Loving Not Our Lives Unto Death: overcoming, I and II

Judahsglory.com is offline for a short time

Due to enormous difficulties in attempts to takeover the ministry of Judah's Glory, founded in 1987, I have taken the site down for a short season to repair and restore damage done to it by hackers, and move the site.

Judah's Glory Bible Studies are still available through:

housethatwillnotdie.blogspot.com
propheteuo.blogspot.com
healingofchrist.blogspot.com
warsofisrael.blogspot.com
promiseofmessiah.blogspot.com

and this one as well.  Pray for the protection and truth regarding this labor intensive but homebased ministry to prevail, and for fellow Christians who at least profess the name of the Lord to be respectful toward my work and right to work.  Thanks to all who have helped make Judah's Glory a useful ministry over the years.  When I return to the net, I will have easy access downloads to Bible Studies and other materials in audio and pdf format.   I am considering also at least a weekly Bible Study in streaming video,  though i am older and less beautiful than my esteemed colleagues.  ekbest

An Altar not Hewn: The Altar of God's Choosing vs. Our Own

Jesus, Women and Children

Answer to an Age Old Question About the Violent Old Testament

For centuries, those wishing to dismiss the Holy Scriptures as unholy and insignificant, have approached faith and belief with what they believe are 'unanswerable' questions, and they can fell even the best Bible student. Most often though, their questions are slightly skewed, and taking a hint from the serpent in the Garden, they misquote scripture and misrepresent what really occurred or what God said.


In the Bible Study Blog: Judahsglory.blogspot.com, we have recently looked at some standard objections which friendly or not-so-friendly heathen raise in attempts to undue faith. The particular question today though, I chose to answer in 'Warsofisrael.blogspot.com' because it deals at least in part with the wars in the Old Testament.


The question, often found among skeptics and on college campuses, goes something like this: OK well if the Bible is so good then why in the Old Testament are there so many wars, and slavery where it says to kill everybody but keep the female children: is that supposed to be good? Did Jesus say he fulfilled the Law? If he did....


Getting a Few Things Straight


1. There is a difference in the Old and New Testament between what God condones and what is merely DESCRIBED. The bloody and bloodless wars of Israel are sometimes ordered by God and sometimes occur.


2. If one notices in the wars of Israel in which the Children of Israel leave Goshen in Egypt, and march back home to Canaan, they are leaving under a God ordained and anointed Leader, Moses [Moshe] and the are going to Canaan in OBEDIENCE to God. Except by command, they are not imperialistic in the traditional sense:

a. The Land is the birthright established by Abraham, and ordained by God: they technically still own it.

b. While in Goshen, it has been overrun by violent brutal people, who have made it a grotesque slaughterhouse. Sodomy and rape are rampant, and the 'ites' [Perrezites, Amorites, Ammonites, Raphaites, etc] are known for wanton beheadings and mutilation, and even acts of cannibalism, and infant sacrifice.

c. When Israel confronts the encampments and cities which have overrun their original land, most often, if allowed to pass, they take up no arms at all against the people. The fear of a nation of a million and a half marching back to their land after the deliverance from Pharaoh and the Red Sea, and word of their victories in the necessary battles for their safety, often self-defense, causes many to let them pass. An example is when the prophet Balaam is called by Balak to curse Israel, willing to pay and honor him for the curse, and instead, Balaam can only praise and exalt Israel. In the meantime, Israel in the desert is described as a crouching lion:

Num 23:7 And he took up his parable, and said, Balak the king of Moab hath brought me from Aram, out of the mountains of the east, [saying], Come, curse me Jacob, and come, defy Israel.

Num 23:8 How shall I curse, whom God hath not cursed? or how shall I defy, [whom] the LORD hath not defied?

Num 23:9 For from the top of the rocks I see him, and from the hills I behold him: lo, the people shall dwell alone, and shall not be reckoned among the nations.

Num 23:10 Who can count the dust of Jacob, and the number of the fourth [part] of Israel? Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like his!

