How long do you think a person could live if their right atrium and right ventricle were removed and those parts not replaced, but deleted?

Why do so many remove half the heart of God, then go on imagining they have life?

I’ve been in churches, very strict, legalistic Old World churches, many years ago with babushkas, widows wearing black and nothing but black, and some of these openly proclaiming there was no need to read or know the Word of God from the beginning through the ages leading to God coming to this world.

The Word of God should never have been divided into Old and New. It’s one book. It has made me wonder at times what force was at work in those who made the decision to divide the whole Word of God, remove half its heart to be set aside. Is this what God wanted? This came from God? Difficult to fathom that isn’t it? God does not want His Word divided and an equally important part relegated to stories, old stories that do not apply to those professing to be born from above, born anew.

I’ve been in other churches where whatever pastor, preacher was standing before the congregation, they never opened and read from the earlier Word of God. Avoided it. Always. As if it didn’t exist.

I’ve heard, and read, folks who profess to be Christian say or write, “Jesus isn’t in the Old Testament.” Such ignorance is tragic, truly tragic, as it reveals the foundation these folks received, which was faulty from the start. Otherwise, they would have an understanding of just how important — no one book more important than another although some possess more for a person to eat, drink, grow in maturity from than others, and Revelation is the only book wherein it is clearly stated those who read it, believe it, and do not alter it in any manner will be blessed.

Ironically, Revelation is avoided in more churches and by more professed Christians than churches and professed Christians reading, studying, coming to know, and understand Revelation.

So, avoid the first 39 books of God’s Word and the last book.

Hummm…

And they’re all wise, mature, well-equipped for the times, and heaven-bound, eh?

Jesus is not a man who just happened to appear, be born on earth about 2,000 years ago. He made ALL THINGS. Everything that is made and known, and the invisible and unknown, has all been made by Jesus, with His Father, with the Holy Spirit. They can not be divided from being without beginning or end, nor divided in making Creation.

The Holy Spirit is known in Genesis 1:1.

I’ve read and listened to people get involved in all manner of contention, debate, and arguments as they apply limited worldly human knowledge and understanding, contend that there could not have been light when it says because the Sun, moon, and stars didn’t come along until later.

Wise up, people. Turn to the LORD in earnest prayer and faith for Him to open not only the right atrium and right ventricle, but the whole Word of God to you. For life. For spiritual understanding, growth, and maturity. Especially for increased spiritual understanding and discernment. Realizing that Jesus, Yeshua Hamashiach, is in every word of the Word from the beginning. Oh, and He was present long, long, long, long before that.

Anyone — ANYONE neglecting, shunning, making excuses in keeping their heart full, their spirit full, their mind full, their life filled within from the FULL whole Word of God. Omitting nothing. Not hurting God’s heart in neglecting His FULL whole Word to us.

From Genesis to Revelation is THE GOD-BREATHED WORDS FROM HIM TO us.

Kapish?

Please, stop toying with having to answer for neglecting all of God’s Word and living half alive in selective reading, selective understanding.

If you’ve been avoiding, neglecting, out and out badmouthing God’s Word from the beginning, and the resulting 38 books following in the beginning, now is the time to shed whatever you’ve been told, read, come to adopt regarding you do not need the first 39 books of the Holy Bible.

Imagine, if you will, you buy a fiction book that you’ve been told is great, life latering. Or there is a television series that many people are raving about.

Would you begin that book on chapter 40? Or begin watching that TV program at episode 40?

No, you wouldn’t.

But there’s no difficulty in ignoring some of the most important historical events and people in world history in neglecting the first 39 books of God’s inerrant, infallible, unchangeable, eternal living and active Word?

Really?

Hummm…

Reading something from the first 39 books of God’s Word daily, in conjunction with reading from book 40 onward to book 66, is spiritual health, spiritual food, spiritual life, spiritual wholeness, and spiritually sound and right. To not do so leads to spiritual malnourishment, spiritual immaturity. Spiritually lacking.

