Joel Hovey

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  I speak in tongues more than you all - A biblical exploration about the gift of tongues. Two pitfalls are pointed out: The dangerous error of counterfeiting the truth and the chilling error of a dead orthodoxy.

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Gary Sharp

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Safety, Certainty and Enjoyment

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 Woollen and Linen

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Byrne Foreshew

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THE PROTOCOLS
What are the Protocols?
The word is derived from the Greek: prötos, first, and kolla, glue, and originally meant the first leaf glued to a papyrus roll. This bore the year of the king ruling at the time, and thus dated the roll. Reading the other day of the discovery of some papyri, the words occurred:
“They found a stray leaf close by which was supposed to be a protocol of one of the papyri.” Later the name was applied to the original copy of any writing, e.g., a treaty, and then it came to mean the rough draft of any transaction.
As showing the importance of these dated “protocols,” the following facts are of interest. The Higher Critics have sought in their general attack on the Old Testament Scriptures to unsettle the Biblical dates of the books of Ezra, Nehemiah and Daniel. “Their scholarship makes it impossible (!) to believe it otherwise.” “All (!) scholars are agreed” that these books could not have been written in their place, as we have them. Such persons as are described in the two former books did not exist, and two Greek words for musical instruments* in the book of Daniel most probably bring its date down to the second century instead of the sixth, in which it claims to be written (!). However, in 1904-1907, some papyrus rolls written in Aramaic by Jews of Jeb were discovered in the island of Elephantine or Jeb, in the Nile, opposite Assouan, all dated with the names of Persian Kings of the fifth century, B.C.. In these occur the names of Biblical persons such as Sanballat and the high priest, Jehoiada, and his son, Jehohanan, and also three Greek wordsf more unlikely in their character to be found, than the two Greek words occurring in Daniel. These flimsy papyrus-leaves, preserved in the dry sand of Egypt, are found to negative the premature conclusions of the critics. Daniel belongs to the same epoch.
The word “Protocol” has come rather prominently before the public in late years in connections with “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion,” a book purporting to be records of a world-wide conspiracy engineered by Jews. This work has proved to the satisfaction of very many to be a forgery by enemies of the Jews. It is, however, still used by Anti-semites on the Continentt (e.g., in German schools to-day) to stir up race- hatred against God’s earthly people.

William Hoste

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Luke 16:25-31" TARGET="_blank">Luke 16:25-31  But Abraham said, 'Child, remember that you in your lifetime received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner bad things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in anguish.  (26)  And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, in order that those who would pass from here to you may not be able, and none may cross from there to us.'  (27)  And he said, 'Then I beg you, father, to send him to my father's house--  (28)  for I have five brothers--so that he may warn them, lest they also come into this place of torment.'  (29)  But Abraham said, 'They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them.'  (30)  And he said, 'No, father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.'  (31)  He said to him, 'If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.'"

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Bible games for a group that are online here include:

1.  Lost Bible Searchers Game .  This small group Bible game requires players to traverse the map of the Bible world collecting pages from books of the Bible.

2.  Books of the Bible Game .  This collection of six Bible games for a group uses cards with information from the books of the Bible to help students learn their order and some facts about each book.

3. Criminal Suspects of the Bible .  This Bible game for a group requires students to identify the bad guy based on a police record of his/her crime.

4. Tribulation Survivor Game .  This is Bible game for a group that should be used after teaching about the Great Tribulation in Revelation.  Participants are living the Great Tribulation with the goal of surviving great disasters, persecution of the Antichrist and famine.

For some other Bible games for a group, browse the 350 Sunday school worksheets that contain a coloring page, crossword puzzle and other activities to review a Bible story.

Use one of the puzzle makers below to create your own Bible Games for a Group. 

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ELECTION
Some have become concerned as regards their unsaved relatives and the doctrine of election; they cannot understand how the difficulty of God’s sovereignty and man’s responsibility is to be met.

