What I learned from watching Noah's Ark documentaries

This weekend, I watched two documentaries on the subject of Noah's Ark. One produced by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) in 2003 (Bragard, 2003)and another based on the findings of an amateur archaeologist produced in 1988 (Snider, 1988). BBC's production relied on experts who poured doubt over the Bible's story of Noah and instead, relied on Babylonian sources to recreate a different version of what they considered the historical reality upon which the flood story was based. After watching their documentary, one got the feeling that Jewish priests just adapted the Babylonian story into the Bible to make a point that disobedience to God's laws has consequences. However, I asked the question, why would Jewish scribes go through all the trouble of giving names and indicating genealogies if they just wanted to concoct a parable to make a point? They could have easily omitted names, just like the Babylonian source, and ignore the presentation of genealogies and all the details which just takes away from the flow of the story. Below is the Noah's Ark video by the BBC for those who want to watch it for themselves.

 

Another thing that turned me off from the BBC presentation is its poor journalism. Good journalism in my view presents balance: two sides of a story and allows for the audience to draw their own conclusion and make up their own mind about which story to believe. For me, all the experts used by the BBC seemed to doubt the authenticity of the Noah's Ark story as presented by the Bible. However, one would have expected that a good journalist would present a debate, between the experts against and the experts for the Noah's Ark story. Hence, I decided to watch another video, a more amateur and not so big name one, that was entitled the best evidence. This video, licensed to UFOTV, highlighted actual evidence and not just theories about how the world works, nature and material things work, but actually presented visual evidence of the presence of a boat like shape and structure in a mountain region corroborating with the Biblical dimensions of the ark in the Bible's story. Watch the following documentary for yourself for details, if you have the time.

 

 At the end, I wondered why a BBC production in 2003, would ignore and not even mention this particular event and work by this amateur archaeologist, and present his side in their documentary. Lesson: be critical of all information sources and media, and evaluate them for balance in presenting truth and reality, especially in so-called documentaries.

References:

Bragard, Jean Claude (dir.)(2003).Noah's ark: The real story. British Broadcasting Corporation [BBC]. Retrieved from http://youtu.be/NZu3GXoKXU4 [uploaded by Dara Kosnav on Jul 16, 2011]

Snider, Douglas A. (dir.) (1988). Noah's ark found. Retrieved from: http://youtu.be/io3P2b68DHk [uploaded by UFOTVstudios on Nov 11, 2010)

The Real Truth About Lying: A comment to Jessica Bennett from Newsweek

In the article "The Truth About Lying" by Jessica Bennett from the Newsweek Web Exclusive, Bennett summarises how even though Americans want honesty in their leaders, deception and lying is deeply entrenched in the society. Most American young people lie constantly and cheat, as they see that liars in society are highly rewarded.

Having read the article, I was sickened to think that lying has become culturally acceptable in a nation that has impacted the world Christian and Jewish religious faiths tremendously.

To make matters even more sickening, I saw a companion article by Raina Kelley who argues that some type of lying can be good for marriages. She argues that little white lies are the things that keep marriages together.

These columnists are exalting deception, lies and lying in society. Be not deceived, for God's judgement is heavy on liars. Revelation 21:27 states that

"And there shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie: but they which are written in the Lamb's book of life."

Revelation 22:15 says that people who will be excluded from God's beautiful city will include liars:

"For without are dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie."

Though the corrupt agents of Satan in the media wants us to think that lying is no big deal and that you can be successful if you practice lying, the Scriptures say otherwise.:

"Blessed is that man that maketh the LORD his trust, and respecteth not the proud, nor such as turn aside to lies." (Psalm 40:4, KJV)

In fact God wants us to exalt truth and not to respect liars. We must not honour liars, as this is to bring a curse upon us. That is why when Obama broke his first campaign promise about restricting campaign funding to what the Federal state provided, I rejected him as a liar. McCain too is a convenient liar, and I saw that the race for the White House in 2008 was a race between two men who could not be true to their words.





Proverbs 19:22 states that "a poor man is better than a liar."

Finally, Jesus argued that persons who accept lies, tell lies and despise truth are the children of Satan. In John 8:44, Jesus declares:

"Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it."

Finally, God classifies lies and deceptive lips in the same way he does homosexuality. He states in Proverbs 12:22:

Lying lips are abomination to the LORD: but they that deal truly are his delight.

Among the things that God hates, on his list, lies is one of them. In Proverbs 6:16-17 (King James Version), God says:

These six things doth the LORD hate: yea, seven are an abomination unto him:

A proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood,

Without even going to the ten commandments, God is explicit in declaring that he hates lies and deceptions, and whosoever loveth lies and deception will experience his wrath and judgement.



Reference:

Bennett, Jessica. "The Truth About Lying" Newsweek Web Exclusive Aug 26, 2009, Retrieved August 27, 2009 from http://www.newsweek.com/id/213575


Kelley, Raina. "Married, With Lies: Why a little deception can be good for a relationship." Newsweek Aug 26, 2009 Retrieved August 27, 2009 from http://www.newsweek.com/id/213574

Children Bible Story Books Part 1

Being a parent has made me even more appreciative of the reading needs of toddlers. However, I am most concerned about Christian toddlers (I am not sure about the Jewish situation). Many of the Bible story books that exist for toddlers contain the errors of modern day Christianity.

To make matters worse, the children Bible story books contain images that do not culturally represent my West Indian culture. In the West Indies, acceptance of Christianity has been made difficult by the historical legacy of slavery, colonisation and exploitation. This has lead to the development of Rastafarianism which repaints the Messiah as a black man. Also it has lead to the development Revival or Poco Church, where African retention and spiritualism is retained and intermixed with Christian elements. (In a future post, I will discuss the Rastafarianism and Revival Cults with the relevant citations. Today, I just want to focus on the Children Bible Story concept.)