The piece below, written by Peter Howe, along with my reading early on Sunday morning from Samuel, in conjunction with a collection of posts I read on a Facebook page today, are going to shape my next column, which will be written soon. As in the next thing I believe will be published on this place.. For such a time as this..if interested, be looking for something about King Saul, wanting a king instead of God as King, President Trump, how folks are on social media, and how it’s all for such a time as this.

Read on…

Ken Pullen, Monday, May 12th, 2025

Why bother with the Old Testament

10 May 2025

By Peter Howe

Reprinted from Creation.com

In the first century of the Christian era, when the church broke loose from Judaism, why did it not at the same time break loose from the Jewish scriptures, the Old Testament? After all, much of its legislation has been superseded, and is therefore no longer binding on Christians (Acts 15).

In the synagogue at Nazareth, Jesus Himself announced that with His coming, the Messianic age, long ago foretold in the Old Testament writings, had now begun (Luke 4:16–21).

The early Christian preachers looked to the Old Testament for the clues to the meaning of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ (Acts 8:29–35; 17:2–3). Perhaps the clearest example of this is the Apostle Paul’s address in the synagogue at Antioch in Pisidia (Acts 13:16–41). He surveys Israel’s history as the backdrop for God’s redemptive activity, starting with the Exodus, continuing with the Judges, and ending with David. David’s faithfulness leads to the divine promise of a Saviour through his heir, whom Paul identifies as Jesus. He outlines the story of Jesus, including His wrongful execution and burial, culminating in His resurrection.

Paul quotes three passages (Psalm 2:7; Isaiah 55:3; Psalm 16:10) to show that His resurrection is a fulfilment of God’s promises to the Jewish people. Paul’s sermon concludes with an urgent call to receive by faith the forgiveness of sins, and all that the law of Moses could not provide.

It thus becomes obvious that the primary element that holds the two Testaments together is a confessional proclamation of certain great redemptive acts of God. These have taken place in a particular history, the climax and fulfilment of which is Jesus Christ.

Abraham not the beginning

But this whole narrative does not stand alone—redemption history does not start with Abraham’s appearance on the stage out of the blue. It must be seen against the backdrop of pre-Abrahamic history—Genesis 1–11, where the focus of concern is universal. It goes back to ultimate origins, to the creation of all things, especially the man and the woman, whom “God created … in His own image” (Genesis 1:27).

It then describes how human beings came to be alienated from God and from one another in a once-perfect world now marred by brokenness, disorder, and death. Succumbing to the serpent’s lies and seduced by the desirability of the forbidden fruit, the woman “took … and ate, and she also gave some to her husband … and he ate” (Genesis 3:6–7). The seriousness of their disobedience is underscored by God’s pronouncement of judgment upon them (Genesis 3:16–19). But even in this tragic context, there is a promise of victory over the serpent (Genesis 3:15), which the New Testament will later pick up and make more explicit (Romans 16:20; Hebrews 2:14; Revelation 12:7–12).

The picture becomes even darker as the effects of sin accumulate. Humankind’s corruption becomes so complete that God sends the waters of the Flood to cover the earth. Except for Noah, his family and the animals in the Ark, every air-breathing land creature¹ is destroyed. The Tower of Babel judgment is the main reason for the scattering of the Flood’s survivors and their descendants, and their division into different language groups.

The Bible clearly teaches that the entire creation came forth from the hand of God as “very good” (Genesis 1:31). However, it is now “groaning” and in “bondage to corruption” as it awaits redemption (Romans 8:19–23). Genesis 3 and passages such as Romans 5:12–19 and 1 Corinthians 15:21–23 clearly indicate that death entered the world only because of Adam’s sin.

Evolution’s contradictions

For the supposed evolutionary process to work, evolutionists are forced to posit millions, even billions, of years. For theistic evolutionists, the problem of reconciling long-age views with the biblical witness is acute. Fossils testify to death, violence, suffering, and disease—for example bone cancer in dinosaurs— supposedly millions of years before mankind arrived. This is completely at odds with the Bible’s picture of an originally good world, ruined by the consequences of humanity’s sin.