Num 23:11 And Balak said unto Balaam, What hast thou done unto me? I took thee to curse mine enemies, and, behold, thou hast blessed [them] altogether.

] Num 23:12 And he answered and said, Must I not take heed to speak that which the LORD hath put in my mouth?

and the blessing shows the way the cities viewed Israel:

Num 23:21 He hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob, neither hath he seen perverseness in Israel: the LORD his God [is] with him, and the shout of a king [is] among them.

Num 23:22 God brought them out of Egypt; he hath as it were the strength of an unicorn.

Num 23:23 Surely [there is] no enchantment against Jacob, neither [is there] any divination against Israel: according to this time it shall be said of Jacob and of Israel, What hath God wrought!

Num 23:24 Behold, the people shall rise up as a great lion, and lift up himself as a young lion: he shall not lie down until he eat [of] the prey, and drink the blood of the slain.

Num 23:25 And Balak said unto Balaam, Neither curse them at all, nor bless them at all.

Num 23:26 But Balaam answered and said unto Balak, Told not I thee, saying, All that the LORD speaketh, that I must do?

Note that Balak, the King of Moab, doesn't LIKE what Balaam declares but also doesn't doubt it: they look out on the million in the desert, and understand that God's favor is with them, and that they could easily take the 'thousands' of Moab, and that no appeal to idols is of any avail. Israel is on the march, but en route, they mostly do not trouble those who did not oppose or threaten them.


3. Of the wars that Israel fought, a few really were bloodbaths. Many though, were fought or averted by the wisdom and intervention of God. For example:


Benhadad beseiges Samaria, and a horrible famine threatens the destruction of the city. Syria is encamped in the desert, but Elisha is caused, and the enemy is caused to flee by some unreasoned fear:

2Ki 7:5 And they rose up in the twilight, to go unto the camp of the Syrians: and when they were come to the uttermost part of the camp of Syria, behold, [there was] no man there. 2Ki 7:6 For the Lord had made the host of the Syrians to hear a noise of chariots, and a noise of horses, [even] the noise of a great host: and they said one to another, Lo, the king of Israel hath hired against us the kings of the Hittites, and the kings of the Egyptians, to come upon us.


Another time, there is a crimson glint on the water in the morning which causes a formidable enemy to be taken, but in defense:

2Ki 3:20 And it came to pass in the morning, when the meat offering was offered, that, behold, there came water by the way of Edom, and the country was filled with water.

2Ki 3:21 And when all the Moabites heard that the kings were come up to fight against them, they gathered all that were able to put on armour, and upward, and stood in the border.

2Ki 3:22And they rose up early in the morning, and the sun shone upon the water, and the Moabites saw the water on the other side [as] red as blood: 2Ki 3:23 And they said, This [is] blood: the kings are surely slain, and they have smitten one another: now therefore, Moab, to the spoil.

Now in this and other wars, there is bloodshed, and sometimes a lot (the bloodiest battle was a civil war in Israel between the tribe of Benjamin and the other 11 tribes) but one hardly faults any nation in self defense or even God's direction. Gideon and his band of 300 ready warriors, takes 30,000 Midianites which threaten Israel with the slaughter of their women and little ones, not by a great confrontation,but by the notable prophetic 'cleverness' so entrenched in Israeli history: as directed, the men surround the valley where the Midianites encamp, and shout, break a vessel with a light in it, and terrify the Midianites into flight: Israel then pursues.


In some modern liberal thinking, which in one sense is right, and in another is naive, there is the notion that on earth God never wants nor involves himself in war. God is a God of peace, his very name on one account is Jehovah-Shalom or Yahweh-Shalom, and Jesus is called "Sar Shalom", Prince of Peace. Why then would God direct war?


War, is of course in essence, not right and not of God. That has always been the case: from the 7th day when God rested, His peace and rest were clearly declared. By the time though that war rose against Israel, war was in the world, not by God, but by men, and often by brutal men.


