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NASB | Revelation 17:5 and on her forehead a name was written, a mystery, "BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH." |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | Revelation 17:5 And on her forehead a name was written, a mystery: "BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF PROSTITUTES (false religions, heresies) AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH." |
Bible Question:
Robert, Thanks for your comments. My mother has told me of how they had to save my life using a blood transfusion on or about the first day after my birth. But, there is still one scripture that I cannot get past: Acts 15 "23They wrote this, letter by them: The apostles, the elders, and the brethren, To the brethren who are of the Gentiles in Antioch, Syria, and Cilicia: Greetings. 24Since we have heard that some who went out from us have troubled you with words, unsettling your souls, saying, "You must be circumcised and keep the law"[5] --to whom we gave no such commandment-- 25it seemed good to us, being assembled with one accord, to send chosen men to you with our beloved Barnabas and Paul, 26men who have risked their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. 27We have therefore sent Judas and Silas, who will also report the same things by word of mouth. 28For it seemed good to the Holy Spirit, and to us, to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things: 29that you abstain from things offered to idols, from blood, from things strangled, and from sexual immorality.[6] If you keep yourselves from these, you will do well. Farewell. " Notice: "...no greater burden than these necessary things: 29that you abstain from things offered to idols, from blood, ...". Why is this to be kept in the new testament? I think it is because God is saying in both the old and new testaments, that the life (spirit) is in the blood: Deuteronomy 12:23 Only be sure that thou eat not the blood: for the blood is the life; and thou mayest not eat the life with the flesh. John 6:53 Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you. Is this really related to blood transfusions or DNA mixing? I wonder. Pastor Glenn |
Bible Answer: Pastor Glenn, warm greetings, and may I butt in? Not that I have all the answers, but your question interests me, and being from Arkansas, when the subject of pigs comes up, I perk up my ears because I'm an avid Razorback fan and don't want the genetic scientists monkeying around with 'them hogs' as we fondly call them! ..... Back to the serious topic addressed by your question. Some questions are easy, some pointless and trivial, while others -- the best kind, the kind Socrates posed -- are designed to make us think. Yours falls in this latter category, for it is indeed an excellent one. The fear of the unknown is common to man, and even Christian believers are not immune to this fear; but believers have access to mighty resources that are denied unbelievers, chief among which are faith in the absolute sovereignty of God and prayer..... Each milestone of change has been accompanied by dire predictions that this or that new invention, discovery, theory or philosophy signaled the beginning of the end of life as we know it. When the automobile was invented there were naysayers who were convinced that the human body would never be able to withstand sustained travel at the reckless speed of 25 miles an hour. When Charles Darwin published his "Origin of Species" the talking heads of that day predicted the death of the Christian faith because the book, so they said, put to the lie the Genesis story of creation. In the wake of the discovery of atomic energy and the manufacture of nuclear weapons came those who saw this event as the prelude to the utter annihiliation of mankind..... But people travel far in excess of 25 miles an hour; Darwin's theory is now viewed as bunkum by vast numbers in the scientific community and it has not wiped out Christianity by any means; and nuclear weaponry, while still posing a serious threat, has not done away with life on this planet..... Genetic engineering, even human cloning, looms ever nearer on the horizon, and I believe it (parts of it at least; I would exclude human cloning) like nuclear energy, has at least an equal potential for good as for evil. While I would never promote the idea that the Christian should take the ostrich approach to human problems, hiding his head in the sand and hoping a weak hope that somehow the problem will either solve itself or go away, neither would I promote the idea that Christians must become activists to the extent of taking matters into their own hands. We must surrender first and foremost to the sovereign Lord. It is He, not we, who is in charge. We can be instruments for change in the world, but we must be His instruments. We must seek His will through much prayer.... We know not what the future holds for us on this earth -- whether cloning or wars, whether plagues of terrorism or pain of persecution, whether sickness or health, whether fortune or famine.... This much we do know: If God is for us, who is against us? Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. Nothing will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord..... Not genetic engineering. Not cloning. Nothing. [Scriptural extracts from Romans 8] --Hank |