the end of this recurring history and cries out for the ultimate salvation that God desires to give. Many prophecies refer to a great end-time exodus of the descendants of Israel back to the Holy Land (Isaiah 11:11-16; Jeremiah 30; etc.).

The physical peace and prosperity are only a foretaste of the true spiritual salvation God offers to those who repent and commit to permanent faithfulness to God and His ways. This salvation, made possible by God’s incredible mercy through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ in our stead, is the source of the eternal rejoicing that David longed for.”   From: https://lifehopeandtruth.com/bible/blog/let-jacob-rejoice/?

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Forgiveness According to the Riches of His Grace

Ephesians 1:7

In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace.

The word redemption means “‘buy back’ or ‘ransom.’ In ancient times, one could buy back a person who was sold into slavery. In the same way, Christ through His death bought us from our slavery to sin” (NKJV Study Bible, note on Ephesians 1:7).

The incredible love Jesus showed in being willing to pay our death penalty for us is described with the Greek word charis—grace. “The Greek word for grace is probably equivalent to the Hebrew word chesed meaning ‘lovingkindness,’ a word frequently used by the psalmists to describe God’s character. In the [New Testament], the word charis usually signifies divine favor or goodwill, but it also means ‘that which gives joy’ and ‘that which is a free gift’” (NKJV Study Bible, Word Study: Grace, p. 1737).

Another way to express the meaning of God’s grace is that it refers to God’s great love in action toward us. Grace describes all of God’s wonderful free gifts, from forgiveness of sins to the gift of eternal life.

For more about forgiveness and grace, see “What Is Grace?”   From: https://lifehopeandtruth.com/bible/blog/forgiveness-according-to-the-riches-of-his-grace/?

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Update.

We decided to study all the Philippians lessons in that series, last Sunday at the Bible study.  Then on Mondays we have been having the weekly “Strengthening Families of the Brazos Valley” meetings here at the apartment club house. Tuesday was Bingo, and on Wednesday, Amerigroup put on a Valentine Party for the residents.

By Thursday, somewhere, somehow, I had put my back out, so it has been difficult for me to bend over to put the leash on the little dog.  Oh, how I wish I had a fenced yard!  My doctor doesn’t believe in chiropractors so he ordered therapy for me.  As soon as I walked into the Therapy building I started sneezing and coughing. 

The therapist didn’t do much for me.  Timed me walking around the corridors of the building six times.  I did one lap per minute.  No massage or any hands-on treatment. Maybe that will be another time.  The sneezing and coughing continued into the next day, and got worse during the Friday morning Bible study.  By Saturday morning, I knew that I didn’t need to go to church to sneeze and cough, disturbing the service, so I took some allergy meds and went to bed.

Finally, I stopped sneezing and coughing, so I went to the afternoon Bible study about Revelation on Sunday.

The Chumps Who Had to Move the Tabernacle. A Special Night. Update

For “Scripture Sunday”:

The Chumps Who Had to Move the Tabernacle

April 5, 2019 Sabbath Thought

“The Israelites spent 40 years wandering through the wilderness on their way to the Promised Land.

That’s 40 years of setting up camp and taking down camp.

Forty. Years. Every time God told them to move, it was a process. Setting up. Taking down. Setting up. Taking down. Setting up…

And on and on and on.

I’m sure that got old fast. I get tired of setting up and taking down tents after just one camping trip, and that’s with a modern, lightweight tent held up by those fancy fiberglass rods that practically put themselves together. The Hebrew text isn’t super definitive on the point, but I feel confident in saying those weren’t the kind of tents the Israelites were using.

But you know who had it worse than the average Israelite?

The Levites. In addition to worrying about their own tents, they had to move the tabernacle—the ornately designed, beautifully crafted holy place that served as both a physical reminder of the presence of God and as the centerpiece of the Israelite camp. For forty years, the Levites were responsible for taking it apart and putting it back together. Every board, every socket, every curtain, every cord, every pillar—the Levites were the ones who had to load them up and make sure everything made it to the next campsite in the right order at the right time (Numbers 10:13-28).

Setting up. Taking down. Setting up. Taking down. Setting up…

These guys were the hyoid bone of Israel.  The hyoid bone is not a bone we talk about very often—or ever, honestly. It’s not very big or very obvious, but I promise you, you’d notice if it went missing.

The hyoid is a unique bone because it isn’t directly anchored to the other bones of your skeleton. It’s the odd U-shaped bone you can feel at the top of your throat, and it’s technically floating—attached via ligaments to the muscles at the floor of your mouth, your tongue, your larynx, your epiglottis, and your pharynx.

