Biblical Heritage Center Blog

Death is a real problem for humans. We know that it is in our future and a bunch of people would like to know what they can do here that affects what will happen there. The places people find most of their answers are religions. As most people know, all the answers are not all the same, and, according to many religions, choosing the wrong answer could have very bad consequences. This creates a huge “afterlife” market in which a wide range of “religious products” are offered. Maybe someone should set up an “Afterlife-Mart?” But, many people fail to take a serious look at the available options.   If someone did set up an Afterlife-Mart the largest section would contain Christian options. Each would explain what one needs to do while alive to affect what happens after death. Read the complete article at --   http://www.biblicalheritage.org/DTB/0812_Many_Biblical_Ways_to_Heaven.pdf

New Blog From The Country Cogitator: One man made $454,000 in a single year as a student-loan debt collector -- more than twice the pay of the U.S. secretary of education. . .  His boss is doing well too. His compensation rose to $618,000 in 2004, $852,000 in 2008 and $1.1 million in 2010 -- & guess who pays for it? The students & the good old taxpayers. Read the blog at --   http://thecountrycogitator.blogspot.com/2012/08/who-is-getting-rich-as-more-more.html

On a trip to Israel, when I was 21 years old, I had my first religious experience. I was standing on a balcony overlooking the Western Wall (aka "The Wall") in the in the Old City of Jerusalem when it happened. At that point in my life I was not very fond of religion (I looked at religion as an irrational throwback to humanities primitive and fearful past), and I wasn't planning on having a religious experience. In fact, moments before as I was descending the steps to the Western Wall Plaza, where the Wall is located, I said to myself, "I am going to see a really big wall, made of really big bricks, that is really old, and nothing is going to happen." Upon entering the plaza I had decided I didn't even want to buy into the silly "religious" tradition of going up to the Western Wall, which is why when I got there I went only to the balcony. So what came next was a surprise to me. Read complete article at -- http://www.huffingtonpost.com/eitan-...

New article by Rabbi Jeffrey Leynor. Moses filled many roles in the wilderness context. He was a military leader, lawgiver, judge and prophet, but if it were not for his role as intercessor, Israel would not have survived the ordeals of the wilderness. I have found parallels of Moses’ intercession in Exodus 32:9-14, 32-33 and Numbers 14:11-24. Both of these episodes occur after a great breach by the Israelites. In Exodus this concerns the Golden Calf, and in Numbers the story of the spies . Read the complete article at – http://www.biblicalheritage.org/DTB/0712B_%20DTB_Comparison_Ex32_Num14.pdf

There were eleven apostles after the loss of Judas, so another man was needed to fill his place. An account of how that man was chosen to be an apostle is recorded in the Book of the Acts of the Apostles . This will be the first apostle chosen after Jesus was crucified. Read the complete article at – http://www.biblicalheritage.org/DTB/0712A_How_to_choose_Apostle.pdf

In The Fabric of Reality , physicist David Deutsch equates knowledge with better explanations. Accurate predictions, he writes, are a byproduct of explanation and very important. But Deutsch insists that explanation is more crucial to understanding than prediction. He notes that the 17 th century Catholic Church hierarchy okayed the publication of Galileo’s heliocentric theory because they welcomed its predictive benefits. What frosted them – and led to the famous heresy trial, conviction, and recantation – was Galileo’s contention that universal mathematical laws based on empirical observation had more explanatory power than Holy Scripture. That, not prediction, is what upset the Church hierarchy. ( On Value and Values: Thinking Differently About We In An Age Of Me , by Douglas K. Smith © 2004, 2011; iUniverse, Inc., Bloomington, IN; p. 51)

Dr. James Tabor wrote a very interesting blog about apocalyptic beliefs in the Jesus movement. “The adjective “apocalyptic,” refers to the notion that the hidden realities of the unseen world are being revealed in an imminent and unfolding manner at the “end of the age.” It is not the “end of the world,” but rather a dramatic reversal and transformation of life as it is lived on planet earth. The “apocalypse” (literally “the revealing”) is good news and bad news, depending on ones stake in the present and ones attitude toward the new future–a future that ushers in the “kingdom of God.” This reign of God involves a complete reversal of the failed and flawed “rule” of humanity over the planet. The Hebrew Prophets picture it as an ideal time of peace, in which justice and righteousness fills the earth, and evil no longer holds sway. It is well summed up by the urgent plea in the Lord’s Prayer: Let your kingdom come! Let your will be done, on earth as it is in h...