Question:

What does the bible say about masturbation?

Answer:

If you look in Scripture, the word masturbation is nowhere to be found. It’s tough to definitively discuss this issue, since Jesus never specifically talked about it.

Now, I would contend that masturbation is a sin when looking at the totality of scripture. First, let’s check out Matthew 5:30 (NIV) “And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell.” I reckon there should be a whole slew of people in this world without their right hand.

While the act of masturbation is not specifically addressed by Scripture, you will find that the main trigger of masturbation is mentioned in Scripture. God despises lust, and that is one of the underlying triggers in someone’s struggle with masturbation. In this lust, one actually commits adultery in their heart (Matthew 5:27-28). Lust is an overwhelming thing. From a personal vantage point, I was sinking in lust/sexual sin for years before I submitted to God and He pulled me out of the wreckage. It’s pull is intense.

So, lust is a huge part of why masturbation is a sin, but is the act itself a sin? Some say no, not at all. I’m not so sure that is true. Masturbation is a selfish act to bring one’s self pleasure on their time table, that instant. It’s automatic gratification. But sexual pleasure is to be shared between a man and woman to give one’s self to the other- selflessly (Ephesians 5:25-32). By being alone, bringing pleasure to yourself without a spouse, your deviating from God’s design.

So, what about if you are masturbating to not have sex? Is that wrong? Masturbation is a substitute for a spouse, any person who masturbates knows that they need/want a spouse, this is natural. Masturbation shows a person they are alone and need a partner. God says ‘that it is not good for the man to dwell alone’ (Gen 2:18), therefore he created a wife for Adam. Paul says to singles and widows “if they cannot control themselves, they should marry, for it is better to marry than to burn with passion.” (1 Cor 7:9). The problem in our age is that it is so difficult for a man to find a Christian wife, and for a woman it is so difficult to find a Christian husband. Further, there are other poor substitutes out there, pornography, sex toys, paid escorts, etc.- these are a lot easier to find than to find a partner. These give temporary relief to our ‘alone-ness’, but are not the answer. However, Paul’s advice to the Corinthian church, who also lived in an immoral society just like we do, was that people should marry rather than indulge in sexual immorality (1 Cor 7:2). It is better to marry than to be consumed by masturbation or other substitutes.

One issue with masturbation as well as sexual immorality is self-control.

(1 Cor 7:8-9 NIV) Now to the unmarried and the widows I say: It is good for them to stay unmarried, as I am. But if they cannot control themselves, they should marry, for it is better to marry than to burn with passion.

(1 Th 4:3-7 NIV) It is God’s will that you should be sanctified: that you should avoid sexual immorality; that each of you should learn to control his own body in a way that is holy and honorable, not in passionate lust like the heathen, who do not know God; and that in this matter no one should wrong his brother or take advantage of him. The Lord will punish men for all such sins, as we have already told you and warned you. For God did not call us to be impure, but to live a holy life.

(Titus 2:6 NIV) Similarly, encourage the young men to be self-controlled.

Self-control is a fruit of the spirit (Gal 5:23), however fruit takes time to grow. Our sexual appetite is strong and for most people is difficult to tame. We should also remember that marriage was one of God’s pre-fall ordinances (Gen 2:24). It is natural to marry even in a perfect world, but now in our immoral world marriage also serves to keep us from immorality (Paul’s argument in 1 Cor 7:2).

(1 Cor 7:2 NIV) But since there is so much immorality, each man should have his own wife, and each woman her own husband.

Marriage is not just a solution to sexual immorality, it is also God’s plan to end loneliness, provide companionship, provide a helper, mutual support, children, joy etc, etc. Most men who have known a woman will say: “she is beautiful”, “she sees things differently to me”, “I need her”, “she sees my weaknesses”, “she supports me” (add your own experiences).

(Prov 18:22 NIV) He who finds a wife finds what is good and receives favor from the LORD.

Regardless if it’s masturbation, pornography, prostitution, etc. Remember one thing if nothing else… God forgives you. God sent his Son to die for you. God sent his Son whom he loves to suffer pain and shame on the cross. The truth is that Jesus died for sinners not for the healthy but for the sick. Jesus still calls sinners to repentance. Yes the gospel is that God even forgives YOU.