Judaism, or Christianity, or better, belief and true faith in "The One who Is" [Iam] begins in and in departing from Eden: faith is the issue in the promised of Genesis 3:16, the one who will 'crush the head of the serpent', or in the troubling of Abel by Cain, the first mentioned murderer who murders not over boundaries but over jealousy. Man and the curse of the Fall, bring in war and murder, not God.


Why then would God command war? In a dissensioned world, there is only one way back to God: faith and covenant. If one were directing a parade from a perch above, and when all in the parade listened to instructions, then the parade takes place in an ordered fashion. Such was the world in obedience to God. However, if one or a few started trying to lead from the street, lying about the director, causing all to go their own way, chaos would soon break out in warring factions, in crazy marches , music out of time and step, and cacaphony and confusion. The only hope would be to try and hear what the real director was saying, and get 'back in step' with the way it was supposed to go from the beginning. If a tuba player started running through the crowd wielding an axe or machete, or even a weapon that would kill many, would it be wrong for the Director to communicate defense against that one or group who were causing the ruin of the way and every one in it? It would be far more wrong to stop directing traffic. If in perfection, everyone would listen to our leader, God, then all 'parades' would go smoothly, but we can all attest few listen to God or even seek him anymore.


By the time Israel encountered war (the first is the war of the five kings who take Lot captive and Abraham fights to free him), Abraham, a man of peace, who came to Moreh and Shechem onthe plains of Mamre in peace, takes up arms and so do his servants, and yet we call him the father of Faith. In a perfect world, and as often as possible in an imperfect world, war is to be avoided. Some have the faith and strength to do that, even to the loss of their own lives.


A greater issue was at stake though, in the wars of Israel: the Chosen people, were created as the 'head' of nations and people on earth: they bear God's glory, they bear God's Word as his oracle, they bear his Messiah, etc, and the line of the Vine had to be protected, so that many, both Jew and Gentile could be saved, and in the end, so that communion with God, Paradise and the New Jerusalem could come to fruition, and all made right.


If Israel as a nation had disappeared to slaughter in those years, there would have been no Messiah, no Word, and no Healing of the world and peoples: the brutal nations who wrongfully inhabited the plains, had already made life unlivable for all, and the one healing vine possible was Israel back in the land, from whom Messiah would come to apply the blood covenant necessary to bring the whole thing back into health: the 'stick' in the bitter waters of Marah.


Judaeo-Christian belief is truly not a violent path or belief: atheists and agnostics always love to point to the crusade or inquisition as evidence of Christian violence, but those endeavors were a product of the 'Holy Roman Empire' and its perversion of the true church. This is no empty defense: religion is not 'relationship'. Religious wars come from the heart of man not from the heart of God. The reason we rush to 'slaughter unbelief' is a carnal one, from an 'evil heart of concupiscence' and not from the direction of God. The wars in the Old Testament which were bloody wars, and directed of God, were not showing God's violent nature, but his sorrowful knowledge of the only way of preserving His Way in the World, so that eventually things could be healed. When they sought him and listened through the word and the prophets, they often won with lesser or no bloodshed.


If God had said to Israel, 'my ways are always peace', or 'lay down your weapons and let them slaughter you': the world would probably have ceased before now. In WWII, when so few listened or sought Him, and the slaughter of the Chosen was great on the doorstep of Israel being returned, we almost lost the whole world. The Love of God, the Tender mercies of God, as C.S. Lewis once noted, at times are severe. Only God can use the dispensation of 'means to an end' logic, because He knows the future. Only God can direct the taking of life without punishment: it is because He is the Creator. The 'violent' Old Testament seems so only if we fail to remember the violence posed against them by Rome in the first century or after: Rome was never held as the plumbline for faith, but is portrayed as a whore on a scarlet beast in the end, drunk with the blood of martyrs.


In Heaven , in the New Jerusalem, under the perfect reign of God, which starts with belief, wars cease.

You Can't Believe the Bible: It's Just a "Book": How do you answer?

