Opened Scriptures Bible Studies

Good evening to all of you! I would like to take a break from our study of the book of Genesis to talk about a topic that you may not have considered. It is the subject of the Bible. This is a broad topic and I will probably dedicate a few posts to delve into this subject. What do people mean when they say that the scriptures are inspired? The formal term is "verbal inspiration" which simply means that God inspired each word of the scriptures in the original Hebrew and Greek languages. An easy way to understand inspiration is to tabulate how many times the scripture says "God spoke; Jesus spoke or the Holy Spirit spoke." If you do a word search with Bible software, you will find that there are nearly 4,000 places that plainly state that God is speaking in the passage of scripture. The earliest example of verbal inspiration is found in the account of creation where the simple phrase “God said” is used 9 times in the first two chapters of Genesis. The words s...

Good evening to you all Tonight, we will touch upon the death of Noah and read about his prophecy concerning his three sons. A husbandman is an interesting occupation. It means that Noah became a farmer. It can refer to a specific branch of farming and in the case of Noah, it appears he decided to grow grapes. It is sad to note that when his harvest was complete, Noah drank too much wine and became intoxicated. The Spirit of God saw fit to include this account in the Bible for our benefit. God spoke at length with Noah after the flood was over. We can safely assume that He told Noah the truth that he would need to live a God honoring life. The drunkenness of Noah was not good. The Bible speaks much about this subject, but here in the early portions of the scripture, it is the first time we read of it. For some reason, Noah took off his clothing. When people are drunk, they often say and do very foolish things and this is one example of foolishness. The text seems to indicate t...

Good morning. Spring flowers are beginning to show up in the Ohio landscape and the abundant beautiful song of birds and noises of other creatures fill the air. I hope you take a moment to stop, listen, look, and breath deeply and then thank God who created us in such a way that we can enjoy His creation with our senses! Noah and his family were now going to live in a new world. The massive, swirling flood waters scoured the earth with rocks, boulders and silt. The terrain was vastly different in appearance and I suspect that it had much more variety of topography. Valleys were deeper and mountains were higher than before, creating new patterns of wind and weather. The formerly uniformly mild and moist climate now had places in the world with temperatures ranging from very cold to very hot, and everything in between. Again, imagine going back to your hometown after being away from it for a long time. In my former hometown, there has been so much development that much of what I...

Good evening to all of you. Tonight, the post will examine the post diluvian world that Noah and his family saw when they emerged from the ark. Genesis 8:4-5 And the ark rested in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, upon the mountains of Ararat.  And the waters decreased continually until the tenth month: in the tenth  month , on the first  day of the month, were the tops of the mountains seen. First, the text indicates that the waters were receding fairly quick and the ark came to a rest somewhere in the mountain range named Ararat. The tops of the mountains were finally visible, meaning the overall water level had dropped more than 22.5 feet.  Genesis 8:6-9 And it came to pass at the end of forty days, that Noah opened the window of the ark which he had made:  And he sent forth a raven, which went forth to and fro, until the waters were dried up from off the earth.  Also he sent forth a dove from him, to see if the...

Good evening. I hope this post finds each of you doing well. We will discover how the flood came to this earth and note what God said about it all. To set the scene that will unfold, recall that Noah and all of his family were safely in the ark. In addition, all of the animals were safely on board. God shut them in. Genesis 7:11-12 In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened.  And the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights. There appear to be two sources of the water: fountains of the deep and the very first major rainstorm, referred to as the windows of heaven. Some geologically interesting theories as to the make up of these water sources can be found in the two books I recommended in the previous post. If God is capable of creating a universe that is incredibly vast, He certainly would have no issue f...

Good evening to all of you. I do have two books to recommend for those of you who might enjoy reading about the geological & scientific evidence for the flood described in Genesis 6-8. The first book is simply titled "The Flood" written by Alfred Rehwinkel. It is a fact based and evidence based approach looking through archaeological and geological evidence, and is written at a reasonably understandable level. The second book is titled "The Genesis Flood" written by John Whitcomb and Henry Morris. This book is a comprehensive scientific examination of the geological structures and mechanisms by two men who were well educated in the scientific approach. It is written in a more technical manner. I am not going to go into detail in an attempt to "prove" that the flood of Genesis was a real historic event. However, there are a few truths every person should consider before dismissing the Biblical account of the flood. First, the Lord Jesus Chr...

Good afternoon It is very windy here in Ohio and March is more like a lion than a lamb at this point. That won't deter us from delving into the subject of this post. I would like to look at the conclusion of Genesis 6 with you so that we can see a bit more about the man named Noah. To date, we have seen that he was right before God because he responded by faith and obeyed what God asked of him. We also saw that Noah was the spiritual leader in his family and that he apparently led his sons to consider the claims of God upon their lives and they too, responded with obedient faith. Genesis 6:17-22 And, behold, I, even I, do bring a flood of waters upon the earth, to destroy all flesh, wherein  is the breath of life, from under heaven;  and every thing that  is in the earth shall die.  But with thee will I establish my covenant; and thou shalt come into the ark, thou, and thy sons, and thy wife, and thy sons’ wives with thee.  And of every living thi...