(Luke 5:31-32 NIV) Jesus answered them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”

(Luke 15:30-32 NIV) But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!’ “‘My son,’ the father said, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’”

The good news of the gospel is that Jesus died for real men and woman who have sinned, just like you and me. We have all fallen short of God’s standards. Today is the day we can turn from that and draw near to God, accept His love, submit to Him in Christian baptism, and live a life worthy of His name as we are filled with His Spirit.

(excerpts taken from article by RK Taylor)

Question:

If I am saved, why am I so miserable and angry with my kids?

Answer:

“Being saved” does not equate with immediate and sustained joy. When being baptized, we are told that is the point we accept Jesus and our LORD and SAVIOR. The two cannot be separated. These two facets, being lived out daily, are what bring us joy in Christ. Much like a relationship with a spouse, to continue a true and beautiful relationship- it takes work. In our relationship with Jesus- each day we must find our strength in Him as our SAVIOR and LORD. It’s easy to accept the “being saved” part, but the joy comes from not only accepting his saving grace- but, also about accepting His Lordship. That’s difficult for many to accept, but it’s the basis by which we find our joy.

Philippians 2 (in the New Testament of the Bible), sheds some light on this:

¹If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, ²then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose. ³Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. ⁴Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.

⁵Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: ⁶Who, being in very nature God,  did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,  ⁷but made himself nothing,  taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. ⁸And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death— even death on a cross! ⁹Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, ¹⁰that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, ¹¹and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,  to the glory of God the Father.

Philippians 2:1-11

Our joy is made complete when we have the same love and purpose for God. It cannot come from self, family, job, things, sports, hobbies, etc. All of these will pass away, let us down, and disappoint us. God does not. Now, when it comes to your kids, it’s a tough situation. Kids can get on our nerves, drive us crazy, and chew us up only to spit us out. It can be a mess. But, parenting done God’s way can be a beautiful thing. Our Family Pastor, Becky Bruner has some great resources on biblical parenting, and how not to lose your cool when trying to raise them in God’s truth. Her contact info is becky@forefront.org or calling the office at: 757-468-1188 (Mon-Thurs).

I’ll be praying you are able to refocus your joy on Him and that you’re able to find the resources through Becky to help with the kids. In the meantime, here are some verses on joy that you can be reminded of when you’re ready to send one of your kids to see Jesus…

Psalm 27:6 – “Then my head will be exalted above the enemies who surround me; at his tabernacle will I sacrifice with shouts of joy; I will sing and make music to the LORD.” (NIV)

Psalm 97:11-12 – “Light is shed upon the righteous and joy on the upright in heart. Rejoice in the LORD, you who are righteous, and praise his holy name.” (NIV)

Psalm 118:24 – “This is the day the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.” (NIV)

Proverbs 15:13 – “A happy heart makes the face cheerful, but heartache crushes the spirit.” (NIV)

Proverbs 15:23 – “A man finds joy in giving an apt reply – and how good is a timely word!” (NIV)

Proverbs 17:22 – “A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.” (NIV)

Isaiah 35:10 – “And the ransomed of the LORD will return. They will enter Zion with singing; everlasting joy will crown their heads. Gladness and joy will overtake them, and sorrow and sighing will flee away.” (NIV)

Isaiah 55:12 – “You will go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and hills will burst into song before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands.” (NIV)

Nehemiah 8:10 – “Nehemiah said, ‘Go and enjoy choice food and sweet drinks, and send some to those who have nothing prepared. This day is sacred to our Lord. Do not grieve, for the joy of the LORD is your strength.’” (NIV)

John 16:22 – “So with you: Now is your time of grief, but I will see you again and you will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy.”. (NIV)

Question:

I’m walking in faith and believe God told us to make a move. Does God say “go”? If so, why does it hurt so bad? Why would He do that? He took me away from my family?

Answer:

This question really boils down to one thing: Listening to God. We need to learn to faithfully listen to God if we want to become faithful servants of Him. In each of our lives there will come a time–and most likely many times–when He will come to us and simply say, “Go.” There are specific places God wants us to be at certain times so that He can use us–and even bless us–in ways that are specific to that particular location.

But that is no reason to freak out over every little detail of life. It is simply a reminder that we need to listen. Before we can ever know how we are to serve God, we must first come to learn where we are to serve God. Sometimes the answer is not a place, but a process. Like a soldier who attends boot camp in one place, gets stationed in another, and then gets deployed to yet another location, God likes to move His people around too. Even when we know where we are going, God can change our direction in a split second.