When I was a full time college student and later a university professor, when someone asked me about the Bible and whether I believed in it, I caustically answered as many university faculty members would, no, and when asked why I would give the stock answer without thought: "It's just a book written by men". I was not a believer then, mostly an agnostic when I gave God much thought, and religion was ridiculed on almost every campus I ever taught at save for one seminary and one church-related school.

The discussion never went terribly far, mostly because the only people I ever had even broach the subject were students who were not brave enough to take on a college professor about their faith, or perhaps worried about the consequences. While I was pretty fair in grading, and would not have done such a thing, I cannot say that there was not some reason for trepidation, for some might have 'halo-effected' the Christian student, as many former colleagues consider all of Christianity sort of 'moronic' mostly because that is the level of knowledge they hold about the faith: they cannot imagine that 'faith' could be intelligent, as they arrogantly ascribe it to the realm of archetype and fairy tale.

My faith, though, started with a few 'observations' but was brought into being by the Word of God. It was certainly not by some of the people who first talked to me about salvation, for they did little more than drive me farther away. People can tell when one is 'after them' with an agenda, or uses some sort of 'gimmick' as though Salvation and Jesus were a hard sell.

Being coerced once into reading the 'four spiritual laws', even after salvation I have had a distaste for easy abc 123 approaches to witnessing, or in college being asked in order, "What's your major", "Do you go to church". Those questions and techniques made me run in the opposite direction because they were terribly uncomfortable, and because while well meaning, coming to Christ in covenant and belief is not a debate or a convincing argument, on the level of human reason, but is on a different level of divine reason, reached by faith. Even harping on the particular sins many people commit, while one may mention forgiveness, what many people hear is condemnation. The Great Commission did not send us to argue people into Jesus and church membership, but to lift up Christ the Messiah, for all to see, that He might draw all men unto him. Preaching does that, healing does that, living our lives even silently but obediently does that, and genuinely just telling people who He is, how real he is and what He has done for us, is far more effective that trying to win the argument that there really is a God and he had a Son.

The Word of God

One of the things that may help in answering questions about the Bible though, is to call it the Word of God. We have heard the word 'Bible' so often, that save for generally it has lost its meaning to some. The most common objection I used and heard was "It's just a book written by men", and when you try to say, well it says it is the Word of God (and it does: almost every book of the Prophets starts with "The Word of God came to...", then sophistry takes hold and the greatly reasoned intellectual replies: well, you can't use the Bible to prove itself.

Too many Christians get hung up on that tried and true conversation stopper. Is there an answer? I had a hard time getting around that question.

There is an answer, though, and it is best approached by looking and the wonder and veracity of the book. Some same that there are many 'errors' but I have studied the Word (KJV) for 25 years now, and not found any error, only a few complexities that looked contradictory until one knew more of the Bible. Some argue for example that in the account of Jesus healing 'Bartimaeus' that one gospel says there were two blind men and another only one, but the truth is there were two, but only one was described in the more detailed account in depth. Most other seeming errors come from not understanding, for example, that there were a number of people in the Bible who shared a name, or similar incidents where a little more knowledge would clear up a passage.

Let's attend though to the question about the Word of God being used to prove itself. Let's consider instead some information about the Bible that makes it so phenomenal:

1. It was written over 5000 years, by multiple authors from all walks of life, and yet it consistently tells the same story. The promises in Genesis, are fulfilled in the Gospels, and every foreshadowing personality such as Joseph, Isaac, David and others live lives predictive of and pointing to Jesus the Messiah.

2. Every prophecy in the Word in the Old Testament was perfectly fulfilled in Jesus.
Statistically, it would be astounding for one or two to be fulfilled: but all 300+ prophecies of Messiah given by different prophets at different times, are fulfilled in the life of Jesus.

3. Even underlying Greek and Hebrew texts point ultimately to Jesus and the way he was, and to the time of his appearance, and to the events during his life.