All these attachments mean that your hyoid plays an important role in some everyday activities you probably don’t think twice (or even once) about doing—activities like swallowing, speaking, and breathing. (Like I said, you’d notice if it went missing.)

And yet, important as it is, when’s the last time you heard someone make a comment of appreciation about their hyoid bone? We talk about other, more “in the spotlight” bones and organs far more often—ribs, knees, lungs, neck, stomach, eyes, sometimes even smaller bits like metacarpals and little ear bones—but I don’t think I’ve ever heard the hyoid bone get any attention. In fact, I’ll be honest—until I started writing this blog, I didn’t even know what that bone was even called, much less what functions it performed.

But then, it doesn’t need me to know about it, does it? However much (or little) you know about your hyoid, it’s there, every day, doing its job and making sure you can do those simple little inconsequential things like breathing and swallowing.

When most of us talk about the Levites, we’re usually talking about the Levitical priesthood, but the priesthood is actually a much smaller sliver of a much larger pie.

Broadly speaking, the tribe of Levi can be subdivided into the primary family groups—the sons of Kohath (Kohathites), the sons of Gershon (Gershonites), and the sons of Merari (Merarites). Each of those family clans was responsible for part of the tabernacle when it was time to move camp. The Kohathites moved the holy items of the sanctuary (but only after the priests had covered them), the Gershonites took care of things like the curtains and screens, as well as the coverings of the tabernacle itself, and the Merarites were responsible for the structural elements of the tabernacle—all the boards, pillars, sockets, and bars that held everything together (Numbers 4:1-33).

The priests of the tabernacle—the ones who actually performed the sacrifices on behalf of Israel—were from a much narrower lineage. All the priests were sons of Moses’s brother Aaron, who was himself a Kohathite (Numbers 18:1, 7).

The rest of the tribe of Levi—the Gershonites, the Merarites, and the remaining Kohathites—were tasked with serving as support for the priests as they ministered before God on behalf of Israel (Numbers 18:2-6). But only the priests were allowed to come near “the articles of the sanctuary and the altar” (Numbers 18:3)—for anyone else, including the other Levites, it was a death sentence.

It’s not surprising that the priests tend to take the spotlight over their Levitical brethren. They were the ones who made the sacrifices that pointed toward the ultimate sacrifice of Jesus Christ. They were the ones who interacted with the holy things inside the tabernacle. The high priest was the one who stood before the ark of the covenant on the day of Atonement to make intercession for God’s people.

In so many ways, they were the stars of the show. They were the intercessors; they were the judges; they were the middlemen between the nation of Israel and its God.

But the rest of the Levites?” Continued at: https://sabbaththoughts.com/the-chumps-who-had-to-move-the-tabernacle/

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A Special Night

“The Exodus story contains an instruction to keep a special night called the “Night to Be Much Observed.”

YouTube: https://youtu.be/2nOBW9jnHDI

Transcript

[Steve Myers] “Most are familiar with the story of the ancient Israelites coming out of Egypt. Pharaoh finally lets the people go after the Passover when so many of the first born died that weren’t protected by the blood. Something interesting happens the very next night and it’s recorded for us in Exodus 12:42. And what it tells us is that it says that this night is a night of solemn observance to the Lord for bringing them out of the land of Egypt. It’s a night of the Lord a solemn observance for ll of the children of Israel throughout their generations.

Now what’s interesting about this passage in English it says a night of solemn observance but literally, it means a night of vigil, a night of watching. And as they were coming out of Egypt this is the first day of unleavened bread. This is the time that they’re leaving symbolically sin, the sin of Egypt, that representation of what his world is like even today. They are leaving that behind as God is vigilantly watching over them. Now, not only that they are to be vigilant, they’re not to go back to Egypt, they’re not to bring sin out with them. And so God’s reminding them, in fact, He’s reminding us today as well, we keep this night to be much observed, a night of solemn observance, a night of vigilance to keep sin out of our lives. So what a great reminder for us let’s leave the Egypt of sin this world behind. Let’s look to God as he’s watching vigilantly over us and let us be vigilant to keep sin out of our lives.” From: https://www.ucg.org/beyond-today/beyond-today-daily/a-special-night

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Update.

My back/hip still hampers me, it isn’t fixed right yet.  Still no word on where or when I can have the bone scan so that the chiropractors will know that I won’t break if they try to adjust my back.  But the pain doesn’t stop me from trying to get things done. 