God absolutely says go to many people throughout the Bible. Many times when people follow God, hardships arise. Actually, we’re promised that hardships will occur in our journey with God. Paul, a faithful follower of God endured beatings, shipwrecks, jail, condemnation, torture, lashes, and more- all while “following Jesus and God’s purpose for His life.” If a fellow follower of God who was tasked at planting so many churches and writing much of the New Testament endured such hardships, we cannot expect anything less. Following Jesus or not- life is going to be tough. The difference lies within the lens we view our circumstances.

If our hardships our viewed through the lens of Christ, we have a hope, joy and promise of something more than this earth. Now that doesn’t mean sometimes you won’t get down or sad. Some situations lend themselves to that (i.e. When my wife and I went through a miscarriage, we had a hope, but it was still a very sad time for us). If our lens is our own desires and ambition, things are much darker and more depressing. This mainly occurs because there is no real explanation or place to turn for answers.

For you personally (You guys reading don’t know who this is, but I do. So, you get to get a glimpse into this from a far), because I know your exact circumstances and helped with the process- this boils down to one of two things.

- Did God convince me of His plan and I obeyed him?
- Did I decide and then try to convince myself it was God’s plan?

For you, I would go with the latter. With the pain that has happened, the turmoil in family circumstances, the sin involved with the decision, and the self-proclaimed lack of a connection with God… it makes it difficult to even begin to think God was any part of this. Many times I see people make decisions and then proclaim, “God is telling me… and fill in the rest.” It’s the ultimate trump card. As a follower of Jesus we can follow up anything with “God told me to” and there’s really nothing to say about it from the people listening. For example:

“I went to get a manicure, ’cause God told me to.”
“I moved across the country, ’cause God told me to.”
“I decided on boxers instead of briefs, ’cause God told me to.”
“I bought a dog instead of a cat, ’cause God told me to.”
“Our family bought a Hummer with our tax return, ’cause God told us to.”

Truthfully, I think many times people are full of baloney. “Really? God told you to buy a Hummer, wear boxers, get a manicure, buy a dog?” I’m not buying what they’re selling. God gives us a brain, heart, and soul to be used by Him for His good works. But not every decision is a God led one. I don’t think he cares what you eat for breakfast, wear to work, or pet you buy. When it comes to big decisions, I think He cares, but allows us room to make choices. Sometimes there is more than one right choice. The thing is, Christians sometimes make a choice, claim/convince themselves it’s God, it ends up being a bad choice, then blame God for the turnout. All the while, He was shaking His head wondering who the heck we were following- because it wasn’t Him.

Listening to God is not a science, but an art form. More often than not, we need to simply stop talking so He can get a word in. Or, He has been telling us a word/His answer, but since we’re too busy talking we cannot hear Him clearly. I would advise you to sit with Him. Listen to Him. Try to do it without interrupting Him, and see what happens…

We had a team go to Vietnam and lead a teacher’s conference for 40+ teachers. They also did some work on the school’s fence and continued building relationships in the Ta Phin village. I love seeing Forefront living out the Great Commission. You guys are amazing! (video embedded below)

Vietnam Missions: Sept 2010 Team from Forefront Church on Vimeo.

Also, this past Sunday, I had the honor and privilege to baptize a guy from my Gel Group. His name is Martin. He’s a young tennis pro at a local country club who was invited by a friend to “just come and check out the church.” Five months later, He’s giving his life to God. Just a great guy with a heart for others. If you see Martin around, please introduce yourself and congratulate him. So excited to see things like this happening. It really never gets old… (video embedded below)

Forefront Baptism 10-17-10 from Forefront Church on Vimeo.

Question:

If you live in a third world country and you’re never introduced to God, do you still go to heaven?

Answer:

This is one place where I am glad to say, “I am not God and I am thankful for that. I cannot comprehend making those kinds of decisions about who has followed His Spirit and claimed His promise and who hasn’t. That’s not my place. My place is to teach truth and allow God to judge the heart of those entering into eternity.” Now, with that being said, we do have a wonderful book in the Bible, Romans, that begins to paint a clearer picture of this scenario that gets brought up by both believers and non-believers in Jesus- “What happens in places where they don’t know about God?”

