Speech: Should I Talk About It?

Today my pastor led the congregation through the book of Proverbs (and a bit in James) as we explored the topic of "the tongue." There were many good proverbs about speech, and many have been lingering in my mind. I know most of my readers probably read their Bibles regularly (and most go to the same church as me) but here are the verses that stuck out at me, and some of my thoughts about them.

"A prudent man keeps his knowledge to himself, but the heart of fools blurts out folly." Proverbs 12:23

I had the first half of the one from chapter 12 already underlined in my Bible. It is a proverb that has always made me think. Knowledge is a good thing, right? Why should I keep it to myself? Well, the truth is, knowledge is only worth something to the listener if that person was searching for it. No one, if they are honest with themselves, wants to know my opinion on feathered dinosaurs or spider intelligence, or much else for that matter.

"Even a fool is thought wise if he keeps silent, and discerning if he holds his tongue." Proverbs 17:28

Ever notice how those quiet people who never expound any of their vast knowledge and genius tend to be the greatest encouragement to us? When they do open their mouth to tell us what they know, it is really worth saying. It is good to get knowledge (read the rest of Proverbs), but telling people what you've learned is not always appropriate. I guess it is better to just keep my knowledge to myself... but that would defeat the purpose of this entire site. The whole reason for blogging is to tell the world of my knowledge and opinions.

"A fool finds no pleasure in understanding but delights in airing his own opinions." Proverbs 18:2

Have you ever thought that perhaps we value our own opinions too highly? I don't know about you, but, just being honest, I certainly do delight to give out my opinions. I guess that makes me a fool. Should I lay off blogging? Perhaps I should pursue a quieter life. Maybe when Paul wrote 1 Thessalonians 4:11-13 he really meant it when he said, "Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business and to work with our hands, just as we told you, so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependant on anybody." It seems to be an attitude. Can we blog and keep an attitude of quietness? I think we can.

"A man finds joy in giving an apt reply -- and how good is a timely word!" Proverbs 15:23

I'm so glad that my pastor ended on this note; I was ready to get out the duck tape and forever seal my lips! I started this blog because I felt there was a need for material on these topics from a Biblical perspective. I am to busy to write the books I wish had been around when I was a kid, so I post little bits of what I imagine these books would have been. While it is true that sometimes I start to value my own opinions to highly, and it is true that I probably need to keep some knowledge to myself, there is a need for Biblical literature on earth history, feathered dinosaurs, conservation, and other nature topics. I will be praying that my attitude on this site honours God. "Let God be true, and every man a liar" (Romans 3:4)!

Psalm 4

Answer me when I call to you, O my righteous God. Give me relief from my distress; be merciful to me and hear my prayer. How long, O men, will you turn my glory into shame? How long will you love delusions and seek false gods? Selah. Know that the Lord has set apart the godly for himself; the Lord will hear when I call to him. In your anger do not sin; when you are on your beds, search your hearts and be silent. Selah. Offer right sacrifices and trust in the Lord. Many are asking, "Who can show us any good?" Let the light of your face shine upon us, O Lord. You have filled my heart with greater joy than when their grain and new wine abound. I will lie down and sleep in peace, for you alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety.

I have been reading through the psalms and many of the verses in this one stuck out at me. Verse one begs god to listen. How often I feel that God is too far away to hear me! But verse three resolves this question with the reassurance, "Know that the Lord has set apart the godly for himself; the Lord will hear when I call to him." But I don't feel capable of qualifying as "godly." So how can I be set apart as heard? I often repeat the question of verse six, "Who can show us any good?" There is far to much evil in the world. There seems to be nothing shining in the darkness. Sometimes it seems that even the greatest deeds of men are selfish. So I pray with David, "Let the light of your face shine upon us, O Lord." How else can we see in this darkness?
Verse two is strange. I'm not sure what David is saying. He seems to ask men how long they will turn his glory to shame. I thought it might be prophetic, as Psalm 2 was, speaking as Jesus for a moment. And I thought that it might be arrogant of David to claim that his own glory is perverted by other men. But then the thought occurred to me that I had said nearly the same thing. It is truly difficult to have a correct perspective on our own righteousness. One word from another man and a good deed, our glory, becomes our shame. I guess the verse is no mystery at all and I pray that my glory will not be turned to shame.
The final verse is very comforting indeed. While all the thoughts of the above verses were swirling through my head, verse eight simply states that "I will lie down in peace, for you alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety." I can rest easy, knowing that God is the sole reason I live and breath.