Zack and I worked on the 31’ Holiday Rambler travel trailer that I had bought. It is in my friend Chris’ horse pasture, so I have to let her know when we are going over there so that she can move her horses into a different pasture, and open the gate. She is very interested in the repairing of this trailer, so she likes to help.  This week we managed to get the bed out of the rear bedroom and tear out the carpet, which Chris burned for us.  The trash man won’t take carpet unless you grease his palm, and it is illegal to burn it here. We started to rip out the kitchen counter, but we needed different tools with us.

So we concentrated on doing something with the vintage motor home that we call “Pugsy” that is at my place.  We took down the drapes so that I could wash them, and vacuumed it out.  I am thinking about listing it on eBay. It has more cupboards, cabinets and drawers of any camper that I have seen, and yet it is only 20’ long. Years ago, sometimes I used to drive it to work, and my daughter, son-in-law and I used to take it on fishing trips at Lake Livingston. I can’t drive it anymore, because the brake and accelerator are on each side of the steering column, and my left knee isn’t strong enough anymore, even though it does have power brakes.  It is a 1968 all fiberglass Venture made in Banning CA.  In the 70’s, Starcraft bought the fiberglass mold and made some motor homes that look like it.

The man who was supposed to buy my place has been trying to buy it for less, so he came here with a contractor to get bids on what he wanted to do with the houses.  Like ripping out the bathtubs and installing showers.  I guess he doesn’t have kids.  How do you bathe small children comfortably in a shower?  I said “man who WAS”, because I never expect it to go through. I might hear from him again, but I doubt it.

On Saturday, for the last day of ‘The Feast of Unleavened Bread’ potluck at the church I made another Gefilte Fish loaf with organic veggies and some more Unleavened Almond bread and took some salad.  There was lots of food and everyone enjoyed our time together.

The Bible readings were Psa. 114, (The “After Passover Psalm”) Psa. 115, Exo. 13:17-14:31, Isa. 46:3-13, Col.1:15-23, and all of Matt. 15. The Teaching was about “First Fruits” We ate unleavened bread for the last day.

A Matter of Health? Influenza. Update.

For Scripture Sunday:

A Matter of Health?

“Do science and medicine help us better understand why the Bible designates some animals as unfit for human consumption?  However, theological as well as medical researchers have recognized the benefits of following the health laws of Scripture.

  Sweet Ice Cream Photography/Unsplash

Are distinctions between clean and unclean meats a matter of health? Can consuming animals classified as unclean bring immediate or long-term harm to our health?

Why did God, in the Scriptures, distinguish between clean and unclean meats—the animals people may or may not eat? Is there more to the story? Can we find a health connection?

The specific reason God gave the Israelites for forbidding them to eat any unclean animals or even touching their carcasses was to “be holy, for I am holy” (Leviticus 11:44-45). Here God does not distinguish between clean and unclean animals specifically for health’s sake.

However, the larger context of Leviticus and Deuteronomy includes many issues of health and hygiene. The four chapters of Leviticus that follow the listing of clean and unclean meats deal with precautions after childbirth and the means to identify and eliminate the spread of communicable diseases. So the distinctions between clean and unclean meats appear in a context of health and well-being.

Are distinctions between clean and unclean meats a matter of health? Did God reveal them as health guidelines for the ancient Israelites and, by extension, for people today? Can consuming animals classified as unclean bring immediate or long-term harm to our health?

Scholars offer their view

Many factors such as diet, genetic makeup, environment, exercise and good and bad habits affect our health. However, theological as well as medical researchers have recognized the benefits of following the health laws of Scripture.

Commenting on Leviticus 11-15, The Expositor’s Bible Commentary states: “In general it can be said that the laws protected Israel from bad diet, dangerous vermin, and communicable diseases. Only in recent days have better laws of health been possible with the advance of medicine. These were rule-of-thumb laws that God gave in his wisdom to a people who could not know the reason for the provision…

“The Hebrew was not only to avoid eating unclean animals; he was not to touch their dead carcasses. Thus the laws automatically helped control vermin. Common unclean animals would be spiders, flies, bugs, rats, and mice. A dead rat in a Hebrew house was not overlooked. It was carefully taken out and buried. In an effort to avoid such problems, the Hebrew housewife would normally keep a clean house…

“It is, of course, true that some cultures have adopted similar rules out of sad experience. The [Old Testament] did not get its taboos from surrounding cultures, but some other cultures in later times adopted by experience some of these taboos…The laws were wonderfully fashioned by God for the general health of the nation” (R. Laird Harris, Vol. 2, 1990, p. 569).

