The Iron Pen #59

God & Country

"The Bible is the best of all books, for it is the word of God and teaches us the way to be happy in this world and in the next. Continue therefore to read it and to regulate your life by its precepts."

John Jay - 1^st Chief-Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court

Points to Ponder 

"Worldly wisdom is foolishness before God…so if we be wise in Him, it ought not to dismay us, when the world judgeth us to be fools…" Erasmus

"You might as well try to hear without ears or breathe without lungs, as to try to live a Christian life without the Spirit of God in your heart." D.L. Moody

 Mind At The End of Its Tether

Herbert George Wells (1866-1946), better known as H. G. Wells, was a man who was at the forefront of modern thought at the beginning of the 20^th Century. This successful author and political philosopher was most famous for his science-fantasy novels with their prophetic depictions of the triumphs of technology as well as the horrors of 20th-century warfare. He authored more than 80 books. His science-fiction works include, The Time Machine, The Invisible Man, The War of the Worlds, and The Shape of Things to Come. In addition he wrote a popular two volume historical work entitled The Outline of History.

 As an atheist, he refused to believe that men were sinners. Instead, he believed in the innate goodness of man. In fact, Wells envisioned a utopia in which the vast and frightening material forces available to modern men and women would be rationally controlled for progress and for the equal good of all. But, Hitler proved the depravity of man, and the world was plunged into World War II. When the atomic bomb was dropped, Wells knew that his dreams of a new world utopia were gone. About a year before his death he wrote a little book called Mind At The End of Its Tether which clearly shows he was a man in despair, without peace! He wrote -- "Here am I at the age of sixty-five still seeking peace. I can’t adjust myself to find any peace in this world. The end of everything we call life is close at hand and we cannot avoid it. The world is moving into impenetrable darkness."

Outside of Jesus Christ there is NO PEACE! Isaiah 57:20-21 says, But the wicked are like the troubled sea, when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt. 21 There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked. How different things could have been if H. G. Wells had believed on the Lord Jesus Christ. Isaiah 26:3 promises, Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee. Instead of despair at the end of his life Philippians 4:7 could have been his portion, And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

 Is your mind at the end of its tether? It does not have to be! A bumper sticker I recently saw concisely gives the remedy - No Jesus, No Peace!  Know Jesus, Know Peace!

5 Dangerous Hindrances To Our Fellowship With The Lord

[Editor’s Note: Richard Baxter was in the vanguard of the Puritan movement. For his separatist views he spent 18 months in an English prison. He has been called "the profoundest theologian" of all the Puritans and "the most learned and moderate of Dissenters." His works are well worth reading." DLB]

 Baxter says -- Our fellowship with the Lord is hindered when we…

• Live In Any Known Sin – 1 John 1:6-10
• Have An Earthly Mind – Colossians 3:1-6
• Keep Company With The Ungodly – Psalm 1
• Argue About Religion That Lies Only In Opinions – 1 Timothy 6:20; 2 Timothy 2:15-16&23
• Have A Proud and Lofty Spirit – James 4:6

How We Got The Chapters and Verses In Our Bibles

The oldest books in my library are a two volume Greek New Testament set printed in 1549 by Robert Stephanus (also known as Robert Estienne). French ecclesiastical authorities raised such opposition against his printing Greek and Latin Bibles that in 1550 Stepahnus fled Paris with his family and took refuge in Geneva. As he rode along on horseback he marked his small New Testament in the places where he wanted the verse divisions to be made and numbered them accordingly. The first Bible to be printed in the modern chapter-verse format was Stephanus' Latin Bible of 1555. The first English Bible to incorporate these verse divisions was The Geneva New Testament of 1557. Though it is true that a Latin Bible was printed in 1538 with different verse divisions, it is the Stephanus system that we use to this day. I should note, the Old Testament verse divisions follow those made by a French Hebrew scholar Vatablus in the 1530’s. The chapter divisions we use in our Bible today were made by an English churchman named Stephen Langton in the 1200’s. D.L.B.