Nephesh: Deserving Life

"Any Israelite or any alien living among them who eats any blood--I will set my face against that person who eats blood and will cut him off from his people. For the life of a creature is in the blood, and I have given it to you to make atonement for yourselves on the altar; it is the blood that makes atonement for one's life. Therefore I say to the Israelites, 'None of you may eat blood, nor may an alien living among you eat blood.'" (Leviticus 17:10-12 NIV)

I am often astonished at the favouritism people show to certain animals over others. When showing a slideshow of my photographs, everybody thinks bunnies and puppies are cute as anything, but gasps of disgust emanate from many of the viewers when they see a snake on the screen. It's not a matter of which animals are more dangerous. A harmless garter snake can be shown and it elicits the same response. Why, I can't help but think that a rabbit would do more bodily harm than that little snake! And it's not a matter of not knowing that an animal is harmless. Education isn't the issue. I've educated people as well as I know how, and they still have a illogical aversion toward the beautiful creature. It's an enigma.
One thing that did pop out at me a couple days ago revealed something of how people justify their hatred for culturally unaccepted animals. I saw someone (names have been omitted) spot a nest of young golden orb-weavers (a kind of harmless garden spider that eats only insects and wont bite humans even when handled) and call for her father. The man promptly found a a pair of work gloves and attempted to quench their lives. He succeeded for the most part, though, when some escaped and ran panicking up his glove his eyes bugged out of his head in fear and he gasped in a momentary and brief panic attack. His urgency to destroy the infant spiders encouraged me to remain a silent observer up to this point. Sometimes an untimely rebuke and do more harm than good, and I was hoping to save more lives in the long run. He was disturbingly determined to squelch that batch of babies.
After things calmed down, I calmly instructed him that the spiders that he had just killed were of a species that is of no harm to man, and actually benefit him in the management of pests in his garden. To this he replied with an irritated tone that he didn't like webs in his yard (the very mechanism that the spider designs to catch his garden pests) and that he had a right to kill spiders that were in his yard because they don't have nephesh life. The first excuse wasn't even worthy of being addressed, but he had a point with the nephesh life there.

Why do people have such an aversion to "creeping
things?" This harmless garter snake, like most of God's
smaller creatures, is stunningly beautiful. What's not to
like about them?

Nephesh is a Hebrew word usually translated "soul" in the Bible. In an attempt to explain certain features on animals that clearly display a design for killing other living things, creationists have differentiated between animals that they think have nephesh life and those that don't. It is commonly believe that insects and other invertebrates do not have nephesh life because they would provide food for carnivores before the Curse that brought death into the world in Genesis chapter three. If they don't have nephesh life, then they can't really die, so to speak, and their falling prey to other animals doesn't spoil the "very good" of the original creation. Personally, I wouldn't call the squirming agonizing death of an earthworm "very good," but that is besides the point.
"This life" in the above verse from Leviticus is nephesh in the Hebrew. Also, Deuteronomy 12:23 says more clearly that "the blood is the life [nephesh]" (NIV). It seems to be the Biblical definition of what things may qualify for nephesh. They must have blood, because that is where the nephesh is. I had originally just assumed that insects had blood and, thus, they qualified. However, those of us not in the field of biology my doubt it, so here's some science.
Plants do not have blood. Blood serves a number of functions (like transporting water and nutrients or binding to oxygen with hemoglobin. Plants have fluids that transport water, but they are different than the fluids that transport nutrients. Some plants even have a hemoglobin-like molecule in their leaves, but it is not transported by a water based fluid. So, although plants perform the functions of blood, it isn't blood that performs these functions. They also lack plasma. No blood for plants.
Insects on the other hand have a fluid in their bodies that, is just like the blood of humans (complete with proteins and plasma), where it not for a few little differences. Vertebrate blood has hemoglobin with the base element of iron for the transportation of oxygen. Insects, on the contrary have a base atom of copper, so the molecule is called hemolymph rather than hemoglobin. It still serves the same function in the transportation of oxygen, though. Just a note: some invertebrates do have hemoglobin rather than hemolymph.
A more major difference between vertebrates and insects and their blood has nothing to do with the blood itself but, rather, the way it is distributed across the body for its functions. Vertebrates have a closed circulatory system, where blood flows through vessels and diffuses across the membrane of the capillary wall, and insects have an open circulatory system where the heart simply pumps blood directly into the nooks and crannies of the body without the use of vessels. But that wouldn't indicate that what the insect's heart pumps isn't real blood. So, scientifically, insects have blood and, therefore, nephesh.
So, there is absolutely no reason, given the above verses and science's confirmation, that we should doubt the nephesh status of invertebrates. However, there are other reasons.
The Bible is pretty clear that plants do not have nephesh life and are never actually described as dying in the Bible (rather, they "wither"). But what about invertebrates? Can we weed insects like plants simply based on personal preference? Or are they on an equal plane with other animals like dogs and horses having a "soul?"
If there was any doubt as to how important these nephesh creatures are to God, they were named by Adam in Genesis 2:19 at His prompting, they where brought on the ark in 9:10, and the sign of the rainbow was also for them along with man in 9:12. God certainly cares for his creatures (see better Biblical evidence for this at my link) and we should to.
Interestingly, the word "thing" in Genesis 1:21 ("every living and moving thing" NIV) is nephesh indicating that creatures of this level move. Invertebrates can definitely move (as Mom may testify when she stands on a chair in the kitchen screaming "spider!"). As another example, the word "creatures" in verse 24 of that chapter is the same word (nephesh) and is accompanied by a list: "Living creatures according to their kinds: livestock, creatures that move along the ground, and wild animals" (NIV). In the KJV, the phrase "creatures that move along the ground" is a little more descriptive perhaps: "creeping things." Once again, I would say that insects qualify for nephesh! "Things that move along the ground" are distinctly stated to be of nephesh grouping in Genesis 1:30 (NIV). The seas are full of invertebrates and these too had nephesh life (Genesis 1:20 NIV). In Leviticus 11:46 the word is used again to describe the sorts of creatures described as clean and unclean in the preceding verses, which included "locusts, katydid, cricket or grasshopper [and] winged creatures that have four legs" (verses 22 and 23). The Bible gives absolutely no reason for us to think that invertebrates do not have nephesh life! In fact, as has just been demonstrated, it very clearly points to the contrary.
So, according to the Bible, we have no more right to kill an invertebrate in our yard than we do to kill the robin feeding on them (unless we have legitimate reasons like "It's going to hurt my kid if he touches it"). It is powerful evidence from the Bible that supports a higher standard for viewing the importance of all life.