Theology professor Roland Harrison writes: “The classification of animal species into clean and unclean categories (Leviticus 11:1-47) is significant because, being part of the Pentateuchal medical code, it constituted the basis of dietary regulations that are still adhered to by orthodox Jews and by those Gentiles who are concerned with maintaining good physical health.

“This categorizing is also important in view of the fact that it is unique in the annals of Near Eastern literature because its emphasis is not so much upon the avoidance of magical practices associated with certain animal species as upon the positive delineation of dietary principles intended to insure the physical well-being of the individual and the nation alike through a consistent [preventative] approach” (Introduction to the Old Testament, 1999, p. 603).

Doctors offer their view

Do the health laws of the Bible have a foundation in medical fact? S.I. McMillen, M.D., and David E. Stern, M.D., summarize their view of the laws God revealed to the Israelites: “For centuries epidemics had killed thousands of Egyptians and Hebrews. Ancient treatments rarely helped. Often the ‘cure’ was worse than the diseases. Yet here [Exodus 15:26] God made a fantastic promise—freedom from diseases.

“God then gave Moses many health rules, filling a whole section of the Bible…Moses recorded hundreds of health regulations but not a single current medical misconception.

“Thousands have died through the centuries, however, because doctors ignored the biblical rules. Finally, when doctors read and tried these guidelines, they quickly discovered how to prevent the spread of epidemics. Thus Moses could be called the father of modern infection control. Even today we are still benefiting from God’s 3,500-year-old instructions” ( None of These Diseases: The Bible’s Health Secrets for the 21st Century, 2000, p. 11).

Rex Russell, M.D., adds: “As we look at modern science and nutrition, we will find that…there is an amazing overlap between God’s original laws of clean and unclean and solid hygienic principles…Scripture and medical research agree that modern lifestyles lived without reference to God’s laws and design shorten life and hasten death” ( What the Bible Says About Healthy Living, 1999, pp. 14, 16).

Nutritionist David Meinz says that, even though we may not understand all aspects of the biblical dietary laws, we would be wise to follow them.

“Much of the wisdom revealed in the Bible now makes sense to us from our modern perspective,” he says, “but should that mean we won’t consider the areas that haven’t yet been scientifically proven?

“We’ve only discovered that animal fat is bad for us in the last 50 years. To the Christian a century ago, the directive in Leviticus 3:17 to avoid animal fat made no sense at all. Yet it’s clear to us today. What if there’s something in lobster that’s harmful to our health? What if we don’t discover what it is until 50 years from now? Do we require scientific proof before we give the Bible the benefit of the doubt?” ( Eating by the Book, 1999, p. 226).

Reginald Cherry, M.D., comments on why medical doctors and researchers have come to agree with the Bible’s instruction not to eat fat.

“Why is this prohibition against fat so important for us?” he asks. “Over 53 percent of people in large industrialized countries die of heart disease. Heart disease is most commonly caused by fat deposits that build up in the arteries, often beginning in the teenage years” ( The Bible Cure, 1998, p. 34, large-print edition).

Cultural taboos or divine revelation?

If some of the Bible’s dietary regulations have been shown to offer proven health benefits, what might that tell us about its other instructions? Dr. Cherry continues: “…The Old Testament…overflows with many revelations from God about hygiene, healthy foods, and the…prevention of diseases. As a medical doctor specializing in preventative medicine, I find the Old [Testament] fascinating and intriguing. Throughout its ancient Hebrew text, one finds many unveiled secrets and mysteries concerning what we should eat, how to avoid contaminated and diseased objects, and what natural substances can be used to effect healing…

“The Hebrews did not seek to know more about anatomy, science, or the natural order as did their counterparts in the ancient civilizations of Egypt, Mesopotamia, or Greece. Quite the contrary. Anything that might be uncovered in the ancient Hebrew texts of the Bible had to come to them through divine, supernatural knowledge revealed by God. So what we shall unearth from the Old [Testament] does not arise from human speculations on health and medicine but rather from God’s particular Word to us about his pathway of healing for us—His creation. As Creator, God knows more about our bodies, His creation, than we could ever discover either through philosophy or science…

“The lists of clean and unclean animals in Leviticus 11 and Deuteronomy 14 have a significance often ignored. Far from being a catalog of food taboos based on fad or fancy, these lists emphasize a fact not discovered until late in the last century [the 1800s] and still not generally known: Animals carry diseases dangerous to man” (pp. 27, 30, 39).