The dilemma does not exist for those who understand that the bulk of the fossil record was formed during the Flood. That is, more than 1,500 years after the world had already commenced its groaning in bondage as a consequence of the Fall.

Some have sought to justify their long-age views by pointing out that Romans 5:12 primarily refers to human death. However, the problem remains, because human (Homo sapiens) fossils have now been evolutionarily ‘dated’ to 330,000 years old. I.e., long-age views entail human death before Adam sinned.²

By placing all of these ‘bad things’ in the created order before Adam’s sin, evolutionary long-age chronology completely contradicts the Bible’s account. Scripture teaches that sin—and its consequences, suffering, bloodshed, and death—were an intrusion into God’s ‘very good’ creation. Sin and death came after creation, not with it.

It further follows that if there is no link between evil, including ‘natural evil’, and Adam’s sin, humankind cannot be held responsible for the evil that exists. Sin, suffering, and death are simply ‘brute facts’ to be endured in this world, and the Bible’s vision of creation’s future restoration to Edenic perfection (Isaiah 11:6–9; Romans 8:19–25; Revelation 21:1–5) is only a pipedream.

There is no need for forgiveness, then, and thus no need for Christ’s atoning work to make forgiveness possible. But, as Douglas Kelly points out,

The entire significance of the atoning work of Christ as the Last Adam, lies in his reversal of the sin of the first Adam, which caused all the disorders that result in death.³

In recording pre-Abrahamic history, the author of Genesis 1–11 seriously poses the question of God’s future relationship with humanity in all its brokenness, strife, and alienation. Will God reject humankind and abort His creation project? Only in the light of this prologue can we fully understand the significance and meaning of Abraham’s call and the blessings promised to him and his descendants (Genesis 12:1–3).

In God’s special dealings with Abraham and his descendants lies the answer to the predicament of the whole human race. Indeed, for the ultimate solution to the universal problem portrayed by Genesis 1–11, we must look beyond the Old Testament to the New.

From Abraham springs a family which later grows into the Israelite nation. The Old Testament narrative gives prominence to Israel’s redemption from slavery in Egypt, the covenant relationship God establishes with Israel, and her eventual settlement in the land of Canaan. From the ‘glory days’ of the monarchy under David and Solomon, the nation degenerates into idolatry, followed by captivity and exile. From exile only a remnant returns to take up the arduous task of rebuilding the nation and re-establishing its religious life.

The Old Testament leaves this nation, with its ideals unfulfilled, its goal unreached, and its eyes straining forward in intense expectation of a decisive intervention on the part of God.⁴

Anticipating God’s solution to sin

Against this backdrop of longing and expectation, the New Testament proclamation of hope fulfilled in Christ shines even more brightly.

Neither Testament possesses its full significance apart from the other. When the New Testament is separated from the Old, it becomes a superstructure hanging in mid-air. The New Testament writers all recognized their dependence on the Old. Notice, for instance, how the very first chapter in the New Testament digs its roots down into it (Matthew 1:1–25). Then see how Luke’s Gospel traces Jesus back all the way to Adam, then directly to God—not apelike ancestors (Luke 3:23–38).

Without the Old Testament, the foundation of which is Genesis 1–11, our view of God is impoverished. Dr Gareth Cockerill writes:

Our God shrinks because we no longer see the majesty of his creation, the grandeur of his work in history, or the glory of his salvation in Christ. We have little basis for social ethics. We live in rootless isolation because we no longer see ourselves as children of Abraham and part of the people of God, stretched out across history and on its way to glory. If we do not have the Bible of the Apostles [i.e. the Old Testament], we will not have the true apostolic faith.⁵

The Apostle Paul reminds his Corinthian readers that despite the remarkable privileges given to the Israelites in their journey through the desert, they incurred God’s displeasure and judgment because of their disobedience and rebellion. “These things happened to them as an example,” says Paul, “but they were written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come” (1 Corinthians 10:11).

To read the Old Testament is not to ‘read someone else’s mail’; it is clearly—and crucially—also meant for us.