Earth's Beginning: The Illuminated Water Blob

"In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the spirit of God was hovering over the waters.

And God said, 'Let there be light,' and there was light. God saw that the light was good and he separated the light from the darkness. God called the light 'day,' and the darkness he called 'night.' And there was evening, and there was morning--the first day."

Genesis 1:1-5

I suppose this post might just as easily go under my "EARTH" page. The first chapters of Genesis are the only complete account of the Creation that can be wholly trusted. Even so, there are innumerable controversies among Christians as to how to interpret it. My views may not be the same as your views, but here is the artistic way of putting it.

"In the beginning" implies that this chapter starts at the beginning (interestingly, some people can't figure out when the beginning was). The heavens and earth were created at this time. The earth was the first thing of the two to be created, it seems, and was composed of water ("formless," "empty," "surface of the deep," and "waters" in verse 2; see also 2 Peter 3:5). I guess it would have been unseen to the human eye at that point because suddenly, at God's word, there was light beaming into the darkness to reveal the watery earth for what it was. And it was decided, then and there, that the light would last for the day, and the darkness for the night. "And there was evening, and there was morning--the first day." The first dawn, on a perfect world.

Without Excuse (Romans 1:18-25)

The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities--his eternal power and divine nature--have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.
For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.
Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator--who is forever praised. Amen.

A quick read on my LIFE page will quickly make it evident that no created things come about by chance. The above passage in Romans is not describing evolutionists (though it certainly addresses many of their characteristics). Rather it is about idol worshipers. An idol could be anything that isn't the true God. Naturalistic thinkers are often nature-worshipers in action (I'm thinking of extreme environmentalists). While, today, people aren't making idols of various creatures, they still worship the creation. As the passage above describes, the results of such thinking are evident throughout society as immoral living. And yet, a quick look at any creation reveals the Creator's hand. It needs a designer. As a Christian enthusiast of nature, I too must be careful that my enthusiasm doesn't lapse into idol worship.

I guess it isn't too surprising that people worship the creation. If only they new the Creator. This photo was taken in Strathcona Provincial Park on Vancouver Island, BC.

This being the first post on my WORD page of RAINWOOD WILDLIFE I would like to pause to include a couple notes. The Bible speaks for itself better than I can. It wouldn't be right if I had more of my own words here than God's. It serves as a reminder to other nature enthusiasts that of all the things we read, the Bible is top priority.