Water on Mars?

 

 [1]

1 Peter 5:8-9

Holman Christian Standard Bible

⁸ Be serious! Be alert! Your adversary the Devil is prowling around like a roaring lion, looking for anyone he can devour. ⁹ Resist him and be firm in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are being experienced by your fellow believers throughout the world.

 

When the serpent (devil) tempted Eve, he had very little to go on. He used ventriloquism to make it appear that the serpent was actually talking and promised Eve that, as the serpent, had gained the ability to speak by eating the forbidden fruit, she, Eve, would gain precious knowledge by eating it. She was tricked, and all the evil in the world today resulted from her falling for it.

Likewise, the devil will stoop to any deviant, low, and mean device to capture us. Shortly after I got to high school, we had a discussion in a Friday night meeting about things to do on the Sabbath. Some students suggested that since God is love, and that he gave us love, including physical love, we should read novels about love. A lot of students thought that was a good idea.

I countered that since God is love and, in the commandment, He stated that the seventh day is the “Sabbath of the Lord Thy God,” therefore, we ought to be reading about our love for God instead of physical love. My reasoning sort of brought the discussion to a close.

Several of my fellow students approached me afterwards and told me that my reasoning was very convincing. They would appreciate it if I used it “on our side.” Their compliments fed my ego, and I began looking for places where I could support “our” side, and there were lots of places that I could. Some of those places actually supported what I considered to be the Lord’s side. On the other hand, it is also easy to use reasoning to support evil.

For example, just the other day, I overheard someone commenting that as scientists have examined some global structures on Mars, they have come to the conclusion that, early on, Mars was covered by water. Those same scientists examine the very same structures on earth and conclude that the earth was never covered by water. Why not? Because that would support the concept of a Genesis flood, and that is unconscionable.

Oh Lord, may my reasoning be guided by your Holy Spirit!

 

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[1] https://www.caltech.edu/about/news/what-happened-to-marss-water-it-is-still-trapped-there

What if there were no Bible?

[i]

1 Corinthians 1:4-5

Good News Translation (GNT)

⁴ I always give thanks to my God for you because of the grace he has given you through Christ Jesus. ⁵ For in union with Christ you have become rich in all things, including all speech and all knowledge.

Looking back over the history of the human race as generally outlined in the Bible from Adam to me, I often ponder what it must have been like to be a follower of the LORD. Apparently Adam and Eve got to talk to God face to face. However this did not last very long.

When our earliest ancestors sinned, God met with them personally, perhaps for the last time. This time He[ii] showed them how to kill and skin an animal. Then He showed them how to sew clothes from the animal’s skin to cover their nakedness. I assume He also showed them how to offer a sacrifice on an altar using the same animal. Apparently it was only much later that people started eating animals with God’s blessing.

Thereafter God very seldom communicated directly with humans. We can list a few: Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Moses. People were expected to remember what they had learned about God’s will. Apparently when Moses came, he wrote down human history and God’s instructions. These were carefully stored inside the Ark of the Covenant. The average person never saw these words.

By the time Christ walked on the earth, it seems that most Jewish meeting houses had some or all of the earlier writings that later came to be parts of our Bible. These had been laboriously copied out by hand and so were extremely expensive. Still the average person on the street had probably never read or owned even a part of the Bible. They were still expected to order their lives by what they had heard read to them.

Is it any wonder that so many people never heard God’s word in their whole lives? Is it any wonder that so many religions sprang up all over the world? Finally, in the 15^th century, printing was invented, and the first book ever printed was indeed the Bible. Over the years printed versions of God’s word have become more and more available. In this millennium it has become very easy to get the Bible on your cell phone for free. So we have indeed become “rich” in God’s word. With this “wealth” has come the responsibility of learning what our Creator’s will is for us individually and experiencing the Grace of Christ directly.

Thank You, Lord, for giving us Your Word so abundantly. Grant us wisdom to read and profit from it.

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[i] https://teatimewithev.com/kaleidoscope/printed-bible-or-cell-phone-bible

[ii] I use the masculine pronoun for God advisedly because the vast majority of translations of Scripture that I own, as well as the Greek and Hebrew texts, use it. I do not believe God has reproductive organs like humans and animals do.