Health risk to humans?

Dr. Russell asks, “What is so good about ‘clean’ meats, and what is so bad about ‘unclean’ meats?” He goes on to explain that “the flesh of clean animals such as beef, and fish that have scales and fins, is ideal for the health of humans—just as we would expect from the hand of a loving Creator…Many land animals God designed for food provide an additional benefit in that they generally eat grasses and grains that were also designed for food” (Russell, pp. 73-74).

In contrast, David Meinz summarizes the potential health risk of eating creatures the Bible classifies as unclean. “Almost all of the creatures on the unclean list are scavengers,” he notes. “In many cases they don’t hunt for their own food; they eat the dead and decaying matter of our environment. A catfish does that at the bottom of a pond; lobsters and shrimp do it in the ocean. A pig will eat anything. Vultures, almost by definition, are known for their scavenger habits” (Meinz, p. 225).

Dr. Russell notes that “an animal doesn’t have to be a scavenger to be unclean. Horses and rabbits, for example, are unclean because they do not have split hooves. Although they are considered to be good food in some countries, studies have shown that horse meat often contains viruses and parasites. Rabbits, as innocent as they appear, are the cause of tularemia (an infectious disease) in humans.

“One reason for God’s rule forbidding pork is that the digestive system of a pig is completely different from that of a cow. It is similar to ours, in that the stomach is very acidic. Pigs are gluttonous, never knowing when to stop eating. Their stomach acids become diluted because of the volume of food, allowing all kinds of vermin to pass through this protective barrier. Parasites, bacteria, viruses and toxins can pass into the pig’s flesh because of over-eating. These toxins and infectious agents can be passed on to humans when they eat a pig’s flesh” (Russell, p. 76-77).

Don Colbert, M.D., adds: “Besides being gluttons, swine are also extremely filthy animals. They will eat garbage, feces, and even decaying flesh. All that is eaten usually becomes part of the pig’s own flesh…Aside from the diseases routinely carried by swine, pork is also a very fatty meat. The toxins in pork are held especially in the fat, which is not isolated from the meat as can be the case in lean beef, but rather, it is dispersed throughout the meat” ( What Would Jesus Eat?, 2002, pp. 49-50).

Poison on a plate?

Dr. Russell’s supporting evidence for his views isn’t for the faint of heart. He writes: “In the United States, three of the six most common food-borne parasitic diseases of humans are associated with pork consumption. These include toxoplasmosis, taeniasis or cysticercosis (caused by the pork tapeworm Taenia solium) and trichinellosis…

“It has long been recognized that the meat of shellfish—shrimp, crabs, lobsters, etc.—is especially dangerous. Many illnesses, including instant paralysis, devastate some people every day as a result of eating shellfish.

“The largest cholera outbreak in the United States occurred in Louisiana from August through October 1986. (The symptoms of cholera are explosive diarrhea, leading to rapid dehydration, unconsciousness, hypotension and death.) What did the stricken people eat? The incriminating meals were found to include rice noodles with shrimp, pork, vegetables, mussel soup, pig blood coagulated with vinegar, and salty brine shrimp with mixed vegetables.

“Shellfish can be placed in a body of water that is contaminated with cholera bacteria, and they will purify the water. Shrimp, oysters, crab, scallops and mussels are particularly efficient at this. They filter large volumes of water every day. Sewage laden with chemicals, toxins and harmful bacteria, parasites and viruses become concentrated in those shellfish. The cause of cholera outbreaks in several areas has been traced to contaminated shrimp, crab, oysters and clams.

“Reading all this, you might not be surprised to learn that the state Legislature of California proposed a law requiring the food industry to label shellfish with a message warning: ‘This food may be dangerous to your health.’ Why? In a single year, 50 deaths and many hospitalizations were found to have been caused by eating shellfish” (Russell, pp. 78-79).

What purpose do they serve?

If such creatures weren’t designed to be eaten, why did God create them? Dr. Russell explains: “For one thing, they serve a useful role just cleaning up the place. Many unclean animals, however, notably pigs and shellfish, are unhealthy because their diet consists of society’s disease-laden refuse.

“Pigs have eaten Philadelphia’s garbage and sewage for more than 100 years, saving the city $3 million a year in landfill costs. This is a wise use of hogs. They are designed to clean our environment.

“Even when stacked in cages, piglets thrive on offal when only the pig in the top cage receives food. Farmers have increased their profits by feeding free raw sewage to pigs. Chicken farmers often keep a hog so they can dispose of dead chickens without having to bury them” (Russell, p. 81).