I hate to see Bible story books that paint cultural images - like a white Jesus or the incorporation of Easter and Christmas concepts. We know that Jesus was a Semite and would look like a modern day Palestinian. Further, Easter and Christmas are originally pagan concepts not even spoken about in the Bible. They were not festivals given to Jews and were not commanded by Scripture. They came after, based on theological interpretation and acculturation.

Based on these issues, I feel spiritually desirous of creating my own Bible story books that will avoid these errors. Instead, I want children to see images of animals that are a part of the stories in the Bible. This is culturally neutral as all children from all cultures can relate to animals.

It is hoped that children through reading these stories can learn about the animals and the sounds they make, as well as learn Biblical facts for future analysis and interpretation.

Thus when a child is of age, they may ask questions for further information about the story behind the animal, and the adult can explain or lead them to the Bible passage.

Also, I believe that G-d used the same strategy. He first cause Adam to name the animals, before he introduced Eve to him. That way Adam had to relate to animals first, before he could relate to Eve.

That way Adam by seeing the animals in pairs learnt about his own social needs and need for companionship, and that animals could not fill the void. He learnt so much from watching the animals, that when Eve came, he was so excited and said "bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh" -Translation - Alas, someone that I can relate to.

The need for a Christian Museum

I am very supportive of the Memory of the World UNESCO programme, which is aimed at preserving "valuable archive holdings and library collections worldwide" (http://www.unesco.org/webworld/en/mow). This is another step at cultural preservation, which is very valuable in my perspective. I believe that the way of life and perspectives of ancient people should be documented for future generations to understand the past and where humanity and civilization is coming from. I admire for example, Judaism, which has preserved most of its traditions from centuries ago. Unlike Christianity, where our traditions have become so modified from the original traditions of the first apostles, Judaism can at any time return to the practice of what their ancestors practiced and believed, because these traditions are well documented and detailed.

For Christianity, the same cannot be said. Today’s Christian traditions are so far removed from those practiced by early Christians, and centuries of persons disputing the faith have changed what is practiced and believed, that what is handed down today that passes for Christianity is very distorted.

Today, if we had cultural preservation, today's Christian adherents would realise that their forerunners in the faith kept the sabbaths and operated differently from our formal and institutionalized way of operating today.

I must add that Satan has tried to derail Christianity from its inception.

Jude 1:3 (KJV) says

Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.

This indicates that there were detractors who wanted to confuse and distort what Christians believed. In these last days however, G-d is about to unleash the prophetic spirit - and more understanding of the Scriptures so that we can return to our spiritual roots. As Daniel 12:4 says:

But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.

May G-d reveal and enlighten our pastors and spiritual leaders today that they may behold the stone from which we were hewn. May G-d reconcile the children to the Fathers, and avert the curse from being stricken on the earth (as stated in Malachi 4:5-6 (King James Version)).

Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD:

And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.

If I could establish a virtual Christian museum to facilitate this process of restoration.

The Truth about Truth

Messenger: Lorenzo King
Date: February 21, 2009
Venue: Andrews Memorial Seventh-Day Adventist Church

I attended the Adventist Fellowship on Sabbath. There I heard free uplifting music and heard the lady welcoming everyone to their "community of G-d's children".

Church for me now is a place to:

• hear free uplifting music


• hear inspirational and motivational speaking


• meet and fellowship with persons who want to improve morally

While I did not receive much from the day's worship services, I did benefit and value the flier handed out to me, with some thoughts of the pastor, Lorenzo King.

I think he wrote some brilliant ideas, worthy to be shared here. (His wife is a Librarian, so I was not at all surprised that sufficient bibliographic data was provided on the flier for me to prepare a citation). The citation is as follows:

Lorenzo R. King. "The Truth About Truth" The Write of A King Vol. 2, No. 25 (February 21, 2009).

King in his commentary indicates that there are three truths about the "truth". First, he argues that the Devil tells truth with an agenda of furthering his cause (Mark 5:7-8; Acts 16:16-17; Genesis 3:5,22).

I would add that the Devil also tells the truth to condemn and accuse the brethren (Zechariah 3:1-2; Jude 9; Revelation 12:10).

The second point about truth raised by King is that truth must be shared responsibly. He argues that there is no truth or Biblical support to the adage: "speak the truth and speak it ever cause it what it will." He said not all truths must be revealed, as sometimes the revelation of truth can be harmful to persons whom the truths have been revealed to. He shows in the scripture that there are a number of times, when G-d held back truth from humanity knowing that they were either not ready for such truth or are unable to "endure the impact" thereof (John 16:12; Revelation 10:4).

I would also add that Jesus admonishes us that we must not give truth and wisdom to those unworthy of it (Matthew 7:6).


Finally, Pastor King goes on to admonish us that possessing truth can be "dangerous, as such possession of truth can lead to "intolerance and bigotry". He suggests that it hard to remain humble when we have truth that others do not have. People with truth have a responsibility to guard against feelings of "superiority" and "intolerance", while recognizing that possessing truth makes one a servant to those who do not have truth. As one who possess truth we will have to be apostles to those who lack it.

King argues that we who possess truth must not be "arrogant" or practice the "piety of intolerance". According to King, "Enlightened bigotry is worse than ignorant but peaceful coexistence. He cites the example of how Jesus rebuked his disciples for a display of intolerance (Luke 9:51-56).