BibleStudent100

Paul shares with us his secret to success: “I pummel my body and lead it as a slave, that, after I have preached to others, I myself should not become disapproved somehow.” (1 Corinthians 9:27) Like Paul, we too must gain the mastery over our imperfect flesh rather than allow it to be our master. We need to root out fleshly tendencies, longings, and desires. Doing so can be painful, since the word translated “discipline” literally means ‘hit under the eye'. Is it not, though, better to suffer a black eye, as it were, and live than to give in to the desires of the fallen flesh and die?

Hi Irishbeast: Have not humans for millenia used technology for both good and bad purposes? We could all site numerous examples of technological advances that were twisted into evil purposes. Since Satan rules this world and we have imperfect humans who focus on themselves, we see a perversion of technology that goes against human growth. Until God restores planet earth with perfect humans who love God, we will continue to see examples of human creations that end up causing more harm that good.

Thank you for sharing these experiences. It seems like we need to be more self-dependent rather than relying on the government. With weather going more to the extreme levels, we ought to plan more for "uncooperative" weather events.

Fascinating response with a lot to ponder! Do you think that the great watery canopy that was the storage for all the water that fell during the Flood could have prevented some of the harmful UV rays from the celestial realm from hitting the earth, which could have caused the longevity of humans before the Flood? In other words, right after the Flood, the length of human life instantly dropped to the "standard" length of 70-80 years in accord with Ps 90:10

Hi Dennis, you are spot on regarding WHY the ancients decided to put in the incredible amount of work required to build the ziggurat: "They now said: “Come! Let us build a city for ourselves and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a celebrated name for ourselves, so that we will not be scattered over the entire face of the earth.” (Genesis 11:4). The phrase "let us make a celebrated name for ourselves" is vague and it is possible that the descendants of Noah had heard the impressive stories of the strength and pride and self-assuredness of the fallen angels (the nephilim) and maybe they were making a tower to harken back to those days or to appease those "gods" with some thought of bringing back the "glory" days of strength and wickedness. To mount such a massive feat would have required incredible human strength and organization and motivation for Nimrod's followers and they all would have had to have some "buy in," as in what is in it for me? Again, the motivation could have been, "let's create another society with super-human creatures and maybe we could be like them." On a side note, have you all thought about this idea: The fame and dread of the Nephilim could have given rise to many mythologies of heathen people (e.g. Greek mythology) who, after the confusion of languages at Babel, were scattered throughout the earth.

Could you elaborate on this concept? tx

Since the Bible is a book of both history and prophecy, the numbers given therein may be either literal or symbolic. The context usually reveals in which sense a number is used. Certain numbers appear often in the Bible in an illustrative, figurative, or symbolic sense, and in such cases an understanding of their significance is vital to an understanding of the text. I look forward to your continued study and your analysis and thank you for sharing.

Amen brother; we should be concerned, but we know this is all the Bible prophecies coming true.

I really enjoy this line! I am going to use it. Thanks for being so clever and poignant.

When I was a lad in the 70s, the UN was on the nightly news almost every day, as it was a potent organization. But in recent decades, the UN has been plagued by scandal after scandal and now it is a feckless, defanged organization that cannot power its way out of a wet paper bag! The question for us Bible students is if the UN can achieve ascendency and become a world player (some Bible students point to its rise to become the "Image of the Wild Beast," as stated in Revelation) and the only way it can achieve power is for the governments of the world to give their power/allegiance to the UN, in a "deal" that some would refer to as a "new world order." Thoughts?

Insightfully shared!

Thank you for asking an insightful question and the for the solid explanations. I had never thought of this question and the answer bolsters my faith even more.

We said brother; we wonder amazed at the power of angels who can move through the vast space of the universe at will and then rejoice at the spiritual progress of us puny humans...

Yes, there is no letter "J" in Hebrew as Hebrew uses an entirely different alphabet than does English. I think you mean to say that Hebrew does not have the "J" sound, which would be written like this: Hebrew does not have the /j/ sound. Still, your points are well taken and yes, HOW we pronounce the divine name is far less important than that we USE the divine name. Some sounds are just not reproducible in some languages; you can google "critical age hypothesis for language learning" to find out what linguists believe regarding our inability to reproduce some sounds that in other languages, are easy to master. For example, the French Gutteral R sound is notoriously difficult to master for English speakers as we don't have that sound in our language and in French classes, I was conquered by that sound. As a Spanish teacher at the college level, there are some English speakers who can not roll their Rs if their lives depended on it and that is an important sound to make as mastering that sound needs to occur to change the meaning of some words. Bottom line: get as close as you can to the Hebrew pronunciation code and focus on the MEANING behind the words versus HOW they could/should be pronounced.

I appreciate your humility and practicality regarding safety and the Lord's protection.