In the opening chapter of Romans, we get a glimpse into this type of scenario and what transpires in the minds & hearts of those living in this type of environment. Check out the passage below and then we’ll parse through it a bit more:

“For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to  the Greek. For in it  the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, ‘The righteous shall live by faith.’”

“For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.”
Romans 1:16-23

So, even if we did not have the Gospel message (which they did have), we can see God’s invisible attributes throughout His creation. Because we can see this external power and divine nature, which are “clearly perceived” according to the text- we are “without excuse.” Now this would lead us to point in one of two directions: 1. Worshiping Creation or 2. Worshiping Creator.

In this instance, Paul notes that they “became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.” So they began worshiping the creation/idols instead of worshiping the Creator. If we worship creation instead of the Creator, we are moving into idolatry and what is known as Paganism or sometimes in the form of Wiccan belief. This would cause a disconnect with God and lead us away from Him. If we live a life away from Him, we are told we will experience eternity without Him.

Now, if we turn to the Creator in this instance, worshiping the eternal power and divine nature of He who made all things- we would be moving towards the little we know of God in this instance. I believe God is righteous and just and would honor that person’s worship and devotion to Him on what little they did know of Him from Creation and his “divine nature.”

There are people who ride on the fence concerning this topic, people on one side and vise versa. We’re not sure whether or not people will completely hear the name of Jesus and His message of love and redemption unfolded- which makes for an even greater burden to abide in His commands to “go out into all the earth spreading the message and name of Jesus.”

Luckily, I am not in the position to decide people’s eternity. It’s too heavy of a burden for us to carry. It is however, our God-given mission to help the poor, suffering, widows, orphans, and spread God’s love to all the world.

So, I’m taking a brief break from the questions (which we have about 11 left), because of current happenings. I’ll just hit up the bullet list to make it easier for everyone to follow along. I’ll update everyone on things later in the week:

• I had emergency surgery Saturday to have my appendix removed before it burst inside of me. I thought is was food poisoning, then diverticulitis, then kidney stones… nope. I went to the ER and 25 minute later was in surgery having an organ extracted. Good times.
• Because of this, I missed my two year anniversary of becoming the teaching pastor at Forefront Church. Sunday, October 3rd, 2010 marks two years that God has allowed me to be at the front of the pack and I could not be more humbled and in awe of what God does. He is amazing. Definitely a bummer I spent it in the hospital.
• Upon arriving home, I received word that a student was killed by another student in an altercation at Mid Atlantic Christian University (formerly RBC) where I went to college. To further complicate things, the student who died was close to a couple of Forefronters who attend school there and the shooter has some pretty close ties to Forefront Church. We were not meant to deal with death. Sin and the fall of man introduced us to such things. There are not many details that I can share at this time, but as more comes available- I’ll be addressing it with our church family soon. Please pray for both young men, their families, and everyone in the MACU/RBC family.
• Met with the staff via video chat to finalize our trip to Catalyst in Atlanta, GA this week. Since we wish we could do more for our staff, but finances are tight, we take this opportunity each year to pour into our staff and thank them for doing such an amazing job of ministering to God’s church at Forefront.

  

• Doc cleared me for travel so unless I’m feeling tremendously ill tonight, I’ll be heading with the staff down to ATL. Making a decision later tonight. We’ll see…
• Heard James Davis really brought God’s word on Sunday. So glad to have a young man that passionate about God on our staff. If you’re on Facebook, Twitter or have the urge to email him, tell him what a great job he did on Sunday.
• Because I was out, we postponed launching the “My Movie Life” series until this coming Sunday. Due to the current events, I think God had an even stronger message planned, but he needed to send me to the hospital first and have other things unfold. You won’t want to miss next Sunday.
• Still have a big project for Forefront sitting on my desk at home. I want to share it with you, but God is still letting it marinate. When it’s ready- it’s going to blow your mind.

Question:

In a blended family of faith, how do you handle a situation where the childrenʼs “other” parent does not believe? How do you encourage children who arenʼt “fed” when they are with that other parent?

Answer:

If they are older, I would get them some study tools to use while at the other parent’s home and encourage them to ask about church while there. “Can we go to church today? We go when we’re back home and would like for you to take/come with us?” I know it seems a little strange for kids to have to coax their parents to get them to church, but it happens. I did student ministry for 9+ years and we saw hundreds of kids over the years who would come without their parents, but have their parents drive them. The great part was when the kids were such an influence, that their parents got baptized as a result. So cool to see.