4. The Name of Jesus, pronounced in the Word, has power. It is a point of verification.

5. If the Bible were not true, then accepting Christ as Savior, and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit would not bear out nor show power: yet one can observe healings. prophecy, and even miracles today, that would not be possible if the Word of God were not true.

6. The Word alone has phenomenally altered millions of lives over the centuries.

7.When Science and the Bible contradict one another, the scientific explanation is usually accepted, but is almost always done in when hard evidence is found in favor of the Bible account. This is true for history as well: chariot wheels have been found embedded in the sand at the site the Children of Israel crossed over.

8. Biblical prophecies about endtime events, such as the drying up of the Euphrates and the sea mingled with fire, are either coming true or currently foreshadowed.

9. While most 'sophisticated' professors cannot fathom a real 'Garden of Eden' and while anthropologists go looking for apelike origins of man, even they are drawn, almost entirely to the region referred to as the 'cradle of civilization' where since time Eden was thought to be, as the Euphrates and Pison rivers (Kishon) still exist at least in remnant form. Why do they not look in Antartica?

10. Human recorded history only goes back as far as the Bible describes dates.

11. Rather than man living longer with scientific advancement, the people of the Bible lived long in the beginning, but by the time of David was described as threescore and ten, the same average life expectancy as today.

12. The Bible far from archaic has given several scientists the solution to unsolved problems: e.g. the ocean currents including the Gulf Stream were discovered and charted by a man reading the Psalms, in the passage 'paths of the sea'. This is not an isolated incident.

13. The early apostles and countless believers since have been willing to die for it, including Tyndale, Bonhoeffer, the Scholls, Eric Liddell (the Olympic gold medalist), and the numerous other martyrs.

14. Jesus is introduced in the Book of John as the 'Logos' or Word incarnate, one with the father.

15. Voltaire the atheist once declared that in a generation the Bible would be dead. Voltaire died and it is his writing that has the far lesser effect. The longevity of the bible speaks to its truth and efficacy.

16. The Word has power. It comforts,gives hope, guides and directs, and teaches even proper nutrition, relationships, politics and even our system of government and the judicial system was based upon it. It keeps order in a society.


These are just a few 'external' issues regarding the Word. The real issue though is faith. Faith is the substance of things not seen, and for those who must see to believe, it remains a conundrum. These are observations outside of the Word defending itself. Human Reason seeks to be the final authority on all issues of life and spirituality: we see the vain attempts of men to try and include all ways everyone comes up with as truth, even while they are contradictory. Faith though, is a different 'economy' than human reason: it does not lack reason and is not ignorant, but involves 'divine reasoning'. Kierkegaard once noted that one must take a 'leap of faith' to find out if it is true. If one never 'leaps' into the unseen to believe, one never finds it. That is the nature of faith. Jesus was always stretching the faith of Israel: before many healings he would ask 'do you believe that I can do this' (in so many words), and upon belief, they were healed.

University minds are often too closed to attempt that 'leap of faith' to find if it is true or not. So they never find the power of God in the Word of God. They will entertain every other bizarre and unproven theory, but not even attempt faith in God. 150 years after Darwin, there are still no transitional types and they are not willing even now to reject the theory, but they will never read Genesis. Faith is not going to be found at the end of a textbook, lab or research article. Believing in the Word of God is not a surrender of one's intelligence, but 'surrendering ones intelligence'. Great and learned men have been both believers and non believers. Fahrenheit believed, so did Newton, and Pascal. Curie believed, and in the end of his life Darwin clung to his Bible. So there must be something beside raw intellect that realizes whether it is true or not. Could it be, that the brightest minds after years of human reason, found it insufficient? No objections to the Word of God ultimately hold water.

Judah's Glory: A moment of clarity

Recently there seems to be waves of gossip and rumor mills which occasionally swell in the church and then die down only to swell again. I wonder when we will come to our senses and realize we are never to interfere in a work of the Lord: it seems Judah's Glory even from the beginning has been beset by wrongful information that has reached a point I think is best addressed openly.