That, however, is a poor reason for not believing them both. We do not need to range ourselves in men’s categories and take sides with Arminians, those who hold the responsible freedom of man’s will, or with Calvinists who believe equally firmly in God’s sovereignty; we believe in both, not as a mixture, but as entireties.

If our gospel is limited or hampered by views of God’s sovereignty, we may be sure that we hold it wrongly.

As has been said, we pray as though all depended on God’s grace; we preach as though all hinged on man’s faith. Really the difficulty need not trouble us. It meets us, if we think of it, in every action of our life. Certainly God is Sovereign; “Known unto God are all His works from the beginning of the world” (Acts 15: 18)." TARGET="_blank">Acts 15: 18). God knows what will happen; He forsees; He chooses; He disposes. What can we do therefore? What is to be, will be. “We must wait for Him” to do all. On the contrary, we know we have a responsibility to fulfil and no accusations of Arminianism need turn us aside.

Let us take a simple illustration:—Supposing we have friends returning to the homeland from U.S.A.; but within sight of land the ship catches fire and everyone on board is in great peril. Now nothing is more certain than that God knows all, who will be saved and who will not be, but will that deter the most convinced Calvinist from seeking to bring help to those in danger and straining every nerve to reach them in time? We ask God’s help, and we thank Him when our friends are brought safely to land, but if everyone sheltered behind the purposes of God, and sat down and did nothing, then most probably those in danger would be lost. Now, if we would not act like this in temporal affairs, why do so in spiritual things? We are not called to examine the book of God’s decrees, but by prayer and effort to bring our relatives under the sound of the Gospel. The Lord did not send His disciples to preach election to every creature, nor the Gospel to all the elect (for we do not know who they are), but the Gospel to every creature. When Paul thanked God for the election of the Thessalonians in chap. i. 4 of the first Epistle, he did not cite some wonderful vision or spiritual experience through which they had passed, to justify this conviction, but he based it on: (1) the way they received the Gospel, and (2) the effects of the Gospel on their lives, summed up in verse 9 as “turning to God from idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait for His Son from heaven.” Generally when man’s responsibility and God’s electing grace are mentioned on the same page of Scripture, it is the former that comes first. Thus in John 5:40" TARGET="_blank">John 5:40 the Lord said to the Jews, “Ye will not come unto Me that ye might have life” (not ye cannot), and in the following chapter (v. 44) we hear His words, “No man can come to Me, except the Father, which hath sent Me, draw him.” See also Acts 13:46," TARGET="_blank">Acts 13:46, “Seeing ye put it (the Word of God) from you, and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, lo, we turn to the Gentiles”; and then two verses on, “As many as were ordained to eternal life believed.” In Acts 18: 8," TARGET="_blank">Acts 18: 8, “Many of the Corinthians, hearing, believed, and were baptized,” and in v. 10, “I have much people in this city.”

We must not limit the Gospel message as a bona fide proclamation of Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection as the means of salvation, available for all, for “God wills all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth,” and “Christ gave Himself a ransom for all,” that “whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life”; and the last message in the Scriptures to the unsaved is, “Let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will let him take the water of life freely.” Those who have believed the Gospel and who have the humble confidence that they are amongst God’s chosen ones, give glory to Him alone, and seek to make their calling and election sure. Perhaps there was never a more direct and specific promise from God of safety to any company than to Paul’s ship-companions: “There shall be no loss of any man’s life among you.” “God hath given thee all them that sail with thee”; and Paul added, “I believe God.” This was God’s sovereign act (Acts 27:22-25)," TARGET="_blank">Acts 27:22-25), but in verse 31 —when the sailors were about to flee out of the ship—Paul uttered the warning words, “Except these abide in the ship, ye cannot be saved.” This gives the human responsibility side, to which both saint and sinner should give good heed. It should be understood that this reply is limited to the subject of the question before us, and hardly touches on the great subject of the eternal counsels from the believer’s standpoint.

W.H.

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