Now, if they’re younger, this gets a little more difficult. If you talked with our Family Ministry Staff (Becky & Barbara), they could get you simple resources that you could send with your child to encourage them while at their parent’s home (i.e. worksheets, coloring pages, memory verses, possibly DVD videos, crafts, etc). Use this as an opportunity to allow your kids to strengthen their faith while away. The resources and encouragement you give them will be huge. Keep things like praying at bed-time, morning, meals, etc. a priority. If they can read, send a daily bible reading with them. Little things to encourage the spiritual disciplines while away.

Question:

If you accepted Christ, but did not get baptized? Are you still filled with the Holy Spirit?

Answer:

There are two main places where theologians dialogue about what is called the “Baptism of the Holy Spirit”:

1. Day of Pentecost. This is found in Acts, Chapter 2. The placement of this event happening is in accordance with Jesus’ promise  in Luke Chapter 24 and Romans Chapter 15 (the starting of His church).

2. Cornelius’ House. This is found in Acts Chapters 10 and 11. Essentially, this pouring out or “baptism of the holy spirit” is to confirm that the Gospel is for Gentiles as well as the Jews. The message of Jesus and salvation was being confirmed that no man was left without His teaching of love, grace, and redemption.

But, these are special instances. Like a solar eclipse or watching a comet fly by, these are not the normal practices of day to day happenings in the lives of Christ-followers. These were special instances to confirm major happenings in the New Testament church. What we do see, a bit later in Acts, Chapter 2- is a clear outline for the way in which we receive Jesus and the Holy Spirit.

In Acts 2:37 and following,
When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?” 38Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit… and about 3,000 were added to their number that day.

Let’s look at the sequence of events. Repent, Be baptized, Do so in the name of Jesus for the forgiveness of sins, AND you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The composition of this in the original Greek or even today translated to English, does not loose it’s grammatical pattern. We must first repent and turn from our ways, believing in the God of the Bible who forgives sin- we are baptized in the name of Jesus for the forgiveness of our sins- at which point we receive His Spirit.

Later in scripture we see the conversion of the Ethiopian Eunuch (Acts 8:26-40), where once He has heard the Gospel message preached, he asks, “See, here is water. What hinders me from being baptized?” And Philip went down into the water and brought Him up out of the water. Showing us not only this earlier pattern (repent, baptism, holy spirit), but we also get to understand the mode of baptism. The original word translated is from “Baptizo” which means “to dip, plunge, or immerse.” From this, we would deny that sprinkling, pouring, or the dropping of small amounts of  water would be a biblical form of baptizing someone. Also, in the baptism of Jesus, we see “Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened…” He could only come up from the water if He had been down in the water (Matthew 3:13-17, Mark 1:9-11 and Luke 3:21-22). It was after He came up out of the water that we see God’s Spirit descending from Heaven, further pointing to the example of when we receive God’s Spirit. Now wasn’t Jesus already fully God and fully man? Yes, but He was fulfilling His role in leading us as to how to follow God the Creator. So, according to scripture, “Are you filled with the Holy Spirit if you have not been baptized?” My understanding of the Bible points to, no. The Holy Spirit is imparted to us miraculously by God at the baptism (full immersion) of a repentant believer. Now, I do believe God’s Spirit works on us to move our hearts to turn to Him. It’s not something we completely do on our own, but that is a topic for a later post (stay tuned).

To better understand this, I would ask you to pick up a couple books that can better and more fully explain something that deserves more justice and a blog post. First off, I would pick up “Baptism: A Biblical Study” by Jack Cottrell, and “Thirteen Lessons in Christian Doctrine” by Denver Sizemore. They speak at length to this topic and both men do a fantastic job opening up the scriptures to answer this question.

You can find those books here and here on Amazon.com

Question:

If God was first… what about the dinosaurs?

Answer:
Dinosaurs existed (and not just in Jurassic Park) and their existence not only lines up with the Bible, but they are mentioned in the Bible. 35 times the words, behemoth, leviathan, and/or tanniyn (which is translated large dragon or large reptile) are found in the Bible. It wasnʼt until 1841 that the word dinosaur appeared.