Some species of fish and shellfish perform a similar role in the water. Dr. Russell notes that “among commonly eaten fish, catfish…always show the highest levels of contamination in chemically polluted water. After chemical spills, local fishermen are warned not to eat catfish” (ibid.).

Even commercially raised catfish are a potential health risk, he notes. “Consumer Reports tested fish bought in multiple markets in the United States. Fish are considered spoiled when bacteria counts are greater than 10 million per gram of flesh. Nearly all catfish had counts that went off the scale at 27 million per gram, even when properly prepared” (ibid.).

Dr. Russell’s conclusion? “Although swine help clean the earth, and shellfish and catfish are ideally designed to purify the water, we don’t want to eat what they clean up!” (ibid.)

In light of such seldom-publicized facts, we can better understand and appreciate God’s words through Moses: “Observe and obey all these words which I command you, that it may go well with you and your children after you forever, when you do what is good and right in the sight of the Lord your God” (Deuteronomy 12:28).

May we all be careful to “discern between the unclean and the clean” (Ezekiel 44:23).”  From: https://www.ucg.org/bible-study-tools/booklets/what-does-the-bible-teach-about-clean-and-unclean-meats/a-matter-of

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Influenza

An Amazing Fact: “Most people think the deadliest plague in history was the bubonic plague that killed two million victims a year. Actually, the deadliest plague occurred in the 20th century! And it started right here in the USA. It was the influenza of 1918 that hit right after World War I.

The war killed nine million men in four years, but this killer flu took at least 25 million lives in one year. In the first year, nearly 20 million cases were reported in the United States alone, accounting for almost one million deaths. That’s more than were killed during World War I, World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War combined.

It all started on March 11, 1918, at Camp Funston, Kansas, when a company cook reported to the infirmary with typical flu symptoms. By noon, 107 soldiers were sick. Within two days, 522 people were sick, many gravely ill with severe pneumonia, the deadliest part of the sickness. Reports started coming in from other military bases. Within a week, every state in the Union had been infected by this airborne killer. In two months it spread to South America, Europe, Africa, and Asia.

The United States had the lowest death toll. But a large percentage of the Eskimo population was wiped out in Nome, Alaska. Eighty to 90 percent of the Samoan population was infected, many survivors dying from starvation, too weak to feed themselves. The disease seemed to peak within three weeks of entering a given city, then subsided. In the end, it’s estimated 25 to 35 million people died worldwide.

Eighteen months after the disease appeared, the flu bug vanished, leaving a mystery as to its source, until March 1997, when Armed Forces Institute of Pathology researchers found specimens that 1918 Army doctors had preserved. It appears the virus started from birds, passed to pigs, and then to humans.

These are the deadliest of all viruses because when the hearty pig immune system kicks into action the virus is forced to mutate. Both the deadly Asian flu (1957) and the Hong Kong flu (1968) came from mutated pig viruses.

   
The scary part is that hog farms continue to breed pigs for food near populated areas. It could happen again! Perhaps this is one of the reasons God said people should not eat pigs. His laws are always intended to bless us.
KEY BIBLE TEXTS
And the swine, though he divide the hoof, and be clovenfooted, yet he cheweth not the cud; he is unclean to you.  Leviticus 11:7”

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Update.

This week has been basically devoted to cleaning the place up, getting stuff put away, thrown away or sorted to be donated.  Different agency’s thrift shops specialize in different things.  We didn’t put anything back in the 10 x 20 storage tent yet, as the refund for the wrong size roof hadn’t been issued.  Finally I contacted them, and all I got was a lousy 10%!  But I just couldn’t go through installing another canopy roof, so I am stuck with the one I have. 

As there was hardly anyone at church last week, we froze my ground beef and noodles, my mashed rutabagas, and many of the other dishes, so I didn’t have to spend a lot of time cooking on Friday.  But I did run a big baked potato through the Salad Shooter’s crinkle slicer, added some butter and seasonings, so it made another tasty, popular dish for this Sabbath’s potluck.

The Bible readings were Num. 30:2-32:42, Jer.1:1-2:3, and  Matt. 5:33-37.  The Teaching was about the Conversion of Saul, who became Paul.

Sunday, I must have got in my 10,000 steps.  A neighbor and I walked around the big flea market at Olde Security, then the two at Fostoria Road, near Cleveland.  Then to the indoor “Treasure Chest”, east of Conroe, as he was looking for good place to sell his stuff.  I must have lost some weight today!