1. Currently, Judah's Glory is primarily an online resource of Bible Studies, Coloring Books, Music, Webart, and teaching, including audio teaching at sermon.net/judahsglory. It is not a free standing institution, and is not a government registered entity. We are respectful and law abiding, but not a corporation of the State.

2. We are pro-Israel, and teach the church their rightful and scriptural role towards the Jews of gratitude and Mercy (Romans 8-12). We are what I call a segue ministry about half way between the traditional gentile church, and full Torah observant Messianic Synagogues. I say Jesus and Yshua without flinching.

3. WE ARE ABSOLUTELY NOT Jehovah's Witness, or any other dissensioned version of the faith once delivered. WE ARE NOT CATHOLIC! but I am a former Catholic, a former agnostic, and have been a Gospel believing born again Christian for 25 years. I am a former college professor with a doctorate in Psychology, which is also 'another gospel'. I left the field formally in 1987 in obedience to the Lord.

4. I am not insane. By the way, that is a legal rubric, not a diagnostic category. Part of the rumors that have beset this small ministry have come from those of dissension faiths or carnal Christians trying to take over the ministry materials.

5. Judah's Glory is in no way affiliated with Elwood McQuaid's magazine "Israel My Glory": that is another title, thing and concept. Judah's Glory is not the term mentioned in a catholic hymn about Mary: the term is not directly found in the scriptures, but refers to Judah, the head of the tribes of Israel, and her Glory which is Messiah. He is the Lion of Judah, from the house of Judah, and who else would possibly match his claim to the title "Judah's Glory".

6. We are not affiliated with Jews for Jesus, IBJM mission board or any other group. Because of the nature of town I reside in, a Messianic ministry is not currently possible because of the trouble it would start. As soon as a move is accomplished, I will begin Judah's Glory as at least a Saturday Bible Study ministry, and teach it myself until an appropriate pastor/rabbi may be found. My doctrinal statement may be found on the site.

7. We believe first and foremost in the perfect, infallible Word of God, expressed in Creation by the Creator, expressed in the Word of God written down and through the Prophets, and the Incarnate Word, the Logos, Yeshua HaMeschiach, Jesus Christ the Messiah of Israel, the Holy One of Israel. We believe in a blood bought salvation, the blood atonement on the Cross, and a literal resurrection which gave eternal life to all those who believe. Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life, and there in no other name given by which we may be saved. After thorough study, I believe that the preserved Word of God is found currently only in the Authorized, King James Version, as it is the 'apostolic' line of transmission. I believe completely that all gifts taught and given from Pentecost on, (and before) are still extant, and in power to those who believe and surrender to the Messiah. The power of God is not a dispensational age. Man divided the Word into segments and theoretical eras, not God, who breathed a whole Word for all time. I believe in healing, tongues, prophecy, word of knowledge, and all the rest, when they line up with the Holy Spirit and the Word of God, acknowledging there are counterfeits. While I would best be characterized as an 'eternal security' believer, I believe that a true understanding is that we are truly saved and kept by the Lord and Savior, but that we also must truly follow after, walking in the Holy Spirit, the 'Way, the Truth, and the Life'. But then why wouldn't you?

7. Judah's Glory is not for sale ever nor are its materials. Free use however does not mean stealing the publications, rewriting them a little, commercializing them and then charging money for some other ministry or pocketbook. That is actually a felony and is destroying the church, watering down the Gospel into whatever sells, and ruining small sincere ministries who care only about the Lord. The big ministries who do this are often not ministries at all, but fund raising organizations who couldn't care less about the Word of God or the real Gospel. When the Church dissolves into warmongering dogfights and copyright theft, it ruins the church, sincere ministries, and eventually the country. Judah's Glory ministry has stood against those foul practices since the beginning and will continue.

Any other questions, please write to either judahsglory@gmail.com or elizabeth.best@gmail.com. Please, though help us to put an end to exaggerated misinformation, so that I can continue this labor intensive and for-free ministry, without compromise.