From these words, the first dinosaur discovered was labeled, “Iguanodon” by Dr. Gideon Mantell in 1822. The word didn’t sit well and eventually found it’s place as being labeled, “dinosaur.” Itʼs word linage is translated from the words mentioned previously. Let’s look at some examples found in the Bible:

Behemoth has the following attributes according to Job 40:15-24

• It “eats grass like an ox.”
• It “moves his tail like a cedar.” (In Hebrew, this literally reads, “he lets hang his tail like a cedar.”)
• Its “bones are like beams of bronze,
  His ribs like bars of iron.”
• “He is the first of the ways of God.”
• “He lies under the lotus trees,
  In a covert of reeds and marsh.”

Some bibles and study bibles will translate the word “behemoth” as “elephant” or “hippopotamus.” Others will put a note at the edge or bottom of the page, stating that behemoth was probably an elephant or a hippopotamus. Although an elephant or hippopotamus can eat grass (or lie in a covert of reeds and marsh), neither an elephant or a hippopotamus has a “tail like a cedar” (that is, a tail like a large, tapered tree trunk). In your kid’s dinosaur book you will find lots of animals that have “tails like a cedar.”

We would expect behemoth to be a large land animal whose bones are like beams of bronze and so forth, so whatever a behemoth is, it is large. A key phrase is “He is the first of the ways of God.” This phrase in the original Hebrew implied that behemoth was the biggest animal created. Although an elephant or a hippopotamus are big, they are less than one-tenth the size of a Brachiosaurus, the largest (complete) dinosaur ever discovered. A Brachiosaurus could therefore easily be described as “the first of the ways of God.”

Leviathan has the following attributes according to Job chapter 41, Psalm 104:25,26 and Isaiah 27:1. This is only a partial listing—just enough to make the point.

• “No one is so fierce that he would dare stir him up.”
• “Who can open the doors of his face, with his terrible teeth all around?”
• “His rows of scales are his pride, shut up tightly as with a seal; one is so near another that no air can come between them; they are joined one to another, they stick together and cannot be parted.”
• “His sneezings flash forth light, and his eyes are like the eyelids of the morning. Out of his mouth go burning lights; sparks of fire shoot out. Smoke goes out of his nostrils, as from a boiling pot and burning rushes. His breath kindles coals, and a flame goes out of his mouth.”
• “Though the sword reaches him, it cannot avail; nor does spear, dart, or javelin. He regards iron as straw, and bronze as rotten wood. The arrow cannot make him flee; slingstones become like stubble to him. Darts are regarded as straw; he laughs at the threat of javelins.”
• “On earth there is nothing like him, which is made without fear.”
• Leviathan “played” in the “great and wide sea” (a paraphrase of Psalm 104 verses 25 and 26—get the exact sense by reading them yourself).
• Leviathan is a “reptile that is in the sea.” (Isaiah 27:1)

Just a few examples of dinosaurs and the Bible. So, did dinosaurs and man exist together? Absolutely. Which, how would you like to be the kid who ran too slow in gym class? “Look out for T-Rex little Johny… bummer.” What would have caused their demise? A globally, catastrophic event- maybe a flood? I agree (with many scholars who know way more than I do), that the flood is the most logical cause of the extinction of the dinosaurs. As far as asking questions about them and getting definitive answers… we’ll have to wait for heaven (or a real Jurassic Park, but count me out on visiting that place, ha).

Question:

How did we populate if we all came from Adam and Eve?

Answer:

(Genesis 5:4) “The days of Adam after he fathered Seth were 800 years; and he had other sons and daughters.”

The Bible tells us that Adam and Eve had daughters also. Adam didn’t just have two son’s, he had quite a few children. Adam’s sons and daughters married each other. It seems strange to us now, but back in the day that’s how they did it. This would sound repulsive to us today, but consider the circumstances back then. It would have been proper at that time, since the Earth’s population was relatively sparse, and the human race was to be proliferated according to God’s purpose.

It was only later that God made the restriction not to marry one’s own sister or brother. We read about these precepts in Leviticus 18:6-17, where weʼre told the relationships of parent/child, aunt/uncle, sibling or half-sibling, child-in-law, sibling-in-law, grandchild, and step grandchild are forbidden. Scripture does not forbid marrying between first cousins, although almost every state has laws against such things (insert various jokes about West Virginia here). “Go Mountaineers!”