Good morning Let us continue thinking about the flood recorded in Genesis chapter 6. As I am sure you recall from previous posts, we noted that people in the lists of names and families lived incredibly long lives. Some may wonder how this is possible, but remember that the original creation was free from the curse of sin. No sickness, no disease and the climate was  optimal for producing and sustaining abundant life forms. The lists of names also showed that death did come into the world because of sin. The phrase "and he died" has become the new reality. It remains however, that people lived longer in those long ago times because the conditions for living were so good. We also saw that there were two people groups: some were of the ungodly line, people or families who chose to live life apart from God, and the Godly line of those who chose to live in submission to the will of God. We also noted that there was a conflict and tension between the groups that indicates...

Good morning to all of you. This post will begin to examine the description of the flood contained in Genesis 6-8. We need to know why it happened and notice the additional changes to the world's climate that occurred after the flood. To this point in history, we have traced out the creation including human origins. We have witnessed the devastating impact of sin entering the world as we see the use of the phrase "and he died." We saw the rise of a sensual, secular culture as the earth was populated and cities were built. The world still had a remarkable climate ideal for all forms of life to reproduce as God planned. We saw that there are two lines of people: the Godly line descending from Seth and the ungodly line descending from Cain. This is not to say that everyone in the line of Seth were "Godly." Rather, it is a Holy Spirit inspired record of the family connections that will ultimately become part of the ancestry of Christ. The context of Genesi...

Good evening to all of you. This post is going to take a look at the 5th chapter of Genesis. I have to warn you that it is full of genealogy (birth) and death. However, I think I can provide an overview of this chapter that can take us through the scenes. First, the end of Chapter 4 lists the families descended from Cain. You may recall that I previously mentioned that there were two lines of humanity. The wicked line were those who traced their ancestry back to Cain. The Godly line, of the line through which the promised "seed" of the woman would be born, is the line of Seth.  Genesis 5 is an accounting of the offspring sired by Seth. This paints a picture of a world filled with wheat (those who knew and obeyed God) and tares (those who did not know God and lived as rebels).  Genesis 5 begins by restating how man was created by God (Elohim) before launching into the family histories as mankind began to populate the world. This is not a complete listing of name...

I thought it might be helpful to look with you a bit regarding the very first name of God we encounter in the Bible. The Hebrew word translated "God" in Genesis 1 is "Elohim." Genesis 1:1-2 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. Elohim is the English spelling of a Hebrew name of God.  You might ask, “When will I know when this name Elohim appears in the Old Testament?”  Our translators translated the Hebrew name Elohim as “God” 2,606 times in the plural form and “God” 245 times from its singular form.  Elohim or God appears 31 times in the first chapter of Genesis.  Why did God give us many different names for Himself?   God is an infinite being.  God is without limits.  Since He is a limitless God, He chose various Hebrew names to reveal certain facets of Himself to m...

Good afternoon I thought that I would share with you a verse from the lips of our Lord Jesus Christ as He taught His disciples about the eternal truth of God. This verse became the nugget of inspiration for a poem I wrote today. Now, I have business degrees not language, but I do indeed love the written word. I hope that this little poem will encourage those who have questions about God or those who know Him and struggle living out their faith, to see that there is a source of perfect truth God gave us so that we might know Him and  learn how He would have us to live our lives.  Matthew 13:52 Jesus saith unto them, Have ye understood all these things? They say unto him, Yea, Lord.  Then said he unto them, Therefore every scribe  which is instructed unto the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man  that is an householder, which bringeth forth out of his treasure  things new and old. What is our Heritage? Scripture doth tell us...

What a busy week this has been. Now that I am retired, I often find myself wondering how I had time to work because time seems to fly by and there are always things that need to be done. This week, I am privileged to share God's truth with our church family for the four Wednesdays in the month of March. I will be teaching on the divine names of God, and at a future date, I hope to share some of these studies with all of you. I would like to continue this overview of the book of Genesis with you. Today, I would like to look at the end of chapter 4 which unfolds the story of Cain after he murdered his brother, Abel. Let's read the text first and then I will share some thoughts with you about the changes occurring after Adam & Eve sinned. Genesis 4:16-25 And Cain went out from the presence of the LORD, and dwelt in the land of Nod, on the east of Eden.  And Cain knew his wife; and she conceived, and bare Enoch: and he builded a city, and called the name of the city, ...

Good day to everyone. Spring is in the air in Northeast Ohio. Songbirds are coming back and the robins returned a couple of weeks ago. I appreciate the cycle of seasons we enjoy because it is a reminder of how God graciously incorporated these times into His creation. We can plan things to be done in an effective manner because of the predictability He built into the time, space and matter continuum where we live. So far, we have looked at answering the questions "How did everything get here?" and "How did I get here?" from the perspective of God's word, the Bible. God created all things, including this vast space, time and matter continuum where you and I live. God set in place the complex systems necessary to sustain life, like the water cycle. God gives life to everything on this earth. However, man was given life and a soul in order to have communion with God and to worship Him. We also looked at what happened after Adam & Eve were created and ...